Melee Wizards Stats and Weapons

[Stasis_Sword]

I've been looking around for a melee/spell hybrid wizard for a while and I found this build:  The Royal Court Battlemage Which is really close to what I want, but I have a few questions.

 

I'm not sure I like the flat dex and lowered con in the battlemage build. Would something like this make sense?

M15

C10

D15

P14

I18

R6

Does it make sense to have Intelligence as the 18 or should I lower it to 15 and max something else (like Dexterity or Perception)?

 

I'm also thinking about weapon style. The guide suggest two weapon style, but I can also see synergy between two-handed style and the summoned weapons. Any thoughts on which style to go with and/or which (non-summoned) weapons to seek out?

[Boeroer]

You have to consider that low RES means low concentration - and while you can buff your defelction, ACC, MIG and other things, it's not very easy to buff concentration (if you don't have a priest at hand). Interrupts will occur even on grazes, so a high deflection only helps against interrupts if the enemies comletely miss you. If you want to fight in the front lines you don't want to get interrupted becaue it delays not only your attacks but also your spells - which may be crucial. So a RES of 6 is not optimal for a front line wizard.

 

High DEX, on the other hand, should not be your greatest concern. It does nothing for you except increasing your attack- and casting speed and your recovery. With Alacrity you already have a nice spell that buffs recovery a lot - so 4 points of DEX will not be very noticable if Alacrity is on. Better to avoid interrupts and cast/attack a little bit slower than trying to achieve the max speed and get interrupted all the time.

 

INT 18 is nice, but maybe you could also also be happy with 16 or so? But 18 is ok.

 

CON 10 is also ok I guess. If you are fully buffed it's enough endurance.

 

MIG 15 is ok.

 

PER 14 - also looks ok.

 

The base damage of Conelhaut's Staff and Citzal's Spirit Lance are so high that +15% from Two Weapon Style is noticable. Same for all the other +x% dmg modifiers. I would try to stack as many of those as possible. So I would go for Two Handed Style if I intended to use the summonend weapons a lot. If you don't know which talents pick after 8 levels or so I also would try the "Hate" talents like Primal Bane etc. They add +25% damage to your attacks. If you take all of them (because you don't know what to take else) plus Savage Attack plus Two Weapon Style plus Apprentice's Sneak Attack you will have a dmg modifier of +75% (without MIG and Weapon enchantments, +50% against kith) - which is a lot with a weapon like Concelhaut's Staff. You will deal enormous amounts of damage per hit and also heal (drain) a lot.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Boeroer

[Stasis_Sword]

You have to consider that low RES means low concentration - and while you can buff your defelction, ACC, MIG and other things, it's not very easy to buff concentration (if you don't have a priest at hand). Interrupts will occur even on grazes, so a high deflection only helps against interrupts if the enemies comletely miss you. If you want to fight in the front lines you don't want to get interrupted becaue it delays not only your attacks but also your spells - which may be crucial. So a RES of 6 is not optimal for a front line wizard.

 

High DEX, on the other hand, should not be your greatest concern. It does nothing for you except increasing your attack- and casting speed and your recovery. With Alacrity you already have a nice spell that buffs recovery a lot - so 4 points of DEX will not be very noticable if Alacrity is on. Better to avoid interrupts and cast/attack a little bit slower than trying to achieve the max speed and get interrupted all the time.

 

INT 18 is nice, but maybe you could also also be happy with 16 or so? But 18 is ok.

 

CON 10 is also ok I guess. If you are fully buffed it's enough endurance.

 

MIG 15 is ok.

 

PER 14 - also looks ok.

 

How about?

M15

C10

D10

P15

I18

R10

 

Would something like this make more sense. No penalties and bonuses to might (damage), perception (accuracy especially spells) and intelligence (duration/area)?

 

I saw a post about dumping Res and using Spirit Shield to make up for it, but not having to rely on it every fight would be nice.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Stasis_Sword

[Boeroer]

Sorry, I edited my post above, have a look.

 

Yeah, that would be my way - but you should try out if you like more DEX better. You can always save, retrain and reload to get a feeling for it.

[Stasis_Sword]

Sorry, I edited my post above, have a look.

 

Yeah, that would be my way - but you should try out if you like more DEX better. You can always save, retrain and reload to get a feeling for it.

 

I hadn't realized retrain would allow me to reset my attributes as well. That actually addresses a lot of my concerns.

[Boeroer]

Great!

[Boeroer]

p.s.: You can raise Concentration with the Celebrant Gloves. They cast Hole Meditation with a 10% chance if you get hit. So as soon as you get those, you could lower RES a bit if you want - without using a precious spell all the time.

[Braven]

There is a neat belt from a stronghold quest that massively boosts concentration. It is a minor quest so possible to get quite early but only reliable way is save scuming for the quest.

[Wolken3156]

You have to consider that low RES means low concentration - and while you can buff your defelction, ACC, MIG and other things, it's not very easy to buff concentration (if you don't have a priest at hand). Interrupts will occur even on grazes, so a high deflection only helps against interrupts if the enemies comletely miss you. If you want to fight in the front lines you don't want to get interrupted becaue it delays not only your attacks but also your spells - which may be crucial. So a RES of 6 is not optimal for a front line wizard.

What about Spirit Shield? That's a +30 to Concentration right there, you can even craft potions of it.

[Elric Galad]

Mmm Crown of faithful... ? Provided you have a Priest, concentration should not be a problem for major battles.

 

(And you don't cast Crown just for this reason)

 

I'm starting to wonder if high Resolve has any use.

 

Well, I suppose it could if you buffing up deflection with stuff like Crown of the faithful...

[ottffsse]

That two rapier battlemage I suggested goes into melee but acts more like a skirmisher rather than a grunt so I engage in melee once my tanks are already engaged so likelihood of interrupt is less. Plus there is the first level spell spirit shield to buff concentration. That mage is a mix range / melee build which opens with debilitating spells from range and than buffs up for melee should that be required. I was going for flexibility as a sort of "glue" member in a party who can take on various roles on the fly. I used two rapier fast weapon setup to utilize spell tongue basically to extend duration of buffs and have high interrupt and 0 recovery (if durganized).

 

But the summoned weapons work too and are quite awesome as long as you have the spell per rest to cast them. I usually unload my spell uses on cc rather than summoned weapons but that is a playstyle choice. Yeah and who can achieve most damage by stacking your wizard buffs, two handed style, scion of flame, Savage attack apprentice sneak attack, and firebrand from forgemasters gloves if you go that route.

[Stasis_Sword]

That two rapier battlemage I suggested goes into melee but acts more like a skirmisher rather than a grunt so I engage in melee once my tanks are already engaged so likelihood of interrupt is less. Plus there is the first level spell spirit shield to buff concentration. That mage is a mix range / melee build which opens with debilitating spells from range and than buffs up for melee should that be required. I was going for flexibility as a sort of "glue" member in a party who can take on various roles on the fly. I used two rapier fast weapon setup to utilize spell tongue basically to extend duration of buffs and have high interrupt and 0 recovery (if durganized).

 

But the summoned weapons work too and are quite awesome as long as you have the spell per rest to cast them. I usually unload my spell uses on cc rather than summoned weapons but that is a playstyle choice. Yeah and who can achieve most damage by stacking your wizard buffs, two handed style, scion of flame, Savage attack apprentice sneak attack, and firebrand from forgemasters gloves if you go that route.

 

ottffsse first thanks for posting the build.

 

My goal for the character is very similar to your description above. I'm not trying to create a self buffing melee grunt. I wanted to create a fully functional wizard with CC and damage spells who could as the situation dictates throw a buff or two on and enter melee. For certain circumstances it might make sense to use spirit lance and martial powers (and I would like to do good damage when I do), but I don't want to be melee only and dependent on resting every two battles.

 

You bring up an interesting point about spell tongue and buff duration. Are there any other weapons that synergize particularly well with a melee wizard?

[ottffsse]

 

That two rapier battlemage I suggested goes into melee but acts more like a skirmisher rather than a grunt so I engage in melee once my tanks are already engaged so likelihood of interrupt is less. Plus there is the first level spell spirit shield to buff concentration. That mage is a mix range / melee build which opens with debilitating spells from range and than buffs up for melee should that be required. I was going for flexibility as a sort of "glue" member in a party who can take on various roles on the fly. I used two rapier fast weapon setup to utilize spell tongue basically to extend duration of buffs and have high interrupt and 0 recovery (if durganized).

But the summoned weapons work too and are quite awesome as long as you have the spell per rest to cast them. I usually unload my spell uses on cc rather than summoned weapons but that is a playstyle choice. Yeah and who can achieve most damage by stacking your wizard buffs, two handed style, scion of flame, Savage attack apprentice sneak attack, and firebrand from forgemasters gloves if you go that route.

 

 

ottffsse first thanks for posting the build.

 

My goal for the character is very similar to your description above. I'm not trying to create a self buffing melee grunt. I wanted to create a fully functional wizard with CC and damage spells who could as the situation dictates throw a buff or two on and enter melee. For certain circumstances it might make sense to use spirit lance and martial powers (and I would like to do good damage when I do), but I don't want to be melee only and dependent on resting every two battles.

 

You bring up an interesting point about spell tongue and buff duration. Are there any other weapons that synergize particularly well with a melee wizard?

I think spelltongue and the firebrand granted by the forgemasters gloves (crucible keep merchant). Firebrand for the damage output and the rapiers because they have high accuracy and are fast and the high accuracy basically compliments savage attack very well (+20% melee damage but - 5 accuracy). And rapiers fall in the same group of weapons as scepter and dagger so good options. The main difficulty with a hybrid build is that you can make it "solid" at everything but you won't be super exceptional at one thing because you have to split talents. You can't go the full ranged dps route by taking blast, penetrating blast, dangerous implement, penetrating shot and have talent points left for all the melee talents like vulnerable attack, two handed, savage attack etc.

 

So one can either go dual wielding and just take blast + penetrating blast (maybe) to trigger on hit effects from your scepter at range using either golden gaze or gyrd haewanes staneas) and then switch to melee layout and talents to do actual weapon damage (you can still "nuke" things at range with ice spells especially if you take secrets of rime). And it is easy to get to zero recovery that way with two fast weapons with speed (spelltongue + sword of dyanisos or unlaboured blade for example) anything with speed enchantment on weapon basically + the durgan bonus.

 

Or go all out on ranged damage talents and use brights but take for instance two handed weapon talent to also excel in summoned weapon and firebrand damage. At range you will be a monster that way and you might find it adictive to actually bother with melee. You will be attaking a bit slower than the dual weapon setup but will have bigger hits. Citzdals spirit Lance (5th) level spell is ridiculous here as it has blast property even though it is a two handed melee weapon with a very good damage base and speed). Firebrand fully optimized with scion of flame may out dps it on single targets but on groups nothing beats it.

 

If you take interrupting blows (which makes total sense if your perception is high and you have blast talent) there is a unique rapier in dyrford merchant which attacks fast but does a great. 75 's interrupt.

 

Dual rapiers like spelltongue + mosquito for example are good at chain interrupting a tough boss enemy like a langerfurth broodmother or battery siren) and since those usually have buffs on them using spelltongue against them is particularly great.