Pale Master no longer viable ?

[Elor_OnceDark]

I'm playing a 18Wiz/2Rog PM/Trapper.

I keep noticing, that i have problems hitting the necessary DCs to kill the mobs as soon as it goes into the epic levels (Despite a Necromancy DC of 63 at lvl 20.

Another problem are the extreme High Spell Resistances of most mobs, with SpellPen / GreaterSpellPen / EpicSpellPen(from 21+) / 3 Wiz and FvS Pastlifes and the highest Spellpen / insightful Spellpen Item Possible at 20/24/etc., I still can't make the spellpen Roll vs most Drow.

The third problem i encounter are mobs with epic ward (nearly 60% of the mobs you encounter in epic elite) - I can't suppress their deathward with Sphere of Invulnerability, I can't instakill them and they make most of the saves against my evocation DC (meaning i don't really much damage against them) - I won't even get started about Red Named.

So is the only solution to go for a Shiradi ? - Atm it looks like all other Wiz builds are kind of useless in comparison. (Doing most of the Raids Solo as Shiradi was quite easy - some even on EE).
Maybe I am missing something...
Anyway some advice would be most appreciated.

[slarden]

Shiradi is an easier build to play because dps works on everything and the only # that matters is crit chance and spellpower at low levels. I ran 36 epic past lifes on my main character as either 20 wizard, 18 wizard / 2 rogue or 18 wizard / 2 fvs - all DC wizards - in all destinies. Most of the content was duo'd but I solo'd quite a bit and even when duoing we often split up or one person piked while the other completed.

When not in the Arcane sphere you lose 5-8 spell pen so against drow you will want to switch to arcane even when leveling up another sphere. At level 21 with your past life you can achieve the following spell penetration:

Wizard Levels: 18
Draconic Caster Levels: 5
Spell Penetration within Draconic: 3
Spell Penetration Feat: 2
Greater Spell Penetration Feat: 2
Epic Spell Penetration Feat: 4
Item Bonus: 4
Insightful Item Bonus: 2
Archmage Tree: 3
Ship Buff: 1
Echoes of the Ancestor Arcane Twist: 2
3x Wizard Lifes: 6
3x Favored Soul Lifes: 3

At the time I was etr'ing on a wizard this was no fail against all the drow on EE except maybe a few orange names where your odds are still really good. Not sure about the math on low skull reaper and how much of a difference it is. Still adding 1 more twist can be done for an extra 3.

When I was on the epic tr train I had trouble making my DCs in gianthold, high road to a lesser extent and parts of stormhorns. Other than that it worked well which made dealing with mobs easy. Boss fights were kind of slow when soloing on PM DC wizard.

One easy option is to take the evocation line with magic missle, chain missles, arcane blast along with a bunch of unmeta'd dps spells. Unmeta'd disintegrate works really well on low fort enemies that are deathwarded. You can increase dps on mobs by using hold monster if death spells aren't working. You will also notice the difference in dps when arcane supremacy procs. This along with Draconic gives you good enough dps to solo on a DC bulid.

When running martial I went shadowdancer on 20 wizard for evasion + 6 int and some defensive benefits. On Divine Exalted Angel isn't too bad for a DC caster. And of course shiradi still works ok even for a dc caster.

If there are specifc quests/levels giving you trouble it might help if you can list those.

As a PM you should be using the heroic festering mummy belt until you are high enough level for the epic version.

[Shiriru]

I understand that they are currently reworking druid... I have great hopes that wizard is next on the list. It's an extremely outdated and new player unfriendly class, which has troubles even in Heroic lvl elites/reaper. It's not cool that basically there is only 1 viable build with shiradi, which not to mention is not even usable pre 20. Everything else requires so much investment, past lives and very potent gear to have a chance to work...EK is non-existent completely useless tree to use, PM is the same, it offers no straight damage, it doesn't even feature Spell Pen in it, considering its a DC oriented tree. Pet is useless, SLA should be deleted because they're sooo very weak and pointless, its an offence for having them in the tree, leaving PM only with some undead forms for some self heal , which is so miniscule in anything past Hard modes. I really don't understand why so many people run in PM. Sure if they are doing Normal/Hard mode, Death Aura + Web+ Firewall can zerg trough half the map.... but anything beyond that is so hard and painful to do unless in a group.

Wizard desperately needs a pass, big one, to make them more in line with other casters. They have no real meaningful SLAs and their insta kill niche is kind of useless in a game where the new quests are outbuffed like hell, making DC casting such a pain to do, that it's not even worth it. So far, the only 'useful' thing i can do with my wiz, is spam Color Spray for small SP, so that other classes can kill faster... that's it.

[Whitering]

I understand that they are currently reworking druid... I have great hopes that wizard is next on the list. It's an extremely outdated and new player unfriendly class, which has troubles even in Heroic lvl elites/reaper. It's not cool that basically there is only 1 viable build with shiradi, which not to mention is not even usable pre 20. Everything else requires so much investment, past lives and very potent gear to have a chance to work...EK is non-existent completely useless tree to use, PM is the same, it offers no straight damage, it doesn't even feature Spell Pen in it, considering its a DC oriented tree. Pet is useless, SLA should be deleted because they're sooo very weak and pointless, its an offence for having them in the tree, leaving PM only with some undead forms for some self heal , which is so miniscule in anything past Hard modes. I really don't understand why so many people run in PM. Sure if they are doing Normal/Hard mode, Death Aura + Web+ Firewall can zerg trough half the map.... but anything beyond that is so hard and painful to do unless in a group.

Wizard desperately needs a pass, big one, to make them more in line with other casters. They have no real meaningful SLAs and their insta kill niche is kind of useless in a game where the new quests are outbuffed like hell, making DC casting such a pain to do, that it's not even worth it. So far, the only 'useful' thing i can do with my wiz, is spam Color Spray for small SP, so that other classes can kill faster... that's it.

As far as instakill and casting go, I don't know, I did 3 Wizard lives in Slarden's melee wiz build, one to 30, the other two to 20 and tr. I EEd just fine though, and could solo Reaper 2 pretty well, particularly if they were not undead (took damage from my aura's and such). Now, I just stayed Blunt damage and used Staves, I have plenty of good ones now, missing only Spear from CitW, but maybe one day. Taking weapon durability meant I was finishing quests with no trouble. That's obviously not the wizard you are looking for, but it worked pretty great. It killed bosses with large health pools faster than my super crit maul paladin build, mostly because I was able to stack some pretty sweet max/emped dots on bosses that did a huge part of the work.

That's not what you are looking for but it was a very durable fighter with good dps I do wish I had been able to farm a drow quarterstaff though.