Evoker

[Michele]

OBSOLETE - build moved to this thread: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...itan-Ice-Druid

Druid 20 - Human (lawful neutral)

Feats:
level 1: quicken spell
level 1: maximize spell
level 3: completionist
level 6: past life arcane initiate
level 9: empower spell
level 12: mental toughness
level 15: improved mental toughness
level 18: heavy armor proficiency
level 21: epic mental toughness
level 24: past life arcane prodigy
level 26: epic spell power cold
level 27: spell focus evocation
level 28: epic skill focus spellcraft

Attributes:
CON 16 base +2 completionist +2 ship +6 tome +2 litany +7 item +2 insightful +1 exc = 38
INT 16 base +2 completionist +2 ship +6 tome +1 litany +7 item +3 insightful +1 exc +4 enhancements = 42
WIS 18 base +2 completionist +2 ship +6 tome +1 litany +6 item +2 insightful +1 exc +2 enhancements +7 level +2 hierophant +5 shiradi champion +2 alchemical = 56

Skills: tumble x1, umd x1, concentration, heal, spellcraft, spot, balance, hide, jump, move silently, search

Earthquake DC = 18 +23 wis modifier +2 evocation augment +1 past life arcane initiate +1 spell focus evocation +6 thunder-forged weapon evocation focus +3 past lives sorcerer +1 archwizard ship buff +1 moment of clarity +4 mantle of the icy soul +5 solid fog greensteel clicky = 65

Energy Burst DC = 20 + 14 half character level + 16 int modifier +4 mantle of the icy soul +5 solid fog greensteel clicky = 59

Shiradi Champion: wis x5, wild shots x2, fey form x3, double rainbow, nerve venom x3

Twists of Fate: energy burst, white dragon heritage, endless faith, interrogation

Enhancements Harper: agent of good III, harper enchantment, traveler's toughness x3, magical endurance x3, versatile adept IV, highly skilled x3, intelligence x2, enchantment of magic, moment of clarity (38 AP spent)

Enhancements Season's Herald: hierophant, wand and scroll mastery x3, beguile x1, wax and wane x4, negotiator x3, efficient metamagic maximize x3, action boost spellpower x3, nature's warden x3, autumnal sussurs x3, wisdom x2 (42 AP spent)

PRR = +12 past lives +45 heavy armor +25 heavy armor proficiency +15 tower shield +15 improved shield mastery +30 legendary shield mastery +24 guardian's ring = 166

Spells:
Level 1: entangle, jump, magic fang, merfolk's blessing, ram's might, shillelagh
Level 2: creeping cold, gust of wind, lesser restoration, resist energy, splinterbolt
Level 3: call lightning, protection from energy, salt ray, sleet storm, spike growth
Level 4: cure serious wounds, dispel magic, flame strike, freedom of movement, ice storm
Level 5: call lightning storm, cure critical wounds, death ward, reincarnate, wall of fire
Level 6: fire shield, greater creeping cold, greater dispel magic, tenacious pack, word of balance
Level 7: body of the sun, creeping doom, freezing spray, sunbeam, fire storm
Level 8: earthquake, finger of death, fires of purity, heal, ice flowers

Equipment:

goggles level 20: epic goggles of time sensing with insightful wis +2, spell points +150 yellow slot, exc wis +1 colorless slot
goggles level 24: cannoneer's goggles with insightful wis +2 green slot

helm level 20: epic darkstorm helm with evocation focus I green slot
helm level 25: helm of the blue dragon with insightful int +3, evocation focus II yellow slot, draconic soul gem green slot

neck: vim and vigor with str +7, false life +30, greater heroism, natural armor +6, heavy fortification green slot
trinket: epic litany of the dead with wis +8 blue slot and dex +8 green slot
cloak: epic envenomed cloak with vitality +20 green slot
belt: green steel, concordant opposition, hit points +10, spell points +150, exc int skills +4, exc cha skills +6
gloves: epic charged gauntlets with master's gift yellow slot

boots level 20: epic kundarak boots with exc con +1 colorless slot
boots level 24: orcish privateer's boots with fire resistance +50, fire absorption 30%, insightful con +2 colorless slot

bracers: epic scorched bracers with good luck +2 green slot
armor: flawless blue dragonscale armor with globe of true imperial blood blue slot
ring left: guardian's ring with fear immunity yellow slot

ring right level 20: deathblock ring of ice lore +15% with int +6 yellow slot and spellcraft +11 colorless slot
ring right level 28: epic eye of the beholder with deathblock, int +11, wizardry X, spellcraft +15 blue slot, resistance +8 green slot

hand left: alchemical tower shield with combustion +90, alchemical wis +2, efficient metamagic maximize II, arcane augmentation IX, greater spell focus evocation

hand right level 20: midnight greetings with glaciation +90 red slot
hand right level 28: thunder-forged scimitar with glaciation +150, evocation focus +6, ice lore +22%, magnetism +138 orange slot, heal +15 colorless slot

Completionist with these past lives:
- All 39 Heroic;
- All 12 Iconic;
- 8x Epic -> 1x divine, 3x arcane, 3x primal, 1x martial

Epic elite quests made in solo with bravery:
- phiarlan carnival: the snitch, partycrashers
- sentinels of stormreach: all quests;
- the red fens: all quests;
- the druid's deep: the druid curse;
- menace of the underdark: all 16 quests (from "the lords of dust" to "in the belly of the beast");
- the vault of night: all quests;
- ruins of gianthold: all quests (except the crucible);
- three-barrel cove: all quests;
- shadow over wheloon: all quests

[SirValentine]

Nice Druid.

Base Evocation DC = 10 + 27 wisdom modifier +3 epic spell focus evocation +1 past life arcane initiate +3 magister evocation specialist +2 evocation augment +5 sage's locket +3 past lives sorcerer +1 strength of the solstice = 55

You know, I was wondering why this was so low, until I noticed that you didn't have spell level included. 64 sounds much better than 55. :-)

WIS = 18 base +2 completionist +2 ship +5 tome +1 litany +11 item +3 insightful +1 exceptional +1 human +5 shiradi +7 level +4 enhancements +2 hierophant +2 great ability wisdom = 64

Let's see...Yugo pots for 2 more. An Alchemical weapon can get you 2 more.

Shiradi: wis x5, wild shots x2, fey form x3, double rainbow, nerve venom x3

Twists of Fate: energy burst ice, magister evocation specialist, avenging light

How much do you need Avenging Light? I'd think between Druid SLAs, Shiradi procs, etc., you'd be good without it. If you drop Avenging Light, and, say, Fey Form, you can pick up 2 more Wisdom between Shiradi and a level 1 twist.

I'm assuming you're committed to Energy Burst, so Precise Evocation or Acute Instincts are out of reach, unless you rack up more Fate Points from Epic Reincarnation.

[Michele]

mmmhhh... yeah, I should really craft an alchemical weapon sooner or later.

Nice Druid.

Let's see...Yugo pots for 2 more. An Alchemical weapon can get you 2 more.

[Michele]

you are perfectly right, I will do as you say (remove avenging light, maximize wisdom, and rack up more fate points from epic reincarnations).
build updated.

How much do you need Avenging Light? I'd think between Druid SLAs, Shiradi procs, etc., you'd be good without it. If you drop Avenging Light, and, say, Fey Form, you can pick up 2 more Wisdom between Shiradi and a level 1 twist.

I'm assuming you're committed to Energy Burst, so Precise Evocation or Acute Instincts are out of reach, unless you rack up more Fate Points from Epic Reincarnation.

[Micron]

Base Evocation DC = 10 + 29 wis modifier +3 epic spell focus evocation +1 past life arcane initiate +3 magister evocation specialist +2 precise casting evocation +2 evocation augment +5 sage's locket +3 past lives sorcerer +1 strength of the solstice = 59

Does the spell focus on augments stack with spell focus items now? A guildie told me some time ago it was being considered but has it already been implemented?

Also I notice you list Mass Frog DC but don't take the feat?

[Michele]

Does the spell focus on augments stack with spell focus items now? A guildie told me some time ago it was being considered but has it already been implemented?

Also I notice you list Mass Frog DC but don't take the feat?

yes, augments stack with spell focus items: it has been implemented recently and I have tested it personally.

as far as mass frog, I still have to decide if it's better than +20 spell power fire (my current main tactic against trash is earthquake + body of the sun + firewall without metamagic; earthquake and body of the sun both proc shiradi on each tic).
I wrote mass frog DC just to show what numbers can reach that spell.

[Micron]

Thanks for confirming.
I play a caster druid on my secondary server who doesn't have much in the way of DCs but I've been meaning to start working on them. I don't have a lot of time to play her so I definitely won't be able to get 3 sorc lives, the alchemical Wis item or completionist, I'd say my final DCs will be 6 or 7 lower than the ones above (ie. low 60-ish with spell level included). I'm hoping that will still be semi-useful in EE groups (I have no soloing ambitions on her).

[Silverleafeon]

[Spell School] Augmentation: Passive Bonus: Chosen school spells have [5/10/15]% chance to reduce target <save depending on school> by 10 for [10/20/30] seconds.
Conjuration/Evocation: Reflex. Enchantment/Illusion: Will. Necromancy: Transmutation: Fortitude. Abjuration: [5/10/15]% chance to increase target's Armor Class by 5 for [2/?/?] minutes.


++




Mantle of the Icy Soul

Evocation (Cold)
Valid Forms: Water Elemental. You are shrouded in the mantle of the icy soul. The targets of your cold spells take a 25% penalty to movement speed, a 10% penalty to attack speed, and a -4 penalty to reflex and fortitude saves.

++


Ice Storm

Evocation
(Cold)
Hail creates a lingering area of effect for 30 seconds that deals 2d6 of bludgeon damage and 1d6 of cold damage plus 1 per caster level (up to a maximum caster level of 15) every 2 seconds to each creature inside the area.


++



Earthquake

Evocation
Summons an earthquake beneath your enemies' feet. Enemies within the area of effect have an additional 30% spell failure chance, and every three seconds they are knocked down and take 2 to 16 points of damage. A successful reflex save vs. the damage halves the damage, and a reflex save vs. the knockdown negates it. Flying enemies are immune. D&D Dice: Deals 2d8 level bludgeoning damage.



Valid Forms: Water Elemental. You are shrouded in the mantle of the icy soul. The targets of your cold spells take a 25% penalty to movement speed, a 10% penalty to attack speed, and a -4 penalty to reflex and fortitude saves.

[unbongwah]

Don't forget Autumnal Susurrus: "Your acid, negative and electricity spells have [10/20/40]% chance of applying the shaken condition (-2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks) to their target." AFAIK, shaken stacks w/Mantle of the Icy Soul's debuff; so drop a Storm of Vengeance on top of your Ice Storms & Earthquakes.

[Silverleafeon]

FoM on allies and sleet storm is fun too.
Ice storm/sleet storm slows things down.
Maybe a wizard would be smart enough to dump a solid fog on top too.
Maybe an archer would be smart enough to kite things into your earthquake.
Maybe a melee would fight in the middle of it.

They are called Sleetquakers for a reason.

[Munkenmo]

You could splash 2 monk at 19/20

Spending the feats on doge and mobility as well as running in water stance would net you a total boost of 10dodge when in water stance.

You break even on your evo dc's, since the druid capstone only effects transmutation and conjuration.

[unbongwah]

You break even on your evo dc's, since the druid capstone only effects transmutation and conjuration.

For some reason Storm of Vengeance is Conjuration, even though the other lightning spells are Evo, so you're losing 2 DCs to that. There are a handful of offensive Transmutation spells - Ice Flowers, Spike Growth, Quench, Entangle - but I hardly ever use them in epics. Quench can be nice for the -20 cold & electric resistance, but Fort saves negate the debuff and I don't usually consider it worth the SPs to Heighten.

[Pilgrim1]

For some reason Storm of Vengeance is Conjuration, even though the other lightning spells are Evo, so you're losing 2 DCs to that. There are a handful of offensive Transmutation spells - Ice Flowers, Spike Growth, Quench, Entangle - but I hardly ever use them in epics. Quench can be nice for the -20 cold & electric resistance, but Fort saves negate the debuff and I don't usually consider it worth the SPs to Heighten.

I tend to use spike growth on earthquake piles when SoV is on cooldown, or sometimes just adding it in. I use entangle on orange named caster bosses. Mass frog is also a transmutation spell, and can be quite fun, if not super powerful.

I don't feel that the 2 monk splash is worth it on a druid, monks power comes really at lvl 6 where you get shadow fade and lots of dodge bonuses. The bonus feats are mediocre. Also if you are like me and end up with leaves of the forest that gives you 10 dodge bonus already and some PRR, you would lose that PRR if you switched to robes. Furthermore your reflex just does not cut it when it comes to high end EE quests and nothing you can do will really change that - so evasion is not very impressive. Basically what I'm saying is that the monk splash looks good to start but seamed lackluster to me in practice.

The other thing to consider is the nature of druid healing. The heal over time effects are truly an amazing way of healing, I strongly believe that mass Regen is the best healing spell in the game. However for it to be effective you need lots of heal amp and lots of HP. Heal amp you manage with human + gear. Hp i would strongly consider epic toughness. You could take normal toughness for an epic destiny feet at lvl 26 and epic toughness at lvl 27.

This is my feet list, quite similar to yours:
1 - maximize
1 - empower
3 - wiz PL
6 - highten
9 - quicken
12 - SF: evo
15 - GSF: evo
18 - Enlarge
21 - Emp healing
24 - ESF: evo
26 - toughness
27 - E. tough
28 - Mass frog


Surprisingly the thing i struggled most with was my lack of AoE damage, I felt that my single target and boss DPS was quite fine, but killing the hordes of mobs in my pile was tedious. I also tended to run in Primal Avatar.

[Michele]

[Spell School] Augmentation: Passive Bonus: Chosen school spells have [5/10/15]% chance to reduce target <save depending on school> by 10 for [10/20/30] seconds.
Conjuration/Evocation: Reflex. Enchantment/Illusion: Will. Necromancy: Transmutation: Fortitude. Abjuration: [5/10/15]% chance to increase target's Armor Class by 5 for [2/?/?] minutes.


++




Mantle of the Icy Soul

Evocation (Cold)
Valid Forms: Water Elemental. You are shrouded in the mantle of the icy soul. The targets of your cold spells take a 25% penalty to movement speed, a 10% penalty to attack speed, and a -4 penalty to reflex and fortitude saves.

++


Ice Storm

Evocation
(Cold)
Hail creates a lingering area of effect for 30 seconds that deals 2d6 of bludgeon damage and 1d6 of cold damage plus 1 per caster level (up to a maximum caster level of 15) every 2 seconds to each creature inside the area.


++



Earthquake

Evocation
Summons an earthquake beneath your enemies' feet. Enemies within the area of effect have an additional 30% spell failure chance, and every three seconds they are knocked down and take 2 to 16 points of damage. A successful reflex save vs. the damage halves the damage, and a reflex save vs. the knockdown negates it. Flying enemies are immune. D&D Dice: Deals 2d8 level bludgeoning damage.



Valid Forms: Water Elemental. You are shrouded in the mantle of the icy soul. The targets of your cold spells take a 25% penalty to movement speed, a 10% penalty to attack speed, and a -4 penalty to reflex and fortitude saves.

yes, you could choose to go in water elemental form, BUT... you loose the benefit of using body of the sun that procs shiradi on every tic (together with earthquake), unless you simply want to be a crowd control machine, in that case it's handy to have the -4 malus to your enemies.
also a wall of fire without metamagic deals more damage than an ice storm with both empower and maximize: so consider well if you really want to go in water elemental form.

yes, by twisting magister evocation augmentation, you have a 15% to reduce target reflex of -10, but when you see an hangry epic elite minotaur charging on you, you really want to blind him with a sunbeam immediately, so you don't have time to debuff him.
if you see a pack of mobs far away, you want to blind them all with an enlarged sunburst sla, also you don't have time to debuff them.
so, I prefer twisting +1 wisdom over magister evocation augmentation if it makes my wisdom even.

I'm a fun of debuffs, but they cost spell points and druids don't have so many spell points.

If I have to choose between water elemental form and fire elemental form, I prefer fire for more dps against trash.

[Michele]

you can play a first life druid in epic elite effectively, but you have to compensate the missing sorcerer lives with the debuffs mentioned by "Silverleafeon" (mantle of icy soul + ice storm without metamagic).

you can equip your druid with easy to acquire equipment (belt of the sun soul, shadowsight goggles are cheap to buy in the auction house, a couple of scepters for spell power, an epic sage's locket with +5 evocation dc that you can get 100% of times as end reward of a single wheelon quest).

Thanks for confirming.
I play a caster druid on my secondary server who doesn't have much in the way of DCs but I've been meaning to start working on them. I don't have a lot of time to play her so I definitely won't be able to get 3 sorc lives, the alchemical Wis item or completionist, I'd say my final DCs will be 6 or 7 lower than the ones above (ie. low 60-ish with spell level included). I'm hoping that will still be semi-useful in EE groups (I have no soloing ambitions on her).

[Michele]

Don't forget Autumnal Susurrus: "Your acid, negative and electricity spells have [10/20/40]% chance of applying the shaken condition (-2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks) to their target." AFAIK, shaken stacks w/Mantle of the Icy Soul's debuff; so drop a Storm of Vengeance on top of your Ice Storms & Earthquakes.

a few months ago I tested that earthquake procs autumnal sussurs debuff: things should have not changed since then (so you can debuff with autumnal sussurs even without casting storm of vengeance, and simply by casting earthquake).

[Michele]

FoM on allies and sleet storm is fun too.
Ice storm/sleet storm slows things down.
Maybe a wizard would be smart enough to dump a solid fog on top too.
Maybe an archer would be smart enough to kite things into your earthquake.
Maybe a melee would fight in the middle of it.

They are called Sleetquakers for a reason.

eheheh, too many "maybe"

sleetstorm is nice, but... you have to spend spell points to buff everyone in the group and I have seen many situations when enemy spellcasters dispell freedom of movement.
also many players don't like the obscuring visual effect caused by sleetstorm and prefer a clear sight outside of it (this is my personal experience by playing with other players).

so my tactic against a lot of trash mobs is just dropping an earthquake + wall of fire without metamagic + sunburst sla + me in the middle of them with body of the sun + shiradi procs.
against a single target mob just call lightning sla + word of balance sla + word of balance spell (or creeping cold sla) + call lightning spell (or sunbeam if I simply want to disable him and let the melees take care of him).

[Michele]

druid capstone gives +2 wisdom, also monk ocean stance gives +2 wisdom, so the evocation dc is the same at the end.

I see a lot of builds using 2 monk levels together with druid levels, but... ok, you have better defense, but you loose a lot in the caster side...

1) you loose a lot of precious spell points, and druids don't have so many spell points;
2) if you use 2 scepters you become unbalanced and you loose the +2 wisdom coming from ocean stance;
3) regenerate mass with the druid capstone is cast at level 27, while with monk splash it is cast at max level 23;
4) sunbeam and sunburst cap at level 25 (I have the suspect that sunbeam has no level cap at all, but I still have to test it), so every caster level is precious if you want to use light spells (remember that sunbeam and sunburst deal very nice damage against undead, so don't underestimate these spells);
5) creeping doom has no level cap, and with the druid capstone it can be cast at level 27 (if you splash monk levels, it can be cast at level 21 because it deals damage every 3 levels...) ... I'm still not sure if using this spell or not;
6) word of balance (and mass frog) has a spell penetration check, so you loose 2 points of spell penetration;
7) if you are getting an epic past life different from a primal one, you have to reach level 28 using a "non primal" epic destiny (for example, exalted or magister or grandmaster of flowers), so your build with 2 monk levels will cast many common spells with less damage because they will not even reach the caster level of 20 (spells like greater creeping cold, word of balance, body of the sun, etcetera, will be cast at level 18).
8) as Pilgrim1 said, with monk splash you miss the prr that you would have by equipping medium armors.

You could splash 2 monk at 19/20

Spending the feats on doge and mobility as well as running in water stance would net you a total boost of 10dodge when in water stance.

You break even on your evo dc's, since the druid capstone only effects transmutation and conjuration.

[Michele]

Surprisingly the thing i struggled most with was my lack of AoE damage, I felt that my single target and boss DPS was quite fine, but killing the hordes of mobs in my pile was tedious. I also tended to run in Primal Avatar.

as I wrote above, use shiradi with earthquake + wall of fire without metamagic + body of the sun.

1) it will cost few spell points;
2) shiradi procs with earthquake and body of the sun (for nice damage);
3) wall of fire deals more than 100 damage without critical (and 200 when critical hits).

I used to raise a lot of intelligence in order to use energy burst, but I could not twist draconic precise casting evocation and many mobs were still evading it in epic elite content.

also I had to sacrifice some constitution because I started with const 16 instead of 18, and some augment slot were used to increase intelligence instead of const/hit points.

so at the end I decided to avoid energy burst (especially when I discovered the effectiveness of the combo earthquake + wall of fire + body of the sun + sunburst).

[Michele]

I decided to change my build in order to be more epic elite oriented, by removing maximize and empower spell and by increasing the amount of spell points.

my tactic consists in massing a lot of mobs and casting earthquake + body of the sun + firewall without metamagic.

against bosses creeping cold + greater creeping cold (without metamagic).

I used to apply maximize and empower on call lightning sla and on word of balance sla and on storm of vengeance sla, but I find their cooldown too long for my play style, so I'm now killing faster then before (when I had maximize and empower I used to wait the cooldown of those sla, and this slowed me down).

Just increase your spell power as much as possible and this build will be ok.