Kenseificer

Another build idea for Reckluse's 3rd life. This one's an odd hybrid, which I find appealing in a way, and even though I still like the Misanthropic Bard build I contemplated some time ago, this is much closer to what I had in mind for Reckluse as I was planning to roll him back in 2009 when I was coming to the US servers. It was my intention to only have one character in the US while waiting for EU toons to be transferred and as such I wanted it to be a fun to play, self-sufficient all-rounder - I knew next to noone here and imagined I would solo a lot. Even though I'm no longer in that situation now, I still like the idea and this dude should meet the requirements - he's not exceptional at anything, but decent in several areas and capable of looking after himself. People won't be dying to get him in their raid groups but, frankly, he doesn't care a lot. :)

Having played barb18/rogue2 at cap for a while now, I know for sure it's not for me. The speed and the DPS are nice, but since I don't like waiting for groups and tend to solo/short-man a lot, it's pain in the bum having to dismiss rage whenever I want to use a clicky/scroll or disable a trap. This build will be able to do pretty much everything the barb can do, the DPS won't be far off and it will be able to heal up and use stuff on the go. It even gets to use repeaters, which was my original plan for the first life (as the character I had in mind was mildly inspired by the Stranger), only repeaters weren't as viable then as they are now so I went with ranger and bows in the end.

What this build can do:

Melee - Kensei II using scimitars - I have a few and want to make use of them, otherwise I would probably fit khopeshes in. I have a Kensei II on Ghallanda and while they lack the hp or hate gen to properly tank, the raw DPS is okay.

Ranged - repeater goodness including Improved Crit Ranged and all the artificer bits. No Improved Precise Shot though. Ranged will mostly be used to get rid of distant casters or archers and to stun high HP things with wounding of puncturing.

Skills - with some buffing and gear swapping, all traps but the most difficult ones will be doable. Maxed UMD for Heal, Restoration, Displacement, GH, Raise Dead etc.

Self-heals - full dragonmarks enhanced with metas for healing in battle, no fail Heal scroll usage. Concentration not maxed though so scrolls will primarily be used to top-up between encounters.

Evasion

Figther 12 / Artificer 6 / Monk 2

Halfling, Lawful Neutral

Strength - base 14 - 44 consistently with Power Surge and ship buffs, 52 temporarily with Titan's grip and Rage

Dexterity - base 16 - final 26

Constitution - base 16 - final 24 (26 if I manage to get Epic Brawn's Spirits as I'm hoping to)

Intelligence - base 14 to fit all the skills in, put item on for traps and ranged damage

Wisdom - base 12 - final 22

Charisma - base 8 - final 16 with item on for UMD

The Strength score assumes a +3 tome which I don't have at the moment but intend to do some farming for. Will also need a +3 Wisdom to offset the -1 on Epic Brawn's Spirits if I ever get that. Dex includes a +3 tome I already have.

Feats and leveling

1 - Artificer - Least Mark

2 - Fighter - bonus: Weapon Focus Slashing

3 - Monk - Maximize; bonus: TWF

4 - Monk - bonus: Toughness

5-7 - Artificer - Lesser Mark, bonus: Point Blank Shot

8-18 - Fighter - Greater Mark, Imp Crit Ranged, Precise Shot, Empower; bonus: PA, Imp Crit Slash, ITWF, Weapon Spec Slashing, GTWF, Greater Weapon Spec Slashing

19-20 - Artificer

HP = 554 unbuffed assuming Epic Brawn's Spirits with Toughness slotted on it

AC = low 50s self-buffed - not nearly enough for endgame but okay for farming; if I feel like it, I could spend some time farming additional AC gear to make it a bit more interesting; not sure I can be bothered though. :)

Saves
Too lazy to calculate the exact values right now, I'll do it later. Fortitude won't be a problem, Reflex should be okay, I'm only a bit concerned about Will again, considering I will solo a lot and won't have my own FoM.

Enhancements

Kensei II + pre-reqs

Scimitar Mastery II and Scimitar Specialisation I

Battle Engineer + pre-reqs

Extra Dragonmark IV

Halfing Dex II, Figther Str III, Monk Wis I

Racial Toughness II, Fighter Toughness IV, Tortoise I

Artificer Wand/Scroll Mastery II

Improved UMD I

Skills
Full ranks in UMD, Search and Disable. 12 ranks in Open Lock and a wee bit in Concentration, Balance and Tumble.

Gear
Head - Min II +45 hp +6 con skills
Goggles - Tharne's
Neck - Shintao / Verik's / Torc / Silver Flame
Trinket - Epic Brawn's Spirits (Blood Stone until I get that)
Cloak - Air Guard / Conc Opp (both with +5 charisma skills), might make one with int skills, too
Armour - DT robe, 10% heal amp, 20% heal amp, +3 Dodge
Belt - Knost's (GFL, +6 Con)
Bracers - Fabricator's (Resistance)
Gloves - Fabricator's (Str)
Ring - Epic Ring of the Stalker with slotted Dex (Tumbleweed until I get that)
Ring - Kyosho or Warchanter with crafted +2 exc Str or an Int ring for traps/ranged dmg
Boots - Striding / Anchoring

Scimmies - Min II, Lit II, Rad II, one day maybe Cannith crafted boss beaters, too
Repeaters - Lit II, WoP

There is potential for improvements in this gear setup of course, but knowing how good I am at farming, I'm staying down to earth and planning for stuff that I might actually get at some point.

I'm pretty excited about playing this. If I had the points to buy a heart, I would probably start leveling it straight away.

The build could be adjusted to work without the dragonmarks, freeing up 5 feats and 10 AP and giving up some self-sufficiency for additional offensive/tactical abilities. I would probably spend the feats on Oversized TWF, Stunning Blow, Precise and Improved Precise Shot and one other. The AP would be spent on the Stunning Blow enhancements.

Egg hunt rewards

Just a note on the egg hunt rewards, if you have some blessings left, you might want to consider not getting the highest (Ultimate) aura and turning your blessing in with the tier IV (Major) aura on instead. It seems that the most common reward for Ultimate aura is the +2 stacking supreme ability pot that lasts 10 minutes, while the usual reward for Major aura is a Medium XP pot that gives +10% XP for 6 hours. Don't know about others but I consider the XP pot a much more useful reward.

Calendar out, Tweets in

Hi guys, I've got rid of the Calendar widget. We don't do a whole lot of scheduled runs so having a Google calendar was a bit of an overkill. I've set up a Twitter account to just post quick messages any time I decide to do something specific. It's much faster than faffing with the calendar. If anyone's interested, I can also share the username and pwd with other people so you can post your own runs. I think this is better for when people just want to quickly check if something's going on - you don't need to go to Twitter, you can just check the widget here on the blog.
Also planning to retweet interesting DDO related stuff, like nice sales in the store etc.

This weekend

Hi guys, we've had to postpone the stuff planned for this Friday until next week - I didn't realize we were going to Derbyshire for the weekend. I might (just might) be on on Thursday and we could do something together then, but I've had a super busy week at work, so I'm not really sure.
Anyway, we've hit level 65 now, we're on a roll! Three cheers to Oss and his renown pots. :p

DDO Expansion coming this summer

An expansion to DDO has just been announced. It's - supposedly :p - coming this summer and it's going to be set in the Underdark underground realm in Forgotten Realms, looks like we'll be facing Llolth, the spider queen.
Also level cap raise to 25 and druid class.

http://www.ddo.com/underdark/

A thread on the official DDO forum in which people have been compiling all available info and clues so far:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=358499

Discuss on here or on the TNB forum if you like :)

Personally I'm quite excited. :)

Mic

Holiday

Hi guys,
I'm on holiday, first in CZ and then Derbyshire for a couple days, pretty much until the end of the year. I will probably pop up every now and then but probably not a lot during the usual playtime, ie evenings and weekends (will be going out a lot :p), so you might not see much of me.
Take care everyone, Merry Christmas. :)

M.

A misanthropic ranger with a lute

As a part of the neverending quest to find the gimpiest build, I've been contemplating this hybrid for Reckluse's 3rd life. At first I was planning to go back to the original build, ie. Ranger 15 / Monk 3 / Rogue 2 as that was quite fun, but I have a pure ranger on Ghallanda and I know from previous experience that, despite some differences, playing both at the same time gets a bit old. So I'm going to go for something a little different this time.
I don't think I'm going to post this on the DDO forums or anything like that as I'm not all that interested in the opinion of general public, and the build is designed to suit my playstyle and preferences anyway, but I thought I'd put it here for guildies to peek at.

Level split

Ranger 11 / Bard 8 / Rogue 1
Why this split? Why 8 levels of bard and not just 6 for Warchanter splash?
Ranger 11 - all free TWF and archery feats, 30pt energy resistance. And because I like rangers. :)
Bard 8 - Warchanter I for DR song, extra dmg and two extra levels for level 3 spells: Haste, Displacement, Cure Serious Wounds
Rogue 1 - trap skills

Final stats with easily sustainable self-buffs:

Strength 35 = Base 15 +5 (level) +2 (tome) +6 (item) +3 (exceptional) +2 (Ram's) +2 (rage)
Dexterity 24 (so I can shoot things sometimes) = Base 15 +2 (tome) +6 (item) +1 (enhancement)
Constitution 26 = Base 15 +3 (tome) +6 (item) +2 (exceptional)
Intelligence 16 = Base 14 +2 (tome), will put a +6 item on for difficult traps
Wisdom 19 = Base 11 +2 (tome) +6 (item) - need Base 11 to be able to cast level 3 ranger spells
Charisma 20 =  Base 11 +2 (tome) +6 (item) +1 (enhancement) - need Base 11 to be able to cast level 3 bard spells


459 Hit points (499 with Rage and ship buffs, 519 if I find space for a Toughness item) = 142 (base) +160 (Con) +20 (heroic dur.) +30 (gfl) +10 (draconic) + 22 (toughness) +20 (racial toughness) +45 (shroud) +10 (barb past life)
827 Spell points = 97 (base ranger 11) + (225 base bard 8) +80 (Wis bonus) +85 (Cha bonus) +40 (enhancement) +300 (shroud)


Feats
1 Toughness
3 Weapon Focus: Slashing (Warchanter pre-requisite)
6 PA
9 Extend
12 Maximize
15 Improved Critical: Slashing
18 Quicken
No Oversized TWF, but with Weapon Focus and songs to-hit should be fine. Will carry some Divine Power clickies as well.


Skills (without ship buffs and using items I already have; will farm all the new exceptional bonus stuff at some point)
Concentration 34 (without item on) = 22 ranks +7 (Con) +4 (GH) +1 (Focusing chant)
Disable Device 62 = 23 ranks +6 (Int) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +7 (tools) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (Ventilated bracers non-upgraded) +3 (skill boost)
Search 55 = 23 ranks +6 (Int) +4 (GH) +20 (item - Epic Spyglass) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (skill boost)
Open Lock 41 = 4 ranks +7 (Dex) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +7 (tools) +1 (Focusing chant) +3 (skill boost)
Perform 48 = 23 ranks +5 (Cha) +4 (GH) +15 (item) +1 (Focusing chant)
UMD 37 (39 ie. no-fail Heal scrolls with ship buffs, can put Head of GF or Cartouche on if no ship buffs) = 23 ranks +5 (Cha) +4 (GH) +5 (Shroud)


Saves (before ship buffs)
Fortitude 27 = 7 (rgr) +2 (brd) +0 (rog) +5 (resistance) +8 (Con) +1 (halfling racial) +4 (GH)
Reflex 32 = 7 (rgr) +6 (brd) +2 (rog) +5 (resistance) +7 (Dex) +1 (halfling racial) +4 (GH)
Will 25 = 3 (rgr) +6 (brd) +0 (rog) +5 (resistance) +4 (Wis) +1 (halfling racial) +2 (halfling enhancement) +4 (GH)

Enhancements
All song enhancements you can get
Warchanter I
All favoured attack and damage you can get
Ranger Favoured Resistance I
Rogue Haste Boost I
Rogue Damage Boost I
Ranger Spring Boost I
Ranger Skills Boost II
Halfling Cunning and Guile II, Sneak Attack Training I (planning to make a Rad II scimi)
Bard Charisma I
Ranger Dexterity I
Bard Wand and Scroll Mastery III
Ranger Devotion IV
Halfling Will II
Racial Toughness II
Rest can be divided among skills or halfling saves

AC
Ironskin Chant and Displacement. No, seriously, no real AC to speak of.


Gear (green items are ones I already have, rest I need to farm)
Head: Min II helm (heavy fort, prot +5), +45 hp
Goggles: Tharne's / DD
Neck: Torc / Shintao Cord / Silver Flame
Trinket: Bloodstone
Cloak: Conc Opp (+6 Wis, +300 sp, +5 cha skills)
Armour: DT robe - Heal Amp 10% / Heal Amp 20% / Dodge +3
Belt: Knost's (+6 Con, GFL)
Ring. Warchanter (+6 Cha, +1 exc Str, +2 exc Con) / Kyosho's (+6 Wis, +1 exc Str, +2 exc Con)
Ring: ?? (ToD Dex ring with +2 exc Str - need to look into those)
Bracers: Fabricator's Bracers
Gloves: Fabricator's Gloves
Boots: Striding / Anchoring

The Dodge +3 sovereign DT rune is mostly useless on this build but I already have it on my robe and I'll probably keep it, just in case I decide to TR into something with AC again. Or I might make a new DT with the two heal amps and a decent guard on the sovereign rune.
Torc and Shintao Cord and Warchanter and Kyosho will be swapped around as needed.
The problem with this gear setup is that there's no Toughness. Minos has been replaced by a Min II helm so I need to find another Toughness item or one with a blue augment slot that would fit in. Bloodstone doesn't help the slot problem a lot, some seeker is pretty much a must, but with nothing else on it (even on the epic version), it's quite obsolete. Ring of the Stalker would be the obvious solution, but that would prevent me from putting +2 exc Con on a ToD ring. EDIT: Epic Brawn's Spirits might be the answer, it has +2 exc Con and a green slot to put Toughness on, which would allow me to use the Ring of Stalker and slot +6 Dex on it.

Just thinking aloud here, really. :p


What I expect from the build

• Speed! Ranger sprint + haste! I like the extra speed on my current barb life, but the need to either constantly drink haste pots or drag a bard hireling along is slightly frustrating.
• Self-sufficiency. 30pt energy resistance, jump, extended haste, rage and displacement - basically everything a melee wants (except FoM). Quickened self-heals, CSW with ardour clicky and some heal amp should be in the region of 150 hp. UMD to use Heal and GH scrolls and to remove neg levels.
• Songs - though this bard doesn't like performing for other people! He just hums tunes to himself while zerging through dungeons on his own. A bit weird, I know, seeing as the best thing about bards is that the whole group benefits from them. Anyone who's played a high level ranger probably knows that their damage output against favoured enemies is respectable, but against everything else they feel a bit gimped. By grabbing 8 bard levels, I sacrifice some favoured damage (and some BAB), but overal damage will be better. Also Ironskin Chant, in combination with Displacement, will make up for low AC.
• Some ranged combat options. With 11 levels or ranger I get all the free archery feats, however there is no room for Improved Crit: Ranged. I'm not planning to use bows very often though, it'll mostly be about manyshotting distant casters, being able to do some ranged damage in EDQ while Lailat is ported away, being able to easily grab Sally's aggro in ToD etc.
• A bit of trapsmithing. Melee combat is fun, but it's good to be able to faff with traps and locks a bit for variety. And with only basic evasion, I might actually be better off disarming some traps rather than zerging through them. Not to mention the up to 15% bonus XP.

Cons/concerns

• No FoM.
• Only two level 1 ranger spell slots, so will have to pick only two out of Resist Energy, Jump and Ram's Might. With ship buffs and some backup level 11 resist wands, I expect I will lean towards having Jump and Ram's on most of the time.
• No room for Tempest pre-reqs. That doesn't bother me so much though, to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Tempest anyway, don't even have it on my pure ranger (who's pre-dominantly melee). Costs too many feats for the benefit it gives, and without a monk splash it would really just provide the extra attacks - the shield bonus to AC wouldn't get me very high anyway.
• The Will save is a bit low for soloing. Being commanded or held while on your own is no fun. I might play about with the enhancements to be able to take all 3 tiers of Halfling Will. And I'll probably eat a +3 Wis tome if I can get my hands on one, for another +1.