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?

[Tilomere]

Why necromancy focus over enchantment focus?

Because enchantment means he has to deal with reaper damage debuff on the majority of mobs.

[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????

[slarden]

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????

I really want 41 pts in the pm tree for greater death aura and the max necro dc. Knight training is definitely an option - is there a good end game long sword I am overlooking?

I am going magister and all-in on DC for the most part - giving up a few dc from feats and AM - I completely agree my dps is definitely on the low side - but it's only for bosses and I think it still will beat straight spellcasting dps even with a minimal martial investment. My goal is to still be a solid R10 caster and to do that I have to go almost all-in on DC.

Right now I am theorycrafting - if it doesn't work when U43 comes out I will either abandon or pivot and adjust. My unproven assumption is that I can match or exceed warlock casting dps with the minimal martial investment I am making.

Light pick is another possibility - top tier deep gnome tree boosts crit range by 1 - makes the crit profile better than a khopesh with just improved critical, but ap is too tight to do that + spend 24 min in EK for med armor and tier 4 int.

Why necromancy focus over enchantment focus?

Yes my necro dc will be good enough and I still have enchant, greater shout and color spray as a back up. If I kill an enemy it's gone. If I cc it I still have to beat it down so killing is better if I can pull of the DC which I think can.

[Alled78]

I really want 41 pts in the pm tree for greater death aura and the max necro dc. Knight training is definitely an option - is there a good end game long sword I am overlooking?

I am going magister and all-in on DC for the most part - giving up a few dc from feats and AM - I completely agree my dps is definitely on the low side - but it's only for bosses and I think it still will beat straight spellcasting dps even with a minimal martial investment. My goal is to still be a solid R10 caster and to do that I have to go almost all-in on DC.

Right now I am theorycrafting - if it doesn't work when U43 comes out I will either abandon or pivot and adjust. My unproven assumption is that I can match or exceed warlock casting dps with the minimal martial investment I am making.

Light pick is another possibility - top tier deep gnome tree boosts crit range by 1 - makes the crit profile better than a khopesh with just improved critical, but ap is too tight to do that + spend 24 min in EK for med armor and tier 4 int.



Yes my necro dc will be good enough and I still have enchant, greater shout and color spray as a back up. If I kill an enemy it's gone. If I cc it I still have to beat it down so killing is better if I can pull of the DC which I think can.

If u are going that route dont think boss dps is decent, for r5+

Soulrazor is one of the best weapons atm but not worth have it for this build
Melee dps with no investment is zero dps in r5+

U need at least going a melee destiny to be minimally effective

[Rush007]

Missing accuracy and insight accuracy in gearset. Going to get glancing blows on 7 or 8 rolls and down.

[mr420247]

Kinda liking the potential for builds like this i'd probly go full on tank vs dps just for survival

Just wondering Sun elf iconic race how well do you think the heal sla would work on a pm on like r8

That gets u 2 auras, 2 spot heals to full hopefully, neg burst n pos heal

What do you think

[slarden]

Kinda liking the potential for builds like this i'd probly go full on tank vs dps just for survival

Just wondering Sun elf iconic race how well do you think the heal sla would work on a pm on like r8

That gets u 2 auras, 2 spot heals to full hopefully, neg burst n pos heal

What do you think

If you aren't going for full out dc aasimar has interesting potential for the extra defenses, hamp and the healing sla which on my fvs healed me to full on 10 skull. It's probably still a good emergency heal with a PM. If you check out the new PM gear set you can quickly come up with a tanky gear set. The only thing is physical sheltering isn't on the armor so you will have to slot it somewhere.

I never tested the sun elf SLA in R10 but once you factor in spellpower and hamp I am thinking it should take you to full in R10, but of course at most 2 uses with a 3 min cooldown.

Missing accuracy and insight accuracy in gearset. Going to get glancing blows on 7 or 8 rolls and down.

In my experience precision helps quite a bit since it's % based and big accuracy #s don't always translate into a big difference due to the way the #s work. To mr420247's point I think sun elf is interesting option due to the int and racial accuracy + the get out of jail free heal sla, but it requires a +1 heart. I am thinking that 6% accuracy might beat or at least equal the accuracy and insightful accuracy items. + 3 spell pen to boot.

All in all I am still bullish on the potential because melee boss dps even at the low end beats casting dps in reaper and swap items + dots + auras should give me enough dps that it's not teribad. Even losing 2 #s to grazing hits isn't a disaster (1-8 rather than 1-6 for example). On a build with no crit bonuses other than improved critical and khopeshes this represents less than a 9% loss in dps when factoring in crits so it's not going to significantly impact my quest completion time. to hit is a much bigger deal when effects like assassinate and coup are involved that requires a successful hit and each grazing hit # translates into a 5% additional failure. Damage doesn't work that way since crits represent a bigger % of the overall dps. I am also not convinced I will having grazing hits up to a 8 except in a few edge cases.

Also, I am effectively only using my bonus wizard feats for the melee dps so my casting of negative energy spells is still top tier if that ends up being a better/faster option in a quest, but I have the backup melee in quests where hp are too high or bosses are immune to what I am bringing. The new gear on Lam looks like it only improves the build - but I can't really post the new gear set since the cloak is going to move to a new slot that is yet to be determined.

Keep in mind - the goal here isn't to be top tier dps. It's to be able to DC cast effectively in R10 while being able to solo effectively on R5 without spell point potions. I think the dps will be fine in R5, but if my testing shows differently I will pivot. Also, think swap items when fighting a boss. A lot of gear can be swapped for better dps when DC isn't needed. As an example one real easy swap is to swap in Key of Rhuukan Draal and swap out the Zarash'ak ward which are both necklaces. Trinket and boots are easy item to swap for more dps and the list goes on.

Pivoting probably means full caster with ruin, greater ruin, arcane pulse with dps slas from archmage. That seems a lot more viable since they are changing the dps penalties so casting penalties match melee, but I still think melee is the better option overall as I have to spend feats either way.

[Montegue]

I've been using the shortsword from Sharn (Moonwillow? I think?). It's Keen, has a heavy dice modifier, vorpal, and it works great.

[droid327]

Its somewhat ironic, a VKF build that runs in undead form...lol

If you cant beat 'em, join 'em?

IC:Pierce/VKF but then Khop Prof? Huh? I'd say maybe you're just taking the immunities in VKF...but if you're Undead they're redundant anyway.

Mass Frog? On an INT build? Not BoGW? Something I'm missing about that choice?

[slarden]

Its somewhat ironic, a VKF build that runs in undead form...lol

If you cant beat 'em, join 'em?

IC:Pierce/VKF but then Khop Prof? Huh? I'd say maybe you're just taking the immunities in VKF...but if you're Undead they're redundant anyway.

Mass Frog? On an INT build? Not BoGW? Something I'm missing about that choice?

Originally was going Vistani but based on the discussion here decided I will go ek khopeshes will update op.

mass frog still gets some constructs and undead with this build and bogw isn’t available as a destiny feat. I have enough cc don’t need bogw.

[droid327]

Originally was going Vistani but based on the discussion here decided I will go ek khopeshes will update op.

mass frog still gets some constructs and undead with this build and bogw isn’t available as a destiny feat. I have enough cc don’t need bogw.

Ah makes sense now

Longsword+KT probably better than Khopesh+Khop Prof. Better itemization throughout. Nightforge Avenger in Heroic, Oathblade at 20. Then you can swap KT and IC....take KT at 18, since Oathblade is Keen already, and take IC at 27 to qualify for OC at 30, before you switch to an endgame longsword.

[Emerge2012]

Ah makes sense now

Longsword+KT probably better than Khopesh+Khop Prof. Better itemization throughout. Nightforge Avenger in Heroic, Oathblade at 20. Then you can swap KT and IC....take KT at 18, since Oathblade is Keen already, and take IC at 27 to qualify for OC at 30, before you switch to an endgame longsword.

Edit: didn't see the swap to EK, though even after all of this time I'm not convinced longswords are better than available khopeshes. However I'd say the Fellblade from DoJ does offer a lot of stat consolidation that would otherwise be missing.

[Tepin]

I went the Eldritch Knight route instead, with less investment into the PM tree. It will not have nearly as high Necromancy DCs, but hopefully it'll be possible to fix through ED and equips. Being able to get 25% Incorporeal Miss through 11 points is massive, as it required 21 before.

Feats

.1. . . . : Single Weapon Fighting
.1 Wizard : Quicken Spell
.3. . . . : Precision
.5 Wizard : Spell Focus: Necromancy
.6. . . . : Shield Proficiency
.9. . . . : Insightful Reflexes
10 Wizard : Extend Spell
12. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
15. . . . : Improved Shield Bash
15 Wizard : Heighten Spell
18. . . . : Knight's Training
20 Wizard : Maximize Spell
21 Epic . : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
24 Epic . : Embolden Spell
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Improved Critical: Slashing
28 Destiny: Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
30 Legend : Scion of: Shadowfell

Enhancements (80 AP)

Eldritch Knight (Wizard) (41 AP)

• Eldritch Strike, Spellsword, Imbue the Blade, Subtle Force, Subtle Force II, Eldritch Blade
  1. Improved Mage Armor III, Arcane Siphon III
  2. Improved Shield III, Spellpower Boost III
  3. Arcane Barrier, Synergetic Magic, Intelligence
  4. Knight's Transformation, Force's Point, Armored Arcana, Intelligence
  5. Improved Knight's Transformation, Knight's Controller, Force's Edge, Eldritch Tempest III

Pale Master (16 AP)

• Dark Reaping, Shroud of the Wraith, Ghost in the Wind
  1. Necrotic Touch I, Negative Energy Conduit III
  2. Efficient Quicken III, Eternal Furor III

Harper Agent (13 AP)

• Agent of Good I, Intelligence, Agent of Good II
  1. Harper Enchantment, Strategic Combat
  2. Know the Angles III
  3. Strategic Combat

Deep Gnome (10 AP)

• Wariness, Intelligence, Wariness II, Intelligence, Retain Scroll Essence
  1. (none)
  2. Color Spray III

[droid327]

Not worth the extra feat and I'm guessing the focus is more on the final product rather than leveling where everything is quick nuked or instakilled.

Did you even read what I wrote? Here I'll quote myself for emphasis:

Longsword+KT probably better than Khopesh+Khop Prof. Better itemization throughout. Nightforge Avenger in Heroic, Oathblade at 20. Then you can swap KT and IC....take KT at 18, since Oathblade is Keen already, and take IC at 27 to qualify for OC at 30, before you switch to an endgame longsword.

KT is the same number of feats as Khopesh Proficiency.

Longswords give you better options up until cap, when Calamity is competitive with longswords (though arguably they're equal, you could stay Longsword as well). There's zero reason to take Khopesh until you're at cap, with a Calamity in hand, at which time you can swap KT for Khop Prof at Fred and be good to switch over.

And, like I said, going KT has the advantage of Oathblade already being Keen, which means you can push your IC:Slashing feat back until right before cap, allowing you to front-load other things first. Going Khop early would mean you need to also take your IC feat earlier, which means not getting something else.