WF AM, drow PM or? (newb)

[FastTaco]

I think a well built AM is superior in harder epics like chronoscope, devils assault, some sands, or anything with drow enemies simply for the spell like abilities irresistable dance and web, they can save alot of SP. They are do able as palemaster as well but you may need a mnemonic potion or 2 if something goes wrong, while the AM most likely won't.

[Krag]

QFFT, AM ?= enchantment focus. SLAs are a strong suit for AM as a PrE. If you like instakill spells, go greater focus in Necromancy, then take your free magic missile, hypno, and webs. 1sp hypno is about as good as +3 DC on all will based spells, b/c most other arcanes will not waste sps or scrolls to preempt spell with hypno. Not to enumerate the differences or argue for one class, but there is more variety in AM than most forum builds give credit.

Along similar lines, wf pm is by no means a bad choice. Zombie form still sux (from a strict casting POV), so wf gives you a strong self heal option from 1-12. WF also have potentially more hp and "battle" better than human/drow/elf counterparts. You won't be the uber 44 int drow pm, but wf do bring various benefits to palemasters. Plus, who doesn't want an undead toaster for Xmas?

Let me elaborate.
Prior to U9 PM had to waste 2 feats on a school which had no use in epics. Enchantment on the other hand was the only way to go. There was little reason to have high DCs in other schools except for occasional f2s or web.

U9 turned the tables. There is no longer a schools which dominates all epics. Suddenly, +2 Intellect from lich shroud and +2 Intellect from yugoloth pot are much more valuable than +2 primary school DC and +1 secondary school. Necro DC is not a waste either. And of course you have an option to go fleshie to gain additional +1DC over a warforged which is almost mandatory for AM.

So yeah. PM is much better bargain than it used to be.

[timewalker]

from a purely engame standpoint PM may be better, but this is a first time caster he is unlikely to have all the toys and experiance to make it really work, PM really shines for solo'ing especially if you have stuff like the torc and concordant opp's*1st thing to craft imo prefrably on sp googles*. as well fleshies do make the best PM's but that has a big flaw from lvl's 1-12 as you have no self healing especially from 1-7 as you have no firewall/ice storm and you REALLY have to worry about spell point conservaion.

For a first time caster WF is defiantly a good choice you get immunities out of the box as well as more hp and self healing. The archmage line also improves your sp conservation and gives you more sp to boot, now as a archmage goes there are to my knowlage 3 of them really useful.

1)encahantment- this one seen a bit of a nurf in U9 but while held enemies are not auto-crit anymore they are 50% more dmg and do 0% dmg to your party. note that the 50% even affects spells it seems useful if you have a savant in the party.

2)conjuartion - this is my personal liked one for 2 spells web and stinking cloud, one advantange of conjuation is the spells have no spelll penatation needed so if you have sub par gear/build/no pastlife you can still contribute greatly as webbed/blinded/nauseated enemies make for easy pickings for your group.

3)necro- this may sound wierd with PM being around but if you are warforged you have most of the advantages of the forms a 10 sp deleveling SLA is useful and a cheap way to ensure instant kills land. One note with this version or archamage the feat requirements would let you freely switch between AM and PM to shake things up if you want.

[Krag]

I wouldn't worry too much about the first 11 levels. On your first life you breeze through low-midlevels in no time.
Oh, and you are right about necro-specced AMs. They are a good deal 1-11 and you can freely switch once you have access to better shrouds.

[Myrdinn]

It is only 1-5 now, since you get zombie shroud at 6

[Krag]

It is only 1-5 now, since you get zombie shroud at 6

I said better shrouds. And better necro spells for that matter.

[StrixAluco]

Being a pretty casual player I am finally ready to roll this toon, going for a WF AM.
Will this feat progression be viable, or should I change any feats or the order in which I pick them?

Toughness
Maximize
Mental Toughness
SF: Necro
SF: Conj
Insightful Reflexes
Empower
GSF: Necro
Quicken
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Heighten

[karnokvolrath]

There are many many many WF PM who disagree with you.

- Can you go non-WF? Sure.
- Are you pretty much the same in-form as a WF? Sure.

Do you have the option to drop out of undead form and play like a WF wizard? No, you do not. As a PM you may have Zombie, Lich and possibly Wraith form to use. I also have "Superior non-fleshie", and I use that quite a bit more than you may think (largely in 1-2 epic situations and specifically tricky epic solo content).

This all the way. +1

To the OP WF PM is the answer, wait til you get 32 point builds though.

[StrixAluco]

To the OP WF PM is the answer, wait til you get 32 point builds though.

I finally got 32 point build yesterday, that is why I am reviving my question on the feat progression so I can finally roll my first arcane. Being a very casual player I rather ask and get the feats right from the start than rushing into it at the risk of messing it up. So what would be sound advice on this?

[voodoogroves]

I finally got 32 point build yesterday, that is why I am reviving my question on the feat progression so I can finally roll my first arcane. Being a very casual player I rather ask and get the feats right from the start than rushing into it at the risk of messing it up. So what would be sound advice on this?

The feat selection you posted looked good at a glance ... and as a hidden bonus you will be able to swap between AM and PM by resettting your enhancements ... ;-)

[karnokvolrath]

I finally got 32 point build yesterday, that is why I am reviving my question on the feat progression so I can finally roll my first arcane. Being a very casual player I rather ask and get the feats right from the start than rushing into it at the risk of messing it up. So what would be sound advice on this?

Feats look good to me, on a wizard you get so many its hard to mess it up with half a brain. Why conj though? I might be missing something ....just for web? Might be better to take enchantment. But again its not deal breaking whatsoever, mostly prefrence i guess.

Also if you ever do TR you can think about toying those spell pens into something else, or keeping t for extra power.

[mwgarn]

If PM you are going to want extend for death aura I would think.

[StrixAluco]

Conj is mostly for web. Being my first arcane I'm not at all sure about the choice between conj and ench. According to the forums it seems to be a matter of preference and I haven't developed a preference yet
What goes for extend it seems like people say that after the nerf you can do without it if going AM, and being a first life needing the spell penetration that seems like a reasonable choice to me.

[Kmnh]

There is nothing a PM can do that a necromancy archmage doesn't do better. That said, some people don't like wf looks and are ready to give up 375 point reconstructs and 60 HP to look at a human or drow instead.

[Zerenety]

Going wf for a pm is just unuseful since pm give practically all the immunity a wf get on top of self healing (and wf cannot repair in undead form).

A wf can't repair in undead form? really? THAT IS SOO DISSAPOINT! I was so gonna roll a wf pm with both Over-Time healing and nice burst heal, the neg burst sucks so badly. Can other verify this??