Caster lovers, how do you deal with the 3-4.5sec casting times?

I didn't play beta so I know it was even worse back then but didn't experience it. Every time I want to play a caster (that isnt Wizard) I stop cause of this. Are there items or multiclassing feats that significantly help? Really wanted an anamist, Sorcerer (Druid/Wiz) or theurge (druid/Chanter) or even Liberator (Pali/druid) to work but the synergy doesnt seem to be there. 

IME, casting times are about right. Some felt at times a tad too long, especially in the late game when my frontliners were clearing enemies at speed—this is likely changed now that 1.1 made things harder.

 

In the early beta they were too long but for release I found them adequate. At least I can say playing Aloth and Tekehu was fun.

Factoring in weapon recovery times, casting isn't too much longer. To deal with it I usually stick casters in the back row.

Use Skaen themed robe (effigy Husk)

Dont dump Dex

Backrow with ranged weapon

On Wizard use some defensive stuff like mirror image

Use AI with "max enemies" priority also use circle spells

Edited June 8, 2018 by evilcat

Circle spells?

Circle spells?

Yes, Circle Spells indeed, couse well rounded spells are BEST.

Like fireball.

With ray, or cone, positioning matters and enemies move around like mad.

But circle can be moved around during casting, and even AI recalculating optimal position.

Oh ok just didn't know what you meant. PS asked you a Q about Fury druids in your tier list. 

I can cast cast all my spells in most battles. My only concern is interrupting, but concentration is fairly easy to come by.

While some spells are under powered relative to cast time, others are probably faster than they should be. I think cast times are within the right range.

 

Remember, casters are much better at melee now and no longer have gimped health, accuracy, and deflection. They are no longer the glass cannons that must stay protected in the back row. With the fast cast buff spells, casters can be better fighters than fighters for battling it out on the frontline. I like keeping them there holding daggers for the +10 melee deflection. Since you are casting instead of fighting with the dagger, there is no modal penalty. Wizard defense buffs are really strong, over-tuned really, as if the devs forgot that they normalized starting defenses between the classes and forgot to adjust the power levels accordingly and instead just copied them straight from POE1. Durations are much longer for caster self-buffs and, for some reason, they have nearly instant cast times and no recovery.

 

The area I think spells need work at is de-buff spells (not counting hard-disables like charms). Those are usually not worth casting. I’m not sure if they are even worth it with no cast time right now. Spells that provide a minor debuff like -5 dex and reduced stride are just not noticeable at all and a waste of a spell. Also, spell accuracy is currently much worse than before and misses happen all the time. You certainly will miss against anything worth debuffing. This means wven better afflictions like blind are not worth it unless the enemy has a really low defense value for what you are targeting and even then it is only okay.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Braven

Caster's Guide 101:

1.) Go Naked

2.) Pump Dex

3.) Be Frenzied / or use Dragon's Dowry (or both)

Multi class something like monk for swift strikes, then wear and use everything that reduces recovery.

casting time is just fine, you just cant wear heavy plate on casters...

in fact my wizard pulls spells and damage so fast that the whole team looks way slower compared to him...wizard damage is crazy good

been mentioned a few times but it bears repeating

d+d caster stats (int + con, dump everything else) do NOT work in pillars

perception matters

might matters

dexterity is god

 

a caster with 3 INT is light-years better than a caster with 3 dex - just pick single target or line based spells

 

eder/pallegina are there to take the hits, put on a gun/wand/bow, and rain fiery death from afar.  make the enemy walk through a web or thorns to get to you, charm their archers to shoot them in the back, fireball, terrify, fireball, knockback, meteorswarm!

Caster lovers, how do you deal with the 3-4.5sec casting times?

 

I make tea. Hope you like tea

I just pump INT to max and PER for accuracy. My Dex is only 15 for my Sorcerer. But I don't care for slow casting because I won't be interrupted.

 

The key is getting all enemies near death and predict their location while wearing Rekvu's helmet (IIRC) - the one that makes you immune to interruption while having an injury.

Last time I played pure Wizard (Transmuter) I wore Patinated Plate + tower shield with armor aura to screw with dumb AI which likes to attack low hp targets and still landed all the spells I want.

Berzerker

I remember that *all combat*, not just spell casting, is slower in Deadfire. And then I never think about it again.