Post by arek on Dec 1, 2011 1:46:31 GMT
The Shadow Smurf is my take on an Open Subrace ShadowDancer. The name comes from the subrace, Svirfneblin, which several of my guildmates pointed out starts out sounding a bit like "Smurf" when said out loud. :-)
The Shadow Smurf is a dual-wielding Dex-based SD with Monk levels for added AC. It also gets 60% conceal and 20/+15 damage reduction, and has 65fort/74ref/63will saves. It can also get up to 93 AB with the monk progression and no arti, pre-demi. 91-92 will be more typical, tho (keep an eye open for a DEX artifact and a Craft Weapon pandect), since 93 requires maxed Craft Weapon. This is a bit low, but is mitigated somewhat by the monk attack progression. You do get max listen to beat conceal with, and the Shadow Rift buff for added damage on demand. Don't expect to top the charts on damage with this build, tho. Expect instead to be the last person standing when things go pear-shaped.
ShadowDancers on HG have many unique abilities. The important ones for this build are as follows:
The Shadow Smurf 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.
On class choices:
As far as weapons are concerned, there are 3 weapons that this build can effectively use: Kama, Goad, and Nunchaku. Of these, the Nunchaku is what I recommend, and list in the build. The reasons:
Now for the build:
Base race: Gnome
Subrace: Svirfneblin
You need to type the subrace in the field exactly as shown above, including the case. It's not svirfneblin, SVIRFNEBLIN, or SvIrFNeblIN, it's Svirfneblin.
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 6/6
DEX: 18/20
CON: 16/14
INT: 10/10
WIS: 14/16
CHA: 8/6
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (F) and (SD) are Fighter and Shadowdancer bonus feats, respectively.
Pandect: Weapon Crafting - This gives you the ESF: Craft Weapon feat, which gives you +10 to your Craft Weapon skill. This will, in many cases, give you +1 AB. It won't always do so, however, so we come to the next item.
Artifact: Dexterity. This gives you +2 DEX, ultravision, permanent immunity to blindness, and the ability to cast the Darkness spell an unlimited number of times per day. Of these, only the +2 DEX is really important, since it grants you +1 AB. Get this ASAP.
Gear:
Race Upgrades:
Possible changes/improvements
Tips for levelling:
Tips for playing:
And the most important thing? HAVE FUN
--Arek
The Shadow Smurf is a dual-wielding Dex-based SD with Monk levels for added AC. It also gets 60% conceal and 20/+15 damage reduction, and has 65fort/74ref/63will saves. It can also get up to 93 AB with the monk progression and no arti, pre-demi. 91-92 will be more typical, tho (keep an eye open for a DEX artifact and a Craft Weapon pandect), since 93 requires maxed Craft Weapon. This is a bit low, but is mitigated somewhat by the monk attack progression. You do get max listen to beat conceal with, and the Shadow Rift buff for added damage on demand. Don't expect to top the charts on damage with this build, tho. Expect instead to be the last person standing when things go pear-shaped.
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.
The Shadow Smurf 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.
On class choices:
- Monk: Monk grants extra Armor Class, extra attacks/round, and a better attack progression (read: higher attack bonus for later attacks), and is a bit of a no-brainer for a dual-wielder that can manage it.
- Fighter: Gives bonus feats. 5 of them from 8 levels. Important for this build since it's a dual-wielding build.
- 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 3 weapons that this build can effectively use: Kama, Goad, and Nunchaku. Of these, the Nunchaku is what I recommend, and list in the build. The reasons:
- First and foremost, it's non-slaggable, which means that certain monsters in Hell and other areas which attempt to destroy weapons they're hit with (discipline check) can't destroy them, which is important since this build can only reach 118 Discipline with items and buffs.
- Second, it does bludgeoning damage, which is still excellent in the Hells.
- Third, the LL set megadamage versions are very Hell-friendly, which means you're not hunting for the L50 randoms as much.
- Finally, even tho gloves (fists) also have many of these traits, Nunchaku have one major advantage over them: Nunchaku can be dual-wielded.
Now for the build:
Base race: Gnome
Subrace: Svirfneblin
You need to type the subrace in the field exactly as shown above, including the case. It's not svirfneblin, SVIRFNEBLIN, or SvIrFNeblIN, it's Svirfneblin.
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 6/6
DEX: 18/20
CON: 16/14
INT: 10/10
WIS: 14/16
CHA: 8/6
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (F) and (SD) are Fighter and Shadowdancer bonus feats, respectively.
- Pre-Epic
- 1: Monk
- Feat: Bullheaded
- Bullheaded is what we call an "enabler" feat. In this case, it enables you to take Legendary Skill Affinity: Discipline which, in turn, allows you to take discipline as a class feat in Legendary Levels.
- 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: Bullheaded
- 2: Fighter
- Feat (F): Weapon finesse
- Weapon Finesse is a required feat for any dex tank who wishes to actually hit his/her enemies, since it lets you use your DEX modifier to determine your Attack Bonus (AB), which is your chance to hit enemies, instead of your STR modifier.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat (F): Weapon finesse
- 3: Fighter
- Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting
- Two-Weapon Fighting significantly reduces the penalties for fighting with 2 weapons, and is thus a required feat for any dual-wielder.
- Feat (F): Weapon focus: Nunchaku
- Weapon focus improves your AB by +1. Given that this build's AB is borderline, anything that can improve it helps.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting
- 4: Fighter
- Stat: Dexterity
- This is a Dexterity-based build, meaning that Dexterity determines both your AB and your Armor Class (AC), which is part of your ability to aviod being hit (the other part is your Concealment, which automatically goes up as you level). With that in mind, you need all the Dexterity you can get, so take Dexterity every time the game asks you what stat to increase.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Stat: Dexterity
- 5: Fighter
- Feat (F): Dodge
- Dodge is nice in that it grants you +1 AC vs. your current target or last attacker, but more importantly for us it's required for Shadow Dancer.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat (F): Dodge
- 6: Fighter
- Feat: Ambidexterity
- Ambidexterity reduces the penalties to offhand attacks when fighting with 2 weapons, so it's necessary for dual-wielding.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Ambidexterity
- 7: Fighter
- Feat (F): Mobility
- Mobility provides +4 to your AC against attacks of opportunity, and is required for Shadow Dancer.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat (F): Mobility
- 8: Fighter
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 9: Monk
- Feat: Improved Critical: Nunchaku
- 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.
- 10: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 11: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 12: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Toughness
- Toughness gives you +1 HP per Level, for a total of +60 HP at Level 60. Every HP helps on this build.
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Toughness
- 13: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 14: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 15: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Iron Will
- Iron Will increases your Will save by +2, and is also required for Legendary Will later.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Iron Will
- 16: Shadowdancer
- - Stat: Dexterity
- - Skills: None (save all points)
- 17: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 18: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Fortitude
- Great Fortitude increases your Fortitude Save by +2, and is also required for Legendary Fortitude later.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Great Fortitude
- 19: Shadowdancer
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 20: Fighter
- Feat (F): Improved two-weapon fighting
- Improved two-weapon fighting gives you 1 extra offhand attack, which is nice, so take it. :-)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Concentration, Discipline, and Parry. 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.
- Parry reduces the damage done by Critical hits, and can even prevent certain instakill abilities at high levels. With your low HP total, every little bit of protection helps, and this is your last chance to take it before LLs, so do so.
- 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, having your armor destroyed, etc. Again, this is your last chance to take this skill before LLs.
- Feat (F): Improved two-weapon fighting
- 1: Monk
- Epic
- 21: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Epic Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- Epic Wepon Focus adds +2 AB to your attacks, and this build needs every point of AB it can get.
- Skills: Max Tumble.
- 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.
- Feat: Epic Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- 22: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble.
- 23: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity I
- Each Great Dexterity feat you take increases your Dexterity score by 1. As stated before, this build needs all the Dexterity it can get, so it takes all 10 of these feats. Note that in order to take Great Dexterity feats as SD bonus feats you need to either install HG Enhanced or use a Feat Swap. I, personally, recommend installing HG Enhanced. Instructions for doing so can be found here. If you want to use a feat swap, take Epic Reflexes instead, and then use your PC Scry, choose to make changes to your character, then choose to swap Epic Reflexes for Great Dexterity.
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- Search allows you to find hidden items and secret rooms, which is very useful in all areas of the module. This build can eventually get 127 search with items and buffs.
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity I
- 24: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Armor Skin
- Armor Skin gives you +2 AC, which is very nice.
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- Feat: Armor Skin
- 25: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- 26: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity II
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- 27: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Epic Dodge
- Epic Dodge makes the first attack that would normally hit you in any round miss. This makes it the single most important feat this character takes for its survivability! Don't miss it!
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- Feat: Epic Dodge
- 28: Shadowdancer
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, put the rest in Search.
- 29: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity III
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 30: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Epic Prowess
- Epic prowess adds +1 to your AB, which is useful. It also synergizes with Legendary Weapon Focus for a further boost to AB later.
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- Feat: Epic Prowess
- 31: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 32: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity IV
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 33: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Dexterity V
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 34: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 35: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity VI
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 36: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Dexterity VII
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 37: Shadowdancer
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 38: Shadowdancer
- Feat (SD): Great Dexterity VIII
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 39: Shadowdancer
- Feat: Great Dexterity IX
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 40: Shadowdancer
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble and Search, save the rest.
- 21: Shadowdancer
- Legendary
- 41: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor
- Craft Weapon and Craft Armor increase your AB and AC, respectively, by +1 for every 40 points, for a potential total of +3 AB and AC. +2 will, however, be more typical.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor
- 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, for a potential of 118 Discipline with buffs.
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor
- Feat: Legendary Skill Affinity: Discipline
- 43: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- On Higher Ground, Listen helps to defeat/reduce the conceal of enemies, similar to blind-fight. 63 points in listen provides the same reduction in conceal as blind-fight. This build can reach 125 listen with just +skill gear, and there is a helmet out there that provides Epic Skill Focus: Listen, which will max it.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 44: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 45: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- Legendary Weapon Focus by itself provides +2 to AB. However, since this build also takes Epic Prowess, it provides +3 AB instead, which this build needs very, very badly.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- 46: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 47: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 48: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Epic Skill focus: Search
- Epic Skill Focus: Search adds +10 to search, which falls outside the normal cap of +50, meaning that this character will eventually get 73 search before gear instead of the normal 63.
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- Feat: Epic Skill focus: Search
- 49: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 50: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 51: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Greater Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- Greater Weapon Focus is a HG Enhanced feat that increases your AB by +1.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- Feat: Greater Weapon Focus: Nunchaku
- 52: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor. Put all remaining points in Listen.
- 53: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 54: (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, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- Feat: Legendary Fortitude
- 55: (Shadowdancer)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 56: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 57: (Shadowdancer)
- Feat: Legendary Will
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Tumble, Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 58: (Shadowdancer)
- Stat: Dexterity
- 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: Great Dexterity X
- Stat: Dexterity
- Skills: Max Search, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen. Dump your last few points in Pick Pocket.
- 41: (Shadowdancer)
- Paragon
- From here out, I'm only going to list levels on which you get a feat, since there are no real choices to be made otherwise. For skills, you get 3 points per Paragon Level which you should use, first, to get to 63 Pick Pocket, then put the rest into Discipline. The points in Discipline won't count towards your Discipline directly but will instead reduce how much it gets reduced in areas with area penalties (like the Hells).
- 63: Feat: Paragon Weapon Focus: Nunchaku.
- This feat grants +2 AB when wielding nunchaku. Given your borderline AB, this feat will likely be very, very welcome.
- 66: Feat: Paragon Anchoring.
- This feat grants a +4 bonus to any STR checks you happen to come across, which will be a huge help given your low STR.
- 69: Feat: Paragon Will.
- This feat grants +5 to your Will save, which will help keep you from getting Amnesia and other debilitating effects from some monsters.
- 72: Feat: Paragon Fortitude.
- This feat grants +5 to your Fortitude save, which will help keep you from getting killed by many instakill effects.
- 75: Feat: Paragon Inherent Levitation.
- This feat takes the place of a ring of levitation in that it both allows you to walk in areas requiring levitation and that it will protect you from being killed by "toss"-type attacks.
- 78: Feat: Paragon Environmental Adaptability I.
- This feat reduces penalties in areas that have them by one step, to a minimum of one step. This is extremely nice in said areas.
- From here out, I'm only going to list levels on which you get a feat, since there are no real choices to be made otherwise. For skills, you get 3 points per Paragon Level which you should use, first, to get to 63 Pick Pocket, then put the rest into Discipline. The points in Discipline won't count towards your Discipline directly but will instead reduce how much it gets reduced in areas with area penalties (like the Hells).
Pandect: Weapon Crafting - This gives you the ESF: Craft Weapon feat, which gives you +10 to your Craft Weapon skill. This will, in many cases, give you +1 AB. It won't always do so, however, so we come to the next item.
Artifact: Dexterity. This gives you +2 DEX, ultravision, permanent immunity to blindness, and the ability to cast the Darkness spell an unlimited number of times per day. Of these, only the +2 DEX is really important, since it grants you +1 AB. Get this ASAP.
Gear:
- Pre-epic (1-20): You want as much DEX as you can get, followed by CON, then WIS. Only get INT/STR after you've gotten the others as high as you can while having Fear Immunity, Immunity to Mind Spells, and Immunity to Death Magic, tho you might want a few points of STR so you can carry more than just your gear. You can ignore CHA entirely. Once you start getting to 14-15 or so, start looking for something that grants Immunityto 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 DEX, CON, WIS, and STR, in that order. Immunity to Fear, 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). 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 DEX maxed at +12, and you should probably have CON and WIS maxed as well. STR may be more difficult to get up there while keeping the others maxed. 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, Robes 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), you should start doing Dachy runs whenever you can get on them, because Dachy drops a set of Robes that you'll find interesting if you can get your stats/imms elsewhere (D'qarite Robes) at L40, along with rings that provide 100% immunity to one element. Additionally, the boss drops an item (blood) that you can use to gain access to the best (imo) pre-bur race for this or a similar build (see below for details on that).
- At 40:
- Robes: Robes of the Quickblood or Mageblight Robes are best until you get some tags. Once you're tagged appropriately, any of the Gnomish Smoking Jacket (toyshop), D'quarite Robes (dachy), Robes of Lanatir (Uroboros), or Ssithrak Robes (Ssithrak/"Sissy") are decent.
- Bracers: Best would be either Evelynn's Arcing Armament, for the sneaks, or Clasps of Phlegethos for misc immunes. Barring these, try to get a Clasps of the Forewarned with the AC increased.
- Amulet: If you're not using Clasps of Phlegethos, get a Lich-King's Phylactry to cover your immunities. Otherwise, try to get Elemental for the elemental immunities. Bonus if the amulet you get has +17 AC on it.
- Boots: You live and die by your Shadow Evasion. For that reason, you should be wearing Breach Boots at all times - Aasgart's Aversion or Cryptarch's Treads until you get tagged to Uroboros, then Travelers of the Uttercold are a bit better.
- Rings: Besides the normal assortment of 75/50 (rare) and 75/50/25 (UR) rings, a Mord ring is a must-have. Mallek's Answer is what I recommend at this level. Barring that, get Bauphin's Bulwark. Just make certain you have one of them, for the same reason you wear breach boots.
- Helmet/Belt/Cloak: Mostly you just want to coordinate these to get +12s in DEX, WIS, STR, CON, and INT. Getting %immunities and/or x/- resists is also important, as is covering any misc. immunities you don't already have, and spells by level (at least up to 5, preferably 6).
- Robes: Robes of the Quickblood or Mageblight Robes are best until you get some tags. Once you're tagged appropriately, any of the Gnomish Smoking Jacket (toyshop), D'quarite Robes (dachy), Robes of Lanatir (Uroboros), or Ssithrak Robes (Ssithrak/"Sissy") are decent.
- At 50:
- Armor: Once you get 50, Robes of Adoneiros Hawklight or Robes of Triel Ysmathir will give you some of your needed +stats. If you don't need that, Robes of the Sephae'Keliak (rona set) provide better %immunities.
- Speaking of Rona, a lot of people like Efi'Elion's Anklets (rona breach boots), but I think the Uro breach boots work out better on a shadowdancer if you can get them, so don't go out of your way to get the rona breach boots unless you want them for another character.
- Armor: Once you get 50, Robes of Adoneiros Hawklight or Robes of Triel Ysmathir will give you some of your needed +stats. If you don't need that, Robes of the Sephae'Keliak (rona set) provide better %immunities.
- At 60:
- General Note at 60: You want +14 DEX and +14 WIS as soon as you can get them. Just try not to get the other stats on the item(s) you get these on nerfed too badly. Other stats at +14 are nice, but those 2 are the most important to get.
- Helmet: Visor of Vigilance - THE helmet to use on this, since the feats it provides really solidify the defences this build has. Just don't expect to get one easily. In the meantime, either the Helm of Zeal or Scintillating Scarf are nice - use whichever fills your gear out better, or whatever you happen to have otherwise.
- Armor: Robes of the Dim Mak Master - These robes are very nice for any dexer. Barring those, Bulwark of the Choralist also works, or just stick with what you've been using.
- Boots: Mordenkainen's Mockery. Yes, you still want breach boots. :-)
- Amulet: If you can cover your misc. immunities elsewhere, Orudin's Oath is, hands down, the best amulet for this, due to the big bonus it provides to Craft Weapon. Otherwise, if you can fit it in, Amulet of the Pharoah is a very nice amulet. Unfortunately, while it covers the basics, it doesn't cover the full range of misc. imms that the Lich-King's Phylactry does, so you might want to keep using that.
- Rings: You'll want all the BUR rings you can get. You can tell these because they either have 75/75/25/10/10/10 profiles or they have 25% to an exotic and mord or breach immunity. Don't worry about breach rings - that's what your boots are for. You will, however, need mord immunity for areas where Raks are prevalent, so try to get a Mallek's Rebuke (at least) early, since it's better than the UR rings.
- Belt: the Belt of Legendary Resillience provides a lot of nice defensive bonuses and covers CON, which hasn't been covered by other gear yet.
- Cloak: Barbazu's Wrap provides acid/fire/mag resist, mind/death imm, phys imm, and str, or you could easily use the Cloak of the Unjust or the Cloak of the Elements here, for better elemental protection.
- Gloves/Bracers: Manacles of Mephistopheles or Fiendish Fingers would work wonderfully here, with a definite preference to Manacles. Also, Audacious Provocation provides Fear immunity, so if that's all you're missing from other gear, you could use that alongside Orudin's Oath to help your AB.
One last note on gear: While the things I've listed above are nice to have, they are neither the only things available, nor are many of them necessary. Not only that, but randomization can throw a nice curveball into your gear set, either through nerfs, or through a nice addition. Just make sure you have the basics covered (ask if you're unsure) and you'll be fine. - General Note at 60: You want +14 DEX and +14 WIS as soon as you can get them. Just try not to get the other stats on the item(s) you get these on nerfed too badly. Other stats at +14 are nice, but those 2 are the most important to get.
Race Upgrades:
- Pre-BUR: This build just about screams Wraith. Hands down, Wraith is the best pre-BUR race you can get for this build, better than any UR race I know and potentially on par with BUR races. In order to use it with this, however, you'll need to make some modifications to the starting stats. Due to the STR penalty, going with Gnome isn't a very good option, so you'll want to go Human or Elf. This means you're short 1-2 skills, so you need 2-4 more INT. Here's what I'd do: Go with Elf/Wraith, start with 12 STR, 19(22) DEX, 12 CON, 13(14) INT, 14 WIS, and 8 CHA. Other than this, the build is left unmodified. I'll likely post/link a good full build for this at a later date.
- BUR:
- Half-Fiend is nice for maxing DEX and having a high INT, and can also get SD at L3, which allows for some really nice PrC combinations, tho the penalty to WIS hurts. Elf/Half-fiend could possibly even get enough INT to get full rogue skills without costing too much.
- Half-Kyton has great stats and feats for this build, and is a likely candidate for a much-improved version of it due to being able to take SD at Level 2.
- Undying is a good all-around race, and the extra feats allow for much improved saves, or even go with Paladin instead of Fighter, which could make for some amazingly high saves.
- Again, I'll link a good build (or perhaps several) here later.
- Half-Fiend is nice for maxing DEX and having a high INT, and can also get SD at L3, which allows for some really nice PrC combinations, tho the penalty to WIS hurts. Elf/Half-fiend could possibly even get enough INT to get full rogue skills without costing too much.
Possible changes/improvements
- Greater Weapon Focus: Nunchaku is a pre-epic feat. With that in mind, if you have HG Enhanced installed (you don't need to enable enhmode), you could take this in the place of Toughness pre-epic, thus freeing up a Legendary feat. Having seen how this works in Hells, if you do this, I whole-heartedly recommend getting LSF: Craft Weapon unless you have tons of CW gear. Due to the survivability drop, tho, it's a toss-up. My final decision here was to put GWF in LLs so that a complete newbie without HGE could build this without having to go download extras.
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, 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