The Markeyx Build (Caster healer, dps, survivability)

[Mark2422]

ATTENTION: New 2014 build can be found here - https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...er-DPS-and-CC)

After reviewing my druid in another thread, a lot of people asked to see the build. I posted the build with the gear and stats he had at the time but the gear was not finished and some things I was still experimenting with. However now it is a lot more complete and after some more pm's I have decided to update it and create its own thread so that people can get some ideas and adapt them to fit their own build. I am not a fan of people using someone elses build to the letter because the beauty of this game is that it is so heavily customisable. game setup, ui layout and play style are different and no two people will be the same. And a build should be tailored to suit you and your own setup and play style. So with that in mind, here is the build!:

Warning: This build is tailored to suit me and my own play style. Some things may not be what you consider “optimal” or even “worth it”. But feel free to point that out if you feel inclined to do so.

Markeyx - Cleric - FvS - FvS - Wiz - Druid

Druid 20, Epic 5
Exalted Angel 5/Draconic Incarnation 5
Human

Base Stats:
Str: 8
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Int: 8
Wis: 16
Cha: 16

Geared Stats:
Str: 8 + 6 item + 3 tome = 17
Dex: 14 + 6 item + 1 exceptional + 3 tome = 24
Con: 16 + 6 Item + 3 exceptional + 3 tome = 28
Int: 8 + 3 tome = 11
Wisdom: 16 + 7 item + 4 exceptional + 3 Tome + 5 feat + 6 levels + 5 ED = 46 (when exalted)
Cha: 16 + 7 item + 3 tome = 26

Notes: Caster Druids have 3 dump stats. Str, Int, Cha. With Int 8 I was still able to take 3 skills +1 for being human. Strength I originally had at 12 and was always in wolf form and meleeing quite well up to about level 11. Even though I was a pure caster build. I played it as a melee until I reached the second necro chain. Then i started playing as a caster with FW. Made leveling easier, but I dropped it later with an LR. Cha can be a dump stat. However because of the current situation with reincarnate and the fact I am currently Human, I went 16 for the added UMD. It also helps when in Draconic ED which I use in most quests. See ED section for more info.

Skills:
Balance: 19
Concentration: 44 (no item or gh)
UMD: 32 (includes shroud cha skills 6 but does not include UMD item or GH. Magic 36 with gh)
Diplomacy: 54 (+10 item)
Intimidate when + 2 tomes kick in: 37 (no item or gh)

Notes: Balance and Concentration are the only ones I would say I NEED. UMD is because of Reincarnate. Diplomacy, I have had on my toon since forever. And I NEVER use it to clear agro. But it is nice to have with some npc optionals etc. Took Intim for the same reason. On my FvS I would have had jump instead but druid gets jump spell so I decided to carry Intim for same reason as Diplo.

Feats:
Mental Toughness
Improved Mental Toughness
Epic Mental Toughness
Empower Spell
Empower Healing
Maximize Spell
Enlarge Spell
Quicken Spell
Spell Focus Evocation
Toughness

Notes: All the usual Caster meta goodies. In comparison to what I had as a FvS. Empower Healing is in as I wanted my HoT’s to be as powerful as possible. Heighten is dropped as, as someone else mentioned, the only spell I can see it making a big difference to is FoD. But my FoD is hitting for around 600 points of damage on a non crit. So my FoD is more like a DPS spell with a chance of killing a mob instantly rather than it being a pure death spell. Evo focus is so i can twist in 3 dc from the magister. Mental toughness is to soften the blow to my spell pool. I was a FvS for years. I can’t not have 3000ish sp lol. They do only add upto giving about +500. But I can do a lot with 500 extra sp ;-). My FvS did not have them. I was HElf so had -1 feat their. Had Bulwark of Defense and I am not sure which other feat I had instead. Finally a word on Enlarge. Lots of people question why I have it. Many say “its not needed”. Correct it is not needed. But in the same way that you do not NEED to eat chocolate or drink beer. Well Enlarge is one addiction I am not willing to give up. The world is a much better place with Enlarge.

Hp:
base 210
Con Bonus 225
feat/enhancement 87
Items 75 (my gear setup currently does not include toughness)
Total: 597 (well into the 600 with buffs)

Saves:
Fort: 34
Reflex: 28
Will 40

AC: 70
Dodge: 0%
PRR: 16
Defence Chance: 48%


Fortification: 225%
Spell Resistance: 30

Notes: All of these are with NO buffs.

Enhancements:

Season's Herald Tree:
Core:
Seasoned 1/1
Time 1/1
Tide 1/1
Sunburst 1/1
Storm of Vengeance 1/1
Hierophant 1/1
Tier 1
Wand and Scroll Mastery 3/3
Beguile 3/3
Wax and Wane 1/1
Tier 2
Spell Pen 3/3
Efficient Meta Maximise 3/3
Produce Flame 3/3
Wax and Wane 1/1
Tier 3
Natures Warden 2/3
Creeping Cold 3/3
Wax and Wane 1/1
Wisdom 1/1
Tier 4
Call Lightning 1/1
Wax and Wane 1/1
Wisdom 1/1
Tier 5
Word of Balance 1/1
Time and Tide 1/1
Strength of the Solstice 1/1

Natures Warrior
Core:
Natures warrior 1/1
Instinctive Fighting 1/1
Instinctive Fighting 1/1
Instinctive Fighting 1/1
Tier 1
Extra Wild Empathy 3/3
Bestial Nature 3/3
Athletic 3/3
Tier 2
Hide of the Croc 3/3
Blood Moon Frenzy 3/3
Tier 3
Wisdom 1/1
Tier 4
Wisdom 1/1

Human:
Core Abilities:
Human Versatility: Spell Power Boost 1/1
Wisdom 1/1

Notes: I have taken enough in Natures Warrior in order to get +2 wisdom along with an extra +35 to positive spell power as the primary aim of this build now is Healing, CC and Survivability. Also gain +3 reflex save at a cost of -2 will save, which will help with my ED Evasion, with little sacrifice since I have maxed Wisdom. Have also taken the +1 Wisdom from Human tree and then spent the rest in Season's Herald, making sure I get all the SLAs and Wisdom.

Spell Power:
Acid: 220 (in winter)
Cold: 248 (winter and draconic)
Fire: 185 (summer)
Force: 117 (holy symbol of Lloth)
Light: 197 (in summer)
Negative: 227 (In winter)
Positive: 233 in summer and draconic questing setup. 303 in summer, exalted raid setup. (goes to 363 with house P pot and BaR stack)

Notes: These do NOT include Meta's. Fire and cold are never both that high at the same time. I use main hand for the items and I will switch them depending on which ele form I am in. However 95% of the time I currently play in water form.

Spells:
Lvl 1: Jump, Faerie Fire, Entangle
Lvl 2: Lesser Resto, Resist Energy, Gust of Wind, Creeping Cold, Barkskin
Lvl 3: Neut Poison, Protection from Energy, Remove Disease, Quench
Lvl 4: FoM, Ice Storm
Lvl 5: Stoneskin, Firewall, one-hour-raise-dead, Deathward
Lvl 6: Greater Dispell, Fire Sheild, Fire Seeds, Word of Balance, Greater Creeping Cold
Lvl 7: Elemental Toughness, True Seeing, Creeping Doom, Freezing Spray, Body of the Sun
Lvl 8: Heal, Ice Flowers, Earthquake, Sunburst, FoD
Lvl 9: Mantle of Icy Soul, Anger of Noonday Sun, Mass Regen, Storm of Vengance.

Notes: I have only listed spells I use a fair amount. That does not mean to say this is the definitive list of usefull spells. I am still experimenting with different spells like everyone else and I could well of overlooked one or two.

Being a healer I have taken alot of buffs and status cures. But in saying that I dont see any great spells I have missed out on as a result of taking them.

Spells I would highly recomend to other Druids (not including buffs or cures) are:
Creeping Cold - Great for leveling up and killing those bosses. Just try to avoid the temptation to spam as it has virtualy no cooldown but you will burn sp quick as it is powerful and adictive.
Ice Storm and Firewall - Obvious reasons. Solo level like the arcanes with your easy mode firewall. I use Ice Storm a lot more at top end due to its extra affects on mobs and the fact I stay water form for Greater creeping cold.
Fire Seeds - Ok DPS when unloading and it can be used to break doors and even light the torches in Inferno of the Damned.
Greater Creeping Cold - An amazing spell. Very powerful DoT. On a par and maybe even more powerful than a 3 stack of DP and Niacs. BUT there is no stacking. No more having to keep that stack going. Just DoT at your own pace and conveniance. Also like its lower version, virtualy no cooldown so DoTing 3 or 4 mobs at a time is very easy. When I cast it with freezing spray, I just move on because I know the mob is going to die. Its only a matter of time.
Freezing spray - Makes cold spells and more to the point GCC even more powerful.
Body of the Sun - Very powerful aura when in fire form.
Heal - Obvious reasons. Makes Soloing like a FvS/Cleric possible and works well as an emergancy spot heal.
Earthquake - Arguably the best CC spell in game. I cannot do this spell justice in words. You have to experiance it to understand its value to a group. Both in raids and quests. Only weak point is mephits. Flying should be illegal in DDO lol.
sunburst - When all elements fail, use light damage.
mantle of icy soul - Adds nice debuffs to your cold spells. Nice!
Mass Regenerate - When powered, this spell is a more efficent group healing spell than Mass Heal! My honest view, as a 5 year DDO dedicated healer, if I had Mass Regen and Mass Heal, I would use Mass Regen 80% of the time and I would use Mass Heal as an emergency Heal if a group suddenly found themselves at <30% hp. Mass Heal would not be my primary heal spell. Mass Regen is more heal efficient (due to a lot less over healing), more time efficient (once cast I know I am free for atleast the next 8 seconds to do something else), and more cost effective (due to it healing any incoming damage taken during the 8 second period, where as a second or even a 3rd mass heal would have been needed to cure this).
Storm of Vengeance - Not only does it look good, it hands out 150+ acid damage per tick and it also shares the enhancement line with cold spells so no extra AP points need to be spent to power it up. Negative is the 1min cooldown but its power does justify the cooldown so fairs fair.

Epic Destiny: Updated 01/01/2013
Exalted Angel
Currently using this as my main destiny now. I have taken +5 wisdom, blood of radiance for another stacking +30 to pos spell power while I am healing, and the same for light spells. Then I have all the tier 1 abilities. I have none of the top tier as they suck imo. Reborn in Light looks good on paper. But in reality I very rarely die and hardly ever reach 100 stack without being close to needing a shrine. So its almost useless. All the time I had it I never once had that situation where I made use of it. Astral vibrance STILL sucks because of the sp drain and Ascendance is STILL bugged as far as I am concerned because I still get the sp drain on astral even with it active...

Basically from this destiny I get +5 wisdom which means +3 to spell DC a bit of sp and another 3 will save. Leap of Faith. 30 healing spell power with another possible 30. +10% sp. +250. +2 charisma from angelic presence. SLA Avenging Light. I do not gain anything that I find amazing but I get a lot more out of it than I do any other destiny, and when I use others I find myself twisting 2 things from here so I may aswell just stay exalted and gain leap of faith.

Twists: In this setup I use evocation mastery (magister) in my tier 2, Rejuvinating cacoon (Primal Avatar) in my tier 1 and energy burst (draconic) in my tier 4. I could go for healing hands for extra pos spell power or even sigil of energy which is nice in things like shroud. But for the most part and general questing I keep energy burst. Just depends on the raid and diff. Energy sigil is a great help in high diff shroud and vods for example.

Magister
Magister is nice and gives you some nice benifits. I played in it for queite awhile and the + to evo spells and the -10% spell cost is great. But I dont tend to use it because exalted is better for raids as a healer and everywhere else I use draconic because the SLA's and extra cold sp just boosts my dps ability by alot since druids get no SLA's of there own. So I save a lot of sp that way.

Shiradi
Someone once said that it was a mistake not to be Shiradi because of the caster levels I lose. But the way I see it is all of the spells I am using are either max level capped or max damage capped. With the exception of Creeping Doom. So I think druids have been screwed in that respect and it is a false bonus that actually gives us nothing. Maybe I am wrong?

Shiradi would give me, +100 sp. +6 Wisdom. +25 universal spell power with a possible +10 if i stand still (which may I point out for me is erm..... Never. Unless I am piking). And a bunch of % chances of doing extra DPS. Whilst the extra ticks of dps is nice on aoe's, I'm down about 500sp compared to when I'm in exalted and 300sp down compared to draconic. And when you consider the fact that the shiradi dps comes from adding to your current spells. Its basicly like saying you got to spend money to make money. Or in this case sp. But the draconic is saying you can make money without spending a penny since I get all its extra dps for very little sp cost in the form of SLA's.

Draconic
This is what I used to use for general questing and raids where I am 3rd healer or dps. In this day in age unless you are on EE or in a very underpowered group, you won't need a fully powered dedicated healer. This is where the heal bots died. I used to be a heal bot many moons ago but the game has changed. To be useful to a group you have to be able to bang out good dps as a healer, when your not healing. Otherwise you run the risk of slowing the group down and been a hinderance rather than a help. In draconic I have more than enough healing sp to keep even the weakest groups alive, whilst easily being able to out dps my direct competition (FvS and Clerics). In a group a FvS just cannot keep up with me because they need to kite for there AOE and stack their DoT three times before it reaches the same dps output of my Creeping Cold. And to make things worse for the FVS, my CC is one of the best CC spells in game. And CC is an area a FvS cannot even dream about competing with me in. In reality, when going dps in groups, I end up competing with DPS arcanes and quite often win.

The reason I have stopped using this instead of exalted is because of the new ability from Primal Avatar, Rejuvinating Cacoon. This ability is to valuable to me that is is a must twist, but in this setup I will lose sp or avenging light as a result. And I just cannot be bothered to lose one of those just for abit more cold sp and energy vortex.

Twists I use for this are usually - Avenging light (exalted) in tier 2, Endless faith (exalted) in tier 1 and Evocation Specialist in tier 4.

Primal Avatar
I have now tested this destiny out with my build and I found that as with other destinies like shiradi, there are some nice benifits but nothing to make me think I must use this destiny. It just feels like it could and should have been much better than it is and I will explain why. First for a caster, all the left side abilities are useless, unless you duel wield scepters. You could do, but I use wall of wood in my build and like the added ac so I for one will not give that up right now, even for evasion (remember it will go off if you use a scroll to). Tsunami sucks. I have no other words for it. Please tell me its bugged. You have to have the mob right in line with you for it to hit and even then half the time it just does not land. It feels very badly implemented to me. Chill of winter and Summer smoke are ok, but I am not a fan of % chance to add some extra damage. Stormrage I do like but with a 15 second duration, it can be costly and annoying to keep it up. But it is a rage at the end of the day so no complaints.

Finally the one thing that makes me glad that primal avatar exists is Rejuvinating Cacoon. This ability is the best spell to be given to healers since mass heal. This for me is working just as good as the single heal spell, but it costs 11sp! I no long need to use scrolls at all now I have this and I can keep most quest groups up just by using this. It is a must twist and I thank the devs very very much for this spell!


Gear:
The Gear I am currently using is as follows:

Trinket:Holy Symbol of Lolth (Gives +1 exceptionals Cha, Wis and 102 radiance, impulse and nul spell power)
Helm: Shroud (major healing lore, Greater Lightning Resist, inherent 5 Lightning Resistance)
Necklace:Epic Torc (sp regen, spell pen and an epic slot)
Cloak:Epic Phiarlan Mirror Cloak (spell resistance, blur, greater light resistance and epic slot)
Belt:Epic Lion-Headed Belt Buckle (greater false life, dex 6, strength 6, con 6, fear immune)
Gloves:Concordant Op Gloves (all hp, sp and cha skill shroud bonuses in partnership with mineral item)
Boots:Rock Boots (corrosion spell power and lore)
Bracers:Bracers of the Sun Soul (wisdom 7 and sup parrying)
Goggles:Mineral Goggles (heavy fort, protection 5, same as c.o)
Ring 1:Ring of Master Artifice (archmagi, ex dex 1, good luck +2)
Ring 2:Striding 30% (will be free when I get quiver of alicrity)
Off Hand:Wall of Wood (devotion 114, Natural armor 6, healing amp 30%, dr15/slash)
Main Hand: Glaciation 120 With Sup Ice Lore (when in fire this switchs to combustion)
Armor:Leaves of the Forest (rough hide 5, ex con +3, ex wis +3)

Notes: The main thinking behind my gear setup is to ensure I have all the stats atleast +6 except int. Exceptional 1 and 2's for my main stats. The spell powers that I use to have atleast 90 and there corrisponding lores atleast greater. As many of the hp + as possible (false life, toughness, shroud) and all the sp bonuses (archmagi, shroud, c.o, torc). Other things I ensure I have are Striding 30%, fear immune, Blurry, spell resistance. As long as I have these bases covered then I can look to improve the setup as much as possible and then fill in the rest with as much AC bonuses as I can. Epic slots are a great help when perfecting gear setup.

Conclusion
For people who have had bad experiances with druids or have read all the negatives about druids sucking hard. Caster druids DO NOT SUCK. If a caster druid sucks then it is down to the player and their play style not suiting the druid. Don't put it down to the class. Believe me, my caster druid brings a lot more benifits to a group than my FvS ever did. And my FvS rocked.

[Myrrae]

Just wondering, how much do you think the past lives bring to the druid? I'm not as familiar with the spells so not sure if the spell pen & evocation focus are as important to the druid as to the FvS. Although... it's hard to go wrong with more spell points

[Mark2422]

Just wondering, how much do you think the past lives bring to the druid? I'm not as familiar with the spells so not sure if the spell pen & evocation focus are as important to the druid as to the FvS. Although... it's hard to go wrong with more spell points

Spell pen does not do alot for me as the only spell I use that needs it is FoD. Conj DC helps Creeping Doom and Fire seeds, but I dont use them a great deal. Creeping doom only if I am unloading as much aoe on a group of mobs as I can. But Earthquake, ice storm and SoV goes down first and I dont often need to lay more than that down at any one time.

Evo DC is very important. Most of our top DPS spells are Evo eith reflex saves and our CC (earthquake) is also Evo DC. So it is worth getting as much as you can if only for Earthquake.

[Mark2422]

Added spells to the build.

[Anihsod]

nice and thanks for posting. You mentioned in the other thread about your friend who's running fire instead of cold. Have you tried fire yet?

[Mark2422]

nice and thanks for posting. You mentioned in the other thread about your friend who's running fire instead of cold. Have you tried fire yet?

I was forced into it alittle when the lightning whisps came. Its good and the aura is powerful. But I prefer my DoTs so back in water form mostly now.

[apekzz]

Nice build.Planning a similar build for my wiz.

Quick question.Since you already have the wiz past life, was wandering why didnt you take the active past life feat?Wouldnt tat up your evocation DCs as well?

Thanks.

[Potta]

He needs the Evocation feat to get the ED specialization in Evocation.

[Archangel666]

May want to warn people that at present Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold wipe Niacs, so if there are a few arcanes in the group it's often better not to use it.

[Potta]

I was told this bug was fixed, though I haven't verified it myself yet.

[moriedhel]

May want to warn people that at present Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold wipe Niacs, so if there are a few arcanes in the group it's often better not to use it.

It was fixed last time i checked

[Mark2422]

Nice build.Planning a similar build for my wiz.

Quick question.Since you already have the wiz past life, was wandering why didnt you take the active past life feat?Wouldnt tat up your evocation DCs as well?

Thanks.

True, but the main reason for taking it was not to get the plus 1 from the feat, but to be able to twist the +3 from the magister ED. I dont think the Wiz PL would have done this.

[Ilrede]

It was fixed last time i checked

It has not been fixed. Creeping cold doesnt remove stack of Niacs as before, but Niacs will not do any damage, if target is affected with creeping cold too. I am not sure, that Turbine do any tests for "bug fixes", because is not first time, when they put bug fix into patch note and it was not true ...

[Mark2422]

It has not been fixed. Creeping cold doesnt remove stack of Niacs as before, but Niacs will not do any damage, if target is affected with creeping cold too. I am not sure, that Turbine do any tests for "bug fixes", because is not first time, when they put bug fix into patch note and it was not true ...

Well if this is a case, then arcanes should refrain from using niacs when with a caster druid. Unless there are more arcanes than druids. But if the numbers are equal then Arcanes should submit to our superiority since GCC costs less sp and does >= damage.

[susiedupfer]

Except I maxxed wis and con, with remainder in str. I also had the sorc PL, so I took that active feat for sp and SLA.

These druids way outdo my FVS and cleric on CC and DPS. Heal just as well as my FVS, too. Only drawback is reincarnate. I plan to TR my druid into helf druid next life, so I will let you know how that works with scroll rezzing.

[Grimknot]

New player thinking about playing a druid, what is wrong with Reincarnate? I'm not sure the piont of such high charisma and how it affects reincarnate.

EDIT: 14 dex, is that for ac only? 32 pt build so looking to lower a stat. Cha vs dex vs con.

[Anihsod]

New player thinking about playing a druid, what is wrong with Reincarnate? I'm not sure the piont of such high charisma and how it affects reincarnate.

EDIT: 14 dex, is that for ac only? 32 pt build so looking to lower a stat. Cha vs dex vs con. ...


Reincarnate is amazing .. it's the "best" rez in the game ... however it takes 3.5 days to cast

[Pilgrim1]

lvl 24 druid here. I have no trouble soloing E.hard content. In E. Elite stuff i can CC and heal without much difficulties. My biggest troubles come from doing sustained damage, especial vs mobs that are resistant or immune to cold.

I tend to use un-metted cold dots (both of them) and fully metted icestorm/firewall/storm of vengeance. What I can't seam to manage is sustained DPS or mana efficient AoE damage. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

PS. a few things that i have found while lvling that I have not seen mentioned:

~ The pet is really good, even at epic elite i pull it out. I run my pet with 0 active abilities - i think it makes the AI better, and full line of threat reduction. I also buff the pet with the threat reduction spell. Between those 2 I can tag a mob and the pet just finishes it off.

~ The vigor line stacks with the regeneration line - but only if you cast the vigor first. For times when mass regen is not enough try mixing in mass vigor as well.

~ Casting a vigor extends the duration of your previous vigor but does not change what metta-magic was used on it. So for example in ToD part 3, cast vigor fully mettaed then spam un-metted vigors to build up the stack. With a decent tank you can stack up a few min of vigors and just ignore them for the rest of the fight.

[Mark2422]

lvl 24 druid here. I have no trouble soloing E.hard content. In E. Elite stuff i can CC and heal without much difficulties. My biggest troubles come from doing sustained damage, especial vs mobs that are resistant or immune to cold.

I tend to use un-metted cold dots (both of them) and fully metted icestorm/firewall/storm of vengeance. What I can't seam to manage is sustained DPS or mana efficient AoE damage. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

No caster can sustain maximum output for very long. Only the Sorc can come close to being able to do it but that is because of there SLA's.

How I play is I will use un-met earthquake to CC mobs. Then if I want to do damage then use an ice strom on top or SoV. If I have mana to burn and know where the shrines are I will use both. Same with DoTs. I will spam if I know I have mana to burn, if not I will try to hold back and let some of the melees do some of the work.

I guess it comes down to the same as on any caster. Experiance. It is a massive thing for any caster. Knowing a quest. How many shrines there are. How long between each one. Can you bank some to come back to later. How many mobs are bewteen you and the next shrine. How many of them are trash and how many are big and potentialy painful fights? How quickly does your sp go down whilst on full DPS mode. How much when targeting casters and CCing trash. How much healing does the group need. How much sp is it costing to keep them alive.

All of these things and more will help you manage your sp. It is a skill that part time casters overlook and suck at. And it is slightly different for a DPS caster and a Healer/DPS. A DPS just has to worry about shrines, mobs, CC and DPS rate vs SP. A healer has to factor in the group and healing SP before thinking about DPS and that is not an easy thing to do. You have to take a few mins at the start, particularly with pugs, to see how the group is handling the quest. Then you will have an idea of how much DPS you can afford or sometimes need to do. Sometimes it is more SP cost affective to do the DPS to kill the mobs quicker, than it is to heal a group while they kill them. This is where the beauty of the druid comes in because a FvS or Cleric has to make that choice. A druid can fall back on CC instead of spending heavy on DPS.

This is why when part time casters say playing a caster or healer is easy, I just feel like dropping the soul stone in the bottom of the pit and leaving them while they watch me loot!

One final note, if you want to dish out massive DPS for 0 sp cost, get Energy Burst from the Draconic E/D. Either twist it or better still, play as Draconic. You wont regret it!

[susiedupfer]

I use EQ + <insert appropriate AoE here> on most mobs. Both meta'd. If they are immune to fire, I use Ice Storm, if immune to ice, but taking damage from bludgeon damage, I add SoV. This holds most still and does enough damage to allow me to turn my attention to healing/insta-killing. I change which ele form based on the AoE I am using most. The Niac's/GCC bug is still alive and well. If there are arcane in the party, I just use the AoE, and leave the DoT alone. Everyone goes home happy then.

IMHO-Evo focus is mandatory to do the best job of CC and most of my offensive casting. It really does help that much.

Spell Pen- not so much. It is OK to use as enhancements if you have spare, but not a precious feat.

And I totally agree, Mark, on the part-timers saying it is easy. There are special places in every quest that are 11 seconds from a shrine. Learn them, love them.