The Wizard Spell Dice Archer

[Djoe]

Hello there! I wanted to share an original build that I had a lot of fun playing. This build isn't optimizing any hidden DPS secrets, nor am I claiming it to be the strongest way to shoot an arrow. The general gist is to get the most out of spell dice for an archer, mixing the arcane archer (AA) tree and the eldritch knight (EK) tree to get huge amounts of elemental damage. This build is a lot better if done on a character with many racial points, since enhancements are spread pretty thin, and 14 points have to go to the racial tree to unlock AA. I would recommend playing this as a morninglord since you can skip the first 15 levels of putting points into weird places and get to a point where you can actually use a bow effectively, however one could make the build work as a normal level 1 elf.

I played this build a little bit differently than what is written, as at level 2 I took a fighter level instead of rogue, and if I were to do it again, I would definitely use acid as my main elemental damage type, instead of electric. I also played this build right as update 50 came out, and I TR'd out of it before update 51, so the epic destiny section is what I would use now.

Please, leave a comment if you have a suggestion on how I might be able to improve my future builds: you are probably a lot more experienced that I!

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Character name: WizardSpellDiceArcher-MorningLord Version
Classes: 18 Wizard, 10 Epic, 1 Cleric, 1 Rogue
Race: Morninglord · · · · ·Alignment: Neutral

· · ·Start Tome Final · · ·Incorp:· · 14% · · ·Displacement:· ·50%
Str:· · 10· · 8 · ·18 · · ·HP:· · · ·1508 · · ·AC:· · 88
Dex:· · 14· · 8 · ·22 · · ·PRR: · · · 112
Con:· · 14· · 8 · ·49 · · ·MRR: · · · ·54 · · ·+Healing Amp:· ·103
Int:· · 20· · 8 · ·69 · · ·Dodge: · 22/25 · · ·-Healing Amp:· ·119
Wis:· · 10· · 8 · ·18 · · ·Fort:· · ·242% · · ·Repair Amp:· · · 30
Cha:· · ·8· · 8 · ·16 · · ·SR:· · · · · 0 · · ·BAB: · · · · · · 30
DR: 10\Cold Iron
Immunities: Sleep, Feather Fall, Fear, Freedome of Movement, Air Elemental Knockdown

Class and Feat Selection
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Level Class · · · · · ·Feats
1 · · Cleric(1) · · · ·Standard: Point Blank Shot
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Follower of Faith: Favored by Amaunator
2 · · Rogue(1)· · · · ·
3 · · Wizard(1) · · · ·Standard: Precise Shot
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Metamagic: Spell Focus: Evocation
4 · · Wizard(2) · · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
5 · · Wizard(3) · · · ·
6 · · Wizard(4) · · · ·Standard: Rapid Shot
7 · · Wizard(5) · · · ·Metamagic: Extend Spell
8 · · Wizard(6) · · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
9 · · Wizard(7) · · · ·Standard: Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
10· · Wizard(8) · · · ·
11· · Wizard(9) · · · ·
12· · Wizard(10)· · · ·Standard: Precision
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Metamagic: Maximize Spell
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
13· · Wizard(11)· · · ·
14· · Wizard(12)· · · ·
15· · Wizard(13)· · · ·Standard: Manyshot
16· · Wizard(14)· · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
17· · Wizard(15)· · · ·Metamagic: Empower Spell
18· · Wizard(16)· · · ·Standard: Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons
19· · Wizard(17)· · · ·
20· · Wizard(18)· · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
21· · Epic(1) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Combat Archery
22· · Epic(2) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Epic Spell Power: Electric
23· · Epic(3) · · · · ·
24· · Epic(4) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Overwhelming Critical
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
25· · Epic(5) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Toughness
26· · Epic(6) · · · · ·
27· · Epic(7) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Improved Precise Shot
28· · Epic(8) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Doubleshot
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Intelligence: +1 Level up
29· · Epic(9) · · · · ·
30· · Epic(10)· · · · ·Epic Feat: Epic Toughness
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Legendary: Scion of Arborea

Enhancements: 80 APs
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Morninglord - Points spent: 14
1 Core ·(1) Accuracy I
2 Core ·(2) Intelligence I
3 Core ·(1) Accuracy II
4 Core ·(2) Intelligence II
5 Tier2 (2) Arcanum
6 Tier2 (2) Arcanum
7 Tier3 (4) Arcane Archer
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Arcane Archer (Elf) - Points spent: 27
1 Core ·(1) rcane Archer (Elf)
2 Tier1 (2) Elemental Arrows I: Shock Arrows
3 Tier1 (1) Energy of the Wild
4 Tier1 (1) Energy of the Wild
5 Core ·(1) Morphic Arrows
6 Tier1 (1) Energy of the Wild
7 Tier1 (1) Awareness
8 Tier2 (2) Elemental Arrows II: Elemental Damage
9 Tier3 (2) Elemental Arrows III: Elemental Damage
10 Tier3 (1) Soul Magic
11 Core ·(1) Metalline Arrows
12 Tier1 (1) Awareness
13 Tier3 (1) Shattermantle Shot
14 Tier3 (1) Shattermantle Shot
15 Tier3 (1) Shattermantle Shot
16 Tier1 (2) Conjure Arrows
17 Tier4 (2) Elemental Arrows IV: Elemental Damage
18 Core ·(1) Aligned Arrows
19 Tier1 (1) Awareness
20 Tier2 (2) Dispelling Shot
21 Tier4 (1) Banishing Arrows
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Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Points spent: 21
1 Core ·(1) Eldritch Strike
2 Tier1 (1) Improved Mage Armor
3 Tier1 (1) Improved Mage Armor
4 Tier1 (1) Improved Mage Armor
5 Tier1 (1) Toughness
6 Core ·(1) Spellsword
7 Tier2 (1) Improved Shield
8 Tier2 (1) Improved Shield
9 Tier2 (1) Improved Shield
10 Tier2 (1) Action Boost Spellpower
11 Core ·(1) Imbue the Blade
12 Tier2 (1) Action Boost Spellpower
13 Tier2 (1) Action Boost Spellpower
14 Tier3 (2) Synergetic Magic
15 Tier1 (1) Toughness
16 Tier1 (1) Toughness
17 Tier3 (2) Eldritch Accuracy
18 Tier1 (1) Battlemage
19 Core ·(1) Subtle Force I
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Pale Master - Points spent: 6
1 Core ·(1) Dark Reaping
2 Tier1 (1) Negative Energy Conduit
3 Tier1 (1) Negative Energy Conduit
4 Tier1 (1) Negative Energy Conduit
5 Tier1 (1) Skeletal Knight
6 Core ·(1) Pale Shroud: Shroud of the Lich
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Harper Agent - Points spent: 12
1 Core ·(1) Agent of Good I
2 Tier1 (1) Traveller's Toughness
3 Tier1 (1) Traveller's Toughness
4 Tier1 (1) Traveller's Toughness
5 Tier1 (2) Harper Enchantment
6 Tier2 (1) Know the Angles
7 Tier2 (1) Know the Angles
8 Tier2 (1) Know the Angles
9 Tier2 (1) Magical Endurance
10 Tier3 (2) Strategic Combat II
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Epic Destinies: 40 APs
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Shiradi Champion - Points spent: 36
1 Core ·(1) Fey Favor
2 Tier1 (1) Shiradi Strike: Hunt's End
3 Tier1 (1) Wild Magics
4 Tier1 (1) Wild Magics
5 Tier1 (1) Wild Magics
6 Tier2 (1) Phase Double
7 Tier2 (1) Phase Double
8 Tier2 (1) Phase Double
9 Tier2 (1) Shiradi Power: Pin
10 Core ·(1) Vision
11 Tier1 (1) Prism
12 Tier2 (1) Stay: Stay Frosty
13 Tier2 (1) Stay: Stay Frosty
14 Tier2 (1) Stay: Stay Frosty
15 Tier3 (1) Improved Shiradi Power: Otto's Whistlery
16 Tier3 (2) Fey Force: Fey Force
17 Tier3 (2) Double Rainbow
18 Tier3 (2) Pierce Deception
19 Tier4 (1) Fey Form
20 Tier4 (2) Overwhelming Force: Overwhelming Force
21 Core ·(1) Audience with the Queen
22 Tier4 (1) Enemy of my Own
23 Tier4 (1) Track
24 Tier4 (2) Whirling Wrists
25 Tier4 (2) Whirling Wrists
26 Tier5 (2) Stay II: Stay Frozen
27 Tier5 (1) Lore of the Hunt
28 Tier5 (1) Feywild Attunement
29 Tier5 (1) Epic Moment: Inexorable Advance
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Draconic Incarnation - Points spent: 13
1 Core ·(1) Draconic Bloodline: Draconic Bloodline: Blue
2 Tier1 (1) Draconic Perception
3 Tier1 (1) Draconic Perception
4 Tier1 (1) Draconic Perception
5 Tier1 (1) Dragon Scales
6 Tier1 (1) Dragon Scales
7 Tier1 (1) Dragon Scales
8 Tier1 (1) Dragonhide
9 Core ·(1) Draconic Heritage
10 Tier1 (1) Dragonhide
11 Tier3 (1) Arcane Spellsword: Eldritch Knight
12 Tier3 (1) Arcane Spellsword: Eldritch Knight
13 Tier3 (1) Arcane Spellsword: Eldritch Knight
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Shadowdancer - Points spent: 3
1 Core ·(1) The Darkest Luck I
2 Tier1 (1) Technician
3 Tier1 (1) Technician
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Spell Power · · · · · · ·Base · ·Critical Chance· · Critical Multiplier.
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Acid· · · · · · · · · · · 311 · · · 5%· · · · · · · · 10
Cold· · · · · · · · · · · 421 · · · 5%· · · · · · · · 10
Electric· · · · · · · · · 664 · · ·27%· · · · · · · · 25

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Weapon Damage
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Melee Power:· 85
Doublestrike: 31%
Strikethrough: 20%
Mainhand damage ability multiplier: 1
Offhand damage ability multiplier: 0
Off-Hand attack Chance: 20%
Fortification Bypass: 60%
Dodge Bypass: 5%
Helpless Damage bonus: 59%
Ranged Power: 162
Doubleshot Chance: 90%

Sneak Attack Attack bonus: 0
Sneak Attack Damage: 6d6+0

Main Hand: Aerania, the Boltbow
On Hit· · · · ·7.00[1D8+3]+75 ·+ (1D8 Electric) * Electric Spell Power + 8D6 Electric + 8D6 Sonic
Critical 18-18 (7.00[1D8+3]+66) * 3 ·+ 8D6 Electric + 8D6 Sonic
Critical 19-20 (7.00[1D8+3]+66) * 7 ·+ 8D6 Electric + 8D6 Sonic
DR Bypass: Bludgeon, Magic, Metalline, Pierce, Slash
You bypass Incorpreality miss chance with this weapon
You bypass Concealment miss chance with this weapon

[C-Dog]

Am I not seeing any enhancements to Critical range and/or multiplier (or am I just blind, again )? How was the end-Heroic DPS?

[magaiti]

No T5
No capstone
Scion of Arborea on an elemental damage build

U51 Shiradi severely overperforming is the only thing that carries you


Some ways to improve:
Go Dex-based with CHA for DM.
14 elf
41 AA
21 EK
4 Warsoul (DM)
Scion of Earth or whichever matches your elemental arrows, for more spellpower and 2d20 elemental damage

With Cleric DM workingg off Charisma, might as well go Sorcerer EK (no extra feats from Wizard can be a problem tho)
Now with Sorcerer you can go with Charisma as your semi-main stat (for DM and to-hit from EK), and DEX secondary for damage

[Djoe]

Am I not seeing any enhancements to Critical range and/or multiplier (or am I just blind, again )? How was the end-Heroic DPS?

Blind you are not friend. I have the standard stuff from feats, but no crit boosting stuff from enhancements. The late heroics DPS was pretty good, and I used the twisted willow bow from sharn until 20. For levels 15-20, i was in a solid 4 person party, doing lots of the content on r4. It was fun, but a bit slower: that being said, stuff had more hp and took less damage than they would for the average r1 cakewalking soloist. My go-to attack pattern was to open with a chain lightning, and then start shooting. Once I got into epics, the play-style changed to be only archery and the DPS was good, but not as high as a pure ranger's would have been.

[Djoe]

No T5
No capstone
Scion of Arborea on an elemental damage build

U51 Shiradi severely overperforming is the only thing that carries you


Some ways to improve:
Go Dex-based with CHA for DM.
14 elf
41 AA
21 EK
4 Warsoul (DM)
Scion of Earth or whichever matches your elemental arrows, for more spellpower and 2d20 elemental damage

With Cleric DM workingg off Charisma, might as well go Sorcerer EK (no extra feats from Wizard can be a problem tho)
Now with Sorcerer you can go with Charisma as your semi-main stat (for DM and to-hit from EK), and DEX secondary for damage

I appreciate the advice. I'm pretty sure I ended up taking the scion of the plane of air instead, but like i mentioned in the post i would definetly switch to acid damage if i did it again. Going sorc is a good idea, and eliminates the desire to dump points into the harper agent tree. I think the main reason I went wizard was to have death aura healing if by myself, which was pretty effective, but requires another 6 points to be taken from AA. Thinking about the gear tetris makes my brain hurt, but I'll look into it

[SocratesBastardSon]

Some ways to improve:
Go Dex-based with CHA for DM.
14 elf
41 AA
21 EK
4 Warsoul (DM)
Scion of Earth or whichever matches your elemental arrows, for more spellpower and 2d20 elemental damage

With Cleric DM workingg off Charisma, might as well go Sorcerer EK (no extra feats from Wizard can be a problem tho)
Now with Sorcerer you can go with Charisma as your semi-main stat (for DM and to-hit from EK), and DEX secondary for damage

It's funny, I did almost exactly this build (Arcanitcher? El Arcarcher? Elfritch ArcArcher?), but keeping INT, not CHA. I went to 30 and did two Epic PLs before reincarnating. I've been thinking of posting my experiences, so this thread is a good excuse. The specific build details I may post later if anyone is interested.

I chose to do a Wiz18/Ro2 Dex evasion build with enough INT for spell casting and trapping. I had Completionist and 4 racial past lives, 7 EPLs, but only 30 Reaper APs, for comparison.

I wanted to finish my Elven RPLs, and had already done a Tempest-Vistani trapper. I felt like doing something different, but when I began I was doubtful that AA/EK would be a particularly good build (pre-51). I was surprised that when I first started thinking about it that I couldn't find anyone doing what seemed like an obvious build path. I figured it was probably because it sucked. But heroic is forgiving, so I figured, why not? Go to 20 and TR.

That turned out to be wrong. It was not only a good build, it was fun, flexible, and surprisingly powerful. It's quite different, however, in that it is NOT crit-focused (imbues don't crit), it relies on spell power to work its, well, magic. In a way, it's kind of a blaster Warlock style of ranged play: magic pew pew with CC.

Most of the damage comes from elemental damage, not the base bow damage (although that is still reasonably good). A dedicated DWS using Horizon Walker, especially with a significant Rogue component, is going to out DPS an Elf AA/EK, in single target damage, no question, every time. It's not close. That means the DWS/HW is much better for Raid boss fights and probably high reaper. So if that's your goal, that should be your build.

The AA/EK really shines in a different context; easy mid-reaper leveling from heroics through epic, mass mob AOE (yep, AOE), and CC. My original thought was that since IPS had been nerfed, a lot of people stopped using it. But the nerf only applies to the bow damage, not to elemental imbues. IPS allows full imbue damage. That's where the AOE damage comes from. It's hilarious watching the massive amounts of damage numbers scrolling all over the screen. It started to look more like a scene from The Matrix than DDO.

Next, both AA and EK award lots of Spell Power. I was running around with 600 SP at level 20, 700 at 26, and 900 at 30, which I could boost to almost 1200 on 15d8 damage dice (18d8 post-U51, which loses a bit more than 100 SP). At cap, every arrow was doing several thousand damage. And if the mob was immune to my preferred element (I used acid), I changed elements. Again, this build does not use crits, but it does use Doubleshot, which is key (64 @ lvl 20, 82 @ 25, 114 @ 30 using less than top flight gear).

What about CC? This gets to the playstyle question. Well, it's a level 18 Wizard with a moderate amount of INT using a tree (AA) that awards a bunch of Enchantment DCs. So I took metamagics and Epic enhancements that boosted Enchantment DCs (which is so much easier now with U51), and went to town. Any fight that could be controlled with respect to when and where it takes place I set up a kill/control pit: quickened and heightened Ice Storm, Mind Fog, disco ball, Cloudkill, Acid Rain, and my TR partner tossed in Web, Evards and Sleet Storm to increase the entertainment value. Shoot to grab aggro, activate IPS and they all died. Occasionally something would get through the maelstrom, but with U51, Shard Storm+Thorn finished them off. Rinse and Repeat.

As for Raids, the fact that I could keep up consistent damage without dipping into spell points meant I could operate as either a reasonably competent ranged DPS (again, not as good as DWS/HW), or a CC spell caster as needed. I did the occasional R10 with no issues beyond the norm, and was able to make a decent contribution to the groups' DPS and survival. It wasn't optimized for R10, but it worked fine.

The negatives? It's a glass cannon. You survive by not letting things get close and hit you. Still, since I did not load up on Evocation spells, I could take just about every self-buffing spell there is, creating an adequate, but not great, layered defense. Of course, offense is the best defense, because when they're dead or dancing, they can't hit you.

Overall, it was fun, survivable, flexible and enough for solo and group work, moderately successful in raids (not counting Killing Time - that was ugly) and reaper content. Recommended. Great way to knock out Elven/HElf/SElf PLs, and I will be using it again.

[Djoe]

It's funny, I did almost exactly this build (Arcanitcher? El Arcarcher? Elfritch ArcArcher?), but keeping INT, not CHA. I went to 30 and did two Epic PLs before reincarnating. I've been thinking of posting my experiences, so this thread is a good excuse. The specific build details I may post later if anyone is interested.

I'm curious, how did the early levels go? Did you just go EK until you had enough points to reasonably use the AA tree, or did you build up to AA first and not start feeding points into EK until you had what you wanted out of there?

[SocratesBastardSon]

I'm curious, how did the early levels go? Did you just go EK until you had enough points to reasonably use the AA tree, or did you build up to AA first and not start feeding points into EK until you had what you wanted out of there?

That's exactly right. I took Rogue at first level, then played like a typical EK at low levels doing S&B until I had the 14 points needed to activate Elven AA (I had 4 racials to spend). Next, I put all my points into AA until I filled in t5, then switched to EK for 23 APs, and finished by putting the rest into Elf to get t4 Skill for the extra doubleshot. It's very straightforward.

The irritating part is Elves don't get core 5 and 6 from AA until levels 22 and 25 respectively. So I respec'ed out of t4 Elf at those levels to purchase Shadow Arrows and then Mystical Archer, and distributed the extra points into FI and PM for extra USP. I couldn't take IPS until 21, which meant Combat Archery was at 24. A lot of people find that unacceptable, but it didn't really bother me since the build offered so many things to do. The whole thing felt very smooth with a consistent increase in power and skills as I leveled up. It was a lot of fun.

Another caveat with this build: while it can zerg fine, the way I described its playstyle is more how it works if you're solo'ing or working with one other person. A full group on full zerg isn't going to wait for you to set up your disco balls and ice storms (although the point of all that is to manage higher reaper settings). If you just want a point-and-shoot build that doesn't bother with anything else, DWS/HW is for you.

EDIT: Oh, one other thing. If you're doing Sun Elf, and aren't eliminating the cleric level, I think you should still do two levels of Rogue, at least if you want to do more challenging content. Evasion is so important when you're as squishy as an elf wizard, that I think it's worth the loss of one die of damage and 1 spell by going Wiz 17.