Interested in a caster but do not want to only cast a spell or two every other fight.

[angelbound]

Title saids it all is there a caster class that will let me do this? I was curious about the wizard sense I hear they have the most spells, I am mostly looking for something visually appealing, either arcane, or ice magic is good, lightning is great to. Not much into fire or undead stuff everything else seems fun to me though.

Thanks everyone.

[Tyrande]

Caster DPS? It does not exist right now.

The closest may be an arcane Archmage with evocation focus, arcane bolt and blast; but then again, its usefulness last till level 14-15ish. Useful for leveling, its usefulness will diminish quite a bit around level 20.

You can ask Turbine why this is the case.

[bruha118]

if ur looking for spell versatility ya wiz is the way to go...get more spells then sorc and can switch out spells at tavern and shrines where as a sorc can only switch 1 spell every 3 days and u have to pay plat to do so

[angelbound]

Tyr what are you even talking about, maybe your not doing something right, please do not come in here and discouraging us newbies wizards are not suppose to be as good as dps as sorces anyways, that is the trade off for versatility that is like saying a bard should have as much dps as the fighter.

[Tyrande]

I did say "Caster", not wizard. "caster" includes sorcerer, wizard, cleric, and favored soul providing consistent DPS through spells.

I am comparing spell or SLA based DPS against melee DPS.

[angelbound]

Yea well from what I read melee dps got a buff because it was not doing very well for the longest time, and now its up there with casters, I still do not see the issue here.

[FlyingTurtle]

Title saids it all is there a caster class that will let me do this? I was curious about the wizard sense I hear they have the most spells, I am mostly looking for something visually appealing, either arcane, or ice magic is good, lightning is great to. Not much into fire or undead stuff everything else seems fun to me though.

Thanks everyone.

As said, try an Archmage. All you really need for unlimited pew pew is SF:Evo; that can be swapped out for something else later. This leaves your Primary and Secondary Mastery free for more DC-based spells like Enchantment or Conjuration.

[angelbound]

So what is the archmage the sage path?

[silvertrit]

Low levels..


Acid-Fire spray Niacs Cold ray...

Scorching Ray never gets old.. Snowball Flurry

Fire-Acid Ball are effective even against high level.



Acid Rain ...for those special singing in the rain moments.. Burning blood for barbarians raging moments Death Aura when you need to let everyone know that your just having a downer day. Ice Storm a decent mid level spread out of effect.
Phatasmial killer not bad for what it is instant death



Cloud Kill for those prolonged battles or laying down against a Boss that deosnt die quick. Lay it over with firewall for a good f un time. Cyclonic blast a specialty for political blowhards.


You see where am going theirs a reason wizards exsist we have choice. We can solo things easily we do have dps.

[Jaid314]

Low levels..


Acid-Fire spray Niacs Cold ray...

Scorching Ray never gets old.. Snowball Flurry

Fire-Acid Ball are effective even against high level.



Acid Rain ...for those special singing in the rain moments.. Burning blood for barbarians raging moments Death Aura when you need to let everyone know that your just having a downer day. Ice Storm a decent mid level spread out of effect.
Phatasmial killer not bad for what it is instant death



Cloud Kill for those prolonged battles or laying down against a Boss that deosnt die quick. Lay it over with firewall for a good f un time. Cyclonic blast a specialty for political blowhards.


You see where am going theirs a reason wizards exsist we have choice. We can solo things easily we do have dps.

everyone has dps. wizards (and sorcerers) just have really crappy dps. sometimes, it can at least be semi-efficient dps, but in general, it's just both crappy and inefficient.

and telling someone that a dps caster is a bad idea is not "bringing people down", it's telling it like it is. if you're a caster, you're not going to be good (sustainable) dps. get over it. the sooner you get used to the idea, the sooner you can be an effective caster in end-game.

now, at low levels you can do enough burst damage that you're still good. even at mid levels. but eventually, nuking just stops being a viable strategy overall. unless you plan on chugging pots constantly.

[Aashrym]

Yea well from what I read melee dps got a buff because it was not doing very well for the longest time, and now its up there with casters, I still do not see the issue here.

SP can still do burst damage and can be useful, but it cannot be sustained in epics. If a caster wants to add DPS the best way to do that is as a bard. Song buff and spell buff.

Melee is susained DPS and goes much much farther than spell DPS end game. Going wizard you'll end up running CC and enchantment spells will be a strong point for you.

Going archmage and taking enchantment first and either conjuration or evocation second will let you spam cheap webs or magic missiles on top of the enchantment focus. I would recommend web.

Hope that helps.

[Rawel_San]

Just to offer a different viewpoint. While in general "caster" dps is underwhelming it's all about how you play it.
Excluding epics insta kills can be extremely efficient (wail,fod) I outkill all melees in elite IQ mindsunder usually
60 for me to 5-6 for the next best. I even kept my own in an elite sins run with being the first in kill count if
not in this type of a manner but since that is actually a hardish quest I was more concerned with us actually finishing
then with me padding my kill count. At the same time in a pug group in weapon shipment I routinely pull aggro from
dps while giving them 5-8 secs head start, this is obviously not sustainable but I can sustain it through out the end
fight while self healing.

I think as of this moment caster dps while being deffinitely subpar to melee dps is reasonable recompensed outside of
epics by having a lot more options and being able to do other things then just keep hitting stuff. In epics the situation
is different and you will be relegated to a CC role. That is in no way bad though you're important to finishing the quest
and very usefull so to be fair I think casters are fairly balance right now. They do have a much huger grind ahead of
them to get to that point compared with a pure DPS barb but they can contribute well and be usefull in most end game
content.

Just my 2 copper
Rawel

[PresentTense]

All I'm hearing is an argument why we need warlocks. Eldritch blast would be awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Druids first.

[shagath]

All I'm hearing is an argument why we need warlocks. Eldritch blast would be awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Druids first.

No no, sorcerer prestige first so it can compete with wizards.

[NaturalHazard]

does putting things in auto crit ala mass hold so everyone elses dps goes up 3 to 4 times per hit count as dps?

[frznvimes]

does putting things in auto crit ala mass hold so everyone elses dps goes up 3 to 4 times per hit count as dps?

not when solo/with other casters, and not against hold immune enemies

No no, sorcerer prestige first so it can compete with wizards.

and the wild mage in between, to... um, to do who knows what.

[Aashrym]

All I'm hearing is an argument why we need warlocks. Eldritch blast would be awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Druids first.

I doubt eldritch blast would be any more effective than archmage spell like abilities or pale master necro attacks. I would expect sorc pre's to be damage boosters and wait for elemental savant.

[locus]

Yea well from what I read melee dps got a buff because it was not doing very well for the longest time, and now its up there with casters, I still do not see the issue here.

No... this isn't right. It's not "up there with casters" - it's far more, per unit of time, sustainably. (And I'm not even getting into the elemental resistant mobs). Have you played a melee class at all? The only (melee) class that would qualify as gimpier against most mobs at cap than all the casters is a dex rogue against 100% fort mobs.

[NadgersFishtoaster]

This is one of the differences between DDO and other MMOs in that DDO starts off new players with first level D&D characters, with all their strengths and weaknesses, rather than the blander, shallow types controlled by eight to five buttons.

At low levels you'll be challenged, at the middle levels you'll become increasingly more capable and at higher levels things increasingly start to get unbalanced as offensive and defensive measures escalate and often mismatch or counter with each other.

Being able to cast a wide array of spells is a journey. As a Bard you'll start off with just one and the other, main spell-casting classes will provided you with only about 2 to 4 spells at start. However this is only a starting point.

Get to 7th level, for example, and any spell casting class will be quite busy casting spells from a number of levels, chosen from a wider set hand-picked for whatever challenges he or she expects to face. An intelligent player, given such a wide array of spells, can do far more than people with narrower visions.

In such a progression lies the heart of the challenge and the thread of the story.

Conventional MMOs allow casters to cast weaker spells by the bucket-load but this is due to a process of homogenisation where the gaming system has effectively been feed into a sausage grinder to produce tasteless, level-by-level experiences.

If these games are the experience you are looking for then DDO will always disappoint because it will fail to be as reassuring bland as those games.

[Mister_Peace]

-snip-

+1