Pale Master Guide

[peng]

Would it make sense to grab light armor proficiency from eldritch knight? I know it doesn't provide as much mitigation as it used to (light armor gives bab prr, so 14 prr by lvl 28 if you don't increase your bab somehow), but some is better than none, as long as you don't sacrifice too much to get it. It would cost 7 ap to get light armor from EK, 10 ap if you get another 10 prr from improved shield.

[SynalonEtuul]

This build is very restricted on action points. Andoris' build seems to have almost none left over, and even the more flexible alternate layout I use has only 6 AP left over, which are probably better used for Elven arcanum or feywild tap. So you'd have to make sacrifices to your DCs which, for 14 PRR, does not seem really worth it.

[Thalone]

Trinket: Epic Litany: +2 all stats (Blue/Yellow: Open; Green: Golem’s Heart ) (alchemical resistance ritual)
Head: Epic Deific Focus: wis/cha/int +11; Deific Focus II (Blue/Yellow: +2 iCon Green: +2 Evocation)
Neck: Epic Noxious Embers: 150 combustion; Universal Spell Crit 17%; (Yellow: +2 Conjuration; Green: +2 Enchantment)
Goggles: Intricate Field Goggles +3 insightful intelligence (Green: +2 Necromancy; Yellow: GoTIB)
Bracers: Dumathoin’s Bracers: 30 sheltering, 11 dex, 45 resistance (Blue: Open) || Dissolution*: Conj Focus 5, Acid Lore 10, Corrosion +156, Acid Absorb 30% (Blue: 16 PRR; Green: Draconic Soul Gem)
Body: Shadow Dragon Light Armor, Shadow caster (Blue: -15% ASF; Green: +40 False Life)
Cloak: Countenance*: Cha 12, Evo Focus 5, Spell Pen 7 (Yellow: Open; Green: Open)
Ring: The Band Immaterial: Illusion and Enchant Focus +7 (Green: +8 Con)
Ring: Epic Circle of Malevolence: 12 resistance, vitality +40, insightful sheltering +5 (Blue/Yellow: +8 Strength; Green: +2 Conjuration)
Boots: Boots of Blessed Travels*: Dodge 12%, Speed 15, FoM, IRef +3 (Yellow: Open; Green: Open )
Gloves: Green Steel Earth 10hp +2 con skills / Air 50 sp +4 cha skills / Water +100 sp +6 wis skills, Balance of Land and
Belt: Belt of Braided Beards*: Int +12, Lesser Displace (Blue: Good Luck +2; Green: +15 Heal)

Orb: Epic Increased Potential: +12 Orb, Wizardry 11, Insightful Spell Pen II, Quality Spell Focus II (Orange: Meridian Fragment)
Scepter (various): TF 150 Nullification SP, +6 Necro DC, Eternal Chilling Darkness (Orange: 138 impulse)

What do you guys/gals think.. am I missing anything?

Something that doesn't seem to be common knowledge yet: the six-piece set from the Gambit pack requires only five items. Since you have a Litany, you can equip necklace, bracer, boot, and 2x ring for +3 Quality to all stats. Those slots on your currently loadout don't really affect DCs except for the Enchantment ring; you can treat it as a swap item for casting Hold/Disco.

[Enderoc]

Elf with splashes of 2 levels Ranger, Paladin,or 1 level Favored Soul, or Cleric to me is a better bet. Arcane fluidity is key to heavier armor and shield use, as well as increasing your neg damage and neg healing as you are able to maximize heal as a skill.

[Andoris]

Something that doesn't seem to be common knowledge yet: the six-piece set from the Gambit pack requires only five items. Since you have a Litany, you can equip necklace, bracer, boot, and 2x ring for +3 Quality to all stats. Those slots on your currently loadout don't really affect DCs except for the Enchantment ring; you can treat it as a swap item for casting Hold/Disco.

While that does give you another DC or two, landing spells is not really an issue with the build. The issue is lack of red named dps and the fact that the current end game raid has almost no mobs that you can CC or insta-kill; making the wizard less than useful (in that content). It is still great everywhere else.. except the raid that is filled with caster items

Other issue with the Devil's Handiwork set is that while you gain +3 int, you lose too much for it. Loss of Spell Crits, Spell Power, PRR, Saves, Dodge is a big deal. In exchange you really don't get much in return.

I don't see it being worth it personally.

[Andoris]

Elf with splashes of 2 levels Ranger, Paladin,or 1 level Favored Soul, or Cleric to me is a better bet. Arcane fluidity is key to heavier armor and shield use, as well as increasing your neg damage and neg healing as you are able to maximize heal as a skill.

Survivability is not really an issue. Also the loss of the 2 wizard levels has an adverse impact on your spell pen, and considering that we are back to devil content, Spell Pen is important.

If I was going to go with a splash, I really liked the 2 fighter / 18 wizard that I was running around with for a while.

[Portalcat]

It looks like U29 is offering a substantial buff to casters. There are kickass legendary feats, epic destiny spell feats, and a variety of new "regular" epic feats which let you remove the caster level cap on regular elemental spells.

There are big goodies for DC casters, as well as options to add a lot more boss DPS. These stand out to me:

Scion of the Shadowfell
+4 to the DCs of Necromancy spells, +2 to DCs of other spells
+40 Negative Spell Power
+20 Negative Amp (assuming you take healing from Negative)
Weapon and Unarmed attacks heal you for 1d6 Positive damage, or 1d6 Negative damage if you are Undead.

Not that the other caster-focused legendary feats are shabby either, but the +2 to Necro DC over other caster feats and the crazy gains to negative healing make this too good to pass up.

Arcane Pulse (3 Arcane Destinies)

Spell: A magical pulse of force reverberates through the target's body, dealing 3d6+6 force damage every 2 seconds for a duration of 16 seconds. This spell can stack on the target up to 5 times, increasing the damage with each stack. 3 second cooldown

This is meaningful DoT, and it's force-based. Some quick math suggests it's on par with Greater Creeping Cold once it gets stacked up.

Master of the Dead

Your Chill Touch, Necrotic Ray, and Negative Energy Burst spells no longer have a maximum caster level.

I'm fairly sure this level 24 regular epic feat basically reads "Negative Energy Burst is a full heal, possibly without having to maximize/empower it". Current max caster level on Negative Energy Burst is 10. This makes a huge difference.

Embolden Spell

METAMAGIC: +2 DCs to all spells with DCs. +10SP. Affects spells

Another level 24 regular epic spell. It seems required.

Arcane Insight

Activate to gain + 6 to all spell DCs and +6 to Spell Penetration for 30 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.

This level 21 regular epic feat seems very strong in any world where DC casting is "balanced". If it's necessary to have this active to land spells with debuffs, then DC casting is too hard. If this is extraneous, then DC casting is too easy.

If, however, DC casting is in a range where it's a fairly balanced playstyle, then every few minutes you get to land everything for 30 seconds.

Greater Ruin
Requires Ruin.
Deals 1000 untyped damage to a single enemy (no saving throw). Costs 150 SP

Level 30 regular epic feat option. This is huge chunk of single-target DPS assuming it has a 15s cooldown like Ruin. Hard to say immediately if this is worth taking given sp management challenges, and it's not clear there's space for both Ruin and Greater Ruin.








There are also options here to go less all-in on DC casting and add in DPS via the new regular epic feats in some element or another. Presumably though, we're never taking Great Intelligence as a feat ever again.

[Andoris]

Agreed, U29 will bring some interesting options.

One of the big challenges will be fitting everything in. Here is my current thoughts:

Level 21 -- Wellspring of Power: Nice clicky for boss beat-downs -- I don't like Arcane Insight as I need my DC's to work all the time, not just 30 seconds out of every 180. If I need that +6 to DC's to land a spell, then DC casting is broken (imo)

Level 24 -- We will likely need to take Embolden Spell for the +2 DC; however, I really wish we could take Master of the Dead or one of the elemental masters (fire and water look fun) to give us a direct damage option.

Level 26 (ED) -- Likely still Epic Spell Power here

Level 27 -- I think Ruin is still the best option here, but I need to do some math on the lvl 24 feats before I commit.

Level 28 (ED) -- Hell Ball is still our best option here

Level 29 (ED) -- Arcane Pulse (I wish it was a bit more base damage, but better than nothing I guess). Dreamscape might also be cool, depending on what the buffs are

Level 30 -- Greater Ruin or potentially the Elemental Master lvl 24 feats. When you consider that an uncapped Fireball will be doing about ~100 points of base damage and a uncapped Niac's Cold Ray has a base damage of around 230, This one will require some more thinking.

Level 30 (Legendary) -- Scion of the Shadowfell looks like the hands down favorite.

[Portalcat]

The first round of new loot for U29 is upon us:

Robe - Robe of the Celestial Sage

Enchancement - Dodge - Enhancement Dodge Bonus (+15)
Sheltering - Sheltering (+38 MRR and PRR))
Quality - Potency - Quality Bonus to Potency (27)
Insight - Spell DC's -Insight Spell Focus Mastery of +3
Blurry - 20% Concealment
Deathblock (This should be the standard Deathblock, with no Negative Energy Reduction).
Parrying - +10 Insight Bonus to AC, +5 Insight Bonus to Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower
Fortification - Enhancement Bonus to Fortification (160%)
Augment - Green
Augment - Yellow

Cloak - Construct's Mantle

Repair Amplification (Scaling numbers TBD)
Quality Intelligence (+1/+3)
Repair Skill (Scaling numbers TBD)
Quality Magnetism (+16/30)
Green Augment Slot

Orb

+4 Orb Bonus
Negative Healing Amplification (Scaling numbers TBD)
Insightful Nullification (+47/74)
Insightful Necromancy Focus (+1/2)
False Life (+29/53)
Orange Augment Slot

Knowing nothing yet about the possibilities with random lootgen and epic greensteel, these 3 items already look like they could fit into whatever the optimal gear layout might be.

In any case, U29 looks likely to be the biggest shakeup of the gearing for the build since this thread started, assuming epic greensteel offers anywhere near the flexibility or options that heroic greensteel did - it already appears that a +14 INT +7 Insightful INT +2 Exceptional INT weapon is possible. It remains to be seen if those can be slotted on accessories instead.

[Andoris]

Updated after seeing some of the Loot Gen



Trinket: Epic Litany: +2 all stats (Blue: +2 Necromancy; Green: Golem’s Heart ) (alchemical resistance ritual)
Head: Epic Deific Focus: wis/cha/int +11; Deific Focus II (Blue/Yellow: +2 iCon Green: +2 Evocation)
Neck: Epic Noxious Embers: 150 combustion; Universal Spell Crit 17%; (Yellow: +2 Conjuration; Green: +2 Enchantment)
Goggles: Necro +6; Spell Pen +5
Bracers: Dumathoin's Bracers: Sheltering 30, Resistance 45 (Blue: Good Luck +2) || swap Dissolution: Conj Focus 5, Acid Lore 10, Corrosion +156, Acid Absorb 30% (Blue: Good Luck +2; Green: Draconic Soul Gem)
Body: Thunderforged Robe Shadow Caster (Blue: +2 Spooky Int; Green: +40 False Life)
Cloak: Construct's Mantle: Quality Int +3, Quality Magnetism +30 (Green: +15 Heal)
Ring: The Band Immaterial: Illusion and Enchant Focus +5 /+2 insight (Green: +8 Con)
Ring: Epic Circle of Malevolence: 12 resistance, vitality +40, insightful sheltering +5 (Blue/Yellow: +8 Strength; Green: +2 Conjuration)
Boots: Boots of Blessed Travels: Dodge 12%, Speed 15, FoM, IRef +3 (Yellow: Open; Green: Open )
Gloves: Gloves of the Arcane Soldier (Yellow: +8 Con ; Green: Open)
Belt: Legendary GreenSteel 35% lighting lore


Weapons: LGS +14 int / +7 Insightful Int / +2 Exceptional Int; Legendary Death's Handiwork: 56 Neg Healing Amp, Nullification 149, Insight Necro +2, False Life 53, Orange: (138 impuse), Mythic +2

Did some testing in EE Shroud today.. looks like Spell Pen of 60 is no-fail except for LE Drow. Trogs and Orthons are 55 SR, Trolls and Bezekira are 57, Drow are 65, Kobolds are 60

[Maatogaeoth]

Any guesses how many L-Shrouds it'll take to make the 2+ LGS items you're listing? Assuming I don't bother with bypass timers (hate the concept), are we talking 2 months? 6 months? 2 years?

[Andoris]

Any guesses how many L-Shrouds it'll take to make the 2+ LGS items you're listing? Assuming I don't bother with bypass timers (hate the concept), are we talking 2 months? 6 months? 2 years?

It is going to depending on what difficulty you are running it on and some luck. You really only need the LGS Intelligence stick (everything else is secondary). My guess is that as long as you are running higher difficulties it shouldn't take more than 10-15 runs (on EE you get 1-4 ingredient drops.. so it is pretty random atm). As the materials are BTA you can run multiple alts and in theory get it pretty quick (2-3 weeks depending on how many alts).

Again, we will not know real drop rates until it goes live, but this should give you a decent idea.

[Fanaval]

Thank you Andoris, as always an excellent analysis.

[SirValentine]

Note, this does not take into account Loot gen. If I happen to pull a +14/+7/+2 Int Item (non-weapon), a Necro Focus item, or a +6 Spell Pen Item all of this changes

...I don't know if we can get spell pen high enough without slotting an item. Currently without an item we can hit mid-50s with some work; however I don't think that is enough. As much as I would love to slot that new orb, I just don't see it working, unless they give us a way to slot Necromancy somewhere other than a weapon.

Already saw a screenshot of lootgen +15 Int googles, and I personally saw a lootgen necklace with both +6 Necro DC and +5 Spell Pen on it.

[Andoris]

Already saw a screenshot of lootgen +15 Int googles, and I personally saw a lootgen necklace with both +6 Necro DC and +5 Spell Pen on it.

I already picked up a +6 necro, +5 spell pen goggles, so looks like the Orb is back in the mix.

What else were on those goggles?

Also, looks like 60 spell pen is all that is needed for everything but LE TS Drow, they need 65 spell pen (don't think I am going to care about them though.. web should be fine there).

[Andoris]

Feats:
Wizard: Maximize Spell (1),SF: Necro (5), SF: Enchant* (10), Heighten Spell (15), Quicken Spell (20)
Base: Insightful Reflexes (1), Completionist (3), PL: Wizard (6), GSF: Necro (9), Spell Pen (12), Greater Spell Pen (15), Empower Spell (18), Epic Spell Pen (21), Embolden (24), Ruin (27), Greater Ruin (30) || Scion of Shadowfell (30)
Destiny: epic SP: Force (26), Hellball (28), Arcane Pluse (29)

*I am thinking of dropping SF: Enchant for Enlarge. There are enough times where having the extra range in the new raids would be extremely helpful.


Enhancements:
Wizard: Pale Master (41 ap):
C: Dark Reaping (1), Zombie (1), Vampire (1), Wraith (1), Lich (1), Master of Death (1)
I: Deathless Vigor III (6), Spell Critical: Negative (2), Negative Energy Conduit III (3)
Ii: Efficient: Quicken III (6), Spell Critical: Negative (2), Bone Armor III (3)
III: Spell Critical: Negative (2), Intelligence (2), Cloak of Night I (1)
IV: Spell Critical: Negative (2), Intelligence (2),
V: Improved Shrouding (2), Necromantic Focus (2)

Wizard: Archmage (29 ap):
C: Necromancy IV (4)
I: Traditionalist Caster III (3), Spell Critical (2)
II: Spell Critical (2), Efficient: Maximize I (2)
III: Spell Critical (2), Intelligence (2), Spell Pen III (6)
IV: Intelligence (2), Spell Critical (2), Spell Focus: Necro (2)

Sun Elf (6 ap):
C: Accuracy II (2ap), Intelligence II (4ap),
II: Arcanum II (4ap)

Epic Destinies: (LE Raiding, all others use Draconic)
Epic Destinies: Magister
I: Intelligence (2); Unearthly Reactions (2)
II: Intelligence (2); Necro Specialist III (3),
III: Intelligence (2); Piercing Spellcraft III (3), Necro Augmentation (1)
IV: Intelligence (2); Necro Familiarity (1)
V: Intelligence (2);
VI: Intelligence (2), Arcane Adept (2)

Twists: Fatesinger: Echoes of the Magister (3), Exalted Angel: Piercing Spellcraft (3), Draconic: Intelligence (2), Shadowdancer: Intelligence (1), Draconic: Intelligence (1)

----
Once I get my LGS stick my Int should be: : 92 -- (20 base +7 tome +7 level ups +2 completionist +2 PM tree +2 Sun Elf tree +2 Archmage Tree +2 capstone + 14 item +7 Insight +2 enchant +3 quality +2 litany + 6 destinies +4 Twist +4 lich +2 yugo +2 ship +2 lasting +2 Spooky)

Spell Pen will be: 62 (20 base +9 Past Lives + 8 Feats + 5 ED levels + 2 Arcanum +3 Archmage + 5 Item + 2 Augmentation + 2 Echo's of Magister + 3 Piercing Spell Pen +3 twisted Piercing Spell Pen) Which is 3 higher than it really needs to be, however; it will help with LE Drow in TS (64 is no fail against them). If I can find a better use for 6 ap or a tier 3 twist I might swap it out

DC's should be:
Generic to all: +70 (10 base +9 lvl +41 Int +1 wiz +2 augment +1 Quality +1 Profane +1 Guild +2 Embolden +2 Scion)

Necromancy – 90; (+70 Generic +2 feats +1 Lich +1 PM +1 AM +3 ED +6 Item +2 Deific Focus II +2 Insight +2 Scion)
Enchantment – 79; (+70 Generic +5 Item +2 insight +1 Feat)
Transmutation – 76; (+70 Generic +6 Item)
Illusion – 77; (+70 Generic +5 Item +2 insight)
Evocation – 73/79[swap]; (+70 Generic +5 Item [swap] +3 Sorc Pls)
Conjuration – 78; (+70 Generic +5 Item +3 Cleric Pls )


What do you guys/gals think? Am I missing something? -- of course crazy loot gen can throw this whole thing into wack (I am really unhappy with loot gen > Raid loot :-( )

[Wizza]

Did some testing in EE Shroud today.. looks like Spell Pen of 60 is no-fail except for LE Drow. Trogs and Orthons are 55 SR, Trolls and Bezekira are 57, Drow are 65, Kobolds are 60

Also, looks like 60 spell pen is all that is needed for everything but LE TS Drow, they need 65 spell pen (don't think I am going to care about them though.. web should be fine there).

Didn't they say they lowered the SP required from Lamannia to the last build that went live? I'm trying to do something about Spell Resistance on my Sorcerer as well and since I'm on timer for Shroud, I could only test the kobolds in Creeping Death which have 53 Spell Pen requirement and I have about 46 with Piercing Spellcraft already twisted in.

[Andoris]

Didn't they say they lowered the SP required from Lamannia to the last build that went live? I'm trying to do something about Spell Resistance on my Sorcerer as well and since I'm on timer for Shroud, I could only test the kobolds in Creeping Death which have 53 Spell Pen requirement and I have about 46 with Piercing Spellcraft already twisted in.

On lamania those numbers were 2-4 points higher

[Wizza]

On lamania those numbers were 2-4 points higher

Well, time to make some changes then. Thanks!

[Ellihor]

What do you guys/gals think? Am I missing something? -- of course crazy loot gen can throw this whole thing into wack (I am really unhappy with loot gen > Raid loot :-( )

I did the same but took one more ench DC instead of empower. Currently lv 23 and it's been a pain in the ass to lv up a pale master D:

BTW, where do you put contitution item?