Gathering epic level gear.. where to start?

[Melfsmite]

I have a first life Wizard waiting for some static group members to hit 20 to start epic adventuring.

With the new content (specifically the War Wizard stuff in Eveningstar), where should I start gathering epic level gear?

My Wizard is an Archmage (Firecaster usually -- I rebuild alternately electricity) and right now he mainly has cannith crafted type stuff with a few nice special high-level enhancements.

I've had a secondary toon farming Shroud for GS gear (my static group is almost done with flagging).

The War Wizard set looks pretty attractive and doesn't seem to require a great amount of time to farm.

Are there any other relatively "easy picking" items I should target for levels 20-23? (I think I'm a year of Static playing away from 24+).

Thanks!

[Melfsmite]

Oh, I should have mentioned my Wizard is actually a Wiz/Rogue (currently 16/2).

Because our static group is now full and my character doesn't need to be quite so versatile, I am considering a heart of wood to make him a pure Wizard.

Good idea?

[tekkentroop]

I love pure wizard, the capstone is just great.

I dont like the eveningstar wizard set, some of the items bonuses dont stack with greensteel and they clog up important slots.

Actually, a 45 hp con-op greensteel item is still top notch, and a good place to start. ToD rings are also still decent, and hard to replace. Good spellpower 1h-weapons can be bought in the auction house (glaciation of cold mastery, etc). Mysterious bauble from weapon shipment is great for casters but takes a while to farm.

easy to pick up: staff of the necromancer (drow city chain, house Szind), planar focus of erudition (+8 int or +3 insightful int, nice as long as you dont have a litany of the dead)

but most important is your actual build...

pm or archmage? which elements/schools? which main destiny?

Im running an cold/acid pale master, necro/enchant spell foci, draconic incarnation as main destiny.

[Kinerd]

The Adamantine Dragon Cloak is awesome, plus you don't have to be level 20+ to farm it. In fact, some of the challenges get a lot harder in epic versions, for instance Ring of Fire.

The War Wizard set is not very good imo. You're using up neck and bracers to basically get +1 universal DC (doesn't stack with addy cloak or any other +2 item) and both Shroud SPs. Why not use neck and bracers to get Torc and Con Opp? Or if you've got Con Opp somewhere else, the Bracers of Wind from the Cannith challenges are pretty snazzy. These items also can be farmed pre-20, although the Bracers are of course a lot better on tier 3 and slotted.

I don't recall but I'm not sure you can even get commendations in heroic content. If you can or when you do, look at the Purple Dragon Knight Gauntlets, and that's pretty much it. The SP potions are lackluster return (~150 all told) and have pretty big cooldowns, you may as well grab them when you can't grab anything else but they're not going to replace Major Mnems in function or SP restored.

If you're not going to be using trap skills, the 2 rogue doesn't get you very much: go pure for sure.

Another thing I would look for is a good Thaumaturgy staff. Because there are so many permutations it takes a long, long, long time to get exactly the right one for you, and the best ones drop in higher level content so I wouldn't stress about it too much, just keep your eyes open.

[Melfsmite]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I have done an Archmage build so far. But with a very likely "Greater heart of wood +3" rebuild coming soon, I am shopping for a strong DPS build while maintaining Wizard class.

I'd rather not go undead as our static group contains a great healing player and I'm already much more familiar with Fire/Electrical/Kinetic-based casting and have some clickies and items to maximize those over necro skills.

[voodoogroves]

I disagree and l like the war wizards set as BRIDGE gear. Yes, it does have effects that are replaced by shroud HP & SP items, but you can get the war wizard set in a day ... Long before you get your shrouds great and torc.

Challenge gear and commendation gear are easy to get ... So for that quick set to use in the interim, they are great options. I would keep in mind where you would be slotting longer term great as well, and don't get too attached to the bridge kit.

Other easy to grab quick items ate the pdk gloves for the healing amp, the villager belt for the constitution. You may want to hit mindsunder and dreaming dark for things like the death a touch, robe of the Phoenix, join stones, etc. You will still get some XP and the heart is quickly farmable.

[Melfsmite]

I was looking at the set as exactly that.... a bridge until the GS items are done and my group can credibly hit the higher level runs for better gear.

I'm sure I will at least get the Amulet as I really have a slot open (I'm going to be ditching the Dex gloves). I may get the bracers as well. The other stuff I'll probably pass on as I have a good robe already.

The staff is nice but seems like too much work for what it is and my dual wield weapons are probably a better match for the toon anyway.

I'll definitely look into the challenge reward stuff too. Thanks!

[sirgog]

A few ideas:


First, get to level 23. This won't take long and unlocks a lot of better gear such as some amazing robes.

Second, look on the Auction House for the following (if you are broke, run Epic Hard VON6 and sell your red scales, you don't need gear for EH VON6 at all)
- A good min level 23 one-handed caster stick for each hand that boosts an element you care about. Great examples include '+5 Combustion Scepter of Fire Mastery', '+5 Corrosion Shortsword of Necromatic Mastery' or similar. The ML 23 ones are far, far, FAR better than any lower level ones.
- Spidersilk Robes. A lot of these drop as they drop in a chest that has been farmed a lot for +4 tomes, so it should be quite affordable. Either the Int 8 or Int 3 version will do (exceptional 3 is the better choice)
- An Amrath Con +6, Greater False Life belt
- A Heavy Fortification item.
- A Shroud hitpoint item (tier 2 is quick to acquire. Tier 3 takes time)
- If you got the +3 Int Spidersilk Robes, a +8 Int random lootgen item. (+7 will do as a fallback). If you got +8 Int ones, then get a +2 Insightful Int random loot item. Goggles are best.
- A crafted +2 spell DC ring to each of the two schools you most care about.
- A +3 Int tome (lowest priority and don't pay over 300k PP as these will fall in price in the short term due to recent tome changes).

And there you go. A basic gearset. Good enough for every EH quest and even most EEs if you take them slowly.

[Melfsmite]

Actually, since this is a "once a week static toon" I think getting to level 23 is going to take us the better part of a year.

It's taken two years to get to level 18 as we only play once a week.

I have taken note of the advise though as I like the way those items fit together with stuff I have and plan to build.

I'm really looking for items to bridge my Mage from 18 to 23+.

By the time we get to 23+, who knows what additional content will exist. They may have changed the entire magic system by then

One thing I will do because I have more $$$ than game time with this guy is buy some strategic items from the DDO store. One such item I purchased a long time ago was a supreme +3 tome.

[sirgog]

Actually, since this is a "once a week static toon" I think getting to level 23 is going to take us the better part of a year.

Even on a first life toon, 18-20 takes more than twice as long as 20-23 as XP awards just soar once you hit 20. You'll be surprised when you see how big an XP chunk you get from running something quite short (like Epic Normal Snitch) - it will be a lot more than a quite long quest like Heroic Normal Shroud.

[Melfsmite]

Even on a first life toon, 18-20 takes more than twice as long as 20-23 as XP awards just soar once you hit 20. You'll be surprised when you see how big an XP chunk you get from running something quite short (like Epic Normal Snitch) - it will be a lot more than a quite long quest like Heroic Normal Shroud.

That's good to know. I am looking forward to some Epic Destiny quests.

[Kamode_Corebasher]

Hi Melfsmite. I keep hearing talk of needing con-op gear and torc ...that it's more like a must. I have to say (in my opinion) these items are not a must, not even close.

The one exception to my opinion would be in the case you solo or have a solo playstyle--completely self sufficient and a love of seeing your character twitch from being hit, repeatedly, relentlessly :-)

Since this is not your playstyle for this character (nor will it ever have to be a style you need in order to play any content in this game), then why slot them. My experience playing my wizard in a similar role as you *with* a con-op scepter and torc was an average of maybe 100 sp return per quest. If I was solo'ing parts or most of challenges like Colossal Crystal, my playstyle that of jumping/moving to avoid as much damage as possible while I destroyed the enemy, I would typically see ~150 sp return. Again, in my opinion, not worth slotting.

With my above reasoning, I have slotted the 3 piece war wizards set. Here's why:
-War Wizard set gives the same as the shroud spell point item...and since UMD is not very accessible nor used for a wizard, the +6 cha skills from a shroud item is negated.
-War Wizard set gives the 3rd tier of a shroud HP item.
-10% reduction in sp cost. (~300 sp return)


So I made myself a greensteel hp item (goggles) to tier 2 with a raise dead clicky, then slotted the tier 3 with a major arcane lore of one element (ice for me). Very few large ing. needed.

I don't think nor believe this is the best setup, but I don't think there is a "best"
I do know that I run EE content and do my part well.

Here's another recommendation--one that serves me well and not widely held--Get the favor for and use Silver Flame HP potions. When in a harry situation or when pugging with a healer who doesn't heal, etc. the use of these at the cost of -5 to your DCs for 30 seconds is awesome and makes you self sufficient. Yes movement speed is reduced too, but typically not an issue at that point, just stand and dot and chug another pot if need...or ddoor to safety, etc.

[Melfsmite]

I think your perspective matches a lot of mine. Thanks for commenting.

I started farming the War Wizard set to bridge to better items. Bracers are in inventory (though I haven't leveled to 20 yet and probably wont for a couple more weeks while one last straggler gets to 18).

Amulet is one more run away.

I have a Chaos Robe so I can spend some time getting the Robes for the additional bonus.

And I have most of the ingredients for another Tier 2 GS HP item... not exactly sure where I am going to slot it.

I plan to do Gloves and Goggles at some point. Boots are still an option too.

[Tobril]

War wizard set
Cannith propulsion boots
Various high spellpower+lore one handed items
Purple Glove
Con 6 (or greater)
Greater False Life
Heavy Fort
Exception Fort (if you can find it and fit it in)
Every last stacking INT item you can find

[Such755]

This is my list for a wizard end game gear, I don't think it can get any better than this.
Since you're an arch mage, the bracers won't be good for you because you'll get negative levels, feel free to swap it.
I would start with getting the boots of corrosion, the scroll can be bought, seal can be farmed and the shard... well if you're running with friends I'm sure they'll pass it to you. Tip: Epic elite chrono has a MUCH greater chance of dropping seals and shards than epic hard.
Slot the boots with +1 exceptional int and either toughness or +2 luck (Probably go with luck because you won't be using the robe of shadow anyway.)
In any case, I strongly suggest switching to pale master.

The robe of shadow can be bought, same as the +8 int.

Head: Green steel helmet of Mineral II with SP. (Using a yugoloth potion will decrease your fortificatoin by 50%, you want to keep it above 100 at all times)

Goggles: Generic goggles of +8 intelligence. Not easy to come by, not cheap to buy, but a must.

Armor: Spidersilk robe with +3 insightful intelligence  

Bracers: Epic bracers of the demon consort slotted with greater false life (+6 dexterity too if you want, no where else to put it)
 
Ring 1: Any ToD ring with +6 str +1 exceptional con(slotted with +2 insightful constitution)  . You want the str so you will be able to carry heavy loads.

Ring 2: Epic ring of the element essences.  Still trying to get something better

Gloves: Green steel gloves of concordant opposition with HP

Boots:Epic boots of corrosion  slotted with +1 exceptional intelligence and toughness 
(If you are NEVER going to remove your spidersilk, then slot it with +2 luck instead.)

Belt: Generic belt with +8 constitution (Mine also has 13 balance, I got lucky)

Cloak: Adamantine cloak of the dragon  (+2 to all DCs, hurray)

Trinket: Litany of the dead)) 

Necklace: Torc of prince Rayum 

Weapons: Generic combination of scepters that will amp your two main elements. In my case: 1 Magnetism of Cold mastery and Glaciation of electric mastery \ Staff of the necromancer \ Alchemical large shield: Crystal, teir 1 Mystical air, teir 2 martial earth (Good for active blocking, more HP, amp your first element). \ Alchemical scepter: byeshk, teir 1 mystical water, teir 2 mystical water, teir 3 mystical earth.
That is my main setup.