Dear hc people, how to build a sparky wizard?

[Freeman]

You're a wizard, Harry!

But alas I don't have harry's chops. So dear pros, hardcore people and other jedis, what is the way to be an electromancer?

I tried one run and did ok around Osbrook but it turned out I wasn't man enough for Mannshire. Sweet Jesus, that brigand boss hit almost 50 dmg every hit! I felt it in real world. I didn't remember difficulty spiked that much.

First, melee skills or not? One kind dev recommended hail of blows but I hesitate. Going Donetello against my enemies sounds funky but no amount of ninjutsu is going to keep my frail wizard alive against such an hoss as my previously mentioned 'friend' the brigand leader - and there will be even tougher enemies ahead. There's just no way I can go toe to toe against guys who hit twice as hard as god.

Maybe dash would keep me alive? But staying alive is not enough. How to murder those who have it coming?

My first thought is to pump willpower until I get 2nd or even 3rd tier spells to generate some proper violence. Books are unreliable and expensive so willpower it must be. But spells drain energy like nuts. Sooner or later I must take vitality - or must I?

Is there a way to keep enemies from disarming claw traps? Are they just against animals? Is crossbow plinking viable for wizzies? Why thrown nets miss so damn often?

Experiences? Recommendations? Everything is welcome.

[Panic! At The Costco™]

Best bet with Joanna is to dip into other schools of magic and get rock 'ard with Rock Armour. Or into Pyro for some direct damage.

I agree with the dev that early on dipping into some melee isn't a bad call as you need direct damage.

[jotwebe]

Currently in a similar situation. It looks like Electromancy is pretty weak as a pure mage school, at least at the start. My plan is to do the willpower pumping thing and hope it gets better. I think one can get by with save-scumming enchantments for energy and energy restoration, and gear that way. Stacking gear with spell cost reduction also worked quite well on my old pyro run, but that's more of a late game thing.

Staff is pretty fun, the staves themselves suck as weapons, but once you have most of the staff tree, you'll crit, block and knockback like crazy, and spark magicks should synergize very well with that. Staff crits also restore energy. Main problem with that is that if you use skill points on staff (and maybe Opportune Moment and Offensive Tactics and the Dash->Evasion line in Athletics) you won't see the higher Electromancy skills and I for one do want to see them. I'd expect it to be viable, though.

Crossbow plinking should be viable-ish, though IMO you need at least a hunting crossbow and bodkin bolts for it to be worthwhile, "Arcane Archer" might be a possible build - you get big bonus damage on immobilised targets with the 2nd tier passives and bows immobilise on crit.

Undead will walk right into traps (unless they float ofc). I think if you put the trap up outside of their LOS bandits will also walk into them, but not 100% sure on that. It's a bit of a pain to set that up. Bandits (trying to) disarm isn't a total loss, they'll at least use up a turn, causing others to bunch up and letting DoT stuff do it's thing.

Nets being so inaccurate is a pet peeve of mine, especially since those damn net throwers never miss. Sucks.

Throw alcohol bottles (preferably cheap ones) or even better, bottles filled with water, at enemies for a light debuff/bonus to shock damage.

Thyme gives 7 points of energy outright and a bit of higher regen, worth picking up for emergency use. Carry two waterskins so you can afford the thirst. Carry two waterskins anyway, you can toss away one on your way back if you need the space for loot.

TLDR; You're doing the right things already mostly, pure Electromancy kinda sucks is all.

[Psojed]

Originally posted by Freeman:

my frail wizard

Why not simply build for a wizard that isn't so frail?

It makes sense that people think wizards should wear their wizard robes and casting accessories, but if said wizard doesn't have enough OOMPH and often needs to bonk their enemies on the head to finish them off, why not make an armored wizard for the time being?

Protection is the universal goodness against all manner of dangers you might encounter, and the early game light to medium armor won't even hamper your magic capabilities. You can store your casting robes at the inn and reach for them at a later date once your true wizard power is unlocked.

---

Both shields and crossbows are universally useful.

Unless you found a really good high damage 2h weapon, damage of 1-handers is usually very close to their 2h counterparts. Having 15-35% chance to block attacks is very helpful when you need to bonk something, plus some light shields even offer some Counter Chance.

Crossbow early game suffers from missing a lot of shots, so you might be better off using even a weak spell like Jolt if you need to hit, but shooting will save your energy.

[Kirkis]

Staves (hail of blows), Seal of Power, and both electromancy skills should help you get started.

[Freeman]

Originally posted by Panic! At The Costco™:

snip

"How to be a good electromancer?"

"Grab fire barrage."

Savage! :D

Many thanks for prompt comments. My main gripe is that 1. i can't kill enemies fast enough and 2. my fancy sparkly spells can't prevent them from closing in. Thus 3. I'm in melee which I can't win except against total pushovers who couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag.

1. is more important since if successful it would make points 2 and 3 redundant anyway.

Staff is nice but it's zero-sum game. If i boost my staffery it's away from spells - and I don't believe staffomancy would keep me alive unless I'm so geared and skilled I no longer need it anyway.

Yeah I considered carrying a dagger and a light shield but it's still no conan the barbarian in melee. If I wear armor it will kill my magics deader than dead and that's not why I went wizard in the first place. Honestly I'd rather keep enemies as far, far away as possible. Saves the burial bill, you understand.

[Freeman]

Originally posted by King Emmanuel:

Staves (hail of blows), Seal of Power, and both electromancy skills should help you get started.

Yeah that was recommended in some earlier threads but won't hail be redundant before long? Later when I got more zap than zeus I won't melee much I guess.

But worth a try.

[MagikarpMagi]

Originally posted by Psojed:

why not make an armored wizard for the time being?

You can mix and match to an extent, but by the time you have a useful amount of armor you will be suffering from higher casting costs and end up just being a weak melee character with an underwhelming jolt.
If you get good encounters you'll be ok, but you're probably screwed if you open a dungeon door to 3 dudes. Tedious leveling, but anything is possible.

I ran a spell sword a couple updates ago and that was fun. Dual wielding and pyro with mage robes.
But that was also back when I could just restart until I got a sword treatise for the mage. Could always go daggers, though.

[Psojed]

Originally posted by CritMasterFlex:

You can mix and match to an extent, but by the time you have a useful amount of armor you will be suffering from higher casting costs and end up just being a weak melee character with an underwhelming jolt.
If you get good encounters you'll be ok, but you're probably screwed if you open a dungeon door to 3 dudes. Tedious leveling, but anything is possible.

I ran a spell sword a couple updates ago and that was fun. Dual wielding and pyro with mage robes.
But that was also back when I could just restart until I got a sword treatise for the mage. Could always go daggers, though.

I have a level 8 pure electromancer on current patch, and I've levelled two pyromancers on previous patches.

Armor does not increase spell casting costs in any way. Weapons do. Go dagger if it's a problem.
The "underwhelming jolt" along with Static Field is what killed a Brigand Warlock - a late game caster miniboss that incorrectly spawned in mannshire dungeons until patch 0.8.0.2 fixed it. It's not "mix and match", you need armor to survive. Not to mention that early game, the best caster gear you'll find will probably be the Novice Mage Robe, which is ~ on par with Jonna's starting gear, so you shouldn't even consider buying it.

[MagikarpMagi]

Originally posted by Psojed:

Originally posted by CritMasterFlex:

You can mix and match to an extent, but by the time you have a useful amount of armor you will be suffering from higher casting costs and end up just being a weak melee character with an underwhelming jolt.
If you get good encounters you'll be ok, but you're probably screwed if you open a dungeon door to 3 dudes. Tedious leveling, but anything is possible.

I ran a spell sword a couple updates ago and that was fun. Dual wielding and pyro with mage robes.
But that was also back when I could just restart until I got a sword treatise for the mage. Could always go daggers, though.

I have a level 8 pure electromancer on current patch, and I've levelled two pyromancers on previous patches.

Armor does not increase spell casting costs in any way. Weapons do. Go dagger if it's a problem.
The "underwhelming jolt" along with Static Field is what killed a Brigand Warlock - a late game caster miniboss that incorrectly spawned in mannshire dungeons until patch 0.8.0.2 fixed it. It's not "mix and match", you need armor to survive. Not to mention that early game, the best caster gear you'll find will probably be the Novice Mage Robe, which is ~ on par with Jonna's starting gear, so you shouldn't even consider buying it.

Oh you're right. Sorry, just came back for this patch, and I forgot that armor messed with energy and regen, not casting costs. I should have double checked before I posted.

[laveley]

didnt played electromancy yet, but i did geos playthrough in older patches and i always started with fire barrage because geo doesnt have real damage early on. I fell electromancy is the same thing. Plus, fire barrage combos with boulders to make enemies step of fire. Late game fire barrage will also always be a nice way to burn doors in dungeons and maintain your distance.

So yeah, if i ever start a "pure" electromancy run, i will certainly get fire barrage as first skill.

[Freeman]

Well messing with energy and regen sounds bad enough to me. As a side note it appears enemies don't see traps placed before they were alerted. The glorious realism...

Is static field good? Or ball lightning?

[Niradin]

Electricity is all about control, rather then pure damage. Grabbing some skill that would do some extra damage for early game, like already mentioned fire barradge or staff's tripple strike is what will carry you.
Also, pushing enemies into walls deal good amount of damage, which makes dungeons a cakewalk.

[Psojed]

Originally posted by Freeman:

Well messing with energy and regen sounds bad enough to me.

- Tied Gloves: 5 armor, no energy penalties.
- Hide Boots: 5 armor, no energy penalties.
- Padded Doublet: 5 armor, no energy penalties.
- Padded Coif: 5 armor, -1% Energy Restoration.
All sold in Osbrook :)

Most medium armor has negligible penalties. For example:
Mail Gloves, 10 armor, -2 energy, -0,5% energy restoration.

Every time someone dies and asks on discord what to do, get armored.

[Freeman]

Well those are good numbers but getting tanky means forfeiting big casting bonuses from fancy robes. I suppose in time one could just power up enough to blast everything into kingdom come. But it's worth a try.

Staff works nicely by the way. I guess battle trance wouldn't hurt either. Sounds very wizardly.

And yes, that grumpy Osbrook tailor is the best friend of every aspiring caster.

[jotwebe]

Played a little further with my pure electro/mm Jonna, and it starts getting a lot better with Static Field. (Also Jolt got boosted by 10% in a hotfix). Low level bandits and wolves die to Jolt+Static Field now, maybe another Jolt for good measure.