Hierophant advice? (Wizard+Soul Blade or Beguiler)

[nstgc]

To begin with, I will only be playing on normal this time, so am not too concerned about building some uber potent character. Rather I'm just looking for feedback so I don't make total trash.

 

Back in PoE1 I really wished I could have mixed wizard into my cipher. The reason being is I wanted to make a self buffing melee caster. That now looks possible, so its my go to build for PoE2.

 

The idea is to, on the wizard side of things, focus on the defensive buffs with short cast times and zero recovery time. The cipher then is used to provide melee damage from soul whip and provides its own buffs as well as debuffs to hostiles ("steal" spells). This is largely driven by this deep-seated belief that a caster in melee is a caster with death wish, so needs to be buffed from here to kingdom come.

 

I understand that fighter is the better option for a soul blade since they provide their own defensive buffs plus melee oriented abilities, however, I have an innate distaste for fighters (have always) and also have really wanted to make this build. Another build I am considering is an Inquisitor (Gold Pact + Beguiler or Soul Blade) however there was already a thread going about Inquisitors, and I do plan on going through as a Bleak walker + Barbar (my other PoE1 character was Walker) doing an "evil" run.

 

As for stats

 

MIG :  12 (I figure most damage will be from melee weapons which already get a +20%)

CON:  12 (again, I fear being a caster in melee even if I am buffed to wazoo)

DEX:  12 (not going to be casting too many things with long cast times

PER:  14 (Low base accuracy compared to a proper melee class)

INT  :  15 (for buffs/debuffs)

RES:  10 (doesn't seem as if I'll be in need of the Will or deflection)

 

Living land as back ground and elf, because I like elves. For weapons I figured I'd likely use a club so I can occasionally brain people to make my spells hit.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

edit: As for Soul Blade vs Beguiler. . .

 

The Soul Blade: I figure the extra damage is needed since I'll be using the wizard side of things only for buffing. Also, getting concentration on kills seems like a great thing to have in melee (counters knock downs right?).

 

Beguiler: Debuffing to easier melee damage as well as some more self-buffing, though this seems somewhat redundent (on top of double caster multi-class).

 

edit2: Should have made it explicit. I'm planning on an unlocked wizard so I can get both Enchantments and Illusions. Also, maybe conjure some nice weapons.

Edited May 10, 2018 by nstgc

[moskowitzda]

I've actually been thinking about this too, since rogue seems to have gotten nerfed, and I've never been a huge fan of monk or fighter for arbitrary play style reasons. 

 

I think you might want to have PER higher and maybe have CON a bit higher. Most of the melee classes give you some accuracy buffs or splash damage (or both), so even though there are a couple of accuracy buffing spells, I feel like you're going to have trouble hitting stuff often enough to build focus. Also, your health is going to be pretty low compared to some of the melee multi classes, so you might need higher CON to make it up. I think you can probably run with 10 DEX, because you can make up for the attack speed loss with DAOM and other buffs.

 

I feel like enchanter or normal wizard would probably be best. Enchanter gets most of the really cool buff spells you want earlier, but no subclass wizard means you don't lose out on illusion buffs. I think that enchanter will probably be more powerful early on, but no subclass wizard might be the most powerful when fully leveled.

 

For beguiler, part of me feels like  a single class wizard or single class beguiler makes a lot more sense than multi classing them. I'm not super sure of what synergy one adds to the other. I think it might just end up being a character that's mediocre at damage and mediocre at cc'ing?

 

I definitely think that soul blade is the way to go, because I feel like you need soul annihilation and the extra damage from biting whip.

 

The stat spread also feels really tight, but I think this will be ok playing normal.

[KDubya]

Unless they changed a bunch from the Beta all classes have the same accuracy barring some ability.

 

Health is class based so Ciphers have lower but its not so bad that you'd need to buff constitution. Maybe drop it to 10.

 

Might is one of the few ways to buff spell damage so keep that in mind. If you'll be casting damaging spells Might is your friend.

 

Wizards buffs like Fleet Feet (+5 dex), Infuse with Essence (+5 int and +5 con) will help with your stats as well. They cast in 0.5 seconds and can be set up to automatically cast at the start of combat.

 

You have another 3 stat points, you only used 15 when you get 18 at start.

 

I'd go with a general wizard not a subclass, too many downsides. Also remember that a found Grimoire = free ability points as choosing spells costs the same as taking an ability.

 

For melee I like the Soul Blade, Beguiler was nice mixed with Ranger as your pet can flank to set up lower cost casting, makes for a nice target for spells and the Ranger is good at ranged combat.

 

The Soul Blade/Wizard is on my entirely too long list of builds I'd like to run.

[nstgc]

Thanks. Sounds like I wasn't completely out of my mind (the lack of people talking about this build made me worried). I have no intention of choosing a specialization for wizard.

 

Thanks for the advice on attribute points. I think I will turn Dex down to 10 in favor of more PER. Since one thinks CON is too low and the other too high, I'm thinking its just right. I don't expect to be casting that many spells, and the spells I do intend to cast will be debuffs and buffs, so I think MIG is okay.

 

What are your thoughts on armor? I know in PoE1 more was almost always better, but I didn't go that route (I don't like feeling sluggish), but I was thinking of no more than 30% recovery penalty armor.

[KDubya]

From Beta, it might be changed now:

 

I found armor to be not worth using unless you had additional armor buffs like a Gold Pact or a Berserker. If you had plate at AR 9 and add 4 to it you've got a real tank. At just plain plate at 9 AR you're just 50% slower and will get hit for full damage from any crush weapon and from any armor piercing weapon like Estoc or Stiletto. Dual wielding is also pretty mandatory if you are wearing armor, a six second recovery on a two handed sword or sword and shield is just painful to watch.

 

Light armor is pretty much totally worthless at 5 AR with normal weapons having 7 penetration. Medium at 7 AR is only good for avoiding the +30% from over penetration, at -35% action speed its a very bad deal.

 

If you go naked you just get over penetrated for +30% damage if they hit you, plus you'll have no action speed malus. You're part Wizard so you'll have some great defenses like Arcane Veil, mirror image and what not so your deflection will be very good. Plus you can use the summoned staff that heals on hit to replenish any health lost.

[nstgc]

From Beta, it might be changed now:

 

I found armor to be not worth using unless you had additional armor buffs like a Gold Pact or a Berserker. If you had plate at AR 9 and add 4 to it you've got a real tank. At just plain plate at 9 AR you're just 50% slower and will get hit for full damage from any crush weapon and from any armor piercing weapon like Estoc or Stiletto. Dual wielding is also pretty mandatory if you are wearing armor, a six second recovery on a two handed sword or sword and shield is just painful to watch.

 

Light armor is pretty much totally worthless at 5 AR with normal weapons having 7 penetration. Medium at 7 AR is only good for avoiding the +30% from over penetration, at -35% action speed its a very bad deal.

 

If you go naked you just get over penetrated for +30% damage if they hit you, plus you'll have no action speed malus. You're part Wizard so you'll have some great defenses like Arcane Veil, mirror image and what not so your deflection will be very good. Plus you can use the summoned staff that heals on hit to replenish any health lost.

 

I see. So the penetration system (I guess you could call it) along with the numbers in game make it so that unless you're going tank, you should only aim to avoid taking that 30% penalty? And since Wizards can get ungodly deflection (from what I can tell) it's a moot point.

 

I was looking at the staff buff. For -50% recovery speed you get +20 deflection. Along with Wizard's Double that's +60. With 10 resolve at level 1 that's a total of 80 deflection. Most enemies (I'm GUESSING) can only graze you with this level of deflection so the buff is indefinite. Then Spirit Shield grants +3 armor which combined with the starting clothes is 6 armor. So long as nothing has a penetration of more 12 or more you avoid a penalty, but since most every physical attack will only be grazing you which is like being two armor points over penetration, and the Shadow Shield give you concentration which I'm guessing negates a knock down. At higher levels, I can add in Psychovampiric Shield which stacks with deflection bonuses. Body Attunement has a long recovery time, but grants an additional 2 armor (total 5) over Spirit Shield, and debuffs a target or Iron Skin (which doesn't require hitting a target).

 

You mentioned the Parasitic Staff. Is the cast time not prohibitive? I figure I can get off one long cast time buff, and was thinking that something to boost accuracy would be better.

 

Thoughts?

 

edit: And as long as you keep killing things you can keep getting concentration.

Edited May 10, 2018 by nstgc