Starting a Conjurer, new to earth and spirit

[BrotherRatcliff]

Hey guys,

I've been wanting to build a staff caster as my next chr (I have a melee and bow user) but I've been unsure on which to do. Then while doing hydra runs I found a nice Staff of the Magi of Sulfur so I figure fire is it!

I'm pretty sure I want spirit for my 2nd because the Core Dweller and Liche King combo sounds pretty cool, and I want to try Ternion. Here's the build I've worked up so far:

TitanCalc

How does that look? have I overlooked anything? It is a major points hog for sure, what should I go for first? I'm thinking I'll do the Deathchill line last as I probably wont be in range very often, should I get Life Drain/Cascade instead? Also is going for Ternion + Eruption + Volcanic Orb overkill?

Okay and just to throw one more wrench into it, what do you guys think about an Elementalist? I have found a bunch of items like Hesione's Veil that add to fire/cold/lightning damage so I was thinking a build using all three could be cool? Is that feasible or should I stick with my plan of Spirit?

[Piejack]

yea that woud pretty much kick-***!

ternion will give you free attack lots of power, and you can use that thru Legendary as wands improve.

I have a pure earth mage and even without Ternion rock in Legendary

[Irma2]

Build looks good, BrotherRatcliff. I always like to have Ravages of Time maxed. When a Conjurer (or any caster) gets into melee range of a monster, I like to have as much protective help as possible.

There are two skills that I would also add - 1 point in Vision of Death and as many as I could spare in Stone Skin. Heat Shield, like RoT, is an insurance policy against melee monsters. But it vanishes alarmingly quickly in areas where monsters do fire damage. Stone Skin adds fire resistance, which makes Heat Shield last longer. Afaik the damage to Heat Shield is only applied after resistances. The small armour addition gets applied to each armour piece you're wearing iirc, so it's also a small but useful boost against melee attackers.

I also like to use Heat Shield on both the CD and Liche to give them a bit of defensive help. Again, as long as they are in EE's radius, they'll benefit from the higher fire resist and Heat Shield won't have to be recast as often.

As tough as both pets are in the higher difficulties, they can get swarmed and start losing life alarmingly quickly. That's where Vision of Death is nice. It confuses the monsters and takes the heat off the pets. It will also obviously work for you, but I find myself using it on behalf of the pets mostly.

The main questions revolve around which skills to boost first. There are many ways to tackle it, but I generally go through three phases:

1) Act I, Act II and the first part of Act III Normal - pets out front taking aggro, me lobbing bombs from behind.
2) Late Act III and Act IV Normal - me solo.
3) Epic -> end. Same as 1.

You can take the pets through Act IV, but they both require a lot of points to even survive for longer than a few seconds, let alone do significant damage. So I just put a point in each of their skills to get them through the easy first part of the game, then ditch them when they can no longer survive, before taking them again (and maxing them out) in Epic. That means that I have to increase my own skills and base my build around the realisation that I'm going to be on my own in Act IV.

So there are five skills that I focus on and must have before Act IV:

1) Maxed Deathchill. It's a lifesaver when you have to face fast-moving and hard-hitting Act IV nasties like Mellinoe.
2) Maxed Arcane Lore. Ternion is too energy-intensive to max early imo. Besides, it does good damage even with just one point. However, Arcane Lore spreads that damage and turns it into an AoE attack at very little energy cost. So I max that out early.
3) Maxed Eruption. THE killer skill. I want this maxed by end of Act III/start of Act IV latest.
4) VO. Along with Fragmentation, this is the crowd control skill that stuns monsters and keeps them in Eruption's radius. I just need a point in VO and Fragmentation each (more points don't increase stun duration). But I want those points early.
5) Vision of Death and Enslave Spirit. One point in each, both offer good defensive benefits in Act IV.

With these skills, and a couple of % Slower Attack relics/charms in my gear, I'd be very confident of going through Act IV with few difficulties and no deaths, even solo.

However, this is only my approach. There are many others. Find the one that most fits your combat/gameplay mindset and build around that.

[BrotherRatcliff]

Thanks for the thorough reply Irma! I'll tweak the build a little to see if I can get RoT in there. Because this is my first caster in TQ I think I'm going to try and go petless all through normal. I'm pretty sure if I get used to them in the first parts I'm going to die a TON when they stop working later in the difficulty.

[Nuwine]

Unless you put more than 1 point in them they will only be good till mid act 2, and still with your other skills you kill alot faster then they do, especially on normal. So you wont even feel like you had to rely on them, in any case its your decision.

[Sir Lance A Lot]

Tell me how it goes for you ratcliff as I have an oracle in epic greece and I always wondered whether storm or earth was better for a ternion build. I went with storm as it was my first character and there was a good guide on oracles, but earth should work well too.

[Runefang]

Squall + EotS from Wisp makes Oracles do more damage than Earth based ternion builds

[Sir Lance A Lot]

k thats what I would have thought- seems like thunderball and VO are similar so earth basically gets CD and eruption while storm gets squall and wisp?

[demilich]

Originally Posted by Sir Lance A Lot

k thats what I would have thought- seems like thunderball and VO are similar so earth basically gets CD and eruption while storm gets squall and wisp?

This is a fair approximation, but you should note that CD is the best tanking pet in the whole game, while wisp is more for buffing. Squall has nice dmg but I'd consider it more like a debuff, while Eruption is all about dmg. And the same for VO too, however it stuns (and that stun is worthy), but it damages far better then Thunderball, which stuns longer.

All in all the Conjurer is a strong caster class, and may be built more subtypes.

[Axiomatic]

As a conjuror, I've found that a well developed Lich is more than enough pet to get through all of epic so I'd spend pts elsewhere than the CD as you level.

The widespread stunning ability (and not small dmg) of VO(just 1 pt even)+maxed Frag and the intense dmg of maxed Eruption allow for some fast and easy aoe clearing. Throw in maxed Volativity and your offensive ability is potent.

Like you mentioned, ternion + eruption + VO is probably overkill and since you can't spend all your pts at once in game like you do on titancalc, I would suggest not trying to spread yourself too thin as you level. I've not taken Ternion at all, and I'm aoe clearing with VO and Eruption very quickly. The defensive/offensive auras of Spirit keep me alive, while the pet deals with stragglers and bosses and of course Vision of Death/Stone Form for those "oh ****" moments.