Single class wizard, spells advice

[Ryuuka]

Hey all. Got the urge to go through both games again but I am having some issues with my single class wizard in Deadfire. Searched the forums for builds but usually only find old ones or solo builds. 

I really want to do some damage with my wizard. Aoe is usually fine. It's great actually. Absolutely with empower. Even so, some advice on spell selection would be great. I am playing on PotD upscaled.

The issue I feel is single target. Am I doing something wrong or why is my killing bolt barely scratching most enemies even when it hits. I am playing a non subclass wizard with 16 base might. I have a mod that allows me to change subclass if that is needed.

 On the flip side, Xoti's symbol of eothas is aoeing for massive damage and buffing my party and it is not even friendly fire. Man what a spell. Maybe I should have made a priest. 

thanks for any advice. 

 

[thelee]

yeah, straight-up single target damage is less useful on potd upscaled, just because how much health enemies get. DoTs, periodic damage, etc get much better because fights will last longer so you'll get more value. and even huge aoe w/ lower damage numbers will get you lots of value simply because of the number of enemies involved. ninagauth's killing bolt looks flashy on paper, but too many things need to line up for it to actually have some value... if you're using it as a finisher you might as well use death ring instead which hits aoe damage as well. you're right to be underwhelmed. probably fun spell to use on lower difficulties.

imo kiling bolt is simply just much more scary in the hands of the enemy since the player has lower health totals and you don't have many defenses against raw damage and it really sucks getting your back-line caster/squishes one-shotted out of nowhere AND an additional enemy summon to deal with to boot.

 

and the symbols are extremely good spells. once priests get tier 8 spells they start becoming DPS monsters. no way around it, it's just some hilarious power curve. consider it a pay-off for single-classing a priest. wizards and druids also get monster payoffs for damage in the end (for wizard: meteor shower and missile salvo can single handedly clear encounters and even some bosses for you, yes even on potd upscaled).

Edited July 12, 2022 by thelee

[Ryuuka]

Glad it's not just me then

You're right on the lvl 8 and 9 spells. Sometimes they clean out most of the mobs by themselves. And the symbol spells make me want to play through it as a priest of magran. On a side note, RP wise, does the game do the priest classes justice? Kinda important for a priest to have some specific dialogue for many quests.

Regarding dots etc, which spells do you recommend? I know fog cloud is great but what else? Any outliers? 

I guess I'll let Pallegina with good ol' voidwheel do the single target damage for me then and stick to debuffs and aoe with my watcher.

 

Thanks!

Edited July 12, 2022 by Ryuuka

[dgray62]

Chill fog is a fantastic spell, useful from beginning to end, although technically is is a pulsing spell, not a DoT. When I play wizard I often start off casting chill fog, followed immediately by Combusting Wounds, which is an incredible damage multiplier, doing additional damage whenever DoTs tick to pulsing spells pulse. On the wizard side, Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon is a great DoT spell since it does corrosive damage that few creatures are resistant to, and also heals you as well. Other great wizard DoT/pulsing spells include Ningauth's Freezing Pillar, Cloak of death, Wall of Fire and the ray spells.

As for priest spells, see @thelee's great FAQ. Priests have less than wizards and druids, but Shining Beacon and Storm of Holy Fire are great so long as your INT is high enough to prolong them. The symbol spells are of course fantastic, as is Magran's Might if you chose her subclass.

Edited July 12, 2022 by dgray62
Error correction

[Ryuuka]

Wow, fog cloud, been playing too much 5e d&d on the side, I meant Chill fog of course

Thanks I will take a look at the spells you mentioned Hopefully they can help me out a bit. Some long fights where things are still alive after my high lvl spells have been cast, my watcher just kinda stands there, watching Pallegina enviously while she chunks things with her greatsword.

Also, thanks for the FAQ, this is exactly what I need

Edited July 12, 2022 by Ryuuka

[dgray62]

You might consider trying blood mage, so that you can continue casting spells throughout the battle. While blood sacrifice can be painful, if you cast a Corrosive Siphon it will help you quickly regain the lost health. BTW, the best build IMO for DoT/pulsing spells is a sorcerer. If you're interested, check out @Not So Clever Hound"Thundercat 2.0" build.

Edited July 12, 2022 by dgray62
Additional info.

[thelee]

On 7/12/2022 at 10:43 AM, Ryuuka said:

a side note, RP wise, does the game do the priest classes justice?

depends on the priest subclass.

Woedica is weird, because it was added late, and really should have tons of interactivity, but IIRC has very little.

You'll never get a huge amount of unique options, but every once and a while you'll get some extra dialogue options and occasionally an alternate way to avoid a skill check or bypass something. There's some examples in the FAQ link. In my memory, Magran and Wael stood out to me as having a noticeable above-average amount of reactivity, and I did Wael before Forgotten Sanctum came out, so I'll bet it got a lot more [if i remember the blocked dialogue options I had, priest of Wael give you an easy way to 

Spoiler

force Wael to do what you want with his/her/their/its corpse

]. 

Also in my memory, priest of Berath and Eothas didn't get much (ironic, considering the story). Yes, I played every priest subclass. (I used to stan priests pretty hard back in the day). Personally overall I was pleased with the RP options, especially compared to PoE1 (which basically had nil), and even compared to other deadfire classes.

Edited July 13, 2022 by thelee

[Ryuuka]

1 hour ago, dgray62 said:

You might consider trying blood mage, so that you can continue casting spells throughout the battle. While blood sacrifice can be painful, if you cast a Corrosive Siphon it will help you quickly regain the lost health. BTW, the best build IMO for DoT/pulsing spells is a sorcerer. If you're interested, check out @Not So Clever Hound"Thundercat 2.0" build.

I looked at blood mage a bit but I was not a fan of using the blood sacrifice often enough. Felt like even more micro managing than I am already doing for my wizard. And those big empowered spells are juicy.

Not really looking for dot/pusling spells per se but I heard they were good so I thought I'd try it since I felt some of my spells were very underwhelming. Still, I'll take a look at the guide. Thanks

[Ryuuka]

1 hour ago, thelee said:

depends on the priest subclass.

Woedica is weird, because it was added late, and really should have tons of interactivity, but IIRC has very little.

You'll never get a huge amount of unique options, but every once and a while you'll get some extra dialogue options and occasionally an alternate way to avoid a skill check or bypass something. There's some examples in the FAQ link. In my memory, Magran and Wael stood out to me as having a noticeable above-average amount of reactivity, and I did Wael before Forgotten Sanctum came out, so I'll bet it got a lot more [if i remember the blocked dialogue options I had, priest of Wael give you an easy way to 

  Reveal hidden contents

force Wael to do what you want with his corpse

]. 

Also in my memory, priest of Berath and Eothas didn't get much (ironic, considering the story). Yes, I played every priest subclass. (I used to stan priests pretty hard back in the day). Personally overall I was pleased with the RP options, especially compared to PoE1 (which basically had nil), and even compared to other deadfire classes.

That sounds pretty good. I am most interested in Magran so if that one has above-average amount that's great. Still, kinda funny that priests of Berath and Eothas don't have that much.

Priests are cool, I like how versatile they are and cleric has always been my favorite d&d class. Next playthrough will probably be a priest then. Thanks!

[Faraleth]

https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Ninagauth's_Shadowflame_(Deadfire)

this is my favourite spell since Poe1, solo carried me at Llengrath once my team died.

I even installed a mod that lets me learn grimoire unique spells once I equipped the grimoire at least once in a playthrough

[Dalzar]

Compusting wounds (If you can land it) and wall of flame + beams melts single foes nicely. 

[Constentin Lévine]

20 hours ago, Dalzar said:

Compusting wounds (If you can land it) and wall of flame + beams melts single foes nicely. 

Minoletta's spells work very well with combusting wounds, the number of missile are scaling pretty well with PL. Beam spells (Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring and Ray of Fire for wizard) are great too, they damage anyone in the path each 1s, with 1 wounds by damaging hit roll. Wall are fine too it's right.

A cipher-wizard can be really efficient damage dealer with this spell by the way.

There are some others good combo with Combusting wounds with the other party members, like AoE attack with AoE weapon / multiple projectiles weapon / AoE effect from the weapon. For exemple, Clear Out (fighter) with Keeper of the Flame (burn damages AoE) can give +5 or even more wounds . This spell can really profite too to a SC Priest, I like when there are some enemies close to some of my chars under the effect of Spark the Souls of the Righteous. With combusting wounds on top, it is "passively" crazy.