wizard 3 con viable?

[dusklight]

I'm thinking about starting a wizard with 3 resolve and 3 con, so that I can max out might, int, dex, and perception. Is this viable, or am I being too greedy? Is it worth it to have a more conservative 10 cons instead? This is for a regular stay in the back lines and cast spells type wizard.

 

ps: I'm playing at potd difficulty.

Edited September 16, 2015 by dusklight

[globalCooldown]

On higher difficulties, you maaaaay want to go in the ballpark of 8 CON. Just from what I've seen around the forums.

There are no "dump" stats in this game; some stats are more valuable than others, but if any of them are really low you're going to have a bad time.

[Wolken3156]

Probably being too greedy there. I would avoid dumping Con since archers and enemy spell casters will often target your Wizard. Ultimately though, in PotD your Wizard will end up taking damage, so dumping Con will hurt you in the long run.

 

I suggested this in another thread, but dumping Resolve on the other hand is a pretty safe option. Unlike other classes, Wizards can offset the penalties from doing so. Arcane Veil and Spirit Shield will make up for the penalties you get in Concentration and Deflection.

[Vorad]

On my wizard(elf) I'm maxing Perception, Dexterity, Intellect, minimizing Constitution and Resolve while the remaining goes to Might, for a backliner focused on aoe cc/nuke the build is viable in potd, personally I think if you pick the aoe cc role just maxing Perception and balancing the rest should be fine but for both nuke and aoe cc this build is really good, haven't had the slight issue not even in the early game where glasscannon builds suffer. In lategame the build is just a beast, provided that your frontline tanks will buy you the neccessary 1-2 seconds early fight to get in proper position.

[Killyox]

It isn't too good. Also there's little "stay in the back" in 2.0 patch. on POTD with 3 con you ill get extremely big negative values to health and endurance. Anything looks your way and you're down.

 

Don't go below 8 in stats imo. Not worth it. 

[pi2repsion]

My POTD blaster wizard with base con 3 certainly wins in the "gets knocked out the most" competition, but by mid act3 (and after White March) still only has only been knocked out twice as much as numbers 2 and 3, and the vast majority of those those were during the early and mid-game.

 

Once you've got both Infuse With Vital Essence and Llengrath's Displaced Image (and are willing to use Concelhaut's Siphon when being healed by others in time isn't a certainty) it becomes much less of an issue. And once you hit level 7 and gain access to Ninagauth's Shadowflame from the White March, it becomes a truly minor issue, as your wizard's ability to deal out AOE damage and CC at the same time fast cast actions puts you firmly in control.

 

As for there being no "staying in the back", that depends to a large degree on how many front liners you have - the more front liners you have, the harder it is for most melee enemies to get to your wizard and the more likely it is for enemies to get tied up with the front line. There are exceptions, of course, but they are few and far between after the early temple of Eothas. (And they need to be CCd or burned down swiftly!)

 

Running a con 3 wizard with only 2 front liners and the rest in back has got to be much more dangerous than running 3 or even 4 in front. I run a 4 strong frontline.

 

For ranged to target your wizard, they need to be in range of your wizard since enemy ranged typically have short attack ranges, and if they are in your range and shooting at you, why aren't you crowd controlling them? Well, obviously if there are a lot of ranged enemies, but most encounters have few ranged enemies compared to melee enemies, and ranged enemies are usually happy enough shooting at enemies in their range rather than moving towards your wizard to target him, if he isn't already in their range.

 

So proper tactical placement means that ranged enemies are rarely a major threat to wizards.

 

 

 

OP: These are my POTD stats:

 

 

 

Pale Elf/Old Valia

 

Mig 18 (21, +2 enchanted Berathian Priest Robes, +1 Gift from the Machine)

Con 3 (6, +3 Girdle of Eoten Constitution)

Dex 19 (22, +3 Ring of Thorns)

Per 16 (19, +3 Lilith's Shawl)

Int 19 (21, +2 Dunryd Demon)

Res 3 (3 - no equipment buffs it)

 

I used a +1 con enchanted armour as soon as possible, upgraded to +2, and changed to enchanting might once I found my first Girdle of Eoten Constitution. My wizard also wears +15 health boots and gets another 5% health for absorbing the power of the machine. By level 14 the Wizard has 177 hitpoints (227 with Infuse With Vital Essence) to the 292 hp of Eder and Pallegina. Of course, the wizard has much lower DR due to wearing light robes, but if enemies are ganging up on the wizard rather than hitting with an occasional attack, I have already failed tactically, because from the mid-levels and onwards the wizard has the tools to control the battlefield while slaughtering enemies with AOE.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2015 by pi2repsion

[MasterCipher]

I play on POTD. Everyone in my party including Wiz has 3 CON except my tank. It's doable with a highly optimized party build and micromanage combat play style. I savescum a lot to get the RNG to advance stronghold turns when advancing quests/tasks, but not because have problems with my party getting knocked out.

[soulmata]

I finished my pre-2.0 POTD run as a Cipher with 8 con and it wasn't very difficult at all. I think I got KO'ed maybe 6 times through the whole game on my first run.

 

I've started a post-2.0 game as a very similar Cipher, but with 3 con (I've traded the CON for PER, because of the accuracy changes). Definitely a different game, but so far, up to Defiance Bay, I've yet to be knocked out one time.

 

Haven't tried as a Wizard yet, but as a 3-con Cipher wearing rags, I'm pretty damn squishy. The primary tactic I use is to try and disable or suppress everything immediately so there is no chance for them to get in range. We'll see if it pans out.

[Vorad]

The primary tactic I use is to try and disable or suppress everything immediately so there is no chance for them to get in range. We'll see if it pans out.

That's pretty much all about it!

 

Whoever lands the cc first wins and in order to achieve that one needs max dex, int, per. 3 vs 18 con doesn't matter if the wizard gets knocked prone,paralyzed etc and no saving throws can save you from that either the only way to deal with the problem is by striking first, from a better tactical position in stealth mode one can cast slicken/slumber while the frontline is busy engaging the enemy openly.

[Boeroer]

My wizard has 3 Con and 3 Res, he's using Tall Grass and does melee damage when he's not throwing spells. So he is leveled like a Spellsword and uses heavy Armour and Arcane Veil plus some other buffs if he get's targeted. In tough fights he uses Spirit Lance and his buddy Essential Phantom with Firebrand gloves and lots oft other spell Holding items. Then they make a real nice tanking & spanking team. But honestly after Crägholt (sounds like crack whore...) everything is pretty easy peasy and most of the time he does Slicken and Chill Fog at the moment. So long story short: it's absolutely doable in PotD. I don't have a real tank though and that's why mobs don't run towards my "backline" to reach him all the time. If they do, they get shredded along the way by the rest oft the party that all have cc-weapons or spells like stunning morning stars or overbearing greatswords or a nice repulsing seal. And nobody is a real squishy. Easiest playthrough ever by the way. Fights take a little bit longer but you seldomly have this "oh crap" moment like before when your tank went down and everything got messy. I even found Crägholt not to be extremely tough at lvl 11. The hardest fight I've had so far was the apprentice with the animated weapons. They are immune to every CC attempt and throw spells like a boss while hacking away... curse them! And praise the good old pulling taktics.

[Vorad]

They are immune to every CC attempt and throw spells like a boss while hacking away... curse them! And praise the good old pulling taktics.

I think I used slumber against them and it worked, can't remember accurately now but to me it appeared as if they become immune to cc if you try to cc them for a second time, the first slumber that I cast on them iirc landed properly. It was almost 2 weeks ago though (still patch 2.01 however). Indeed for me as well that was the hardest fight on of the new expansion, on the other hand the "white dragon" was laughable even at scaled up levels... I haven't tried Adra dragon after new patch although I don't think it will change much especially since we get an even higher boost to accuracy with perception now, cc will be even easier than before. (without cc and with decreased deflect killing Adra that's another story)

 

Perhaps there could be implemented diminishing effects on cc... just food for thought.

[alexis13]

It depends if you are soloing or not, if you are not then sure fine, you got a tank and stuff.

 

If you are soloing, you need to focus more on defense than offense.

[PrimeJunta]

I'm thinking that in Pillars everything is viable. At least I haven't seen a damn-fool counterintuitive rock-stupid idea that you couldn't make work.

 

The question is, how do you play to your strengths and work around the limitations? F.ex. with the CON 3 wizard, you need to find a way to make him survivable, and plenty of ways were listed in this very thread.

 

I think that is incredibly cool by the way.

[DreamWayfarer]

I'm thinking that in Pillars everything is viable. At least I haven't seen a damn-fool counterintuitive rock-stupid idea that you couldn't make work.

 

I'm thinking that in Pillars everything is viable.

 

everything

 

Makes me want to try a 3 INT Wizard :/

[Boeroer]

Why not? With Spelltongue, fast attack speed and self buffs it should work.

 

No, I will not try this at home.

[Raven Darkholme]

Apart from it being the worst thing you could do to a caster, 3 INT ofc still works well.

Don't forget you can put those points into other attributes.

A 3 INT wizard still packs more of a punch than a 3 INT paladin and almost everybody who solos adra on PoTD has one of those.

[PrimeJunta]

Makes me want to try a 3 INT Wizard :/

 

Would work. Put everything into PER, MIG, and RES with a bunch of CON and maybe DEX, dress him up in heavy armour, put him in the frontline, and cast cone- and line-shaped spells like a boss. They won't reach far, but they'll do murderous damage with murderous precision. If you additionally build up his wand-blasting-skills, that'll make serious mayhem as well. Even the minimal AoE's are enough to nuke tight clusters of enemies. You'll only be really handicapped with duration-based spells, so no gishing for you bro.

 

Incidentally this was my first-ever Pillars character during the backer beta. Also the first-ever character that actually managed to complete the BB without crashes or savegame glitches cutting the playthrough short.