18/2 FvS/Paladin offensive caster/healer spec

[Brendael]

Hi,



Pretty soon I'll be hitting 20 on my third life (2 Cleric/1 Rogue) healer/melee main and I was thinking of TR'ing into a caster specced divine. Since I'll be unlocking FvS soon and I drunkenly bought access to half-elf not so long ago I was thinking of going the route of Half-Elf caster specced character.

The idea is that I'll take Paladin for Heavy armour, proficiency with THW (For trash at lower levels when I run out of SP but I'll take no combat feats.) and saves (CHR to saves seems like it will have nice )

In terms of goals, I'm looking for an end game capable offensive casting character. I'd be happy to be able to solo EH comfortably (I'm not the best player in the world so this feels like a comfortable goal.) and contribute to parties in EE. I'd go with dumping STR, DEX and INT and focussing on maxing out WIS and CHR. In terms of feats I'll focus on spell penetration feats.

Does this sound feasible? Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to make this work?

[Aerendil]

Well, as you've already got 2 Cleric lives under your belt, you are probably very well aware of divine spells, so I'll spare you the details on the complexity of divine casters - suffice it to say that the FvS evoker ranges from incredibly easy to build/equip, to very costly and time-consuming, depending on where your priorities are for what spells you want to cast.

The one thing about FvS different from a Cleric, though, is the ability to debuff our own damage - light, in particular, via Aura of Condemnation (up to 50% light vuln / -50% fort). And since light spells tend not to have any save, or SR, you can build a FvS pretty easily just focusing on radiance gear without worrying about your spell DCs or SR. And, if inclined, you could even dump WIS and build for some melee ability if so desired. However, looking into epic levels, Exalted Angel does have some extra light abilities that have saves on them (Avenging Light, and Divine Wrath), so you might want to build for WIS after all. Up to you.

If you want to go full-on caster, though, having some past lives is a huge benefit as Exalted Angel doesn't boost your spell DCs and you'll instead have to twist in some stuff from Magister and Draconic. EH won't be too bad, but can still be a challenge. For EE though....ugh, you'll want everything possible ingame to max your DC - and even then it's still often not enough.
You'll also probably want to be pure 20 FvS for the max SR. /2 Pal isn't overly necessary until you get to EE. Before that, you'll be fine in EH without uber saves. Also, again depending on which spells you want, your gear could end up being pretty complex. Combustion, radiance, devotion, impulse, etc. are all important, and can take up a LOT of your inventory (or swap as needed).

As for raid healing - well, that bit is easy. 18 FvS gets your mass Heal which is all you need, and half the time is probably MORE than you need. If you go Exalted Angel as well, Divine Wrath is also a massive AoE heal, as well as Renewal being a nice single-target Heal over time. If you're pure as well, Sovereignty offers a nice free heal at 20 (CLW) which meta'ed heals for 100-130ish for free. More if you crit. You'll probably end up using those more than your actual heal spells from heroic levelling.

That's about it, I guess. The main thing is deciding whether you want to just focus on a Light build, or go all out. Your stats, level ups, gear, optimal level split, and everything kinda depends on that.

[Sebastrd]

You could always try this build I posted a bit ago https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/433708-EE-Capable-Evoker-Soul

It has no problems at all in EH and can solo the easier EEs. I suppose you could trade out 2 FvS levels for Pally, but I don't think it's necessary.