Glacial Assault(set bonus) and health...

[Sarazahj]

I've been having some issues regarding my end-game equipment,I'm playing ping-pong with the idea of getting the Bracers of the Glacier and the Gloves of the Glacier.

For the Bracers,the Spell Penetration would be interesting until I got myself a Staff of the Petitioner,the Archmagi bonus is useless since I have Rahkir's Sash and the Fire Shield 10% effect seems rather useless too(since I have the spell and pretty much only use it for ToD kiting) so that only leaves the Glacial Assault bonus as my aim.

Gloves of the Glacier...does the Efficient Metamagic Maximize/Extend II even work with Enhancements?

It mostly comes down to how effective Glacial Assault is,for some reason...I always thought it was 30% bonus to Ice spells up to level VIII,but I've seen one person with 50%(either he used a Superior Freeze that glitched and called itself Glacial Assault with 50%,or it actually exists).

So that's where I'm at a loss,if it's 50% bonus,I wouldn't hesitate a single second to get it,but if it's 30%...I'd rather get some other stuff for those two Slots,like a Levik's Bracers and Seven Fingered Gloves or something.

So...if anyone can confirm whether it's 30% or 50% for the Glacial Assault set bonus,I'd gladly appreciate it.

Also am rather curious about health,how much should a caster aim to have?

I started at 14 base Con,using a simple +6(planning to use a +1 or +3 Tome if I can pull one when I get +1 and +2 Ex Con from the ToD Ring I want to round it up),things look like this:

80 base
100 Con bonus
20 Heroic Durability
10 Draconic Vitality
20 Minos
20 Improved False Life(trying to grab a GFL to fit in a usable Slot)
250 Health total

I feel like it's rather low,I don't bother asking how much health other people have nor do I look at pictures of characters much so I can't really compare it just...feels low,excluding getting a +45 health GS Item(working on the 20 completions),are there any other viable ways to increase hit points?

Wild guess at someone telling me to get Toughness...I have Heighten,Max,Emp,Extend,Spell Focus:Necromancy,Greater Spell Focus:Necromancy and Mental Toughness(the latter I might pick Toughness instead but I like my +110 SP ).

P.S.:Reconstruct Scroll+Wand and Scroll Mastery I=137 heal and Reconstruct spell+Force Manipulation I=165 at 35 SP cost...excluding the cooldown time,the difference isn't that bad right?

[ddoer]

Gloves of the Glacier...does the Efficient Metamagic Maximize/Extend II even work with Enhancements?

yes, it stacks with enhancement. when I need to nuke end-boss, I always put my gloves on.

It mostly comes down to how effective Glacial Assault is,for some reason...I always thought it was 30% bonus to Ice spells up to level VIII,but I've seen one person with 50%(either he used a Superior Freeze that glitched and called itself Glacial Assault with 50%,or it actually exists).

If you have 2 items with Glacial Assault, it is +30%. If you have 3 items, it is +50%. As you have the gloves and the bracer already, the third item could be from a Dragontouched Robe. The Telvi's Sash has 3 charges of 3 mins Superior Freeze VIII clickie, that make the use of Glacial Assault set, which requires 3 gear slots, debatable.

Also am rather curious about health,how much should a caster aim to have?

are you a WF? if you are L20 playing end game content, 250 HP is very low, esp as a WF. For a sorc, I don't think it is wise to use MT instead of toughness.

I personally think 300 is minimum for playing end game content on normal, and 400 is minimum for playing elite/epic. If you are at the min, you better top your HP in any time. It is actually desirable to get 450+ for epic wiz-king as it disintegrate us at a dmg of 400. Recently, I was one shoot by the blue dragon in Tor on normal for a total cold damage of around 47x, and it's not hard for you to get hit by a trap twice for 400+ damage. For most of the time you don't need so much HP, and I personally won't care those extreme cases, but in general, the more HP you have and the better self-healing, the longer you could survive.

[Spisey]

Been using the full glacier set for some time now but with Telvi's sash and the archmagi / pale masters clickes, I have been finding myself moving away from the set. I am working on the Upgraded Titan's Grip Gloves and using good use of the lesser maximise clickies from the Noxious Ember from the Abbott if I feel like nuking instead of worrying at all about SP enhancements / items outside of the -10% sp Staff of the Petitioner bonus. The only real reason I use the DT armor atm is all my sets are Con 6 / GFL. I'm thinking of upgrading the Dreaming Dark Docent for a temporary solution for the hit points until I can make and upgrade some epic Firestorm Greaves to replace my Con / glf item at which time I'll swap to a Docent of Defiance!

Got alot to work on but the clickies are more than enough time in most situations to replace all potency items below level 8. Just my cp since you specifically spoke of end game tactics.

[Mindspat]

I started at 14 base Con,using a simple +6(planning to use a +1 or +3 Tome if I can pull one when I get +1 and +2 Ex Con from the ToD Ring I want to round it up),things look like this:

80 base
100 Con bonus
20 Heroic Durability
10 Draconic Vitality
20 Minos
20 Improved False Life(trying to grab a GFL to fit in a usable Slot)
250 Health total

I feel like it's rather low,I don't bother asking how much health other people have nor do I look at pictures of characters much so I can't really compare it just...feels low,excluding getting a +45 health GS Item(working on the 20 completions),are there any other viable ways to increase hit points?

Wild guess at someone telling me to get Toughness...I have Heighten,Max,Emp,Extend,Spell Focus:Necromancy,Greater Spell Focus:Necromancy and Mental Toughness(the latter I might pick Toughness instead but I like my +110 SP ).

P.S.:Reconstruct Scroll+Wand and Scroll Mastery I=137 heal and Reconstruct spell+Force Manipulation I=165 at 35 SP cost...excluding the cooldown time,the difference isn't that bad right?

Do you die a lot? If the answer is "yes" then you must get more hitpoints. Arbitrarily, 250 is kind of low.

Ways to improve your Hitpoints:

• Drop Mental Toughness and get Toughness, spending AP into the enhancement.
• Locate and work in a Great False Life item into your equipment loadout.
• Finish your GS Hitpoint item
• Minos Legend

If you do well and rarely die then the hitpoint issue shouldn't be as much of a concern. Maybe just do a few of the suggestions rather then all. There are a large variety of named items which might make it possible to consolidate some of your item slots which could inturn allow more of these to work for you.

[Sarazahj]

Ah I never knew that if you had a third Glacial Set Item it goes up to 50%,well I guess that means no Bracers for me,three Items for a set is more Slots than I can afford to use.

Most of the time I just use Rahkir's 1 minute clickies for Polar Ray,which I don't use often except when Ele kiting in Shroud or throwing in some extra damage at the end,might be I'm forgetting a few situations but I doesn't seem worth the bother.

Hmm so if I finish the GS and get a GFL I'll be up to 305/325 with Rage,25 more with Toughness for 330/350,might be able to fit 1-2 Toughness Enhancements in but not sure yet,need to get a rock for Fred before anything can be done.

Still a bit off from 450,can't really think of anything else other than the Ex Con +1/+2 from ToD Ring and Tome +1/+3 for say...370/390-390/410,might be annoying to get that +3 Tome though but should work out,any other ways for more health?

Maybe a LR to respec the Feat and get Con up a bit(started at 10 Str,10 Dex,14 Con,Int 8,Wis 8,Cha 20)...actually...seems like I wouldn't be able to raise Con unless I dropped some Cha,which I absolutely refuse so Reincarnation isn't worth the bother either it seems.

Still seems a bit on the low side and can't really think of anything else.

But so far,thank you all very,very much!

[Aspenor]

When Update 3 drops, Glacial Assault will be all but obsolete. The clickies from the Water Savant Belt, Eerie Belt, and Rahkir's Sash will be clearly superior. The combined times available on these items should almost always last from shrine to shrine, and you need not spend 3 item slots to get their benefit. These clickies will be superior to the Glacial Assault set because they will grant 15% per tier more spell damage, compared to the 10% available on permanent effects.

Why would you spend 3 gear slots on something when a clickie performs better?

[Mindspat]

Why would you spend 3 gear slots on something when a clickie performs better?

And belts drop frequently enough that anyone can easily obtain them whereas the Glaciation combo requires a massive grind, which seems a bit backwards.

[Aspenor]

And belts drop frequently enough that anyone can easily obtain them whereas the Glaciation combo requires a massive grind, which seems a bit backwards.

This is also true. Even if you only run the flagging quests once (currently) you still will get your belts quickly enough rerunning TOD. I'd expect that when update 3 drops, most casters should be able to have a full set of belt clickies by the time they hit TOD due to the boot requirement.

[Spisey]

This is also true. Even if you only run the flagging quests once (currently) you still will get your belts quickly enough rerunning TOD. I'd expect that when update 3 drops, most casters should be able to have a full set of belt clickies by the time they hit TOD due to the boot requirement.

and with the crappy drop rates of the boot requirements most should have all the belts and necklaces they need to go for completionist!

[ddoer]

Still a bit off from 450,can't really think of anything else other than the Ex Con +1/+2 from ToD Ring and Tome +1/+3 for say...370/390-390/410,might be annoying to get that +3 Tome though but should work out,any other ways for more health?

In the first post of http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=217290 , there is a HP calculation for drow with 14 Con.

For me, i am happy with 367 unbuff HP (and can self-buff to 427 from +20 rage, +40 Yugo pots). imho, how fast and reliable you can self recover your HP is more important than getting more HP when you reach certain thresholds. if you think your hp is low, keep top yourself up, and keep yourself with stoneskin and elemental protection in quest. Getting hit for 300+ damage is rare and always predictable so you can get fire/ice/electric absorption item in advance.