Epic Ready?

[insaneuou]

Hello all,

I am a newb palemaster wizzy; I just made it to level 20.....My spell penetration, spells are pretty good...i can solo the vale slayers...I am new to the epic version of the game. My question is Do I need any special skills/gamestyle or any specific gear to do well in epics.

Thanks in advance.

[phalaeo]

What is your DC on Mass Hold Monster?

[Angelus_dead]

My question is Do I need any special skills/gamestyle or any specific gear to do well in epics.

Go kill some epic mobs and find out. Head into the first room of VON2, BOB, or Rayium and see how you do...

[Ryiah]

Do I need any special skills/gamestyle or any specific gear to do well in epics.

Go farm yourself a Dreamspitter from Reaver and then go experiment around in epic quests. You may be pale master, but you won't be using instant-death necromancer stuff. You'll probably just use it for self-healing and the intelligence boost from lich form and that's about it.

[shagath]

Go farm yourself a Dreamspitter from Reaver and then go experiment around in epic quests. You may be pale master, but you won't be using instant-death necromancer stuff. You'll probably just use it for self-healing and the intelligence boost from lich form and that's about it.

Good post, just adding that wraith form is also effective somewhere for incorporeal miss chance. Epic claw, oob and dq2 to name few if your dc's can take -2int.

[phalaeo]

Good post, just adding that wraith form is also effective somewhere for incorporeal miss chance. Epic claw, oob and dq2 to name few if your dc's can take -2int.

I think it's odd that mobs in EOOB would have a miss chance on wraith form incorporeals since they hoard all those Spectral Gloves and all....

Just sayin'...

[Mister_Peace]

The general tactic is to use Mass Hold on a group of enemies, Irresistable Dance whoever saves (usually the casters), and level-drain the held enemies with Dreamspitter while your minions [teammates] clean up.

Be prepared to spend lots of mana buffing your minions at the start, and again when they are rezzed.

Other potentially helpful gear - Rahl's Might (imp destruction is useful in epics, and even a wizard will hit on a 20)

[insaneuou]

what Is Your Dc On Mass Hold Monster?

32

[Pantsless]

32

a DC of 32 is decent enough. around half the mobs should fail against mass hold with that DC. as another poster mentioned, use irresistible dance on anything that does save, and ask your melee friends to take care of the rest.

a dreamspitter can add +2 to your enchantment (hold) DC's, and if you have access to a high level guild's ship buffs, you can get another +2 bonus on top of that. adding +2 exceptional intelligence to a ToD ring will also add +1 to all your DC's. assuming that you're not already counting these potential bonuses, you could conceivably bump your DC up to 37 where ~ 85% of the mobs should fail their saves. the dreamspitter is also incredibly effective against held monsters since it drains a level each time you smack one with it.

in epic, enchantment spells are your best friends. mass hold, irresistible dance, symbol of persuasion, and dancing balls are the staples of crowd control for many casters.

[Pantsless]

Hello all,
My question is Do I need any special skills/gamestyle or any specific gear to do well in epics.

Thanks in advance.

You don't really need any gear in particular. a dreamspitter is probably one of the most useful items that you could get for epics, but it's still not necessary. typically, casters in epic will be focused on crowd control and keeping melees buffed. occasionally, casters do get a chance to kinda shine by spamming firewalls from various safe spots to *slowly*, yet safely, kill mobs, but in general, epic monsters have too many hit points for casters to really expect to be able to kill them outright with direct damage spells and still expect to have any sp left after the 1st 2 monsters you encounter.

[Mister_Peace]

If you don't have a dreamspitter, I recommend using something with Focus or Enchantment Focus, such as Stormreaver Napkin, or a randomly generated scepter or bracers with Enchantment Focus on them.

[blitzschlag]

you should bring 400+ hp and be willing to down a mnemonic pot if needs be.

[Doxmaster]

you should bring 400+ hp and be willing to down a mnemonic pot if needs be.

400 ish health? Yes.
Need mana potions? Rarely.

[BDS]

32 dc is a bit on the low side, depending on what your HP is I'd say stay out of epics till you gear up a bit more. I'd recommend starting with the Carnival epics if you want to see if you can handle em as they are not all that difficult.

[Meretrix]

eardweller is also a nice item, since it has the enchantment focus and wont take up both your hands.

[TheDearLeader]

eardweller is also a nice item, since it has the enchantment focus and wont take up both your hands.

And its so easy to get /sarcasm

Sure its a nice item. And, if you get it, great. It doesn't allow you to get in there and keep bestowing free neg levels like a dreamspitter would, but it does prevent the hand-swappy if you have something to swap your hands to.

[MattiG]

About the best thing a first life wizzy can do to get ready for epics is to TR the moment you hit 20 and take the active past life feat. +1 stackable dc's to all spells is no joke not to mention that the passive feat's spell pen puts you in no fail status (mostly) with maxed penetration feats/enhancements or obviates the feat on greater spell pen (or the AP for spell pen 2 and 3). 10 free magic missiles a day is very nice to mop up latent sub 5% HP mobs (depends on mob I guess. or to preserve some sanity while mana dumping on a boss. The primary benefit however, are the dc's. For things that can be necro'd you can get serviceable necro dc's without spending the extra feat on greater focus or the AP's on lich. My belief is that there's much more benefit in greater enchantment focus for epic content. . In fact, that much is probably not debateable. But with the right dc's, even nonepic challenging endgame content is more reliably easy with enchantment vs necro.

That said, I do think I will sacrifice either empower or more likely one of my two toughness feats and take greater focus in both necro and enchantment next life. Are there even any other spell schools? (Yes a transmutation/abjuration scepter is nice for low level disints and soloing vale at lvl14-16.)

Since OP was on that same topic, my thoughts on vale is that it should feel "laughably easy" to solo as a caster at lvl 20. I had a pretty tough time soloing it at level 14 on a first lifer with **** gear, but considering 2/3rds of the place can be cooked in fws by a max jump, displaced, stoneskinned, self healer, "tough" speaks more to the length of time spent bouncing around fws as opposed to the nearness of death.

Better places to benchmark your soloability ( either because they're good for that purpose or simply because you may be soloing them a lot) include
Hard and elite titan
Amrath quests on casual and normal (casual will be a joke, but mana management is the challenge. I,e. Can you make it to the shrine in new invasion without ddooring with no pots and while still exploring the entire map for chests?
If you're faster in jeets than titan, you should be able to do hard with no pots no recalls and maybe even elite if you've built your toon well and raided some decent gear.
Benchmark the number of minutes it takes you to do a prey run. Not sure what a good time is by others standards, but I'm happy if I don't take more than 13-15.
Solo front room in wiz king epic (and yes the chest does drop seals). Keep in mind this will be tough with a 32 dc depending on your strategy. While gnolls are content to cook in firewalls as you perch, hyenas are not. Even with a 35 enchantment DC on my non tr'd wf wiz I ED the hyenas twice before mass holding. No ED's and mass holds in sands rarely land for a 35 dc. (Note: I'm sure there are other FAR more effective strats for wiz king entrance. I just haven't bothered to ask or learn yet as this gets the job done with no drama and pots.. then again, I hit titan gloves and divine power clickie and either masters touch with an axe or just rahls before meleeing held mobs. 14 base str on a wizzy ain't for everyone...)

I guess the bottom line is this. On a first life wf wiz with no greater focus in necro or enchantment, no ship buffs, pots, +7 gear, or exceptional bonuses, my dcs are at 35 and 35. They'd be 33 and 33 with no gear but deaths touch and eardweller (not a good idea to use for ench focus without multiple adamantine rituals btw) add +2 to each. And with those 35 DCs I feel more or less like a horrible gimp noob in epics and am actively leveling 2 other toons to raid level so my wizzy can tr.

[xxScoobyDooxx]

And its so easy to get /sarcasm

Sure its a nice item. And, if you get it, great. It doesn't allow you to get in there and keep bestowing free neg levels like a dreamspitter would, but it does prevent the hand-swappy if you have something to swap your hands to.

I got mine last night .... less than 20 solo runs total yes a very nice item and not that hard to get .... good practice for solo skills, 6 runs a night , around 20ish minutes per run, 1 to 2 weeks depending on your luck

[shagath]

Fixing some slight errors..

then again, I hit titan gloves and divine power clickie and either masters touch with an axe or just rahls before meleeing held mobs. 14 base str on a wizzy ain't for everyone...

Holding monsters gives you not only autocrit but autohit too. You don't even need masters touch(or any of that) to hit with every weapon. With non-epic content some casters use dual burst heavy picks of puncturing for high crit multiplier and puncturing to con draining monsters to death. It works(not in epic, stats cannot be dropped below 10) because it's always a hit & crit.

the dreamspitter is also incredibly effective against held monsters since it drains a level each time you smack one with it.

Not each time. It's a chance to level drain. I think it's 50%.

[budalic]

Hmm, now i'm wondering if my wiz will be epic ready. I'm a new player, and have a lvl 15 human wiz. With +6 int item, +1 tome, Archmage and Ench focus item I would get 37 DC. Now I could push that to 40 with Dreamsplitter/Eardweller, +2 except. bonus to int and +3 int tome, but how hard are those things to get? Are there other items i'm missing?

And how hard is it to get 400 hps with a human wiz with starting 16 con? I have some turbine points to spare if it requires some adventure packs (already have GH, Vale and Delera's).