Magic build suggestions?

lesarbres

Green Slime
I'm pretty new to this game. I just completed the story mode with my first character, a 1H melee build with piercing dash and shadow clone, focusing on attack speed and crit. It seems to work fairly well.

I want to play through again on another character with a magic focus. I'm finding some conflicting information about which spells are viable playstyles and I figure some things have changed with time.

What are some good spell builds that are fun/effective in solo story mode right now?
 

lesarbres

Green Slime
Update: I started a character off with cloud strike and with Earth Spike as my main damage spell, but I was really having a hard time with it. It does good damage, but it's hard to use, and I was dying a lot. In order to get the benefit of putting any points into it you need to charge it up, and you need to aim it, but you're vulnerable and slow during that second or two. I found it difficult to kite enemies while also aiming it at them, and it felt like there was no margin for error at all. It's also easy to miss with and the area of effect is small. And while perfect guarding can, in theory, help you snap cast it with a higher charge, in practice I found it impractical to perfect guard, aim the spell, then guard the next attack also.

So I took my points out of that and put it into Insect Swarm instead, and with that and Cloud Strike and lots of MATK gear my playthrough has been a breeze so far. Insect Swarm is a lot easier to use because you can just release it and let it go. My one complaint with it is that sometimes when you release it, it goes right by an enemy without seeing them. But, I can't complain too much because when it does find an enemy, the way it moves to the next enemy is great.
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
Frosty Friend might be a good choice if you have problems with casting. It will take the monsters' attention away from you.
 

lesarbres

Green Slime
Thanks. Right now I have maxed Insect Swarm and I think 5 or 6 in Cloud Strike, and starting to accumulate silver points. I'm not sure what to do with them. I don't think I really need another active spell so I thought about getting another summon such as Frosty Friend, but that and Cloud Strike will tie up a lot of my EP. I guess I could get some more +EP gear. I feel like having two summons out + gold charge Insect Swarm would wreck face against groups of monsters.
 

Majora

Green Slime
Thanks. Right now I have maxed Insect Swarm and I think 5 or 6 in Cloud Strike, and starting to accumulate silver points. I'm not sure what to do with them. I don't think I really need another active spell so I thought about getting another summon such as Frosty Friend, but that and Cloud Strike will tie up a lot of my EP. I guess I could get some more +EP gear. I feel like having two summons out + gold charge Insect Swarm would wreck face against groups of monsters.
That's exactly what I ended up running with the entire game. But I chose just to focus on Cloud Strike and Insect Swarm and skip Frosty Friend. I just spam Insect Swarm combined with basic attacks using a 1H Wand. Works great!
 

Duck :)

Green Slime
Frosty friend + Flamethrower = death. Just be quick to use his shield so he doesn't dies or else you're just rabbit food.
 
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