Evoker Skill Advice needed...

[Belgarath]

Hello all,

I've been playing for a while, finished Immortal Throne with pretty much an Earth only char (at the end i was sinking points in Dream Mastery, but not in any skills yet).

Now i have been doing Epic, and i have maxed Trance of Wrath... I'm wondering what other Dream skills would complement my Pure Caster Evoker (all Int, little Dex, uses Fire Staves)...

In Earth i have maxed Earth Enchantment, Brimstone, Summon Core Dweller, Inner Fire, Metamorphosis, Ring of Flame and Soften Metal.
I also have 1 point in Heat Shield, Stone Form, Volativity and Wildfire.

My strategy consists of letting my Core Dweller draw the enemy's attention, while i blast away at them with my Staff. If they close in on me for some reason, i trust my 2 Damage-Dealing Auras (RoF and ToW), and if i get overwhelmed i use Stone Form...
Works pretty well, no problems in Epic so far, just did a few Manticore runs, and i only got killed once or twice because i got careless...

I farmed Act 1 Telkine and Minotaur for some nice Epics/Legendaries (Eye of Flame, Battlemage Greaves, Adept's Mantle, and many useless (for me) weapons and shields). My Dps is around 2.5K, is that decent for a L49 Evoker?
The artifact i'm using atm is a Jade Idol, not that impressive, but with it's +17% Attack Speed bonus AND the +25% Attack Speed copmpletion bonus it really helps with the damage... I only need a Greater Scroll of Vampirism to complete my Dragon's Tongue, but i have not managed to find any in Greece/Egypt so far...

Well, that's my char, so to repeat my question, what Dream Skills would go with it? Also, if i continue like this, will i survive later Epic/Legendary?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

[xaldub]

For me, I would be getting Temporal Rift/Distort Reality. It emits an area-of-effect damage burst, that has the additional bonus of a long petrify effect. Many people seem not to bother increasing Distort Reality beyond one point, but maximise Temporal Rift. The former only provides a modest amount of vitality and ordinary damage, whereas Temporal Rift does electrical burn damage over time which can be significantly enhanced by increasing your intelligence attribute and/or having a resistance reducing skill, such as Trance of Wrath ( which you have ).

So, for example you would let your Core Dweller attract the mobs, then run in and unleash TR/DR. Your damaging auras would likely finish off the petrified creatures fairly quickly. If not dropping an eruption on the ground would do the trick.

TR/DR isn't spammable - it takes a few seconds to recharge, but being a caster its likely you will obtain equipment with reduced recharge attribute to improve matters.

At some point you may also want to consider the Nightmare pet. It's not a particularly effective tank in its own right ( although it's good at evading ), but the secondary skills in its tree are what you are after - mainly Master Mind which increases the damage output, health and energy regeneration of all other pets ( Core Dweller in this case ).

I also like to get Lucid Deam and its secondary skills to improve damage output on TR/DR, improve defense,increase movement speed and give some protection against missiles ( increases dodge % ).

Good luck.

[Viper_Sweden]

I would use Distort Reality more as a reversed Stone Form than as a real source of damage...

[xaldub]

That's the beauty of TR/DR - it's both a good defensive maneouvre with the long petrify effect, and a reasonable source of damage. His auras will contribute significantly to the damage-over-time if he remains in close. To simply use TR/DR as a defensive measure would be under-utilising it.

In my opinion this is a more active playstyle than simply adopting a ranged attack stance with the pet acting as a tank. If something somehow survives the onslaught and starts delivering melee damage he still has stone form to save him. The kill speed of TR/DR with auras is about as fast as it gets.

TR/DR alone delivers just about enough damage to kill all the way through epic. In Legendary TOW/ROF are needed for the one-shot kill philosophy. And, as stated in my first post he still has Eruption for more area-effect damage outlay.

Only problem with caster-based Evokers are fast moving mobs that may close ground too rapidly to fire off TR/DR or stoneform eg. Deathlancers. Just don't have the defensive ability/armour to survive that.

[Belgarath]

Hmm, thanks for the replies, certainly food for thought...

If i go the TR/DR route, it sounds like i will not be using my Staff much anymore?
I'm relying on that for the real damage atm... Can TR/DR match the 2.5K dps i'm delivering with my Staff?

Also, if i go with the Nightmare, do you recommend only going for the secondary skills, or maxing the Nightmare itself as well, so it will be around longer?

[mamba]

DR/TR will not match the damage output of your staff. It is a nice source of damage in normal, but in legendary you should only use it thanks to its petricifaction, the added damage is a bonus, nothing more.

imo you should have the Core Dweller and the Nightmare, obviously Earth Enchantment, a trance and DR/TR (1 in DR with TR maxed), to keep mobs occupied with your pets and attack with your staff, if things get close, use TR to stop them.

I would aim for something like this

TitanCalc by stonedonkey - A Titan Quest Calculator - Evoker

[Viper_Sweden]

If you use the Core Dweller the Nightmare should be 5/1/8 (5 in base, 1 in 1st synergy, 8 in final synergy). If you're not using the Dweller, skip the last synergy...

DR/TR won't do that kind of damage, you get it for the Petrify effect. Stay with your staff and/or any other damaging skills...

[Wakin]

Hello all,

I've been playing for a while, finished Immortal Throne with pretty much an Earth only char (at the end i was sinking points in Dream Mastery, but not in any skills yet).

Now i have been doing Epic, and i have maxed Trance of Wrath... I'm wondering what other Dream skills would complement my Pure Caster Evoker (all Int, little Dex, uses Fire Staves)...

In Earth i have maxed Earth Enchantment, Brimstone, Summon Core Dweller, Inner Fire, Metamorphosis, Ring of Flame and Soften Metal.
I also have 1 point in Heat Shield, Stone Form, Volativity and Wildfire.

My strategy consists of letting my Core Dweller draw the enemy's attention, while i blast away at them with my Staff. If they close in on me for some reason, i trust my 2 Damage-Dealing Auras (RoF and ToW), and if i get overwhelmed i use Stone Form...
Works pretty well, no problems in Epic so far, just did a few Manticore runs, and i only got killed once or twice because i got careless...

I farmed Act 1 Telkine and Minotaur for some nice Epics/Legendaries (Eye of Flame, Battlemage Greaves, Adept's Mantle, and many useless (for me) weapons and shields). My Dps is around 2.5K, is that decent for a L49 Evoker?
The artifact i'm using atm is a Jade Idol, not that impressive, but with it's +17% Attack Speed bonus AND the +25% Attack Speed copmpletion bonus it really helps with the damage... I only need a Greater Scroll of Vampirism to complete my Dragon's Tongue, but i have not managed to find any in Greece/Egypt so far...

Well, that's my char, so to repeat my question, what Dream Skills would go with it? Also, if i continue like this, will i survive later Epic/Legendary?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

I have been facing similar questions with my Evoker (level 44 with no deaths and three spent attribute points). I have been playing petless and using a spear and shield with low requirements: Fire Spike with +20% physical and fire damage and Nubian Deflector with +15% chance to avoid projectiles. I am leaning towards 385 dexterity to increase my defensive ability and to equip Legendary Stonebinder cuffs with the remainder in intelligence to boost the elemental damage of Ring of Flame and Trance of Wrath.

In my opinion, "deadly aura" evokers can really shine with a moderate amount of -recharge gear (say 50%), some defensive ability, and +% health regeneration and energy regeneration. The recharge gear is to take advantage of the relatively short cooldowns on Stone Form and Distort Reality, the defensive ability in conjunction with Premonition and Soften Metal reduces the damage you take from mobs, and the +% health regeneration allows Stone Form to heal you up fully while mobs die from your auras. You can use Distort Reality when Stone Form is on cooldown or to take out a group of mobs before dealing with some archers.

How durable is the Core Dweller in Epic and does he still hold aggro when you approach with your auras? If he is fairly durable, you won't need as much defensive ability and should be able to kill with a combination of auras and Distort Reality -- I may respec later today and see how this works.

[Belgarath]

The Core Dweller is VERY durable in Epic, very few normal monsters can even dent him... And he holds their attention just fine, even when i get close...