Help with a solo wizard (hard)

[NobodyHere]

Hi everyone,

After having a blast (heh, sorry..) with Boeroer’s Hurtsacker in a small party (Edér, Fire Priest, Hurt) I realized I wanted to push things solo. I don’t, necessarily, have to use melee weapons for damage, although the staff summon looks appealing, and I think there’s a nice high level lance too? Regardless, if I need to park myself behind a tower shield (or a small shield) that’s what I’ll do. 
 

Some considerations: I like min-maxing, functionality is most important. So my first instinct was tank dex, However after Hurt I don’t know if the much? slower spell casting won’t be a huge downside. I loved nuking the crap out of that witch in Roderick’s keep at lvl 3 with Hurt (chill fog opener, combusting wounds while Edér knocked her down, 2x arcane blast and 2 auto attacks killed the entire group on hard. I think priest cast accuracy prayer) I tried a much more conservative approach first by blocking the door and omg the wizard + witch murderized us with fireballs and lances and I don’t know wtf else. So I’m afraid a slow caster solo would have ..unfortunate results. 
 

I’m also seriously concerned about tanking res because of interrupts. I mean, if defence is high chances are it isn’t as big an issue .. until you get hit with an AoE or insect plague or something. 
 

I don’t know about race. I was thinking maybe moon godlike for the auxiliary healing, or Aumaua for the bonus vs prone and stun (might help vs spirits and dragons?) or pale elf (vs spirits cold dmg.. maybe with the mantle it’d be enough..) or maybe fire godlike, since I’m likely going to be getting grazed a lot, does retaliation add damage to such? Is it viable? 
 

lastly, I don’t like not fighting encounters. I don’t care if I have to rest after every fight, I do hate not fighting it. I’ll retreat if I 100% have to (not fighting Roderick at lvl 3 solo no matter what, but I will kill his keep at lvls 3-4 if I can do it. Bear has to die, lvl 3 the latest
 

Please note I’m quite willing to learn in spite anything I’ve said so if I’m totally wrong, correct me! Also advise me on spells , skills, etc, 

 

so far, and 100% willing to change it I have:

 

Mig 15, con 14, dex 10, per 19, int 18, res 3, moon dude, hatchet and small shield, chill fog, staff, w.double, aim, infuse vital essence, siphon, …and that’s as far as I got. Oh and arcane veil lol. I was thinking maybe a bit of stealth to try to sneak into better positions and ofc mechanics and lore (how much both?) any athletics or survival?

Random thoughts: I think I need something to nuke casters with when I can’t close in. Would fire ray and missiles work? Or just try to land paralyze? But then how to kill them effectively even if paralyze works. 
 

Can you somehow run away and break engagement? So far I’ve only seen two enemies break off pursuit.. can you use figurines to escape? For that matter I think even at 6000 I should buy that initial figurine? 
 

Does shield penalty still affect spells? 
 

ok I’ll shut up now lol, thanks for any replies. 

 

[Boeroer]

I don't have much experience as a solo Wizard, but here are some things that are generally useful:

• Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is excellent for the early game. It's a lot more efficient than using damaging spells, so you have to rest less often. It comes exceptional - which is already fantastic at lvl 1, but more importantly it has nearly twice the base damage of normal two handers. That means nearly +100% multiplicative(!) damage. *rogues cry*
• Chillfog is also one of the best spells early on. Tier 3 affliction on a AoE with pulsing rolls (rng is less of a problem), pulsing damage, long duration. 
• Later in the game I consider Slicken to be better than Chillfog because it can make a huge difference in certain fights who disables whom first. If you can Slicken-prone Lagufaeth or Adragans before they can paralyze you the fight is won - the other way round it's lost. Chillfig will not win you this duel of hard disables.
• Confusion is very strong in PoE. Hence all spells which cause Confusion are excellent and can win you lots of fights alone.
• Get Ninagauth's Shadowflame. It is excellent bc. it combines hard CC with good dmg -> fantastic action and spell use economy.
• Against certain bosses, Combusitng Wounds + Wall of Flames + Chillfog is a fantastic combo.
• Most dragons are not immune to paralyze, so using paralyzing effects in them works very well (it also means +100% dmg received which is nice against those big dmg sponges). 
• Dropping RES without any means to raise Concentration otherwise WILL be a problem against numerous, fast hitting foes unless you can raise your defenses a lot (may be expensive in terms of spell uses though). Defenses like dflection hae increasing returns, so I wouldn't drop RES in the first place.
• Medium and large shields do indeed put their acc malus onto your offensive spells
• You can run away and break engagement - you will eat a disengagement attack though. If you have very high deflection it's not a big deal. If you are faster than the enemy (bc. Deleterious Alacrity and/or Boots of Speed etc.) the enemies will not pursue far bc. their AI recognizes that it's pointless.
• The guy's name is Raedric (the Seventh) 
• Infuse with Vital Essence can be used to restore health (no endurance but health). It works with all healing modifiers (MIG, healing done, healing received). If you still have lots of spell uses but are at low health you can use it to prevent resting. If you take it as Spell Mastery (I like that) you can use it at the end of fights and stay at +90% health all the time. It can be used to outheal your damage in tough, long encounters: usually there's a limit with how much damage to endurance you can outheal because at some point your health will be so low that you cannot heal anymore. Not if you have uses of Infuse with Vital Essence left. Using Infuse with Vital Essence also means you can lower CON. Your health pool can be smaller - since you can heal it.
• You cannot solo several encounters at the levels you used to with a party. You will have to come back later for the bear cave, Raedric etc.
• Summons are very important whe4n going solo. Interestingly Essential Phantom is a lvl-4 spell. So you can have it as spell mastery. That means a free summon in every fight. Although it's competing with Shadowflame and Confusion which makes this a really tough call. 
• Wall of Many Colors: fantastic spell
• I think DEX is important. As I said above: many fights are about who disables whom first. Casting speed matters. I find it a lot more important than MIG and also more important than PER.