Looking for advise

[GreatOwl]

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking of rolling a caster for a while and with the Warforged being on sale I think now is the time. I'm still quite new to the game and never played a caster past lvl5 (my very first and now abandoned char) so I thought to come here for a little advise.

Race will be Warforged, I want to to keep him pure, and I have 32pts builds and vet status. I really like the Archmage line, but the requirements are a bit of a turnoff. Here is what I thought so far:

Initial stats
STR 14
DEX 8
CON 18
INT 18
WIS 6
CHA 6

+2 Int tome to be eaten at lvl7 already waiting in the bank

Feats
LVL1 Toughness
LVL1 (bonus) Empower
LVL3 Extend
LVL5 (bonus) Maximize
LVL6 Spell Focus: Evocation
LVL9 Insightful Reflexes
LVL10 (bonus) Heighten
LVL12 Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
LVL15 Spell Penetration
LVL15 (bonus) Quicken
LVL18 Greater Spell Penetration
LVL20 Mental Toughness

Enhancements
Healer's Friend I
Inscribed Armor I
Warforged Constitution II
Ratial Toughness II
Wiz. Intelligence II
Energy of the Scholar II
Wand+Scroll Mastery II
Improved Spell Pen I
Energy Manipulation II
Lineage of Deathly Energy II
Lineage of Energy II
Elemental Manipulation IV
Lineage of Deathly Elements III
Lineage of Elements III
Force Manipulation I
Improved Empowering II
Improved Heightening I
Improved Maximizing II
Master of Magic

This for leveling. Then, when I hit 20, I'm thinking to respec him changing the SF and GSF school to Enchantment (for epics) and redoing my enhancements taking Improved Concentration II, Archmage II, and Acane Bolt probably in place of some of the Energy line ones.

Does this look ok? Am I missing something important? ANY suggesting/critique will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks for reading.
Double thanks if you choose to reply

[Pape_27]

why have healers friend? Set repair and heal yourself.

do you need such a high str? Maybe add a little to dex, help improve your balance a bit?

all in all it looks decent

_

[voodoogroves]

I don't think you need Insightful Reflexes, but to each his own. Just reconstruct yourself through the damage and make sure you've got resist/protect/stone/fireshield/whatever up. You'll find you're plenty sturdy.

Move Mental Toughness earlier if you want to muck w/ Archmage while leveling.

Not a personal fan of evocation spec. on a wizard, but that's me. Necromancy/conjuration/enchantment are all good and worthy of some DC boosting more in my opinion (again, my opinion).



Otherwise, yeah - looks good. I tend to not pay attention to AP/enhancements as you can (and should) respec them every few levels. Keep fire/cold decent, your INT / CON / toughness and whatever else seems interesting.

[lazyninja81]

Not a personal fan of evocation spec. on a wizard, but that's me. Necromancy/conjuration/enchantment are all good and worthy of some DC boosting more in my opinion (again, my opinion).

Otherwise, yeah - looks good. I tend to not pay attention to AP/enhancements as you can (and should) respec them every few levels. Keep fire/cold decent, your INT / CON / toughness and whatever else seems interesting.

This.

You'll get more mileage out of necro or enchant spell focus. With the high str (for a wiz anyway) you have combined with enchant focus you can hold mobs, whip out a great axe and auto crit away. Works well for me when soloing, and even with groups. Fun way to try and steal kills from the melees

Otherwise, build looks good to me.

[GreatOwl]

Thanks a million for the replies.

Based on your recommendations I will go enchantment focus right away. The "high" STR was there precisely to help me (especially in lover lvls) swinging away instead of relying solemnly on the limited SP pool, but I hadn't made the connection with how enchantments could really boost that! Told you I'm still new

As for moving Mental Toughness (and Acrhmage) earlier ... only spot I can think of is at lvl9. I guess I will wait till I get there and based on how much trouble I have with reflex saves make the swap or not.

Once again thank you.