Return of the Undead Shiradi Sorc

[Tilomere]

If you want undead why not go abyssal and warlock?

Oh, I have plans for warlock! But alas, limited time, so I dunno when I'll get to it!

[Mairsil]

In your example gear you have different Legendary Green Steel in your 24-26 pic than your 28 pic, but the 29 pic uses the 24-26. Is that just an oversight, or just sample of different things you could do?

[Tilomere]

In your example gear you have different Legendary Green Steel in your 24-26 pic than your 28 pic, but the 29 pic uses the 24-26. Is that just an oversight, or just sample of different things you could do?

Different things you can do at different levels. I use LGS as filler when I don't have anything else I really want in a slot. I updated 29, and added in a pair of swap items you can use to boost death auras. The death aura swap gear combines with supremacy to cast death auras for 100% crit at around quadruple damage based on MoK stacks, while also having a solid duration and base healing due to extra 3 caster levels from illusory death on helm and 1 caster level from swap in main hand sentience.



I wanted to boost self-healing because I noticed there was a lack of healers at cap as well as leveling. Death aura ticks for more in elite now than my character's max hp. Didn't get lesser death aura in the supremacy:



I don't think I'll have time to get to warlock version before U51.

[Mairsil]

[QUOTE=Tilomere;6438103]Different things you can do at different levels. I use LGS as filler when I don't have anything else I really want in a slot. I updated 29, and added in a pair of swap items you can use to boost death auras. The death aura swap gear combines with supremacy to cast death auras for 100% crit at around triple damage based on MoK stacks, while also having a solid duration and base healing due to extra 3 caster levels from illusory death on helm and 1 caster level from swap in main hand sentience.

I see! Thanks, much appreciated.

[LurkingVeteran]

A wizard variant of this build can be found here.

So um, first off, credit where credit is due. This build was originally pioneered by Eth, and you can see the original here.

You start this build off as a DG, due to starting closer to 20. You start with 12 sorc and 3 wiz levels, max + levels charisma till 19, then levels con, good int and con, and act as a self-healing air savant vampire nuker, with negative, sonic, fireball, and fan of knives as non-lightning backup nukes, as well as dual stat DC casting of PK. Racial AP gets color spray, and decent int and PL and gear will make it work as well for AoE helpless CC. If you don't have racial AP you can just take color spray as a sorc spell for some AoE CC.



With 12 base sorc levels and +4 caster levels from savant and +2 caster levels from arcane augmentation on staff you cast lightning spells at level 18. Which maxes out ball lightning, lightning bolt, and electric loop, and almost maxes out chain lightning. Combined with AoE helpless from racial AP color spray and self-healing and undead immunities, you basically annihilate heroics. Gear sets for levels 15-30 are at the end of this post. You may need some ranks in UMD depending on character progression. Get some tumble ranks as well. You will use Cloak of Night a lot in combat, and being able to tumble around while using it is really nice.

This gets you to 20. At 20 you have the choice of staying lightning in Draconic or Magistar or swapping spells with a Blood of Dragons or just your level 6 spell to Tensor's Transformation for full BaB, and swap into a shiradi caster setup. Use Stay Frosty From Shiradi as your Shiradi stance. Twists are whatever you want, but Tsunami appears to proc everything (Thx o2t4f!), Sense Weakness, Arcane Hymn, Empyrean, or Imperceptible Casting are all great calls. I think it is best to swap around level 21 to Shiradi when I swap from House K (low mob saves) to Legendary reaper (high mob saves) mid-high skull leveling, but you can just swap at 20 if you want:



It simplifies your screen to put your death auras and other short term buffs on a hidden toolbar, and bind them to your number pad, so you can run your hand up the pad to rebuff them as you are running around between fights. Try to rebuff death aura when you see arcane supremacy proc! You can try force missiles at level 4 instead of DDoor if you want.

Then you level in whatever dungeons has drops you want. I do house K for tokens of the twelve and bank space, then go into legendary R6-8 for SXP and RXP. Start with legendary R4 with a small group, then go to legendary R6+ as the group fills based on the characters that fill it. If you want, you can go directly into legendary midskull-high skulls reaper at 20 on a well built and geared character. Start with lower level legendary quests first, moving up to more difficult quests as you level. Grab PUG 28+ players if you want legendary R6, or 20-30 players if you want to stay in legendary R4.

Your rotation are various missile spells and SLAs, arcane blast, sprinkled in with Gust of Wind SLA to slow mobs down, and some Sleet Storm/Grease for when you want even slower mobs. Since your damage are procs, even Gust of Wind, Sleet Storm, and Grease end up being fairly lethal spells. Your "big nuke" is fan of knives for when you see a group of clumped mobs. Swap to Lich at 20 since we are no longer charisma DC casting.

Here is where those bow feats come in handy. They combine with Tensor's full BaB to raise your ranged power, which raises your Shiradi proc damage and Fan of Knives damage (which both scale off of spell power, ranged power, spell crit, and spell crit multiplier). At cap, you can add in some Elemental Attunement procs, and this is roughly how the math works out, for those interested:



If you twist Tsunami you can build more MoK stacks and deal even more damage! (Thx o2t4f!) I might also be off by unlisted proc% chances on elemental procs. Again sentience a ton of ranged power!

This isn't an uber build, but since it is no-save damage and CC with some self-healing, it should work for non-ubers fairly well. If you want more hybrid, you can try out manyshot instead of completionist at 15 and combat archery at 30 with Hunt's End, with dex 17 by 30.

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Gear (open images in new window to zoom):

Interesting build. I didn't know shiradi double-scaled like Fan. Is it only for the spell procs, not melee-based procs?

Where do you get 570 Ranged Power on a caster build anyway? That seems to be the key concern.

Losing out on Meteor seems like a bad idea, it's both much higher base damage, AoE, and multiple hits.

Not sure I would go PM. If you are ditching the capstone you might as well go *forged as Sorc. Reconstruction heals for much more than Death Aura and you can get two of them. This also means you can ditch Wizard and get Meteor.

Tusnami procing MoK is an interesting bug, if it's enough to build MoK by itself it would boost any caster build, but I suspect you need at least the first arcane attack. Since Hellball previously also had this problem, it makes me wonder if other epic spells still do. Regardless, this means Druid just got a buff since their capstone isn't as essential as Sorc and pick up T3 AM. Ice Flowers also hits twice so might be worth using with Shiradi. Not sure how it works with Fire Seeds. The druid version could alternatively pick up 6 Monk for TTS Wisdom-to-RP if you don't care for bow.

Shiradi seems most promising on a Warlock build though. EB gets 3 procs / second AoE, and they don't lose much by going Shiradi.

[Tilomere]

Where do you get 570 Ranged Power on a caster build anyway?

Just 285 because it is 200% ranged power scaling! If I put together a 30 set it would be 305 with 20 crypt raider set. I'm not sure what is the best shiradi build, but I know I did enjoy shiradi alchemist/warlock last time I played it!

[kaipan]

Interesting build. I didn't know shiradi double-scaled like Fan. Is it only for the spell procs, not melee-based procs?

Do shiradi procs still use both spellpower and ranged power for scaling? Is it WAI?

I always assumed they only scaled with 200% RP, not also SP... that seems insane.

[Tilomere]

Do shiradi procs still use both spellpower and ranged power for scaling? Is it WAI?

I always assumed they only scaled with 200% RP, not also SP... that seems insane.

Last I checked yes. As far as I can tell yes.

Cold + Sonic + force procs average 10.5 damage/hit before scaling. If they didn't double scale they would be pointless, which is how they were before and why you haven't seen shiradi caster builds posted for years.

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I just realized something, I may be able to double down on certain spell casts by using Bottled Rainstorm's Quench spell proc. If my spell procs another spell, both might get Shiradi procs? I think I have one of these on an alt somewhere to test. I wonder if a cold warlock would double shiradi proc with this then?

[Gnominal_Aphasia]

Out of interest, does anyone know if Fairy Fire and Melf's Acid Arrow proc Shiradi adds? And do all dot spells also [have a chance of] proc Shiradi adds? If somebody knows of an updated list of spells/abilities that do proc (with no save) that would be great. Thanks.

[Tilomere]

Out of interest, does anyone know if Fairy Fire and Melf's Acid Arrow proc Shiradi adds? And do all dot spells also [have a chance of] proc Shiradi adds? If somebody knows of an updated list of spells/abilities that do proc (with no save) that would be great. Thanks.

Shiradi applies on spell hit, so yea, those should both work. Shiradi does not generally apply on dot ticks, so I think only one proc chance on that acid arrow. Divine Punishment may be special, but I forget how it has been too long.

I like Tsunami, hellball, gust of wind, sleet storm, missiles, meteors, and death auras (non-evadable). Arcane blast and bolt have saves, but an arcane blast tossed into a group of mobs will generally hit some things. Arcane bolt is nice on raid bosses, since few of them have evasion.

Oh, and poison multivial and eldritch wave are nice too. As is PL:Wiz. I think Gust of Wind SLA is my favorite. It is just sooo gooooood.

[Gnominal_Aphasia]

Good to know... but that leaves me a few more questions

You wrote...

Here is where those bow feats come in handy. They combine with Tensor's full BaB to raise your ranged power, which raises your Shiradi proc damage and Fan of Knives damage (which both scale off of spell power, ranged power, spell crit, and spell crit multiplier).

Why not use Divine Power scrolls instead of Tenser's Transformation as you wouldn't suffer from the double spell-casting cooldowns? Am I missing something?

Your second image shows you selecting Efficient Maximize from both AM and AoV... do these really combine? I did some testing a while ago and found that only Sorc and one Wizard tree [AS + AM] combined while the other class combos had the second tree's efficient maximize greyed out... I probably didn't test out the Sorc/FvS combination as I was trying to focus on a druid build. I'm going to check that now...

EDIT.. wow... Efficient Maximize from AM and AoV do stack. Nice one!

[Tilomere]

Why not use Divine Power scrolls instead of Tenser's Transformation as you wouldn't suffer from the double spell-casting cooldowns? Am I missing something?

Hmm, I know the scroll of Tensor's has double pell cooldowns, but i'm not sure spell does? You seem to be right, and no Tensor's, which would make divine power spell from 4 FvS better then. Didn't really have any issues with cooldowns due to all the diff slas to weave between spells (FoK, missilex2, gust of wind, arcane blast, tsunami). I'll edit OP!

I think I'll remake this build when HW comes out to be more streamlined. I'm thinking fleshy due to R10 self-healing penalty. Will eliminate EK and PM trees as too weak. Eliminate bows and tenser's as messing with rotation too much.

Probably go Aasimar for HAmp with U50 nerfs to healing (spell power x spell crit x spell multiplier x HAMP nerfs are gona hit healing the hardest out of all the itemization changes).

Fleshy Shiradi Sorc

(level as undead with some AoE moved to Vampire), fleshy in R10 at cap.

10 Sorc, 6 Wiz, 4 FvS Fleshy (aasimar for HAmp) Vol, Aasimar Fallen

34 Archmage
12 VKF Fan of Knives
3 + 15 racial Aasimar Fallen Scourge 60 HAmp + Ranged Power + Healing Hands + Spell Points
28 AoV Just Rewards (implement daggers/use offhand LGS Vacuum dagger), Main Hand Dusk
3? Stuffos.

Eliminate bow feats > swap to WF:R and WF:T for ranged power and SoTR (dodge/mobility/PBS). As 6 heroic feats, leaves 2 wiz and 1 more for Max/Emp/Quicken. Don't like HW standing still, so didn't end up using it.

Drop epic DR for enlarge, get it as soon as you start doing legendary high reaper (level 21 if you want to level in legendary high reaper).

Hmm, anyway I slice it, Wiz is just a better force caster.

[Tilomere]

Added hypothetical level 30 gear set in to end of OP.

[Wanker]

Added hypothetical level 30 gear set in to end of OP.

Quick question, why Stay Frosty over something like the Prism line from Shiradi?

[Tilomere]

Quick question, why Stay Frosty over something like the Prism line from Shiradi?

To select the scaling, damage type, and CC consistency. It just ends up working better, at least for me. You can try both see what you like better. Updated OP level 30 gear set for magma armor.

I could be wrong again though, like with tensers. This build isn't as highly refined as normal. I got it to the point it could demolish heroics and level in legendary R8 pre-stat squish as an epic character, figured it was good enough to help people struggling to dps on an arcane.

[Wanker]

To select the scaling, damage type, and CC consistency. It just ends up working better, at least for me. You can try both see what you like better. Updated OP level 30 gear set for magma armor.

I could be wrong again though, like with tensers. This build isn't as highly refined as normal. I got it to the point it could demolish heroics and level in legendary R8 pre-stat squish as an epic character, figured it was good enough to help people struggling to dps on an arcane.

Got it; thank you!

Another quick question, with this build (force spells and the two Feydark illusion offensive dps spells) do Evocation DCs matter or is it really all about spell power, crit chance and crit damage?

I have a lvl 30 Wizard currently running Magister for Arcane Tempest and the DC's, but am thinking about swapping in two FVS levels and Shiradi if it will get me better DPS.

[Tilomere]

Another quick question, with this build (force spells and the two Feydark illusion offensive dps spells) do Evocation DCs matter or is it really all about spell power, crit chance and crit damage? .

I've played with pure dps shiradi casters, and also DC/DPS Shiradi wizards that can still land some mass hold in high reaper but have less DPS. You sort of figure out the balance of DC/DPS/Tank you like, as you take a stab at the build then refine it to what you like best over lives.

Some evocation DCs for meteor on wizard version is good as well. Definitely evocation DC gearing (well spell focus mastery gearing) in heroics when you are evocation nuking things down.

A mid 90's evo or enchant DC will land on 70% or so of stuff in high reaper. That being said, 0 also works just fine.

[Wanker]

I've played with pure dps shiradi casters, and also DC/DPS Shiradi wizards that can still land some mass hold in high reaper but have less DPS. You sort of figure out the balance of DC/DPS/Tank you like, as you take a stab at the build then refine it to what you like best over lives.

Some evocation DCs for meteor on wizard version is good as well. Definitely evocation DC gearing (well spell focus mastery gearing) in heroics when you are evocation nuking things down.

A mid 90's evo or enchant DC will land on 70% or so of stuff in high reaper. That being said, 0 also works just fine.

Thank you; so, DC helps, but is not critical.