Muscle Wizard

[PrimeJunta]

I finally got around to rolling Josh's famous muscle wizard. Fire godlike with aumaua body, named him Azar Javed after you-know-who. Pumped Might, Con, and Res (for the Concentration), average Int and Dex, dumped Per. Picked mostly spells that deal direct damage. Kitted him in the heaviest armor I could find.

 

I am having an absolute blast playing him. He stands in the front line completely unfazed, dealing elemental death in wide arcs ahead. With BB Cleric's defensive buffs, he is freakin' terrifying. Clearly the best character so far.

 

Also I'm getting bitten by bugs much less. The item duplication exploit helps of course but so far I've only lost the skull key (again!) and some random pieces of armor. Quests have worked too, so I've leveled up twice.

 

Try it. It's fun.

[ctn2003]

The cipher soul burn is so powerful that i could go threw the entire beta by myself in about 35 minutes.

[Sir Newbie]

Why not makes this thread about unorthodox build, it's a bit early because of the unsolved bugs and blance issues but still be a good idea.

 

I would love to heard from the beta-backers about character like genius barbarian/fighter (like in the previous demo), clumsy ranger, weak-spirited paladins...

[Monocled Gamer]

"He stands in the front line completely unfazed, dealing elemental death in wide arcs ahead. With BB Cleric's defensive buffs, he is freakin' terrifying. Clearly the best character so far."

 

So the infamous muscle wizard is fun because... it's unbalanced?   

[PrimeJunta]

Nah, he's not Deathlord. The overall difficulty isn't much affected; playing with a barbarian or a paladin isn't any harder. Certainly less unbalanced than chanters.

 

It's just a different way of playing a wizard. Burning Hands finally sees as much use as Magic Missile (or whatever they're called here, I forget). In D&D those types of spells were fiddly because you'd either have to deal with friendly fire somehow (e.g. Protection from Fire on the meat shields) or self-buff so you'll survive casting them from the front. Most of the time it was less trouble just to use Magic Missile.

 

What I'm saying is that I'm really digging the concept. Standing in the front line blasting spells and surviving to tell the tale is new and fun, although the spells themselves are the same.

Edited August 22, 2014 by PrimeJunta

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I have built a "muscle wizard" a also, and it does work quite well. I made a mountain dwarf wizard with Might, Con, Dex and Resolve as high as I could get them (in that order). They lack the endurance that the fighter does, but when their spells are active, I've found them to be equal in terms of durability, if not slightly superior. Damage output with melee weapons is still less, but that lvl1 staff spell really does wonders to remedy that. It's a fun build. They are like a brilliant candle. They burn brightly, but for a limited time. For the moment, I would say it's actually more useful than an Intellect based Wizard, as the hazards of harming your party with friendly fire are considerably reduced.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Mr. Magniloquent

[Matt516]

Yeah. Hopefully they'll solve the issue with INT soon though. Because disincentivizing it like that is really just ridiculous.

[Karkarov]

I myself tried making a high dex/perception fighter who duel wields fast weapons.  It doesn't do huge damage but is also really effective tanking, scores lots of interrupts and is very good at tying up enemies.  Once people get more used to this system I think they will find it is okay to gravitate away from the cookie cutter builds.

[Longknife]

I clicked this thread hoping it was a petition for a Muscle Wizard villain character as an easter egg. :C

[bigsun123]

Potential Muscle Wizard Names:

 

Swolomon

Elemuscler

Gandelts

Biggestby

Merlatissimus Dorsi

Mystrapezius

Swoldemort

Brothezar
Raistlin Majacked
Swollanon

Morgan le Fitness

Abracadiesel

[Mayama]

We need a secret muscle wizard villian in the game.

 

His lair would be a gym.

 

In combat he scream stuff like, FOR THE LIFTING, RIPPED TO DEATH! etc...

[Helm]

I finally got around to rolling Josh's famous muscle wizard. 

If you're gonna roll a wizard it has to be a muscle wizard. Any other wizard build doesn't make any sense. xD

[Longknife]

Potential Muscle Wizard Names:

 

Swolomon

Elemuscler

Gandelts

Biggestby

Merlatissimus Dorsi

Mystrapezius

Swoldemort

Brothezar

Raistlin Majacked

Swollanon

Morgan le Fitness

Abracadiesel

 

 

I have a better list.

[Fluffle]

I myself tried making a high dex/perception fighter who duel wields fast weapons.  It doesn't do huge damage but is also really effective tanking, scores lots of interrupts and is very good at tying up enemies.  Once people get more used to this system I think they will find it is okay to gravitate away from the cookie cutter builds.

 

I agree. Similar to what I said in another thread, I think many people joined the beta and expected to play it like they were used to play the games they have known for years without

caring too much to really look at how things work in PoE specifically and especially differently.

 

I see slowly people getting the knack of the PoE mechanisms and having actually fun.

[Longknife]

We need a secret muscle wizard villian in the game.

 

His lair would be a gym.

 

In combat he scream stuff like, FOR THE LIFTING, RIPPED TO DEATH! etc...

 

 

No no, his combat taunts include "Do u even lift?" and "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!"  Also he attacks with his muscles, flexing his biceps gives him a damage buff, and the only real magic he'd use is to teleport to you so he can commence beating your face in faster. He also needs his own unique animation set complete with wrestling move finishers.

 

I got this all planned out for Obsidian.

[Stun]

So the infamous muscle wizard is fun because... it's unbalanced?   

Nope. It's not unbalanced. It's the opposite. It's exactly balanced. I'm getting precisely the same results with my Muscle Rogue. Only instead of standing on the front lines and killing things with colored lights, I'm standing on the front lines and killing things with a giant Pike.

 

The more I play this demo the more I'm realizing 2 things:

 

1) It's not as difficult as it initially felt

2) The classes are a smoke screen and the game would have been better off without them.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Stun

[Mayama]

 

The more I play this demo the more I'm realizing 2 things:

 

1) It's not a difficult as it initially felt

2) The classes are a smoke screen and the game would have been better off without them.

 

 

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something, which toolset you use. Roles are defiines by builds.

[Fluffle]

 

 

The more I play this demo the more I'm realizing 2 things:

 

1) It's not a difficult as it initially felt

2) The classes are a smoke screen and the game would have been better off without them.

 

 

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something, which toolset you use. Roles are defiines by builds.

 

 

Yeah I think that's the difference. Roles are not defined by classes anymore but by builds.

[Matt516]

Potential Muscle Wizard Names:

 

Swolomon

 

I'm taking this.

[Stun]

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something,

Not in this demo they're not. In this demo, one non-spellcasting class can approach things exactly the same as any other. The game allows it.

 

This isn't a knock. It's a neutral Observation. They could have dispensed with the classes outright and just turned all the skillsets/talents into "talent trees", allowing a character to pick and choose at will from any of them every time he/she levels up, and the build possibilities we're reporting wouldn't really change.

 

But as it stands, the only real difference between say, a Fighter and a Rogue are the health/stamina/accuracy/D.T and saving throw numbers assigned to them at the start. And even those differences can be practically eliminated by Attributes and gear.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Stun

[Mayama]

[Matt516]

 

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something,

Not in this demo they're not. In this demo, one non-spellcasting class can approach things exactly the same as any other.

 

This isn't a knock on the game. They could have dispensed with the classes outright and just turned all the skillsets/talents into "talent trees", allowing a character to pick and choose at will from any of them every time he/she levels up, and the builds we're reporting wouldn't really have been a whole lot different

 

But as it stands, the only real difference between say, a Fighter and a Rogue are the health/stamina/accuracy/D.T and saving throws. And even those can be minimized by Attributes and gear.

 

 

Gotta disagree with you here. Attributes and gear can apply to both the Fighter and the Rogue - but the Fighter will ALWAYS have higher accuracy/health/stamina. That's the difference. Yeah, they can have the same bonuses - but don't underestimate the differences those base values will make. I think OE has actually struck a really nice balance with the classes. You can do unconventional things (like have a frontline wizard)... but there are still major differences between the classes that set them apart.

[Matt516]

(muscle wizard picture)

 

I think you're referring to THIS muscle wizard:

 

[Helm]

 

 

 

The more I play this demo the more I'm realizing 2 things:

 

1) It's not a difficult as it initially felt

2) The classes are a smoke screen and the game would have been better off without them.

 

 

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something, which toolset you use. Roles are defiines by builds.

 

 

Yeah I think that's the difference. Roles are not defined by classes anymore but by builds.

 

The only thing defining anything in this game is the abilities/spells you have, nothing else. There is no building.

 

You choose a class and a trait and and spend completely meaningless attribute points. You can use every weapon, every armor and what not at your disposal.

 

The game might as well just have one class that specializes in dealing damage and and another class that specializes in healing. There is no building and there is no diversity in this game, it is simply an illusion.

[Ganrich]

 

The classes are not a smoke screen. Classes are about how you approach something,

Not in this demo they're not. In this demo, one non-spellcasting class can approach things exactly the same as any other.

 

This isn't a knock on the game. They could have dispensed with the classes outright and just turned all the skillsets/talents into "talent trees", allowing a character to pick and choose at will from any of them every time he/she levels up, and the builds we're reporting wouldn't really have been a whole lot different

 

But as it stands, the only real difference between say, a Fighter and a Rogue are the health/stamina/accuracy/D.T and saving throws. And even those can be minimized by Attributes and gear.

 

 

I kind of agree Stun.  In the beta, and I can't get to level 8 because I crash or the game bugs in one way or another, but I feel that the non magic users get very limited ability sets.  They get 5-6 abilities that are instants, modal, or a buff.  This means they feel very same-y, and I feel that more talents that are class specific but not just buffs to current abilities are kind of needed to make them stand out more.  I am not knocking the game either.

 

I haven't made the muscle wizard yet because I haven't really made, and played for an extended amount of time, a wizard.  I get the spellbook bug on spawn in or shortly there after and I just got frustrated and gave up after a while.  I will though, before too long.  I got the weekend to try.

 

I have made an odd build with the Chanter though.  I know they are OP, but... I went 10 Might, 10 Con, 16ish dex, 18ish Perception, 12 Int, and 14 Resolve.  I use a 2 chant phrase that starts with "Thick Grew their Tongues, Stumble O'er Words" (reduces enemy Concentration), and follow it with "Come, come soft winds of Death" (it does AoE stamina damage to enemies).  My high Perception + their reduced concentration + AoE damage = LOL.  Wade into combat with a melee weapon, and after I have whittled them down with AoE (while interrupting them) I switch to a blunderbuss and start removing them 1 by 1 (the Rogue helps with this stage a great deal as well).   

 

The Attribute system is really fun to play with.  Whether Perception and Resolve are meh or not... this build works, and is fun.