Air/Cold Savant vs Liches. (Disintegrate, and??)

[hawkytom]

Hello I've been running the challenge Labor Shortage and this made me realize that I don't have a way to kill as Lich fast or sp efficiently !!

Basically I'm curious which secondary spell I should be using (in addition to disintegrate) to burn down a lich as fast as possible! Solo or without party assistance...

Liches are immune to Lightning/Cold and all lvl 4 and lower spells.

Potential Candidates:
-Acid Fog (no enhancements and bad synergy with air savant)
-Black Dragon Bolt (no enhancements and bad synergy with air savant)
-Delayed Blast Fireball (no enhancements)
-Meteor Swarm (1pt in force enhancements, no fire enhancements) [Cycle with Disintegrate to Burst DPS him down]
-Incendiary Cloud (no enhancements) [slower dps/more sp efficient than Meteor Swarm/Disintegrate spam I'm guessing]


As a Air Savant with cold secondary...I'm leaning towards Meteor Swarm, what do you guys think? (ice savants would go with Black Dragon Bolt I'm guessing)

Also do you think it's worth it to put 1pt in dmg/crit/critdmg enhancements for fire? just to help the damage of meteor swarmon rare occasion when I'm trying to DPS down a lich in timely fashion?

Also on my secondary spell line (cold) I have max damage enhancements and a few points in crit chance and only 1pt in crit dmg modifer...would it be better to take points away from the crit chance in favor of the damage booster? (just in general that is...even if I avoid adding the fire enhancements)

Damage Enhancement vs Crit Enhancement vs Crit Dmg enhancement...how would you spend your limited points??

[WielderofGigantus]

Meteor Swarm is how I take him down. I'm Air/Cold specced like you are.

Of course doing so blows through almost all of my mana, so I'm pretty much useless after I finally kill him.

[Spud42]

I think the epic level lich has fire resistance and it will move out of an incendiary cloud unless you
can block it in at a fixed place, so I wouldn't try that spell.

I cannot remember if the non-epic lich has fire resistance.

From my experience as earth with fire, the meteor swarm seems to do more damage quicker.

The concern is the amount of fire resistance negating your fire part of the meteor swarm,
but this maybe better than your black dragon bolt would be.

[Tid12]

Eardweller + Disintegrate + Meteor Swarm.












+ Heal scrolls.


Thats how I kill it.

[Crann]

Make sure your Disintegrate is strong. They have low Fort save, which Disintegrate targets. A couple ways to improve it:

1. Eardweller....if you have one it is a 100% boost.....if you don't have a Sup. Potency 6 item
2. Greater Transmutation item....makes it harder for them to save.
3. Force Enhancement line....don't need to be force specced, but at least put a couple points into it....helps your meteors also
4. Pillars. Fire off Disintegrate, hide behind pillar while cooling down, pop out and shoot again.....repeat. You don't always have to go toe to toe with everything.

[tinyelvis]

I would suggest adding fire or acid to your enhancement line. There are quite a few places where ice/elect spec runs into trouble (lichs and many undead being most notable and these probably will be plentiful in the coming months). I spec fully for fire damage on my air and acid on my water as a third elemental line. I have no issues.

You also need to get spell buffers. Obtain or craft at least superior clickies for your 7th level and higher spells.

[wax_on_wax_off]

On my water savant I have 7/1/1 in acid and air enhancements. Bit tight and I miss out on some things but I've really appreciated it for challenges.

I don't have anything in force actually and use black dragon bolt, acid fog (1 near portal where lich pops and 1 at junction when he aggros on me), meteor swarm (might see if I can find an AP for force/fire damage) which takes the lich in planar palace down quickly enough.

IMO, NEVER put more than 7/1/1 (7 APs in damage and 1 in crit chance and crit damage) in a line unless required for PrE. As an Air Savant I'd put 7/1/1 in fire or force to tackle liches.

[Isharah]

Being crappy with liches is the price you pay for pwning everything else in the game.

Meteor swarm is a good spell, only if sorcs had more level 9 spell slots...

[tinyelvis]

Being crappy with liches is the price you pay for pwning everything else in the game.

Meteor swarm is a good spell, only if sorcs had more level 9 spell slots...

I don't understand this comment. You don't have to gimp yourself with respect to cold and electric immune foes to completely rule. Built the way you imply, you perform marginally most of the time. You don't pwn Demon queen or Sorjek like a triple spec. In fact, at best you will perform as well against some bosses, however, a triple spec will outperform you against most all bosses.

The ability for an air to drop incendiary and water to blast with BDB against the abbot is not the only benefit. Against Harry, water can splash an acid rain. Air can use DBF as well as freezing spheres against all in reaver. A spell chain of DBF, Chain lightning and Freezing sphere can clear away a gaggle of epic mobs in less than 3 seconds. There are countless ways a triple spec outperforms a sorcerer who only specs in two elements. You are kidding yourself or in denial if you think otherwise.

[tinyelvis]

On my water savant I have 7/1/1 in acid and air enhancements. Bit tight and I miss out on some things but I've really appreciated it for challenges.

I don't have anything in force actually and use black dragon bolt, acid fog (1 near portal where lich pops and 1 at junction when he aggros on me), meteor swarm (might see if I can find an AP for force/fire damage) which takes the lich in planar palace down quickly enough.

IMO, NEVER put more than 7/1/1 (7 APs in damage and 1 in crit chance and crit damage) in a line unless required for PrE. As an Air Savant I'd put 7/1/1 in fire or force to tackle liches.

I agree with this statement most of the time. However, for acid savants, ice is ironically currently the best line. With ice they get a better ray spell, a better AOE instant damage spell, niacs, and a better AOE persistant damage spell than acid. Unfortunately for acid savants, it is not possible to go 7/1/1 in acid or I would.

[Isharah]

*long sermon*

I forgot, humor is a sin around here.

I actually have many things to say about your post, but since it is OT anyway I will stop before someone cries.

Cheers.

[HungarianRhapsody]

The lich is also going away in U13, so you'll get to slaughter the marilith instead of having to worry about the lich.

[Entelech]

Meteor Swarm is suboptimal against the lich in Extraplanar Mining. He has a Fire Shield (cold). That means that all fire damage is reduced 50% against him.

Black Dragon Bolt and Disintegrate are your best bets by far against him.

[Thrudh]

Sometimes Disintegrate does nothing to the lich... Can they save for zero damage?

[chodelord]

as a cold savant i use disintegrate and thats it, I don't have the spell slots for black dragon bolt (level 8 is polar ray, irresistible dance, and air elemental)

Also I have my healbot hireling spam heal on him while the hire lasts

also doesnt cyclonic blast do untyped damage? that could work to

[Sarisa]

Sometimes Disintegrate does nothing to the lich... Can they save for zero damage?

Many have a Disintegration Ward. It used to only rarely block a spell. It's SUPPOSED to just give them a 50% chance of blocking the spell. Abbot at times feels more like a 90% chance at having it block your Disintegrates.

also doesnt cyclonic blast do untyped damage? that could work to

It does, however, there is a bug with Cyclonic Blast. It's essentially a Gust of Wind spell (level 2) with damage, but the game treats it as a level 2 spell. Therefore, it's blocked by their Mantle of Invulnerability that makes them immune to level 4 and below spells.

[chodelord]

Sometimes Disintegrate does nothing to the lich... Can they save for zero damage?

he appears to have the "abbot shield" where 50% of disintegrates just fail, still worth the cast though considering if it does work he never saves

[Thrudh]

he appears to have the "abbot shield" where 50% of disintegrates just fail, still worth the cast though considering if it does work he never saves

Ah good to know... yeah, 50% seems about right from my experience... Thanks!

[chodelord]

Ah good to know... yeah, 50% seems about right from my experience... Thanks!

In testing black dragon bolt, acid fog, and acid rain against the lich with 5 acid damage enhancements I'm concluding the ONLY spell an arcane has that is really up to the job is disintegrate. BDB does good damage but takes too long to get its damage load in and he is either smart of spazzy enough to move out of the acid aoe. I haven't used meteor swarm in a while but I don't think that does enough damage a cast to make it worthwhile.

On my sorc with sup potency and 7 in force enhancements disintegrate hit for 1k, so 50% of that is 500 a cast. That means a wiz with with force enhancements or a sorc without will hit for ~800.

[Spud42]

I disagree Chodelord with your "ONLY spell an arcane has". This is your version of an arcane build.

I run a 19ap acid/15ap fire/15ap force/9ap ice helven earth savant with only 26 charisma.
I can solo delete the L21 lich at the portal while the rest of team do other duties.
My general game plan is:
1) Incend. cloud before spawn to see if I can drive it into the corner of the portal so it does not see
any KBs. This works sometimes.
2) Curse Acid and start a BDB x1, Met swarm x2 spam
3) Repeat spam. The Met swarm takes big chunks out of it.

Typically the toon will be held and danced but the BDB is running so these do not really matter.