Iconic TR vs. Heroic TR

[Drekisen]

I have started on my journey to completionist and realized there are some classes I am going to do more than one life of to stack "free" past life feats.

I had it mentioned to me that Iconic would be cool because I could start at 15 however.....if I am understanding correctly....you can only have one Epic stance active at a time anyways, it takes 10 million plus to go from level 15-28 now, and I would also lose the epic past life feat if I iTR....and you have to level to 28 for Iconics.

I eventually want to do Epic completionist as well but for now I am more concerned with finishing Heroic Completionist.

I currently have 4 Wizard lives....yes you read that right as I was going to stop TR'ing at that point.....almost to level 6 Sorc on my current hTR.....however now I want to replay the game with different classes and I plan on eventually ending up back as a Drow Wizard PM.....that will be maxxed out in casting ability for the most part with a few melee perks as well

So my question is...wouldn't Iconic TR'ing kind of slow me down?

[Krelar]

I had it mentioned to me that Iconic would be cool because I could start at 15 however.....if I am understanding correctly....you can only have one Epic stance active at a time anyways, it takes 10 million plus to go from level 15-28 now, and I would also lose the epic past life feat if I iTR....and you have to level to 28 for Iconics.

You can have one epic stance from each sphere active at a time. (Each sphere currently has 3 stances that can have up to 3 stacks each) They also have a passive bonus that stacks up to 9 times and always applies.

Similarly you can only have one iconic stance active at a time, each iconic stance stacks up to 3 times. Each iconic also has a passive part that stacks 3 times and always applies.
Tthe passive bonus is probably what most people are interested in anyways.

If you want epic completionist as well probably the best way to do it is to level up to 30 as an iconic, epic reincarnate, level back up to 30 and then iconic reincarnate. You might even do 2 epic lives before iconic reincarnating depending on how many first time bonuses you still have available. Even though it's more xp the higher xp available in epics tends to offset this. Another perk is that you only need gear to get you from level 15-30 instead of needing gear for 1-30.

[Drekisen]

You can have one epic stance from each sphere active at a time. (Each sphere currently has 3 stances that can have up to 3 stacks each) They also have a passive bonus that stacks up to 9 times and always applies.

Similarly you can only have one iconic stance active at a time, each iconic stance stacks up to 3 times. Each iconic also has a passive part that stacks 3 times and always applies.
Tthe passive bonus is probably what most people are interested in anyways.

If you want epic completionist as well probably the best way to do it is to level up to 30 as an iconic, epic reincarnate, level back up to 30 and then iconic reincarnate. You might even do 2 epic lives before iconic reincarnating depending on how many first time bonuses you still have available. Even though it's more xp the higher xp available in epics tends to offset this. Another perk is that you only need gear to get you from level 15-30 instead of needing gear for 1-30.

So for example the Arcane Sphere.....I could actually TR x3 a Bard, Sorc, and Wiz and end up with a choice of one of three active feats and +9% absorption from elements?

And I can have up to 4 stances on at once...on from each sphere?

To get all of that I don't see how Iconic would be beneficial at all if you wanted the maximum benefit from each Epic Destiny and the minimum amount of XP grinding.

Thanks for pointing that out to me though.

[hp1055cm]

So my question is...wouldn't Iconic TR'ing kind of slow me down?

I think a common misconception about Iconic TR is that you only get the Iconic PLF when in fact you get both the Iconic PLF AND the class based PLF for whatever class you are. For example, if you run an iconic Purple Dragon Knight as a Paladin you would get the (racial) PDK PLF and the (Class) Paladin PLF when you ITR.
So no it doesn't slow you down, and depending on your play style an Iconic life is faster than a heroic\epic life.

[Drekisen]

I think a common misconception about Iconic TR is that you only get the Iconic PLF when in fact you get both the Iconic PLF AND the class based PLF for whatever class you are. For example, if you run an iconic Purple Dragon Knight as a Paladin you would get the (racial) PDK PLF and the (Class) Paladin PLF when you ITR.
So no it doesn't slow you down, and depending on your play style an Iconic life is faster than a heroic\epic life.

If you don't get the Epic Past Life feat I would think it would.

[Uska]

Your fourm name is close to my handle on BBS's back in the late 80's and early 90's makes me laugh

mine was Vyvyan

[unbongwah]

I had it mentioned to me that Iconic would be cool because I could start at 15 however.....if I am understanding correctly....you can only have one Epic stance active at a time anyways, it takes 10 million plus to go from level 15-28 now, and I would also lose the epic past life feat if I iTR....and you have to level to 28 for Iconics.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Iconic_Past_Life_Feats

An Iconic past life grants both a passive bonus and a past life stance; except for PDK, which grants an action boost (using the boost temporarily disables your IPL stance). You can only have one Iconic past life stance active at a time, but the passive bonuses from all IPL feats are cumulative. So it makes sense to prioritize whichever Iconic you think has the most useful stance; but the other IPL passive bonuses might still be useful, depending on your build. E.g., I'm currently working on SDK lives because I want the Dodge bonus + Ghostly Essence PL stance; after that I'll do PDK for the action boost + extra PRR. Haven't decided if I'll bother with BF or ML IPLs; the extra Fortification & Pos Spellpower would be nice but not necessary and I may well be sick of the ITR process by the time I get there.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Past_Life_Feats

EPL feats are similar, in that each one grants both passive and stance bonuses. But you can have one EPL active stance per Sphere, which means 4 EPL stances may be active simultaneously, presuming you do at least one ER for each Sphere. So if & when you go for Epic Completionist, it makes sense to figure out which stances are most useful to you and focus your EPLs on those feats. If you then decide to do another 24(?!) ERs to max out all of the EPL passives...well, better you than me.

Ultimately, how you take advantage of the Reincarnation system depends on two factors: (A) which PL feats / bonuses are most useful to your "final" build and (B) how high your tolerance for grinding thru past lives is. Only you can decide what's the answer to the second part.

[Drekisen]

http://ddowiki.com/page/Iconic_Past_Life_Feats

An Iconic past life grants both a passive bonus and a past life stance; except for PDK, which grants an action boost (using the boost temporarily disables your IPL stance). You can only have one Iconic past life stance active at a time, but the passive bonuses from all IPL feats are cumulative. So it makes sense to prioritize whichever Iconic you think has the most useful stance; but the other IPL passive bonuses might still be useful, depending on your build. E.g., I'm currently working on SDK lives because I want the Dodge bonus + Ghostly Essence PL stance; after that I'll do PDK for the action boost + extra PRR. Haven't decided if I'll bother with BF or ML IPLs; the extra Fortification & Pos Spellpower would be nice but not necessary and I may well be sick of the ITR process by the time I get there.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Past_Life_Feats

EPL feats are similar, in that each one grants both passive and stance bonuses. But you can have one EPL active stance per Sphere, which means 4 EPL stances may be active simultaneously, presuming you do at least one ER for each Sphere. So if & when you go for Epic Completionist, it makes sense to figure out which stances are most useful to you and focus your EPLs on those feats. If you then decide to do another 24(?!) ERs to max out all of the EPL passives...well, better you than me.

Ultimately, how you take advantage of the Reincarnation system depends on two factors: (A) which PL feats / bonuses are most useful to your "final" build and (B) how high your tolerance for grinding thru past lives is. Only you can decide what's the answer to the second part.

Thanks for all the advice.

Yes I am just trying to figure out what will be the most useful to a Wizard PM build as that is what I will end as.......though looking through all the stackable feat benefits it seems like all Epic Destinies x3 would be advantageous to some degree.....I think looking now at how much is involved I will just enjoy the ride.

Another thing I am curious about is if a specific Epic Destiny is tied to certain class when you go to pick an Epic Past Life feat when you ETR.......I primarily want the Magister and arcane sphere maxxed out....but if I ETR a Level 20H/10E Sorc.....will I get to pick any of the Destinies in the Arcane sphere for my past life feat or is there one specific one tied to Sorcerers?