2 Different FVS 20 DC Builds: Wisdom vs. Charisma

[asdfghhjkl]

I didn't choose Aureon for the quarterstaff damage. I chose it specifically for the Aureon's Instruction clicky you get at level 12 which supports a spellcasting build.

Aureon is also the best choice for end game play because it gives you an extra 20 spell absorb/rest from Staff of Irian that is not available to anyone else.

[Atremus]

I just returned to the game after a year or so off... I have picked up my FvS and started regearing, grinding, etc.

On your Wisdom breakdown you list 5 total wisdom in your sentient Jewel. Did you just slot 5 separate wisdom filigree?

[slarden]

I just returned to the game after a year or so off... I have picked up my FvS and started regearing, grinding, etc.

On your Wisdom breakdown you list 5 total wisdom in your sentient Jewel. Did you just slot 5 separate wisdom filigree?

Hi, yes exactly. This is the wisdom from the eye of the beholder set plus 4 other unique wisdom filigree (each one must be from a different set to count).

At the time I created this I hadn't tested whether the 4 piece eye of the beholder set + the 4 piece otto's set worked together. If you have 8 slots they do work together and would give a total of 4 DC and 2 wisdom instead of 2 DC and 5 wisdom which is slightly better for things using generic DC rather, but you lose slightly on things that use only a wisdom modifier. Thank your for mentioning that it reminded me I need to update the filigree to include the 2 4-piece sets instead.

Aureon is also the best choice for end game play because it gives you an extra 20 spell absorb/rest from Staff of Irian that is not available to anyone else.

Thank you for mentioning this - I wasn't even aware of this.

[Atremus]

Thanks. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misding something with all the DDO rust I have.

[asdfghhjkl]

Hi, yes exactly. This is the wisdom from the eye of the beholder set plus 4 other unique wisdom filigree (each one must be from a different set to count).

At the time I created this I hadn't tested whether the 4 piece eye of the beholder set + the 4 piece otto's set worked together. If you have 8 slots they do work together and would give a total of 4 DC and 2 wisdom instead of 2 DC and 5 wisdom which is slightly better for things using generic DC rather, but you lose slightly on things that use only a wisdom modifier. Thank your for mentioning that it reminded me I need to update the filigree to include the 2 4-piece sets instead.

Otto set has no Wisdom.

[slarden]

Otto set has no Wisdom.

That's right I was confusing it with charisma, but it's still worth it in my opinion for the 200 spell points and 5 MRR and neutral DC.

[TallMikeM]

so, I quite fancy giving one of these builds a try, however I haven't leveled a divine from 0 in about 6 years, I found the journey until you get blade barrier so painful that I am still scarred by it. I've done several caster druid lives, plently of wizzy and sorc but the only divines I've leveled have been iconics. I was wondering, is the leveling still a life of pain until you get BB or has it got easier?

[Atremus]

so, I quite fancy giving one of these builds a try, however I haven't leveled a divine from 0 in about 6 years, I found the journey until you get blade barrier so painful that I am still scarred by it. I've done several caster druid lives, plently of wizzy and sorc but the only divines I've leveled have been iconics. I was wondering, is the leveling still a life of pain until you get BB or has it got easier?

FvS get a choice between CHA or WIS for to-hit and damage as a second level class feat. You must use your deities favored weapon and it only applies if FvS makes up 50% (or more) of your character levels. It’s a big help to those early levels. Still slow but not as horrible.

[DrawingGuy]

so, I quite fancy giving one of these builds a try, however I haven't leveled a divine from 0 in about 6 years, I found the journey until you get blade barrier so painful that I am still scarred by it. I've done several caster druid lives, plently of wizzy and sorc but the only divines I've leveled have been iconics. I was wondering, is the leveling still a life of pain until you get BB or has it got easier?

When it comes to leveling Divines through Heroics:

Clerics: These are actually one of the easiest to level through heroics of all the classes. Turn Undead makes you essentially god-mode against undead as Clerics can trait it to insta-kill, and between catacombs, deleras, necro, ravenloft, and a scattering of others, you can easily make it to the late teens off just undead quests. By then you have BB and insta-kill spells. On top of that, you have Soundburst, which works on Reapers and keeps even reaper runs easy.

Favored Soul: Favored Soul has a few early combat advantages with having both the ability to apply their casting stat to attack/damage as well as a trance to apply CHA or WIS for a 1.5x stat rate. This coupled with Soundburst makes FvS ahead of many options at first, but other melee classes will pass them up as their stronger combat trees push them up, especially if you're not investing in melee feats. It's the middling levels that I find FvS painful. However if you run in a party, it is a different story. Your ability to Soundburst at 4+ (or 3+ if Cleric) gives you the earliest mass helpless CC in the game that makes Reaper runs much easier. If you do the opposite of the Cleric and ran quests that you could Soundburst easily until you got your Undeath and Implosion spells while running with a party, you can make the quests ez-mode with your soundbursts and heals. Beacon of Hope turned the coin of Clerics being the best healers to FvS with their Beacon cones, close wounds SLA, and a cast anywhere version of the cleric's aura that allows you to passively heal the tank in complete safety.

The healing potential of FvS is where I'd divert from Slarden's build for an end-game FvS. T5 AoV may be nice, but that is competing against the ability to heal wall, give your party 200 more HP from being 1-shotted (unconscious range is something I've seen save people from death on many occasions), and a Heal SLA. With the Comet Fall SLA already being crippled by the longer timer and the other T5 AoV buffs being small, I consider it a small sacrifice to the superior party support of Beacon. I'd kick Falconry to the curb and do a 41 AoV, 34 Beacon, 5 Aasimar (to get Aasimar Bond if you have the past lives, or Arcanum/cores if you have less/none, or more into BoH).

[TallMikeM]

thanks for the replies, kinda gels with what I was thinking, though I confess to having forgotten the lvl 2 feat and favoured weapon thing, will make it somewhat easier. I wonder if it might be less painful to take melee feats until lvl 12 or so, then buy an lesser heart and LR to a caster.

[slarden]

so, I quite fancy giving one of these builds a try, however I haven't leveled a divine from 0 in about 6 years, I found the journey until you get blade barrier so painful that I am still scarred by it. I've done several caster druid lives, plently of wizzy and sorc but the only divines I've leveled have been iconics. I was wondering, is the leveling still a life of pain until you get BB or has it got easier?

This is definitely not meant to be just a solo leveling build for heroic/racial TR - for a solo leveling fvs build you would definitely want to go melee with cleaves with spell support. The build gets stronger as you level and peaks at 30 and non-melee fvs is a below-average leveling build lacking the turn undead a cleric gets and the spell selection of wizard/sorc for casting. Compared to a few years ago it is easier for the following reasons:

- You can make a temporary 4 ap spend in war soul giving you both wisdom to hit/damage but also insightful damage based on wisdom so at low levels your melee is good.
- Soundburst gives you a 50% damage boost against stunned enemies and with maximize/empower turned off for this spell you can spam it (not new but since the introduction of just reward it makes spell point conservation easier compared to the old days)
- Several spells benefit from increased caster level/cap especially your unmeta'd nimbus of light, unmeta'd searing light, meta'd sun bolt by level 6. You can gain caster levels from the AoV cores (+3 by level 6), Intense Faith and eventually zealous faith
- Spellpower is much higher both from base gear spell power (high values, insightful, implement bonus), but also past lifes (most notably morninglord for this build).
- Crits are much higher from gear and fvs crits from enhancement trees are solid.

It still has the leveling issue fvs always had - aoe damage comes later than other casting builds which you will notice more if soloing. The reason I like the build is I can park a less accomplished alt at level cap for raiding and questing and be effective with spellcasting and healing with a high level of survivability. That is really a level cap benefit though and not a leveling benefit. I thought they should have added wall of fire to a fvs spellbook at level 8 (on par with sorc), but the devs have their own thoughts on balancing and with the caster level bonuses it might be too strong.

You do get flame stike at level 10 and it will be subject to 6 bonus caster levels. At level 12 flame strike is is subject to 9 bonus caster levels and blade barrier 6. Fully meta'd cometfall sla gains 9 caster levels. That is where fvs starts to shine in heroics.

When it comes to leveling Divines through Heroics:

The healing potential of FvS is where I'd divert from Slarden's build for an end-game FvS. T5 AoV may be nice, but that is competing against the ability to heal wall, give your party 200 more HP from being 1-shotted (unconscious range is something I've seen save people from death on many occasions), and a Heal SLA. With the Comet Fall SLA already being crippled by the longer timer and the other T5 AoV buffs being small, I consider it a small sacrifice to the superior party support of Beacon. I'd kick Falconry to the curb and do a 41 AoV, 34 Beacon, 5 Aasimar (to get Aasimar Bond if you have the past lives, or Arcanum/cores if you have less/none, or more into BoH).

Thank you for sharing, it's an interesting idea I will have to look at more. I would hate to lose 6 spell pen from my implosion and the 3 caster levels from other spells, but if U41 brings on more raiding this is definitely a very party-friendly idea where the healing is valued higher than the spellcasting.

[DrawingGuy]

Thank you for sharing, it's an interesting idea I will have to look at more. I would hate to lose 6 spell pen from my implosion and the 3 caster levels from other spells, but if U41 brings on more raiding this is definitely a very party-friendly idea where the healing is valued higher than the spellcasting.

Does Implosion have a max caster level? I thought it didn't, which means Zealous Faith does nothing for the Spell Pen. Note that it is increasing the Maximum Caster Level possibility, not the actual caster level. This does mean your DPS spells are hurt a bit, but I consider DC casting and healing to trump DPS - an area that isn't a specialty, especially in high reapers.

This still does leave a 3 spell pen and 1 Evo DC loss, but that is manageable.

AoV T5 is good, and definitely better when party support is not really needed, but I don't consider that "end game". Investing in Hopes to buff tank PRR/MRR and intims along with the MP/RP of your main DPS (as well as your own PRR/MRR). The HP and healing benefits. I'm pretty sure your Soundburst, Cometfall, Commands, Slay/Destructions, Undeath, Frogs, and Implosion can keep you plenty busy with spellcasting on top of party healing. Being able to successfully do those things I feel far outweighs whatever your Searing Light can hit for, and the DC casting loss is small compared to the party support gains.

[asdfghhjkl]

The healing potential of FvS is where I'd divert from Slarden's build for an end-game FvS. T5 AoV may be nice, but that is competing against the ability to heal wall, give your party 200 more HP from being 1-shotted (unconscious range is something I've seen save people from death on many occasions), and a Heal SLA. With the Comet Fall SLA already being crippled by the longer timer and the other T5 AoV buffs being small, I consider it a small sacrifice to the superior party support of Beacon. I'd kick Falconry to the curb and do a 41 AoV, 34 Beacon, 5 Aasimar (to get Aasimar Bond if you have the past lives, or Arcanum/cores if you have less/none, or more into BoH).

41/34/16 is best split. But why not +1 sacred to crit? It is the best buff you can give.

[slarden]

AoV T5 is good, and definitely better when party support is not really needed, but I don't consider that "end game". Investing in Hopes to buff tank PRR/MRR and intims along with the MP/RP of your main DPS (as well as your own PRR/MRR). The HP and healing benefits. I'm pretty sure your Soundburst, Cometfall, Commands, Slay/Destructions, Undeath, Frogs, and Implosion can keep you plenty busy with spellcasting on top of party healing. Being able to successfully do those things I feel far outweighs whatever your Searing Light can hit for, and the DC casting loss is small compared to the party support gains.

It could change with U41, but at the moment end game for me is R4-5 quests at cap short man/solo and healing isn't really needed much beyond mass cure moderate and cocoon.

I definitely agree with your point, but the groups I've been in don't really value or need the healing/party support aspect that much. Depending on what U41 brings that could definitely change- thanks for sharing.

[DrawingGuy]

41/34/16 is best split. But why not +1 sacred to crit? It is the best buff you can give.

This is where AP tightness makes decisions tough. You want the 5th core for 10 HAMP + 5 POS + 1 POS crit chance + 140 aoe Temp HP trigger. Heal wall is another big deal, and you're not at 32 AP. The only two AP debate is the Heal SLA and Undying Beacon. I'd drop the Heal SLA in a second for Hope for Success, but also giving up Undying Beacon is tougher. The ability to give 200 (or 300 with capstone) unconscious range does make a difference in the harder content. Though if that is more rare than not, then the pendulum does swing for Hope for Success.

Where I do think things become a no-brainer is if you have all the past lives *and* the tome so you can afford a 41/35/16 split, or if you can't afford the Aasimar T5 anyways, so can spare the point. That way you are only giving up the Heal SLA for Hope for Success.

It could change with U41, but at the moment end game for me is R4-5 quests at cap short man/solo and healing isn't really needed much beyond mass cure moderate and cocoon.

I definitely agree with your point, but the groups I've been in don't really value or need the healing/party support aspect that much. Depending on what U41 brings that could definitely change- thanks for sharing.

Obviously what your end game is and your playstyle should affect how you build your character. If all you do is solo/short easier difficulty quests where you don't really need to party support, just go T5 AoV as you don't need the support strengths of T5 Beacon. However if you raid often (a main part of what I consider "end game") and/or tend to run harder difficulties (R8+), then that support begins to really matter. As a general rule, though, I don't like to build selfishly... this is an MMO after all. It is part of the reason I'm ticked by their decision for the new Epic Defenses feat to reduce heals to touch range. It turns it into a selfish feat as it is helping yourself at the cost of helping others, and I hate game design like that in cooperative games.

[slarden]

As a general rule, though, I don't like to build selfishly... this is an MMO after all. It is part of the reason I'm ticked by their decision for the new Epic Defenses feat to reduce heals to touch range. It turns it into a selfish feat as it is helping yourself at the cost of helping others, and I hate game design like that in cooperative games.

I don't disagree with you really, except I don't think there is one rule that applies to every person all the time.

Primarily raiding and not builiding to reflect that is definitely building selfishly, but making choices based on my normal play situation is just reality for me. I don't want to be weaker to support raiding when I have not raided in months. With that said, I always stock up on lesser hearts when on sale and often will do a lesser reincarnation if things change - for example I am raiding more all of a sudden.

Also, I can always respec quickly before a raid just by changing enhancements. There is a plat sink involved if it's frequent but ap spend doesn't have to be permanent if things change and doesn't even require a lesser reincarnation.

[darknoobslayer]

For the wisdom build is there a gear setup you would recommend that doesn't include slavers and LGS?

[slarden]

For the wisdom build is there a gear setup you would recommend that doesn't include slavers and LGS?

Let me play around with it - it's a 6 piece gear swap. I would think going with adherent of the mists would make sense and maximing PRR and MRR a bit more - plus adding ghostly. Then filling in any gaps with cannith crafting would make sense.

[darknoobslayer]

Let me play around with it - it's a 6 piece gear swap. I would think going with adherent of the mists would make sense and maximing PRR and MRR a bit more - plus adding ghostly. Then filling in any gaps with cannith crafting would make sense.

OK thx.

[slarden]

For the wisdom build is there a gear setup you would recommend that doesn't include slavers and LGS?

A few quick notes. If you are able to run quite a bit of killing time I might go with a different setup - taking advantage of cloak of the mountain, clouded dreams and bracers of the mountain from that raid rather than the nightmother's sceptre, but I didn't include that here as it's a long grind and I don't see many raids on Sarlona. Still the killing time gear along with celestial beacon would give better dps so if you plan on running that I can make a completely different gear setup with those items.

I am not sure if you are soloing or grouping, but the following setup works good for grouping in reaper - giving you DC and healing:

Helm: Legendary Pansophic Circlet (Potency 131, Ins Potency 65, Magical Efficiency 10%)
Necklace: Legendary Rose Quartz Sigil Stone (Int 19, Quality Con 4, Quality Phys Sheltering 12)
Trinket: Epic Littany of the Dead (+2 profane bonus to all stats)
Cloak: Legendary Mantle of the Fury (Con 19, Dodge 19) AM
Belt: Legendary Silverthread Belt (Enh Devotion 202, Healing Lore 29)
Ring: Legendary Spinneret (Spell Lore 15, Quality Potency 32, Quality Spell Focus Mastery 2)
Gloves: Legendary Crumbling Gloves (Ins Dex +9, Ins Phys Sheltering 24) AM
Boots: Legendary Softsole Slippers (Ins Char 9, Ghostly) AM
Ring 2: Legendary Chieftan (Wisdom 18, Quality Wisdom 4, Spell Save 14, Quality Will Save 3)
Bracers: Legendary Bracers of Order and Chaos (Healing Amp 80, Resistance 16, Law Absorb 28%, Chaos Absorb 28%)
Armor: Legendary Scales of Exile (Fort 202, Parrying 9, Ins Con 9, Ins Wisdom 9)
Goggles: Legendary Garstone's Lenses (Devotion 202) AM
Main Weapon: Nightmother's Sceptre (Spell Focus Mastery 7, Ins Spell Focus Mastery 4, Spell Pen 8, Ins Spell Pen 4 with any spellpower augment slotted for 45 spellcasting implement bonus)
Secondary Weapon: Legendary Warsword Shield (Sheltering 50, Ins Mag Sheltering 24, Riposte 9) AM

If you want to solo your dps will feel a bit weak on boss fights. The reason for this is that without slavers set it makes it hard to slot everything as the more recent named items often include attributes that aren't needed - this makes warsword shield important to the build without slavers items. In addition, Legendary Celestial Beacon is the only item with a decent non-raid radiance / radiance lore stat, but without slotting nightmother's sceptre or warsword shield, gearing is much more difficult.

Cannith crafting maxes out at 23 lore and 159 spellpower which isn't enough benefit compared to spinneret or circlet. You can swap a cannith crafted trinket with radiance lore, radiance spellpower and ins radiance spellpower for boss fights. It will be especially important to keep up empyrean magic for the extra 10% spell critical chance with this setup.

What the set does give you is good saves with a resistance item, spell saves item and parrying item (slot dex +8 augment somewhere). Good PRR and MRR. Good DC. Good Healing and Healing and Healing Amp. There is no way to make up for the loss of 5 DC from slavers, but in general your DC will still be good with this set up.

I suspect update 42 (assuming that is the release with new expansion) will bring significant new gear just like ravenloft did, but hopefully with better radiance and force items than we've seen lately.Hopefully it will have DC options besides Slavers. So I definitely wouldn't grind out slavers gear if you don't enjoy running the content.