Arcane Knight, busted or boring?

[AeonsLegend]

So just fiddling with some ideas on how to make a character almost invincible. Thinking along the lines of Paladin and Wizard with all the passive and active buffs they get. Deflection without shield to 142 and other defenses between 140 and 160 without effort.

Base DR to 25 (+4 vsd fire/ice if going pale elf) with Devil of Caroc breastplate (so can go higher, but that would be worse i think)

Only thing that bothered me was that this thing is probably not going to kill anything.

Thoughts?

[Boeroer]

It's very good in general - but especially good in my opinion as Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Whispers of the Endless Paths + Offensive Parry.

Offensive Parry triggers on every melee miss (like a 100% Riposte basically) and it dazes the enemy, thus automatically unlocking the draining effect for the Steel Garrote.

You can cast spells while dishing out Offensive Parries at the same time which heal you and damage foes. The constant draining also means that Blood Sacrifice is not a problem since you are healed up most of times automatically. If not: Lay on Hands/Exalted Endurance/Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon do the trick.  Usually the drainig + healing is so strong that I can run Sacred Immolation + Alacrity with not problem. 

It's a fun and powerful combo defense- as offense-wise. 

The only thing that messes it up (that messes most Arcane Knights up) is Arcane Dampener.

By the way (not related to Arcane Knight) : Offensive Parry (and Riposte) also works with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming.

[mjo2138]

I have been playing a goldpact/vanilla wizard on POTD upscaled. It is very tanky, but does not do very good melee dmg, even with all the wizard buffs (which are mostly defensive, anyways).  You can get incredibly high deflection which is fun, as well as other defensive stats with giftbearers cloak, deep faith, and snakes reflex, bears fortitiude etc.  You could forgo will defenses if you use Modwyr, allowing you to min/max even more. 

In the end, It plays like a frontline caster that can take damage and dish it out. I use mine for CC (eora's pull, DEX afflicitons) to set up for Aloth (pure wizard) to cast his big spells along with Tekehu (druid) for greater maelstrom.) I also use Minoletta's piercing burst which is always great due to its insane penetration. 

the other route you could go is melee. There is a spell i tried (Draconic Fury, unique spell from Spindleman) but it's chance to cast terrify has really low accuracy (86) which is too bad because that would be a fun terrify/fire build since it adds fire lash. It is easier to use the terrify/weaken aoe to CC.  

[AeonsLegend]

2 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

It's very good in general - but especially good in my opinion as Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Whispers of the Endless Paths + Offensive Parry.

Offensive Parry triggers on every melee miss (like a 100% Riposte basically) and it dazes the enemy, thus automatically unlocking the draining effect for the Steel Garrote.

You can cast spells while dishing out Offensive Parries at the same time which heal you and damage foes. The constant draining also means that Blood Sacrifice is not a problem since you are healed up most of times automatically. If not: Lay on Hands/Exalted Endurance/Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon do the trick.  Usually the drainig + healing is so strong that I can run Sacred Immolation + Alacrity with not problem. 

It's a fun and powerful combo defense- as offense-wise. 

The only thing that messes it up (that messes most Arcane Knights up) is Arcane Dampener.

By the way (not related to Arcane Knight) : Offensive Parry (and Riposte) also works with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming.

Hm yeah. I was put off by the -15 all defenses of the blood mage vs bloodied targets when going super defensive. Why would i need the blood mage, when all i do is buff up? Are you going to run out of spells?

I guess sacred immolation would be good in this build yea. But melee is kind of meh right? Or is it ok?

[Boeroer]

Zandethus Draconic Fury is a nice spell for a melee Arcane Knight. Its lashes stack with FoD/Eternal Devotion. 

[Boeroer]

Just now, AeonsLegend said:

Hm yeah. I was put off by the -15 all defenses of the blood mage vs bloodied targets when going super defensive. Why would i need the blood mage, when all i do is buff up? Are you going to run out of spells?

I guess sacred immolation would be good in this build yea. But melee is kind of meh right? Or is it ok?

Well Offensive Parry is melee and it triggers all the time as long as you are getting attacked (no recovery or anyhing). And of course you can also strike with WotEP in an AoE. For cleanup you can switch to a normal great sword. If you use FoD with Ring of Focused Flames you can switch on the Great Sword modal which does +30% dmg. In combination with FoD-lashes and Zandethus Fury you can achieve good damage. But the bulk ofthe melee dmage comes from Offensive Parry.

The good thing is that you can deal melee damage WHILE casting offensive spells. Blood Mage because it's very powerful to be able to spam the most powerful spells more than once or twice. Like Death Ring for example. You can cast it till it's empty and then use Blood Sacrifice to fill it up again while the Steel Garrote's draining (and Exalted Endurance) fill up your health again. 

[AeonsLegend]

3 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Well Offensive Parry is melee and it triggers all the time as long as you are getting attacked (no recovery or anyhing). And of course you can also strike with WotEP in an AoE. For cleanup you can switch to a normal great sword. If you use FoD with Ring of Focused Flames you can switch on the Great Sword modal which does +30% dmg. In combination with FoD-lashes and Zandethus Fury you can achieve good damage. But the bulk ofthe melee dmage comes from Offensive Parry.

The good thing is that you can deal melee damage WHILE casting offensive spells. Blood Mage because it's very powerful to be able to spam the most powerful spells more than once or twice. Like Death Ring for example. You can cast it till it's empty and then use Blood Sacrifice to fill it up again while the Steel Garrote's draining (and Exalted Endurance) fill up your health again. 

That sounds pretty good actually. So you would forego Citzals Martial Power and go for Zandethus Draconic Fury instead? I mean I'd have to sacrifice some points here and there to get the other defensive spells I'd need but... I mean with -15 defense vs bloodied and the lack of Citzals Martial Power defense isn't very high so how is Offensive parry going to trigger often?

[Boeroer]

I can record a short animated gif against several tigers to showcase how it's like. Wait a minute...

[Boeroer]

That's without any buffs. Sorry, the following gif is huge (50MB+). I had to scale it down a lot to even get there. But maybe one can somewaht see what's going on:

 

It's one of the few paladin builds where Inspired Beacon makes some sense. The +40% damage is quite nice with Offensive Parry, Sacred Immolation and spells. Wall of Draining can be used to prolong buffs - also the one from the Mask of the Weyc. The Mask's deflection bonus stacks with everything by the way. I used Casità Samelias Legacy as armor because it gives you over 10 Deflection with 22 Intimidate which is awesome. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

Man that does look pretty cool. Building it now...

[Waski]

Wall of draining + Mask of the Weyc, Furrantes breastplate, Magnificent escape cape, lay on hands and hands of light should give you 200+deflection(without shield) and around 70hp/sec  healing with practiced healer and decent might.

[dgray62]

6 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Well Offensive Parry is melee and it triggers all the time as long as you are getting attacked (no recovery or anyhing). And of course you can also strike with WotEP in an AoE. For cleanup you can switch to a normal great sword. If you use FoD with Ring of Focused Flames you can switch on the Great Sword modal which does +30% dmg. In combination with FoD-lashes and Zandethus Fury you can achieve good damage. But the bulk ofthe melee dmage comes from Offensive Parry.

The good thing is that you can deal melee damage WHILE casting offensive spells. Blood Mage because it's very powerful to be able to spam the most powerful spells more than once or twice. Like Death Ring for example. You can cast it till it's empty and then use Blood Sacrifice to fill it up again while the Steel Garrote's draining (and Exalted Endurance) fill up your health again. 

Boeroer, I tried this build recently, and while it is great when offensive parry procs while you are casting spells, damaging your enemy while healing you (slightly, given that 15% of damage with WotEP isn't much), I was generally unimpressed by the damage WotEP does in ordinary combat. In ship battles with Deadfire merchants (circa level 6 or so) it seemed like it took forever to kill anything with this weapon. On the other hand, dual wielding arcane knights seem, in my experience, to be much more deadly. Do you just wield WotEP while buffing, and then switch to more effective weapons to "cleanup" after that?

[Boeroer]

No, I just keep it on for Offensive Parry and draining while dazing the enemy (people forget that Daze does -4 PEN which is a huge improvement when it comes to survivability) and do the real damage with Eternal Devotion + spells. 

I can clean up single foes with Run-Through and then switch to another weapon. But against mobs it' just a very good combination of defense, healing and offense that doesn't stop you from casting at all. Usually Arcane Knight either hit stuff with weapon OR cast spells. This does both at the same time which I find great.
You can drain more I guess with Spirit Lance, but then you can't cast other spells while doing melee dmg. 

I can ususally tank everything that mainly attacks deflection with this guy and at the same time he dishes out lots of damage for a tanky frontliner. Winning against 6+ CRE_Tigers solo on PotD is not that easy even for a lvl-20 char.   

Also works with Cipher ()get focus from parrying), Shattered Pillar (get wounds from parrying - also Offensive Parry works with Swift Flurry etc.), Trickster (way better weapon dmg) and Skald (Offensive Parry-crits can give phrases). I just think that the draining is very nice in combination with Bloodmage. You can spam spells unlimited while parrying.

I pick Hands of Light because at the beginning you might get interrupted by accuracy foes. Hands of Light makes you immune to interrupts. 

I even used WotEP/Offensive parry on a melee SC Wizard (because I like Minoletta's Piercing Sigil and Cloak of Death so much) and that also works. But of course there's not that much synergy, just dazing enemies and doing some melee and retaliation dmg while casting stuff.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

5 hours ago, Boeroer said:

No, I just keep it on for Offensive Parry and draining while dazing the enemy (people forget that Daze does -4 PEN which is a huge improvement when it comes to survivability) and do the real damage with Eternal Devotion + spells. 

I can clean up single foes with Run-Through and then switch to another weapon. But against mobs it' just a very good combination of defense, healing and offense that doesn't stop you from casting at all. Usually Arcane Knight either hit stuff with weapon OR cast spells. This does both at the same time which I find great.
You can drain more I guess with Spirit Lance, but then you can't cast other spells while doing melee dmg. 

I can ususally tank everything that mainly attacks deflection with this guy and at the same time he dishes out lots of damage for a tanky frontliner. Winning against 6+ CRE_Tigers solo on PotD is not that easy even for a lvl-20 char.   

Also works with Cipher ()get focus from parrying), Shattered Pillar (get wounds from parrying - also Offensive Parry works with Swift Flurry etc.), Trickster (way better weapon dmg) and Skald (Offensive Parry-crits can give phrases). I just think that the draining is very nice in combination with Bloodmage. You can spam spells unlimited while parrying.

I pick Hands of Light because at the beginning you might get interrupted by accuracy foes. Hands of Light makes you immune to interrupts. 

I even used WotEP/Offensive parry on a melee SC Wizard (because I like Minoletta's Piercing Sigil and Cloak of Death so much) and that also works. But of course there's not that much synergy, just dazing enemies and doing some melee and retaliation dmg while casting stuff.

Thanks for the explanation, Boeroer. I can see that it is ideal for casting while mobbed, which is a common issue for melee casters. I'll try this build again.

[peolone]

Hi @Boeroer. Do you think this build could be viable for a solo PotD run ? How would you deal with those pesky ranged enemies ?

[Kaylon]

Draining Touch with Zandethus Draconic Fury does lots of melee damage and heals too, but as a mage you're not limited to melee.

[Boeroer]

Yes, Steel Garrote can first use Parasitic Staff (dual draining) and then Draining Touch (also dual draining but more damage) if he wants to.

But I just like the "passive" draining of Offensive Parry best. You have to do nothing (besides having high deflection) while getting healed up and dealing damage and can concentrate on the casting. 

If I wanted to concentrate on the melee dmg and not cast so much I would use Steel Garrote/Trickster I guess. 

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, peolone said:

Hi @Boeroer. Do you think this build could be viable for a solo PotD run ? How would you deal with those pesky ranged enemies ?

I think so. You can always switch to a large shield with modal against ranged enemies - if the already high deflection of Paladin passives + Wizard buffs isn't enough. 

[peolone]

Thanks, I'll try it in a solo run and see how it goes. 

[depthcharge101]

Sorry to revive an old topic. Very interesting build @Boeroer. Just curious, how did you build your stats? I am guessing perception/dex is probably important (with all the casting) but wasn't sure what you'd do with might, since high might could be a bit fatal =/

[Boeroer]

Iirc I had MIG at 10 - or maybe 13, not sure. But not high. Since you already want to have high RES and INT and PER and DEX shouldn't be too shabby either not much is left for MIG and CON.  

[depthcharge101]

Man arcane knight is really strong! Just did a run with the offensive parry idea, which really helps survivability early to mid game, but late game wizard buff + 2x lay on hands (upgraded hands of light gives immunity to interruption) + wall of draining = immortality with infinite blood sacrifice. Who needs brilliance or barring death's door! [repeating paragraphs edited]

Edited August 24, 2020 by depthcharge101

[Boeroer]

I got it the first time...

[Panda Baby]

hey, sorry for resing an old thread but after much thinking instead my usual herald decided for my potd run give a try to arcane knight with the above mentioned parry with wotep set

got questiosn stat wise @Boeroer for my potd up run

with berath base stat would be :

 

12 might ( 13 when get gift of machine active , 14 with cauldron )

6con

15 dex

18 perc ( 19 when galawain boon)

18 intel ( 19 when get pool blood bonus )

20 resolve ( 21 with plains )

 

do you think this wil be fine ? or should i reduce dex a bit for up con or for up base intel/per as to get 20 with blessins

 

thanks