WF AM Shiradi advice please

[Nitesco]

I'm looking for advice on transforming my first life, DC based Warforged AM into a Shiradi spammer. I've got the Shiradi ED up to tier4 with 20 points to spend. I'm thinking I'll need to do a lot of rearranging of feats and enhancements if I'm to get the most out of it.

These are the feats I currently have:

Toughness
Mental Toughness
Insightful Reflexes
SF Enchantment
SF Conjuration
SF Necromancy
GSF Necromancy
Heighten
Maximize
Quicken
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Epic Spell Penetration
Great Intelligence

I'll probably need SF Evocation and GSF Evocation for the SLA's, so should I swap the Necromancy feats out for Evocation? Do Shiradi effects proc off Web and Hypno SLA's, to make those worth keeping? I don't imagine my DC's on a first life Wizard are going to be usable where it matters. Is it worth picking up Empower as well? Which feats should I keep and which should I dump? Once I have established that base I can think about enhancements and gear.

[Kinerd]

Keeping in mind that we are definitely almost starting to possibly think about completely revamping enhancements at some point in the future which may or may not change everything, some things, or nothing:

Shiradi effects proc off of everything near as I can tell. I once killed a Death Warded enemy with Finger of Death thanks to the cold proc, and often delight in enemies being Crippled by my Webs.

To me the most beautiful thing about Hypno is not the direct DC effect but the save debuff. For 1 SP and no Spell Mastery requied I would definitely, definitely keep SF Ench for SLA Hypno.

The easy drops I see if you are set on going Shiradi are SF & GSF Necro and GI, then you can go SF & GSF Evo and Empower. Ordinarily going deep into SLAs is a sucker bet, but you have a unique opportunity here in that you have no reason whatsoever to take Spell Mastery Evocation 2(!), even though it is a no-brainer in a DC school like Necromancy or Enchant. That saves you 1 AP and 75 SP, which means your net loss for getting up to SLA Chain Missiles is only 2 AP and 75 SP, much more palatable.

I would keep the Spell Pens because you get so much bang for your buck, your other options are so wimpy, and because if you can pass Spell Pen but not DC you can just neg level, while if you can pass DC but not Spell Pen you're just stuck.

Every other feat is just a given for a serious AM, imo.

[Nitesco]

Keeping in mind that we are definitely almost starting to possibly think about completely revamping enhancements at some point in the future which may or may not change everything, some things, or nothing:

Shiradi effects proc off of everything near as I can tell. I once killed a Death Warded enemy with Finger of Death thanks to the cold proc, and often delight in enemies being Crippled by my Webs.

To me the most beautiful thing about Hypno is not the direct DC effect but the save debuff. For 1 SP and no Spell Mastery requied I would definitely, definitely keep SF Ench for SLA Hypno.

The easy drops I see if you are set on going Shiradi are SF & GSF Necro and GI, then you can go SF & GSF Evo and Empower. Ordinarily going deep into SLAs is a sucker bet, but you have a unique opportunity here in that you have no reason whatsoever to take Spell Mastery Evocation 2(!), even though it is a no-brainer in a DC school like Necromancy or Enchant. That saves you 1 AP and 75 SP, which means your net loss for getting up to SLA Chain Missiles is only 2 AP and 75 SP, much more palatable.

I would keep the Spell Pens because you get so much bang for your buck, your other options are so wimpy, and because if you can pass Spell Pen but not DC you can just neg level, while if you can pass DC but not Spell Pen you're just stuck.

Every other feat is just a given for a serious AM, imo.

Okay thanks for the advice, I've already started playing around with it. I'll probably dump SF Enchant as even with the Hypno debuff my DC's will be in the low 40's. The reason I dumped DC's in the first place is because no matter how much debuffing I did, I was always 5-10 DC short of a reliable success rate.

I've held onto SF Conjur, with a twist and buffs I can manage a high 40's Web in Solid Fog. That's still only 25% reliable at most in the easy-medium EE's I find. The main shortfalls I can see so far are not being able to get decent Will or Fort saves without splashing and reincarnating.

Something else I'm wondering, a lot of the good effects seem to require a ranged weapon. Is there a consensus on what the best type of ranged weapon is for a Shiradi Wizard?

[blerkington]

Something else I'm wondering, a lot of the good effects seem to require a ranged weapon. Is there a consensus on what the best type of ranged weapon is for a Shiradi Wizard?

Hi,

Which effects do you mean here?

Nerve toxin and double rainbow effects work on spells like magic missile and chain missiles.

Since you get a chance to proc an effect from each missile, the idea is to spam these in the hope of getting a good effect. It will give you a far higher rate of fire than using a missile weapon would, and at a low SP cost.

Thanks.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Something else I'm wondering, a lot of the good effects seem to require a ranged weapon. Is there a consensus on what the best type of ranged weapon is for a Shiradi Wizard?

Some of the abilities in the tree only work on ranged attacked and don't work on spells. Don't spend AP on those abilities.

[DarkForte]

I would keep the Spell Pens because you get so much bang for your buck, your other options are so wimpy, and because if you can pass Spell Pen but not DC you can just neg level, while if you can pass DC but not Spell Pen you're just stuck.

Every other feat is just a given for a serious AM, imo.

A first lifer on shiradi will have a very hard time hitting any relevant spell pen benchmarks. He'll be losing ~10 spell pen from that and twists, which means he won't be touching ee drow (which are really the only relevant-ish enemies with spell pen save for a few jarlith here and there). I'd trade them for iMT/Empower/eMT, and switch great intelligence for epic toughness.

Ideally in the OP's place I'd TR, because the active wiz PL feat is very powerful on a shiradi evoker.

[AtomicMew]

There are lots of much, much, much options other than spell pen. I don't want to give everything away, but think a bit creatively. And since it's only relevant on drow, it's pretty much wastes of feats since drow content is demolished by shiradi anyway.

Don't build for spell pen. The entire point is shiradi is to not hassle with DC casting. Energy drain isn't even efficient on trash mobs either and is only worth casting on orange named mobs, which are generally not dangerous to begin with.

You also don't need hypno or web SLAs. You have built in CC and spells that do more efficient damage per cast against large mobs. Yes they proc, but they're generally not much damage and the added complexity of having even more spells to keep track that don't even benefit you is a serious downside.

[Nitesco]

Seeing as I'm not going to have any DC based crowd control I was looking at Pin and Otto's Whistler, which both require some sort of ranged attack. I'm really more interested in the synergy that those no-save CC abilities provide in groups, rather than just raw DPS from missile spam procs. I'm still learing about all the abilities of this ED, but I've capped it now and experimented a bit and the CC just from the MM spam doesn't seem enough.

I've also messed around with Arcane Bolt, it seems rather cumbersome for something that doesn't hit very often. Currently I'm rotating betwen SLA MM/CM along with un-meta'd MM/CM and Pin/Otto's Whistler/Wild Shots. What other spells should I be looking at? Should I be dropping Solid Fog and Sleet Storm and kiting stuff through that? I have Force Missiles on my bar as well and Meteor Swarm but I don't want to use the more expensive spells too often as they chew through my blue bar fast.

I am thinking an LR and dump all Spell Focus feats except Evo/Greater Evo. I agree about Spell Pen, it would really only be for Energy Drain and that's not something I care about too much. I won't TR that's more effort than I'm willing to put into this, even though the SLA is awesome for Shiradi. One thing I'm finding annoying is that the SLA's seem to take longer to activate than the cooldowns indicate. But dumping all the DC related stuff seems like the logical way to go.

Edit: Another thing I've noticed is that I'm finding it hard to fill my level 7-9 slots with anything useful.

Edit 2: Another question, what's the best place to slot an HP/conopp and SP/skills item? I'm thinking gloves and neck, wrists seem too convenient a spot for a Superior Parrying item. I have HP/conopp on goggles atm.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Seeing as I'm not going to have any DC based crowd control I was looking at Pin and Otto's Whistler, which both require some sort of ranged attack. I'm really more interested in the synergy that those no-save CC abilities provide in groups, rather than just raw DPS from missile spam procs. I'm still learing about all the abilities of this ED, but I've capped it now and experimented a bit and the CC just from the MM spam doesn't seem enough.

I've also messed around with Arcane Bolt, it seems rather cumbersome for something that doesn't hit very often. Currently I'm rotating betwen SLA MM/CM along with un-meta'd MM/CM and Pin/Otto's Whistler/Wild Shots. What other spells should I be looking at? Should I be dropping Solid Fog and Sleet Storm and kiting stuff through that? I have Force Missiles on my bar as well and Meteor Swarm but I don't want to use the more expensive spells too often as they chew through my blue bar fast.

I am thinking an LR and dump all Spell Focus feats except Evo/Greater Evo. I agree about Spell Pen, it would really only be for Energy Drain and that's not something I care about too much. I won't TR that's more effort than I'm willing to put into this, even though the SLA is awesome for Shiradi. One thing I'm finding annoying is that the SLA's seem to take longer to activate than the cooldowns indicate. But dumping all the DC related stuff seems like the logical way to go.

Edit: Another thing I've noticed is that I'm finding it hard to fill my level 7-9 slots with anything useful.

Level 7-9 spells aren't nearly as useful as level 4-6 spells in spite of the fact that they're "more powerful".

One high level summon is nice as a distraction when it's appropriate. A stack of Summon Monster IV scrolls is nice to go along with this as an "unsummon" since they die quickly and I like the Lantern Archon for quests where I can't see well.

Some of my favorites are:

7
Otto's Sphere of Dancing
Mass Protection from Elephants (not an amazing spell, but handy at times)
Delayed Blast Fireball
Prismatic Spray
Mass Invisibility (back when it worked, at least)
Finger of Death

8
Polar Ray (less for Shiradi than others, but still nice)
Otto's Irresistible Dance (it's irresistible!)
Symbol of Death (crowd control is easy when everything has -6 or so levels)
Mass Charm Monster
Black Dragon Bolt (HA! Just kidding...)

9
Power Word Kill
Mass Hold Monster
Meteor Swarm (outstanding both as mass Crowd Control and DPS in Shiradi)
Energy Drain
Wail of the Banshee (if they fix it - even just as a source of negative levels with enemies making their saves, it's good)

[Nitesco]

Level 7-9 spells aren't nearly as useful as level 4-6 spells in spite of the fact that they're "more powerful".

One high level summon is nice as a distraction when it's appropriate. A stack of Summon Monster IV scrolls is nice to go along with this as an "unsummon" since they die quickly and I like the Lantern Archon for quests where I can't see well.

Some of my favorites are:

7
Otto's Sphere of Dancing
Mass Protection from Elephants (not an amazing spell, but handy at times)
Delayed Blast Fireball
Prismatic Spray
Mass Invisibility (back when it worked, at least)
Finger of Death

8
Polar Ray (less for Shiradi than others, but still nice)
Otto's Irresistible Dance (it's irresistible!)
Symbol of Death (crowd control is easy when everything has -6 or so levels)
Mass Charm Monster
Black Dragon Bolt (HA! Just kidding...)

9
Power Word Kill
Mass Hold Monster
Meteor Swarm (outstanding both as mass Crowd Control and DPS in Shiradi)
Energy Drain
Wail of the Banshee (if they fix it - even just as a source of negative levels with enemies making their saves, it's good)

Out of all those I'd keep and have loaded:

Level 7

Mass Prot (I have the single target version already and can't really find anything better to replace it with)
Prismatic Spray

Level 8

Polar Ray
Black Dragon Bolt (maybe, if I can find a good reason to put points in acid line)

Level 9

Power Word Kill
Meteor Swarm
Energy Drain

The rest either use too much SP for the damage they do, or are irrelevant to me because I was unable to make the DC's in the first place when I was fully geared and only missing past lives and multiple high level twists, which from what I read here would have still left me having to debuff and barely make a 50% success rate. So there's no real reason for me to have any of the usual CC spells, they won't work on anything that matters.

But if I can't get SOME crowd control from no-save ED abilities, then I don't see any reason to bother thinking about taking my Wizard into EE's, purely by not being able to justify taking up the slot. At best I can sustain some decent DPS through DoT's and mana dumping, but I can't sustain that for long. Otherwise I can sustain good damage to SP efficiency through the MM's, but it's rather slow and a bit of a kitefest.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Out of all those I'd keep and have loaded:

Level 7

Mass Prot (I have the single target version already and can't really find anything better to replace it with)
Prismatic Spray

Level 8

Polar Ray
Black Dragon Bolt (maybe, if I can find a good reason to put points in acid line)

Level 9

Power Word Kill
Meteor Swarm
Energy Drain

The rest either use too much SP for the damage they do, or are irrelevant to me because I was unable to make the DC's in the first place when I was fully geared and only missing past lives and multiple high level twists, which from what I read here would have still left me having to debuff and barely make a 50% success rate. So there's no real reason for me to have any of the usual CC spells, they won't work on anything that matters.

The level drain spells take MASSIVE amounts of HP off of big targets. If you hit something with an Enervation/Energy Drain before any other spells, you'll see it drop quickly. If you want to see how many HP an Enervation/Energy Drain knocks out, beat down some big giant and then throw the Enervation at it after it has been beaten down. That big "increase" in HP that you see is because its max HP just dropped and the number of current HP is a much bigger percentage of its total red bar now. Hitting it with an Enervation/Energy Drain first can knock a BIG amount of max HP off of a big enemy.
Symbol of Death does the same thing to potentially LOTS of enemies at the same time.
Wail of the Banshee will do the same thing once it is fixed.

And I seriously was kidding about Black Dragon Bolt. It is complete and utter garbage even if you do have Acid pumped up.

But if I can't get SOME crowd control from no-save ED abilities, then I don't see any reason to bother thinking about taking my Wizard into EE's, purely by not being able to justify taking up the slot. At best I can sustain some decent DPS through DoT's and mana dumping, but I can't sustain that for long. Otherwise I can sustain good damage to SP efficiency through the MM's, but it's rather slow and a bit of a kitefest.

Otto's Irresistable Dance has no save, so you only have to worry about SR.
Otto's Sphere of Dancing is a light source for dark quests (really only relevant in Rainbow, but it's handy to know) and you can kite enemies back and forth until they *do* start dancing, so it's much more reliable than Mass Hold Monster. Web + Disco Ball = more effective than you might expect, especially since they target saves that aren't Fort.

There is no need to cast those spells most of the time, but it's nice to have the flexibility when you need it. You have the spell slots, might as well use them.

[blerkington]

Seeing as I'm not going to have any DC based crowd control I was looking at Pin and Otto's Whistler, which both require some sort of ranged attack.

Hi,

You've got some experienced casters in this thread now (not me) giving you some good advice.

The problem with using a missile weapon is you will have a very slow rate of fire, have trouble hitting things due to low BAB, relevant stats etc, and no precise shot (which allows to hit what you want even if other mobs are in the way).

Pin and Otto's are great for archery and crossbow use, but I haven't heard of anyone trying to use them with spells. I'd be interested to hear if anyone does actually do this, just never seen it myself.

Thanks.

[Nitesco]

The level drain spells take MASSIVE amounts of HP off of big targets. If you hit something with an Enervation/Energy Drain before any other spells, you'll see it drop quickly. If you want to see how many HP an Enervation/Energy Drain knocks out, beat down some big giant and then throw the Enervation at it after it has been beaten down. That big "increase" in HP that you see is because its max HP just dropped and the number of current HP is a much bigger percentage of its total red bar now. Hitting it with an Enervation/Energy Drain first can knock a BIG amount of max HP off of a big enemy.
Symbol of Death does the same thing to potentially LOTS of enemies at the same time.
Wail of the Banshee will do the same thing once it is fixed.

True but it's expensive and I could easily burn through my bar if I use it too often. I normally save it for orange names. Throwing out Wails and Enervations on top of Energy Drain would see my blue bar drop very fast.

And I seriously was kidding about Black Dragon Bolt. It is complete and utter garbage even if you do have Acid pumped up.

It's not that terrible, I've found a use for it as against stuff that's immune to cold or electric but I agree it's inefficient and would also see my bar drop fast if I had to use it often. In Shiradi though I can see myself getting rid of it with all the more efficient ways to deal similar damage available. Previously I used it as part of my mana dumping rotation on EH bosses.

Otto's Irresistable Dance has no save, so you only have to worry about SR.

Yep I always have that loaded, I forgot to put it down.

Otto's Sphere of Dancing is a light source for dark quests (really only relevant in Rainbow, but it's handy to know) and you can kite enemies back and forth until they *do* start dancing, so it's much more reliable than Mass Hold Monster. Web + Disco Ball = more effective than you might expect, especially since they target saves that aren't Fort.

I used Web for that but I don't run Rainbow anymore and don't find any other quests too bad. All these DC spells are only worth it for EH and that's already easy.

There is no need to cast those spells most of the time, but it's nice to have the flexibility when you need it. You have the spell slots, might as well use them.

I'll be dropping so much DC and spell pen that I doubt I could get stuff to land on EH now. Before I went Shiradi I was getting 46-47 DC on my disco balls, which only worked in EH where I could insta-kill everything anyway. I guess it might be worth loading but it's really irrelevant to EE which is what I'm exploring Shiradi for. The philosophy being that I can't get the DC or spell pen high enough for EE so rather than shelve my Wizard I'm trying to see what can be salvaged from the ashes. As for EH it's boring and easy, even if the loot is ok. I'm sick of having to run EE's on my other toons, my Wizard is demanding relevance.

[Miluan]

Hey folks.

I really like this thread, there's some good advice in here. Here's my 2 cents as well (some of it has already been mentioned, sorry about that):

Far as spell spamming goes, you should be able to do the majority of your damage just off the SLAs and filling in with non-meta'd magic missiles, chain missiles and force missiles. It's very mana efficient and it will keep you going for a long time. Get used to the idea that you won't be using single-target DoTs (Niac, Eladar) a lot anymore - they are not nearly as mana-effective as having that extra 50-60 SP it takes to cast them for MM spamming. Of course, if you have SP to dump on an end boss or right before a shrine, then by all means, go for it.

Good spells to have for larger groups or if you want to concentrate spell procs on a certain area are Ice Storm, FW, Acid Fog, Cloudkill, Incendiary Cloud, pretty much anything that's AoE DoT that ticks every few seconds, as every tick has a chance to proc an effect. I personally like Ice Storm best, as the spell has 2 components, so that's 2 ticks per 2 seconds, instead of just one, and also the slow effect is really nice. Even if you're not specced for the element you want to use, it's still good to have at least one or two of those spells handy, especially ones that stack on top of each other.

As to crowd control, you're gonna have to get used to the idea that it's random, but very solid for EEs, and it procs quite often. Between Nerve Venom (procs on spells) and the Double Rainbow effects like knockdown, web trip, etc., you're going to be seeing a lot of incapped/CCed mobs for cheap, no debuffing required.

Of course, you can have your own at-will CC spells slotted. Power Word Stun, Otto's Irresistible, those are great for mobs without SR. Take the first room of EE Tor, for example, using Otto's there to control the giants is going to make your group's life much easier. Between that, ice storm slow, nerve venom and double rainbow, you'll easily have the whole room locked down.

Far as feats go, I'd say any spell focus (besides evo, being a prereq) or spell pen feat would be a waste on a first lifer. Use PWS and Otto on mobs without SR, and MM spam the ones with SR until you get a CC effect. Don't worry about DCs - you'll get procs even on evaded spells (thinking arcane bolt/blast here, though I'd only use the latter), and the Shiradi effects are mostly irresistible and don't even take the target's SR into account. Instead, I'd take the Mental Toughness line as far as I can, since the extra SP will keep you going longer.

One downside to wizard Shiradi is the fact that half your spammed spells (non-SLAs) are going to be non-quickened, as quickening them is of course pretty costly to your SP pool. That leaves room for concentration failures (mainly in EE), "you're not facing X" messages as the mob slides past you before you're done casting, and generally feeling like you're casting in slow motion. Maybe that's just me being used to a Shiradi sorc instead, though, so it might not even be such a big problem for you.

Hope that helps, good luck with your build.

Edit: Forgot about the Whistler and Pin - don't bother. You're so much better off carrying actual caster sticks with 120 to an element, or farming out a Twilight - it was pretty much made for Shiradi.

[Kinerd]

A first lifer on shiradi will have a very hard time hitting any relevant spell pen benchmarks. He'll be losing ~10 spell pen from that and twists, which means he won't be touching ee drow (which are really the only relevant-ish enemies with spell pen save for a few jarlith here and there). I'd trade them for iMT/Empower/eMT, and switch great intelligence for epic toughness.

Ideally in the OP's place I'd TR, because the active wiz PL feat is very powerful on a shiradi evoker.

Do you ever fight orthons or bearded devils? They have spell resist in the 20s. With just the 3 feats you have 28 spell pen and can get them very reliably. The (admittedly common) refrain that spell pen is all or nothing really baffles me, I don't mind telling you. If the situation was 57 SR and 0 SR and nothing in between, sure, but there is a continuous spectrum.

And as I also mentioned, it's not just what the spell pen feats get you, it's how little the other choices give you. My plan already gives the OP Empower, so you're trading significant (that is, useful in some cases) spell pen for spell points on a Shiradi. What could be more superfluous?

Edit: Another thing I've noticed is that I'm finding it hard to fill my level 7-9 slots with anything useful.

Keep in mind that Shiradi gives you SP-efficient and no-save damage, but not great DPS. Polar Ray and BDB are great DPS (and also have no save). It's hard for me to imagine any pure wizard build that wouldn't have both. I don't know why our Hungarian representative dislikes BDB so much.

[Apoxia]

Honestly, you're hearing both arguments, but from my experience running EE on my WF AM Shiradi I just decided to dump Spell Pen and DC casting all together. The low amount of spell pen you will be able to maintain (since you are a first life especially) is mostly useless in any harder content. Sure it may be useful for some Vale quests, but lets be honest here, your past worring about Vale or the odd quest where you might have to deal with an Orthon at this point.

Your DCs arent going to reliably hit anything going Shiradi on a first life with no spell pen either, might as well dump them. Go all in with Shiradi, use the feats you saved to pump up through IMT, EMT, and increase your survivability. Having a larger blue bar especially if you split 2 monk (which hurts your mana but is definately worth it) is nothing but added survivability with quickened recons or more damage before you're out of mana.

[~BartD]

I was just about to start a thread with same title so might as well ask here. For a pure warforged wizard shiradi, which should be the last feat, or would you take something entirely different?

6 of 7 General: Toughness, PL:Wizard, PL:Sorcerer, Insightful Reflexes, GSF: Evocation, Improved Mental Toughness
5 Wizard: Maximize, Quicken Spell, Empower Spell, SF: Evocation, Mental Toughness
2 Epic: Epic Toughness, Epic Mental Toughness

Maybe Heighten Spell to make DC-spells slightly less gimpy? Or a Spell Focus to get another SLA? Lightning Reflexes? Toughness? I'm not too thrilled by the options, can someone help me see something I'm missing?

[Azarddoze]

I was just about to start a thread with same title so might as well ask here. For a pure warforged wizard shiradi, which should be the last feat, or would you take something entirely different?

6 of 7 General: Toughness, PL:Wizard, PL:Sorcerer, Insightful Reflexes, GSF: Evocation, Improved Mental Toughness
5 Wizard: Maximize, Quicken Spell, Empower Spell, SF: Evocation, Mental Toughness
2 Epic: Epic Toughness, Epic Mental Toughness

Maybe Heighten Spell to make DC-spells slightly less gimpy? Or a Spell Focus to get another SLA? Lightning Reflexes? Toughness? I'm not too thrilled by the options, can someone help me see something I'm missing?

You already have the needed base from what I can see.

I'd really go with what you feel would really help you. Another SF is a great option, only if you are actually going to use the SLAs. While tougness/mental tougness will be useful at some point no matter what, same with extra saves. If you don't have any SP problem, might want to remove PL:Sorcerer as well and try to upgrade your defense.

The way I see it is that a Shiradi caster is a shiradi caster (so a good dps) by it's spells choice. All of your feats and APs should be aiming for more defense once your spell powers line are taken (force... then possibly electric/fire). That is how I built my shiradi sorc and how I would build my wiz. I took time to consider what should be dropped first and from what I could get the most out of... which was ED. So everything that I could take with feats and enhancements that would free me a twist slot was the best option for me.

Suggestion: If you use the +10% SP from Exalted Angel, taking another mental tougness could possibly make you free that slot which could then be used for more reflexes save or maybe the 50% elemental shield.

[~Gaesatae]

I have a first life WF AM that I've been moving away from DC casting into Shiradi. The only problem is most of my gear was chosen for DC casting. I'm finding that with three tier1 Int twists, I can sit at 50 unbuffed Int, which gives me low-mid 40's CC. For Tor/FoT I can drop two Int and twist Energy Sheath and Unearthly Reactions.

I know this hybrid is sub-optimal, but it allows me to insta-kill and CC most EH, which I often find myself running. I will say though, with 3 Epic Spell Pen and the +3 from enhancements, I was quite often seeing blue SR shields in some EH Gianthold quests, so I might have just found the sweet spot, but it's expensive in feats/enhancements.

What I'm really looking to do is optimize my gear, but I'm not really sure what I need to prioritize. I have Impulse and Resonance sticks out when I'm casting Shiradi, but is it worth trying to slot 114/120 in other elements? I have Potency 80 and the set bonus from the helm/armor. I have the choice of using Epic Rock Boots, but those are only 10 spell power more than Potency, so I'm thinking of ditching those for Spiked Boots, which gains me +20 Balance that I otherwise wouldn't have.

I have limited blue/green slots, so I doubt I'll have room for PRR, once +35 HP and Heavy Fort are taken care of. I was thinking of slotting +35 HP on the armor and Heavy Fort on the ring. I could slot 30% striding on the boots, it's too useful not to have full-time and I don't have an Abbot quiver. Deathblock and Resistance +7 is on the necklace for now, but I would like to find a slot for Blindness Immunity as well.

That leaves just +1 exceptional Int and Con, I would like to have more Con, but I can't really think of any better gear to use, so I might have to slot +7 Con as well. Anyway have a look at my gear setup and feel free to make any suggestions. I am pretty set on staying hybrid for now, so I can maintain useful EH DC's, but let me know if you think there's something I could be doing better.

Here's what I'm using now:

Head: EH Blue Dragon +3 Int (green/colorless)
Eyes: HP/ConOpp
Neck: EN Death's Locket
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Back: Stormreaver's Tablecloth
Belt: Epic Lion-Headed (yellow/colorless)
Wrists: Sun Soul
Hands: SP/Cha Skills
Body: Blue Dragon (blue)
Boots: EH Epic Spiked Boots (green/colorless)

Is there anything glaringly obvoius I'm missing? I'm new to Shiradi but it seems to be working quite well, even with this setup. Where do you think should I be slotting stuff and how can I improve on this?