Gingerspyce's caster/healer/quasi-tank build

[IntrepidBear]

Hi Gingerspyce,
thankyou for all the information, and sharing your video's with us, all is very helpful.

I have one query if I may;

for your scroll usage in UMD stats, how much/many points would I need to put there, as a druid deep gnome; in order to utilize the scrolls, and also for GH scrolls? Do you maximize each level until lvl 20?
at what level will I be able to use these scrolls ?

Are your completionist levels giving more to UMD?
sorry if newbish questions,
just trying to get my ducks in a row,
I wish to make a Deep Gnome druid =)

thankyou again,
'Lem'

[Vooduspyce]

Hi Gingerspyce,
thankyou for all the information, and sharing your video's with us, all is very helpful.

I have one query if I may;

for your scroll usage in UMD stats, how much/many points would I need to put there, as a druid deep gnome; in order to utilize the scrolls, and also for GH scrolls? Do you maximize each level until lvl 20?
at what level will I be able to use these scrolls ?

Are your completionist levels giving more to UMD?
sorry if newbish questions,
just trying to get my ducks in a row,
I wish to make a Deep Gnome druid =)

thankyou again,
'Lem'

Hey Lem,

I am happy to answer your questions

Greater Heroism scrolls require at least level 9 to use and 40 UMD to have a 100% chance to cast, which means you'd have a 5% chance of successfully using it with a 21 UMD and then +5% more for each additional point of UMD. On my build post I say UMD at least high enough for no-fail Raise Dead scrolls, which would be 36, but I will add that ideally it should be high enough to no-fail Resurrection scrolls, which would be 44.

The specific level that anyone will be able to use these scrolls will vary greatly and depends on more than UMD ranks. There are skill tomes, buffs, charisma bonus and other bonuses like Epic Skills which all increase UMD. I have a 52 at level 30 with only 5 ranks put into UMD (but this includes many bonuses like +3 skill tome, +10 Epic Skills, +10 charisma modifier, +2 completionist, etc.) The number of ranks you put into UMD is up to you to decide based on whatever score you are trying to achieve.

By level 27 I am using Epic Boots of the Innocent, which have permanent Greater Heroism on them. You can also use clickies like Planar Gird or Draconic Necklace to cast GH. There are other items that have a permanent GH effect like Epic Barbette's Bracers and Vim and Vigor. You can also get potions of GH from the vampire Verisgante in House J by trading 10 Amulets of the Lost Empire collectibles. Casting it from a scroll is kind of a pita because it's an arcane spell and suffers from ASF due to shield and armor. It's easy to take off the shield rq, but not so much the armor on the fly. In any event, it's doable, albeit a bit inconvenient.

[posdrums]

Is there anywhere specific to farm for a Flametouched Iron Scimitar, or is it just random in all quests? Cant find a single one on my AH D:

[unbongwah]

Is there anywhere specific to farm for a Flametouched Iron Scimitar, or is it just random in all quests? Cant find a single one on my AH D:

If you own the Devil Assault pack, there's a vendor in the Chronoscope raid who sells flametouched iron weapons which can be used for crafting blanks. Just hop in on HN, do the initial fight, make a beeline for the inn, buy what you need, recall out.

[posdrums]

If you own the Devil Assault pack, there's a vendor in the Chronoscope raid who sells flametouched iron weapons which can be used for crafting blanks. Just hop in on HN, do the initial fight, make a beeline for the inn, buy what you need, recall out.

Awesome thanks. I checked out the flametouched entry on the wiki a while ago and I dont remember seein that useful tip.

[IntrepidBear]

My first run on my brand new Deep Gnome Druid was really interesting.
The in-game lag at the time made it a bit hard to test,
and it will take a while to set things up, and get the 'feel' of things,
however, with my 3 Sorc past lives, and adding a +2 Evoc focus item, well, my DC are quite healthy indeed, as you pointed out.
The Body of Sun reminds me of my Warlock some, and will take a little getting used to visually.
The Call Lightening? sweeeeeeeeeeeeet...

Can't wait till I get Earthquake *grin.

one thing tho,
with the Deep Gnome, is their jump a little off??

other then that, I think I'm really going to like the Caster Druid
thx Ginger

[Vooduspyce]

My first run on my brand new Deep Gnome Druid was really interesting.
The in-game lag at the time made it a bit hard to test,
and it will take a while to set things up, and get the 'feel' of things,
however, with my 3 Sorc past lives, and adding a +2 Evoc focus item, well, my DC are quite healthy indeed, as you pointed out.
The Body of Sun reminds me of my Warlock some, and will take a little getting used to visually.
The Call Lightening? sweeeeeeeeeeeeet...

Can't wait till I get Earthquake *grin.

one thing tho,
with the Deep Gnome, is their jump a little off??

other then that, I think I'm really going to like the Caster Druid
thx Ginger

I'm glad you're having a good first impression!

Gnome animations for jumping and catching ledges are off by about 2 or 3 little gnome heads, lol.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences at higher levels

[IntrepidBear]

I'm glad you're having a good first impression!

Gnome animations for jumping and catching ledges are off by about 2 or 3 little gnome heads, lol.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences at higher levels

lol.. thought my eyes were going cross-eyed there for a moment with the little gnome heads, had to ask.

yes, higher levels sometimes cannot come fast enough, lots to try to do/wish to do/want to do, returning to game;
and staying up entirely too late

how do you completionists do it??! amazing..

[Vooduspyce]

...returning to game; and staying up entirely too late

how do you completionists do it??! amazing..

While you were away, we stayed and played

[IntrepidBear]

While you were away, we stayed and played

oh, yes, *grin..
but I can see you've put in a lot more hours than just playing
and I'm sure many are appreciative as well.

I admire your and others' completionist tenacity

[Skeptisaurus]

Just curious; if only taking one feat-level of evocation, why not take the past life wizard feat, to get +1 DC to everything (not just +1 evocation)?

Also: the magic missile SLA can come in handy at times.

I really love this build, tweaked a bit for my play style. The major tweak was to give up Heavy Armor for Arcane Initiate.

Feats (human) usually look like this:

1 Maximize
1 Empower
3 Quicken
6 Shield Mastery
9 Arcane Initiate
12 Complletionist
15 Heighten
18 Toughness
21 Improved Shield Mastery
24 Epic Toughness
26 Cold Power Spell ED Feat
27 Intensify Spell
28 Elusive Target ED Feat
29 Deific Warding ED Feat
30 Empower Healing
30 Scion of the Plain of Earth Legendary Feat


Thanks for posting this and keeping it updated!

[Vooduspyce]

Just curious; if only taking one feat-level of evocation, why not take the past life wizard feat, to get +1 DC to everything (not just +1 evocation)?

Also: the magic missile SLA can come in handy at times.

I really love this build, tweaked a bit for my play style. The major tweak was to give up Heavy Armor for Arcane Initiate.

Feats (human) usually look like this:

1 Maximize
1 Empower
3 Quicken
6 Shield Mastery
9 Arcane Initiate
12 Complletionist
15 Heighten
18 Toughness
21 Improved Shield Mastery
24 Epic Toughness
26 Cold Power Spell ED Feat
27 Intensify Spell
28 Elusive Target ED Feat
29 Deific Warding ED Feat
30 Empower Healing
30 Scion of the Plain of Earth Legendary Feat


Thanks for posting this and keeping it updated!

Hey Skeptisaurus,

Evocation focus feat is to have access to Magister Evocation Specialist. I am just curious, do you use Scalemail of the Celestial Sage instead of the heavy shadow dragonplate?

I'm glad you enjoy the build, tyvm for saying

[Skeptisaurus]

Hey Skeptisaurus,

Evocation focus feat is to have access to Magister Evocation Specialist. I am just curious, do you use Scalemail of the Celestial Sage instead of the heavy shadow dragonplate?

I'm glad you enjoy the build, tyvm for saying

Thanks that makes a lot of sense - and yes on the Scalemail, if It would ever drop. I have it on my Ranger/RGE/FTR and very nice. For this build still using Epic Blue Dragonplate which contributes to squishyness on LE.

[blackthorn357]

Hey Ginger!

First off, my Warlock is coming along nicely, thanks for the tips! But onto the point of the post... I have just hit 20 on my first life druid (20 is a first for me period! lol) Any suggestions on where to go from here? Should I TR? Should I epic? Kinda at a loss Considering I was away from the game for so long. When I stopped playing, there weren't even any enhancement trees, only Prestige classes. :-/

[Vooduspyce]

Hey Ginger!

First off, my Warlock is coming along nicely, thanks for the tips! But onto the point of the post... I have just hit 20 on my first life druid (20 is a first for me period! lol) Any suggestions on where to go from here? Should I TR? Should I epic? Kinda at a loss Considering I was away from the game for so long. When I stopped playing, there weren't even any enhancement trees, only Prestige classes. :-/

Hey Blackthorn,

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying things!

I would definitely recommend that you go to 30. The reason is because you want to start filling in your epic destinies and amassing fate points. All of your epic destiny progress will be available to you immediately upon reaching 20 again in future lives. Having been gone so long, and being on a first lifer, don't stress about trying to do EE's, just do whatever difficulty you feel comfortable with. There is so much xp available the first time you're working through epics that you certainly won't be hindered by not elite streaking.

If you're new to epic destinies, fate points and twists of fate, etc. then I recommend taking a look at my Beginner's Guide to Epic Destinies and Twists of Fate video.

When you get to 30, if you're enjoying what's there then keep working through your destinies for as long as you want. If not then Epic Reincarnate back to 20 for the epic past life then immediately True Reincarnate back to 1 for the heroic past life. If you decided you like druid and want to stick with it, you might consider doing some sorc past lives, as each will give a +1 to evocation DC's (like Earthquake).

Hope that helps and if you have further questions lmk!

[blackthorn357]

Hey Blackthorn,

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying things!

I would definitely recommend that you go to 30. The reason is because you want to start filling in your epic destinies and amassing fate points. All of your epic destiny progress will be available to you immediately upon reaching 20 again in future lives. Having been gone so long, and being on a first lifer, don't stress about trying to do EE's, just do whatever difficulty you feel comfortable with. There is so much xp available the first time you're working through epics that you certainly won't be hindered by not elite streaking.

If you're new to epic destinies, fate points and twists of fate, etc. then I recommend taking a look at my Beginner's Guide to Epic Destinies and Twists of Fate video.

When you get to 30, if you're enjoying what's there then keep working through your destinies for as long as you want. If not then Epic Reincarnate back to 20 for the epic past life then immediately True Reincarnate back to 1 for the heroic past life. If you decided you like druid and want to stick with it, you might consider doing some sorc past lives, as each will give a +1 to evocation DC's (like Earthquake).

Hope that helps and if you have further questions lmk!

Thanks!

The video was super helpful!

[Bullytt]

If I grab a large wooden shield and add some heavy armor - isn't this going to add up to something like 50% spell failure?

Am I missing something in the enhancements or the way that druids cast?

I hope you are still active on the forum!!

Thanks

Bullytt

[Vooduspyce]

If I grab a large wooden shield and add some heavy armor - isn't this going to add up to something like 50% spell failure?

Am I missing something in the enhancements or the way that druids cast?

I hope you are still active on the forum!!

Thanks

Bullytt

You are correct, it will be quite a bit of arcane spell failure. Druids, however, are not arcanes

For reals tho, it doesn't affect your regular druid spells, which are divine spells, not arcane spells, and would only affect things like arcane scrolls and if you did the Deep Gnome thing then it would also affect the 1st level wizard spells that you have. In reality for me, it just means sometimes having to recast Shield a couple times to get it to cast.

[Vooduspyce]

I was recently asked to breakdown my Earthquake DC so wanted to add it here to link in the OP...

10	Base
8	Spell level
37	Wisdom modifier
5	Equipment bonus (Legendary Fusible Sceptre of Glaciation)
3	Sorcerer past lives x3
3	Artifact Bonus (Legendary Hruit's Influence set)
3	Evocation Specialist (Magister tier 2 twist)
2	Precise Evocation (Draconic tier 2 twist)
2	Insightful spell focus mastery (Legendary Crown of Snow)
2	Topaz of Greater Evocation
2	Profane Spell Focus II (Legendary Shattered Onyx)
2	Scion of the Plane of Earth legendary feat
2	Otto's Irrevocable Power filigree 4-piece set bonus
2	Embolden Spell epic feat
1	Archwizard ship buff
1	Spell Focus: Evocation feat
1	Strength of Solstice tier 5 Season's Herald
1	Hierophant Season's Herald capstone
87	Total [needs to be updated for Update 51]

Also check out forum post Comprehensive DC breakdown for all classes for details on how to get your DC a lot higher than mine

[Tilomere]

76 Total

Speaking of EQ, when you stack it do you get more damage/shiradi procs each stack or only more knockdowns?

Also, which knockdowns/trips are elemental forms immune to?

Have they bugfixed leathers of the celestial sage yet?