Herald of Light: CC Summer Build

[slarden]

EVOLUTION OF THIS BUILD
----------------------------------
I first tried a druid casting build shortly after druids were released. Earthquake was amazing and required much less investment than traditional cc which required spell penetration on top of DC. In addition, earthquake was useful regardless of destiny which was appealing.

With the enhancement pass I decided to splash 2 favored soul levels for scourge, just reward and crits. Eventually I decided to switch to the new and improved EA destiny and switch from winter to summer. I gained 3 DC which was offset by the loss of mantle of the icy soul which gave me proxy boost to DC of 4 by lowering reflex saves of enemies hit with a cold spell.

I was very focused on fire, light and of course positive spells - completely. With the addition of Divine Crusader I now had Empyrean magic which was a dream twist for this build. I like the synergy so much I actually built a light-based EA bard which was built off many of the same concepts and performed exceptionally well also.

As time passed I stayed committed to the summer build but switched more situationally between fire and water elemental. If I needed more DC I would move to water elemental form giving up 8% crits from wax and wane, but gaining 10% from empyrean magic. I would even situationally not advance the season to summer to boost my cold damage, but usually tried to stay in summer even if I wanted to use cold rather than fire spells.

I eventually settled on 17 druid / 3 favored soul which gave me access to level 9 spells and shield of condemnation. This was the only split giving me both. The AP is also very tight in this build and I was able to get 10 light/fire spellpower with 9 points in Warpriest + 15 HP + 10 PRR and decided that was reasonable enough to give up the fourth tier of AoV especially considering +11 wisdom items meant I no longer needed to get 2 wisdom from the AoV tree.

So this build evolved into something very odd. It's a cc-first build intended to run in parties rather than solo. The build can solo many quests, but is optimized for parties. The secondary focuses are DPS and survivability. With a PRR of 140 and MRR of 70, this is no tank build. However, the 58% DR, shadow guardian (situationally), 41% magic damage reduction and good self-healing it's very survivable build that allows me to build up my shield of condemnation stacks. The high dps comes largely from taking advantage of the many synergies that exist in the game for this build and others like it:

- Just Reward (sp regeneration)
- Scourge (+30 fire, light, force and physical spell power that is easily built up and maintained)
- Empyrean Magic (+20 universal spell power + 10% universal spell crits that is easily built up and maintained)
- Lantern Ring light proces which power up some abilities but not others
- Shield of Condemnation with enough PRR and DR to welcome the vulnerability stacks building up rather than needing to run to stay alive

I don't normally post my builds, but a friend asked me to so I am doing it. I am not specifically looking for feedback, but often get some good ideas and learn things from forum posts, so I will certainly welcome any tips, tricks, suggestions.

BUILD
---------------

Race: Human
Class split: 17 druid / 3 favored soul

Starting Stats
---------------
ST: 8
DX: 8
INT: 12
WIS: 18 (All level ups to wisdom)
CON: 18
CHA: 8

Feats
-------------
1) Maximize
1) Human Bonus Feat: Empower
3) Quicken
6) Completionist
9) Spell Focus Evocation
12) Greater Spell Focus Evocation
15) Heighten
18) Past Life Wizard
21) Epic Spell Focus Evocation
24) Heavy Armor Proficiency
26) Spell Power Light
27) Ruin
28) Spell Power Fire but can be swapped for something else

Wisdom
-------------
Starting: 18
Human Enh: 1
Season's Herald Enh: 2
Angel of Vengeance Enh: 1
Level Ups: 7
Tome: 6
Item: 11
Insightful Item: 3
Completionist: 2
Exceptional Wis: 1
Ship Buff: 2
EA Epic Destiny: 4
Litany: 2
Yugo Pot: 2

Total: 62

Evocation DC:
---------------
Base: 10
Spell Level: 9
Wisdom Modifier: 26
Thunderforge Item: 6
Thunderforge Armor: 1 (only when needed otherwise Guardian armor)
Augment: 2
Passive Past Life Sorc x3: 3
Past Life Wizard Feat: 1
Spell Focus Feats: 3
Ship Buff: 1
ED: Exalted Angel: 3
Twist from Magister: 3
Twist from Draconic: 2
Season's Herald Enhancement Strength of The Solstice: 1

Total: 71

Situational: Deific Diadem: 2
Situational: Mantle of the Icy Soul Debuff (lowers enemy fort/reflex giving effective DC bonus): 4
Situational: Evocation Augmentation: 10

DC when spamming evocation: 87

Spellpower Light (Summer)
Item: 144
Spellcraft: 82
Season's Herald Tree: 46
Angel of Vengeance Tree: 22
Smite Foe: 5
Resilience of Battle: 5
Seasonal Bonus from Season's Herald's Core: 20
Morninglord Active Past Life: 30
Exalted Angel: Radiant Power: 30
Dethek Runestone Alchemical Bonus: 20
Epic Spellpower Light Feat: 20
Spellcasting Implement: 36
Guild Ship Buffs: 15
Fey Form: 15
Total Before Metamagic: 490

Empower + Maximize: 225

Total Sustainable Spellpower: 715

Spellpower Action Boost: 30
Meridian Fragment: 24
Scourge: 30
Empyrean Magic: 20

Spellpower with all Boosts: 819

I will follow up with other spellpower calcs later

Light Crits
------------
Item: 22
Angel of Vengeance Tree: 6
Season's Herald Tree: 8
Total Sustainable Crits: 36
Empyrean Magic: 10
Crits with Boosts: 46

Gear
-----------
Epic Deific Diadem (Golem's Heart Slotted)
Epic Noxious Embers (Greater Evocation Augment slotted)
Epic Litany of the Dead
Jeweled Cloak (Protection +8 and Power 250 slotted)
Epic Belt of Thoughtful Rememberance
Sage's Ring (Fear immunity slotted)
Iron Mitts: (Globe of True Imperial Blood slotted)
45 HP Blur Displacement Greensteel Boots x 6
Lantern Ring (Feather Falling and Ins Con +3 slotted)
Dumathoin's Bracers (Golem's Heart Slotted)
Shadow Dragonplate Armor (HP +40 and Armored Agility +15) With Shadow Caster (also have a Shadow Guardian version)
Intricate Field Optics with Ins Wis +3 (Good Luck +2 and Heal +11 slotted)
TF Glaciation/Evocation Focus/Radiance Lore Scepter (Meridian Fragment slotted)
Dethek Runestone (Devotion 138 slotted)
Epic Quiver of Alacrity
Elite Spider Cult Mask

Enhancement Point Distribution
-----------------------------------
Human: 3
Season's Herald: 46
Warpriest: 9
Angel of Vengeance: 22

Exalted Angel
---------------
TIER 1
-Avenging Light SLA
-Radiant Power x3
-Endless Faith x3
-Healing Power x3
-Wisdom
TIER 2
-Wisdom
Tier 3
-Wisdom
Tier 4
-Wisdom
Tier 5
-Leap of Faith
Tier 6
-Sun Bolt SLA
-Divine Wrath SLA

Twists:
---------
-Empyrean Magic
-Evocation Augmentation
-Evocation Specialist (Magister)
-Fey Form (Evocation Augmentation for high-save enemies - TOEE)

[Avocado]

Similar to my build: Light and Fire spec druid.
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-Xadin-s-Druid
Mines a bit more offensive and will pump at more dps then yours. My EQ has the same effectiveness as yours. 61 dc with -10 reflex debuff.

Well done!

[slarden]

Similar to my build: Light and Fire spec druid.
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-Xadin-s-Druid
Mines a bit more offensive and will pump at more dps then yours. My EQ has the same effectiveness as yours. 61 dc with -10 reflex debuff.

Well done!

Thank you for the link and your thoughts. Can you break down your -10 debuff (unless you are talking about the 15% chance from evocation augmentation) and light spell power. It looks like you may have been including some things in your screenshot that you don't even run with such as the 100 light spell power bonus from reborn in light (you indicate you run with divine wrath and sun bolt which rules out reborn in light). The 30 potential bonus from blood and radiance I certainly considered but I found I was having to force the positive spells to keep it up unlike scourge and empyrean magic which I am able to get to 10 stacks without any special effort. I've gone back and forth on blood and radiance but it's currently off my list. One of the reasons I don't run with blood and radiance is casting unnecessary positive spells breaks my deific diadem bonus. The extra 30 spell power from blood and radiance is a 3.66% increase in light spell power dps.

In water elemental form with mantle of the icy soul I give a -4 reflex save with a single cast and since all my offensive spells are evocation it's easy to keep the +2 from epic deific diadem giving me an effective DC of 77. I'm not dependent on any procs. In fire form it's 73. Your DC includes 6 wisdom from your ED but again that is not possible with sunbolt and divine wrath. It also includes +3 insightful but I don't see any +3 insightful item in your gear.

I would definitely like to learn from your build - I am seeing an 6.7% increase in your spellpower, but your dc appears lower. Please show me what I am missing with breakdowns if possible. I realize I did sacrifice a little dps to get level 9 spells. The differences I see in spellpower are:

Sun Elf: +30
Cleric Tree vs. Warpriest: +10
Blood and Radiance: +30
Fey Form: -15

6.7% increase in light spellpower.

If I use blood and radiance the difference is 2.9%. If I went sun elf and gave up one DC and used blood and radiance my spellpower would actually be higher, but I am just not sold on blood and radiance as being good for the build.

Thanks again.

[Vooduspyce]

Great write up. It is similar to the Xadin/Helios build. I have had my eye on this concept of fire/light Empyrian caster druid for a while. I think I will convert my secondary druid Azzalia over to something like this to finally try it out

[Vooduspyce]

oh and I see that you have multiple Golem's Heart's slotted. I thought they didn't stack? If they do, I needs to slot more!

[slarden]

oh and I see that you have multiple Golem's Heart's slotted. I thought they didn't stack? If they do, I needs to slot more!

The Golem's Hearts do not stack any more. For a time I was using different bracers which is why I slotted it on the Epic Deific Diadem. I can make a lot of improvements to my augments but will wait until some of the new augments the devs discussed are available so I don't waste a bunch of jeweler's kits.

I would also like to swap out devotion 138 for impulse 138. My positive spell power is higher than it needs to be and I could use a boost on my ruin. I will still get 92 positive spellpower from my Sage's Ring so I'll drop from 474 to 428 positive spellpower which is more than enough.

[Dorian]

This looks like a great build. Just wanted to ask... Just Reward procs on EQ... correct? So SP management must be great.

Just found this thread from the link in your sig... on a thread where some idiot was arguing with you about EQ DC in ToEE.

[Avocado]

This looks like a great build. Just wanted to ask... Just Reward procs on EQ... correct? So SP management must be great.

Just found this thread from the link in your sig... on a thread where some idiot was arguing with you about EQ DC in ToEE.

Just rewards does proc on EQ. And that "idiot" was me. Just because I had a differing opinion on EQ and decided I would share doesnt make me an idiot. Please limit your toxicity on forums, its not good for anyone.

Good luck with whatever build you choose.

[Dorian]

Just rewards does proc on EQ. And that "idiot" was me. Just because I had a differing opinion on EQ and decided I would share doesnt make me an idiot. Please limit your toxicity on forums, its not good for anyone.

Good luck with whatever build you choose.

thanks for the reply. yeah, i probably should have not called you an idiot. i apologize for that.

... but I don't think that a DC 65 EQ is optimal for EE ToEE... no need to discuss that on this build thread

[slarden]

This looks like a great build. Just wanted to ask... Just Reward procs on EQ... correct? So SP management must be great.

Thank you,

Yes just reward procs on just about everything. Scourge and empyrean magic are almost always at max without any sort of spell management since most of the low cost spells trigger it. If you take blood and radiance in Exalted Angel you will have to cast positive energy spells periodically for no reason to keep up the stacks since between druid defenses and earthquake nothing will hit you. It gains you 30 more light spellpower which wasn't really all that noticeable to me so I dropped it, but many take it.

The last time I checked lantern ring triggered just reward and scourge but didn't trigger empyrean magic. That always seemed bugged to me so it could have changed, but I haven't noticed since I am constantly getting temp sp from just reward and scourge is always at max stacks.

SP management is definitely an advantage of this build. My best guess is that the extra sp procs give me an additional 1500-3000 spell points between shrines depending on spell usage. Body of the Sun also triggers alot of procs when it's on.

You can still burn through sp quick when soloing, but in a party I've never run out of sp. This build was made specifically for group play in the most difficult EE content. Unfortunately earthquake cc isn't needed in the most current raids, but I am hoping it will be with eShavarath just around the corner and they are likely to have very high saves and spell resistance.

[pappo]

EVOLUTION OF THIS BUILD
----------------------------------

I was very focused on fire, light and of course positive spells - completely. With the addition of Divine Crusader I now had Empyrean magic which was a dream twist for this build. I like the synergy so much I actually built a light-based EA bard which was built off many of the same concepts and performed exceptionally well also.

Spellpower Light (Summer)
Item: 144
Spellcraft: 82
Season's Herald Tree: 46
Angel of Vengeance Tree: 22
Smite Foe: 5
Resilience of Battle: 5
Seasonal Bonus from Season's Herald's Core: 20
Morninglord Active Past Life: 30
Exalted Angel: Radiant Power: 30
Dethek Runestone Alchemical Bonus: 20
Epic Spellpower Light Feat: 20
Spellcasting Implement: 36
Guild Ship Buffs: 15
Fey Form: 15
Total Before Metamagic: 490

Empower + Maximize: 225

Total Sustainable Spellpower: 715

Spellpower Action Boost: 30
Meridian Fragment: 24
Scourge: 30
Empyrean Magic: 20

Spellpower with all Boosts: 819

I will follow up with other spellpower calcs later

Light Crits
------------
Item: 22
Angel of Vengeance Tree: 6
Season's Herald Tree: 8
Total Sustainable Crits: 36
Empyrean Magic: 10
Crits with Boosts: 46

Sorry if these questions are "newb" sounding but I am confused. I have built a Druid which is currently at lvl 24. I use the SLA's for fire/cold/electric and Earthquake/Sleet Storm/Ice Storm combo for CC.
I don't understand how Light is used. Is this primarily for when you run in Epics in a Destiny where Avenging Light is used, or is this so your primary DPS spells are Sunbolt and Sunburst ?
I have run a Light spamming Cleric build focused on Divine Disciple and the Exalted Angel destiny, and that was a lot of fun and great DPS. I never considered light as a primary damage for Druids.
It looks very interesting and I will try it out after I ETR my current Druid buid. My current Druid is only a first lifer so will your build still work with only 1 PL of Druid.

Thanks for posting this

[slarden]

Sorry if these questions are "newb" sounding but I am confused. I have built a Druid which is currently at lvl 24. I use the SLA's for fire/cold/electric and Earthquake/Sleet Storm/Ice Storm combo for CC.
I don't understand how Light is used. Is this primarily for when you run in Epics in a Destiny where Avenging Light is used, or is this so your primary DPS spells are Sunbolt and Sunburst ?
I have run a Light spamming Cleric build focused on Divine Disciple and the Exalted Angel destiny, and that was a lot of fun and great DPS. I never considered light as a primary damage for Druids.
It looks very interesting and I will try it out after I ETR my current Druid buid. My current Druid is only a first lifer so will your build still work with only 1 PL of Druid.

Thanks for posting this

Hi, my post is a bit out of date. As others pointed out my build is similar to what others posted so I haven't updated it as things change.

It started mainly as a way to extend my spell point pool for dps. With just reward from tier 2 of Angel of Vengeance I get 10 temp spell points every time I critically hit with a fire/force/light spell. So this counts unmeta'd earthquake, ice storm, sleet storm, body of the sun as well as fully meta'd slas like divine wrath, sun bolt, avenging light, sunburst, word of balance (counts as force) and I run both meta'd and unmeta'd version of sun beam depending on the situation.

Other synergies include scourge which is powered up by force, light and fire - also empyrean magic which is powered up by light, fire and positive and is critically important (no pun intended) since it keeps my critical chance increased by 10% at all times and therefore helps my just reward proc more.

So basically exalted angel gives me the 3 light SLAs, light spell power, DC for earthquake, wings, extra spell points and access to wisdom boosts if needed. Light spellpower is boosted by 30 in Exalted Angel, 30 by Scourge, 20 by empyrean magic and 30 from past life sun elf if you have access to that. Also, the SLAs can be meta'd for free which is nice.

My opening spell selection is a bit different than yours simply because I found people absolutely hate sleet storm due to the visual effect. I typically open with earth quake, ice storm, sunburst, divine wrath and with evocation augmentation twisted in most things are on the ground and blinded. As an example in ee Amarath the only things that don't fall down are green Abashai and archers - and they never fall down so they must have an extremely high reflex save. Every so often I get lucky and an archer gets blinded.

Like you I also use other spells including creeping cold and greater creeping cold. Even when running in summer (which helps proc just reward for light spells) I am still getting 10% crit chance increase for my cold spells due to empyrean magic always being at full stacks in combat. Summer is fire light and positive which lines up perfectly with empyrean magic and closely with just reward/scourge.

The new level 29 fear arcane pulse fits in perfectly with this build.

So basically the build has 2 goals - party cc and sustainable dps (extending spell points).

Edited to add, it also works much better once you have access to lantern ring. That gives you an easy way to slot light spellpower/crits and the proc adds a huge amount of damage over time.

[pappo]

Hi, my post is a bit out of date. As others pointed out my build is similar to what others posted so I haven't updated it as things change.

It started mainly as a way to extend my spell point pool for dps. With just reward from tier 2 of Angel of Vengeance I get 10 temp spell points every time I critically hit with a fire/force/light spell. So this counts unmeta'd earthquake, ice storm, sleet storm, body of the sun as well as fully meta'd slas like divine wrath, sun bolt, avenging light, sunburst, word of balance (counts as force) and I run both meta'd and unmeta'd version of sun beam depending on the situation.

Other synergies include scourge which is powered up by force, light and fire - also empyrean magic which is powered up by light, fire and positive and is critically important (no pun intended) since it keeps my critical chance increased by 10% at all times and therefore helps my just reward proc more.

So basically exalted angel gives me the 3 light SLAs, light spell power, DC for earthquake, wings, extra spell points and access to wisdom boosts if needed. Light spellpower is boosted by 30 in Exalted Angel, 30 by Scourge, 20 by empyrean magic and 30 from past life sun elf if you have access to that. Also, the SLAs can be meta'd for free which is nice.

My opening spell selection is a bit different than yours simply because I found people absolutely hate sleet storm due to the visual effect. I typically open with earth quake, ice storm, sunburst, divine wrath and with evocation augmentation twisted in most things are on the ground and blinded. As an example in ee Amarath the only things that don't fall down are green Abashai and archers - and they never fall down so they must have an extremely high reflex save. Every so often I get lucky and an archer gets blinded.

Like you I also use other spells including creeping cold and greater creeping cold. Even when running in summer (which helps proc just reward for light spells) I am still getting 10% crit chance increase for my cold spells due to empyrean magic always being at full stacks in combat. Summer is fire light and positive which lines up perfectly with empyrean magic and closely with just reward/scourge.

The new level 29 fear arcane pulse fits in perfectly with this build.

So basically the build has 2 goals - party cc and sustainable dps (extending spell points).

Edited to add, it also works much better once you have access to lantern ring. That gives you an easy way to slot light spellpower/crits and the proc adds a huge amount of damage over time.

I know what you mean about Sleet Storm. My guildies get real mad at me when I cast it and had forgotten to give them FOM before....lol
Also, thanks for explaining the Light in your build. Like I said, my Druid is currently 24, but I will certainly give your build a try when I ETR.

Thanks.