Post by arek on Dec 5, 2011 21:42:16 GMT
Shadow of the Arctic is a STR-Based Arctic Dwarf Shadow Dancer. It is designed to be able to deal a decent amount of damage while still being a sturdy tank. It probably won't top the damage charts, but it should be able to do respectably there while being a fairly sturdy STR tank.
ShadowDancers on HG have many unique abilities. The important ones for this build are as follows:
This SD also gets the ability to search in later levels, adding to its utility. It is not, however, a full rogue, since it lacks both the rogue level and the skills to disarm traps or open locks. Also, you're not as good at searching as a Rogue with 35+ levels, so if there's one in the party let them search instead.
On class choices:
As far as weapons are concerned, there are Many weapons this build can effectively use. Of these weapons, I recommend the Light Flail. Why? It's bludgeoning, which is currently the best damage type to have in the most popular areas of the mod, and it can be used without burning an extra feat. Other options are Rapier (piercing) or Scimitar (slashing), which are identical other than the damage type. Katanas and Bastard Swords are nice, but require Exotic Weapon Proficiency, which is difficult to fit on this build, so leave 'em to builds that can fit 'em.
Now for the build:
Base race: Dwarf
Subrace: Arctic Dwarf
Arctic Dwarf is nice for this because it gets +2 STR and +1 CON in exchange for getting -2 DEX and -2 CHA. This is a STR toon, so the DEX hit isn't that bad, and the CHA hit, while harsh, is bearable.
Note that you need to type the subrace in the field exactly as shown above, including the case. "arctic dwarf" won't work, and neither will "Arctic dwarf" or "ARCTIC DWARF", it has to be exactly "Arctic Dwarf".
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 17/19
DEX: 15/13
CON: 11/12
INT: 14/14
WIS: 10/10
CHA: 6/6
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (SD) are Shadowdancer bonus feats.
According to Shard's Build Tool, this gets 93 AB with just +14 STR and +10 CW. It can get 94 with a full +50 CW or a STR arti, tho that's harder to get. Saves are 65F/63R/64W, which are acceptable. AC reads as 125 in either Medium Armor+Large Shield or in Heavy Armor+Tower Shield. I would check this in-game, but if it's true (or close, even) I would recommend Heavy Armor+Tower Shield instead of Medium+Large.
Gearing Up:
Misc. items you'll need at various points:
Race Upgrades:
Tips for levelling:
Tips for playing:
And the most important thing? HAVE FUN
--Arek
ShadowDancers on HG have many unique abilities. The important ones for this build are as follows:
- Shadow Evade: Modified to gain Unlimited Usage with 20 ShadowDancer levels, provides Conceal and Damage Reduction scaling with SD level, up to 60% conceal and 20/+15 damage reduction.
- Shadow Rift: Finding a certain item after getting 10 levels of ShadowDancer will grant your SD the Shadow Rift ability, which allows you to add a negative damage buff to your weapons.
- Shadow Daze: At SD 22, this becomes a long-range attack that curses an enemy similar to a bard's curse, with the level of the curse being equal to your SD level.
- Shadow Step: Immortal characters with at least 25 levels of ShadowDancer can find an item in-game which grants them the Shadow Step ability. This ability allows the SD to instantly teleport to most nearby living targets, and puts the SD into Shadow Sanctuary (GS) when used.
This SD also gets the ability to search in later levels, adding to its utility. It is not, however, a full rogue, since it lacks both the rogue level and the skills to disarm traps or open locks. Also, you're not as good at searching as a Rogue with 35+ levels, so if there's one in the party let them search instead.
On class choices:
- Paladin: Paladin provides a few things for this build: First, it's a Tier 1 AB class, which improves your BAB enough to get 4 base attacks per round. Second, it gets Divine Grace, which gives you your charisma bonus to saves. Third, it grants Aura of Courage - the best fear immunity available on HG. Finally, it gets Disease immunity, which is one less thing you'll have to cover with gear.
- Bard: Having bard levels grants access to the UMD skill, and allows you to take some Concentration as a Class Skill. It also has all the SD Prerequisite skills as Class Skills, and is used to gain access to SD.
- ShadowDancer: The main part of this build, since it eventually gets a total of 50 ShadowDancer levels, and therefore all the benefits of the class. :-)
As far as weapons are concerned, there are Many weapons this build can effectively use. Of these weapons, I recommend the Light Flail. Why? It's bludgeoning, which is currently the best damage type to have in the most popular areas of the mod, and it can be used without burning an extra feat. Other options are Rapier (piercing) or Scimitar (slashing), which are identical other than the damage type. Katanas and Bastard Swords are nice, but require Exotic Weapon Proficiency, which is difficult to fit on this build, so leave 'em to builds that can fit 'em.
Now for the build:
Base race: Dwarf
Subrace: Arctic Dwarf
Arctic Dwarf is nice for this because it gets +2 STR and +1 CON in exchange for getting -2 DEX and -2 CHA. This is a STR toon, so the DEX hit isn't that bad, and the CHA hit, while harsh, is bearable.
Note that you need to type the subrace in the field exactly as shown above, including the case. "arctic dwarf" won't work, and neither will "Arctic dwarf" or "ARCTIC DWARF", it has to be exactly "Arctic Dwarf".
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 17/19
DEX: 15/13
CON: 11/12
INT: 14/14
WIS: 10/10
CHA: 6/6
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (SD) are Shadowdancer bonus feats.
- 1: Paladin
- Feat: Iron Will.
- Iron Will increases your Will save by 2 and allows you to take Legendary Will later, which helps your Will save to get to where it needs to be.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- This build needs to take a lot of skills at specific times. If you don't skill up correctly you can break the build very easily, as it has very few spare skill points, so when I say to save skill points, please do so.
- Feat: Iron Will.
- 2: Paladin
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 3: Paladin
- Feat: Weapon focus: Light Flail
- Weapon Focus increases your Attack Bonus (AB), which is your chance to hit enemies, by 1 point when wielding a Light Flail. If you chose another weapon, substitute that for Light Flail here.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Weapon focus: Light Flail
- 4: Paladin
- Stat: Strength
- This is a Strength-based build, meaning that Strength determines your AB. With that in mind, you need all the Strength you can get, so take Strength every time the game asks you what stat to increase.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Stat: Strength
- 5: Paladin
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 6: Paladin
- Feat: Dodge
- Dodge is nice in that it grants you +1 Armor Class (AC), which is part of your ability to avoid getting hit (the other part is your Concealment, which goes up automatically as you level), vs. your current target or last attacker, but more importantly for us it's required for Shadow Dancer.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Dodge
- At this level, you need to change your alignment from Lawful Good to Neutral Good. Ask in-game for someone to help you do this - the area where you have to go to do so may have enemies too strong for you to defeat at this point.
- 7: Bard
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 8: Bard
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 9: Bard
- Feat: Mobility
- Mobility provides +4 to your AC against attacks of opportunity, and is required for Shadow Dancer.
- Skills: Get to 10 Tumble, 10 Hide, and 8 Move Silently (save the rest)
- These skills are required in order to unlock Shadow Dancer, so take them.
- Feat: Mobility
- 10: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 11: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 12: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Greater Weapon Focus: Light Flail
- Greater Weapon Focus provides another +1 to your AB when wielding the chosen weapon.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Greater Weapon Focus: Light Flail
- 13: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 14: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 15: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Improved Critical: Light Flail
- Improved Critical increases your critical hit range when using the Light Flail, allowing you to do more damage. As before, if you chose something other than Light Flail, do so here as well.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Improved Critical: Light Flail
- 16: Shadowdancer
- - Stat: Strength
- - Skills: None (save all points)
- 17: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 18: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Fortitude
- Great Fortitude improves your Fortitude Save, which is your chance to survive many effects that will kill or disable your character, by 2 points. It also allows you to take Legendary Fortitude later.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Great Fortitude
- 19: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 20: Bard
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Concentration, Discipline, and Use Magic Device. Save the rest.
- Decent concentration is needed an many late-game and endgame areas to avoid certain checks that can disarm, disable, or even kill your character. This is also your last chance to get it as a class skill, so make sure you do.
- UMD allows you to use scrolls, tho you'll need something with a small bonus on it to have them be reliable. This will be your only chance to get this, so don't forget!
- Finally, high Discipline is needed in many areas of the mod in order to prevent nasty things from happening to you, like having your armor and/or shield stripped or destroyed, dying, etc. Again, this is your last chance to take this skill before LLs.
- 21: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Epic Weapon Focus: Light Flail
- Epic Wepon Focus adds +2 AB to your attacks, and this build needs every point of AB it can get.
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search.
- Every 5 ranks (not points) of tumble you take nets you +1 AC. Eventually, this build gets 60 ranks in Tumble, for +12 AC. 30 Tumble is also required for Epic Dodge, later.
- Search allows you to find secrets in many areas of the mod, which is helpful in many areas. Let a rogue search instead if one is present, tho, since they can generally do so much faster than you can.
- Feat: Epic Weapon Focus: Light Flail
- 22: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble, search.
- 23: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity I
- Each Great Dexterity feat you take increases your Dexterity score by 1. Dexterity helps your Armor Class when you're wearing Medium armor, and it helps keep you from getting Knocked Down by some enemies. You don't really have anything better to take from your SD bonus feats, so take this. If Great Dexterity isn't available, it means you don't have HG Enhanced installed. The best solution is to install it. Failing that, you can take Epic Reflexes and exchange it for Great Dexterity using the PC Scry.
- Skills: Max Tumble, search.
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity I
- 24: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Epic Prowess
- Epic Prowess gives you +1 AB. This build needs all the AB it can get, so take it. :-)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- Listen is used to reduce enemy conceal. It's better than Blind Fight once you get enough of it, so be sure to max it. Besides which: This build doesn't get blind-fight due to getting innate immunity to blindness. :-)
- Feat: Epic Prowess
- 25: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 26: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity II
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 27: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Strength I
- Each Great Strength feat you take grants +1 to your Strength score. This, of course, improves your AB, which this build needs. You'll eventually take 8 Great Strength feats.
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- Feat: Great Strength I
- 28: Shadowdancer
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 29: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity III
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 30: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Strength II
- 31: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 32: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity IV
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 33: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Strength III
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 34: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 35: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity V
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 36: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Strength IV
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 37: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 38: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Epic Skill Focus: Search
- Epic Skill Focus: Search gives your +10 to your search, which falls outside the +50 cap. This allows you to get to 127 Search, and thus search in endgame areas.
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- Feat (SD): Epic Skill Focus: Search
- 39: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Strength V
- Skills: Max Tumble, search, and listen.
- 40: Shadowdancer
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 41: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, and Craft Weapon
- Craft Weapon adds +1 to your AB for every 40 points you have in it, for a maximum of +3 AB total. +1-+2 will, however, be more typical.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, and Craft Weapon
- 42: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Skill Affinity: Discipline
- LSA: Discipline allows you to take Discipline as a class skill in later levels, which will allow you to eventually get 63 ranks in Discipline, allowing you to easily hit 127 Discipline with buffs/gear, which is enough to easily pass most checks in the mod.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, and Craft Weapon
- Feat: Legendary Skill Affinity: Discipline
- 43: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon
- 44: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- 45: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Shortsword
- Legendary Weapon Focus by itself provides +2 to AB. However, since this build also takes Epic Prowess, it provides +3 AB instead.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Shortsword
- 46: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- 47: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- 48: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Will.
- Legendary Will gives you +7 to your Will save, which helps keep you from being disabled in many situations.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon
- Feat: Legendary Will.
- 49: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- 50: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- 51: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Fortitude
- Legendary Fortitude increases your Fortitude save by +7, which you'll really need by now, in order to avoid getting killed by many instakill abilities.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, and Craft Weapon.
- Feat: Legendary Fortitude
- 52: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 53: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 54: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Great Strength VI
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 55: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 56: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 57: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Great Strength VII
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 58: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- Do not take any more points in Tumble on this or any later level!
- 59: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 60: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Skill Focus: Craft Weapon.
- LSF: Craft Weapon gives you +20 to your Craft Weapon skill, but is within the magical +50 cap. I do this to put you closer to the +50 mark, which will net you enough CW to hit 94 AB. If you can get your mitts on some nice gear with Craft Weapon on it, you can exchange this for ESF: CW, which might be better, or for any other feat you think you might need here.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, Concentration, and Listen. Dump the last few points into Hide. :-)
- Feat: Legendary Skill Focus: Craft Weapon.
According to Shard's Build Tool, this gets 93 AB with just +14 STR and +10 CW. It can get 94 with a full +50 CW or a STR arti, tho that's harder to get. Saves are 65F/63R/64W, which are acceptable. AC reads as 125 in either Medium Armor+Large Shield or in Heavy Armor+Tower Shield. I would check this in-game, but if it's true (or close, even) I would recommend Heavy Armor+Tower Shield instead of Medium+Large.
Gearing Up:
- Pre-epic (1-20): You want as much STR as you can get, followed by DEX, then CON, CHA, and finally WIS. Only get INT after you've gotten the others as high as you can while having Immunity: Mind Spells and Immunity: Death Magic. Fear Immunity from an item isn't necessary for this toon (you're a Paladin), but once you start getting to 14-15 or so, start looking for something that grants Immunity: Sneak Attack as well (for the bandits on the east road). Also, do the early quests in the Silver Moon Inn to get the elemental and physical resist rings there, so that you have them for when you need them. Later, start looking for items that give x/- resistance and x% immunity to elements and physicals, and x/+y soak, in order to improve your survivability.
- Early-Mid Epic (21-30 or so): Start looking at maxing STR, DEX, CON, CHA, and WIS, in that order. Immunity to Mind Spells and Death Magic is an absolute must, as is Immunity to Level Drain (Ability/Level Drain) along with other misc. immunities (poison, for example), tho you have Fear and Disease covered just by being a Paladin. Note that "Ability/Level drain" ONLY covers level drain, not ability drain (there is, iirc, no item in the game that provides blanket immunity to ability decreases, tho UEF and Negative Energy Protection potions both provide immunity to true ability drain from undead creatures). Also, x% immunities start being higher at this point, so start looking for those more, tho you shouldn't forget x/- resists or x/+y soak.
- Mid-Late Epic (30ish-39): At this point, you have little excuse to not have STR maxed at +12, and you should probably have DEX, CON and maybe CHA maxed as well. CHA/WIS may be more difficult to get up there while keeping the others maxed, tho. Immunity to Sneak Attacks will once again serve you well at this point, so pick that back up. Once you're a high enough level, Plate of the Quickblood will serve you well by providing most of the misc. immunities you'll need. Also, once you're Level 34+ (or earlier if you can get an agreeable party).
- Early-Mid LLs (40-49): Plate Mail of the Immortal is just about the best armor you can get at this point, unless you can manage to get the Blackflame Plate from Dulvuroth or Because Less is More from Hive (both require the respective tag). Also, needless to say, you want your abilities maxed, and you want all the misc. immunities mentioned earlier. Additionally, you need rings to provide %imms, both elemental and exotic, along with an item or items that provide at least 20/- to elements. Soak (x/+y) isn't as important now, since your Shadow Evade buff is starting to get decent at providing that, tho you now also need a mord ring (Bauphin's Bulwark from the Desert or the UR Mallek's Answer), and Breach Boots (Aasgart's Aversion or Cryptarch's Treads early, Travelers of the Uttercold once you have your Uro tag, to keep things from stripping your Shadow Evade buff (I've found that this is actually more important than elemental immunities in many areas). For misc. immunities, you'll want either a Lich-King's Phylactry or Touch of the Grave, either of which cover just about everything you'll need.
- Mid-late LLs (50-59): Now you start being able to use much better armors and such. Blackflame Plate (Dulv) and Because Less is More (Hive) remain nice, and now some other options open up to you. The best of these are: Splint of Elril (UR, immunity to being stoned in some areas), Band of Shaamros Gellantara (Implosion immunity, Drown immunity), Iridescent Barrier (UR, 5% elements, mind/kd immunity), and Plate of Uxan Uldaroth (L50 Divine Power 3x/rest == +1 attack/round while active, but must keep wearing the plate). I personally recommend the Uxan plate for Divine Power if you can get it. For Shields, you'll want to get a Pentavite Shield from Thids as soon as you can, for the electrical immunity. Everything mentioned previously still applies as well.
- Level 60:
- Armor: Carapace of Smoldering Stone and Plate of the Legendary Master are both extremely nice, with Plate of the Legendary Master coming out slightly ahead of the curve for this build. Links of Binding and Halomesh Hauberk are decent medium armors which might provide a good stepping stone if you can't get one of the BUR Heavy armors mentioned earlier.
- Shield: Either Wings of the Storm or Pyroclastic Flow will serve you amazingly well at this point, providing virtually identical stats with the exception of the elemental immunities provided. If you're using a Medium armor, you'll want a Large shield instead, so go for Benediction, Bastion of Cormyr, or Arcadian Fire. Yes, I know those are caster shields of the type typically used by battlebards, but even discounting that they have enough going for them to recommend them over the other large shields.
- Helmet: Visor of Vigilance. This helmet is, hands down, the best helmet for most tanks. Just don't expect to be able to get one easily, even if it's been nerfed. It's amazingly popular. Until you get one, Helm of Zeal and Scintillating Scarf are also nice, tho you can simply use any UR helmet that covers the ability bonuses you need.
- Amulet: Orudin's Oath. This amulet provides +20 to Craft Armor and Craft Weapon. Combined with bardsong and your feats, this will ensure that you have +50 Craft Weapon most of the time, so that you get the full +3 benefit (for 94 AB). Barring that, Amulet of the Pharoah is nice for the resists and immunities, tho it's generally harder to get (you don't need Fear or Disease imm, so if you see a Pharoah ammy that's missing those but otherwise sound, grab it, you may want it later even if you already have an Orudin's).
- Boots: Breach Boots. I recommend that you continue using Travelers of the Uttercold unless/until you manage to get pair of Breach Boots that either have something nice added or (in the case of Mordenkainen's Mockery) have had their physical immunities raised significantly. If you can manage to get on Abyss runs, the Abyss Breach Boots (there are pairs in each of the 5 areas, iirc, each of which covers a different element) are also very nice.
- Gloves/Bracers: Gauntlets of Transposed Energy provide nice physical resists if you need them, or Fiendish Fingers provide some nice elemental resists instead if you need those. If you don't have/need either, I recommend simply getting the UR Touch of the Grave gloves so that you don't have to worry about misc. immunes elsewhere.
- Cloak: Cloak of the Unjust. This cloak provides Immunity: Level Drain, which should be about the last of the misc. imms you'll need, given the items listed, along with some physical and elemental immunities.
- Remember, this is a list of Optimal or Near-optimal gear. If you can't get what's listed, follow the earlier guidelines, but start looking for items with +14 to your 4 main stats on them.
- Armor: Carapace of Smoldering Stone and Plate of the Legendary Master are both extremely nice, with Plate of the Legendary Master coming out slightly ahead of the curve for this build. Links of Binding and Halomesh Hauberk are decent medium armors which might provide a good stepping stone if you can't get one of the BUR Heavy armors mentioned earlier.
- Demigod: At the Demigod level, you gain access to an Asmo Artifact. 3 options come to mind here:
- Crest of Vile Darkness. In addition to providing an unprecedented amount of exotic immunities, this ring also provides protection from both Mord AND Breach spells, which allows you to wear better boots. I personally recommend Legendary Boots of Absorption, to help cover the %imms to normal elements you'll lose while wearing the asmo ring.
- Reaching for Damnation. This will greatly improve your damage output, but you'll need to make sure your physical resistances are covered elsewhere (generally on armor for a STR tank).
- Bastion of the Fallen Lord. While, iirc, this prevents you from wearing certain other items (most notably a planewalker ring), for a STR tank it is just downright awesome (100% immunity to the element of your choice, nice physical immunities). It does not, however, have x/- physical resists, so you'll need to make sure you have those covered elsewhere (gloves, amulet). Despite that, this is probably the best choice for a demi str tank unless you have some amazingly randomized BUR armor.
- Crest of Vile Darkness. In addition to providing an unprecedented amount of exotic immunities, this ring also provides protection from both Mord AND Breach spells, which allows you to wear better boots. I personally recommend Legendary Boots of Absorption, to help cover the %imms to normal elements you'll lose while wearing the asmo ring.
Misc. items you'll need at various points:
- Potion of Negative Energy Protection. These Potions, available from the item shop at Rip's Wretched Brewery, are necessary at all levels (a bit less so for a Shadow Dancer, but you will still rely on them for a long time). Make sure you have at least 30 of them on you at all times.
- Potion of True Seeing. Until you get an item with True Seeing on it, you'll want these. They're particularly important in the Sewers and on the East Road early, tho you might need them at various points throughout your pre-LL leveling.
- An item with Immunity: Confusion on it. Normally, you won't have access to this until you do the Hive (Way of the Drone, torch), Thids (Exo-array, helmet), or become Level 60 (Heavenly Haunt's Amulet), but that immunity can come randomized on items as well. BE SURE TO WATCH FOR IT!
- Heal Packs or Bountiful Beaker of Healing. Keep 3-4 stacks of Heal Packs, available at the item shop, on you at all times until you get a Bountiful Beaker of Healing (thids drop, untagged, generally sells for ~200M in the market chests at the Wandering Wyrm). Trust me, you don't wanna run out of heals on a run. :-)
Race Upgrades:
- Secret (pre-50): Kurai is decent for this build, requiring only minimal changes (start with 18 STR, 13 DEX, and 10 CON, take Bullheaded at Level 1 as your bonus feat, everything else stays the same except that you take Great STR at 60 instead of LSF: CW). This, however, isn't enough of an upgrade to get me to go out of my way to get it (Wraith is simply a better race that you can get for the same blood, tho it won't work for this build).
- Secret (50+): Minotaur is a passable choice at this point, providing +4 STR on Human and Large Size, which can be used with a Greataxe to get OC/DC from the Plate of the Legendary Master. The downside is that this simply isn't really an upgrade from Arctic Dwarf other than the size, due to the size.
- Ultra-Rare:
- One-Eyed is a nice improvement for this build, given its STR bonus and the skills it provides. With one-eyed you can take SD as early as L3, allowing for a whole lot of very nice class combinations (BG springs right to mind here).
- Stinger provides nice bonuses to STR/DEX/CON along with Large size, which again allows the use of a Greataxe for easy access to OC/DC. Good potential here.
- Battlerager also provides some nice stats and feats, but the big CHA penalty (-5 after dwarf), means you'd be best off using Fighter for this instead of Paladin.
- One-Eyed is a nice improvement for this build, given its STR bonus and the skills it provides. With one-eyed you can take SD as early as L3, allowing for a whole lot of very nice class combinations (BG springs right to mind here).
- BUR:
- Half-Molydeus: The best race for a STR sd if you can get it, but it's a new race, so availability is very limited. Has snakeblood and enough skill bonuses to allow for getting SD at L3, which allows for some really nice class combos, and for taking Parry in LLs for partial crit immunity. I'll probably post a build for this later.
- Howler is the next race to pop off the list for this. WP: Exotic means you can use literally any weapon for this build, Dodge means one more feat to play with, and Toughness and 25% Sonic Immunity are just icing on the cake. -5 Charisma after dwarf means that this would be better with FTR instead of PAL, tho.
- Half-Guardinal: Great for a Universal SD, has one of the SD prereq feats, and a very good stat spread, along with a bunch of other useful feats. Will link a build later.
- Pharlan: Good race overall, gets free Divine Might and 2 GStr feats, allowing for increased damage and some extra feats to play with if you go Pally/BG. This race, however, is difficult to obtain, and not truly optimal, so I don't recommend it unless you already have the race, or get lucky. :-)
- Wemic: Interesting race, large size. Great if you wanna go Universal or semi-universal. Weapon Finesse, however, is useless for this build, and the other feats mean that this would prefer a slightly different gearset than what is listed above.
- Juggernaut: Large Size, Nice stats, and a great special all make this a very nice race for a STR SD like this one. The fact that it is on Half-Orc hurts a bit due to the racial penalties, but should be bearable.
- Kolyarut: Decent, has the SD prereq. feats free, but very difficult to get and not quite as good as some of the other races here, and can't go WM due to SD skill requirements, rendering some of its feats worthless. If you have this, by all means, use it, but don't go out of your way to get it.
- Salamander: Good stats, free SD prereq feats, interesting looks. Good overall race, but some people don't like the way it looks. Possibly good for going with RDD for better imms and more STR, but then loses an attack due to not having 16 BAB.
- Any other race with at least +4 total Str: Passable, but definitely not optimal. Use these only to upgrade to the BUR tier as preparation to switch to a good race later.
- Half-Molydeus: The best race for a STR sd if you can get it, but it's a new race, so availability is very limited. Has snakeblood and enough skill bonuses to allow for getting SD at L3, which allows for some really nice class combos, and for taking Parry in LLs for partial crit immunity. I'll probably post a build for this later.
Tips for levelling:
- Level with a group whenever possible. You'll get more experience that way, and you'll have a fun time, too.
- Explore. In addition to 4 places you must visit before getting to certain levels in order to get items you'll need in later areas, you'll need to find your Shadow Rift ability once you get to SD 10, and your Shadow Step ability after you're L41. Additionally, there are many interesting places around Higher Ground for you to look at, and many monsters who will give you tags when defeated, most of which provide small but nice bonuses to your character. :-)
Tips for playing:
- If this is your first toon on Higher Ground, I highly recommend reading The Newbie Guide, as it contains some valuable info.
- If you've never played a tank before on HG (regardless of whether or not this is your first toon), I also recommend reading Tanking for those with a low INT score, since it gives some nice tips on how to play a tank.
And the most important thing? HAVE FUN
--Arek