Battlemage vs Psyblade

[dayman_aaah]

Hey all,

 

I can't decide between a Battlemage (Fighter/Wizard) and a Psyblade (Fighter/Cipher). I want to make a character with good melee capability as well as decent magic/casting to help augment that melee ability further and occasionally cause damage with casting.

 

Essentially I don't mind occasionally using jolting touch or mind wave to cause damage (I certainly want to use these abilities), but most of the time I want to stay in melee and fight it out. That means I want to use (most of the time) instantaneous casting abilities as augments, because if I'm in melee I don't wanna spend too much time in recovery (I'm also a fan of heavy armor).

 

I find a fighter is a great base class with a nice mix of defensive and offensive passives which is why I am going with that, though I'm open to suggestions.

 

The Wizard and Cipher both bring casting to the table but they do it in different ways. I usually look at buffs/debuffs in terms of "does this increase my chances of hitting them and reduce their chance to hit me?".

 

I feel the wizard is more focused, or rather, has better options for self buffing (arcane veil, mirror image, displaced image, citzal's martial power) increasing my melee abilities and most/all of these are instant cast. 

Cipher can do something similar but does it by debuffing enemies more with eyestrike and other abilities. These abilities have long cast times which makes me iffy about how much time I'll spend in recovery. But on the other hand I can get soul whip and soul annihilation for increased damage.
 

This is essentially my problem, do I take instant, strong buffs over soul whip and slower debuffs?

If anyone has any one tried these classes, please share your opinion of their effectiveness and just how much fun you had.

 

[Hazmy]

Hey all,

 

I can't decide between a Battlemage (Fighter/Wizard) and a Psyblade (Fighter/Cipher). I want to make a character with good melee capability as well as decent magic/casting to help augment that melee ability further and occasionally cause damage with casting.

That sounds exactly what a Battlemage would say. On a serious note, you won't spend much time casting as a battlemage, I wouldn't worry about it. My aloth is a battlemage and he is doing amazing, and i barely notice him casting.

 

There are even items helping you become a battlemage. One of my favourite points about PoE 2, there seems to be a unqiue item for WHATEVER build you think of.

 

[dayman_aaah]

 

Hey all,

 

I can't decide between a Battlemage (Fighter/Wizard) and a Psyblade (Fighter/Cipher). I want to make a character with good melee capability as well as decent magic/casting to help augment that melee ability further and occasionally cause damage with casting.

That sounds exactly what a Battlemage would say. On a serious note, you won't spend much time casting as a battlemage, I wouldn't worry about it. My aloth is a battlemage and he is doing amazing, and i barely notice him casting.

 

There are even items helping you become a battlemage. One of my favourite points about PoE 2, there seems to be a unqiue item for WHATEVER build you think of.

 

 

[dayman_aaah]

 

Hey all,

 

I can't decide between a Battlemage (Fighter/Wizard) and a Psyblade (Fighter/Cipher). I want to make a character with good melee capability as well as decent magic/casting to help augment that melee ability further and occasionally cause damage with casting.

That sounds exactly what a Battlemage would say. On a serious note, you won't spend much time casting as a battlemage, I wouldn't worry about it. My aloth is a battlemage and he is doing amazing, and i barely notice him casting.

 

There are even items helping you become a battlemage. One of my favourite points about PoE 2, there seems to be a unqiue item for WHATEVER build you think of.

 

 

LOL I was trying to make sure I didn't sound biased. Truth is, I am a little bit leaning towards the battlemage right now, since it seems to allow me to spend more time fighting. And when it does come to damaging spells. i find the wizard spells a little better purely in terms of flavor, it just seems cooler to me to throw actual lightning out of my hands rather than some abstract soul/mind affliction

 

The reason I'm hesitating is because soul annihilation and soul whip just seems like so much extra damage its making me reconsider

 

[Hazmy]

Wizard will help you survive close-range more, and their abilities will give you more damage than Soul whip would possibly.

And I would spread the style of play what you like instead of  what is better, as it will make the game more fun for you.

[Gearhead]

A wizard will be more adaptable to the situation, the psyblade won't do much with focus outside of dumping it into soul annihilation.

[jones092201@gmail.com]

I’ve been liking black jacket/ ascendant.

It has a little more range than you seem to be wanting, but once you get penetrating stike, you can wade in beside the tank.

 

Open with arquebus then pistols to hit ascendant

Use cipher stuff- I usually mind blades the world

Draw swords when you lose focus

One full attack is usually enough to get you back into usable focus

 

Caveat is that I’ve only hit 9

[Emeus]

If you are playing a nature godlike go fighter/enchanter, enchanter's class ability helps you get rid of dex debuffs, the lvl1 spell fleet feet grants 5 dex and will trigger nature godlike's racial ability, thus giving you +2 power level, and its spells are good for any fighter, you don't even need to invest int because spells in this school often last very long themselves.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Emeus

[Owlbear]

I also tried to figure out which one to pick from Battlemage, Psyblade and Arcane Knight. I ended up with a psyblade mostly because cipher gives a special flavor to the story with the mind tricks, also it has great passives for a melee character, and great charm and buff/debuff abilities (Psychovampiric Shield, Body Attunement, Borrowed Instinct).

 

The Battlemage sounds great, but it mostly has defensive spells that are good for a gish. Ofc, you can cast damage spells, but as a multiclassed wizard that's just not it's forte. 

 

Edit: also when it comes to companions there's Aloth for a wizard, but there are no great cipher companions. I know, maybe that's just me.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Owlbear

[csb]

I've also really enjoyed Black Jacket / Ascendant. The extra weapons slot means it's not that hard to pick up a fourth if you pick and choose Cipher spells very carefully, at which point you can open with three loadouts of ranged weapons to cap, spam dump your spells (it gets even better once you get psychic scream), and then either duel at range with high dex or swap to a melee loadout and wade in to fight. I wrote a simple AI rule to keep the fighter awareness buff active for the extra perception and aside from that I manage it myself, pretty low key and satisfying. Works well in most fights. Make sure to pick up an electric damage spell, there are a few - but tough - enemies that are immune to fire and have very high piercing resistance. 

[Luagha]

If you primarily want the mage half to buff, why not look at cleric of wael?

Wael gets some of the wizard self buffs you highlighted and Devotions is the single best example of "does this increase my chances of hitting them and reduce their chance to hit me?" around.

And it frees you from the creepy Gaunite.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Luagha

[Owlbear]

Hmm, now that I think about it, an evoker battlemage sounds like a fun character. Depends on that echo bonus they have along with that increased power level. They lose transmutation and conjuration spells, so mostly aoe debuffs, but they can still cast enchanting and illusion spells to buff themselves (also the increased recovery time doesn't really matter here because for most of these spells it's 0. 

 

I still think the Psyblade is stronger as a hybrid and ciphers are basically treated better by the game, but maybe my next character will be a battlemage or an arcane knight because both of these would give a more varied gameplay. 

[theonewhoknocks]

I've also really enjoyed Black Jacket / Ascendant. The extra weapons slot means it's not that hard to pick up a fourth if you pick and choose Cipher spells very carefully, at which point you can open with three loadouts of ranged weapons to cap, spam dump your spells (it gets even better once you get psychic scream), and then either duel at range with high dex or swap to a melee loadout and wade in to fight. I wrote a simple AI rule to keep the fighter awareness buff active for the extra perception and aside from that I manage it myself, pretty low key and satisfying. Works well in most fights. Make sure to pick up an electric damage spell, there are a few - but tough - enemies that are immune to fire and have very high piercing resistance. 

 

Hi csb. Brand new to POE and as soon as I started looking at class combinations, black jacket / ascendant immediately jumped out at me. Having some trouble figuring out how to balance my stats though, as the character creator indicates that everything except for intellect is recommended for a Psyblade. Any suggestions as to which stats I can afford to sacrifice and which ones to max out? I'm assuming perception, dex, and might are all pretty important for damage. Not so sure how much constitution and resolve I need to stay alive though.

[Luagha]

Soulblade of Wael turns out to be surprisngly effective, but monstrously boring.

I take back the suggestion entirely~

[Owlbear]

Soulblade of Wael turns out to be surprisngly effective, but monstrously boring.

 

I take back the suggestion entirely~

 

I felt the same with the psyblade, it's a really effective combination, but kinda boring. It's a fighter with a special raw damage attack. When it gets stronger it generates more source, but it will more often use it on SA than other cipher abilities. 

 

Now I started a battlemage instead with devoted/evoker subclasses and it was great fun at the beginning with various spells and abilities. Devoted and single handed style goes hand in hand, but it still feels a little bit underwhelming, so now I'm thinking of starting a streetfighter spellblade with a sword/dagger dual style. True without fighter accuracy could be a problem. I built Edér that way with fighter/rogue and he's a beast with his unique sabre and dagger.

 

My main problem with multiclasses is that you can't store level up points so mostly early on your are forced to take something even tho you already got what you wanted from that tier. :/

[SpinG22]

I'm using a Psyblade with the Devoted and Soulblade subclasses.  With the fighter's aoe stance, you just rip things apart and regain focus to use SA again and again. It's not much for a spellcaster though if you're really looking to do both.  But damn the melee attacks with a greatsword hit like a truck.  I am also using the combined whisper's of the endless path and with the aoe that greatsword gives it's just damn awesome damage.

Edited May 12, 2018 by SpinG22

[Owlbear]

I'm using a Psyblade with the Devoted and Soulblade subclasses.  With the fighter's aoe stance, you just rip things apart and regain focus to use SA again and again. It's not much for a spellcaster though if you're really looking to do both.  But damn the melee attacks with a greatsword hit like a truck.  I am also using the combined whisper's of the endless path and with the aoe that sword gives it's just damn awesome.

 

I picked single sword because of the devoted extra crit and the style bonus to crit, but I'm still drawn towards dual wield because of the full attacks and the recovery bonus. 2h just feels way too slow so I wouldn't pick it for a melee-caster multi. Also, the game is full of awesome single handed weapons, mostly swords, like this one. 

 

Psyblade is one of the simplest and strongest combination in the game, I would like to cast stuff every now and then. Wizard multis have great defense and various ways to cast spells, so while it's weaker, I kinda enjoyed my battlemage more than my psyblade

[CAlmond]

I would personally pick the cipher multiclass, because you only get a certain number of spells casts, meanwhile you generate focus all the time. And I feel like ciphers have a ton of debuffs that are really good at helping you kill enemies in melee. However I've actually never tried either combination, so I can't speak from experience.

[Owlbear]

I would personally pick the cipher multiclass, because you only get a certain number of spells casts, meanwhile you generate focus all the time. And I feel like ciphers have a ton of debuffs that are really good at helping you kill enemies in melee. However I've actually never tried either combination, so I can't speak from experience.

 

Cipher has some really nasty debuffs, but the only ones you need are the charm/domination ones.

[Maxzero]

Honestly Battlemage.

 

Go Devoted/Evoker.

 

You are tanky as hell because you can simply take Spirit Shield for +3 armour first level plus there are crazy good armour spells later. Basically you will be perma being underpen. You have a 1001 options to proc Nature Godlike for a total of +3 to Evocation spell levels.

 

You then just spam attack spells while under Disciplined strikes then melee after.

 

You can throw out Expose for -2 armour or an Empowered Fireball double hit.

[Owlbear]

While I like the battlemage it isn't anything like that thb. As a multiclass wizard you don't have the resources to "spam attack spells" and still use those defensive spells. It's more like you can start with a single rolling flame or a fireball and then hack down the rest.