Most useful low level spells

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

I have a soft spot in my heart for picking humble lvl 1 or 2 spells early on, and them still carrying their weight even late in the game. Deadfire is one of the better examples of this too, since they gain PL scaling as the game goes on. So what would you consider to be some of the spells with the highest staying power?

-I semi-recently crunched the numbers for Touch of Rot, and found if you add together its instant and DoT damage sources, it hits harder than most lvl 6 and 7 spells. This is pretty huge, and since Corrode is not frequently resisted I'm kind of shocked I don't see it mentioned more often.

-In a similar way, Stinging Swarm, while not doing quite as much damage as Touch of Rot, does it in raw form, is friendly fire safe, and most importantly removes enemy concentration. I always hear about how great the Chant 'Thick Grew Their Tongues' is, but rarely hear people mentioning how you can take away enemy concentration for 60+ seconds (with sufficient INT and PL) AND do raw damage all in one spell.

-Blessed Harvest does stupid damage even when not in ideal circumstances, and does it quickly. It's somewhat situational since damage is based on remaining enemy HP, but the situation happens every fight, so I dont look at that as much of a downside.

-For Wizard, I find Fleet Feet and Slicken to be useful all game. AoE repeating prone based on reflex, and able to boost action speed by 15% with super fast movement speed within a 0.5 sec timeframe for 30 sec base time? Always good.

Any more that are your favorites?

[Carys]

I'm a big fan of Touch of Rot as well, and I also like Thrice she was wronged, the chanter invocation.  I've found it's viable the whole game long.  Chill Fog, too, especially Tekehu's foe only version of it.

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

33 minutes ago, Carys said:

I'm a big fan of Touch of Rot as well, and I also like Thrice she was wronged, the chanter invocation.  I've found it's viable the whole game long.  Chill Fog, too, especially Tekehu's foe only version of it.

I wasnt sure if I'd include Chanter invocations as part of spells, but why not lol? Yeah, Thrice She Was Wronged is extremely powerful all game and reliable with its three hits. Only gets better with its upgrade, it can melt packs of enemies better than any other instantish cast spell for a long time. While we're on it, Killers Froze Stiff is extremely spammable even late game with its large AoE, and Crashed Upon the Shield is one that can essentially remove 2 armor from a group of enemies for the rest of the fight with its upgrade. Extremely useful for any hard fight.

As a Skald you almost never have a need to use anything but those three Invocations for the rest of the game, since they only cost 2 chants. It's almost a downside of the class to me lol since using almost anything but those three early spells is kind of a waste.

[NotDumbEnough]

The problem with Touch of Rot is that it has very low penetration and is therefore really weak against anything that isn't a low level trash enemy in PotD. For tier 1 spells you are better off with Sunbeam or Tanglefoot.

Edited February 15, 2022 by NotDumbEnough

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

27 minutes ago, NotDumbEnough said:

The problem with Touch of Rot is that it has very low penetration and is therefore really weak against anything that isn't a low level trash enemy in PotD. For tier 1 spells you are better off with Sunbeam or Tanglefoot.

With PL Bonuses and Spirit of Decay I dont recall running into this issue often at all, since Corrode is lightly resisted in many cases. And this is ignoring Armor reducing abilities/status you can apply to enemies. But this is a good point to make. Imo Tanglefoot takes too long to cast considering its also Friendly Fire, and Hobbled isnt that great an Affliction on its own, although it can have its uses with specific strategies/builds. Sunbeam does too little damage to look at it as anything except a blinding spell with a small AoE and has Friendly Fire.

But not one that Insect Swarm or Autums Decay share, which do almost as much damage as Touch of Rot.

[Boeroer]

There are several lvl 1+2 spells that I like, but I will only list the ones I use extremely often.

• Wizard:
  • Chill Fog (extremely potent because of the long-lasting tier-3 affliction that has mulitple chances to stick)
  • Miasma of Dull-Mindedness (the direct debuffing of -10 to three attributes has so many effects that most players don't realize)
• Priest:
  • Withdraw (in combination with Berserker Frenzy/Confusion you can withdraw enemies without a hit roll - incredibly useful)
• Cipher:
  • Whisper of Treason (like removing an enemy and receiving a summon in one single spell - for cheap)

Edited February 15, 2022 by Boeroer

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

17 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

There are several lvl 1+2 spells that I like, but I will only list the ones I use extremely often.

• Wizard:
  • Chill Fog (extremely potent because of the long-lasting tier-3 affliction that has mulitple chances to stick)
  • Miasma of Dull-Mindedness (the direct debuffing of -10 to three attributes has so many effects that most players don't realize)
• Priest:
  • Withdraw (in combination with Berserker Frenzy/Confusion you can withdraw enemies without a hit roll - increbibly useful)
• Cipher:
  • Whisper of Treason (like removing an enemy and receiving a summon in one single spell - for cheap)

Wow, I'd never considered casting Withdraw in combination with INT Afflictions. Now that's pretty entertaining.

I usually skip on Chill Fog simply because I have Tekehu covering it, without having to worry about FF. But if you dont have him in the party and position things correctly its definitely powerful.

Whispers of Treason seems better in Deadfire, since enemies arent debuffed in the process and for whatever weird reason in PoE1 enemies would constantly go out of the status for me after a few seconds even if WoT hit for a crit and had like 15+ seconds of the status.

[dgray62]

Among priest spells, interdiction can be nice for reducing the threat from groups of enemies. And for ciphers, soul shock is a great AOE that scales nicely, and mind blades is a fantastic for use against 2 or more enemies; it also scales nicely, adding more jumps as you gain PLs. Antipathetic Field can be great when you have enemies bunched up. And phantom foes is great for debuting deflection and AR to help your attacks land (including mind blades). For chanter invocations, in addition to Thrice, I am also fond of At the Sound of His Voice (paralyze vs. will in a large cone) and White Worms. I didn't use the latter in the past, but it was fixed in the BPM and really hits like a truck in a large, foe only AOE.

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

Mind Blades always seems...bad to me. I know it gains a jump per 2 PL, but each successive jump gets a larger damage debuff...so its not as nice as it would appear. And the base damage is so low it takes a lot for it to really add up. I feel like there are quite a few AoE abilities that are much more damaging, unless you get an 'ideal' scenario where its ping ponging between two enemies, or are getting some shenanigans like with Combusting Wounds (also that spell probably fits this thread with all its weird synergies lol). Soul Shock also does surprisingly little damage for how long the cast time is. It does have a nice radius and penetration score however.

Phantom Foes is also an incredibly easy way of giving a Tactician Brilliant too, if you have that subclass on your team.

[thelee]

Just to add on to a lot of recommendations (which I agree with):

 

Chanter

• Hel-Hyraf... // The Shield Cracks: especially when upgraded, this invocation puts all of PotD in AR/PEN easy mode
• Not felled... // ...nor Flame: mostly when upgraded. Pierce/Slash AR combined is handy, covering many cases, and is very useful against ranged weapons because they mostly either do pierce, or pierce/slash, which this completely covers. Fire AR is also nice.

Druid

• Woodskin: casts super fasts, activates Lord of the Forest enchantment, huge pierce AR increase. Also Fire AR is nice

Priest

• Arcane Veil (Wael-only): back in the day I made tons of glass cannony-types using a wael MC. Having Arcane Veil at tier 1 means you always have access to it (though that is only relevant for like the first hour of the game [edit: though it does mean you have 2x as many casts as a wizard until the wizard gets to tier 3 abilities, so this early access is relevant for a bit longer]), and it benefits from various effects that grants +1 tier one spell cast (which gives you 3 + self-empower for 2 = 5 total casts). Unlike Wizard's Veil, it doesn't share the same tier with Mirror Image, so Wael priests get tons of evasion, whereas wizards share AV and Mirror Image at tier 2. (They do get Wizard's Double, though, which in some situations is way better.)
• Halt: open a fight with this (like from stealth) on a melee enemy, and you've immediately knocked one enemy out of the fight for a long time. Becomes a little less useful later on because more enemies get mobility abilities (like Leap) or have dexterity resistance/immunity.

Wizard

• Eldritch Aim: early on it's a waste of a spell slot, but later on it casts fast and boosts your accuracy for better spells. Also great for MC when you really want to help some powerful abilities land.
• C O M B U S T I N G W O U N D S

 

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by thelee

[dgray62]

Yes, combusting wounds must be on this list. As for soul shock, it's casting time is slow, but you can do nice damage with it if you crit or overpen with it. It's great for psions, for whom the long cast time is no bug deal. As for Mind Blades, my various ascendants have wiped out many a horde with this spell. It's great for ascendants in particular since its cast time is so fast. You can do serious damage with it too, in the range of 40-50 per hit, once you get enough PLs. But cast Phantom Foes first to soften up the foes first.

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

20 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Yes, combusting wounds must be on this list. As for soul shock, it's casting time is slow, but you can do nice damage with it if you crit or overpen with it. It's great for psions, for whom the long cast time is no bug deal. As for Mind Blades, my various ascendants have wiped out many a horde with this spell. It's great for ascendants in particular since its cast time is so fast. You can do serious damage with it too, in the range of 40-50 per hit, once you get enough PLs. But cast Phantom Foes first to soften up the foes first.

Ah, maybe thats where the difference in our experiences are. As a SC Ascendant youre getting a ton of Damage and PL increases that interact multiplicatively with each other, so that would jack up its usefulness a lot. As a multiclass non-Ascendant Cipher its very underwhelming compared to other spells thatve been mentioned in this thread. I do enjoy the fast cast though for sure.

[dgray62]

Yes, I think you are right; the extra PLs in the ascended state likely make the difference. And its fast cast makes it particularly great for ascendants.

[ArnoldRimmer]

A lot of spells in PoE1 were useful. I wouldn't take them in PoE2 though, as you only have two casts per level. I often tend to pick pretty much the same spells, at least wizards have a way to swap spells.

A spell I liked in PoE1 was repulsing seal, put it in a choke point /doorway before combat starts - I would never take it in deadfire as I don't want to waste a spell cast on a circle that just prones. Deadifre prone is basically just an interrupt rather then knocking someone over for several seconds. There are much better ways of interrupting then this seal. The electrical one is even worse.

For priests, I like withdrawl, divine mark, blessing, supress afflication - yeah there are rings, but I want to wear better rings.

Edited February 17, 2022 by ArnoldRimmer

[Boeroer]

11 hours ago, ArnoldRimmer said:

A spell I liked in PoE1 was repulsing seal, put it in a choke point /doorway before combat starts - I would never take it in deadfire as I don't want to waste a spell cast on a circle that just prones. Deadifre prone is basically just an interrupt rather then knocking someone over for several seconds. There are much better ways of interrupting then this seal. The electrical one is even worse.

You might have missed that you can cast a seal out of combat, then let the spell use refresh and only then start combat. So a seal can be a free spell basically. I agree that they are not the most useful or powerful ones, but having an additonal effect at the start of the fight is very handy in the early to mid game. Later on you can retrain and skip them because they scale awfully.

[thelee]

17 hours ago, ArnoldRimmer said:

A spell I liked in PoE1 was repulsing seal, put it in a choke point /doorway before combat starts - I would never take it in deadfire as I don't want to waste a spell cast on a circle that just prones.

TBF repulsing seal in poe1 was pretty buh-roken