Any clever tips and tricks for a wizard?

[PhroX]

I've gotten that urge to play Deadfire again, and I'm going with a SC Blood Mage as my MC. In terms of the general build and effectiveness of the character, I feel I know where I'm taking the character (Casting powerful spells is good. Not running out of powerful spells to cast is better. Having access to all the powerful spells without spending points thanks to grimoires is even better), but half the fun of Deadfire is those clever (and sometimes broken) interactions between abilities and/or items that aren't immediately obvious. So has anyone got some ideas for cool hidden tricks that a wizard can pull off?

My party is going to be Swashbuckler Eder (because he's Eder), Herald Pallegina (because I love having someone who keeps my party healed just by standing there), Monk Xoti (because, to my shame, I've never actually tried a SC monk before) and probably Mindstalker Ydwin for the last slot, because I always like having a cipher along and don't feel like bringing Serafen for once. Oh, and I'm only on Veteran difficulty as I'm somewhat of a scrub but not a total one....

Edited October 11, 2019 by PhroX

[Raven Darkholme]

One of the easier overlooked spells is Wall of Draining.

You can prolong any buff wit it, including broken item buffs like Mind over Matter or Potion of the Final Stand.

It works on any enemy including those who don't even have buffs to steal.

And there is some cheesy ways to get additional duration out of it like using Pull of Eora to make the enmey having to cross the wall again and again to get to you, or simply making them walk towards you ON the wall.

[Boeroer]

Or using Binding Web to root them in place.

A few Wizard "tricks":

• Concelhaut's Draining Touch:
  • one of the best weapons in the game:
    • targets Will instead of Deflection --> cast stuff like Miasma (-40 Will) and Dazzling Lights (-10 Will, stacks with Miasma) and maybe use a club + modal (-25 Will)
    • weakens on hit --> -10 Fortitude debuff and reduces enemy's health by 25%
    • drains damage as health (20%)
    • does corrode damage (works with Spirit of Decay: +1 PEN)
    • usually not so great because it dissipates after one hit or crit - BUT:
  • Neverending Draining Touch:
    • don't learn it but use a grimoire that contains it
    • cast it from that grimoire, then switch to a grimoire which doesn't contain it (important).
    • --> it will stay with you for the whole fight (doesn't go away after hit/crit)
  • Draining (Essential or Substancial) Phantom:
    • if you cast Draining Touch and then summon a phantom it will inherit the weapon and it will not go away (on the phantom).
    • phantoms with Draining Touch do great damage (for a summon), weaken the enemy and heal themselves in the process.
    • meanwhile you can lower Will on the target with the methods I mentioned above: lots of phantom-crits then
  • Combine with Draconic Fury:
    • Zandethus Draconic Fury works very well with Draining Touch (since you will be in melee anyway). Not only will the damage be better due to the two lashes (both multiplicative dmg boosts) but also it can terrify your attackers which then will be weakened and terrified (-10 Fortitude, -10 Will, -10 Deflection)
• Kalakoth's Minor Blights:
  • smallish AoE but all AoE hits do the same damage roll as the initial one
  • Uue it on a phantom and it will stay for the rest of the summoning duration and will NOT cycle through the different damage types. Instead it will stay with the elemental damage it had when you summoned the phantom. That way you can determine the element with which the phantom will attack. Can ver very useful against certain immune enemies. You can pick from four elements (just wait for the right one and then summon phantom). 
• Rekvu's Fractured Casque:
  • immune to interrupts if you have an injury
  • you can injure yourself easily with Necrotic Lance: Cast it until you go down - works out of combat. You can also let party members hit you and only delivere the last blow with Necrotic Lance. Only the knockout damage counts and determines your injury. You'll only get an "Acute Rash" which is a very minor injury which doesn't hamper you much. You'll gain total immunity to interrupts.
  • That includes interrupts from Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry and Slicken - that means you can stand in your own Slicken and nothing will happen. Your Pull of Eora will still pull you around but not interrupt you. A Mag Slayers disruption will do nothing against you (not that I ever encountered one who did this to me, but still...  ).
• Rekvu's Scorched Cloak:
  • Fire attacks heal you instead of dealing damage.
  • Same tactic as with the Casque: Necrotic Lance.
  • cast fire spells on yourself (Fireball, Delayed Blast Fireball, Wall of Flame etc.) and get healed a bit while your enemies die.
  • If confused you can also cast Combusting Wounds on yourself which - combined with Wall of Flame - makes for a superb healing source (but maybe too finicky to use it often)
• Upright Captain's Belt:
  • makes you immune to push & pull effects
  • combine with Fracured Casque and run around in your Pull of Eora + Slicken Area totally freely and unhindered while everybody else just gets messed up completely
• Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure:
  • makes you invisible for quite some time
  • this invisibility will not break prematurely (as most other invisibility effects) if you don't deal damage. That means you can deal CC and debuffs from invisibility. If you are an Assassin that means constant +25 ACC. For a SC Bloodmage it "only" means being untouchable while casting non-damaging spells, but still awesome.
  • Wall Spells don't break that Invisibility either (since they are "hazards") which means you can totally kill enemies with Wall Spells (Combusting Wounds + Wall of Flame or Wall of Many Colors etc.) without becoming visible.
  • Also the attacks of your phantoms (with Draining Touch or Minor Blights or Spirit Lance etc.) will not break your invisibility
• Regenerating Bloodmage
  • Use regeneration items like Tree Trolls Stiched, Ring of (Greater) Regeneration, Voidward and Fleshmender armor and eat fresh fruit at rest (+25% healing - or similar) as well as getting a Physiker's Belt and Bonesetter's Torc for better healing. 
  • You will be able to spam one single powerful spell endlessly without going down from self damage - for example Ninagauth's Shadowflame. Cast - Blood Sacrifice - cast - Blood Sacrifice - and so on
• Wall of Draining
  • As @Raven Darkholme already said it's an often overlooked spell.
  • Especially in combo with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure: Draining Wall will not break the invisibility and prolong it like crazy. You can cast Walls and CC spells without ever becoming visible again. God mode so to speak.
• Minoletta's Piercing Sigil
  stun and dmg retaliation on getting hit), Zahndetu's Draconic Fury (terrify retaliation on getting hit) and Cloak of Death ("withdraw" and DoT retaliation on getting hit) don't stack their effects but mess each other up. Just decide for one.
• Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin + Brilliant Departure:
  • Cast it on a tough enemy from stealth and then use Brilliant Departure, then move away from sight. It's a great Assassination spell. The enemy will not see you, your invis. wil not break from the DoT and the enemy will die. Rinse and repeat. You can take out whole groups one by one with that tactic.
• Citzal's Enchanted Armory:
  • gain permanent one handed (!), scaling Great Swords: Cast Enchanted Armory and then swallow a potion of Form of the Fearsome Brute. End combat (by winning while the form persists). Once the combat is over and the form ends you will keep the Great Sword. You can do that as often as you like and e.g. give your fellow party member two Great Swords for dual wielding. Or wield one with One Handed Style and modal on (+30% damage without losing ACC compared to a normal Great Sword). 
• Blightheart:
  • one of the few items that can raise spell damage: a wizard can get +10% corrosive lash (that's multiplicative dmg) for his damaging spells when wearing it. Great stat stick for a nuker.

That's what I remember from the top of my head. There will me more for sure.  

Edited October 11, 2019 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Oh, and stuff like: blunderbuss + Powder Burns + Combusting Wounds. Two shots already put 10 instances (8 projectiles and 2 Powerder Burns cones) of Combusting Wounds on the enemy which is rather deadly for most folks. Also works very well with Fire in the Hole in an AoE (Chain Shot).

Generally Combusting Wounds + anything that hits often (missiles, walls, beams, blunderbusses) is devastating against anything that's not immune or has high AR to burn damage.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Boeroer

[Waski]

1 hour ago, Raven Darkholme said:

It works on any enemy including those who don't even have buffs to steal

Thats not  true anymore but anything in "beneficial effects" is enough(like immunitiy or  smth). For regen lesser lay of hands from gloves with Wall of draning works nice, its one per encounter. 

Edited October 11, 2019 by Waski

[Boeroer]

Lay off Hands?  Great tip though. Didn't think about those gloves.

It's correct with Draining Wall: for example if you use it on dummies (who usually have 0 buffs) it does nothing anymore. But usually most enemies have some sort of buff, even invisible ones sometimes (see FLame Blights which always give me duration although I see nothing benefical on them) - or stuff like Constant Recovery on enemy fighters and so on. 

Edited October 11, 2019 by Boeroer

[PhroX]

Great selection of spice here, just what I was looking for. Thanks guys

 

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by PhroX

[Boeroer]

Ah - by the way, speaking of clever tips:

You can "recharge" every charged item if you have at least two of them. For example Necklace of Fireballs (there are several in the game) or Stone of Power (dito): Once they readch 0 charges (and you usually can throw them away) just stack them with the other one in yout stash and they are recharged.

8 fireballs per encounter is pretty hefty... Used them on a SC Assassin not long ago.

You can even get 2 Missile Gloves (Bounding Missiles) if you use Berath's Blessing for the vendor in Port Maje I believe. 

[Raven Darkholme]

5 hours ago, Waski said:

Thats not  true anymore but anything in "beneficial effects" is enough(like immunitiy or  smth). For regen lesser lay of hands from gloves with Wall of draning works nice, its one per encounter. 

Trust me it still works on any enemy, at first I thought it got changed as well, it's just if you have a single enemy without buffs it might seem like you're not gaining anything, that's why I mentioned ways to make the wall tick more often.

 

edit: see following posts, maybe this is only the case on PotD.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Raven Darkholme

[fYNX]

Combusting Wounds + Ydwin's "Recall Agony" + Minoletta's Missile Salvo = Ultimate Boss Killer in late game. Add buffs/debuffs and score as many hits as you can (Boeroer's blunderbuss trick will do). This combo can evaporate 50% of the boss' HP immediately even on PotD.

[Boeroer]

36 minutes ago, Raven Darkholme said:

Trust me it still works on any enemy, at first I thought it got changed as well, it's just if you have a single enemy without buffs it might seem like you're not gaining anything, that's why I mentioned ways to make the wall tick more often.

Hm... when I use it on cre_dummy (while testing) it does nothing. That wasn't always the case.

[Raven Darkholme]

hm, maybe all the actual enemies have invisible buffs and the dummy doesn't?

[Boeroer]

Maybe. They are only dummies after all.

[hansvedic]

Has this been tested only on PotD? If so, could it be that the implementation of additional PEN, accuracy, etc. on PotD (and Veteran, I think) is through the form of a buff?

[Raven Darkholme]

45 minutes ago, hansvedic said:

Has this been tested only on PotD? If so, could it be that the implementation of additional PEN, accuracy, etc. on PotD (and Veteran, I think) is through the form of a buff?

I mean there used to be a bug where Potd applied to the player in certain situations and it definitely was a buff then.

I only play Potd so I wouldn't know how draining wall works on lower difficulties but honestly never considered this possibility, when I gave the advice about walls.

[Waski]

5 hours ago, Raven Darkholme said:

Trust me it still works on any enemy, at first I thought it got changed as well, it's just if you have a single enemy without buffs it might seem like you're not gaining anything, that's why I mentioned ways to make the wall tick more often.

just tested it on PotD, doesn't look like it works for me 

 

 

[Raven Darkholme]

Damn in my game all beasts have buffs.