Build summary | A mage hybrid that can actually be competitive. |
Recommended starting class(es) | |
Recommended Soul Level | 125 |
Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised) |
|
Vitality | 50 |
Will/Intelligence | 18 |
Endurance | 38 |
Strength | 18 |
Dexterity | 13 |
Magic | 45 |
Faith | 16 |
Luck | ** |
Recommended equipment |
EDIT: After a few months of using this build and further fooling around with it (Even using it in tournaments) I decided this is a more fitting name, as it's how I mostly use it and how it's played best. You can cut 2 points from Str and forgo dual kats if you really really want the extra end, but I recommend the added versatility instead. Right hand 1: Crescent Uchigatana+5/Crescent Estoc+5/ Moon weapons for when you get bored Left hand1: Moon Uchigatana +5/ Dark Silver Shield +5 Armor: Rings: Consumables: |
Recommended spells/miracles |
Spells: Firespray, Fireball Miracles: Second Chance |
Gameplay tips and progression |
Stat explanation: 18 int: Wait WHAT? How is this a hybrid if you barely have any spells? You don't need anything more, both spells serve a very specific purpose and everything else can be covered with melee. 38 end: This is just to be at the SL 125 mark, if you really feel you need the 40 end you can take points off vit or mag. That being said, you probably won't need the 40 end to win in turtle fights or for a full pushlock. 18 Str: So you can one hand your katana 13 dex: So you can use an uchigatana. 45 magic: Those 5 points make a huge difference in BS damage, you'll be glad you have them. 16 faith: Self explanatory 7 luck: Do I really need to explain this? Tactics: 2. Kats: Again, self explanatory, they're not that gimped compared to dex builds. I would stay away from kat mirror matches though, the lack of buff hurts. 3. 'Zoning' with firespray: This is something a lot of people do already, but not many people get rid of the Kris Blade to have something better to bait into. This something very basic: 'I have a projectile and you don't, you have to come to me or I will gain even more of an advantage by spamming my projectile'. It's perfect for ambushing into…well anything, Backstabs, hits, fireball, your call. 4. Wakeup fireball: This is one of the main reasons this build can hold up so well. A properly spaced and timed Fireball after a BS or riposte will guarantee a hit just the same way a wake up DBS or Gaxe would. It's not 100% effective in all cases but it's consistent enough to be taken seriously. Oh, it also opens a lot of possibilities for punishing wakeup actions by mixing it up. 5. Fireball tactics: First, You can hit with pretty much any weapon after a fireball hit. Second, Fireball has hyper armor, so you can use up all of your stamina and then use a surprise fireball to cover yourself. 6. Mana management: WIth a crescent weapon in your right hand you can mantain a constant firespray if you alternate with your shield/lh kat for at least a third of the fight. Also, you can shoot 2 fireballs with 18 int and Icat. Then again, it takes just a bit of turtling or a spice to get more mana. Summary: Pros: Cons: NEW: Tourney gameplay vid. |
"Tertal" mage
This is a good build. It's put together nicely and well thought out. Thank you for sharing.
The ToB won't be effective without 18 FTH, so you should meet that req if you want to use it. I'd take that from Vit, but it's up to you. Also, firespray and fireball are useless against the brushwood shield, so mixing it up with soul ray might be a good idea.
It dosent have to be. Its a cracked talisman. So long as they dont plan on hurting people with those spells and want to cast any miracle outside of second chance and evacuate, they should be fine.
"Although my brother left me for dead
And he tried to kill me multiple times,
After the first failed attempt
I still love him…" -Cecil FFIV
Why does this look like an exact copy of Nick1Nintendo's Spellsword??? Because it is! Sry, but i thought that he did a better job. -1
"Although my brother left me for dead
And he tried to kill me multiple times,
After the first failed attempt
I still love him…" -Cecil FFIV
Wtf exact copy?
Nick's page:
Vitality 45
Will/Intelligence 30
Endurance 30
Strength 18
Dexterity 13
Magic 40
Faith 18
Luck **
Recommended equipment
RH1: Moon Uchigatana +5
RH2: Kris Blade +5
LH1: Moon Uchigatana +5 || (Dark Silver Shield +5/ Steel Shield +10) || Morion Blade
LH2: Talisman of Beasts
We both have 18 Str, 13 dex and 7 luck, IT MUST BE AN EXACT COPY.
Yeah…no
Also, ToB is actually just to cast SC,it uses an insanity catalyst in the left hand to toss spells around.
@Astrich: Soul Ray is more or less a waste of space in PvP. No one remotely good uses a brushwood shield in PvP, and even if they did you could just use your weapon to go through it -__-.
NR build that can be used in a variety of ways; NR along side a buffed Light weapon, NR with fire spell combo's NR with crescent, moon weapons.
uses light weapon spell or melee using crescent, moon weapons, or even melle using firespell combo's.
SL 130 build; NR, Spellsword that can be used as a NR fire spell build.
Vitality-60
Strength-20
Endurance-35
Magic-40(34)(fireball, firespray, ignite, or use of light weapon spell with crushing +5 or +10 weapons(lighter weight weapons the better!)
Intelligence-+18(four slots)
Dexterity-+ 14
Faith-16(3)
Luck-Default
Same people I see making great builds. Maybe it's just me, but why wouldn't this NR type build work as a strong melee/magic?
The NR is only useful in vit gouged builds or as a backup weapon to counter warding, etc. It's slow and doesn't have good reach to perform as good as the other crescent/moon weapons you can choose from. IMO, I've seen a few NR Spellswords and they just suck, no offense.
+1
This should be one of the top builds ^_^
hey pretty cool build +1
three spell slots and almost zero mp? you'd be better off with lower vitality and endurance for more spellcasting ability. I'm sorry, but Nick's spellsword is much more balanced. I would also recommend Ignite over fireball because it's more powerful, costs less MP, and has some hyperarmor to it.
This build is more focused in melee than in throwing spells around, in fact it only uses spells to either bait out turtling, using firespray as a harassing method or using fireball for wakeups. It obviously isn't as good at throwing spells around as a more spell oriented build. However, I clearly mentioned that the build is more melee oriented.
About the balance thing, if by balance you mean it's more of a "jack of all trades" then it is. However, such a thing is actually bad for PvP builds, because the more stuff you try to focus on the weaker you will be overall. All in all when you compare the 2 builds, nick's more balanced one and this one that is geared towards melee:
- This one has more endurance, it has enough endurance to go toe to toe against any melee build in melee.
- This one has enough magic to just ohko 50 vit phantoms with an estoc, something the other one might just miss. Hits are also marginally stronger
- This one actuallyhas stronger spells than the other one.
- On the downside, you have to manage your mana more carefully and can't cast as often, magic here has to play a secondary role or you'll obviously die a lot (you'll probably die a lot anyway).
- Spell selection on this one is more limited too (Just 2 spells, as opposed to the 3 you get in the other one).
But yes, you're right, the other build is more balanced in the way that you can use it to pass off as a half-assed melee build or a half-assed mage, and in this one you can't pass off as a half-assed mage.
And finally, about ignite VS Fireball:
- Fireball has waaay more range, and can actually be shot.
- Ignite can't be chained at all, you hit with it and then they roll out.
- Both have hyper armor Fireball can't be interrupted after the initial cast.
- Ignite can't be used with the pivot casting trick, which means ultimately they're both about as fast.
- Ignite flat out doesn't work as a wakeup move, whereas fireball can be pretty succesful.
-The whole point of ignite is to either use it as a surprise meleeish attack or to chain after fireball. Both become redundant when you're playing with a 38 end build that can hit relatively hard and you forgo the kris blade for something that actually hurts.
PS: 60 is almost 0? Interesting. You can shoot 3 fireballs or practically unlimited firespray due to the crescent weapon with this int.
Alright, yes, this is more geared toward melee, but you can hardly call it a mage if you only have 3 spell casts to throw around. Properly done with a direct hit, which is actually quite easy to do with the right techniques, ignite can definitely OHKO. Yes, the range is shitty, but there are ways to land it that make you stop and think "oh god, I don't want to get hit like that". It also works very well for wake ups, just a little less frequently until you perfect the timing. And again, there is no need for a more powerful ranged spell when you already have firespray. Perhaps it is personal preference. Ignite has always been one of my favorite spells because it is fast, unpredictable, and has incredible output for its cost. Hell, the predictability of fireball alone is a huge disadvantage, even with pivot casting. It will not save you from a push lock combo either. I've dodged hundreds of fireballs, been hit by only a dozen or so in all of my playtime in pvp… It was just a recommendation. As far as a jack of all trades being bad for pvp, you are right to a degree. Most hybrids will not deal as much damage as a pure build of anything. The only exception I have found is my LW cleaver build, but that's another animal entirely because I'm using all 4 stat scalings instead of one or two. I would consider taking three points from endurance and 5 from vitality to put a little more into intelligence or magic for the extra spell and melee damage or a little more mp. Might be worth it
In case this isn't clear enough, this is not a mage build. You're not supposed to go throwing around spell casts other than firespray when you're opponent is not rushing you. The whole reason it has that endurance and that vitality is so it will be able to fight head on with melee builds. If I wanted t make another "I-can-throw-many-spells-around-but-get-ohko'd-by-unbuffed-BS's-and-some-normal-hits" build I'd just do what you suggested…but I wanted something that actually works when your opponent is fighting with a good build (and he's good as well).
Also where do you get that ignite saves you from pushlocks? Do you mean casting it when they charge to you so you trade hits but you don't flinch? If so, let me remind you 2 things: For one, fireball can do the exact same thing, it can even do it better because if your opponents aims to hit with the phantom range ignite will be beyond its range, while fireball will still connect. Secondly, you have a shield in this build so you can just shield kats…
PS: LW cleaver is about one of the worst builds ever, it has worse damage, vitality and endurance than a cursed gaxe on a str build…
LW cleaver hits hell hard. I got OHKO by mpouldas when i was using my 50 vit dex with old doran armour. The cleaver tends to 2HKo or OHKO so i dont see how can that be weak.
Anyways very nice build +1
fine, fine, it was just a recommendation. You don't have to get your feathers ruffled because someone disagrees and has legitimate reasoning behind it.
Now, with regard to fireball being "just as effective at saving you from pushlocks", the reason it is not is because any knowledgable player will roll right under it and hit you with a delayed rolling R1. I met someone who had this build recently, shield and all, and beat them every time (a skilled player too, mind you) for the very reasons i've just listed. What i like about ignite is the fact that even if you do trade blows, you can chain ignite and break SC indefinitely. Timing is the key.
As far as LW cleaver being "one of the worst builds ever", it sure kicks a lot of ass. A strength build will hit harder per hit in most cases, but does not combo as frequently and has half of the range. I don't know about you, but I'd bet money on higher combo frequency over a slight increase in power and vitality.
The legitimate reason was what?
- Ignite has hyper armor and Fball doesn't
- Ignite saves you from pushlocks and Fball can be punished (Which is all weird because that's what the shield is for)
- Ignite is more powerful
The first 2 are false, it's what I was saying, and I wouldn't recommend ignite at all because it's just a gimmicky spell.
As for Fball, ingite and pushlocks… any knowledgeable player will lock off the fireball and aim it to the ground making it hit through the roll. Of course the other player can also avoid that but blah, blah, blah..it's about who reads it right.
Fyi you can't really chain ignites unless there's tremendous lag or your opponent doesn't roll away.
Finally, about LW MC: They combo just as frequently, they work just the same. The difference lies in the increased sweetspot range with the MC, so you feel like it combos more often.
Good build, the only thing I can think of is using RoMN instead of RoMS in Body, to be able to have more spell sets at your disposal, since Firespray and Fireball can become quite predictable. Also, RoMS will, relatively speaking, give you a disadvantage, since it lowers MagDef by twice as much as it increses Magic Power. And more than half the builds out there will inflict Magic Damage. A few tweaks to be made on the topic of equipment I guess, but solid build overall.
And LWC does combo more often than Gaxe, deals only ~50 less damage depending on armor and whatnot without MagDef equipment. Plus its infamous BS capability and range… I'd take it over Cursed Gaxe. ;P
Good build.
Try this one if you want. Not to take anything away from this build, as I respect yours, and enjoy looking at the various versions of builds out there.
Similar build as the one I made, with some differences:
Royalty starting class:
Vit-45(while five points less in vit, not much of a difference. Build is used to avoid getting hit by dodging, and blocking, yet not just standing there waiting for your chance to attack.,
Very aggressive build since magic damage is extremely powerful. Kris blade used with Ikat in phantom form does much more damage than body form.
Magic-60(may disagree with 60 versus 50. IMO going from 50 to 60 does make a difference in damage. Every 10+ after 50 in any stat is worth it!
Intel-22(3 slots with a bit more MP to use Ikat: (you will have plenty MP to cast deadly firespray, for damage, blinding opp while going in for critical backstab or even normal hits using moon winged spear, crescent kilij. Add an ignite in that combo, one deadly mag.
Dex-12(can use crescent estoc; deadly with backstabs. Moon Winged Spear great against DSS and faith builds. Crescent Kilij, not as powerful as it's sharp upgrade. However, fast, consecutive hits, and stunlock. Hugggge phantom range. With 60 magic(yes, differercne between 50) you will do damage against any builds.
Strength-11(so you can use Kilij, moon spear(two handed), Moon MH(two handed)
Endurance-30(enough stamina to play aggressively, while dodging, and being able to block. This is very important as stamina with this build can be a lifesaver. All about controlling space, timing, when to backstab, casting, from short distance, to mid, to long. Firespray is not to be underestimated. It will kill with high magic!!!! Endurance goes well with firespray. Ability to run without draining stamina=continuing to harass with firespray withiout having to roll away!!!
Another positive about having good endurance: While some feel armor is nothing in this game, IMO that is not correct. In fact, Old Doran's armor has prevented many from dying from a nice fatal estoc backstab(this doesn't only apply to body form faith hosts, but any build, phantom or body wearing good armor!!!!) With such light weapons you use with this build, full old Doran's Armor has great defense, and will allow you to still roll fast since you WILL not be over the equip burden.
Faith-16(Second Chance, not to use TOB. This is a Ikat based Mag/Melee build)
"We are the dreamers, we are the dreamers of our dreams"
-Wonka