How much spell pen is enough..?

[ThalantyrS]

I'm about to TR my wizard into.. archmage wizard again! I have almost everything figured out. I have good DPS, my enchantment DC is 42, my necro DC is 40, its all gooooood.. (DCs can increase +1 if I get a +4 int tome)

BUT! what about spell penetration? right now my wiz has spell pen feat and 3 spell pen enhacements, for a total of +5 to spell penetration. I've been finding it hard to bypass some SR like in the shroud and such when casting a finger of death for examply. I know could have used damage spells to avoid SR, but its not an instakill.. Right know planing my TR I'd have the same spell pen (now would be +2 past like, +2 feat and +1 enhacement =+5).

Should I drop my toughness feat for another spell penetration feat? (would leave me at 415HP, still great for a WF wiz) I dont have greater necro focus, so dropping my toughness to get spell pen and not +1 necro DC.. I dont like it that much. Also could drop a lot of spell damage enhacements to get more spell pen enhacement, which I like even less! Anyway, do I need more than 40 DC on necro? more DC would also make easier to avoid using heighten and save SP..

SO! to make the long story short, what do you think is the minimun spell penetration needed?

Thank you!

[blade_of_will]

I found +29 total to work pretty much everywhere. I dont have any epics with drow enemies in them, but it was enough for elite amrath quests. Had some trouble in hard vod/tod though (more in vod really, that I noticed anyway).

[Mrmorphling]

Spell penetration around +28/+29 will work very well for 95% of targets with the notable exception of epic drow where you need to by pass a 45 SR; i would suggest to plan for a 28 at the very least and 29/30 as optimal; the way to be an insta epic drow killer is long and it involves lots of past lifes

[Enoach]

With the TR the Wizard Past Life (Passive) comes with +2 Spell Penetration

Spell Penetration
20 Wizard Levels
2 Spell Penetration Feat
3 Spell Penetration Enhancements
3 Greater Spell Penetration Item (Can find these types of items like scepters, daggers, etc or Craft them. Can be on Dragon Touch armor) There are also just Spell Focus Items which are +2. Look for Greater they will serve you better.
==
28

Add in your past life and that will bring you up to 30 if you keep the same Feat and Enhancements.

The bigger benefit for the Wizard TR is the Active Past Life Feat which is equivalent to taking a Spell Focus Feat for every school, just don't get to use it as a replacement requirement that requires taking a spell focus feat.

[gerardIII]

Trash mobs in part 2 get increased SR from the red named bosses (I think), that's why they're harder to kill.
A Spell Pen bonus of 26+ is sually enough for a decent success rate in epics (except drows of course).

[KingofDiamondz]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=289779

check out this thread to see all kinds of breakpoints for all wizard related

rolling over 32 is no fail for most end game stuff, with the exception of epic drow and maybe abishai. Might be some mobs i don't know about.

[ThalantyrS]

Great, thank you for all your replies guys

I also forgot I have a spell penetration item. So I will drop toughness for greater spell pen and have:
+2 past life
+4 spell pen feats
+2 item
+1 enhacement
+lvl 20 wiz

Total +29

I think I'll have no worries that way..

Thank you again people!

[Phidius]

... So I will drop toughness for greater spell pen ...

Not so fast - I'm betting there's something else you could drop instead.

[blade_of_will]

Well, since Ive made a serious reply already, going to make a nonserious one now cause im in the mood for it.

Never enough! Never enough! No matter what I say! Never enough! Never enough! No matter who I try to pay!

[djangonautic]

just as an addition, you can also get another +2 spell pen from arcane augmentation on the staff of arcane power or from the Tier3 fire choice in alchemical crafting.

[mondo]

AM sucks if you want a real wiz roll a PM

[gloopygloop]

I like the spell pen from Wizard past lives, but I kind of look at it as a way to save the cost of a feat or some AP. Those Spell Penetration enhancements get *really* expensive. You could get a lot of Metamagic discounts for those Spell Pen AP.

Is it worth grinding through all those lives to save some AP and a feat or two? That depends on how grindy you feel those lives are.