My PM is gimped. Help me.

[Olath_Senger]

A while ago I took a stone of experience to bring my PM from level 10 to 16. As I expected, I feel like my performances are less than stellar, especially after running a couple Vale quests for the first time on him. I come to you forum-goers and expert wizards to help gear this sad toon.

His current gear loadout may be found here. Pay no attention to the "anonymous" thingy, it's a weird glitch. Have that on two of my other characters, too... Ah well. The two items I know are must-haves are Heavy/Moderate Fort and GFL (ugh, so expensive). I have a Superior Nihil clicky for my aura.

Another question I'd like to ask you: I ran Rainbow in the Dark the other day on my Monk. The wizard in the group, a first-lifer PM like myself, made it through to the shrine without running out of SP. I don't remember how much he had total; I think it was around 1500. However, when I ran the same quest today on my wizard, I ran out of spell points before the point where we DDoor back to the entrance. So basically, I'm not great at spell conservation. I need help on that.

What I usually do in fights is FoD a caster, Greater Shout the melees, then Acid Rain and Cone of Cold everything to death. If there's a single target, I use Necrotic Ray and my PM II SLA. I buff everyone in the group with Blur, GH, Haste, Rage, and Protection from Elements. I have Extend on Haste, Death Aura, and Rage. Eschew Materials also (cause I'm gimp like that) but that's only 2 SP and I've never noticed a huge difference in how much I can cast when I got it. Occasionally I'll throw a Mass Hold, Web, or Otto's Sphere. What should I do different? I just feel like I'm not contributing when I'm not casting and the melees are beating everything down.

Help is appreciated and welcome.

[MRMechMan]

Use palemaster necro SLAs more-they cost hp but your death aura regens it so usually its effectively free.

For many quests in general, if you try and finger or single target nuke every target, your will go outta sp even if every single one lands.

The strength of arcanes when TRing is AOE damage. Focus on AOE damage, particularly lasting ones like ice storm, acid rain and wall of fire. For vale acidrain and icestorm are your bread and butter.

Greater shout is mediocre at best. Cone of cold is good but expensive for a 1 shot spell.

So gather mobs up and plop a firewall/acidrain/icestorm etc type effect down, maybe a web and jump around or find somewhere safe to watch them burn/dissolve/freeze. The more mobs per clump, the more efficient you are being.

For rainbow specifically, I usually have a few designated "kill zones"

ONE the earth eles/bats right at start
drop down and go all the way down the passage past the (possible) rusties and earth eles
TWO drop another AOE at base of ramp/stairs up
climb up, use necro SLA to finish em off from up top
finger beholder
take a left at interection, run to door near golds
THREE drop an AOE at door near golems
keep going past (maybe floor spikes, watch out)
FOUR drop an AOE at door to boss (maybe some alert by now)
FIVE open door, AOE inside for boss and minions

etc etc. Learn a quest better and you'll find out where in each quest to set up kill zones, how much sp you can use per kill zone, how fast/much alert you can take, where the shrines are, and more. Part of playing a caster well (this is opinion) is being tough and fast and agile enough to be able to take the bit of agro that comes with grouping mobs up. The best casters I've seen are rediculously fast, and they use less sp then the tiptoer because the mobs naturally clump together when going fast.

Some peple will probably suggest the totally opposite way-pull 1 mob at a time and kill as cheaply as possible. This is doable, but I find it a lot less fun. Its actually in between where sp tend to run out, as mobs arent really clumped but take more sp to kill as its not 1 on 1.

Build itself looks fine, apart from 2 charisma items :P

Hopefully this helps, if you have any questions feel free to PM me or post here. If you are on cannith I can mail you a GFL/fort item as yes, they are a noticable jump in survivability.

[mwgarn]

Use your SLAs instead of blowing through your SP with spells like CoC and acid rain (edit acid rain is a decent spell but only after you get the mobs clumped together and webbed in spot, it's duration is way to short to cast it from the hip).. Instead keep everyone hasted like you have, and worry about only fingering casters and the cubes in that quest. Once you hit level 18 (this the level I normally hit the vale with) it will be easier cause you'll have pm3 SLA which hits a group, use web as a cheep CC, and as with most quests once you've gone through it a few times you'll start to learn when you can mana dump and when you have to conserve.

As far as equipment the only things I would consider a must have is a torc (probably not going to happen on a first life) and a con op GS item (same as torc..) after that just things that would increase your dots and main spells and focus items... (heavy fort for every toon not just PMs though in undead form it's not as much of an issue still nice for the mobs that try to bypass a certain amount of fort)

Wizards don't have the spell points to be so aggressive in your casting.. CC, mass insta death, and SLAs are key, I actually find I use more SP with groups then I do solo cause solo I can gather a few more mobs web and then use aoe spells..

[Enoach]

For gear with the new changes you want to get the enhancement and spell implements that most reflect your elements of choice.

Based on what seems to be your favorite spells that would be Sonic, acid and Negative Energy. Also keep your eyes out for Potency (All around) as that will keep your Spell Power up for times you use other types.

Also look for Lore items both Each element type as well as Arcane Lore to help boost your Critical damage and chances. This will give you some Burst damage.

As for Spell conservation. Wizards and especially first life wizards do not have the deep well of Spell Points of the Sorcerer so spamming damage spells left and right is a recipe for Out Of Spell Points or starting a drinking habit. The SLAs are a great way to contribute damage without using spell points, even if your have not taken a form you can leach off of a cleric Aura and have nearly unlimited spell casting. Next is the use of Scrolls for buffs, some buffs work out rather nice scrolling, such as Protection from Elements as they cannot be extended and are usually mostly used up by the time the timer finally does tic away.

Other things to start adding are items that will grant you SP <- See DDO Wiki under Spell Points for a list of items.

Good luck

[Thalone]

Death's Locket is redundant on a PM in form (I believe in-form, you will have deathblock as a part of the immunities package).

Some of your other gear isn't really doing anything for you either. You'd do well to farm out some tapestries in Necro to get a Minos (heavy fort + toughness). I believe INT comes in goggles too, so you can swap that in. You can put STR on gloves, which frees up the bracer slot for the Ethereal Bracers stone loot; since you have no guards at this point, the incorporeality will help with survivability if you're not in wraithform. I'm personally a fan of having energy resistances on rings/cloaks to conserve SP.

Beginning in Vale, spell penetration starts rearing its head. Do you have a weapon set to help with that when you cast enchantment/necro spells? Do you have +enchantment/necro caster sticks to increase DCs when casting?

Build stats look OK. It might be helpful to see your enhancement/feat list too. Have you made sure to have at least 1/1/1 in damage/crit%/crit damage in your preferred elements?

Here's a feat list of the last PM I built (in no particular order):
Spell Focus: Enchantment
Toughness
Past Life: Arcane Initiate
Maximize Spell
Empower Spell
Spell Focus: Necromancy
Heighten Spell
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
Extend Spell
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Quicken Spell

I took mental toughness for Wraithform, and eventually swapped it out (free feat swap in the market quest) for Quicken when Lichform became available.

[firemedium_jt]

Yeah. When you stone a toon it is probably gear gimped. You need to spend the Plat at the AH on the gear u need. I.e. The Darkstorm helm at lvl17 for the null and watch your cheap necrotic ray one shot kill. I am only lvl16 and look forward to this item. My ray with AH gear does over 200 damage. Been working on another toon. I think it does more like 250+.

It is only 10 spell points!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for necrotic ray.

I spent a lot of time at the AH gearing my casters after the update, and especially my stoned Wiz/Rog. You need 3 lores or maybe 4, null and 2-3 elements buffed by gear. Maybe three if you are 7,1,1 in 2 secondary. It is a gear nightmare so I only have 2 elements for now. You may need more versions of your metas on spells on shortcuts. Mix of the metas and spells to get one for boss fights and one for trash fights. I look at the values of the spell points. If it is a 25+ pt spell it will prob have Max and Empower and a version without metas. >25 spell pts I look at my damage output, gear and balance metas with damage output with and without some metas. You can try out stuff at Ataraxia's Haven.

I don't like the quarterstaff cause you use 2 hands and only get one lore. A weapon in each hand is a lore in each hand. But the Thaum Quarters tend to have better spell power lvl20+, and that is consistent.


You can even melee!
You also need heavy fortification, Con+6 and good false life items. If your sp runs out you can put on a heavy fort robe and tell the healer to heal you. Cast master's touch on a keen weapon like falchions rapiers or scims, and click a divine power item and make yourself useful. If you cant cast neg spell you cant heal yourself so what wraith is not worth much then.

[Olath_Senger]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Here's a list of my feats and enhancements.

FEATS:
Maximize
Empower
Extend
Eschew (yes, I know, gimped)
Toughness
Mental Toughness
SF: Necro and Enchant
GSF: Necro
Shield Prof (was going to get Shield Mastery; not looking as attractive, will probably switch this for Quicken)

ENHANCEMENTS:
Racial Toughness 3
7/1/1 in Acid and Ice
Energy of the Scholar 3
Storm/Flame/Force 1/0/0
Wizard Int 3
W&S Mastery 1
Warforged Con 2
Inscribed Armor I
PM 2
Wraith Form

I do use my PM SLAs as much as I can. Usually deals anywhere from 50-100 damage; is this expected or average for Necrotic Bolt?

The way everyone is talking, it sounds like I should start primarily FoDing casters then throwing up an AoE and that's all I need. Correct? For bosses I slap on the DoTs, of course (Black Dragon Bolt, Melf's, Eladar's, Niac's) and keep them going. Should I keep my other damaging spells (Greater Shout, Cone of Cold, Acid Blast, Frost Lance) or swap some of them out?

[firemedium_jt]

If you like the DOTs then I would invest more in critical spell lines. Get the % enhancements up to 9% and add a lore or greater or major lore in there 6-9%. That is a critical every 1/5-1/6 of your damage over time ticks. Even a 6% item gets you to 15% with enhancements. Start thinking about going electrical instead of acid, but most here think it can wait till lvl18. I just stoned and did cold/electric cause they have the best DOTs for bosses. Ice Storm to keep monsters from reaching me and necrotic ray to kill them quickly.

You can drop racial toughness 3. What about your other enhancements. List them all, and we will see how you can get your spell power up and critical spell power.

For feats just add in either SF or Spell Pen instead of eschew. There is a free reincarnation till next update, and that free feat swap quest with Fred.

[Drekisen]

Honestly OP sounds like your doing well to me....I think the bigger problem is the unrealistic expectations of 10+ TR's and their time restraints.

You sound like a good caster to me...don't let peoples idiotic delusions of grandeur ruin that.

This game was originally intended for one character/one class at its origin...don't let what it has become just to make a quick unearned buck mislead you.

[Hobgoblin]

not to be rude - but on the gear side you are very lacking.

head - minos for now (more for the xtra hp) or the sora kell helm - one of a weakness of a pm is stat damage so you want boosts to your stats

cloak - if you can find it grab a tough cloak - that will open up your head slot for either the sora kell set which is not optimal but better then nothing.

belt - is ok especially at these levels - but go for slot consolidation with a belt from tod

gloves - str for now - green steel in the future
eyes - int item
bracers- either the madness bracers (sry i forget the name) or bracers of wind
boots - striders i guess - prop boots from house c/ rock boots
rings - gfl/con 6/ eventually go for the epic ring of elemental essence
docent - not many to choose here - probably craft a lifeshield of sup stability
your weapons are ok
voice is a better trinket- but may want the head from reavers or a plain old pop 10

hope that helps

hob

[jbleargh]

What I usually do in fights is FoD a caster, Greater Shout the melees, then Acid Rain and Cone of Cold everything to death. If there's a single target, I use Necrotic Ray and my PM II SLA. I buff everyone in the group with Blur, GH, Haste, Rage, and Protection from Elements. I have Extend on Haste, Death Aura, and Rage. Eschew Materials also (cause I'm gimp like that) but that's only 2 SP and I've never noticed a huge difference in how much I can cast when I got it. Occasionally I'll throw a Mass Hold, Web, or Otto's Sphere. What should I do different? I just feel like I'm not contributing when I'm not casting and the melees are beating everything down.

Help is appreciated and welcome.

You don't need to extend Protection (it only lasts X amount of damage... time is not a limitation). I don't extend Blur and GH also... 16 minutes is more than enough.

Why eschew? Drop that. (put your ingredients in a toolbar... so you can always see if you need to buy more)

Heighten every spell that have DCs... Web, Dancing Ball, Finger, Circle of Death, Wail, Symbol of Persuasion, etc.

If your DCs are not high enough for the quest, learn to debuff... enervation before finger, circle before wail, etc.

As already been said forget Cone of Cold, Acid rain, Shout, etc...

The only elemental spells that I use are DoTs (maximised and empowered). Use them only on bosses because they are SP efficient when stacked 3 times... regular mobs will die before that.

CC is also cheaper than nuking. Melees cost zero SP.

Wizards don't cast spells all the time... sorcs do that... Wizards cast the best spell at the right time according to the situation.

Between these moments you can spam slas... they are free

Equipment...

Darkstorm helm from Web of chaos (http://ddowiki.com/page/Darkstorm_Helm) gives a boost for necro and electric, Magewright Spectacles from Cannith (http://ddowiki.com/page/Magewright%27s_Spectacles) for spellpen, crafted great spell foci Necro and Enchantment (I use bracers for that), something with archmagi (200 SP... any slot as you can use the SP for buffs and swap) like kormor belt, an upgraded ion stone (don't remember which), skyver (this one is not easy).

Also look for the new Thaumaturgy staffs in the AH.

Elfcrafted Docent from Gianthold are also easy to get and may be nice till you get something better.

Other stuff can be a bit more difficult to obtain... Conopp, Torc, Bauble... or event only like the Mabar Robes and the trinket from the Cove (+2 int)

[MRMechMan]

forget Acid rain

Mostly good stuff, but suggesting he dumps the most damaging AOE DOT in the arcane spellbook is a bit silly.

It's a rediculously good spell.

[jbleargh]

Mostly good stuff, but suggesting he dumps the most damaging AOE DOT in the arcane spellbook is a bit silly.

It's a rediculously good spell.

Hi MRMechMan,

Acid rain stacks? I don't use it very much. I only use it on the quest with lots of fire immune skellies (Haunted Library?) and when I remember to load it in Let Sleeping Dust Lie solo.

Of course there are exceptions, but as a rule I only deal damage to trash mobs when soloing and things can't be fingered or wailed... Higher levels enemies have more HP... instakill is cheaper and faster, IMHO.

My enhancements are concentrated in the cold and electric lines for Niac's and Eladar's... so If I need to do AoE damage I use Ice Storm (that also gives blunt damage). I also got also some points in force for Disintegrate (only use it to break crystals and kill the Wizking).

IMHO, the fun of playing a Wizard is finding different ways to achieve the same thing...

For instance, I used to farm Sins of Attrition with a cleric and a fvs with the run, run, run, Yellow Alert, Blade Barrier, kite, run, run, run, rinse and repeat till is time to DP the Boss technique.

The first success I had with my Pale Master was run, run, run, yellow Alert, Dancing Ball and Ice Storm.... but it uses lots of SP and I had to use the optional Shrine.

After some trial and error I found that run, run, run, Yellow Alert, Symbol of Persuation worked better and I could complete without using Shrines at all .

I don't have much experience with any acid spells. What Acid Rain can do that Ice Storm can't? Which quests/situations do you use it?

Cogito ergo doleo

[Kinerd]

It used to be...
Constant = .5, clicky = .75, no stacking.

Now it is...
Constant up to 120, clicky up to 20, stacking. (At your level more like 78 and 15, but the point stands.)

Additionally, Thaumaturgy staffs give you Potency, Implement, two constant Elements, and a Lore all with a very tidy ML. (And no more spell level restriction. A Thaumaturgy staff you pull in Korthos with Combustion will enhance Meteor Swarm.)

TL;dr: Clickies are out. Thaumaturgy staffs are in.

[MRMechMan]

Hi MRMechMan,

Acid rain stacks? I don't use it very much. I only use it on the quest with lots of fire immune skellies (Haunted Library?) and when I remember to load it in Let Sleeping Dust Lie solo.

Of course there are exceptions, but as a rule I only deal damage to trash mobs when soloing and things can't be fingered or wailed... Higher levels enemies have more HP... instakill is cheaper and faster, IMHO.

My enhancements are concentrated in the cold and electric lines for Niac's and Eladar's... so If I need to do AoE damage I use Ice Storm (that also gives blunt damage). I also got also some points in force for Disintegrate (only use it to break crystals and kill the Wizking).

IMHO, the fun of playing a Wizard is finding different ways to achieve the same thing...

For instance, I used to farm Sins of Attrition with a cleric and a fvs with the run, run, run, Yellow Alert, Blade Barrier, kite, run, run, run, rinse and repeat till is time to DP the Boss technique.

The first success I had with my Pale Master was run, run, run, yellow Alert, Dancing Ball and Ice Storm.... but it uses lots of SP and I had to use the optional Shrine.

After some trial and error I found that run, run, run, Yellow Alert, Symbol of Persuation worked better and I could complete without using Shrines at all .

I don't have much experience with any acid spells. What Acid Rain can do that Ice Storm can't? Which quests/situations do you use it?

Cogito ergo doleo

At cap mobs tend to have a LOT of hp, so AOE nuking is really only effective if you are a sorc. For amrath and particularly IQ, instakills are supreme due to hp bloat-if you have the DC/pen.

At vale, however, acid rain is still very viable. When maxed and empowered 1 acid rain will kill most groups of mobs on normal within seconds.

It will indeed stack with firewall and icestorm, if that was what you meant by "stacks". It also does more damage than either-but only lasts about 1/4-1/3 of the time. For total damage/sp, ice storm and firewall are better-but acid rain is much quicker and fewer things are immune as well.

I still go firespecced for sorc TRs, but acid rain does solid damage to almost any mob in the game and I nearly always have it slotted. Perhaps a bit harder for PMs as they are tight on 4th lvl slots but I'd take it still, perhaps switching to ice storm past vale as the longer duration pays off.

But for 8-16ish, acid rain, all the way.

[gphysalis]

1. Have you used your free lesser reincarnation?
If not, changing your feats will be much easier
2. How much plat do you have that you can spend to improve you character?
3. Are you in wraith form all of the time?

If you have not used the free lesser reincarnation:
Feats:
Take Spell Pen, Quicken, drop eschew materials, shield prof.
At lvl 18, take greater spell pen
Ability Points:
Max Int, then Con, don't bother with dex (from your myddo, it appears that you put points in dex at character creation, if possible, undo this)

Playstyle
a) As Mr. Mech Man suggested, the damaging spells you should be using are damage over time effects. These are more sp efficient.
b) As a pale master, you should usually be in undead form, I am going to assume for the rest of this post that you are.
c) Burst damage spells: ideally, these should all be eliminated when you can quicken spells, but if you can't get quicken by LRing, then keep some until you get quicken, so that you can rapidly kill mobs attacking you.

Gear
a) get the best + necro damage item you can. This will increase your necrotic touch / bolt / blast damage
b) I would recommend getting the Thaarak Bracelet. It is an end reward from the lvl 15 quest chain Harbinger of Madness. You can run this on casual for the end reward. ( It doesn't always drop )
Don't bother with a minos legens. As a WF PM in form, you will already have 125% fortification, and if you only need toughness on an item, Thaarak Bracelet is nicer, with 2% dodge
c) an archmagi item. you have a pearl of power 4, so the difference between that and an archmagi item would be 160 sp, which makes a big difference.
d) A really good trinket. There are many low level options: Voice or a trinket from crystal cove. As you get higher levels, Try to get something nice from the dreaming dark.
(If you can find a friend who will help you obtain an eardweller right now, that would be pretty nice)
e) spell pen and spell dc: Items for these are harder to obtain, but you should work on that

Tomes
If you have plat to spare, consider investing in a tome of Int. The bonus stacks with your gear, so its pretty nice

[QibingZero]

Some good advice here, but two quick notes:

- I saw someone mentioned getting a Life Shield item, but it (sadly) doesn't work while you're in undead form. All of the better temp hp on-hits seem to work fine, though.
- Acid Rain is an amazing spell, especially if you have some investment in acid enhancements. What really makes it shine nearly until cap is the very quick damage and ability to kill just about everything with it.

[doomboy]

make sure you have your necromantic school enhancements properly set. even when i started out using the stone, my build was messed up. make sure you have heighten, to raise the levels of your spells. get death's touch at level 18 if you can, swap out for pale rod if you have the expansion at level 21, swap THAT for staff of the necromancer at level 22

[EvilI]

Here's a list of my feats and enhancements.

FEATS:
Maximize
Empower
Extend
Eschew (yes, I know, gimped)
Toughness
Mental Toughness
SF: Necro and Enchant
GSF: Necro
Shield Prof (was going to get Shield Mastery; not looking as attractive, will probably switch this for Quicken)

I noticed you dont have Heighten. You'll need to pick it up at some point, and a heightend web at this level is very fast and pretty reliable crowd control to gather mobs up for your Ice storm/Acid rain (and keep them from smashing you into so much wraith/lich dust).