[Class Build] The Frozen Lance (Melee Wizard) (2024)

The Frozen Lance tends to buff and then strike hard and fast, taking out opponents before they can do any real damage. He delights in engaging opponents in melee and is often found in the thick of the action engaging up to three opponents simultaneously. Where he cannot control the battlefield, he has access to high-damage spells that effectively end fights before they can even begin.

To maximize the buffs, high INT is needed. PER was raised in order to compensate for the wizard’s lower accuracy and RES was raised to ensure that my spells do not get interrupted. The other 3 abilities had points allocated based on how I envisioned the progression of the build.

In order to use spells more efficiently, encounters are ranked according to their difficulty and buffs are then cast according to this ranking. The rankings are Easy (one or two opponents), Normal (need to exercise some judgement here, but most encounters fall in this ranking) and Difficult (need to unleash all nukes or else you end up as chickenfeed).

With all encounters, I ignored all enemies, found a good place to make a stand (doorways or anything that limits the number of enemies you face – walls and rocks also work since you can’t be fully surrounded), cast my buffs and only then did I engage the enemies.

The order of the buffs is also chosen in order to maximize the time these overlap. It is no use casting Eldritch Aim at the beginning of the buff-sequence as its duration is too short to be useful. It should always be the last buff cast.

Once I had access to the resting bonus providing racial accuracy bonuses (Survival 4), I always used this to get higher accuracy against tough opponents.

Difficult Encounters: Cast buffs in this order – Ironskin*, Llengrath’s Displaced Image (replace with Siphoning Image once you have it), Llengrath’s Safeguard, Flame Shield, Merciless Gaze*, DAoM*, Eldritch Aim*. You could also cast Citzal's Martial Power instead of Eldritch Aim and then use the Spells of Paralysis and Maelstrom - I did this for Llengrath. Used all 10 of my Maelstrom spells and one of the dragons was still standing.

For these encounters a good shield is very useful (deflection and reflex bonus) and Steadfast’s immunity to fear means that there is no penalty to accuracy – very useful when facing dragons. Once all the buffs are cast, I start to nuke everything in range. Paralyze opponents with Ninagauth’s Shadowflame and then finish them with Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake. High accuracy for crits is very important (paralyze duration and damage) and if you crit hardly any opponents are left standing after the third Rake. After the third rake, reevaluate whether to engage in melee or just blast off the rest of your spells. You will need to rest in any case after this encounter.

Normal Encounters: Cast buffs in this order – Ironskin*, Llengrath’s Displaced Image (replace with Siphoning Image once you have it), Flame Shield, Merciless Gaze*, Citzal’s Spirit Lance, DAoM*, Citzal’s Martial Power. Eldtrich Aim is not cast as Citzal’s Martial Power overrides its effect. Spells were chosen so that only 1 spell is cast from each level, thus enabling the Frozen Lance to survive 4 encounters before needing to rest.

Engage the enemies and just whack away. The high speed and accuracy cause frequent crits and the blast of the lance does pretty serious damage too. In WM2, I tended to use Unlabored Blade rather than the lance whenever I needed the higher deflection.

Easy Encounters: Just cast the spells you have mastered in this order: Ironskin*, Merciless Gaze*, DaoM*, Eldritch Aim* and whack away.

*Cast the spell using spell mastery

Difficult Encounters: Cast buffs in this order – Ironskin, Llengrath’s Displaced Image, Flame Shield, Merciless Gaze, DAoM, Eldritch Aim.

For these encounters a good shield is very useful for the deflection and reflex bonus. I used the Rotfinger Gloves a lot in combination with Crackling Bolt and Minoletta’s Missiles (both Bounding and Concussive) and Blast of Frost when enemies got close. I also used figurines to distract opponents while I cast spells and the Shades are particularly useful during Act 2. You will need to rest in any case after this encounter so no need to save spells or summons.

Normal Encounters: Cast buffs in this order – Ironskin, Llengrath’s Displaced Image, Flame Shield, Merciless Gaze, Concelhaut’s Parasitic Staff, DAoM and Eldritch Aim. If needed, debuff enemies with Curse of Blackened Sight before engaging. You want the accuracy bonus of Eldritch Aim to give you a better chance at crits.

Easy Encounters: Same spells and tactics as for Normal encounters.