Best caster DPS build - Earth vs Storm

[Phyrex]

I gave the caster DPS classes some thought trying to figure out which one is ‘best’ and what combined other class would perfect it. The test results are in, and the winner is: Earth + Spirit.

But first things first; Earth vs Storm

Fireball vs Ice shards - Ice shards with its concentrated power and clearly the winner of these two. Fireball is too spread out (and imo boring to use).

Volcanic Orb vs Thunderball – Both grenade like attacks with quite some big differences:
VO has much more dps but TB stuns. VO also has a much larger blast radius but VO including all upgrades costs 47 instead of the only 20 needed for TB.
TB is shot in a straight line, which has the advantage that if you miss it can still hit others in it’s path. VO however is lobbed so it can be shot over obstacles. I prefer the latter (lob) technique.
And perhaps most important: VO has a way faster recharge rate.

All in all I consider VO loads of times better than its electrical counterpart. The stun of course has many uses however trash mobs are better disposed of asap and bosses most likely have high stun resistances.

Both classes also have a power-up ability: Earth enhancement/brimstone vs Storm Nimbus.
It’s quite simple. Earth is better here. Not only because it gives more dps but also because Storm Nimbus has useless upgrades that give retaliation damage and a chill aura to slow attacks. Both of these require you to be in range of melee attackers and for the retaliation you even need to be hit. Not something casters appreciate in general.

There’s also a 3rd attack spell for both classes positioned a little higher in the talent tree. Unlike the other two these differ quite a lot from eachother: Eruption vs Lightning Bolt:
It’s hard to say which one is better at this point. LB probably has more use during trash clearing with it’s chain lightning effect while the volcano (Eruption) might be very useful to cast under stationery targets like bosses. Both are pretty strong but also have quite long cooldowns.

Next in line: Pets. Core Dweller vs Whisp.
I don’t particularly like both. To sum it up real simple: Core Dweller is a tank pet with loads of HP. Useful when you’re solo. The Whisp has some stun attack and a strong attack power buff. I consider the Whisp better because it can boost your own attack.

These are pretty much the major comparisons. Both classes also have a shield which absorbs either fire or elemental damage (can be cast on others) but I don’t think most other skills are very useful except two which are completely unrelated from eachother:

Fire: Stone form. A casters dream. Indestructible for 6 seconds in case you overagro. Just 1 skill point needed. Extra gives more HP regen and added retaliation damage to attackers but are not as important.

Storm: Spell Breaker. Removes harmful debuffs from allies and beneficial buffs from enemies. A very potent offensive ability but only against special mobs and bosses. I can’t imagine this spell being used often on trash mobs.



So what’s the conclusion?

Earth is in my opinion the true dps caster class.
Storm seems more orientated on support. Either by stuns, slowing effects or beneficial buffs which leads to another conclusion: Storm is the *perfect* secondary class for a Nature healer. Although it won’t need much from the Storm tree, mostly: spell breaker, squall and energy shield but spell breaker alone is worth it for a dedicated healer.
______________________________________

Now that Storm is out of the way, which secondary class is best for Earth?
Not that there are that many choices to combine with. Rogue, hunter and such make no sense. Warrior? If you wanna get buff just get the Core Dweller afterall.
Plague from Nature is a cool offensive spell but the class which has the best synergy with Earth is... Spirit!

The main reason for this is “Ternion Attack” from the Spirit talent tree. This drastically increases your staffs dps.
“Staff dps wtf” you say? Well as I said earlier I don’t consider fireball good as the main skill. Shards is nice but not worth getting the Storm class for. The Volcanic Orb is an amazing strong skill but you can’t use it non stop because of the cooldown. So you need something to shoot in between. Now here comes the synergy part:

Earth enhancement / brimstone which is at the moment horribly overpowered (in the beginning at least) works with staffs for those who didn’t know. And Ternion attack causes your staff to shoot 3 balls with increased damage and attack & movement speed. All of which receive increased fire damage. Oh and on top of that each ball has a large area of effect because of the skill Spirit class gives.

So instead of moving close to hit once with a melee weapon you now have 3 powerballs that have the same effect but are also ranged and with AoE.
Unless they change certain abilities drastically from the demo I suspect this special staff attack is way more useful than either the fireball or ice shard spells and it's much more mana effecient too.

Only 2 things are 100% needed from the Spirit tree. We just discussed the first one above. The other one is the “Dark Covenant” aura. This causes you to lose HP/sec but in return you get lots of energy regen and with the upgrade increased damage *plus* massive life leech. The damage again stacks with the staff and with the life leech you don’t have to worry about the hp/sec loss and you also won’t run out of mana as fast as other casters.

Here’s a simple oversight of the skills for this build:

Fire:
Fire Mastery = 32
Volcanic Orb (+upgrades) = 47
Earth enhancement = 27
Volatility = 12
Stone form = 1

Spirit:
Spirit Mastery: 24
Ternion Attack = 16
Dark Covenant = 16

Total skill points required: 175

This gives you a very solid and fun build. Finding a better staff automatically raises your dps a lot while spells tend to have more or less static dps.

You’ll be able to spend at least another 17 skill points at max lvl 65 and perhaps more depending if quest rewards will give skill points too. These points are best spend at either the life drain spell (Spirit), more points in stone form (Earth), Eruption (Earth) or the Liche King (Spirit) which is the best caster pet in my opinion.

I suspect this build will be the most optimum if you wanna be the best caster dps dealer.
...assuming the demo talent trees won’t fundamentally change a lot at least.


Any comment?

[raduneo]

Wow! Very nice post. Very detailed, insightful and well thought. Even though I haven't tested out most things that you talked about, I have a strong feeling that you're right. Also the spells sound quite varied and interesting. I expect investing points into new skills to be a lot of fun in this game.

It's interesting how the Spirit mastery helps make both the best Defensive character (Spirit + Defense), as well as the most effective damage dealer (Spirit + Earth).

I'd love to see a description of the Hunter mastery, what it is best for, and with which mastery it works the best.

Again, fantastic job with your description. I'm impressed!

P.S. I still prefer the Storm mastery. I guess I've always been more interested in lighting than fire. (same thing happened with Diablo 2 and Dungeon Siege)

P.P.S. What is your first character going to be? Mine Defense + Spirit.

[Lestai]

assuming the demo talent trees won’t fundamentally change a lot at least.

Yeah there on that now as we speak, not just the talent tree's are getting balanced but the mobs as well, along with other things.

[Ragefist]

Nice post Phyrex,

I also tried Spirt/Earth a few days ago. It was very strong but I did find the “Dark Covenant” aura to be annoying. In between battles this could reduce health quite a bit. Nonetheless, Spirit/Earth is very strong. I, however, will likely start with Earth/Defense. There is energy/life regen plus an instant heal attached from the Defense line that is great for an earth caster. Volcanic orb should work ok for disposing of support (trash) mobs. AOE's are not needed to deal with a single boss mob... of course there can be several. The shield bash skill reduces enemy attack speed by 50% and armor by 42 so I will likely invest in this to increase dps slightly and reduce damage taken. It hits up to 3 targets and the fire enchant from Earth is applied.

Earth/Defense will be lower magic dps due to less intel but I think the combo will prove useful for taking down boss mobs plus healing and regening mana.

I quite like the character build system in TQ... makes for some interesting possibilites where we actually have to think a bit.

After the "elite" templates start coming I'll choose a build that is uncommon for a "main" character.

Again, nice post... yours is a fun AE damage build.

Cheers,
Rage

[Ion Silverbolt]

One thing going for the storm branch is you get 2 elemental damage types(Cold and Lightning) as opposed to just fire. Some fire skills do offer some physical damage, but I don't think it's that high compared to a melee class.

[Ragefist]

Originally Posted by Ion Silverbolt

One thing going for the storm branch is you get 2 elemental damage types(Cold and Lightning) as opposed to just fire. Some fire skills do offer some physical damage, but I don't think it's that high compared to a melee class.

The Volcanic Orb AE does offer sizable physical damage when spread out against multiple targets. The core dweller also does physical attacks, as does brimstone.

I would consider doing an Elementalist with both Earth and Storm if I could insure that mana regen wouldn't become a major issue, but on the other hand if mana regen wasn't a major issue then the skill treees would be imbalanced.

[Phyrex]

Originally Posted by raduneo

Again, fantastic job with your description. I'm impressed!

P.S. I still prefer the Storm mastery. I guess I've always been more interested in lighting than fire. (same thing happened with Diablo 2 and Dungeon Siege)

P.P.S. What is your first character going to be? Mine Defense + Spirit.

Thanks.
I used to like Storm too but that was before I did a thorough comparison and found out Earth simply has much more DPS capability. All the separate skills I discussed did not even include Volatility (Earth) which gives each fire attack a 15% chance to do 215% more damage (!).

And about the Defence/Spirit class; yeah I made a post about that too, it seems Spirit is a wonderful secondary class in a lot of cases.
I’m not sure whether I’ll be the perfect tank or caster. One of those two at least.
So far I’m sure the following 4 are optimal combinations:

Tank: Defence & Spirit.
DPS caster: Earth & Spirit.
DPS ranged: Hunter & Rogue.
Healer: Nature & Storm.

But it all depends on how you are gonna play the game. If you’re going solo then a less optimum build for one purpose might suit you better because when you’re solo you don’t just have one task. You need to do all; DPS, tanking, healing and all that stuff on your own.

Originally Posted by Ragefist

Volcanic orb should work ok for disposing of support (trash) mobs. AOE's are not needed to deal with a single boss mob

Aye, you’re right that the build I’ve posted is all-in with AoE but in case of the Ternion staff attack it doesn’t matter because it’s about the 3 projectile modifier you get. It simply triples your normal DPS and you can hit all 3 balls on just one target/boss.
The only drawback could be when a certain legendary staff with incredible stats has less damage than lower grade staves in which case you probably want the most dps anyway, but this most likely won’t be the case.
Besides, in the beginning you’ll get most of your dps from the earth enhancement/brimstone plus the extra vitality damage gained from the dark covenant (spirit) aura anyway.

Massive multiple AoE + life leech is just unstoppable. You might not even need a tank.
And if you are low on health because of the hp drain aura and absence of mobs to leech life from then you can always use Stone Form to quickly regenerate your health. (Another useful synergy between earth and spirit)

On a side note, one thing I’ve always had with melee vs casters is that melee weapons matter so much more, and the caster weapon is only about stats hence you don’t see it as the most important item. With the build I posted you will want a better staff above any other piece of equipment. I didn’t include in this ‘fun factor’ (for me at least) in my statement that Earth & Spirit is the best dps caster but for me it certainly increases gameplay fun.

[Ragefist]

Originally Posted by Phyrex

Massive multiple AoE + life leech is just unstoppable. You might not even need a tank.

I can only assume that some bosses will be of Titan proportions, considering the name of the game As such, I'll try a hybrid build that can share/trade aggro with the pet as well as deal some damage and regen mana/life. I doubt that life steal will always be that effective for a pure caster with no shield. I asume the game developers are balancing TQ such that high damage = fragile.

Cheers
Rage

[Arangar]

I think you're being too serious about the class roles in multiplayer. This is not wow where you are chopping on a dragon for 30 minutes with 40 guys and have to have everything perfectly calculated out before you start to even have a chance. Now i do realize that they said the second part of the legendary difficulty will be very tough and will need teamwork to get through. But i really doubt that you will need classes build on one role (like tank and healer). I dont think it will really matter if you're playing with a healer, tank, and damage dealer, or just with 3 dps classes. It's will be the use of skills and the good gear that will take you threw the tough part.

I dont know how good the class combination earth with spirit is, but i just tested ternion attack, and you're right, that skill does rule .

[Gorkk]

I tested quite a lot Defense/Storm on a preview version, and it's great for tanking. Storm Surge from Storm is really good, stunning everything around when it's triggered (only 5% though, but it ends up triggering quite often). That and the various shield attacks and you're good.

I should try Defense/Spirit to see as well, might be better for lasting long tanking with the life leech, but if you have like a Warfare/Spirit next to you, Storm Surge stunning your ennemies might be more useful