Hi Ferd,

Really useful thread for me, thank you. I have one more racial shifter life to go and having something that does especially well at epics will be useful as I've been lazy about epic past lives. I have one question;

Quote:


I have only 5 racial points, so I would have to drop the capstone. I'd therefore be 2 DC's and one caster level/max caster level down. That seems liveable with and pretty minor - so is there anything else I'm missing?

Also I think anothersock might just be trolling you, it's hard to tell but the way he intentionally misses the point combined with being called "anothersock" - it shows he knows the vault and most people here have a reasonable idea how to play the game, not naming the obvious exceptions.

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I really should have known that after all these years...

I think I'll be fine then, R10 is way beyond me anyway. Having something fun to run R4 ish for a few epic lives is all I need. Thanks!

I've been wanting to play an end-game druid.   I have 105 reaper points... can someone post a good build.  I can play stuff well...I'm just too impatient and old to spend the time creating a build

Anothersock wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 2:17am:


Do you even understand the context on what's being said? FERD is explaining to you, the synergy of DRUID howl and DRUID spells. So 10 seconds out of 30 speaks about DRUID spells. Not sorcerer spells you wall licker.

SpaceGoat wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 8:33am:


Maybe on top of being an idiot you also have the reading comprehension of a 2 year old.
Those were Cold Spells one can use to compare maximum damage output with cold. You know, being this was an Ice sorc thread and all.

Also Heighten is a thing. Since it's obvious you don't actually play the game. Or are capable of running reapers.

Anothersock wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 4:47pm:


Yes dear child, kindly do tell me, what's the max caster level of those spells? Kindly help me understand how to play please and thank you.

SpaceGoat wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 8:50am:


What is "this"?

UnknownBuilder wrote on May 28^th, 2022 at 12:24am:


The prodigal returns....

Ey, good build overall, you're missing some DC's and a free winter 4.

I think I posted a better variant gear-wise both for flesh and toaster ( good if you want to hone in on defense ). Fyi

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Jul 9^th, 2022 at 11:24am:



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 Options
Various 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:

WAVE
1. +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 Shield
1. +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:  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.

Head-Meat wrote on Aug 7^th, 2022 at 2:21pm:


Honestly it is outclassed by Ruin/Gruin and then Iceberg. That said, it is an excellent and mana efficient part of the boss rotation. Energy drain with Gruin then Ruin, usually kills a despair reaper. I could see going fire nowadays as a sorc because, as you rightly point out, Wave is not that great anymore. I am very happy with my Ash dino stick. Fire sorc can get all that crit chance from Tiefling, which is pretty impactful. I think you can hit 80% crit chance. Still though the fire spell rotation is not that great on bosses.

I have about 22k DPS on elite.

Go into the newish quest in searing heights on R1 and do 120 seconds of damage to to the immortal Scorpion. You can reset him by dragging him to the shrine. Divide by 120, then divine by .78 to get rid of the reaper debuff so you can compare apples to apples. Careful though he is orange named and you don't really want helpless damage on a dps test.

So my DPS is about 1/2 to 2/3s of a well built ranged toon in a similar test. On r10 my dps is 22000*(.15)=3300. Most bosses have about 150k hp so that's about 45 seconds to solo kill them if I'm not fucking around. This lines up with my experience. Doom reapers take me about 45 seconds solo while kiting , or about 3 ruin/gruin cycles.

I'd be very curious how much damage you can do to that scorp with your druid in 2 minutes. Having 2 casters with reasonable damage in an r10 means there's basically nothing for everyone to do, since the damage is burst, and theirs is more sustain (with the exception of the misty step builds).

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Aug 11^th, 2022 at 12:33am:

Only one ranged build is actually sustainable. It's not dagger thrower with their pitiful 20 seconds of usefulness every 2 minutes. Bow is a bit better but eventually they get to a choke point where they can only use manyshot once every 12 seconds. Repeater will eventually run out of fuse charges ( though not on a 2 minute test ).