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New-ish CW just hit end game
mythaura
Member Posts: 2 Arc User
And I have a couple question! 
Has Armor Pen been fixed for CW abilities? Last I heard, there were a bunch that didn't benefit from it.
How does Spellstorm mage compare to master of flame? I'm currently running master of flame - but only did so cause it was the new paragon path when I was leveling. I'm hoping to change to spellstorm and am wondering what I should expect (dps increase, decrease, more CC, less CC, more/less utility or benefits to my party...?)
I went Renegade. Just. Ugh. There is something I have got to be missing and not understanding about the other two feat paths, because both of them looked lackluster to me in comparison to renegade -
it's nightmare wizardry and that my auto attack can apply such awesome debuffs. If someone could take the time to explain how those two paths work (IIRC, something about Chilling Cloud and synergy between...blarg...and then my brain trails off). I Know there are guides out there that could explain it, but a summary would be really great.
Gear! I'm so confused about gear in this game. I've been trying to get a High Vizor set thingy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - it's t2, and I can get it by doing epic dungeons such as Spellplague, Pirate King, etc? I haven't seen any of those pieces drop from those dungeons. Not once. I have a lv60 DC as well, and haven't even seen a set piece for her drop either from any boss, ever. I'm running around in a mix of pvp gear, AH blues (and an AH purple orb! it looks real pretty) and quest items.
Lastly...! That buff that stacks up when you cast certain spells due to feats, or it pops up upon the last attack of the Magic Missile at will...I've been eyeing it suspiciously for the past week. It seems like I should make more of an effort to keep up five stacks of it than I have been, and would be nice if someone could say yay or nay to that - should I worry about it?
Nice to meet you all
Has Armor Pen been fixed for CW abilities? Last I heard, there were a bunch that didn't benefit from it.
How does Spellstorm mage compare to master of flame? I'm currently running master of flame - but only did so cause it was the new paragon path when I was leveling. I'm hoping to change to spellstorm and am wondering what I should expect (dps increase, decrease, more CC, less CC, more/less utility or benefits to my party...?)
I went Renegade. Just. Ugh. There is something I have got to be missing and not understanding about the other two feat paths, because both of them looked lackluster to me in comparison to renegade -
it's nightmare wizardry and that my auto attack can apply such awesome debuffs. If someone could take the time to explain how those two paths work (IIRC, something about Chilling Cloud and synergy between...blarg...and then my brain trails off). I Know there are guides out there that could explain it, but a summary would be really great.Gear! I'm so confused about gear in this game. I've been trying to get a High Vizor set thingy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - it's t2, and I can get it by doing epic dungeons such as Spellplague, Pirate King, etc? I haven't seen any of those pieces drop from those dungeons. Not once. I have a lv60 DC as well, and haven't even seen a set piece for her drop either from any boss, ever. I'm running around in a mix of pvp gear, AH blues (and an AH purple orb! it looks real pretty) and quest items.
Lastly...! That buff that stacks up when you cast certain spells due to feats, or it pops up upon the last attack of the Magic Missile at will...I've been eyeing it suspiciously for the past week. It seems like I should make more of an effort to keep up five stacks of it than I have been, and would be nice if someone could say yay or nay to that - should I worry about it?
Nice to meet you all
Post edited by mythaura on
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I might have just what you're looking for in my newest CW guide. Like all my guides I'm always polishing, and adding info but the bulk of it is there. In particular check out the links at the start, Grimah's CW guide and my dungeon guide for the basics on CW mechanics and class roles.
The main body has detailed comparisons about SS vs MoF and sample builds and strategies.
http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/392-master-of-flame-a-cws-handbook/?p=1689
For best chances at gear run dungeons during dungeon delve hour, you have a small chance to get a set piece from the boss chest which is unlocked. Outside of dungeon delve hour you can unlock the chest by using the dungeon chest key, you get one a day but also can buy more for 5k AD.
The magic missile at will stack you're talking about is Arcane Stacks. It's nice to have but generally not worth stressing over. The guides above discuss it in more detail. Good luck!
Guild and guide info
Module 4 Comprehensive DC guide |Module 4 MoF CW Handbook |New! Scourge Warlock Guide| NW Numbers and Mechanics guide |Crit, Power and DPS guide | Dungeon Delving guide and more
Spellstorm is better than MOF.
Renegade CAN be good, but thaum is much more stable as it buffs you and debuffs enemies, rather than renegade which just spikes your damage for random amounts of time. Here's a good thaum guide, but you can most certainly(and depending on what you are going to run) change a few of the feats around to suit your needs. link
T2 armour has a chance to be dropped in T2 dungeons from the chest at the end.(Which is automatically unlocked during Dungeon Delve hours or if you have a Dungeon key, bought from the wonderous bazaar for 5k) You want to do the dungeons that are specific to each piece(shown in the link im posting) and obtain a full High Vizier set, it is by far the best end-game PVE set. link
I'm not sure what you mean on this lastly, if you mean Frozen Power Transfer to boost your damage then I wouldn't seek it out over doing encounters, but once it does happen it's a nice boost.
No... its really not...
Spellstorm is good on lower powered targets, this is what I've seen so far. Its really good on very weak mobs that it can wipe out quickly with burst damage. There its better than the MoF...
The Master of Flame is something capable of the hard targets and things that will not go down very quickly, here the MoF is far better than Spellstorm.
The difference is one is a Burst Nuker, the other is a DoT based Nuker. And yes I can stomp Spellstorms as an MoF and Visa Versa.
Now that I've done BOTH of them with the same gear score on both. That Master of Flame is every bit as strong as a Spellstorm.
I've made a killing with it in Icewind Dale... and yes I have multiple screenshots of wiping out geared Spellstorms in the Kessel Skirmish as an MoF, not going to post those though.
Thaum vs Renegade...
Thaum is actually just easier to play, and I ALWAYS recommend the Thaumaturge to new players as it takes less know how and its a very straight forward build.
Honestly with a Spellstorm I do more damage as a Renegade hybrid.
But that requires a deep understanding of combat advantage and how to utilize it properly. If you don't or are not willing to work for it, a Renegade will be the worse of the two choices. This is not a Newbie character, if you don't know what you're doing, you'll fail badly.
Honestly I never got any use out of it when playing a Spellstorm.
Not that its not a good feat, because honestly its a very good one. But in practical application as a Spellstorm you just don't use At Will powers much. You're tending to use All Encounter powers. So as an example, as a Spellstorm I'd run Shards, Steal Time, Sudden Storm, (Mastery) Chill Strike, or sometimes reversing the Sudden Storm in Mastery with Chill Strike.
That combo meant I was using Encounter powers very rapidly when combined with Champion Armor, so never ended up using Magic Missiles unless I was on a Boss Mob.
With MoF it was entirely different. This one is much slower. What you run into with MoF or at least I did, was that, since you don't have the Burst Damage a Spellstorm does, you can't get much use out of Phantasmal Destruction as you need to be in a combat advantage position to use it. You're using mostly DoTs
However... the MoF is actually better able to make use of the Capstone Feat of Renegade Tree, as your Magic Missiles generally become an additional DoT on your targets. So there you might use, Shards, Steal Time, Conduit of Ice, Fanning the Flame (Mastery), Both CoI and Fanning the Flame are DoTs, unlike the Spellstorm using Chill Strike and Sudden Storm. So you actually CAN get use out of At Wills on top of your DoTs and Do with an MoF much more than a Spellstorm.
But it doesn't make the Renegade Path that attractive as you don't have Eye of the Storm as an MoF, ergo most of that path goes unused or cannot be taken advantage of as an MoF.
That is my personal experience and views on the Capstone feat of the Renegade tree,
Even though its actually a very good feat, I just never got any practical use out of it.
Ironically due to the Burst Casting nature of the Spellstorm I also never got use out of the Assailing Force Feat there, as I could do much more constant and consistent Damage with the rotation I described above.
In short, I got more out of the Renegade Path as a Spellstorm, and More out of the Thaumaturge path as an MoF.
Never did MoF cant comment, some of them seem strong in PVP, others dont. But I dont know everyones gear scores and junk when Im fighting them on my toons.
Well you can do it if you want,
I just never got any use out of it the entire time I did, outside very minor usage.
Now, on the other hand I've gotten a LARGE amount of usage out of Nightmare Wizardry and Phantasmal Destruction as a Spellstorm but that of course means you have to know what combat advantage is and how to get it and use it, or you will never make full use out of Phantasmal Destruction.
So I got away from using the capstone feat entirely and started to spec Renegade/Thaum hybrids which generally worked best anyway for mass mob clearing. In my personal opinion they tended to be better than either a pure Thaum or Pure Renegade, at least from a Spellstorm perspective.
I am assuming you are speaking in terms of Spellstorm as you haven't mentioned MoF, thats a different animal when it comes to building blocks to make it tick.
This though, is more advanced thinking in Control Wizard Builds, and requires you to seriously understand what it is you ARE feating on these and what they do and how they play into what you do.
That means you don't know how to play a renegade to its fullest. I top the pain giver chart vs the same geared cw either MoF or SS. -ohhh but thaum gives debuff to the party YES! they are giving useful debuffs when I saw no MM debuff I knew the other CW is a thaum BUT his CoI mitigation + my nexus is more beneficial than 2 CoI and We can compliment each other well, and burn and shock all those monsters to oblivion, I do not compete the Pain chart when I saw 2 hv users and switch my role to the unsong hero type.
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