Hey, here's how you do a mage, peeps.

[AH-1 Cobra]

AKA Chad Mage. I changed a few things to add in additional damage, also for stats, I recommend a ratio of 70 or 75 toughness to 25-30 willpower investment to take better advantage of ailment procs from Immortal Offering, and the stasis proc from time weaver. These combined with retaliator are the best damage increases you can get for a mage, and you can still be tankier than wearing rags, just a little less tanky than the original build.

Tree:
https://wolcen-universe.com/builds/GB95QO-tanky-mage

Gear is in the link below, it's decent but not exactly god tier. Majority of it is still rares, with few legs. The build works even if your gear isn't as good as mine, or if you got better stuff than me. Once you get to end game running fully modded expeditions, with magic find in the 130+ range, rares start dropping like hotcakes, and you actually get more rares dropping than non-rares. Honestly, so many rares drop that I can't possibly loot and examine them all (or I'd spend 20+ minutes per floor.....), so I've probably left some potential upgrades laying on the ground......

https://i.ibb.co/HhmM8QB/MyGear.png

The damage on this build comes from stacking several sources of DoT.

You can stack Anomaly x2, Bulkwark of Dawn has a DoT, and you can drop Solar Fall on a location, and either spam staff attacks to keep willpower up, or use Annihilation or Infinity Blades for even more damage. I personally prefer Annihilation, but you could use Infinity Blades or some other spell, anything that does occult damage, really.

It's difficult to figure out the actual DPS of this build, due to the mechanics of the above spells. For example, Anomaly damages when it pulls the target, but also has a residual DoT, and then you can cast 2 vortexes. Solar fall has a tick rate, and a residual DoT with ground effect mod. This build does plenty of damage, that's not an issue, at least right now. I have no clue how this build will scale at level 90 though, but I'm currently level 60 running level 75+ stuff, and it still reks.

Also, 76k HP with 60%+ resists, and close to 15% leech from spell damage. I can't die. It's practically impossible for me to die if I'm attacking and have bulwark up. I haven't died once on expeditions since I've been running this, and I always run max modded areas for the extra +100% magic find. This build is so tanky, that I can open up all chests at the same time at a greed shrine, and face tank all the champs + adds and nuke them all....against enemies 15 levels above me with maximum mods.....I can stand still and kill them all.

I'm sure someone has a mage build that does more damage, but are they as tanky as me?

As far as where to go on the tree for levels higher than 60, I'd seek out anything that gives extra damage. Additional movement speed nodes would be good too, and there are a few you can get to pretty quick. I'd also consider the possibility of doing a stat split between toughness and some other stat, and speccing into ailments if that's the most efficient way to get extra damage. But the build above is in a very good spot for level 60.

[AH-1 Cobra]

First time I did Wrath of Sarisel, it was vs mobs 15 levels above me, I smoked everything, and got S+. My HP hardly moved, I face tanked and spanked everything. I got hit by that spear grapple move by that one guy, and it took a small chunk of my HP, which instantly healed back. I'd imagine that's a oneshot for a lot of builds, didn't even phase me.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2000218668

[AH-1 Cobra]

Chad vs Virgin meme applies for Mages in Wolcen too.

Chad Mage:

- Face tanks the boss, like a boss.
- Nukes mobs while standing still, laughing at his attackers
- Specs every single point into Toughness
- Wears heavy armor
- Blocks attacks with a staff

Virgin Mage:

- Has to kite the boss to not be oneshotted
- Has to kite mobs and rely on pets to tank for them
- Specs into Willpower exclusively
- Wears rags
- Doesn't block attacks with a staff

[AH-1 Cobra]

I had some difficulties early game beating Edric, and getting killed while trying to run a Virgin Mage as described above, and I got sick of it. I got tired of failing to dodge attacks, so I'm gonna only play builds that don't have to dodge ♥♥♥♥, and can still kill whatever is on the screen without too much effort.

This is a low effort, maximum results build.

If I wanted to play a bullet hell game, there are better bullet hell games out there, and I've never been good at those games, so when dodging attacks in APRGs starts to approach bullet hell levels of ridiculousness, I stop trying to engage the mechanics anymore at that point, and look for builds that can just face tank all the BS. Anyway, here it is, and it works.

[AH-1 Cobra]

If anyone runs something similar to this, but does something a little different, I'd be interested in seeing what others or doing, because I might adapt mine if for example, your setup is just as tanky but has a bit more damage. I'm at the point now where a few mods with an extra +8% spell damage don't give much, so it would need to take advantage of some kinda node mechanic to boost the damage by a sizable amount in some way.

I tried disallowing vessel with siege breaker, but it sacrifices mobility for extra damage, and to be perfectly honest, at this point it's not a good trade. It makes my clear speed slower, however if at any point extra damage from disallowing vessel becomes more efficient than the movement speed penalty for my clearing speed, I'm already right there so I could just grab it.

[Mark]

u could go with my build too where ive made the staff atks god like and walk through everything with nothing but auto atks.. kinda feels like im not a mage though.

if u go through sentinel to ranger to white arrow and arms master. thats the core build, also extra dmg in warlock , once u get that u can put everything into survival if u want.

pretty much want your staff bouncing 5 times and 4th atk with 50% more dmg and 3 projectiles, so forth atk does 450% dmg essentially. its actually really good build to combine with stun and freeze.

and yes i know this is prolly ♥♥♥♥ but im gonna run it until it stops being amazing , cause it still instantly clears everything pretty much





just had to post this to ur "This is a low effort, maximum results build." mines much lower effort

[Hopscotch]

Tanking... there's no need to tank when the enemy dies before he can attack.
My Bleeding Edge build does 220k crits, the bosses break and die before they can attack.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Mark:

u could go with my build too where ive made the staff atks god like and walk through everything with nothing but auto atks.. kinda feels like im not a mage though.

if u go through sentinel to ranger to white arrow and arms master. thats the core build, also extra dmg in warlock , once u get that u can put everything into survival if u want.

pretty much want your staff bouncing 5 times and 4th atk with 50% more dmg and 3 projectiles, so forth atk does 450% dmg essentially. its actually really good build to combine with stun and freeze.

and yes i know this is prolly ♥♥♥♥ but im gonna run it until it stops being amazing , cause it still instantly clears everything pretty much

just had to post this to ur "This is a low effort, maximum results build." mines much lower effort

Does it do more DPS than the build I'm using is the question? I know melee can do insane damage by using that skill that gives 50 damage per shield block %, but that's gonna get nerfed eventually. If you can do more DPS with auto attacks than I can by stacking the DOT from a bunch of spells, then I might try yours.

[Nishven]

Originally posted by Hopscotch:

Tanking... there's no need to tank when the enemy dies before he can attack.
My Bleeding Edge build does 220k crits, the bosses break and die before they can attack.

Bleeding Edge is definitely broken :x

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Hopscotch:

Tanking... there's no need to tank when the enemy dies before he can attack.
My Bleeding Edge build does 220k crits, the bosses break and die before they can attack.

I got a bleeding edge build too, and it does more than that. In part thanks to the legendary shield I found with 40% block.

If you wanna know something really funny, I've oneshot bosses with the juggernaut skill. Does 1.6m+ when it blows up. I've ran up and auto attacked bosses until it blows up, and it smokes the boss. 2-3 sec kill, nothing but auto attack + juggernaut, and this was a level 88 boss.

[Arkamedeez]

"here's how you do a mage"

clicks a bunch of red nodes

[Mitcherel]

Yo I bought the game yesterday and was looking for a decent mage tank build so thanks. Might be a troll question but the trees are mirrored so I cant tell which path you've gone down e.g Cabalist or warlock, praetorian or warmonger. Any help would be great

[what am i doing]

Looks like Warlock for the mage tree in the second ring, Siegebreaker for the warrior tree in the third ring. That should indicate the orientation. I am assuming based off regen and life leech amount.

[Cel]

What spell do you have bound to 3?

Any details on which mods you're using for the core spells?

[what am i doing]

Originally posted by Arkamedeez:

"here's how you do a mage"

clicks a bunch of red nodes

MUSCLE WIZARD

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Cel:

What spell do you have bound to 3?

Any details on which mods you're using for the core spells?

For solar fall, the main mods is the one that allows you to drop it on a location, and not channel it, and the one that leaves a DoT on the ground.

For Anomaly, the mod that damages mobs when they get pulled, the one that makes it keep pulling mobs for the entire duration, and of course the mod that lets you use 2 vortexes (can cast it twice per cooldown).

For annihilation, I go with willpower reduction, and the piercing mod. The piercing mod has synergy with anomaly and solar fall, allowing you to hit a group of mobs pulled into one spot with the piercing mod.

For parasite, I go with extra damage for pets, and leech willpower mod.

For Livor Mortis, I used the thunder element mod, and then go with extra HP/speed/damage mods.