Background: this is my first playthrough and I'm playing on Veteran. I tried POE2 since it was on Gamepass and I freaking love it . I was a backer of the original but didn't like it as much. And of course , like the any good CRPG It starts with a good character creation. Normally I enjoy the process, but I knew little., and I didn't want my character to suck. I knew I wanted to multiclass because I read it is the best thing about the game. I also leaned to play a monk multiclass because I usually play wizards and I wanted to change it to something I usually don't play. So I asked Copilot about the best Monk Op multiclass and it suggested a Helwalker/Bloodmage sage. Nice! A monk and a wizard! That must be OP. Somehow I then asked Gemini about attribute distribition then I modified them a bit

12 Might

14 Dex

10 Constitution

16 Intelligence

17 Perception

10 Resolve

Right now level 8 or 9

Didn't know Bloodmage was squishier than other casters and lost deflection when you got low on health! And Helwaker takes more damage with wounds! Then you lose health to regain spells! In hindsight would've tanked Res for more constitution.

I have swift Flurry, efficient anguish, two handed attacks(passive) in Monk tree

And the rest are spells, now I repecced to have concelhaurt vampiric staff, blindness, mirror image, infuse vital essence fetid caress(because Serafen is a Witch with a morningstar) Noxious Blast, and expose Vulnerabilities. Of course the Gremoire had the other damage spells.

I'm on veteran and my character deals a ton of damage (usually in melee) at full wounds, but I die quickly. If I fight in the middle of enemies, I am using a quarterstaff but the enemies actually leave my tank and attack me sometimes or I end up in an ambush, like in lost Cities, the skeleton fights and especially, Lost Min's fight I was downed quickly and barely won that one.

I mean it is not a totel glass cannon, more like a wooden cannon because quarterstaff modal and mirror image, infuse with vital essence help . But this doesn't feel like an OP build (Damn you Copilot!) and the promise of endless spells as a bloodmage is Meh because there is a chance I will lose 50% or more health and sometimes it restore one level one spell when I do it.

I am sure I can finish the game with this character on Veteran, but I feel like something is missing. I don't like being downed so quickly without doing much like in lost City Boss fight(rushed to destroy the cave grubs borrows and did, but then the grubs gang raped me)

So any suggestions to make this character better or suggestions in general for the build? I don't plan to use the console cuz I don't wanna disable achevments.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by hano

It's a good multiclass. It can be squishy, but the upside is that Blood Sacrifice not only lets you regain spell uses but also gives you a lot of wounds.

I didn't see which race you used (maybe my eye skipped it): human should be one of the best choices because you can drop below 50% health willingly (and get something out of it).

As a multiclass Wizard it's most efficient to not take a lot of spells at level up but mostly pick passives and active abilities of the second class (Monk in this case). The reason is that a Wizard can cast all spells directly from a Grimoire, even if he didn't learn them. So you can have a decent collection of a few grimoires with your favorite spells in the quick item slots and not having to pay for the spells with ability points.

This also has some cheesy side effects with some spells, namely Concelhaut's Draining Touch and all the "spell stealing" spells. If you cast sich a spell from your grimoire and then switch to a Grimoire that doesn't have that spell, the part of game logic that governs the removal of those effects (Draining Touch summoned weapon or stolen spell) will be not active anymore, and thus you will keep the Draining Touch weapon until combat ends - and you will keep the stolen spells forever. 😲 But that's just a sidenote. However, persistent Draining Touch on a Monk/Wizard as mad fun imo. It not only heals via draining (which is useful for Blood Sacrifice) but it also does a ton of damage, especially with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and Miasma of Dull-Mindedness+ a club + modal in the offhand. Draining Touch (the weapon) targets Will instead of Deflection, and Miasma + club+modal lower Will by 65(!) points. Crits are the norm then and Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming will proc often. It's also fun that Draining Touch has the highest base damage of any one handed weapon in the game...

Anyways - picking some spells (usually the ones you really, really want to have ready at all times) can still make sense though and also might be more convenient, but in general you should be hesitant to put too many ability points into spells as a Wizard.

Cheers!

PS.: using Blood Sacrifice at 10 wounds (when MIG gets +10 points, which raises your self damage AND damage received is at +50%) might be a death sentence no matter how high your CON is. Just watch your wound counter before using Blood Sacrifice and make sure you spend some before activating it. Stuff like Blade Turning is a nice way to spend wounds quickly but with meaning. You will get a lot of wounds back via Blood Sacrifice anyway.

Thanks for the reply, see, I knew I should ask here, lots of great info 😀

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

It

I didn't see which race you used (maybe my eye skipped it): human should be one of the best choices because you can drop below 50% health willingly (and get something out of it).

Luckily I picked human lol, for looks reasons.

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by hano

I totally forgot: summoned weapons with an AoE effect (Kalakoth's Minor Blights and Citzal's Spirit Lance) are awesome with Stunning Surge: they turn this ability into an AoE stun that often doesn't cost anything (because you get a refund on crit - and it's easier to crit at least once if you manage to attack multiple enemies).