first Arcane, need suggestions

[Bolo_Grubb]

I have been playing mostly melee toons since I started playing ddo.

I do have a capped FVS and a capped cleric, but I play those the least and mostly when my guild needs a divine for something.

I want to try an arcane, but know nothing about them. I am vip so I have access to most things.

as a first time arcane what should I know? What type of arcane should I try?

[nrgould]

Wow, that could be an enormous question! I have a level 20 sorc. Love it, nuking with cold damage as a water savant. But my friend loves his pale master wizard. Both of us have learnt masses and taken a long time, and a few hearts of wood, to get our characters to be both super fun and pretty decent, whilst learning the magic playstyles that suit us and our guildmates. I say just do what seems cool, if you've done plenty of gaming anyway you know the basics. If you want an uber build there are lots of threads around with advice and suggestions. Happy magic wielding!

[Mubjon]

I do not have as much knowledge with arcanes as I do in building Divines. But, I do have a sorc and wizard that i have been playing for the last 6 months and still learning everything with the two classes that I can.

What you need to figure out first is do you want self healing. As you have played divines before you might want to go this route and that would lend you to two possiblities.

WarForge or Palemaster.

Now with WF you can go sorc (probably earth due to the bonus to con that the race receives) or wizard archmage. I have seen some go with the palemaster on WF, but I think that is a bit redundant because the immunities are similar and arcanes get access to reconstruct for self healing.

If you go archmage then I suggest conjuration as your focus for cheap sla webs or enchantment for cheap SLA disco balls. There are others of course, but those two I had the most fun with before I went Palemaster on my test builds.

If you want to stay human or elf or whatever, then Palemaster is what you want.

I chose Human Palemaster for my wiz life. It was the most survivable and I hate the way WF look. Just does not feel very D&D like to have a toaster for a character.

Feats are pretty standard you will may want to consider the following for wizard

Insightful reflexes - great for reducing damage from incoming spells
Spell focus and Greater spell focus for your choice shools. Necro and Enchantment are most favored unless going earth savant and then conjuration is best.
Toughness
Mental toughness (if Wiz so that you can qualify for archmage or Palemaster II shroud of the wraith)
Spell Pen, greater spell pen - to help with your instant death spells that you will take regardless if you are Sorc or Wiz.
Quicken - for wizard, sorcs do not need it from what I can tell as they fire off spells quick as it is
Heighten - for Disco balls, and other enchantment spells
maximize
empower

Now sorc you will want to consider

Spell focus, greater spell focus - Evocation or Conjuration maybe Sf evo/con and SF enchant if you want to do any CC

Toughness
Spell pen
Heighten
Maximize
Empower

with a sorc you will eventually be able to use UMD to use heal scrolls with some equipment.

There are other feats too that could be substituted for any of those, but generally those are the most helpful.

[Sirea]

I would start with a wizard. You'll have more flexibility with spells and be able to tell which ones are better than others and switch them out at will to try them out. Same goes with metamagics and feats in general; more feat slots lets you try more out.

Warforged are quite popular as arcanes because of the self-healing aspect, as well as increased HP. Drows and Humans will get slightly higher DCs than a Warforged will because of racial benefits and it is quite possible to play a non-squishy fleshy caster. But that boils down to playstyle just as much as gear.

Personally I like Pale Masters; they benefit from higher DCs which helps things like crowd control and instadeath spells but can also be versatile elemental casters depending on how they are specced. Archamages require a bit more specialization into one school of spells at a slight detriment to the others. Also, Pale Masters are attractive to non-Warforged because of the self-healing aura and increased fortification.

As with any class, Toughness is a given feat (It's also required for Shroud of the Lich, by far the best PM stance). The most useful metamagics are Empower, Maximize, Quicken and Heighten; Extend less so because it was nerfed to not apply to many offensive spells and at cap you rarely need 40 minute buffs, but since wizards get lots of feats you can usually fit it in. Spell Pen and Greater Spell Pen are also extremely useful, and you'll need Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus in the appropriate school depending on what prestige you choose. Mental Toughness can be helpful if you have room, and if you want the Shroud of the Wraith PM stance it's a prereq.

One tip I do have for new wizards, if you have the money, is to get a teleport to the Portable Hole as soon as you can and buy up all the scrolls they have and inscribe them. IIRC it costs around 50,000-60,000pp for all the scrolls up to level 7 as well as inscription materials, so it's not cheap, but it'll give you a good bank of spells right off the bat and enables you to take the spells on level up that you can't buy scrolls for.

[yawumpus]

I guess it comes down to which you liked better on your divines, flamestrike or greater command.

Wizards do cc best.
Sorcerers nuke best. If you went melee for DPS, you want a sorcerer.

I like sorcerers. Like the wizard suggestions above, you may prefer going WF for easier leveling and solo ability. Humans have the edge for higher charisma, but typically if DCs are an issue, you are doing the sorcery wrong (not too many saving throws and no spell resistance for direct damage spells). Also since sorcs are charisma based, humans can typically use wands and eventually heal scrolls for self healing. A capped human thus has a slight advantage (I suspect the feat is more important than the DC[s]).

The fixed spell disadvantage is overrated. Maybe if you were constantly swapping spells on you cleric you will prefer a wizard but I would rather just go to the quest entrance than having to detour to a tavern first. The spell slot difference is a bit bigger, but likely just means a gradual adjusting of your spell list as you find what works best for you (there aren't enough spells to justify going wizard first for this. The PL feat would justify going wizard, but not the spells).

I'm running some first life alts with a TR'ed wizard. He seems overjoyed using maximize to blast enemies. I keep wondering what he'll think in his next life (sorcerer) when he can do the exact same thing and then run by the rest shrines because he has twice the SP.

[hiryuu42]

I would start with a wizard. You'll have more flexibility with spells and be able to tell which ones are better than others and switch them out at will to try them out. Same goes with metamagics and feats in general; more feat slots lets you try more out.

I started with a WF wizard, and I do recommend that path. The extra feats are nice, as is swapping spells while you figure out a strategy that works for you. I will concur with yawumpus that easy spell changing is overrated, but it's still worth something.

[Drekisen]

If you like to blow stuff up make a WF'ed Sorc.......if you like to CC and insta-kill make a Fleshy PaleMaster Wizard...preferably a human or a drow.

[Kinerd]

What you need to figure out first is do you want self healing.Allow me!

You absolutely want self-healing, Mr. Grubb.
It is so easy to make an arcane with self-healing that you will kick yourself if you do not.

You also probably want spell-based self-healing rather than strictly scroll-based. I have met multiple people who built a fleshy sorcerer or fleshy non-PM wizard, thinking they could get by with Heal scrolls, who grew disgusted with and abandoned their builds. I have yet to meet someone who abandoned a WF arcane because it could not self-heal well enough. If you really took Battlestar Galactica to heart and can't play a robot, make a wizard PM.

Self-healing is good. Self-healing is great. Surrender to self-healing as of this date.

.

Otherwise, the distinctions mentioned previously by others are well said. Sorcerers are better nukers, wizards are better DCers. With that said, each are still pretty good at the other if they want to be.

[Mubjon]

Allow me!

You absolutely want self-healing, Mr. Grubb.
It is so easy to make an arcane with self-healing that you will kick yourself if you do not.

You also probably want spell-based self-healing rather than strictly scroll-based. I have met multiple people who built a fleshy sorcerer or fleshy non-PM wizard, thinking they could get by with Heal scrolls, who grew disgusted with and abandoned their builds. I have yet to meet someone who abandoned a WF arcane because it could not self-heal well enough. If you really took Battlestar Galactica to heart and can't play a robot, make a wizard PM.

Self-healing is good. Self-healing is great. Surrender to self-healing as of this date.

.

Otherwise, the distinctions mentioned previously by others are well said. Sorcerers are better nukers, wizards are better DCers. With that said, each are still pretty good at the other if they want to be.

I was not sure if he was one of those sadistic types that believes that it is a waste to heal them self :)

[Havok.cry]

I would start you off with a warforged wizard. Wizard because it is easier to switch spells out and try everything, and warforged because you can maintain self healing while trying each PRE out. I HIGHLY recommend taking up to greater spell focus in both necromancy and conjuration. Instakills and CC with less immunities against it. You can be either an archmage or a pale master this way. Infact you could switch between as you desire. I highly recommend taking the four core metamagics of: empower, maximize, heighten, and quicken. If you take mental toughness as a feat you qualify for both the archmage PRE OR the wraith form under the pale master PRE, for this reason on a new wizard I recommend it so you can try more options. Toughness of course. Spell penetration and greater spell penetration are highly important for breaking the SR on mobs for many of the more powerful spells. That would be 12 feats, which would cover all you can take IIRC.

When spending time as an archmage the web SLA is amazing, extremely cheap essentially infinite CC.

When spending time as a pale master remember that in a pinch you can drop form, pull out recon scrolls, and keep yourself up while spamming your pale master SLAs, they cost hp instead of SP so it works out well. While doing this may not be as fast as drinking a pot, it is alot cheaper, and may allow you to save pots for real emergencies, giving you leeway to learn the intricacies of wizard SP management.

Oh and please please take haste. It saves has the hidden effect of making you immune to certain types of grief and drama. Also it is awesome, but other threads discuss that so I wont go into detail.

[Vellrad]

Despite my favourite character is dwarven palemaster, I must agree with what above posters said; for amateurs, warforged wizard is the best choice.
Don't really plan too much ahead, play with all the spells, experiment what works best for you.
And have fun ;)

[Bolo_Grubb]

At this point I think I am leaning towards a Pale Master. At least to try first. Can someone point me towards a good human or warforged palemaster?

[wax_on_wax_off]

This (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=368762) is my wizard and this (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=368758) is my sorcerer.

The sorcerer is the first character that I leveled in DDO so has some obvious flaws but performs reasonably well despite that (even with 14 base con I've managed to get to 487 buffed HP). He is a fleshy and I've had no issues scroll healing myself and I appreciate the +2 DC that I have over a warforged (as I have max gear besides tomes). With 39 enchant, 38 necro and 38 conj DC I'm now able to fill the roll of CC rather than just pure nuker. I like the character so much I'm going to do 3*wizard PL before going back to drow sorcerer (with over 500 buffed HP). I've only really been able to enjoy the character once I got a decent collection of dragonbloods (from gianthold tor quest mainly) and the experience with different spells from my wizard. I wouldn't build a warforged sorcerer except for a past life, -2 DC just kills so my versatility without enough benefit.

My wizard is still a first life character and I've put a lot of work putting his gear together. I definitely like drow as a choice for palemaster and now have some very high DCs (43/41/41) along with 532 buffed HP.

I'd suggest that an elf, pure palemaster would the best choice to start with. You get the bonus to spell penetration which is the biggest obstacle for a first life wizard at cap and extra SP (another sore spot). 32 point build lets you start with 16 con and 18 int which is nice (not too hard at all to get over 500 HP).

[Isharah]

as a first time arcane what should I know? What type of arcane should I try?

Wizard gives you a lot of space for error and experimentation in terms of both feats and spells. If you want an arcane for learning purposes first, I suggest you roll wizard.

Sorcerers aren't as nub friendly. They are feat-starved, and you can't change spells freely. They offer a faster gaming pace though, so if you want an arcane for the blasting power, I suggest you roll a sorcerer.

Cheers.

[glouky]

Best starting build is certainly warforge wizard because:
* you can test all spell
* you can try many feats
* you can test both pale master healing and reconstruct healing
* you can switch beween pale master and archmage just by reseting enhencements
* you will gain a must have past life feat if you consider reincaration

the build itself is straightforward: max int, almost max con, rest in str, feats are roughly max/emp/toughness/mental toughness/heigthen/quicken/force of personnality/spell pen / specialisation necro *2

[jbleargh]

Not sure if you will find it relevant.... but for me "aura healing" is more comfortable.

Sometimes die when I play my fvs because I am used to not worry too much about my own red bar in my cleric.

Arcanes have more buttons to press and choices to make according to the situation.

Instead of Divine Punishment (that works with almost all bosses) you have 2 DoTs to maintain during a fight (if the mob is not immune to cold or electricity).

Blade Barrier works on everything... Firewall, ice storm, acid rain, etc... don't.

Most of the time you be casting a CC and a AoE or a debuff + instakill... ie, web + firewall, dancing ball + acid rain, circle of death + wail, etc.

With an aura you don't need to pay attention to your health while doing all the above.

Also, when there is lots of small damage like in Sins of Attrition it makes a huge difference.

My Pale Master (aura + boon to undead + conopp) run sins in constant yellow and Red Alert.

In normal difficulty, she runs "harried" till she can't move, then I throw a quickened Symbol of Persuasion and move on (my personal challenge is to complete Sins with zero kills in my name... misadventure ftw :))

Cogito ergo doleo

[Jsbeer]

Best starting build is certainly warforge wizard because:
* you can test all spell
* you can try many feats
* you can test both pale master healing and reconstruct healing
* you can switch beween pale master and archmage just by reseting enhencements
* you will gain a must have past life feat if you consider reincaration

the build itself is straightforward: max int, almost max con, rest in str, feats are roughly max/emp/toughness/mental toughness/heigthen/quicken/force of personnality/spell pen / specialisation necro *2

Pretty good advice although I would suggest Insightful reflexes rather than Force of Personality. Also you can (unless I have counted incorrectly) fit in Spell Focus: Conjuration for awesome 3 spell points webs ;)

[Lonnbeimnech]

I would start with a wizard. You'll have more flexibility with spells and be able to tell which ones are better than others and switch them out at will to try them out.

^This.

Also, many people will say go WF for self healing. The reason is that as a caster you will 9/10 not be standing with the melee and can be a PITA for the healer to reach you, and this is true. But it leaves many people with the impression that fleshies cannot self heal, and this is false. Though it is much easier for a wf sorc or AM to get self heals since a fleshy will require gear.

For a first life arcane, either warforged archmage or human/drow/warforged pale master, unless you want a challange.

[glouky]

Pretty good advice although I would suggest Insightful reflexes rather than Force of Personality. Also you can (unless I have counted incorrectly) fit in Spell Focus: Conjuration for awesome 3 spell points webs ;)

Insightful reflexes... yes, that's the name I was searching ;) thanks !