Best blood mage build possible

[Squilla]

Warlock is a great combo, especially with Blood Mage/Furyshaper. You are pairing the fastest casting time with renewable spell resources. Savage Defiance can heal your Blood Sacrifice. A near perfect "spell spammer" in my opinion an certainly has a top position in my "fun to play" list.

 

I'm thinking of rolling this build, love the roleplay aspect of a warlock as well. What makes the Furyshaper better than other barbarian alternatives, just the totems to increase action speed even further?

 

And what stat distribution do you recommend for this spell spammer?

[Boeroer]

Why is furyshaper superior to the other barbarian subclasses (or no subclass) - just due to the totems that increase action speed and lend to the spell spamming?

Yes, and it has no real drawbacks for a caster. Berserker is very good as well if you can circumvent the confusion and get occasional healing.

 

Also the fear ward makes it very easy to avoid getting attacked in melee.

[djinnxy]

I'm currently on a furyshaper/ blood mage. Base stats on mountain dwarf. 17, 18, 11, 13, 13, 3.

 

The bread and butter for the first ten levels will be to start each fight like this...

 

 

1. rage

2. deleterious alacrity 

3. fury totem

3. concelhaut's staff

4. pull of eora

5. concelhaut's siphon

6. in case of emergency fear ward and...

7. savage defiance.

 

The next ten levels you can start to drop the melee focus and take aoe dmg and control spells. It's an absolute beast. One of my top 5 favorite builds out of several dozen so far. I'm actually hurrying to finish by the 2nd in case of nasty nerfs.

[Stardusk78]

I have been running a loremaster (Bloodmage/Troubador); all those heals as well some other items make it very easy to recast spells constantly.

[Boeroer]

Frenzy and Alacrity don't stack their speed bonuses afaik. The increased DEX will help a bit and the move speed is nice. But you pay that with even more self damage (on top of Blood Sacrifice).

Edited December 30, 2018 by Boeroer

[djinnxy]

Frenzy and Alacrity don't stack their speed bonuses afaik. The increased DEX will help a bit and the move speed is nice. But you pay that with even more self damage (on top of Blood Sacrifice).

 

I'd take fleet feet instead, but it messes up the multiple use of the staff in long fights. The damage is negligible. I'm currently at +70% hp and fit from rage makes it 85 with regen items to boot. The only time I need to watch is using blood sacrifice under 25%. It gets a little iffy even with darkest before dawn heals kicking in. 

 

Edit: and +5% from gift from the machine++

Edited December 30, 2018 by djinnxy

[Yosharian]

 

Frenzy and Alacrity don't stack their speed bonuses afaik. The increased DEX will help a bit and the move speed is nice. But you pay that with even more self damage (on top of Blood Sacrifice).

I'd take fleet feet instead, but it messes up the multiple use of the staff in long fights.

What does this mean?

[Boeroer]

Fleet Feet is lvl 1 and so is Parasitic Staff.

 

If you cast the first you take away spell uses for the Staff.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Boeroer

[Yosharian]

Fleet Feet is lvl 1 and so is Parasitic Staff.

 

If you cast the first you take away spell uses for the Staff.

Oh right.

[Sanctuary]

In a group with some kind of health regen, the health loss from Blood Sacrifice is completely trivial.  Often, by the time a spell is finished casting, I've regained all of the health that I lost, and this was at a "meager" 14 Might.  I didn't want to go too low, and it was only ever an issue for the first six levels.  I have a Theurge in the party though, so I am getting steady regen.  I was considering grabbing the Voidward too, but it really isn't needed.  It would essentially add a free spell or two per fight though. 

 

Also, people can play however they like, but lowering your Might as low as you can and simply playing as a debuffer sounds really lame to me.  Why bother even going with a Blood Mage if you're going to be doing that?  You may as well just play as an Illusionist instead.  It's not like you need that many casts of CC anyway.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Sanctuary

[djinnxy]

 Why bother even going with a Blood Mage if you're going to be doing that?  You may as well just play as an Illusionist instead.  It's not like you need that many casts of CC anyway.

 

Agreed. I tried the new monk sub with blood mage and dumped str and maxed res. That was the most boring half hour I've ever played. It wasn't tanky enough to survive and brought little to the table other than just a body with hp. If you're going to build a character at least make it better than the mediocre companions. The fury/blood with str and con as the strong suits does more than half the damage of a full party and soaks half the damage of the full party. I'd say that's a bit more effective.

[Brom105]

What about solo potd ?

With paladin multiclass for good heal, minimum might, with large shield and full plate armor for tanky and use slicken spell lvl 1 and all other lvls take dmg spells/ defense..

At start put slicken , then alot AoE dmg spells..

In boss or strong enemies he can use sworn for +3 armor extra tanky..

This can work ?

[djinnxy]

What about solo potd ?

With paladin multiclass

This can work ?

 

Probably. But but it sounds a little tedious. You'd be relying on low damage dot's or low damage weapons. It sounds more interesting to go theurge or sorcerer to me and not dump str.  Much bigger dot's and better heals and you can still hide behind plate and large shield. To each their own though. If that's how you like to play then try it.

[knownastherat]

What about solo potd ?

With paladin multiclass for good heal, minimum might, with large shield and full plate armor for tanky and use slicken spell lvl 1 and all other lvls take dmg spells/ defense..

At start put slicken , then alot AoE dmg spells..

In boss or strong enemies he can use sworn for +3 armor extra tanky..

This can work ?

 

Took Steel Garrote/Bloodmage to level 20 and it works as expected.  For solo, however, I would pick Tactician instead of Paladin. 

[Yosharian]

 

Why bother even going with a Blood Mage if you're going to be doing that? You may as well just play as an Illusionist instead. It's not like you need that many casts of CC anyway.

Agreed. I tried the new monk sub with blood mage and dumped str and maxed res. That was the most boring half hour I've ever played. It wasn't tanky enough to survive and brought little to the table other than just a body with hp. If you're going to build a character at least make it better than the mediocre companions. The fury/blood with str and con as the strong suits does more than half the damage of a full party and soaks half the damage of the full party. I'd say that's a bit more effective.

You're taking it to an extreme. We're talking about having Might at 10, not dumping it. And certainly not putting the points into Res, the worst stat in the game.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Yosharian

[Marigoldran]

I don't get tactician as solo.  Aren't the debuffs worse as it's easier to get flanked? 

[knownastherat]

Indeed, that is why solo Tactician needs to be immune to Flank, which is not a problem as there are items granting such immunity. The trick is to get the enemies Flanked.  

[Marigoldran]

Ah.  

[knownastherat]

I am trying duo Tactician/Shieldbearer and Tactician/Assassin. Low level but with the pala/tactician I expect to charge in, get engagements and positioning, and buff and spam Enduring Beacon like there is no tomorrow while actually playing with the Assasin. Chill Fog, for getting enemies flanked, is Chill Fog but who is not tired of Chill Fog? 

[brasilgringo]

I posted my experiences so far with Tactician/BloodMage in the Theorycrafting thread, earlier today.  It'll probably get nerfed, because the devs will likely say they didn't want people using Brilliant to create infinite resources with a level 1 spell like Chill Fog, but enjoy it for now

Edited December 31, 2018 by brasilgringo

[knownastherat]

Well, imo its fun mechanic but requiring effort. It requires specific items and approach to encounters, and it does not "one-shot" anything. The only* thing it does, besides the bother with getting Brilliant, is that refreshes resources, allowing for unconventional tactics. It does not "break" anything for anyone. But yeah, it's their game. I thought Tactician was a gift to unconventional play-throughs. 

 

Sure, when I was chain casting Chill Fogs in the first cave I thought .. this is stupid .. and it is but it does not always work like this. Personally, I did not like Chill Fog since PoE for it was too powerful in comparison to other spell and thus, in a way, mandatory. And mandatory is stupid to me. 

 

edit:* and the buff from Brilliant, which is good

Edited December 31, 2018 by knownastherat

[Sanctuary]

 

 

Why bother even going with a Blood Mage if you're going to be doing that? You may as well just play as an Illusionist instead. It's not like you need that many casts of CC anyway.

Agreed. I tried the new monk sub with blood mage and dumped str and maxed res. That was the most boring half hour I've ever played. It wasn't tanky enough to survive and brought little to the table other than just a body with hp. If you're going to build a character at least make it better than the mediocre companions. The fury/blood with str and con as the strong suits does more than half the damage of a full party and soaks half the damage of the full party. I'd say that's a bit more effective.

You're taking it to an extreme. We're talking about having Might at 10, not dumping it. And certainly not putting the points into Res, the worst stat in the game.

 

The very first post, and then the fourth asks if this is something worth doing.  Also...

 

Usually this guy has a pretty decent grasp on RPGs and builds, but sometimes I have no idea what he was thinking.  The damage lost, compared to the health being saved is horribly skewed in this build.  This is basically the worst possible "Illusionist" build.  You pick the Paladin just so that you can be somewhat self-sustaining (this still isn't a solo build), but your goal is to make the enemies helpless, and then use your weak damage (with your companion or party) to whittle them down.  Blood Sacrifice is a total waste here. 

 

As for your suggestion about having Might at 10?  That's a lot better than dropping it as low as you can, and depending on the rest of your group, maybe a good idea, but as I previously said, the health lost even at 14 Might doesn't matter.  As you gain levels you gain more casts, and if you focus on Athletics, you can get multiple "free" casts too.  You don't even need to spam Blood Sacrifice either.  If your main goal is damage, you only need to refresh the buff each time it drops if you still have spells left to cast.

 

For a solo build though?  No idea right now.  Min Might is awful, but I don't know that max is any better.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Sanctuary

[brasilgringo]

The nerd commando video literally felt like he read the class description and maybe spawned it with the console and threw a build together for clicks on YouTube

[Takolin]

In a group with some kind of health regen, the health loss from Blood Sacrifice is completely trivial.  Often, by the time a spell is finished casting, I've regained all of the health that I lost, and this was at a "meager" 14 Might.  I didn't want to go too low, and it was only ever an issue for the first six levels.  I have a Theurge in the party though, so I am getting steady regen.  I was considering grabbing the Voidward too, but it really isn't needed.  It would essentially add a free spell or two per fight though. 

 

Also, people can play however they like, but lowering your Might as low as you can and simply playing as a debuffer sounds really lame to me.  Why bother even going with a Blood Mage if you're going to be doing that?  You may as well just play as an Illusionist instead.  It's not like you need that many casts of CC anyway.

 

I agree.

 

Currently I'm running a pure blood mage with relatively high might (20 something with berath's blessings and gear) and I Blood Sacrifice stopped being a hindrance after a while on PotD. So only the beginning was rough, though as I tend to ignore empower due to forgetting it exists, I get a lot of mileage out of blood sacrifice for casting spells.

 

Party:

Eder: Sword and board swashbuckler on the frontline. He got amazing when he got persistent distraction and some defensive gear.

Cantor hireling (Hellwalker + Troubadour): Casts a summon at the start and tries to keep it up, debuffs with the shield that cracks and then plays as a 2hander monk.

Ydwin: General suppor character: debuffs enemies, pain block if needed. Will give brilliant to the characters that need it (mage or healer mostly).

Universalist hireling (Lifegiver + Eothas): Heals and buffs. Shoots stuff with an arquebus while idle. 

[FleetFeet]

I was initially concerned about DD ability with a low might Arcane Knight blood mage. I have been playing that Nerd Commando build on PotD with a might of 7(3 + 1 human + 2 BB + 1 GOTM) and now at lvl 16 he has remained the parties highest damage dealer by a fair margin. 7 might is only -9% damage but that let's you max dex, int, and per. With unlimited casting ability I suspect that dex is the better stat damage wise and the int certainly helps as well for all the damage dealing spells with duration(Corrosive Siphon is a go-to for my bloodmage). A typical fight will go like this:

Self buff with Infuse w/Vital Essense + Deleterious Alacrity (in stealth as frontline is forming)

Get 2 slickens out and  expose vulnerabilities

Cast a shadowflame (damage + CC, love it)
Often at this point I will primarily be blasting out shadowflames for both damage and to keep enemies in perma lockdown. I think this is where having the low might/passive healing/voidward really shines. Since I don't know what spell lvl will be replenished with blood sacrifice with this build I can do it 3-4 times in a row no problem. This way I'm guaranteed to get that particular spell back quickly while still being able to layer in some additional debuffs, CC, maybe a corrosive siphon.

 

I have only really played the BM in this way so perhaps I could do the same w/o the combination of low might/stacked passive healing/voidward but what I can say is this build has felt very powerful both from a DD and a CC/debuff perspective.