WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Jul 9
th, 2022 at 11:24am:
Dread Update:
gear
Removed LGS from Cloak and Gloves, crit damage.
Removed Shattered Onyx from ring (loss of profane +2 DC focus, some dodge, 4 saves, insightful CHA)
Removed Regalport Artifact from neck (loss of quality +2 DC, 14 CHA, Cold absorb)
Removed Upgraded Wave (loss of Eburst caster levels, enhancement spellpower/crit, 25% damage clicky)
Added Dread weapon (gain of -21 MRR, crappy ice proc)
Added offhand LGS (gain of insightful 6 CHA, swap between affirmation and vacuum.)
Added 14 CHA colorless augment.
Added necklace Legendary Anchorchain (gain of +2 DC profane focus, enhancement spellpower)
Added ring Dread Artifact (+2 Sacred Dcs, 1 filigree slot, gain of crit damage)
Added cloak Winter, swap item. (Can also put on a winter trinket for 4 piece)
Added gloves DOJ (+2 quality DC bonus). Swap with spell absorb.
destinies and enhancements
- EA and Draconic wings are on separate cooldowns. Solo doom killing just takes paying attention now.
- I was wrong about t5s in Draconic. Ruin Draconic is worth taking. You can reduce cost of ruins with the clicky from Reaper trees, Litany, and t5 Draconic clicky. Gruin does more damage than iceberg and can reliably fuck up despairs. Fire and air become more competitive setups because of this but IMO polar ray is still worth going ice. Anchor chain is also a great item.
- Reborn in Fire is a great heal out of primal. Cocoon, EA mass, and this make you a competent healer for R10 pugging.
other
- I highly recommend a macro to cycle through polar, iceberg, otilukes, and cone of cold. If you spam the keys too much it gets a bit laggy and makes kiting annoying. I have this bound to a thumb button on mouse.
- The winter set necklace with a profane +2 DCs has greater boon of undeath---this procs and drains spell absorb so is a no go.
I think there’s a mistake? The staff from KT? For an ice sorc? Am I missing something? There’s a fire/light staff, and a generic one with 3 Aug slots. Are you talking about something else?
EDIT: I'm guessing you mean Wave which is from WPM, but you upgrade it with mats from KT. If that's the case, I've been looking at wave a lot myself and checking the math (ice druid). The two other setups I'm considering are Dino + Alchemical shield OR dino+dino
Alchem shield gets more/less the same crits and spell power as Wave, and it also gets 3 of the increased caster levels (Wave gets 5)
The thing you miss from wave is about 44 spell power (part of the greater elemental attunement part of Wave when you're in Water form.
So, you lose 2 caster levels and 44 spell power.
You gain: +2 stat (+1 dc) as you can craft the unique/stacking alchemical stat on the item. You also gain the ability to hold a Dinocrafted item (with two augment slots).
What do you get from that?
Scale Slot Options:
Spell Pen (if you don't have on an item)
102 spell power if you don't have room for non-ice items/augs (this is pretty meh)
10% Enh reduction to spell point cost if you don't have elsewhere
Fang Slot OptionsVarious types of chance proc damages from spells
+5 spell DCs (same as your gogs, but your gogs have +3 insight as well so.. prolly doesn't make sense
Claw Slot Options+2 exc stat (+1 over globe of imperial blood)
149 spell power (4-5 spell power over what you already have)
Horn Slot Options (Aka actually interesting options)
-Always on affirmation
-Always on Ash (Up to 21% more spell dmg)
-Always on Vulnerability (up to 20% more dmg)
-Always on chance to freeze enemies in ice
So, in summary, Wave Vs Dino+Alchem is this:
WAVE1. +44 spell power
2. +2 Caster Levels
3. +5% exceptional crit change [Note: BROKEN. It's typed as "quality" and so it doesn't stack with LGS. I've confirmed through testing and bug reported this]
Dino Weapon + Alchemical Shield1. +3 To Stat
2. Chance to proc extra damage (tbh it's probably not a ton.. but I haven't tested this)
3. Always on debuff or Affirmation
4. 2 extra Augment Slots
If no one is applying debuffs, it's not even close. In the time it would take you to swap to a debuffer weapon, you could rotate another spell or two which means you pretty much come out ahead all the time unless you have a clear person in your group applying Ash. Even if you do, they are probably swapping which means it may not be fully stacked at all time. The ALWAYS-on nature of this means you're almost certainly coming out ahead of the 44 spell power and 2 caster levels.
I've done the base dmg math on my ice druid using dragon breath and tsunami (my spell power and crit #s):
Breath:
Wave:Â 45671 avg hit (not using boosts, howl, or any temp bonus and just considering my standing crit chance which is 73% atm)
Dino+Shield: 42389
So, avg per hit, Wave comes out 3282 dmg or 7.7% dmg increase
Now, when you factor in Ash, your second hit is equal or better than Wave, and subsequent attacks are purely better. Also, the +3 to stats means fewer saves to spells
IF wave gets fixed to add a stacking 5% crit dmg, it would be closer. But, overall this means shield+dino is better, imo. You should definitely keep wave as a swap if only for the clicky which is awesome.
On Tsunami, the numbers get closer. (This would compare closer with polar ray/iceberg)
Wave: 23351
Dino+Shield: 22215
Difference: 1136 (or 5.1%)
It's also worth checking to see if you actually get the full 5 CL out of Polar Ray. Maybe it's capped below that? I dunno.
Anyway, take that for what it's worth.