Fun Wizard build?

[masterty66]

I'm importing a Wizard soon from Poe1. Can't decide what to do with it. It's been kind of a tank type Wizard in Poe1, but I suppose it doesn't have to be that in Deadfire. 

What have you guys been having fun with lately Wizard-wise? 

 

 

[crdvis16]

If you want to continue with Tank wizard then Battlemage with Illusionist/Unbroken as the subclasses is fun.  The idea is to use the 2 Illusion wizard spells that Terrify (Ryngrim) while engaging a bunch of enemies.  The terrify causes them to break engagement and give you free disengagement attacks (Unbroken improves disengagement attacks).

[masterty66]

8 minutes ago, crdvis16 said:

If you want to continue with Tank wizard then Battlemage with Illusionist/Unbroken as the subclasses is fun.  The idea is to use the 2 Illusion wizard spells that Terrify (Ryngrim) while engaging a bunch of enemies.  The terrify causes them to break engagement and give you free disengagement attacks (Unbroken improves disengagement attacks).

That sounds kinda cool. I think I want to avoid Arcane Knight. It's good but I've done it before. Battlemage or Sage sound kind of appealing to me. I know at high levels Wall of Draining + Unbending is pretty insane too

[crdvis16]

I did it in my last playthrough and had a blast.  It doesn't always work (sometimes they just cower in fear rather than running far enough away to break engagement) but it works often enough to be worthwhile.  And even without getting disengagement attacks, a tank with a bunch of good debuff/CC spells is nice anyway.

[Not So Clever Hound]

Shameless autopromotion if you'd like to play SC Wizard:

This was a ton of fun too, shapeshifting Sorcerer:

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

Still think melee Geomancer with Morning Star (both Willbreaker as well as Saru Sichr are useful for multiple reasons) was a fun and overall potent build from start to finish (I did a solo run with it). 

Both defensively as well as offensively quite capable and also versatile. I often used Willbreaker with the Morning Star modal: it lowers enemies' fortitude by 25, making it easier for the Animal Companion to apply Takedown Combo - and it also lowers enemies' Will, making it easier to land Miasma of DUll-Mindedness which lowers Will into the ground and then it's very easy for the Essential Phantom to crit with Concelhaut's Draining Touch (it targets Will instead of Deflection). Draining Touch weakens the enemy which makes it again easier to land Takedown Combo - and so on and so forth. Stalker's passives in combination with Wizard's self buffs make the char very sturdy. One can't use Ghost Heart because it would remove the Phantom. 

One can also use Saru Sichr on the char and the Phantom. The strong poison DoT stacks completely and unlocks Predator's Sense of the animal companion.
Tough enemies aren't very tough anymore once they got hit by a few DoTs from Saru Sichr with Accurate Wounding Shot. 

[Kaylon]

A very simple, powerful and fun build is assassin/bloodmage. Nuking from invisibility or backstabbing with Draining Touch never gets old. 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Kaylon

[Boeroer]

 

2 hours ago, Kaylon said:

Nucking from invisibility

I had a hunch there would be an entry in the urban dictionary   

[masterty66]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Still think melee Geomancer with Morning Star (both Willbreaker as well as Saru Sichr are useful for multiple reasons) was a fun and overall potent build from start to finish (I did a solo run with it). 

Both defensively as well as offensively quite capable and also versatile. I often used Willbreaker with the Morning Star modal: it lowers enemies' fortitude by 25, making it easier for the Animal Companion to apply Takedown Combo - and it also lowers enemies' Will, making it easier to land Miasma of DUll-Mindedness which lowers Will into the ground and then it's very easy for the Essential Phantom to crit with Concelhaut's Draining Touch (it targets Will instead of Deflection). Draining Touch weakens the enemy which makes it again easier to land Takedown Combo - and so on and so forth. Stalker's passives in combination with Wizard's self buffs make the char very sturdy. One can't use Ghost Heart because it would remove the Phantom. 

One can also use Saru Sichr on the char and the Phantom. The strong poison DoT stacks completely and unlocks Predator's Sense of the animal companion.
Tough enemies aren't very tough anymore once they got hit by a few DoTs from Saru Sichr with Accurate Wounding Shot. 

How does that work exactly? You hit with Willbreaker and then cast draining touch and then cast essential phantom? Doesn't the phantom spawn with the weapon you have? That does sound fun though.

Single Class Wizard (those sick nasty PL 9 spells) and Assassin/Bloodmage also sound pretty fun though. Oh the choices the choices..

[Boeroer]

19 minutes ago, masterty66 said:

How does that work exactly? You hit with Willbreaker and then cast draining touch and then cast essential phantom? Doesn't the phantom spawn with the weapon you have? That does sound fun though.

I cast self buffs (when necessary), then Draining Touch, then the Phantom right behind the enemy who I will attack as well while the Animal Companion also attacks that foe. Enemy will def. be flanked then. When I hit with Draining Touch it disappears and I start hitting with Willbreaker and may cast a Miasma oDM in between (if the enemy's Will is too high for my Phantom's Draining Touch). As soon as the enemy dies: off to the next one. I usually let the phantom pick the next enemy and then place myself and the AC accordingly.
If you are wearing the Helm of the White Void then the Phantom does, too. It gets +12 ACC from one handed attacks and +10 from the Helm (Rymrgand's Influence) because Draining Touch also applies weakened and the whole attack gets +10 ACC because of that. That way the Phantom has pretty cool accuracy with its attacks. And when you bring down Will enough it will crit a lot. Combined with some Takedown Combos the Phantom will deal superb damage (for a Phantom).  

Or I switch to a defensive setup (for example hatchet & large shield), summon the phantom and send it and the AC to block and tank - while I switch back to another weapon or summon Spirit Lance and cast spells or attack from behind them. 

As a Geomancer you are pretty versatile. Some spells are quite nice in combination with Takedown Combo (+100% dmg for the next attack). For example Necrotic Lance or Killing Bolt.

19 minutes ago, masterty66 said:

Single Class Wizard (those sick nasty PL 9 spells) and Assassin/Bloodmage also sound pretty fun though. Oh the choices the choices..

Those two can also be very nice. 

Recently played with an SC Wizard Aloth who focused on bows. Also here a phantom is nice because it gets the same bow as you and in some cases that's pretty cool (e.g. Frostseeker or Essence Interrupter). And then at PL 8 you get Caedebald's Blackbow which is very strong because its arrow jumps over 12 meters and terrifies with every hit (targets Fortitude though - but here Helm of the White Void helps, too). With a Phantom you get two of those bows in the field which has serious impact. Cast some Rymrgand spell here and there on top...  And of course SC Wizards are super versatile because they have access to so many grimoire spells from the full 9 power levels. I often wear Fleshmender and Giftbearer's Cloth just to get two additional quick slot items for grimoires. Then I don't even learn that many spells but mostly take passives because my spell portfolio is to vast from all the grimoires. Requires a bit of sorting and administration though...  

Edited November 27, 2021 by Boeroer

[crdvis16]

Is the recovery from switching grimiores very punishing or not so bad?  For the non-school subclasses I could see that being pretty useful.

[masterty66]

10 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I cast self buffs (when necessary), then Draining Touch, then the Phantom right behind the enemy who I will attack as well while the Animal Companion also attacks that foe. Enemy will def. be flanked then. When I hit with Draining Touch it disappears and I start hitting with Willbreaker and may cast a Miasma oDM in between (if the enemy's Will is too high for my Phantom's Draining Touch). As soon as the enemy dies: off to the next one. I usually let the phantom pick the next enemy and then place myself and the AC accordingly.
If you are wearing the Helm of the White Void then the Phantom does, too. It gets +12 ACC from one handed attacks and +10 from the Helm (Rymrgand's Influence) because Draining Touch also applies weakened and the whole attack gets +10 ACC because of that. That way the Phantom has pretty cool accuracy with its attacks. And when you bring down Will enough it will crit a lot. Combined with some Takedown Combos the Phantom will deal superb damage (for a Phantom).  

Or I switch to a defensive setup (for example hatchet & large shield), summon the phantom and send it and the AC to block and tank - while I switch back to another weapon or summon Spirit Lance and cast spells or attack from behind them. 

As a Geomancer you are pretty versatile. Some spells are quite nice in combination with Takedown Combo (+100% dmg for the next attack). For example Necrotic Lance or Killing Bolt.

Those two can also be very nice. 

Recently played with an SC Wizard Aloth who focused on bows. Also here a phantom is nice because it gets the same bow as you and in some cases that's pretty cool (e.g. Frostseeker or Essence Interrupter). And then at PL 8 you get Caedebald's Blackbow which is very strong because its arrow jumps over 12 meters and terrifies with every hit (targets Fortitude though - but here Helm of the White Void helps, too). With a Phantom you get two of those bows in the field which has serious impact. Cast some Rymrgand spell here and there on top...  And of course SC Wizards are super versatile because they have access to so many grimoire spells from the full 9 power levels. I often wear Fleshmender and Giftbearer's Cloth just to get two additional quick slot items for grimoires. Then I don't even learn that many spells but mostly take passives because my spell portfolio is to vast from all the grimoires. Requires a bit of sorting and administration though...  

Ah that makes sense. Sounds like a pretty fun and versatile build. I always love Rangers so this might be what I opt to go with. What's your preferred armor for that type of character? I suppose you'd want at least a decent AR since it's if not a main tank then probably at least would be considered an off tank type character? 

I was very impressed with Caedbald's Blackbow on a recent run I did. I was doing a Psion/Troubadour and I had Aloth using it quite a bit. I don't think I was even as optimal with it as I could have been but I do recall getting a ton of mileage out of the terrify that it does. It definitely ended up being my go-to PL 8 spell with im. I only wish it was PL7 since I'm sure some of the multiclass shenanigans you could do with that bow would be pretty awesome. But then it might be overpowered I suppose :).

[Boeroer]

@crdvis16It takes some time but imo it's not too bad. If you play it with Aloth it's even better because he can get a passive through his quest that reduces the grimoire switching time. 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

12 hours ago, masterty66 said:

What's your preferred armor for that type of character? I suppose you'd want at least a decent AR since it's if not a main tank then probably at least would be considered an off tank type character? 

I went with Nomad's Brigandine iirc. But anything with high AR would be good. The Wizard's AR buffs (Spirit Shield or Iron Skin - or even better Llengrath's Safeguard) stack with the Stalker's passive bonus. I picked Nomad's Brigandne because it also leads to +10 melee deflection while having decent AR. The deflection also stacks with the Stalker's passive. And it lets you disengage without regrets. 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Boeroer

[masterty66]

I'm into Deadfire and enjoying this so far. Just finished the Digsite. A good test of its survivability is that I made Eder into a pure Rogue this run (for the hell of it as I've never done so before) and my Geomancer was able to tank just fine during the prologue. I beat Gorreci street and the Engwithan ruin despite running the default npcs + an Ancient hireling.

Admittedly the Ancient helps a looot during chapter 1 and I almost always hire one because their spells are so useful at the Digsite. 

I do need to figure out who to make into my main tank this run. Normally Eder is that. I made Serafen a Witch so far and I think he will probably be more of an off tank as well. Maybe Pallegina as a Crusader would be my best bet there. Not sure. I figure having someone to soak up a lot of engagements would be nice. Normally that's Eder but since I switched it up and made him into a dpser this run I'll have to figure something else out. This Geomancer seems more an off tank than a main tank. 

I did end up going Blood Mage with this. I think I will probably try to stack some regen gear and spam Corrosive siphon later on as well as using the Draining Touch/Phantom trick. Character should be pretty versatile in terms of aoe/single target dps that way. 

 

 

[thelee]

2 hours ago, masterty66 said:

Maybe Pallegina as a Crusader would be my best bet there. Not sure. I figure having someone to soak up a lot of engagements would be nice.

pallegina as a crusader makes a great tank. paladin hardiness and party support, and you can use a shield + hold the line for 2 engagement, or just do whatever and turn on defender stance for 3 engagement.

only downside is that pallegina wastes her subclass and her first skill point on a lame upgrade to sworn enemy and getting flames of devotion, neither of which are great for a tank, but the strength of her ancestry helps ease the pain of manually picking up lay on hands.

[masterty66]

2 hours ago, thelee said:

pallegina as a crusader makes a great tank. paladin hardiness and party support, and you can use a shield + hold the line for 2 engagement, or just do whatever and turn on defender stance for 3 engagement.

only downside is that pallegina wastes her subclass and her first skill point on a lame upgrade to sworn enemy and getting flames of devotion, neither of which are great for a tank, but the strength of her ancestry helps ease the pain of manually picking up lay on hands.

Yeah that makes sense. I normally run her as a Herald but Heralds while great off tanks lack engagement slots. Very interested to see how she performs as a Crusader. 

Will probably gear her similarly to how I do with Eder when I tank with him (ie Kapana Taga + Cadhu Scalth). I feel like it's hard to beat that as a sword/shield combo. The + engagement slots from Kapana Taga is just hard to beat for a tank. 

[dgray62]

I've played Boeroer's geomancer build solo, and it is very tanky once you get your buffs up and summon a phantom to help deal with the aggro. It's definitely a very tanky build.

[masterty66]

Played through Neketaka so far (finished Old City last night). Doing pretty well. Only got knocked out once so far this run and that was when I foolishly let my guy get swarmed when fighting the Mad Harvester. This guy is sturdy but not so sturdy that you wanna throw him into a big group of monsters. So that was a lesson learned. Saru Sichr + Predator's Sense is a nice early combo with the Wolf. I'm pretty impressed by stacking regen gear too. I have Ring Of Regen + Troll Cloak + Ring of Greater Regen already and those go a long way towards letting me do my thing as a Bloodmage and spam Corrosive Siphon. I'm not high enough level for Essential Phantom but will be soon. I guess early on I will just use that to get double stacks of Saru Sichr up. @BoeroerI know you like Willbreaker a lot for this. How soon can one do the slaver area to acquire that? I'd assume you'd probably want to be at least level 12 or so for that but I've never bum rushed it so not sure. 

Gotta say I've actually been impressed by Eder as a Rogue too. He has gotten knocked out more times than I'd care for so far, but when he's upright he does pretty good damage. His ability to put long lasting dots on enemies via True Love's Kiss, Gouging Strike, etc is nice. I just need to be careful with him because he goes down easily if he gets more than one thing on him. 

[Boeroer]

You can sneak and steal the Willbreaker if you want to. Sparkcrackers for luring Ogres away is kind of mandatory for that though.