Shroud Scepter

[Solmage]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering what most folks that had crafted a tier 3 scepter for extra charisma (or intelligence if you're a wizard) chose for their scepters 'extras', provided you went with any of course. (Like did you move your main charisma item into the scepter too? which clickies if any did you go with, etc)

I'm considering moving my +6 cha from a ring to the scepter and going for the res clicky, and nothing for a 3rd tier effect (pos, pos, air), which frees up a ring slot, always nice. But I'm wondering what other creative solutions people have crafted

So, show your stuff!

[Merkinsal]

Why not go pos pos pos, get true res, charisma +9, and 3rd tier bonus? I did that and always carry the weapon. If I had a +6 ring I might not have gone that way because you can get some nice combos without going pos pos on the first two and still get cha +3 on the 3rd tier. I use the true res quite a bit. I am not counting on pulling a +6 ring and will not pay ah prices for one.

[Borror0]

I'll go Neg (Str), Pos (+1 Cha), Pos (+2 Cha) and it'll allow me to up my will saves by 3. Not like I care about the effects on a weapon that I won't swing.

[Mhykke]

I considered moving cha to my scepter, but decided against it in the end. My choice was to move all cha to scepter and put on a dex ring to replace my cha ring, in order to bump up my reflex save. I decided against (I wanted to keep a cha item on character in case of switching weapon slots for whatever reason, or something coming up in the future), and instead I went 6 dex with my first tier on scepter, and the exceptional cha for the next 2 tiers. Went with the air guard tier 3 effect, and the haste clicky (which is nice for when you want to cast haste w/o spending mana to do so.)

[Aspenor]

I made my charisma dagger air/air/air. It is now my permanent charisma item. I took off the ring I was wearing and replaced it with a concentration ring.

My first GS item was wiz VI with 150 sp, +6 cha skills, pos/pos/pos.

My second GS item, post 20 runs & cleansing, will be tempered HP gloves, going fire/water/earth. Fire and water give tempered, which gives bonuses to intimidate, concentration (this was the kicker for me) and increases hardness and durability. I am going earth at the third tier for +3 con skills on top of the concentration bonus. I chose not to dual shard this item since elemental mastery is weaksauce.

[Solmage]

Thanks for all the interesting replies.

Why not go pos pos pos, get true res, charisma +9, and 3rd tier bonus?

Well, the third tier pos bonus on a weapon is greater disruption. Since I won't ever swing it, it's completely useless to me. And by going pos, pos air I save 1 large scale vs pos pos pos. (Notice pos pos air still gets the res clicky)

I'll go Neg (Str), Pos (+1 Cha), Pos (+2 Cha) and it'll allow me to up my will saves by 3. Not like I care about the effects on a weapon that I won't swing.

Hmmm, interesting. This could totally free up my gloves slot (currently str gloves), although I already have a neg/pos/pos, limiting it's appeal (my mana item is blindness/disease immunity+mana). Does anyone know if two "mana guards" (1% chance to gain hps or mana when hit) stack if used on two items?

and instead I went 6 dex with my first tier on scepter, and the exceptional cha for the next 2 tiers. Went with the air guard tier 3 effect, and the haste clicky (which is nice for when you want to cast haste w/o spending mana to do so.)

I'm a huge fan of reflex saves on casters. If I needed the equipment slot for a dex item, I would definitely go this way.

I made my charisma dagger air/air/air. It is now my permanent charisma item. I took off the ring I was wearing and replaced it with a concentration ring.

My first GS item was wiz VI with 150 sp, +6 cha skills, pos/pos/pos.

My second GS item, post 20 runs & cleansing, will be tempered HP gloves, going fire/water/earth. Fire and water give tempered, which gives bonuses to intimidate, concentration (this was the kicker for me) and increases hardness and durability. I am going earth at the third tier for +3 con skills on top of the concentration bonus. I chose not to dual shard this item since elemental mastery is weaksauce.

Thanks for sharing. My thinking was, an extra ring slot can never hurt. Concentration rings, ring of thelis for cheaper meta magic, etc.

Another option I considered was earth (constitution) and air, which would save me a belt slot, and give me +10 balance (for a total balance of about 24), allowing me to replace featherfall boots of balance with FF of jumping..

But the more I think about that option, the less use I find for the extra belt slot. I mean, sure, I could put a titan belt in it to free the gloves spot and get greater false life thrown into the bargain .. but I'll be lynched by just about any melee running the titan

Anyway, again thanks for the replies everyone, gave me quite a bit to think about

[MrCow]

As mentioned, if you don't swing a weapon then using your main hand for +9 CHA and off-hand as a potency item seems like the way to go. If you do a lot of attacking or weapon swapping (as some sorcerers do) then +6 STR/+3 Exceptional CHA is likely the other way to go. Personally, I'm planning on water/air/air for Freezing Ice to make a weapon to stab things with while retaining CHA, but I don't thing I ever fit the mold of the conventional sorcerer.

[Angelus_dead]

Some replies have suggested you can safely get something other than +6 charisma as the tier 1 effect on the scepter, because you'll be wearing charisma on clothing or jewelry.

Don't fall into that trap.

You don't know what awesome new clothing items will be released in the future, but it is probable that someday you'll get something that you'd be willing to swap out your cha item for. Having +6 cha on both the scepter tier1 and a cloak/ring/helm gives you flexibility for the future, which is worth a lot more than the small benefit a sorcerer would get from some offensive ability on the weapon.

[Auran82]

Air x 3 will also give you the +9 cha and the tier 3 bonus is Air Guard (yes a guard on a weapon) which either knocks attackers down sometimes or gives you a 30 second haste.

[Saragon]

Am I missing something? Are people who use a weapon slot for the +6 cha not bothering with sup lore? I use my exceptional cha +3 wapon most of the time when instakilling etc but when it comes to nuking time, it's sup pot and the appopriate sup lore. Are people getting sup lore elsewhere or just unintersted in keeping their damage potential maxed out?

[Angelus_dead]

Am I missing something? Are people who use a weapon slot for the +6 cha not bothering with sup lore? I use my exceptional cha +3 wapon most of the time when instakilling etc but when it comes to nuking time, it's sup pot and the appopriate sup lore. Are people getting sup lore elsewhere or just unintersted in keeping their damage potential maxed out?

You are correct that there is a difficulty here. Getting charisma in your hand slot interferes with the typical sorcerer combo of Sup Pot VI + Sup Fire Lore. But there are various ways to deal with this.

1. Most importantly, not every spell is measured in hitpoint damage. When you're casting Finger of Death, Hold Monster, or Web, then Potency and Lore do nothing for you, and it's fine to swap to an item for a better save DC. You're especially likely to make a charisma 9 + greater penetration combo for nuking devils in Shroud or Subterrane.

2. You can get lore on blue dragonscale robes. That choice was already rather popular before Green Steel, and now it's moreso.

3. You can get Potency or similar effects on clothing and jewelry. For example, I have both Super Combustion and Super Magnetism on my helmet, which handles most of my damage needs.

4. Lore actually adds a pretty small amount to your overall DPS. It only triggers rarely, and when it does trigger it's often wasted overkill.

[Saragon]

You are correct that there is a difficulty here. Getting charisma in your hand slot interferes with the typical sorcerer combo of Sup Pot VI + Sup Fire Lore. But there are various ways to deal with this.

1. Most importantly, not every spell is measured in hitpoint damage. When you're casting Finger of Death, Hold Monster, or Web, then Potency and Lore do nothing for you, and it's fine to swap to an item for a better save DC. You're especially likely to make a charisma 9 + greater penetration combo for nuking devils in Shroud or Subterrane.

2. You can get lore on blue dragonscale robes. That choice was already rather popular before Green Steel, and now it's moreso.

3. You can get Potency or similar effects on clothing and jewelry. For example, I have both Super Combustion and Super Magnetism on my helmet, which handles most of my damage needs.

4. Lore actually adds a pretty small amount to your overall DPS. It only triggers rarely, and when it does trigger it's often wasted overkill.

Phew! Okay. For a minute there I thought I had somehow missed something.

Yes, I use my cha and spell pen weapon combo for instakilling etc. It's when it comes to nuking for damage that I make the switch to sup pot/sup lore and can't afford to lose 9 cha because I'm not wearing a +6 item. I see how people find it acceptable to make do with the greater lore on blue robes but I'm just wierd that way. Even if I could get over my allergy to ghastly looking named clothing/armor that makes my toons look like everyone else, I don't think I'd be content knowing I could potentially dish out a bit more damage with a different set up. I can't bring myself to give up my sup lores when it comes time to do damage. I find that I crit a lot so that additional 0.25 to my crit damage muliplier can add up to quite a bit. In my experience, it's rarely overkill since the heavy nuking is generally done against boss mobs with tons of hps.

Yup, you can get stuff like sup combustion etc on other clothing slots but if you use those, you aren't really freeing up a slot since that helmet slot could just as easily be used for a +6 cha item thereby allowing you to continue using sup lore weapon switches.

I'm not trying to say that someone is right and someone is wrong here. Like I said, I can completely understand the preference for minimal weapon switches and only giving up what most would consider a negligible amount of damage. I just can't do that myself. lol

My only concern was that I had somehow missed something and people were managing the same damage without juggling weapon sets as much. Thaks for clearing that up.

[Angelus_dead]

Yup, you can get stuff like sup combustion etc on other clothing slots but if you use those, you aren't really freeing up a slot since that helmet slot could just as easily be used for a +6 cha item thereby allowing you to continue using sup lore weapon switches.

No, it's not about freeing item slots. It's about raising your charisma to higher than you could get any other way.

I don't think I'd be content knowing I could potentially dish out a bit more damage with a different set up. I can't bring myself to give up my sup lores when it comes time to do damage. I find that I crit a lot so that additional 0.25 to my crit damage muliplier can add up to quite a bit. In my experience, it's rarely overkill since the heavy nuking is generally done against boss mobs with tons of hps.

Boss monsters are only encountered very rarely, which means switching weapons for them is no trouble at all.

Overvalueing spell crit mult is a common mistake.

[Aspenor]

4 words...

Blue Dragon Scale Robes

no more need to use lore scepters.

[Borror0]

4 words...

Blue Dragon Scale Robes

no more need to use lore scepters.

Weren't you the one saying you would always switch to whatever lore scepter was needed? Even if you had Greater Arcane Lore?

[Aspenor]

Weren't you the one saying you would always switch to whatever lore scepter was needed? Even if you had Greater Arcane Lore?

Yeah i was and i changed my mind. I got lazy. Shut your mouth bor!!!!

that was months ago. i can't believe people still take those posts seriously down to the letter

[Whargoul]

I decided to go +9 Cha on a khopesh. Since the only time I ever swing a weapon is on a held / helpless mob, why not swing something that does 40-50 hp per crit. Heck, now you should be grabbing a GS heavy pick for your big stat item.

[Borror0]

I can't believe people still take those posts seriously down to the letter

I just have a very good memory.

Because, really, your posts are worthless to me. I just end up remember all that useless information.

[Aspenor]

I just have a very good memory.

Because, really, your posts are worthless to me. I just end up remember all that useless information.

YOU ARE USELESS TO ME!! DIIE BORRR DIEE!!!!!

[Borror0]

YOU ARE USELESS TO ME!! DIIE BORRR DIEE!!!!!

Someone hearing voices put me?