Embermage stat points

[Mati]

Hi! Could you get me some advice about spending stat points as an embermage? with numbers please. Currently I spend it on focus and vitality 3:2 and I got wand and shield. I'm not easy to kill and got good damage, but some people use dexterity too and I'm confused.

[JakGrant]

Dex is for fumble chance and crit and dodge. Assuming you're going to be staying at ranged. It's up to you how much dex you want to up your crit figures. There's no set amount of dex really to pick, it's up to the individual. As long as you don't concentrate on Str, you can't really go that wrong. Some people would favour more vit on the higher difficulties of veteran and in particular elite. But again, that's personal choice. How much vit you really want is always going to be dependent on how much damage you're taking. You could also switch to two wands for extra magic and damage of course.

[Nick]

Strength = leave at 0.
Dexterity = put it to 100-150.
Focus = should be 300+.
Vitality = only for gear requirements.

Strength won't help if your building a traditional spellcaster. Every single character using left click normal attacks should have 100 Dex to avoid soul crushingly low fumble damage. Focus is the most important stat for magic wielders. Vitality HP/point is low and not worth the investment. My Engineer got away with having 90 points.

[Mati]

@Onikuma thanks... but I got few questions. My english is not so good so tell me what does it mean: "100 Dex to avoid soul crushingly low fumble damage." don't know meaning of these words so...:)

[JakGrant]

He just means to make sure your dex is at 100, so your attacks don't fumble as much. Fumble damage shows up as I believe purple coloured damage if you have combat stuff showing on full.

[Mati]

But... but... I don't understand meaning of these words: soul crushingly and fumble damage.

[Fearsyth]

soul crushingly - in other words, very low.
fumble - a term used in the game to describe a partial hit.

[Mati]

Ok thanks.

[Lord Byte]

VItality is very good if you go shield + wand (which gives you better total bonusses than just a staff AND for a decent block chance). Don't write it off it really helps out blocking 25% of all projectiles and melee attacks (which is easy to get).

[Candesco]

Originally posted by JupileRLord Byte:

VItality is very good if you go shield + wand (which gives you better total bonusses than just a staff AND for a decent block chance). Don't write it off it really helps out blocking 25% of all projectiles and melee attacks (which is easy to get).

Focus is better for a mage. That's the most important to a mage, cause it helps to have more mana (and you want to have alot of mana) and it helps to perform critical hits. Vitality is also good to have, but not as much as focus. Vitality is more important for close combat. Besides, there are some nifty spells around which freezes enemies or make short work of them. There goes the saying that attack is the best defense and that surely goes up for the embermage.

[Mivo]

I wouldn't get more than 53 dex for the dodge and crit. After that (10%), the diminishing returns make it a worse choice than focus. Just dump most points into focus, and vit only as much as you feel you need (which in non-HC could well mean zero points, but that depends a little on gear, spec and playstyle).

[igortroy]

Focus is indeed the most important stat, but playing on Veteran or Elite - Vitality is second.
high HP and high chance to block using a shield (which is an absolute must for mage at this difficulty) will make sure you don't die every 10 seconds.
Dexterity is third for that crit chance and more importantly dodge chance.
Strength is useless and should depend on item bonuses only.

I'd say 0:1:3:1 every levelup (STR:DEX:FOCUS:VIT), or even 0:1:2:2 for the extremely careful.

EDIT: and I forgot to mention - go for gear with casting speed bonuses. they make gameplay much easier. and put a few skill points into Frost Phase - for a quick getaway when the going gets tough - even if your build isn't Frost.

[Francis]

I build my mage in veteran as 0:0:4:1 (str:dex:foc:vit), I use magma spear as main atack spell (have it at 5, but will max it) and fire pilars as 2nd. Also spended some points at 1st and 2nd passives in fire and ice trees, for charge, better burning, armor reduction (i use staff) and freezes after kills. And I have one point in Frost Phase for fast evade. It work nice for me, but I play in party with my bro (2h enginer with healing bot). For solo I'd go 0:0:3:2 or something, and try'd use some high def equipment.

[Mati]

That's how i though... on veteran I need more vitality/block etc on normal just focus :P

[JakGrant]

If you can stay at ranged and avoid incoming ranged attacks, spells arrows, etc, you don't need massive amounts of vitality though. That's the thing. It all depends how much you let yourself be hit, as to how much vitality you need. Given you're playing an embermage with a wand and a shield you should be able to stay at max range, hence in theory you really don't need that much vitality. You need some and always need some, but how much vitality you need, only you and no one else can decide for you, you've got to realise how much damage you're taking and adjust your vitality based on that.

[igortroy]

Originally posted by Mati:

That's how i though... on veteran I need more vitality/block etc on normal just focus :P

leveling up your Embermage in Veteran or Elite requires a shield, but from a certain point (around the end of 1st playthrough) everything tends to 1-shot or 2-shot you anyways, so block starts being just the difference between 5 seconds alive and 7 seconds alive...
that's when I switched to staff and dual wands and started investing only in Focus and Dex (0:1:4:0) for high damage and critical hits, keeping the accumulated Vit for HP.
my "Emberlord" is now lvl 100, in Act 1 Elite NG+++, but It's impossible so I switched to Berserker in Normal. easier and a lot more fun :)