Template for a U43 ARCANE warrior

[slarden]

SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this if you want to wait and see the PM/ED changes later. Of course this is all subject to change and based on the official topic information available as of today.

With the upcoming U43 release there is both an ED pass and a PM pass. As always there are winners and losers but mostly winners. PM is by far the dev lottery winner. The only loser are soloer's that ran in EA and depend on reborn in the light to up their skull level- sorry folks - SSG wants to up cake sales- can't think of a single other reason why they would make the change. For the most part everyone else is a winner.

What is an adventurer to do? Roll with it I say. First and foremost the dc boost in magister helps out PMs immensely - but PM dps still seems weak, subject to immunity hell and limited by a finite set of spell points - iron golems I am looking directly at you when I get the chills about boss fights as a wizard.

The ARCANE is upper case and the warrior lower case for a reason - and the reason has nothing to do with yelling. At least to start I want to start as a dc caster near the max first with a focus on spellcasting for mobs and martial dps for bosses, with the option to switch to spellcasting for dps (mostly pm slas with a few other spells). I am looking at a build to solo or short man R5 capable to upping to R10 for a full party. So this means going light on martial feats and enhancements, but hopefully enough to match warlock boss dps which I find good enough for soloing R5 at a good pace - that is my goal. Gonna use arcsteel battlemage at cap rather than splashing for evasion as I've done in the past - the capstone is simply too good so building for more mrr instead, plus getting con is too hard without collective sight.

You can up martial dps and lower dc with gear/feats as needed to optimize for your style. A dc-first arcane warrior is my style. There are no agendas here - just wanted to bounce ideas off the community and get thoughts to make a better build. I realize the dps is super weak by martial standards - it should be reasonable by wizard standards for boss fights. Beyond boss fights it will be used for the occassional immune enemy here and there only. I will use the negative energy dot on non-immune bosses in addition to melee dps, so they will be getting full stacks of the dot, damage from auras and melee dps.


1 Insightul Reflexes + Quicken (wiz feat)
3 Completionist
5 Extend (wiz feat)
6 Single Weapon Fighting
9: Past Life Wizard
10: Spell Focus Necromancy (wiz feat)
12: Precision
15: Improved Single Weapon Fighting
15: Heighten (wiz feat)
18: Improved Critical Slashing
20: Maximize (wiz feat - for neg energy burst)
21: Greater Single Weapon Fighting (or arcane insight but likely not needed)
24: Embolden
26: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27: Khopesh Proficiency
28: Mass Frog
29: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
30: Overwhelming Critical
30: Scion of the Plane of Shadowfell

GEAR
Armor: Legendary Mark IV: Fort 214, Phys Shelt 54, HP 81
Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight: Con 21, Ins Con 10, Qual Res 4
Helmet: Legendary Arcsteel Brim: Spell Focus Mastery 7, Mag Shelt 54, Ins Mag Shelt 26
Neck: The Zarash'ak Ward: Int 22, Qual Spell Focus 2, Qual Potency 41, Force Abs 20
Trinket: Deadly, Neg Healing Amp 61, Ins Phys Shelt 18
Cloak: Legendary Black Velvet Capelet: Ins Neg Amp 43, Profane Well Rounded 2, Int 21, Greater Boon of Undeath
Belt: Legendary Silverthread Belt: Enh Null 202, Enh Dev 202, Void Lore 29, Heal Lore 29
Ring 1: Legendary Shattered Onyx: Ins Int 10, Profane Spell focus Mastery 2, Ins Dodge 10, Ins Res 8
Gloves: Legendary Attunement Gauntlets: Mag 214, Lightning Lore 31, Quick Draw, Evoc 9
Boots: Slavers: Wisdom, Nullification 185, Heal 22, Qual Int 4
Ring 2: Clouded Dreams: Universal Spell Lore 10, Universal Spell Power 20, Ins Spell Foc Mastery 4, Leg Nightmare Guard
Bracers: Legendary Aeterband: Spell Pen 9, Ins Spell Pen 5, Shield 21, Mag Eff 10

Weapon 1: Various khopeshes (with eye, otto, inev grave sets and +2 int special filigree by default, with possibly some dps filigree in swap weapons)
Weapon 2: Legendary Stygian Wrath

Intelligence
Base: 20
Level ups: 7
Tome: 8
Completionist: 2
Racial Completionist: 2
Racial Lives: 2
Enh Bonus: 22
Ins Bonus: 10
Exc Bonus: 1
Qual Bonus: 4
Profane Bonus: 2
Artifact Bonus: 4
Sentience: 5
Reaper Bonus on Hat: 2
Festive Bonus from Augment: 2
Enh PM Tree: 8
Enh Racial: 2
Enh Harper: 2
Enh Vistani: 2
Reaper: 5
Main Destiny: 5
Twists: 1 (echoes of the ancestor arcane)
Ship Buffs: 2
Yugo Potions: 2
Remnant Potions: 2
Total: 124

Necro DC
Base: 10
Spell Level (heighten): 9
Stat Bonus: 57
Spell Focus Feat: 1
Past Life Wizard: 1
Embolden: 2
Scion of the Plane of Shadowfell: 4
Item - Enhancement Bonus: 7
Item - Insightful Bonus: 4
Item - Quality Bonus: 2
Item - Augment Bonus: 2
Item - Profane Bonus: 2
Item - Artifact Bonus: 3
Item- Sentient Bonus: 6
Class Trees: 3
Reaper Tree: 4
Epic Destiny Universal DC Cores: 5
Necromancy Specialist: 3
Master of Necromancy: 3
Ship Buffs

Total: 129

Surge DC with reaper potency and arcane spellsurge: 136 (or 142 with arcane insight as a feat)

Will detail others later: illusion 122, enchant 115, conj 118, evoc 120

Necro Spell Pen with no feat/enh/ed investment
Levels: 20
Past Lifes: 9
Enhancement Bonus: 9
Insight Bonus: 5
Sentient: 1
PM Cores: 5
Reaper: 5
Epic Destiny Twist: 2
Magister including master of necromancy: 8
Ship Buff: 1
Total: 65 (62 for other schools)

Enhancement Split (will detail later)
Racial: 14
PM: 41
Harper: 14
EK: 26
Total: 95

Negative Lore
Magical Training: 5
Item: 29
Insightful Item: 18
Exceptional Item: 10
PM Tree: 8
Total: 70

Negative Spellpower
Equipment Bonus: 185
Insightful Bonus: 107
Enhancement Bonus: 202
Quality Bonus: 41
Implement Bonus: 45
Mythic and reaper bonuses: 30
Filigree: 43
Power over life and death active stance: 30
Epic Power x 10: 60
Scion of the Plane of Shadowfell: 40
PM Cores: 60
Reaper Tree: 48
Universal Spellpower tome: 4
Guild Ship Buffs: 15
Heal Skill: 100

Total Before buffs, consumables: 1010

I am sure it can go higher - stopped at a 1000

Negative Heal Amp
Item: 61
Ins Item: 43
Scone of the Plane of Shadowfell: 20
Filigree: 20
PM Tree: 40
Total: 184

Giving up dc for more negative hamp is a possibility, but probably not needed. For boss fights I might up my negative hamp with swap weapons.

Defenses
50% Displacement
25% Incorporeal
Solid PRR and MRR
Great reflex saves
Great cc
Death Aura and Greater Death Aura + greater boon of undeath and negative energy burst for fast healing
Epic Defensive Fighting can be toggled on for boss fights when spell range isn't a thing

More details about the pm and magister changes are available in the official topic section.

[silinteresting]

looks good apart from a couple of feats id change bang on.

nice write up.

your friend sil

[rabidfox]

I'd probably want to squeeze overwhelming critical into that setup but pretty close to ideas I've been thinking of since seeing the next update plans. Edit: I'd also want dire charge, but your build would be a solid template for any tweaks I'd try. Maybe also using a Golden Orb of Death plus Improved Shield Bash to get the temp SP off the orb bash along with the insightful spell crit. So many options for alternative ways to build on the same basic structure.

[Kza]

I was thinking more or less this but taking the points in eldritch knight instead of vistani for medium armor. So i can take overhelming crit+ 1 more but i dont see what i had extra.
Hmm. Nice we have choises :-)

[slarden]

I was thinking more or less this but taking the points in eldritch knight instead of vistani for medium armor. So i can take overhelming crit+ 1 more but i dont see what i had extra.
Hmm. Nice we have choises :-)

Good point. Maybe I can go eld knight with khopesh proficiency and overwhelming critical instead of Vistani.

[Carpone]

Why necromancy focus over enchantment focus?

[Alled78]

Good point. Maybe I can go eld knight with khopesh proficiency and overwhelming critical instead of Vistani.

If you wanna be an arcane warrior take 41 ap in EK and take lvl 29 arcane warrior feat
Then color spray sla is the best entry for each combatant

Consider knight training over kopesh

Lets see how strong is this core6 self healing but u lose big dps for it...
The build is toooo necro oriented to be a warrior (i tried one 1 years ago and was fun), the dps will benot enough in this way

What destiny????

[PublicEnemy]

Trinket: Deadly, Neg Healing Amp 61, Ins Phys Shelt 18

Where in the hell does that item come from?

[Djjinni]

Where in the hell does that item come from?

I read this as a cannith crafted item but I think Neg Amp and Deadly are conflicting in the Suffix slot if so :/

Editted because can't tell difference between prefix and suffix apparently

[Emerge2012]

Where in the hell does that item come from?

I read this as a cannith crafted item but I think Neg Amp and Deadly are conflicting over the Prefix slot if so :/

Cannith Crafted. Also Neg Amp does indeed go into the suffix slot.

[PublicEnemy]

Oh I see, it always seems....unfinished/lacking to me when you have to resort to such things as crafted ***** like cannith or slavelords.

[slarden]

Oh I see, it always seems....unfinished/lacking to me when you have to resort to such things as crafted ***** like cannith or slavelords.

I will update when the new gear comes out this week. The new armor has neg hamp so the cannith crafted trinkt won’t be needed. The new boots may well remove the need for slavers boots but with recent changes it’s no more than 2 runs to make a slavers item.