Questions regarding LOB caster sticks and acquiring them

[HalfORCastrator]

Thinking of going for a couple of these sticks, but I want to know a few things before I dedicate myself.

How many Khyber Dragonshards of Binding do I need for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3?

How long would you say it would take to collect all the Khyber Dragonshards of Binding for a tier 3 item? In what amounts do they drop on what difficulty?

Am I to understand that the Greater Inferno(/Freeze, etc) clicky stacks with Spellcasting Implement and the normal spell power type boost(Devotion, Magnetism, etc)? How long does the clicky last?

Anything else you feel I should know, about procurement or how viable these are?

I know they're not the max spell power items available like a 120/15 implement lootgen quarterstaff/scepter, but mainly looking at slot consolidation to minimize swapping on my wiz.

Thinking of making:
Caster stick 1:
Byshk (Nullification 90)
Tier 1 Water (Glaciation 90)
Tier 2 Water (Superior Ice Lore, Greater Freeze (+20) 3x charges, Superior Void Lore)
Tier 3 Fire (Efficient Metamagic Maximize II, Greater Evocation Focus, Arcane Augmentation IX)

Caster stick 2:
Crystal (Impulse 90)
Tier 1 Earth (Corrosion 90)
Tier 2 Earth (Superior Acid Lore, Greater Erosion (+20) 3x charges, Superior Kinetic Lore )
Tier 3 Water (Efficient Metamagic Extend II, Greater Transmutation Focus, Greater Elemental Spell Power)

Also, with the new cloak coming in U15, I won't be missing the implement bonus from a quarterstaff.

[susiedupfer]

DDOwiki is a wonderful resource.

[HalfORCastrator]

DDOwiki is a wonderful resource.
There is no mention of how many Binding shards drop in each difficulty or at what frequency, nor is there a link from http://ddowiki.com/page/Alchemical_Crafting explaining the Greater Element clickies in detail.

Instead of taking the 3 minutes to type your sarcastic comment, you could have answered my questions, or if you don't know, just move on from the thread.

[sirgog]

200 binding fragments of each tier are needed.

Tier 1 drop on Heroic Normal ONLY.
Tier 2 drop on Heroic Normal (low drop rate), Heroic Hard, Heroic Elite, Epic Normal*.
Tier 3 drop on Epic Hard* and Epic Elite.

* - I might have these two confused.

Generally you get about 30 per run plus 3 more if you do a difficult optional. You have a slim chance (maybe 1%) to get the full 200 in one shot, and the fragments are tradeable in-chest.


Yes the clickies stack, but if you are level 25 you can just buy the +25 alchemical potions from vendors. The tier 1 and 2 items are pretty 'meh', but the tier 3 upgrades are so strong that you'd use Alchemical caster sticks even if they did nothing but the tier 3 effect.

[nibel]

How many Khyber Dragonshards of Binding do I need for tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3?

200 for each tier.


How long would you say it would take to collect all the Khyber Dragonshards of Binding for a tier 3 item? In what amounts do they drop on what difficulty?

Depends if you run only LoB, or also run Master Artificer. MA gives more shards per completion, and LoB drop the spirits required. You can get around 30 shards per MA completion, and around 20 on each LoB completion. The tier of the shard depends on dificulty.


Am I to understand that the Greater Inferno(/Freeze, etc) clicky stacks with Spellcasting Implement and the normal spell power type boost(Devotion, Magnetism, etc)? How long does the clicky last?

They stack. They are alchemical bonus. The clickie lasts for 3 minutes.


Anything else you feel I should know, about procurement or how viable these are?

You'll take a long time crafting those, and probably will find a better thaumaturgy staff in the AH (ML 24 staffs have potency 76+15 implement, so better than any alchemical implement). Also, they lack a implement bonus (probably an oversight, may be fixed).


Also, with the new cloak coming in U15, I won't be missing the implement bonus from a quarterstaff.

What cloak?

[shadereaper33]

There is no mention of how many Binding shards drop in each difficulty or at what frequency, nor is there a link from http://ddowiki.com/page/Alchemical_Crafting explaining the Greater Element clickies in detail.

Instead of taking the 3 minutes to type your sarcastic comment, you could have answered my questions, or if you don't know, just move on from the thread.

Conveniently enough, in less than 3 minutes I was able to find the answers to all of your questions from the link you provided. Instead of being confrontational, you could have taken the 40 minutes you waited for a response to your question and found all of the information yourself with a bit of research.

[sirgog]

Depends if you run only LoB, or also run Master Artificer. MA gives more shards per completion, and LoB drop the spirits required. You can get around 30 shards per MA completion, and around 20 on each LoB completion. The tier of the shard depends on dificulty.


MA is somewhat busted atm on Epic difficulties (unless 14.2 fixed it). The only groups I'd heard of trying it were utterly annihilated (on Epic Normal) when the respawning Sentinels obliterated them with ~500 point Force AoEs. Old Epic they hit for 200ish IIRC.

Have not tried it personally though.

[Ayyelos]

Just thought I'd chime in real quick and let you know that those shards are BTA, so you could run this on some alts as well to get more of them quickly. Getting the bloody spirits you want (on the toon you want) is another story :D

[HalfORCastrator]

Yes the clickies stack, but if you are level 25 you can just buy the +25 alchemical potions from vendors. The tier 1 and 2 items are pretty 'meh', but the tier 3 upgrades are so strong that you'd use Alchemical caster sticks even if they did nothing but the tier 3 effect.
Yeah, didn't know about Arcane Augmentation on caster sticks until someone linked his to me. Was looking at Staff of Inner Sight before that, but doesn't leave room for good nuking sticks.

@nibel:
Thanks.

Staffs take up two slots, a bit constricting for what I want. Also, the extra spell pen on tier 3 is extremely attractive. (for eElite)

The new cloaks are here: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=387965.

@shadereaper33:
First, I was being defensive, not confrontational. He initiated by making a dismissive, nonconstructive comment. (or at least illogical, since I obviously have had to have gone to wiki to get the information I did have) Second, you're right. After your post I looked again and the thought occurred to me to look at the crafting altars with links, and I found some of the information(not all). Third, it's a moot point, since I went to wiki(obviously), searched for the info and didn't find it. Generally the first time something is mentioned, there's a link to details about that new subject, and that wasn't the case here, so I assumed that the information wasn't on the main site. Hence I considered it a waste of time to continue.



Just thought I'd chime in real quick and let you know that those shards are BTA, so you could run this on some alts as well to get more of them quickly. Getting the bloody spirits you want (on the toon you want) is another story
Ah nice, it's been so long since I did Cannith raids so I just got it into my head they're BTC. Thanks!

[nibel]

MA is somewhat busted atm on Epic difficulties (unless 14.2 fixed it). The only groups I'd heard of trying it were utterly annihilated (on Epic Normal) when the respawning Sentinels obliterated them with ~500 point Force AoEs. Old Epic they hit for 200ish IIRC.

Have not tried it personally though.

It is still a good fountain of tier 1 and 2 shards. And maybe I'm just weird, but I find MA to be more fun than LoB. MA requires some coordination, while LoB is a basically two-person job (lob tank and dog kiter), unless you are going for the optionals.