Best wizard subclass?

[Jekko]

What do you all think?

I am actually quite perplexed by all these wizard subclasses, for a measly +1 powerlevel you lose a massive amount of spells and the side abilities don't seem to be worth it at all. The only two I think could be remotely useful are:

Transmuter: strong spells and druid like transformation (how strong is it?)

Evoker: again strong spells but I don't understand this echo ability (how often does it trigger and how much damage it reapplies)

[Silvaren]

Transmuter transformation is weak while the school have some good spells.

Overall there is only one subclass if you want specialized wizard - evoker, and it works purely as damage dealer.

Evoker - every time you cast evocation spell there is 15% chance for double cast of that spell. Effect occurs quite often and it happens at the end of the casting time, when the spell is finished and go for the target/area. It isn't just double damage. If you cast fireball - there is 15% chance for two "projectiles", so if there are two fireballs, each of them have separated attack rolls vs every target in the area. If you cast rolling flames, then there will be 2 balls of magma. Triggered second cast is instant, always at the end of initial cast. It's pretty devastating with spells like Minoletta's Missiles because those spells gain huge boost from Power Level, then if evoker's double cast is triggered, then evoker will shoot double number of missiles.

I killed final boss with one spell - empowered Minoletta's Missile Salvo, 16 projectiles dealt 1975 damage.

[djinnxy]

Yeah transmuter transformation needs some love. I would put conjurer on par with Evoker. The little decrease in overall damage is made up for with melee survivability/debuffs/control. I'm sure the other subs have their uses, but those are the 2 main dps because you have access to enchant buffs that trigger wellspring on nature godlike. Transmuter falls behind because of that although there are some nice priest buffs that can cover that.

Enchantment and Illusion are more utility for multiclass than anything else.

[TaKo]

Originally posted by djinnxy:

I would put conjurer on par with Evoker.

i woudlnt due to the fact that the familiar takes up the summoned creature slot, meaing you cant have the familiar and, lets say, the writhing tentacles or another class's summon

[Jekko]

Has anyone tried Citzal's Enchanted Armory? What is it about?

[djinnxy]

Originally posted by TKDancer:

Originally posted by djinnxy:

I would put conjurer on par with Evoker.

i woudlnt due to the fact that the familiar takes up the summoned creature slot, meaing you cant have the familiar and, lets say, the writhing tentacles or another class's summon

The same holds true with any of the summons. Substantial phantom and writhing tentacles are really the only 2 worth having imo. Summon one and then either lay down a web or pull of eora then maybe a wall and spam the damage spells. All the added damage of one summon a wall and a aoe dot add up fast and while that's going you're free to spam other damage, melee, or use caedebald's bow. Before the bow the blights are nice damage.

[Lemurian1972]

Originally posted by Silvaren:

Transmuter transformation is weak while the school have some good spells.

I started a specialized Transmuter build and it was going well, until I found the hidden nerf that makes it really tough to love.

When you transform it creates something called Ragged Armor in your armor slot. I'd be fine losing the benefits of my regular armor or the armor rating, except for one thing. This thing has a 100% recovery penalty. I could live with it if it had the same penalty as Heavy Armor, but doubling that is just too much. That on top of forced to be Unarmed without the benefits Druid Spirit shifts get for those attacks, and I'm having trouble staying in love with my idea. Also a bummer that it is Combat only so no transforming to terrify people while running around or during conversations.

It was going to be a really fun theme build too, a child sized Godlike, cute as a button who transformed into a corpse eating monster when you ticked her off.

[Jekko]

Originally posted by Valdr:

What do you all think?

I am actually quite perplexed by all these wizard subclasses, for a measly +1 powerlevel you lose a massive amount of spells and the side abilities don't seem to be worth it at all. The only two I think could be remotely useful are:

Transmuter: strong spells and druid like transformation (how strong is it?)

Evoker: again strong spells but I don't understand this echo ability (how often does it trigger and how much damage it reapplies)

I see, then evoker seems to be the only worthwile atm.

[TaKo]

Originally posted by djinnxy:

Substantial phantom and writhing tentacles are really the only 2 worth having imo

yes but at least they do smth other than stand around giving me a background buff

[djinnxy]

Originally posted by TKDancer:

Originally posted by djinnxy:

Substantial phantom and writhing tentacles are really the only 2 worth having imo

yes but at least they do smth other than stand around giving me a background buff

That's the gist of it yes. The summon familiar is pretty useless. The only advantage is the + 1 power level and you can still use self buff to get wellspring on nature godlike for another +2 along with faster cast times on the conjuration spells. If you want big single target damage you still have access to transmutation school spells. I've tried a lot of builds in beta and after release.

Evoker is top dps in the game. Conjurer is likely second. There are a number of monk/cipher/fighter/rogue/paladin combos that are close behind conjurer and a couple druid builds. They nerfed backstabs or assassin/bleakwalker would be top dog. Some of that doesn't consider post release gear or different mob resistances and immunities.

Edit: Priest of wael/bleak walker is probably up around the top 5 combos also. Once you move down to 3rd place there's a lot of room for different classes to move up or down. They're fairly close other than anything monk holds an edge on most.

[TaKo]

Originally posted by djinnxy:

Evoker is top dps in the game. Conjurer is likely second..

i'll admit i was surprised to see how many offensive spells were tagged as conjuration

and even more surprised that conceuhalt's doom hammer was... illusion(i modded it into conjuration in my game cause... come on)

[Silvaren]

Originally posted by Valdr:

Has anyone tried Citzal's Enchanted Armory? What is it about?

It summons Breastplate and dual wielding two handed sword + morning star (double two-handed weapon!), all of them with legendary enchantement (+4 Armor, +60% damage, +16 accuracy).

Summoned weapons scale with character level instead of power level because Josh Sawyer wanted them to be valuable for multiclass characters.

Here is how Citzal's Enchanted Armory looks:
https://i.imgur.com/GYfoICj.jpg
And the topic on official forum:
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97605-spells-and-abilities-discussion-thread/?hl=%2Bcitzal+%2Barmory#entry2010408