Magic Build

[Jaevwyn]

Hi, looking at trying out magic... what are some staple spells or items that i should be looking to get in the early game.

Not thinking of going pure mage but more spell sword... took 100 mana rather than the full 200 for now

[caroraim]

Good luck. I have run a few melee builds and they get really solid at about the half way point. I tried a pure caster and simply couldn't deal with boss type enemies at the same level of progress. I watched videos, read guides, ect. but it just seemed overly difficult for a few reasons.
1. Managing spells on the hot bar with keyboard or controller can be very clunky in combat.
2. Mana penalties for sleeping, armor, weapons (or at least bonuses for some exclusive weapons), health and stamina really restrict your overall capabilities.
3. Most spells, including any powerful spells require multiple actions and combos, exacerbating point 1 and 2.
4. Even when it all works, you still end up kiting enemies above the bandit level, often having to resort to melee to get the job done anyway...also exacerbating some of the above issues.

Spell sword build like you are looking at is the most viable option for casters, imo. I would use the spells that give you attack and protection boons. Buff up with them before combat and roll. Elementalist spells from the hermit in Chersonese may be useful, but use the spells to support your melee build characteristics as opposed to the other way around.
All just my experience with magic builds. I'm interested as well to hear about other players experiences...
Also, should note that this is from solo play, not coop where the experience may be totally different.

[Macro Tofu]

The most reliable spell is the first spell you learnt - flamethrower. I have played the game for ~30 hours now as a pure mage, and I can tell you that most spells that can deal decent damage require some sort of set up; flamethrower is the only spell, albeit short ranged, that can react swiftly to deal with random mobs.

Enhanced boon from wind hermit tree + fire affinity from philosopher tree, your flamethrower should be able to deal ~100 fire damage, burning damage not included. You could also craft a ice flame torch to deal frost damage as well.

Other spells are better left for stronger enemies, you can figure it out by yourself, plenty of choices, when you have the mood to do all the set ups, of course.

For example, fireball (fire sigil + spark), it is the only spammable long ranged spell in this game, and it hits hard if you focusing on it: warm boon + 30%, fire affinity +15%, immolation (sigil + ward, self burn can be neglected by high fire resistance) +30%, equipment bonuses not included. Non-fire-immune bosses can be easily killed by spam fireball, the only downside being you have to stand inside the sigil to cast it.

[Naryoril]

My go to spell is Elemental Discharge from the Kazite Spellblade tree. While it theoretically needs a setup (an imbue on your weapon, which means casting warm/cool and then imbue fire/frost) you can simply always keep the imbue active. The cooldown of warm/cool is shorter than the duration of the imbue and the imbue itself has basically no cooldown.

In theory always keeping the imbue up would require a lot of mana for longer outings, but if you invest in the Philosopher skill tree the Leyline Connection passive skill gives you permanent mana regeneration to such a degree that you hardly ever need any other mana restoration effects, especially if you get some mana cost reduction from your equipment. It also allows you to get either ice sigil or +15% passive fire damage. Take the one that matches the infusion skill you chose and combine it with gear that focuses on increasing the damage of that element.

Another advantage of Elemental Discharge is that this single spell can have any element. While you only get fire or frost imbue as a spell, if you are fighting an enemy that requires a different element you can just use rags or varnishes to get the element of your choice on your weapon.

There are lots of options for your third skill tree in this build setup:

1) Shaman for the improved buffs (always keep cool or warm up, depending on the imbue you chose because it increases elemental damage of that element), wind sigil (which doesn't require any stones and combines with other spells for lightning damage and a bit of ethreal damage) and a meat shield (it's a ghost, so technically it doesn't have meat)

2) Rune Sage for more utility spells, an etheral damage trap and a lighting spell.

3) Hex Mage (i don't have experience with it)

4) Anything else also works as well if you want to make a hybrid. e.g. get Hunter for skills like predator leap.


Personally i really like a build with infuse frost, ice sigil and the Shaman tree with wind sigil. I combine this with the Skycrown Mace and a shield. In a previous playthrough i got the armor from the blue chamber quest line on a similar build (i took the same skill trees but some different skills. The new selection works much much better) and passed the boots and the armor on through legacy chests, which results in an extra 40% frost damage. As a helmet i use the wide blue hat for 20% mana cost reduction and another 10% frost damage. The cool boon adds yet another 30% frost damage. All these bonuses also affect the ice damage of the skycrown mace as well as the effect of the frost imbue.
All in all this ends up with a character with very heavy frost damage from elemental discharge and if needed from frost sigil, strong defense through the plate armor boots and body as well as the shield, a fast attacking melee attack that deals very heavy ice and impact and some physical damage, ready access to lightning damage through sigil of wind and spark for medium strenght enemies and access to all other elements too.
In the dlc area i pull mobs with an elemental discharge and then most enemies are finished off with just 1 or 2 additional melee hits which i land either when they come running and before they can hit me or after blocking their first attack chain with my shield. I pretty much never use dodge rolls.

Btw i only took 60 mana from the ley line and i don't need any additional mana recovery unless i'm going through a dungeon and use spells liberally.

[Jaevwyn]

Originally posted by Naryoril:

My go to spell is Elemental Discharge from the Kazite Spellblade tree. While it theoretically needs a setup (an imbue on your weapon, which means casting warm/cool and then imbue fire/frost) you can simply always keep the imbue active. The cooldown of warm/cool is shorter than the duration of the imbue and the imbue itself has basically no cooldown.

In theory always keeping the imbue up would require a lot of mana for longer outings, but if you invest in the Philosopher skill tree the Leyline Connection passive skill gives you permanent mana regeneration to such a degree that you hardly ever need any other mana restoration effects, especially if you get some mana cost reduction from your equipment. It also allows you to get either ice sigil or +15% passive fire damage. Take the one that matches the infusion skill you chose and combine it with gear that focuses on increasing the damage of that element.

Another advantage of Elemental Discharge is that this single spell can have any element. While you only get fire or frost imbue as a spell, if you are fighting an enemy that requires a different element you can just use rags or varnishes to get the element of your choice on your weapon.

There are lots of options for your third skill tree in this build setup:

1) Shaman for the improved buffs (always keep cool or warm up, depending on the imbue you chose because it increases elemental damage of that element), wind sigil (which doesn't require any stones and combines with other spells for lightning damage and a bit of ethreal damage) and a meat shield (it's a ghost, so technically it doesn't have meat)

2) Rune Sage for more utility spells, an etheral damage trap and a lighting spell.

3) Hex Mage (i don't have experience with it)

4) Anything else also works as well if you want to make a hybrid. e.g. get Hunter for skills like predator leap.


Personally i really like a build with infuse frost, ice sigil and the Shaman tree with wind sigil. I combine this with the Skycrown Mace and a shield. In a previous playthrough i got the armor from the blue chamber quest line on a similar build (i took the same skill trees but some different skills. The new selection works much much better) and passed the boots and the armor on through legacy chests, which results in an extra 40% frost damage. As a helmet i use the wide blue hat for 20% mana cost reduction and another 10% frost damage. The cool boon adds yet another 30% frost damage. All these bonuses also affect the ice damage of the skycrown mace as well as the effect of the frost imbue.
All in all this ends up with a character with very heavy frost damage from elemental discharge and if needed from frost sigil, strong defense through the plate armor boots and body as well as the shield, a fast attacking melee attack that deals very heavy ice and impact and some physical damage, ready access to lightning damage through sigil of wind and spark for medium strenght enemies and access to all other elements too.
In the dlc area i pull mobs with an elemental discharge and then most enemies are finished off with just 1 or 2 additional melee hits which i land either when they come running and before they can hit me or after blocking their first attack chain with my shield. I pretty much never use dodge rolls.

Btw i only took 60 mana from the ley line and i don't need any additional mana recovery unless i'm going through a dungeon and use spells liberally.

Thats a great explanation of some great combo's thanks for that!
I did some poking around the wiki looking for what i wanna do in more detail, settled on a Rune Sage, Shaman and Spell Blade combo going the holy order to get access to the lightning buff.

My idea is to rely solely on the ethereal greatsword with the Runic prefix skill allowing me to rune freely and alternate between cold and frost as needed on weapon buffs (maining frost with lightning as a backup). Hoping the etheral weapon is powerful enough to get through the game with, because from an RP Spellblade standpoint its a really cool skill.

I do wish I could fit the Passive Mana Regen into this but theres something from each of the aforementioned specialisations i wanted, Shaman is too important as it will make up the missing damage from using a lower damage weapon with stronger boons, and Spellblade / Rune Sage are obviosly going to be needed for an etherial spellblade character.

Does the above concept sound particularly flawed in any way? I am early enough in that I can easily change the plan up if required... havent locked in anything yet.

Edit - I wasnt sure how much mana to grab so i picked up 100, probably a bit much but without the regen itll be nice to have a reserve.

[Rage]

Rune mage= Defensive buffs (protection and resists if you invest correctly, a self heal, a lantern, a mine, and a 2 handed sword that can hit extremely hard with the right setup. Combine that with Shamanic resonance and boon spells (resonance increases all buffs and boons increase elemental damage) that also synergizes with master of motion in warrior monk to make you an unstoppable killing machine. I currently have 100% resistance to physical damage with 13 protections and 55% resist to all elements with spells to complement when melee just won't work. Over 100 hours in the game and it's my strongest build.

[Jaevwyn]

Originally posted by Perfectrage:

Rune mage= Defensive buffs (protection and resists if you invest correctly, a self heal, a lantern, a mine, and a 2 handed sword that can hit extremely hard with the right setup. Combine that with Shamanic resonance and boon spells (resonance increases all buffs and boons increase elemental damage) that also synergizes with master of motion in warrior monk to make you an unstoppable killing machine. I currently have 100% resistance to physical damage with 13 protections and 55% resist to all elements with spells to complement when melee just won't work. Over 100 hours in the game and it's my strongest build.

Sounds pretty great! glad the rune 2h sword can be viable! wasnt sure as its damage seems fairly low in comparison to other weapons of its class, but that wouldnt factor in the free weapon buff it comes with i suppose.