I need build advice

[Kaplah]

I haven't played in a while but I'm at the level cap, assuming it's still 6, and wearing armour from clearing the Winter City so I assume I'm at least mostly up to date in what I have available but despite this I'm getting absolutely stomped. I'm running a blade mage setup using the Spiral Staff, Royal Leathers and every piece of spellpower gear I could find, my stats all in on Willpower, Cunning and Presence and my skills Mirror Stance (not that I use it much, but I don't want to miss skills), Summon Kiyoko and either Arc Cannon/Primal Scar or Grease/Fireball. I went to the Undermountain because it's the next story zone and couldn't handle any of the fights reliably. Hobgoblins and the newly upgraded imps survive all my my AoE quite handily and slowly grind me down and unless I banish the Earth Elemental it's liable to kill me on the first turn. I figured maybe gear was just out of date since there HAS been a good deal of content since I last played so I went to the glacial rift which I figured was the next leveled zone after Winter City. I met a Chimera that one shot my character and Brienne both in the first turn.

I can only assume there's some critical part of character builds that I've managed to completely neglect over the entire game that's causing this discrepancy of power because I see people talking about having an easy time with all of this even on Dark mode and I'm just on Normal. I guess I could solve these issues somewhat by going all in on defense/using a shield to prevent random crits but nobody else seems to be doing that from what little build info I've seen so that's clearly not required or possibly even recommended.

The other best guess I have is that Black Mage is just a really undertuned class right now and that I should just swap over to a warrior or thief build. Doing a quick and dirty swap to using a Bessy Mauler thief with crackle powder and crowd control with Str/Agi/Cun as my attributes was already a significant boost to performance in the Undermountain, though getting completely turned off by disarm effectively killed the team and I still needed to either banish or flee from the elemental. Being a physical class in general seems to be the way foward either way, given how many of the items I find directly complement physical builds compared to how little magic gear I've found.

Either way, I feel like I'm definitely having more problems then I should be based on how others seem to be reacting to the content so I'm assuming it's an error on my end and looking for advice. Aside from what I've already said, my party is pretty much always just Witch Cait and standard Brienne, if there's anything else I've neglected to mention that could help with advice, please let me know.

 

[drossbots]

If all your stats are in Willpower, Cunning, and Presence, you're getting crunched cause you have like no defense. You could rectify this in many ways. CC like Grease would be good cause enemies can't deal damage while stunned. You could bring a tank companion like Arona or Atugia to draw aggro. You could give yourself a bit more toughness or armor so you don't die immediately. Or you could pump agility and get some evasion gear and pray RNGesus is on your side.

 

[Squirrelwagon]

You can also use temporary stat boosters to help tide you over in the meantime; Garth sells alcoholic drinks that boost your stats for 12 or 24 hours.

 

[Undecided]

I haven't played in a while but I'm at the level cap, assuming it's still 6, and wearing armour from clearing the Winter City so I assume I'm at least mostly up to date in what I have available but despite this I'm getting absolutely stomped. I'm running a blade mage setup using the Spiral Staff, Royal Leathers and every piece of spellpower gear I could find, my stats all in on Willpower, Cunning and Presence and my skills Mirror Stance (not that I use it much, but I don't want to miss skills), Summon Kiyoko and either Arc Cannon/Primal Scar or Grease/Fireball. I went to the Undermountain because it's the next story zone and couldn't handle any of the fights reliably. Hobgoblins and the newly upgraded imps survive all my my AoE quite handily and slowly grind me down and unless I banish the Earth Elemental it's liable to kill me on the first turn. I figured maybe gear was just out of date since there HAS been a good deal of content since I last played so I went to the glacial rift which I figured was the next leveled zone after Winter City. I met a Chimera that one shot my character and Brienne both in the first turn.

I can only assume there's some critical part of character builds that I've managed to completely neglect over the entire game that's causing this discrepancy of power because I see people talking about having an easy time with all of this even on Dark mode and I'm just on Normal. I guess I could solve these issues somewhat by going all in on defense/using a shield to prevent random crits but nobody else seems to be doing that from what little build info I've seen so that's clearly not required or possibly even recommended.

The other best guess I have is that Black Mage is just a really undertuned class right now and that I should just swap over to a warrior or thief build. Doing a quick and dirty swap to using a Bessy Mauler thief with crackle powder and crowd control with Str/Agi/Cun as my attributes was already a significant boost to performance in the Undermountain, though getting completely turned off by disarm effectively killed the team and I still needed to either banish or flee from the elemental. Being a physical class in general seems to be the way foward either way, given how many of the items I find directly complement physical builds compared to how little magic gear I've found.

Either way, I feel like I'm definitely having more problems then I should be based on how others seem to be reacting to the content so I'm assuming it's an error on my end and looking for advice. Aside from what I've already said, my party is pretty much always just Witch Cait and standard Brienne, if there's anything else I've neglected to mention that could help with advice, please let me know.

Okay so, for your Black Mage character, you've listed that you've gone with a Cunning, Willpower and Presence build. So the Armor you'd want to ideally equip would primarily focus on the Physical Resistance aspect, seeing as your Cunning Attribute already provides Ward and Magical Resistance. That should prevent you from being one shot by Physical Damage.

Some of the Items I'd recommend for your specific Black Mage (Attributes accounted for) build would be:

Spoiler: Spoiler for formatting; Items for your specific Black Mage build.

Items that should be relatively easy to acquire for most PCs and don't require any specific relationships (such as romancing Kiyoko etc). The Helm of Heroes and Cloak of Winter will have to be acquired via the Shades of the Past quest though.

• Primary:
  
  • Metal Wand (1h) (Probably best to go with a 1 handed Weapon so one would be able to equip a Shield - as Shields prevents the PC from being Critically Hit iirc.)
  • Blade Staff (2h)
  • Mushroom Staff (2h)
  • Spiraled Staff (2h)
• Offhand:
  
  • Mage Wand (Can be swapped in for extra DPS instead of a Shield, if desired.)
  • Wicker Shield
• Head:
  
  • Helm of Heroes (A bit of Initiative loss because it's Metal Armor iirc; but if you're using Summons it'll be worth it for the Leadership increase for your Summons.)
• Neck:
  
  • Ward Amulet
• Shoulders:
  
  • Cloak of Winter
• Armor:
  
  • Leather Jerkin
• Top:
  
  • Linen Tunic
• Bottom:
  
  • Whatever you want really.
• Waist:
  
  • Leather Faulds
  • Hip Quiver (Can be swapped in if for an increase in Initiative, if a potential earlier position in the turn order is desired.)
• Hands:
  
  • Arm Guards
• Feet:
  
  • Leather Boots
• Ring:
  
  • Lucky Strike
  • Wizard Ring

Spoiler: Spoiler for formatting; Items that can be swapped in.

Items that may pose a bit more challenging to acquire, not particularly suit your specific Black Mage character build, or be restricted by relationships with certain NPCs.

• Primary:
  
  • Control Rod (1h) (Requires romancing Kiyoko, and progressing through Kinu's first Quest; although it will reduce the PC's Evasion by 10; so pretty much extra DPS > survivability.)
  • Girthy Rod (2h) (Requires 20+ Corruption, but has decent stats. Can be equipped for extra DPS.)
• Offhand:
  
  • Fox Jewel (Can be swapped in if extra DPS is desired, although it's RNG based from Kohaku's shop.)
  • Lynx Totem (Can be swapped in if extra DPS is desired.)
• Head:
  
  • Dueling Hat (Can be swapped in if going for a high Agility Black Mage, as the extra Evasion will synergize.)
  • Witch's Hat (Can be swapped in if the Witch's Outfit is found in the Old Forest; RNG dependent, but can be equipped by itself without equipping the entire outfit.)
• Neck:
  
  • Fluffy Scarf (Can be swapped in if extra Armor is desired, although it's RNG based from Kohaku's shop.)
• Feet:
  
  • Kunoichi Footwear (Can be swapped in if going for a high Agility Black Mage, as the extra Evasion will synergize.)
• Ring:
  
  • Ring of Pure Thought (Can be swapped in if one desires some more Mental Resistance.)

I'd also possibly recommend your Ultimate Power being a Summon if you're planning on keeping your investment in your PC's Presence Attribute; otherwise you could respec to Toughness for more survivability, and have a different Ultimate Power.

 

[Solitary Traveler]

I recommend dumping Presence and going Agility instead.

Agility gives you passive defense from weapon and all AOE attacks through Evasion and also makes your spell attacks more accurate. If you're not going to be teasing a lot, you don't really need Presence; the boost to companions being comparatively minor as well.

 

[Zavos]

The Flame Knight summon ability is worth a mention - it can fill the role of party tank quite handily.

 

[Squirrelwagon]

If you're not going to be teasing a lot, you don't really need Presence; the boost to companions being comparatively minor as well.

Presence impact how strong the summon is though, doesn't it?

 

[WolframL]

Presence impact how strong the summon is though, doesn't it?

Summons and companions, yeah. If you're playing a Black Mage who is using summons it's a very good stat to drop points into.

 

[Kingu2]

this is exactly why I think the black mage class is just poorly balanced. your so SQUISHY. all of your defenses for warding are geared towards other magic users of which there are very few in the game. when up against physical attacks you fall over from a light tap.

imo what you should do is change your gear to either maximize your armor or your evasion. along with that respec your presence into either agility or toughness. like solitary traveler said it's not useful for a magic build and actually raises your threat making enemies more likely to target you. heavy armor will make you slower but more survivable along with the extra hp. with a good support you can definitely avoid getting oneshot. going for evasion you will dodge more physical attacks but unless you use some buffs to go with it you might find RNG on your side less often. agility will also increase your initiative which is valuable in every situation.

as for skills your fine to take on the rift with the setup you have grease/fireball should do well enough with a tank and a good support. I would replace mirror stance with a magic missile or firebolt. in the undermountain I also struggled with physical damage as well but I eventually realized that none of the enemies has any focus, which is damage reduction for resolve. you don't need any presence nor do you need to change classes you just need song of splendor and bimbo Azzy and the imps and goblins go down real fast. for the elemental get the acid flask skill, it won't oneshot but it will take out most of it's health.

 

[LanWolf]

I'm playing a similar black mage build on Dark difficulty and I have found that going with ray of frost, celestial smite, flame dancer and inspiration/banish helps me push through most enemies in the undermountain. Getting KOd by the golem is still a possibility, but most of the time I can get Witch cait to protect my mage long enough to destroy the golem. As for the survival aspect, the hobgoblins and the imps tend to support each other a lot, so taking out their supports early is useful. In the hobgoblins case, knowing when to defeat them is also important, until you deplete their reserves every hobgobling you defeat is a new one that comes fresh to the fight.

As for the Rift, psychic blast, celestial smite, fireball/grease and flame dancer took care of most enemies reliably with barbarian Brint and witch cait doing DPS and support. The only challenge I found were the Jotuns but only 15% of the time. Good luck with your game and don't be afraid to branch out, see what works best for you.