The Critical Evoker and you!

[Harrowing]

A simple to in depth guide too building an elite killer for hell mode 5 man party play.

First some answers to some common questions and misconceptions and flat out lie's that have been told by the *other* community

1. Does my base critical critical chance from armor//skills//ranks get included in my skill damage types.

Answer Yes and no, In order for your base chance to be cumulative you need to equip at least 1 internal source of base critical chance in each Focus for the cummulation to work.  (this can either be a Mod or a augment).

Does my inherrent stat Critical damage bonus get included in my Focus spells.  Currently not known and extremely hard to test for, but for the most part to be safe I would reccomend adding extra critical damage bonus ( more is always helpful anyways.  (again keep it as a mod or augment).

This is only for Focus based skills that do actual damage(Hellfire, Firestorm, Drain life, drain power, Spectral curse explosions, Venom armor rebounds *casting focus only*, etc.) This does not include any non-damage type spells (Word of fear, Concentrate damage, Elemental drain, Wall of bone, etc.)

2. Where does critical class chance come into effect.  I am 101% sure it is directly after your base critical chance.  So therefore is a great way to boost your chance for the early stages//cheap gear build outs.

3. How about that Moloch pet?  It ONLY WORKS WITH BASE CHANCE  It is not cummulative with any other type of CCM and is calculated last  This was a developers post directly from HG:G Team.  Second point, With the gear your gonna be running you wouldn't need it anyways.

4. I have a really high critical chance how come my damage is so weak?
 
Are the Base Foci your using upgraded to at least +6?
Are they of equivalent monster level type (i.e. enigmatic prisms for 15~30, Claw's//Glyph's for +50?)
Do you have at least 1 critical chance mod or augment IN EACH of your Foci?
Do you have at least 1 critical damage mod or augment IN EACH of your Foci
Do you have a low critical damage output (If your below 500% it is considered low)?

Edit
****Special note #2****

For those that CANNOT afford perfect gear

The best mods for Foci are PURE CC and 9% elemetnal damage mods,  They are spendy and each will cost 28 Will feed.  You can get near the same amount of damage using different mods.  A mathmatical breakdown of elemental adders to follow, This should change peoples thinking and hopefully pricing.  Your damage is automatically changed to whatever elemental skill your using to its base damage type.  I.e. demonspine changes all base damage to physical, Flameshards to fire, Swarm to Toxic, Spectral serpents to Spectral, and Arc Legion to electric.  Adding in an elemental mod adds in that element to your spell type for base damage.  So you could still do damage  to an immune monster *IF* you use a different skill to attack with than the ones it is Immune to (At most I've seen 2 immunes there are rumored to be 3 immunes available, haven't seen it ever roll)

So instead of wasting a bunch of cash in the ah on a Perfect  mod that adds 9% avg dps use it on a mod that increases your CDB and only costs the feed you want to boost Accuracy.  Also try to have at least 3 different elemental type focus Skills, (it really isn't that hard and you only use that third elemental in vary rare cases)

The math portion

1. Any 3~4% elemental mod adds 3~4% source damage into your average dps its a base adder.  It costs 7~8 will feed dependant on end-game mod ilvl
2. any 5~6% adds 5~6% damage into avg dps, it costs 12~14 will feed
3. any 8~9% elemental damage adds 8~9% avg dps, its will cost 26~28 Will feed
4. Any Accuracy stat mods cost less in terms of needing feed cost that the elemental damage relics, in some cases a lot (12 feed differences in the legendaries.)  Meaning you gain the difference between the feed cost of the willpower mod and the damage boost related to Accuracy increases.

Remember to double your output damage maximums if your dual wielding!

6. Any green level mod comparison I.e. ((14~16%+14~16%)x2)) - ((3% or 4%) x 2) = a max of 58% critical damage LOST for using an elemental mod with CC gear when you can just use a different elemental skill type. That's per equipped mod

5. Any Blue level is going to cost 11~13 accuracy feed and can add 22~32%(x2) critical damage the difference again is
(((22%~26%) x 2)+(22%~32%) x 2) - ((5%~6%) x 2) = a max of 104% critical damage for using a blue level elemental aug coupled with a cc aug in your mod Lost per mod equipped in your Foci.

6. I.e. Legendary the big difference;
costs 26~28 will feed and can give 41~48% critical damage costingONLY 14~16 accuracy feed So that looks really big, also notice the feed cost difference between switching from will to accuracy its much less... Funny game devs they practically force you to do it.
(((28%~32%) x 2) + ((41%~48%) x 2) - ((8%~9%) x 2) = a max of 142% critical damage lost from not using a different skill instead of replacing that 1 aug on a mod with it being related to critical damage Per mod equipped in your Foci

This means putting 1 point into another elemental spell type is worth more than any elemental mod in end-game Foci. 

Mathmatically Speaking gearing those nice 9% elemental mods are spendy, even the 6% damage ones cost quite a bit in feed.  Consider this however If your above 750%~850% critical damage in either Focus damage wise its better to start focusing on elemental mods.  if you could get enough "good" mods together you can increase your base damage by almost 50%*think about 4 dual stat 6% relics*(and for those that say Hey those 9% mods are even more?  well there is a near 25 feed cost swing when using them as I already explained.  The best optimal mod uses the 6% elemental damage

In other words
ONLY  USE 9% ELEMENTAL MODS FOR A CRITICAL EVOKER IF YOU PLAN ON GETTING PERFECT GEAR with perfect +AA augs.  Other wise Your CUTTING YOUR DAMAGE SIGNIFICANTLY!!!

**** End special note 2****

You forgot that once your base chance is really high you should switch your stat focus to Accuracy to boost your base damage as much as possible.  Try to achieve in this order.   Critical chance vs all classes->Critical chance vs a specific class with multiple gear sets->Base critical chance to combine with some early *blue* CCM mods -> Damage mitigation *If you party forget this step -> Base critical damage.  By end-game area's//gear you should be approaching 950%~1200% critical damage for each Focus to a specific class

5. Why would you want to run with a high base chance vs 1 specific class vs moderate chance vs everything?
Basically at very high critical damage levels every 5% base chance to the class you intend to hit is a good 50% boost in your damage output to about 40% base chance in each focus.  At very high base levels of chance you should only need 4 total mods to get maximum chance runnin with 1 gear set.  If grabbing the very expensive dual ccm stat relics you can cut that mod total by 2 leaving at end-game 6 free mod slots for critical damage.

6. Wow my feeds are ridiculous how come I have to spend so much into accuracy?

Your desired mods and augments are mostly going to cost accuracy plan on getting your accuracy to +300 base once fully ranked leveled.  On the brighter side your Willpower feed costs after level 55 aren't going to change much.  Secondly Spending a lot into accuracy IS a GOOD THING.

7. What Skills work best with high critical chance?

Anything that cycles fast, hits hard, and hits far.  This means good skills are Demonspine, *fully leveled* Hellfire, Fully leveled Spectral Serpents, Flameshards, Firestorm, SkullSplitter, and  *Fully leveled* Lighting field. Skills you should avoid Tempest, Swarm, Spectral lash, Spectral bolt, Bone shards, Vemon Spirit, and to a degree Arc Legion.

8. What Stats, mods, or Augments do I want on my Weapons?
As stated above in underlines, at least a mod//augment of critical chance and damage, then enough CCM to ensure you hit the game cap of 95% against all the classes, Finally after that the rest is focused on Accuracy and Critical damage bonuses.

9. What Augments should I prioritize for on my Armor gear out
In order
+AA to cover most of the feed costs
+Accuracy to increase critical damage
+ increased use rate Of evoker skills(each percentage point of increase is a direct DPS increase!!) End-game areas you can approach 50% increased use rate
+ decreased power cost of Evoker skills
+ Inherrent augments that don't cost any feed (like shield penetration or increased use rate)

[Harrowing]

Boy Has this really changed in the past 3 months...  We've had a hidden patch buffing Glyph's and debuffing Claws Btw  I'll explain later.

Whats the gear the I should be building to to achieve maximum damage and best Critical chance?

If starting from scratch try to grab the gear in this order
Clean Bottemless Prism's (Nano to +5 which will be enough until level 50ish
Cheap low stat cost shield penetration gear.

****Special Note****
Some uniques can roll either a lower or slightly higher version of themselves... The mid 30's particulerly can be usefull because you can get near +25% increased use rate, and 25% shield penetration (without having them cost extra Feeds)  While they are more expensive A full set for leveling can carry you into the mid ranks when your ready to move to the Abyss Cata's... If you go this route, you will definately need an attributte re-roll, but you will level a LOT faster!
****End Special Note****

Leveling gear--->
Veiled Threat *buy the high critical damage versions +60%--->
Any Balbi's ring,
 --->Strengthen Dark Monarch Ring (3% +55% or better)
3 Set pieces (Arms, Boots, Legs)xcluding the spots for Balbi's and Veiled--->
End-game Glyph cage Focus--->
End-game mods for Foci
Evoker Set Torso
Evoker Set Shoulders

if Starting twinked ;Meaning near perfect gear
1.    Bk dye kit (+6 AA)
2.    Premium shop bracelet and necklace (+10AA)
3.    3%, 10% in build(in build means that its a skill your build would use saving you a skill point)Balbi's ring ->
4.    1%, 14%, 7%, 5%, +60% Veiled Threat (Roll your own augments your own you'll spend less)->( Due note the Evoker set helm can roll a 3% critical chance augment costing 38 accuracy feed and is extremely rare (1/65235) In fact all the set gear pieces can have unique augment rolls including the arms( haven't seen but there is a 25% increased use rate augment in the files.
5.    3%, +60% Strengthen Dark Monarch Ring->
The 5 set pieces must have a high critical damage roll on the Torso, and the 2% aug on the shoulders->
6.    End-game Glyph cage Foci (Glyph's were patched to have increased base critical damage Only use claws for PVP)


Your Glyph cage should have At least the Mythic augment for base critical chance (4~5%), or the Mythic augment for dual stat CCM class ( +72%, +53%), or the Mythic augment for High class critical damage (if planning on a gear class specific build).   All other mods, while nice will actually end up costing you vital stat points which must be saved for accuracy.

You will NOT NEED shield penetration in hell mode if your base critical chance is above 30% and your critical damage is above 750% for each focus Also most forms of end-game shield penetration cost strength feed.

You can further augment your glyph cages with an additional 3% base critical chance roll.  Hope for it but dont expect it.  the Ultimate glyph cage will have a 13% base chance to start from (5%+5%+3%), including critical damage boosters or something else related to critical chance (ccm)

Final Point Plan very carefully remember any augment or mod with doesn't increase base critical damage either directly or indirectly (accuracy) actually costs you damage in the end-game.  Or better yet Farm Moloch for an attributte retrainer

Why The cash Shop items Now?  Well now +10 AA is something for feeds... thats 1/4th of a mod I still say they aren't needed, They will give in the end a nice accuracy boost but its only about 20% more damage total,  still They do start to help with feeds when building early on.

Lets see with maxed ranks and gear your should run with at least 50~56% base critical chance  You shouldn't need the achievements, but they are a nice bonus.  If you could somehow boost your critical base chance to 64% while saving 2 mod slots you only need 2 dual stat (+50% CCM) legendary relics to get to the cap.  (I.e. any level legendary CCM dual stat relic at 64% gets you above the in-game cap of 95%.  (if your still wondering just add your the two focus base chances together).

I currently sit on 3 built critical evokers the Highest damage version Uses 10/10 skull splitter, 10/10 Hellfire, 3/10 flameshards, 2/10 spectral curse, and finally 7/10 Spectral serpents (10/10 from items)This is the new cookie  cutter And IT is the highest damage for 56 skill points,  My best gear available so far gets me to 51% base chance but leaves me with 5 mod slots and an extra 320% critical damage in each Focus (Glyph's)  I sit on 1,143, 1,168% critical damage respectively For each Focus, I have 447 into accuracy and only 122 into will, 67 in strength, and 168 into stamina. I can Almost 1 shot Normal Moloch with my Skull splitter, in nightmare mode with a full party While not super fast ( 30 seconds or there abouts,   Because of Spectral Serpents (Which replaced Demonspine) and  Hellfire Natan//Kabu//Imo are fairly easy to kill (6 minutes average solo 12 partied).

A special Note somewhere in the past 3 months I don't know when but Glyph's were patched and given an extra 100% base critical damage (150% now) Claws were patched and reduced by 100% (150%), I haven't seen any other diferences, but now glyph's are clearly superior... Better range, splash, and Base CC with the same inherrant critical damage bonus.

Also note Claws because of this are now fairly cheap (1.1kk~1.9kk for 4 slots unidentified) As opposed to Gylph's which vary greatly...

It is no longer a tossup between gear, Glyph's because of the boost are better (2% extra cc, and almost the same elemental strength effect)You should reasonably expect to run between 46~56% base chance with Claws and good gear.  You will need to rely a lot on mutiple sources of CCM to reach the critical cap, in the end claws will have Only higher physical attack strength with lower chances Critical chance.

With Glyph's and good gear that base chance is 52~62%.  That 62% base chance is key with 2% relic your at the 64% mark and at that point you should have 5 slots left to play with (2 being devoted to dual stat relics).  With that many slots left and critically capped you should breeze through the rest of the game.  The difference between This style and Claws?  Glyphs with crap rolls are 10~20 million easy in the AH, I cannot Imagine if you cant find your gear what a perfect glyph would cost (its rumored that the maximum Palladmium a character can hold is either 99,999,999 or 999,999,999,  but the glyph would definatley fetch the maximum price and nano's as well.

And Remember once you have a really High base chance Focus on Accuracy//critical damage!!

[Harrowing]

Whats Good Leveling gear?

Two +5 Bottemless Prism's with any rare elemental damage boosters, (dont worry the feed costs are covered here by end-game items.   You should own Most everything really until about level 50 in Stonehenge area's (Meaning you can even rank level with them)

Two +3 legendary CCM Master Lenes', With at least 2 critical augments and full slots to start you on your path. (they can get really high chances really cheaply early on) Try to find ones with Either a Demon CCM or a Spectral CCM on the Focus itself, with some blue CCM relics these can get close to 75% chance with just legendary gear.

Two +5 Forbidden Core's Clean with full slots available (to save on stats).  Damage wise these should be fine for everything until higher area's of the Abyss( I.e. the first Boss and Astraroth may need to be in a party.

The intial ring you were given, any armor which adds shield penetration and increased use rate. (try not to spend any points in strength it is a useless stat for your build (you will be in a party so armor isn't needed a lot make sure you know that *YOUR NOT THE TANK!*  This means most of your gear until Veiled will be around ilvl 20~30 with some decent weapons, Until Arcane shield is maxed your gonna be soft and plushy for a long time time.

Gloves with the +11~13% increased use rate combined with bottemless prism's get really nasty.

[Harrowing]

So, all my stats and gear is gathered How come I cant spam spells Like I could with a elemental build?

Basically you've switched feeds from mostly willpower to accuracy.  You can invest in some power regen Via the expertise system, or increase via expertise your power pool.  Drain power believe it or not is a great skill for getting power back excluding single targets, Eventually you will probably just have to power inject more,  The drop rates for Stonehenge on Normal for power injectors are great running 20 minutes or so should yield 3~8 stacks of 20.

Hey I thought this build would be easy and cookie cutter, How come it takes so long to kill bosses?

Currently in Nightmare mode in a 5 man party I've noticed my damage output drops by about half against everything even more so against bosses, this is an even greater effect in Hell mode 5 man party.  It is my Assumption that each mode mobs get increased armor, or reduced critical damage.  My theory is the latter, because coding wise its would be easier for developers to just add a single line increasing damage reduction for everything in nightmare//hell for critical hits than to individually change each monsters damage reductions via the .xml files.  This is of course an assumption.

Secondly, Some bosses are weak vs a specific damage type.  Moloch//Dessicator seem to be strong against Phase and physical attacks.  Belial is strong vs poison type attacks.  Imothep carries an immunity to physical  damage which affects your demonspine.  Natan is rumored to be strong against fire attacks, but if that was the case like Imothep he wouldn't be ignited.  This is of course at this point speculation.

Questions on specific's?  I know just about everything now from play testing.

[Kelestra]

Whats your advice for other Trinketslots than "Dark Monarch" on ringslot? Black Knight, obviously. And the rest?

[HerpaDerp]

Your explanation certainly does seem closer to my experience and has helped clear up a few things for me =)

Your advice is also allot less elitist than other out there

Cheers,

Herpa

[django]

I only wanted to add, tempest is not so bad. Its only bad if you really skill it, cause you waste points if you dont fully skill this tree. But i have +3 tempest on my morax, and the lightnings do pretty good damage, and they stun most mobs in hell mode. So i use to say its a good tactical skill, also with teammates. You can use it to cover your back and get rid of small mobs that you missed while rushing through. And if you solo bosses, the two clouds give you more dps while you throw your spells.

greetz

[Butsutekkai]

A really intersting guide we have here ! GJ Harrow !

Anyway,i have a slighty different approach for the final setup. I don t play with any CCM so far for 2 reasons :

 -I m not rich enough to handle having 2 set of foci for each type of caste (demon and beast)
 - I prefer to kill everything at the same speed ^^

My solution was to get the highest base crit chance, with high base dmg on each focus. screenshot of my focis :
http://www.hellgateaus.net/forum/class-discussion/evoker-show-me-yours-ill-show-u-mine/

I stand at 72% base crit chance atm. Except by having a +3% aug on foci i can t go higher.
Unfortunatly, i don t want to try the aug as i m really short on points because of the crazy feeds on set items.
I just hit rank 50 today, and i only have 17 free points ^^
Wearing stats whores legendaries in leg/hands/boots could lead me to 1K2 crit dmg but i ll loose a lot in armor and shield. I don t want to loose solidity as i don t use VA anymore.

[Harrowing]

First Trinket suggestions

Remember your priorites, critical base chance To 64% to leave proper room for stat feeds<---Critical CCM<---<-Critical damage<---anything that increases accuracy or activley reduces feed costs.

So yes I haven't seen anything currently better than the bk dye kit.  The ring slot is obviously going to a version of a Dark Monarch in end-game, but shield penetration is good for early leveling.  I haven't actually seen an amulet yet that isn't a non-cash item.  I would prefer all your gear be non-cash item shop based.

I don't want to restrict the evoker to a specific skills set, but the developers have done that. It is a fact that some version of a fire-bone build is the single highest dps skill build set currently available to the evoker, with an extra +11 skill points spectral serpents is a great additive skill For it  I don't like to be immobile so Concetrate damage is a no go for me.  But the skill is a direct 84% additive increase in critical damage.

Try to roll with ccm augments on your focus they cost less feed points as opposed to mods, not only that they are stronger than the mod versions that are available.  (mods can get to 53% max currently Focus augments can be 67%)

At 62% base chance you only need 2 dual stat mod relics (48~52 accuracy feed total) to cap yourself.  It isn't nesscessary of course, but that type of build strips you of potential damage.  (basically when you think about it your wasting at this point 8% base critical chance) if you switch your feed cost of finding 8% critical chance base to some ccm relics you will do more damage eventually in the end.  It wont be super noticeable, but it could make a running difference (like turning an Occy run in in 5 minutes instead of 7~8 minutes).

[Harrowing]

Posted and modified some of the statements which when retested "again" found what was happening for base critical chance.  I do not specifically know how the mechanic for CCM is working current'y when compared with the most recent revalation about gear and base CC.  I''' modifiy with a follow-up if I ever play the game again.  (uninstalled for hd space for Fallout 3)

[Harrowing]

There was a patch somewhere changing the stats On all Foci of Glyph's and Claw's, making Claw's more or less Obsolete for this particular build-out...  So I came back to Modify everything and cleaned up in general.

[Bryan]

How come I had never checked this in depth?
Then again,I never got an evo to endgame yet...for some reason.

Now for one,if crit chance for both hands is cumulative through the means mentioned,then there's no reason why "Summoners can't crit" either.Not that I'm thinking it,but it does open up a few possibilities.Say,by "patching up" a left 10% with a right 15% for a total of 25.Crit damage won't be all the rage,but still massive improvement.

That aside,I'm really saddened at how Claws are nerfed over Glyphs.I got a +7 Claw with +5 cc and some hefty ccms/cdbs,and had set my eyes on a similar one.
I'm not leaving the first one,but seems like the second will absolutely have to be a Glyph.

My thanks for all your hard work either way

[Harrowing]

Bryan your also forgetting that Most of the set armor for summoners offer free critical chance I think up to 11% total Compared to the evokers 6%. Combine that with decent Glyph's and the Summoners strength damage boost they could probably get just as nasty As Blademasters get.

And I to am also sad, also by the fact that they told no one and haven't made any useful post in 4 months or so...  Claws unfortunately are relagated to the PVP arena's now, which Sadly dont happen at all anymore...

[Bryan]

Well I didn't dare make such assumptions for summoners,as the phrase "summoners can't crit" is everywhere I went.So in general I hadn't given the matter much thought,let alone a fully crit build's possibility.

The set pieces I know of are gloves and boots,with a respective 2 and 3%.Unless the Lazy Envoy/Forgotten Warrior pieces are taken into account,that's mostly all the cc a summoner can get that way (no set bonus cc either).Even so it's a decent 6% (+1 base),then the achievements,ring and a mere clean Claw would get that to 16%.Ranks would yield another 5%,and just two 2% mods would make that 25%.Not half bad,and there's even more possibilities for added cc I reckon 

About the strength bonus you mention,I assume you had Darkform summoners in mind.To be honest I had (dual-wielding) Poison summoners in mind instead,as I'm gearing up my own at the moment.I wasn't considering a fully crit build,but a couple steps in that direction would heavily boost my dps I'd say.

Regarding Claws,I'm strongly considering wielding two of those on my evoker.I do recognize the disadvantages over Glyphs,but getting Glyphs with as many cc/ccm/cdb augments would cost too much for my budget,not to mention how long it'd take to even find such foci in the first place.
Perhaps I could post those when I get the 2nd one I have my eyes on,get a more experienced opinion on them.

Edit: Couldn't help it,I liked it too much to wait for it to drop below 3.1kk.Here's both the Claws I got so far:

[Harrowing]

Dark Form is exactly what I had in mind...  The one I'll eventually build once I gather enough stuff together is a Witch doctor Full melee build.

There are Korean players with 92% damage reduction in Df, They also tought a sweet screenie of a +1,000 drain life regain.... (cant understand the hp numbers but the pic has a 5 digit hp pool and a 4 digit hp regain on drain life)  You can literally never die if you pay attention blood surge your minion back to full health and take 2 seconds on drain life to refill your hp...

And the strength bonus isn't as good as accuracy its 1% damage less, but it fills out your armor feed needs... so its is a dps tradeoff somewhat, but you should end up better than gaurdians for sure...