Post by Test on Sept 24, 2013 0:10:24 GMT
Under Construction - Being Edited from old to new builds, do not use right now. Please check back in a few days
Introduction:
On Higher Ground the Dragonstorm Mage truly is the God of Thunder. Empowered Thunderclaps raining down from powerful Dragonstorm Mage with maximized DC will literally cripple many spawns. They have gone through a lot of changes since the early days of being introduced to the server - and have become decidedly less popular. I think the drop in popularity is due entirely to the rebalancing process since their release. (I remember watching Shakua's Dragonstorm Mage destroy deep Hells bosses in a few seconds in their early stages - and will never forget a guild run that had both a Dragonstorm and a Bloodfire Mage which ended in a 5 minute-ish Asmodeus fight.)
The Low Down on Dragonstorm Mages
- The Dragonstorm Mage quasiclass combines the draconic powers of the Blue Dragon Disciple with the arcane might of the Sorcerer. By counting Blue Dragon Disciple levels as Sorcerer levels for the purposes of some spells, the normal downsides of taking so many non-caster levels are largely offset.
- To qualify for Dragonstorm Mage the character must have 10 levels of Sorcerer, 10 levels of Blue Dragon Disciple, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), and the Resist Energy (Electricity) feat before level 22.
- Any light or medium armor worn by the Dragonstorm Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero.
- Dragonstorm Mages receive the Epic Spell (Hellball) and Epic Spell (Dragon Knight) feats for free.
Some spells, listed below, use Sorcerer level + Blue Dragon Disciple level (including legendary levels if the character's control class is Sorcerer or Blue Dragon Disciple) to calculate caster levels. In addition, all these spells count as Evocation for determining DCs, and receive +1 spell penetration for every 10 caster levels over 20. The caster may add half their caster level to their Lore skill for casting DSM spells. Lore is effective up to 150 Lore for them.
- Level 1: Negative Energy Ray (does Positive damage), Lesser Orb of Electricity, Lesser Orb of Sound, Shocking Grasp, Summon Creature 1
- Level 2: Gedlee's Electric Loop (targets which fail a Reflex save are dazed), Shock Weapon, Summon Creature 2
- Level 3: Lightning Bolt does (3/4 casterlevel) d6, 2/3 Elec and 1/3 Divine, Scintillating Sphere, Summon Creature 3
- Level 4: Elemental Shield (duration multiplied by 10; provides Elec / Sonic immunity and Elec kickback), Orb of Electricity, Orb of Sound, Stoneskin, Summon Creature 4
- Level 5: Ball Lightning (no longer limited to 1 ball per target; does 2/3 Elec and 1/3 Slashing damage), Energy Buffer, Summon Creature 5
- Level 6: Chain Lightning (does 1 additional point of damage per die; 1/2 Elec and 1/2 Divine), Summon Creature 6, Tenser's Transformation
- Level 7: Great Thunderclap, Greater Orb of Electricity, Greater Orb of Sound, Static Field, Summon Creature 7
- Level 8: Summon Creature 8
- Level 9: Meteor Swarm (becomes Thunderstorm; does CL d10 Electrical or Positive, depending on which is best), Summon Creature 9
Subraces:
There are several things to consider when making a Dragonstorm Mage regarding subraces. The first one is that your Ultra-Rare choices for subraces essentially all suck. I have provided an Ultra-Rare option and an Open subrace option below so that people can work up to Beyond Ultra-Rare characters. The key thing to keep in mind though is that the Ultra-Rare step is really just a transition along your path to Beyond Ultra-Rare - and if you can muster the funds to avoid if from the start, do so!
My present suggestions for subraces are:
Open Subrace: Yuan-Ti
Ultra-Rare Subrace: Dragonblooded
Beyond Ultra-Rare Subrace: Radiance Genasi
Spell Usage Ideas:
For spell use in the Abyss I suggest checking out Herc's Spell Guide. It is really cool!
Ultimately you should check the Hell Bestiary and the Abyss Bestiary.
If you want to learn about how to better deal with spell resistance issues you should read TheRaja's post Spell Resistance: how to deal with it.
It might be a good idea to put this in a quickbar slot or a voicebind command if you have installed the Additional Quickbats (downaload link, place it in the nwn override folder).
Autocaster spells(in order of importance):
Etheral Visage, Premonition, Energy Buffer, Expeditious Retreat, Endure Elements, Less Mind Blank, Empowered Less Spell Mantle, Protection from Alignment, Elemental Shield.
You should then use shadow shield from your Tia staff.
What to do with your Epic Spells
Death of Magic
This is most definately one of the most powerful epic spells in Higher Ground. You should use it on these occasions:
1. To stop any boss or miniboss from drinking heal potions when they reach badly injured. This is of particular significance on the Hell run Min.
2. To spawn mobs that cast spells. You can use this in Hells, the Abyss or just about anywhere. Likewise you can stop random spawns from casting if they land on you.
3. To insta-kill the flux in Abo 2.
4. To make friendly casters able to cast spells in the Rona temple during its duration.
Starfire
Starfire does a massive amount of magical damage - and it is guaranteed to always do damage.
You can use Starfire to knockdown mobs. I particularly like using that knockdown effect on Raks and Rajas to give me time to mord/breach them and then Wierd them.
Missile Barrage
This epic spell may be used twice per day. It invokes an Isaac's Greater Missile Storm-type barrage of 20 missiles, striking targets for 8d6 points of Force damage each. Force damage is similar to Magic damage, but only respects half of a target's Magic damage immunity, and does not respect Magic damage resistance. Unfortunately it is totally useless in 90% of the areas you will use this build in. I do however find it has it's uses in some LL areas that I have farmed.
Paragon Epic - Karsus Avatar
When used as Karsus Avatar you drain the power of a deity for the duration of the spell - and for a turn, all of your spells are auto-extended, empowered, and maximized, and have 2 DC added. This is officially known as the 'teach me how to PWN' epic.
The Build:
Level Sequence:
1-5: Sorcerer (Maximise Lore at Level 5)
6-8: Dragon Disciple
9: Sorcerer
10-11: Dragon Disciple
12: Sorcerer
13-14: Dragon Disciple
15: Sorcerer
16-17: Dragon Disciple
18: Sorcerer
19 Dragon Disciple
20-40: Sorcerer
Abilities:
Assist Other (Player Tool 2):
Pick up any player who is knocked down, even though you are not a Bard. It can save time and prevent the death of a party member.
Other SIMtools commands
!password password
Sets your password. Set your password to '-' to stop having a password. Your password is linked to your CD key.
!cancel aoe
This command will instantly remove all of your AOE spells. This can be very important if KB is becoming an issue.
!filter checks
!filter sr
!filter saves
To easier analyse important caster combat checks familiarize yourself with the filter commands above. Those three are your must use filter commands if you want to see what is going on with your spell casting. Use all of them until you read in green letters something like: will be sent as system messages...
Now do a right click on the thin bar above the combat log window right to the chat window. A radial menu will appear and the left bottom option says: exclude combat info. Activate that and enjoy.
What happens now, after you did that, is that you will no longer see all the attack rolls and damage spam, but just the spell resistance, DC checks and saves. With that reduced information, you get all you need and can even check during fights occasionally if your spells are successful.
If you want to see for some reason still all the spam, then !filter brief helps reducing this a bit, without loosing any information.
!qb list
Lists any quickbars you have saved.
!qb save slot name bar
Saves one of your quickbars into the specified slot (which must be a number from 0 to 9). You must specify 1, 2, or 3 for the bar parameter; 1 is the normal quickbar, 2 is the Shift quickbar, and 3 is the Ctrl quickbar.
!qb slot
Restores the specified quickbar. At this time, only spell slots can be restored. In the future, feats and some other abilities will be restorable as well. It is unlikely item slots can be restored due to technical limitations.
Gear:
In terms of gearing issues the Dragonstorm Mage is NOT a class for players who are new to the server if you you want to enter the Hells quickly. The huge amount of kickback that you will face in Hells from Dragonstorm Mage spells means that you might be better off with a sorcerer initially. Luckily, you could easily reincarnate a sorcerer into a Dragonstorm Mage (if you wanted to) once you have acquired the relevant gear pieces.
These gear lists do not exactly reflect what I wear. They are primarily comprised of items that are either 'set' or where the randomization is not a huge factor. That choice has been made to make the lists more accessible to people who are trying to use them.
The primary issue that you will face when dealing with gear is that you need to cover an adequate amount of Negative, Electrical, Acid and Magical immunities at all times. This is because the very nature of a Dragonstorm Mage is that you will often deliver a plethora of small packet damage to mobs in rapid succession. Consequently, kickback can easily be deadly when mobs such as a Hamatula Scourge appear. (Remember that your ten levels of Blue Dragon Disciple will give you a percentage of Absolute Immunity to Electrical damage.)
Entering Hell for the first time pre-level 60
Ring 1: Abjurer's Bane
Ring 2: Signet of Set
Off hand: Teldar's Travail
Amulet: Amulet of Hadean Power
Cloak: Cloak of the Axerian Battlecaster
In general:
Ring 1: Ring of Inverted Weaves
Ring 2: Signet of Mammon
Staff of the Axerian Grandmaster
Off hand: Rampart of Pact Primevil
Belt: Forbidden Rites OR Belt of the Axerian Grandmaster
Chest: Wrap of Fistandantilus
Cloak: Cloak of the Axerian Grandmaster
Amulet: Beldoin's Spellturner
Gloves: Claws of the Obyrith Lord
These items, unrandomized, will give you 70% Magical Immunity (with Greater Restoration) and a soak of 20 Magical damage. Given that at times you will need to be able to take floods of packets of 100 Magical damage at a time other enhancements - like using 5% Magical Immunity augments can be useful.
I am aware that one very prominent Dragonstorm Mage player (Shakua) set up one of her toons around the idea of using Chainmail of the Weave to help with this issue at one point. This is particularly interesting as one of the benifits of the Dragonstorm Mage quasiclass is that any light or medium armor worn by the Dragonstorm Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero. Wearing this armor, or a similar one, would however create other issues defensively - such as lowering the amount of conceal that was available.
Some alternate items of note:
Manacles of Mephistopheles
Amulet of the Axerian Grandmaster
Robes of the Innate Occult
Mask of the Blood War
The Ur-Ward
Corruption of the Blood
Mote of Fearlessness
Items that you should carry:
Greater Rod of Resurrection
These are important as you do not loose any bonuses when resurrecting fallen party members. Until you can get hold of one of these just use scrolls. You can access a lesser rod for this purpose somewhere in a low level area of the module.
Bountiful Beaker of Healing
Until you can get one of these you can just use standard potions.
Grapes of Plenty
Grand Signet of Talisid
Amnesia immunity ring.
The Fine Print
You can use this to save Biorejuvenators. You'll lose a couple of spell slots using this but it is worth it.
Biorejuvenators
Never hesitate to use them if necessary. It can save the party from a wipe.
Stone of Succor
These will return you to your party if you Limbo during a run - without having to run the Limbo maze.
Rune of Return
These are useful in all areas, but basically a necessity if you plan to run the Abyss. You can however simply buy teleportation gems until you manage to buy or farm one of these.
Wands: Clarity, Stone to Flesh (Stygia Shop), Remove Fear (Stygia Shop), BBOD (Stygia Shop), Timestop (Thids)
Scrolls: Mind Blank, Greater Sanctuary, Mordenkainens Disjunction (for Mords Spawning - to save on your active casts at level 9)
Drow Wardstone
This is the key to get through a locked gate on the way to the Aboleths run starting point.
Thanks:
Thanks to the various people who have helped along the way of this character's progression with ideas or feedback including:
Shakua
Thanks also to people whose posts or forum ideas have helped me develop the formatting of this post, or some of the support ideas that go along with it:
Rain
Vichya
Paradoom
Introduction:
On Higher Ground the Dragonstorm Mage truly is the God of Thunder. Empowered Thunderclaps raining down from powerful Dragonstorm Mage with maximized DC will literally cripple many spawns. They have gone through a lot of changes since the early days of being introduced to the server - and have become decidedly less popular. I think the drop in popularity is due entirely to the rebalancing process since their release. (I remember watching Shakua's Dragonstorm Mage destroy deep Hells bosses in a few seconds in their early stages - and will never forget a guild run that had both a Dragonstorm and a Bloodfire Mage which ended in a 5 minute-ish Asmodeus fight.)
The Low Down on Dragonstorm Mages
- The Dragonstorm Mage quasiclass combines the draconic powers of the Blue Dragon Disciple with the arcane might of the Sorcerer. By counting Blue Dragon Disciple levels as Sorcerer levels for the purposes of some spells, the normal downsides of taking so many non-caster levels are largely offset.
- To qualify for Dragonstorm Mage the character must have 10 levels of Sorcerer, 10 levels of Blue Dragon Disciple, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), and the Resist Energy (Electricity) feat before level 22.
- Any light or medium armor worn by the Dragonstorm Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero.
- Dragonstorm Mages receive the Epic Spell (Hellball) and Epic Spell (Dragon Knight) feats for free.
Some spells, listed below, use Sorcerer level + Blue Dragon Disciple level (including legendary levels if the character's control class is Sorcerer or Blue Dragon Disciple) to calculate caster levels. In addition, all these spells count as Evocation for determining DCs, and receive +1 spell penetration for every 10 caster levels over 20. The caster may add half their caster level to their Lore skill for casting DSM spells. Lore is effective up to 150 Lore for them.
- Level 1: Negative Energy Ray (does Positive damage), Lesser Orb of Electricity, Lesser Orb of Sound, Shocking Grasp, Summon Creature 1
- Level 2: Gedlee's Electric Loop (targets which fail a Reflex save are dazed), Shock Weapon, Summon Creature 2
- Level 3: Lightning Bolt does (3/4 casterlevel) d6, 2/3 Elec and 1/3 Divine, Scintillating Sphere, Summon Creature 3
- Level 4: Elemental Shield (duration multiplied by 10; provides Elec / Sonic immunity and Elec kickback), Orb of Electricity, Orb of Sound, Stoneskin, Summon Creature 4
- Level 5: Ball Lightning (no longer limited to 1 ball per target; does 2/3 Elec and 1/3 Slashing damage), Energy Buffer, Summon Creature 5
- Level 6: Chain Lightning (does 1 additional point of damage per die; 1/2 Elec and 1/2 Divine), Summon Creature 6, Tenser's Transformation
- Level 7: Great Thunderclap, Greater Orb of Electricity, Greater Orb of Sound, Static Field, Summon Creature 7
- Level 8: Summon Creature 8
- Level 9: Meteor Swarm (becomes Thunderstorm; does CL d10 Electrical or Positive, depending on which is best), Summon Creature 9
Subraces:
There are several things to consider when making a Dragonstorm Mage regarding subraces. The first one is that your Ultra-Rare choices for subraces essentially all suck. I have provided an Ultra-Rare option and an Open subrace option below so that people can work up to Beyond Ultra-Rare characters. The key thing to keep in mind though is that the Ultra-Rare step is really just a transition along your path to Beyond Ultra-Rare - and if you can muster the funds to avoid if from the start, do so!
My present suggestions for subraces are:
Open Subrace: Yuan-Ti
Ultra-Rare Subrace: Dragonblooded
Beyond Ultra-Rare Subrace: Radiance Genasi
Spell Usage Ideas:
For spell use in the Abyss I suggest checking out Herc's Spell Guide. It is really cool!
Ultimately you should check the Hell Bestiary and the Abyss Bestiary.
If you want to learn about how to better deal with spell resistance issues you should read TheRaja's post Spell Resistance: how to deal with it.
It might be a good idea to put this in a quickbar slot or a voicebind command if you have installed the Additional Quickbats (downaload link, place it in the nwn override folder).
Autocaster spells(in order of importance):
Etheral Visage, Premonition, Energy Buffer, Expeditious Retreat, Endure Elements, Less Mind Blank, Empowered Less Spell Mantle, Protection from Alignment, Elemental Shield.
You should then use shadow shield from your Tia staff.
What to do with your Epic Spells
Death of Magic
This is most definately one of the most powerful epic spells in Higher Ground. You should use it on these occasions:
1. To stop any boss or miniboss from drinking heal potions when they reach badly injured. This is of particular significance on the Hell run Min.
2. To spawn mobs that cast spells. You can use this in Hells, the Abyss or just about anywhere. Likewise you can stop random spawns from casting if they land on you.
3. To insta-kill the flux in Abo 2.
4. To make friendly casters able to cast spells in the Rona temple during its duration.
Starfire
Starfire does a massive amount of magical damage - and it is guaranteed to always do damage.
You can use Starfire to knockdown mobs. I particularly like using that knockdown effect on Raks and Rajas to give me time to mord/breach them and then Wierd them.
Missile Barrage
This epic spell may be used twice per day. It invokes an Isaac's Greater Missile Storm-type barrage of 20 missiles, striking targets for 8d6 points of Force damage each. Force damage is similar to Magic damage, but only respects half of a target's Magic damage immunity, and does not respect Magic damage resistance. Unfortunately it is totally useless in 90% of the areas you will use this build in. I do however find it has it's uses in some LL areas that I have farmed.
Paragon Epic - Karsus Avatar
When used as Karsus Avatar you drain the power of a deity for the duration of the spell - and for a turn, all of your spells are auto-extended, empowered, and maximized, and have 2 DC added. This is officially known as the 'teach me how to PWN' epic.
The Build:
Level Sequence:
1-5: Sorcerer (Maximise Lore at Level 5)
6-8: Dragon Disciple
9: Sorcerer
10-11: Dragon Disciple
12: Sorcerer
13-14: Dragon Disciple
15: Sorcerer
16-17: Dragon Disciple
18: Sorcerer
19 Dragon Disciple
20-40: Sorcerer
| Optimized for (All numbers below refer to the final state of the respective build) | Level 60, Yuan-Ti (Open Subrace) | Level 60, Dragonblooded (Ultra-Rare Subrace) | Level 60, 5x Demi, Radiance Genasi (Beyond Ultra-Rare Subrace) | Level 80, 5x Demi Radiance Genasi (Beyond Ultra-Rare Subrace) |
| Build | 60 Sorc | 60 Sorc | 60 Sorc | 80 Sorc |
| Race/Subrace | Human / Yuan-Ti CHA +2, INT +1, DEX +1, WIS-3, STR -1, +5 Spellcraft, sr5 +1/lvl, speaks Draconic, speaks Yuan-ti | Half-Elf / Dragonblooded STR +2, CON +2, WIS -2, INT +2, CHA +2, +5 lore | Human / Radiance Genasi STR -2, CON +2, DEX +2, INT +2, CHA +6, 25% immune fire, free feat: Empower Spell, free feat: Silent Spell, free feat: Maximize Spell | Human / Radiance Genasi STR -2, CON +2, DEX +2, INT +2, CHA +6, 25% immune fire, free feat: Empower Spell, free feat: Silent Spell, free feat: Maximize Spell |
| Abilities at character creation (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) Creation/Boat | Str = 9/8 Dex = 11/12 Con = 12/12 Int = 11/12 Wis = 11/8 Cha = 18/20 | Str = 8/10 Dex = 12/12 Con = 12/14 Int = 12/14 Wis = 10/8 Cha = 18/20 | Str = 8/6 Dex = 10/12 Con = 14/16 Int = 14/16 Wis = 8/8 Cha = 18/24 | Str = 8/6 Dex = 10/12 Con = 14/16 Int = 14/16 Wis = 8/8 Cha = 18/24 |
| Pre-epic and epic ability progression | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma |
| Legendary level ability progression | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma | Always take Charisma |
| Pre-epic feats Abbreviations: SpF - Spell Focus GSpF - Greater Spell Focus ESpF - Epic Spell Focus LSpF - Legendary Spell Focus PSpF - Paragon Spell Focas | SpF Evocation GSpF Evocation Spell Penetration Greater Spell Penetration SpF Illusion Resist Electrical Energy GSpF Illusion | SpF Evocation GSpF Evocation Spell Penetration Greater Spell Penetration SpF Illusion Resist Electrical Energy GSpF Illusion | SpF Evocation GSpF Evocation Spell Penetration Greater Spell Penetration SpF Illusion Resist Electrical Energy GSpF Illusion | SpF Evocation GSpF Evocation Spell Penetration Greater Spell Penetration SpF Illusion Resist Electrical Energy GSpF Illusion |
| Epic feats | Epic Spell Penetration Great Charisma x 3 ESpF Transmutation ESpF Illusion ESpF Evocation | GSpF Evocation Epic Spell Penetration Great Charisma x 3 ESpF Transmutation ESpF Illusion | Epic Spell Penetration Great Charisma x 3 ESpF Transmutation ESpF Illusion ESpF Evocation | Epic Spell Penetration Great Charisma x 3 ESpF Transmutation ESpF Illusion ESpF Evocation |
| Sorc bonus feats | Great Charisma x 6 | Great Charisma x 6 | Great Charisma x 6 | Great Charisma x 6 |
| Legendary level feats | Empower Spell Legendary Spell Penetration LSpF Evocation LSpF Illusion LSpF Necromancy LSpF Transmutation Creat Charisma x 1 | ESpF Evocation Empower Spell Legendary Spell Penetration LSpF Illusion LSpF Necromancy LSpF Transmutation Creat Charisma x 1 | Legendary Spell Penetration LSpF Evocation LSpF Illusion LSpF Necromancy LSpF Transmutation Creat Charisma x 1 Epic Spell: Greater Ruin | Legendary Spell Penetration LSpF Evocation LSpF Illusion LSpF Necromancy LSpF Transmutation Creat Charisma x 1 Epic Spell: Greater Ruin |
| Paragon level feats | PSpF Evocation PSp Knowledge Evocation Paragon Spell Penetration PSpF Transmutation PSpF Illusion PSpF Necromancy | |||
| Tome | Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore - Necromancy | Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore - Necromancy | Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore - Necromancy | Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore - Necromancy |
| Artifact | Lock of Sune Firehair's Hair | Lock of Sune Firehair's Hair | Lock of Sune Firehair's Hair | Lock of Sune Firehair's Hair |
| Pandect | Pandect of Darkest Secrets - Shields | Pandect of Darkest Secrets - Shields | Pandect of Darkest Secrets - Shields | Pandect of Darkest Secrets - Shields |
| Abilities (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) Including +14 bonus for immortals, and +16 bonus for the current version | Str = 20 Dex = 24 Con = 24 Int = 24 Wis = 20 Cha = 66 | Str = 22 Dex = 24 Con = 26 Int = 26 Wis = 20 Cha = 66 | Str = 22 Dex = 28 Con = 32 Int = 32 Wis = 24 Cha = 74 | Str = 26 Dex = 32 Con = 36 Int = 36 Wis = 28 Cha = 78 |
| Skills @ Lvl60 | Concentration = 63 Discipline = 29 Lore = 63 Tumble = 30 | Concentration = 63 Discipline = 31 Lore = 63 Parry = 30 Tumble = 30 | Concentration = 63 Craft Armor = 5 Discipline = 35 Lore = 63 Parry = 30 Spellcraft = 50 Tumble = 30 | Concentration = 63 Craft Armor = 5 Discipline = 35 Lore = 63 Parry = 30 Spellcraft = 50 Tumble = 30 |
Abilities:
Assist Other (Player Tool 2):
Pick up any player who is knocked down, even though you are not a Bard. It can save time and prevent the death of a party member.
Other SIMtools commands
!password password
Sets your password. Set your password to '-' to stop having a password. Your password is linked to your CD key.
!cancel aoe
This command will instantly remove all of your AOE spells. This can be very important if KB is becoming an issue.
!filter checks
!filter sr
!filter saves
To easier analyse important caster combat checks familiarize yourself with the filter commands above. Those three are your must use filter commands if you want to see what is going on with your spell casting. Use all of them until you read in green letters something like: will be sent as system messages...
Now do a right click on the thin bar above the combat log window right to the chat window. A radial menu will appear and the left bottom option says: exclude combat info. Activate that and enjoy.
What happens now, after you did that, is that you will no longer see all the attack rolls and damage spam, but just the spell resistance, DC checks and saves. With that reduced information, you get all you need and can even check during fights occasionally if your spells are successful.
If you want to see for some reason still all the spam, then !filter brief helps reducing this a bit, without loosing any information.
!qb list
Lists any quickbars you have saved.
!qb save slot name bar
Saves one of your quickbars into the specified slot (which must be a number from 0 to 9). You must specify 1, 2, or 3 for the bar parameter; 1 is the normal quickbar, 2 is the Shift quickbar, and 3 is the Ctrl quickbar.
!qb slot
Restores the specified quickbar. At this time, only spell slots can be restored. In the future, feats and some other abilities will be restorable as well. It is unlikely item slots can be restored due to technical limitations.
Gear:
In terms of gearing issues the Dragonstorm Mage is NOT a class for players who are new to the server if you you want to enter the Hells quickly. The huge amount of kickback that you will face in Hells from Dragonstorm Mage spells means that you might be better off with a sorcerer initially. Luckily, you could easily reincarnate a sorcerer into a Dragonstorm Mage (if you wanted to) once you have acquired the relevant gear pieces.
These gear lists do not exactly reflect what I wear. They are primarily comprised of items that are either 'set' or where the randomization is not a huge factor. That choice has been made to make the lists more accessible to people who are trying to use them.
The primary issue that you will face when dealing with gear is that you need to cover an adequate amount of Negative, Electrical, Acid and Magical immunities at all times. This is because the very nature of a Dragonstorm Mage is that you will often deliver a plethora of small packet damage to mobs in rapid succession. Consequently, kickback can easily be deadly when mobs such as a Hamatula Scourge appear. (Remember that your ten levels of Blue Dragon Disciple will give you a percentage of Absolute Immunity to Electrical damage.)
Entering Hell for the first time pre-level 60
Ring 1: Abjurer's Bane
Ring 2: Signet of Set
Off hand: Teldar's Travail
Amulet: Amulet of Hadean Power
Cloak: Cloak of the Axerian Battlecaster
In general:
Ring 1: Ring of Inverted Weaves
Ring 2: Signet of Mammon
Staff of the Axerian Grandmaster
Off hand: Rampart of Pact Primevil
Belt: Forbidden Rites OR Belt of the Axerian Grandmaster
Chest: Wrap of Fistandantilus
Cloak: Cloak of the Axerian Grandmaster
Amulet: Beldoin's Spellturner
Gloves: Claws of the Obyrith Lord
These items, unrandomized, will give you 70% Magical Immunity (with Greater Restoration) and a soak of 20 Magical damage. Given that at times you will need to be able to take floods of packets of 100 Magical damage at a time other enhancements - like using 5% Magical Immunity augments can be useful.
I am aware that one very prominent Dragonstorm Mage player (Shakua) set up one of her toons around the idea of using Chainmail of the Weave to help with this issue at one point. This is particularly interesting as one of the benifits of the Dragonstorm Mage quasiclass is that any light or medium armor worn by the Dragonstorm Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero. Wearing this armor, or a similar one, would however create other issues defensively - such as lowering the amount of conceal that was available.
Some alternate items of note:
Manacles of Mephistopheles
Amulet of the Axerian Grandmaster
Robes of the Innate Occult
Mask of the Blood War
The Ur-Ward
Corruption of the Blood
Mote of Fearlessness
Items that you should carry:
Greater Rod of Resurrection
These are important as you do not loose any bonuses when resurrecting fallen party members. Until you can get hold of one of these just use scrolls. You can access a lesser rod for this purpose somewhere in a low level area of the module.
Bountiful Beaker of Healing
Until you can get one of these you can just use standard potions.
Grapes of Plenty
Grand Signet of Talisid
Amnesia immunity ring.
The Fine Print
You can use this to save Biorejuvenators. You'll lose a couple of spell slots using this but it is worth it.
Biorejuvenators
Never hesitate to use them if necessary. It can save the party from a wipe.
Stone of Succor
These will return you to your party if you Limbo during a run - without having to run the Limbo maze.
Rune of Return
These are useful in all areas, but basically a necessity if you plan to run the Abyss. You can however simply buy teleportation gems until you manage to buy or farm one of these.
Wands: Clarity, Stone to Flesh (Stygia Shop), Remove Fear (Stygia Shop), BBOD (Stygia Shop), Timestop (Thids)
Scrolls: Mind Blank, Greater Sanctuary, Mordenkainens Disjunction (for Mords Spawning - to save on your active casts at level 9)
Drow Wardstone
This is the key to get through a locked gate on the way to the Aboleths run starting point.
Thanks:
Thanks to the various people who have helped along the way of this character's progression with ideas or feedback including:
Shakua
Thanks also to people whose posts or forum ideas have helped me develop the formatting of this post, or some of the support ideas that go along with it:
Rain
Vichya
Paradoom
