From Evoker to Melee: Move or Stay?

[EndingDoe]

I left DDO over a year ago for Rift and Tera, but I'm now thinking of coming back and giving DDO another go.

My toon is geared and specced for evoking. Blade barrier and implosion were sweet before being damage capped and kept the toon interesting. Now that the caps are in place I'm feeling like evoker doesn't really have the tools for solid DPS, especially against bosses and high-reflex mobs. Spamming low-DPS spells like searing light is not an option, since it's both slow and mana consuming. This got me thinking about switching to melee. I could happily whack the bosses and contribute DPS when healing is not needed, which is quite often with the current difficulty curve.

Should I do it? Or are the enhancement/epic spells a good replacement for BB and implosion? Removing the damage caps and mana dependency, as well as increasing single-target DPS, sound like good enough reasons to me. I'd have to TR and acquire a new set of gear, but that is acceptable.

How would you compare the performance of melee FvS vs. evoker?

[zwiebelring]

Here the link to Mellkor's melee FvS build converted to Divine Crusader with all shinies.
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...er#post5322078

That might give you some impressions on how difficult the change was, regarding gear and playstyle. I played this idea as well and was very disappointed when MotU hit and actually crushed WF melee FvS. Replacements were found ion melee Artificer and now, even more streamlined, BF Kensei.

But I am looking forward to my mains final build of a Bladeforged melee Divine Crusader. Offense by light spells + Archon, defense by everything I can get. A base of operations might be heavy elemental dmg. absorb + high PRR without being a tank. If that works out... I don't know, but ignoring 6 Mnk for 25% Incorporeal clicky needs some dedicated plan in gear.

[Erruun]

I would highly recommend a caster variant. The light based builds seem to be best at the moment (I run light dmg with mid-high end dcs). We will see what the new ship buffs do for dc casting but I am not amused at the moment better to stick to heavy damage casters. Melee's just soak up sp

[EndingDoe]

It performs fine in any EH quest. In most EE at level quests I get my ass kicked, hard.

I played this idea as well and was very disappointed when MotU hit and actually crushed WF melee FvS

The light based builds seem to be best at the moment

Based on these I'll stay with evoking and see what the epic/ench spells offer. Less work as well, although bosses will remain a problem due to their high health pool and the low damage of FvS ST spells. I do like the melee's ability to maintain good DPS on any target indefinitely.

Ah, if only bows were valid and convinient. Silver flame bonuses and a bow would had been a nice space filler. FYI, my toon is a helf with the save bonuses from pally dilly.

[Stinging_Bee]

Based on these I'll stay with evoking and see what the epic/ench spells offer. Less work as well, although bosses will remain a problem due to their high health pool and the low damage of FvS ST spells. I do like the melee's ability to maintain good DPS on any target indefinitely.

If you want a favored soul build able to deal best dps for infinite amount of time without ever running out of spell points ---> my fvs build is the one you are looking for.
Linked in my signature.
Have fun!

[Kyshara]

There are a lot of fvs caster builds, almost all being based on light dmg (new Exalted Angel changes).
I don't like fvs/cleric/wiz melee build, if I want to be melee I just roll a fighter, monk or rogue.

I'm using this caster build of mine and I'm very comfortable with it https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...S-Caster-Build
There are lots of variants, you can either go pure fvs, fvs 18 monk 2, up to you.
I can do any quest on EE in a group without relying on pots if I play serious. I can solo most of quests without using pots, but well, there are quests your mana just won't make it, like in Breaking the Ranks due to the existence of just one shrine and 10k+ health mobs (giants).

If you stick on spells, yes, you won't have mana, so you pretty much rely on SLAs from Exalted Angel and boost your wisdom as high as possible (DCs are based on character level + wisdom, no focus feats/items work with them). They are cheap at cost and have a nice damage per sp. The only two spells I use for dps are divine punishment and blade barrier.

Or you can go the draconic incarnation style focusing on charisma and draconic burst/vortex/breath, but the cooldowns are too long compared to exalted angel's.

In MY OPINION, if you want to go melee for EE after a year away, you should get some practice. As a melee lover and primarly a melee toon I can say caster/ranged life is way easier than melee for defenses, but well, I prefer my 9k axe Blitz crits for offense than dancing around my Blade Barrier hehe.

Good luck on your return.

[EndingDoe]

There are a lot of fvs caster builds, almost all being based on light dmg (new Exalted Angel changes).

If you stick on spells, yes, you won't have mana, so you pretty much rely on SLAs from Exalted Angel and boost your wisdom as high as possible (DCs are based on character level + wisdom, no focus feats/items work with them). They are cheap at cost and have a nice damage per sp. The only two spells I use for dps are divine punishment and blade barrier.

Or you can go the draconic incarnation style focusing on charisma and draconic burst/vortex/breath, but the cooldowns are too long compared to exalted angel's.

As a melee lover and primarly a melee toon I can say caster/ranged life is way easier than melee for defenses, but well, I prefer my 9k axe Blitz crits for offense than dancing around my Blade Barrier hehe.

Staying alive has never been a problem to me, since wings, shadowwalk/displacement do make dodging easy. Got the stats to back it up as well, although trip-spamming mobs do sometimes cause a random death.

Good info. I was thinking draconic incarnation would be a nice match for an old evoker, but long cooldowns would force me to resort to capped spells and that's going to slow me down. Magister also looked good for a while, but it doesn't have enough SLA's to allow me to dump spells.

Guess Exalted Angel it is. According to you, this would also allow me to trade out the evocation focus -feats and get some other goodies instead.

[Kyshara]

Guess Exalted Angel it is. According to you, this would also allow me to trade out the evocation focus -feats and get some other goodies instead.

That.
I don't have evoc feats or twists and my BB DC is 67 and its pretty much the only evoc spell I use. For instant-kills DC is meh, around 56, but works on rogues and casters, so I'm comfortable with that

[Doutrinador]

There are a lot of fvs caster builds, almost all being based on light dmg (new Exalted Angel changes).
I don't like fvs/cleric/wiz melee build, if I want to be melee I just roll a fighter, monk or rogue.

I'm using this caster build of mine and I'm very comfortable with it https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...S-Caster-Build
There are lots of variants, you can either go pure fvs, fvs 18 monk 2, up to you.
I can do any quest on EE in a group without relying on pots if I play serious. I can solo most of quests without using pots, but well, there are quests your mana just won't make it, like in Breaking the Ranks due to the existence of just one shrine and 10k+ health mobs (giants).

If you stick on spells, yes, you won't have mana, so you pretty much rely on SLAs from Exalted Angel and boost your wisdom as high as possible (DCs are based on character level + wisdom, no focus feats/items work with them). They are cheap at cost and have a nice damage per sp. The only two spells I use for dps are divine punishment and blade barrier.

Or you can go the draconic incarnation style focusing on charisma and draconic burst/vortex/breath, but the cooldowns are too long compared to exalted angel's.

In MY OPINION, if you want to go melee for EE after a year away, you should get some practice. As a melee lover and primarly a melee toon I can say caster/ranged life is way easier than melee for defenses, but well, I prefer my 9k axe Blitz crits for offense than dancing around my Blade Barrier hehe.

Good luck on your return.

Necro FVS is still viable? I whant to try one, most for heroic and party playing in EH and EE.

With hi DC i can instakill in heroics and EH and use light spells in EE.

Do you have any suggestion?

Thx