Posted this on other forums but no feedback yet.  Anyone see anything that won't work?

With the new AC up theme coming sometime soon and the nerf to Divine Grace I began looking over my current Sorc build to see how I could improve it. I currently am using a Drow 12sorc/6fvs/2pal with max cha for leveling my last few epic lives. I use soundburst and energy burst a lot so the fvs aura was great for helping land the soundburst. I knew soundburst wasn't going to be worth much in EE end game when I finally stop my ETR train so I have no problem lowering the 6 fvs and my 70+ charisma won't be as useful. I already had few spells I cast with dc's. The following is a proposed heavy armor/tower shield nuker. It can blow stuff up with big aoe spells, focus on a single target with minimal mana usage, and has little issue standing in the middle of the frey. While I will have +6 tomes, epic completionist, etc... it will also work for newer players. The race is even flexible. I got many pointers from other posted builds such as Spam Machine, Toaster of Vengeance, Shoikan, and others of similar nature.


Goals:
Wear heavy armor and tower shield with shield mastery bonuses to reach a decent ac and prr(mrr).
Obtain good saves and alternate defenses.
Low mana spell spamming.
Multiple aoe spells for nuking trash.
As many no dc spells as possible.
Large spell point pool for constant nuking


The Howitzer
Sun Elf 12 Sorc-fire/ 6 Paladin/ 2 Fvs
Past Lives: 3 Sorc, 2 Wiz, 1 Paladin, 1 Bladeforged, 3 Colors of the Queen, 3 Energy Criticals, 3 Brace, 2 Doublestrike, 1 Fortification(what I will have but none are required)


Race:
You have the option to go Elf, Drow, Half Elf, Sun Elf, Warforged, or Bladeforged. All of these races have arcane spell failure reducing enhancements. I like Sun Elf the best but if you like more defense over feywild tap I suggest Bladeforged. Favored weapons could be a factor also depending on if you value a melee option say for martial lives. If someone needs the pros and cons laid out better let me know.
Elf: feywild tap, f2p
Drow: +4 charisma, easy to access
Half Elf: +1-2 charisma, healing amp, no con penalty, you like looking at your helmet
Sun Elf: feywild tap, fireshield fire
Warforged: better defense option if you don't own Bladeforged, have to spend feat on armor
Bladeforged: great defense but have to spend a feat on armor. Note you will lose a lot of sacred ground healing.


Stats:
strength 8
dexterity 8 6 tome, 1 litany, 1 globe, 11 item, 4 exceptional, 4 tensers, 2 ship, 2 yugo = 39
constitution 16 6 tome, 1 litany, 1 globe, 10 item, 4 exceptional, 4 tensers, 2 ship, 6 defender, 2 yugo = 52
intelligence 14 6 tome, 1 litany, 1 globe, 8 item, 2 ship = 32
wisdom 8 6 tome, 1 litany, 1 globe, 6 item, 2 exceptional, 2 ship = 26
charisma 18 6 tome, 1 litany, 1 globe, 11 item, 3 exceptional, 2 ship, 7 levels, 3 Crusader, 2 fire savant, 2 yugo = 56

For lesser point value builds just drop con to 13/14. Divine Grace caps at 50 charisma so for the lesser geared there is room to still cap it out. There are no set numbers to hit for feats or anything.


Feats:
quicken, maximize, empower, extend, shield mastery, imp. shield mastery, mental toughness(2), bulwark of defense, ruin
hellball, epic spell power fire

Nothing special, just work on fire/force spell power, epic nukes, and shield prr. Tower shield proficiency will come from masters touch. If by chance that doesn't work for something drop either imp. mental toughness or bulwark. Leveling order isn't that important. Taking fvs at 20 will allow you to max heal and spellcraft easier.


Skills:
Max concentration, spellcraft, heal, umd
1 in tumble, perform
remainder in balance


Destiny:
Divine Crusader: charisma(3), interrogation, purge the wicked, consecration, flames of purity, sacred ground, empyrean magic, crusade, heavenly presence, celestial bombardment.
Twists: energy burst fire, legendary shield mastery, fey form, endless faith.

This requires a tome of fate +2 and 16 epic lives. I intend to run a few more divines for prr and maybe max out fortification from martial since I did the first two for doublestrike. For those of you without epic completionist or tons of fate points, drop fey form. Endless faith is a good swap twist for misc. quest needs. Just remove it when you need something else. Why not castigation? I found the aura range was so small that it doesn't hit enough for my tastes and it is useless vs the mobs you need it the most for, bosses.


Saves:
3 Fvs, 10 resist, 1 alchemical, 3 ship, 3 brace(divine), 20 divine grace, 4 aura, 3 defender, 2 luck, 4 morale, 4 epic, 2 bulwark = 59 to all base
4/4/8 sorc, 5/2/2 paladin, 0/1/0 haste, 20/14/8 stats, -4/0/0 yugo penalty = 26/21/18
vs enchantments: 2 Sun Elf, 6 Sun Elf enchantment lore, 1 ship = 9
85 fort, 80 reflex, 77 will, 86 vs enchantments

Very high saves with option for more reflex, no fail fort, or no fail will with a tier I twist. Also can get 3 more vs magic from Angel of Vengeance as needed. If you are tight on items, can drop the 10 resist to the 7 resist from the iron mitts. I have a 11 charisma ring but it doesn't have resist on it so I will be using the iron mitts +7 until I can get one.


Enhancements:
Fire Savant 23: 4 cores, spell critical fire III, charisma II, conflagration, efficient maximize
EK 9: 2 cores, improved mage armor, improved shield, battlemage(1)
AoV 11: 1 core, smiting II, scourge, just reward
Sacred Def 24: 3 cores, durable defense, resilient defense, sacred armor mastery(1), sacred shield mastery(1), bulwark aura, resistance aura, tenacious defense, hardy defense, swift defense
Sun Elf 13: 1 core, arcane fluidity, rejuvenation of dawn(2), enchantment lore, feywild tap, keen senses(1)

Covers the prr, saves, and hit point bonuses from defender, immolation from fire savant, just reward from AoV, and finishes with any bonus to ac/prr I could fit in. Gives -20% arcane spell failure which mixed with a -15% blue augment allows full use of heavy armor. While I want fire savants awaken weakness, I realized against bosses I won't be just using fire damage. The cost to get it would result in losing feywild tap or the higher tiers in defender.


Spells:
Paladin: divine favor, cure light wounds
Fvs: Protection from evil, cure light wounds, nimbus of light
Sorc:
magic missile, retreat, jump, masters touch
scorching ray, invisibility, knock, blur(or resist)
haste, displacement, fireball, chain missiles
wall of fire, dimension door, force missiles
eladars, option of niacs or cloudkill
tensers(recon if forged)
SLA: shield, mage armor
Epic: consecration, celestial bombardment, energy burst fire, ruin, hellball

Cast nimbus every 10 seconds on fire immune bosses to keep empyrean magic up. Crusader adds 5 spell levels to Fvs and Paladin spells. Most of the spells have no dc so I don't have evocation items/feats. The only ones that can be saved against is fireball, energy burst, hellball, and the knockdown of bombardment. Flexibility to go right into DI or Shiraldi.. Contains multiple aoe spells for nuking trash with good single target damage even vs fire immunes. Ray and missile spam is almost mana free thanks to just rewards(no metas). While there are some big spell point spells here, the build has plenty of spell points, see below.


Spell Points:
870 Sorc, 150 Fvs, 50 Pal, 736 charisma, 120 wisdom, 60 past lives, 383 wiz IX, 255 greensteel, ~300 bauble, 125 Crusader, 210 feats, 22 Aov, = 3281
3281*10% endless faith = 3609
3609 +960 feywild tap = 4569
4569*10% spell reduction(goggles) = ~5000 effective spell points + conc opp.


Spell Power/Crit:
Fire: 11 AoV, 57 fire savant, 36 implement, 150 weapon, 5 EK, 25 Crusader, 30 scourge, 25 conflagration, 15 fey form, 30 flames of purity, 73 spellcraft, 20 epic feat, 15 artifact, 25 alchemical, 24 psionic = 521
746 with max/emp
Crit: 9 past lives, 6 fire savant, 4 AoV, 17% item, 7 feats, 11 Crusader = 54%
Force: 404, 629(meta), 39%
Rest will be similar to force. I could go max fire crit but that would drop everything else from 17% item to 9% from blue armor.


Hit Points:
48 Sorc, 16 Fvs, 60 Pal, 45 Heroic Durability, 40 vitality, 40 augment, 20 yugo, 80 epic, 588 con, 50 Crusader, 10 greensteel, 10 draconic vitality, 24 defender, 33 primal lives = 1064
1064*1.2 defender= 1277


Other Defenses:
AC: 10 base, 10 natural, 1 haste, 33 armor, 5 dex, 18 skyvault, 2 alchemical rituals, 6 tensers, 8 deflection augment, 6 aura, 1 defender misc, 12 martial lives, 4 bulwark, 6 guild = 122*1.1 mage armor = 134
Dodge: 5% with dodge item, 1% without
Prr/mrr: 34 Heavy armor, 45 new heavy bonus, 15 new tower bonus, 30 total shield mastery, 30 bracers, 10 shield sla, 9 past lives, 25 defender, 10 Crusader= 208 or 58% reduction, 73% for reflex spells
Fort: 100% augment, 15% past lives, 6% defender = 121%(likely to add 20% more from martial later)
Resist: 45 bracers, 15 ship, 10 cloak = 70 all
Absorb: 15% ship, 3% past lives, 10% acid/cold/elec Crusader = 28% acid/cold/elec, 18% fire/sonic
Ghostly, Deathblock, permanent fire shield fire, displacement, protection from evil, shield
Immunity to fear, disease, sleep, petrification
Freedom of movement flask


Healing Amp:
5% paladin life, 10% Crusader core, 30% iron mitts, 10% ship = 165%
Healing: Sacred Ground, Cure Light-quicken/max/emp, rejuvenation of dawn(1), loh(1)
With the strong defenses and hit points having to wait 5 seconds to recast consecration shouldn't be a big issue.


Gear:
Helm: Blue +3 charisma, blue - fortification, colorless - globe of imperial blood
Armor: Blue Dragonplate, blue - 15% asf
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Goggles: Cannoneer's, green - protection 8
Necklace: Mystic Eidolon, green - greater spell focus evocation
Boots: Greensteel +10 hps, +150 sps, +4 int skill, +6 cha skills, conc opp
Ring 1: Lantern ring, green - 40 hps, colorless - 15 spellcraft
Ring 2: 11 charisma of resist 10
Belt: 10 con of dodge 10 or other useful suffix, alternate fortification if you want more fort over 2 con
Cloak: Jeweled cloak, green - golem's heart, yellow - intelligence 8
Bracers: Dumathoin's, blue - good luck +2
Gloves: Iron Mitts, colorless - 15 heal
Thunderforged weapon: 150 combustion, 138 force(purple), 17% crit, meridian fragment
Skyvault Tower: 138 Devotion, Acid, Electric

I will adjust the augments when I get there but everything should be covered. Optional use 6 evocation instead of purple slot in weapon, move force to shield, and drop acid. I know some of you have dropped acid already  Skyvault has no ASF, too bad it isn't that great of a shield besides that. Have to hope epic necro shield turn ins give us something better.


Final Thoughts:
The build will work now and even if the armor up change doesn't happen, it will just have lower prr and no mrr.
While I listed max gear and epic completionist it is not required. You won't be setting speed records or able to solo every EE but the concept will still work.
Going Bladeforged isn't just cut and dry the best option.
I love build videos but I am only on life 10 and dealing with some major life issues at the moment. I will be happy to provide one when I find a stopping point for ETR and TR into this build. I am hoping for feedback to catch any issues or ways to better the build anyway before I tr.

Armor PRR is based on BAB so that stuff increases it.  Even without Tensers I will have Crusader full BAB.

I don't think I need intim, not really a tank.  Was already doing decent dps with 12 sorc and figured with the new stuff why not move from light to heavy armor to gain prr/mrr.    Had to do something about Divine Grace nerf anyway.  Didn't want to give up paladin saves or just reward so no way to get evasion.  With new mrr, high reflex, resist 70, and some absorb I will have psuedo evasion.  I will lose some hellball/fireball/energy burst dps from lower charisma but gain a lot of defense.  Besides I frequently have aggro already, pugs are gimp.

I really don't know about my shroud boots.  I like the bonuses.  I have thought about the 3BC boots and Skull belt but don't think I gain much.  I have the freedom flask already and can hotswap the boots anyway.

Trollero wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2014 at 11:52am:


There's always shadow dancer :p

I don't see it.  Sun elf over bladeforged or warforged doesn't make sense to me.  Quickened reconstruct is just way too powerful, so the race change seems like a step backwards.  In divine crusader, your single target DPS will be garbage.  Why would you go divine crusader when you have shiradi or even exalted angel or draconic?  Tensor's will also damp your DPS quite  a bit.

Trollero wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2014 at 5:27pm:


Tensers doubles your cooldowns,  that's why.

Quickened Recon isn't a big deal with all of the other healing available. 700+ Fire Spell Power is quite good. Would it really be higher in Draconic? He is twisting EB which is the best part of Draconic, hands down.

Shit I knew being on pain meds would cost me.  That is exactly the feedback I needed(because I forgot).  OK next step, are any of the epic spells doubled?  Consecration really isn't a spell so I doubt it is.  E burst?  Ruin?  Hellball?  Bombardment?  If they aren't I can make it work.  I can't test it all right now only 24.  Have barely been playing due to a sick pet for the last 2 weeks we had to put down yesterday(and my chronic back pain).  Time to log in tonight and do some drugged up pugs

Said fuck it and made it BF this morning.  Went 9sorc/6pal, enough to get fball, fwall, and ddoor with stance.  The two quests I ran were stupid easy.  Survivability is very high.  Damage is good right now.

SwashbucklerHater wrote on Jul 11^th, 2014 at 6:53am:


Adamantine body is a trap IMO.  Not only does it cost a feat, but your dodge bonus gets capped pretty low, and having an extra ~15-20 dodge is better when mobs are hitting for 300.

Will have to breath some like into this with the new Armor stuff being discussed

so more of a melee/aoe type build now right?

Well guess I will have to get off my ass a try to work on a damage resistant sorc/ea/droconic build.  Would like one at end game without the evasion core, more of the guardian armor if possible.

The thread has some great points.

See you after the next shakedown, and we can compare notes.