Synergies for DC Casting

[Tlorrd]

Since everyone says DC casting is dead, I've tried to find some abilities that can work well together between EDs and enhancements to boost DCs. Obviously spell pen also has to be overcome, but here are few ideas. Please add your own as well.

17/3 Wiz/Warlock
- Necro or any focus that needs reduction of fort saves
- taint blood, EB cone stance for AOE debuff - stacks to -4 fort saves
- Magister T3 Necro/Transmuation augmentation - -5 fort saves, 15% chance (AOE necro spell such as death aura, lesser death aura, greater negative energy burst)
- Draconic Incarnation T4 Black dragon acid spell aug - -5 fort saves, 15% chance with acid spells (acid rain, cloudkill, acid fog, (burning blood a favorite since both necro spell and acid spell and can proc both Mag T3 and DI T4 for -10 fort saves in one hit, similar to slimy doom from contagion)).
- Thus a quick -14 fort saves = +28 casting stat.
- if you ran in Magister and used Null Magic Strike/Guard - 15%/6% chance to reduce spell resistance by 4.
- Consume/Taint Aura can reduce spell resistance by 10
- Thus quick -14 to mob spell resistance
- My testing did show that Great Old One pact damage of acid did not proc the Draconic Incarnation spell augmentation (I was hopeful, but unfortunately it did not do it)

So -14 fort debuff and -14 spell resistance that is fairly easy to obtain is quite reasonable.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

[Miow]

I would call this a synergy but only really applicable when playing with friends willing to do this. You can have your melee and ranged players use weapons with affixes that lower SR, level drain, stats drain from monsters making it easier to land spells.

[Tilomere]

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

Build for dire charge (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/475654-Electric-Critzilla).

It is the easiest way to make LE mobs helpless. Helpless is dex 0, which reduces reflex save, strips off evasion, and increases damage taken by 50%. Plus it is free to use, short cool down, large AoE, bypasses spell resistance, and requires a natural 20 for a mob to save against.

[Enoach]

Interesting ideas...

On DC casting being dead, its not dead but It is not necessarily in a good position either.

Just this life I decided to un an experiment with my multi-life wizard

Past Lives
3 Wizard
3 Sorcer
3 Favored Soul
1 Druid
2 Deep Gnome

While I took Heighten I decided to not turn it on unless I was finding I was not able to land a spell.

I would use my lower DC/Level spells first and if it didn't land would choose a higher level spell (Same Save be it fort/reflex/will) until either it landed or not.

I did have access to the highest available Intellegence Item possible at each level even having a +8 Intellegence, +2 Insightful and +1 Exceptional starting at level 16. I also have a +7 Intellegence Tome so was able to keep max Intellegence for the level.


I'm currently Level 24 and what I have found so far is that with max intellegece and proper gear and while running any quest at level (Level 18 Caster running Level 16 on Elite) appears to not require Heighten. Now, there are some excetions to this rule. These are found in the newer quests - Like ToEE, Grimm and Bearet and Illusions etc. Those required boosting DCs with Heighten.

I think DC casting is still a viable method of play, it just has new challenges such as immunities (Not always making sense like groups of 15 mobs all having Freedom of Movement)
------
Now what I learned so far is that I've fallen prey to a falacy that the 5 SP per level I was paying was not necessarily needed. It changed how I looked at my Spell Point usage. I'm already pretty stricked with my SP usage - I'm one of those casters that doesn't snip kills (at least not on purpose), and I use spells to match weakest save. I'm finding the savings in SP is making a difference in such a way that using Debuff spells as an option for reducing saves without having to spend more on the primary spell.

Now at level 24 now, I am still learning but do expect that Wheloon and Stormhorns will not only require Heighten but Embolden as well as additional Exceptional School DC boosters.

[LightBear]

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.
Warlock Tainted Scholar with Eldritch Blast Shape: Chain stacked with Bewitching Blast, Fey is your Pact.
Warlock Soul Eater base tier 3: No Worse Fait.
Twist in Evocation Augmentation, Dragonic Presence.

[Tlorrd]

I would call this a synergy but only really applicable when playing with friends willing to do this. You can have your melee and ranged players use weapons with affixes that lower SR, level drain, stats drain from monsters making it easier to land spells.

actually i basically solo and don't run with groups. all of this can be done on a single toon, its quite easy infact if you have enough fate points for the appropriate twists.

[01000010]

If by dc casting you mean instakill, then yeah, in general you need to go for fort drops mostly, a few barbarian lvls can drop fort and con(and thereybt fort save) if you dont mind smacking them 1st, 1 bard lvl can drop all saves by 4(3 from SB aoe taunts, 1 more from SS after fascinate). Any fear affect regardless of save will make them shaken and drop fort one more, there are many ways to accomplish this.

If you arent specifically speaking of instakill, then 3 bard lvls with increase several scools a bit, hypnotize is a very quick aoe to drop will saves by 3 and can cost 1 spellpoint if you have 1 wizrd lvl and take the sla. For will save there are several spells that "weaken will" and stack with eachother.

Then theres neg lvls, imp curse speed ranged.

One thing a lot of people miss is how 1 warlock lvl combined with a fast ranged weapon can drop fort saves extremely fast, there are a lot of ranged fear instakill builds on these forums, but noone uses but me that ive seen, pretty funny. Hilarious that so many people say you cant get dcs high enough on ranged builds to instakill well on LE, like usual they cant see the woods through the trees.

[EvilGremlin]

If DC casting is not dead, it is undead because it sure as **** isn't alive. >__<

[slarden]

DC casting is in a good spot overall compared to at other times in the past, but as always you have to take what you can get with DC casting and not try to force things that don't work well. People expect the same build to always work great and things just don't work that way in this game. You have to keep tweaking your build - maybe even etr to make significant changes.

As always dc casting without past lifes can be done, but # of viable builds is significantly reduced.

I am a big fan of passive debuffs like evocation augmentation, necromancy augmentation and quick mass debuffs like solid fog, mind fog and crushing despair. When it requires multiple, time consuming and/or complicated debuffing it's time to start looking at a different build.

[Airmaiden]

For the last couple months, I have my main character on Sarlona (Firegoddess), as a Deep Gnome Illusion spec wizard and I absolutely LOVE this it! I have 3 x PK's and I have a standing DC of 96. I can keep it at 98 most of the time and if I really need to I can boost it to a 109 DC. For those that have ran with me in LE raids, you can attest to my mob staying ability. The downside to a DC caster is boss damage. This can be helped with DOTs and Ledgendary Shroud items ( ledgendary magma and Ledgendary earth).
I have given my build to several people on Sarlona (some TR's and some 1st lifer's) and everyone seems to like it (most have been able to get DC's to high 80's to low 90's with little to no effort.

DC caster get the biggest gains from past lives such as Wiz, FvS, and deep gnome.

Try it out and enjoy!