Advice on playing a PM for the first time

[Nahiz]

I have some experience on archmage, but none on pale master. I have decided on a build (very similar to EllisDee´s Pale Trapper, but starting on Sun Elf) but don´t have a clue on how long should I sustain the shroud, which shroud to choose (most people I´ve seen use wraith, but i like lich better), death aura should be up all time? Any other tips?

Take into consideration that I own almost none raid/epic gear, so I´m good with the basics.

Thanks in advance.

[unbongwah]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/405017-Pale-Master-Guide

[Nahiz]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/405017-Pale-Master-Guide

That´s an excellent guide, but it´s focused on maxin DC´s for EE. I was asking just for some basics (how to handle shrouds, auras, spell combos, etc.).

[LiquidZombie]

how long should I sustain the shroud

I never drop the shroud, ever. It is no longer dispelled on entering a quest, which means you can save up to 100 SP by having it active before you start.


most people I´ve seen use wraith, but i like lich better

Lich only becomes available at level 18, so from 12 - 18 you will be using wraith. Vampire form is basically useless so from 3 - 12 you will generally be using zombie.


death aura should be up all time?

There are two main situations which call for death aura: when you are taking damage and need to heal, and when you encounter a large group of enemies and want to kill them in an SP-efficient manner. Since the necrotic touch/bolt/blast SLAs are cast from hit points which are constantly being healed by the aura, a combination of SLAs, meleeing and standing near enemies while the aura is running can result in a large number of kills from a single 25-SP aura cast.

[AbyssalMage]

how long should I sustain the shroud?
You stay in form except on adventures that it becomes suicidal to remain in shroud. Vale and a few others. Thankfully there are only a handful.


which shroud to choose (most people I´ve seen use wraith, but i like lich better)
Wraith gives you Feather Falling but after 18 you should be in Lich for the better Necromancy DC's.


death aura should be up all time?
It should be up maybe 70% of the time. If I am at 100% (un)life I will let it fall and not renew it until I have a good green/yellow alert going and cast Aura followed by an AoE; but it is also adventure specific and player comfortable specific.


Any other tips?
Have fun. My PM definitely plays differently than any of my other casters. It's a slight adjustment to how I normally play and may take you one or two runs to adjust to the different play style; maybe?


Take into consideration that I own almost none raid/epic gear, so I´m good with the basics.

Thanks in advance.
You don't need raid gear for PM's although I wont lie and say it doesn't help (mostly to consolidate gear slots). Int (highest available), False Life, Con item (highest available), Vitality, Necro DC item, and Spell Pen. (for MotU) and you will be set for most things.

This isn't totally inclusive. Honestly it just scratches the surface of stuff but its a start.

[Lonnbeimnech]

My advise for a new pm, Get this spell.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Negative_Energy_Burst

Amazing how many don't use this, and think they can continue on at 32hp with just aura ticking. They are the ones that seem to die all the freakin' time and say, well I'm a caster, I'm supposed to be squishy...

[AbyssalMage]

My advise for a new pm, Get this spell.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Negative_Energy_Burst

Amazing how many don't use this, and think they can continue on at 32hp with just aura ticking. They are the ones that seem to die all the freakin' time and say, well I'm a caster, I'm supposed to be squishy...
But I am squishy, when the NPC's hit me that is...
/evil grin

[Nahiz]

So, shroud up all the time and aura most of the time. Cool. Thanks for the advice.

BTW, in most PMs guides SLAs don´t show up as a good pick but, as said previously in this thread, giving up a little hp (being red bar replenish all the time via aura) thet seem an efficient damage output.

[MuleAxe]

... And always try to get in on as many Elite Running with the Devil's runs as possible. It'll build much character

[voodoogroves]

They use HP, which is good - but they can't be amped like other SLAs. My PM has the force SLAs from AM usually.

I'm going to give slightly different advice. If you have cash, don't bother with Zombie - just use cure serious pots until Wraith. Wraith is "good". Zombie is a mixed bag, and I like speed / mobility / etc.

Some other bits.

You can alter the metamagic to make sure you never heighten but always extend your auras (for example). Play with that and find what you like.

You can have both auras up simultaneously.

When you pick spells as you level, keep in mind the ones you can't easily find on scrolls. This includes the death auras, negative energy burst, the level 5 DoTs, etc. Pick those first - just like you did on archmage, but with an eye to your health as well.

[Jasongnc2]

On my PM, I don't use the PM SLAs either, my go-to low-sp spell is Necrotic Ray. With no metamagic its 10sp, puts out respectable damage and has a level drain effect. Use it as a cheap debuff right before an instakill spell. Also I take Necro Archmage line to get a 10 sp Enervate sla, for another cheap debuff. And the Archmage line has a bonus to necro DCs too.

Remember you can take Intelligence from any of the Wiz enhancement trees to increase your DCs, but is not practical to take all 6 and still be able to take Lich, so just take the 2 from PM and the 2 from AM.

If you plan on soloing, definitely work towards getting the Torc of Prince Raiyum-de II. While not as useful in Epic Hard / Elite, in Heroic and easy Epics it basically can give you infinite SP when you stop to deliberately get hit by archers etc. Not so great for grouping as people generally don't want to wait for you to "Torc up". I find a few archers, cast extended death aura, put on my Torc, put a weight on my Shift key to block, go take a Bio / get a drink, come back to full Blue bar.

With the lesser Death Aura "healing" for a tenth of what the regular Death Aura does, I rarely use them both. But definitely use quickened Negative Energy burst for quick healing when your taking lots of damage.

I find the Skeleton pet to be fun, but not terribly useful. Good for opening doors while your invisible, or taking some initial aggro, but I don't spend many APs on him.

[PsychoBlonde]

I found on all my wizard lives that I needed to be prepared to whack things with a stick. Even with SLA's it's often more efficient just to hit something a couple of times than to throw another spell. Making room for a decent whacking stick or similar can save you a lot of headache.

Also be aware that the spells you will use while leveling are not the same as the spells you'll use when you're doing endgame content (whatever that means for you). Use your ability to swap out your spells instead of mindlessly sticking with a few things because you saw them in a recommended build somewhere.

Your firewalls etc. are much, much, MUCH more effective if you STAY IN THEM instead of throwing them where the mobs are and then RUNNING AWAY FROM THEM so that the mobs follow you OUT of the damage area. Run in a small circle within the firewall/whatever instead of running AWAY. This also means that your aura is doing damage at the same time.

Yes, wall of fire and ice storm and stoneskin are all level 4 spells. YOU SHOULD STILL MEMORIZE DIMENSION DOOR.

[LiquidZombie]

Also I take Necro Archmage line to get a 10 sp Enervate sla, for another cheap debuff.

Enervate is one of the few spells that is useful when cast from scrolls, because it has no save and is not affected by caster level or spell power. Even with a stack of scrolls though, I generally forget to use them. I've never really seen any significant value in using Enervate. Maybe it is more useful in endgame content or on elite orange-named mobs.

[Matuse]

Yes, wall of fire and ice storm and stoneskin are all level 4 spells. YOU SHOULD STILL MEMORIZE DIMENSION DOOR.

Stoneskin is the most easily skippable spell in that list. On my PM life, I found I was barely using it at all. It just gets burnt through way too fast to justify the SP expense and the extra inventory slot the material component takes up.

And I also stopped using Lich. The Incorporeal from Wraith was just waaaaaaaay better. And this was from before the enhancement revamp when you could boost it to 35%.

[marinerfan]

So, shroud up all the time and aura most of the time. Cool. Thanks for the advice.

BTW, in most PMs guides SLAs don´t show up as a good pick but, as said previously in this thread, giving up a little hp (being red bar replenish all the time via aura) thet seem an efficient damage output.

I have a first life, ungeared pale trapper and I use the PM SLA's all the time because without good items I have a pretty poor SP pool. As others mentioned, this is basically free damage considering your aura heals yourself so effectively.

One other tidbit I didn't notice while skimming that is probably common knowledge: find items to crank up your negative energy power/crit chance...that makes your aura noticeably better.

If you really want stoneskin, it isn't super hard to find stoneskin wands

[bsquishwizzy]

I have some experience on archmage, but none on pale master. I have decided on a build (very similar to EllisDee´s Pale Trapper, but starting on Sun Elf) but don´t have a clue on how long should I sustain the shroud, which shroud to choose (most people I´ve seen use wraith, but i like lich better), death aura should be up all time? Any other tips?

Take into consideration that I own almost none raid/epic gear, so I´m good with the basics.

Thanks in advance.

First, I went from AM to PM on a fleshy toon. The difference is kinda like night and day as casters go. AM you want to avoid hits at all cost. PM, however, is a little more aggressive because of the auras (they do damage), and also because of a lot of the immunities.

The first thing you’ll want to do is learn how to conserve spell points. The biggest change from AM to PM is that you run with a reduced pool for spell points. Learn to make the most of each spell.

Going into a shroud and staying in a shroud is probably your best choice. The only time you should go out of a shroud is running content like Running with the Devils, where casters spam light damage. Otherwise, you get all of these benefits from being in a shroud, it makes no sense to return to your normal state.

For the most part, once you get Lich form, you will probably stay in Lich form, and ignore all of the other forms. If you are a full-on caster, Lich is the form of choice. There is some debate if melee benefits from Wraith, and as a splashed rogue the Move Silent and Balance benefits are nice. Plus, you do CON damage in melee (2-8 points negative energy damage for Lich is sorta peanuts at lvl 18). So, use what you find more to your liking.

Some people don’t use the SLAs, but I use them quite often. If you have one or more auras going, the SLAs are basically ranged spells that do not touch your blue bar. What sucks is that the cooldowns were increased in the Enhancement Pass. If you are surrounded by mobs, turtling up in the middle of an AoE with auras going, using the SLAs only adds to bringing down the mobs.

Another thing you’ll want to do is to boost your healing skill, as this applies to negative damage. It (allegedly) boosts negative damage output (you are the master of negative damage spells – use them) as well as aura healing, and healing with Negative Energy Burst.

As far as how often you should use auras, it is situational. I try to avoid using them unless I can heal AND do damage at the same time. Some people keep them running all of the time, which is a waste of spell points. If you have a deep pool to pull from, it’s not that big of a dea. Most people, however, are going to be resource constrained in this area. If you know you are going into a nasty fight, have your auras going before you step in. If you are sniping stuff from afar? Active auras are not essential.

Necrotic ray will be your uber lowbie spell for damage. However, make sure you have elemental backups for ranged spells and AoE. Also, taking Extend is very nice as it keeps your auras going longer. Your biggest problem children mobs are going to be constructs and other undead (if you cannot somehow kill or control them). For that Disruption is your best friend. It damages just about everything, but is really good at nailing the two mobs you’ll have the most problems with.

As far as gear goes, you want at least a heavy fort item (having 200% fortification doesn’t suck), false life and CON item, the highest INT item you can find, something to boost spell pen (necromancy is loaded with spells that are subject to SR), Negative Energy / Void Lore items, Necromancy Focus item, and so on. One of the things you should look at is getting one of the Marbar robes (I have a lvl 16, lvl 20, and lvl 24 set) which slots a lot of the different essential items you need for a PM. They are very easy to farm for.

[PsychoBlonde]

Enervate is one of the few spells that is useful when cast from scrolls, because it has no save and is not affected by caster level or spell power. Even with a stack of scrolls though, I generally forget to use them. I've never really seen any significant value in using Enervate. Maybe it is more useful in endgame content or on elite orange-named mobs.

Spell penetration is the primary reason to cast enervate instead of using scrolls--you will never get through the SR on most mobs by using scrolls. Symbol of Death and Circle of Death are usually far superior for dishing out neg levels to high-resist mobs, though.

[LiquidZombie]

Spell penetration is the primary reason to cast enervate instead of using scrolls--you will never get through the SR on most mobs by using scrolls.

Ah, I knew there was something I was missing. Low caster level + no spell penetration feats/enhancements = very low penetration.


Symbol of Death and Circle of Death are usually far superior for dishing out neg levels to high-resist mobs, though.

Symbol of Death seems a very expensive spell for what it does. For 45 SP you get a symbol that gives a SINGLE negative level to any mobs you manage to kite into it. Unless the number of mobs is greater than 4, you would be better off casting necrotic ray 4 times and doing a whole load of damage along with it. I think 1d4 negative levels would make it a lot better value.

[Matuse]

You can run the same monster through the Symbol of Death repeatedly and stack negative levels.

[EllisDee37]

I'm going to give slightly different advice. If you have cash, don't bother with Zombie - just use cure serious pots until Wraith. Wraith is "good". Zombie is a mixed bag, and I like speed / mobility / etc.Zombie has no effect on speed and mobility, only melee attack speed. The melee attack speed penalty is ridiculously punitive, to a comical extent, but I never melee attack with my wizard. (I do break barrels, though, and the attack speed is brutal.)

I first tried zombie on my most recent PM life because I'm doing a pet build, meaning I wanted to be running death aura early and often. Since I'm running death aura anyway may as well be in form, right? To my surprise, zombies move at the same speed as anyone else. I think it's a universal player phenomenon that we all misread that speed penalty as a movement penalty. It is not.

I'm now a big fan of zombie form. For me it's zombie form as soon as I get level 4 spells, then wraith then lich. Vampire is still bad news.

[nikos1313]

DO not forget to invest points in Heal, as it boost your Negative Spellpower. other skills u should think of: Spellcraft, Balance, UMD and Concentration. i wouldnt spend a single point in Jump. u get the spell, thats +30, plus the +8 from Epic lvls and any Strength modifier u have, u have capped it.

Do not forget about Spell Penetration Feats. PMs are useless without them, in case u want to use holds and instakills. a good time to incest in the Spell Pene feat(s) would be mid lvls, around Gianthold i guess.

Lesser Death Aura and Death Aura stack, but the Lesser Aura is not big deal.. try it and see if u like it for yourself.




and the best advice OF ALL, would be:

DO NOT GO SHIRADI!!!