Detailed Companion Builds?

[masterty66]

I like to use Refreshing Defense on Eder. With that up and a healer supporting him I find he almost never goes down.

[Boeroer]

13 hours ago, Kaylon said:

If Xoti is a priest... But since @Dalinoth asked how to play Xoti as a SC monk, I assumed he has no other healers. 

Ah, good point, good point! 

[Boeroer]

9 hours ago, masterty66 said:

I like to use Refreshing Defense on Eder. With that up and a healer supporting him I find he almost never goes down.

I also use that.

[Dalinoth]

Ok I have just gotten Aloth as a companion and want to build him as a Battlemage tank.  I have looked at Sin Tee's Stream build, the 1.0 build from the pinned build thread and read a bunch of threads on here but I am still not certain exactly what should be done. For example, what weapon do you use? Shield? Do you use Citzal's Spirit Lance?  

I apologize in advance for having been a pain with all of my questions but I really do appreciate the help. Thanks!

[Shai Hulud]

1 hour ago, Dalinoth said:

Ok I have just gotten Aloth as a companion and want to build him as a Battlemage tank.  I have looked at Sin Tee's Stream build, the 1.0 build from the pinned build thread and read a bunch of threads on here but I am still not certain exactly what should be done. For example, what weapon do you use? Shield? Do you use Citzal's Spirit Lance?  

I apologize in advance for having been a pain with all of my questions but I really do appreciate the help. Thanks!

Basically you just cast defensive spells like the ones in llengrath's martial mysteries, summon weapons, and use fighter stances and abilities to tank and/or murder things. I'll elaborate

All three stances are useful in different situations. Mob stance as the name suggests is best for killing mobs, it procs an auto-attack every time you kill an enemy, and it decreases recovery time. Guardian stance gives +3 engagement and some damage reduction based on number of targets, also prones enemies who disengage, so if aloth is your sole tank that would be very useful. If his role is more an offtank, then I'd normally use conqueror stance for its accuracy and deflection bonuses, and mob stance situationally (combined with citzal's spirit lance you can do a ton of damage with mob stance). If you have room I'd probably memorize two of them, definitely conqueror, and the other one depending whether you have another tank or not. Can probably take all three if you memorize very few spells. With battlemages I generally try to memorize as little as possible because everything you need is in llengrath's martial mysteries (except arcane veil or mirrored images), and this allows you to take all the useful fighter actives and passives. But even if you memorize just one you can use still use the others' basic forms like guardian stance's basic forms called "defender stance" which is same as guardian stance except it doesn't prone enemies.

You can give aloth +engagement items if your other tank isn't engaging well enough (or you don't have a second tank). Blackened plate helm, blackened plate, reckless brigandine (can get this earlier than blackened plate), kapana taga club, any shield, maura's belt. And take hold the line. 

I would definitely use the lance when you get it. You'll have enough deflection and armor from llengrath's safeguard and other spells like llengrath's displaced image and arcane veil that he doesn't usually need a shield, especially since by that point you'll have access to unbending which can provide huge amounts of healing. When you get the bracers of greater deflection you can give them to aloth, could also give him a cape of greater deflection if you think he needs it, but this comes at detriment of fort/reflex/will compared to a cape of greater protection or giftbearer's cloth.   

At lower levels use mirror images or arcane veil (the images last much longer but go away when hit) to boost deflection.

I'd give aloth a shield like lethandria's devotion to help while casting initial spells before you summon a weapon (goes away when summoned). Concelhaut's parasitic quarterstaff is rather good too, particularly for a level 1 spell. It will scale up as you level and remains useful against pierce-resistant enemies and has a 20% health drain. Use vigorous defense and refreshing defense when you get them, but once you get llengrath's safeguard they are no longer necessary because the safeguard includes +20 all defenses (as well as +5 armor) and they don't stack. It's good to have as a backup if you run out of level 5 spells though.

I would default to llengrath's martial mysteries since it has most of the spells you need, but it does limit you to two casts per level compared to grimoire of vaporous wizardy, so if you're finding you run out of spells too fast you can try using this instead, or just respec for it in longer fights. The grimoire of vaporous wizardry has a couple caveats

a) this spellbook is not oriented towards melee casting so you'll have to memorize more stuff than if using llengrath's martial mysteries (or katrenn's grimoire), which you might want to do anyway if planning on using other grimoires much. You may not have room for all the defensive spells from llengrath's martial mysteries, so priory-wise, it's llengrath's safeguard -> citzal's spirit lance -> infuse with vital essence -> llengrath's displaced image -> mirrored images or arcane veil (they don't stack) -> arcane reflection -> deleterious alacrity of motion

b) the description is kind of vague but you are interrupted every time you're hit, which can be bad if you don't keep your deflection sky high. The easiest way to not be interrupted is give aloth rekvu's fractured casque which makes him immune to interrupts, *provided* he is injured. Some injuries are really bad but others very minor. The most minor is probably wrenched knee (-25% stride), which you get from running over caltrops traps, which are all over the place in poko kahara dungeon. If you need an injury for a specific fight and that one went away from a rest, the easiest minor injury to get is probably acute rash, aloth can cast necrotic lance on himself until he dies. The effects are pretty minor, -5 fortitude and -3 armor vs corrode, definitely worth it for the immunity to interrupts if using the vaporous wizardry grimoire.

Also you want to take knock down and mule kick, as mule kick is ridiculously good when combined with citzal's spirit lance. The kick is distributed through the weapon and hits everyone in the circle, and it interrupts (knocks up) on GRAZE so at 1 discipline it is a very cheap way to CC mobs.

And take disciplined strikes, not tactical barrage. Infuse with vital essence spell gives long-lasting smart (not as good as acute, but intuitive + smart > aware + acute IMO). 

The weapon you give him doesn't matter that much since you'll usually have summoned weapons, just give him something with good passives like kapana taga club, squid's grasp rapier, or if these are taken or you don't have access to them yet a simple dagger with dagger modal on giges +10 deflection against melee enemies, while a spear can give +1 engagement with its modal. 

Not a complete build guide, but hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions

Edited April 28, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[kronozord]

Shameful advertising.

Konstanten - Howler

Fassina - Wizard (Conjurer)

Im also trying to build her as a Sorcerer but the results arent very impressive, the synergies are not that great. But if it manages to reach a point where think is worth it i will post here.

 

There are more advanced builds for some companions with late game stuff like:

Aloth

Xoti

Rekke

Edited April 28, 2023 by kronozord

[Shai Hulud]

20 minutes ago, kronozord said:

Shameful advertising.

Konstanten - Howler

Fassina - Wizard (Conjurer)

Im also trying to build her as a Sorcerer but the results arent very impressive, the synergies are not that great. But if it manages to reach a point where think is worth it i will post here.

 

There are more advanced builds for some companions with late game stuff like:

Aloth

Xoti

Rekke

Cool builds, and I like weyc gear for same reason particularly the wand, obviously lots of synergy with least unstable coil etc. on regular wizards, though this is gear players typically don't get until 90%+ finished with the game and DLC content. I mean at the point you have this stuff all that remains is megabosses and endgame. 

Also like the fighter/monk, I've made similar builds geared around max procs of interrupts with slayer's claw, though again, super late game (though not as much as the aloth build).

Might be a wee bit too advanced there.

[limaxophobiacq]

22 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

And take disciplined strikes, not tactical barrage. Infuse with vital essence spell gives long-lasting smart (not as good as acute, but intuitive + smart > aware + acute IMO). 

Personally I take tactical because wizard 2 is so stacked with good defensive spells for a battlemage (mirror image & Arcane Veil) I'm not sure i want to spend one on Infuse when i have the option of tactical barrage.

[Shai Hulud]

2 hours ago, limaxophobiacq said:

Personally I take tactical because wizard 2 is so stacked with good defensive spells for a battlemage (mirror image & Arcane Veil) I'm not sure i want to spend one on Infuse when i have the option of tactical barrage.

That's a good point, though I normally just cast infuse + arcane veil then extend things, but if you have limited casts it may not be worth taking strikes. I really wish this game had metamagic so I could move some spells up to level 4... extended arcane veil anyone? Quickened draining missiles? 

[kronozord]

Does anyone have a Pallegina herald build?

I cant use Tuone e Fulmine because i have the greatsword WoTEP assigned to my watcher. Ive also tried the fire breathing drake build but she is so slow summoning stuff that i gave up.