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Thanos' GoW Fast-Spell Build


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First of all, this isn't really a build, it's rather like a strategy, a hint. Simply said: My way to do it.

Alright, here goes.

After some gaming time I've decided to put up the build cause in my opinion it's a good strategy to follow.

Though I couldn't test him in multiplayer mode, he's rather good in SP

 

Lets get started. He's now at a very high level and still running a good job. For the GoW part, it's kinda easy to understand, right?;-)

The Fast-Spell strategy is based on never letting your enemies hit you, or just don't let them do it often.

good fit for the GoW with its kicking back enemies and stunning them! just keep your GoW level high.

to keep your spells fast though you have to make one little sacrifice and that would be to concentrate on pushing up your Mental Regen skill every single level.

example: enemy on your way: fire a GoW at him. now imagine what would happen if the guy comes back at you and GoW isn't reloaded? he's gonna get your...

but don't say it would be enough to have the regen time equal the stunning time. cause even if you got him away, if you're surrounded by a group of baddies you've got a major problem.

one side is "gone with the wind" but the other side will tear you apart. so always keep that damn regen time as low as possible. and if , in your opinion, GoW is a tad too weak, who cares as long as you're still safe? this is the tactic of slow but safe killing. this is the main part of the GoW-Fast-Spell BM

 

I don't know if this helps yet (cause of my level) but

Details:

Skills:

Magic Lore

Meditation

Air Magic

Water Magic

Trade/Weapon Lore

Weapon Lore/Trade

Fill-In-Your-Choice

Fill-In-Your-Choice

 

Magic Lore/Meditation:

You're stuck with those, guys and girls. But at least you can really use them, unlike some classes who IMO can't really combine the two starters in one strategy.

Just push them up as far as possible for the start, ensures you have enough power and time. Did I mention that high meditation is extremely good for this strategy?^^

Ill keep on pushing those until they're about 50 or so, that should be enough..

 

kay, next to our Gust of Wind strategy with

Air Magic:

as high as possible, what is a good regen time if your casting time is too slow? also cuts down the regen time a bit farther.

I also added Water Magic and pushed it, but that will be explained later.

 

Trade: simple but effective, just make sure you have it.

you didn't push charisma if you followed this strategy so far, so some good prices won't hurt, would they?

let alone the BM's set of Mammon!! What the heck, if you just have Mammons armor and one more piece from him, that should be enough to make up for charisma.

You could however replace it with something else... but ONLY if you're not interested in money!

 

Weapon lore: It's never bad to have specialized on a weapon, I would take Long-Handled weapons or swords cause those types are the only BM set weapons. Your choice however.

you could also replace it with constitution or something like that, just as a backup, thx to chrenus and putrescine, very good thinking there.^^

 

Fill-In-Your-Choice (x2): explains by itself. I took the weapon lore I didn't pick earlier so I can fill the weapon slots a bit, staffs mostly have good regen times and magic damage, swords have various other goodies^^

I think I'll take riding next, as you really have to be fast. and horses are simply faster, also you don't have to stand still while casting spells on horseback.

 

I took Water Magic to back up the GoW. As GoW is pure poison all monsters with poison resistance would just be pushed a few steps back, watch stunned, and then drop dead. great, you would be the first one to actually have a zombie laugh to death... thats why I also took Ice Shards, just as a backup for the case those Skeletons won't die as fast as I want them to. ;-)

got three more examples that should underline my strategy.

one and two: the shaddar'rim, the most annoying creatures on earth, right next to the always returning undead hordes.

if you see a SR coming, blast him away with gust of wind which however won't deal great damage, poison resistance... then, cause your regen and cast times are so low, fire some ice shards (no pun intented) at the poor unexpecting stunned guy and do some damage while he can't even defend himself. when he moves again, you can react quick ,use your low casting time and defend yourself with another gust, and so on. sooner or later he'll be in hell where he belongs.

Skeletons: those b**ches stand up and attack shortly after you killed them:) not any more! blast em back, when they regain control they'll come running into some ice shards which will instantly kill them if the shards are good enough, if not, you can still quickly react using another Gust! Staying alive has never been so easy...=)

three: loafing around in underworld (same tactics, by the way) I stumbled upon the Dwarven King Laurin on the graveyard. first reaction was GoW. I realized I couldn't kill him with that so I shot some shards at him. nope. that is one heck of a dwarf... but no, I didn't have to run away, all I needed here was patience. and with noone to stab me in the back to take my concentration off Laurin I just blew him away bit by bit. without the stunning effect however I'm sure he would've got me.

One "big" problem: Archers. Anyway, thx to putrescine (again), you could prepare yourself for their oncoming arrows with using Whirlwind, and as that's air magic based, too, well hey, good for all air mages out there!

 

Oh, almost forgot the equipment!

Guess what I'm using... right! I'm going for Blackstaff's equipment! socket whatever you want, some quick mages prefer rings that push mental regen, I socketed the runes the set uses. Which would be GoW, Lightning Strike, Ice Shards, Frost Ring. Lightning strike for those Archers and Mages who really have to die.. especially in gangs!^^ And Frost Ring if you want to be cruel. slow them down, hurt em while they're too slow and have a good time watching them run at you and right into their death!! you can blast them back and have them run through the ring repeatedly, have those slow zombies "freeze"^^ and stick shards in them like there's no tomorrow or stand still let the ring finish melee fighters while you send lightning bolts at the mages and archers etc.

and when a piece of equipment has no "tip" what to socket, jam a Ghost Meadow rune in it. or two. or three! Every set item of blackstaff has a "specialty",

for example the eyes have a bonus to GoW and two extra slots, so I socketed two extra GoWs instead of reading them to ensure I get enough runes of that type in the future, the more you read the less you get!

Blackstaffs Limbs however don't have any spell bonus. so I decided to put in ghost meadow. the complete set supports ghost meadow permanently, REGENERATION!^^ and through keeping ghost meadow as high as you want without having to care about regen times, thats just a great set!! Pick a weapon you like and have fun!

 

I definitely will! cya, greetings, Thanos O'Duinn

Edited by Thanos O'Duinn
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I am not pro but...

 

go for weaponlore only if you are going to use weapons... maybe you can use bow in connection with GOW. but having no direct attack skill melle or range skills battle mages are harder to play. it only depends on your style of play. try to read melle (to the hell with spellllinng) guides.

 

also I recomend you to pick constitution, archers can make trouble in higher dificulties. but there are some protection spells like skin of fire or something... it burns arrow. but that would be propably rune intensive having gow, some other damage spell and a protection spell.

 

enjoy

Edited by chrenus
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thx for bringing up the idea of archers in higher levels, it's a really good point!

 

I'll try to work on that next, but I'm quite sure that if you push GoW enough, you can hit and stun the archers too because their range is not so far as your GoW goes.

another theory is that I can ride out their arrows on horseback, like shove some air against them and ride on, their arrows flying on behind my back.

I'll try every theory and decide then whats best.

 

and to weapon lore: I've looked it up, dagowit has a staff and paternus/mammon have swords, so if you want to stay set-based (I will in any case, I've never found a normal weapon better than a set weapon) you should stay with sword or LH lores. I don't know why I disagree with you, bows are good sometimes, but maybe it's the fact that I've never used bows because my elf never hit its target no matter how far I pushed my skills... ^^ never had a good man-to-bow relationship..

 

also, I'm not planning to stand still when I got my archers stunned. I like to run at them and if I have time hit them with a weapon. and in that moment I have to be quick too. I like speed because you get control. you don't get faster, the world around you just gets slower.

 

thats my opinion about it, I'd appreciate you coming up with more ideas!

greetings, Thanos O'Duinn

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Wow, very throrough build Thanos! I'm running off to work but I definitely must read this when I get home. I think it's the one spell I never played with so I'm quite curious o watch how it goes for you. :)

 

Oh and welcome to DarkMatters! :D

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Hmm.

 

One thing you might want to do is to switch Weapon Lore with Constitution. Because the distance GoW pushes them back won't grant you any time to use your weapons before you have the opportunity to cast a new GoW.

 

But thats just a personal preference, nothing more.

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Hmm.

 

One thing you might want to do is to switch Weapon Lore with Constitution. Because the distance GoW pushes them back won't grant you any time to use your weapons before you have the opportunity to cast a new GoW.

 

But thats just a personal preference, nothing more.

 

That's it! I'm convinced^^ as a matter of fact, I've overseen that the stunning time does NOT increase with spell level... so you're right, weapon lore is useless if you kepp spellcasting them too far away to run after them. See it as changed^^ can't edit anymore, however...^^ thx anyway!

Edited by Thanos O'Duinn
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well you look like skilled player wanting to run around with horse and shooting. I prefer less "complicated" playing thats why I wrote what I wrote.

 

But while you are willing to play your fun way maybe a bow would be a good choice, you would be probably the first (or probably not :) ). try to find some meele batlemage guide, that would help you a lot.

 

The horse for GoW seems briliant combination to me... very good mob control.

 

By the way I remember you said something like (lazy to look up...) you would evade the arrows by simply moving away... well it is not that simple when you are "plant caged" to the earth, or in narrow places. THAT HURTS.

 

have fun

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  • 3 weeks later...

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