3 Aspect Caster Build Thoughts

[Grumpy Old Wizard 0]

I have the community patch and have an idea for a build and am seeking advice Here are my current thoughts and experiences (she is at level 19.)

 

Question: Does a mastered Ancient Magic reduce physical resistances for spell CAs? Like for vines and lances?

 

Answered:

It should yes, since physical is a damage channel/resistance. All Ancient Magic affects is non-weapon-based CAs (those that have the "causesSpellDamage = 1" flag), though I've not tested AM's effect on the physical damage CAs.

 

Oh, the Community Patch slightly increased Tangled Vine damage. I don't have the numbers for that increase.

 

Goals:

The goal of the build is to run areas and bosses with a focus on Nature. I know she may not be as fast as a lot of other builds, but that is ok. The weakness of nature is no big area effect spells. So I came up with the idea of using Dust Devil and VD to help with trash mobs.

 

Expert Touch

 

Skill Order:

Nature Lore

Nature Focus

Combat Discipline

Hunter Focus-- add as necessary to keep Whirlwind CA regen low.

Tactics --improves Whirlwind

Ancient Magic

Shield Lore

Armor Lore

Voodoo Focus

Damage Lore--improves fire damage on tangled vines/lances

 

The hunter aspect provides Dust Devil to help deal with trash mobs (and evasion) and Forest Flight for strategic movement. Voodoo provides curses and hopefully more crowd damage throgh VD. Dust Devil has a long cooldown and is immobile but with proper mods it will be an important part of battles with packs of monsters and lasts almost as long as the cooldown.

 

Dust Devil: Recondition, Elongate, Sanding

Forest Flight: Roots, Expert, Escape

 

Vines: Sprawl, Singe, Encroach

Lances: Thorns, Stings, Singe

Ancient Bark: Rugged, Divert, Invigorate

Acute Mind: Proficiency, Insight, Easiness

GG Touch: Flow, Persevere, Diligence

 

Curses: We are not taking the Lore, so damage from curses besides VD will be negligible

 

VD: Gangrene, Headhunter, Gouge --for bosses

OR Relapse, Transmission, Contaminate for crowds

 

I am probably going to try out the second set of mods for VD. It may work well with Dust Devil and vines since VD does more damage the more the creature is damaged.

 

Torment: Headhunter, Sadist --for finding heads and with damage lore, provides weaken effect

Black Curse: Porous, Elongate, Expert --lower physical resistance

 

If a mastered Ancient Magic lowers physical resistance for the CAs then Black Curse would not be very useful for this build.

 

Here is Naturalia (level 19) boar hunting for set pieces to try to complete her nature set. She developed Dust Devil by level 12 and it has helped a lot with trash mobs. She also has tangled vines and endaphic lances developed at this point.

 

Edited July 22, 2010 by Grumpy Old Wizard

[ololcat 3]

Why do you plan to pick Stings silver mod for Lances and not Thorns mod again?

(I've never had Dryad caster, so maybe your choice is better, please explain)

 

Btw, nice work so far

Edited July 22, 2010 by ololcat

[claudius 104]

The crowd mode from VD is nerfed on pc... (I think you are pc?) totally nerfed I never suceeded in transmitting it even fully modded.

 

Never tried it on boss...

 

 

 

 

 

I wish you could get concentration + a pet voodoo + SP with chance to hit (rph) and chance to crit..... drop tactics?

Edited July 22, 2010 by claudius

[Grumpy Old Wizard 0]

Why do you plan to pick Stings silver mod for Lances and not Thorns mod again?

(I've never had Dryad caster, so maybe your choice is better, please explain)

 

Btw, nice work so far

 

Thanks.

 

From my understanding the number of thorns continues to increase with the Combat Art level. So making all thorns more damaging would be more beneficial in the long term.

 

 

The crowd mode from VD is nerfed on pc... (I think you are pc?) totally nerfed I never suceeded in transmitting it even fully modded.

 

Never tried it on boss...

 

 

 

 

 

I wish you could get concentration + a pet voodoo + SP with chance to hit (rph) and chance to crit..... drop tactics?

 

I know regen per hit is very powerful, but I have no desire to play a melee or ranged character with this build. She is a pure caster.

 

I know VD does not spread through the whole map any longer. It was nerfed to spread only a set distance. But the purpose of it in this build is to just spread to those on the same screen, to aid Dust Devil/vines/lances.

 

I want to go without a pet on this build. Tactics increases the damage of Dust Devil. DD would be pretty much useless without it. Tactics also provides access to Damage Lore, which will add more damage from the vines and lances.