Epic Challenge Farmer (21 drow pure wizard)

[EllisDee37]

This is a first life drow pure wizard who stays level 21 forever. If you want an iconic version, morninglord is the way to go. You'll be stuck with a cleric level unless you burn an LR+1 heart, which doesn't amount to much except a loss of +2 int from the wizard capstone. You'll be fine without the capstone, so feel free to roll this up quickly as a sun elf and call it good enough.

Epic cannith challenges require level 21 to enter, so level 21 is the lowest level you can be. The lower the better, since you can then get a higher bonus for running underlevel. Unlike my heroic-level monk challenge farmer, this one is also used for eveningstar mats. The one key feature of eveningstar challenges is that you really want a good dancing ball caster, which made wizard the natural choice.

This wizard is pretty evenly specced for instakills, enchantment, and dps via acid, cold, fire and electricity. The primary dps is from acid, specifically from energy burst. The idea is to run around in draconic, nuking everything and their brother with energy burst and dragon breath, plus the insta-kill ability of pale masters. Three dots for bosses, plus firewall for pretty much everything in the disruptor.

My regular wizard doesn't bother with the skeletal knight line because pets are generally pretty poor in high level quests. Challenges, however, are easier than quests in terms of mob strength and the pet acquits itself quite well. It's also nice to leave the pet guarding the foreman while you do other things, giving you more leeway on how quickly you have to respond to incomings.

True Neutral is ideal to use superior stability items for saves while leveling. Gender doesn't matter.

The only tomes I used are a +2 con from 1750 favor and +5 int from Mabar. After farming out 7.5 million xp I realized that I'd been running around with medium encumberance the whole time, so I might grab a strength tome for this guy. At very least I'm going to start casting Bull's Strength as one of my standard buffs until I slot a strength augment.


Epic Challenge Farmer
Wizard 20, Epic 1
True Neutral Drow


Stats
. . . . . . . .28pt. . .Level Up
. . . . . . . .----. . .--------
Strength. . . . 10 . . . 4: INT
Dexterity . . . 10 . . . 8: INT
Constitution. . 14 . . .12: INT
Intelligence. . 20 . . .16: INT
Wisdom. . . . . .8 . . .20: INT
Charisma. . . . 10 . . .


Skills
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4. 5 .6. 7 .8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Spellcr . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Repair. . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . .3. 1 .3. 1 .3. 21
Heal. . . 1 .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. 11
Balance . 2 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 11
Jump. . . 1 . . . . . . . . . .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 11
Haggle. . 2 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 1 . . 11
UMD . . . 1 .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. . .1. 11
Tumble. . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .28 .7. 7 .7. 7 .7. 7 .8. 8 .8. 8 .8. 8 .8. 8 .9. 9 .9. 9 .9


Feats

.1. . . . : Insightful Reflexes
.1 Wizard : Spell Focus: Enchantment
.3. . . . : Empower Spell
.5 Wizard : Extend Spell
.6. . . . : Heighten Spell
.9. . . . : Maximize Spell
10 Wizard : Spell Focus: Necromancy
12. . . . : Spell Penetration
15. . . . : Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
15 Wizard : Quicken Spell
18. . . . : Greater Spell Penetration
20 Wizard : Mental Toughness
21 Epic . : Epic Spell Penetration


Spells

1. Nightshield, Jump, Sonic Blast, <Any>, <Any>
2. Knock, Resist Energy, Invisibility, Blur, Web
3. Displacement, Haste, Rage, Fireball, Lightning Bolt
4. Death Aura, Negative Energy Burst, Dimension Door, Acid Rain, Ice Storm
5. Niac's Biting Cold, Eladar's Electric Surge, Teleport, Cone of Cold, Hold Monster
6. Necrotic Ray, Greater Heroism, True Seeing, Undeath to Death, Disintegrate
7. Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Banishment, <Any>, <Any>
8. Black Dragon Bolt, Polar Ray, <Any>, <Any>, <Any>
9. Wail of the Banshee, Mass Hold Monster, Dominate Monster, <Any>, <Any>

Enhancements (80 AP)

Pale Master (41 AP)

• Dark Reaping, Zombie Form, Vampire Form, Wraith Form, Lich Form, Master of Death
  
  1. Spell Critical, Skeletal Knight III, Negative Energy Conduit II
  2. Efficient Maximize III, Spell Critical, Corpsecrafter III
  3. Eternal Servitude III, Intelligence
  4. Dark Furor III, Intelligence
  5. Necromantic Focus, Improved Shrouding

Archmage (30 AP)

• Chill Touch, Command Undead, Halt Undead, Enervation
  
  1. Energy of the Scholar II, Spell Critical
  2. Efficient Empower III, Spell Critical
  3. Spell Critical, Intelligence
  4. Efficient Heighten II, School Mastery: Necromancy, Intelligence

Drow (9 AP)

• Spell Resistance, Intelligence, Spell Resistance II, Intelligence
  
  1. <none>
  2. Enchantment Lore III

Destiny (24 AP)

Draconic Incarnation

1. Energy Sheath: Fire III, Intelligence
2. Out with bang: Acid III, Intelligence
3. Dragon Heritage: Black I, Piercing Spellcraft II, Intelligence
4. Energy Burst: Acid III, Secondary Specialty: White I, Spell Knowledge I
5. Flyby Attack, Dragon Breath
6. Energy Vortex: Acid

Twists of Fate (8 fate points)

1. School Specialist: Necromancy (Tier 2 Magister)
2. Boulder Toss (Tier 1 Fury)
3. Endless Faith (Tier 1 Exalted)

One thing I can confidently say without reservation: drow wizards are super squishy. I was under 300 HP at level 17! The build ends up with low/mid-400s at 21, which is still a bit squishy but acceptable for challenges.

The archmage school is conjuration for the early levels to take advantage of free heighten on webs. As soon as you get dancing ball and finger of death you switch the school to necromancy for the cheap enervation sla and extra +1 necromancy DC.


I use the keyboard for combat (as can be seen in the linked videos downthread) so I have a limited amount of hotkeys I can fit within easy reach. Here's the main functions I have at my fingertips:

Shrine Buffs: Jump, Nightshield, True Seeing, Greater Heroism
Short-term Buffs: Displacement, Haste, Rage, Death Aura
Rays: Necrotic Ray, Polar Ray, Boulder Toss, Lightning Bolt
DoTs: Niac's Biting Cold, Eladar's Electric Surge, Black Dragon Bolt
AoEs: Energy Burst, Energy Vortex, Dragon Breath, Acid Rain, either Firewall or Ice Storm
Debuffs: Enervation SLA
Instakill: Finger of Death, Wail of the Banshee, Undeath to Death, Banishment
Crowd Control: Mass Hold Monster, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Dominate Monster
Healing: Negative Energy Burst

I only use dominate monster for sunset ritual, specifically to dominate the wolves. (Not the werewolves.) While I do keep disintegrate hotkeyed, I only use it in shroud for crystal duty. Fireball is only for questing, unmeta'd, for breaking down doors. I never use delayed blast fireball or meteor swarm, instead preferring to stack firewall and acid rain on top of each other.

Mainly I just instakill, boulder toss and energy burst, plus a healthy dose of necrotic ray. Everything else is gravy.

I generally don't use quicken except for dancing ball. Or in the rare boss fight where concentration checks fail. Because my spells aren't quickened, during boss fights I have gravitated to a pretty basic rotation:

Niac's, Eladar's, BDB, Necrotic Ray, Boulder Toss, Necrotic Ray
Niac's, Eladar's, BDB, Necrotic Ray, Polar Ray, Necrotic Ray
...repeat as necessary...

This sequence is pretty well sync'ed up in terms of animation speed and cooldown timers. A decent example of this sequence can be seen here. Substitute polar ray for boulder toss if you don't twist it in.

[EllisDee37]

My primary goal for gear was ease of acquisition. As it turns out, the easiest to acquire gear is amazingly powerful when you limit yourself to gear that's ML21 and under. Mainly it's named items from the expansion packs. Here's the breakdown:

Head: Darkstorm Helm
Eyes: Sage's Spectacles
Neck: War Wizard's Amulet
Back: Guardian's Cloak
Wrist: War Wizard's Bracers
Hand: Guardian's Gauntlets
Waist: Guardian's Girdle
Feet: Epic Rock Boots (Tier 3) (Necro Focus I, open)
Ring1: Crafted: Feather Falling of Good Luck +2 (Striding 30%, Vitality +20)
Ring2: Crafted: Enchantment Focus II of Moderate Fortification (Enchant Focus I, Excpt Int +1)
Trinket: Crafted: Efficient Maximize II of Kinetic Lore V
Body: War Wizard's Robe
Mainhand: Staff of the Necromancer

The rings are essentially open spots. I finally settled on the pair of crafted rings listed above, but for a while I was really targeting:

Ring1: Epic Elemental Essence (Enchant Focus I)
Ring2: ToD ring with Excpt Int +1 (Insightful Int +2)

I set up the crafted rings to be easy swaps for them if I ever happen to get either or both. Also note that if you epic the darkstorm helm you get another green slot to work with. As for the unused colorless on the boots, I've been using Master's Gift while farming up destiny xp. Once that's all finished I'm swapping it to Strength +6.

It's worth pointing out that enchantment is rarely used in any challenges outside of sunset ritual, so it's easy to drop enchantment focus items altogether and just swap in Sage's Mantle for that one challenge. I spent a ring on enchantment for destiny farming, which is where my guy is now.

Also, as you may have guessed, feather falling, striding and good luck are basically throw-away effects, easily discarded if you get a better ring or don't have the crafting levels. (Putting a flexible lore on the rings is an idea I toyed with for a while.)


Swaps

+5 Heavy Spiritcraft Shield of Hammerblock III (Spell Agility 15)
ML21 Glaciation of Ice Lore scepter (Impulse 90)
Pale Rod

Epic Cloak of Flames (for disruptor only)
Sage's Mantle (for sunset ritual only)

Cunning Trinket (shrine swap)
Charismatic +6 Boots of Haggling +13 w/guild augment: SP (shrine swap)

The guild augment boots are the perfect place to slot FF if you go another direction with the rings, especially if you don't have the crafting levels to make flexible charisma shards.

The shield is for boss fights. I settled for an ML20 version of the ice lore staff and called it good enough.


Weaponsets


MH: Staff of the Necromancer

For trash. Pretty much equipped at all times.


MH: Glaciation of Ice Lore (Impulse +90)
OH: +5 Heavy Spiritcraft Shield of Hammerblock III (Spell Agility 15)

For bosses. You get your full dot spell power with the glaciation, max force for boulder toss, and a 0% asf shield (thanks to the augment) for shield blocking. This is especially effective for Devashta, but really any boss that melees you. The crafted hammerblock complements the axeblock and spearblock on the Guardian's Cloak, all of which stack with the DR you get from active blocking. You can stand toe to toe with Devashta on CR25 challenges with this.

The scepter can either have glaciation or impulse; simply slot the one it doesn't have in the red slot. The ice lore is key, though, because if/when you get boulder toss you'll want kinetic lore "always equipped" on your trinket. I find that I don't cast polar ray enough to warrant putting ice lore on my trinket, and whenever I dot something I switch to the shield weaponset for increased cold spell power from the scepter anyway.


MH: Pale Rod
OH: +5 Heavy Spiritcraft Shield of Hammerblock III (Spell Agility 15)

For priestesses, who just love casting divine punishment. May occasionally be useful in lava caves if the clerics get their DW up before you can finger them.

[EllisDee37]

Here are the stats assuming the above listed gear, followed by the detailed breakdowns:

56 Intelligence
53 Necromancy DC
49 Enchantment DC
39 Spell Penetration

435 Hit Points
3184 Spell Points

20 base
5 levelups
8 enhancements (2 drow, 2 AM, 2 PM, 2 capstone)
4 lich
8 item
1 exceptional
3 destiny
5 tome (mabar)
2 ship
---
56 intelligence (23 mod)

10 base
9 heighten
23 int
---
42 base DC for all schools (43 when you factor in Spell Mastery from the War Wizard set)

42 base
2 feats
1 lich
1 archmage
3 item
1 augment
3 twist
---
53 necro DC

42 base
1 feat
1 ship
3 item
1 augment
1 drow
---
49 enchant DC (when wearing Sage's Mantle)

20 base
8 feats
5 destiny autogrants
2 destiny
4 staff of the necromancer
---
39 spell penetration

1205 wizard
805 int (caster level + 9) * int mod = (20 +5 destiny +1 staff + 9) * 23 = 35 * 23 = 805
105 Mental Toughness
200 archmagi
150 elemental
300 destiny
50 cunning trinket
80 large guild augment
----
2895
289 endless faith
----
3184 spell points


14 base
8 item
4 lich
2 tome (1750 favor)
2 ship
---
30 con (10 mod)

45 heroic durability
80 wizard
210 con
10 epic
10 draconic vitality
40 false life
20 vitality
20 elemental
---
435 hit points

[EllisDee37]

Grinding out the twists I wanted on this was brutal. For the first few days I played around trying to identify the easiest, most reliable xp I could get doing any given quest only once. Once I came up with a list I spent the next week fine-tuning the order and all the little tricks and tips to speed things along. The last few days were a brutal slog as I limped to the finish line, 7.5 million xp later. And while I do now (finally) have all my twists done, I still need another 700k or so to max out draconic and officially call it finished. Oofa.

The daily run ended up being ~2.5 hours and ~530k xp. This included a 4% ship buff, 5% pots you can buy from cannith challenges, and no epic tome at all. Better shrine/pots/tome will increase the total.

Things to keep in mind: This build caps at 21, meaning it can't enter the higher level epics (ie: can't complete any epic sagas) and it can't pick up level 23/24 rogue hires to hit 80 open lock. That means no Death Undone and no hidden chest in Trial By Fury. Also, as an insta-kill build EN is much faster than EH since you can finger/wail orange-names on EN as you sprint past them.

All quests are done on Epic Normal, and aside from VON3 and DA every single quest is 8 minutes or less for a completion. Regardless of which destiny I had active and what twists I did or did not have, apart from VON3 and Devil Assault I never used a single shrine in any quest.

Ship Buff #1 (~45 minutes, ~200k xp)
Put up LFM for "EN VON3 then EN DA" as you buff, then hop in VON3. Usually you'll fill before you make it to the end of the prequest, but starting the quest proper solo and letting it fill as IP works fine.
VON3
...DDoor out, collect end reward and teleport to portable hole to sell/repair and drop down into market. You only need 1 person from the VON3 group to stick around for Devil Assault, and you only need that one person so you're not dealing with Baktor all by yourself. When soloing, his teleporting makes him untargetable apart from acid rain and ice storm, which take forever.
Devil Assault
...drop group on exit, turn left and run to searing heights, which is right there. I went solo for all remaining quests in all three lists except for sometimes duoing with a competent guildie. The next list of quests is greatly slowed down by people getting lost in Trial By Fury.
Bargain of Blood (Video)
...Teleport to House D, turn in and re-acquire BoB, run to airship to sell/repair and rebuff.

Ship Buff #2 (~60 minutes, ~200k xp)
Lords of Dust
...worth using Pendant of Time on exit, collect end reward and run to MotU cavern. Note that Undeath to Death is very handy to have slotted for this quest.
House of Rusted Blades
...grab end chest then teleport to Harbor, run back to MotU cavern
Trial By Fury (Video)
...DDoor to exit, haste then run to...
Deal and the Demon
...ransack is worth getting. On completion, use Key to Eveningstar, run NE to tavern to sell/repair, then continue further NE to Druid's Deep area.
The Druid's Curse (Video)
...this is essentially a 7-minute full sprint. Slot Merfolk's just for this. Finish out (DDoor doesn't help), collect end reward for this and acquire Outbreak.
Outbreak (Video)
...only like 15k but with DDoor and instakills this is like a 2 minute quest. DDoor out and head to King's Forest.
Impossible Demands
...I've never been able to bug her out to prevent her from going through the first door, so I just run in right after her, catch her attention, kill the drow in the room and release the 3 prisoners. After she eats all 3 I then DPS her down. Probably like 2 minutes all told. Run to exit and head south. So very far south...
Unquiet Graves
...this is the end of the slog, and it usually completes with 1-3 minutes left of the ship buffs. Typically I'll DDoor to exit and recall to Eveningstar, turn in and re-acquire Impossible Demands and Unquiet Graves for the next day's runs, turn in Outbreak, then teleport to House P and hop on the ship and go for a smoke.

Ship Buff #3 (~40 minutes, ~130k xp)
Have ship navigator send you to Menechtauran.
Offering of Blood (Video)
...after completion, Greater Teleport back to Zawabi's Refuge, turn in and re-acquire OOB then teleport to House Phiarlan.
Snitch (Video)
...I don't invis this, but I also don't engage or kill a single mob after that first room until after I turn the valve that lets you up to the box-monster construct. After that valve I run back a few steps to gather the rats and gargoyles into a group and acid rain them all. After completion, turn in, use Pendant of Time and run NE.
Under the Big Top (Video)
...this is a weird quest. Invisible keeps you from aggroing anything, and turning the wheels does NOT break invisible. You literally go invis, run to the 5 required wheels, then run straight to the end fight without engaging a single trash mob. After completion DDoor to exit, collect end reward and use the House P teleporter to go to House K, drop down and head to Red Fens.
Fathom the Depths (Video)
...old-school invisozerg, where you re-invisible after pulling each lever/valve. If you're quick enough you don't have to engage a single mob until right before the end fight. Be sure to cast DDoor before pulling the lever that floods the area. After DDooring, turn directly around in mid-air, cast invis and head east to end fight. Kill all trash mobs at the last lever after opening the last gate. Finish out (DDoor doesn't help), cast jump on yourself, then jump off the SW corner of the pyramid, the topmost level next to the shrine. Float all the way down to the SW corner of the map.
Claw of Vulkoor (Video)
...I had great success using a single enervation SLA followed by a quick FoD on all the guardians. Seems to work pretty reliably. On completion, DDoor to exit, recall to House K and reenter to collect both end rewards. Teleport to House Phiarlan and go back to ship; you're all done until tomorrow.

Being epic normal runs, don't expect much valor. All told I ended up with around 1500 valor and a million plat from vendor trash farming out my 7.5 million destiny xp. I also pulled three planar focus and a handful of AH-worthy trash.


Here are my Big Top notes:

UNDER THE BIG TOP
Gate 1:
...Straight: Blue = Yellow X
Gate 2:
...First left: Green = White Triangle
...Back to first right: Yellow = Red Diamond
Gate 3:
...Through arch, right twice: Orange = Green Circle
...Back to arch, left twice: Purple = Yellow Square

For the third gate, the wheel locations are randomized. The orange wheel will be on the right side, either right there just past the arch (though that one is usually red) or along the right path. The purple wheel will be on the left side, where the gate to continue forward is. When you go "back to arch, left twice" the second left is right before an arch. Don't go through that arch. After taking that left, the purple wheel will either be straight ahead at the gate or on a side path that fades a little to the right.

[Stoner81]

Nice one buddy you finally got it sorted out, I am going to have to TR one of my toons in to this or something since I have no character slots left.

Stoner81.

[Nodoze]

Grinding out the twists I wanted on this was brutal. For the first few days I played around trying to identify the easiest, most reliable xp I could get doing any given quest only once. Once I came up with a list I spent the next week fine-tuning the order and all the little tricks and tips to speed things along. ...

The daily run ended up being ~2.5 hours and ~530k xp. This included a 4% ship buff, 5% pots you can buy from cannith challenges, and no epic tome at all. Better shrine/pots/tome will increase the total.

Things to keep in mind: This build caps at 21, meaning it can't enter the higher level epics (ie: can't complete any epic sagas) and it can't pick up level 23/24 rogue hires to hit 80 open lock. That means no Death Undone and no hidden chest in Trial By Fury. Also, as an insta-kill build EN is much faster than EH since you can finger/wail orange-names on EN as you sprint past them.

...

Ship Buff #1 (~45 minutes, ~200k xp)
VON3
Devil Assault
Bargain of Blood (Video)


Ship Buff #2 (~60 minutes, ~200k xp)
Lords of Dust
House of Rusted Blades
Trial By Fury (Video)
Deal and the Demon
The Druid's Curse (Video)
Outbreak (Video)
...with instakills this is like a 2 minute quest. DDoor out and head to King's Forest.
Impossible Demands
Unquiet Graves

Ship Buff #3 (~40 minutes, ~130k xp)
Offering of Blood (Video)
Snitch (Video)
Under the Big Top (Video)
Fathom the Depths (Video)
Claw of Vulkoor (Video)
...I had great success using a single enervation SLA followed by a quick FoD on all the guardians.

...

I enjoy reading your threads in general and found this one particularly insightful.

Lately I have been running with 1-2 of my kids working on maxing out fate points for our twists as well as getting ePLs (we already have everyone we want as 36 pointers for now so no more TRs for awhile as we are focusing on epics). Since I can multibox multiple DDO clients at once I sometimes am solo with their 2 characters parked at the door though typically only 2 of us are on so we only have 1 piker then (the kids often take turns though sometimes all 3 of us are on).

If you we running an all ranged group with no insta-kills, would you avoid any of the above quests?

Have you decided on any changes to the above list since the XP changes?

For reference we are running slightly tweaked versions of the following ranged builds:

- Shiradi-Warcannon : WarForged 11Wiz/6Monk/3Rogue (our AoE aggro grabber with mostly full trap skills & great self full 'heals');

- Meteor-Shower-I : Halfling 12Monk/5Wiz/3Rogue (great DPS & bare minimum trap skills running in either Shadow Dancer or Shiradi);

- Elven AA 12FvS/6Monk/2Paladin (FvS Elven Arcane Archer Monkcher typically running in running in either Shadow Dancer or Shiradi or Fury);

[EllisDee37]

If you we running an all ranged group with no insta-kills, would you avoid any of the above quests?

Not really. It's nice in claw to finger the orange-names but by no means required.

Have you decided on any changes to the above list since the XP changes?

If you mean the rebalancing a few updates ago, the only changes from that are VON3 went down. All other adjustments were to increase quest xp, and many of the quests that got bumps were on the list. (Trial By Fury in particular was a pleasant surprise.)

I did a slightly modified version for a blitzer that included Don't Drink the Water, but I don't remember all the details. I do remember that I needed to come up with two different quest lists, since the lower level quests stop being blitzable once you get to the level 26+ range.

EDIT: Ah, found the low level version in my notes:

Circuit 1
---------
 - Captain to Harbor 
 - Rusted Blades
 - Death Undone
   - DDoor, recall twice, head in to demonweb
 - Trial By Fury
 - Deal and the Demon
 - Closing the Portal
   - Recall twice, teleport to House P, rebuff/smoke
Time: 44 minutes
XP: 173,462 (1953048 to 2126510)
Valor: 109 (1857 to 1966)
Plat: 15k

Circuit 2
---------
 - Key to Eveningstar
 - Turn-in & re-acquire quests from Circuit 1
 - Impossible Demands
 - Unquiet Graves
   - DDoor, recall
 - Outbreak
   - Turn in & re-acquire two king's forest quests
 - Overgrowth
 - Thorn and Paw
 - Druid's Curse
   - Turn in all 4 druid's deep, re-acquire first two only
   - Teleport to House P, rebuff/smoke
Time: 51 minutes
XP: 162,442 (2126510 to 2288952)
Valor: 126 (1966 to 2092)
Plat: 19k

Circuit 1 & 2
-------------
Time: 1:45
XP: 330k
Valor: 235
Plat: 34k

The higher level version was mostly druid's deep, high road and gianthold.

[LiquidZombie]

Excuse the n00b questions, but my main character is a first life human PM who has just reached level 20 so I am interested in this build and the strategies it might use even though I don't plan to be farming challenges specifically.

Three dots for bosses, plus firewall for pretty much everything in the disruptor.

What are the three DoTs? Niacs, Eladars and ???? Are you counting the Energy Vortex ability from Draconic?

Challenges, however, are easier than quests in terms of mob strength and the pet acquits itself quite well.

Really? I tried a couple of the arena-based challenges at level and found them much more difficult than regular quests, as I quickly became overwhelmed with spawning mobs including multiple orange-named. Admittedly I suck, but I can't imagine being able to do this while significantly under-level.

Dragon Heritage I (acid)
Dragon Spell Knowledge I (acid)

Are you only taking one rank in those because of insufficient EDP points? They seem like abilities that are worth maxing out otherwise.

[Vellrad]

E



What are the three DoTs? Niacs, Eladars and ???? Are you counting the Energy Vortex ability from Draconic?

Black dragon bolt.

[EllisDee37]

Really? I tried a couple of the arena-based challenges at level and found them much more difficult than regular quests, as I quickly became overwhelmed with spawning mobs including multiple orange-named. Admittedly I suck, but I can't imagine being able to do this while significantly under-level.

Being overwhelmed by mobs is where this build shines. Lay down an ice storm and acid rain and then shield block, or just do an energy burst to clear it all out in one shot. I expect to be able to easily handle arena challenges at CR25 but haven't verified so. If I have problems with it I'll post back to let you know.

Are you only taking one rank in those because of insufficient EDP points? They seem like abilities that are worth maxing out otherwise.

I'll likely switch those around. I just put a theory-crafted ED breakdown in there because I've never used draconic before. Now that I finally got my twists all set (Necro specialization, boulder toss, endless faith) I can finish maxing out draconic. Once I do I'll figure out what I like best and update the ED section of the build accordingly.

EDIT: And yes, black dragon bolt is the third dot.

[EllisDee37]

I added my destiny farming notes.

[LiquidZombie]

Being overwhelmed by mobs is where this build shines. Lay down an ice storm and acid rain and then shield block, or just do an energy burst to clear it all out in one shot.

I'll try this. With my PM aura going I think it is unlikely I (or my skeleton) would actually die in this situation, it's just a question of whether the SP pool will hold out for long enough.

EDIT: And yes, black dragon bolt is the third dot.

That makes sense. I wasn't sure if BDB was considered a DoT for bosses since it lacks the long-term stacking behaviour of the other two, but it certainly does a good amount of damage for its cost if you chain-cast it.

I added my destiny farming notes.

Thanks, that perfectly answers my next question which was going to be "How the hell do you manage to get enough XP to obtain all those different abilities in more than one tree". It looks like I will need to buy some more content and learn the quests, but at least I now know where to start.

[Ancient]

I added my destiny farming notes.

Those farming notes are nice enough to deserve a post devoted to that topic. Thank you!

Just one curious question, how would you rate this against a shiradi pew pew build? You tend to min/max, (as do I), so I don't expect it to be a flavor thing... You generally have reasons for why you take the approach you do. I would love to hear it.

[EllisDee37]

Those farming notes are nice enough to deserve a post devoted to that topic. Thank you!

I might post one for general purposes, but I'm not entirely sure yet. Maybe next month when I finally get back to my real characters. (I've been working on both challenge farmers since the beginning of December.)

The guide posted upthread is more specific to this particular build than you might think. Any normal character would include Death Undone as soon as you hit 23 and could use a rogue hire, which means that whole second shrine quest sequence would have to change because you'd lose your ship buffs before you even got to Unquiet Graves.

Also, once you take 26 you can no longer run BoB, Snitch or Big top on EN for full xp. Thinking about them I doubt it matters; I can't think of any orange names in any of them. (Compared to, say, Druid's Curse which is chock full of them.) Running them on EH lets you get full xp through level 27. Also, the EN/EH distinction only matters for insta-kill casters (due to orange names being immune to insta-kill on EH) so the next character I plan to TR (my paladin, who needs 3 million karma) will likely run everything on EH for better valor.

Just one curious question, how would you rate this against a shiradi pew pew build? You tend to min/max, (as do I), so I don't expect it to be a flavor thing... You generally have reasons for why you take the approach you do. I would love to hear it.

To be honest it never occured to me to do a shirardi challenge farmer. That probably would have been a better choice for me personally because I already have a DC caster and I do not have a shirardi caster. So it would have added some variety. And it certainly wouldn't need to worry about running out of mana in 20-minute no-shrine challenges. (This build won't either; energy burst does most of the killing.)

The only real downside to a shirardi caster is that you kind of really want energy burst for challenges, and it's expensive to twist in. All three of my twists combined cost 8 fate points, compared to 10 for energy burst alone. In CR25 challenges energy burst is old-school wail with no-fail DC that also works on constructs and undead. You really can't beat it.

EDIT: I will say this, though: That competent guildie who joined me in the full circuit maybe a half dozen times was a shirardi caster, and he was great, but for some reason he had to shrine a lot. Especially in something like OOB. I think it was because he spammed meteor swarm a lot.