Can I make a viable first lifer BC for end game?

Frantik

Frantik

Well-known member
I don't know. But here goes...

Aasimar 20 Blightcaster (80+3+1) 32 point build
8/14/14/12/20/8 (i also have +8 supreme tome on my test build)

SLA caster plus Acid spells such as Black Dragon Bolt and Acid Well but also Tsunami
Hive Master Form (main) with Thorn Knight (secondary)

Quicken, Maximize, Empower, Heighten, SF: Conjuration, GSF: Conjuration, TWF
Embolden, Perfect TWF, Intensify, Crush Weakness, Master of the Wilds, Epic Spell Power 1, Epic SF: Conjuration, Scion of Celestia, Spell Specialization Evocation, Master of Thorns, Epic Spell Power 2

Gear (whatever I can farm) but have two IOD non-attuned clubs in bank (to be fitted with Brighthorn and Icehorn)
- maximise defence, health, stats and DCs + 10% Legendary HP

Heroic Build
SH 41 AP (taking all the vertical SLAs)
BC 32 AP (taking 4 SLAs)
Aasimar 9 AP
NP 1 AP
FI 1 AP

Why SH T5 over BC? +1 Caster Level and MCL (SH gives a total of +3 CL and MCL) plus the amazing Word of Balance SLA. The 30 second health shield is also nice.

Epic Destinies (70 EDP)
Magus 37 EDP (alternate Strike, Cold all the way)
Primal Avatar 20 EDP (Thorn then Sky or Heart*, Mantle, Strike) *not sure on which Mantle as yet
Shadow Dancer 13 EDP

I find that Acid and Cold is a very good combination without having immunity strip. This build also adds physical (constructs) SLAs. Am hoping that Word of Balance SLA, Zero Degree Comet and Black Dragon Bolt will take care of Reapers and Champions fast at R1-R4 (which is the limit of scope of this build). Did think about selecting Scion of the Plane of Earth but those extra +150 hp is so tempting.

This build does need a lot of spell power types (acid, negative, cold, force and positive... and I guess even elec for that one SLA)

If anyone has done something similar, some feedback would be much appreciated. Any comments too. Thanks.
 
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R

Raedier

The Druid
Viable heh? Depends on your interpretation of the word. Being able to meaningfully contribute dps/cc/heals in raids? Probably not, for R1-4 farming pretty much any class/race combination should work fine given that it's being played properly.
Imo regular druid is the highest ceiling caster class one can play atm in terms of dps/heals and probably cc too, it's omnipotent.
BC is very funky, it doesn't compare dps or heals wise to regular druid and it trades all that for safety while leveling and AOE SLA's, it's very solid for leveling and HC but you can probably see where i'm going with this...
Despite all that BC definitely has some tools to still make it semi decent given the right player who knows all the ins and outs about druid is handling the class.
Would i advise playing it? No, just build an inquisitive and you can meaningfully contribute in r10s and raids with minimal effort compared to BC.

If you just want to play it for flavor then...
The way to make it to the most effective at endgame would be to drop all the SLA's and get as much meta reduction/crit as possible in your enhancement trees. Despite what a lot of forumites say about casters it is very possible to gear for multiple elements, up to 4 of them can be very decent with crit damage maxed, decent crit chance and spell powers. Although it does require a LOT of raid gear and IOD farming.
The sickle from DOV is excellent for a blightcaster, combine it with a dino weapon with alchemical acid and that's solid DPS ( for a caster).

Using t5 magus on a first lifer is kinda sad because Zero degree comet actually is STILL bugged and does 0 damage if a mob saves and ofcourse being a first lifer your DC's will be very low.
Not having Draconic as an ED is also very rough, the spell cost reductions in the cores and the upgraded wellspring + the mantle dot are pretty much mandatory for any caster imo.
Also shifter for bloodfeast is kinda too good to pass up isn't it?

Hope this helped, all in all i love dot casters and spamming clouds and stuff and if that's what you like BC is definitely top at just that.
 
Kimbere

Kimbere

Well-known member
Frantik

Frantik

Well-known member
Raedier said:
Viable heh? Depends on your interpretation of the word. Being able to meaningfully contribute dps/cc/heals in raids? Probably not, for R1-4 farming pretty much any class/race combination should work fine given that it's being played properly.
Imo regular druid is the highest ceiling caster class one can play atm in terms of dps/heals and probably cc too, it's omnipotent.
BC is very funky, it doesn't compare dps or heals wise to regular druid and it trades all that for safety while leveling and AOE SLA's, it's very solid for leveling and HC but you can probably see where i'm going with this...
Despite all that BC definitely has some tools to still make it semi decent given the right player who knows all the ins and outs about druid is handling the class.
Would i advise playing it? No, just build an inquisitive and you can meaningfully contribute in r10s and raids with minimal effort compared to BC.

If you just want to play it for flavor then...
The way to make it to the most effective at endgame would be to drop all the SLA's and get as much meta reduction/crit as possible in your enhancement trees. Despite what a lot of forumites say about casters it is very possible to gear for multiple elements, up to 4 of them can be very decent with crit damage maxed, decent crit chance and spell powers. Although it does require a LOT of raid gear and IOD farming.
The sickle from DOV is excellent for a blightcaster, combine it with a dino weapon with alchemical acid and that's solid DPS ( for a caster).

Using t5 magus on a first lifer is kinda sad because Zero degree comet actually is STILL bugged and does 0 damage if a mob saves and ofcourse being a first lifer your DC's will be very low.
Not having Draconic as an ED is also very rough, the spell cost reductions in the cores and the upgraded wellspring + the mantle dot are pretty much mandatory for any caster imo.
Also shifter for bloodfeast is kinda too good to pass up isn't it?

Hope this helped, all in all i love dot casters and spamming clouds and stuff and if that's what you like BC is definitely top at just that.
Click to expand...
Thanks... I understand that for reasonsable people, Druid is ofc the way to go. I did not know that Zero Degree Comet was bugged. Many, many thanks. The last time I played a BC was in last HC and that was fine but boy was i careful. Shifter Wildhunt does have almost perfect synergy with Druid/BC and as you rightly say coupled with Blood Feast's +100 hp per epic/leg levels with rage is also excellent for a first lifer. Did they ever fix FotW I'm Always Angry (+ rages) ability? I've played both DI with Mantle + Wellspring boost and PA with Mantle. I find it depends, as a pure caster I can see DI being [mostly] first choice but for hybrids I think PA is too good... the extra 3 melee damage types are powerful and the frequent proccing +100 spell points is really nice too.

EDIT. I also take note of your comment on Inq, and I recognise that Inq is highly regarded, and high damage. But I personally don't like the play style all that much.

You have really made me reconsider my life choices and i am tempted to use free lesser HoW and go Druid at level 20.
 
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S

Summoner

Well-known member
I usually only play druids and blightcaster is one of them.
Not sure what you mean by endgame but if it is r8-10 you are gonna have some problems with defenses. How many reaper points you have?

Here is what i usually do.
level split:
1-2 monk for wisdom to ac and evasion. also the dodge from ocean stance goes a long way. If only 1 monk then take evasion from PA at mid epics.
Then 1-2 wizard for archamage and spell threat reduction.
More threat reduction in magus.

Go for primal avatar draconic and magus.
I usually go for thorn kin (and not knight since you then be a plant and veng reapers horrid wilting will instakill you) since this boost spike growth which is actually a really good spell. also use acid well and tsunami, dragon breath. You could go for cap in draconic and take that epic feat that does force damage spell. (better than magus in my opinion)

If planning on doing high reapers i suggest you go for tier 5 in BC or if possible tier 5 in falconry for 25% hp.
also if possible take greater color spray and maybe even burst of glacial wrath. CC mobs is important.
Your force, acid and negative/poison should be high but maybe not maxed.
Focus on getting some defenses too. You do no dps when dead.

Also r10 on a caster is hard. I suggest you stick to r8 max.

Good luck
 
Frantik

Frantik

Well-known member
Summoner said:
I usually only play druids and blightcaster is one of them.
Not sure what you mean by endgame but if it is r8-10 you are gonna have some problems with defenses. How many reaper points you have?

Here is what i usually do.
level split:
1-2 monk for wisdom to ac and evasion. also the dodge from ocean stance goes a long way. If only 1 monk then take evasion from PA at mid epics.
Then 1-2 wizard for archamage and spell threat reduction.
More threat reduction in magus.

Go for primal avatar draconic and magus.
I usually go for thorn kin (and not knight since you then be a plant and veng reapers horrid wilting will instakill you) since this boost spike growth which is actually a really good spell. also use acid well and tsunami, dragon breath. You could go for cap in draconic and take that epic feat that does force damage spell. (better than magus in my opinion)

If planning on doing high reapers i suggest you go for tier 5 in BC or if possible tier 5 in falconry for 25% hp.
also if possible take greater color spray and maybe even burst of glacial wrath. CC mobs is important.
Your force, acid and negative/poison should be high but maybe not maxed.
Focus on getting some defenses too. You do no dps when dead.

Also r10 on a caster is hard. I suggest you stick to r8 max.

Good luck
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for the reply... I meant by end game levels 30-34 and did mention questing at R1-R4 max for scope of build. Interesting that you opt for 17/2/1 splits; I guess if 1 monk level then you can also grab extra reduced meta costs from AM. The Monk and Wizard levels bag you +2 (or +3) feats. How far do you go into Monk Forms for Ocean extra dodge (and Wis and saves)? Level 17 Druid gets three level 9 spells; Mantle of the Icy Soul, Regenerate Mass and Tsunami? Thanks again!
 
S

Summoner

Well-known member
Sorry i missed that.
Couple of things.
BC does not get mantle of the icy soul (or the fire version for that matter). The only thing a BC can strip is acid and it is in bc tier 5. If you are "only" doing max reaper 4 then you wont get any veng reapers and can go fro thorn knight.
Archmage: There is no need to go for reduced meta. It is allready in both BC and SH. BC don't get regen mass. Search for "blightcaster spells".

If you plan on levelling on r4 i do suggest you to get 2 levels of monk to get evasion pretty early. Those traps always kill me. If you are soloing there is not much idea in doing spell threat reduction so can skip AM.
I go all out on monk stances. You get 2 feats from monk and if you take dragon disciple you can take one spell focus and one deflect arrows.
Having 30+ dodge at cap is really nice and combined with 10% AC boost from thorn knight and peircing and slashign reduction you should be fine in r4.
Also you could go fatesinger instead of magister if soloing. It will boost you dc a bit.
 
H

Hobgoblin

Less Nerfy Nerfy more fixy fixy
Summoner said:
Sorry i missed that.
Couple of things.
BC does not get mantle of the icy soul (or the fire version for that matter). The only thing a BC can strip is acid and it is in bc tier 5. If you are "only" doing max reaper 4 then you wont get any veng reapers and can go fro thorn knight.
Archmage: There is no need to go for reduced meta. It is allready in both BC and SH. BC don't get regen mass. Search for "blightcaster spells".

If you plan on levelling on r4 i do suggest you to get 2 levels of monk to get evasion pretty early. Those traps always kill me. If you are soloing there is not much idea in doing spell threat reduction so can skip AM.
I go all out on monk stances. You get 2 feats from monk and if you take dragon disciple you can take one spell focus and one deflect arrows.
Having 30+ dodge at cap is really nice and combined with 10% AC boost from thorn knight and peircing and slashign reduction you should be fine in r4.
Also you could go fatesinger instead of magister if soloing. It will boost you dc a bit.
Click to expand...
don't need monk for evasion on bc

they get it with hive form
 
S

Summoner

Well-known member
Yes but they don't get wisdom to ac or high dodge and the displacement from hive form is not so good in reapers.

So more than just evasion to gain from monk.

And hey it is his build. I just posted how i like to play it.
 
R

Raedier

The Druid
Frantik said:
Did they ever fix FotW I'm Always Angry (+ rages) ability? I've played both DI with Mantle + Wellspring boost and PA with Mantle. I find it depends, as a pure caster I can see DI being [mostly] first choice but for hybrids I think PA is too good... the extra 3 melee damage types are powerful and the frequent proccing +100 spell points is really nice too.
Click to expand...

My last melee life the +3 charges from FOTW worked fine, there is a weird bug that causes u to lose almost all rage charges as a shifter when taking extra boosts from other places (Natures protector) and maybe FOTW too.

I generally use both mantles on my druid and swap when needed or just snapshot evergreen onto call lightning storm....
 
Frantik

Frantik

Well-known member
Raedier said:
My last melee life the +3 charges from FOTW worked fine, there is a weird bug that causes u to lose almost all rage charges as a shifter when taking extra boosts from other places (Natures protector) and maybe FOTW too.

I generally use both mantles on my druid and swap when needed or just snapshot evergreen onto call lightning storm....
Click to expand...
Yeah the FotW + rages is bugged the last time I tried it. Shifter with 2 levels of Barb is a good place to go.
 
T

The Narc2

Well-known member
Raedier said:
Viable heh? Depends on your interpretation of the word. Being able to meaningfully contribute dps/cc/heals in raids? Probably not, for R1-4 farming pretty much any class/race combination should work fine given that it's being played properly.
Imo regular druid is the highest ceiling caster class one can play atm in terms of dps/heals and probably cc too, it's omnipotent.
BC is very funky, it doesn't compare dps or heals wise to regular druid and it trades all that for safety while leveling and AOE SLA's, it's very solid for leveling and HC but you can probably see where i'm going with this...
Despite all that BC definitely has some tools to still make it semi decent given the right player who knows all the ins and outs about druid is handling the class.
Would i advise playing it? No, just build an inquisitive and you can meaningfully contribute in r10s and raids with minimal effort compared to BC.

If you just want to play it for flavor then...
The way to make it to the most effective at endgame would be to drop all the SLA's and get as much meta reduction/crit as possible in your enhancement trees. Despite what a lot of forumites say about casters it is very possible to gear for multiple elements, up to 4 of them can be very decent with crit damage maxed, decent crit chance and spell powers. Although it does require a LOT of raid gear and IOD farming.
The sickle from DOV is excellent for a blightcaster, combine it with a dino weapon with alchemical acid and that's solid DPS ( for a caster).

Using t5 magus on a first lifer is kinda sad because Zero degree comet actually is STILL bugged and does 0 damage if a mob saves and ofcourse being a first lifer your DC's will be very low.
Not having Draconic as an ED is also very rough, the spell cost reductions in the cores and the upgraded wellspring + the mantle dot are pretty much mandatory for any caster imo.
Also shifter for bloodfeast is kinda too good to pass up isn't it?

Hope this helped, all in all i love dot casters and spamming clouds and stuff and if that's what you like BC is definitely top at just that.
Click to expand...
Lol and wonder why T5 magus destiny ability is bugged to do zero damage.

Again SSG team, i am flattered, wink wink.
 
Br4d

Br4d

Well-known member
Jasparius said:
1st life "test" toon with Supreme +8 tomes... is this one of the mysterious whales we hear about ?
Click to expand...

Every once in a long while +8 tomes and +5 skill tomes go on sale. If I bought a bunch of points on sale earlier I tend to stock up buying 2 or 3 at that point. We got lucky with one of these sales just after Cormyr launched and my next couple of projects will be fully tomed as a result.

If you watch the double point sales and have kept track of what has been offered recently (unlikely to be offered again in the next year) you can plan out being a dolphin among whales and get very good bang for your buck.
 
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