[CLASS BUILD] Solo Arcane Knight - What happens when you have 210+ deflection?

[Sfzrx]

The answer to the question in the title is, you dodge every deflection targeting attack in the game, including ones from the final boss.

 

 

I have always been a fan of wizard in rpg games, I initially started with a pure wizard but got stuck on the final boss due to the fact that I invested heavily in defense but ended up defense and damage both being mediocre, 3 meteor showers wasn't enough to carry me through the boss's phases despite meteor shower being crazy op, and I didn't want to use arcana scrolls, so I decided to reroll arcane knight for the 21 bonus defenses as well as passive/active healing.

 

The core idea of this build is to build around the tier 1 wizard spell, wizard's double, it offers 40 deflection, highest among all the deflection buffs in the game, with a huge downside, it's gone if you are hit, even just a graze, but that downside is nonexistent if you never get hit, which is possible in this game by achieving 75 points higher defense score than enemie's accuracy score. 

 

A build using the same items and stats but as paladin/chanter probably works also, trading some deflection for 2 healing auras. Or a riposite build with trickster rogue and paladin, would do more damage and dodge all reflex attacks but won't have the spell reflect, I actually want to do a trickster/paladin build now hmm.

 

Final boss video for those that want to see the build in action first: 

 

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXj6xAVOoNs&feature=youtu.be

 

(anyone knows how to do the spoiler thing in text?)

 

Character creation stats:

 

Wizard: No subclass

Paladin: Goldpact

 

Race: Wild Orlan

 

MIG: 2

CON: 3

DEX: 18

PER: 20

INT: 15

RES: 20

 

 

Low might: might in pillars 2 is nowhere as useful compare to previous game, due to the armor mechanics changes, and the fact that the damage bonus is additive with legendary weapon enchant and other damage+ modfiers.

 

Low con:  high life pool is useless if you never get hit.

 

High resolve: it gives deflection, will, and reduces dot duration, every point of deflection that brings me closer to the untouchable line is worth it.

 

High perception: accuracy is a very useful stat, but lot harder to get in this game compare to previous game, I really value accuracy, reflex is also very important.

 

High dex: mostly for the reflex, but action speed is good dps boost.

 

Rest into int: the duration will increase the duration of buffs and total damage of spells like chill dog and ninagauth's freezing pillar, and meteor shower if you feel like using scrolls, can trade this stat for might but I personally wanted high will ontop of everything I already have, since my fortitude stat is beyond saving.

 

Blood pool: Eder

 

 

 

 

Talents:

 

I mostly focus on buffs on wizard side because the amount of the accuracy you can get is pretty low in this game.

 

tier 1: wizard's double, chill dog

tier 2: infused life essence

tier 3: llengrath's displaced image

tier 4: minor arcane reflection

tier 5: llengrath's safeguard

tier 6: ninagauth's freezing pillar

tier 7: citzal's martial power

 

paladin side:

 

deep faith

brand enemy

weapon and shield style

exalted endurance

greater lay on hand

clear head

snake's reflex

righteous soul

practiced healer

improved critical

bull's will

bear's fortitude

stoic steel

divine purpose

 

 

Items:

 

weapon: I used gladiator sword for the majority of my game, only switched to acolyte's frostbite hatchet for final boss for the weapon mastery skill.

 

shield: cadhu scalth, very powerful shield that gives a lot of deflection and damage reduction, the interaction when retreiving the second quest item for this shield is currently bugged, you need a second member in your team to trigger it.

 

armor: I wanted to use Gipon Prudensco because of it's crazy good enchant and it's interaction with miloletta's minor missles, sadly, after testing it with console I noticed that the enchant is completely broken and the item is probably not in the game atm, so I ended up using devil's caroc armor, there may be better choices out there.

 

another option is the intimidate chest that gives deflection

 

grimoire: grimoire of vaporous wizardry, none of the unique spells stood out too much for this build, so going for extra casts is not a bad idea.

 

helm: rekvu's fractured casque, to counter grimoire's downsides and fighter knock downs in general, since we always get hit due to low fortitude.

 

rings: entonia signet ring, very good ring that gives all defenses including deflection, the other ring I used ring of minor deflection but can be replaced.

 

amulet: + 2 resolve from early drake bounty

 

gloves:  1 dex 1 athletics  /  10% mêlée action speed 1dex  /  2 might 2 intimidate

 

pet: I added Lil'babes from console for +1 dex and + 3 melee deflection for the final boss, I personally don't know where to get this cat, the pet seller in nekataka sells a dog that gives 20 life on kill and 3 melee deflection that worked really well for me early to mid game.

 

 

 

Spoilers below

 

 

 

 

Early game: If you started at level 4 then everything will be a breeze, gold pact sworn enemy adds 4 armor which is huge ontop of medium armor, which often reduces damage by 75%,  the hardest fight for most solo builds should be the 3 wraith before oderisi, but with gladiator sword and large shield and proper talents the wraiths have 0 chance to hit, after that you can do a lot of easy quests in nekataka for exp.

 

Mid game: At level 10 you can board beggar's ship and get a principi flag to do the fort deadlight quest chain, arkamyr's manor is also good source of exp. At lvl 11-12 you should have no trouble boarding 1 star ships, since they won't hit you much with llengrath's displaced image  and large shield mastery ability on, go in a corner activate large shield active then just cast chill fog and auto, and because solo player exp bonus you'll quickly outscale your opponents, some fights will take longer than usual, like the giant bounty that has self regen, but they should still die in the end.

 

Late game: Most fights should be really easy, Ninagauth pillars clear trash pretty quickly, probably want a gaze immune shield for the famyr cave though, the only fight that almost got me was the ancient lich, because of the reduced healing debuff, but he died anyway. Video for final boss.

 

That should be it for now, might update later, overall I think the game's balance needs a lot of work, I really wish game's path of the damned difficulty got to the point where you need at least 3 members to beat. so I can actually think about class interactions, roles of tank, dps and healer and all that, or bring story companions and actually enjoy the story, as a hardcore gamer I really can't play with multiple characters knowing others have beaten the game with one, my pride disallows it. A game I played earlier called Tower of Time got the difficulty part somewhat right in comparison, if you ignore the crafting. 

Edited May 23, 2018 by Sfzrx

[George_Truman]

tl dr, but I'm guessing that you dont get hit much

[Boeroer]

Does Wizard's Double get removed by grazes/hits/crits that are not targeted at deflection but fortitude/reflex/will? It was like that in PoE. Actually in PoE it had to be hit or crit, grazes didn't remove the spell.

 

That would make Wizard's Double useless in fights where you get attacked by CC or AoE stuff. For example in PoE it was totally useless against dragons because the fear aura would remove Wizard's Double instantly (even if you were immune because the hit roll still happened).

 

What about Arcane Veil? It provides an even higher bonus to deflection (against non-veil-piercing attacks).

[Skazz]

I mean, the idea sounds n--wait a minute...

 

 

What kind of monster are you?!

[Sfzrx]

Yes wizard's double gets removed by other types, but this build also has crazy high reflex and will, so reflex  and will targeting attacks usually miss as well, it doesn't get removed by fear auras though. Usually wizard's double do the job, when it doesn't theres llengrath's displaced image and safeguard, which adds up to 45 deflection anyway, but my personal experience is that you'll rarely get low enough to trigger safeguard. Enemy casters' single target fortitude targeting spells are reflected, and poison/disease related fortitude targeting spells don't do anything because paladin immune skill, pull skills usually target fortitude but theres a belt that counters it, so in the end the skills that usually break my wizard's double are fighters' knock down and monster fortitude targeting direct damage skills, AoE dot skills won't break the double even if it lands.

 

Arcane veil is decent but it's duration is too short for my taste, since the dps of the build is rather mediocre, wizard's double last the entire fight if nobody breaks it, in the final boss video I had it up for the last 2 phases, I forgot if I recasted it once or not, and you can see that most of the reflex skills missed on me.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Sfzrx

[Kaylon]

I think it's much easier to one-shot him than to tank him... 

[Sfzrx]

I think it's much easier to one-shot him than to tank him... 

Wait for meteor shower nerfs. 

 

Seriously tho, Idk why the game is so biased towards meteor shower, it's already a top tier op skill, then there are weapons that give 5 fire power levels and a pet that gives 1, and then a ring that gives 10 fire accuracy like wtf. I tried making the missile tier 9 useful when I was playing pure wizard but after some comparison I was like why even bother. Not to mention the skill scales damage off both int and might, which is usually a trait for transmutation skills like chill fog and ninagauth's freezing pillar, most other evoke spells only scales off might.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Sfzrx

[Sfzrx]

I mean, the idea sounds n--wait a minute...

 

 

What kind of monster are you?!

Some people are terrible and feels unsafe all the time so all they care about is power.

[Katalmach]

Can't believe you killed Eder, man....

 

I went for a Paladin Chanter build based around limitless self healing and stun locking. My deflection didn't even matter that much, so by end game I duel wielded for the attack speed. I was a Kind Wayfarer so my flames of devotion healed me, twice thanks to duel wield. I had the saber that increases action speed and the Mowyr which also increases action speed. After a couple hits, my average dexterity and heavy armor didn't even matter, I was swinging like I was naked with maxed out dex. The one invocation that gives you quick, insightful and brilliant was OP because I could churn out endless Flames of Devotion for the accuracy buff and healing. The chants I used were +10 deflection and the healing over time one, plus exalted endurance. 

 

I ended up deleting that character after I beat the game, but there was also some kind of healing item too, so it came out to like 6 or 7 health per second, plus flames of devotion and deflection around 115. Unkillable. I breezed through the game on the 1.0.1 build 

[Tommy1984]

Items:

 

weapon: I used gladiator sword for the majority of my game, only switched to acolyte's frostbite hatchet for final boss for the weapon mastery skill.

 

shield: cadhu scalth, very powerful shield that gives a lot of deflection and damage reduction.

 

armor: I wanted to use Gipon Prudensco because of it's crazy good enchant and it's interaction with miloletta's minor missles, sadly, after testing it with console I noticed that the enchant is completely broken and the item is probably not in the game atm, so I ended up using devil's caroc armor, there may be better choices out there.

 

grimoire: grimoire of vaporous wizardry, none of the unique spells stood out too much for this build, so going for extra casts is not a bad idea.

 

helm: rekvu's fractured casque, to counter grimoire's downsides and fighter knock downs in general, since we always get hit due to low fortitude.

 

rings: entonia signet ring, very good ring that gives all defenses including deflection, the other ring I used ring of minor deflection but can be replaced.

 

amulet: + 2 resolve from early drake bounty

 

pet: I added Lil'babes from console for +1 dex and + 3 melee deflection for the final boss, I personally don't know where to get this cat, the pet seller in nekataka sells a dog that gives 20 life on kill and 3 melee deflection that worked really well for me early to mid game.

 

As armor you could use Casità Samelia's Legacy for even more deflection if you invest in the intimidate skill. But regarding to the skill point distribution I think its more effective to use The Giftbearer's Cloth and put all points into history skill for a big boost to will/reflex/fortitude defenses.

[Boeroer]

Shall I put it into the build list? I'd need a name for the build (if it's not supposed to be called "The Solo Arcane Knight" ) and a short description (one sentence) what it does (else I would just use the initial question in the title because it's telling enough I guess).

[dunehunter]

Actually Paladin/chanter is tankier as u don’t rely on any buff, and have monsterious healing power. But it’s a chanter

[Voltron]

Actually Paladin/chanter is tankier as u don’t rely on any buff, and have monsterious healing power. But it’s a chanter

 

I would not say it's tankier per se , more like has much more crazy sustain due to crazy healing/life leech from chants and regenerating resources which gives you unlimited Lay on Hands or FoD. 

 

Though everything is broken when build right. Thats the beauty of RPGs

Edited May 22, 2018 by Voltron

[Tommy1984]

 

Actually Paladin/chanter is tankier as u don’t rely on any buff, and have monsterious healing power. But it’s a chanter

 

I would not say it's tankier per se , more like has much more crazy sustain due to crazy healing/life leech from chants and regenerating resources which gives you unlimited Lay on Hands or FoD. 

 

Though everything is broken when build right. Thats the beauty of RPGs

 

 

My PotD solo (not fully optimized) Beckoner/Shieldbearer tank summoner looks like this:

 

 

She is rather tanky, but 212 deflection is still far away. It's a really nice achievement

 

On the other hand more deflection on my character is absolutly unnecessary, as she never loses a noticeable amount of health.

[Sfzrx]

Shall I put it into the build list? I'd need a name for the build (if it's not supposed to be called "The Solo Arcane Knight" ) and a short description (one sentence) what it does (else I would just use the initial question in the title because it's telling enough I guess).

Yes please, and yea I guess the initial question in the title is telling enough like you said.

[Boeroer]

I did. Still no name though.

[Sfzrx]

 

Items:

 

weapon: I used gladiator sword for the majority of my game, only switched to acolyte's frostbite hatchet for final boss for the weapon mastery skill.

 

shield: cadhu scalth, very powerful shield that gives a lot of deflection and damage reduction.

 

armor: I wanted to use Gipon Prudensco because of it's crazy good enchant and it's interaction with miloletta's minor missles, sadly, after testing it with console I noticed that the enchant is completely broken and the item is probably not in the game atm, so I ended up using devil's caroc armor, there may be better choices out there.

 

grimoire: grimoire of vaporous wizardry, none of the unique spells stood out too much for this build, so going for extra casts is not a bad idea.

 

helm: rekvu's fractured casque, to counter grimoire's downsides and fighter knock downs in general, since we always get hit due to low fortitude.

 

rings: entonia signet ring, very good ring that gives all defenses including deflection, the other ring I used ring of minor deflection but can be replaced.

 

amulet: + 2 resolve from early drake bounty

 

pet: I added Lil'babes from console for +1 dex and + 3 melee deflection for the final boss, I personally don't know where to get this cat, the pet seller in nekataka sells a dog that gives 20 life on kill and 3 melee deflection that worked really well for me early to mid game.

 

As armor you could use The Giftbearer's Cloth and put all points into history skill for a big boost to will/reflex/fortitude defenses.

 

Yea that combo is a pretty good idea, it's just a shame that Gipon Prudensco is currently broken atm, else my original idea was to equip that chest, be immune to flanking effects and then hit myself with minor missles to get the 20 deflection and 40 reflect bonus, nothing that target deflection or reflex would ever hit me.

[Sarnael]

Usually wizard's double do the job, when it doesn't theres llengrath's displaced image and safeguard, which adds up to 45 deflection anyway, but my personal experience is that you'll rarely get low enough to trigger safeguard.

Do those stack when safeguard procs?

since, wizards double does not stack with Llengrath's displaced image

[Porcelyn]

Just curious, why Goldpact? Is Brand enemy essential? I was going to go with Kind Wayfarer for the flames heal.

[Sfzrx]

 

Usually wizard's double do the job, when it doesn't theres llengrath's displaced image and safeguard, which adds up to 45 deflection anyway, but my personal experience is that you'll rarely get low enough to trigger safeguard.

Do those stack when safeguard procs?

since, wizards double does not stack with Llengrath's displaced image

 

Yes they stack, safeguard adds "all defenses", the wording is different from displaced image's "deflection", mirror image stacks with safeguard too but it's usually not needed for this build, the combo helped me a lot when I was playing pure wizard though.

[Sfzrx]

Just curious, why Goldpact? Is Brand enemy essential? I was going to go with Kind Wayfarer for the flames heal.

I chose goldpact because I don't use flames of devotion personally, since this is not a chanter build, the zeal resources are limited, can't really spam flames of devotion, and the bonus armor from goldpact makes early game a lot easier, it's actually very helpful late game too, since the armor bonus stacks with stoic steel, making it unnecessary to use ironskin wizard spell.

[Yosharian]

Doesn't stack with armor aura, though..

[Sfzrx]

Doesn't stack with armor aura, though..

Yea, armor aura's 1 armor bonus is quite pathetic anyway, I only use the aura for it's life regen, and when full hp, switching to the accuracy aura is not a bad idea.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Sfzrx

[Revanroi]

This is indeed very strong in defenses. How is the Spell Damage? Its a big loss with the power-level and Might?

 

If I keep the might in 14-15 with lower dexterity (and a bit of resolve drop) how this affect the tankiness and damage? Do you guys think is worth it?

[Sfzrx]

This is indeed very strong in defenses. How is the Spell Damage? Its a big loss with the power-level and Might?

 

If I keep the might in 14-15 with lower dexterity (and a bit of resolve drop) how this affect the tankiness and damage? Do you guys think is worth it?

The spell damage is actually very bad compare to a pure wizard evoker stacking fire power levels, like, you can't even compare the two, meteor shower has ridiculous base damage and scale off both might and int, those type of wizards can probably 1 shot the final boss with empowered meteor shower or concelhaut's crushing doom since boss has low deflection, while this build's ninagauth pillars are only good for killing low level trash, this build was just an attempt of me to try the tanking concept, now that I look back wizard is probably not the best class for this setup,  I'm currently working on a soul blade cipher/paladin build next using the same ideas which I think might be better than this build.

 

As for your next question, I don't think lowering dex is worth it because you lose reflex and a lot of the final boss's attacks targets reflex, dropping resolve is okayish since theres source of deflection like the intimidate chest, but I still don't recommand it since I consider might a dump stat.

 

In conclusion, if you like casting powerful spells then you are better off playing a pure wizard, this build is sadly very boring when it comes to fighting the tough bosses.