What is the best wizard build? I usually use: Staves Mathemagic Psionics Promethean Magic Magic Training Blood Mage Alchemy
That's a very good one, for sure. I would actually drop Psionics and replace it with Dual-Wield, so you can stack bonuses. Alternatively, drop Magic Training for DW instead.
Good idea, hadn't really thought of that. I like Magic Training because of the bonuses it gives, so I might replace Psionics.
Golemancy Mathemagic Magic Training Necronomnoms ley lines Alchemy Perception One of my favorite successful builds. You could replace leylines with blood magic if you prefer or ditch Alchemy for another magic tree with some healing/purifying as this is the main purpose of alchemy in this build. I would suggest the addition of a trap sight skill of some sort to your build. I've said this in many other threads, but I find that traps kill my mages faster than any other threat. of at least 2 is key. If you can get by without the rogue skill, all the more power to you, but most people seem to agree with this.
@TheKirkUnited With a build like yours what do you like to have set up before you leave the first floor? Personally I'd probably do Alchemy 2 first, then Ley Line 2, Golemancy 2, then start up Necro but when it comes to mage builds it always feels like I gimp myself at the start...
The first thing i get is golemancy up to unliving wall and a rank or 2 in perception for trap sight so I don't kill myself by tripping over traps. Unliving wall is a cheap spell that you spam to kill enemies or simply keep them off your back. The golem alone can carry you through the first 2 floors but the wall is where it's at. Unliving wall never stops being useful. After you have that you can go after whatever suits your fancy. I usually try to math up to the teleport and necro I level depending on what kind of necro resist I can field. Get leylines 2 fast for great manna regen. Alchemy is fantastically useful with only a single point in it so I usually take my time upgrading it.
Burglary Emomancy Archaeology Viking mage Blood mage Golemancy Vegan for hp or Necromancy for damage Burglary : really useful. Extra exp, trap sight, lockup, invisible and blink Emomancy. : AOE silence. 'nuff said Archaeology : useful skills Viking mage : Good spells with low cost Blood mage : just extra mana and some buff Golemancy : Blade being is really useful at anytime. i want to skip that mustache
The problem here is that there is no "best build". There's sooooooooooooo damn many ways to build a Mage it's not even funny. Do you want to control the battlefield while hurling DoTs around? Golemancy! Do you want to just nuke things at range? Promethian Magic! Do you want mobility, self-buffs, and a massive DoT spell? Mathemagic! Do you want a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none spell school that lets you do a little bit of everything? Psionics! Viking Magic! Fleshsmithing! Astrology! Beyond that, do you want some Melee with your Mage (read: a Gish)? Do you want to be a glass cannon with 0 Warrior levels, a couple of Rogue Levels, and more Mage Levels than you can shake a stick at? Do you want to be an offensive powerhouse with all kinds of damage/DoT/AoE spells at the expense of utility/buff spells and pets? Or vice versa? All that being said, I personally love me a Glass Cannon Mage. This build can destroy anything with easy - provided you can survive to get your Hero(ine) up to Level 13 or so. Promethian Magic (Pet, Single Target Nukes, AoE all covered here) Emomancy (best used with the Heroine, gives you The Cure for healing and more AoE if needed, also a self-buff) Necronomecinomics (mostly for Tenebrous Rift, with is like being able to cast Squid Bolts, only better, but Deathly Hex will carry you at very low Levels) Astrology (Radiant Aura can save your life if you get surrounded, also the single point of you get from the Aura makes it easy to use your Deathly Hex at low Levels without taking damage) Burglary (because Lockpicks and mana-free Teleport) Blood Magic (all that killing power keeps your mana topped off most of the time) Ley Walker (or Magic Training, up to you on this one, I personally like Ley Walker for Thaumagurgic Tap)
Honestly I hate having pets in any build they just slow every thing down and get in the way. The Necro skill line solves that but because of the randomness of drops getting enough Necro resist early to make it viable is troubling. Even with Astrology unless I find a Little Black Book for that extra resist that Blood Debt is scary.
Fortunately, Little Black Books are pretty common. You also have Dragon's Breath for those "don't want to Hex, still need to not melee" moments. And while I agree that pets slow the game down, having one for Floor 2 and maybe parts of 3 is a very easy way to get a couple of "free" Levels in almost complete safety, at which point you have the spells available (and the mana regen!) to take over and leave the pet purely for distraction purposes. The point being you only have to put up with the pet slowdown for one(-ish) Floor: it's a stop-gap measure until you have the tools to not have to hide behind said pet anymore.
Amen Marak. While it's still useful for distractions later on I tend to forgo it completely for time's sake once I don't need it anymore. Once you have unliving wall and xeuclid's translation familiars become completely irrelevant. Great for those first 2 floors though.
I think I tend to trigger more traps with pets. I'll be walking around an almost complete map then my pet notices a monster I haven't seen then makes me stagger along into a line of Dwaverven I.E.Ds and acid traps then boom! gone...
This another argument for trap sight. If you see the trap ahead of time, avoiding it should be pretty easy. Pet shenanigans included. I don't think I've ever had a pet kill me by wanking into an aoe trap. If you see the pet chasing monsters through a mess of traps, just watch the fun. Don't chase after them But, I have used pets to shield me while I walk over arrow traps. Especially the one acid arrow trap that leads to the artifact. Before they shook up the .xml a bit that room always popped up the same way and it's hard to have enough to disarm an acid arrow trap on the first floor. But if you position the familiar between you and the shooter on the wall the summon will take the hit for you. Ah... good times. Unliving wall works even better than a pet for this.
The hard part about determining the 'best' build for mages is that the best spells are scattered pretty evenly between the skill sets. Viking Magic has the best dot in vortex. Psionics offers great utility in shove/crystals/staple and has a great scaling single target nuke that causes burning. Mathemagics has nearly free at will repositioning, probably the strongest single thing in the game, and a great dot at later levels. Pyro is a personal favorite of mine as it has the lowest hanging fruit towards building a mage. With 2 additional points you get a fantastic pet and you get rune of exploding which is enough to get you to DL 7, after which grogs tactical pyre becomes a rather efficient spell. Fleshsmithing gives you a level 1 pet, the best heal in the game, and the zoo clearing miasma. Personally I'm not a fan of either golemancy or necro. While golemancy is strong, I'd just rather take pyro for the pet and dislike the wall/thaumites/digging ray set. And I always seem to kill myself with the last necro skill. I'd rather just take fleshsmithing than necro, it may not be quite as strong but miasma does the same thing and is easier to use. The only skills I really do not like are astrology and emomancy. The strongest build is probbly something like mathemagics, emomancy, necro, veganism, leylines, blood magic, perception/burglary. But in my humble opinion as a mage you don't want the strongest build. What you want is the easiest build to play. You want the build that is forgiving of your own screw ups and makes the first 6-7 DLs as easy as the end game. And the above strongest build is going to be a massive chore until you hit character level 15 or so. Here is my humble submission for the easiest build: pyromancy, fleshsmithing, veganism, leylines, blood magic, mathemagics, perception. First two points into pyro. Then 1 point into leylines. Then max fleshsmithing. Then max veganism. Then max mathemagics. You start the game with a pet, dragons breath, and the random teleport from mathemagics. At level 3 you get a new more awesome pet. By level 9 you get miasma. The game starts easier and keeps getting easier as you go on. That said, there are a couple of other builds besides my favorite (pyro/flesh + vegan + late game math) that make easy work of the game mechanics. Psionics (with dual staff) and Golemancy are two other easy mode skill sets beyond pyro that can with patience take you through the game single handedly. You want to try to have a mix of utility + single target efficiency + zoo clearing AE and there are a number of ways to get there.
