Is a Greater Color Spray build (either Gnome or Feydark) feasible for R1 to R3 difficulty to play from level 1 through to 32 as either ranged or melee? I had the idea that I would pick up Quicken and Enlarge early on for use with GCS and then put all the other feats into ranged or melee combat. I have 12 racial points and 1 universal to play with. Is this a workable idea for all levels?
GCS melee or ranged build feasible?
- Thread starter DDO Noob
- Start date
I personally don’t think so. At cap getting a usable DC of 110+ will be difficult without sacrificing to many gear/filigree slots.
Ideally I like DC of around 120 at a minimum on a caster for CC.
It’s hard enough to just fit in caster gear or melee gear, doing both is just really hard.
Ideally I like DC of around 120 at a minimum on a caster for CC.
It’s hard enough to just fit in caster gear or melee gear, doing both is just really hard.
Ying
5000+ hours played
DDO doesn't support characters that can do melee/ranged + spell DCs well. You have to choose one to focus on. If you focus on spell DCs, then your damage is going to suffer because itemization does not support both at once.
Zvdegor
Melee Artificer Freak
My Melee Arti build has a dc 99-103 on evocation (for Tactical Detonation) and it is working well in high reaper too. Not 100% tho but I am sure on low reaper diff somewhere between 90-100 Illusion dc should work.
As Ying wrote it is hard to build for both dc and melee dps/defence at the same time but not impossible to get a functional GCS dc.
You definetely need all the dc PLs and this goggles to make it work at cap.
I think my build can be transformed to illusion focus instead of evocation but it will mostly work at cap.
Heroic leveling 1-14 is easier and much safer with a repeater anyway and after you can switch to melee and GCS.
If you go Deep Gnome 18 Arti/1 Ftr or DL or /1 Wizard you have a slot for Enlarge at lvl 1+ other filigree and ED setup should work.
You also can take the +3 Illusion dc int he racial tree for more DC.
Pros: Melee playstyle + GCS and/or TD is really fun! With one goggle swap you can use both spells.
Cons: Cant use GCS too early since you not building a caster. Gearfarming and minmaxing is a must for every 5 levels if you wanna be functional. Prolly it does not worth it to do the grind if you planning only 1 life to play with this build/style.
As Ying wrote it is hard to build for both dc and melee dps/defence at the same time but not impossible to get a functional GCS dc.
You definetely need all the dc PLs and this goggles to make it work at cap.
I think my build can be transformed to illusion focus instead of evocation but it will mostly work at cap.
Heroic leveling 1-14 is easier and much safer with a repeater anyway and after you can switch to melee and GCS.
If you go Deep Gnome 18 Arti/1 Ftr or DL or /1 Wizard you have a slot for Enlarge at lvl 1+ other filigree and ED setup should work.
You also can take the +3 Illusion dc int he racial tree for more DC.
Pros: Melee playstyle + GCS and/or TD is really fun! With one goggle swap you can use both spells.
Cons: Cant use GCS too early since you not building a caster. Gearfarming and minmaxing is a must for every 5 levels if you wanna be functional. Prolly it does not worth it to do the grind if you planning only 1 life to play with this build/style.
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Bjond
Well-known member
You might be able to manage something if your primary stat was INT(Gnome) or INT/WIS/CHA(Fey). My experience with DC based builds is that "reasonable" DC investment works sub-cap (stat+focus gear), but at cap you need insane investment (full zstack stat+gear+filligrees+tree) for less effect.
Mindos
CHAOTIC EVIL
I keep trying to thread this off-balance needle.
Myranna
Well-known member
Does anyone know if it's just the tooltip or is the gnome greater color spray WAY better than the feydark one? I am running a deep gnome wizard and the DCs on the deep gnome SLAs are 15 points higher than the DCs for the spells (PK) and the feydark SLA according to the tooltip.
Pano
Grandmaster of Seriousness
I have 119 DC in reaper endgame with my gnome wizard EK and with the same gear (bastard with mostly int/mp/dc filigrees) I am able to solo R6 reliably. DPS is not amazing but not bad either. (3:18 to deal 2m dmg to scorpion heresy on R4)
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Pano
Grandmaster of Seriousness
If you want to be push raider DPS - then of course not. If you want to contribute to R10 questing, it is doable. - since magewright set exists and IoD gear that can get +2 sacred/profane DC almost for free
Ying
5000+ hours played
The game does not support melee/ranged + spell DCs. You don't have enough feats to get both spell feats and DPS feats. If you're equipping Quality, Profane, Sacred, and Artifact DCs then you won't have gear that has Seeker, Deception, etc. Pick one, or suck at both.
Pano
Grandmaster of Seriousness
Of course you will do some compromises, but especially if you can afford 2 or 3 full sentient gems and swap weapons for bosses, it is more than decent.
The OP's question is if it is feasible to make this work in R1-3. I am sayin it is possible up to R6 solo or R10 grouped if you know what you are doing and where to do compromises. Of course you can do 130+ DC vs mine 119. And of course my DMG is not pure DPS worthy, but it is enough for high reaper questing.
Also I have a Dino Bastard (119 DC, AoE melee dmg) for solo and R8. Dino Quarterstaff (126 DC) for R10 CC and instakilling and I am working on Dino scimitar (max MP and DS) for more single target boss beating.
I dont want to share my entire build publicly, but if you are interested I can send it to you privatly.
Ped Xing
Well-known member
...at higher difficulty levels.
For the more casual player who is willing to put in some work to get gear swaps, it's very do-able.
Just understand that if such a build jumps into higher reaper they will very likely be frustratingly useless as Ying pointed out.
SpartanKiller13
Why do I have 614 ddo build files
1-20 it's pretty doable on any Int/Wis/Cha-max toon if you stuff a DC item or three and have a bit of investment (tome, Reaper points, and DG PL's add up a lot).
You can get viable endgame DC's, but it costs a fair bit from ED choices and filigree particularly.
I did an 18/2 Pally/Cleric with viable GCS, Crusade, Turns, and reasonable melee DPS. But T5 in a caster ED and all Cha filigree hurts DPS a bunch compared to a DPS-focused toon.
More than fine for LR1-3 which was your goal, but you'll have to work for it at endgame.
You can get viable endgame DC's, but it costs a fair bit from ED choices and filigree particularly.
I did an 18/2 Pally/Cleric with viable GCS, Crusade, Turns, and reasonable melee DPS. But T5 in a caster ED and all Cha filigree hurts DPS a bunch compared to a DPS-focused toon.
More than fine for LR1-3 which was your goal, but you'll have to work for it at endgame.
Redtalktree
Well-known member
yup well said, melee dps is really meh and GCS cant do jack with sacrifices got the the Dc high high enough. I had a charisma pally/Dark aposate going GCS, work fine till mid epics then its like meh after that as GCS dont land in 29-34 lvl range
FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted
If you read my posts you have already lost
looking at this thread, i seriously wonder if anybody even read the OP's post because it is definitely 100% doable on a first lifer with mostly melee gear. in fact I run it on my EK and its still landing at 27. makes questing so nice
I think most these people are trolls tbh
SpartanKiller13
Why do I have 614 ddo build files
Try at 32, there's a huge chasm between level 27 quests at 27 and level 32 quests at 32.
A lot of longterm vets are concerned largely with running reaper at endgame and/or running raids on mid-high difficulty. Leveling is just part of the process, like if you hit 32 and go run every legendary Saga on R6+ (like quite a few of my friends) then you need to plan as much for endgame as you do for leveling (more, even, as leveling is usually pretty easy with some AoE and gear - when you have like 50 PL's and 100 reaper points).
Like Ying above, when talking about "If you're equipping Quality, Profane, Sacred, and Artifact DCs then you won't have gear that has Seeker, Deception, etc. Pick one, or suck at both." this is absolutely correct if you're trying to get full Seeker/Deception with full sets for DPS & Casting etc, but you sorta just don't care about having insightful Seeker at level 11. If you have it, neat! If you drop it in favor of +1 Profane DC's and get helpless damage via GSC instead, also neat!