Shadovar Infiltrator

[Caprice]

Outside of the harder to get named robes, would you still recommend robes in general for heroic leveling? As long as you can mitigate the ASF via EK enhancements and augments, I would think that the PRR/MRR from Light armor would be nice (~13% mitigation against both). You should be able to afford the -5% ASF from EK Core 2 by level 15, and as long as you avoid the chain-type light armors you should only need another 5% (e.g. EK Light Armor Proficiency, Cannith crafted, ML12 augment) to cover it.

[Andoris]

Outside of the harder to get named robes, would you still recommend robes in general for heroic leveling? As long as you can mitigate the ASF via EK enhancements and augments, I would think that the PRR/MRR from Light armor would be nice (~13% mitigation against both). You should be able to afford the -5% ASF from EK Core 2 by level 15, and as long as you avoid the chain-type light armors you should only need another 5% (e.g. EK Light Armor Proficiency, Cannith crafted, ML12 augment) to cover it.

As long as you can mitigate ASF.. Light armor is the superior choice.

[spade413]

Thank everyone for the many replies. I figured I'd give an update to my version of the build:

I double reincarnated last night. First was to Sun Elf, where I took 1 Cleric, 13 wizard, and 1 Rogue. I was a bit sad to see that my spellbook was reset in this (the description in the reincarnation screen said it woulnd't be). I burned through all the levels-ups very quick, trying to remember which spells weren't available from vendors 3 years ago, even though I know it's probably not accurate anymore.

Then I did a +1 Lesser Heart, to swap the 1 Cleric to Rogue. This time, the spellbook stayed, which was nice. Not able to access Completionist, I chose Empower, figuring that if I want to lean on spell damage I'd need every bit I could get. I also realized that the initial description of the build didn't really go into skills. I chose to max out Concentration, Spellcraft, Search, Disable, and Spot, with a healthy chunk of points into MS and Hide, and a smattering of other random skills (jump, tumble, etc) for the first level of Rogue. I completely scrapped Open Lock in lieu of Knock, and though I really wanted more in Heal out of a paranoid desire to maximize healing potential, it stayed empty.

The started gear pack it gave me was MorningLord specific, so 75% of it was more or less useless. I do have some random gear laying around, so I suspect I'll be able to tough it out until lvl 20 gear shows up. I'll buy or make myself a rapier or two, and start slaying. I have some Reaver's Reach robes that I'll throw on at 16 which will likely help.

In response to the robe/light armor conversation, would going the light armor route knock out Improved Shield/Improved Mage Armor? I haven't priced it yet to see if its possible, but since (to the best of my knowledge) mage armor doesn't stack with light armor, and Shield doesn't stack with shields. How does the physical resistance on Improved Shield compare to that which comes from simply wearing Light Armor? What about shield profiency?

As an aside, how exactly doesn't Physical Resistance work, and where does its value lie relative to DR? Also, in the Harper line, there are enhancements that add +1 to melee power. I have no clue what that means. I'd appreciate any info on those topics, or critiques of the choices I've already made.

Thanks again!

[Caprice]

The DDOWiki has a list of the arcane scrolls that cannot be purchased. That's a good resource to hit up when selecting spells. The text you read was incorrect and that's probably worth a screenshot and bug report; TRing definitely wipes out your spell book but LRing does not (as you discovered).

The Improved Mage Armor SLA will not stack its basic +4 AC with Light armor, nor with an Armor AC bonus you may get on Robes or Bracers (e.g. the Abbot Robes Andoris mentioned). All of those sources of AC are typed as an "Armor bonus" so only the highest one applies. However the SLA grants a bonus of an extra +10% AC that's in addition to the usual benefits of the Mage Armor Spell, and that will apply to the AC of any Light Armor you are wearing while you have the buff active. However this is probably only going to be a point or two difference because Light Armor has fairly low AC.

The +4 AC from the Shield SLA is typed as a "Shield bonus" so that will stack with either Light Armor or the Mage Armor spell because the bonus types are different. The Shield SLA's AC won't stack with an actual shield if you use one, but this is a two-weapon fighting build so you will usually have a weapon rather than a shield in your off hand. So in this case you will get the full benefits of the Shield SLA, including the +4 AC and magic/force missile immunity from the base Shield spell, and the +10 PRR that the SLA grants on top of the spell effect. More importantly the PRR that the Shield SLA grants does stack with any other PRR you have so if you wear Robes and use the Shield SLA then you will have 10 PRR and if you wear Light Armor and use the Shield SLA you will have 25 PRR (plus another 10 from PM). If you have Bone Armor from the PM tree that's another 10 PRR that stacks on top of any other sources you have (i.e. 20 w/Robes, or 35 w/Light Armor).

DR is a flat amount of reduction. If you have DR5/- then all hits coming in do 5 less damage. PRR is a percent mitigation of the damage you take. To figure out the exact percent, divide 100 by 100 + your PRR to find out how much of the normal damage you will take. For example 35 PRR = you take 74.1% of the original damage (also described as 25.9% mitigation). PRR is better when you are taking big hits, and DR is better against small ones. If you get hit for 10 points of damage then 35 PRR reduces that by 74.1% to 7 damage (it always rounds down), whereas DR5 drops it to 10-5 = 5 damage. However if you get hit for 100 damage, the PRR reduces that to 74 damage but the DR reduces it only to 95. Thus generally PRR is much more effective to focus on than DR as you get to higher level because the hits you take will be larger.

Melee Power increases your base weapon damage by that percentage. If you normally swing and hit a monster for 20 damage, and you add 10 Melee Power, your damage increases by 10% so you will strike it for 22 damage instead. This only affects the damage from the weapon die, the weapon's enhancement bonus, your damage modifier (INT here), Deadly enchantments, a Bard song, Seeker, and things like those that are added straight onto the base number the weapon does. It does increase the damage of crits as well. However Melee Power does not affect the extra damage procs your weapon may have like elemental or alignment effects (e.g. Holy, Flaming Burst) or your EK Spellsword toggles, since those are added after the base weapon damage is calculated. There are some abilities that Melee Power affects even more than the basic +1% damage per 1 Melee Power, but those abilities specifically state that in their description.

[Andoris]

On skills, I would try to max out (in order) Spellcraft, Heal, Disable Device, Search, UMD, Concentration, 1 point in Tumble, and the rest in MS/hide/OL/whatever. You still have 5 levels of skills to play with.. but I would do what you can to make sure you can fit in Heal (boosts negative spell power) and UMD (good to be able to cast Resurrection scrolls).

The whole point of the Shield SLA was for the 10 points of PRR.. you are not going to have enough AC to really matter.. but it the PRR boost is very helpful.

Empower is a very good choice for the extra feat as it will help boost your burst healing potential with Negative Energy Burst.

[spade413]

Thank you for the full description of how armor interacts, very useful and comprehensive. I may go that route when I redo enhancement points, particularly if I happen to stumble into light armor that is better than the terrible robes I've seen available in the AH/Vendors for lvl 15. I went with a basic "Resist electricity 30" robe, because of how ineffective the cheap and easy ones I found were.

For other gear, I found a potency 48 hat to put on, and made a nullification 66 ring. I don't have void or spell lore built in anywhere yet. I made a couple +5 element burst of righteousness rapiers as quick and generic damage rapiers, until I can farm up Rapier of Air. I had a fire absorb 33%/Necro focus II trinket that I had made a while ago. I also found some Speed VI, Deadly V-ish (I don't remember this value exactly), and Accuracy VI items in vendors that I managed to work into the gear. While I have Vitality +20 and False Life +20 items on, my HP still feels very low at 240Hp ; I know some of it is psychosomatic from playing him at 20, but I'm also down a lot of +HP enhancements and a toughness feat from that build. Spellpoints have the same feeling, at just over 1k HP; having previously had both mental toughness feats, this seems heartbreakingly low. Hopefully, I'll get to actually run the build tonight as see that my fears are unfounded.

As for skills... doh. Guess I bombed that one. I forwent UMD on purpose, because I've always maxed UMD "just in case", and have never actually used it on a character that wasn't built for it. It was kind of freeing to drop the rez scrolls, the golden cartouche, the potions of eagle's splendor and of charisma + skills. As for Spellcraft, I think I was still in the mindset of pure caster, which would say that cheap spellcraft skill equaled easy small damage. I can definitely see how the same skill points spent in heal would benefit me more, as I'll be healing myself more often and have few hitpoints to heal, making the extra from skills that much more proportionately.

Does Heal skill add to Death Aura? For that matter, do Potency/Nullification even work on it? I seem to remember that self-only, buff-type spells were not modified by spell effects, which is why fireshield damage was always lackluster back when 'thorns-style builds" were a viable end-game thing. I'd love to hear that this has changed, or that I'm mis-remembering.

Thanks for letting me ramble about my character, its fun and lets me organize my thoughts better.

[Andoris]

As for skills... doh. Guess I bombed that one. I forwent UMD on purpose, because I've always maxed UMD "just in case", and have never actually used it on a character that wasn't built for it. It was kind of freeing to drop the rez scrolls, the golden cartouche, the potions of eagle's splendor and of charisma + skills. As for Spellcraft, I think I was still in the mindset of pure caster, which would say that cheap spellcraft skill equaled easy small damage. I can definitely see how the same skill points spent in heal would benefit me more, as I'll be healing myself more often and have few hitpoints to heal, making the extra from skills that much more proportionately.

Does Heal skill add to Death Aura? For that matter, do Potency/Nullification even work on it? I seem to remember that self-only, buff-type spells were not modified by spell effects, which is why fireshield damage was always lackluster back when 'thorns-style builds" were a viable end-game thing. I'd love to hear that this has changed, or that I'm mis-remembering.

Thanks for letting me ramble about my character, its fun and lets me organize my thoughts better.

Maxing Spellcraft is a good idea (I just edited my post.. don't know how I missed that one). As for UMD.. it is now really really easy to get a high UMD due to epic levels (even easier when you can go to 23 ranks), it is hard these days not to recommend that everyone takes UMD. The heal skill adds to your negative spell power, so yes it does affect your death aura (as does nullification).

Gear wise the Cannith Challenge gear is fairly easy to get and very strong for a caster, as it will help you cover lores and spell power easily.

[nobdog]

I really love the concept of a melee PM, I always have.
I havent played in a really long time but I've got a 1st life lev 16 drow wizard that I went ahead and LRed into a version of this build.

Instead of taking 2 rog, I went with 1 rog, 1 clr. Losing evasion but gaining heavy armor(4 points into drow tree and a twilight full plate for no ASF). clr also gets me +20 to negative spell power, and more spell critical if i decide to spare the points for it. Also nice to buy some heal with class ranks.

What are your thoughts on going this route?
I have read that the damage mitigation of heavy armor can very well eliminate the need for evasion. I enjoy the idea of stacking shield(and the PM enhancements) on top of this.

As for feats, without the past lives or tomes(i have like a +3 int tome and nothing else on him) I had to get more creative. I decided to try and go for SWF since I just dont have the stats for TWF or THF.
I have a feat slot around level 6 that I threw augment summoning into(Ive always liked this for my hires and such, helps them open runes and such) that I plan to eventually switch out for something more directly helpful. I was thinking perhaps khopesh or bsword proficiency. What would you recommend? I also considered taking weapon focus so that I could get power critical.

I realize my DCs wont be anywhere near what yours hit, but I figure this will be a fun build in heroic levels either way.

[Andoris]

Instead of taking 2 rog, I went with 1 rog, 1 clr. Losing evasion but gaining heavy armor(4 points into drow tree and a twilight full plate for no ASF). clr also gets me +20 to negative spell power, and more spell critical if i decide to spare the points for it. Also nice to buy some heal with class ranks.

What are your thoughts on going this route?
I have read that the damage mitigation of heavy armor can very well eliminate the need for evasion. I enjoy the idea of stacking shield(and the PM enhancements) on top of this.

There is nothing wrong with dropping evasion for Heavy armor (I have a ranger build that did just that), as Heavy armor is very powerful at the moment.. but if you are going to do that, the armor you want is Shadow scale Plate with the Shadow Guardian mod (30DR / 60DR when under 75% health).

As that armor is at 35% ASF and you can mitigate 15% with an augment and get 5% mitigated by Eldritch Knight.. that leaves 15% left to mitigate with AP. The least painful way to mitigate that 15% would be to drop 1 point of Int from Sun Elf or 3% double strike, 10 force spell power, and a secondary spellsword toggle; and then invest those 3 ap into Arcane Fluidity in the Sun Elf tree.

So overall you are looking at the loss of a 'only fail on a 1' evasion and 1.5 DCs or 1 DC and 3% DS for Heavy armor (41 PRR and the powerful shadow guardian effects). Not a horrible trade-off over all -- I personally wouldn't go for it as the intention is that the build can fill the DC caster role in all content if necessary -- losing another 2 DC puts that build goal in jeopardy. That being said, for most content the Heavy armor version would be just fine.

I am not sure where you are getting +20 neg spell power (I only count 12 more from having 23 ranks of heal) unless you are talking about spending AP into the Divine Disciple tree, which you really don't have the APs for. The build is very tight on AP overall, you might be able to free up 2-4 AP (at a significant cost) but anymore than that and you are seriously impacting the builds integrity.

As for feats, without the past lives or tomes(i have like a +3 int tome and nothing else on him) I had to get more creative. I decided to try and go for SWF since I just dont have the stats for TWF or THF.
I have a feat slot around level 6 that I threw augment summoning into(Ive always liked this for my hires and such, helps them open runes and such) that I plan to eventually switch out for something more directly helpful. I was thinking perhaps khopesh or bsword proficiency. What would you recommend? I also considered taking weapon focus so that I could get power critical.

The build gains a fair amount of dps from Spellsword and the Lich neg energy attack (both of which scale with spell power). With SWF your hits per second drop considerably (about a 26% reduction), which will considerably reduce your dps. If you have +3 tomes that is all you need to qualify for the TWF feats in the build (17 dex is all you need) -- you lose a lot by not going TWF on this build.

As for feats -- don't bother with Augment Summon.. it is not worth the slot (imo), take empower, Spell focus: Enchant; Greater Spell Focus; heck even Extend over Augment Summon.

As for Khopesh or Bastard Sword... you really don't have the feats to support either and you are not going to gain anything with B-sword (without THF feats) and the dps gain of Khopesh over Rapier is not worth it, in most instances (too many good rapiers at epic levels)

All power critical equates to is +2 seeker... do you really want to waste 2 feats on a feat starved build for +2 seeker? If you want to boost dps with feats Precision or Power Attack will take you much farther than Power Critical.

I realize my DCs wont be anywhere near what yours hit, but I figure this will be a fun build in heroic levels either way.

If you are only running Heroics then feel free to ignore everything I said above and just have fun. As long as you watch out for light damage you will be fine.

However, if heroics is all you are looking for and you want a PM/Divine Disciple build, take a look at the Vampire Knight TR framework I threw together a few months ago. The build was a blast to play in heroics and completely indestructible (left my toon with DA on in the middle of a bunch of mobs and then got up to get a drink.. came back and he was still standing with barely any hp gone). I ran that build through all my melee lives on the way to completionist for my wizard.

[jakedamus]

Used this build as a base to make something very similar.
Went Drow - still grinding some EDs and didn't want to go to 28 just to TR.
Took SWF - went full con, full int, no room for dex (TWF) even with +6 tome - using orbs
Kept the enhancements and everything else the same.

The build is a b**ch to level.
Went to level 8 but had trouble soloing anything. Low hit points is the killer.
I died on Tear!!! Decided to use a stone I had tucked away for a rainy day.
Stone took me to just over lvl 18. Kicking ass now.

Great build! Can do everything. Destroy trash (as a PM does best). If something has a strong SR just cast a web and beat it to death!
DOT and beat down end bosses. Love it!

SWF and orb - maybe a mistake but I can ER and try TWF. Prob ganna go Epic Toughness at level 27. Means less INT but 1 point of DC for 50 HP is prob worth it - we'll see.

[nobdog]

I am not sure where you are getting +20 neg spell power (I only count 12 more from having 23 ranks of heal) unless you are talking about spending AP into the Divine Disciple tree, which you really don't have the APs for. The build is very tight on AP overall, you might be able to free up 2-4 AP (at a significant cost) but anymore than that and you are seriously impacting the builds integrity.

That's exactly what i was saying, which is precisely why i asked for advice. Seems like the biggest problem with spending AP these days is that there's too much stuff that sounds good.

The build gains a fair amount of dps from Spellsword and the Lich neg energy attack (both of which scale with spell power). With SWF your hits per second drop considerably (about a 26% reduction), which will considerably reduce your dps. If you have +3 tomes that is all you need to qualify for the TWF feats in the build (17 dex is all you need) -- you lose a lot by not going TWF on this build.

Seems like tomes, at least the lower level ones are much easier to come by these days, so will keep an eye out and either LR once i find one(still have a free lesser heart lying around), or maybe just wait and TR to start adding up those past life DCs.

As for feats -- don't bother with Augment Summon.. it is not worth the slot (imo), take empower, Spell focus: Enchant; Greater Spell Focus; heck even Extend over Augment Summon.

I agree that augment summon is a throwaway just took it for while im drudging through easy quests to get some base equipment for this toon(i think he was originally levelled with an XP stone, he has practically no gear over level 10). Let the hirelings do all the work and I can go to lunch. I almost did take Spell Focus: Enchant.

As for Khopesh or Bastard Sword... you really don't have the feats to support either and you are not going to gain anything with B-sword (without THF feats) and the dps gain of Khopesh over Rapier is not worth it, in most instances (too many good rapiers at epic levels)

All power critical equates to is +2 seeker... do you really want to waste 2 feats on a feat starved build for +2 seeker? If you want to boost dps with feats Precision or Power Attack will take you much farther than Power Critical.

Again I've never really successfully run a melee PM build so I never know whats a good tradeoff. I will focus on trying to get the stat tome for TWF and go from there, throw in SF: Enchant if ive got the room as well.

If you are only running Heroics then feel free to ignore everything I said above and just have fun. As long as you watch out for light damage you will be fine.

Ive never played epic so doing well in heroic is all i can even fathom at this point. fine tuned enough with the right gear i imagine i can make a passable epic toon out of him but a big part of me would rather just TR him a couple times first to get good base going. Will just wait and see how prepared I feel by the time I hit epic.

[Andoris]

Used this build as a base to make something very similar.
Went Drow - still grinding some EDs and didn't want to go to 28 just to TR.
Took SWF - went full con, full int, no room for dex (TWF) even with +6 tome - using orbs
Kept the enhancements and everything else the same.

The build is a b**ch to level.
Went to level 8 but had trouble soloing anything. Low hit points is the killer.
I died on Tear!!! Decided to use a stone I had tucked away for a rainy day.
Stone took me to just over lvl 18. Kicking ass now.

Great build! Can do everything. Destroy trash (as a PM does best). If something has a strong SR just cast a web and beat it to death!
DOT and beat down end bosses. Love it!

SWF and orb - maybe a mistake but I can ER and try TWF. Prob ganna go Epic Toughness at level 27. Means less INT but 1 point of DC for 50 HP is prob worth it - we'll see.

Odd, it shouldn't be much more difficult to level than a typical wizard. Glad it is working out for you at 18 though.

If you are only doing EH content then I agree.. your DC's will be fine. If you intend on being effective in top end EEs though that point of DC is going to be somewhat important (your already -3 DCs vs a full PM, I wouldn't want to take it much further)

[MadCookieQueen]

So hit 28 last night. Ran through EE Orchard and EE Wheloon Prison (just not mirror...hit 28 before it and didn't want to waste the massive xp...not when I have a couple more eTRs to work through)

I'm going to stay at cap for a bit with her (have other toons who need some eTRs) and see how her numbers shake out.

---

Though lets discuss the journey so far.


To be honest...you thought a straight up PM was complicated, let me tell you that adding in melee makes it even more so.

There's a part of the brain that goes..."look stabby things in my hands!" and that's what you do. You swing, thrust, parry, hit, rinse, repeat and go.

Then you're dead.

Seriously...you're just pasted and you're like "***?"

At which point another part of your brain goes "duh dingbat, you have stabby caster sticks and hot bars full of spells...this ain't your bard."

Le sigh

So you go caster mode and sure the DCs are doing a pretty bang up job, even with champions but your oomph isn't quite as exciting as when you were pure blooded. And it's a bit mindless...stand off to the side, dance, hold, wail, circle, web, watch the melees jump around, etc.

So you notice the stabby things in your hands again...

See the pattern?


That pattern will be the death of your sanity...well mine, because hopefully I'm going to save yours.

---

You have to play this on the percentages. You are 90% caster, 10% melee. Remember that!

See a mob...here's how it goes (a boiled down version of the massive click fest...your mileage will vary)...


death aura
displacement
dancing ball (you only really need this if you are in a quest with lots of respawning, like Friends in Low Places, mass open area with tons of mobs like What Goes Up or if you are running around with a crazy monkcher who honestly thinks you absolutely want to have him pull every stupid mob in the entire dungeon to you so you can hold it for him, because he likes shooting fish...and really you're only really there to conjure the barrel )
crushing despair (quasi optional...if your DCs are holding up just fine, it's not a big deal...if not...use it!)
hold
web (depends on situation)
Irresistible dance and/or power word stun any champions/orange names
About 90 - 95% of everything should be frozen in place...if not despair and hold again
Jump in the held crowd
wail
shrouding strike something before the wail kills it
jump out
death aura (yes...you only get a little over a minute with this...it's annoying)
displacement
know the angles
jump in (assuming things are still locked down or that there even is a mob left)
circle of death
stab stab stab
shrouding strike again (if possible...you should have ~2 shadow charges after each combat)
deal with champion or orange name...but clear the room first ^^

if something is moving...get out of dodge...get out right this instant...because you are a glass cannon. I'm seriously not joking here...it doesn't take much and yeah the reflexes and evasion is absolutely amazing...but it's not enough to save you and honestly the self healing is a bit on the weak side.


I do have plans to sit down and do some heavy Consume testing...so far I haven't had much of a chance to play with it, as I've been working on getting a rhythm going for collecting shadow charges. You'll see an update about Consume (no ETAs at this time...as it's the holiday season and with kids it turns nutsy)



Here are some glorious moments...

Traps...yep...you got this! and with the revamped trap bonus...boom! candy baby!

Red Names! You now have some capabilities with them. The nice thing is that usually by the red name your spell points aren't looking the best...but as long as you got some for death aura, displacement, a couple negative energy bursts and know the angles...you don't really have to care. Sure it'll take you a little longer to beat down the red name but you aren't sucking down pots like a cheap drunk. Also remember to jump around....you want to be behind the red name all the time...so yeah duck and weave.

Also...she's a cool toon...you feel kind of cool to play her...even if you'd like to strangle her....but once you get over the additional levels of complexity into playing her...she's something awesome ^^

[Andoris]

After watching the MadCookieQueen run the toon for a while I have a few ideas on changes.

First, I would recommend dropping Sense Weakness for Energy Burst.. the AoE damage is too important with the mob densities we are seeing these days. While that is a loss of single target dps.. the AoE dps boost more than makes up for it.

Second, while the original build is fine, but if you want better defenses for when you are in melee the below changes might be a good trade-off. As DC's seem to be more than enough for most content, so it might be okay to drop a couple more points in DC's to boost defenses by swapping to heavy armor.

Alternative (no-evasion) option:

Class split: 18 wizard / 1 rogue / 1 fighter (dropping rogue all together is also an option but as ETR/TR is our current end-game the extra xp from the trap bonus is very nice)

Feats: The fighter bonus feat should allow you to slot in an additional feat (move improved TWF to the Fighter bonus feat) -- SP: Enchant/Trans or Empower (better self-heals) are all good choices.

Enhancements: Drop 3 ap out EK (3% double strike) in exchange for 3 ranks in arcane fluidity from Sun Elf. Alternatively, you could drop a point of Int from Sun elf for a 20% haste boost out of Kensei (drop Great Int then for either OC or ESF: Necro)

Armor: Shadow Dragon Plate -- Shadow Guardian (DR 30/60 when below 75% health) most of the time; swap to Shadow caster (+1 DCs) when in a pure caster role.

Overall, these changes will boost PRR to ~114 and give a large amount of DR (60 DR is very effective even in EEs). It will cost -1 to all DC's in melee mode no change to DCs when in caster mode (or +1 for a school of your choice due to feats). The loss of evasion, while annoying is really not as a big of an issue as it first appears. Between MRR and your high reflex save, spell damage is already under control. Its the mobs that hit like a ton of bricks that are the issue.

Note: These changes are really intended for EE play at lvl 28; for heroics in particular; the evasion variant is superior.

[Andoris]

Got some requests for a standard spell selection, so here it is.... remember; this is only a generic list. As a wizard your strengthen is to swap out spells as the content/group needs them; don't stick to this list if the situation requires something different.

Level 1: Merfolk's Blessing, Jump, Tumble, Feather Fall , Night shield
Level 2: Blur, Knock or lesser death aura, Web, Blindness, Scorching Ray
Level 3: Displacement, Rage, Haste, Magic Circle Against Evil, Sleet Storm
Level 4: Negative Energy Burst, Death Aura, Crushing Despair, Fire wall / Bestow Curse (Scroll: Fire shield)
Level 5: Niac's Biting Cold, Eladar’s Electric Surge, CloudKill, Teleport, Mind Fog (Scroll: Break enchantment and Cyclonic Blast)
Level 6: Circle of Death, Death to Undeath, Flesh to Stone, Necrotic Ray, Disintegrate, (Scroll: Shadow Walk, Stone to Flesh, Greater Heroism)
Level 7: Finger of Death, Mass Hold Person, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Delayed Blast Fireball, (Scroll: Greater Teleport, Mass Invisibility)
Level 8: Otto's Irresistible Dance, Polar Ray, Black Dragon Bolt, Power Word: Stun
Level 9: Mass Hold Monster, Energy Drain, Wail of the Banshee

[MadCookieQueen]

Alternative (no-evasion) option:

Class split: 18 wizard / 1 rogue / 1 fighter (dropping rogue all together is also an option but as ETR/TR is our current end-game the extra xp from the trap bonus is very nice)

Feats: The fighter bonus feat should allow you to slot in an additional feat (move improved TWF to the Fighter bonus feat) -- SP: Enchant/Trans or Empower (better self-heals) are all good choices.

Enhancements: Drop 3 ap out EK (3% double strike) in exchange for 3 ranks in arcane fluidity from Sun Elf. Alternatively, you could drop a point of Int from Sun elf for a 20% haste boost out of Kensei (drop Great Int then for either OC or ESF: Necro)

Armor: Shadow Dragon Plate -- Shadow Guardian (DR 30/60 when below 75% health) most of the time; swap to Shadow caster (+1 DCs) when in a pure caster role.

Overall, these changes will boost PRR to ~114 and give a large amount of DR (60 DR is very effective even in EEs). It will cost -1 to all DC's in melee mode no change to DCs when in caster mode (or +1 for a school of your choice due to feats). The loss of evasion, while annoying is really not as a big of an issue as it first appears. Between MRR and your high reflex save, spell damage is already under control. Its the mobs that hit like a ton of bricks that are the issue.

Note: These changes are really intended for EE play at lvl 28; for heroics in particular; the evasion variant is superior.

As an update:

I did do a +1 LR to take the fighter option. The ability to have Empower has helped out my self healing by quite a bit. I did pull the 3 out of EK for the arcane fluidity (and a -15% ASF augment...brings it down to 0 ASF...despite the armor not telling you that) but did not take Haste Boost.

Though I will say that the survivability jumps through the roof with these changes, I found myself to be significantly less squishy and that made the loss of evasion worth every second. But...you will find the Evasion Failed due to Heavy Armor (Shadowdancer grants evasion) a bit annoying when it constantly procs on your screen...but at least you're still standing and eventually you don't notice it.

[unbongwah]

One advantage to the wiz 18 / ftr 2 split is if you take your 2nd ftr lvl at lvl 20, you have BAB 11 for your G<SW/TW/TH>F feat.

[MadCookieQueen]

One advantage to the wiz 18 / ftr 2 split is if you take your 2nd ftr lvl at lvl 20, you have BAB 11 for your G<SW/TW/TH>F feat.

and it gives you back a feat slot for any number of metamagic feats, including extend and or more spell focus. Which overall is NOT a bad deal, since doing the 1 rogue/1 fighter heavy armor takes away evasion anyways


The catch is you'll no longer have traps, which I do prefer to have trapping capabilities...I mean look at all that INT ^^ And you'll be down a sneak attack die and -2 reflex.

[Andoris]

One advantage to the wiz 18 / ftr 2 split is if you take your 2nd ftr lvl at lvl 20, you have BAB 11 for your G<SW/TW/TH>F feat.

I actually just recommend this split to a guildie.. that is done getting xp for the foreseeable future (triple everything). If you are looking for the most powerful build 18/2 (fighter) is it. The only issue is that current end-game is an eternal ETR/TR cycle.. if you are doing that, xp is king.. and after Turbine doubled the trap bonus it is hard to pass that up.

I'll post the 18 wizard / 2 fighter variant in the next day or so for those folks that aren't worried about trapping skills

[MadCookieQueen]

Update! EE MoD and Consume


So been running mostly EE MoDs (amazing how quickly you can get gear in there, with an excellent group) the transmutation DCs hold up very well (using the MoD setup in the first post). I'm able to stone the vampire knights and doomspheres without too many problems, though blinding archers does get to be a bit intensive mostly due to saves, so neg level them, though it'll take a few tries to bring it down enough to blind...which can jump your SP usage.

When working with a full PM, it was best to let them handle blinding archers (if no cleric around) while you got everything else stoned. So lots of fun there.



Got a chance to work out some Consume play time and another guildie is also playing this build so he had some insights on Consume.

Consume works against EVERYTHING in the trash mobs area. So if you're surrounded by undead (and who isn't) it does a great job of bringing them down with an AoE instakill. Just make sure you activate it when surrounded by a mob...I find it really worth it's impact in a dense mob of 5 or more because of it's duration. No targeting required just turn it on and watch things die.

I've had a roughly 90-95% success rate with Consume and I'm pretty happy with that, after all something is going to roll a 20.

I wish it lasted just a hair longer than it does, but I'll still take it as a secondary wail type thing.

That's about where things are at...I can't wait to be done with XP to go with the 2 fighter version, be nice to have a feat back ^^