torc
abbot staff
abbot robe
DQ bracers

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=302573

this thread helped me out when I first made a PM

hope it helps you too.

If you're going to be doing a just-passing-through life, WF Pale Master is damned sexy.  Cure Serious pots until you can scroll Reconstruct.  Reconstruct scrolls until you can self-cast Reconstruct.  Then, at 18, you transform into a real Pale Master with Lich form.

Mental Toughness is a generally crappy feat, but you can use it to be a toaster Archmage while you wait for 18.

Since about a third of your life is going from 18 to 20, this is less silly than it sounds.

And since it's a just-passing-through life, being optimal at a specific point isn't as important as being easy to deal with along the entire process.

Shield mastery is effing awesome for survivability on PMs. One of the few things that can kill you is overly high melee/physical damage like in eDQ. It's definitely a final build type of thing though, because you need enough PLs to have enough spell pen to take Shield Mastery instead of Spell Pen feats.

I'll disagree with Carpone also about not doing PM just for past lives; pale master is dead simple to play and build. Less fiddly than AMs, less thinking.

Deeds wrote on Apr 28^th, 2012 at 6:10pm:


Question, why would you waste that kind of sp? One firewall or one acid rain should be all it takes.  Doubling them up is retarded.

Hmmm, I think you folks confirmed for me what I had originally planned on doing.  My fiance' plays a necro, and is pushing me to go necro.  Between us, I think she is biased   I do like the sound of AM WF.  With my past life as cleric, conjuration as my secondary focus would be nice.  I have played an arcane to mid level, but have barely touched it since they released archmage.  Arcane was never my strong suit. 

So, how does WF AM Enchanter and Conjurer sound?  Then switch to AM at 18-20?  I really just want to blast through the levels.

Even zombie form starting level 7 is kickass - you just have to be very aware of divine mobs, same as with wraith and even lich.

Here's my PM, copied from the forums. Could probably be slightly better optimized as far as swaps.

1. Toughness (HP > all)
1. Extend Spell (Maximize is poor at early levels and thoroughly unnecessary - Extend kicks ass with Arcane Augmentation at level 1-4 - not a swap candidate, extended Death Aura/Haste/Displace/etc too good)
1. PL: Arcane Prodigy [Sorc] (Hugely powerful SLA and free Mental Toughness effect - can swap out at later levels for SF enchant)
3. Insightful Reflexes (reflex saves start to matter early)
5. Maximize (You start to have enough mana justify the cost and enemies have enough HP for it to do something on the SLA)
6. SF: Necro (required for PM1, I love zombie form)
9. PL: Arcane Initiate (would like to take it earlier but other stuff is more important, DCs start being more important this level)
10. Mental Toughness (Wraith prereq, swap at 18 for Greater Spell Pen - wiz feat slot so requires double swap)
12. GSF: Necro (required for PM2)
15. Empower Spell
15. Heighten Spell
18. Spell Penetration
20. Quicken Spell (not good enough to warrant a slot until epics)

You can also swap in Shield Mastery for Mental Toughness and PL sorc (have enough to TRs to afford skipping Greater Spell Pen, though).

cdr wrote on Apr 28^th, 2012 at 5:01pm:

I've done eDQ 83 times on a pale master, never with a shield.  The only time I ever died was due to lag.

Quote:

Go die to every god damned searing light casting mother fucker in the game for all I care.  I hope you rip your balls out when you farm Running with the Devils and the Ghaele face rape you.

Carpone troll: success.

You're wrong about every point above where you say something isn't possible, but I wouldn't expect you to be able to figure it out.

You're also wrong about every matter of opinion, but that goes without saying.

Also, the above is optimized for both easy leveling AND staying at end game awhile, so it's definitely not ideal for a quick life. The 2+ swaps outta clue you in to that.

Wow, I'd have expected Epoch to know better at least. It is in fact possible to get an active PL feat at level 1, and to swap Mental Toughness for GSP. I'll let you think about it a little more - there's even a hint about the MT/GSP swap.

I'm feeling more nicey nice this morning, so I will say that Carpone and I play very differently and that probably accounts for many differences of opinion. He seems to play most very quick TRs (quicker than 99% of people, probably), with highly skilled static groups. I mostly solo or join pugs with incompetents.

Extend gives you four minute buffs at level 1, eight minute at level 2, ten minute at level 3, etc. One of the parts I hate the most about playing low levels with casters is recasting buffs, so Extend is the best thing ever for me. If you don't mind recasting every minute, you can probably take it later. IMO the earlier you take it the better it is, though. I wouldn't keep it at 20 at all if it weren't for Death Aura (and to some extent people whining if they don't get extended haste, but fuck em).

Mob HP is super low at low levels, max/empower is just overkill - and yes, I do run elite. Level 5 is a fine time to take max, and empower can wait even longer.

Quicken is useless to me when leveling, even running 100% elites (245 elite streak on the above build before it hit 20). It's not until you get into super high level content that damage can beat your concentration enough to matter. The only time I ever wanted it prior to 20 was when I was trying to solo the boss of New Invasion on elite at level 19. Dropped down to hard and had no problem on hard w/o Quicken.

Insightful Reflexes is personal preference. I can't remember every trap in 250 different quests, so it cuts down on stupid deaths, especially when soloing when there's no safety net. Also makes you more durable vs spellcasters - damage spells are about all that matters since mobs can't hold/dance you when you're undead.

Carpone wrote on Apr 30^th, 2012 at 12:19am:


Shroud of the Abbot FTW, had no issues with Devils Elite when my dead-hooker TR'd.

Sure it hurt and in her 32 point life I stayed out of form when running Devils Elite . . . but a little light-resistance goes a long way.