New to PoE, Class or build for Melee buffer? like Battlemate?

[Gothmogz]

Heavy dps, hopefully heavy armor that uses magic to buff the weapon and cc?

 

What should I roll?

 

thanks

[Gothmogz]

I read a little bit and I think instead of a battlemage -not battlemate lol- I want a spellsword?

[AndreaColombo]

You can roll a Wizard and focus on self-buffs and summoned weapons (they are really powerful) or a Priest. Both can wear heavy armor, though getting high DPS from a Priest isn't easy.

[DreamWayfarer]

Melee Wizards are very cool, but their limited number of spells means you have to play under your maximum power during "filler" fights. For attributes, INT, DEZ and MIG benefit you more or less equaly, there is no need to raise PER past 14, and while you can lower RES to 3 and use Spirit Shield to make up for the lost concentration, you shouldn't have CON lower than 6 or 7.

 

Ciphers can also be built for melee, and require less resting. They buff themselves mostly by draining enemy stats, and their Soul Whip increases weapon damage passively. For attributes, PER and INT rule. If you plan on relying on your weapons for damage, not your powers, then you can leave MIG at base, as Soul Whip stacks additively with it. Don't dump RES like you would with a Wizard, as you can't just cast Spirit Shield to avoid any interrupts, or instantly increase your Deflection with Arcane Veil.

 

EDIT: I forgot about priests. They may work better in heavy armor than my suggestions, which benefit from light and medium armor, respectively.

Edited March 11, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[JerekKruger]

After level 9 a melee wizard can take Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff as a per encounter ability, somewhat ameliorating the problem of having having to go into energy saving mode in filler fights.

[Ymarsakar]

Probably sabre/retaliation cipher or wizard. The Skaen melee priest can also be interesting, given the passive sneak damage is almost like the cipher's 40% damage mods.

 

The wizard stacks deflection to avoid getting hit and turns crits to hits, hits to grazes, etc to reduce damage. The priest just heals himself. Feels different.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[falchen]

Why not druid? Spiritshift and a lot of their spells being cone or spray shaped means they want to be at the front anyway.

[Stasis_Sword]

In my opinion the top 3 choices would be:

 

Wizard

Pros: He plays exactly the way you describe. Lots of combat buffs, defensive spells and summonable weapons.

Cons: He needs to rest for spells. Much of his melee prowess comes from spells, which means he needs casts for each encounter and time to buff.

 

Druid

Pros: Human form can be a descent tank, spiritshift can be great DPS. Has several cool buffs that give flaming swords, lightning auras. Spiritshift is per encounter so you always have an option.

Cons: He needs to rest for spells. He has less direct combat buffs than the wizard.

 

Cipher

Pros: Has talents that boost his base DPS (and don't waste buff time). Powers use focus which you get during battle (no need for rest). Has less buffs, but many of them are combination debuff enemy/buff cipher effects.

Cons: Powerful powers can't be used in succession (need to earn focus between casts). Many of the buffs have shorter durations so it's hard to have several buffs at once.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Stasis_Sword

[Raven Darkholme]

I felt most battlemagey with ciphers.

You don't buff your weapons but you have an inherent magic boost to your damage.

And since your weapons generate focus they are an important part of your playstyle, while other casters go nova all the time and rest often.

Sure wiz, druid and priest are also a lot of fun.

[Ymarsakar]

The druid is also a good choice, but druid and wizard probably wouldn't use heavy armor.

 

Cipher and priest would though. 

 

So the image of a battlemage as using heavy armor might conflict with the best combos for the class there, if druid or wizard.

[AndreaColombo]

So the image of a battlemage as using heavy armor might conflict with the best combos for the class there, if druid or wizard.

 

You could pull that off if going for a pure melee Wizard, though. You'd only need a few spells to set yourself up as a melee character; just start the fight with DAOM to counter the recovery penalty from your heavy armor, summon a weapon, use one of the fancy spells that increase your stats and disable spell-casting, and go into the fray.

[Boeroer]

Yeah, a good defense buff, summoning a weapon of choice (Concelhaut's Staff, Citzals' Spirit Lance or Llengrath's Warding Staff), cast Alacrity and off you go. You can easily do with dumped RES if you use Spirit Shield for Spell Mastery and pump PER instead (of using Eldritch Aim - that's too short anyways). Then cast Citzal's Martial Power and you'll destroy. Concelhaut's Staff has such a high base damage that every +% mod does wonders. So high MIG, Savage Attack, Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack and so on really do good things with that staff. We don't have to talk about the Lance - it's just awesome. But I also love tha warding staff. It's not the bestest for damage, but the prone effect is really nice - like a monk with Force of Anguish - without the wounds.

Hell, you could also skip heavy armor and use Iron Skin if you want. Making you even faster.

Speaking of faster - Did anybody test Llawran's Staff (or Blade of the Endless Paths), durgan refined, with Alacrity? Should lead to 0 recovery. With Gauntlets of Swift Action you could even wear a durganized plate and have no recovery.

 

And did anybody playtest a wizard archer by now? Using normal bows and later summon the new Blackbow? Would like to hear how good that is. Should also work well with Martial Power. Arcane Archer build anyone?

 

Edit: Damn - I now want to do that. Stupid game!

Edited March 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[AndreaColombo]

^ as you know, the 0-recovery variant of the Lady of Pain does exactly that with the BotEP or were you referring specifically to a Wizard build? Math would be the same anyhow.

[Boeroer]

^ as you know, the 0-recovery variant of the Lady of Pain does exactly that with the BotEP or were you referring specifically to a Wizard build? Math would be the same anyhow.

Yeah sure - but as we confirmed in another thread: you are a potion addict.

 

This wizard would have it 1/encounter with spell mastery - ok, quite late. But with rings and stuff he can cast a lot of lvl 3 spells per rest. He can also wear the Padded Armor that has 1 Alacrtiy per rest and skip the gauntlets. The lacking DR he could compensate for with Iron Skin or Spirit Shield. He lacks the damage mods of a fighter - as long as he's not willing to cast Martial Power. But he can expose vulnerabilites, debuff and so on - all on his own. So I think he will be at least as good as the LoP - but only if he had time to buff/debuff. But you know I hate all that buffing at the start of the combat - so maybe I will not try this out.

 

It would be sooo cool if OBS would give us some tool to create a command chain that gets processes every time a certain event triggers (for example "if encounter starts, do..."). Or even a self defined combo that you can save under one special hotkey or UI button.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[Ymarsakar]

 

 

It would be sooo cool if OBS would give us some tool to create a command chain that gets processes every time a certain event triggers (for example "if encounter starts, do..."). Or even a self defined combo that you can save under one special hotkey or UI button.

 

 

I made custom AI scripts for my wizards to do just that in BG2 with tactics mods on.

 

After some weeks of programming, my wizard was pretty much doing exactly what I would do in fights against other wizards.

Instead of mastering elemental powers while role playing fantasy, I was mastering how to trigger spells using meta code. The best part was when I figured out how to make sure the AI script allowed me to intervene with one manual command, before it resumed its auto protocols. That way, I didn't need to interrupt it by making it stop, I would just input one command, it would have priority, and then the script would continue after a pause. Useful when drinking potions or kiting around. Don't want it to "cast spells" or whatever, that stops the kite.

 

Generally, what they should do is externalize the AI code into a script language, which is then externalized to a file that then works like C++ logic. If, then statements that trigger, nested within NOR/OR/AND/ etc.

 

I did some tests with a 14 level wizard, and the blackbow is interesting. Not as powerful aoe dps as the citzal's lance, however. It's more for when the wizard absolutely does not want to move from his spot of control. And can debuff enemies from far out, and shoot them as well without moving. More efficient for when under alacrity.

 

As for chain casting with merciless, the accuracy and hit to crit conversions are great for when you need some burst dps. And with near 0 recovery with alacrity for spells, it can put that in there for when the wizard goes nova. They did that before with per level encounter spells. Self buffs are more certain than debuffs that might miss or be defended against. I can plan out the exact chain combo that way.

 

 

 

So the image of a battlemage as using heavy armor might conflict with the best combos for the class there, if druid or wizard.

 

You could pull that off if going for a pure melee Wizard, though. You'd only need a few spells to set yourself up as a melee character; just start the fight with DAOM to counter the recovery penalty from your heavy armor, summon a weapon, use one of the fancy spells that increase your stats and disable spell-casting, and go into the fray.

 

True, I tried some of that in later 1.4 and 2.01, but I wasn't using Alacrity or the potion (never knew what it was, never used it once, until I heard people talk about it on the forums). So for me, the cast speed was rather slow. I was balancing debuffing with a little bit of range dps and melee dps with the wizard, and the recovery was just too long for plate. That was before they buffed the duration and effect of the wizard's self buffing defense spells. Now it's a lot easier to limit the number of spells used just for defense. Which helps the wizard also cast some debuffs or attack spells.

 

High DR wizards are better when they use the phantom and clones, however, since last time I checked the DR applies to the clones.

 

The trick I use now is to get the engwithan scepter on aloth, for the +20% attack speed. All of that stuff now stacks from weapon mods. This allows me to save alacrity casts for when I really need it, but still casting pretty quickly the rest of the time. With leather or padded armor, and they're pretty versatile since I can go aoe dps, aoe debuff, melee or range dps at a moment's notice. Blackbow for when it is needed, due to universal accuracy gain from focus talent. I like having choices for wizard's opening combos, since the cipher I played usually had the same exact combo each fight.

 

Not all that happy with the Grimoire switches, however. Would prefer to be able to just deselect individual spells, and base the cooldown on how many spells I switched. Using the inventory tends to add an unnecessary quick slot layer in between the user and gameplay. The chanter is a little bit better, due to the limited number of chants.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Stasis_Sword]

Yeah, a good defense buff, summoning a weapon of choice (Concelhaut's Staff, Citzals' Spirit Lance or Llengrath's Warding Staff), cast Alacrity and off you go. You can easily do with dumped RES if you use Spirit Shield for Spell Mastery and pump PER instead (of using Eldritch Aim - that's too short anyways). Then cast Citzal's Martial Power and you'll destroy. Concelhaut's Staff has such a high base damage that every +% mod does wonders. So high MIG, Savage Attack, Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack and so on really do good things with that staff. We don't have to talk about the Lance - it's just awesome. But I also love tha warding staff. It's not the bestest for damage, but the prone effect is really nice - like a monk with Force of Anguish - without the wounds.

Hell, you could also skip heavy armor and use Iron Skin if you want. Making you even faster.

Speaking of faster - Did anybody test Llawran's Staff (or Blade of the Endless Paths), durgan refined, with Alacrity? Should lead to 0 recovery. With Gauntlets of Swift Action you could even wear a durganized plate and have no recovery.

 

And did anybody playtest a wizard archer by now? Using normal bows and later summon the new Blackbow? Would like to hear how good that is. Should also work well with Martial Power. Arcane Archer build anyone?

 

Edit: Damn - I now want to do that. Stupid game!

 

Can I ask what your stats would look like on this theoretical build?

 

Also I'm assuming when not summoning a weapon the wizard would still wield a 2h weapon?

 

Talents something like: Arcane Veil, Two-Handed Fighting, Weapon Focus Soldier, Apprentice Sneak Attack, Hardened Veil then some attack/defense talents?