Wizard Tips

[Tishen]

Hi all. Just got a copy of the game and I am having a blast ! 

 

I am currently playing as an Elven Wizard and I have been dying quite a lot. 

 

Anyone has any tips on building or playing as a Wizard in this game ? 

[Kaldurenik]

What spells are you using at this moment and what kind of wizard are you trying to play as?

 

In my opinion i would say that Wizards are very limited in what they can do and how. At first i was thinking of saying that they are weak but... Thats not true either. The main goal should be to CC the enemies. 

 

If you use a AOE ability there is a red area and a yellow area, the red area will most of the time deal damage to everyone. However the yellow area will only damage enemies.

 

You should try to have a tank and then use chokepoints, while you have the wizard cast things like Slicken (level one CC aoe spell) This will knock the enemies down. Your tank can stand within the yellow area and if you are unsure just make sure that there is no "attack target" mark under any of your characters when throwing the spell.

 

Also it should be noted that not every spell will have a negative effect on your character if you stand within the area.

[Wolken3156]

Avoid getting caught in melee, Wizard's have a low pool of resistances and HP and will die very quickly in melee unless you use a build specialized towards it. If you're alone, its best to get to the Gilded Vale ASAP and hire a meatshield of some kind. You can use either Edér or create your own at the inn. While Arcane Torrent is a nice throwaway AoE attack, you must be careful using it as you have to be dangerously close to enemies to fire it.

 

As for 1st level spells, personally I think the best picks are Eldritch Aim, Fan of Flames and Slicken. Slicken is pretty good at stopping enemies in their tracks, especially for a 1st level spell. Fan of Flames is surprisingly powerful and works wonders on enemies with low fire resistance. Eldritch Aim is IMHO, a musthave since the accuracy boost it gives is universally useful throughout your Wizard's career. There's nothing more annoying than seeing your Merciless Gaze aumgented Expose Vulnerabilities miss on a large group.

[Yosharian]

All I'm gonna say is that all spells were not created equally, mess around with different spells and find out which ones are the best.

I'm actually curious as to what talents/abilities you guys are picking for your Wizards, I'm not sure which ones to give Aloth.  I had to pick one last level and I went for another 1st level spell (I know, I know) because I really couldn't find anything else that would be at all useful.

[Yvain]

Arcane Veil with Hardened Veil looks good. You can get around 95 deflection with those which seems to rival tanks. You can also cast buffs on your self from other sources so it seems like a good emergency save me button for them.

 

Blast and Pentrating Blast are good too. Free cheap AOE attack. No downside

 

Grimoire slam looks like junk. Its only purpose is to break engagement. It doesn't stun or root them though so they can probably just jump right back in. It is also single target so if you are surrounded good bye. Veil looks like a better solution.

 

Bonus spells look like junk. You always have enough for any one fight. Most smaller fights you should just be burning through your regular per encounter abilities. Also you can get rings to add more and lower level become per encounter later.

 

Grabbing a single element damage spell seems like a good idea. Looking at the full spell list, Heart of the Storm looks best because of chain lightning. However, just pick the type you like.

 

Spells themselves seem pretty irrelevant. I have every level 1 and 2 spell at level six thanks to raiding other people's Grimoires. It will probably be the same for 3 and 4 at least.

 

You should probably have one talent left. I don't know about Dangerous Implements though it might be kind of cool. The damage you deal to your self is pretty tiny. There are also some defense regular talents to consider like fast runner, but those are all personal preferences.

[RevBlue]

I actually took the quick switch talent with my wizard, switching between grimoires A LOT faster

[mungomunk]

I'm still not sure why I would need to switch my grimoire. I'm playing on hard and am quite satisfied with my spell selection.

[RevBlue]

Bigger spell selection.

For instance my wizard focuses mainly on CC, tho i do have 16 might so i can still do some dmg.

I have a lot of AoE spells but a lot of them cause friendly fire, when my group is in a fight that has them all muddled up that just means i cant use any of those spells, so i just switch to another grimoire that has more focused dmg spells

[Tishen]

Thanks a lot peeps ! Appreciate it ! 

[Mungri]

Does the -3 damage taken from the first level shield spell reduce also mitigate damage from dangerous implement? If so that could be a nice combo with penetrating blast.

[RevBlue]

didnt take that spell, found it redundant what with arcane veil and all.

Although I did just recently start to use slicken (and im lvl 6 currenly ) and I gotta say, that spell is pretty OP, love it for CC

[Mungri]

I wouldn't bother using it normally, but of I use that and have -3 damage taken from a paladin aura, would dangerous implement no longer cause health loss?

[Sifjar]

I don't know how it will be in later game, but many spells early are like 5 meters.

Plus some archers like to target wizard on pull for no reason

For that i just took defensive spells in case something will fly toward my buddy

[Giantevilhead]

The wizard has some very nice debuff spells that can cripple enemies and make them easier for your other characters to kill.

 

For level 1, Slicken is an aoe knockdown. Chill Fog does damage, blinds, and is foe only.

 

Level 2, Web is aoe hobble. Fetid Caress paralyzes and sickens. Miasma lowers perception and resolve in an area, making enemies much easier to hit.

[kalyndrel]

Chill Fog does damage, blinds, and is foe only.

 

 

Chill Fog is not Foe only. 

[Dongom]

Hold on to yer butt for a few levels and just  speed recruit 6 members.   Chill Fog nerf was overboard btw, for the already slowest starting class.

[pi2repsion]

For talents, Scion of Flame for the very first talent. Your primary direct damage spell for most of the early game is going to be Fan of Flames, you are only going to be using it when matters are serious (due to spells/rest and CC/debuff often being a better use of spell slots), and having it deal 20% more damage is great, whether you are casting it to take out an entire flank of the enemy forces you are engaging or in desperate self defense to kill the shadows that are attacking your wizard.

 

For second talent, Blast. The AOE damage is low, but nice, and you'll always be using plenty of ranged wand/sceptre/rod attacks on all the trash encounters. Once could certainly make an argument for taking these two talents in reverse order, as you'll be fighting trash fights more often than serious fights, but, well.... trash fights aren't the ones that might result in TPK.

 

With regards to early game spells, I cannot recommend the 2nd level Infuse with Vital Essence highly enough. It gives you a 50 endurance buffer for a limited time, so is of very little use in trash encounters, but against serious opposition being able to put up a 50 endurance shield while your group kill off the first few enemies and some enemies decide to take potshots at your wizards can make the difference between a wizard that gets knocked out of the fight early and one that gets to stick around to cast his spells. It remains useful as a pro-active and re-active defense for the entire game, though obviously the 50 endurance provide the greatest survivability early in the game when incoming damage is lower. No Wizard should go without this defensive buff.