Double Focus?

[jortann]

I was planning on changing a few things on my archmage wizard to up my Necro DC and get it close to my Enchantment DC.

Right now I can get a 39 Enchanment DC. I want to get my Necro up to 38. I can do this by swapping out the feats Extend and Greater Spell Penetration for Spell Focus Necro and Greater Spell Focus Necro. Also I can take my Archmage Secondary Spell Mastery Enhancement. And then farm a Staff of the Petitioner.

The only thing I am not sure about is losing the Greater Spell Penetration Feat.

So I have 3 questions.

1. How important will that extra +2 to Spell Penetration be at 'end game'?
2. Is anyone doing this now and want to share how it is working?
3. What is better to have a end game, a higher Necro DC or a higher Enchantment DC?

And no, I have no interest in going Pale Master, so if you can answer form an Archmage viewpoint that would be fantastic!

Thanks in advance.

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[The_Brave2]

Capped WF Archmage here.

If you are a Non TR you should have atleast 1 Spell pen feat, loosing greater spell pen isnt going to hurt you in most quests, aslong as you have the enhancements for it.

Aslong as you can hit your enchantment DC to about 40ish, a higher Necro DC is going to benefit you more, Ex/ if you have a 42 enchant and a 40 necro, it would be better to have a 40 enchant and a 42 necro.

But for endgame CCing purposes I wouldn't suggest below a 40 for enchantment, while a lower DC on necro isnt going to hurt you as much in a group system, just take a little longer to kill something, possibly having to throw a energy drain before fingering something, or a circle of death/Symbol of Death before wail of the banshee, having a low enchant DC is going to hurt your usefullness in mainstream quests.

I wouldnt suggest dropping Extend, while some will advocate that its not necessary, I love having it for displace, and Not having to refresh buffs as often give me more time to do other stuff in quests.

Possibly drop improved mental toughness if you have it, what does your feat list look like?

[Kinerd]

With both feats and all the wizard enhancements, I still notice SR failures from time to time on my first life archmage. I would not drop GSP unless you can fit in the elf ones. I don't have Extend and don't miss it. Here's how I went:

Mental Toughness, SF Enchant, SF Necro, Quicken, Empower
Toughness, Spell Pen, GSF Enchant, Max, Heighten, GSF Necro, GSP

Not 100% sure on the order, but something like that. There's also no feat I was upset about missing. I wasn't even that psyched about Empower but it made the most sense.

I took secondary spell mastery in Necro and am mostly happy with how my guy's DCs shook out: very reliable in CC, have to pick my shots for kills. Even then, that's what Energy Drain is for.

[jortann]

From memory ... I think these are the feats I have...

Toughness
Insightful Reflexes
Maximize
Empower
Hieghten
Extend
Quciken
SF Enchant
GSF Enchant
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration

I'm guessing I could drop Extend and Insightful Reflexes and pick up SF Necro and GSF Necro.

Will dropping Insightful Reflexes lower my survivability? Would it be better to drop GSP?

What do you guys think?

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[Maatogaeoth]

I have quicken on my first-life wizard and hardly ever turn it on. I'd replace it if I wasn't planning on doing a TR in the next few weeks.

[DaSawks]

I am running a Capped WF Wizard AM. Enchantment DC is 39 and Necromancy is 40. Here is my build. I have no problems on "end game" or Epics for a first life. I would love to have several Wiz/sorc PL to bump these numbers up however I am working on another TR toon. GL.

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...23&postcount=8

PS. Forgot I swapped Greater Enchantment for Greater Necro so the build is a little out of date.

[jortann]

From memory ... I think these are the feats I have...

Toughness
Insightful Reflexes
Maximize
Empower
Hieghten
Extend
Quciken
SF Enchant
GSF Enchant
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration

I'm guessing I could drop Extend and Insightful Reflexes and pick up SF Necro and GSF Necro.

Will dropping Insightful Reflexes lower my survivability? Would it be better to drop GSP?

What do you guys think?

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I just double checked the feats. I left off mental toughness. I see Desawks went without Empower.

So if I keep GSP. Then I would need to choose 2 of these 3 to get rid of...

Extend
Empower
Insightful Reflexes


hmmm....

thoughts?

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[DaSawks]

I just double checked the feats. I left off mental toughness. I see Desawks went without Empower.

So if I keep GSP. Then I would need to choose 2 of these 3 to get rid of...

Extend
Empower
Insightful Reflexes


hmmm....

thoughts?

..

In my case (and opinion) I went with Extend and IR. Why? IR=awesome reflex saves=keeping me alive in Elite and Epics. Extend=SP conservation. Haste lasts longer, GH lasts longer. Hate hearing in the middle of a Harry Beatdown from the Melee "Need another haste here."

Why not Empower? You are 100% talking about your DC's. Which DC's? Enchantment and Necromancy. Your Evocation(read DPS) will let you down at Endgame and Epics. If you really want to make your DOTS pop then farm for an Eardweller. I did and I love it.

IMO Extend>IR>Empower.

[Tuney]

Extend is usful for several short term buffs you want to keep up longer with less hassle of recasting.

Empower spell when you have Maximize... Only when you want to burn a boss faster and don't care much about SP effeiency you just want raw damage.

Insightful reflexes... Reflex save boost based on INT instead of Dex is complete win for a Wizard. It will make a diffence I gain a 11 reflex boost due to it.


So I'd say Empower you can drop , And Extend and IR depends which one you like more.

[The_Brave2]

In my case (and opinion) I went with Extend and IR. Why? IR=awesome reflex saves=keeping me alive in Elite and Epics. Extend=SP conservation. Haste lasts longer, GH lasts longer. Hate hearing in the middle of a Harry Beatdown from the Melee "Need another haste here."

Why not Empower? You are 100% talking about your DC's. Which DC's? Enchantment and Necromancy. Your Evocation(read DPS) will let you down at Endgame and Epics. If you really want to make your DOTS pop then farm for an Eardweller. I did and I love it.

IMO Extend>IR>Empower.

Empower > Extend if you HAVE to choose. DoT's are amazing at endgame and I wouldn't drop empower or maximize if you put a gun to my head.

Not to mention that having max/emp on at all times when you hit about lv.16 or so is the best way to level imo.

I have quicken on my first-life wizard and hardly ever turn it on. I'd replace it if I wasn't planning on doing a TR in the next few weeks.

As to this, it depends on playstyle, personally I dont turn quicken off on my WF AM at all... ever. even when buffing, why? I pop a LotD clickie and it makes buffing cheaper and faster. Having to make a concentration check and casting slowly is unacceptable in my book. If you play your caster well leveling and at cap you wont run out of SP and quicken will improve your capabilities.

Now, you might argue, its not SP efficent. with Capstone and 1 enhancement for it it only costs 8sp per cast, and allows you to shoot off spells much quicker. circle/wail and energy drain/FoD being some key players in the speed casting game.

[Kinerd]

I almost never find my wizard subjected to Reflex saves, so while Insightful Reflexes is a big numeric increase I don't think losing it will have much impact on how well you survive, especially without Evasion. It's a lot more compelling for an 18/2 rogue build, for obvious reasons, but I don't see the appeal on a pure wizard build.

I would drop IR and Extend.

[DaSawks]

I see a ton of good advice here. It does come down to your play style. Some Wizards keep Quicken on 24/7. Some like to rely on Concentration and accept some small amount of failures. Some never take IR and accept a few occasions were traps are an issue. Some want to get every last mile out of Evocation and will take Maximize and Empower. None of these options are wrong. None will gimp your wizard. On the other hand I still cannot understand how Sorcerers get by on feats. That is for another thread and has been beaten into the ground. Good luck out there OP.

[jortann]

Thanks for the help everyone. Unfortunately for me you did not all come up with the same answer which means I need to think and make my own decsions.


That and I still need a Greater Heart of Wood.....

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