Wizard Archmage Evoker viable?

[Wanker]

From a style point-of-view, I'd love to play an elf evoker archmage with illusion as a secondary school. This would be a nuke approach with a PK insta-kill when needed. Of course there is sorcerer as the traditional nuker. And, PM is the more common wizard approach ahead of enchantment archmage.

My question is if an elf evoker archmage would actually be useful at epic elite levels? Or would it just be a weak player not really contributing?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[Lonnbeimnech]

From a style point-of-view, I'd love to play an elf evoker archmage with illusion as a secondary school. This would be a nuke approach with a PK insta-kill when needed. Of course there is sorcerer as the traditional nuker. And, PM is the more common wizard approach ahead of enchantment archmage.

My question is if an elf evoker archmage would actually be useful at epic elite levels? Or would it just be a weak player not really contributing?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

Yeah. They get magic missile as a spell like ability, 2sp for a maximised empowered quickened mm. Then all you need to do is run in shiradi.

[Jasparion]

For EN and EH, definitely. For EE you can be in Shiradi or Draconic and do well in a group, but Im not sure you will be able to solo EE - certainly the build would work best in Shiradi if you make use of all your SLAs. But I find Draconic to be just a whole lot of fun.

If grouped and you have a healer type, let them know youre not PM - most will assume you are... and not heal you. Which is the other thing. Self-healing is tougher for fleshie types. Have UMD for Heal and Resto scrolls.

[Wanker]

so the damage will hold up vs a sorcerer? does it matter which element to leverage? elec or frost? plus force?

thanks again!

[Ancient]

Fire/Force. 16 wiz, 2 monk, 2 fvs.

Build in my sig, just make it an elf instead of a warforged. I'm in wraith form all the time anyways. Next TR, I'll be human.

[Lanhelin]

From a style point-of-view, I'd love to play an elf evoker archmage with illusion as a secondary school. This would be a nuke approach with a PK insta-kill when needed. Of course there is sorcerer as the traditional nuker. And, PM is the more common wizard approach ahead of enchantment archmage.

You can cast the Prismatic spells (T5, T7) as insta kills (both the ray and the spray have two beams that can kill instantly) and they are Evocation ones and other than PK they ignore Deathblock or Death Ward. If you do not do so, but want to cast PK then mind that on a successful Will save nothing happens and PK is affected by Spell Resistance too. As Evocation Wizard you have the advantage, that you don't have to push Spell Penetration feat-wise as most Evo spells don't have to overcome Spell Resistance first.

So if you really want to cast PK, I'd rather focus on Illusion (Enhancements, feats) to push DC and take the Spell Pen feat line too. As Evo Wiz I'd cast the prismatic spells, focus on Evocation and take other feats instead of the Spell Pen ones.

[bsquishwizzy]

From a style point-of-view, I'd love to play an elf evoker archmage with illusion as a secondary school. This would be a nuke approach with a PK insta-kill when needed. Of course there is sorcerer as the traditional nuker. And, PM is the more common wizard approach ahead of enchantment archmage.

My question is if an elf evoker archmage would actually be useful at epic elite levels? Or would it just be a weak player not really contributing?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

PK as an instakill, while cool, is sub-standard at best. It requires 2 saves to fail before it triggers a kill. On EE, I would be highly suspect if it was even viable.

However, Evoker is a better bet for EE than other builds, putting aside EDs. It requires no spell pen, your DCs are not as critical as, say, a PM or enchanter. You only real concern is if you have enough spell points to last in that tier of content. You will, however, always be contributing up until you run out of spell points.

As for being an elf, you’d traditionally go this way if you wanted that extra spell pen, or being able to cast in armor. There are some advantages with longbows and other weapons, but that should be a secondary concern. Otherwise, Drow is nice, and Human offers an additional feat.

I have an elf PM wizzy. I use a longbow (Pinion) for those instances when I run out of SP.

Lastly, going elf AM (I did one on my first life) will get looks of derision here on this forum. An AM cannot self-heal without a PM form running. So, at the very least you need to run the PM tree until you get Vampire form (don’t stop at Zombie…you’ll regret it).

[Ancient]

Lastly, going elf AM (I did one on my first life) will get looks of derision here on this forum. An AM cannot self-heal without a PM form running. So, at the very least you need to run the PM tree until you get Vampire form (don’t stop at Zombie…you’ll regret it).
Even on my warforged, I'm in wraith form almost all of the time.

[Wanker]

Even on my warforged, I'm in wraith form almost all of the time.


Thank you all for the responses. I'm thinking it can make it work, spell points being the key thing. But with the archmage line, you can pretty close to sorc without the 10% penalty they get at lvl 20.

I've done 3 wiz past lives, 3 sorc, and 3 fvs. This is my last life that I'm going to play epics with. So, I'm debating between the sorc and wiz. I think style-wise I'd rather be the wiz and it seems like it can work (contribute).