FVS light build. Does that work?

[redoubt]

I'm preparing for a FVS past life. I don't mind splashes I just want it to count for FVS. I can also run in any Destiny, but I'd prefer divine or primal as I still want more of both of those.

Thoughts?

[Spoonwelder]

It's ok - I have a pure light cleric - (Morninglord and Divine Disciple for more SLA's) it is good single target damage with low SP cost which can help alot BUT not EE levels of damage at a soloist level. Good support character but not stupendous.

I would suggest

12/6/2 FVS/Cleric/Wiz - Divine Disciple(33AP)/Avenging Angel (28AP - Lantern and Spell crits)/point spends Wiz is for a bit more crits (maybe 6-7AP here)/Morninglord (rest to get as much out of light of Sungod as you can fit).

Feats would be:
Mental Toughness (crit %)
Imp Mental Toughness (crit %)
Max
Emp
Quicken
2 Spare

Epic Mental toughness(crit %)
Epic Light Spell power

Stats don't matter too much since you are casting almost all non-DC spells this setup will have you in the 45% crit range before EDs (ie. twist in Empyrean magic for up to 10% more or run in DC) and that is where your power really comes from. My Crits (non-maxed out character) land in the 400-800++ range depending on the spell (nimbus, searing light, holy smite, flamestrike are your low SP cycle of spells add lantern archon and a few higher SP spells and SLAs and you are plenty busy).

You will be a spectator in the end fight of Von5 (immune to light dmg) but other than that you will be a solid contributor to DPS anywhere you go. Get yourself a lantern ring from Haunted Halls and you are golden for gear.

[redoubt]

Do any of the wizard enhancements apply to light?

[redoubt]

What about cutting the FvS levels to 11. Its still easy to get to a max CL of 15 for the light spells.
6 levels of cleric. Add 6 CL from destinies and 3 from abishi set and that is up to 15.
3 levels of warlock to get into the ES tree and pick up 30 light spell power, a little damage from the aura and some prr/mrr.

My biggest concern so far with the whole light damage thing is that there is ONE spell at CL 15 and ONE spell at CL 10 (but only gets half value.) This seems really low. I'm concerned about getting enough dps.

[redoubt]

I see 16% spell crit in the two trees. (8 each). You mention 45%. Where is that coming from?

[unbongwah]

Do any of the wizard enhancements apply to light?
Any bonuses to Universal Spellpower certainly apply; so do the Efficient Metamagics SP reductions. I don't think wiz spell crit bonuses affect light spells, unfortunately.

[Atremus]

I can give you my build. It might, or might not suit your playstyle. It is a light based caster that does fairly well. Slow DPS yes, but that will hopefully change in the caster pass.

SunElf 18 FvS / 1 CLR / 1 Wiz

This is a no LR Iconic life with a focus on Implosion and Light Damage. 1 CLR provides cheap 20 Light SPP. 1 Wiz is for the Feat. 18 FVS for wings, SP and Implosion.

17AP in SunElf tree for 30 Light SPP
49ish (memory here) in AoV
4AP in CLR Divine Discipe (light SPP from core 0 and first tier)
Rest in FvS WarPriest for HP, PRR
ED: EA - sunburst, reborn in light, Avenging Light
Twists: Evo DC, Euphorian Magic and Tsunami

Quicken, Heighten, Max, Emp, Enlage (Wiz Bonus), SF Evo line, PL Wiz (if you have). You can add other SF feats if you wanted Necro boosting, but Implosion man. Such a treat.

Since I go DC based the stat spread is: Max Wisdom, 14 CON, 14 CHA. Might try 12CHA and put the remaining into INT for Spellcraft boosting.

Basic playstyle is: Stun, Nuke, Clean up with avenging light. Rinse and repeate. With Reborn in light running my peak light spell power can hit 700-720 with boosts and the greater brilliance Pt (House J).

[Spoonwelder]

Do any of the wizard enhancements apply to light?
Crits only really from archmage....but a free MM spam may help shiradi procs.

[Spoonwelder]

What about cutting the FvS levels to 11. Its still easy to get to a max CL of 15 for the light spells.
6 levels of cleric. Add 6 CL from destinies and 3 from abishi set and that is up to 15.
3 levels of warlock to get into the ES tree and pick up 30 light spell power, a little damage from the aura and some prr/mrr.

My biggest concern so far with the whole light damage thing is that there is ONE spell at CL 15 and ONE spell at CL 10 (but only gets half value.) This seems really low. I'm concerned about getting enough dps.

FVS 12 for lantern archon is only reason for that - it is decent no thought DPS so hard to pass up. But could easily be offset by the 3 levels of Warlock. FVS 12 also gets you blade barrier which can be handy.

DPS comes mostly from rolling your SLA's from Divine Disciple - nimbus, searing, holy smite, flamestrike - throw in the big booms for sunburst and sunbeam when something just has to die (or you are near shrine or end fight is nearly over) and you get some fairly massive damage from both.

[Spoonwelder]

I see 16% spell crit in the two trees. (8 each). You mention 45%. Where is that coming from?

8% DD Enhancement
8% AOV Enhancements
2% Wizard Archmage (was in my original math - forgot that it only applies to untyped/fire components)
20% item (20% from Lvl 20% on random loot - up to 22% with max source gear)
5% Magical training
1% MT
1% IMT
1% EMT
2% Insightful - Libram
----
48% - minus 2 for my error in Archmage but can by offset by EE gear providing 22% (TF T3 stick)
up to 10% more from Empyrean Magic (if you are spamming this will be in the upper end of this most of the time.)

[unbongwah]

Crits only really from archmage
"Spell Critical:Elemental and Force I: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 1% chance to critically hit."

No mention of light spells, which isn't surprising since Sunburst is the only arcane light spell and was a late addition to arcane casters, IIRC.

[redoubt]

Edited. Took out most efficient metas. Put in a little more PRR and 5 light sp from warpriest.

Enhancements (80 AP)

Angel of Vengeance (33 AP)
Font of Power
Scourge III, Animus III, Smiting
Just Reward III, Efficient Quicken III, Smiting
Smiting
Smiting, Intense Faith III
Zealous Faith III

Divine Disciple (26 AP)
Emissary: Light, Sacred Defense, Sun Bolt
Nimbus of Light III, Spellpower: Light III, Spell Critical: Light
Spell Critical: Light
Searing Light III, Spellpower: Light III, Spell Critical: Light
Holy Smite III, Spell Critical: Light

Enlightened Spirit (20 AP)
Eldritch Aura
Resilience of Body III, Spiritual Defense III, Resilience of Soul I
Spiritual Bastion III, Power of Enlightenment III
Spiritual Ward III, Power of Enlightenment III

Warpriest (1 AP)
Smite Foe

[unbongwah]

I like having Efficient Maximize if I can afford it, but with the temp SPs from Just Reward it should be less important. Plus with such a heavy multiclass, I expect you to rely on SLAs from PrEs and EDs, and metamagics don't add to the SP costs of those.

[Spoonwelder]

Except when I need to fill in a tree to get to certain AP spends I never spend anything on getting meta's to cost less.....regardless of the build.

SLA's are so ubiquitous now that, except on a DC necro or CC wizard I rarely cast anything where the SP savings will be worthwhile.....I think the new endgame raid is the first likely exception in a long time. Maybe TOEE as well but I haven't run a high SP using caster in a long time.

Between massive SP pools, shrines, SLA's, SP regen and baubles/talisman and the occassional pot I haven't found a need to conserve SP that much that I need to use the meta enhancements.

If I did it would be on maximize solely and I would likely be turning Empower off for that specific quest.

[Atremus]

Except when I need to fill in a tree to get to certain AP spends I never spend anything on getting meta's to cost less.....regardless of the build.


This is my line of thought as well. I never have enough AP leftover to buy "down" SP costs. I might get a single hit on effecient maximize, but no more.

I haven't run out of SP but I haven't solo EE'd the new content yet. I might run out there depending on the HP and Champ spawns.

[Spoonwelder]

"Spell Critical:Elemental and Force I: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 1% chance to critically hit."

No mention of light spells, which isn't surprising since Sunburst is the only arcane light spell and was a late addition to arcane casters, IIRC.
I amended myself in Post 10 - still applies to Blade Barrier and the fire of Flamestrike. But yes 2Wiz is not necessary and you may be better off with a 12/5/3 FVS/Cleric/Warlock

[redoubt]

OH... not even efficient quicken?

[redoubt]

edited my enhancements

[Spoonwelder]

edited my enhancements
I never keep this stuff in my head so I would just test it out in game and see what results in better damage but I am not sure that the caster level boosts are going to have the impact you expect. Especially on the SLA's as those are lower level spells with caps to the damage.....it would mainly your Sunbeam and Sunburst that would get the benefit from it.

Also in AOV I would be trying to fit in the shoulder cannon (core 4)

[Spoonwelder]

I never keep this stuff in my head so I would just test it out in game and see what results in better damage but I am not sure that the caster level boosts are going to have the impact you expect. Especially on the SLA's as those are lower level spells with caps to the damage.....it would mainly your Sunbeam and Sunburst that would get the benefit from it.

Also in AOV I would be trying to fit in the shoulder cannon (core 4)
More specifically - the Max Caster level boost of AOV Tier 5 - I would only take it to tier 2 as well as Tier 4 enhancement as the key spells - Searing Light and Holy Smite increase in damage only on every 2 levels and Nimbus only gets 1 more damage per caster level....and all three are capped at 10 levels.....so not a tonne of impact from those AP spent.

And that assumes that he MCL boost works as it is supposed to (I recall it not doing all that it purports to but haven't tested that myself so.......)

[redoubt]

More specifically - the Max Caster level boost of AOV Tier 5 - I would only take it to tier 2 as well as Tier 4 enhancement as the key spells - Searing Light and Holy Smite increase in damage only on every 2 levels and Nimbus only gets 1 more damage per caster level....and all three are capped at 10 levels.....so not a tonne of impact from those AP spent.

And that assumes that he MCL boost works as it is supposed to (I recall it not doing all that it purports to but haven't tested that myself so.......)

With 6 cleric levels I could get sunbolt, but not sunbeam.

I'm planning on 15 CL. 6 cleric + 6 ED + 3 abishi set. Then add 3 from the MCL/CL increase in AoV to get to 18. (FVS will be higher, but I don't think it matters for anything.) I had planned this way because sunbolt is max 15. But it is maybe too expensive to plan to use a lot?

Side note, my last dps caster was a sorc/fvs/pali that was fire spec'd. That was WAY easier to figure out! 8o

[Spoonwelder]

With 6 cleric levels I could get sunbolt, but not sunbeam.

I'm planning on 15 CL. 6 cleric + 6 ED + 3 abishi set. Then add 3 from the MCL/CL increase in AoV to get to 18. (FVS will be higher, but I don't think it matters for anything.) I had planned this way because sunbolt is max 15. But it is maybe too expensive to plan to use a lot?

Side note, my last dps caster was a sorc/fvs/pali that was fire spec'd. That was WAY easier to figure out! 8o
Correct me if I am messing up the calcs but your 12 FVS levels > 6 Cleric levels mean you are starting at
12+6ED=18 to be over max anyway.

[EllisDee37]

Stats don't matter too much since you are casting almost all non-DC spellsWell, the Holy Smite SLA (your only AoE SLA) has a Will save for half damage.

[redoubt]

Correct me if I am messing up the calcs but your 12 FVS levels > 6 Cleric levels mean you are starting at
12+6ED=18 to be over max anyway.

If I am using an SLA that comes out of Divine Disciple, it will use my cleric level, no? (Or, because those spells are also FvS spells will it default to whichever is higher?)

[Atremus]

Last I knew the Cleric SLA's were directly tied to Cleric levels of a build. I never tested though as my cleric life was a THF battle thing and I didnt do much casting.

If you have the ability to max your casting level, the SLA's could be very powerful.

[unbongwah]

Correct me if I am messing up the calcs but your 12 FVS levels > 6 Cleric levels mean you are starting at
12+6ED=18 to be over max anyway.
On a MCed caster build, the base caster level of your spells comes from whichever class you get those spells or SLAs from. So in the case of FvS 12 / cleric 6 build, the DiDi SLAs base CL is 6, not 12; same thing if you did a FvS 12 / wiz 6 with AM Missile SLAs.

Now, here's where it gets weird: PrE bonuses to CL and MCL tend to be universal; i.e., they don't just apply to the spells of that class. So AoV's Intense Faith (+3 CL) and Zealous Faith (+3 MCL) will apply to all of your "Fire, Force, Light, and Physical damage spells," not just your FvS spells. I'm not entirely convinced this was ever WAI; certainly it feels like an unintended consequence to me. So if it ever gets nerfed, expect a lot of upset MCed Shiradi builds... :cool:

[Atremus]

In regards to the SP cost / cast of Sunbolt: fully meta'd should be around 102 spell points per cast without buying down costs some how. This is about the cost of implosion or fully decked out BB.

In terms of spam, this would be a spell I saved and used less frequently unless I know there is a shrine nearby or I am flat out unloading on something. Comparing Sunbolt's 102SP cost versus 3SP for Avenging light and AL hits good enough when hou have the Light SPP behind it. 3SP, 3 Second cool down. On the spell pool side: You should end up with 3k or more For your spellpoint pool. Plenty enough except in shrineless raids. It might take a little adjusting to get used to SP management, but light based builds are viable, just behave nd the current DPS available in melee form.

The trouble I have on my build specifically is the lack of another SLA since the FVS capstone is the only way to get another one. Pure builds are 100 light spell power behind my current split. Deeper splits can get even more. And I am not knocking the shoulder cannon here, just stating that 1 more SLA like sunbolt or sunburst would go a long way as a temporary boost to DPS. That way I can cycle 2 SLA's and pick off anything that saved agaisnt my AoE.