Recommended spells for wizards

[LordofBones]

What are the recommended spells for wizard players to get on each level-up? I get there are no-brainers (Chill Fog, Slicken, Merciless Gaze, Eldritch Aim) but what else?

[Mungri]

Fetid caress is great for the paralyze.

[at0mic]

fireball is the only good damaging aoe one. can waste a group within 30 seconds

[tnc]

When selecting spells you need to consider two things. 

 

Damage Spells

 

If it's elemental damage kind of spell you need to check the damage type. Corrode is the best damage type because VERY few creatures have corrode damage reduction. Second best is fire because it's effective against some of the really toughest creatures in the game and fire generally has more damage.

 

Debuff Spells

 

If it's a debuff you need to check the status effect it applies. The best effects are petrify, paralyze , confused, stun, blind, prone, sickened and in that order. You can get blind in spell levels 1 and 2, paralyze in level 2 and petrify in level 6. Sickened lowers fortitude, which makes the enemy weak against stuns such as fighter's and monk's. The effects that decrease will are only useful for your spells to hit. Decrease will and then cast a spell that attacks will. Simple. It might be good for let's say a dragon because higher level creatures will have large defences and your spells will graze or miss most of the time, unless you debuff their defences.

 

That being said you need to have as many spells in your grimoire as possible because for example a freeze spell hurts a fire based creature. For that you need to copy spells from another wizard's grimoire, and they are easy to find. 

 

The Spells That You Get For Free Early On

 

I believe you get your first one in black meadow to the south east of the map. It contains: fan of flames, ghost blades, chill fog, minelotta's minor missiles, fetid caress, necrotic lance so dont take them on level up. 

 

Second grimoire i got (in Caed Nua) has fireball, concelhaut's corrosive siphon, bulwark against the enemies, thrust of tattered veils, spirit shield, chill fog, fan of flames.

 

My recommendations for first four levels are as follows:

 

Level 1: 

 

Chill Fog: Really overpowered spell even later in the game.

Fan of Flames: It is good because it kills shades, shadows and phantoms, toughest creatures early on in the game.

Slicken: Nice prone effect.

Level 2: 

 

Curse of blackened sight: Similar to chill fog but it attacks Will, which is huge because you'll want to blind melee attackers and they have lower will!

Rolling Flame: It can hit two times because it bounces off of walls! Very tactical though.
Necrotic Lance: Corrode damage.

Fetid Caress: Paralyze on one enemy and sickened debuff in aoe.

 

Level 3:

 

Fireball: Good aoe fire damage.

Noxious Burst: Corrode damage & sicken effect.

Expose Vulnerabilities: Reduce DR and deflection. Useful for taking out big and tough creatures that have high defenses, for them DR and deflection are the only things that stand in your way.

 

Level 4:

 

Wall of Flame: If you can make a target stuck in a place you can kill him easily with this spell. For example you can block a whole enemy group with your tank on a doorway and just cast it on them. Same tactics apply to all the aoe spells with long durations. Such as level 1 spell chill fog.
Confusion: It makes the enemy attack each other or just stand still. Useful on tough melee enemies because it attacks will and they have high fortitude and low will.

Minoletta's Concussive Missiles: Sometimes you'll want to focus on one target, and this spell will do just that. 5 missiles that do crush damage.

 

Level 5:

 

Malignant Cloud: One of the best aoe spells because it deals raw damage and lasts long. Make sure the enemy stays in the aoe and use it on enemies with high DR that you can't kill.

Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring: A beam that does freeze damage on target and also between you and the target. Applies stuck effect. They cannot move for a while so you can cast it after malignant cloud or some other aoe.

Wall of Force: Crush damage and does not hurt allies so it might be really useful in some fights where you just can't hit the enemy without hitting your allies.

 

Level 6:

Gaze of the adragan: Possibly the best spell in the game because it petrifies aoe and attacks fortitude, which means it'll work well on casters with low fortitude and high will, probably most dangerous enemies.

Death Ring: Corrode damage and a chance to kill instantly.
Arkemyr's Capricious Hex: It has a chance to paralyze (almost same thing as petrify) but it attacks will. So use it on tough melee creatures with low will.
Chain Lightning: High electricity damage that jumps. I think it doesn't hit allies but i'm not sure.

[Losse]

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

[Ichthyic]

malignant cloud appears to be missing at level 5.  is it in someone else's grimoire?

 

edit:

nevermind, it indeed is in someone else's grimoire; I had already learned it before I hit level 9

Edited April 10, 2015 by Ichthyic

[MaxDamage]

Level 3: never miss alacrity of motion. Its the same as improved alacrity in bg2 if you know what i mean, increases the rate at which you throw spells dramatically.

 

I have 2 priests and a wizard.

 

at the start of combat they all have spells per level:

 

4 4 3

 

at the end of combat wizard has 0 0 0

priests have like 4 1 0

 

this is a bit imba rly

Edited April 10, 2015 by MaxDamage

[Sleazebag]

Along with the spells mentioned before, I'd add Ray of Fire and Bitter Mooring to the list. If you have good positioning, these two add a lot of extra damage output - they last 10 seconds and do multiple hits against multiple targets over the duration, and you can cast other spells while they're on.

[pi2repsion]

Anybody not getting Deleterious Alacrity of Motion amongst the third level spells should have his head examined. You get to buff yourself with HASTE for spellcasting with a long duration, perfect for when you just want your wizard to burn through his spellslots slaughtering everybody in tough encounters.

 

Anyhow, in my first attempt (abandoned due to bugs) I wrote down the spells I could pick up from grimoires in the very early game, which proved quite helpful for my second attempt with a PC wizard.

 

L1:
Chill Fog
C. Parasitic staff
Dazzling Lights
Fan of Flames
Fleet Feet
Ghost Blades
Jolting Touch
K. Sunless Grasp
Minor magic missiles
Spirit Shield
Thrust of Shattered Veils

L2:
Bewildering Spectacle
Bulwark vs Elements
C's corrosive
Fetid Grasp
Miasma of Dullness
Necrotic Lance
Ray of Fire


L3:
C. Draining Touch
Crackling Bolts
Fireball
 

 

You get more of L3+ from later grimoires, but this is quite handy knowledge to have for the first few level-ups.

Edited April 10, 2015 by pi2repsion

[taek]

Can't you get just any early spells you want by making an adventurer, taking his grimoire, and getting him killed?

Edited April 10, 2015 by taek

[Wolken3156]

Level 1

Chill Fog - Nice DoT effect plus inflicts Blind.

Fan of Flames - Very damaging for a 1st-level spell. Useful for taking out Shades early game. Late game it'll probably be your to go to nuke spell once it becomes per encounter instead of per rest.

Eldritch Aim - Very useful self-buff when dealing with baddies with high overall defenses.

Slicken - Prone is pretty good CC, being 1st-level makes it great.

 

Level 2

Fetid Caress - It inflicts paralyze, always useful.

Curse of Blackened Sight - Party friendly blind. Its range is smaller than Chill Fog but it does target Will instead of Fort, so its more handy against the targets you... well... want to blind.

Merciless Gaze - Boosts your crit rate and lasts around 60secs. Pretty dang good.

Necrotic Lance - Corrode damage is very good.

Rolling Flame - Has high damage potential in small areas, but be careful. This can probably kill your own party.

 

Level 3

Noxious Burst - Does more damage than Fireball, plus its Corrode damage and it inflicts Sicken. Pretty clear winner for this level's AoE spell. Only real draw back from Fireball is that it targets Fort instead of Reflex.

Crackling Bolt - Similar to Rolling Flame pretty much.

Deleterious Alacrity of Motion - This spell does wonders to your casting times. its so good, you'll probably need to set the game on Slow Mode to fit in the maximum number of spells to cast while its active.

Kalakoth's Minor Blights - Probably the Wizard's best source of single target damage. Toss up all those self-buffs and go for broke with this spell. Pretty sure this works with Dangerous Implements as well.

Fireball - Its weaker than Noxious Burst, but its still fire based damage. Shades are still a big deal at this level.

 

Level 4

Confusion - One of the best CC spells in the game. Use it, love it.

Wall of Flame - Very powerful DoT effect.

Essential Phantom - Pretty good set and forget type damage spell actually. The clone actually does reasonable damage.

 

Level 5

Malignant Cloud - Another DoT spell.

Wall of Force - Similar to Wall of Flame though with Crush damage instead of Fire.

Blast of Frost - This spell deals a ton of damage. Range is a bit rough to get used to though.

Call to Slumber - Sure its at a higher level than Slicken, but its duration is longer and well... its probably the best CC at this level anyway.

 

Level 6

Gaze of the Adragan - It inflicts petrify... which is the best debuff in the game. Dealing 4x damage and preventing a target from acting is just amazing.

Death Ring - It deals Corrode damage and can instantly kill weak targets. Of course, its range makes it very hard to work with unless you don't mind killing your own party.

Chain Lightning - The Wizard's answer to the Druid's Firebug. Very damaging and great for dealing with large spread out groups.

Arkemyr's Capricious Hex - Its no Gaze of the Adragan, but its still a powerful CC spell.

 

Can't you get just any early spells you want by making an adventurer, taking his grimoire, and getting him killed?

Money is an issue early game, plus it costs money to even copy spells in the first place.

 

Its not a bad idea for the late game spells though, if you're hording around a lot and don't know what to do with it all.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Wolken3156

[knownastherat]

 

 

Essential Phantom - Pretty good set and forget type damage spell actually. The clone actually does reasonable damage.

 

It does Shock damage and has accuracy of  81 at the moment. Not sure if it scales.

[Althernai]

Can't you get just any early spells you want by making an adventurer, taking his grimoire, and getting him killed?

You don't need to even unequip a party member's grimoire to get their spells. As long as the adventurer is in your party, you can right click on the grimoire and then cycle through your characters via the menu on the top left. Any Wizard in the party will be able to copy the spells. Since you pick up Aloth early on, he should be getting the spells that you don't have and then you can copy from each other.

[Bryy]

fireball is the only good damaging aoe one. can waste a group within 30 seconds

Two Wizards with Slicken and Fireball absolutely tear **** up.

[Luckmann]

fireball is the only good damaging aoe one. can waste a group within 30 seconds

 

Objectively wrong. The only way Fireball is superior to Noxious Burst is in cast speed (Fast vs. Average, whatever that means). Fire may matter a little, depending on what you're facing (Shades, Shadows, etc) but for anything armoured (that is, most things), Corrode is better than Fire anyway. Also, it Sickens.

 

I enjoy keeping both. Fireballs for Shades, Shadows and so on, or when I want to get the attack out quickly, and Noxious Burst for everything else. I feel that they should be set further apart by increasing the size of Fireball and make the "friendly zone" smaller on Noxious Blast, but that's really just nitpicking.

[MoxyWoo]

 

Essential Phantom - Pretty good set and forget type damage spell actually. The clone actually does reasonable damage.

It does Shock damage and has accuracy of 81 at the moment. Not sure if it scales.

It also has your spellbinding worn items (not weapons) so very useful as a more use rot finger user for example. It also has damage reduction on what is equipped. So a tank mage is pretty decent with it.

[Enexemander]

 

fireball is the only good damaging aoe one. can waste a group within 30 seconds

 

Objectively wrong. The only way Fireball is superior to Noxious Burst is in cast speed (Fast vs. Average, whatever that means). Fire may matter a little, depending on what you're facing (Shades, Shadows, etc) but for anything armoured (that is, most things), Corrode is better than Fire anyway. Also, it Sickens.

 

I enjoy keeping both. Fireballs for Shades, Shadows and so on, or when I want to get the attack out quickly, and Noxious Burst for everything else. I feel that they should be set further apart by increasing the size of Fireball and make the "friendly zone" smaller on Noxious Blast, but that's really just nitpicking.

 

 

Fire is also more versatile for damage dealing overall, making Scion of Flame a pretty solid talent for a wizard that wants to play with the various fire spells.

 

Without that talent though, you're right that fireball only has the advantage of cast speed. I'm not sure how beneficial cast speed is on fireball, actually, unless you're just unloading fireballs in a chain.

[Evange]

Since 1.05 made quite a few changes to the spells, which are the ones you guys think are the must picks now? For me Death Ring is a no brainer as it's finally Foe only now!

[Wolken3156]

This topic is linked to on the stickied thread. So I thought to update my list to be a lot more in depth (Especially with 1.05's changes). Though I can't edit my post so I'll have to post it again =/

 

Level 1

Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights - Targets Reflex and lowers Will. Fantastic spell if you're teamed up with a Cipher since it'll help support their powers. This spell is generally more useful in PotD mode though. In any other difficulty you can easily make do without it.

Chill Fog - Good damage over time effect and also inflicts blind. Very useful spell from start to end really. This spell is less useful in PotD however since it targets Fort, and nearly everything has a high Fort defense. Still pretty good all things considered.

Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff - Better than most weapons you'll have early game. Its quarterstaff too, which means it'll also have reach as well, making it safe to use even in PotD.

Edlritch Aim - Accuracy is the most important thing in the game, so any boost to it is welcome.

Fan of Flames - Even with the nerf, this is still a pretty strong spell to throw around. With Scion of Flames, expect some really good damage numbers out of it.

Ghost Blades - Reasonable damage and also doesn't affect your own allies. This is probably the spell of choice once 1st-level spells become per encounter actually. It also inflicts Hobbled, which is always valuable in PotD. However, since this spell targets Reflex anyway, its not really that much of a game changer.

Slicken - Targets Reflex and inflicts Prone, two great things combined into one. Its easily the best 1st-level spell, never leave home without it.

 

Level 2

Bewildering Spectacle - Early game/per encounter version of Confuse basically. Makes for a nice panic button should the battle becomes unfavorable to your party.

Binding Web - It inflicts Hobbled, which is always nice as most offensive spells target Reflex. This spell however targets Fort, which enemies generally have a high value of in PotD.

Combusting Wounds - This spell will augment any attack by adding an extra 5 burning damage, this includes DoTs as well! With the right setup, this spell is just devastating. Unfortunately it targets Fort though, which means you probably won't be using it too often in PotD.

Curse of Blackened Sight - This spell is golden in PotD, since it targets Will and blind is such a wonderful effect. In lower difficulties though, you might be better off using Chill Fog instead anyway. This spell doesn't affect your own allies though, which is very nice.

Fetid Caress - The Wizard's equivalent of Mental Binding, its nowhere near as good however. It targets Fort which means it won't be useful against a lot of enemies in PotD, also while Sicken is very good effect, this spell can affect your own allies with it, which is dangerous. Still for what it does, its a very good spell either way.

Merciless Gaze - Extra crit chance is always good, this spell has a long duration as well.

Miasma of Dull-Mindedness - Targets Will and lowers Deflection, a very nice combo if your DPS are focused on using weapons and such.

Mirrored Image - Mostly for melee Wizards who want a 2nd deflection booster besides Arcane Veil.

Necrotic Lance - This spell is devastatingly powerful, dealing high amounts of Corrode damage. It can kill almost everything in Act 1 in a single hit, its that good! Unfortunately, it targets Fort, so in PotD this spell is less amazing.

Rolling Flame - Fire it in a small crowded space and watch it wreak havoc upon everything. This however, also includes your own party, its very easy to kill your own team with this if you're not careful.

 

Level 3

Arcane Dampener - Enemies with buffs can be a huge game changer, being able to nullify them is very important in higher difficulties.

Ardous Delay of Motion - Slowing the action speed of enemies can be really helpful in reducing the damage your tanks take. This spell targets Will too, which makes it good even in PotD.

Crackling Bolt - Same thing as Rolling Flames but with even higher damage. Shock damage isn't quite as good as Burn though.

Deleterious Alacrity of Motion - This spell is wonderful. It'll make your casting times so quick, you might need to set the game to slow mode in order to maximize the number of spells you can cast with it!

Expose Vulnerabilities - Lowers Deflection and also targets Will, stacks with Miasma of Dull-Mindedness too! Great for weapon based DPSers.

Fireball - Very low damage compared to the rest of the damage spells this level and even does less damage than Fan of Flames. It does however target Reflex, which makes it more useful than Noxious Burst in PotD. Also, unlike Crackling Bolt, there's no risk to hitting your own party members with it, unless you're playing on Expert Mode.

Kalakoth's Minor Blights - This summons the best ranged weapon for Wizards. This weapon is crazy when used with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. The weapon is a Wand as well which means you can make it hit really hard with Dangerous Implements and even boost its accuracy with a Weapon Focus. Also they're elemental, so the elemental Talents will boosts its damage as well. Like all weapons however, it targets Deflection, so get those Deflection lowering spells out.

Noxious Burst - High corrode damage and Sicken make this a really deadly spell. In PotD though, this spell is not as good since it targets Fort. On lower difficulties however, this spell will likely be best choice for a 3rd-level damage spell.

 

Level 4

Confusion - Targets Will and causes enemies to scatter about. A nice panic button should your team be struggling in a certain fight, even if the game's confusion mechanics are annoying and awkward.

Essential Phantom - Has an accuracy of 90 and deals about 40 shock damage per hit, not too shabby and better than any of the Chanter's summons.

Flame Shield - Gives your Wizard a good retaliation effect. Great for melee wizards, virtually useless for ranged ones.

Minoletta's Concussive Missiles - The only real choice of a direct damage spell for this level, its not bad one though. Only real drawback is that it targets Deflection which everything has a high value of in PotD. Good thing Wizards have the tools to lower it!

Wall of Flame - Great for stacking up Combusting Wounds damage, since this spell's damage over time effect hits very rapidly. Even without Combusting Wounds, this spells rapid damage over time makes it great on any group lacking any Burn DR.

 

Level 5

Blast of Frost - This spell deals a ton of damage and targets Reflex too! Every Wizard should have this.

Call to Slumber - Say hello to the best CC spell in the game. It targets Will and inflicts Prone, with a good duration to boot too! Use it, love it.

Citzal's Spirit Lance - This weapon has really hyper attack speed, which can get really crazy with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Its a Pike too, which means it also has Reach, making it safe to use even in PotD.

Malignant Cloud - Deals raw damage which is always amazing and is a DoT effect too. It does however target Fort so its less useful in PotD.

Wall of Force - Hobble is always nice, but like Binding Web this targets Fort. Much like Wall of Flame, its damage over time is very rapid, making it great with Combusting Wounds.

 

Level 6

Arkemyr's Capricious Hex - Targets Will and inflicts Sickened, Daze and Paralyse. Golden in PotD, but will probably be overshadowed by Adragan in any other difficulty.

Chain Lightning - Targets Reflex and deals a good amount of shock damage. Especially good, when dealing with spread out large groups.

Citzal's Martial Power - The signature spell for any melee Wizard build. Ranged probably won't find it useful except for maybe Kalakoth's Minor Blights.

Death Ring - Massive range, party friendly and deals Corrode damage, so good. Like all good things though, it of course targets Fort. So not quite as good in PotD.

Gaze of Adragan - The most infamous Wizard spell in the game. Petrify is an amazing ailment since it stops a target and makes them take a huge amount of extra damage from any attack. This spell is in fact, less game breaking in PotD though, since it targets Fort. Even so, Petrify is so good it might not even matter.

Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar - Really powerful DoT affect and targets Reflex to boot. It also inflicts Hobble which is always nice, though since this spell targets Reflex anyway its mildly redundant.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Wolken3156

[Evange]

How about Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon? They made it a foe only AoE and boosted its damage. Aloth can wreak about 70 to high 80+ corrode damage with this spell.

 

I wish level 4 had better AoE nukes though...

[the streaker]

Just buy a second wizard at the nearest inn and pick different spells to transfer over to your main. Boom, full spell list available.

[Zwiebelchen]

The lack of acknowledgement for the totally OP defense spells of wizards here is disturbing.

 

You guys seriously need to try tank wizards. :D

It's extremely fun, buffing yourself to absurd deflection and DR scores and then just wrecking AoE havoc with little regard for friendly fire (because you are pretty much immune to elemental spells anyway).

 

Seriously, tank wizards get all the cool stuff like spell mirroring, fire shield, stone skin, self-centered AoE debuffs, summoned weapons, etc.

Not to mention how ridicolously OP cone and line spells become when you are always at the front line anyway...

Edited May 28, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[Evange]

Just buy a second wizard at the nearest inn and pick different spells to transfer over to your main. Boom, full spell list available.

You are still limited to a repertoire of 4 spells a level to cast.

[Wolken3156]

How about Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon? They made it a foe only AoE and boosted its damage. Aloth can wreak about 70 to high 80+ corrode damage with this spell.

 

I wish level 4 had better AoE nukes though...

You need to be standing kinda close to the enemy for it though. Might be good on melee Wizards, but not so much ranged.

 

The lack of acknowledgement for the totally OP defense spells of wizards here is disturbing.

I haven't had that much experience with melee Wizard builds admittedly. Though from my experience with tank builds of other classes, Deflection is generally a better source of mitigation than DR in a lot of cases.

 

Arcane Veil is very beast with that massive Deflection bonus, but that's not a spell now is it? ;o

Edited May 28, 2015 by Wolken3156

[Zwiebelchen]

 

How about Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon? They made it a foe only AoE and boosted its damage. Aloth can wreak about 70 to high 80+ corrode damage with this spell.

 

I wish level 4 had better AoE nukes though...

You need to be standing kinda close to the enemy for it though. Might be good on melee Wizards, but not so much ranged.

 

The lack of acknowledgement for the totally OP defense spells of wizards here is disturbing.

I haven't had that much experience with melee Wizard builds admittedly. Though from my experience with tank builds of other classes, Deflection is generally a better source of mitigation than DR in a lot of cases.

 

Arcane Veil is very beast with that massive Deflection bonus, but that's not a spell now is it? ;o

 

 

You can stack higher deflection on wizards than on any other class. Look at the mirror image spell series. Long-lasting instant-cast buffs without recovery time that get increasingly more potent with progressing level. So you score both high deflection AND high DR, without actually suffering from the accuracy penalty when using shields or the speed penalty from cautious attack (all those penalties only apply to melee attacks).

With stone skin and plate armor, you can easily buff yourself into the 30 DR territory. Against elements, you can actually get up as high as 40-45 as a Pale Elf when combined with Bullwark Against Elements.

Also, even health isn't a problem for wizards, as Life Infusion actually also heals the 50 health permanently when used.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Zwiebelchen