How strong is an Assassin + Evoker build esp. on PotD?

[Aeodred]

I just wanted to ask, how does the Assassin + Wizard perform in PotD? The idea is to spam high-level burst-AoE spells from stealth but I'm not sure how it would perform much later in the game especially against tougher content.

 

I once tried an Assassin + Soulblade combination but was a bit too tricky to use since my Guile pool got eaten up too easily and I could only hit one enemy at a time. It also felt like a win-more setup as it only worked well under perfect conditions and then began underperforming once I ran out of guile. (enemies, especially on ship battles, tended to rush the unit) So my question is: would Wizard perform better compared to this last trial unit?

 

Just wanted to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

[Boeroer]

You cannot spam spells from stealth. Your stealth gets removed as soon as you hit somebody. However, you can go invisible several times per encounter...

Generally Wizard+Rogue is a good combo because the Rogue's strike abilites work with AoE weapons and the Wizard has some nice ones (Kalakoth's Minor Blights, Spirit Lance etc.).

Casting high dmg AoE spells from stealth/invisibility works nicely.  Spells with high base damage work best with the additive dmg bonus of Assassinate. Good thing is that there's a unique spell in Arkemyr's Grimoire named Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. It creats an invisibility that will NOT break if you cast CC that does no damage the enemy (while the usual invisibility will break on every hit roll). That means you can cast a lot of nasty CC spells and stay invisible and all of them get +25 accuracy. Another thing is that all hazard spells (like all Wall spells) will not break invisibility even though they deal dmg. So if you cast a Wall of Draining you can stay invisible 100% of times as long as you don't cast a damaging spell. Or you cast a Wall of Flame or a Wall of Many Colors from that invisibility and deal damage. You can only have 1 wall spell active at the same time.

 

[thelee]

I would recommend a Blood Mage over Evoker.

At the very least you can blood sacrifice Brilliant Departure back, and keep your health up with stuff like assassinate-bonus Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon.

Plus, a lot of the synergies Boeroer mentions aren't available to Evoker (they are conjuration magic).

[Boeroer]

Totally. Bloodmage or non-subclass. Depends if you really like to empower spells from invisibility/stealth (non-subclass) or like to regain resources during encouter (Bloodmage). 

But... nobody mentioned Evoker in the first place... but it sounded as if sombody did so I was feverishly searching for the passage I overlooked... 

Edit: Until I found it in the title!  

Edited December 21, 2019 by Boeroer

[Aeodred]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try fiddling with the tips above and see how it goes.