Playing a spellcaster

[harf4ng]

Hi,

Wizards, or priests, or a few other classes, have a given number of spells they can use per rest.

My priest has two at the beginning of the game.

Other classes, like paladins, fighters, chanters, may continue to fight as long as they wish, as long as they have health. This is how it works, right?

Means, once I have cast my two spells, I need to rest. Also means either I use my spells in battle, and then I am without any spell anymore, or I keep them for  the tough fights, and then what? My priest will use her melee weapons in the easier fights, or when she is out of spells?

Thanks

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, harf4ng said:

Means, once I have cast my two spells, I need to rest. Also means either I use my spells in battle, and then I am without any spell anymore, or I keep them for  the tough fights, and then what? My priest will use her melee weapons in the easier fights, or when she is out of spells?

Pretty much.

But all casters also have one or two per-encounter abilities which are mostly pretty good an can be used in every fight:

Wizard: Arcane Assault (good), Grimoire Slam (meh).

Priest: Holy Radiance (great if you upgrade it with Inspiring Radiance), Interdiction (great with Painful Interdiction).

Druid: Spiritshift (great)

Priests, Wizards and Druids are usually considered to be the most powerful classes in PoE because their spells can have massive impact on the combat and the per-rest mechanic can be used in a way that you can unleash you whole spell arsenal in difficult fights (especially after gaining some levels) while being able to do the easy fights without spells (or only few spells).

Wizards' spells can be used very economically if you focus on summoned weapons. They are pretty strong and let the wizard contribute to a fight effectively with only one spell use.

Priests have some very impactful party buffs, most notably Prayers and Devotions, that make encounters a lot easier.

Druids same.

So after gaining a few levels you will have a lot more spells than 2 at your disposal and you can try to only use as many spell as you really need. Spare the rest for later.

Of course resting is cheap and if you're not playing Path of the Damned difficulty you can rest 4 times in a row to refresh spells.

Also note that Wizards, Priests and Druids get a so-called Spell Mastery. That means: at higher levels you can pick a low-level spell from your arsenal (spell tier 1-4) that turns from per-rest into per-encounter.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Boeroer

[harf4ng]

Ok thanks for the info.

Can  we change the spell in spell mastery later on? Or is it a one  choice thing?

[Boeroer]

You can retrain your character in every inn. That means you can set them back to lvl 1 and level them back up. It only costs a bit of money.

[harf4ng]

And is money an unlimited resource in game? 

Like, can we go hunting to get back money, with monsters which respawn? Or it is impossible and so we have to be careful how we spend our money? 

Thanks 

[Boeroer]

I wouldn't say money is unlimited (there's no respawning) but after some levels you usually have more of it than you can spend in a meaningful way. Retraining is rel. cheap - so lack of money shouldn't be a problem.