Review My Spell Singer Enchanter

[Pewf]

Hello fellow Bards! I am ready to try my attempt at bards. I had a Warchanter Life once on this toon for a quick bard life to get a general feel of it - so I want to try something totally different, and perhaps difficult (and gimpy?).

Some Notes:
-I won't be TRing again
-Clueless on what bards use for gear
-Haven't played a bard in over a year, but this is the build I am going with. But, I'm always open to your opinions and concerns.
-The gear I did list, I have. I have all the tomes as well.
-I hate the planners, so I have hand typed everything. No doubt there will be a mistake! Would love for you to double check my numbers.
-Being a newbie bard, my spell list could use some work! Suggestions are welcome!

Goal:
-Be a viable addition to any Epic Elite group as a CCer or Healer.

The Build:

Pewf - CCer, Healer, Ultimate Piker

Past Lives (3x Sorc, 3x FvS, 3x Wizard, 1x Cleric, 1x Bard)

Race: Human
Alignment: True Nuetral

Starting Stats:
Str - 16
Con - 16
Cha - 18

End-game Stats:
Str - (31) = 16 Base +7 Item +3 Tome +1 Litany +2 Rage +2 Insightful
Con - (30) = 16 Base +7 Item +1 Litany +2 Insightful +3 Tome +1 Human
Cha - (58) = 18 Base +6 Levels +8 Item +4 Tome +1 Human +3 Insightful +3 Enhancements +1 Litany +1 Exceptional +2 Capstone +4 Destiny +1 Fate Singer Passive +2 Yugo +2 Ship +2 Inspire Excellence = 58 (+24) +2 Taken Cookie = 60 (+25)

Feats: 10 Feats (7 Base +1 Human +2 Epic)
-Maximize (For healing, Max Clickies for free doubled healing)
-Extend
-Quicken
-Heighten
-SF: Enchant
-Wizard Past Life
-Spell Pen
-Greater Spell Pen

-Epic Spell Pen
-Inspire Excellence

Spell Pen: (55) = 20 Bard +9 Past Lives +5 Fate Singer +8 Feats +3 Twist +3 Item +2 Magister Stance +2 Enhancements +2 Capstone +1 Song of Arcane Might*

*That 55 sweet spot for Epic Elites, Yay!

Enchantment DC: (51) = 16 Base + 24 Charisma +1 Feats +1 Wizard Pl +3 Magister Twist +3 Item (+6 Scepter of Enchantment Mastery) +2 Capstone +1 Spell Song Trance
*Unheightened Hypno adds +3 so (54)
*Could lay down a mind fog for +10, if it lands, so (61)
*Crushing Despair adds +5 for 15 seconds so (56)

HP: 600+
SP: 2266

Epic Destiny: Fate Singer
Twists:
+3 Enchantment (Magister)
+3 Spell Pen (Magister)
10% SP (Exalted) / Energy Burst (Draconic) <-- Can't Decide

Spells:
1 - Master's Touch, Focusing Chant, Hypnotism, Expeditious Retreat, Sonic Blast
2 - Rage, Invisibility, Blur, Hold Person, Sound Burst
3 - Displacement, Haste, Crushing Despair, Charm Monster, Cure Serious
4 - FoM, Dimension Door, Hold Monster, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Cure Critical Wounds
5 - Cure Light Wounds Mass, GH, Suggestion Mass, Mind Fog, Shadow Walk
6 - Otto's Irresistible Dance, Cure Mod Wounds Mass, Heroes' Feast, Greater Shout

Skills:
-Balance
-Haggle - 90
-Concentration
-Perform - 70
-UMD - 65

Gear:
Head -
Neck - Epic Torc (+3 Spell Pen), Noxious Embers
Trinket - Litany
Cloak -
Belt -
Ring 1 - +8 Cha Ring of Performing +13
Ring 2 -
Gloves - +45 HP Shroud (Plan on moving this else where)
Boots -
Bracers -
Body - +3 Insightful Cha Spider Silk Robes
Goggles - Conc-Opp +150 SP Goggles

Thanks guys, tell me what you think! Also, what would you recommend for me to grind out for gear?

[legendlore]

Looks solid as an cc bard, sadly you won't have any way to deal damage until the enhancement update (if even then, wasn't to impressed by the spells that was up for preview myself) though, but I'm guessing that's part of the challenge.



Spell Pen: (52) = 20 Bard +9 Past Lives +5 Fate Singer +8 Feats +3 Twist +3 Item +2 Magister Stance +2 Enhancements*

*I hear 55 Spell Pen is the sweet spot, any clues where I can get 3 more spell pen without changing twists around?


You already have 3 more :) +2 on enchantment spells from bard cap stone and +1 from Song of Arcane Might. On this kind of bard build I'd recommend getting Twilight, Element of Magic as well (since it has major focus on the 2 spell schools bards care about and greater arcane lore as a bonus) that has Arcane augmentation that would give you another +1 spell penetration over Song of Arcane Might.

I'm also guessing that you have used your enhancement points to get the tiers of bonus to hit on Inspire courage? The costs of 2+4+6 points for +1+2+3 to-hit is questionable in their worth with the new to-hit system. If you have planed to buy the last tier in particular I'd drop it for the last tier of spell penetration instead.

edit;
I'd also swap out Extend spell (it's only really good for haste and with 26-27 caster levels it'll last 2:36-2:42 minutes anyway) for either bard past life for another enchantment DC or spell focus Evocation so that you can get draconic destiny's spell focus Evocation twisted as well for another +3 evocation DC (with feat), Greater shout can be pretty nice sometimes (even when you have a good spell penetration) since it is so fast to cast compared to Dancing spheres and can stun vermin etc.

[Nephilia]

The build looks pretty solid!
I'd maybe reccomand to focus your gear trying to get the most advantage u can to boost up your dps.
U can focus on your casting relatively easy using a twilight (+3 on both ench and evo which boost your main school + some other good spell in your arsenal like greater shout, arcane lore and arcane augmentation, 84 generic potency on all spell), torc for SP and mana rec (+ the CO GS ofc), so u are pretty much set with it.
Now u can focus to help your dps with some nice items like gloves and bracers from the high road and something similar (a ring of the slayer? a nice weapon to switch for some dps uoutput? lot of option!).
In my opinion this should work very well :)
And remember that with the new system u can easily slot some devotion augmentation too :)

Nice dps idea : http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/windlasher.jpg/

EDIT : I ****ing love your build and you're the most amazing builder/player all around ghallanda! And I'm not giving u any opinion at all in this post!
U can be happy now :P

[Pewf]

You already have 3 more :) +2 on enchantment spells from bard cap stone and +1 from Song of Arcane Might.

Oh thanks! That is indeed helpful. I can easily hit 55 now. :) Thanks again!


On this kind of bard build I'd recommend getting Twilight, Element of Magic as well (since it has major focus on the 2 spell schools bards care about and greater arcane lore as a bonus) that has Arcane augmentation that would give you another +1 spell penetration over Song of Arcane Might.
I would, however, that raid is beyond boring for me to run. I ran it twice and don't think I will ever run it again!


edit;
I'd also swap out Extend spell (it's only really good for haste and with 26-27 caster levels it'll last 2:36-2:42 minutes anyway) for either bard past life for another enchantment DC or spell focus Evocation so that you can get draconic destiny's spell focus Evocation twisted as well for another +3 evocation DC (with feat), Greater shout can be pretty nice sometimes (even when you have a good spell penetration) since it is so fast to cast compared to Dancing spheres and can stun vermin etc.

Sadly, I love Extend. I cannot justify ever dropping it. I am addicted to it's double buff nature. I know it's probably not optimal but I love tossing out 5 minutes of haste and 10 minutes of rage. That's just a personal flavor though.


EDIT : I ****ing love your build and you're the most amazing builder/player all around ghallanda! And I'm not giving u any opinion at all in this post!
U can be happy now :P
This I know! ;) Lol Just joking, thanks so much for your input!

I was wondering if grinding out an eSoS, perhaps reworking my twists, and gearing up for more strength would let me benefit to DPS? I would love to work in some DPS if I could.

[Vengenance]

Ok, one you are already useful in Epic since you're a spell singer. Your Inspire Courage should be maxxed and arcanes and healers in the party will love their 10% discount on spell points, +1 caster level for spell pen checks, and +1 DC to their spells. This is before your healing ability and providing other buffs.

I know it's expensive, but taking the dragonmarks for their chest blessing ability is also very sought out in Epics. You'll have to sacrifice some feats maybe quicken, heighten, and spell focus enchant or maybe keep quicken and dump extend. You have the wiz past life so the loss of SF:Enchantement maybe isn't too bad. Heighten, probably wont be missed or have little effect and Quicken is really only nice for Dance Balls, but not necessary. You still have the best CC in the game with pretty much a no fail fascinate.

I have a spell singing chest blesser built with close to the same objectives as you as being able to be a good character in any group and able to take on healing responsibilities when necessary. I don't have you past lives so my spell pen is lacking so I rely mostly on fascinate for cc, so you'll be much better off in that regards. That being said, my guildies always want me to run this char in EE content, for the buffs (everyone loves spell singers) and the chest blessing (greedy bastards). The GH, Blur, Freedom & Heals along with any CC i can provide are just bonus.

[voodoogroves]

Unless you already have the Torc epic'd, I'd save the materials for the epic version to use on a 9th level spell caster. The base Torc gives you Greater Pen 6 ... and that's all you need. I guess it depends on what you put in that colorless slot.


The chest-blessing may drop to a single feat investment - if it does, lose Extend. I probably wouldn't take all 3 on a multi-TR toon with limited feats like this. Your current feats do exactly what you want / need them to do.

[Todkaninchen]

Nice dps idea : http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/windlasher.jpg/



Off subject... I see--in the picture--the individual procs are "collapsed" as displayed...

How do you do that?

I mean, my rogue has a GS bow I'd like to see what the headings look like and It's always off the screen...

[PadrePio]

I was looking for a bard build to TR my 3xWiz into, and this seems to be a very nice build but I have some questions (first I got to say I have no clue about running a bard):

- does the lack of Toughness (and toughness enhancements) get compensated by lvl 25 total amount of HP?
- Is 1x spell focus (and PL Wiz) enough for CC DCs? I saw the breakdown, but when running Epic Elite contents, is it effective?
- are those 3 spell pen feats (+ enhancements) actually needed?

These questions are actual questions, no sarcasm or whatever in it :)

Thanks in advance.
Cheers

[maddmatt70]

Instead of going for spell penetration especially with all the past lives you have I would recommend going for your enchantment dc which is a cc bard's bread and butter. 55 is very high spell penetration which would only be useful on drow which is a small % of epic elite mobs, but your enchantment dc especially pre debuff is kind of low. Take greater spell focus enchantment and epic spell focus enchantment for 2 more dc. I dropped epic spell penetration and extend myself. I am curious what you took for your destiny points. I notice you have 4 charisma points and was wondering what the other 16 points were spent on.

Edit: kind of mess with gear right now because there is going to be a bunch of goodies coming next update. I like the new epic cloak from the reaver raid and either the staff from CITW or the new dream splitter. Also some charisma +8 and Insight +3 charisma options next update. Basically you should formulate your gear when update 17 comes out...

[maddmatt70]

I have a spell singing chest blesser built with close to the same objectives as you as being able to be a good character in any group and able to take on healing responsibilities when necessary. I don't have you past lives so my spell pen is lacking so I rely mostly on fascinate for cc, so you'll be much better off in that regards. That being said, my guildies always want me to run this char in EE content, for the buffs (everyone loves spell singers) and the chest blessing (greedy bastards). The GH, Blur, Freedom & Heals along with any CC i can provide are just bonus.

Well this is group specific. I hate pigeonholing bards into chess blessers people can just buy their own +2 loot gems I say.

[haku-ba]

I have played a bard like this for the last few months. My advice is as follows:

Gear
Get an Epic Antique Greataxe. Not that hard to get and will work on most mobs
Get A ToD ring and put Heal Amp on it
Look at some of the set bonuses for Com Rewards. Since you have the Spidersilk, get two of the Wiz items and upgrade the robes

DC
Your perform is a little low for EE U16. You will get quite a few saves with 70 on your fascinates. Even with 75 I still find quite a few saves. Try to hit 80 if you are using fascinate a lot on EE.

Enchantment DC's only mean much if you are using it! Ie. depends on who you are running with. Fascinate is by far the best crowd control in the game at the moment. It makes tough quests without CC into smooth runs. Fascinate then Irresistable Dance is enough often, if the group knows how not to try to hit everything at once. You don't need a great DC to dance stuff, spell pen is better in my opinion.

Think carefully about how you play and who you play with before modifying your build to get more DC. It may be a waste of time.

Chest blessing is stupid. If someone wants better chests they can get a gem themselves.

Spellsinger Bards are awesome. I have solo CC'd EE U16, Solo Healed EE U16 and combo'd with both arcanes and divines and healed and CC'd with only melees in groups. Not because I am any good as a player, but because SS is so versatile and everyone else were strong players. So think about who you mostly run with and what you 'really like' doing and then go with that. A spellsinger will back you up with whatever choices you make, as there are many ways you can play them.

SS's are excellent healers, excellent CCr's and great buffers. Min/maxing them for only one of these may not be getting the most out of the class, is my opinion.