Blood Mage Help

[riku1109]

Hi!! Finished the first game the other day, and planning to start Deadfire using a Blood Mage. Would love to get advice for the ff:

1. Is it better to multiclass Blood Mage, or is playing it as is better? Won't be doing a solo run or the rlly hard difficulty.

2. Recommended starting attributes/stats? What stat can I safely drop?

3. Good firearms that I can use with the class, as well as any must-have equipment.

 

Thanks so much in advance!!

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, riku1109 said:

1. Is it better to multiclass Blood Mage, or is playing it as is better? Won't be doing a solo run or the rlly hard difficulty.

Hi!

There is no definitive answer for your question. Both can be very good, depending on what you want to do/how you want to play your Bloodmage.

In general a Bloodmage - like all Wizards - can be great as a single class character. They get fantastic spells at the highest Power Levels (which multiclassed Bloodmages won't get) - and they advance through their Power Levels/spell tiers faster than a multiclass and get better scaling for their spells.

This is most advantageous if you want to play a traditional Wizard role: sling powerful spells all day long. 

However, if you want to play a Bloodmage a bit differently, for example play one who also can do good stuff in melee combat or who can heal party members or is good with ranged weapons and so on, then multiclassing might be better.

Even when focusing on spellcasting a multiclass can be great. One example is Assassin(Rogue)/Bloodmage. Even if you don't plan on using weapons at all: the Assassin gets +25 accuracy and increased penetration as well as increased crit damage for all his offensive actions if he's stealthed or invisible. This also applies to his spells. This can be a valid reason to go that multiclass route - even if it means that you lose access to the high level spells. 

Livegiver(Cat form)/Bloodmage is also a popular spellcaster. You combine your healing spells with Blood Sacrifice and use the Cat form (and Cat Flurry) to cast spells incredibly fast. 

Then there's also some potent synergies between certain (subclass) abilities: for example Fighter's Unbending + Bloodmage's Wall of Draining makes you basically unkillable. Same as Barring Death's Door (Priest) + Wall of Draining, which makes you truly unkillable. Rogue's Escape gives you +50 deflection for a very short time. But if combined with Wall of Draining it stays for a very long time instead...

So I would suggest you specify how you envision your Bloodmage to function, then we can give better advice.

If you just like the classic Wizard feeling then single class Bloodmage is great. The last two spell tiers are awesome. 

1 hour ago, riku1109 said:

2. Recommended starting attributes/stats? What stat can I safely drop?

That also depends on the specific role/how you want to play him.

A backline spellcaster can relatively safely drop CON* and RES. Profits from high INT, DEX and PER. High MIG, too - if damaging spells are a priority. If the focus is on debuffing/CC then high MIG is not needed.

*Don't drop CON all the way as a single class Bloodmage. You rely on your health to regain spell uses (Blood Sacrifice). It's beneficial to have a robust health pool if want to draw from it frequently and have no constant source of healing. 

 

 

1 hour ago, riku1109 said:

3. Good firearms that I can use with the class, as well as any must-have equipment.

Again depends. But a generally goodthing is to use arquebus. There's a soulbound one which can be bound to wizards. And it can give your spells a 10% corrosive lash - a multiplicative damage bonus. It also heals on hits occasionally which is nice for a Bloodmage.

Essential Phantom (wizard summon spell) copies your weapons. So it's possible to have a phantom running around with your arquebus, shooting enemies. Since the phantom doesn't cast spells you might want to get the Red Hand arquebus (best arquebus for DPS) and hold it while you summon the phantom. Then the phantom will have it, too - and use it on enemies. Then you can switch to the soulbound one I mentioned before.

Must-have equipment... there's too much stuff that is great for all kinds of approaches. But in general for a single class Wizard getting Rekvu's Fractured Casque (helmet) + Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry is a top choice. You will get +1 spell uses for each spell tier. But you will get interrupted every time you take damage - which is super bad. Fortunately the helmet makes you completely immune to interrupts as long as you have an injury. It is very easy to cause yourself a harmless injury: cast Necrotic Lance on yourself out of combat until you drop, done: very minor injury, immunity against all interrupts and lots of extra spells.

The rest doesn't matter too much and also changes throughout the game. A Bloodmage might profit well from +max. health gear (mostly amulet) and health regeneration gear (rings, belts and/or armor). Also bonus INT, PER and DEX items alre always welcome.

If you specify how your wizard is supposed to play there can be more specific recommendations for gear I think. 

Cheers!

 

Edited November 30 by Boeroer

[riku1109]

Eyo, thanks so much for the advice!!!

6 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

So I would suggest you specify how you envision your Bloodmage to function, then we can give better advice.

8 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

If you specify how your wizard is supposed to play there can be more specific recommendations for gear I think. 

My bad for not being more specific omg- Really thinking of just having my bloodmage be on the backlines, slinging debuff spells mainly, since I am planning to build Aloth for the more hybrid setup w/ his multiclass. Also, will be playing on Turn-based mode mostly, since RTWP for all of POE1 was... a bit rough for me, I wasn't a huge fan of RTWP combat at all kekw- 

10 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Rekvu's Fractured Casque (helmet) + Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry is a top choice. You will get +1 spell uses for each spell tier. But you will get interrupted every time you take damage - which is super bad. Fortunately the helmet makes you completely immune to interrupts asking as you carry an injury. It is very easy to injure yourself with a harmless injury: cast Necrotic Lance on yourself out of combat until you drop, done: very minor injury, immunity against all interrupts and lots of extra spells.

Oh my god, that is gonna be so freaking funny to keep doing LMAO- Especially considering the bloodmage subclass 

[Boeroer]

9 hours ago, riku1109 said:

Really thinking of just having my bloodmage be on the backlines, slinging debuff spells mainly, since I am planning to build Aloth for the more hybrid setup w/ his multiclass.

Then single class Bloodmage totally works. I wouldn't raise Might too high because it also increases the self damage of Blood Sacrifice. INT, DEX and PER are the most important attributes.

For gear besides the helmet and +1-spells-grimoire I mentioned above you might want to look at Fleshmender (Leather Armor with a regenerative healing effect). It also gives you more Quick Slots = more grimoires. The more grimoires you can hold in your Quick Slots the more flexibility with your spell selection you can have and be able to pick more passive abilities from the ability tree instead of picking spells which you'd only use occasionally.

 

Edited November 30 by Boeroer

[riku1109]

47 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Then single class Bloodmage totally works. I wouldn't raise Might too high because it also increases the self damage of Blood Sacrifice. INT, DEX and PER are the most important attributes.

For gear besides the helmet and +1-spells-grimoire I mentioned above you might want to look at Fleshmender (Leather Armor with a regenerative healing effect). It also gives you more Quick Slots = more grimoires. The more grimoires you can hold in your Quick Slots the more flexibility with your spell selection you can have and be able to pick more passive abilities from the ability tree instead of picking spells which you'd only use occasionally.

 

gotcha, thanks so much again!!

[Chaospread]

Hi, I totally agree with Boeroer (how can I contradict him? ). I think Weyc's equip could be good for a wizard, especially a single class one. There are few wands in the game, but special ones are fine, and the modal fits well with a debuffing character. Avoid scepter as backup weapon, they do crush damage but its modal is dangeorus for Bloodmages, in case of pierce resistance enemies, I'd go with wand and debuffing modal (but you should be full of spells, so you sould not have this problem  ).
Anyway, Bloodmage is maybe the best class option to be played single class, so in doubt I'll do in this way.