Guide to Symbiotes

I. Overview
The Blood Mage is very unique class, and it has a very varied playstyle. One of the most unique spell-lines the class gets is the Symbiotes. Symbiotes are created by the Blood Mage by using his own blood and organs harvested from enemies, and subsequently cast on allies or yourself for various buffs. Do not expect your Symbiotes to be huge buffs, but they give you a ton of flexibility and are very interesting.

II. Construction
When you get your first Symbiote-spell you will see that it requires a Symbiote-item to cast. To construct a Symbiote, follow these steps:
Note that there is no need for you to be at an assembly table!

1.Cast Siphon Blood. This will give you the “Vial of Blood” you need for constructing your new Symbiotes.
2.Cast Bursting Cyst, Exploding Cyst, Constrict, Union of Blood or Blood Letting Ritual on a mob (any rank will do).
3.While the mob is affected by the spell you cast on it, cast Grim Harvest. Depending on which spell you cast you will get the following organ for your Symbiotes:
1.Bursting Cyst or Exploding Cyst - Quivering Brain
2.Constrict - Twitching Muscle
3.Union of Blood - Still Beating Heart
4.Blood Letting Ritual - Pulsating Stomach
4.Open your Crafting list and go to the Assembly-pane. In the pull-down menu select Blood Mage.
5.Find the Symbiote you want to construct, check if you have all the components (If not go get them as per steps 1-3).
6.If you have all the components, click Combine and get your Symbiotes!
You should now have 10 of the Symbiote you constructed, and a few less components. No worries though; components stack, and a Still Beating Heart will continue beating even though you’ve had it in your bags for weeks.

III. Organs
Getting the organs you need can be a bit tricky, so heres some comments and tips. First of all, don’t harvest organs when you’re in a group. You’ll divert your attention from the action and that could prove fatal. Since organs stack (up to 20) go find some mobs (even gray ones will do), and harvest off those by yourself. I find that going into Sanguine Focus makes it easier to harvest several organs from the same mob since you wont do as much damage and wont take as much damage while waiting for Grim Harvest to refresh (15 seconds). I do this since you can harvest several organs off the same mob–yes, a bear does seem to have 4 brains, 3 hearts and more stomachs than a cow!

Also you can make absolutely sure which organ to get by having only one debuff on the mob at one given time (so don’t cast Cyst followed immediately by Union of Blood, since you cant be sure which organ you’ll get).

Vial of Blood: Not quite an organ, but deserves mention. Go into Sanguine Focus (for the HP regen) Then cast on yourself Transfusion of Serak (for more HP) and just go nuts with Siphon Blood. Just remember that you can kill yourself with Siphon Blood so take it easy when you go low on HP.
Quivering Brain: Easiest organ to harvest – cast a Cyst-spell followed by Grim Harvest.
Still Beating Heart: Cast Union of Blood and then Grim Harvest.
Twitching Muscle: Root the mob with Constrict , and then cast Grim Harvest. If root doesn’t break (Grim Harvest does cause a little damage), you can just wait until Grim Harvest refreshes and cast it again for another muscle.
Pulsating Stomach: Build up 1 Blood Union Point with either Despoil, Entwining Vein or from Focus of Gelenia (Using these spells does not work with Grim Harvest, so they wont mess up which organ you get). Then cast Blood Letting Ritual, followed by Grim Harvest. The Duration on Blood Letting Ritual is long (1 minute), so you’ll be able to get 3 or 4 stomachs off the same mob (if the mob lives that long of course).
The points here is of course that having only one debuff on the mob ensures that you get exactly the organ you want and that you can harvest several organs from one mob. Of course, this is only my way of doing it, but I think its a very easy and quick way to get a lot of organs.

IV. Using Symbiotes
When you have constructed your new Symbiotes, you can cast the spells associated with them. When you cast the spell, your Defensive Target will be buffed with the Symbiote and one Symbiote of the appropriate type will be removed from your inventory. Remember that a player can only be buffed with one Symbiote at a time.

The only offensive Symbiote is Controlling Symbiote. Casting it will apply it to your Offensive Target. Remember that the spell can miss, be resisted or just not work if the target is of a type that is not charmable or is to powerful (4dots and up usually). If you try to charm a mob which has already been charmed by Controlling Symbiote once, it will also fail.

It does not cost you anything to construct or cast Symbiotes, the only cost you have is in getting the components.

V. List of Symbiotes and Spells
I have listed all the available Symbiotes in one entry per Symbiote. Where there are multiple ranks, I have stated how many ranks are available and when you’ll be able to train them. The description will also include what bonus a certain Symbiote yields at which rank.

I have also added a note to the Symbiotes where the description doesnt quite cover the way it works.

Cleansing Symbiote
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Still Beating Heart
Trained at Character Level: 14
Description: Attaches a Symbiote to an ally, cleansing their body of poison and disease over 15 minutes.
Notes: Ticks every 10 seconds, removing 1 poison or disease counter.

Controlling Symbiote
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Quivering Brain (Animation Symbiote in the Assembly Menu)
Trained at Character Level: 14
Description: Attaches a controlling symbiote to an opponent, forcing it to obey your commands for 15 seconds. Repeated symbiote uses will be ignored completely. Draconic, undead, construct and elemental targets are immune to suggestion.
Notes: The controlled mob will behave like a pet for the duration of the spell, which means that you can command it to attack and use its spells.

Plated Symbiote
Ranks: I / II / III / IV
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Twitching Muscle
Ranks trained at Character Level: 18 / 28 / 38 / 48
Description: Attaches a plated symbiote to an ally, transforming their skin into spiky plates that returns 30 / 49 / 71 / 94 damage upon their attackers and increases AC by 54 / 84 / 114 / 144 for 1 hour.
Notes: The Symbiote only causes damage to melee-attackers and normal ranged attacks (bows, throwing weapons etc.).

Hollow Symbiote I
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Quivering Brain, 1 Still Beating Heart
Trained at Character Level: 22
Description: Attaches a hollow symbiote to an ally, allowing them to float above the ground for 1 hour.

Frenzied Symbiote
Ranks: I / II / III / IV / V
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Quivering Brain, 1 Twitching Muscle
Ranks trained at Character Level: 26 / 32 / 38 / 44 / 50
Description: Attaches a Frenzied Symbiote to an ally, increasing his or her damage by 20 / 32 /45 / 63 / 84 for 1 hour.
Notes: The bonus from Frenzied Symbiotes apply to melee-attacks only. That said, extra damage on every melee-hit is quite efficient.

Renewing Symbiote
Ranks: I / II / III
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Twitching Muscle, 1 Still Beating Heart
Ranks trained at Character Level: 30 / 40 / 50
Description: Attaches a renewing symbiote to an ally, this symbiote transfers 20 endurance to 30 / 34 / 38 health every 10 seconds for 30 minutes..

Quickening Symbiote I
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Quivering Brain, 1 Twitching Muscle, 1 Still Beating Heart
Trained at Character Level: 34
Description: Attaches a quickening symbiote to an ally. This symbiote grants you the use of an ability that doubles your damage for 6 seconds. This symbiote lasts 1 hour.
Notes: The target of your Symbiote will have to check his Abilites/Spells for a spell called ”Quickening Jolt” and drag this to his hotbar.

Vitalizing Symbiote I
Symbiote Requires: 3 Vial of Blood
Trained at Character Level: 38
Description: Attaches a vitalizing symbiote to an ally. This symbiote transfers 30 endurance to 45 mana every 10 seconds for 30 minutes.

Conductive Symbiote I
Symbiote Requires: 1 Vial of Blood, 2 Pulsating Stomach, 1 Quivering Brain, 1 Still Beating Heart
Trained at Character Level: 42
Description: Attaches a Conductive Symbiote to an ally. This symbiote grants you the use of an ability that instantly heals an ally. This symbiote lasts for 1 hour.
Notes: The target of your Symbiote will have to check his Abilites/Spells for a spell called ”Conduct” and drag this to his hotbar.