What is the shelf life on the Fire Savant SLAs?

[ValariusK]

I've got a bladeforged Sorc-11/Pally-2/Fvs-3 now (going for something very similar to the spam machine build Sorc-14/Pally-2/Fvs-4. Right now I'm seriously loving the 3 fire savant SLAs---having 3 points in all of them. With Maximize, empower and quicken, they seriously rock the house against anything without evasion or fire immunity. How long can I expect this to continue assuming I run standard heroic elite for bravery bonus? Can I meaningfully extend the lifespan of these SLAs by taking heighten at level 18 and slapping heighten on all of them? I'm running with 18 base charisma at level 1, +4 tome, all level ups to charisma, and the best +charisma item i can lay my hands on as well as evocation focus 2 on my trinket. Or would buying spell focus:evocation be the better idea? I know I can swap in the +5 evocation necklace from eveningstar but that'd come at the expense of my smoke GS HP item. Any thoughts? I'm particularly interested in the road from 16th-20th. After 20th, well, I have a fully tricked out shiradi destiny waiting for me and a mostly tricked draconic one as well.

[Vellrad]

At lvl18 when you enter vale a lot of mobs are fire immune or resistant, but there are stil lots that take fire damage.
In shavarath, everything is fire immune.

[ValariusK]

How about in Wheloon? What DC do I need to be able to use fireballs and the like (instead of just scorching ray/magic missle/chain missle/force missile) on Shadar-Kai?

[thesnoman]

If you're on EE, Unless you go full on Evocation you'll never get your DCs high enough to have the Shadar Kai not evade. If you're in Shiradi, it's even harder...In DI or Magister, you'll be able to get your DCs high enough, but not likely in Shiradi.

This, of course, assumes you're not a Completionist/Epic Completionist with all of the best gear out there.

[ValariusK]

I found that heighten extended the life of my SLAs up to level 20. After that I found myself mostly using force spells, where my FVS enhancements really helped a lot. In Shiradi, I find I use scorching ray, MM, force missle, chain missles with the occasional Ice storm, cloudkill, and energy burst. Maybe I should pull some into EK to boost my force spell power?

[TheDr0wRanger]

I basically stop using the first 2 around the Vale, keeping them exclusively for the contribution to Fireball(which is a miracle when things get down into the Echoes of Power). Scorch and Burning hands are fun to play with, bust boxes and nix little enemies but I don't even hotbar them at endgame, even a crit on Scorch is less than half of the low-ball roll for an Energy Burst, and with Endless Faith I can do E-Burst in Echoes. Only real use I can remember for Scorch and Burning Hands is when you want to contain your damage to a small area for whatever reason, they and Scorching Ray keep the splash down.

Shavarath is indeed horribly unfun(and uniquely vile of Turbine as I can't find any other area where entire builds aren't any good). I recommend Cyclonic Blast if you've been keeping your DCs at any sort of level, many devils can't resist it and Greater Shout can mop up the rest. You won't be the kill leader in Shavarath but you also won't be the non-participant.

I stay Fire because I'm not interested in a double respec and Fire Savants have significant advantages in endgame, perhaps not to make them better than other choices but certainly enough to make them a valid choice. Immolation alone makes your damage on some enemies spike sharply.