Bear with me a moment, because this build sounds really stupid... and probably is.

14 wizard levels gets you into lvl 7 spells and all the fun buffs, that's part of the idea, here.
6 fighter - specifically bastard swords and SWF(hey, wizard, rune arm in the off-hand.

Hardpers tree for Int to Damage (Strategic Combat II in case you're wondering)
Eldritch Knight for some extra fun buffs and permanent Tenser's Transformation
Palemaster for Undead form(vampire at least, shade if humanly possible)

Warforged(bladeforged would be better, but this saves a +1 heart and gives you the option to do both an epic and a heroic TR on 1 life)

Undead robot fightermage!

Again: no idea how effective this will be, but I might play it irregardless because it looks like a lot of fun  and I want to melee/spellcast, damnit!

If anyone can think of a better use for the fighter-feats I'm all ears, though.

Keep in mine I'll be playing this on a character with +7 tomes and about 14+ past lives.

EDIT/UPDATE:

I thought I'd add some information in here about how the build ultimately played out.

1. Race. Going Warfoged/bladeforged was entirely unnecessary. Human would likely be a better choice for the free extra feat.

2. Armor. You can easily use medium armor.. Eldrich Knight tree lets you get past 15% arcane spell failure, no problem. I didn't got for an AC build personally but if you've got the right gear you could get very high AC.

3. PRR. Splash a few points for Stalwart Stance, Eldrich Knight improved Shield, and some gear. I was able to reach 100 PRR pretty easily, more could be possible with better gear.

4. Miss Chances. I liked running Displacement with the Wraith 25% Incorporeality. Improved Shrouding would have been nice, but I barely had enough points into PM to get Wraith Form. You could also probably pull off dodge but I didn't really bother with it.

5. Crowd Control! Which I enjoyed quite a bit. That was my favorite part, just CC stuff and melee.

6. Spells In General. Try to focus on just a few. Running out of buttons is my biggest challenge on casters as it is(Gonna fix that, methinks). I went for Ice Storm and Cloudkill. CloudKill was an unexpected winner.

7. Melee DPS. I'll be honest, it's fairly lackluster. I went for THF/AOE type effects and did well enough. The DPS isn't bad, I saw some good crits. THF is DEFINITELY recommended over SWF. You won't be leading the board on kill counts either way, but AOS DPS is more important than single-target in most cases. The DPS may not be tops, but you can fight your way out if you get in a touch spot.

8. INT vs. STR. I've been going back and forth on this one the whole time. Hapers Int to Hit is easy to get into, Int to Damage is a bit more of an investment. Personally, I had so much STR-enhancing gear that up until level 26 my STR and INT were about even(despite putting all leveling points into INT). Over all STR wins out by virtue of freeing up more points to spend in other areas, but there is enough goodness in Harpers that it may be worth giving up some defense in order to get the Int to Damage. I may respec into it myself.

9. Fun. Oh yes. I started looking at this for flavor, I really liked being a wraith but also enjoy being a melee. Having permanent Tensers also looks cool, especially while gliding around and just exuding death. This build could be a challenge or it coulde just be a flavor, either way it's a lot of fun to play.

Over all, build is totally viable if you're grouping. Hang back and let the tanks do their job and you can really have a lot of fun. A better player than I could probably solo EE content, and really I did well enough in EE with groups. In fact, at higher levels with better gear available I've been doing really well.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

TRd out of the build last night, even haphazardly-geared was doing pretty well. At the higher-end(28+) the build does fine in LH content. Its not top-shelf but you won't be a drain on the team needing constant rezes. Was fun and may be seeing a re-visit down the road.

Reconstruct doesn't really have to if you can get the negative spellpower up high enough. After doing a life using palemaster self-healing techniques I feel like that part at least is viable.

Robot is slightly more of a flavor decicion at this point. Plus, there's one simple reason for robot: I have Docents. I do not have robes. I have docents coming out my ears. Blue dragon. black dragon, epics, heroic, I got more docents than you can shake a dead cat at. I have practically no robes

noamineo wrote on Jul 19^th, 2016 at 9:23pm:

I hear ya.

From a build perspective though, I'm more like: *shrug* Sunken Cost fallacy. You've got to admit most of those docents will be useless regardless. Unless you've got some super-twink rng docent, the only docent that could make a difference is Heartwood, from Search and Rescue.

noamineo wrote on Jul 19^th, 2016 at 6:49pm:


You need 2 arty levels for rune arm.

Astral wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 3:20am:


This is definitely true.

I MEANT to say orb. Yeah. Totally meant that. Ayuip.



Anyway, TRd in last night and split points between INT and and STR. Gear may end up being a tad tricky but I think I should be able to get both stats plenty high. Since it's mainly about buffs and a few choice spells I can afford to let int slide a few points.

QuantumFX wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 11:19am:


Lol fun coincidence: that's actually the thread that made me decide this build could be semi-viable

I'm going to be doing SWF instead of THF. Mostly I've just always wanted to run around with a sword in one hand and nothing in the other, feels freer. But realistically I'll be carrying an orb, have a few nice ones flitting about.

Revaulting wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 6:41pm:


Honestly that's not the only thing I'm likely to regret, if I even notice

Frankly, I have so much gear that on my recently completed shiradi life my STR was still into the 30s, despite being a dump-stat I've got plenty in CON, too, so I should have passable hit points.

I am starting to lean towards THF for a fairly simple reason: you still get all the THF bonuses with a bastard sword(my weapon of choice). Then there's also my extensive collection of axes..

Ok, time to take a trip to Fred while I'm still only level 1.

I was actually going to try and stay away from Cleave this life, probably wonb't take the actual cleave'n"great cleave feats. I'll have so many cleave attacks later on... but you're right, its powerful. Also, I will still be firewall/ice storming like a madman. Plus Acid Fog.

This certainly won't be a top-tier build, but at the end of the day I think it'll play pretty well.

Do Lesser Death Aura and Death Aura stack? I could keep those both running! Plus spamming Negative Energy Burst. All in all I feel viable. Will find out, I should get to munch on my otto's rock this evening. I know most people maintain it's easier to grind out the 500k in early heroics, but I honestly prefer the later heroics even if I have to spend forever slogging from 18 to 20. Once I'm in the late heroics I'll have a good feel for the build.

Revaulting wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 9:09pm:


In group its very handy for giving the entire party some cover. And stacking it does do some damage. Its mostly the concealment though.

I'm going to be putting a lot of effort into getting high negative energy spell power and crits, I feel like NEB has GOT to do something in that scenario! But I guess time will tell. I am currently sitting in the Curulean Hills waiting for my 30% potion to tick down so I can chug a 50 I should be geared and fighting again within the hour!

noamineo wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 11:16pm:

Yes, it will cost more SP.

I'm not trying to say NEB is a bad spell. It's a good spell, great for a PM. Its cooldown is a bit longer than say, a fireball's, though. Its damage is a bit lower, and its SP cost is a bit higher.

PM healing really is its best attribute, Imo.

noamineo wrote on Jul 20^th, 2016 at 11:16pm:


I don't use pots much but my understanding was that when you have multiple pots, the most potent one is active and the other are paused and reactivate once the stronger variety expires. Not sure though.

That's interesting, since it works opposite for slayer count boosters. I frequently use minor boosters to "pause" my major boost. I had tried it with XP potions a while back but it didn't work, apparently because of this mechanic.

Damn, wish I'd known could have saved me an hour of 30% potion!

Digimonk wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2016 at 12:29pm:


Because the wiki page on experience elixirs is just so damn exciting. It's way more fun than reading about wizard spells or past life feats