suggestions for epic past life feats

[kendo]

not seeing a forum section devoted to epic lives, so posting here. looking for recommendations on which epic life feats to take if I don't have a final build in mind. I like variety and enjoy switching around between melee, ranged and spell casting. so while the double strike option in melee sphere would be nice, it doesn't really help with my ranged or spell castor builds. I initially plan on doing 3 lives in each sphere and would prefer to stack them as much as possible.

I was leaning towards

arcane - alacrity - pretty much all characters will, or could, have some spells whether offensive, defensive, heals, etc so would have some benefit for all builds

divine - brace - seems to be the overwhelming choice in this sphere and agree with that

martial - skills - all builds would benefit and makes getting UMD easier on some builds and I like having a reasonable level of UMD for all characters. though I could see fortification being decent on many builds, especially if fort bypass becomes more prevalent

primal - this is where I really cannot decide. both fast healing and colors have strong appeal. fast healing looks like it would be great at lower levels if I get into the racial reincarnation cycle, not sure how much it would help in high level, higher difficulty content. colors look to be universally useful and probably the most "fun" factor of all the feats.

appreciate any feedback folks are willing to share, thank you

[Cantor]

Divine: brace, never-ever used anything else.

Arcane: Enchant weapon is most versatile, obvious for melee/ranged but also gives minor spellpower boost with old/named style spellcasting implement.

Martial: I agree skills for versatility. I use fort from 1-5 (but it's pretty marginal you will never use it after 8 on any build) then use skills. (If melee: doublestrike.)

Primal: Depends... fast healing is great on non-reaper, if reaper go colors. (If ranged: doubleshot.)

You mostly hit it. I'd consider enchant for arcane though. Primal depends on what difficulty you play. If doing heroic/racials I'd max martial first after having 3 of each, the AC boost is huge in heroics and required for AC to matter on non-dedicated builds in epic.

edit: Alco makes a good point on energy crits being amazing for blasters, but it's also the least versatile if you switch builds.

[AlcoArgo]

This is an unanswerable question as it depends entirely on your build and what you want to do with it.

Energy Criticals is a very popular choice for Arcane as it adds stackable crit chances.

Brace is the most common Divine choice but some like the spell power bonus with Poser Over Life and Death.

I always take Fortification for Martial as I don't need any skill bonuses.

You would be a fool not to take Colors of the Queen on a Shirardi build, as well as most other casting or ranged builds.

I am sure other players with different builds have different priorities as well.

[Selvera]

Given that I melee 60% of the time, ranged 30% of the time and play a caster 10% of the time; but the pastlives that I'm working towards on most of my characters are:

Martial: Doublestrike
Primal: Doubleshot
Arcane: Enchant Weapon
Divine: Brace

They just seem to be the pastlives with the most upside and least downside. Let's look at why I didn't take the others.

Martial: Skills -> +3 skills doesn't help anyone much except for trappers and for UMD. UMD is nice, I'll agree, but if I'm a trapper, I'm usually melee and thus need doublestrike anyways.

Martial: Fortification -> I am of the opinion that having over 100% fort is wasted in at least 75% of content; and I slot 100% fortification on all builds from level 8+.

Primal: Fast Healing -> A small amount of healing over time which is reduced by reaper penalty and doesn't heal party members? I'd rather just have a hireling thanks.

Primal: Colors -> Once every 10 seconds I have a small chance to do something random which might be good, but might white dot bosses or glitch quests? I play enough ranged characters to make doubleshot more attractive, and even on melee doubleshot can help break shroud crystals.

Arcane: Energy Criticals -> A little extra crit chance with a subset of element types? I don't play enough casters to make this worth it (and the ones I do play are often healers, who don't benefit anyways).

Arcane: Arcane Alacrity -> This would actually be pretty good on all characters, making your self-heals cool down faster. However, having 2-3 spells in a healing rotation mitigates the advantage a bit, and enchant weapon is quite good on 90% of my builds.

Divine: Power over life and death -> I'm taking this on my character who I expect to be a healer in most lives. Not on the one that I expect to rarely be a healer.

Divine: Block Energy -> Actually not the worst pastlife ever; even on non-tanks you end up blocking a lot and maybe this could save you; but brace sounds like it would be more useful on more builds.

[boredGamer]

I wouldn't say it's unanswerable, just that you need to say why - and OP did specify he didn't have a build in mind.

For me, I'm in same boat as OP in that I plan to do many builds with my current main (she's just starting down TR path).

So how I see it, doing the first of each epic (criticals, brace, doubleshot/strike) is simply the MOST useful for each life I will be doing. Sure that means I'll have somewhat useless stances for some builds, but having those 1st stances available for my various lives means more to me than the random "useful across lives" stances.

- arcane: criticals - obvious I think
- divine - brace
- martial - doublestrike
- primal - doubleshot

Perhaps for "final" build or build type I'll do another 3 or 6 past lives somewhere, but for me this is best across a TR plan covering all bases.

[Cantor]

- arcane: criticals - obvious I think
- divine - brace
- martial - doublestrike
- primal - doubleshot


I really disagree with this breakdown on any given build you are almost guaranteeing that 2/4 are totally useless.

[boredGamer]

I really disagree with this breakdown on any given build you are almost guaranteeing that 2/4 are totally useless.

Totally. Luckily I explained my reasoning in my post which you completely ignored in your response. Classic.

[Cantor]

Totally. Luckily I explained my reasoning in my post which you completely ignored in your response. Classic.

Didn't ignore it, just stressing that I disagree with your reasoning. I think it's a huge mistake.

[glmfw1]

I'm still going through epic past lives, but what I have chosen on my way to completionist is to get 3 each of:
Divine: Power over Life & Death
Arcane: Enchant Weapon
Martial: Skill Mastery
Primal: Fast Healing

If you solo a lot, high skill scores are useful. Sometimes the extra points are what tip you over the edge from failure to success... very useful with skill based dialog options. Skills also improve spellpower... extra pluses here and there all add up.
Fast Healing helps survivability without having to waste time chugging potions all the time, and Power over Life and Death makes any self healing more effective.
Enchant Weapon is great for anyone who uses weapons (i.e. most builds other than pure casters).

I still want to have Doubleshot/Doublestrike/Brace to be able to swap into, but have found the others of more use so far.