Savant Help

[rikkitikkitarvi]

I have a lvl 17 Sorcerer and was looking at respecing things to take advantage of the Savant builds. She is currently a Fire Savant, but I hear that some of the upper content has a lot of fire immunes. What Savant would you recommend and Why?

And if you know what enemies could be problematic with the build.

[madmaxhunter]

Did you mean Sorcerer perchance? Savants are sorcs, not wizards.

[rikkitikkitarvi]

Sigh. Yes I ment Sorcerer. Some days it does not pay to get out of bed.

[MnaSidhe]

Ive seen a lot of ICE sorcs running around...
Ive seen a couple of AIR sorcs running around...

When I did my sorc life, I did ACID all the way through. Worked like a charm... honestly I think a lot comes down to personal preference... next time Im going AIR because of the knockdown thing!
Too many fire immune devils etc... makes life difficult.

[madmaxhunter]

Sigh. Yes I ment Sorcerer. Some days it does not pay to get out of bed.

Lol, np, kay, fire is great until, well, your level, you can either switch to electric, cold or acid. I went cold savant myself, love niac's. If you go electric and you have an arti in your party, he can toss a Lightning Mote and give you purple numbers.

[rikkitikkitarvi]

Oneother question :
I have an issue with what spells to pick because I have not used some of the spells and don't know how effective they are.

LVL 3
If I go Water Savant I was thinking Acid Blast, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and the free F. Lance
If I go Earth Savant I was thinking F.Lance, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and free Acid Blast

At Lvl 4
Water: Acid Rain, Dimension Door, StoneSkin, Phantasmal Killer?
Earth: Acid Rain, F.Wall, Dimension Door, Stone Skin?

How useful is Phantasmal Killer in the upper lvls?

LVL 5
Water: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cyclonic Blast, Eladar's Electic
Earth: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cloud Kill, Break Enchantment

Is break Enchantment useful?

LVL6: This is where I really have an issue with what to take.
Water: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)
Earth: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)

Never used Necrotic Ray, but the damage and range look good. Is it really as useful as it looks?

LVL 7
Water: Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dance, Waves of Exhaustion
Earth:Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dance, Waves of Exhaustion, Delayed Blast Fireball?(Can only take 3)

How useful is Waves of Exhaustion? If I go Savant earth with cold backup I could probably get away without DB Fireball. Unless there is something resistant to both acid and Cold.

[TrinityTurtle]

I've learned through my various trials and errors and advice from a guildie that no mater what you pick from teh four savants, it pays to use the enhancement points to fully spec up a second element (other than the one you get weakness to for your main, like acid or electric for an ice savant for example) to avoid situationjs where you can't do anything. Im currently running an Ice savant with an acid secondary, and doing very well.

Fire savants didn't used to be popular, but my understanding is that the new content is improving their usefulness at end game, and am goint to try one of those next, probably with an electric on the side.

[wildbynature]

As far as the savant goes, I went acid from 1-20 on my last sorc and loved it, but I've played both savants. All of the savants have their pros and cons. Fire actually isn't a horrible choice for end game right now cause amarath is no longer end game. Fire does make it a little harder on you from 17-20 when you're fighting a lot of devils in the mobs, and they're immune to fire.

Ice does really awesome single target DPS, and it's great for most raid bosses. You get more choices for AOE spells with acid though, and in my experience, acid does more AOE damage. Also, you can go conjuration focus and have wicked awesome webs with acid. You do need a secondary element, though. Right now, my sorc is hanging out at level 13 acid/force spec'd. I usually web mobs, acid rain/blast and then haste the melee and let them clean up a bit. I usually have the highest kill count, but I'm personally more interested in doing a little bit of cc and buffing then maxing out dps.

It all depends on your play style though

[Inouk]

Oneother question :
I have an issue with what spells to pick because I have not used some of the spells and don't know how effective they are.

LVL 3
If I go Water Savant I was thinking Acid Blast, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and the free F. Lance
If I go Earth Savant I was thinking F.Lance, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and free Acid Blast

At Lvl 4
Water: Acid Rain, Dimension Door, StoneSkin, Phantasmal Killer?
Earth: Acid Rain, F.Wall, Dimension Door, Stone Skin?

How useful is Phantasmal Killer in the upper lvls?

LVL 5
Water: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cyclonic Blast, Eladar's Electic
Earth: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cloud Kill, Break Enchantment

Is break Enchantment useful?

LVL6: This is where I really have an issue with what to take.
Water: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)
Earth: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)

Never used Necrotic Ray, but the damage and range look good. Is it really as useful as it looks?

LVL 7
Water: Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dance, Waves of Exhaustion
Earth:Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dance, Waves of Exhaustion, Delayed Blast Fireball?(Can only take 3)

How useful is Waves of Exhaustion? If I go Savant earth with cold backup I could probably get away without DB Fireball. Unless there is something resistant to both acid and Cold.

Play style and build are important. Air savant is very dependent on DCs, so unless you can get your DCs high you'll see lots of saves for half or "evade" popping up. Earth has good utility and mana efficiency, but is considerably behind the others in instant damage effects and therefor also in DPS (though you can rely partly on water and air spells to augment that). Ice is my favorite for a combination of the very nice spell selection and the very few immune mobs at high level. Air and Acid are great secondary schools, and don't overlook force as some mobs are resistant/immune to all elemental damage, and you'll find mobs along the way that you almost have to have disintegrate against (golems, lich's, etc). My water savant was ice/force + eladar's.

Don't bother with phantasmal, but ice storm is a must. I couldn't find room for waves either. Necrotic ray... only pale masters get bonus damage to that, so it won't do as much as you think. You could use it -meta's for the -level effect to set up FoD and Wail, but I didn't find room for it myself. At 3 I would skip acid blast for displacement. At 4 skip PK for ice storm and... probably fireshield in place of stone skin TBH.At 5 skip cyclonic for Niacs, no question.I personally skipped prot ele (took mass later) for teleport, though many would tell you to scroll teleport. Could always take cyclonic in that spot, but cyclonic is also a utility spell really. 6 is where it gets really hard...Otilukes is a must, and so is disintegrate IMO. GH can be scrolled (although I took it as a spell), but circle of death and chain lightning are both fantastic. 7th also tough since you want FoD, Otto's, mass prot, mass hold... really depends on build at this point. 8th, polar ray and mass charm (too useful when it's useful).

[Dielzen]

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...14&postcount=2

This will get you started, some of the information is outdated, but it's a good general info (that post and the couple he links to)

[rikkitikkitarvi]

Thanks Inouk there was some useful information there.

Also thanks Inouk, I have checked out that page before. That is actually the reason why I am looking at changing my Fire Savant to something else. Just needed some more information. Kinda torn between Earth and Water.

I only run with one other person who is a Thief, so SP is a concern making me lean toward Earth, but things can't kill you if they are dead which makes me lean toward the Water for the higher dmg.

maybel I just roll a d3
1. Water
2. Earth
3. Have a complete mental breakdown.


roll @@@@@@@ 3
Mental Breakdown it is.

[Kinerd]

Regarding the overall question, even putting aside immunities it's hard to argue against Cold simply because it has such a powerful arsenal and Fire doesn't.

Oneother question :
I have an issue with what spells to pick because I have not used some of the spells and don't know how effective they are.

LVL 3
If I go Water Savant I was thinking Acid Blast, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and the free F. Lance
If I go Earth Savant I was thinking F.Lance, Displacement, Haste, Rage, and free Acid Blast

I don't really love displacement. If you are a warforged, I like having Repair Serious for an echoes-able cure. Mass Circle Against Evil is great if you couldn't fit Protection from Evil in level 1.

At Lvl 4
Water: Acid Rain, Dimension Door, StoneSkin, Phantasmal Killer?
Earth: Acid Rain, F.Wall, Dimension Door, Stone Skin?

How useful is Phantasmal Killer in the upper lvls?

Not very. It's Illusion school and has two saves. However, a sneaky benefit is that an enhancement in the Draconic Incarnation ED offers +3 DC to fear-based attacks. I still wouldn't recommend it, but I would definitely take it over Stoneskin. Ablative damage prevention has been dwarfed by escalating incoming damage, it's not worth the time it takes to cast. Ice Storm is another very versatile choice.

LVL 5
Water: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cyclonic Blast, Eladar's Electic
Earth: Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, Cloud Kill, Break Enchantment

Is break Enchantment useful?

The trouble is you have to make a check against the enemy caster level, and especially in epic content enemy caster levels are through the roof. It's the same reason PC Spell Resistance is so pointless. You should always have both Eladar's Electric Surge and Niac's Biting Cold, even on an Earth or Fire savant respectively. They're just too powerful and you really don't lose that much from the caster level penalties. Regarding Protection from Elements please see Stoneskin.

LVL6: This is where I really have an issue with what to take.
Water: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)
Earth: Necrotic Ray, Otilukes Freezing Sphere, Disintegrate, G. Heroism (Can only take 3)

Never used Necrotic Ray, but the damage and range look good. Is it really as useful as it looks?

Disintegrate is good but not terribly reliable, and especially as a savant I think you'll have enough direct damage buttons to keep on cooldown without it. Necrotic Ray's raw damage isn't impressive, but it has two interesting niche applications: targets that take negative but no elemental damage (such as Shroud portals), targets you want to negative level but can't bypass SR. Level 6 is a tough one, no two ways about it.

[Dielzen]

Never take G Hero on a Sorc unless you're cheap. The scrolls last long enough to be more than useful.