Air Savant Spell List

[Krythan]

Getting back into this game after 10 years, and we're in the process of fixing up some old characters. Apart from our Warforged Fighter, the other class that we want to get online is our Human Sorcerer. After reading some posts on the forums, and a few YouTube videos, I think we're going to respec this character's Enhancements to be: Air Savant, Feydark Illusionist, Fatesinger, Primal Avater, and Draconic Incarnation. In preparation for levels 20-30, we wanted to re-do our spell list... seeing as the overall meta and viable spells is vastly different that we remember it. With a Blood of Dragons, we were thinking of swapping out our entire spell list at once and wanted to get some thoughts on it...

• How does this look as an Air Savant spell list?
• What would you change?

The Spells:

1: Jump, Nightshield, Shield, Sonic Blast
2: Blur, Knock, Resist Energy, Web
3: Displacement, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Rage
4: Dimension Door, Enervation, Fire Shield, Shout
5: Ball Lightning, Break Enchantment, Protection from Elements, Teleport
6: Chain Lightning, Greater Heroism, Necrotic Ray
7: Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Prismatic Spray
8: Greater Shout, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Sunburst
9: Thunderstrike, Energy Drain, Hold Monster Mass

Thoughts?

 

[Fisto Mk I]

Air is bad. Go to Fire/Water.

 

[Krythan]

Air is bad. Go to Fire/Water.

Why's that? Based on what I've read, it seems like Cold is the go-to for end-game raids. But I feel like I have quite a bit of gear upgrades and past-lives before I get there.

 

[Krythan]

Honkin (Diaari) in the Discord provided the following feedback:

• Spells that you’re missing: PK, Eladar’s Electric Surge, Circle of Death and Undeath to Death (can scroll GH), Trap the Soul, Wail... Depends on your DCs though
• You will not get much out of shout though

 

[Wagon]

Air is nice in my opinion in heroics, no need for other savant trees since it's a dual element tree. A dash skill for zerging( the only useful T5 Unique skill if you ask me). But it's not the best endgame DPS so it's already the greatest evil that has to be eradicated from the face of Eberron.

In Epics I'd respec to fire for a better AoE (meteors v chain lightning). But that's up to you as it's a low pastlife build You don't really need to min max it for that 5% more crit that only ice gets.

Air can be fun as well.

 

[Krythan]

The dash skill is quite nice! Thoughts on Ice vs. Fire? Is the primary difference just the net 5% crit chance difference? Looking at this reddit thread, there's some good discussion on Ice vs. Fire.

 

[Krythan]

Reading these threads now, I'm tempted to run Air Savant until Level 30 (as I've only ever played fire/water), then Epic Reincarnate into Water Savant once we have a few more pieces of gear? (ex: Echo of Wave looks real nice)

 

[Bliv]

Air is bad. Go to Fire/Water.

Nope. Air is great.

 

[Krythan]

I'd love to know more!

 

[Bliv]

Getting back into this game after 10 years, and we're in the process of fixing up some old characters. Apart from our Warforged Fighter, the other class that we want to get online is our Human Sorcerer. After reading some posts on the forums, and a few YouTube videos, I think we're going to respec this character's Enhancements to be: Air Savant, Feydark Illusionist, Fatesinger, Primal Avater, and Draconic Incarnation. In preparation for levels 20-30, we wanted to re-do our spell list... seeing as the overall meta and viable spells is vastly different that we remember it. With a Blood of Dragons, we were thinking of swapping out our entire spell list at once and wanted to get some thoughts on it...

• How does this look as an Air Savant spell list?
• What would you change?

The Spells:



Thoughts?

I don't know if you own them, but consider going Wild Mage for extra dps, and Macrotechnic for extra electric spell power.

Macrotechnic will also give you fortification, extra PRR, no fail reflex save (grab evasion from Primal Avatar), Tonquin's Lightning Hammer. The later is good dps at low cost.

For spells, I'd swap these:
- Lvl 9 : Mass Hold for Power Word: Kill
- Lvl 8 : Sunburst for Trap the Soul
- Lvl 7 : Otto's Sphere for Symbol of Stunning (some will scold me for this, but I think Symbol is much better)
- Lvl 6 : Necrotic Ray for Prismatic Strike (if Wild Mage, that spell is amazing and not used enough)
- Lvl 5 : Prismatic Ray and Eladar's Electric Surge instead of Ball Lightning and Break Enchantment
- Lvl 4 : Charm Monster and Phantasmal Killer instead of Enervation and Shout
- Lvl 1 : Shield or Nightshield for Feather Fall (that`s a playstyle call here, d`rather cast the spell than swap sometimes)

Your main crowd control should be Greater Shout, since its school is evocation.

Your rotation should look something like this: Storm Catcher (to reduce reflex save), Thunder Strike, Eladar's, Tonquin's and Chain Lightning.

You should fit Prismatic Strike in, since it's great dps if geared for it and the cooldown is 4 seconds.

Prismatic Strike is AOE if you use it right : target a mob that is behind other mobs for max effect.

Air Savant also gives you Wind Dance, you will use it all the time.

Air is all around good.

Make sure to grab Heart as tier 2 core from Primal Avatar, and Reborn in Fire for burst heals.

 

[Bliv]

Also, for that build to go BOOM, farm Amplin, the Channeling Bolt from Den of Vipers. Lightning Lash procs all the time and benefits from your crit % and mult.

Bound Elemental Rings (electric and acid would be my first choices) for the set and extra procs.

Either use an artifact from Isle of Dread to up your crit damage. Or an item from Chill of Ravenloft if you own it.

 

[Krythan]

I don't know if you own them, but consider going Wild Mage for extra dps, and Macrotechnic for extra electric spell power... For spells, I'd swap these... Make sure to grab Heart as tier 2 core from Primal Avatar, and Reborn in Fire for burst heals.

This is very helpful! Thank you very much for writing this up

 

[Bliv]

If it wasn't clear, drop Feydark for Wild Mage.

You should go tier 5 and capstone in Air Savant.

Most of your other AP should go into Wild Mage to boost universal spell power and crit damage.

Chaosmancer is also what you should go for if you own it and have enough points. Spring attunement will give you charisma, electric/sonic spell power and another (better) way to strip immunity.

 

[Krythan]

Most of your other AP should go into Wild Mage to boost universal spell power and crit damage.

Sounds like I should add Wild Mage into my list of upgrades to get from the DDO Store! I'd have to do some form of Reincarnation to convert my Sorc into a Wild Mage, but sounds like a good option for a future build!

 

[Bliv]

I think there's a discount for both Chaosmancer and Wild Mage in the store at the moment.

You should look it up.

 

[Krythan]

I think there's a discount for both Chaosmancer and Wild Mage in the store at the moment.

You should look it up.

Oh! Looks like the Eladrin Chaosmancer Iconic Hero Bundle is 60% off at the moment - That's Eladrin + Wild Mage Archetype + Chaosmancer Iconic for 1,398 DDO Store Points

 

[Honkin]

Popping in from Discord to add some additional commentary to the spell recommendations I made. I've played air, fire, and water sorc at cap in the past, for context. Currently, I play Fire Savant at cap.

Right now, I level in fire until 12 and then swap to air for wind dance. I'll do t5 air but capstone in fire until 26 when you get wings from Exalted Angel. Then I respec to full Fire Savant with at least 21 AP in EK for defenses, USP, and the ASF so I can wear light armor and use a large shield. You can minor in a second savant but that's fewer points for EK or Feydark.

Air has an interesting spell selection and some nice synergies with Macrotechnic or Fatesinger. It really depends on the role you want to play at cap - support? DC caster? Nuker?

Personally I've found Fire Savant to be fairly well-rounded in all three areas. I take t5 Draconic and mantle with EA and Primal as my secondary EDs. Between Mass Cure Moderate, Reborn in Fire, and Cocoon you can keep an r10 group patched up, or keep up the ranged DPS while the healers focus on the melee ball in a raid. Meteor Swarm, DBF, etc. are excellent AOE damage and between the fire DoT effect from Fire Savant and the Draconic DoT you are consistently doing chip damage.

When I want to play a more DC-focused sorcerer I go Water Savant and t5 Magus. You still get some decent damage but the debuffs and Time Stop are top-notch. Burst of Glacial Wrath is an excellent CC spell that uses your evocation DCs instead of relying on a secondary spell school like Enchantment or Illusion.

If I want to be more focused on CC I go wizard or bard. If I want to play support, I play my favored soul with t5 in Fatesinger.

There are a lot of different ways you can play sorcerer - ones I haven't mentioned already are t5 Shadowdancer with Feydark capstone, 18 sorc/2 cleric for maximum Turn Undead potential, or 19 sorc / 1 warlock for the save debuffs. Other classes are more optimal for certain roles, but if you are comfortable with sorc and prefer to play it or just want the past life you can certainly try other non-meta options like sonic or Fatesinger. There's a lot of versatility and options available, and you can play to different strengths depending on your main enhancement tree and your EDs.

 

[Krythan]

Popping in from Discord

Thanks!

Hope you don't mind my pulling in your quote from Discord.

This is some great feedback, thank you! Some of those combinations of enhancements you mention seem like a lot of fun!

The leveling process makes a ton of sense, I like that you can swap around enhancements like that to take advantage of level-by-level abilities that unlock.

So, so many options! "...depends on the role you want to play at cap - support? DC caster? Nuker?" - I think I need to get this character to cap, and spend some time in the end-game before I can answer these questions, and optimize my next build (TR)!

 

[drjoans]

Just to chime in fire savant is great for leveling through epics. meteor swarm. primal avatar also has a crazy good heal/dps spell thats fire based (reborn in fire).

That said the air savant wings are nice in heroics but anyone can get wings in epics(exalted angel). The EA destiny also lines up with fire more too. so...

 

[DBZ]

I can't believe no one mentioned the awful status of acid cough cough and why there are no acid sorcs