secondary focus for earth savant

[kendo]

been waiting for the dust to settle a little bit with all the changes to spell casters and am thinking about making a WF earth savant. looking for input, suggestions, on whether cold or force would make the better secondary set of spells for acid resistant mobs.

force seemed like the obvious choice as a WF, squeeze in at least one repair spell and good counter to acid resist mobs as I don't believe many, if any, are resistant to both acid and force.

but cold has some good points also, starting with very nice damage along with being able to slow mobs with ice storm, etc. a combination of slowed mobs getting hit with acid DoT sounds pretty nice.

[Gkar]

force no longer boosts repair.

But I do like force as the backup since nothing resists it.

[game5551]

Leveling my Earth Sorc, I boosted fire and acid, plus first level in all elements. When I got to disintegrate I started boosting force. Soon I will probably drop fire to fully boost force.

Not the most focused, but it has worked for me.

[Saravis]

I'd go cold backup
Cold has the advantage you mentioned, but also has a solid boss killing spell; polar ray.
The one thing Earth Savants lack is a solid boss killing spell.

Force does reliable damage, but nothing amazing, except disintegrate, but bosses are usually going to save against that.

[Seventh]

I'd go cold backup
Cold has the advantage you mentioned, but also has a solid boss killing spell; polar ray.
The one thing Earth Savants lack is a solid boss killing spell.

Force does reliable damage, but nothing amazing, except disintegrate, but bosses are usually going to save against that.

Polar Ray and the awesome Niac's Biting Cold. I'd second cold as the backup.

[Saravis]

Polar Ray and the awesome Niac's Biting Cold. I'd second cold as the backup.

Ah yes forgot about that awesome Niac's.

Also worth mentioning against force, there are bosses (not many) with immunity to lvl 4 and under spells. Only force spell above lvl 4 you can use is disintegrate and as I said thats not a solid boss spell.

[Waylayer]

Ah yes forgot about that awesome Niac's.

Also worth mentioning against force, there are bosses (not many) with immunity to lvl 4 and under spells. Only force spell above lvl 4 you can use is disintegrate and as I said thats not a solid boss spell.

Disintegrate is definitely unreliable. But i did get a 1337 Disintegrate crit a couple of days ago. My kid thought it was awesome - the giant didn't like it much though.

I haven't firmly decided on what my savant will be doing; but my PM likes the cold/force combo.

[Memnir]

On my Earth Savant I'm boosting both the Force and Ice lines for damage, but not criticals.
Really liking it so far, too.

[Ridag]

Ah yes forgot about that awesome Niac's.

Also worth mentioning against force, there are bosses (not many) with immunity to lvl 4 and under spells. Only force spell above lvl 4 you can use is disintegrate and as I said thats not a solid boss spell.

Force Spells above level 4 other than Disintegrate -

Cyclonic Blast (lvl 5) - this will take a hit as an Earth Savant though

Horrid Wilting (lvl 8) - good against living enemies only

I'm not into the Earth Savant, but if I were I'd probably have cold as my secondary as it is the most versatile element currently. There is good DD in Frost Lance, and Polar Ray. Good AE in Cone of Cold and Otiluke's. Good DoT in Niac's and even good persistent AE in Ice Storm. It is also my secondary damage of choice on my Air Savant, so I might be a little biased.

[Jaid314]

Force Spells above level 4 other than Disintegrate -

Cyclonic Blast (lvl 5) - this will take a hit as an Earth Savant though

Horrid Wilting (lvl 8) - good against living enemies only

I'm not into the Earth Savant, but if I were I'd probably have cold as my secondary as it is the most versatile element currently. There is good DD in Frost Lance, and Polar Ray. Good AE in Cone of Cold and Otiluke's. Good DoT in Niac's and even good persistent AE in Ice Storm. It is also my secondary damage of choice on my Air Savant, so I might be a little biased.

you forgot meteor swarm.

[Ridag]

you forgot meteor swarm.

As an Earth Savant you would already receive benefits to Meteor Swarm, so Force enhancements would be redundant in that case. But yes you are correct.

[Jaid314]

As an Earth Savant you would already receive benefits to Meteor Swarm, so Force enhancements would be redundant in that case. But yes you are correct.

no you wouldn't. it's an earth spell, but gets absolutely nothing from being higher level. it doesn't benefit in the slightest from the acid enhancements either, because it isn't an acid spell, it's just an earth spell (much like cyclonic blast is an air spell, but is not a lightning or sonic spell... on a side note, cyclonic should also be in a level 5+ list, but obviously has problems for an earth savant, and also it counts as a level 2 spell for the purposes of mantle... probably due to copy/paste laziness)

[wax_on_wax_off]

I was acid and fire leveling up until level 16. I put 1 point into damage for force which was plenty to 1 hit kill everything with disintegrate (until abbot at least). At 16 I swapped fire for ice as I started raiding and niacs biting cold/polar ray is an excellent option for raids.

Additionally, I have 1 point of damage in force as previously mentioned for disintegrate and 1 point in electrical for eledars electric surge. I'm very happy with the layout so far.

In raids I pretty much cycle awaken acid vulnerability, melfs acid arrow, acid rain, burning blood, niacs biting cold, eledars electric surge and then I have about 3 seconds before I have to start at the beginning again. Sometimes I'll throw some acid blasts (don't have the SLA yet) and polar rays in there if I'm not worried about SP. The DPS is excellent as far as I can see.

[Ridag]

no you wouldn't. it's an earth spell, but gets absolutely nothing from being higher level. it doesn't benefit in the slightest from the acid enhancements either, because it isn't an acid spell, it's just an earth spell (much like cyclonic blast is an air spell, but is not a lightning or sonic spell... on a side note, cyclonic should also be in a level 5+ list, but obviously has problems for an earth savant, and also it counts as a level 2 spell for the purposes of mantle... probably due to copy/paste laziness)

Blah, more and more broken spells. So much for the "spell pass" eh?

[Jaid314]

Blah, more and more broken spells. So much for the "spell pass" eh?

to be fair, i haven't *tested* it since U9, but they didn't mention fixing it either. frankly, i'm not convinced they're even aware it's a problem... (the same problem exists with sunburst, btw, which counts as a level 2 spell due to copying blind).