Not So Clever Hound

My pleasure @dgray62! I've been lurking around this forum without contributing for a looong time, glad to finally get to be a bit more active. I think your suggestion definitely has a point for style and offers some interesting and strong synergy for the roughest fights. I think it's a fun way to try out the build and, well, build on it if you're so inclined . You won't need it to win against all the content that the game/DLCs can throw at you, but it would certainly enable you to beat certain megabosses (Dorudugan...) in a more honorable way than I did . About Acute Rash vs. Severe Burn, my analysis is the following: 1) Reflex penalty is less hurtful than Fortitude with this build, agreed 2) However I think getting a Burn vs. Corrode armor reduction is worse overall - unless using Rekvu's Scorched Cloak all the time for synergy with Burn damage conversion to healing. But it's only helpful sometimes, Giftbearer Cloth is helpful in every fight . 3) Most Importantly, it's pretty hard in my experience to hit yourself with a non-Reflex, self-targeting (because of high saves) Fire spell to cause the injury. Necrotic Lance is very convenient as you can do it without much prep (just remove your armor and +FORT gear) and just chain-cast it against your low-ish FORT. If for some reason your FORT outpaces your ACC in the beginning, just go to Old City Overlook to a pile of corpses to get Sickened and debuff your FORT . Or temporarily hire Xoti as a Monk to beat the living s*** out of you with Weakening Blows and such while Aloth chain casts Necrotic Lance on your toon. Weird but effective. 4) The least harmful injury is Wrenched Knee but in my experience, is impossible to get on your own / without traps. About switching Robes, since this build isn't supposed to get hit much and maximizes damage output, I considered the High Harbinger Robes... but it is such an insult to style! Net, there is a lot of room for tweaking the build to anyone's preferences, but in truth its overall effectiveness won't change much IMO. Cheers.

@yogaman28734 this power-gaming strategy revolves around the following (more or less): 1) Cast a full buff cycle (so every buff spell that is in my build between learnt spells and the grimoire) to smoothen damage spikes and increase survivability pre-PotFS 2) Get hurt by enemies and/or use your Blood Sacrifice ability to get to Near Death (without dying ) 3) Before Near Death (as soon as you hit 50% or 33% of your max health), start casting a WoD hitting as many foes as possible. You can play with the cursor targeting to orient the line and hit as many enemies as possible. My experience is that a line almost parallel to where my toon is facing is best. Usually better to hit melee foes as they have a lot of autobuffs you can drain from (especially fighter-types). Yay! 4) At Near Death, gulp PotFS. Keep your WoD up and hitting foes. Gulp more useful potions as you see fit (you can do that anytime anyway). Refresh your buffs if someone countered an Inspiration with a matching Affliction. Check your tooltip/character sheet to see if your PotFS status duration is going up or down. Congratulations, you are now invulnerable. 5) Well, not quite... you have to further build duration before doing other stuff and hope that no one is going to dispel your intricate layers of spells with an Arcane Dampener. Hence, the importance of reaching a high Will (215 in my case). If in trouble, you can keep handy a way to go invisible/untargetable. Oh and now that you are invulnerable, go crazy with Blood Sacrifice to replenish all your spells at will! My last bit of advice: practice it to get the jist of it for really tough fights, but only use it when you really run out of options otherwise it ruins the fun! Also please experiment and if you find something new, please post. I personally found out about the fun of milking Cloak of Death against Belranga with this strategy by experimenting. Enjoy!

Thanks for the replies! Really glad that contributors of your caliber liked the post Boeroer is absolutely right. As other contributors have written before, not having/using Empower: 1) frees up high level spell/skill picks since you don't take the Empower series of skills 2) liberates you from wanting to start fights with empowered blackflame/fireballs which I personally don't like 3) lets you exploit the benefits of no-rest bonii which are in my opinion a million times more powerful than any per-rest mechanic including the Empower ability Happy to hear if you have a different opinion! It's a matter of playstyle at the end of the day but even with builds that have the empower ability I never use it once. I think the only build that can really milk it is SC Monk, but it doesn't have to.

[CLASS BUILD] UPDATED - The Bleeding Arcanist 2.0 Subclass: Blood Mage UPDATE: Following my initial post I did another solo playthrough, 100% completionist this time and improved on a couple of things I wanted to share. Sorry for double-posting, I couldn’t edit my original post… Added A LOT more details about no-rest bonii, more specific ability/spell picks and Megaboss strategies. Sorry for the wall of text! Hope this is interesting or useful to anyone considering a pure class Bloodmage solo playthrough. I very much recommend it with this build or any build. The Concept: Sturdy, impossible to interrupt, versatile, no rest solo Blood Mage who can win 100% of fights in the game with the most explosive and rewarding barrage of high level spells (thanks to Rekvu’s fractured casque + Vaporous Wizardry Grimoire), but can also enter easy & cheesy god mode for Mega Bosses and such (through his Blood Mage abilities + Wall of Draining + potion of final stand etc). He also has tons of skills & utility so it doesn’t feel like a very restrictive power-build, and scales really nicely throughout the game. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). POTD Solo: Yes, very much. Two playthroughs completed with a lot of flex/forgiveness on how you want to play (upscaled: untested but definitely fine with an optimized spell list & strategy at all times – less experimentation possible). Companion: Nope -----WHY PLAY THIS BUILD------ For lots of veterans this will likely be a no-brainer and sorry if I sound like Captain Obvious, but I wanted to post this build as I haven’t seen this one consolidated anywhere, and I’m having so much fun with it. Really brings back the feeling of power and adaptability that a solo Sorcerer could give in BG2, or solo Mage in Arcanum for example. It also plays a bit differently than your typical SC Wizard in POE 2 because you have a lot more spells to cast, don’t rely on Nina’s Teachings and you don’t take the Empower abilities… which is liberating. You can really approach each battle differently while keeping a nice feeling of power and very high defenses (until a random enemy transforms you into a piglet out of RNG luck). SC Blood Mage = maximum class power/ability levels, no empower, blood sacrifice hurts, bloodied enemies are a pain, but if you work around those issues you have virtually unlimited spells which is really strong. Then you need to mitigate the tradeoffs: Go for lowish Might = you will hurt yourself a bit less with Blood Sacrifice, without much impact to your damage output + you can spend the points on more relevant attributes. On the other hand, pumping CON a bit brings some nice sturdiness/peace of mind to this build, which also bolsters experimentation (you're not a glass cannon, just a cannon). Rekvu + Vaporous = 50% more spells, no interrupt, turning most fights into a total spellfest! Very little opposition can still stand after some crazy self-buffing, several Chill Fogs to blind & group everybody, Combusting Wounds, then 3x Wilting Winds (of Abi Dalzim or whomever) + 2x Meteor Shower – mix as required. Your Vaporous Grimoire comes with the answer to the Injury issue: chain-cast necrotic lance outside of combat on your toon (spell comes with the book) and you will inflict the Acute Rash which has very little impact on your combat readiness (you can use Voidward to mitigate, but it is not required). Cherry on the cake, you can exploit the different buffs available to a no-rest run for your full benefit, and end up with insane stats and permabuffs (more than making up for the Acute Rash minor injury). If any other injury comes up: pop a luminous adra potion/bath, chain-cast necrotic lance, done. More details on no-rest bonii later on. Finally when you need even more firepower, you can still rely on high-level, matured cheese strategies: wall of draining, potion of final stand, Brilliant proc from shroud of phantasm, blight proc from belt of magran’s chosen, True Lover’s Kiss from Lover’s Embrace… and other shenanigans. Immortality and chain-casting Missile Salvo until the end of times. -----STATS------ Race: Human (maximize accuracy and damage output when it really matters / when you have to cheese) Background: The White That Wends – Explorer (great mix of important stat boosts) FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 13 (7 Base + 1 Human + 2 Berath + 1 Gift from Machine + 2 Alchemic Brawn) CON 22 (13 Base + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Brawn + 2 Konstanten Boon + 3 Girlde Eoten CON) DEX 20 (13 Base + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Guile + 2 Firethrower Gloves + 1 Boots of Stone) PER 28 (18 Base + 1 White that Wends + 2 Berath + 1 Konstanten Boon + 1 Effigy: Sagani + 2 Alchemic Guile + 1 Savage Cunning + 1 Cauldron Brew + 1 Kuaru’s Prize) INT 25 (17 Base + 2 Berath + 1 Konstanten Boon + 2 Alchemic Wits + 2 Charm of Bones + 1 Kuaru’s Prize) RES 19 (7 Base + 1 Human + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Wits + 2 Nature’s Resolve + 2 Rikuhu’s Blessing + 2 Eviee Pet + 1 Boots of Stone) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Hylea’s Bounty (best food for this build) Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift x3 (Acc. against beasts) BERATH BLESSINGS: I like everything that reduces Port Maje tedium and provides long term power (Infamous Captain etc). I am not ashamed of investing all 105 points. BUT none is required to win with this build. SKILLS: If you exploit the no-rest bonuses to their fullness you will have free extra points everywhere, plus the free Berath ones if you enabled them. It will be BOTH a spellfest and a skillfest! I typically spread around a bit for skill checks, with a focus on Mechanics, Athletics, Diplomacy, History is the highest at 20 (giftbearer cloth) and Survival. Mix of story stuff and power play. -----PASSIVE ABILITIES BY PL------ 1 None 2 Weapon & Shield 3 Bear’sFortitude, Bull’s Will 4 Scion of Flame, Secrets of Rime 5 Farcasting, Rapid Casting, Uncanny Luck, Tough 6 Improved Critical 7 None 8 None 9 Prestige -----SPELLS BY PL (TO COMPLEMENT VAPOROUS GRIMOIRE)------ 1 Chill Fog, Eldricht Aim 2 Combusting Wounds, Infuse With Vital Essence, Arcane Veil 3 Displaced Image, Deleterious Alacrity 4 Wall of Flame, Iron Skin 5 Torrent of Flame, Safeguard 6 Precisely Piercing Burst, Arcane Reflection, Freezing Pillar 7 Killing Bolt 8 Wall of Many Colors 9 Missile Salvo -----GEAR------ Griffin’s Blade + Lethandria’s devotion: my go-to set for versatility + power + survivability, but Magran’s Favor and Sun & Moon are of course really good (only for specific keywords/situations though). Lethandria’s Devotion is much better than any other offhand item. Griffin has really a lot to bring to the build. Also keep close the Lover’s Embrace dagger to cut some cheese... Rekvu’s Fractured Casque: crucial with Vaporous! Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardy: crucial, +50% spells per encounter! Keep Illuminating Discoveries, Iron Clasped, and Nina’s Teachings grimoires close. Especially Illuminating Discoveries for Brilliant Departure (few other grimoires have this spell too). Miscreant’s Leather: great action speed which drives DPS and perfect style with Rekvu’s casque. Contributes to making you eventually invulnerable to Reflex attacks (even your own). The Giftbearer Cloth: perfect (caution: buggy can make items/weapons in 4th slot disappear) Firethrower’s Gloves: perfect Necklace of Charm of Bones: perfect Kuaru’s prize: perfect Ring of Minor Protection: great to elevate defenses (increasing returns) Boots of Stone Belt of Eoten CON or any belt with +CON and other bonii Eviee Pet is nice as base, swap as needed Potions: Major Healing, Final Stand, Ascension, Perfect Aim, Deftness… Always keep somewhere Sandals of Waterlily, Burglar’s Gloves, Ajamuut Cloak + Lover’s Embrace + Rakhan Field Boots especially f you run out of ideas in a ****ty fight… Just keep the uniques to have options, especially if you haven’t played PotD a lot. If you come across items with immunities/resistance, hold on to them. -----GENERAL STRATEGIES------ Early on: any combo of buffing with whatever is available and then chillfog + combusting wounds and then later adding wall of flames and concussive missiles will win the day 90% of times. Add new spells as they come, especially freezing pillar. Don’t be afraid to get in close quarters, you can buff defenses severely and you’re not a glass canon (but don’t get overconfident). Remember that you can regenerate spells with moderation. Combusting Wounds is a force multiplier with anything that has multiple projectiles or hits over time. And of course, always hug a wall to limit engagement! Always walk close to the wall, and favor doorways as well as narrow corridors to engage/break stealth. Later on: Just go ballistic with higher end, hard hitting spells after you’ve done a full or near full cycle of buffing depending on the fight. There is so much you can do and so many ways to win with the tools at your disposal. If you’re hitting a wall (so to speak) then use the Wall (of Draining) strategy. Find enemies you can drain (low-ish Will), buff like crazy, drink a potion of Final Stand (+ other potions) and use your WoD to become invulnerable. Works a bit too well, but can be sometimes tricky against high level casters with access to Arcane Dampener with high accuracy and especially Arcane Cleanse. Disable them first if you can. Remember that chillfog is a cheap -15 accuracy when it lands (so +15 all defenses). Anyway the build and its gear provide really good defenses so there is room for human error, bear in mind that the weaker point is fortitude. Fully buffed you get something like 195 DEF, 162 FORT, 250 REF (!!!) and 215 WILL. Not impenetrable by highest level foes, but pretty good. A nice by-product is that you can drop any reflex targeting spell on your face without any worry that it will hit you. So go bathe yourself in your own meteors. -----MEGABOSS STRATEGIES------ Dorudugan: Sorry for the purists of Megaboss engagement but I just True Lover Kissed him, lured him to the North, then used Brilliant Departure, retreated to the South, and went on to have a few beers while he slowly met Rymrgand’s inevitability. Came back 3h later, saw the dawnfall of the hellfire colossus and upgraded my shield with his stone. It’s cheesy and lazy, but so is the boss in my opinion. Belranga: I did a full WoD buffing-to-oblivion cycle, wearing the sandals of water lilly, then I killed so many spiders that Belranga was at like 350 accuracy and came in close quarters. Then I tried to use the Cloak of Death spell and I was so happy to use it to full effect for the first time! Combined with Combusting Wounds, it really did a number on the Empress while I was just keeping my WoD up and occasionally throwing some spells around. Needless to say, WoD extends the duration of the Cloak, which makes it the cheapest, most effective PL9 spell against high accuracy melee attackers. Hit, Disappear, Suffer, Hit, Disappear, Suffer…. Hauani O Whe: First I True Lover Kissed it and retreated to the south with Brilliant Departure, because its initial form has too high defenses, too much accuracy and the solvent ability for my usual strategies to work. When I came up some time later, it had nicely split into the two lesser forms, much more manageable with conventional means. I engaged them in a typical WoD + Full Buffing + Final Stand cycle, and once I was really unkillable I eradicated one of the blobs with the following sequence: Combusting Wounds + 2x Meteor Shower + Wait until they split + Gaze of the Adragan + 2x Freezing Pillar + maybe a finisher fireball. In one sequence I destroyed all the splits of the first blob to naught. Then I just repeated with the other blob. Done without stress or intricate Interrupt tactics (save the one Adragan spell cast). Auranic: Yikes. I know she’s supposed to be the easiest Megaboss but this fight is the one that made me reload a few times before I got it right. Here is my final strategy: First, I used Rakhan Field Boots in stealth to… True Lover Kiss her. Then, I went out of her sight to buff and withstand the assault of her bodyguard + sigils (without attacking them) until she opened up the cleansing sigil (keeping my health up). At this point I destroyed it in one go with combusting wounds + 2x missile salvo (works from a very long distance). Then I retreated to the entrance with the 2 goons in tail, and proceeded to use them to power up my WoD + Buff + Final Stand cycle. Once I got like 600sec of buffs, I killed the bodyguards and destroyed the 2 remaining sigils south of Auranic (remaining out of her range). Then I gulped a potion of invisibility and went to the northeastern most corner by the sigil (out of range for Auranic). I destroyed this sigil and the other, keeping out of her range. Then I gulped another invisibility potion and retreated to the entrance. Auranic was about half health by then, enjoying the Kiss and unable to do anything to me. I went on to have a beer and waited until her death shield animation triggered, then I came up to trigger her death. Done. -----THE END------ Of course let me know if you have any question or feedback! This is all probably old news to a lot of readers. I’m just a very casual POTD solo practicioner of PoE 1 and 2, other people on this forum are a lot more cunning and knowledgeable. Still this toon did 100% of the game without any issue at all and playing really well/fun, so I hope you can get a similar experience. And congratulations if you read this far.

Hi Boeroer, I just posted a new build thread if you fancy adding it to the board: Big fan, by the way . Thanks for everything you do. Cheers

[BUILD GUIDE] The Bleeding Arcanist Subclass: Blood Mage Concept: Sturdy, impossible to interrupt, versatile, no rest solo Blood Mage who can win 99% of fights with the most explosive and rewarding barrage of high level spells (thanks to Rekvu’s fractured casque + Vaporous Wizardry Grimoire), but can also enter cheesy god mode for Mega Bosses and such (through his Blood Mage abilities + Wall of Draining + potion of final stand etc). He also has tons of skills & utility so it doesn’t feel like a very restrictive power-build, and scales nicely throughout the game. Works with latest update as of Dec 2020. POTD Solo: YES, completed with a lot of flex/forgiveness on how you want to play (upscaled: untested but probably OK with all the no-rest buffs and an optimized spell list & strategy at all times). Companion: Nope ----------- For lots of veterans this will likely be a no-brainer and sorry if I sound like Captain Obvious, but I wanted to post this build as I haven’t seen this one consolidated anywhere, and I’m having so much fun with it. Really brings back the feeling of power and adaptability that a solo Sorcerer could give in BG2, or solo Mage in Arcanum for example. It also plays a bit differently than your typical SC Wizard in POE 2 because you have a lot more spells to cast and you don’t take the Empower abilities… which is liberating. You can really approach each battle differently while keeping a nice feeling of power (until a random Nemnok acolyte transforms you into a piglet). After experimenting and reading a lot of different posts about wizard builds, I settled on the single class Blood Mage because it is very straight forward: maximum class power/ability levels, no empower, blood sacrifice hurts, bloodied enemies are a pain, but if you work around those issues you have virtually unlimited spells which is really strong. Then I tried to mitigate the tradeoffs: Go for low Might = you will hurt yourself a bit less, without much impact to your damage output + you can spend the points on more relevant attributes. (for Might lovers, believe me… dump it here). On the other hand, pumping CON a bit brings some nice sturdiness/peace of mind to this build, which also bolsters experimentation (you're not a glass cannon, just a cannon ). Rekvu + Vaporous = 50% more spells, no interrupt , turning most fights into a total spellfest! Very little opposition can still stand after some crazy self-buffing, 3x back-to-back Wilting Winds (of Abi Dalzim or whomever) + 2x Missile Salvos (possibly Combusting Wounds augmented). Your Vaporous Grimoire comes with the answer to the Injury issue: chain-cast necrotic lance outside of combat on your toon (spell comes with the book) and you will inflict the Acute Rash which has very little impact on your combat readiness (can use Voidward to mitigate, not needed at high level). Cherry on the cake, you can exploit the different buffs available to a no-rest run for your full benefit, and end up with insane stats and permabuffs (more than making up for the Acute Rash minor injury). If any other injury comes up: pop a luminous adra potion/bath, cast necrotic lance, done. Finally when you need even more firepower, you can still rely on high-level, matured cheese strategies: wall of draining, potion of final stand, Brilliant proc from shroud of phantasm, blight proc from belt of magran’s chosen… and other shenanigans. Immortality and chain-casting Missile Barrage until the end of times. I won’t detail neither the benefits of a no-rest run nor the top spells/abilities for a solo generalist wizard because all those have been explained in a better way in other threads on this forum. Combusting Wounds is still your friend with many spells especially Minoletta’s and especially early on. You shall always buff yourself to oblivion at the beginning, queuing spells or using the AI (pick all your buffs, just because you can). Pick spells + Shield style, Scion of Flame, Secret of Rime, Farcasting, Rapid Casting, Tough, Prestige. Medium Shield modal, Flail modal (reflex debuff). On spell strategies, the fun of this build is to be able to experiment with different synergies. Happy to answer any question. Couple of key things: don’t go 100% fire or whatever, diversify (elements + what defense you attack and what synergies you have with other spells). Example High Level Rotation for a big group: self-buff (Infuse, Arcane Veil, Deleterious, Displaced, Eldritch) + 2x Chill Fog to group everybody + Combusting + 2x Wilting Wind back to back + 1x Kalakoth Rake + 2x Missile Salvo on your own face = oh wait everybody already died 10sec ago . If things are going to drag on, throw in a wall of draining, carefully aimed parallel to your flank (usually) to hit most enemies. Maura’s tentacles are awesome too and can completely replace figurines (never used a single one with this build). Sometimes in melee heavy fights I just pop buffs + Piercing Sigil + Cloak of Death with the occasional Piercing Burst and Torrent of Flame. You don't even have to aim at anything. If someone is casting something nasty, pop Thrust of Tattered Veil to interrupt (or a good ol' Killing Bolt ). ----------- Berath’s Blessings: in the end it doesn’t matter, but I like to take some that help in Port Maje which is basically where you struggle the most and where you have the least options in PotD if you want to avoid 100% sneak. Mix with some that are better in the long run e.g. reduced enchanting cost. If you like pure power, +2 attributes is a must. ----------- Race: Human (maximize accuracy and damage output when it really matters / when you have to cheese) Background: The White That Wends. ----------- Key Stats: MIG 4 base (+ Berath + Gift from Machine +Alchemic Brawn + Items) CON 16 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Brawn + Items) DEX 16 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Guile + Items) PER 19 base (+ Berath + Effigy: Sagani + Alchemic Guile + Savage Cunning + Cauldron Brew + Items) INT 15 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Wits + Items) RES 8 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Wits + Rikuhu’s Blessing + Eviee Pet + Items) ----------- Skills: If you exploit the no-rest bonuses to their fullness you will have free extra points everywhere, plus the free Berath ones if you enabled them. It will be BOTH a spellfest and a skillfest! I typically spread around a bit for skill checks, with a focus on Mechanics, Athletics, Diplomacy, History (giftbearer cloth) and a bit of survival. Mix of story stuff and power play. ----------- Important Gear: Rekvu’s Fractured Casque: crucial with Vaporous! Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardy: crucial, +50% spells per encounter! Keep Illuminating Discoveries, Iron Clasped, and Nina’s Teachings grimoires close, if only for a change of pace. Miscreant’s Leather: great action speed which drives DPS, great style. Contributes to making you eventually invulnerable to Reflex attacks (even your own ) Firethrower’s Gloves: perfect Kuaru’s prize: perfect Griffin’s Blade + Nerian’s Ward: my go-to set for versatility + power + survivability, but Magran’s Favor and Sun & Moon are of course really good (don’t help Minoletta’s spells though). Potions: Major Healing, Final Stand, Ascension, Compassionate Soul Essence, Deftness… nice mix. Rest of gear: whatever floats your boat. Boots of Stone, Ring of Prosperity, Sandals of Waterlily, Burglar’s Gloves, Ajamuut+Lover’s Embrace+Rakhan Field Boots if you run out of ideas… Just keep the uniques to have options, especially if you haven’t played PotD a lot. If you come across items with immunities, hold on to them. + Captain's Banquet/Hylea's Boon, Trainings, Dawnstar Blessing etc ----------- Let me know if you have a different experience somehow, but I guarantee that you will have fun if you roll this build, if only for taking advantage of the wizard's roster of spells to its fullest extent. Now I'm starting to play an Ascendant + Priest of Skaen (legit Brilliant + BDD + SoT, without procs or weird mechanics) so if anyone has any tips, please shoot! Cheers.