WF FvS: At least 8 deaths in EE Lost in the Swamp

[voodoogroves]

Yup.



No, but having a 14 Wisdom makes it a waste of SP.

Exactly.

Frankly, I'm kinda happy with this split. You can't just "do everything" with a FVS anymore. This is a good thing, and means you have to make choices.

- You could go WIS-based. Given the power of EDs, being WIS-based on a WF isn't the huge hit it used to be.
- You could go with more CHA and try the light-based CHA stuff from Angel
- You could go STR-based, and maybe multi-class a bit, and work on melee DPS. Cleave, Great Cleave, etc.

.... but ... you should to pick one thing to do well, and do it well. It could be niche (like the CHA builds) but man, you can do it. What you can't do is be successful going the casting route w/ a poor DC or melee with poor feats, etc.

[moops]

I just wanted to add that there is nothing wrong with you meleeing, who cares if you can't keep up with a "melee" class in terms of big numbers?

We just did EE end of the road with 2 pure bards and only one "melee" for our axe swingers, once things are held, danced or stunned, it really doesn't matter much who is swinging the weapon, it still gets done. Help bring the trash down faster, heal more/Dot more on bosses, that is what most melee FVS I know do.

I would even go as far to say that what the new chain needs on EE, is not people with super uber gear, but their better destinies--ones that allow healing, stunning, better cc ( I had monks rangers and artis as my only form of CC in a couple of these and it went really smooth). Not more DPS, but either twisting in more Fort, or wearing an item, or in some cases both. Twisting int hings that help you and the group survive. Now these people with more freedom in their destinies are all going to be lvl 25 as that is the point when you can run any quest without increasing penalties--or farm, and earn your twist points.

I bring lvl 23-24 melee in the new EE with some of the best gear for that lvl in the game, but most of the time, they have only one Destiny and one Twist...their survivability is lower, esp if they are melee and won't give up some HP or something else to wear an extra fort item.

[owens.forum]

Again ... lots of good advice and great comments that made me think ...

Like I mentioned in my original post, my FvS just recently arrived at Eveningstar. Prior to that, he was happily doing the old Epics in Stormreach using a hack-DoT-heal approach, switching to D0T-healing or pure healing if the partymates need it.

However, it's a totally new ball game in Eveningstar and EE Quests, as has been pointed out in many posts here in the forums.

I don't think I would really mind switching to a DoT-healing or pure healing mode during EEs (as I have done in the past), if that's really my optimal role in the party considering my current build and state of equipment. My current setup does well in EN/EH, so things should only get better as I get my equipment upgraded.

I guess my main question now would be: Does it make sense to 'drop' all meleeing pretenses and just focus on light-damage (I thinking my DCs will stink until I get to TR though) not only for EE but for EN/EH as well? That is, will I be doing better DPS in EN/EH by respeccing to full light damage vs swinging a greatsword + DoTting? If so, then it's a no-brainer to stop meleeing and just focus on being a light-based caster ... while picking up pertinent EDs as I level up.

The Novasoul build I saw on the forums looks quite interesting ... but am still sitting on the fence right now. I guess a few more EE runs should make my mind up for me.

[Mellkor]

Try using the Unyielding Sentinel destiny for EE quests, I find it hard to do some EE quests without it. My FvS has 100+ AC, 100+ PRR, and 43+ DR while turtling up when in Unyielding Sentinel. I let guards and light damage do the rest when I have to heal, In those rare instances when I dont have to primarily heal, I can still melee some with eSoS. In all other difficulties you can switch to other destines with no issues. EE is really a huge jump in difficulty from EH, and demands a lot of attention to defense, IMO, on a WF FVS (or any toon, really)...

[SealedInSong]

The way I've chosen to update my soul survivor build is to drop all the melee feats except for power attack and focus on becoming an insurmountable bastion of healing.

Yes, that means that your eSoS is far less devastating, but with destiny abilities, the WF FvS has the ability to become an unparalleled shield blocker.

Because your healing amp will always be poor relative to fleshy FvS, you will need to keep it top notch at all times. In Sentinel (the/your best defense destiny), twist in Renewal, Energy burst (fire), or any other sp/SLA DPS twists as appropriate. It's true that you cannot use Renewal on yourself while not in Exalted Angel, but it's the best sp/healing ratio spell out there so use it liberally. Use your SLA healing and DPS as much as possible (and Energy Burst is nice since you will be in the thick of things anyway) to save your SP pool for things others in your party can't do--namely, empowered mass heals, heightened cometfalls and other divine CC, etc.

Constant shield blocking + the highest passive DR possible (15 adamantine) + 20 con base + tier IV toughness enhancement + all the defensive destiny abilities you can muster are the best niche that I could find for my WF FvS without TRing him into one of the more easy and obvious (but no less effective) fleshy FvS builds.

As others mentioned, all damage mitigation possible is desired for epic elite content: craft displacement clickies, find slots for blurry, incorporeal, life shield, demonic shield, and all the dodge your max dex bonus will allow. All of these things will go a long way over the course of millions of hits and grazing hits to your character and increase the viability of more marginal guard effects (torc and concopp on EE are a lot less viable due to the volume of incoming damage).

I find a lot of people have or are planning to TR away from their WF FvS because it's no longer the flavor of the month, but since you enjoy yours, I say stick with it. The beauty of this game is that it will allow you to find a way to be very effective and useful through good tactics and personal optimization even if tons of forumites find ways to run your numbers through their math and find you suboptimal.

Edit: also find a way to slot the Sheltering mod for increased PRR as it's a big jump in PRR that doesn't cost a feat the way Adamantine Body and Shield Mastery++ do (though I recommend you also get that)

[Tobril]

EE isn’t that bad.


Some things in no particular order:

Blur (permanent)
Ghostly
Improved WASD skills

TR out of WF and put on armour. The PRR and better healing
amp will help.

Put a bit more in dex next time around. Having 12-14 starting
isn’t too hard and will help a lot. It shouldn’t be too hard to hit
~40 on all your saves.

Stay the hell away from non-controlled monsters. Everything
hits for like 100+ and will eat your face.

Don’t listen to comments about you not being ready/worthy
and instead work on your skills/gear/build.


The novasoul thread is quite good and worth looking at a little harder.

[owens.forum]

Quick update regarding my doing EEs ...

Just did Thorn and Paw on EE. Just had one (stupid and preventable) death because I went back to heal up a barbarian that need to shrine up and ran into a few bears on my own.

Biggest changes in gear are the Purple Dragon Gauntlets. Added a few points to my Exalted Angel ED, but nothing really game changing there at the moment except for Blood and Radiance (1 point).

Took the advice of focusing on shield blocking and pewpewing. That went better than expected, even though this toon was not built to play like that. So things are starting to look up on my end.

By the way, tried Lost in the Swamp EE on solo with this setup and technique prior to the successful Thorn and Paw run, just to see what smacked me around. Lasted around 5 seconds in there. A bit angry at myself ... I went in again on EN solo and proceeded to complete it without any hirelings/summons other than my archon. Just used one shrine, but looking at my SP bar aftefr the quest, I could have skipped using it.

With the success (and fun) I had, it seems like I'll be trying out this approach a bit more, just to see how far I can go with it. Many thanks to everyone who has posted here ... you've helped me enjoy this toon again.

[SealedInSong]

TR out of WF and put on armour. The PRR and better healing
amp will help.

Good advice as usual Tobril but I think he'd like to keep his character's flavor as much as possible.