[BUILD GUIDE] The Royal Court Battlemage (Wizard)

[ottffsse]

Difficulty: PotD     Best Team Role: Crowd Control and off-tank dps

Team based or solo (if emphasizing defensive talents first)

 

This is more a party based guide and I have played this build in a party but it seems strong enough to solo with a few adjustments. 

 

Introduction:

 

The wizard is one of the most versatile classes in PoE, being able to adjust himself or herself on the fly to do whatever is necessary to help the whole party succeed in any hairy battle situation. This guide is aimed at suggesting a wizard build strong across multiple functions (cc, disruption, interrupt, one-on-one melee duelist), no glass noodle, a team-player first and foremost, yet a badass who can in a cinch pull victory from the jaws of defeat should the team be almost overwhelmed, and do so with style to boot . Some of these suggestions for talents etc in this guide will no doubt be familiar to veteran wizard players, and I also have to say my choices for equipment, armor etc, have been done to fit the overall concept of the archetypal in my mind battlemage), to match the overall package. But without further ado, enter the Royal Court Wizard, veritable jack of many trades, and perhaps even master of one or two. 

 

 

Race: Human, it is good for the might bonus and the overall theme of this character is to be best when the battle gets tough so the racial bonus is good. A case can be made for Fire or Moon Godlike but they have to helm and I find that is a bigger con to the needs of this purticular character than their racials. Coastal aumaua can be considered too but that would be a "Court Djinn"

 

Background: Living Lands (Might bonus), noble or mercenary.

 

Stats:

 

Might: Max it

Con: 6

Dex: flat 

Perception: max it

Int: Max it (but you want to buff might and perception more)

Resolve: 6

 

Talents:

 

! = principle to the concept of the class, R = Very Highly recommended  O= Optional but good choices

 

In general order I would take them:

 

Arcane Veil !   your bread and butter defensive ability, essential first line of defense especially as you will be spending a lot of time in melee

 

Blast R  (team)  / Fast Runner ! (if solo)    blast - mainly taken for the extra interrupts and any on hit effects from scepter rods and wands

 

 Penetrating Blast R/O (team) / Hardened Veil ! if solo!     boosting damage a bit from blast does not hurt and your high might takes care of the rest, at range you will cast cc spells mainly anyways and do actual weapon damage in melee anyways this is the most optional of the early talents.

 

Interrupting Blows !       essential talent as you want to be a great interrupter it helps your team when you attack at range and you when you zone in on an enemy in melee, it also comes at the time you get lvl 3 spells and delirious alactricy of motion. 

 

Scion of Flame / or Secrets of Rime ! (Choose one at least - Flame if you go more melee, rime if you stick in the back ranks more)    fire is good in melee because of firebrand + flame shield, fan of flames and the occasional fireball opener. ice is good because the strongest damage + cc spells at range are ice. all the ninigauth spells basically. 

 

Vulnerable Attack R  at this point you can start to make your melee attack more devastating if you like those rapiers which you should

 

Two Weapon Style R  greater attack speed when dual wielding rapiers

 

Weapon Focus: Noble R  you can get accuracy from other sources like eldridge aim, it is nice but I personally take:

 

Hardened Veil O   basically means you will only be grazed even at higher levels when this is active which combined from the dr on your armor is quite sufficient 

 

Savage Attack O 

 

Apprentice Sneak Attack O

 

/  Savage attack and Baby SA can be skipped if going more tanky you can take superior deflection I guess and cautious attack. I prefer the "melee" variant in first line here - the concept of this build is to be very competent mob cc, but also be able to dual against the mob boss leaders.

 

Spell Mastery:

 

Level 1: Slicken (cc this good too good to pass up)

Level 2: Combusting wounds

Level 3: DAoM is probably best although if you think you can just use potions of it you can maybe take Fireball

Level 4: Flame Shield or Pull of Eora or Ninigauth Shadowflame (especially on distant rime build)

 

Equipment:

 

Helm: Azalin's Helm

Armor: Osric's Family Breastplate (Durgan refined)

Gloves: Pilferer's Grip or Forgemaster's Gloves, Ryonas Vambraces

Boots: Glanfathan Stalking Boots

Rings: Ring of searing flames, ring of deflection, ring of protection are all good generally

Belt: Girdle of mortal protection

Neck: Liliths Shawl

 

Note this is mid game: I am sure there are some more awesome items before or after depending on how you progress through the game. You want to boost perception, might, and Int. 

 

Weapon 1: Gyrd Haewanes Stenas (you get it early, it's great, has super accuracy so what's not to like, and looks good and "fits" (domination chance) on the character!)

Weapon 2: Vierina's Leaves + Spelltongue or Sword of Dyonisos + Spelltongue.    They are already great without durgan I am sure they would be awesome with it. But it is not necessary to durganize them. 

 

potions: regen, llengrath's di or bulwark depending on fight type, spirit shield or paralysis scrolls, figurine

 

How she behaves on the battlefield: generally starts in the back ranks and cc's / disrupts enemies and conserves some of her strength, but if the situation calls for she buffs herself up with alactricy, flame shield, vital essence, arcane veil, martial prowess, switches to dual rapiers and stun interrupts a troublesome target like a battery siren or a brood mother. She dueled against battery sirens and brood mothers for me just fine that way on Potd and I would not consider my skills good enough for solo at this game yet. I am sure in expert hands she would be even more fearsome.

 

I like the breast plate because it fits the "noble court wizard" theme. With pilferer's grip and durgan it is as light as cloth (15% recovery penalty) hella sturdy, has second chance even, and looks awesome. You can have zero recovery with robes but this is not really a "robe" wizard in my mind. 

 

Current Grimoire:

 

 

Totally Badass:

 

 

 

Edit: looking at the grimoire again, I will replace kolakoth minor blights with pull of eora though both are really but this wizard just goes into melee should spells be low 85% of the time so kolakoth mb is not really needed. 

Edited March 3, 2016 by ottffsse

[Livegood118]

Nice build.

 

Something to take in to consideration is how +speed enchantments stack in this game.

 

So, for instance, with Durgan Steel, a fast weapon and deleterious alacrity of motion you can really minimise your recovery penalty with a small shield:

 

1.15 (Durgan Weapon) * 1.20 (Sword of Daenysis) * 1.15 (Durgan Shield) * 1.5 (Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) = 2.38 -.2 (Vulnerable Attack) = 2.18

 

This means that you can wear an armour with like 35% recovery penalty that's been durganised and attack pretty much with no recovery while getting a huge deflection and reflex benefit from small shields and weapon and shield style (which is more valuable than the extra DR). This also frees up your gloves slot which means you can use Ryona's Vambraces for another -3 DR, and with the Sword of Daenysis and Vulnerable Attack that means -11 DR per hit which is pretty good going. Maybe you could whip out Spelltongue when you know for sure you're going to be fighting an enemy that has buffs to steal (or keep Daenysis and use wall of draining once you're high level enough).

 

Something I've been thinking about is the synergy between charm/dominate/confuse and spelltongue. For instance, part of the problem with spelltongue is that when you're attacking enemies that don't have buffs you won't be prolonging your own buffs. However, if you could quickly charm one of those enemies and give them a long duration (but crappy) buff, you'd be able to steal a good 40 sec of extra arcane veil from them. A level 14 Wizard with Little Saviour (+25 Deflection), Sword and Shield Style (+6 Deflection), Hardened Veil (+75 Deflection), Base Deflection (+20) and Deflection gained from levels (+39) would have 165 Deflection, which is putting you in to the range where you've very unlikely to get hit.

 

Higher Dex might be better as well under such a set-up for more frequent hits.

[Livegood118]

Sorry – my main point that I forgot to make is that one your recovery bonus is high enough dual wield really provides no benefit other than, perhaps, a specific item property on the second weapon that you're using in comparison to a shield (for instance, more +speed or some kind of proc like prone).

[Sifjar]

So how good is melee wizard full buffed with def wearing Spelltongue and shield to prolong buffs and killing things with summoned pikes?

[Livegood118]

So how good is melee wizard full buffed with def wearing Spelltongue and shield to prolong buffs and killing things with summoned pikes?

I personally haven't used it a lot but many people swear by Citzals Spirit Lance.

 

With Delterious Alacrity (1.5), Citzals Lance (1.2) and the gloves of Swift Action (1.15) you get a 2.07 recovery modifier, which means you could wear a Durganised 25% recovery penalty armour with basically no penalty.

 

At level 16 Deflection could be stacked to (20 (Base) + 45 (Levels) + 5 (Superior Deflection) + 75 (Hardened Veil) = 145) relatively easily which is pretty damn good however you're going to be much more reliant on Hardened Veil as without you'll probably be using Llengrath's displaced image each fight and your deflection will be around 100 – which is OK if you're a fighter or a Monk on POTD but I'd say it's not fantastic for a Wizard. Then again, most people say the only thing you need to optimise Citzals in terms of talents is two handed weapon talent so it's not like you couldn't take that and leave the option to use it always open to yourself.

[Sifjar]

That's always was problem for wizards. Since... ever. They like to take a nap on a grass more than anybody else.

Yea.. 100-145 is not high and limited per use.. Same as other buffs. 

May be it's better just forget defences for most of the game and use buffs just for offencive purpose. Then throw some cc and annihilate every single lifeform infront of you while you have that crazy attackspeed and damagebuffs..

I am melee kinda guy So when i see such topic about melee wizards i always like to check it out

 

PS It's good to have those per fight casts, but honestly imo it would be better to have Sorcerer or some kind of it in game...

[ottffsse]

That's always was problem for wizards. Since... ever. They like to take a nap on a grass more than anybody else.

Yea.. 100-145 is not high and limited per use.. Same as other buffs.

May be it's better just forget defences for most of the game and use buffs just for offencive purpose. Then throw some cc and annihilate every single lifeform infront of you while you have that crazy attackspeed and damagebuffs..

I am melee kinda guy So when i see such topic about melee wizards i always like to check it out

 

PS It's good to have those per fight casts, but honestly imo it would be better to have Sorcerer or some kind of it in game...

That is kind of my experience with this character right now at level 11 (don't have hardened veil yet). Basically initially first half of the fight through ranged cc at the enemy to help your traditional front liners and once that is managed a bit and you are in a challenging battle use your self buffs to transform yourself into a dual wielding interrupting whirlwind and go directly for elite enemy on the field (who most likely is buffed so your spelltongue will be put to great use). You play a bit like a rogue though in melee as long as you are dual wielding or using a summoned weapon, but you have have with buffs way more defenses than a rogue. you can buff yourself to be stronger on average than any enemy except maybe a dragon. A more tanky wizard has the weapon shield setup but I find wizard too good an offensive class or more precisely a class where you would give up too much offense potential if you want to "tank" - a monk or a chanter is better suited for that tank role really because chanter has passive aoe chants and can be slow and a monk gains strength from taking damage which any tank will anyhow.

 

That said this is a very durable class if played right. She (this character in the wizard template) has only been knocked 3 times in my game and I know at least once it happened because a dominated party member insta gibbed her when I was preoccupied elsewhere. Another time was a trap but I am not sure, anyways that's very low compared to my parties barb which has been koed like over 20 times now.

Edited March 3, 2016 by ottffsse

[Ymarsakar]

The wizard can basically do many roles, depending on action speed and attack speed. So I usually start with alacrity, mirrored images, and then see what's going on. If I can't get to the enemy, cause people are in the way, I select blight spell and shoot aoes over long range.

 

If some casters in the back, cast mind fog/flame wall. If priests, cast wall of draining, activate some self buffs and pump up those durations. Merciless gaze, health buff spell, accuracy buffs.

 

If the wizard needs to teleport around, cast essential phantom, use it as another aoe dps/disposable tank, then dimension shift to it, crossing the distance between.

 

So basically, everything relies on deflection, self buffs (INT), and casting/attack speed.

 

Citzal's spirit lance is like what happens when a shapeshifting druid specialized user combines with a barbarian carnage aoe build, for a limited number of seconds.

 

The sorcerer, btw, is the shield druid.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Nebbleif]

Wouldn't it be possible to use the Drawn in Spring dagger with this build, for the Wounding + Combusting Wounds combo?

 

Wounding enchantments usually aren't good with high int builds, due to the wonky damage calculations - intelligence extends the duration of the wounding effect, but also lowers the damage per tick, leading to lower damage overall. But with those extra damage ticks triggering Combusting Wounds, that changes things around.

 

With high int, you could easily get 4-5 ticks of DoT from the Wounding effect, and they seem to stack from each hit (tested it yesterday). With CW triggering from both the initial hit and each tick, that's an extra ~30 damage each hit from CW alone, in addition to the ~10-20 damage from the dagger hit and the wounding effect.

 

I tested it yesterday, and it takes a few hits to get going, but then you really start seeing those DoT ticks fly, all of them triggering CW. It adds up to a pretty nice DPS.

[ottffsse]

Wouldn't it be possible to use the Drawn in Spring dagger with this build, for the Wounding + Combusting Wounds combo?

 

Wounding enchantments usually aren't good with high int builds, due to the wonky damage calculations - intelligence extends the duration of the wounding effect, but also lowers the damage per tick, leading to lower damage overall. But with those extra damage ticks triggering Combusting Wounds, that changes things around.

 

With high int, you could easily get 4-5 ticks of DoT from the Wounding effect, and they seem to stack from each hit (tested it yesterday). With CW triggering from both the initial hit and each tick, that's an extra ~30 damage each hit from CW alone, in addition to the ~10-20 damage from the dagger hit and the wounding effect.

 

I tested it yesterday, and it takes a few hits to get going, but then you really start seeing those DoT ticks fly, all of them triggering CW. It adds up to a pretty nice DPS.

Hmm that certainly can be good if you dual wield unlabored blade (fire bug scion of flame synergy) and drawn in spring plus combusting wounds. I would also suggest getting rotfinger gloves then for touch of rot (more dot stacking) - and as an item ability you can use it even while c martial prowess is active.

 

Daggers also fall under weapon focus noble anyways as rappiers daggers and rods are all in this weapon group.

 

PS: I personally now use mosquito + spell tongue on this mage but the dagger approach is valid to. I wonder if you will hit fast enough with the daggers to chain interrupt as their interrupt are quite short (mosquito on the other hand is a fast weapon with a ridiculous..75 s interrupt.

Edited March 4, 2016 by ottffsse

[Crucis]

ottffsse, this character looks really nice.  Love the custom portrait.  But one thing gets me a little.  Given her name, this character sounds like she should be Vailian.  Yeah, I know, a super minor nit to pick. 

Edited March 7, 2016 by Crucis

[ottffsse]

ottffsse, this character looks really nice.  Love the custom portrait.  But one thing gets me a little.  Given her name, this character sounds like she should be Vailian.  Yeah, I know, a super minor nit to pick. 

yeah its true and but I am a prostitute for that might bonus though.

 

 

btw update: not sure it's optimal but is certainly funny:

 

I tried the following variation and it works as well: bound steadfast to her, gave her lvl 1 spellmastery arcadys dazling lights, lvl 2 miasma of dull mindedness, equipped executioner hood, main hand steadfast, offhand spelltongue. light/ zero recovery robes (durganized gwisk glas works well) + gauntlets of swift action is zero recovery under DAoM with vulnerable attack on. poor eyeless were dying, did not even bother to turn on arcane veil most of the time in fights. (steadfast on wizard means you target will instead of deflection on enemies). 

Edited March 7, 2016 by ottffsse

[Crucis]

 

ottffsse, this character looks really nice.  Love the custom portrait.  But one thing gets me a little.  Given her name, this character sounds like she should be Vailian.  Yeah, I know, a super minor nit to pick. 

yeah its true and but I am a prostitute for that might bonus though.

 

 

btw update: not sure it's optimal but is certainly funny:

 

I tried the following variation and it works as well: bound steadfast to her, gave her lvl 1 spellmastery arcadys dazling lights, lvl 2 miasma of dull mindedness, equipped executioner hood, main hand steadfast, offhand spelltongue. light/ zero recovery robes (durganized gwisk glas works well) + gauntlets of swift action is zero recovery under DAoM with vulnerable attack on. poor eyeless were dying, did not even bother to turn on arcane veil most of the time in fights. 

 

 

Ya know, this is another minor gripe I have, i.e. tying a character attribute bonus to where one comes from.  It's along the same line as my gripes about racial abilities (which I discuss here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84132-i-think-characters-should-get-a-couple-of-free-talents-at-the-start/?p=1784750   ).  That is, it's just another way that hard set racial or background abilities constrain good role playing at character creation.

 

In your case here, you have what should be a Vailian battlemage who because you want that additional point of Might, you end up choosing a homeland that has the attribute bonus you want rather than the homeland that fits the character from an RP perspective.

 

Now, I suppose that some people could turn this around and say that one should come up with a RP background that fits the character's game stats.  But that's not how I've ever really built a character.  I come up with the character and only then fit the in game stats to what I've imagined.  So, IMO, it would be (or would have been) nice if the character generation process was/had been designed with this in mind.  That is, don't use fixed abilities or attribute bonuses that are tied to specifics that would limit a player's ability to come up with a character and then use the the character generation process to build it without feeling that they're being limited.

[Crucis]

Seeing as how ottffsse's battle mage has Arcane Veil and Hardened Veil, I'm curious.  Do people really, REALLY think that they're worth 2 talent points?  The reason I ask is because you have to expend 2 talent points for an ability that you'll only be able to use twice per rest, NOT twice per encounter.  I'm not doubting their capability when used in combat.  I've used them with Aloth all the time in past parties.  However, in thinking about it more deeply, having to spend TWO precious talent points on an ability that you can only use twice per rest seems overly costly for the benefit.

 

What do other people here think?  Worth the cost or not?

[Livegood118]

Seeing as how ottffsse's battle mage has Arcane Veil and Hardened Veil, I'm curious.  Do people really, REALLY think that they're worth 2 talent points?  The reason I ask is because you have to expend 2 talent points for an ability that you'll only be able to use twice per rest, NOT twice per encounter.  I'm not doubting their capability when used in combat.  I've used them with Aloth all the time in past parties.  However, in thinking about it more deeply, having to spend TWO precious talent points on an ability that you can only use twice per rest seems overly costly for the benefit.

 

What do other people here think?  Worth the cost or not?

 

I would say one point is worth it if you're just going to use Arcane Veil as an "oh S***" button and want a bit of extra survivability.

 

Two points is worth it if you're going for a melee focused Wizard, particularly if you can prolong through spelltongue/wall of draining.

[DreamWayfarer]

I wish there was a way to buff my enemies, so I could steal duration better.

[Sifjar]

bound steadfast to her

 

Wanted to try this out. But That stupid weapon didn't want to use weapon focus acc bonus for some reason

[rusokrd]

Hi, all!

Pretty looking build, very interesting in case of roleplay, but did anybody try this in solo PoTD? What are the basic rules in soloing?

The key steps, talents, traits in first 5 lvls, for example i have char lvl 3 and stealth lvl 4, and no chances neither to sneak around the Rederick's keep balcony guard, nor ghouls in cewers. And so on.

I'm so tired to die from very beginning every time, when charged by more then one enemy.

[ottffsse]

Hi, all!

Pretty looking build, very interesting in case of roleplay, but did anybody try this in solo PoTD? What are the basic rules in soloing?

The key steps, talents, traits in first 5 lvls, for example i have char lvl 3 and stealth lvl 4, and no chances neither to sneak around the Rederick's keep balcony guard, nor ghouls in cewers. And so on.

I'm so tired to die from very beginning every time, when charged by more then one enemy.

Hi, I did not solo at early levels but my tip would be:

 

1.) wear brigantine or plate the best you can get.

 

2.) use medium shield (or small buckler) and a + accuracy weapon like a rapier.

 

3.) get arcane veil at level 2 and fast runner at level 4 and use food to increase move speed to split pull. (sword and shield is a good option too until about level 8-10 where you can go dw)

 

In most difficult early encounters like bears or sporelings where you can't run you use arcane veil, follow up with fan of flames multiple times and the lvl 2 confuse spell. Reposition switch to scepter and finish off at range. (you can kite 1-2 enemies at close quarters but not a pack of bears or sporelings). With 1 or 2 weak enemies you can also finish them with a rapier. In temple of eothas do the same standing behind @ doors with every group you pull and at lvl 2 split pull the shades (takes a lot of patience unless you are a pale elf here) Getting remgrands cloak helps too for the temple in the gilded vale Inn chest. Rest after your fan of flames reserves are exhausted you need them to dps solo the groups. You want a scepter to kite fight ranged the skulder king group on the second level. Raedric you are a noble anyways and might as well support raedric as that is lawful (and don't start a bloodbath in the castle). Get the figurine if you so choose from the gv armor merchant and then you should have no problem with the shades in the stronghold and maervald.

 

Just by taking say arcane veil and scion of flame you can dish out lots of dps fast on fan of flames with high might and later fireball.

Edited April 5, 2016 by ottffsse

[Dorftek]

Hi, all!

Pretty looking build, very interesting in case of roleplay, but did anybody try this in solo PoTD? What are the basic rules in soloing?

The key steps, talents, traits in first 5 lvls, for example i have char lvl 3 and stealth lvl 4, and no chances neither to sneak around the Rederick's keep balcony guard, nor ghouls in cewers. And so on.

I'm so tired to die from very beginning every time, when charged by more then one enemy.

First lvls is hell on a wizard, cuz bad ACC, bad everything really and very little spells. Scrolls is the way to go on low lvls. Webbing is a great puller, minor missile scrolls for the targets you need to kill. Pick vulnerable shot early. Minor missile scrolls are easy to make, the gem for it is very common, trolls are easy to kite for the creature part and Skaen bone plants you can find in easternwood and towards wardens Lodge in Caed nua. You should be able to get around 4-6 missile scrolls. Coupled with your own per rest spells you will have plenty firepower for act 1. You can get lvl 4 to get enough stealth for raedrics and still have 2lore for the scrolls before doing Caed nua or any hard quests.

I could write you a detailed description on how to, imo, optimally solo ACT1 because I've done it tons of times now. On all difficultys except easy.

[rusokrd]

Thanks, guys for your comments. Wizard, i think is the most versitale class in the game, and i never can't imagine that solo run will be so interesting and exciting.

[AlphaMagnum]

What other weapons have you guys considered using for this build? Now that immunities are in the game I'm hunting for something that'll work vs most enemies, and the best options I see are Steadfast (slash/pierce + outmaneuvering) and Bittercut (slash/corrode + sabre). Thoughts?

[QuiteGoneJin]

Wouldn't a fire godlike do well for the scion of flame frontline version of this build? Seems a fun substitute for that helm tbh. 

[Boeroer]

Wizards endurance and health are pretty low even with high CON. I think in order to make good use of Battle Forge you'd have to rest all the time. I mean more than usual.

Same problem with a rogue + Battle Forged. Even though it works with Deathblows and all it's not a lot of fun because you have to rest after every fight. Or so it feels.

[QuiteGoneJin]

You are thinking along the lines of using or wanting to use it often, I just mean thematic purposes and once in a while in oh **** moments... still no?