A wizard like Irenicus

[Ymiraku]

Hey guys,

 

I was just wondering how i would go about building a fast casting and hard hitting wizard in the theme of Jon Irenicus from Baldurs gate 2. A caster which can shrug off attacks like they are nothing and fast cast and explode everything around him.  Would I stack dexterity or go for high might and perception and then use alacrity?

 

I would love some guidance on this, thanks.

[Boeroer]

In order to be able to cast as fast as possible you need both DEX and Alacrity. DEX oalso shortens your casting animations AND remaining recovery phase while Alacrity (and all other speed buffs) only reduce recovery time (before DEX bonus is applied).

 

So, a wizard who wants to cast as fast as possible would need high DEX AND make use of speed buffs. Without armor a wizard already has 0 recovery when using Alacrity. If you add Gauntlets of Swift Action you can also wear armor up to hide armor (with 20 DEX no recovery because remaining 0.6 frames will get skipped) or durganized breastplate.

 

Also see here (when trying to estimate recovery when casting, simply use dual wielding fists): https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/

 

Maybe one should focus on spamming as many spells as possible? As far as I remember Irenicus doesn't use any weapons but simply casts away all the time. So maybe one should take both wizardry rings and bonus spells as well as spell binding gear as long as it fits. The advantage of spell binding gear is also that those spells can be used while Citzal's Martial Power is active - as well as Arcane Assault and Grimorire slam (both become pretty nasty things when buffed this way - same as spells like Sunbeam and so on).

 

In order to make yourself nigh untouchable I would make heavy use of self buffs (which will be a breeze to cast with maxed DEX and 0 recovery) - I would make those mastery spells - and then cast Draining Wall to get more duration out of them. Then I'd use Arcane Assault and spell spamming to do CC and deal damage. Maybe Kalakoth's Minor Blights and later Blunt Wisdom would be a good way to spare spell uses but still deal spell-like AoE damage (also usable with Citzal's Martial Power). Another great thing for engaging tough encounters early is Fahter's Teeth (if you get the adventure). They will give you Rot Skulls, which is a very powerful implement weapon from the druid's spell list - which can be made even more powerful with Citzal's Martial Power. It only has a few charges but you can use it in those encounters where you need a bit more *bam*.

 

In case you meet casters you might want to put on a necklace with additional spell defense and use stuff like Minor Arcane Refection and Arcane Reflection. Also Minor and Major Grimoire Imprint. Those last two spells often get overlooked and not used because people don't know how they work. But they are the perfect spells for your Irenicus.

First of all they don't work on evry enemy that has spell like abilites, only on enemies that are dedicated wizards, priests or druids (as far as I know for example Brood Mothers and other Lagufaeth who use "spells" can't be robbed of spells - it has to be a "real" wizard, priest or druid. Maybe even skeletal wizards won't work). It should work on any kith casters for example and also some wilders who are labeled as druids or priests (like xaurip priests and ogre druids).

If you meet those you can use the Imprint spells to do the following:

You wil get access to some of their spells, for example you will get Calling the World's Maw from high level Ogre Druids. Then you will have 60 seconds in which you can cast that spell as often as you like (or can). Here your immense casting speed will be very benefical. You spend one spell use in order to get dozens of additional spell uses. Basically you can chain-spam Calling the World's Maw until everything is dead. It's very powerful. It's also very situational, but it makes some of the most difficult encounters (ogre druids, bounties, Torn Bannermen's wizards ad priests and so on - where casters will cause you a lot of trouble) a LOT easier. As I said: those Imprint spells are a great combination with high cast speed as you want to achieve it.

 

Concerning stats:

 

What you may not need is RES (just use Spirit Shield or Holy Meditation if you have a priest) and maybe not too much CON if you use your self buffs right. PER is important but can be substituted with a priest and/or a paladin as well (Blessing or Zealous Focus + Devotions + Inspiring Radiance) or by using Eldritch Aim a lot, so maybe you don't need to put too many points into that. MIG is important to increase the damage of your spells and obviously INT is important as well in order to hold up the self buffs longer, to have bigger AoEs, to have good durations with CC and to boost damage of DoT spells even further.

 

Maybe a stat spread for a Irenicus could look like this (neutral to race and culture):

 

MIG: 18

CON: 08

DEX: 18

PER: 13

INT: 18

RES: 3

 

I once played a monkish wizard with fists and made heavy use of self buffs, especially Martial Power because it works very well with Novice's Suffering and lowish accuracy. It was totally viable and fun. I think this Irenicus concept wouldn't be too far off in terms of self buffing.

 

I also played a rogue who made use of Acuan Giamas (spell stealing) and then realized how aesome spell stealing in general is because you have no limited spell uses any more (other than a timer).

Edited October 5, 2017 by Boeroer

[Ymiraku]

Wow these are great suggestions. Thanks alot for your input boeroer. Have you got a list of items that I should use on my Irenicus? You mentioned items with spell holding and spell steal.

 

Btw do you think 8 constitution would be enough? If you did take a hit before you got your defences up wouldn't you get evaporated?

[Boeroer]

Items that fit thematically, visually and mechanically would be:

 

- Hermit's Hat (looks a bit like the cap Irenicus wears and is a good headgear for a wizard)

- Amulet of Summer Solstice (3 Sunbeams per rest) or Cloak of Minor Missiles (3 Minor Missiles per rest, also +5 burn  and +5 shock DR) or Nîdhen's Finger (Mind Lance 1/rest and +3 CON)

- Kerdhed Pames (looks a bit like the funny SM leather armor Irenicus wears - at least it has some kind of pauldrons and makes an elf look bulkier that he usually is - and Irenicus as more bulky then the usual elf. Also gives +3 RES which is a nice addition to your abysmal RES. Before gtting it I would stick to Aloth's armor I guess)

- Ring of Wizardry A and B (aka Telda's Ring and Ring of the Selonan)

- Sentinel's Girdle, before that Girdle of Maegfolc Might or Belt of the Stelgaer

- Viettro's Formal Footwear (just for the DEX), before that maybe Animancer's Boots (3 Jolting Touch per Rest, +3 shock DR) - maybe you want to keep them

 

- Rod of Wind and Thunder and Red Reed Wand (for the charged spellbinds only), Gyrd HS (for Gref's Authority mainly) 

 

Not too many spell bindings, but at least they fit.

 

Here how the items would look like on an elf, human and aumaua:

[Ymiraku]

I like it :D

 

How would I be going for accuracy with only 13 perception? Would i just need to keep casting eldritch aim for +15 accuracy. I was thinking that high perception would be better than super high might with this concept because high perception leads to more crits = more damage.

 

Also would it be possible to do any sort of soloing with this character or would it be mostly dependent on team support and buffs + heals etc.?

[Boeroer]

Soloing with a non-quitky wizard works always the same: buff yourself up and nuke the ememy. This one is no exeption.

 

Concerning PER/MIG: high MIG is benefical not only for damage but also for healing - things like Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Infuse with Vital Essence, Veteran's Recovery and so on.

Wizards can boost their own accuracy with Eldritch Aim and/or with a priest or paladin and he can have decent hit-to-crit conversion with Merciless Gaze - but more importantly they can cause afflictions that result in hefty defense drops which then lets them crit more. You should never start with a damaging spell but instead place an affliction first that matches the damaging spell you want to use (e.g. use a Chillfog to blind and then drop a Fireball). When you do it like that you can get away with a little less PER.

 

But you can of course shift points from MIG to PER or whatever.

 

Another reason for me to raise MIG was that Irenicus looks more like he's on the "mighty" side.

 

Ah, what I forgot: I would pick Doemenel and get the Merciless Hand and also Dungeon Delver. This will give your spells additional 40% crit damage (90% in total). And since Inrenicus is neutral evil he should also have no problem with taking the Gift from the Machine and dropping one of his party members into the blood pool (Effigy's Resentment).

[doggiep0op]

In order to be able to cast as fast as possible you need both DEX and Alacrity. DEX oalso shortens your casting animations AND remaining recovery phase while Alacrity (and all other speed buffs) only reduce recovery time (before DEX bonus is applied).

 

So, a wizard who wants to cast as fast as possible would need high DEX AND make use of speed buffs. Without armor a wizard already has 0 recovery when using Alacrity. If you add Gauntlets of Swift Action you can also wear armor up to hide armor (with 20 DEX no recovery because remaining 0.6 frames will get skipped) or durganized breastplate.

 

Also see here (when trying to estimate recovery when casting, simply use dual wielding fists): https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/

 

Maybe one should focus on spamming as many spells as possible? As far as I remember Irenicus doesn't use any weapons but simply casts away all the time. So maybe one should take both wizardry rings and bonus spells as well as spell binding gear as long as it fits. The advantage of spell binding gear is also that those spells can be used while Citzal's Martial Power is active - as well as Arcane Assault and Grimorire slam (both become pretty nasty things when buffed this way - same as spells like Sunbeam and so on).

 

In order to make yourself nigh untouchable I would make heavy use of self buffs (which will be a breeze to cast with maxed DEX and 0 recovery) - I would make those mastery spells - and then cast Draining Wall to get more duration out of them. Then I'd use Arcane Assault and spell spamming to do CC and deal damage. Maybe Kalakoth's Minor Blights and later Blunt Wisdom would be a good way to spare spell uses but still deal spell-like AoE damage (also usable with Citzal's Martial Power). Another great thing for engaging tough encounters early is Fahter's Teeth (if you get the adventure). They will give you Rot Skulls, which is a very powerful implement weapon from the druid's spell list - which can be made even more powerful with Citzal's Martial Power. It only has a few charges but you can use it in those encounters where you need a bit more *bam*.

 

In case you meet casters you might want to put on a necklace with additional spell defense and use stuff like Minor Arcane Refection and Arcane Reflection. Also Minor and Major Grimoire Imprint. Those last two spells often get overlooked and not used because people don't know how they work. But they are the perfect spells for your Irenicus.

First of all they don't work on evry enemy that has spell like abilites, only on enemies that are dedicated wizards, priests or druids (as far as I know for example Brood Mothers and other Lagufaeth who use "spells" can't be robbed of spells - it has to be a "real" wizard, priest or druid. Maybe even skeletal wizards won't work). It should work on any kith casters for example and also some wilders who are labeled as druids or priests (like xaurip priests and ogre druids).

If you meet those you can use the Imprint spells to do the following:

You wil get access to some of their spells, for example you will get Calling the World's Maw from high level Ogre Druids. Then you will have 60 seconds in which you can cast that spell as often as you like (or can). Here your immense casting speed will be very benefical. You spend one spell use in order to get dozens of additional spell uses. Basically you can chain-spam Calling the World's Maw until everything is dead. It's very powerful. It's also very situational, but it makes some of the most difficult encounters (ogre druids, bounties, Torn Bannermen's wizards ad priests and so on - where casters will cause you a lot of trouble) a LOT easier. As I said: those Imprint spells are a great combination with high cast speed as you want to achieve it.

 

Concerning stats:

 

What you may not need is RES (just use Spirit Shield or Holy Meditation if you have a priest) and maybe not too much CON if you use your self buffs right. PER is important but can be substituted with a priest and/or a paladin as well (Blessing or Zealous Focus + Devotions + Inspiring Radiance) or by using Eldritch Aim a lot, so maybe you don't need to put too many points into that. MIG is important to increase the damage of your spells and obviously INT is important as well in order to hold up the self buffs longer, to have bigger AoEs, to have good durations with CC and to boost damage of DoT spells even further.

 

Maybe a stat spread for a Irenicus could look like this (neutral to race and culture):

 

MIG: 18

CON: 08

DEX: 18

PER: 13

INT: 18

RES: 3

 

I once played a monkish wizard with fists and made heavy use of self buffs, especially Martial Power because it works very well with Novice's Suffering and lowish accuracy. It was totally viable and fun. I think this Irenicus concept wouldn't be too far off in terms of self buffing.

 

I also played a rogue who made use of Acuan Giamas (spell stealing) and then realized how aesome spell stealing in general is because you have no limited spell uses any more (other than a timer).

If you use a touch spell with novice suffering unarmed attacks, does the touch spell replace the fists? Or the spell does it’s effects on top of your fists damage?

[Boeroer]

Neither. It's just a spell that has 0 range but it's not really a melee attack. It has its own accuracy and damage. Your weapon doesn't matter at all. You don't have to hit with your weapon or fists in order to apply those spells.

 

So you have to pretend that those are "special" unarmed melee attacks - which is easy because they have 0 reach and thus you have to be in melee range.

[doggiep0op]

Neither. It's just a spell that has 0 range but it's not really a melee attack. It has its own accuracy and damage. Your weapon doesn't matter at all. You don't have to hit with your weapon or fists in order to apply those spells.

 

So you have to pretend that those are "special" unarmed melee attacks - which is easy because they have 0 reach and thus you have to be in melee range.

Got it, thanks. Would have been cool if they applied something additional to your weapons. Will give your unarmed wizard a try!