Newbie advice for a WF Earth Savant?

[Antheal]

What advice would you give to someone who's never played an Arcane before, and wanted to roll up a Warforged Earth Savant?

Assuming 32-point build, maxed out CHA + CON.

Feats: Toughness / Spell Focus: Conjuration / Empower Spell / Maximise Spell / Heighten Spell / Quicken Spell

What feat should be taken at level 18?

[gavijal]

Feats :

Toughness
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Great Spell Focus: Conjuration
Empower Spell
Maximise Spell
Heighten Spell
Quicken Spell

[snoopy]

start with Fire Spec. til mid levels then change to Earth after level 17 if you still want that path, by then you will have gotten use to playing an arcane. Earth is fun but you need to be comfortable playing an arcane to make it shine.

[sweez]

Why would you take quicken on a sorc?

[MRMechMan]

1. Toughness
3. SF:conj (I took sorc PL)
6 Max
9 Emp
12 quicken
15 ? (I took wizard PL, not an option for you. GSF: conj isn't a bad idea. can take heighten here and GSF 18 maybe)
18 heighten

It's very different from playing melee-dont be frustrated during the low levels. I wouldn't suggest trying elites only for bravery on a first time playing an arcane. Just get a feel for how it plays.

WF earth savant is a good choice for a first time arcane-you dont have to worry about DCs at all, have good survivability and very little is immune to your spells. Acid rain is nothing short of amazing-one cast is enough to kill almost group of mobs when leveling up to level 16+. Fire is a good choice for leveling as there are a LOT of undead at low to mid levels, but a fair amount of things are immune to fire at low-mid levels, and a LOT of things are immune at levels 16+. Acid very little will give you trouble.

All the gear you need:
Superior erosion IV clickie. Maybe 2.
Moderate fort
Con item
False life item

[MRMechMan]

Why would you take quicken on a sorc?

Some people dont take quicken on a sorc. As a fleshie you can't quicken scrolls anyway, and might be served better by a necro focus feat.

For warforged, it's your most important feat IMO. As someone who tanks a lot on my sorc, and is constantly in the fray taking and holding agro, I want my reconstructs to go off EVERY time. No amount of concentration can guarentee that when you are taking hundreds of damage very quickly. Failed casting=dead sorc, possibly wiped party if I am tanking higher difficulty raid.

Also, when you want to go full R-tard dps, quicken is very nice as well. Just because it is MORE important for a wizard, doesn't mean it's not extremely important for a sorc.

[tinyelvis]

Some questions concerning the efficiency of your feat selection order:

Why are you taking conjuration focus third level. What spell do you plan to buff? If you want to use it with niacs, you need it 1st level. If you want it for acid blast, there is no need to take it until 6th level.

With craftable items, ship buffs, and guild crystal possibilities I find that I have absolutely no need for hit points until close to end game. Even without toughness, my earth savants hps are often the highest in the party early to mid game. And solo epic questing is usually trivially easy. The biggest shortfall that I found on my WF earth savant was a crappy ray spell.

If you want to use niacs( a conjuration spell) proficiently early to even mid game, then you will need to do everything you can to get the DC up. Which includes items. One focus feat will not be enough. My earth savant has maximum possible conjuration DC at any given time. I don't see the point of branching out to an area like necro with my earth savant.

I can't imagine waiting until 18th level to take heighten unless you only play normal questing. Two of your SLAs will be sub par. Your amazing acid blast will be mediocre. You will not have a good ray spell option unless you choose the so-so scorching ray. Acid rain even has an initial save.

If your build plan involves crappy DCs then take and use Max and Empower early and learn to gather as many foes as possible before blasting them. Evasion is not a big concern early game. This way, even though your foes will typically save, you still do great damage.

I have never found a need for quicken, toughness, or empower early to mid game. Things die too fast (usually one shot) to be much of a threat. Plus hitpoints are plentiful as is. However, many new players need the extra help and some play styles may require it.

I tank raid bosses end game regularly. I regularly pull and keep pretty much all aggro for much of epic questing. I don't use quicken. I would not trade a focus for quicken on any of my builds.

[MRMechMan]

Having both Max and Emp early is nice...gives your acid blast/rain a very nice punch, and as sorc you have the sp to use them both. Emp CAN be pushed back quite a bit, some wiz lives I took it ~18. But when you group 1/2 of the quest up and blast them at once you dont care about SP efficiency, you just want them dead quick.

Toughness can also be pushed back. Seeing 300-350 hp at level 11-12ish is quite fun though

What would be better than quicken? Spell foci feats are almost useless on a first life WF earth savant. What is he gonna get a 30 necro DC rather than a 29 at endgame? gimme a break. I would CONSIDER GSF:conj only, but without good charisma gear/cleric PLs its still not that great endgame. The OP has neither. GSF:conj means you can get a DECENT web DC if you take heighten, have a lot of chrisma gear, and cleric PLs...it will still be WELL behind archmage DCs and will cost 15-20 times as many SP. Web is an incredible CC spell IF you can get a good DC...very difficult for a first life, first time caster.

I do agree that SF:conj can be pushed back. Niacs ray is an awesome spell but won't land early unless you spec for it...I stop using it on non-water savants VERY early as things will save, and it's useless to heighten/max/emp it...50sp for a mediocre damage spell that effectively gives EVERYTHING evasion is meh. One-shotting earth eles with it is fun, but once you get acid blast that's all you'll be using.

Heighten can definitely be pushed back to 18th. Melfs SLA has NO SAVE. Acid rain has NO SAVE after intial tick. You don't get acid blast SLA till level 18 anyway. Heightened Acid blasts just=more sp...against high reflex enemies just sit in your acid rain for a few seconds. Heighten is mostly for web (if you can get good DC) and SLAs. Heightening reflex save spells is NEVER sp-efficient unless they have evasion, and even then acid rain is better option by far.

As for quickens usefulness, I guess that is just something we'll have to disagree on; that's fine. When leveling, I have an agressive playstyle that garners heavy agro to make use of good survivability compared to other party members...can't count the number of times I would be little pieces of scrap metal on the ground if I didn't have quicken. Perhaps you've found some magical way to dodge all lightning bolts, weapons and lag; I have not.

And when you want to go MAX DPS (4 rangers manyshotting EDQ1 queen comes to mind, even with quicken only could spam away 1/2 my sp bar ) quicken is invaluable.

Again, the OP asked for a beginners, first arcane ever build. I don't think dumping quicken and taking toughness late will result in a good leveling experience for him.

[tinyelvis]

I never said quicken was not useful. I merely made the point that it was not necessary. If you can fit it in or need it for your play style that is fine.

However, I guess after all these years I still don't understand how some of you guys play. Not taking heighten until 18th level means a spell like acid blast. Arguably the best spell in your inventory (though acid rain which also has an initial save is great too), the spell you even point out will be the main one you throw, will be landing at up to a -5 DC. New players like to use web. This spell will land at up to a -6. That to me is crazy. Especially when you consider it also buffs your SLA's for free. Acid splash is quite effective if the DC is high.

If you take heighten and conjuration focuses, swallow a +2 tome, and use an easily obtainable greater conjuration item, you can cast niacs as a reliable ray spell for a long time. This fills a badly needed nich in earth savants spell package (you dont need to maximize and/or empower it). Plus, your acid blasts really rocks. And if you are a CC user, your web will dominate. I suppose you can push it back, but how do you manage good damage output? Maximize/empower everything and live with the failed saves and inability to effect evasion types with anything other than some relatively slow killing DOTs. DOTs are great, but unless you are starved for spell points or fighting end game bosses, they are the slow approach.

If you let everything cook in an acid rain cloud, they will eventually die, however, not until the arcanes have had time to cast one or two spells. I suppose if this is your approach then a big hit point buffer is good early game. However, killing stuff fast before it can cast is the approach i like.

For my builds damage output takes a front seat to defense. It cant hurt you if its dead.