I'm torn between a number of melee-focused, summoned weapons wizard builds. Could anyone help me figure out which one will be the most fun (for me)? I've already omitted some of the options I've omitted don't appeal to me thematically, like Wizard / Barbarian.

1. SC Wizard: has no special attacks, but I'm biased towards single class builds. I'm also interested in trying out some of the higher-level spells.

2. Wizard / Cipher (Soul Blade): this is the most thematically interesting, but I'm not sure how much I care about the Cipher part mechanically.

3. Wizard / Rogue: I'm not sure how different this is mechanically from Soul Blade (use ability to do more damage)?

4. Wizard / Fighter: clear out + Citzal's sounds strong, but it also sounds a bit like a one-trick pony?

5. Wizard / Monk: I see lots of strong synergies here, although I can't tell how reactive it will be.

6. Wizard / Paladin: seems like a tanker version of Soul Blade or Rogue?

Since I haven't managed to leave Neketaka in previous playthroughs, I imagine I've oversimplified a lot of these multiclass combos. So which one do you think I should pick?

Rogue has Confounding Blind which can apply IIRC the heaviest active Deflection debuff. Spirit Lance allows you to do that in AOE. You also simply do much more damage with every attack.

Tactician works really well with Wizard spells. Fighter also has the cheap Mule Kick that has the knock up effect, which can not be resisted by pretty much anything in the game. It doesn't waste enemy resources like proper interrupts do, but using it with Spirit Lance will reliably control a crowd even if they have Concentration or interrupt immunity.

Soulblade seems to synergize with Spirit Lance, but I personally haven't tried it, so can't say how good it is.

Imo the most fun combination is Wizard/Monk and especially Bloodmage/Helwalker (or Nalpaszca or vanilla) because there's lots of synergies and the active abilities are most fun to use imo.

Turning Wheel (+10 INT and burning lash) is great with an AoE weapon such as Spirit Lance since the AoE size grows a lot with wounds.

Stunning Surge is awesome with Spirit Lance and also Kalakoth's Minor Blights.

Blood Sacrifice is not only trading spell casts for health but also results in instant wound generation.

Force of Anguish is hilarious with Spirit Lance (send enemies flying into all directions).

Blade Turning with Wall of Draining is bonkers. You can just ignore melee attackers (they will kill themselves) while you calmly cast some spells.

Paralyzing spells such as Ninagauth's Shadowflame work well in combination with Merciless Gaze + Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming because of the stacked crit conversions.

And so on and so forth.

Wizard/Soulblade is good but imo it's too one-dimensional. Wizard/Fighter is also good (Wall of Draining + Unbending is bonkers and so is Clear Out + Spirit Lance) but imo it's less entertaining than Monk.

Wizard/Druid can actually be a good melee combo of you like spiritshift. It's not that great early but had tremendous potential later in the game. Something like Bloodmage/Lifegiver (Cat form), combined with Wall of Draining, numerous self buffs and Zandethu's Draconic Fury does good melee dmg, casts very fast and is almost impossible to kill even if Blood Sacrifice is used a lot because the Restorations can be stacked and are so strong when shifted.

For Wizard/Paladin I made a build that was very fun to play (Bloodmage/Steel Garrotes) - search for a "Bloody Parry" class build in this forum if you are interested. But it's less about melee damage and more about using a special melee weapon to combine passive healing with defense and constant spellcasting.

I like Wizard/Rogue with AoE weapons (Blights or Lance or even a rod + Blast in the beginning) and Arterial Strike + spells that slows enemies movement down further (Arduous Delay, Chillfog etc.). They will run slowly but still get the raw dmg from Arterial Strike per 0.1 sec (the game doesn't count actual steps but just applies the raw dmg every 0.1 secs as long as enemies move).

Assassin/Bloodmage can cast such a spell from stealth and immediately follow with an AoE Crippling Strike (stealth has a -80% recovery time bonus). If you then follow up with a Pull of Eora most enemy groups are usually done. Or you combine Gouging Strike + Arterial Strike at the start of combat for more raw ticks. That's also fun imo.

Edited yesterday at 05:46 PM1 day by Boeroer