An ultimate caster druid build: awesome damage; DC; heal

[Pilgrim1]

Just out of curiosity. Will you go back to hybrid wolf or play this for a bit? Also if you want to go fire route, you can pick teifling and then use fire spell power in place of cold/acid/electricity. This way as spiral cycles you have > 1000 SP in all of them and the crit chance bonus cycles off spiral too, so you're good for all elemental damage. I suppose you could have multiple LGS crit multiplier items to cycle through too. Then you'd be a master of all elements.

Finally, how did you spend enhancement points outside of racial and season's herald? Did you go NW for prey on the weak or Falconry for No mercy helpless damage or did you not have enough left over?

I currently have a first life 30 druid with all the Sharn items, just no raid items. I'm trying to make some decisions of where to go next. Thanks in advance for any input.

1) At some point ill go back to a hybrid wolf (or bear), but thats because i really enjoy playing that stile. A dc bear would make a amazing cc/tanky/healer toon especially for thoes toons with lower investment. At this point i would say that the caster druid is much more effective for quests, especially quests with clumps of mobs because of the amount of AoE the toon can put out. I would say single target dps is still higher for the wolf caster however. The ice caster has a lower entry point, however having the staff is HUGE. I would say it ups your damage by 25%. And it takes shisiusum shards which take an investment to get.

2) From my understanding of teafling only the spell power gets transferred over, not the critical chance. And defently not the caster level increases. However it may be worthwhile to look into.

3) I put 41 AP into SH then 8 i think into NP for the defensive stance. 23ish into falconry for the wisdom, helpless dmg boost, and other goodies. And the leftovers into racial.

On a first life toon i would prioritize evocation dc as much as possible because it sucks so much when stuff saves vs your spells. You can prioritize cc by laying down earthquake, sleet storm, BOGW, and sunburst to make most mobs worthless. Remember to that while draconic provides the best dps its dc is worse then magister and primal.

If your having difficulty with bosses on low reaper situations you can set up your pet (with no feat investment) to tank. I was having my pet tank some r5 ravenloft bosses. I haven’t tried using the pet since ravenloft however.

[Tilomere]

I'm very impressed you would take an offstat ED and ability set and build it into your build and make it work! +1

[Marcb81]

2) From my understanding of teafling only the spell power gets transferred over, not the critical chance. And defently not the caster level increases. However it may be worthwhile to look into.

I wasn't very clear. I don't think caster levels or crit benefits are obtained from Teifling. I just meant that you get the spell power boost from fire to another school from the racial tree and exceptional spell crit and caster levels from the rotating elemental spiral buff. This way when spiral rotates from fire to cold, for example, you still get fire spell power applied to cold and 5 caster levels and 20% exceptional crit chance from spiral. The problem is that you still need to rotate the equipment crit chance and crit multiplier bonuses to keep up with elemental's rotation.

3) I put 41 AP into SH then 8 i think into NP for the defensive stance. 23ish into falconry for the wisdom, helpless dmg boost, and other goodies. And the leftovers into racial.

On a first life toon i would prioritize evocation dc as much as possible because it sucks so much when stuff saves vs your spells. You can prioritize cc by laying down earthquake, sleet storm, BOGW, and sunburst to make most mobs worthless. Remember to that while draconic provides the best dps its dc is worse then magister and primal.

If your having difficulty with bosses on low reaper situations you can set up your pet (with no feat investment) to tank. I was having my pet tank some r5 ravenloft bosses. I haven’t tried using the pet since ravenloft however.

Thank you very much for your thoughts. I would love to hear more about pet tanking without feats. I never summon mine because it always dies.

Sincerely,
Marc

[jasonayoung]

Thanks for sharing this! I love playing caster druids and mine is a dragon born as well.

Can you please break down your evo DC of 108 for me? I'm trying but can't get there.

Thanks!

[SirValentine]

Can you please break down your evo DC of 108 for me? I'm trying but can't get there.

I can't give you the OP's 108 or 109, but here's a rough breakdown for a 136 Evo DC:
(Note this is pretty different from the OP's build, because he's very focused on nuking, not really so much on DC casting. Just a different play-style.)
EDIT: Just saw that the OP had actually included their break-down up-thread, so not sure why you asked. :-) And they're including debuff as DC...so you could call this one 140 DC.

Wisdom:
"Base"
18 Base
2 Racial adjustment
8 Tome
7 Level-ups
35 Sub-total "Base"

"Feats & Enhancements"
2 Racial PLs
2 Complete Classist
2 Complete Racist
9 Enhancements
0 Destiny
2 (Epic) Feats
3 Twists
1 Reaper core
4 In Reaper
25 Sub-total "Feats & Enhancements"

"Items & Effects"
22 Enhancement
10 Insightful
5 Quality
2 Alchemical
2 Profane
2 Festival
1 Exceptional
2 Reaper Helm
2 Guild buff
4 Artifact
2 Lasting/Remnant potion
2 Yugo potion
2 Acute Instincts (Twist) + Rage (e.g., potion)
9 Filligree
67 Sub-total "Items &Effects"

127 Total Wisdom = +58 Wisdom Bonus to DC



DC
19 Base (w. Heigten)
2 Embolden
9 Equipment
4 Insightful
2 Quality
2 Augment
2 Profane
2 Enhancements
3 Spell Focus feat chain
1 Wiz PL feat
6 Magister Cores
6 Magister School Specialist chain
2 Twist (Draconic Precise)
1 Ship buff
4 Legendary feat
2 Sentient set bonus
4 Artifact (set) bonus
3 Passive PL bonus
4 In Reaper
78 Sub-total DC
58 Wisdom (see above)
136 Total Sustainable (actual) DC

4 Mantle of the Icy Soul Debuff
140 Effective DC

[tpbtoc]

Is the current gear for the build still the same as OP?

[SirValentine]

Quoting a person whose name I'm omitting to protect the guilty:

Regarding filigrees, probably I will prefer this setup:
ARTIFACT
- Celerity/Vigilance: +2 Wisdom
- Eye of the Beholder: Wisdom
- Frozen Wanderer: Wisdom
WEAPON
- Celerity/Vigilance: +2 Wisdom
- Eye of the Beholder: Wisdom
...
- Frozen Wanderer: Wisdom

If that is currently working, it's a exploit of a bug. You probably don't want to openly post about doing it.

The U42 release notes specifically said:
"The same Filigree slotted into your Minor Artifact and Sentient Weapon do not stack with each other, although both will count towards Set Bonus requirements."

[Marcb81]

Is the current gear for the build still the same as OP?

I don't think so.

The best gear now would probably involve

- Leg. Sunken Slippers with +5 Qual Wis

The cannith trinket isn't needed since Ins glaciation isn't high enough to be worth it with Ins Potency from slippers.

Trinket is prob. best as
Slavelord trinket - +17 Int, Spellcraft, Resistance, +4 Qual Con

The LGS cold crit mult item should prob be moved to cloak position.

Probably have to lose the second LGS item. The rest is probably still best endgame gear.

Results are
Arcsteel Brim
Collective Sight (Con + Ins Con)
Azure Sky (Sea only adds 1% cold crit chance and doesn't stack with reflection for cold caster lvl making sky a better choice)
SL Trinket (as above)
Hruit Armor
Wis minor artifact Bracers
LGS cloak (cold crit)
Thrummingspark Cord
Shattered Onyx
Clouded Dreams
Sunken Slippers
Sunstone Gauntlets
Reflection of Wave

This is actually the setup on my current build except I have qual Int on SL item (probably a mistake), but Draconic Evo DC is over 100, which is not bad for Wis based caster.

Marc

[Kebtid]

I can't give you the OP's 108 or 109, but here's a rough breakdown for a 136 Evo DC:
(Note this is pretty different from the OP's build, because he's very focused on nuking, not really so much on DC casting. Just a different play-style.)
EDIT: Just saw that the OP had actually included their break-down up-thread, so not sure why you asked. :-) And they're including debuff as DC...so you could call this one 140 DC.

Wisdom:
"Base"
18 Base
2 Racial adjustment
8 Tome
7 Level-ups
35 Sub-total "Base"

"Feats & Enhancements"
2 Racial PLs
2 Complete Classist
2 Complete Racist
9 Enhancements
0 Destiny
2 (Epic) Feats
3 Twists
1 Reaper core
4 In Reaper
25 Sub-total "Feats & Enhancements"

"Items & Effects"
22 Enhancement
10 Insightful
5 Quality
2 Alchemical
2 Profane
2 Festival
1 Exceptional
2 Reaper Helm
2 Guild buff
4 Artifact
2 Lasting/Remnant potion
2 Yugo potion
2 Acute Instincts (Twist) + Rage (e.g., potion)
9 Filligree
67 Sub-total "Items &Effects"

127 Total Wisdom = +58 Wisdom Bonus to DC



DC
19 Base (w. Heigten)
2 Embolden
9 Equipment
4 Insightful
2 Quality
2 Augment
2 Profane
2 Enhancements
3 Spell Focus feat chain
1 Wiz PL feat
6 Magister Cores
6 Magister School Specialist chain
2 Twist (Draconic Precise)
1 Ship buff
4 Legendary feat
2 Sentient set bonus
4 Artifact (set) bonus
3 Passive PL bonus
4 In Reaper
78 Sub-total DC
58 Wisdom (see above)
136 Total Sustainable (actual) DC

4 Mantle of the Icy Soul Debuff
140 Effective DC

I see what you did there

[SirValentine]

I see what you did there

Um...yeah. I posted a max(?*) DC breakdown. To help out the guy who said he can't get there on DCs. If I didn't want people to see it, I wouldn't post it in a public forum.

*I think max. It's possible I missed something.

[tpbtoc]

I don't think so.

The best gear now would probably involve

- Leg. Sunken Slippers with +5 Qual Wis

The cannith trinket isn't needed since Ins glaciation isn't high enough to be worth it with Ins Potency from slippers.

Trinket is prob. best as
Slavelord trinket - +17 Int, Spellcraft, Resistance, +4 Qual Con

The LGS cold crit mult item should prob be moved to cloak position.

Probably have to lose the second LGS item. The rest is probably still best endgame gear.

Results are
Arcsteel Brim
Collective Sight (Con + Ins Con)
Azure Sky (Sea only adds 1% cold crit chance and doesn't stack with reflection for cold caster lvl making sky a better choice)
SL Trinket (as above)
Hruit Armor
Wis minor artifact Bracers
LGS cloak (cold crit)
Thrummingspark Cord
Shattered Onyx
Clouded Dreams
Sunken Slippers
Sunstone Gauntlets
Reflection of Wave

This is actually the setup on my current build except I have qual Int on SL item (probably a mistake), but Draconic Evo DC is over 100, which is not bad for Wis based caster.

Marc

I asked a question about a cloak but edited the post, I already have the answer to it.

Also, what is the maximum WIS you are getting?

[Marcb81]

I asked a question about a cloak but edited the post, I already have the answer to it.

Also, what is the maximum WIS you are getting?

Low 90's in reaper. It's hard not getting anything from destiny. Do have +8 Wis tome and +2 Wis filigree. If you have triple completionist, you could get to 100 without compromising the rest of the build.

Marc

[tpbtoc]

Low 90's in reaper. It's hard not getting anything from destiny. Do have +8 Wis tome and +2 Wis filigree. If you have triple completionist, you could get to 100 without compromising the rest of the build.

Marc

How do you get to 100? I am triple everything and get 87 on reaper. I still have to get boot for +5, use festive diamond for +2 and the 2 raid filigress for +4. That would be 98.

Also, is 100 enough? And have you tried playing on Primal? Does it suck?

[Marcb81]

My plan would look something like

18 base
7 lvls
= 25

22 Enh (Minor Artifact bracer)
10 Ins (Shattered Onyx) Thanks for pointing out my prior mistake!
5 Qual (Sunken Slippers)
2 Festive (Augment)
1 Exc (Globe)
4 Artifact (Hruit's Set)

= 69

8 Tome

= 77

2 Ship Buffs
5 Reaper

= 84

4 Seasons Herald (41 pts for cap so 2 in tree plus cap for 4 total)
1 Falconry (If you have racial AP can get at least first point of wis)
2 Class completionist
2 Racial Completionist
2 Wis from racial past lives

= 95

4 Sentient (+2 Wis filigree, +1 Wis frozen wanderer, +1 Eye; I prefer Ottox4, Eyex4, Frozen Wand x2, +2 Wis to max Evo DC with 2x +2 Int for Eye for Draconic DCs)

= 99

If you have enough destiny points, you can also twist in Acute Instincts for 101 total. Reaper helm would be extra. If you had +1 Racial AP Tome and +1Universal Tome you could probably eek out a +1 Ws from NW enhancement tree too, but it's likely not worth it (better to get prey on weak at that point).

As far as if 100 Wis is enough that depends. If you're only running R10 Sharn, it might be best to run magister and where hallowed trail for +9 Evo, this adds 8 to DCs total. In most content the build in Draconic will work well. With everything triple completionist etc you should be aiming for 115 Wis based Evo DC up to 119 with mantle debuff. This should be enough for high end Sharn reaper, though I can't test it.

I've never tried primal, but this build is really only good at dps primarily b/c of Draconic. Switching to Primal means loosing breath weapon, energy vortex, and needing to twist in energy burst. Unless you build a hybrid that can run wolf/bear and cast, it's likely not worth it.

Since you have much more stuff than I do, do you happen to know if energy vortex will proc LGS weapons (ooze, dust, etc.)?

Sincerely,
Marc

[tpbtoc]

Since you have much more stuff than I do, do you happen to know if energy vortex will proc LGS weapons (ooze, dust, etc.)?

Sincerely,
Marc

I do not have the LGS to test it, and not sure if I will craft it unless I stay on this build

[SirValentine]

11 Ins (Shattered Onyx)

Note that's only +10, not +11.

Other things you could add:
+2 stat Profane item
Yugoloth +2 Wis potion (need favor, bought with plat)
Lasting +2 Wis potions (bought with Remnants)

[Marcb81]

Note that's only +10, not +11.

Other things you could add:
+2 stat Profane item
Yugoloth +2 Wis potion (need favor, bought with plat)
Lasting +2 Wis potions (bought with Remnants)

Thanks for correcting my oversight, on insight bonus!! I didn't include temp bonuses such as pots or reaper hat bonuses/etc.

I didn't include profane Ws bonus because I couldn't figure out how to slot it in. Do you have ideas?

I think the important thing is that with triple completionist R10 sharn seems doable while running in draconic even without ED Wis bonuses and while taking scion of fire instead of Air. My hats off to the OP for coming up with this. Hope this is still end-game capable when level is increased above 30.

Overall, the build still doesn't do nearly the same damage as a sorc, but you get to run in heavy armor with good PRR and MRR with better heals and EQ. If I had triple completionist though, I would strongly consider PM. Would be a better build at the moment.

Sincerely,
Marc

[SirValentine]

I didn't include profane Ws bonus because I couldn't figure out how to slot it in. Do you have ideas?

It depends on the rest of your gear layout, but cloak or ring would probably be the easiest to both find, to fit in, and be useful for more than just the +2 Profane stats.

• Ring would be Celestial Sapphire, which also gives you Dodge and you can craft on +21 Con (among other choices). This is out for me, as my rings are taken by my artifact and the Shattered Onyx.
• Trinket slot, the Epic Litany of the Dead. I use this simply because I have it, but the raid it comes from is seldom run anymore, and it's probably no longer the best choice anyway.
• Cloak would be Black Velvet Capelet, which also gives you +21 Int. I'm considering swapping to this. Don't let the Boon of Undeath scare you; you can cast Deathward on yourself!
• Bluescale Guides (Gloves) look awesome, and I'd use them if I had them, but that raid is seldom run.
• Helm is potentially an option via the Umber Brim. I have a different helm giving me a Reaper bonus; an Umber Brim with a Reaper bonus would be ideal for me, to cover 2 requirements in one.

[Marcb81]

It depends on the rest of your gear layout, but cloak or ring would probably be the easiest to both find, to fit in, and be useful for more than just the +2 Profane stats.

• Ring would be Celestial Sapphire, which also gives you Dodge and you can craft on +21 Con (among other choices). This is out for me, as my rings are taken by my artifact and the Shattered Onyx.
• Trinket slot, the Epic Litany of the Dead. I use this simply because I have it, but the raid it comes from is seldom run anymore, and it's probably no longer the best choice anyway.
• Cloak would be Black Velvet Capelet, which also gives you +21 Int. I'm considering swapping to this. Don't let the Boon of Undeath scare you; you can cast Deathward on yourself!
• Bluescale Guides (Gloves) look awesome, and I'd use them if I had them, but that raid is seldom run.
• Helm is potentially an option via the Umber Brim. I have a different helm giving me a Reaper bonus; an Umber Brim with a Reaper bonus would be ideal for me, to cover 2 requirements in one.

Thanks for your thoughts! I hadn't considered the cloak + deathblock, so thanks for that. I thought of the other items, but I guess I don't really want to give up my other slots for these. Losing gloves means not having Hruits, which is not an option. Umber Brim means finding room for Evo+9 or SFM +7 and losing a ton of MRR from arcsteel brim. I have celestial sapphire, but won't give up clouded dreams or shattered onyx. Even the cloak requires me to give up 35 cold crit mult, but it's the best option I think.

I did want to mention something else people aren't discussing. I have tried to increase Int to see how high I can get the draconic DCs, and I think it might be possible. My Int build is as follows

Dragonborn


Int
14 base
+17 SL trinket
+4 Qual SL Trinket
+2 Ins Augment
+2 Festive Augm
+1 Exc Globe Augment
+7 Filigree (+2 Int x2 Eye, +1 Int Eye, +1 Frozen Wand, +1 Otto)
+8 Tome
+2 Ship Buff

+23 mod

Breath Weapon Evo DC

30 base (Draconic Inc)
7 SFM
4 Ins SFM
2 Qual SFM
2 Profane SFM
2 Greater Evo
4 Sentient
3 Artifact
5 Reaper
3 Racial Evo DC
3 Racial BW DC
2 SHerald
1 Ship Buff
2 Embolden Spell
3 SF Evo Chain
3 Evo Twist Magister
1 Wz PL
3 Sorc PL
4 Mantle debuff

= 107 with Debuff

This only gets +2 Ins Int from augment and uses SL trinket for +21 Int (17 + 4 Qual). If you were willing to loose +10 Ins Con from Collective Sight or trade cloak for Silver Dragonscale Capelet (THTH +10 Ins Int cape), then you could get another +4 DC. If instead you chose an Evo DC Scion feat that's another +4. This doesn't include pots, completionist Int boosts, or Reaper DC charges. It also doesn't include Evo Augment twist for sporadic +10 DC (-10 reflex save) or the debuff to Reflex saves from being prone from EQ or tsunami. There are lots of slight variations on this build that could easily make the Int DCs high enough without seriously compromising EQ DC, heals, or significant nuking.

I think a good compromise would be to run Scion of Fire for crit mult but keep the cloak as a flex slot with cold crit mult LGS for mid reaper and hallowed trail or silver dragonscale for R7-8+ while still running in Draconic. This way Draconic and EQ DCs are all around or above 110 (with debuff) while not seriously compromising damage output.

Compared to the original build, this version loses 50 cold SP from Frozen Wanderer x4, 5 spell crit mult from coalesced magic (approximately 5% dps loss), and extra spell points from second LGS item, but gains more than 20 Int DC (SL and Dragonscale cape for 31 Int, 6 Int from Sent filigrees, 4 DC from sentient set bonuses, etc). I believe that several builds will find this enough to make Int Evo DCs work in high reaper even on a druid. I think the value in this approach is two-fold. Clearly, it helps a lot with evasion mobs if the DCs are high enough to prevent complete damage mitigation some amount of the time, and if you change your DC fail rate from 100% (DC in the 80's) to an unrealistically high 95% with DCs around 110-115 (meaning mobs only fail saves 5% of the time) you effectively make up for the 5% dps loss on average by doing effectively double damage 5% of the time.

Sincerely,
Marc

[Ultinoob]

I am trying out this build as we speak. made some minor modifications and have not tried it in heroics, but i am really liking it.