Shield Mastery

[The_Brave2]

Is it even possible to reduce the ASF on a Mithral Tower Shield to zero? It's 40% ASF, can get 15% reduction from WF enhancements, blue augment slot for another 15%...does something like Twilight stack with those? Just thinking you might be able to save a feat by just taking one shield mastery feat and finding a way to use a Mithral Tower shield for 20% damage reduction.

its not worth taking the improved shield mastery in the first place, 5% difference is nothing

once again, epic kundark warding shield is 12 blocking DR and has no ASF, thats more than your going to find on a tower shield withought ASF.

[Blank_Zero]

Fitting in a DoD isn't bad either. Now to just pull one or find one for cheap >.>

[Entelech]

As far as the Epic Kundarak Shield with the -15% ASF slotted, I agree that it is superior...but Light and Darkness is TRIVIALLY EASY TO GET. Use it for the months you spend grinding VoN for that epic shield.

My perspective is as a casual player who occasionally raids, and the thought of grinding an Epic VoN item for an EXPERIMENT makes me cringe.


That said, I play a multiclassed Pale Master Battlewizard tank and have capped him twice now. I have some experience that the OP may find helpful.


(1) You'll heal yourself for ~150 with Negative Energy Burst as a PM, and Pale Masters also ignore the healing curse effects. If you turtle up, the 18 / 2 Pale Master build should have little difficulty staying alive. The Boon of Undeath item is a HUGE help though, and Warforged cannot wear the one from the Abbot raid. So a WF PM is stuck till they re-do the Mabar event.


(2) You're not going to hold aggro with just damage-over-times if anyone in the raid is doing even marginal DPS to the same target. Even chugging 75% damage pots and with full enhancement lines, survival is not the issue, aggro is. You'll still benefit from Intimidate skill, and other hate-boosting effects. And most of these require at least a splash of multiclassing.

[The_Brave2]

Fitting in a DoD isn't bad either. Now to just pull one or find one for cheap >.>

ehh, i think a bloodrage docent would be a better choice for ALOT more hp. not to mention its alot cheaper.

[The_Brave2]

As far as the Epic Kundarak Shield with the -15% ASF slotted, I agree that it is superior...but Light and Darkness is TRIVIALLY EASY TO GET. Use it for the months you spend grinding VoN for that epic shield.

My perspective is as a casual player who occasionally raids, and the thought of grinding an Epic VoN item for an EXPERIMENT makes me cringe.


That said, I play a multiclassed Pale Master Battlewizard tank and have capped him twice now. I have some experience that the OP may find helpful.


(1) You'll heal yourself for ~150 with Negative Energy Burst as a PM, and Pale Masters also ignore the healing curse effects. If you turtle up, the 18 / 2 Pale Master build should have little difficulty staying alive. The Boon of Undeath item is a HUGE help though, and Warforged cannot wear the one from the Abbot raid. So a WF PM is stuck till they re-do the Mabar event.


(2) You're not going to hold aggro with just damage-over-times if anyone in the raid is doing even marginal DPS to the same target. Even chugging 75% damage pots and with full enhancement lines, survival is not the issue, aggro is. You'll still benefit from Intimidate skill, and other hate-boosting effects. And most of these require at least a splash of multiclassing.

even with marginal enhancment lines into Cold and Electricity with a eardweller a mele would have to have some serious hate gen gear and be trying to pull aggro off of you, aggro isnt the problem.

PM is not the only way to go, WF archmage will work perfectly fine for tanking.

Intimidate would have to be crazy high in order to be even slightly usefull.

[Blank_Zero]

ehh, i think a bloodrage docent would be a better choice for ALOT more hp. not to mention its alot cheaper.

It'd be ok for now. Use it with L&D for now til I get the rest of it. lol

[Entelech]

[/color]
even with marginal enhancment lines into Cold and Electricity with a eardweller a mele would have to have some serious hate gen gear and be trying to pull aggro off of you, aggro isnt the problem.[/color]

Your opinion is different from my own, then. But then, that's why this is an experiment. I look forward to seeing the results of the build in action. Hopefully, we both learn something useful from this.

[Blank_Zero]

Your opinion is different from my own, then. But then, that's why this is an experiment. I look forward to seeing the results of the build in action. Hopefully, we both learn something useful from this.

I do know that it works really really well with a FvS.

[noinfo]

20% absorb is first apparently.

So, if we look at 100 dmg (Horoth), using Epic Kundy Shield (12 DR), with a 20 pure wizzy (10 BAB)

100 - 20% = 80 to start

34 DR from that is 46 dmg

so 46 damage from 100.

Then Displace for 50% miss, so average of 23/hit from Horoth. Any wizzy worth his salt is going to have ~500-600 if they're tanking (and hope and pray not to get Disintegrated :P

550/23 = 23.9....

so on a Wizzy with enough Repair Amp to full heal with a single Recon, I can take 20+ hits from Horoth before needing to heal. Add Quicken and Emp/Max'd DoTs and you have a nasty combination.

Horoth is gunna see right through that displacement
Would be curious to see how his DOT's are affected by shields, guess they should be.
I think you would be chewing through that blue bar pretty quick still to be honest.
But only one way to tell.

[The_Brave2]

Horoth is gunna see right through that displacement
Would be curious to see how his DOT's are affected by shields, guess they should be.
I think you would be chewing through that blue bar pretty quick still to be honest.
But only one way to tell.

eh, tanking on a WF Wiz isnt something new, DoT him up with a eardweller and a lesser max clickie and recon yourself shield blocking has proven to be a great tactic for tanking sully in ToD, longer fight in VoD is debatable but baisicly any real nuking by a caster is going to pull aggro. it doesnt eat up the SP bar as quick as you would think since the Dots are mana efficient and recon is cheap.

[Entelech]

I do know that it works really really well with a FvS.

Good to know.

I haven't actually run ToD with Mordite yet, been grinding Shroud and DQ to finish getting him geared for it.

[The_Brave2]

I do know that it works really really well with a FvS.

a Mele FVS sure, but just one DoT from an evoker FVS isnt enough. I have however tanked Horoth on normal with my WF FVS Swinging my eSoS and uding DP, I cant see using just the DoT to hold aggro, perhaps with intimidate.. but then you loose the DR.

[Dilbon]

once again, epic kundark warding shield is 12 blocking DR and has no ASF, thats more than your going to find on a tower shield withought ASF.

13 DR with +7 slotted in the red slot.

[Blank_Zero]

13 DR with +7 slotted in the red slot.

Why would you do that to yourself?

[budalic]

Lol, I tought every caster has Shield Mastery by now... guess not. At least all the people I know have it.

It's absolutely worth it - besides toughness and metamagics, there is no feat more useful to caster. I can see it being hard to fit in on an archmage... but possible - Toughness, Max, Emp, Hei, Quick, 3 semi-useless spell focus feats to qualify for PRE (2 necro focuses and 1 conj, probably), Mental gimpness, Shield prof, Shield mastery, Spell penetration (or pl: wizard).

Only thing I'd miss would be Insightful reflexes. But my Pale Master can afford it because I can ditch Mental Gimpness and sf: conj. (I actually have Imp. shield mastery, Extend spell and I. Reflexes, because I'm human and ditching extend makes death aura kinda annoying.)

[Dilbon]

Why would you do that to yourself?

Err why not? -15% ASF in the blue slot and +7 in the violet slot.

[budalic]

Err why not? -15% ASF in the blue slot and +7 in the violet slot.

I think his point was that you can get 2 blue slots on e Kund Warding shield... blue is quite valuable, spending violet slot on +7 (for 1 point of DR) feels kinda wasteful.

[Blank_Zero]

Lol, I tought every caster has Shield Mastery by now... guess not. At least all the people I know have it.

It's absolutely worth it - besides toughness and metamagics, there is no feat more useful to caster. I can see it being hard to fit in on an archmage... but possible - Toughness, Max, Emp, Hei, Quick, 3 semi-useless spell focus feats to qualify for PRE (2 necro focuses and 1 conj, probably), Mental gimpness, Shield prof, Shield mastery, Spell penetration (or pl: wizard).

Only thing I'd miss would be Insightful reflexes. But my Pale Master can afford it because I can ditch Mental Gimpness and sf: conj. (I actually have Imp. shield mastery, Extend spell and I. Reflexes, because I'm human and ditching extend makes death aura kinda annoying.)

Not a bad setup.

I really did try PM, but AM was a much better fit for my playstyle really.

I was thinking of dropping I Reflexes at some point. Shouldn't be too bad....

[Failedlegend]

Shield mastery is pointless, when you turtle up with an epic shield you get 12DR (epic kundark warding shield) + 10DR from stone skin (they stack) = 22DR total, which is plenty for normal use, pop a displacement and you will be fine. its not worth the feat on a very feat starved class.

First Wizard is FAR from a feat starved classed here's what I'm doing with my TR

Human Wiz18/Rog2 "Palemaster"

Shield Prof:General
Shield Mastery
Toughness
Insightful Reflexes
Extend
SF:Necro
Mental Toughness
Maximize
Heighten
GSF: Necro
Quicken
Empower

Con 18
Int 18
Str or Cha 10 (Carry Capacity vs. +1 UMD/Intim)

Second Shield Mastery is FAR from useless its a PASSIVE 15% DR (with large shield) which STACKS with the "Turtling" DR and with the pseudo DR of the Death Aura from Palemaster and you got one hard to kill caster..with little sacrifice to spell casting ability (all standard wizard feats taken)

Thats not even including insightful reflexes and evasion if you decide to splash rogue.

[budalic]

Second Shield Mastery is FAR from useless its a PASSIVE 15% DR (with large shield) which STACKS with the "Turtling" DR and with the pseudo DR of the Death Aura from Palemaster and you got one hard to kill caster..with little sacrifice to spell casting ability (all standard wizard feats taken)

It should also be noted that nature of Pale Master healing makes Shield Mastery even more attractive, because our only burst heal, Negative Energy Burst is pretty crappy. So, it makes sense to load on damage mitigation and try to get the most out of Death Aura.