Best Epic Arcane Past life feat for a Cleric?

[Ravand]

The toon will remain a cleric.

Energy criticals is usually my go-to for a caster, but only a couple spells on a cleric (fire based) would benefit.

Enchant weapon would add three points to whatever implement bonus.

Arcane alacrity increases the speed of my heals (mainly) and my other DC-based spells.

What have you done, and what do you recommend?

[rest]

Heal spells can crit.

[Ravand]

Heal spells can crit.

Yes, but the description does not reference/include positive energy: "Arcane Past Life Stance: 3% Critical Chance with Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic Spells per stack of this past life."

Can anyone confirm if Energy Criticals works with Heal/Cure spells?

[axel15810]

post fail, removed

[brian14]

Am I the only one who thinks arcane EPL's are absolute ****?

Well, except for one which is not WAI... :)

[axel15810]

Am I the only one who thinks arcane EPL's are absolute ****?

Well, except for one which is not WAI... :)

except for Colors and 3 PLs for 9% doublestrike, I agree.

[Wipey]

I did Colours of the Queen only on mine.
It's essentially 9 implement spell power versus 6 seconds on Implosion cooldown.
I would pick Enchant if I had will/time for more ETRs on cleric ( it's 2 months or 21 mill xp, and no raiding, inventory space for levelling gear, no first time or streaks , meh ).

Doubt Energy Criticals works for positive energy spells Rest, if yes, it's probably not wai anyway.
Don't know how would test it, since "effects" log would say something like "sonic or rust" spellpower.

[rest]

Yes, but the description does not reference/include positive energy: "Arcane Past Life Stance: 3% Critical Chance with Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic Spells per stack of this past life."

Can anyone confirm if Energy Criticals works with Heal/Cure spells?

Oi... I guess I never looked closely enough at it. Apologizes :o

[brian14]

except for Colors and 3 PLs for 9% doublestrike, I agree.
Those are not arcane. Colors is primal, and doublestrike is martial.

[Enoach]

Arcane Epic Past Life Feats

Energy Critical: +3% Critical chance on Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic Spells per Epic Past Life

This is great for a caster that uses multiple energy types, however, divines only benefit from the Fire. But if you combine this with the Divine Crusader ED and liberal use of the fire based spells

Enchant Weapon: Your mainhand equipped weapon gains +1 enhancement bonus per Enchant Weapon past life feat

This adds +1 to +3 to your spell power when used with spell implement, Melee to-hit/damage. This all stacks with Enchant Weapon of the Artificer. By far this is the most flexible of the Divine Epic Past Lives.

Arcane Alacrity: Cooldowns on your spells are reduced by 3%. Additional stacks of Arcane Alacrity past life increases this to 6% and then 10%.

The value in this is in reducing the time between casting of a spell. But how much a cooldown on a spell is valuable depends more on playstyle - Keep in mind this is cooldown and not casting speed.

Based on this I personally took the Enchant Weapon option.

[axel15810]

Those are not arcane. Colors is primal, and doublestrike is martial.

my mistake, missed the word "arcane" in his post.

[Ravand]

Thank you all for your insights and help!

Edit: I repped the best answers. Enoach, I could not rep you because I did so too recently. But you have my thanks!

[SirValentine]

What have you done, and what do you recommend?

I've done one Alacrity, and plan 2 more. That's a benefit no matter what spells you cast. If you ever decide to do any other caster types, it still helps.

Enchant is OK, but 9 spell power is less useful than 10% faster casting speed to me. However, if you ever went to a non-caster, this is probably the most useful, as it's more melee/ranged damage.

Energy Crit is no use to me, personally, as I never use fire spells, and don't plan to go back to being a Sorc or such nuker.

[droid327]

I've done one Alacrity, and plan 2 more. That's a benefit no matter what spells you cast. If you ever decide to do any other caster types, it still helps.

Enchant is OK, but 9 spell power is less useful than 10% faster casting speed to me. However, if you ever went to a non-caster, this is probably the most useful, as it's more melee/ranged damage.


Just to clarify, as has been pointed out above....

It doesn't speed up your casting time, only your cooldown. So you're only going to see a difference if you're mashing buttons, casting spells immediately off cooldown. Depending on your rotation and animation times, that 10% might not shave off enough cooldown to make any difference - ie, you might end up casting the spell at the same time you otherwise would, it would just sit idle 10% longer before you did.

[thegreatneil]

Question:
Does Arcane Alacrity affect Sla's?

[capsela]

Question:
Does Arcane Alacrity affect Sla's?

Good question. Most SLAs cooldowns are very short so the improvement would be small.

[SirValentine]

It doesn't speed up your casting time, only your cooldown.


Yes, I know.



...you're only going to see a difference if you're mashing buttons...


Standing around (or jumping around) waiting for a spell to come off cool-down seems like the polar opposite of "mashing buttons". Having to spend less time just waiting is valuable to me. YMMV.

-10% cool-down = +11% killing!

[IronClan]

IMO energy criticals is the only one remotely interesting, and only ofc on a nuking caster.

I think they should buff the whole sphere's past lives.

Make Energy Critical's apply to all spell damage types (Light, sonic, pos/repair, neg/rust, and Force)

Make the spell cooldown effect 5% per tier and 5% faster casting animation per tier

Make each PL of the implement bonus give +1 Spell Penn and 5 stacking spellsight (mostly flavor) for a total of +3/+3/15spellsight

wont be holding my breath for this... it seems to be Turbine's MO to completely ignore any game system that is already in place in favor of making a new system from scratch.

[hkusp45]

Spell cool down is a joke for heal spells , you will only notice the cool down for spells that have 60sec cool downs like Implosion

[SirValentine]

Spell cool down is a joke for heal spells , you will only notice the cool down for spells that have 60sec cool downs like Implosion

Oh, believe me, I will notice the 0.8 seconds off Destruction and Slay Living. 6 seconds off Implosion is just a minor side-benefit.

[jaegarnel]

Just to clarify, as has been pointed out above....

It doesn't speed up your casting time, only your cooldown. So you're only going to see a difference if you're mashing buttons, casting spells immediately off cooldown. Depending on your rotation and animation times, that 10% might not shave off enough cooldown to make any difference - ie, you might end up casting the spell at the same time you otherwise would, it would just sit idle 10% longer before you did.

Not everyone is a Shiradi only spamming a rotation of low cd spells you know.
If you're using spells like implosion, slay living or destruction, faster cooldowns are quite useful. And unlike many past lives its usefulness stays the same no matter what level you're playing, instead of being OP at low levels and pretty useless in epics.

[sayan]

The best arcane past life, far and away, is energy criticals. That being said you mentioned the arcane sphere for a cleric so the next best thing would be arcane alacrity. 10% cool down reduction isn't a lot, but it will be helpful. It would be awesome if you could get another CD reduction item and stack them (I think you can).