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. 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 26 (28 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 and Con include +3 tomes 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 = 574 unbuffed assuming Epic Brawn's Spirits and Epic Ring of Stalker with stuff slotted in them

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 (also considering Epic Chimera's Crown and making a Min II cloak instead)
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) (can also aim for Epic Spare Hand with +6 Con and GFL slotted)
Bracers - Fabricator's (Resistance)
Gloves - Fabricator's (Str)
Ring - Epic Ring of the Stalker with slotted +6 Dex & +1 exc Con (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.