First Lifer Alchemist Nuker for Reaper Raids

[westside]

Thanks again to @Griglok (Karatemack) for having me on last night to discuss the build. Ninety minutes goes by pretty fast, and we had to handwave over the gear selection. So if you have any questions about the gear, I'm happy to dive deeper in this thread.

Also, I had put together a Love/Gripes list with Alchemist to discuss if we had time. Since we didn't, I'll post it here to spark some conversation.

Love:

1. Don’t have to be facing the mob to throw vials at it. “You are not facing your target” is one of the most frustrating things about other casters.
2. Alchemist is a top tier nuker. 1400 cold spellpower (boosted) on a first life toon without reaper points is phenomenal.
3. It's got built-in elemental immunity stripping, and the first vial of Multivial removes that immunity so the remaining 3 vials do full damage. The lack of elemental stripping is why I stopped playing Warlock.
4. Multivial is an excellent nuke spell - only Meteor Swam better IMO due to Sorcerer cast speed and cooldown.
5. At level cap you can solo R3 Legendary quests with 0 reaper points, if you're patient and knowledgeable about the quest.

Gripes:

1. Elemental Obliteration (T5 bombardier) is only MCL 10 base, which caps at 17. Requires an epic feat for it to be worthwhile (MCL27) at end-game. That's lame for a T5 ability.
2. Reactions don’t trigger when there’s lag, and SSG has been unable to address lag long-term.
3. No real choices for level 6 spells. Would love a single target nuke for bosses.
4. No great secondary enhancement tree. Feydark is just “ok”: +4 INT, 31 USP, 2% universal crit. Apothecary is pretty bad, other than Life Salve.
5. High skill ceiling with spiking Pyrite reaction every 12 seconds, while maximizing damage. Not easy because Alchemist spells have a wide range of cooldowns between 3-12 seconds. <insert meme of calculus floating around Katee Sackoff's head>. Sorcerer is a much simpler class to play, so it's much more accessible to the player base.

Epic Destiny Gripes:

6. Magus: You can easily "miss" with Time Stop. For something that's supposed to be an epic moment, it's totally lame and disappointing when you activate Time Stop and nothing happens.
7. Primal Avatar: Storm Catcher epic strike requires a hard target. Targeting requirements need to be the same as spells where the recticle target is honored.

Regarding gear , would this gear set up be reasonable for a more end game build not bound by the restrictions?

 

[tassdar0226]

hello, I use this build to run my 1st alcm, it's very smooth. But I got 2 questions about the feats .

1.Why don't you take the "master of spellvital"?

2.Is it enough DC for "Burst of Glacial Wrath" ?

Thx for sharing this good build for us

 

[Silvarost]

hello, I use this build to run my 1st alcm, it's very smooth. But I got 2 questions about the feats .

1.Why don't you take the "master of spellvital"?

2.Is it enough DC for "Burst of Glacial Wrath" ?

Thx for sharing this good build for us

Can't speak for Ying, but I can offer some of my opinions and repeat other things he said. First question, master of spellvials. It only boosts Elemental Obliteration (SLA) and the lvl 1 spellvial alchemist spells (you're usually using the multivials and other higher level spells due to AOE damage and extra effects). Ying mentions in another thread how disappointing he found EO to be, and I tend to agree with him. Even in heroics it's not that great damage wise (no extra effects either), and going to epics it's even more noticeable.

Second question, the DC for Glacial Wrath. In his GoogleDoc he lists his Evocation DC as 105 (116 situational). In his breakdown he lists the bonus from heighten as 6, the highest level of alchemist spells he had, but unless he already factored that in I believe that his Glacial Wrath would have a higher DC than 105 due to it being an epic spell (I want to say it would be 109, but not positive) and for a first life toon that's pretty good. Usual benchmark for legendary content is 100+ (the older the legendary content the more likely it is to work), so I think that it does have a high enough DC to make it worth taking.