Pale Master Guide

[Portalcat]

I just acquired an eternal draught of free movement. I'm now inclined to either run sage's boots or GS in the boot slot.

[Andoris]

I just acquired an eternal draught of free movement. I'm now inclined to either run sage's boots or GS in the boot slot.

Gratz on the FoM clicky -- personally I would go with sages.. +5 conjuration and 40 hp is nice.

How long is the duration and cooldown on that?

[SirValentine]

Gratz on the FoM clicky -- personally I would go with sages.. +5 conjuration and 40 hp is nice.

How long is the duration and cooldown on that?

I saw someone link one earlier today. Duration 10 minutes, cool-down 10 minutes.

[SirValentine]

I have seen this spreadsheet....


He gave me a clean one to use for my own toons...

Ash, are you going to make your spreadsheet available for the good of the greater community? I have a spreadsheet, but it's kind of sad and messy.

[Andoris]

Ash, are you going to make your spreadsheet available for the good of the greater community? I have a spreadsheet, but it's kind of sad and messy.

I don't think it is nearly as good as people might be imagining it to be, but happy to share it out. Give me a few days to clean it up, and (try to) make it somewhat organized for public usage.

It it mostly used to organize my thoughts and do a number of common calculations quickly.

I get a link posted to it soon.

[Portalcat]

Gratz on the FoM clicky -- personally I would go with sages.. +5 conjuration and 40 hp is nice.

How long is the duration and cooldown on that?

10 min and 10 min. It's not perfect insofar as 10 min is plenty of time to die and be stuck on cooldown, but it should cover most situations. Those that it doesn't, I have the FoM boots to swap in.



After some thought, the Sage's boots get me more than any necklace or belt could, which are the other two potential spots for GS, so it gets the nod. Haven't had a chance to try web in the new raids, but with all the undead, I imagine it could be quite helpful, whereas enchantment spells are useless in one and very mediocre in the other.

[Andoris]

10 min and 10 min. It's not perfect insofar as 10 min is plenty of time to die and be stuck on cooldown, but it should cover most situations. Those that it doesn't, I have the FoM boots to swap in.



After some thought, the Sage's boots get me more than any necklace or belt could, which are the other two potential spots for GS, so it gets the nod. Haven't had a chance to try web in the new raids, but with all the undead, I imagine it could be quite helpful, whereas enchantment spells are useless in one and very mediocre in the other.

I have used web extensively in the shadow dragon raid, it is worth it to have a good conjuration DC.

If you have Epic Delving boots, I would recommend using the Sages as your primary (for when you have FoM on) and if you get dispelled/die before the 10 min is up, you swap to Epic Delving boots (slot: vitality). That cushions the hp drop a bit, and you can make a decision if the FoM or +5 Conj DC's are more important at that point.

[Andoris]

It looks like the +2 bonus DC's from "Wyrmic Focus" ability on the Thunderforged weapons does not stack with the Spell Augments (not sure if this is a bug or WAI -- dev comments from Lam could be taken either way)

As such best plan is to run a two-handed thunderforged quartstaff for DC casting -- thinking +12 Thunder-forged Quarterstaff 150 Nullification, +1 Unique Bonus to DC's, +6 Necro DC's, +17% Spell Lore (Red: 138 Combustion, Colorless: Charisma +8?)

For Nuking one-handers are ideal. Current thought is 150 Nullification, +6 Necro DC's, +17% Spell Lore (Orange: Secondary Element), and 150 Primary element, +6 Evocation?, Eternal Chilling (Orange: Meridian Frag)

I revised the spell DC's on the first page to reflect the 1 point drop in DC's

Looks like lots of Shadow Dragon/Fire Dragon raids in my future.

[Portalcat]

It looks like the +2 bonus DC's from "Wyrmic Focus" ability on the Thunderforged weapons does not stack with the Spell Augments (not sure if this is a bug or WAI -- dev comments from Lam could be taken either way)

Reports in this thread say it does stack with augments (enhancement bonus) but not equipment bonuses.

This seems like a bug until told otherwise given that the official Lamannia thread explicitly stated that this is an exceptional bonus and should stack.



I plan to hold off crafting tier 2 weapons until we hear some official word on the matter. The resources it takes to make these weapons is no joke. It's not worth risking getting it wrong or putting in the effort to craft a third weapon to work around a bug that may well get quickly fixed.









Unrelated: how does the diehard feat interact with pale master incapacitation auto-death? I ask because the Ward Token looks really good if being a pale master doesn't negate its effect - an effective stacking +50HP on top of the guards and the slots.

[Andoris]

Reports in this thread say it does stack with augments (enhancement bonus) but not equipment bonuses.

This seems like a bug until told otherwise given that the official Lamannia thread explicitly stated that this is an exceptional bonus and should stack.



I plan to hold off crafting tier 2 weapons until we hear some official word on the matter. The resources it takes to make these weapons is no joke. It's not worth risking getting it wrong or putting in the effort to craft a third weapon to work around a bug that may well get quickly fixed.

Unrelated: how does the diehard feat interact with pale master incapacitation auto-death? I ask because the Ward Token looks really good if being a pale master doesn't negate its effect - an effective stacking +50HP on top of the guards and the slots.

Your correct, I really hope the devs fix this soon..

I am pretty sure that diehard will not prevent the auto death -- I haven't tested it though.. would love to get confirmation if someone has a toon that can test it.

[ssternlight]

I have used web extensively in the shadow dragon raid, it is worth it to have a good conjuration DC.

If you have Epic Delving boots, I would recommend using the Sages as your primary (for when you have FoM on) and if you get dispelled/die before the 10 min is up, you swap to Epic Delving boots (slot: vitality). That cushions the hp drop a bit, and you can make a decision if the FoM or +5 Conj DC's are more important at that point.

If you don't have a good conjuration DC (define "good" please?), I have found the command undead sla to be quite amusing/useful for the dwarven skeletons in the wilderness/raids -- not the Kuldjarghl. It's OT for this thread, but I wouldn't mind hearing what people think a reasonable contribution by a PM for the Temple raid consists of -- shiradi only please filters starting to pop this week.

[Andoris]

If you don't have a good conjuration DC (define "good" please?), I have found the command undead sla to be quite amusing/useful for the dwarven skeletons in the wilderness/raids -- not the Kuldjarghl. It's OT for this thread, but I wouldn't mind hearing what people think a reasonable contribution by a PM for the Temple raid consists of -- shiradi only please filters starting to pop this week.

Mid 50's seems to work fairly well for web, of course, higher is better. Halt undead works very well in that raid.. I was even surprised at how long the duration was on it.

Main job of a PM in the shadow dragon raid is trash.. if the shadows start to bunch up, it seems that the instance will start to lag out (which is frustrating). But there is a fair amount of non-red named trash -- if there is a PM in the group.. its their job to deal with it. You should also have a good view of the fight.. so throwing spot heals and raises (make sure you don't neglect your UMD) to take pressure off your healer should be your secondary job.

It is funny that you are seeing "Shiradi only" lfms up.. When we run it.. the first order is for everyone to turn off Color's of the Queen -- if a Shiradi joined my groups, I would tell them to turn off double rainbow (-25% dps to the entire raid group is painful).

I would take a good DC wizard over a Shiradi any day (that goes for almost any content).

[ssternlight]

Mid 50's seems to work fairly well for web, of course, higher is better. Halt undead works very well in that raid.. I was even surprised at how long the duration was on it.

Main job of a PM in the shadow dragon raid is trash.. if the shadows start to bunch up, it seems that the instance will start to lag out (which is frustrating). But there is a fair amount of non-red named trash -- if there is a PM in the group.. its their job to deal with it. You should also have a good view of the fight.. so throwing spot heals and raises (make sure you don't neglect your UMD) to take pressure off your healer should be your secondary job.

It is funny that you are seeing "Shiradi only" lfms up.. When we run it.. the first order is for everyone to turn off Color's of the Queen -- if a Shiradi joined my groups, I would tell them to turn off double rainbow (-25% dps to the entire raid group is painful).

I would take a good DC wizard over a Shiradi any day (that goes for almost any content).

Thanks. That more or less supports the strategy I've evolved. 50's in conjuration means a bit of a retool though. I'll have to go back to the beginning of the guide -- for which I thank you profusely.

[Andoris]

Thanks. That more or less supports the strategy I've evolved. 50's in conjuration means a bit of a retool though. I'll have to go back to the beginning of the guide -- for which I thank you profusely.

You can likely get by with less -- I just know mid/low 50s seems to work well. Web has a different mechanic than most spells, allowing you to get away with a bit lower DCs

[Portalcat]

I am pretty sure that diehard will not prevent the auto death -- I haven't tested it though.. would love to get confirmation if someone has a toon that can test it.

Decided to just go ahead and pay Fred a visit to test this.

Diehard doesn't work on pale masters, unfortunately.

[Portalcat]

It's OT for this thread, but I wouldn't mind hearing what people think a reasonable contribution by a PM for the Temple raid consists of -- shiradi only please filters starting to pop this week.

I've now run at least 11 of these, mostly EH, on my DC caster. My usual contribution has been to solve puzzles, do generic DPS on deathlords/dragon, scroll res, guard levers, and undeath to death shadows and trash as needed. In other words, it's a generalist role.

Pale masters have some general advantages in this quest, in that they're healed by a lot of the dragon's attacks and their self-healing is well above average.



I'm not sure on the proper role for EE, but I'd guess it's first to kill the non-named undead and res people, and provide DPS second.

[goldgolem]

I have been using the boots for a while and found web to be surprisingly effective even in EE

I have just slotted in the new cloak and the upgraded shadow dragon armour (I went outfit over robes) Thankfully no billowing black cloud so far

However now I need to swap a load of gear around to make it fit - mostly its made me drop a lot of SP over the war wizard setup so I have to figure out how to re-set it up

Portal I saw you had a 250 SP augment in your armour, how are you set up for the rest of it?

[Ancient]

I wouldn't mind hearing what people think a reasonable contribution by a PM for the Temple raid consists of -- shiradi only please filters starting to pop this week.

If you have the saves (That is a big IF), tanking the dragon might be an option. I don't know what the saves that are needed is other than... higher than what I had.

My shiradi found a good fit killing the death lords. I would have been better at it if I had shrugged off the "I can tank trash" attitude and remembered that I actually have a usable diplomacy skill level. I had never needed it before, but that is what I would do different. This job was a good match for my shiradi because 1.) I had endurance to keep doing it for a very long time 2.) Force shield on a death lord isn't a raid debilitating event.

I go over that to provide a context to look at what a palemaster could do. Your biggest issue is likely to be endurance/blue bar.

• If you have web SLA, you could help CC trash for a very long time
• Lever pullers need to be able to avoid being attacked and clear an occasional pesky mob right before the clear. That might be a good fit with wraith form.
• For pugs, someone who can stay alive and keep on rezzing is helpful
• If you have lots of pots, link them to the leader and tell them you will have SP the whole time.
• If you can follow instructions/follow well, there are key times when a group needs to go through a portal together and do something. Even if you hold back the rest of the time, being able to coordinate like that would be valuable.

It may not be a great list, but hopefully it is a start.

[Andoris]

If you have the saves (That is a big IF), tanking the dragon might be an option. I don't know what the saves that are needed is other than... higher than what I had.

Great list -- however, I do not recommend the role above. The dragon casts Halt Undead (trust me I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw it cast on me). As you need to be in undead form to heal properly -- the Dragon tank/kiter role is a bad one.

Everywhere else you can be of great value -- I wouldn't recommend mana dumping for high dps though, unless you don't mind drinking pots like a sailor.

[Portalcat]

Did my first EE Deathwyrm last night. It was successful but very much not elegant.

My main takeaway was that if that quest is a significant part of your endgame, then taking ruin as a feat is probably more important than the last point of great intelligence for your DCs.

Thoughts?