Water Sorc - Feat Selection

[Elsaabeth]

Might as well start another thread - after some advice for a pure WF Water Sorcerer (with one sorc past life). About to LR from 18 sorc/2 monk into pure sorc and so get a chance to re-jig my feats.

Currently looking at:

Toughness
Heighten
Empower
Maximise
Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell Focus: Necromancy
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy

No spell pen (since water spells, in particular Polar Ray, Biting Cold and Ice Storm dont need them)

Necro SF for Wail (although this does require Spell Pen), Circle of Death and Finger of Death - DC will be an amazing 35 with the SF's (can go 36 with yugo pots and 37 with +2 item). If epic mobs is going to fail a save i should use wail rather than mass hold. Or do i suck it up go SF/GS:Enchantement and lead everything with a crushing despair?

Am i going to miss Extend? Do i need Spell Pen - is necro good to go or should i just stick to pure DPS?

Trying to make myself useful in epics - due to being WF my DC's are 2 lower than a human/drow build but i like reconstruct too much.

Thanks in advance, and sorry about rambling post!

[Crimsonplayer]

Your feats are fine for epics but spell pene is important ...

[rokes]

37 DC probably won't be good enough for epics.
You should take 1 spell pen feat unless you're only planning on being DPS in high level quests/raids

I don't think you will extend, maybe a while in the early levels with haste and displacement. Personally im dropping it too.

If you take 1 enchant/necro feat, and 1 spell pen, it would work better

[voodoogroves]

With the Sorc casting speed i'd be tempted to go with Spell Pen instead, then cycle through the various debuffs first to kill ... Symbol of Death, Circle of Death, Wail, Finger, PWK, etc. The first two have level-draining kickers and should artificially at least get you the equivalent of DC boosts.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Don't really see how you'll get worthwhile necro DCs on a WF sorcerer, too many negs there. Enchant is an option as it targets the lower save and rebuffs exist. Helf is an option, +3 charisma and paladin or fvs dilettante for self healing (paladin + UMD for heal scrolls would be my choice). Human is good too, could temporarily use the extra feat for UMD for heal scrolls and swap it out when you have a high enough standing UMD.

Personally I'm locking myself into earth savant and taking SF/GSF: conj + transmute for some good CC with web and F2S, +caster level on F2S means spell pen shouldn't be a problem. I'm going this way mostly as I have a PL: cleric for +1 conj DCs. Incidentally, I'm human and took PL:initiate of the faith so have 5/day heals that heal me almost to full. Im not taking toughness, might take it later though.

The extra DPS that I get from my high DCs is ridiculous. It's rare that anything succeeds on it's saving throw. I think I'll see this advantage wear off in the next levels (I'm 12 ATM) but so far it has been brilliant. I'm hoping that maximizing my web, acid blast, acid rain, cloudkill, flesh to stone and disintegrate DCs will keep me above the curve.

[TheDearLeader]

All your Necromancy spells have SR checks - why bother speccing into it if you're going to do it half-baked?

Toughness - with correct gear, especially on a WF, you can actually lose this. Geared up, even without Toughness Feats + Enhancements, you can *easily* push 400 unbuffed HP, which is more than enough. Ship Buffs + Rage + Yugo Pot give you another 80 HP on top of that.

Ditch the Necro feats, definitely. Spell Pen, GSF:Evo, SF:Enchant, or really anything else will help you out more.

I don't Wail in Amrath/Epics expecting to kill something, Post-U9 - I do it to hit everything in range with an extra 200ish points of quick damage, and laugh if one of them rolls a 1. But if you're not busting SR, you don't even get to do that.

[Elsaabeth]

Good comments all, thanks.

What Spell Pen is good to have for epics?

Ditching SF:Necro, probably replace with SF:Ench and either GSF:Ench or Spell Penetration.

Toughness
Heighten
Empower
Maximise
Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell Focus: Ench
Greater Spell Focus: Ench or Spell Penetration

(Final option is to TR into Helf or Human - +2 DC right there )

[wax_on_wax_off]

Good comments all, thanks.

What Spell Pen is good to have for epics?

Ditching SF:Necro, probably replace with SF:Ench and either GSF:Ench or Spell Penetration.

Toughness
Heighten
Empower
Maximise
Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell Focus: Ench
Greater Spell Focus: Ench or Spell Penetration

(Final option is to TR into Helf or Human - +2 DC right there )

If you want to go warforged then I'd definitely suggest not to rely on spells that have to succeed DC wise to have any affect (enchantment spells), stick to DPS spells. Fleshy sorcs are great, don't be so worried about missing reconstruct, without quicken it's use is limited anyway.

To be sure, if you want to enchant or necro you will need SF/GSF AND SP. GSP you can get away without in most content but Spell Pen needed for epics wise those drow have SR of such numbers that you will never have 95% success rate so every point that you can get will help (I think they are SR ~45 or so).

Have you looked at air savant? A lot of it's weaknesses were patched up before live and I'd say it stands now as the most survivable savant which makes it a perfect choice for a fleshy sorc without toughness (to fit in SF/GSF: necro or enchant).