Post by simpetar on May 12, 2009 23:50:36 GMT
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Death to the Warm-bloods!
About Lash of Hatred
This build is using the Lash of Hatred quasi-class. Quasi-class in Higher Grounds is an atypical combination of classes giving the character new unique abilities. Lash of Hatred is based upon combination of Ranger (with their Favored Enemies and some spells) and Blackguard (with their divine powers and spells). In the result, Lashes are devastatingly powerful against foes on their Favorite Enemies list and contribute to party by weakening opponents and solid tanking abilites in various situations. If this is what you like, Lash of Hatred may be a build for you.
Favored Enemies
As stated above, the full powers of Lash of Hatred are unleashed, when fighting a Favorite Enemy (FE). In this build you will get access to four FEs. How are the selections made? In short, they depend on areas where you think you will spend the most time. This build's niche will lie in Legendary Areas (accessible in Legendary Levels, i.e. level 41 and further) and is designed to contribute even beyond them, in Hells.
Another factor that should be taken into consideration is "which monsters are the greatest threat to the party". Such monsters need to be eliminated as quickly as possible and Lash of Hatred can take a great part of that job.
Outsiders are very common in Higher Grounds. Their size and shapes are various. They can be found mainly in the popular Desert and Dustbone runs and of course in Hells.
Aberrations also include many monsters, some of which are the most dangerous a party can face. You will probably meet them in Illithids run. And in Hells
Monstrous Humanoids; if it looks like human, or a partial human, but is not a human, it may be a monstrous humanoid. You will find them in the Rona run, and cut their wings and tails off, for example. Oh, sure, in Hells too.
Vermin, yes, vermin. Vermin inhabits numerous places in entire Higher Grounds, from very easy and starting areas (Beetle Cave), to very hard, endgame areas (Hive, Hells).
Spells
Lash of Hatred can cast both Ranger and Blackguard spells. To get access to Blackguard spells, visit Spell Pedestal in north of Docks (the area you start) when you take first Blackguard level. You will get a special item that represents your spell book and can memorize and cast Blackguard spells using the "Talk to" function.
Feel free to experiment with your Ranger and Blackguard spells to find what works best for you, there are however three spells that contain special importance for this build.
Blade Thirst (Ranger, level 3): the very essence of a Lash of Hatred. When cast on a Whip (weapon you will be using probably all the time), imbues it with Touch of the Lash. It will give your whip +14 enhancement, keen property, vampiric regeneration as on-hit proprety, additional damage versus your FEs and inflicts them up to 27% vulnerability to all physical and elemental damage.
Camouflage will conceal; the more concealed you are, the better chance of avoiding hits you have even if monsters beat your Armor Class. Percentage of concealment depends on Hide skill and this build will be heavily investing in it.
Death Ward will provide you a source of immunity to Critical Hits for a short time, once you reach level 60. In Higher Grounds, Critical Hits can really hurt, so it is always nice to have a protection from them.
Things you should be looking for
Whips; whip is the weapon you will be using and the weapon you will be using is whip. Most (if not all) of Lash's special abilities are related to them, so you will want to have one as good as possible.
Blood of Uroboros; this is a vial of dragon blood. If you drink one, you will recieve Cleave feat for free. If this is your first character on Higher Grounds, you may find it difficult to get one, but rest assured that it is not absolutely necessary to drink one; it is only comfortable. If this is NOT your first character here, you have better chance to get one, either from the appropriate run, or it can often be found for a reasonable price in Market Chests. This item is not much sought after and many people tend to have some, so you might also meet a generous person... If you own one, for full effect you have to drink it BEFORE level 12; Cleave is one of perequisties to become a Blackguard.
Wondrous of Ancient Lore: Enchantment on the contrary is needed for full effectivity of this build. It will grant you Epic Spell Focus: Enchantment, and enable you to take Legendary Spell Focus in the same school. These two will grant you +14 enhancement from Bladethirst spell, the highest you can buff yourself with. You can read the Tome between levels 41 and 60.
Perspective
There is of course chance that after some time you might find your Lash of Hatred character could be more powerful or you simply find it could be built better. The good news is that you do not have to make a brand new character, but rather reincarnate your old one. This way you can make changes to feats, skills and more, or even upgrade the subrace. This build is based on Lizardfolk, "open" subrace (meaning every person can build it), that does not however prevent you to upgrade to Aasimar, Baseborn Titan, Dragonblooded, or even ultimately Pharlan, Hound Archon or Half-Eladrin, once you get the right items.
For more information about Reincarnation look here: highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=faqs&action=display&thread=10931
Base Race Human
Subrace (you type this to the "Subrace" field on character creation) Lizardfolk
Stat points on creation Stat points after Subrace edits
Strength 12 14
Dexterity 14 14
Constitution 12 14
Wisdom 14 14
Inteligence 12 10
Charisma 14 12
Alignment any evil
Leveling progression during levels 1-12 take Ranger, during levels 13-37 take Blackguard, last three epic levels (38-40) will be Ranger again
Stat points progression first two stat points (on levels 4 and 8) place to Charisma, rest in Strength
Skill points progression
during Ranger levels (1-12 and 38-40) maximize: Discipline, Hide, Craft Armor and save rest;
during Blackguard levels (13-37) maximize: Discipline, Craft Armor, save rest
Level 1
feats: Luck of Heroes, Blooded, FE: Vermin
Luck of Heroes will grant you +1 to unviversal Saving Throws and allow you to take Legendary Luck in Legendary Levels; high Saving Throws in Higher Grounds are important and will make you more resistant in various situations
Blooded is an investment feat. It enables you to take Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble in Legendary Levels, so that you will be able to take Tumble as if it was your class skill and thus boost your Armor Class.
FE: Vermin is explained above
Level 3
feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Exotic Weapon Proficiency serves one purpose here: it allows you to equip whips
Level 5
feats: FE: Outsider
FE: Outsider is explained above
Level 6
feats: Weapon Focus: Whip
Weapon Focus: Whip gives you +1 to Attack Bonus with that weapon and is perequisity to further feats; as a melee tank you will need every point of Attack Bonus youcan get
Level 9
feats: Power Attack
Power Attack is important feat in many ways: unless you have access to Blood of Uroboros, you will need it in order to become a Blackguard, it is the first feat in line for Devastating Critical and perequisite for Divine Might and Divine Shield
Level 10
feats: FE: Aberrations
FE: Aberraions is explained above
Level 12
feats: Cleave (Toughness, if you drank the vial of Blood of Uroboros)
Cleave is required to become a Blackguard and also the second feat in line of Overwhelming and Devastating Critical; if you drink the vial, you will get Cleave for free
Toughness will give you 1 additional Hit Point per level, up to 60. In Higher Grounds there is lot of unavoidable damage and high Hit Points will help you stay alive.
Level 15
feats: Improved Critical: Whip
Improved Critical: Whip will double the critical range of the weapon, so that you will deal Critical Hits more often
Level 18
feats: Divine Might
Divine Might, when activated, will add unresistable divine damage equal to zour Charisma modifier to every your hit for (Charisma modifier) rounds. The duration will be doubled at character level 33 and tripled at level 41 for this build. Being unresistable it is great addition to your damage output.
Level 21
feats: Great Strength 1
Great Strength I; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 24
feats: Great Strength II
Great Strength II; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 25
feats: Armor Skin
Armor Skin will raise your Armor Class by 2, making you harder to hit. It is considered good investment for any melee type.
Level 27
feats: Great Strength III
Great Strength III; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 28
feats: Epic Weapon Focus: Whip
Epic Weapon Focus: Whip will add you +2 to Attack Bonus when using that weapon. As a melee character, you need every point of Attack Bonus you can get. It is also a perequisite for Legendary Weapon Focus in Legendary Levels
Level 30
feats: Great Strength IV
Great Strength IV; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 31
feats: Epic Prowess
Epic Prowess will increase your Attack Bonus by 1 and by another 1 when you take Legendary Weapon Focus. It is considered good investment for any fighting character
Level 33
feats: Great Cleave
Great Cleave is perequisite for Overwhelming and Devastating Criticals.
Level 34
feats: Overwhelming Critical: Whip
Overwhelming Critical: Whip will further increase your critical range by 1, so that you will be scoring Critical Hits more often.
Level 36
feats: Divine Shield
Divine Shield, when activated, will increase your Dodge Armor Class by (Charisma modifier) and divine damage immunity by (Charisma modifier)%. It will also grant you divine kick-back (every creature hitting you with melee weapon will take divine damage) equal to (Charisma modifier*1.5). Divine Shield lasts for (Charisma modifier) rounds, and is doubled at character level 33 and tripled at level 41.
Level 37
feats: Devastating Critical: Whip
Devastating Critical: Whip is the last feat that improves your Critical Hits. It adds 1 to Critical Multiplier, so that when you score a Critical Hit, your damage will be tripled, instead doubled. The instant-kill feature from Devastating Critical has been disabled for Player Characters on Higher Grounds, but still works for certain monsters.
Level 39
feats: Epic Skill Focus: Hide
Epic Skill Focus: Hide will add 10 to your Hide skill and thus increase concelment you can get from Camouflage spell.
Level 40
feats: FE: Monstrous Humanoids
FE: Monstrous Humanoids is described above
Legendary Levels
"Legendary Levels" is term utilized for levels 41-60. Once your character recieves immortality (ask about it in game) and 1 million XP, visit the Altar of Legends in Docks. The following is self-explorative.
Your Control Class will be Blackguard. Constrol Class (CC) is simply a class the character has the most levels in. With CC Blackguard, you will gain +1 to Charisma and Strength every 5 Legendary Levels, up to +4 at level 60.
Here is the moment when you should start to be looking for the Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore: Enchantment.
Legendary Skill Point distribution
From level 41 to 60 maximize: Discipline, Craft Armor.
Beginning at level 43, you can also start putting points to Tumble; this is why you kept saving points prior to this. Every time you visit Altar of Legends, select option "Give as many skill points as I can take" into Tumble. Stop at level 57.
Level 42
feats: Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble
Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble will allow you to take Tumble as if it was your class skill, further boosting your Armor Class
Level 43
START PUTTING SKILL POINTS TO TUMBLE
Level 45
feats: Legendary Luck
Legendary Luck will increase all your Saving Throws by 3; having high Saving Throws will help you against many unpleasant effects
Level 48
feat: Extended Spell
Extended Spell will double your spell's duration, occupying one higher spell slot; mainly used to extend Blade Thirst and (if you get equipment for lvl 5 Blackguard spells) Death Ward[/i
Level 51
feats: Blindfight
Blindfigt reduces concealment of enemies and negates defensive penalties of blindness.
Level 54
feats: Legendary Weapon Focus: Whip
Legendary Weapon Focus: Whip is the last of weapon feats you take, it gives you additional +3 when fighting with that weapon.
Level 57
THIS IS THE LAST LEVEL WHEN YOU PUT POINTS IN TUMBLE
feats: Legendary Skill Focus: Hide
Legendary Skill Focus: Hide gives you +20 supernatural bonus to Hide, improving the concealment you get from Camouflage. This bonus does count into the +50 cap on skills, but this build presumes players can afford very big versatility in gear (and get many items wih Hide bonuses on them)
Level 60
feats: Legendary Spell Focus : Enchantment
Legendary Spell Focus: Enchantment will give you +14 enhancement to Bladethirst spell. It means among others you can bypass enemy damage reduction with 14 and less, which is sufficient for most Legendary areas.
Skills and what they are good for
Craft Armor: every 40 points in this skill (including bonuses from Inteligence, items, spells etc.) will grant you +1 to Armor Class; it is highly desirable Skill for anybody who can afford it
Discipline: Discipline is important skill, because there are many Discipline checks on Higher Grounds. These are not only disarm or knockdown, but even getting stripped of armor and shield, being thrown far from the battlefield or even having destroyed (slagged, melted, rusted...) your equipment.
Tumble: every 5 base (taken on leveling) points of Tumble will increase your Armor Class by 1. Many melee builds tend to take 60 Tumble for the maximum of 12 Armor Class (hence why you stopped at level 57), anything above this amount is not as useful. High Tumble also helps against some Tumble checks.
Hide improves your concealment from Camouflage spell and the more concealed you are, the less you get hit. Note that the heavier armor and shield you wear, the higher physical immunities you have, but the less Hide. This build will make best use of medium armor (such as Chain Mail or Breast Plate) and medium (or even small) shields. This way you should get around 55-60% concealment, which is certainly nice for a strength tank.
hope you enjoy this build
simpetar
Death to the Warm-bloods!
About Lash of Hatred
This build is using the Lash of Hatred quasi-class. Quasi-class in Higher Grounds is an atypical combination of classes giving the character new unique abilities. Lash of Hatred is based upon combination of Ranger (with their Favored Enemies and some spells) and Blackguard (with their divine powers and spells). In the result, Lashes are devastatingly powerful against foes on their Favorite Enemies list and contribute to party by weakening opponents and solid tanking abilites in various situations. If this is what you like, Lash of Hatred may be a build for you.
Favored Enemies
As stated above, the full powers of Lash of Hatred are unleashed, when fighting a Favorite Enemy (FE). In this build you will get access to four FEs. How are the selections made? In short, they depend on areas where you think you will spend the most time. This build's niche will lie in Legendary Areas (accessible in Legendary Levels, i.e. level 41 and further) and is designed to contribute even beyond them, in Hells.
Another factor that should be taken into consideration is "which monsters are the greatest threat to the party". Such monsters need to be eliminated as quickly as possible and Lash of Hatred can take a great part of that job.
Outsiders are very common in Higher Grounds. Their size and shapes are various. They can be found mainly in the popular Desert and Dustbone runs and of course in Hells.
Aberrations also include many monsters, some of which are the most dangerous a party can face. You will probably meet them in Illithids run. And in Hells
Monstrous Humanoids; if it looks like human, or a partial human, but is not a human, it may be a monstrous humanoid. You will find them in the Rona run, and cut their wings and tails off, for example. Oh, sure, in Hells too.
Vermin, yes, vermin. Vermin inhabits numerous places in entire Higher Grounds, from very easy and starting areas (Beetle Cave), to very hard, endgame areas (Hive, Hells).
Spells
Lash of Hatred can cast both Ranger and Blackguard spells. To get access to Blackguard spells, visit Spell Pedestal in north of Docks (the area you start) when you take first Blackguard level. You will get a special item that represents your spell book and can memorize and cast Blackguard spells using the "Talk to" function.
Feel free to experiment with your Ranger and Blackguard spells to find what works best for you, there are however three spells that contain special importance for this build.
Blade Thirst (Ranger, level 3): the very essence of a Lash of Hatred. When cast on a Whip (weapon you will be using probably all the time), imbues it with Touch of the Lash. It will give your whip +14 enhancement, keen property, vampiric regeneration as on-hit proprety, additional damage versus your FEs and inflicts them up to 27% vulnerability to all physical and elemental damage.
Camouflage will conceal; the more concealed you are, the better chance of avoiding hits you have even if monsters beat your Armor Class. Percentage of concealment depends on Hide skill and this build will be heavily investing in it.
Death Ward will provide you a source of immunity to Critical Hits for a short time, once you reach level 60. In Higher Grounds, Critical Hits can really hurt, so it is always nice to have a protection from them.
Things you should be looking for
Whips; whip is the weapon you will be using and the weapon you will be using is whip. Most (if not all) of Lash's special abilities are related to them, so you will want to have one as good as possible.
Blood of Uroboros; this is a vial of dragon blood. If you drink one, you will recieve Cleave feat for free. If this is your first character on Higher Grounds, you may find it difficult to get one, but rest assured that it is not absolutely necessary to drink one; it is only comfortable. If this is NOT your first character here, you have better chance to get one, either from the appropriate run, or it can often be found for a reasonable price in Market Chests. This item is not much sought after and many people tend to have some, so you might also meet a generous person... If you own one, for full effect you have to drink it BEFORE level 12; Cleave is one of perequisties to become a Blackguard.
Wondrous of Ancient Lore: Enchantment on the contrary is needed for full effectivity of this build. It will grant you Epic Spell Focus: Enchantment, and enable you to take Legendary Spell Focus in the same school. These two will grant you +14 enhancement from Bladethirst spell, the highest you can buff yourself with. You can read the Tome between levels 41 and 60.
Perspective
There is of course chance that after some time you might find your Lash of Hatred character could be more powerful or you simply find it could be built better. The good news is that you do not have to make a brand new character, but rather reincarnate your old one. This way you can make changes to feats, skills and more, or even upgrade the subrace. This build is based on Lizardfolk, "open" subrace (meaning every person can build it), that does not however prevent you to upgrade to Aasimar, Baseborn Titan, Dragonblooded, or even ultimately Pharlan, Hound Archon or Half-Eladrin, once you get the right items.
For more information about Reincarnation look here: highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=faqs&action=display&thread=10931
Base Race Human
Subrace (you type this to the "Subrace" field on character creation) Lizardfolk
Stat points on creation Stat points after Subrace edits
Strength 12 14
Dexterity 14 14
Constitution 12 14
Wisdom 14 14
Inteligence 12 10
Charisma 14 12
Alignment any evil
Leveling progression during levels 1-12 take Ranger, during levels 13-37 take Blackguard, last three epic levels (38-40) will be Ranger again
Stat points progression first two stat points (on levels 4 and 8) place to Charisma, rest in Strength
Skill points progression
during Ranger levels (1-12 and 38-40) maximize: Discipline, Hide, Craft Armor and save rest;
during Blackguard levels (13-37) maximize: Discipline, Craft Armor, save rest
Level 1
feats: Luck of Heroes, Blooded, FE: Vermin
Luck of Heroes will grant you +1 to unviversal Saving Throws and allow you to take Legendary Luck in Legendary Levels; high Saving Throws in Higher Grounds are important and will make you more resistant in various situations
Blooded is an investment feat. It enables you to take Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble in Legendary Levels, so that you will be able to take Tumble as if it was your class skill and thus boost your Armor Class.
FE: Vermin is explained above
Level 3
feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Exotic Weapon Proficiency serves one purpose here: it allows you to equip whips
Level 5
feats: FE: Outsider
FE: Outsider is explained above
Level 6
feats: Weapon Focus: Whip
Weapon Focus: Whip gives you +1 to Attack Bonus with that weapon and is perequisity to further feats; as a melee tank you will need every point of Attack Bonus youcan get
Level 9
feats: Power Attack
Power Attack is important feat in many ways: unless you have access to Blood of Uroboros, you will need it in order to become a Blackguard, it is the first feat in line for Devastating Critical and perequisite for Divine Might and Divine Shield
Level 10
feats: FE: Aberrations
FE: Aberraions is explained above
Level 12
feats: Cleave (Toughness, if you drank the vial of Blood of Uroboros)
Cleave is required to become a Blackguard and also the second feat in line of Overwhelming and Devastating Critical; if you drink the vial, you will get Cleave for free
Toughness will give you 1 additional Hit Point per level, up to 60. In Higher Grounds there is lot of unavoidable damage and high Hit Points will help you stay alive.
Level 15
feats: Improved Critical: Whip
Improved Critical: Whip will double the critical range of the weapon, so that you will deal Critical Hits more often
Level 18
feats: Divine Might
Divine Might, when activated, will add unresistable divine damage equal to zour Charisma modifier to every your hit for (Charisma modifier) rounds. The duration will be doubled at character level 33 and tripled at level 41 for this build. Being unresistable it is great addition to your damage output.
Level 21
feats: Great Strength 1
Great Strength I; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 24
feats: Great Strength II
Great Strength II; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 25
feats: Armor Skin
Armor Skin will raise your Armor Class by 2, making you harder to hit. It is considered good investment for any melee type.
Level 27
feats: Great Strength III
Great Strength III; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 28
feats: Epic Weapon Focus: Whip
Epic Weapon Focus: Whip will add you +2 to Attack Bonus when using that weapon. As a melee character, you need every point of Attack Bonus you can get. It is also a perequisite for Legendary Weapon Focus in Legendary Levels
Level 30
feats: Great Strength IV
Great Strength IV; every 2 points of Strength will increase your Attack Bonus and damage by 1, you also need 40 base (without gear or spells) to get Critical Hit immunity from Death Ward
Level 31
feats: Epic Prowess
Epic Prowess will increase your Attack Bonus by 1 and by another 1 when you take Legendary Weapon Focus. It is considered good investment for any fighting character
Level 33
feats: Great Cleave
Great Cleave is perequisite for Overwhelming and Devastating Criticals.
Level 34
feats: Overwhelming Critical: Whip
Overwhelming Critical: Whip will further increase your critical range by 1, so that you will be scoring Critical Hits more often.
Level 36
feats: Divine Shield
Divine Shield, when activated, will increase your Dodge Armor Class by (Charisma modifier) and divine damage immunity by (Charisma modifier)%. It will also grant you divine kick-back (every creature hitting you with melee weapon will take divine damage) equal to (Charisma modifier*1.5). Divine Shield lasts for (Charisma modifier) rounds, and is doubled at character level 33 and tripled at level 41.
Level 37
feats: Devastating Critical: Whip
Devastating Critical: Whip is the last feat that improves your Critical Hits. It adds 1 to Critical Multiplier, so that when you score a Critical Hit, your damage will be tripled, instead doubled. The instant-kill feature from Devastating Critical has been disabled for Player Characters on Higher Grounds, but still works for certain monsters.
Level 39
feats: Epic Skill Focus: Hide
Epic Skill Focus: Hide will add 10 to your Hide skill and thus increase concelment you can get from Camouflage spell.
Level 40
feats: FE: Monstrous Humanoids
FE: Monstrous Humanoids is described above
Legendary Levels
"Legendary Levels" is term utilized for levels 41-60. Once your character recieves immortality (ask about it in game) and 1 million XP, visit the Altar of Legends in Docks. The following is self-explorative.
Your Control Class will be Blackguard. Constrol Class (CC) is simply a class the character has the most levels in. With CC Blackguard, you will gain +1 to Charisma and Strength every 5 Legendary Levels, up to +4 at level 60.
Here is the moment when you should start to be looking for the Wondrous Tome of Ancient Lore: Enchantment.
Legendary Skill Point distribution
From level 41 to 60 maximize: Discipline, Craft Armor.
Beginning at level 43, you can also start putting points to Tumble; this is why you kept saving points prior to this. Every time you visit Altar of Legends, select option "Give as many skill points as I can take" into Tumble. Stop at level 57.
Level 42
feats: Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble
Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble will allow you to take Tumble as if it was your class skill, further boosting your Armor Class
Level 43
START PUTTING SKILL POINTS TO TUMBLE
Level 45
feats: Legendary Luck
Legendary Luck will increase all your Saving Throws by 3; having high Saving Throws will help you against many unpleasant effects
Level 48
feat: Extended Spell
Extended Spell will double your spell's duration, occupying one higher spell slot; mainly used to extend Blade Thirst and (if you get equipment for lvl 5 Blackguard spells) Death Ward[/i
Level 51
feats: Blindfight
Blindfigt reduces concealment of enemies and negates defensive penalties of blindness.
Level 54
feats: Legendary Weapon Focus: Whip
Legendary Weapon Focus: Whip is the last of weapon feats you take, it gives you additional +3 when fighting with that weapon.
Level 57
THIS IS THE LAST LEVEL WHEN YOU PUT POINTS IN TUMBLE
feats: Legendary Skill Focus: Hide
Legendary Skill Focus: Hide gives you +20 supernatural bonus to Hide, improving the concealment you get from Camouflage. This bonus does count into the +50 cap on skills, but this build presumes players can afford very big versatility in gear (and get many items wih Hide bonuses on them)
Level 60
feats: Legendary Spell Focus : Enchantment
Legendary Spell Focus: Enchantment will give you +14 enhancement to Bladethirst spell. It means among others you can bypass enemy damage reduction with 14 and less, which is sufficient for most Legendary areas.
Skills and what they are good for
Craft Armor: every 40 points in this skill (including bonuses from Inteligence, items, spells etc.) will grant you +1 to Armor Class; it is highly desirable Skill for anybody who can afford it
Discipline: Discipline is important skill, because there are many Discipline checks on Higher Grounds. These are not only disarm or knockdown, but even getting stripped of armor and shield, being thrown far from the battlefield or even having destroyed (slagged, melted, rusted...) your equipment.
Tumble: every 5 base (taken on leveling) points of Tumble will increase your Armor Class by 1. Many melee builds tend to take 60 Tumble for the maximum of 12 Armor Class (hence why you stopped at level 57), anything above this amount is not as useful. High Tumble also helps against some Tumble checks.
Hide improves your concealment from Camouflage spell and the more concealed you are, the less you get hit. Note that the heavier armor and shield you wear, the higher physical immunities you have, but the less Hide. This build will make best use of medium armor (such as Chain Mail or Breast Plate) and medium (or even small) shields. This way you should get around 55-60% concealment, which is certainly nice for a strength tank.
hope you enjoy this build
simpetar