Dual wielding mage, Arcane Knight?

[Poper21]

Hello there, 

 

first of all i am kinda new to the game, and i wanted to pick some fun but yet decent effective class. So as visualy goes, i would like to dual wield some swords but yet do some magic :D (i know some kind of cliche ) 

 

so i found that Arcane Knight kinda suits my boat, but seen in this topic, people said its not realy viable.

 

So if somebody would be so kind and point me to some nice build for dual wielding mage or tell me if that(or similiar guides) for Arcane knight are still viable please?

 

Thank you very much and sorry for my ignorance :D 

[jww]

Arcane Knight is very viable, and a very nice class combination. The thread you linked to is referring to solo-ing the game on Path of the Damned difficulty, which was much easier to do in 1.0 with many different builds (PotD was too easy when the game was released, so they've made it harder and also nerfed some overpowered abilities). The game is not built around soloing, it's built around having a party of five, and since you said you are new to the game, I really wouldn't recommend trying to solo. I've never bothered trying to solo, so I don't know which builds still work or how much cheesing is required, but Arcane Knight works great under regular game conditions, including PotD difficulty.

 

I imagine any of the Arcane Knight builds listed on the build list would still work in general, though a few details may have changed between then and now.

 

If you are dual-wielding, you can ignore the weapon summoning spells, which means you can take Evoker as a sub-class, which gives you +2 PL on evocation spells (the basic type of direct damage spells). There are also gloves that give you +1 PL on evocation spells. You will still have access to the very fast-casting combat buff spells that improve your fighting abilities, such as:

 

Infuse With Vital Essence (cast this first to increase your INT, so that your other buffs last longer; plus if you are a Nature Godlike, it'll give you another +1 PL)

Spirit Shield and/or Ironskin

Deleterious Alacrity of Motion

 

There are also some illusion spells that help with your defenses, but I usually keep those spell slots free so that I can do a second cast of the spells listed above for fights that last longer. And there are some other fast-casting buffs such as spells that block you from being hit by enemy spells.

 

You can set up an AI script that handles the buffing for you at the beginning of the fight, so you don't have to manage it manually (set it to cast an inspiration if you don't already have that inspiration, and for buffs that don't give you an inspiration, set a timer on them).

 

Between the buffs, the dual-wielding, and your Paladin abilities (particularly Flames of Devotion), you'll have a strong front-liner who can take damage and dish it out.

 

After that, you can fill in your other spell slots with Evocation spells for direct damage.

 

If you decide to go with summoned weapons instead, then you'll want to take a generalist wizard rather than a specialist, and be sure to take both the ability that improves spell-casting speed and the one that increases casting speed when summoning weapons, since those spells are slower than your buffs. The generalist wizard gives you access to a wider range of spell types rather than focusing on direct damage, but your PL will be lower. For this type of character, stick with either generalist or evoker, don't try any of the other wizard sub-classes. For a wizard, most summoned weapons are two-handed weapons, so you wouldn't be dual-wielding if you go this route.

 

Any of the Paladin subclasses will work except for Shieldbearer. Personally, I like Kind Wayfarer for dual-wielding, because FoD gives you a built-in AoE heal (on both hits) so you can just spam that rather than wasting resources on Lay on Hands.

Edited August 7, 2018 by jww

[Boeroer]

Arcane Knight is totally viable. Which "expert" claimed the opposite?