Warforged Archmage Enhancements

[Darkrok]

Trying to figure out exactly where I want to go w/ my enhancements for my level 18 Warforged Necro/Enchant Archmage (I'll be TR'ing after 18's done and holding 19). Pretty typical build stat/feat-wise: 12str/20con/18+5int, Toughness, Mental Toughness, SF/GSF Enchant/Necro (4 feats), Max, Emp, Heighten, Quicken, Past Life: Wizard. I'd of course get one more feat at 20 but won't be staying there.

Here's my base enhancements that I'm set on taking:
Racial Toughness II (3 total ap)
Improved Concentration III (3 total ap)
Glacial Spellcasting I (1 total ap)
Deadly Ice I (1 total ap)
Frost Manipulation VII (7 total ap)
Storm Manipulation I (1 total ap)
Force Manipulation I (1 total ap)
Repair Manipulation I (1 total ap)
Wizard Energy of the Scholar III (6 total ap - +80 sp)
Wizard Intelligence III (12 total ap)
Wizard Wand and Scroll Mastery I (1 total ap)
Warforged Inscribed Armor I (1 total ap)
Wizard Archmage IV (7 total ap - +325 sp)
Archmage Secondary Spell Mastery I: Enchantment (1 total ap - could swap this to main line too -50sp)
Archmage Spell Mastery I: Necromancy (1 total ap - could swap this to secondary line too -50sp)
Archmage Spell Mastery II: Necromancy (1 total ap - could swap this to secondary line too -75sp)
Enchantment I - Hypnotism (1 total ap -25sp)
Enchantment II - Otto's Resistible Dance (1 total ap -50sp)
Total - 50/72ap, +155sp

Now that looks like a lot of extra AP but I'm only going to have 72ap to play with at 18 w/ capped xp. That's a difference of 22. I'm also realizing that despite my 2 wizard past lives and decent spell pen gear that spell pen is still an issue given my lack of free feats for spell pen. I'm thinking that Spell Penetration III is pretty much required. That would get me to a level 18 spell pen of 27 on level 6 and below, 26 on level 7, and 25 on level 8 and 9. That's 18 levels + 3/2/1 item + 4 past lives + 3 enhancements. I really don't want to drop any of the feats I have right now...obviously if I was going to 20 I could swap in Spell Pen for Quicken before taking 20 but I'm not going to 20 so no room. Given that fact I'd say I'm pretty much stuck with Spell Penetration III on a Necro/Enchant focused wizard...open to suggestions there but that's where I'm leaning now.

Wizard Spell Penetration III (12 total ap)
New Total - 62/72ap, +155sp

So basically that leaves 10ap to play with. This is where it gets interesting for me. I'm currently playing 1 of 3 'styles' of play:
1) Soloing/small grouping with 1 or 2 other quality arcanes and killing things: This is primarily when crowd control is unnecessary or ineffective. I'm either nuking with cold-based spells, disintegrate (on the odd immune mob like GoP doomsphere), or using necro instakills.
2) Small grouping with 1 or 2 other quality arcanes and doing cc: This is primarily in longer quests where the sp bar of the other arcanes (and especially the sorc who does most of our damage) would be taxed by having to use extra spells for the kills. My mass holds are good enough now where I can give 50% extra damage to almost all the mobs. It also helps with the healing as the sorc is a fleshy...I can run ahead, set up a hold and have it ready before the sorc gets there.
3) Soloing using charm: This is for quests that would normally be out of my ability to complete, mainly due to sp constraints. I'm thinking primarily of Weapon's Shipment Elite. Sure I could try to instakill everything but I'd probably run out of sp's. Judicious use of Mass Charm and Symbol of Persuasion make it doable.

With that in mind I'm considering a couple options:
1) Maxing out sp's and sp-efficiency
Improved Concentration IV (1 additional ap)
Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV (4 additional ap - +30 additional sp)
Wizard Archmage V (1 additional ap - +75 additional sp)
Total AT Level 18 (6 additional ap - +105 additional sp)
Wizard Improved Heighten I (4 additional ap)

This option gives me 105 more sp's and saves 1sp per level of heighten.

2) Maxing out Enchantment with SLA's
Swap to Enchantment main (+1 enchant dc's/-1 necro dc's)
Improved Concentration IV (1 additional ap)
Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV (4 additional ap - +30 additional sp)
Wizard Archmage V (1 additional ap - +75 additional sp)
Total AT Level 18 (6 additional ap - +105 additional sp)
Enchantment III - Hold Person (1 total ap -75sp)
Enchantment IV - Charm Monster (1 total ap -100sp)
Enchantment V - Otto's Resistible Dance (1 total ap -125sp)
1ap free, Net loss of 195sp's from base, 300sp's from option 1

I do like this option though as I'm very much a 'lock down everything' sort when I'm doing cc. Having another cheap'ish single-target option (6 or 15 depending on targets) and a cheap single-target charm would be very handy and definitely be worth the 195-300sp's if I'm going heavy CC at the time. When I'm not doing CC though that's a big loss in sp's.

3) Nuke-'friendly'
Improved Concentration IV (1 additional ap)
Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV (4 additional ap - +30 additional sp)
Wizard Archmage V (1 additional ap - +75 additional sp)
Total AT Level 18 (6 additional ap - +105 additional sp)
Wizard Improved Maximize (2 total ap)
Either Wizard Improved Empower (2 total ap) or Acid Manipulation I and Fire Manipulation I (to even out the non-cold spells)

This would be the highest 'staying power' for pure dps.

[DaSawks]

I would put more into Wand and Scroll Mastery. This is for one reason only. Reconstruct scrolls. You will learn to love them as a WF AM.

I reset my enhancments every so often just to try different things. Sometimes I go "tankish" with Max HP. Sometimes I try different types of elemental like electral. A few weeks ago I tried going PM. Took a little practice but I can now solo farm most epics for scrolls with him.

[Darkrok]

I would put more into Wand and Scroll Mastery. This is for one reason only. Reconstruct scrolls. You will learn to love them as a WF AM.

I reset my enhancments every so often just to try different things. Sometimes I go "tankish" with Max HP. Sometimes I try different types of elemental like electral. A few weeks ago I tried going PM. Took a little practice but I can now solo farm most epics for scrolls with him.

I don't mind the scrolls but rarely need them. If I'm solo or grabbing agro I'm using quickened reconstructs to top off and the torc more than replaces the sp's from it. If I'm just dropping them between fights 130-something instead of 190'ish doesn't really matter that much to me. Now if I was going to cap and had 8 more ap's to play with I'd take III or IV just for raid-reconstruction duty. I'm not planning on running raids though as this is just a quick life to get my last wizard PL done.

I do love the fact that you can swap those enhancements out easily every three days. It made me a lot more comfortable trying some things out. Running Vale elites at 17 I was getting very frustrated with Spell Pen. I actually did the free feat swap to drop Empower for Spell Pen and redid my enhancements for all 3 points of Spell Pen. That gave me 32 for level 1-6 spells, 31 for level 7 spells, and 30 for level 8-9 spells. That's an increase of 5 points over what I had before. It's like an entirely different game now. Before I had to think seriously about bothering with CC or instakills on certain enemies. I'm guessing that all of the non-epic content will be a cakewalk as far as the spell pen goes now. I was running ahead in an elite coal chamber and just dancing/holding everything ahead of the dps. I don't think I saw a single blue shield.

It's coal chamber that really got me thinking about giving up the 75-300sp's to get Hold Person at least or maybe Hold Monster. When I get 1 or 2 mobs single I usually dance them. It makes the dps less efficient but I hate blowing 50sp's or so to hold 1 thing. A 6 or 15 sp hold (or two of them if the mobs were humanoid since there'd be separate cooldowns) would be very nice for those situations. In Coal I probably would have been holding about 30+ mobs per shrine with the SLA as I would have held every archer than I instead danced. Would have cost at least twice the sp's (trogs are humanoid) but it would have helped out the sorc in thinning the herd as we zerg'd it.