Insightful Reflexes / Extend / Quicken

[balancetraveller]

Which is better, Insightful Reflexes or Extend? Am asking so because I am considering swapping one of these for a Greater Spell Focus feat.

Currently I am in favor of swapping out Extend - it's been heavily nerfed post-U9, now that it no longer works on lingering spells but only on buffs. For a normal Lv20 caster, that would be 20 min. of buffs without Extend, 40 min. with it. But let's be frank - unless you are doing some extreme challenges like soloing an endgame elite/epic, chances are you'll either reach the next shrine or be dead within the next 20 minutes. Plus that if you've already got some endgame SP regen gear like the Bauble, the importance of Extend can be mitigated.

Insightful Reflexes - while some people believe that it's not as good as those more spell-oriented feats, I think this one does have its own virtue, and may well have helped me escape several of those a-lousy-dead-wiz embarrassing scenarios already.

===

On a side note - I was never a big fan of Quicken, and unless I know beforehand that I am going to enter some CC-heavy epic contents, I generally won't turn my Quicken on. But this is gonna change soon with the metamagic toggle that's going to arrive with U11. Now I can toggle Quicken on for CC and cloud spells, while keeping it away from wasting my SP elsewhere. This is going to make Quicken more useful and popular.

[NoidRoid]

Extend is the weakest of the 3 feats mentioned, especially for an Archmage. I would have a tough time dropping it on my human Pale Master since it effects Death Aura, and fortunately I don't have to because there's more than enough feats to go around.

Quicken is amazingly convenient, I don't know if I could play a wiz of divine without it.. slow casting is just plain excruciating once you get used to quicken. There's a more tangible advantage to it if you're planning on running any epics, concentration failures are a big problem when you take half an hour to cast a spell without quicken.

Insightful Reflexes is great too, perma half-damage from the most dangerous spells in the game is the most useful feat you can take to improve your survivability in the epic environment. Moreso than toughness for example. If you don't care about epic survivability then maybe you could drop this bc honestly its pretty hard to die in normal shrouds if that's your end game.

So yeah, if you need to drop one of those 3 feats.. definitely drop extend on an archmage and just get used to casting twice as many hastes. If you're a PM and need to drop one of those feats, well you shoulda gone human. If you're a human PM and "need" to drop one of those feats.. well you don't, unless you're completionist

[danlan]

Both fine to live without, esp on wf casters, simply get more gears to get more hp and just recon, insightful reflex is not needed at all.

[Moltier]

Keep them all. 1DC for a few spells isnt that important.
But if are an archmage, and really want that DC, drop extend.

[Moltier]

Both fine to live without, esp on wf casters, simply get more gears to get more hp and just recon, insightful reflex is not needed at all.

Not needed, but its better then any of the caster feats in the game for a wizzy.

[Ghibly]

insightful reflex is not needed at all.

you're doing it wrong man

Read above. Not necessary on non-epic quests/raids but crucial on epics.

With IS you can survive all the epic traps such as: EDQ1 sonic bats trap, EWiz King traps and all the others.

Belive me

[budalic]

A lot of people say Insightful reflexes is good for avoiding damage. **** that - more damage, less damage, it can be healed. No, I. Reflexes is good for avoiding really nasty spells/abilities. Cometfall? Ha, can't trip me. Web? Just walk over it (granted, Fireshield and some other stuff also burns webs). Tharaak hound? They can knock you down only on 1. ...lots of nasty stuff has ref save.

I'd also rather take anything than +1 DC... it's ****ing 5-10% more chance (depending how high your DCs already are) to affect something with a spell. Woo-hoo!
EDIT9001: I didn't point it out here, but I was writing this under impression it's +1 enchantment spell DC. I appologize if it wasn't clear, or if I was making assumptions of what school DC OP considers boosting. Thanks to Calebro for spotting that.

EDIT: Actually, if you are Archmage, Extend is even less useful than +1 DC.

EDIT2: Also, didn't you get the memo after u9? If you are wizard, you're supposed to instakill everything.

[Alternative]

Cometfall? Ha, can't trip me.

Shr plz how to be trip immune on a wizard.

[budalic]

Shr plz how to be trip immune on a wizard.

If you succed on a reflex save, Trip portion of Cometfall doesn't happen.

EDIT: Actually, not - spell has 2 reflex saves... one for damage, one for trip. Sorry. But yeah, Insightful reflexes will make you avoid Cometfall trip in most cases.

[Alternative]

Right, somehow I read you were argoung against IR stating you can't be tripped anyway. My bad, getting a bit paranoid with so many people who think reflex save isn't worth having.

I'm a huge fan of insightful reflexes and would drop extend in a heart beat if I had to. Quicken is essential in epics when you just can;t afford to lose that spell.

[balancetraveller]

Thanks for all the comments

Another feat that I might consider to swap - Mental Toughness; only adds 105 SP, and I have no enhancement that's dependent on it. This feat can be useful for low levels, but its importance is also mitigated by endgame gears.

EDIT2: Also, didn't you get the memo after u9? If you are wizard, you're supposed to instakill everything.

I am more or less trying to move toward that goal right now, but in some cases I think the need of CC is still apparent... say Epic Last Stand.

[budalic]

I am more or less trying to move toward that goal right now, but in some cases I think the need of CC is still apparent... say Epic Last Stand.

Really? It's, like, easiest epic quest out there... don't waste SP on CC. If you spend all your sp on instakilling, you'll speed it up by 40%, at least. Just circle, wail, enedrain, fod. Healer will have enough sp to keep everyone else alive.

I mean, I duoed it with my FvS buddy, and my necro DCs are only 42. (FvS came to help with last boss, actually)

[danlan]

you're doing it wrong man

Read above. Not necessary on non-epic quests/raids but crucial on epics.

With IS you can survive all the epic traps such as: EDQ1 sonic bats trap, EWiz King traps and all the others.

Belive me

The two traps you mentioned can actually be passed with enough hit points and recon spell

[Rdonaccount]

I'm still not clear on exactly which type of wizard you are, but I'm assuming pale master as Mental Toughness is a prereq for archmage.

imo, i'd value it insightful reflexes > extend > quicken on a palemaster, although that might change after u11 allows meta's attached to specific spells.

Insightful reflexes is very valuable. Outside of epics and certain elite traps (i.e. monastery), IR means you will make 95% of your reflex saves. Towards full gear, it can be as much as +15ish to your reflex save compared to a dex dumped wizard who just slotted +6 dex in a colorless epic slot. You can eat meteor swarms and dbf's from pit fiends and fire elementals (e.g. fire section of stealer of souls) with barely a scratch.

In epics, it won't save you on many traps, even with mid-high 30's reflex. But it will be huge against many epic mobs. Abashai in echrono, for example, tend to ambush the party with powerful aoe's like max/emp acid blasts. Being able to survive these at all can be huge. The wiz who simply tries to heal thru it spends their next move self-healing, while the wiz who has IR spends their next move cc'ing the threat. Which do you think is better for the raid?

Extend is nice, but really, the main benefit is on death aura, which is only a 25sp spell. Basically, it's the difference between spending 35 sp every 3:30 on self healing vs spending 50 sp. It's a bit more effecient, cause it also helps your hastes/rages, but hardly critical.

Quicken isn't particularly useful atm imo, unless you only run very shrine heavy quests or quaff SP spots like water. Keeping it on all the time drops your SP totals by around 10% or more, depending on the types of spells you cast. And waiting for an emergency to turn it on defeats the purpose of having it in the first place. Note that this will change in u11, when you can assign quicken to only affect your emergency spells, meaning it wont be a drain on the normal spells that you cast. At that point, it might become a higher priority.

[budalic]

Thanks for all the comments

Another feat that I might consider to swap - Mental Toughness; only adds 105 SP, and I have no enhancement that's dependent on it. This feat can be useful for low levels, but its importance is also mitigated by endgame gears.

Oh, didn't notice this... if you have torc, I'd swap it out before Quicken (always on for me), Extend or I. Reflexes. Unless you need wraith form for sneaking, in which case... well, I don't have much experience with that.

[balancetraveller]

Really? It's, like, easiest epic quest out there... don't waste SP on CC. If you spend all your sp on instakilling, you'll speed it up by 40%, at least. Just circle, wail, enedrain, fod. Healer will have enough sp to keep everyone else alive.

I mean, I duoed it with my FvS buddy, and my necro DCs are only 42. (FvS came to help with last boss, actually)

That's actually quite above the averge; my Necro DC is around 38~39 I believe. Need more tomes and gears to push that higher.

[budalic]

That's actually quite above the averge; my Necro DC is around 38~39 I believe. Need more tomes and gears to push that higher.

Reaching 41/42 is actually pretty easy... this is for human
Intelligence:
18 starting
+5 level up
+6 item
+4 enhanchments (+3 wizard, +1 human)
+2 capstone
+2 lich form (if archmage, skip this)
+2 ship buff
+2 yugo pot [*1] (if archmage, tough luck)
+3 exceptional [*2]
+2 tome
__________________________
46 total: Modifier: +18

DC:
10 base
+9 spell level
18 int
+2 feat
+2 item [*3]
+1 Pale master
_____________
42 total

*1 Easy to get: If you have Epic Robe of Shadow, solo Sins of Atrittion elite, Bastion of power hard, New invasion hard; get somebody to do Genesis point elite with, and do ToD normal. If you play on Cannith, send PM - I can help you do theese. (I'm off the game currently, getting back in about a week, though.)
*2 It isn't necessary to do ToD for this, either: Crystal cove is comming back soon - eTH Spyglass has +2 exc int; you can craft yourself GS tier 2 item (so, very cheap) with +1 exceptional int.
*3 Death's touch, Epic Robe of Shadow, Abbot robe, Baelshyrra's sceptre, Cannith crafting - lot's of ways to get this.

Now, if you are WF, you can reach 40 easy on WF archmage, in same way.

[danlan]

Reaching 41/42 is actually pretty easy... this is for human
Intelligence:
18 starting
+5 level up
+6 item
+4 enhanchments (+3 wizard, +1 human)
+2 capstone
+2 lich form (if archmage, skip this)
+2 ship buff
+2 yugo pot [*1] (if archmage, tough luck)
+3 exceptional [*2]
+2 tome
__________________________
46 total: Modifier: +18

DC:
10 base
+9 spell level
18 int
+2 feat
+2 item [*3]
+1 Pale master
_____________
42 total

*1 Easy to get: If you have Epic Robe of Shadow, solo Sins of Atrittion elite, Bastion of power hard, New invasion hard; get somebody to do Genesis point elite with, and do ToD normal. If you play on Cannith, send PM - I can help you do theese. (I'm off the game currently, getting back in about a week, though.)
*2 It isn't necessary to do ToD for this, either: Crystal cove is comming back soon - eTH Spyglass has +2 exc int; you can craft yourself GS tier 2 item (so, very cheap) with +1 exceptional int.
*3 Death's touch, Epic Robe of Shadow, Abbot robe, Baelshyrra's sceptre, Cannith crafting - lot's of ways to get this.

Now, if you are WF, you can reach 40 easy on WF archmage, in same way.

lol I dont aim for 40, I aim for maximum, that is 44 necro 43 enchant(with free hypno, 46)

[sirgog]

Insightful Reflexes is probably the best defensive feat at endgame. Better than Toughness at keeping you alive in most epics (although you want both).

Extend is still as good as it was pre-U9 - it's a feat you take for two spells, Displacement and Haste, the two best buffs in the game. It's a pain to live without, but manageable if you have no other choice.

[budalic]

Extend is still as good as it was pre-U9 - it's a feat you take for two spells, Displacement and Haste, the two best buffs in the game. It's a pain to live without, but manageable if you have no other choice.

And Death Aura. Big nuisance using non-extended DA on Pale Master.