Scratch Pad for Build-fu

[Silverleafeon]

.Does Memory of Flight work in animal forms??

I used Memory of Flight a fair amount not sure actually in Wolf form (never used Bear), but it is basically a Snow Slide/Wings/EA Wings/Monk super leap type ability.

So about 99% sure the answer is yes.

[Silverleafeon]

Added older spell list, probably have to revise opinions on Swarm/Call Lightning due to huge upgrades.

[Maelodic]

Really? Okay, that's surprising but it could be...cool.

Does Memory of Flight work in animal forms? I'm picturing a DB druid which flies around in doggo form breathing frost. Because we know wolves with wings are a thing amirite?

I'll be testing the Dragonborn prospect in the next lamaland release - I'll need to test if Snowslide shares a cooldown with Memory - three dash abilities on top of +30% movespeed would be hilarious fun.

[Silverleafeon]

I'll be testing the Dragonborn prospect in the next lamaland release - I'll need to test if Snowslide shares a cooldown with Memory - three dash abilities on top of +30% movespeed would be hilarious fun.

I have never seen Snowslide share a cooldown with anything so far.
Have not specifically checked that particular one.

[Tilomere]

I'm at a loss for bear

I was reading things that the glancing blows are not working properly yet. Maybe next patch.

[elvesunited]

I was reading things that the glancing blows are not working properly yet. Maybe next patch.

Even if they aren't, the glancing blows ( topping out at 30% ) are supposed to only be active when the Nature Defense Stance is off. That's the current DDO plan for them. For a bear that invested deep into the Nature protector tree that means in order to get 30% glancing blows you need to give up 6 constitition, +3 saves. 20% of your hp, 20 PRR and 29 MRR. That's nuts!!!

[edrein]

Even if they aren't, the glancing blows ( topping out at 30% ) are supposed to only be active when the Nature Defense Stance is off. That's the current DDO plan for them. For a bear that invested deep into the Nature protector tree that means in order to get 30% glancing blows you need to give up 6 constitition, +3 saves. 20% of your hp, 20 PRR and 29 MRR. That's nuts!!!

That was per my findings and feedback, I don't feel as if that was 100% intentional and might have merely been an oversight. If it was intentional then I don't even know what to say.

[Silverleafeon]

What about Wizard 1 splash for the +10% AC on a Bear, is it worthwhile?

[Xyfiel]

What about Wizard 1 splash for the +10% AC on a Bear, is it worthwhile?

Not anymore, they removed the stacking. They said there were, I didn't test it. I have played Monk/Bear/Wiz build three times and with the nerf it won't be worth it again(was already low tier). And to get the new +15% in tier V you have to be raged. Found that out the hard way.

[unbongwah]

I was reading things that the glancing blows are not working properly yet. Maybe next patch.

Even if they aren't, the glancing blows ( topping out at 30% ) are supposed to only be active when the Nature Defense Stance is off. That's the current DDO plan for them.

IIUC, only Defensive Fighting feat is supposed to disable glancing blows; Nature's Defense doing it is a bug which is what Tilo is referring to. But I guess we'll find out next Lama release if that's true.

What about Wizard 1 splash for the +10% AC on a Bear, is it worthwhile?

Somewhere Torc said that bear AC bonus and Improved Mage Armor AC bonus would be the same type, so no more stacking AC. I would guess bear AC stacks with other AC bonuses like Protection domain, Stalwart Defender, etc. but didn't get a chance to test any of that.

[Pilgrim1]

I'll be testing the Dragonborn prospect in the next lamaland release - I'll need to test if Snowslide shares a cooldown with Memory - three dash abilities on top of +30% movespeed would be hilarious fun.

I ran a dragonborn druid last life, they do not share a cooldown. You can be in any forum.

[Maelodic]

Tenative build plan - based on what I experienced with the druid:

Geared towards Elite/R1 and Epic Elite/R1 rather than higher reaper levels - that tends to be where my comfort level for soloing is.
(Deep) Gnome 20 Druid (Either are fine, deep gnome is better with +1 heart)

INT / WIS based. Levels in WIS.
Should be able to melee, CC, and backup heal pretty dang well, with some pretty beefy situational damage casting with smart use of Winter Hunt.
If shields continue to work and that's intentional, this build should have some solid defences.
If guardbreaker works with the shield, that'd be fantastic.

Best weapon for this would probably be: http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Savior,...aker_of_Chains
But you could just just about anything while leveling and light hammer after you get the crit threat increase.

Standard enemy rotation based on enemy formation will be:
(Keep up temp HP)
Applicable CC (BOCW, Howl, Earthquake, Snowslide, dire charge - Favor HoT every 30 seconds for the huge spell crit and pretty nice melee power buff)
Ice Storm (Or sleet storm if you want to go crazy on the CC)
AoE cleaves, cold breath, whatever else suits your fancy.

1 Power (Precision if Shield Mastery working is WAI)
3 Cleave (Shield Mastery if WAI)
6 Great Cleave (Quicken if WAI)
9 Insightful Reflexes
12 IC: Bludgeon
15 Quicken (Improved Shield Mastery if WAI)
18 Heighten
21 Overwhelming Critical
24 Burst of Glacial Wrath
27 Spell Focus: Evo
30 Natural Fighting (filler)

26 Perfect TWF
28 Tactician
29 Dire Charge
30 Scion of Fire (Others might be better)

LD with Pulverizer or Avatar if Tree gets fixed would both be good. Divine Crusader is always good but not a ton of synergy with cold / winter.

Important Twists:
Energy Burst - Cold
Legendary Tactics
Spell Focus: Evo
(Legendary Shield Mastery if WAI)

It'll be important to use Energy Burst during Winter Hunt. If you can, stacking Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold during this period should give a pretty significant single target damage boost. Using Winter Hunt with Lore equipment as well as Scion of Fire should make spell crits pretty tasty, so leveraging that for Ice Storm (while it's viable), energy burst, cold breath, and creeping cold/greater creeping cold should be good.

17 in (Deep) Gnome for Crit Threat / Damage Boosts
41 in Warrior for T5s and Capstone
6 in Protector for PRR/MRR.
12 in Harper for Strategic Combat II / KTA
4 in Herald for Beguile

The AP lines up exactly perfect, the only thing that really hurts is losing out on spell crit and spell power from Herald, but I figure the crit threat from Gnome / Deep Gnome is going to be more impactful than +.5[W] or a max of 6% extra spell crit and 20 spell power.

[Silverleafeon]

Ice Storm (Or sleet storm if you want to go crazy on the CC)

You definitely want quicken if you are going to use sleet storm.
It is a really good, especially for a class that can also cast FoM.

[Maelodic]

You definitely want quicken if you are going to use sleet storm.
It is a really good, especially for a class that can also cast FoM.

Quicken is in my feat list. I use it for emergency healing too.

[Silverleafeon]

Quicken is in my feat list. I use it for emergency healing too.

It looks like a nice build, be interested to hear how it works out.

[Tilomere]

It'll be important to use Energy Burst during Winter Hunt.

Energy Burst isn't a cold damage spell. It is an ED ability. BoGW is an epic feat, and I think uninterruptible, and has a DC based on epic levels and not spell book level, making it also not a traditional cold damage spell. Do either even work with winter hunt?

Sometimes spell means heroic spell book, sometimes it also means SLAs, sometimes it means all related magical abilities. You might want to double check what Winter Hunt actually works with.

It could be one of those +50% enhancements like shield of condemnation that looks good in description but is completely useless in actual game play.

[unbongwah]

You definitely want quicken if you are going to use sleet storm.
It is a really good, especially for a class that can also cast FoM.

Particularly if you go all-in on sneak attacks, as Sleet Storm causes no-save blindness. Plus Quickened Sleet Storm is 20 SPs, which is exactly how many you get from Essence of the Shrike / Nature.

[Maelodic]

Energy Burst isn't a cold damage spell. It is an ED ability. BoGW is an epic feat, and I think uninterruptible, and has a DC based on epic levels and not spell book level, making it also not a traditional cold damage spell. Do either even work with winter hunt?

Sometimes spell means heroic spell book, sometimes it also means SLAs, sometimes it means all related magical abilities. You might want to double check what Winter Hunt actually works with.

It could be one of those +50% enhancements like shield of condemnation that looks good in description but is completely useless in actual game play.

I'll have to test - though I think it's more likely that Winter Hunt just increases cold spell crit and crit damage similar to having a lore item and spell crit damage enhancements.

[Tilomere]

I'll have to test

Someone else did it for you.

- Howling Frost/Winter Hunt does not modify breath weapons like Dragonborn Cold Breath Weapon or Draconic Incarnation Cold Dragon Breath. If this is WAI please change it to apply to breath weapons as well since it could offer up a fun winter wolf/dragonborn frost breath build to add to the game.

- Howling Frost/Winter Hunt does not modify the Epic Feat Burst of Glacial Wrath

- Howling Frost/Winter Hunt does not modify the Draconic Incarnation cold Energy Burst

- I can confirm that Howling Frost/Winter Hunt does indeed work on the Cold Breath Spell (taking damage up from 200 hp to 400 HP on a crit using a White Dragonborn 20 druid to test without gear); it also seems to be helping damage on the creeping cold SLA

- There appears to be a problem with Wellspring of Power Feat overwriting or being cancelled by Howling Frost/Winterhunt

[Maelodic]

Someone else did it for you.

Those results are a major bummer. The build still works (and the crit threat is great) but I'll have to reconsider a few things, thanks for the link.