Which metamagic feats are must haves?

[Cauthey]

For a Sorceror or a Wizard, which metamagic feats are must haves? I realize that as you get further down the road there are enhancements that reduce the cost of many of these metamagic feats. However, I've not explored an arcane caster toon much past level 6.

Which metamagic feats do you plan for? Which are automatic for you, and which others are "nice to haves, but not essentials?" Thank you for your feedback!

[richieelias27]

Pure sorc absolute must have and considered gimp without them:

Maximize
Heighten

There are others that are extremely useful but you may be able to get away with not having one.. maybe two of them:

Extend
Empower
Quicken (certain builds or playstyles will require this)

These are nice but a pure sorc can get away with not having them depending on what you are building for:

Spell Focus "whatever"
Greater Spell Focus "whatever"
Spell penetration
Greater Spell Penetration

Wizard is an entirely different ball game from a sorc as they have many more feats to play with.

[dsebutchr]

Empower Spell
Extend
Maximize

These three are in most builds I've seen.

Heighten Spell

These four would be in a lot of builds.


Your choice on Spell Penetration feats based on build.

This is for Wizards / Sorcs

[Cauthey]

Cool. Thanks for the feedback! Adamantine Body on a WF caster? Are there enough WF enhancements to get the arcane spell failure down to a reasonable level? Or, choose this feat at your own risk?

[dsebutchr]

Take toughness and ignore Adam body.

[richieelias27]

Body feats on a WF arcane are a total waste no matter what you're building for...

[Cauthey]

Take toughness and ignore Adam body.

Body feats on a WF arcane are a total waste no matter what you're building for...

Cool. Thank you both! It is worthwhile to take the WF DR enhancements though, right?

[richieelias27]

Not worthwhile at all. They do not stack with Stoneskin which gives 10/adamantine

[Amber-Dawnn]

Must Have
Maximize
Extend
Empower

I get Empower at level 3
Extend next chance
Maximize next chance


Heighten = Useless
Quicken = Useless, unless your a Wiz with lots of SP... not really going to happen

[Zilta]

Heighten is nowhere near useless, higher dc's on spells are always nice. it does tend to be more useful towards end game though.

[johnnyputrid]

Heighten = Useless

Heighten Spell is not even remotely useless. Unless of course you don't want any of your level 8 and below spells to land on anything, then you can safely ignore Heighten. Heighten makes any level 8 and below spell peform as if it were a level 9 spell (once you gain the ability to cast lvl 9 spells). In the case of a great crowd-control spell like Web, it raises the DC by a hefty 7 points. Try dropping an un-Heightened Web in Amrath and watch everything just walk through it like it wasn't even there. Heighten it and things suddenly get stuck for a little bit.

Heigten Spell is an important part of high-level casting - it is far from useless.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Ouch...WF'ed Sorc huh.......well, if u plan on using enchantment or necromancy spells in addition to damage spells I would say both necromancy or both enchantment spell focus feats.

As far as metas, for a nuker, Empower, Maximize, and Heighten.

Don't get me wrong, I actually have a WF'ed Sorc, but I made CHA a dump stat...only high enough to use all my spells, and went full STR and high CON taking all non DC damage spells, both spell pen feats and Otto's Irresistable and Energy Drain.

In the changing nature of the game with all the insane nerfs they are doing tho I can see a day in the foreseeable future where Wall of Fire will get a save attached to it and this build will not be nearly as fun.

This is just my opinion on things tho, I personally like my casters to be all or nothing as far as spell DC's go.

[Mithran]

I took:

Enlarge
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Heighten
Maximize
Toughness

[Samadhi]

Empower, Maximize, Hieghten are must-haves for most standardized builds. Extend recommended but is mostly just a convenience, not a necessity at higher levels. Quicken if WF wizard.

[Raiderone]

Human so 8 Feats...

Maximize
Empower Spell
Toughness
Extend (Saves Mana on FW's)
Spell Pen
Great Spell Pen
SF "Enchantment"
GSF "Enchantment"

I don't think Heighten is really necessary since only for low level spells.
Rather take SF and GSF with no Mana cost. I guess it depends on spell selection.

I think Spell Pen and GSP is necessary for most builds unless pure Nuker build. If thats the case take MT and IMT.