Build for Zerging to 20?

[Darkrok]

Trying to decide on my final plan for a wizard build to zerg to 20 for my 3rd wizard past life. I'm thinking that WF'd is a no-brainer on this. I'm thinking that judicious use of sp pots will allow full damage most the time so Max/Emp right off the bat is a must. Fitting in everything pushes Quicken/Toughness to level 15 but I should be just fine on a 20 starting con warforged w/o Toughness until then, especially given the amount of gear I have available.

I'm building for acid damage as it's easier to slot the boots but at 15 or 16 when I get polar ray I'll revisit that decision. I'll most likely go with ice at 18 though as at the point I can use Belshyrra's to get 50% to polar ray.

This toon will likely never see level 19 or 20 other than the day it TR's. I spent a ton of time at cap this life (40 DQ's) so 18 is basically my 'cap'. That does make that level 18 feat an interesting choice though. I listed the build with Spell Pen. Even though I have 2 past lives, a spell pen vii item, and hopefully after DQ today a greater spell pen vi item more is always better there. Other contenders for that last slot are Extend, GSF: Conjuration, and SF: Enchantment (to pick up 1sp hypno's mainly).

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.11.02
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Level 18 True Neutral Warforged Male
(18 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 240
Spell Points: 1658 
BAB: 9\9\14
Fortitude: 12
Reflex: 6
Will: 10

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
(36 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 18)           (Level 18)
Strength             12                 14                   14
Dexterity             8                 10                   10
Constitution         20                 22                   22
Intelligence         18                 25                   28
Wisdom                6                  8                    8
Charisma              6                  8                    8

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Constitution used at level 3
+1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 3
+1 Tome of Wisdom used at level 3
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7
+3 Tome of Intelligence used at level 11

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 18)          (Level 18)
Balance              -1                  0                    0
Bluff                -2                 -1                   -1
Concentration         5                  6                   10
Diplomacy            -2                 -1                   -1
Disable Device        n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -2                 -1                   -1
Heal                 -2                 -1                   -1
Hide                 -1                  0                    0
Intimidate           -2                 -1                   -1
Jump                  1                  2                    2
Listen               -2                 -1                   -1
Move Silently        -1                  0                    0
Open Lock            n/a                n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair                4                  9                    9
Search                4                  9                    9
Spot                 -2                 -1                   -1
Swim                  1                  2                    2
Tumble               n/a                n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device     n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Empower Spell
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Wizard
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Wizard
Feat: (Automatic) Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Composite Plating
Feat: (Automatic) Dismiss Charm
Feat: (Automatic) Heroic Durability
Feat: (Automatic) Inscribe Scroll
Feat: (Automatic) Light Fortification
Feat: (Automatic) Magical Training
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Club
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Dagger
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Crossbow
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Light Crossbow
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Quarterstaff
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Throwing Dagger
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency: Unarmed
Feat: (Automatic) Sneak
Feat: (Automatic) Warforged Immunities


Level 2 (Wizard)
Feat: (Automatic) Defensive Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Sunder
Feat: (Automatic) Trip


Level 3 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Arcane Initiate


Level 4 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


Level 5 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Mental Toughness


Level 6 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Focus: Conjuration


Level 7 (Wizard)


Level 8 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


Level 9 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Heighten Spell


Level 10 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Necromancy


Level 11 (Wizard)


Level 12 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy


Level 13 (Wizard)


Level 14 (Wizard)


Level 15 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Quicken Spell
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 16 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


Level 17 (Wizard)


Level 18 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Concentration I
Enhancement: Improved Concentration II
Enhancement: Improved Concentration III
Enhancement: Improved Concentration IV
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting II
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting III
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting IV
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting V
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting VI
Enhancement: Kinetic Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Reconstructive Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Deadly Acid I
Enhancement: Deadly Acid II
Enhancement: Deadly Acid III
Enhancement: Deadly Acid IV
Enhancement: Deadly Acid V
Enhancement: Deadly Acid VI
Enhancement: Deadly Kinetics I
Enhancement: Mighty Reconstruction I
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation I
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation II
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation III
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation V
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation VI
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation VII
Enhancement: Force Manipulation I
Enhancement: Repair Manipulation I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar III
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence I
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence II
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence III
Enhancement: Wizard Wand and Scroll Mastery I
Enhancement: Warforged Inscribed Armor I
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage I
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage II
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage III
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage IV
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage V
Enhancement: Archmage Secondary Spell Mastery I: Conjuration
Enhancement: Archmage Spell Mastery I: Necromancy
Enhancement: Archmage Spell Mastery II: Necromancy
Enhancement: Conjuration I - Grease
Enhancement: Conjuration II - Web

[Kinerd]

A guildy of mine recently started a massive TR project, and I decided to build a wizogue to go along with him. The things you sacrifice with a wizouge compared to a pure wizard are spell pen and some endgame spellcasting effectiveness... who cares about either while leveling, right? With that said, I also largely ignored Necromancy, because I didn't get good instant kills until level 15, don't ever (essentially) get Wail, and have slightly more feat squeeze. Especially if you plan on soloing, though, I could see how Necro is a better option. I also like Cold a lot more than Acid for a leveling wizard: Ice Storm is more versatile than Acid Rain, and I found Frost Lance and Niac's Various Cold Spells much more useful than Acid Blast/Spray/Arrow. I never even bother with Cone of Cold or Otiluke's, being more CC focused, but they are others that could presumably tip the scales in Cold's favor.

[Chette]

I always splash 1 level or artificer for traps and UMD for a leveling build. I've played a few of these lately and don't really have any issue with getting spells 1 level later, or the minuscule decrease in spellpoints/spell pen. Rogue would work instead of artificer too if you don't have it.

The UMD is nice, as assuming you have cha skills on your SP or HP item, you'll be able to no fail heal scrolls by around level 14 or so. Handy for taking care of other members of your party in an emergency. The trap skills can really add a lot, if just for the additional xp from ingenious debilitation or neutralization where available. In general, if traps don't give me xp, I don't disable them Heck, I'd splash 1 level or artificer/rogue just for the ability to farm Shadow Knight at level 10. 30k in 8 minutes? Yes please!

Don't completely rule our palemaster either, unless you addicted to warforged.

I used to always run WF wizards for my zerg/TR builds, until I got a bit of experience playing a human palemaster. Now I far prefer the human palemaster. The low levels are a little trickier, but for an experienced zerger that's no time at all. I find that the constant healing of the negative energy aura fits my playstyle a lot better than reconstructing. With an extended displace and wraith form (which I use until cap) I almost never have to burst heal. The negative energy aura is enough to keep me fully healed, except in very rare circumstances. This is great for me because I am notoriously bad at watching my HP bar. (I watch everybody elses though of course, heh left over from my first character being a Cleric I'm sure!) Although the overall healing power isn't quite as high as a WF with reconstruct, the amount of time and effort spent healing is far lower. The aura and free nukes actually do decent damage as well when you're running low on SP. But if you're a potion junkie you probably aren't concerned with that. Of coruse the extra feat from human also allows you to get quicken or toughness earlier, or fit in extend for haste/displace.

Anyway, WF and human are both great choices and easy to zerg, just wanted to throw my experience out there

[Darkrok]

I've gone 2 different ways so far. Both of them were wiz-rog's. The first was quite awhile ago, back when repair/force damage were part of the same line. I went with a WF'd Evoker/Conj. 18/2 archmage. Loved the build but evocation kills a bit slower than what I'd prefer. And the splitting of repair/force, while it actually helped a lot of builds, weakened that one. And of course the change to evocation SLA's hurt it as well.

My 2nd wizard life was much different. I'd expressly avoided Spell Pen spells on my first life realizing I'd have trouble making a build to take advantage of them. I still wanted to run 18/2 but wanted to sample the Spell Pen dependent spells. 1 wizard past life wouldn't have cut it in my opinion...especially when I didn't want to take a spell pen feat...so I went elf for this life. I greatly enjoyed the toon at the end...it wasn't a monster in epics and didn't really have the DC's for CC or tough instakills but that wasn't its point. What it did well was dominate non-epic/non-elite Amrath content and be darn near unkillable (shield mastery with unsuppressed Light and Darkness with no ASF thanks to 6ap's from the elven armor line). Made solo-ing elite DQ to get my 40th a snap. When I wanted a couple Lucid Dreams for another toon I was easily duo'ing the quest (the crystal would have been a pain otherwise could have solo'd it). What I didn't like though was that stat damage was very difficult to heal (couldn't keep Harm scrolls stocked) and again, like the previous iteration, it was slow.

Both of my previous builds have been long in the staying power but short in speed. Especially the elf life until level 15 when I got FoD.

I went with the build I posted. It's been a bit of a learning experience. If I had it to do over again I would have crafted some nice weapons and maybe even busted out the Carnifex (though I prefer 1h'ers on casters to allow for a superior stability shield small mithral shield). I did manage to find a nice balance though by using un-meta'd melf's/acid spray until Acid Rain (which I just got). Acid Rain really changes everything (as does Wall of Fire of course). I may swap to cold at some point...outside of Acid Rain which just does great quick damage I do like cold better...but that's more of a gear issue since I can fit in the challenge boots but there's no cold equivalent for warforged. I'll almost certainly switch over to cold either at 16 when I get my cove dagger again (t3 so it has fire/cold/lightning) or at 18 when I get belshyrra's scepter but getting the boots which allows me to keep a shield or greensteel int item in one hand and the major kinetic lore in the other is really nice. That secondary in force boosts the past life missiles as well as helping out with ice storm and disintegrate.

My play style is far better suited with a sorc - I've played both and just do better with the narrower spell lists and deeper sp pool - so I'm going with as little as possible dipping into the AM lines. Up through level 9 I'm taking nothing but the extra sp's. At 9 I'll take web but that's it. Boosting Necro once you have FoD seems like a no-brainer and 3sp webs are a great choice but beyond that I'll be buying nothing so as to maximize my sp pool. Between that larger sp pool, a torc, and a con-opp I'm hopeful I can replicate my sorc play style on this toon until next life. I'll have to revisit the WF/Human question at that point to decide which one offers me more zerg'ability.