Best duskruin 20x/day for each class?

[Goat]

I'm going to assume capped characters, but would welcome discussion of lower levels.

First off, I think the answer is "don't waste your money" if you're a square or semi - 101 ranks MIU is like having 75 ranks (for CS) or 51 ranks (for SMR stuff). I don't expect that would be effective.

Likewise, I imagine even pures should avoid the semi spells, because the MIU bonus is halved for them. For example, spike thorn is a great spell, but even at 202 ranks MIU you get 42 "bonus", which I guess would be similar to 42 ranger spells - doesn't seem promising against a level 100 creatures.

Furthermore, running the numbers, it looks like it's a little more practical to get a competitive cast from a CS spell than a SMR spell, though I'm not sure about how all the bonuses work/scale.

Of course, the answer could "don't waste your money, you already have disablers and high-damage spells", but that's not a very fun answer.

So I propose:
Wizard: Dark catalyst (half advantage from 425), maybe bind?
Sorcerer: Immolation (full advantage from 425)
Empath/Cleric: Dark catalyst still? Earthern fury?

Thoughts? Has anyone tested these out?

[neimanz1]

clerics and empath get a lot of bonus for spike thorn since they have summoning lore already

[Archigeek]

I don't think any of them are as good as the double dispell wands were.

[gilchristr]

If you normally cast against elemental TD, would it be useful to have something that challenges sorc or spirit TD in case you need to do a bounty or something against a creature that normally has a good defense against elemental TD. The same would apply for the opposite.

Or another idea is to get a wand that casts the same spell you already know, so that you can use similar tactics as normal and just save mana. I mean I have ewave and use 200 mana worth of ewave on a long hunt, but if I used the ewave pin, that would wearing a pin that gave me 200 extra mana for the hunt.

[Dazmar]

Does anyone know if the e-wave pin needs to be worn to be used? I'd really like to know that.

[Leafiara]

Wizard: Bind only costs 10k, turns most non-squishy targets into squishy ones for the purposes of 917, and all you need is a 101 endroll. My wizard uses this in her early 50s and it's great. Also, while I'm not totally sure about this at cap, I'm guessing major spiritual TDs aren't designed around assuming that clerics or empaths go any higher than 67 ranks at most, so you can actually hit with it.
Edit: Clarifying what I mean because someone was asking... If you Bind before casting 917, you'll have a gigantic bonus and it more than makes up whatever difference enemies would normally have in dodging the spell.


Other than that, I'm curious if there are any capped clerics or sorcerers out there with 2x MIU who'd like to test Spike Thorn since I did buy one. I got it just for character consistency, but I'm not totally convinced that it's purely for fun. I'm thinking that the disadvantages of it being a semi spell are at least kind of offset by bonuses from 316 or 709. (Edit: I'm 1x MIU, so not a good test yet.)

[BriarFox]

Does anyone know if the e-wave pin needs to be worn to be used? I'd really like to know that.

It does need to be worn. Just tried it out in my hand.

[Goat]

I am interested in trying out magic items or scrolls with:

Earthen Fury
Immolation
Spike Thorn
Bind

I am willing to compensate a bit for the trouble. I will also post relevant findings here. Please get in touch if you are willing to loan me a few casts' worth.

Edit: Leafiara let's definitely sync up tonight or tomorrow to test spike thorn.

[Goat]

Leafiara accompanied me to the Sanctum courtyard and I waved her bone around a few times. I tested with a level 100 sorcerer with 202 MIU, and no summoning lore.

11 waves total

2 complete whiffs - when not pre-disabled
3 low/medium damage and no disable
1 stun
3 stun/knockdown
2 death crits

The 5 best outcomes all came from when the target was already disabled. The 5 poorest outcomes all came from when the target was not disabled at all.

I'm filing this as "fun, but probably not fun enough to spend 20k BS on it." Leafiara reminded me that spike thorn is less powerful indoors, and we non-native casters don't have access to nature's touch. So it won't be worth much in most of the sanctum area, most all of Nelemar, and random rooms in the Rift. And I wouldn't bother in the confluence, against uncrittable targets.

[gilchristr]

id recommend a 1750 scroll