How to protect wizard?

[nimrock]

I use Fane as wizard I invested most points in pyromancy. In combat I have the similiar problem.
Once combat starts my party is crowded and as weaker character he is quickly got killed by enemies using area effect attacks.
Enemies seems also make him their priority target.
I put some points in his endurance, trying to get best armor I can but usualy he goes down even before he can do anything.
Most of my fights ends up with him dead and I have to use many scrolls.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

[Yojo0o]

First off, don't rely on armor, and especially don't rely on health. Tanking hits doesn't last long in this game, especially once your armor is gone. That said, if you're not using a shield on him, giving him a good shield with a wand is a great way to give yourself some wiggle room against AoE damage.

The best way to avoid damage is to prevent enemies from getting to attack you in the first place. Death and crowd control are essential tools every single turn. This is not a game where trading blows is a winning strategy.

Other than that, abilities that prevent Fane from getting hit or targeted in the first place work well. Uncanny Evasion from Aerothurge and Chameleon Cloak from Polymorph are the two big names in that department.

[Stormwind]

One way to avoid area effect attacks is to unchain your party and split them up a little bit before attacks.

Remember that combat is turn based but out of combat is realtime, so if a fight starts with your party seperated, you can always wait on your turn to bring a party member into combat....even if he is literally across the map!

But spread out a little, have someone take advantage of that terrain elevation over there, etc.

[Chaoslink]

Yup, get a shield if you don't have one. Mages are naturally the best tanks because using shields on anyone else is a waste.

[nimrock]

Hah!
I must think stereotypically, never even thought about mage with shield.
Thanks for your help. Will try it.

[Chaoslink]

Yeah, melee and shield builds are pretty bad. Dagger/shield is ok, but sword and board is meh.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by nimrock:

Hah!
I must think stereotypically, never even thought about mage with shield.
Thanks for your help. Will try it.

As Chaoslink said above, DOS2 is pretty opposite to the standard DnD-inspired build archetypes. Mages make great use of shields. Melee characters generally don't, preferring a two-hander or dual-wielding to kill or incapacitate enemies as efficiently as possible.

To be clear, it depends what stage of the game you're at. It's never BAD to use a shield on a mage, and is often quite helpful to prevent them from getting focused, as in your experience. In the very early game, dual-wielding wands is another viable option as a damage option before you have enough spells to consistently have available things to do beyond auto-attacking. And later on in the game, advanced players use mage weapon slots for big crit weapons to deal massive spell damage thanks to the Savage Sortilege talent. But for now, as a baseline mage build, one wand plus a shield is a great way to stay alive and make things happen in fights.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by nimrock:

Hah!
I must think stereotypically, never even thought about mage with shield.
Thanks for your help. Will try it.

As Chaoslink said above, DOS2 is pretty opposite to the standard DnD-inspired build archetypes. Mages make great use of shields. Melee characters generally don't, preferring a two-hander or dual-wielding to kill or incapacitate enemies as efficiently as possible.

To be clear, it depends what stage of the game you're at. It's never BAD to use a shield on a mage, and is often quite helpful to prevent them from getting focused, as in your experience. In the very early game, dual-wielding wands is another viable option as a damage option before you have enough spells to consistently have available things to do beyond auto-attacking. And later on in the game, advanced players use mage weapon slots for big crit weapons to deal massive spell damage thanks to the Savage Sortilege talent. But for now, as a baseline mage build, one wand plus a shield is a great way to stay alive and make things happen in fights.

Also a very good explanation. This is generally what I do myself honestly. Early game the poison/fire wands are deadly as the first creates a poison surface that adds a poison DoT and the second detonates it into a fire DoT. You get the damage from both wands, the DoTs and the surface as well as the explosion. Very potent.

Then you drop the offhand for a shield for the midgame until you start finding high crit weapons. Late game you dual wield literally any weapons with high crit. If you can get two 20% crit uniques, whether they're swords, daggers or whatever, you use them for the stat stick effects and become a critical hitting god (literally). Though that late game shield with the permanent Death Wish is nasty too...

Then again on a random side note, me using wands is different than most people it seems because I have a weird bug that has been with me forever. Apparently my main hand on player-made characters I control only will deal their main hand wand damage twice, once instantly when cast and another when the projectile lands. I've never been able to fix it, get someone else to replicate it or even figure out why. So I tend to avoid using my wands much because they do way too much damage.

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

Originally posted by nimrock:

Hah!
I must think stereotypically, never even thought about mage with shield.
Thanks for your help. Will try it.

Never played Diablo 2? Mage with Shields are pretty common.

Also don't forget uncanny evasion or even invisibility.

[Mrvecz]

Plus the block chance is another, occassional help. Given that it can also block arrows and bolts and another hidden advantage is that the character turns in the attackers direction so if the character faces a backstabbing enemy and turns to face them, they need to waste AP to get behind them again.

[ShiZniTe]

give your caster/wizard a teleporting ability like tactical retreat or pheonix dive. also make sure before combat starts hes in position behind the main tank/warrior character, also give him haste so he can position better. also i like to try and force enemies into a single group before casting damage spells, which can sometimes be annoying, but once you do you can start creating a bunch of corpses in one area, which is great for bone armor and mass corpse explosion.

[nimrock]

Thats a lot of usefull suggestions.
Thx guys, will be trying shield and protective spells.

[Chaoslink]

Also, never underestimate the power of the Worm Tremor and Torturer combo. Its probably the most broken thing in the game right now. Armor piercing root for 3 turns is crazy strong, especially with how big the AoE is.