Eldritch Knight - Some Buff idea to make it competitive.

[TMTrainer]

These are just spitball ideas. I personally feel like every tree should be able to be usable without heavy multiclassing. Right now, EK feels far too much like it should just be a FIGHTER enhancement tree than a WIZARD or SORCERER one. That being said, I don't know the balance ramifications of just saying 'rework it to be a Fighter tree'.

- The Changes -

[Note: Everything in the core enhancement tree scales 100% with spell power]

Core 1: Level 1
Eldritch Cleave: Change 0-2 Force Damage per character level to 1d2 per character level, +1 per Wizard or Sorcerer level, whichever is higher. (So 30d2+25 at level 30). Change +1[W] damage to +2[W]. Cooldown changed from 12 to 10 seconds.
Passive: Stays the same.

Core 2: Level 3
Spell Sword, Choose One: Imbue damage stays the same, no longer cost spell points, change 0-2 bonus elemental Eldritch Cleave damage to 1d2 per character level, +1 per Wizard or Sorcerer level, whichever is higher. No longer can imbue ranged attacks.
Passive: Remove +% arcane spell failure (they are receiving something later). Change +10 Force spell power to +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled.

Core 3: Level 6
Spell Sword, Choose One: Change Imbue damage increase to 2d6 (as oppose to 2d4).
Passive: Same as above. Change +10 Force spell power to +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled.
New Passive: Eldritch Cleave damage force increase to 1d3 damage (Equaling 30d3+25.) Eldritch Strike cooldown is now 8 seconds.

Core 4: Level 12
Spell Sword, Choose One: Change Imbue damage increase to 3d6 (as opposed to 3d4).
Passive: Same as above. Remove +% arcane spell failure (they are receiving something later). Change +10 Force spell power to +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled.

Core 5: Level 18
Spell Sword, Choose One: Change Imbue damage increase to 4d6 (as opposed to 4d4).
Passive: Same as above. Change +10 Force spell power to +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled.
New Passive: Eldritch Cleave damage force increase to 1d4 damage (Equaling 30d4+25.) Eldritch Strike cooldown is now 6 seconds.

Core 6: Capstone
Eldritch Blade:Changes in bold (to save on space).
Your Eldritch Strike now grants you a Power Charge for each enemy damaged. When you have 20 Power Charges, you can activate Eldritch Blade to gain these benefits.
Eldritch Power: +10% melee damage, +10% doublestrike, +20% Melee Alacrity +20% Eldritch Strike damage, +20 Universal Spell Power, Duration 30 seconds, Cooldown 3 minutes. In addition, all nearby allies gain a 30 second buff that lets them benefit from your imbue damage.

Passive: Your weapon gains a stacking +1 bonus to Critical Multiplier and +1 Threat Range. +2 Int, +2 DCs of Evocation spells

[Note: Everything in the core enhancement tree scales 100% with spell power]
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Tier 1 Enhancements
Improved Mage Armor: Now a toggle for the Mage Armor spell, with the added bonus +3/6/10% AC, +3/6/10 PRR, +3/6/10 MRR.
Toughness: Changed to +10/20/30 HP
Item Defense: Unchanged
Battlemage: Unchanged, with the addition with 3 points in it "your intimidate cooldown is reduced by 10%".

Tier 2 Enhancements
Improved Shield: Still requires Improved Mage Armor. Now a toggle for the Shield spell with the added bonus, add +1/2/3 to the enhancement level of your shield or orb.
Shield Training: You gain proficiency in all shields except for tower shields. You no longer have arcane spell failure with Shield and gain 25% arcane spell failure reduction for Tower Shields.
Light Armor Proficiency: You gain proficency in Light Armor, and no longer have arcane spell failure in Light armor.
Martial Training: Name changed to "Eldritch Weapon Training". You gain +2% doublestrike and proficiency with all martial weapons. Shields and Orbs are considered Spellcasting Implements, giving you a bonus to spell power.
Wand and Scroll Mastery: Unchanged.

Tier 3 Enhancements
Arcane Barrier: Now requires Improved Shield, when you are reduced below 50% HP, you gain the effects of Radiant Forcefield and Lesser Globe of Invulnerability for 7/14/21 seconds. This effect has a cooldown of 150/120/90 seconds.
Elemental Resistance: Mostly unchanged. +2/+4/+6 Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic, however, you gain a bonus to the opposite of whatever imbue you have active equal to double your shield's or orb's enhancement level (if you have a +5 shield equip and have the Fire Imbue active, you gain +10 cold resist).
Critical Accuracy: Unchanged.
Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, Choose one: Unchanged.

Tier 4 Enhancements
Shield Striking: Renamed to Eldritch Combat Tactics.

• If you have a Shield equip, you gain: On Hit: +10%/+15%/+20% chance to proc an immediate Shield Bash attack with an equipped shield. Your shield bashes apply 50% imbue damage.
• If you have an Orb equip, you always benefit from your Orb Blocking bonuses.

Medium Armor Proficiency: Required Light Armor Proficiency, You gain proficiency in Medium Armor, and no longer have arcane spell failure in Medium armor.
Critical Damage: Unchanged.
Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, Choose one: Unchanged.


Tier 5 Enhancements
Improved Tenser's Transformation:

• Requires Arcane Barrier. Still a Toggle. This version of Tenser's Transformation has no negative effects (no -2 DCs, ect).
• Your Mage Armor toggle now gives an additional +5% AC, +10 PRR and +10 MRR.
• Your Shield toggle now gives an additional +1 enhancement level to your equipped shield or orb

Eldritch Shield: Every 6/5/4 seconds while you have a shield or orb equipped, you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to 10x the enhancement bonus of your equipped shield. (At best this 150 false health at level 30 using at +15 shield more with earlier enhancements).
Still Spell: Now requires Medium Armor Proficiency enhancement. You gain a reduction to Arcane spell failure equal to your Wizard or Sorcerer levels, whichever is higher. You are always under the effects if the Quicken metamagic (with no increase to spell cost).
Doublestrike:

• Renamed to Eldritch Combat Mastery. Grants 3/6/10% doublestrike, and your Eldritch Cleave attacks gain an additional 10/15/20% doublestrike and do +1/2/3[W] damage.
• With 3 points in Eldritch Combat Mastery you gain: your Eldritch Cleave AND your Eldritch Tempest attacks deal +1 critical multiplier and have +1 critical threat range.

Eldritch Tempest:

• Perform Perform a spinning melee attack, dealing weapon damage equal to your Eldritch Cleave weapon damage to all nearby enemies.
• If any foes are struck by Eldritch Tempest, your weapon also releases an explosion of magical force, dealing an additional 1d6 Force damage per character level + and additional +1 force damage per 5 Wizard and Sorcerer to all nearby enemies. This additional force damage is affected by your spell power (Maximum +5[W]; 30d6+5 Force)
• Activation Cost: 40/30/20 Spell points. Cooldown: 40/30/20 seconds.

This is probably super overpowered in some places, but this is less for the effects and more the ideas to be thrown out there.
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In the end, here are some major end game things were are looking at going pure Wizard or Sorcerer

Normal Attacks: +4d6 Elemental Damage, +1 Critical Multiplier, +1 Threat Range, 20% Bash Chance + 50% of 4d6 Elemental damage.
Eldritch Cleave: 6 Second Cooldown, +5[W] damage, 30d4+25 Force AoE, 30d2+25 Elemental AoE +2 Critical Multiplier, +2 Threat Range
Eldritch Tempest: 20 Second Cooldown, +5[W] damage cleave, 30d6+5 Force AoE, +2 Critical Multiplier, +2 Threat Range
Tensers Transformation Enhancement tower: +15% AC, +20 PRR, +20 MRR, +3 Enhancement Bonus to Shield/Orb, + no negative Tensers Transformation
Armor Proficiency: Medium Armor Proficiency with no arcane spell failure using those armors, Proficiency in all Shield Towers and no arcane spell failure using those shields, +25% Arcane Alacrity with 25 levels of Wizard or Sorcerer, +25% Arcane Alacrity while wearing a tower shield.
Eldritch Shield: Every 4 seconds, gain 200 False Hit Points (if you are using a +15 Shield or Orb with all the enhancements to boost enhancement level).

Overall, these changes should still do less damage than most caster and melee builds as a pure build, but should function as a true mix of melee and caster capabilities.

[Arch-Necromancer]

Wizards and Sorcerers definitely need a pass so it's nice to see suggestions regarding that.

I especially like your idea of giving +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled. This adds to customizing your character to be different by focusing on one element rather than having only one and the same force spellpower bonus for all.

You don't have any attribute bonus on capstone. It should repace some of those Melee Alacrity/Doublestrike bonuses that make it look OP.

You removed ASF from cores and made Armor Proficiency enhancements in the tree itself remove all ASF. That is in line with warlock's ES tree and that is good for consistency.

But:

I personally think that Eldritch Knight tree (and warlock ES) shouldn't allow 0% ASF for heavy armor and tower shields. It should, like warlock's ES tree enable the use of up to medium armor without ASF, and maybe just reduce some ASF from heavy armor. And enable the use of large shields with no ASF, but keep some ASF on tower shields.

You can't make battlemage the same heavy armor and tower shield fighter like pure fighter. You need some difference and some (small) penalty if you armor yourself like that.

Here are some of my ideas:

1. MRR bonus to armor for Eldritch Knight

I personally would like to see some enhancements that enable Eldritch Knight's armor to give the same bonus to MRR from armor as it gives to PRR.

So light armor wouldn't just give BAB * 1 bonus to PRR, but to MRR as well. Medium armor would give BAB * 1.5 to PRR and MRR, heavy would give BAB * 2 PRR and MRR.

The same could be given to shields and that could be part of Armor and Shield proficiency enhancements. And be renamed to "Eldritch" Armor/Shield proficiency.

2. Redefinition of Mage Armor and Shield spells

I would also like to see Mage Armor and Shield spells actually become wizard's replacement for armor, not just useless spell you can use only on first few levels, and never again.

Mage armor should scale with caster level and give the same bonus to AC as light armor of the same level (and this too could give PRR and MRR bonus as well).

Shield spell should give the same AC bonus as buckler (or small shield) of the same level (and BAB bonus to PRR and MRR too).

Improved Mage Armor could then be made to give bonus like medium armor, and Improved Shield to give bonus like small shield (or large shield, with PRR and MRR too).

Some tier 5 enhancements could further improve that to give bonuses like heavy armor and large/tower shields (with PRR and MRR too).

With this we would again see wizards in robes since they would armor themselves with these spells, not actually having to wear armor. Wearing armor would still be better since spells can be dispelled.

Those spells could scale their AC with level, up to (not including) planeforged/celestial armor/shield and you would have to take Epic Mage Armor feat to scale them to these.


I think that these suggestions would improve not just EK, but wizard in general, and it would take care of some Eldritch Knight pass work.

[TMTrainer]

Wizards and Sorcerers definitely need a pass so it's nice to see suggestions regarding that.

I especially like your idea of giving +10 Force AND +10 whatever imbue you have enabled. This adds to customizing your character to be different by focusing on one element rather than having only one and the same force spellpower bonus for all.

You don't have any attribute bonus on capstone. It should repace some of those Melee Alacrity/Doublestrike bonuses that make it look OP.

You removed ASF from cores and made Armor Proficiency enhancements in the tree itself remove all ASF. That is in line with warlock's ES tree and that is good for consistency.

But:

I personally think that Eldritch Knight tree (and warlock ES) shouldn't allow 0% ASF for heavy armor and tower shields. It should, like warlock's ES tree enable the use of up to medium armor without ASF, and maybe just reduce some ASF from heavy armor. And enable the use of large shields with no ASF, but keep some ASF on tower shields.

You can't make battlemage the same heavy armor and tower shield fighter like pure fighter. You need some difference and some (small) penalty if you armor yourself like that.

Here are some of my ideas:

1. MRR bonus to armor for Eldritch Knight

I personally would like to see some enhancements that enable Eldritch Knight's armor to give the same bonus to MRR from armor as it gives to PRR.

So light armor wouldn't just give BAB * 1 bonus to PRR, but to MRR as well. Medium armor would give BAB * 1.5 to PRR and MRR, heavy would give BAB * 2 PRR and MRR.

The same could be given to shields and that could be part of Armor and Shield proficiency enhancements. And be renamed to "Eldritch" Armor/Shield proficiency.

2. Redefinition of Mage Armor and Shield spells

I would also like to see Mage Armor and Shield spells actually become wizard's replacement for armor, not just useless spell you can use only on first few levels, and never again.

Mage armor should scale with caster level and give the same bonus to AC as light armor of the same level (and this too could give PRR and MRR bonus as well).

Shield spell should give the same AC bonus as buckler (or small shield) of the same level (and BAB bonus to PRR and MRR too).

Improved Mage Armor could then be made to give bonus like medium armor, and Improved Shield to give bonus like small shield (or large shield, with PRR and MRR too).

Some tier 5 enhancements could further improve that to give bonuses like heavy armor and large/tower shields (with PRR and MRR too).

With this we would again see wizards in robes since they would armor themselves with these spells, not actually having to wear armor. Wearing armor would still be better since spells can be dispelled.

Those spells could scale their AC with level, up to (not including) planeforged/celestial armor/shield and you would have to take Epic Mage Armor feat to scale them to these.


I think that these suggestions would improve not just EK, but wizard in general, and it would take care of some Eldritch Knight pass work.

1) When it comes to Heavy Armor and Tower shields, the only sources of flat arcane spell failure reduction that exist on this enhancement tree are...

• Shield Training: You gain proficiency in all shields except for tower shields. You no longer have arcane spell failure with Shield and gain 25% arcane spell failure reduction for Tower Shields.
• Still Spell: Now requires Medium Armor Proficiency enhancement. You gain a reduction to Arcane spell failure equal to your Wizard or Sorcerer levels, whichever is higher. You are always under the effects if the Quicken metamagic (with no increase to spell cost).

A tower shield requires 50% Arcane Spell Failure Reduction to no longer have issues casting.
Heavy Armor requires 30-40%, depending on the armor.

Which means, if you going 20 heroic levels of Wizard or Sorcerer AND are maxed out in an Arcane Epic Destiny that gives Wizard/Sorcerer levels AND are wearing a Tower Shield, you gain 50% arcane spell failure reduction from the tree. Without the Epic Destiny, you are at 45% arcane spell failure reduction.

This is balanced by simple fact that Wizards do not have a ton of feats. You can spend 2 feat slots getting tower shield proficiency, or spend 3 feats for heavy armor, OR you could reduce the damage you do by a little bit and multiclass fighter. The problem is you can not have both heavy armor and tower shields, you don't have enough feats and arcane spell failure reduction built into the class for that, it requires a significant effort at that point to get working, which I find balanced. In addition, Wizards and Sorcerers in general do not have many named Light, Medium or Heavy armors that are made for them. You are also making a sacrifice to your DCs or spellcasting ability by not using cloth, which is another balancing point.

2) I agree that something should be done to the Shield and Mage Armor SLAs, but when I went through the enhancement tree, my goal was to keep my idea of Eldritch Knights as close as I could to the original, so I didn't touch them that much.

I like the idea of Eldritch Knight having more MRR than other melees, because it sorta fits their concept as a melee caster. You have knowledge of the spells they are casting, so you are better prepared as a result.

[Arch-Necromancer]

1) When it comes to Heavy Armor and Tower shields, the only sources of flat arcane spell failure reduction that exist on this enhancement tree are...

• Shield Training: You gain proficiency in all shields except for tower shields. You no longer have arcane spell failure with Shield and gain 25% arcane spell failure reduction for Tower Shields.
• Still Spell: Now requires Medium Armor Proficiency enhancement. You gain a reduction to Arcane spell failure equal to your Wizard or Sorcerer levels, whichever is higher. You are always under the effects if the Quicken metamagic (with no increase to spell cost).

A tower shield requires 50% Arcane Spell Failure Reduction to no longer have issues casting.
Heavy Armor requires 30-40%, depending on the armor.

Which means, if you going 20 heroic levels of Wizard or Sorcerer AND are maxed out in an Arcane Epic Destiny that gives Wizard/Sorcerer levels AND are wearing a Tower Shield, you gain 50% arcane spell failure reduction from the tree. Without the Epic Destiny, you are at 45% arcane spell failure reduction.

This is balanced by simple fact that Wizards do not have a ton of feats. You can spend 2 feat slots getting tower shield proficiency, or spend 3 feats for heavy armor, OR you could reduce the damage you do by a little bit and multiclass fighter. The problem is you can not have both heavy armor and tower shields, you don't have enough feats and arcane spell failure reduction built into the class for that, it requires a significant effort at that point to get working, which I find balanced. In addition, Wizards and Sorcerers in general do not have many named Light, Medium or Heavy armors that are made for them. You are also making a sacrifice to your DCs or spellcasting ability by not using cloth, which is another balancing point.

If I am not mistaken, Epic Destinies do not give class levels, but caster levels. It is not the same thing (or is it?). You are still level 20 wizard even if you have maxed Magister destiny.

So if this enhancement depends on class level its max is 20 on pure class. It could be more if it would use caster levels, not class levels.

So you always have 45% ASF reduction max on pure class for tower shields.

On the other hand, I do not see where you reduce armor ASF other than that 20% from class levels. So you only get 20% reduction for heavy armor?

That is fine IMO, since you can get 35% with ASF blue augment. It can stay that way (full plate is 35%).

But tower shield should be reduced to have similar difference (or even more). To 35% or less so you can get that to 50% with augment (or less if you want to keep some ASF).

[Selvera]

And here I am agreeing that EK needs a buff, but I don’t agree with some of your ideas. Let’s dive into things;

Core 1:
This ability is already very good as it stands. For 1 AP you not only get 1% doublestrike, but you also get an extra melee-cleave which does not share cooldown with the feat, deals bonus damage, and doesn’t have a stat/feat requirement attached. I will agree that 0 to 2 is very random, and it should be improved to 1d2, but I don’t agree with adding the extra [w] and the extra (up to +25) damage on top of that.

Core 2:
I agree that spellsword needs to be stronger, but I do not agree that it needs to cost 0 mana. It is drawing on your magical power (mana) to enchant your weapon to devastate your enemies! I don’t see why it needs to be made melee only (there’s already significant incentive for a user of this tree to be melee, why throttle other builds?) I do agree that spellpower of the current imbue is cool.
So here’s my suggestion: Base imbue damage stays the same, but imbue now scales with spellpower (some testing I did made me fairly sure that it doesn’t right now). Bonus damage on eldritch cleave increased to 1d2 per character level (scaling with your element spellpower). Passive now additionally grants 10 spellpower of the element currently imbued.

Core 3:
Again, I agree that improving spellsword’s damage is a good idea for the cores. Here’s how I’d modify it for my suggestion:
Spell sword, choose one: you gain an additional element that you can imbue your weapon.
Passive: Your weapon imbues now scale with 110% spellpower instead of 100% spellpower.
Passive: Increase the force damage die of your eldritch cleave to 1d3 from 1d2 per character level.
1% Doublestrike. 10 Force Spellpower. Now grants 20 spellpower of the element currently imbued.

Core 4:
Spell sword, choose one: you gain an additional element that you can imbue your weapon.
Passive: Your weapon imbues now scale with 120% spellpower instead of 110% spellpower.
Passive: Increase the element damage die of your eldritch cleave to 1d3 from 1d2 per character level.
1% Doublestrike. 10 Force Spellpower. Now grants 30 spellpower of the element currently imbued.

Core 5:
Spell sword, choose one: you gain an additional element that you can imbue your weapon.
Passive: Your weapon imbues now scale with 130% spellpower instead of 120% spellpower.
Passive: Decrease the cooldown of Eldrich Cleave to 6 seconds from 10 seconds.
1% Doublestrike. 10 Force Spellpower. Now grants 50 spellpower of the element currently imbued.

Capstone:
I agree with most of your changes to the capstone. The only difference I’d have is I think you go overboard on the passives a bit, I would keep the passives as they are.

Tier 1:
Improve Mage Armour: Improved Mage Armour is already taken on some of the toughest tank builds in the game, which specifically splash 1 level of wizard just to get this ability. For this reason alone, I don’t think it needs any buffage.

Toughness: This is balanced with toughness in other trees and gives the same return of HP/AP as those, no need to change it.

Item Defense: No Change

Battlemage: I agree with your improvement on this.

Tier 2:
Improved Shield: I agree with your improvement.

Shield Training: I agree with your improvement.

Light Armour Proficiency: I like the suggestion of someone else above. Change this to:
Suggestion: Gain proficiency in light armour and when wearing light armour increase your MRR by an amount equal to your BAB. 5% reduction in arcane spell failure.

Martial Training: I do not agree with your change. (It’s easy enough to get orbs that are spellcasting implements already, I don’t see why a shield should become a better orb for EK).

Wand and Scroll Mastery: No Change

Tier 3:
Arcane Barrier: I disagree, lesser globe of invulnerability can be annoying since it also strips away positive buffs. Instead keep this as it is, but increase the duration to 10/20/30 seconds.

Elemental Resistance: I agree with your change.

Critical Accuracy: Should be updated to the new Critical Mastery, granting +1/+2/+3 to hit and damage with critical hits.

Stat bonus: unchanged

Tier 4:
Shield Striking/Eldrich Combat Tactics: I agree with your change.

Medium Armour Proficiency: Following up on the idea above:
Suggestion: Gain proficiency in medium armour. While wearing medium armour or heavy armour; gain MRR equal to 150% of your BAB. 5% arcane spell failure reduction. (Note: This does not give proficiency in heavy armour).

Critical Damage: Removed, replaced with Eldritch Critical (2 AP); When your weapon is imbued (core enhancements) Your critical hits now deal an additional 1d6 damage per multiplier of your weapon (2d6 for a x2 weapon, 3d6 for a x3 weapon etc), in the same element as your imbue, scaling with the same ratio of spellpower as your imbue.
Stat bonus: unchanged.

Tier 5:
Tensor’s Transformation: Tensors should have the same drawbacks as per usual. I like te indea of improving mage armour. The mana cost of this ability should be reduced to 5.
Suggestion: Eldrich Tensor’s Transformation: Gain Tensor’s Transformation as a toggle that costs 5 mana. When under the effect of Improved Mage Armour; you gain an additional 10% to AC. When under the effect of Improve Shield; You gain an additional 10 PRR and 10 MRR.

Eldirch Shield: I think you went a little too far here. Also I feel like this should be a multiselector.
Option 1: Eldritch Shield: Every 6/5/4 seconds you have a shield equipped, gain temporary hit points equal to 3x your shield’s enhancement bonus. This is increased to 4x your shield’s enhancement bonus at character level 20, and 5x your shield’s enhancement bonus at character level 30.
Option 2: Eldritch Orb: When you have an orb equipped, gain +10% asorbtion of acid, cold, electic and fire damage.

Still Spell: I say meet you at halfway here. -5/10/15% arcane spell failure chance, and your spells cannot be interrupted. (As if quickened, but don’t cast any faster).

Doublestrike: Again I don’t want to add critical threat/multiplier because then it’s just like every martial melee class. 1% doublestrike per AP might be worth it at lower tiers, but not in tier 5. This ability should be changed to 3/6/10% with no additional bonuses.

Eldritch Tempest: Again I’d go for the middle ground.
Suggestion: Make a spinning weapon attack dealing +2[w] damage to all nearby enemies and knocking them prone. If any targets are hit, release a blast of 1d6 force damage per character level. This additional force damage scales with 100% force spell power.
Activation cost: 40/30/20 spellpoints. Cooldown 40/30/20 seconds.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

i would rather see eldritch knight being more of a hybrid than just a caster converted into a melee.

also cleaves dont double strike, so.

a couple quick things off the top of my head that i think would be a better redesign of eldritch knight:

-make it a wizard only tree. from my understanding ek just really doesnt fit properly with sorcs from a lore perspective and i think making a hybrid build path is better suited to wizard with their bonus feats.

-scrap the shield nonsense. its just a bad idea.

-instead of the current eldritch knight weapon imbue implementation and the current arcane archer imbue implementation, id rather see the weapon imbues gain additional base dice at a significant rate in the cores, scale off of spp and mp, and replace your physical dmg with the type of elemental damage your weapon is currently imbued with, and your crit chance should either be tied to your crit chance/dmg of the elemental dmg type of your currently active imbue type or just be unable to crit (in favor of having versatile dmg type and high base dmg in addition to access to spell cc and dmg). its arguable that this would make swf or twf dominant on an ek for the increased proc rate of spell dmg and the option to use an orb, but im not sure thats necessarily a bad thing. no bonuses from stat to dmg (maybe, they might be necessary but two sources of percent based scaling seems strong enough), no bonus to dmg from flat dmg mods. attacks subject to to hit roll. base scaling: 40% mp, 10% spp.

-change capstone to: eldritch transformation: offensive stance: +4 intelligence, +dc/s, +caster levels and/or max caster levels. (most importantly this should probably have the same visual effect as tensers but needs to give you glowing eyes. seriously.)

-every core taken after the first applies a small/moderate penalty to maximum sp.

-remove all the double strike and crit passives from the tree.

-remove granted weapon proficiencies from the tree. unnecessary since the weapon is just a vehicle for delivering elemental dmg and its crit profile is irrelevant. the only decision here is whether to use a staff or a wand. if you want to use something else you can either glammer it or use master's touch. perhaps give increased spp scaling % for two handed weapons.

-make more imbues selectable from the cores than just the 4 basic elemental types. evil, good, chaos, law, force, etc should be possible options.

-add bonus to either general dcs or selectable dcs as well as bonuses to caster levels in the same cores or alternating cores as the base dice for ek weapon imbues. ek is pointless if its not going to be able to cast spells effectively.

-keep around half of the t1 and t2 enhancements useful for traditional casters (am/pm) as well as eks.

-put in t1/2: eldritch weapon training: use int modifier for to hit.

-put in t3: eldritch armor training: 2 ranks, 2 per rank. rank 1: grants light armor proficiency. rank 2: grants medium armor proficiency.

-put in t4: eldritch armor mastery: [enough -asf to reduce all asf from medium armor to 0% with or without help from another easily accessible source of -asf]. requires eldritch armor training.

-put in t5: eldritch shielding: 1 rank, 2 ap per rank. (defensive stance) while active every melee attack you make gives you 5 temp hp. every spell you cast that applies an effect on an enemy grants you 50 temp hp. the maximum amount of temp hp is equal to 50% of your maximum hit points.

-put in t3: eldritch assault: 3 ranks, 2 ap per rank. increase spp scaling on melee eldritch attacks by 5/5/10% (cumulative).

-put in t4: eldritch assault: 3 ranks, 2 ap per rank. increase mp scaling on melee eldritch attacks by 5/5/10% (cumulative). requires t3 eldritch assault rank for rank.

-put in t5: eldritch assault: 3 ranks, 2 ap per rank. increase mp and spp scaling on melee eldritch attacks by 5/5/10% and 5/5/10% respectively (cumulative). requires t4 eldritch assault rank for rank.

-put in t3-4/5 some spell power bonuses of some kind. either small bonuses to universal spp, or moderate bonuses to selectable groups such as fire/light, elec/sonic, asic/rust, or moderate to high bonuses to single types. or have all of those choices available, but that would require a multiselector inside a multiselector which seems unlikely. perhaps caster level bonuses instead.

-move eldritch strike to t1. rename eldritch strike to eldritch arc. use as replacement for cleave, use eldritch tempest as replacement for great cleave. incorporate functionality with dreadnaught cleaves. make both 12 second cds, remove sp cost. remove knockdown and powercharges.

-improve arcane warrior destiny feat: same functionality, increase mp/spp granted per stack to 2, increase maximum number of stacks to 25.

[bsquishwizzy]

I disagree that casters "need a pass." What they *need* is for many of their spells to scale into epic. I know they did something similar recently with the feats, but frankly that was a lackluster solution.

I disagree with getting rid of the weapon imbues in the EK tree for bows. I think you should keep those. I honestly think that you should do like they did with AA, and make the damage scale based on spell power / lore / elemental boost effects. After all...that's one of the big pillars of arcanes. However, you should make them anti-requisites of the similar enhancements in the AA tree.

I ran an Ranger / Wizard AA / EK. In heroic, it was a BLAST! Buffs galore, the nice AA imbues. It had enough weaknesses to keep it from being OP, but is was sure fun to play. Problem with the build was, however, it WOEFULLY did not scale into epics. Mainly because a lot of my spells did not scale into epics. Like, at all.

The other major problem with EK builds is that if you are going to me melee, you need to be self-healing. That almost forces you into being a PM, or a toaster-sorc. Wand and scroll boosts may be nice, but they certainly don't help in a protracted fight. Fighter / Wizard builds are kinda OK, but you are still left with the same basic issue. But lets say we toss out self-healing being a priority because of Reaper, you're still left with a toon whose core enhancements are anemic when it comes to dealing damage. Having the weapon imbues scale with power factors would put the PrE on a fairly sound footing.