Combat too easy on PotD with full party. Thinking of restarting. Wizard?

[Telmorial]

I'm getting a bit bored with the combat. I think I'm near the end of Act 2 with a full party on PotD. I'm thinking about starting a new game as solo on PotD, maybe as a Wizard. I guess I'd have to try a melee Wizard, right? Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Race? Any thoughts on spells? Thanks.

[luzarius]

Play Trial of Iron with POTD and you won't get bored ever.  I don't recommend this lightly though, POTD is very difficult for me.

[FlintlockJazz]

Wizards rule all.  I would quantify this as my personal opinion, but since it's pure fact I won't.  I'll wizard your face off!

[luzarius]

Wizards rule all.  I would quantify this as my personal opinion, but since it's pure fact I won't.  I'll wizard your face off!

 

How do you keep the wizard alive on POTD? Won't he go down in a few hits?

[Real Rahl]

Don't use casters if you want a challange, it's all thier CC that trivialities the game. Wizards are the kings of CC btw.

[Raven Darkholme]

If you want a challenge play ranger.

[dododad]

Mele Wizard is a very fun choice. All things considered it's probably even better in mele as druid. Obviously not at the start, but unlike druids, wizard's spell tree continues to give spells beneficial to that playstyle all the way to 6th level.

[Telmorial]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, my PC is a Druid now, so I'm tempted with the Wizard, probably melee with self buff/CC/some damage spells to make it a bit more interesting. Although I imagine Act 1 will be extremely difficult solo on PotD!

 

Saying that, I am tempted to finish the story with my full party as I'm enjoying that side of the game then maybe do another play through once they've released a couple more patches.

[Ardan Reddy]

Play as a weppy and shield Pally or Fighter. Combat will take ages and seem like real combat, rather than a 10 second frag fest.

[Maquabra]

Yeah, like in the whole Dragon Age series, wizards are extremely overpowered in PoE. I've restarted my game because it was too easy with a wizard as the head of my team. 

Frankly, I cannot imagine playing alone with any single character on PotD because enemy crowds always have various crippling skills and e.g. there is no way to counter being paralyzed/petrified without a priest. Also, I dread to think how long some solo battles would take. Enemies in PoE actually hit very often and only extreme endurance together with high deflection and damage reduction make them seem harmless. 

Make sure to create a youtube channel with a solo PotD playthrough.

[Elgyn]

 

Wizards rule all.  I would quantify this as my personal opinion, but since it's pure fact I won't.  I'll wizard your face off!

 

How do you keep the wizard alive on POTD? Won't he go down in a few hits?

 

Yes.

 

It sounds like a smart-ass reply but I don't mean it that way, but you just don't get hit. I'm currently playing with a PC Wizard on POTD (With Aloth as well) and there is just a lot of positioning and peeling involved, and I even had to cast that Priest spell (name escapes me atm) that fades you out of combat for a few seconds in Eothas temple when ALL the bloody shadows decided to hop on my PC.

 

As you start getting more and more CC, it starts to become pretty routine to keep a Wizard from getting tagged during fights. I'm actually playing without a Cipher this run, but if I had Mental Binding I don't think I'd ever really be worried about something getting on my caster.

[Livigy]

If your planing a solo potd wizard then you probably know enough about the mechanics of the various spells. But on the off chance some pretty basic advice is helpful here is what I would do if I was going to make the attempt. 

 

Race moongodlike for the heals and the stats align with what you will be prioritising although death might be useful if you plan to use alot of damage over time area effect spells as you will always get 'tick's' when there is low endurance maybe take bloody slaughter to synergise.

 

You will probably focus on deflect and draining to survive, control might be a little underwhelming for larger encounters so I would consider building to avoid strictly relying on it. There is alot of synergy with the caucelhaut spells with various debuffing and draining to heal. I would strongly recommend rotfinger gloves and taking spirit of decay. Of course later on you could always revert to a sanguine plate deflect combo which is useful for all solo's and using various buffs like ironskin/flameshield and concealhats draining/debuffs to heal. If you do focus on draining take wound binding as your health not endurance will be your limiter.

 

You will have to tailor grimoires to each encounter and focus on combos that target their weakness of will/reflex/fort or synergising enough debuffs to make spells more likely to land. Thankfully the wizards flexibility in buying spells means you should probably pick up every spell available and just work out combos that are effective for the situations you encounter. But with later spell choices you should look at getting critical spells you won't find from enemy grimoires.

 

But for a default grimoire I would suggest the following:

 

Fleet feet - mostly to lure enemies by running away and hoping half the enemies lose interest to make encounters more manageable. 

 

Cocelhauts Parasitic staff will probably be your bread and butter early on when a slicken/fan of flames combo is insufficient. Eldrich aim is also a priority for tougher battles where you desperately need spells to land.

 

Spirit shield will also be a solid choice especially for its duration. and later you may need to move away from fan of flames when you have other alternatives. 

 

Fetid caress/corrossive siphon combo. Rot finger gloves with spreading plague will help out as i'm pretty sure the plague from the gloves doesn't have a roll so should always weaken/hobble.

 

Bewildering spectacle, all confusion spells in all likelyhood for when your seriously outnumbered and need to limit incoming damage and possibly use to run away allowing for breaking up a larger encounters if there is sufficient room to make them deagro. 

 

Kalakoths minor blights is decent damage for a single spell but probably not feasable for a solo run as you need perks focused on survivability and not blast/penetrating blast and chances are you will be happy to rest after every encounter even if you need to use every spell at your disposal.

 

If the fetid caress corrosive siphon combo with parasitic staff is working out great think of taking the Ryngrims repulsive visage for extra sicken and terrify-  the -20 accuracy so helps survivability, don't just focus on your deflect. (targets will so should help break down fort for siphon spells) and of course caulcelhauts draining touch, might as well continue running with the theme to give greater flexibility in which draining spell you cast when you need to use them and they have differing debuffs.

 

LLengraths displaced image for longer encounters when you run out of hardened veil. I wouldn't personally use this constantly only for emergencies.

 

From there though I'm sure you will have figured out a rhythm and can incorporate the higher tier spells appropriately. It is the early game that will be the most challenging and any situation you find yourself stunlocked. For the early shades shadows make sure you have balwark against the elements. Slicken and fan and hope you get em all. if not blind eldrich aim and wack them with the parasitic staff.

 

A tip for Mearwald, run out the door. one of you should cast chill fog (although you may want to learn chill fog from the mage at Magran's fork) to weaken the flame blights. Try to lure him out alone. And of course Balwark against elements.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Livigy