The "LASER" - a low-cost, effective DPS and pure-20 Favored Soul

[voodoogroves]

I’m surely not the only one doing this, but for the folks that are asking - this is how I built mine.

Lots of people are messing around with non-cookie-cutter Favored Soul builds. Some are using non-faith-based weapons, some are trying to squeeze the most out of the Angel of Vengeance. There are also requests for "casting" based FvS, but also this attitude that only an amped-Wisdom FvS can be a useful caster. The truth is, you can work DPS both with weapons and spells simply and easily on a FvS. I've been seeing more and more people playing axe-toting or non-WF greatsword toting pure FVS builds, and I find I'm getting asked about mine more frequently as well. I don't run anonymous, so that may be part of it ... my sample size is skewed by being logged into a FvS you can find in the social panel.

I have one currently, who is going to TR as soon as I get the other characters I'm TRing back to 20. She rocks. She is a meaningful melee combatant, is an effective blasty caster. She started as a Superior Soul but I honestly wasn't happy with her performance while leveling. For me, the melee performance seemed back-loaded … and that was when I didn’t fee like I needed it. Later-game you get Blade Barrier, Leap of the Heavens and mass cure/heals (and now Divine Punishment). I LR'd her into what you see below … and it’s a perfect fit for Angel of Vengeance and the additional spell options now available.

What follows is a basic theme - this is not a full build. Instead, it's a series of high-level guidelines for how I structured her build - I don’t have “final” gear for her yet - I’m not sure I ever will. Because of that, I try to plan for core capabilities and be able to layer on gear as I find it. Similar to enhancements, gear is fluid and changeable.

Key Features

• Race Independent ... this works with any race
• Reasonable Melee Contributor ... not squishy at all and has enough STR to participate.
• Melee capabilities are front-loaded … swing that Maelstrom or Carnifex early and often; later keep that Min2 or whatever on auto attack while you refresh your DoTs and cycle heals.
• Top-Knotch Healer ... healing isn't hard, but some FvS sacrifice healing for melee output or spell DCs; the laser does not.
• Spells ... not much CC, but spell DPS also remains high. The best CC is death.
• Requires zero tomes. Zero ... but of course, they help.
• Works just fine with 28 point builds ... granted not many Favored Soul players are starting 28 point builds but the possibility is there ;-)
• If you summon sharks, they’d come with frikin lasers on their heads

Feats
I always start with feats. They are a limited resource and often frame what you'll need for attributes, etc. to handle what you want to do and provide the structure for most builds and concepts.

• FVS Aspect: Silver Flame. We are a laser after all. That said, we will never use a bow - we won’t have the feats to support it and the social stigma is too harsh to be a pew-pew-pew FVS.
• CORE: Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell

For any laser you want these. These make sure your spell DPS output is the best it can be for the spells we care about. This is also all you really need to be an effective raid healer, though Empower Healing doesn't hurt. Beyond that, we want to examine feats that boost our melee DPS or otherwise round out our casting.

(1) Toughness
(3) Weapon Proficiency feat
(6) Maximize
(9) Empower
(12) Quicken
(15) Improved Crit
(18) CHOICE

Choice: Extend, Power Attack or Empower Healing depending on what you feel is most useful for the content you run most typically and your playstyle. The laser can accomodate any of them. Power Attack is more useful if you enjoy smashing face. Empower Healing can be useful if you find you’re a Heal / Mass Heal person and not just a Mass Cure (splat) user. You're no bard, but Extend gives you some handy buff options. The Past Life Laser feat also provides more light-based damage.

For proficiency, I like Greataxe for Maelstrom and Carnifex early but do what makes sense with the gear you’ve got available. Some racial-modifications below:

• Human: Add another of Extend, Power Attack or Empowered Healing
• Half-Elf: Fighter dilettante frees up a feat; allowing two possible feat choices as well

Attributes

• STR 10 build points minimally
• CON 10 build points
• INT at least a 12 (10 if human) so you can get UMD and Concentration. If you put more points here or eat a tome, Balance.

That's 24 build points, we've got 4 left minimally. Put at least some of those in CHA to save any hassle with casting spells (or only 2 or 3 depending if you have low ML twink CHA gear) and the rest wherever you want. Level ups into STR. I personally like to put enough points into WIS so that with a +6 WIS item I can hit the runes in VON5.

Vet status or past lives? Gravy!

Enhancements
Also a very simple plan. Mandatory:

• The light/good smiting line.
• At least some of the healing line and initial heal-crit.
• The Angel of Vengeance (this PRE was made for you) + prereqs

Optional, fill to taste:

• FVS Toughness
• Racial APs that apply (toughness, PA, versatility, boosts, cunning, etc.)
• FVS WIS or CHA to hit targets you like

Consider these as fluid. I don’t have a set plan for enhancements as I tend to move them around a bit as I tweak things and as more gear comes available. Got a +3 tome? +7 item? New exceptional bonus item? Re-do enhancements. Want more melee oomph? Re-do enhancements.

Spells
Ah well, I did say this was a caster. Your spell list you should tailor to suit your needs, but some things I’ll point out. To begin with, make sure you’ve got the core divine basics covered. I’m still tweaking mine a bit, but the important thing is to cover the basics, then laser-away. You're not a crowd control specialist laser, but you don't need to be.
- You’re going to want probably 3 of the mass-cure chain for speed-casting in eDQ.
- Heal rocks. I also enjoy mass heal.
- Deathward or Mass Deathward
- Divine Favor, Divine Might. These boost your personal DPS.
- Prayer. Recitation if you can fit it in ... these are party DPS boosts.
- Pro Evil / Mass, some sort of Aid. Holy Aura. Nightshield.

I’ll find the actual spell list she’s using now and paste it in later, but that’s also something you shouldn’t be afraid to tweak. Here’s a snapshot of the laser-friendly spells for each level:

(1) Nimbus of Light … when I’m SP dumping, I know it’s a low level spell but it can do damage. No level cap is listed for this spell … and you probably have SP to burn.
(2) Deific Vengeance … non-evadable. Your DC will stink, but this can hit undead decently in lower levels. Damage caps at level 10, train this one out later. It’s still kinda fun to swat undead when farming the Menechtarun chests.
(3) Searing Light … the original laser, the grand-daddy of all zap. Sadly, also caps at 10 but thankfully has no save.
(4) Holy Smite … the AoE laser with a will save to avoid blind. You don’t care about blind so much, but the area nuking is nice enough.
(5) Divine Punishment … the DoT laser. It’s as awesome as you think.
(6) Blade Barrier … Some lasers are direct fire, and some we bend in a circle to make a particle accelerator to do high-end physics research. Or vivisection. That's a fancy way to say we hit things so fast by spinning matter in a circle we take it apart in messy ways. It's educational.
(7) Nothing really needed here.
(8) Fire Storm … the orbital death laser is less of a precision cutting tool and more often than not just sets the atmosphere on fire.
(9) Energy Drain … because death rays are fun. Also, you may decide you want to include DC-based spells and since your DCs are likely to be poor, tagging them with they death ray will make your other stuff hit harder.

Gear
One of the great things about this build is that it is incredibly gear independent. It works by itself requiring almost nothing. Some things make it work better on the whole. Key items:

• Arcane Lore: Work this in somewhere. You’re a frickin’ laser and you need to light stuff up. Some sort of bridge item (Elfcrafted, say) is handy until you can upgrade to some mid-gear and finally epic gear.
  
• Potency: The generic and lazy way is of course the best pure potency item you can find. That’s great, but you want to be the best laser you can. For that, you need the Superior X clickies, notably:
  - Ardor. Sup Ardor 6 items are pretty available in the AH; you can also get Ardor potions at some of the house vendors. Eventually work towards one of the Amrath Sup Ardor 8 belts.
  - Brilliance: Searing Light is 3rd, but you want Superior Brilliance 5 for Divine Punishment. You can get pots to 3 and some clickies as well, but the only way to get Sup Brilliance 5 is with the new crafting system.
  - Beatification: Superior 4 for Holy Smite. Deific Vengeance is 2nd, but you probably won’t keep that for long.
  - Inferno: Unless you’re using Flame Strike (which I wouldn’t bother with myself) you need Superior Inferno 8 for Fire Storm; Amrath belt.
  - Potency: Historicaly, Blade Barrier isn’t amped by any individual damage line. I’ve not tested psot U9 if Impact / whatever works. I will though, when I remember.

That’s the core. From here you could consider hate-amp, guards, whatever else lights your candle. The laser can do many, many things.


Progression & Play

• Building the laser takes time ...and tools. You will melee with very little offensive casting until 12th. You’ll carry some laser spells (Searing Light) early but use them rarely, maybe to zap pesky undead casters in the desert. Mostly, you’ll beat things in the face, buff and heal.
  
• Late game lasering becomes a real possibility. At 12 you get Blade Barrier and the auto-laser Archon. You can probably also fit in Divine Punishment. Life starts to change. Now melee starts to lag a bit compared to casting DPS - you’ll do more DPS casting and blasting than swinging stick against bosses in most cases. Trash you’ll beat down with a weapon or grind up in the particle accelerator.
  
• If you feel like you are meleeing less, you can de-emphasize that aspect of your build by Fredding-out the proficiency and swapping in another feat; you can still use some decent staffs like Rahl’s Might, Epic Souleater, etc. If you're planning on doing this anyway, maybe work Mauls in as your early weapon so Improved Crit (Blunt) doesn't also need to be retrained.
  
• Many past lives benefit this concept - it is pretty opportunistic that way. None, however, are really needed. The PL for Favored Soul is fun to squeeze in on a choice if you can, just for more laser action.

[thenalim]

Wonderful, I'm actually leveling something like this right now.
Love the "laser" reference

[AtomicMew]

By chance, do you play guild wars?

Anyway, this is a decent guide, and is certainly a strong and viable way to build a FvS, if only because FvS are pretty much overpowered right now. However, I disagree that the superior soul is back-loaded, it's quite the opposite. End game 2H DPS is actually quite bad for favored souls, and the only thing that makes it decent is eSoS and warforged enhancements. Dual GS longswords actually do more DPS than 2H in general, which means after level 12, the superior soul is probably better for leveling.

TWF longswords is actually a strong option for a build like this. Basically, you could consider it an updated version of the superior soul. I think this is generally a better than 2H options for non-WF.

Human:
TWF
iTWF
gTWF
IC: Slash
Empower
Maximize
Quicken
Toughness

[DragonTroy]

+1, partially because of the awesome laser linking

and, more importantly, you created a rather simple and effective guide to currently making the best fvs you can make

if i could +2, i would

[voodoogroves]

By chance, do you play guild wars?

Anyway, this is a decent guide, and is certainly a strong and viable way to build a FvS, if only because FvS are pretty much overpowered right now. However, I disagree that the superior soul is back-loaded, it's quite the opposite. End game 2H DPS is actually quite bad for favored souls, and the only thing that makes it decent is eSoS and warforged enhancements. Dual GS longswords actually do more DPS than 2H in general, which means after level 12, the superior soul is probably better for leveling.

I think you kinda made my point ... but I'll try to be clearer ;-)

Before you get Blade Barrier, Divine Punishment and the Archon, your melee DPS is going to be stronger. The Superior Soul ends up back-loading the melee DPS - your example of GS longswords are exactly that. By the time you get ITWF (let alone GTWF) and the others, your melee DPS needs have dropped off and by 12, it's definitely a junior capability.

The laser front-loads this by ensuring it swings the biggest, baddest two hander it can early. By the time 12th rolls around and your melee becomes more of a "what's still standing after the blade barrier" you don't need a ton. At the end game in a raid boss fight the laser is primarily going to be cycling DP, heals and have auto attack on. Investing too much in melee would take a way from the spell DPS which is more important late game.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the Superior Soul and it is a very, very strong build. The laser's concept is different ... melee early, laser later ... but keep melee as an option. This is why I point out even the option of using Fred to drop the weapon prof. if you find your melee contribution is primarily debuffs. I find I still melee a great deal, so I opted to craft up some tasty axes ... but honestly that's gravy.

Could a Superior Soul with dual GS longswords, ITWF out melee-DPS a laser with a Falchion or Greataxe at 20, each with Improved Crit, Power Attack? The laser aims (heh) at a different target at 20 ... better spell DPS.


(though that said I like your feat choice better than the core superior soul)

[voodoogroves]

I also think the Superior Soul is pushing some WIS for DC based spells, which of course the laser largely ignores for simpler DPS.

[barryman5000]

When I saw you posted a build voodoo, I was certain it was gonna be some multi-classed fvs. I thought that was all you made! I know I can't pass up a monk splash for feats and evasion.

On another note, it looks like your tr'd your tukaw in your sig. Grew tired of it like me since the update?

[voodoogroves]

Yeah, don't get me wrong he was solid ... but he could have been ... more. Savants increased their spell DPS tremendously and I think the 16/2/2 needs a bit of a refresh to stay ahead of things.



But this, straight FVS 20. I've actually got 3 FVS I'm splitting my time on now, 2 are TRing as we speak. The other two are both 18/2 splits (one fighter, one monk) and when they cap this one will TR as well ... still pure.

[AtomicMew]

I think you kinda made my point ... but I'll try to be clearer ;-)

Before you get Blade Barrier, Divine Punishment and the Archon, your melee DPS is going to be stronger. The Superior Soul ends up back-loading the melee DPS - your example of GS longswords are exactly that. By the time you get ITWF (let alone GTWF) and the others, your melee DPS needs have dropped off and by 12, it's definitely a junior capability.

While that is all true, you should know that up to level 12 is only one fourth the total EXP you need to cap. Level 12 is just the beginning

The laser front-loads this by ensuring it swings the biggest, baddest two hander it can early. By the time 12th rolls around and your melee becomes more of a "what's still standing after the blade barrier" you don't need a ton. At the end game in a raid boss fight the laser is primarily going to be cycling DP, heals and have auto attack on. Investing too much in melee would take a way from the spell DPS which is more important late game.

I'm not sure what you mean by better spell DPS. Both TWF and THF can have empower, maximize and quicken with wisdom dumped.

As for end game TWF vs. THF DPS, TWF clearly dominates except if and only if you have access to eSOS. But then the picture is a lot less clear, and there are some situations where TWF would still win out (e.g. against bosses).

[xSeverinax]

Just one question, for the lvl 18 feat you listed CHOICE, and suggested Extend, Power attack or Empower healing. I thought that the Empower feat worked on healing spells, so why would you take both?

[voodoogroves]

Just one question, for the lvl 18 feat you listed CHOICE, and suggested Extend, Power attack or Empower healing. I thought that the Empower feat worked on healing spells, so why would you take both?

Empower and Maximize don't work on Heal and Mass Heal, only Empower Healing Spell does.

A matter of preference, really ... not necessary, but handy if you find you use Heal / Mass Heal more often.

[voodoogroves]

While that is all true, you should know that up to level 12 is only one fourth the total EXP you need to cap. Level 12 is just the beginning


I'm not sure what you mean by better spell DPS. Both TWF and THF can have empower, maximize and quicken with wisdom dumped.

As for end game TWF vs. THF DPS, TWF clearly dominates except if and only if you have access to eSOS. But then the picture is a lot less clear, and there are some situations where TWF would still win out (e.g. against bosses).

Your feat set doesn't match Superior Soul - I was responding directly to Superior Soul. It's a specific build ... WIS high, not all the melee feats, etc. Running a STR build with WIS-dumped, the TWF chain AND quicken, empower, maximize is possible - but that's not the Superior Soul.

So maybe kinda I'm agreeing with the concept you're suggesting but when you say "Superior Soul" I'm disagreeing because it's something specific (and the things you're suggesting are actually key differences).

[theboyftw]

did you take FVS Aspect: Silver Flame strictly for that capstone or for flavor or something I'm just not seeing? wouldn't you be better taking a diety that gives bonuses to weapons you can use?

[voodoogroves]

did you take FVS Aspect: Silver Flame strictly for that capstone or for flavor or something I'm just not seeing? wouldn't you be better taking a diety that gives bonuses to weapons you can use?

Multiple reasons ...

(1) Here's the rub - and there were a TON of threads on this a while back - even if you do take a different aspect but you don't spec for full TWF to match the longswords, scimitars, shortswords ... are you really doing as much DPS anyway? Conventional wisdom here continues to tell rangers and the like to not bother with even doing TWF until at least they get ITWF. Your ranger is better off using a Carnifex as opposed to two Khopeshes until they get serious on the TWF chain.
- Unless you can spec for it fully, you're better off going or a nice two-hander, saving your DEX and some feats.

(2) Given the limited amount of feats on a pure FVS about the best you can hope to have is similar to what the Superior Soul gets ... and that's with a pretty marginal weapon (longswords). Of note, it doesn't have Empower Spell ... which means a hit to your Divine Punishment damage. You could swap in a feat, but then what would you lose? GTWF? Improved Crit? It also doesn't have Power Attack.
- The laser first and foremost makes sure the laser attacks hit as hard as possible (namely, Searing Light, Divine Punishment and your Archon ... also Blade Barrier), then specs in melee.

(3) If we're following points 1 and 2 then we don't have lots of feats to spend on melee, thus THF is a better option than TWF. You're leaving "something" on the table, but if we're talking S&B with your favored weapon vs THF with a two-hander, you'll probably melee things down faster w/ the two-hander.

(4) If you wanted to go TWF a FVS won't really get ITWF and Improved Crit until 12-15. You're THF until then anyway based on #1. Once the TWF build has more meaningful TWF contributions, you're killing things in your Blade Barrier, using your Archon, whatever. You're melee-ing less, thus the benefit of your combat feats decreases.

(5) I like to blast things. If we're amping the non-save FVS spell damage as much as possible and concentrating on light effects, Silver Flame seems to have the most synergy.




The essence of the laser is basically this:
- Take whatever you can to boost the non-save-able FVS spells so your spell DPS is as good as it can be.
- Be a great healer and make sure you cover the essential buffs.
- After toughness, dump the rest of your feats into the most optimal melee configuration you can, and this is generally THF.

[keyusito]

I did that and when i do nimbus or heal it says : you ability score is too low. Can somebody help me?

[Ancient]

On your character stat sheet, what is your charisma?

[Matuse]

I did that and when i do nimbus or heal it says : you ability score is too low. Can somebody help me?

You need at least 11 Charisma to cast level 1 spells. You need at least 19 Charisma to cast level 9 spells.

Stats from all sources count, so starting with a 10 and wearing a +1 item would be enough.

[scoobmx]

You could also add Adamantine Body to CHOICE to boost defenses and free up proficiency if choosing greatsword