Help me refine the build for my next life

[Havok.cry]

Okay in a while I am going to hit twenty and TR. My character is an AA and I plan on doing every life as an AA. My favorite weapon is my ooze2 longbow. I pick it up as soon as I can and rarely switch it out. I am about to finish my 3rd ranger life and am looking forward to doing a druid life or three. All the tasty minion bonuses just seem like my kinda thing. So I would like to do a pure druid 20 Elf AA.

Right now I am thinking I use zen archery and max out wisdom for to hit with bow and DCs with spells, then get dex and the elven grace enhancement for dex to damage with bows. This will let me not have to worry about strength while I have enough dex to get all the archery feats I want. I think that worrying about strength would spread my stats out to far to make this effective (and yes I know strength can get higher blah blah blah). Then if I ever find that melee is absolutely required I can pull out a flame blade and still use my wisdom. Part of the reason I am opting for 20 druid rather than multiclassing is that this is very much about the minions, and having a subpar wolf is just not appealing to me for this build.

So here is my thought so far:

36 pt. Elf Druid 20
str: 8+3tome
dex: 16+3tome
Con: 14+3tome
Int: 8+3tome
wis: 18+3tome+5 level ups
cha: 8+3tome

Note: I will not be buying any tomes in the store, nor spending any time grinding for them. I already have +3 tomes in each stat.

Note: The dex of 19 with base stat and tome get me up to improved precise shot. As this character won't see epic levels I do not need to worry about qualifying for combat archery or overwhelming critical (or any other epic feat)

Feats
1-point blank shot
3-zen archery
6-rapid shot
9-many shot
12-precise shot
15-improved precise shot
18-augment summons
(do not need to worry about epic levels as I'm not going there in this lifetime)

Skills:
concentration
heal
spellcraft

extra skill points go to:
balance
jump
bluff/intimidate

Enhancements:
Elf: 21
elven weapons training t1-4
all elven core abilities
Arcane Archer
Grace
Skill

Arcane Archer: 36
first 4 core abilities (can't get more due to level requirements)
conjure arrows
energy of the wild
awareness (just the first point, can switch for one point in true shot)
inferno shot
terror arrows
soul magic
paralyzing arrows
+2 wisdom
arrow of slaying
moonbow
runebow

Nature's Warrior: 13
extra wild empathy (if I can get a worthwhile intimidate or bluff skill this will go to the appropriate T1 enhancement)
athletic (only first point)
vengeful hunter
blood moon frenzy
reaving roar

This build plans on spending as much of it's time as it can in fire elemental form. Please help me find any mistakes I may have made, and any advice to improve the build as well.

PS:
After going over all that In my head I also decided to post the other build I was thinking, which is dex focused instead of wisdom focused. It is essentially the same except for the following:

dex: 20
con: 16
int: 14 (mmmm... tasty skills)
wisdom: 8

level 3 feat augment summons
level 18 feat improved critical

the spell list for this would end up rather different as well, doing it's best to focus of non-DC spells. Creeping cold, greater creeping cold, sleet storm, and ice storm all seem like winners, so I might end up more in water elemental form than the other build would have.

Let me know what you all think of each build and which would be better/more fun. Improvements to either build would also be nice to hear. Please don't bother suggesting a multiclass build as that won't happen on this life

[smeggy1384]

Between the two trs i play i have done 6 druid lives, only one of those was pure. I took 1 rogue or two arti on the characters and with taking augment summons early on it does not make much difference in the druid pet if you build it as a rogue type, especially with ship buffs. On one of those characters i actually advanced a bit into epic levels and had my faithful puppy tagging along nipping at monsters heels, it could typically take on 1-2 on epic normal or epic hard without any support and no ship buffs. I might toss the puppy Fires of Purity and a resist or two, but it doesn't take a lot.

You might consider 2 wizard to grab maximize or empower, or 2 fighter/monk to grab your bow focused feats and get the metas on druid levels. Who knows, those may even open up something in their enhance trees you'd want to grab too.

[Havok.cry]

Between the two trs i play i have done 6 druid lives, only one of those was pure. I took 1 rogue or two arti on the characters and with taking augment summons early on it does not make much difference in the druid pet if you build it as a rogue type, especially with ship buffs. On one of those characters i actually advanced a bit into epic levels and had my faithful puppy tagging along nipping at monsters heels, it could typically take on 1-2 on epic normal or epic hard without any support and no ship buffs. I might toss the puppy Fires of Purity and a resist or two, but it doesn't take a lot.

You might consider 2 wizard to grab maximize or empower, or 2 fighter/monk to grab your bow focused feats and get the metas on druid levels. Who knows, those may even open up something in their enhance trees you'd want to grab too.

If I was going to multiclass (planning on doing pure the first time then multi classing for the next two druid lives) I think I would do 2 monk. It would get me evasion and two feats. I could spend those feats on bow stuff and use other feat slots on metamagics. But this life I am doing pure.

One of my other characters is an arti, and I have two other druids. I have noticed a definite difference in the survival rate between augmented pets and non-augmented pets. It is more about the higher fortification than the higher stats. But the extra stats are nice too. It will make less difference at higher levels, but augment summons will also help a hireling (yes, sometimes I am too lazy to heal myself, and all my pets), an improved-empathied animal, and however many oozes I have wandering around at the time (my personal record for number of oozes out at same time was in weapon's shipment at 27 oozes alive at the end). I could rearange it to be picking it up at the same time I get my GS, but no later than that.

I personally do not think building the pet as anything other than an aggro-dumping-backstabber is reasonable (personal opinion). If you do it that way, it never dies, and it makes reasonable dps contributions. I know other people like to build them as tanks, but that is always a trap and a mistake in any pet class in my opinion. Giving your pet aggro might save you some easily healed hp, but it takes mob control away from the players, and that is never good. Besides, you have to give it the aggro reduction stuff in order to give it evasion, and anyone who picks the other thing over evasion on their pet, must really like reviving it a lot.

[smeggy1384]

Completely missed the part about not wanting to multiclass. If you're going to be using slaying arrow much you might consider Water elemental form for the ice flowers combined with the 9th level water ele buff spell to debuff reflex and i believe fortitude saves. Regardless of if ice flowers actually does damage (i saw a TON of evades during my attempts at using this with a wisdom and evoc focused druid) the saves debuff should be triggering. I may just have to dig up some tomes and roll a new druid just to try this out.

[Havok.cry]

That has me wondering how some of those debuffs stack. How would mantle of the icy soul, Ice storm, and entangle stack up? Can you actually immobilize mobs with a more-than-one-hundred-percent debuff to movement? That would be like shooting fish in a barrel. How do movement debuffs stack (if at all?)

[smeggy1384]

I'd bet now that won't work at all on bosses, they removed the ability for beguile(red named are now immune so probably applies to all slow types) to slow them to half the speed of a sleeping snail. Regular monsters i bet can be slowed to 50% and no more.

[susiedupfer]

Skip the Augment Summons and either take Maximize or Spell Focus Evocation.

Mantle of the Icy Soul+Ice Storm(persistent AoE, so it hits them every 2 seconds)+Earthquake=Most mobs sitting down for 30+ seconds. If you can get to the room before anything is aggroed, you have control of most of it. Mantle of the Icy Soul is -25% movement speed and -4 to Reflex saves per hit by cold spell. Using Ice Storm means that you get multiple chances for them to fail their reflex save for Earthquake. It is just so much fun to watch most mobs trying to get back on their feet.

I am unimpressed by Entangle.

I have never built an AA, so I can only help with the druid stuff. But, I can tell you that you can't cast anything with a Wis less than 14.

Also, you are going to get plenty of skill points to not need to increase the Int. I would make Balance a priority rather than an afterthought. You are not going to be able to shoot or cast from flat on your back. You only need a few points into Jump due to being able to cast the spell. I usually go to 10 total.

If you want something really nice to work with for few SP(since you are taking no mental toughnesses) you are going to want the Season's Herald Enhancement tree. The SLAs are well worth the investment there.

Also, please let me know how this works for you. I was playing with this very idea.

[Havok.cry]

Skip the Augment Summons and either take Maximize or Spell Focus Evocation.

Mantle of the Icy Soul+Ice Storm(persistent AoE, so it hits them every 2 seconds)+Earthquake=Most mobs sitting down for 30+ seconds. If you can get to the room before anything is aggroed, you have control of most of it. Mantle of the Icy Soul is -25% movement speed and -4 to Reflex saves per hit by cold spell. Using Ice Storm means that you get multiple chances for them to fail their reflex save for Earthquake. It is just so much fun to watch most mobs trying to get back on their feet.

I am unimpressed by Entangle.

I have never built an AA, so I can only help with the druid stuff. But, I can tell you that you can't cast anything with a Wis less than 14.

Also, you are going to get plenty of skill points to not need to increase the Int. I would make Balance a priority rather than an afterthought. You are not going to be able to shoot or cast from flat on your back. You only need a few points into Jump due to being able to cast the spell. I usually go to 10 total.

If you want something really nice to work with for few SP(since you are taking no mental toughnesses) you are going to want the Season's Herald Enhancement tree. The SLAs are well worth the investment there.

Also, please let me know how this works for you. I was playing with this very idea.

Not giving up augment summons. This is all about the minions, everything else is secondary. I would give up manyshot if it didn't give me more chances to proc oozes.

Mantle of the icy soul is a level 9 spell, earthquake isn't very low level either. My time with them will be rather limited, because I am TRing at 20.

This is an AA, not primarilly a caster. If it was primarily a caster, your advice would be good. You can cast any spell as long as you have a wisdom of ten plus the spells level. With a base of eight, and a plus three tome, an item will get me in range to use any spell I want.

Druids get 4+int in skillpoints each level. If I dump int, that is 3 per level total. Balance is less important than concentration (I don't have quicken), heal and spellcraft (spell power). If I dump int that is all I get until the tome gets me to 10 int. If I don't dump int, I can get pretty much everything I want.

The only thing in the season's herald tree that would give me bonuses as an archer is beguile. Beguile sucks... but if I had an extra four points I would take it. I don't though, so I won't.

[Atremus]

My only comment is that points in Jump might not be needed since you can self cast Jump.

Also have a shield clicky or nightshield. It isn't part of the Druid spell list.

[Havok.cry]

My only comment is that points in Jump might not be needed since you can self cast Jump.

Also have a shield clicky or nightshield. It isn't part of the Druid spell list.

I have a lot of those clickies. Everyone should have them. A +10 jump is needed besides the spell itself to cap the effects of the jump spell. some of that will come from strength, some from the odd rank I am able to put in there if I can. And if I can't, I won't worry much about it because I do have the spell.