Wizard Archmage

[sinister_purr]

This is my first wizzie and I'm looking for advice/constructive criticism on the build.

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Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Elf Female
(20 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 162
Spell Points: 1589 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 8
Reflex: 12
Will: 11

                  Starting            Ending          
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats        
(32 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 20)        
Strength             10                 10            
Dexterity            14                 14            
Constitution         14                 14            
Intelligence         18                 23            
Wisdom                8                  8            
Charisma             10                 10            

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance               4                 13                   13
Bluff                 1                 11                   11
Concentration         6                 25                   25
Diplomacy             2                 11                   11
Disable Device        n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle                0                  0                    0
Heal                 -1                 -1                   -1
Hide                  2                  2                    2
Intimidate            0                  0                    0
Jump                  2                 11                   11
Listen               -1                 -1                   -1
Move Silently         2                  2                    2
Open Lock             n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform               n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair                4                  7                    7
Search                4                  6                    6
Spot                  1                 10                   10
Swim                  0                 10                   10
Tumble                3                  3                    3
Use Magic Device      n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Extend Spell
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Ranger
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Automatic) Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Dismiss Charm
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Keen Senses
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Mixed Heritage
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Social Graces (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Heroic Durability
Feat: (Automatic) Inscribe Scroll
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


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


Level 3 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness


Level 4 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


Level 5 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Maximize Spell


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


Level 7 (Wizard)


Level 8 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


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


Level 10 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Heighten Spell


Level 11 (Wizard)


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


Level 13 (Wizard)


Level 14 (Wizard)


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


Level 16 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT


Level 17 (Wizard)


Level 18 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Insightful Reflexes


Level 19 (Wizard)


Level 20 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Enlarge Spell

Decided to go with half elf to get the feat H-Elf Dilettante: Ranger for healing wand use, I've never been in a situation where healing wands hurt. And I just plain ole don't like the way WF run so I'm not interested in a self-healing WF. -eep-

162 HP is squishy, but I took Toughness at level 1 and intend to take the enhancements as I progress. Also a fan of +CON and false life items so she will be donning that gear as soon as it's acquired.

I'm not set on the feats or really the progression of feats, which is mostly why I'm turning to the community for some advice. The enhancements haven't made it into this post, because I intend to take what I need to unlock Archmage I-V and tinker with the rest as I go. Enhancements aren't static and easily reset so swapping them around once in awhile shouldn't be too much hassle.

Not sure if I should be taking Spell Pen or furthering myself to Greater Spell Pen. It is tempting to take a second Toughness feat.

[gavijal]

You got many things wrong

1. dump dex, u have Insightful Reflexes
2. max int, max con rest to str
3. dump Improved Mental Toughness and Enlarge spell
4. You need spell pen. and Great spell pen.
5. go pale master
6.If u want archmage go Ench and Great. Ench maybe just 1 conj.
7.go palemaster
8.go palemaster
9. helf is not best race for wizzy, go human for +1 feat, or drow for +2 int or wf for self heal, or elf for more spell pent.
10. go palemaster


P.S. go palemaster

[jortann]

Here is a archmage build of mine...

Enchanted Death
The goal is to have decent Necro and Enchantment DCs at end game. I would suggest Warforged for the self healing. You can get an extra DC if you go Drow, but then you would have to be a Drow and purple and squishy. Also you could go human for an extra level 1 feat and one extra point of INT, which gets you half way to another DC.

Build Points
INT - 18
CON - 16 (15 if human because you will add a human adaptability point there)
STR - minimum 12
CHA - Put whatever you have left here if you are a fleshy, then you might have enough UMD to use some sort of self healing other than pots.... if you care about that sort of thing.

Feats
1. Toughness
1. Insightful Reflexes OR Extend OR Empower (Check out this thread here for a discussion on this... http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=332478
1. (human bonus - grab another of Insightful Reflexes OR Extend OR Empower)
3. Maximize
5. Mental Toughness
6. Spell Focus: Enchant
9. Greater Spell Focus: Enchant
10. Heighten
12. Spell Focus: Necro
15. Greater Spell Focus: Necro
15. Spell Penetration
18. Greater Spell Penetration
20. Quicken

Skill Points
You have lots so it doesn't really matter.... My preference...
Concentration, Jump, Balance, Spot, UMD, Diplo, Bluff

Enhancements
Make sure you you get the prereqs for your archmage prestige enhancements.

Take Archmage Spell Mastery I & II in either Necro or Enchantment
Take Archmage Secondary Mastery in the other
Take Spell Penetration

I would not waste enhancement points on SLAs... That is my take. Some people love them, but I feel it cuts into my spell point pool too much.

The rest is a balance between hitpoints and power.

I try to ramp up two schools. I love fire. Ice works well at end game. Electric and acid seem to have potential as well. There would be a good arguement to have Ice and Electric at end game because they both have good DoTs (Damage over Time spells - Eladers Electric Surge and Niacs Biting Cold).

Thats the basics...

[Darkrok]

If you're set on using a dilettante for healing then cleric would be the one you want.

Stats for that would be 9 str (meh but wouldn't want to drop anything else), 16 con, 18 int, 13 wis (required for cleric dilettante). That would give you 95% chance on heal scrolls at level 15.

As an alternate suggestion to Pale Master (and to the spell pen feats) you could do an Evocation/Conjuration build. It's an SLA-heavy (spell-like ability) build and avoids spells that require spell pen, so it's nice for first-life toons. I did it as a Warforged 18/2rog build but it would work out fine pure if you prefer on a Half Elf with the Cleric Dilettante to provide the healing.

I guess there's actually two builds I'd consider if you're set on Half Elf and Archmage.

1) 18 wizard/2 rogue with Paladin Dilettante and 13 starting charisma. This build would take rogue at levels 1 (toughness as the feat) and 9 (insightful reflexes as the feat) and would use insightful reflexes + the paladin dilettante to get very high saves all around and especially in reflex. Low level healing would be provided by wands. High level healing you would be able to UMD heal scrolls (especially thanks to your 20+ charisma once items/tomes are taken into account).
2) Pure wizard with cleric Dilettante and 13 starting wisdom.

In both cases I'd use the following feats:
Mental Toughness (req'd for AM), Spell Focus: Conjuration, Spell Focus: Evocation, GSF: Evocation, Heighten, Maximize, Empower, Toughness, Insightful Reflexes (not a 100% necessity on the pure build but a solid option)

That's 9 of the 12 total feats you can take. Other options after that include GSF: Conjuration, Spell Pen (still not bad for spells you might use that require spell pen), GSpell Pen, Extend, Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus: Necro (for more power on insta-kills) or Enchantment (for a more powerful CC build).

First life I'd definitely take Insightful Reflexes either way, I'd steer away from the Spell Pen req'd spells, take Extend (more group-friendly with that) and I'd probably take Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration (get the web dc's as high as possible) and Spell Focus: Enchantment. The enchantment isn't for you so much as it's there to give you the 1sp hypnotism. I suppose you could use it for others as well but it's not as important for that purpose as you won't have the spell pen to make use of it all the time. The 18/2 build would not have the last feat and I'd skip out on the Spell Focus: Enchantment and keep the rest.

As far as which option I'd highly recommend the 18/2. The main criticisms of splashing on a wizard are that you make your metamagics more sp-expensive and you lose out on some spell pen. Neither of those effect a build much when their main spells have a low fixed sp cost regardless of meta's use and don't require spell pen checks. You'll be able to play party healer rather effectively once you can UMD scrolls, you'll be able to handle traps, and you'll be highly durable thanks to very high saves and evasion. When you TR eventually you'll want to look more into the spells that require spell pen checks but for a first life this works very well without having to deal with spell pen.

[Darkrok]

I would not waste enhancement points on SLAs... That is my take. Some people love them, but I feel it cuts into my spell point pool too much.

I completely agree with you on Necro. Now that necrotic ray is 10sp's and (in U13) won't have a spell pen check I can't see any good reason to sink points into the necro line.

I'd say that 25sp's for 1sp heightened hypno is a no-brainer though. You're going to want to use hypno pretty often for the debuff to will saves it provides. With a high enchant DC it will also lock many of the enemies down for 9 seconds to help you corral whatever you're wanting to CC better. I used hypno w/ meta's turned off for it a ton on my Pale Master. It was often the difference between locking everything down and missing one or two. Use it three times a quest and taking the SLA is worth it (30sp's for 3 unheightened spells vs 25sp cost + 3sp for 3 heightened SLA's).

The dance is more a personal preference. If you often do single-target CC then the dance is great. 50sp cost + 3sp per use isn't terribly expensive but you've got to be using it quite a bit to be worthwhile. If you dance things much you want this but not everyone bothers with dance.

I try to ramp up two schools. I love fire. Ice works well at end game. Electric and acid seem to have potential as well. There would be a good arguement to have Ice and Electric at end game because they both have good DoTs (Damage over Time spells - Eladers Electric Surge and Niacs Biting Cold).

Ice/electric are very powerful...except when they don't work. Liches for example. There's a strong argument to be made for force as a secondary. It's rarely resisted. And it has a solid spell for getting around liches mantle (disintegrate) as well as a powerful though situation spell from your primary line (Horrid Wilting).

Like Jor mentioned...Warforged is definitely better. I don't want to give the impression I don't agree with that part. My post was simply to give you some good options if you're set on going Half Elf.

[danotmano1998]

Here is a archmage build of mine...

Enchanted Death

Solid build. Good advice, nice writeup, plenty of room for customizing the details as the player sees fit.

My takes on the enhancements:

I typically max two damage lines.
I've been experimenting with these are here are my conclusions:

Electric: Has NO AOE lingering effect. No kiting through walls of fire or acid rain or ice storms. This to me is a HUGE detriment to the line.

Acid: Has no DOT. Black Dragon bolt does not stack like Eladar's or Niac's, therefore it is only a fraction as potent as these two 5th level spells, even though it IS an 8th level spell. On the flip side of this, Black Dragon bolt is a good spell against things that have spell immunities like liches or such.

Fire: Awesome line. No DOT. LOTS of the end game stuff is immune or highly resistant to fire, however. Great to take leveling up. Not so much near the end of things.

Ice: All around best line, IMO. Has a DOT, has a great AOE that lasts. Only a few quests have things that are immune to ice. Keep in mind though, that a large portion of undead is immune to cold entirely. Not the line to rely on when running Delera's, for instance. Or Aussie's valley in Reavers. Also Ice Storm will eliminate any firewalls. So if you cast this alongside a fire specced guy, his firewalls will vanish entirely.

There's a strong argument to be made for force as a secondary. It's rarely resisted. And it has a solid spell for getting around liches mantle (disintegrate)

Agreed. Plus a lot of people don't know that this line will enhance other spells like:
Disintegrate, Ice Storm, Cyclonic Blast, Meteor Swarm.

I've been toying with the force line as a secondary, and it is indeed extremely useful against enemies that are elemental immune/resistant.

[Darkrok]

Agreed. Plus a lot of people don't know that this line will enhance other spells like:
Disintegrate, Ice Storm, Cyclonic Blast, Meteor Swarm.

I've been toying with the force line as a secondary, and it is indeed extremely useful against enemies that are elemental immune/resistant.

The mix of spells there - Ice Storm, Cyclonic Blast, Meteor Swarm, Disintegrate - is what makes force viable even as a primary line. I could certainly see a wizard going primary force but with solid contributions to ice and lightning for times you want to toss DoT's on. 7/6/6 in a damage line is 19ap...7/1/1 in two lines is only 18ap. The difference in damage output assuming a major lore item is about 13% added from going 7/6/6. Reduce that to a greater lore item (for instance if you're using a greater arcane lore item to provide lore for multiple lines) and the damage increase goes down to about 12%. That's not insignificant but when you consider the choice of going full on into ice or having both ice and lightning slightly lower in total damage output but able to stack both dots...oftentimes that setup will win out.

I'm taking advantage of the relative weakness in the crit lines (as compared to the base damage lines) right now on my level 13 force-necro AM. Rather than focus on force or on ice with the limited available points at level 13 I've got a 6/1/1 spec in each one. That leaves me the points to max int as well as get the goodies like chain missiles and primary/secondary focus. I don't get the flashy high crits (those are quite a bit lower than a single-spec wizard would be) but that balances out since I have the ability to provide solid force or ice damage either one. At cap I'd imagine you could fit in three different 7/1/1 lines if you were so inclined. If you went that route then I'd recommend ice as your 'main' (meaning any extra points go to its crit line), then force followed by lightning.

Finally, there's an argument to be made for going 1/0/0 in every other line especially if you're Pale Master (which is less AP intensive). With a Major Lore item the damage line alone is optimal up through 5/0/0. Then it's 6/1/0 and 7/1/0. Finally 7/1/1 would follow that. From that point on you bump the multiplier first (ie 7/1/2 next) then the crit line (ie 7/2/2 after that) and so on to 7/5/6 followed by 7/6/6.

The difference just a single point makes is a line with a major lore item is 20%. Even if you rarely use those spells, as a wizard the ability to be flexible is very useful. Doing 20% more damage in the odd situation where you need a different type of damage is outstanding. And given that many mobs take additional damage from certain elements you might find that you're often doing more damage with 120% of an optimal line versus 181% of your main line (the total increase of 7/6/6 over a major lore item alone).