[Class Build] The Dynamite Melee Wizard or TnT (1.05)

[MoxyWoo]

So always interested in the Melee Wizard, here are the relevant changes for 1.05.  Tidefall or Tallgrass are the main weapons later on hence the TnT reference.

 

Patch Notes:

• Wizard and Cipher's base endurance has been raised from 30 to 36, and per level from 10 to 12.
• Wizard and Priests health multipliers were raised from 3 to 4.
• Citzal's Spirit Lance will now do 50% more damage, is faster, and has an increased AoE
• Minor Arcane Reflection base duration is changed to 60 seconds.
• Llengrath's Displaced Image gives 50% hit to graze conversion on Deflection and Reflex.
• Wizard's Double now grants +40 Deflection against a single attack.
• Mirrored Images now grants a base +30 Deflection. It decreases by 5 after each hit.
• Ilengrath's Safeguard's bonuses are now unified.
• Arcane Veil now grants +50 Deflection, with Hardened Veil adding +25, for a total of +75 Deflection.
• All Spell Holdings are 2/encounter.
• Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy.

 

Some global rules:

• Self buffs and weapon ones beside Minor Blights, all cast ridiculously fast.
• Arcane Assault is Raw damage and useful up to level 5 or anytime for quick AoE.

 

Player Notes:  

-Spritlance is a Pike weapon, which is also Weapon Focus:  Soldier.  This contains Greatsword, Arbalest, Arquebus and Warhammer.  Unfortunately, reload animation is not shortened by Alacrity so Arbalest/Arquebus are great beginning weapons from 1 to 4, and then peter off at 5+, which actually coincides with when you get Tidefall or Tall Grass.

-Llengrath's Displaced  remains in theory the same, but really, the hit mechanic was from 51 to 100 result, which is overall 25 increase and still means the wizard gets hit by grazes.  This is fine as we used all 3rd lvl slots for the other good buffs, most notably Alacrity that has 50% speed increase, but also means its not as good of a defense buff as before.

-Health and endurance bumps helps us stay in melee longer.

-Retaliation seems to have been bumped down a bit for effectiveness.

-The Scion talents are supposed to work as intended, so Fire God-like and Burning Lash should do double duty as of 1.05

-Arcane Veil is now 1 talent deep instead of 2, due to how much deflection it gives.

 

Weapon Choice:

Levels 1-4:  Arcane Assault x2 > Arbalest > Arquebus > Justice.

Level 5+:  Tidefall or Tall Grass

Level 9+: Citzal's Spirit Lance as needed.

 

Build:

Race:  Fire God-like (now that Scion of Flame works properly).

-Early levels this race choice doesn't seem that great, but later on with +8 might from Transformation spell, its one of the rare classes that can actually deal a lot of damage with the retaliate.  You can use lighter armor as well due to the +4 DR bumping you up when needed.  Specifically, the Eder's Second chance armor is good at the beginning, and later on the new Sanguine Plate will allow you to face tank most things AND get Frenzy.

 

Stats:  Dex > Might > Res > Int > Con > Per

-Dex is multiplicative for damage as well as action.  Might is just nice for damage.  Spellswords need a bit of INT but not as much due to the long nature of the buffs, but RES is always important for concentration.  Arguably, you can bump CON up for priority for petrification attacks or similar saves, but the Safeguard spell can also work.  Deflection on demand via Arcane Veil or your other buffs will allow you to dump Per fine though.

 

Talents:

2.  Weapon Focus:  Soldier

4.  Arcane Veil  (or see below).

6.  Scion of Flame (Fan of flames damage was lowered, but you make up the gap this way and can deal ok damage with Fire God, also Sanguine Plate is now a spellhold: Frenzy, which will bump up the Fire retaliate damage AND help attack speed.)

8.  Vulnerable attack (Paired with the above, you have negligible attack speed loss per encounter)

10.  Two Handed Style

12.  Bonus 3rd or 4th level spell

 

-Main thing is Arcane Veil now only takes 1 talent to be good.  The 12th lvl talent can be just about anything really, same for the 10th, its just nice to have those.

 

Spells by level

1.  Eldritch Aim*,Parasitic Staff* or Spirit Shield*, Wizard's Double*, Chill fog.  Sideboard:  Fan of flames (most of act 1), Slicken

* Denotes a self buff spell, so instant cast basically and NO RECOVERY animation.

-Spirit shield is here because the 4th lvl slot that has Ironskin conflicts with Essential Phantom.

-Eldritch Aim can be dropped later on for Transformation as it doesn't stack.

-Fan of Flames and slicken is good for Act 1 before you get your other slots for CC.

-The staff is a good contender as well for a weapon focus, even tho its level 1, it got the buff too.

-Wizard's double applies until you get hit.  This is a great boost at any time then.

 

2.  Merciless Gaze*, Infuse Vital Essence*, Bulwark against the Elements*, Mirrored Image* or Bewildering Spectacle

-As always, you can play like a typical mage, but Bulwark in particular is amazing vs shades in act 1.  Later on, the slots can be used for Merciless Gaze and critting with Tall Grass and prone enemies.  Infuse will also get you to the endurance of a same level fighter easily in a fight as well.  Mirrored Image could be handy with the new +30 deflection it gives.

 

3.  Alacrity*

-I'd like to think I was using something else, but Alacrity is just too good for action economy.  Cast this first and then your other spells to see the true spell spam.

 

4.  Ironskin*, Essential Phantom, Flame Shield*

-Ironskin for emergencies in practice (but usually not needed), but Essential Phantom and Flame shield are your usual goto spells depending on if you lead the charge, stand in a chill fog, or just need more spellbind item use (worn only).

-Phantom also has your DR from armor worn, which means using Sanguine Plate they can face tank most things as well.  Base accuracy is 81 for them and they attack reflex by default, and can benefit from party buffs too for higher accuracy.

 

5.  Citzal's Spirit Lance*, Llengrath's Safeguard*

-Not sure what the new Safeguard will be, but a faster Spirit Lance with AoE is a good thing.

 

6. Citzal's Martial Power*

- +8 to the stats you care about, and 20 accuracy/deflection.  Just remember to use Alacrity first, and this one last.

Edited May 2, 2015 by MoxyWoo

[Atchod]

Nice build ,but i would prefer to go Battlemagish melee wizard , With 1h+shield , as offtank and control/debuff character , wonder if aloth can pull that off 0_o 

[knownastherat]

The only "problem" with this build is that it will be much less efficient at eliminating enemies than caster. You can build it like that, you can play it like that, you can beat PotD solo like that but caster can do it too and with much less bother.

[Voltron]

Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy.

 

 

Basicely making best looking armor in game and only really unique-looking armor in game useless for 80% of characters since +4 Might and Con with -10 Deflection is nothing. Especially, irony, for pure melee calsses that dump INT so duration is laughtable.

Not installing. Game has already poor choice of good looking items and only armor that makes every class look badass will not be "just another armor with useless effect".

 

I am staying with 1.0.4

[Francis Ironwood]

 

Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy.

 

 

Basicely making best looking armor in game and only really unique-looking armor in game useless for 80% of characters since +4 Might and Con with -10 Deflection is nothing. Especially, irony, for pure melee calsses that dump INT so duration is laughtable.

Not installing. Game has already poor choice of good looking items and only armor that makes every class look badass will not be "just another armor with useless effect".

 

I am staying with 1.0.4

 

Doesn't Frenzy also increase attack speed by x1.33?

[Raven Darkholme]

Frenzy is pretty good and there are other retal items... also retal dmg got nerfed anyway which is a good thing since it was too good.

[taek]

I'm trying a 1.05 melee wizard as well, since this seems to something Obsidian is really pushing.

 

I think there may have been an undocumented buff to Parasitic Staff?

 

At level I have a top damage of 52 with the staff, and I'm hitting that hard in actual combat. Was it always this powerful at level 1?

 

[MadDemiurg]

Parasitic staff got a big damage buff, just as spirit lance. Lance is in the changelog, but staff is undocumented.

[VahnXIII]

I'd love to be a dual wielding, spell slinging swashbuckler. But I don't think these changes will allow for that still. Might have to stay with my dual stilletos Cipher (with blunderbuss as ranged backup).

[MadDemiurg]

I dunno, AOE lance of doom made out of pure energy looks pretty badass too.

[knownastherat]

As I said it allows for, it allowed for before. Question remains: Why? It viable but its weak in comparison to caster. By the time you finish pack of wolves with that powerful swing of magical staff, caster will be in tavern spending quality time with ladies.

[VahnXIII]

I dunno, AOE lance of doom made out of pure energy looks pretty badass too.

I'm chasing you through a couple of threads it seems. A lance made out of energy seems cool. Now all we need are proper looking coats or light armors (robes/cloth based) and the look would be complete!

[MadDemiurg]

As I said it allows for, it allowed for before. Question remains: Why? It viable but its weak in comparison to caster. By the time you finish pack of wolves with that powerful swing of magical staff, caster will be in tavern spending quality time with ladies.

I dunno, 41-62 (buffed up) in 2.5m aoe per swing looks pretty good to me and a solid option for many encounters. Barb looks a bit sad now compared to this.

[knownastherat]

Yeah looks and plays? Take it to those wolves. If you can do it safer and faster, more power to you. I will stick with AoE.

Edited May 1, 2015 by knownastherat

[MadDemiurg]

I think it's not as good for low levels as pure caster, but as for high levels, I wouldn't be so sure.

[knownastherat]

When I tried it, and my build was heavily tuned towards melee, the more I progressed in game where there were more difficult encounters, the more I was casting and less hitting. I mean realistically, for "each swing" with weapon caster can cast spell - there is no contest the way the game is designed. Unless melee Wiz is able to cut through multiple mobs with reasonable speed which was not close to reality in my experience.

Edited May 1, 2015 by knownastherat

[MadDemiurg]

Lance deals more damage than a fireball now though, in aoe, with comparable attack speed and no limit on charges. Single target staff is worse than spells for sure unless you care about conservation.

[MoxyWoo]

This build can still spell spam cast if need be, just can use some of the better gear with some more speed.  I did note the levels of the weapons of choice at the beginning as ranged alpha or spells since it does take lvl 5+ to feel good due to equipment options or similar.  

[knownastherat]

Indeed it can and probably will

[MadDemiurg]

Btw it's possible to make yourself completely immune to Caed Nua phantoms with a level 4 wizard for ~30 sec which is more than enough to melt them with rays of fire (146 deflection is needed). You don't even need higher than average Res/Per for this though. No figurines, scrolls or surgical positioning needed. All hail wizard masterrace! The only class that has it even easier is priest, he needs scrolls for damage though.

Edited May 1, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[Atchod]

This forced melee wizard buff from devs was not needed , you could play battlemage before now you wont even need a shield lol , meanwhile Ranger's shed tear's

[Sanctuary]

I haven't taken a melee Wizard through PotD yet, but on Hard at least, none of these changes other than Death Ring and Ghost Blades (the new alternative to Fan I guess?) will change much of anything.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Sanctuary

[MadDemiurg]

Huh? Major buffs to spirit lance? Effectively physical invulnerability for limited duration (although that's probably mostly noticeable on solo PotD)?

[Sanctuary]

Huh? Major buffs to spirit lance? Effectively physical invulnerability for limited duration (although that's probably mostly noticeable on solo PotD)?

 

Like I just said, none of this makes much of a difference on Hard (or below).  By the time you can actually use these new buffs more frequently, you're already almost to the point where you can have +50 END, +15 ACC, +CC up for the entire duration of every single encounter.  And since you aren't going to die from tanking 1-2 enemies while having 25+ DR, these changes do nothing outside of PotD.

 

I also already mentioned why the lance change isn't really an issue as well.  It's another alternative now, but it will never be your primary weapon, and it's also not going to be as useful (in many cases) as a replacement to Call to Slumber.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Sanctuary

[MoxyWoo]

Nice build ,but i would prefer to go Battlemagish melee wizard , With 1h+shield , as offtank and control/debuff character , wonder if aloth can pull that off 0_o 

 

Aloth can definitely pull it off.  He has better stats geared to tanking oddly with his weird stat spread and lower might and higher con.  Still, like all melee wizards, he needs time to get good, and most of the time its just a nice option to have Arcane Veil + Infuse health as the bare minimums to try and save himself.

 

I'd love to be a dual wielding, spell slinging swashbuckler. But I don't think these changes will allow for that still. Might have to stay with my dual stilletos Cipher (with blunderbuss as ranged backup).

 

Yeah, I tried the dual stiletto/blunderbuss Cipher for about halfway through act 2, and debatable with the focus gains and start (1/4 focus) being a bit different.  They don't have no recovery like wizards for their "buff" spells, though usually all of their spells (powers) provide double duty as a debuff.

 

OTOH a wizard has no +dmg modifiers which is why fast weapons > slow weapons work for Cipher.  Ran the numbers on the spreadsheet and basically, even with all the enchants and 28+ might, you barely out dps to what you get from an Estoc wielding wizard with no talents invested (this is just with Alacrity up).  Basically since wizards rule supreme with attack speed modifier, they want to have slow chunky weapons vs the fast ones like rogue or cipher enjoy (sans the opener of blunderbuss).

 

Now with the Lance swinging even faster, that means you get double duty out of attack speed which is hard to get out of other weapons.

 

Think the break point was 90% weapon damage at 12 DR beat out Estoc by 2 dps or so.  This was with vulnerable attack > two weapon fighting > alacrity > expose vulnerabilities all up.  And also assumed 2 superb stilettos which is quite costly too.  The main advantage in this build's case is Tidefall is already superb, letting you equip others with good weapons too and/or earlier getting if need be.