Best (Party-Defining) Buffs

Tartan · Post by **Tartan** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:34 pm

A few times now I've leveled up a mage or matured a pet to find a new buff available from a power, spell, or aura. I find myself saying, "Hey, that would be pretty cool...*if* my party had this-or-that." For instance, a buff for both +Lightning & +Ice makes me wish I'd not specialized my mages in Fire and Summoning.

Now that I've almost run thru the game twice, I'm thinking of making a new party and I'm remembering all those wonderful "if only" buffs I didn't get much use out of and wondering which one or two to exploit to get a helpful boost.

So...what are your favorite buffs? Which would you recommend developing an entire party around to take advantage of it's full potential? These could be from pets, spells, or powers; I'm not picky...just looking for ideas.

duodecad · Post by **duodecad** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:32 am

i pretty much built my first two mages around the Drown curse - weakens resistances to ice/lightning

i also had my nature mage buff up my ranged/melee characters with wrath of ice to take advantage of the drown curse a little more

but it doesn't seem to work as well with monsters that are "lightning resistant" or "cold/ice resistant"

Vai'Lutra · Post by **Vai'Lutra** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:24 pm

Just remember "Wrath Of Ice" and "Wrath Of Ancestors".
Great couple of spells there.

DarkDain · Post by **DarkDain** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:34 pm

As a solo combat-mage i use Wrath of Magic and ...w/e the HP stealing buff is called, its been awhile. Not much use in any of the others.

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:01 pm

There are alot of good buffs to choose from. So far im sticking to Earthen and Spirit Embrace. Gives more life and curse immunity. Also resistances. Need only investing in one skill. Benefits every character, including summons. Obviously this is party oriented.

Xzeihoranth · Post by **Xzeihoranth** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:28 am

Summons: Spirit Embrace+Earthen Embrace

Melee/Ranged: Spirit Embrace+Dragon Scales (80% Power Recharge Rate=Power Use on EVERY group of monsters and Brutal Strike recharges every second on Bosses-Lap Dragon Spell)

Mage: Dragon Scales+Wrath of Magic

Caster Pet: Spirit Embrace+Aquatic Embrace

Physical Pet: Spirit Embrace+Dragon Scales

My parties usually consist of Melee Hero, Taar, and a Lap Dragon. Never any more than 3 characters, solo CM/NM mages sometimes, sometimes ranged for backup damage.

Spirit Embrace=42% Ice, Fire, Lightning Res+Immune to Curses
Earthen Embrace=26% More Life (=26% More Aether Blast Damage)
Aquatic Embrace=53% Faster Mana Regeneration
Wrath of Magic~30%-35% Magic Damage
Dragon Scale~80% Power Recharge Rate, 53% Death and Lightning Res+Immune to Curses

All Embrace Spells listed with MAX power (i.e. Max intelligence and Level 30 Embrace Skill)

With these fine assortment of cheap spells, You can easily go through without ever using a Potion of ANY kind higher than level 15-20. Dragon Scales is easily the most powerful spell there is, considering it adds more Power Recharge Rate than any item+skill combination can achieve for any character (with decent gear not targeted ONLY for PRR).

Hope this helps.

P.S. Reasons to not use other buffs:
Wind Embrace: Tanks need no Dodge past level 10 with a 1/2 decent healer. Wasted Buff. As for rangers/mages/pets; Besides Combat Mages, none of these classes take hits from any one monster for more than 2-3 hits, and even nature mages have adequate Def/Life to last for that long...then the monster moves on to tank.
Wrath of Ancestors: ~20% Recharge Rate. Dragon Scales=4x+res

Wrath of Ice: Higher difficulties the damage is just not sufficient. Substitute on Ranger for Spirit Embrace if necessary. Any mage would be dishing out much damage anyways, same for rangers. Tanks need very little damage as they just take hits.
Wrath of the Bear: Very intriguing spell, Can be substituted for Spirit Embrace on Melee/Ranged classes, if they have sufficient res to sacrifice 42%

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:44 am

How do you put different buffs on different party members? Doesn't it take an awful lot of micromanagement?
I'm currently doubting between Earthen Embrace, Spirit Embrace, or Dragon Scales. The party consists of a Fist of Nature, Bloodarcher, Combat Mage, Nature Mage, Ice Elemental and Lap Dragon. Any advice? The above post reminded me of the +PRR of Dragon Scales, so currently I'm going with that.
Thank in advance!

Xzeihoranth · Post by **Xzeihoranth** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:08 pm

Simply right click on the little buff icon on your characters' portraits to remove the buff. Example: Taar casts Spirit Embrace on the entire party, however your Blood Assassin already has really good Fire, Ice, Lightning resist due to Survival skill...Right click the Spirit Embrace icon on your Ranger's portrait to remove it, and apply the buff you wish to add.

First and foremost apply Dragon Scales to the party members who have powers u use frequently. The others (Ice Elemental+Lap Dragon) can pretty much do without, although the resist are nice...it would depend on where you are fighting. If you are in act 1 or 3, perhaps Dragon Scales is best, but act 2, Spirit Embrace would be best for Ice resist. And all summons can do without Dragon Scales (plus the extra life is uber for Aether Blast).

Fist of Stone/Melee: Dragon Scales+Spirit Embrace
Blood Assassin/Ranged: Dragon Scales+Earthen Embrace (Or Damage Buffing Wrath)
Nature Mage: Dragon Scales+Spirit Embrace/Wrath of Magic
Combat Mage: Dragon Scales+Earthen Embrace (If you auto cast curses and draw a ton of agro)
Damage Power Pets: Dragon Scales+Spirit Embrace
Non-Damage Power Pets: Spirit Embrace+Earthen Embrace

Hope this helps.
I'll HOPEFULLY be adding a video of my 4 man party soon. They are as of this post level 94 1-H Tank, Archmage Taar (Level 94 Nature/60 Combat Magic...damn drown curse gives to much CM XP

), Blood Assassin Bow-Amren, and Lap Dragon with almost more life than my tank!

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:23 am

Well, thanks for the answer, but it's also the reason why I said "without terrible micromanagement."

I find the game not difficult enough to go through that effort.

Xzeihoranth · Post by **Xzeihoranth** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:56 am

Bah it takes 5 seconds

I usually just cast Dragon Scales, Make a summon, Cast Spirit Embrace, cast Earthen on summon, remove dragon scales from lap dragon and add aquatic embrace cuz caster summons suck on mana. it takes maybe 5 seconds

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:01 am

5 seconds every few minutes. Annoying enough for me.

flix · Post by **flix** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:56 pm

My party is one dual wield, one fist of stone tank, one ranged, and three mages.

I keep spirit embrace and wrath of magic on autocast. Then I remove the wrath of magic from melee and ranged fighters and apply wrath of the bear. I don't use pets. Yeah, it's every 5 minutes or so, but so much in this game is already done automatically for you - summoning and cursing and such you usually have to do yourself in other games - it seems like a small price to pay to kick ass. And you know WHEN to reapply because your Nature Mage will autocast.

EDIT: It might be every 5 minutes when you start out, but by Elite difficulty, my buffs are lasting over 3229 seconds=55 minutes, which is hardly micromanaging. Some of my playing sessions don't even last that long.

Vai'Lutra · Post by **Vai'Lutra** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:28 pm

Why bother

I always disliked having to micromanage anything which may explain my low effort party:

3 Half-Giant melee
Taar
a Light Naid
and a pet of some kind I keep changing.

I just stick with Earthen Embrace and Wrath of Ice, all through the game to level 88 party, why bother thinking :laugh:

flix · Post by **flix** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:06 am

Cause I like thinking?

I play with the Aranna Legacy mod, which significantly beefs up enemies (besides fixing a lot of bugs), so I need to pull out all the stops to keep my team alive and slaying. Changing buffs for specific characters is not something you'll really need to do before Veteran difficulty anyway, and by that point, the duration is such that you'll only have to do it pretty rarely. It's not micromanaging, it's just managing. Six quick clicks and you're there. It takes less time and thought than changing your equipment.