Is Stargazer a worthwhile class to play?

[krazbobeans]

I'm guessing this is a spell caster class where I should be putting points into Mind and using my spells a lot? Is that the right idea?

I have only just beat the first boss but I only used my main attack to kill him. I forgot all about the RB+X attack and I avoided using the Lightning spell you get because it's extremely sluggish and I can't dodge or jump away fast enough when I've been using it. So in general I probably won't use spells if they all make the characters reactions slower. Does this class get better or would I have more fun with a different one?

[60mph gorilla]

I started as Stargazer simply because it had the whip and I wanted that vampire hunter feel. Ultimately though if you don't like spells just allocate your stats into other things. Personally I just stuck with the whip + the special move. Its special move is very potent against big bosses and found it much more useful than most of the spells. Later on though you will get a lightning based barrier that deals dot damage if you take hits, and another one that deals pretty hefty damage by slamming down in front of them so don't rule out spells quite yet.

[dgresevfan]

You can get the same whip behind a wall in the city area anyway by the way...

I don't have many points in mind so that's probably why, but for me magic is super underwhelming. Even when a damage number SOUNDS high it's actually just a couple of weapon hits and takes a huge pile of focus to use.

There are exceptions such as the fireball that explodes into multiple spinning fireballs on hit.

The main issue is that spells like fireballs seem to go through enemies and explode on the other side of the screen and you don't always want it to go that far.

[Black Captain]

The stargazer is fine. But I recommend speccing into str or instinct. You won’t get good spells until
Halfway through the game. You need a good weapon. The whip is okay but there are better options. The special attack isn’t as good as certain spells or other arts. Dec is okay to go into but str is king.

[quintonhoffert]

The Stargazer is a tricky recommend. There are definitely some powerful spells in the game, even early game, but your Focus bar will be very small even with a lot of investment into Mind until a good bit through. Each of 5 major bosses awards you a special key item that drastically boosts your HP, Focus and Power bars. With one or two of them, you'll have enough Focus to use your spells a good amount, and you'll be able to access good enough Focus healing items to not spend too much time refilling your bar. Before that point, you can still get a decent amount of Focus healing items, but you'll spend as much time using items as you will casting spells and your DPS will barely be better than if you'd just been attacking. The early game spells are also often melee-range, and so you won't really be any safer than if you'd just been a melee build.

Magic does, however, become very strong later in the game when you gain access to some truly powerful spells. Magic also doesn't suffer from softcaps; unlike weapons, which have much weaker damage gains after 50 points in the relevant stats, spells don't have a softcap (or if they do it's much weaker than the softcap for weapons) and continue to gain strong returns even beyond 50 points in Mind. As a result, you'll feel like an old school D&D-style Wizard in that "Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards" will firmly be in play. With the right set up you can do way more damage with endgame magic than you can get with weapons, but your early game will be weaker than other builds.

If you're looking for an additional challenge then I would recommend starting as the Stargazer, but if you're looking for the easiest way through the game then I would recommend instead starting with either a Strength or Dexterity build. Whichever one you start with, you can later spec into Mind when you get to the mid-game and start getting some better spells. Around that point you'll be strong enough to face the Starlight Beast of Illygarth, which drops a strong Mind-based weapon that scales C-Strength, C-Dex, B-Mind (after all upgrades), so whichever path you started on you'll have a weapon that works with it and will benefit from going into Mind after you get it. From there, if you went Strength you can keep using it to the endgame or swap to the Spinal Chain Blade (C-Strength A-Mind), and if you went Dex then you can swap to the Devourer of the Betrayed (D-Dex S-Mind), which is super fast and strong but is extremely late game because it requires the double jump, the last movement upgrade you acquire. Around that point you'll also acquire some of the more powerful spells and your Mind build will pop off.

[paladin181]

Originally posted by Black Captain:

The stargazer is fine. But I recommend speccing into str or instinct. You won’t get good spells until
Halfway through the game. You need a good weapon. The whip is okay but there are better options. The special attack isn’t as good as certain spells or other arts. Dec is okay to go into but str is king.

At least until you unlock rift of blood. Then Dex/str/mind is boss. Of course str weapons need fewer levels, but if you have everything st 55 anyway, the Rift of Blood is the best weapon in the game with dps, range and a good charge attack.

[Dragon20070]

I started as a stargazer and having no major problems. Until now didn't find any really powerful spell though. Just 2 which are meh. The whip is really powerful for the range, but not for the damage, by upgrading it, it will scale a little better with mind.

I think I am half the way to the end and used 90% the whip so I dunno if there will be better spells. I hope so though :D

[quintonhoffert]

Originally posted by paladin181:

Originally posted by Black Captain:

The stargazer is fine. But I recommend speccing into str or instinct. You won’t get good spells until
Halfway through the game. You need a good weapon. The whip is okay but there are better options. The special attack isn’t as good as certain spells or other arts. Dec is okay to go into but str is king.

At least until you unlock rift of blood. Then Dex/str/mind is boss. Of course str weapons need fewer levels, but if you have everything st 55 anyway, the Rift of Blood is the best weapon in the game with dps, range and a good charge attack.

Rift of Blood is fine but it isn't so good for mostly a Mind build. Its scaling is C-Strength, B-Dex and D-Mind. You'll get better gains out of the Devourer of the Betrayed since it has an S scaling in Mind. Its total DPS is lower than the Rift of Blood but only if you have the softcap in all three scaling stats. If you're only going to get to 50 in one stat, or maybe 2, then Devourer of the Betrayed will do better for you than Rift of Blood.

That being said, you CAN get Rift of Blood substantially earlier than the Devourer of the Betrayed. Devourer requires you to have Double Jump, which requires beating Manfredd and being almost at the end of the game. Rift of Blood merely requires that you have the air dash, which you can get more like 40-50% through.

[graveisthis]

They're all the same in the end. It's just what ya start off as

[paladin181]

Originally posted by quintonhoffert:

Originally posted by paladin181:

At least until you unlock rift of blood. Then Dex/str/mind is boss. Of course str weapons need fewer levels, but if you have everything st 55 anyway, the Rift of Blood is the best weapon in the game with dps, range and a good charge attack.

Rift of Blood is fine but it isn't so good for mostly a Mind build. Its scaling is C-Strength, B-Dex and D-Mind. You'll get better gains out of the Devourer of the Betrayed since it has an S scaling in Mind. Its total DPS is lower than the Rift of Blood but only if you have the softcap in all three scaling stats. If you're only going to get to 50 in one stat, or maybe 2, then Devourer of the Betrayed will do better for you than Rift of Blood.

That being said, you CAN get Rift of Blood substantially earlier than the Devourer of the Betrayed. Devourer requires you to have Double Jump, which requires beating Manfredd and being almost at the end of the game. Rift of Blood merely requires that you have the air dash, which you can get more like 40-50% through.

Considering the argument I was responding to was Dex vs Str, sure.

[quintonhoffert]

Originally posted by paladin181:

Originally posted by quintonhoffert:

Rift of Blood is fine but it isn't so good for mostly a Mind build. Its scaling is C-Strength, B-Dex and D-Mind. You'll get better gains out of the Devourer of the Betrayed since it has an S scaling in Mind. Its total DPS is lower than the Rift of Blood but only if you have the softcap in all three scaling stats. If you're only going to get to 50 in one stat, or maybe 2, then Devourer of the Betrayed will do better for you than Rift of Blood.

That being said, you CAN get Rift of Blood substantially earlier than the Devourer of the Betrayed. Devourer requires you to have Double Jump, which requires beating Manfredd and being almost at the end of the game. Rift of Blood merely requires that you have the air dash, which you can get more like 40-50% through.

Considering the argument I was responding to was Dex vs Str, sure.

Ah, fair enough. I don't know what I was thinking when I replied but I clearly wasn't reading carefully. Your argument makes a lot more sense now. Sorry.

[CitizenKing]

I started as a Rogue and ended up with more Mind than Stargazer starts with, so you don't really need to worry about your starting class. The only stat I never made use of was Instinct.

[paladin181]

Originally posted by quintonhoffert:

Originally posted by paladin181:

Considering the argument I was responding to was Dex vs Str, sure.

Ah, fair enough. I don't know what I was thinking when I replied but I clearly wasn't reading carefully. Your argument makes a lot more sense now. Sorry.

No worries.

[Delight]

To whoever posted that you need to put your points into other stats at the start of stargazer, that is exactly right! You just won't get good spells till you kill the 2nd boss (but you can get a falcon punch fire spell that is massive) XD I picked up the cleaver and never went back. So it's a mix of falcon fire punch and cleaver, before gaining those other spells for me. I say at least build your strength up to 14, then focus on your gun and mind, so your mana doesn't depelte. Im at a healthy 22 vit (and kept it there) and thats been doing okay for me