Evoker : how many wizard past lives ?

[badkhan]

Hello,

so i've leveled an evoker favor soul to 20. It has been a revelation as it's a very tough character, hard to kill, and being a healer is a lot of fun.

The problem is that i've noticed that in epics, i'm more of a healbot then an offensive caster because, except BB, my DC's are way too low to matter. (i think around 32-36 depending on buffs etc...). I've maxed wisdom in any ways i could think of (but only ate a +2 tomes as i couldn't get a +3 yet) and it's only 34, without ship buffs and any source of exceptional wisdom or +7 wis item (working on it).

Bottom line is, i'm aware i need to gear, but i've also started to consider TRing for past lives.

The question is : if i want to be an effective offensive caster/evoker FS, how many past lives of wizard, sorcerer, favor soul do you think are needed ? how many is overkill ?

thanks in advance.

[erikbozelie]

Hello,

how many is overkill ?

past lives feats stack up to 3 times for each class, so overkill would be 4> .
12 past lives total for 3 classes ;p.

for past lives below 3, there is no such thing as overkill . but would suggest at least 1 wizard for the active +1 dc PL feat option.

[Sarzor]

I've been giving this some thought myself as I'm trying to decide which way to TR (FvS, another wizard life, another sorc life, or something completely different).

Basically Wiz PL helps with spell penetration, which helps implosion.

Sorc PL helps with BB by increasing your evocation DC.

Doing either past life helps by allowing you to put more focus into the other, or into other feats/enchantments/skills. I.e. - 3 sorc PLs means you need to put less feats towards evocation and can focus on spell penetration. Ideally 3 of each, coupled with 3 FvS PLs would be a pretty impressive evoker. Wizard gives more bang for the buck as you can get the free 2 spell pen, and trade out your evocation feat for the active PL Wizard feat.

[SirValentine]

I've maxed wisdom in any ways i could think of (but only ate a +2 tomes as i couldn't get a +3 yet) and it's only 34, without ship buffs and any source of exceptional wisdom or +7 wis item (working on it).

Check out here for more ideas on how to raise your Wisdom:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=362770

If you run Shroud at all, it's not too hard to get +1/+2 Exceptional Wisdom. Or on a ToD ring if you run that is probably an even better choice, but maybe slightly harder to get.

The question is : if i want to be an effective offensive caster/evoker FS, how many past lives of wizard, sorcerer, favor soul do you think are needed ? how many is overkill ?

The more the merrier, up to 3 of each, of course. If only doing one, I'd prioritize it for Wizard, as the +2 spell pen and option for +1 to all DCs is very nice. But even a first-life divine caster can be ver effective once they get geared up.

[SirValentine]

Basically Wiz PL helps with spell penetration, which helps implosion.

Sorc PL helps with BB by increasing your evocation DC.

Odd thing to say...BB DCs often don't matter much. Sorc PL helps with Implosion by increasing your Evocation DC.

[badkhan]

Thanks for the link SirValentine, very useful. I'd +1 you if i could but i need to spread +1's around

So yes i'd go with at the very least 1 past life of wizard, and then see how is my motivation to go on.

Ty all for your comments !

[sirgog]

If you like levelling, you will see a sharp improvement in character performance from having 3 Sorc PLs and one Wizard one.

Additional Wizard, Favored Soul and Barbarian lives also offer significant benefits but much less than the three Sorc PLs. Other past lives offer less benefits to Evokers and are not even close to worth the grind.

[tekkentroop]

Id go 1x wiz first, and then continue with up to 3 sorc past lives if you still like TRing.

First wiz life gives you both the active and the passive past lives, after that the +1 evo from sorc is better than the spell pen from wiz, plus sorc is faster to level (not speaking from experience as I didnt play a sorc yet, but I dont think many would disagree here). Evo also helps with soundburst early on (imagine having +4 to soundburst dcs at lvl in waterworks etc...)

Barb past lives are overkill unless you really like TRing.

Adding FvS past lives might make more sense if you like TRing since you will already have all the FvS gear and PLs and probably like the playstyle.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Maybe the progression is:
Easy: 1 Wiz PL
Moderate: 1 Wiz, 3 Sorc PL
Difficult: 3 Wiz/Sorc/FvS PL
Insance: 3 Wiz/Sorc/FvS +1*everything else (for completionist)

[Matuse]

Insance should also include 3x Paladin for the healing amp.

You could also do an insane version which is 3x everything.

[sirgog]

Insance should also include 3x Paladin for the healing amp.

You could also do an insane version which is 3x everything.

Ranger (for the +2 resist all) is also in with the higher priority 'insane' ones.