Veterans needed! Anyone have a wand-warrior build?

[Frog Man]

Hey all - getting back into the game and I LOVE non traditional class setups. I've heard people like to use wands on warriors. This sounds hilarious and awesome. Someone please help me power game one!

[KDubya]

Wands, rods and scepters are good on blaster wizards because they can take blast and penetrating blast which give them an AoE and a DR penetration. It gives them something to do when they conserve spells and the talents also apply to Kalkoth's Minor Blights.

 

The only halfway appealing thing about using them on anyone else is that they are ranged and have two damage types. Not a bad choice for a ranged character who comes across pierce immune foes.

 

A wand using Fighter would be about the most boring build possible. You'd only have auto attacks with +25% from weapon spec and weapon focus and you'd be worse than Rangers (Vicious shot and Swift Aim would both work with wands), Rogues (deathblows and deep wounds would work with wands), and  Ciphers (biting whip would get you +40% damage).

[Ichthyic]

assuming by "warrior" you mean fighter class:

Curoc's brand as your main weapon.

that will allow you do damage any creature in the game (does pierce OR fire damage base, whatever the critter is less resistant to).

plus, bonus combusting wounds ftw.

plus... a free fireball per rest!  whee!

wands are fast weapons, but they are 2h, so no shields.

other than that?  since no shield, you likely are going to play a run and gun type fighter, so might as well keep armor to scale at most. weapon specialization/mastery will help you with the low damage a bit, take penetrating shot for the increased DR bypass, as the -20% speed on attack won't affect a wand too much.  Oh, and take marksman of course.

if sundering blow works with ranged (does it?) then take that.

that's about all I can think of to make a fighter into a *pew pew* harry potterite.

if you plan to run this as a wand warrior to start, instead of respeccing... I would recommend just giving yourself Curoc's brand to start the game with, via the console:

tilde key to open console, then hit enter, then:

additem px1_wand_curocs_brand 1

then hit enter again

because frankly, wands are fairly weak, and you will be wanting to experiment with how best to use it immediately.

also because... I can't recall where the heck you find that wand.



 

Edited April 4, 2016 by Ichthyic

[Frog Man]

Gosh you can TELL I'm just getting back into the game. Called a fighter a warrior thanks for the correction

[Ichthyic]

another cheat you might want to try is giving yourself a few copies of the Father's Teeth Amulet (since it has charges).

summons rot skulls (wand that does heavy crush plus corrode explosion damage).

additem fathers_teeth 5

that will give you 20 charges worth

use that when you need to clear weak groups fast, or for the very rare times when pierce/fire just isn't going to get the job done.

 

[Esajin]

I'm actually playing a wand-using fighter. It's more like a caster-slash-backup-tank than a pure wand user. Max Int and Per, do whatever you want with the rest.

 

Gyrd Háewanes Sténes, the soulbound wand, is better than Curoc's Brand in most cases once you enter the realm of high DR everywhere. It comes with Accuracy 4 and deals Raw Damage, so that's a steady killer together with your high natural accuracy from your class, PER and abilities. You get it by doing A Call To Court in act 2. You don't need to bind it to your fighter, since you get no benefit from the soul bind. But Curoc's Brand is really nice too.

 

Wands are weak in general though, especially on a fighter, but they're relatively fast and you'll be using your fighter for high impact CC anyway most of the time.

 

One thing of note, of all the Fighter's abilities, only Knockdown is melee-only. Everything else is actually a spell that ignores the weapon type, accuracy bonus on your weapon or your weapon damage, but things such as Disciplined Barrage applies to scrolls and spells.

 

You're going to switch weapons often depending on your role, too. My casterfighter (also the only caster in the party) currently uses:

 

- Puitènte med Príncipi: high accuracy, graze to hit and crits to prone, good as an opener for quickly toggling Disciplined Barrage on (Disciplined Barrage requires a target to activate)

- Bittercut & Scâth Gwannek (medium shield): Lets you cast a very long range Winter Winds, Infestation of Maggots, Vile thorns and Knockdown

- Gloves that lets you cast some heals, just in case

- Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath that lets you cast Sunbeam

- Boots that lets you cast Jolting Touch

- Whatever else I like on other slots (more sunbeams, dominates, charms, whatever. I usually put on additional defenses to help with the tanking)

 

She also has The Grey Sleeper on a third weapon slot, because why not. Since she's also the only caster in the party, she has deep pockets and 12 Lore. Her Int is currently 25. Winter Winds spans the entire screen and more.

 

This setup lets her connect the large majority of her spells, even against really high defenses (130+)

 

I haven't tested Sundering Blow on her yet, since double-charge and double-into the fray are such sweet bursts.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Esajin

[Boeroer]

The Golden Gaze, Curoc's Brand and Gyrd Háewanes Sténes are pretty good on ranger, too: with Driving Flight the proc chance goes up a lot (as it does with blast from the wizard) - and with Outlander's Frenzy + Vicious Aim + Dangerous Implement + Stunning Shots that's a nice combo. It's +74% damage with Stalker's Link+Torc and +30 ACC with Stalker's Link. I find the Golden Gaze to be especially good because Exposing Vulnerabilities is a nice spell and gets triggered often. And the two projectiles often hit different targets with Driving Flight, stunning even more foes with Stunning Shots. Not to speak of interrupts - this implement is one of the best weapons for a ranged interrupt build.

But all in all a wizard still can do this better I guess. But it's an option if you meet pierce-immune foes or want to have more than two ranged rangers (with Stormcaller & Persistence) in the party...? 

 

On A fighter i can imagine that all his dmg mods plus Dangerous Implements add up pretty nicely up to 50% - but then I ask myself: why not use a rogue with deathblows for that (+225%)?

[Dorftek]

The Golden Gaze, Curoc's Brand and Gyrd Háewanes Sténes are pretty good on ranger, too: with Driving Flight the proc chance goes up a lot (as it does with blast from the wizard) - and with Outlander's Frenzy + Vicious Aim + Dangerous Implement + Stunning Shots that's a nice combo. It's +74% damage with Stalker's Link+Torc and +30 ACC with Stalker's Link. I find the Golden Gaze to be especially good because Exposing Vulnerabilities is a nice spell and gets triggered often. And the two projectiles often hit different targets with Driving Flight, stunning even more foes with Stunning Shots. Not to speak of interrupts - this implement is one of the best weapons for a ranged interrupt build.

But all in all a wizard still can do this better I guess. But it's an option if you meet pierce-immune foes or want to have more than two ranged rangers (with Stormcaller & Persistence) in the party...?

 

On A fighter i can imagine that all his dmg mods plus Dangerous Implements add up pretty nicely up to 50% - but then I ask myself: why not use a rogue with deathblows for that (+225%)?

I thought that the wizards blast area was its own attack and didn't proc weapon effects?

[Boeroer]

That's not the case. At least not anymore. I also thought that at least on-crit-effects didn't work with blast - but they do now. Maybe they changed that behavior in one of the patches.

 

The Golden Gaze's Spellchance increased with Blast since WM1 was out. Exp. Vulnerabilities triggers all the time when you hit whole packs of foes.