pure Cleric healer/caster: Spell Pen vs Spell Focus

[GlassJaw]

What's the thought on Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Pen vs Spell Focus and Gr Spell Focus for pure clerics specced for healing and casting?

My cleric is currently level 15 and I have Toughness, Emp Healing, Extend, Maximize, Heighten, Spell Pen, and Gr Spell Pen. I plan on taking Quicken at level 18.

But I'm wondering if I should swap out Spell Pen and Greater for Spell Focus in either Enchantment, Necro, or Evocation. I tend to use a mix of spells (Greater Command, Slay Living, Blade Barrier, Destruction, etc) so I'm not sure which Spell Focus would be best.

Also, what about taking Spell Penetration and Spell Focus instead of 2 feats in one chain?

[tekkentroop]

Get a wizard past life, solves all your problems

Id go for evocation, increasing soundburst, blade barrier, and implosion, which are your bread and butter spells. Necro only has 2 spells, even though destruction is nice, and enchantment is even less powerful.

[Chette]

What's the thought on Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Pen vs Spell Focus and Gr Spell Focus for pure clerics specced for healing and casting?

My cleric is currently level 15 and I have Toughness, Emp Healing, Extend, Maximize, Heighten, Spell Pen, and Gr Spell Pen. I plan on taking Quicken at level 18.

But I'm wondering if I should swap out Spell Pen and Greater for Spell Focus in either Enchantment, Necro, or Evocation. I tend to use a mix of spells (Greater Command, Slay Living, Blade Barrier, Destruction, etc) so I'm not sure which Spell Focus would be best.

Also, what about taking Spell Penetration and Spell Focus instead of 2 feats in one chain?

It's really hard to say unfortunately, and you will likely find yourself failing one check or another in high level content regardless of which feats you take. However, for a first life character I would probably recommend the evocation spell focus feats. The reason for this are as follows:

Evocation affects both your implode insta kill, your soundburst CC, and your blade barrier for damage. It is a very versatile spell school for a divine caster.

Spell pen is very important for end game...but, with just a small investment of 1 or 2 feats you won't see that much difference, especially if you have to sacrifice your DCs to do it.

Necro feats are awesome, but without the spell pen to back them up, they won't be much use. I take necro feats instead of evocation on my divine caster, but she has a rediculous spell pen and 3 sorc past lives to increase her evocation DC. I wouldn't recommend them on a first life caster.

So basically, taking spell pen but not having the DCs won't help you much. Taking necro focus but not having any spell pen won't help you much. But taking evocation feats will at least help with your blade barrier, and you'll also improve your soundburst and implode, which affect multiple targets, and hence have more chances to get through the spell pen of at least something, or can be used on low spell resistance targets.

Hope that helps. If you want to be really effective at offensive casting I'd definitely advice 1-2 past lives as a wizard. The increase to your spell penetration is huge, and you can also take the active feat for +1 to all of your DCs.

[good_ole_corwin]

Id go for evocation, increasing soundburst, blade barrier, and implosion, which are your bread and butter spells.

Soundburst and implo are subject to SR however and DCs arent all that important for BB.

Necro only has 2 spells, even though destruction is nice

Necro has 4 important/useful spells - destruction, slay living, bestow curse, symbol of pain. All also subject to SR.

enchantment is even less powerful.

Greater command is SO useful however... Personally never used symbol of persuasion, but I can imagine tactics making it very effective as well.

I personally favor spell pen, because if you can get through SR, you can debuff, but if you cant, mobs wont even roll the dice on your awesome DCs. However, not all mobs have SR, so it all really comes down to your style of play, gear and PL state and content you play.

[Kinerd]

Even if only for Energy Drain, spell pen is a great thing to have.

You are probably in the scenario where each additional point of SR and DC helps. With that in mind, it seems like 2 of one is worth more than 1 of the other, no?

You could also drop Extend.

[tekkentroop]

Soundburst isnt affected by SR. Implosion is, unfortunately. I still think evocation is better than necro. I agree that spell penetration is quite important since devils have SR which can be beaten with a little investment. Drow SR on the other hand is tough to beat, but soundburst works well on them.

[good_ole_corwin]

Soundburst isnt affected by SR.

Damage isnt, stun is, unless they made a stealth fix Im not aware of.

[Ginarrbrik]

yeah that's a tough one. both are important, but i guess if i had to pick one i'd choose spell pen. either way, personally, i'd get rid of extend. and you should also keep in mind that both spell pen and spell focus can be worked into gear.