Help me decide a Wizard MC for solo (no BM)

[dgray62]

I'm very fond of all three of these MCs. A soul blade/vanilla wizard (or BM) is a lot of fun. But loremaster is great too; through chanter you can get energized, allowing all of your chants that roll against defenses (like Come, Come, The Fox from the Farmer & Long Night) as well as pulsing wizard spells to interrupt on crits. And spiritualist is also fun. Troubador/psion is great for constant renewable resources. You can just alternate between casting invocations and cipher powers. The only question is whether multiclassing is worth it with casters. With wizards, I really miss the tier 8 & 9 spells. But I do not really miss the tier 8 and 9 chanter and cipher abilities, which is another point in the column of spiritualist, IMO.

[Not So Clever Hound]

As far as solo caster/caster builds, Sorcerer is an absolute beast of arcane destruction and an affliction machine gun, very durable too. Fun to play (but it requires a bit of setup). And if you want a quick change of pace, it’s a solid melee damage dealer too. You can check out my solo build here. 
 

 

[Boeroer]

When it's about caster/caster I really like to use a Psion. An Ultimate finisher used Troubadour/Psion but I have no doubt that you can absolutely solo with Bloodmage/Psion or whatever Wizard/Psion if you want to use Empower in every fight with Sasha's Singing Scimitar (the Psion side).

Edit: what was I writing in the last sentence? I totally confused Troubadour with Psion, sorry. Forget that.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Boeroer

[Manu22]

Thanks everyone, but against your recomendations I will play with a specialized Wizard. It will be a Loremaster , and this is my ideas:

Conjurer : hybrid, using spells and conjuring weapons, while the chanter side will be providing buffs. Little use of invocations, probably no summons.

Illusionist/Enchanter: melee mage, maybe pair with skald.

Evoker: caster, chanter side focusing on summons.

 

I know a vanilla mage can perform all of this, but this is what I want to try now.

 

Another day I will try this sorcerer build, looks interesting.

[Manu22]

@Not So Clever Hound let me ask you some questions about the Thundercat:

Don’t you use Spirit Shield?

You stay in cat form since the start of the fight?

[Not So Clever Hound]

Eventually I use Llengrath safeguard (triggered through blood sacrifice) which gives better AR bonus than Spirit Shield on top of the +20 all defenses. 
 

indeed I stay in cat form to benefit from awesome speed and lifegiver PL bonus to rejuvenation. This is easy to achieve with Wall of Draining. 

[Manu22]

The only thing I don’t like is to stay shifted and don’t use weapons and armors. But is an interesting build

[Manu22]

Some more questions:

Does the Nature Godlike PL bonus stack with the Lifegiver and the BM PL bonus?

And about the Blood Sacrifice, is it random the amount of health and the level of spells you get?

Edited July 31, 2021 by Manu22

[Boeroer]

13 hours ago, Manu22 said:

Some more questions:

Does the Nature Godlike PL bonus stack with the Lifegiver and the BM PL bonus?

And about the Blood Sacrifice, is it random the amount of health and the level of spells you get?

Yes (also with Stone of Power) and yes. 

But if you only lack spell uses for one tier (e.g. PL4 spells) you'll get that one back. The dmg is random between three stages iirc. 

[Manu22]

Thanks, I started the Thundercat with a Nature Godlike, I am still struggling in the early levels, but is a good build.

[Not So Clever Hound]

https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Sacrifice for the detail. A known tactic is to only spam low level spells to guarantee spell gain and limit self damage. But on a build with good defenses and as much healing as Thundercat 2.0 you can just go nuts with higher level spells if you want. Given the amount of spells this build can cast per encounter, it is hardly ever needed anyway and I mostly use Blood Sacrifice for the +1PL Wizard bonus prolonged with WoD.

This build really shines once you get a bit more levels under your belt - especially once you get Relentless Storm!

[Manu22]

@Not So Clever HoundI am enjoying this sorcerer build, there’s only one thing that I didn’t liked much: stay in car form. 
I know it’s a key component of the build, but I like to see my character in armor and using weapons

 

EDIT: I added one of my favorite Druid spells to the mix, Touch of Rot, as soon as I got Infuse VE and don’t need to use Nature’s Vigor.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Manu22

[Not So Clever Hound]

5 hours ago, Manu22 said:

I am enjoying this sorcerer build, there’s only one thing that I didn’t liked much: stay in car form. 

Glad you have fun with it! Yeah I guess the Spiritshift component can be a turn-off, but it comes with several strong advantages. To your typo, I would love to see now a Spiritshift: Car or Spiritshift: Truck for an interesting Transformers vibe. Maybe @Elric Galad can make a mod.   

Touch of Rot is indeed a sweet addition and brings a nice additional DoT on the way to total enemy obliteration, once you've started debuffing FORT while applying DMG.

[dgray62]

The nice thing about spiritshifting for this build is the lifegiver boost to healing as well as the cat flurry speed boost. When you really need this is for tough fights later in the game, prolonged with wall of draining. Before you get that spell, you can stay in kith form using whatever weapons and armor you wish. Not So Clever Hound's weapon and armor suggestions were for items that give you a boost at the very start of the game and which persist even when shifted, and which can be extended with WoD. So his build is based on the assumption that you will shift in pretty much every battle.

[Manu22]

@Not So Clever Houndlet me ask you a question…

Do you think it’s possible to use the WoD to extend shift to make a bear tank and using the wizard self buffs? It would be something like the Druid tank from WoW…

[Not So Clever Hound]

Yes absolutely! Superb armor rating with 0 recovery malus. 1 extra engagement and a nice Terrify AoE. I went with Cat for the speed buff but Bear is probably the next best thing. 

[Manu22]

Some questions about spiritshif:

does the AR bonus from pale elf works while shifted?

if I am using White Witch Mask for example, when I become bloodied will trigger the effect while shifted?

 

 

 

[Not So Clever Hound]

Yes because the race AR bonus is a passive so it will stack with everything in kith or shift form. 
 

Yes because the only equipment removed by spiritshift is weapons/shield and armor. So you keep any other effect from other pieces of equipment. And you can keep one effect from armor: First to the Fight from Furrante’s Breastplate which doesn’t disappear with spiritshift. 

[Manu22]

Thanks. I guess I will need use better armor while not shifted too.