Advice on Epic Destinies and Wizard

[bashemgud]

This thread was originally put in the spell casters forums..

Hi,

I'm thinking in getting back and playing around the new epic content. I run a WF Palemaster, wiz and sorc past lifes, pretty tanky with shield mastery. I loved being able to take hits and rely purely on insta-kills at that time, and I'd love to continue this route.
43 Necro DC is the highest I can achieve atm.

So I'm looking for advice on Epic Destinies, possible route I can take and any advice concerning the new expansion pack and epic content.

Thank you!

Wix

[Kinerd]

The biggest change is in Spell Pen. You can now get...
4 from Epic Spell Penetration feat (requires Greater Spell Penetration feat and being at least level 21)
5 from either Magister or Draconic Epic Destiny just for leveling it up
3 from a specific enhancement in either Magister or Draconic Epic Destiny (ideally both with a Twist of Fate)
...so even for a pretty trivial investment of time you're up 12 Spell Pen from wherever you were before, perhaps more if you dropped GSP once you got a wizard past life like I did.

Magister or Draconic will give you +3 DC via Intelligence, Magister can give you an additional +3 DC in Necromancy, so pretty much go with Magister as your final ED. The Twist system really pushes you to going through a bunch (to every) other destinies anyway, though, so you'll be able to find out for yourself. Certainly start with Magister or Draconic, though, they have by far the most synergy.

Another change is that Shield Mastery is really rubbish now. It used to be 15% damage reduction from a large shield. It's now 5 PRR, which works out at best to 3.2%. You are better off spending one feat to get 3% Dodge (via Dodge) than 2 feats to get 3ish% damage reduction, except you probably don't have the Dex for that, who cares about 3% reduction in incoming damage, and you're also suffering an opportunity cost by having a shield in hand rather than a caster staff. You'll still be pretty tanky because wizards are awesome, but those two extra feats can do you a lot of good in something useful.

Outside of the devs branding ALWAYS USE STAFFS on arcanes' foreheads, the expansion hasn't really changed us that much. Even with our Spell Pen bonanza, there is a significant minority of enemies whose Spell Resistance is cranked enough to compensate unless you slave over it (just like the old days). We're still self-healing, instant killing, crowd controlling, wheeling dealing, jet riding, limousine flying sons of guns.

[bashemgud]

Thank you! Very useful info ^^