Shield vs Evasion for Legendary Elite as caster ?

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lppmor

Well-known member
While playing solo Epic content with my caster Wizard I noticed wearing a shield had a huge impact.
The extra AC and double PRR/MRR on reflex saves are really huge, and whenever I dropped the shield for an Orb things started to get much harder. Add that to my DR 15/Adamantine from armor and I'm having a blast to plow through Epic Elite and Legendary Hard.

However, now I'm level 26 and tried a few Legendary Elite quests.
Well, my feeling so far is that my AC, DR and shield simply don't matter anymore. Everything hits for 150+ dmg, with very few misses. My AC 85 and PRR 100 are not cutting through at all.

So... My idea is that I'll have to change playstyle for Legendary Elite. I'll forget have to about mitigation (AC, PRR), and instead focus on DCs (for more crowd control - Glacial Wrath is not landing at all) and Evasion instead of a shield (can easily get Evasion from Primal Avatar). This will also allow me to use a quarterstaff for supposely more dps.

Is this idea correct? Not only talking about Shield vs Evasion actually, it's also more a question related to build options here (more mitigation vs DCs/offensive casting).

For example, at lvl 30 I could upgrade my Tourney Armor to grant DR 30/Adamantine, but I'm not sure it'll help agaisnt such hard hitting Elite mobs (150-30 seems not that impressive, right). I could instead focus on sets that give me +3 Artifact DCs, for instance, to help landing my Glacial Wrath.

What you guys think?
 
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lppmor

Well-known member
FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted said:
you can evade with a buckler or small shield, and i might add the wreckage of the drowned rat from iod is a small shield that is insanely good for wizard
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Yes, but Small/Buckler does not double your PRR/MRR (which is half the power of a shield IMO). Actually worth using a Small shield in this case (instead of Orb/Staff for example)?
 
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Zaszgul

Well-known member
DR is not helpful in LE or reaper, forget about it.

Quarterstaves are not usually optimal, a pair of good sceptres or orb offhand will usually give you better mileage, because you can pick and choose the bonuses they offer better. Exception being if the staff in question provides a unique bonus you can't get otherwise.

DCs are very important. You will want at least 100 DC for L29 elite/reaper. R1 is typically easier than elite once you get some reaper points under your belt, as the bonus DCs from reaper trees will be higher than the save bonus mobs receive in R1.

As for whether evasion is worth it - depends what you're giving up to get it, and if your reflex is high enough for evasion to actually do anything. I typically don't have it on casters, and don't miss it. The spell damage I notice the most:
Black Dragon Bolt
Horrid Wilting
Polar Ray

is not affected by reflex/evasion at all.

If you have the capstone in PM, then you should be able to survive pretty much anything unless your negative spellpower or amp is too low.
 
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Zaszgul

Well-known member
Followup:
Defenses that ARE useful in LE/reaper:

Dodge (9 points from reaper trees)
HP (120 from reaper trees that's always on, plus tons more that only works in reaper)
PRR
MRR
 
Shardrena

Shardrena

Well-known member
I'm trying to figure out why as a caster you'd be using a shield to begin with. After all, giving yourself a spell failure chance is generally a bad idea if you don't have to. And casters already get options which are far superior to using a shield. The Shield spell not only provides the shield bonus to AC, but gives you 100% protection from force spells like Magic Missile. Elemental resistances/protection from spells are going to serve you better then shield too. Things like Blur provide a much better protection via avoiding the physical hit entirely instead of reducing the attack's damage by a percentage. You get the idea.
 
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Dogtrauma

Unknowable Member
If you can work out a nice build with 11 points in feydark illusionist, you will have a much easier time booping the noses of trash mobs with Greater Color Spray it lands pretty well and mobs that are immune to a bunch of crowd control can often still be blinded ( and it's dirt cheap in SP so you can be slutty with it. The Displacement spell ofc is very useful as well in elite or less, i hear reapers have true sight so no joy there but reapers are not all full of reapers on R1 anyways.
 
Dragavon

Dragavon

Well-known member
lppmor said:
However, now I'm level 26 and tried a few Legendary Elite quests.

What you guys think?
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Doing leg elite at lvl 26 is really hard yes. You do not yet have the equipment or character abilities you need to handle legendary quests.
You are much better off doing 25-26-27 quests for XP, then do legendary quests when you get to lvl 29-30 and get all the nice lvl 29+ gear.
 
Mordenkainen

Mordenkainen

Please SSG, no more nerfs. Thank you!
8kfeva.jpg
 
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lppmor

Well-known member
Dragavon said:
You are much better off doing 25-26-27 quests for XP, then do legendary quests when you get to lvl 29-30 and get all the nice lvl 29+ gear.
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That's exactly my plan.
Start doing Elite for real at lvl 29 after getting some gear.

And I think I'll go with an Orb + Evasion after lvl 29.
 
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AbyssalMage

Well-known member
If you are a DC caster that should be your first line of defense. You are running Elite so you get full benefit from Displacement and Ghostly. Make sure to slot Dodge either through an Augment (or named item).

The next advice I can provide is asking how many HP's you have? I run with +9 Con, +4 Insight, +1 exceptional, +False Life, +Vitality, +Profane (all level 20, so not min/maxed for level 26) and that is usually enough unless I get a bad champ/reaper cluster and then I use Jibbers for a reset.
 
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