Post by bazukar on Dec 1, 2011 6:24:05 GMT
This build is designed for the melee aspiring to epic heights on an open sub budget. It has solid defense and offense pre demi and is very flexible in the gear department. This is an excellent first time character for the mod due to its sturdiness and flexibility. With this build you have no need to cover many immunities that other classes would need to worry about. This allows you more choice in what you wear and allows you to focus on other immunities. It will also do well against most stat checks you will encounter in your trip to demihood. But more on that later.
Note: This build requires HG Enhanced in order for certian feats to show in the feat list.
ON TO THE BUILD!
Shaolin Thugbear
Race- Human
Subrace- Bugbear
Starting stats [After subrace edits]
Str- 14 [16]
Dex- 15 [17]
Con- 10 [12]
Int- 15 [12]
Wis- 14 [14]
Cha- 8 [5]
All points into Dex
Feats
At creation
Strong Soul
Luck of heroes
lvl 3
Weapon Finesse
lvl 6
Weapon Focus (I reccomend nunchuks. More on this later)
lvl 9
Greater Weapon Focus
lvl 12
Improved Critical
lvl 15
Toughness
lvl 18
Power Critical
lvl 21
Great Dex 1
lvl 24
Great Dex 2
lvl 25 (bonus feat)
Epic Weapon Focus
lvl 27
Great Dex 3
lvl 30
Great Dex 4
Epic Prowess (bonus feat)
lvl 33
Great Dex 5
lvl 35 (bonus feat)
Armor Skin
lvl 36
Great Dex 6
lvl 39
Great Dex 7
lvl 40 (bonus feat)
Superior Critical
Legendary Feats
Legendary Weapon Focus
Legendary Hardened Soul
Great Dex 8
Great Dex 9
Legendary Luck
Great Str 1
Great Str 2
Skills (ranks)
Concentration 30
Craft Armor 40
Craft Weapon 63
Discipline 63
Listen 63
Parry 63
Tumble 60
Stats at 60 in +12 gear
Str- 30
Dex- 58
Con- 24
Int- 24
Wis- 26
Cha- 17
AB- 95 (94 when craft weapon sub 120)
AC- 135
Saves
Fortitude- 64
Reflex- 75
Will- 65
+1 to the above with +14 gear.
Artifact- Orb of Dragonkind
Pandect- Craft Weapon
Survival abilities: Waterbreathing and Levitation (these are the most useful for legendary and lvl 60 runs and are picked at lvl 20 and 40 at the spell pedestal at the docks)
-----------------------
Stats at Double demi in +14 gear and arty
Str- 36 [str, dex, con +4 on checks with asmo belt]
Dex- 64
Con- 32
Int- 30
Wis- 32
Cha- 23
AB- 98 (97 when craft weapon sub 120)
AC- 143 (144 if you can maintain 80+ Craft armor)
Saves
Fortitude- 68
Reflex- 78
Will- 68
--------------------------
So there's the basics. Solid AC and AB on an open sub diet with good saves and immunities thrown in. Even if you can't max out your AC due to penalties or modest gear, you still have 80% conceal to fall back on from empty body. This build should have no problem with the legendary areas, or headed into the depths of hell. It has the dex needed to make all the dex related checks, and a str that will give protection from many str checks and that when paired with a bard will help it stay off the carpet and hit the magic 36 at double demi. (Most Str checks you will encounter range from 28-44. The most common effect is being knocked down, though there is a creature that can dominate you, which is fancy talk for standing there drooling)
Now on to the meat.
INNATE DEFENSE
Earlier I mentioned immunities and this build has some doozies. This build offers complete mind immunity, artifact level poison immunity and item level disease immunity. What this means is that you have no need to cover from gear: Sleep, Stun, Daze, Confusion, Fear, Mind affecting, Poison, Disease. In addition all but the disease is an absolute immunity, meaning that effects under those categories that would normally bypass item immunity, you are unaffected by. The first 4 on that list are generally hard to come by on gear anyway, and not having to worry about them at all is pretty huge. All of that plus 135 ac and 80% conceal is pretty beefy and makes you a frontline tank for any situation.
DON'T LET IT GO TO YOUR HEAD, YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE
A Shaolin Thugbear you may be, but you are only one facing the horde. Even with all immunities accounted for there are still many abilities, spells and effects that fall outside what you can cover. All it takes on many of these is to roll a 1 and you will fall. There are also effects that have no saves, simply walking into an area around a monster will inflict a vulnerability upon you. If a creature rolls a 20 it hits you. Get crit by some creatures and it is game over. There are environmental hazards, and the dreaded KB to worry about. KB being kickback, damage of varying elemental and exotic types that are reflected upon you or the entire party when striking an enemy. Being immune to everything is of no help if you beat yourself and your party to death on a creature with KB. Always be aware of your surroundings, and don't forget to restore yourself between fights.
OFFENSE
You should sit at 94 to 96 ab depending on the gear you can scrounge. With an attack progression of -3 this isnt too shabby. With max ranks in listen and that ab you'll end up with a pretty solid hit rate and do decent amounts of damage while fighting on the front line. When possible you should hit something that either isnt hitting you, or is also being attacked by someone else as this gives you a +2 flanking bonus to attack rolls. While it takes time to learn these things, try to find out what can, and can't be easily killed by casters. Once you know, go blast the tough critters and let the squishies think they carried the run
ITEMIZATION
This section has the potential of becoming a magnum opus all by itself so I'll try an keep it short.
WEAPONRY
I HIGHLY reccomend specializing in Nunchuks. While you can focus in kama and get an extra attack from flurry I don't like the math. -2 to all attacks for one extra per round is, IMO, mediocre at best. Even on my BUR sub monk I don't use it. If you really want an extra attack rustle up some toyshop boots and have at it. The main reason I reccomend Chuks is because they cannot be slagged. It's not a common effect, but in several deep runs there are creatures that can turn metal armor and weapons to a chunk of slag, costing you 100 million a pop, or consumables that are not easily farmed. And still cost you 50 million. As an example, there's a guy you'll eventually visit that has a slag DC of 135 if you are wearing robes. Every round. Considering that at best you will have 127 discipline, and only if you have GR cast on you, the math is not in your favor. Oh and on the way you fight critters for an hour or two that do the same thing at varying DC's
GEAR
Well here things get tricky. I can point you out a set of gear that would be awesome and a perfect fit, but in the end, you have to get your hands on it. Randomization also throws a kink into things, as a normally sub par item can suddenly become awesome, or an awesome item can become...well, slag
Things to cover:
You want Death Magic covered at all times. Paralasys and Level Drain are good ideas, and always have an item with haste on it. Freedom is very good to have as it prevents many movement impairing effects. Knockdown will prevent some of those types of attacks but be warned that many KD effects are not preventable through gear. Sneak attack is also usually a good idea, nothing worse than getting crit and snuck at the same time for 3/4 of your life or dead.
You want to maximize your AC. As a dexer you will be wearing robes. Early on your best bet will be trying to find anything with decent AC. Keep in mind only dodge AC stacks with itself, all other types the highest amount takes priority.
You want to get your resists for physical and elemental damage up as early as possible. Items with x / - reduce damage by that amount from that source, ie Sonic 35 / - will always mitigate any sonic damage you take by 35, and this is after your % based immunity is calculated, whatever it may be.
Earlier I mentioned an artifact, and a pandect. These are items you wont be able to use, or get access to until lvl 55 or later. You can only use one of each, and those are the ones I reccomend for this build. The artifact because it grants a boost to your Con score, adds some regen, gives you an attack that inflicts fire vulnerability once every 5 mins and, most importantly, grants you a higher immunity to poison than what you could otherwise get. And that will be very important and useful to you later, as there are a multitude of common monsters that bypass item level immunity and will kill you if you fail the save.
The pandect gives you +10 to craft weapon and helps you to keep your AB up. While AB isnt the end all be all of a melee character, being able to land hits on the big nasties is very important and shouldn't be overlooked.
YOUR ROLE
In LL areas your job is to run in to the middle of spawns an get em real pissed off. Find the big nasties and beat em down. Keep your hp up and keep everything lookin your way. Even sub 60 if you max your ac as best you can that and your immunities and conceal should render you resistant to almost anything that will be thrown at you. Beware of infliction and don't forget to restore.
In hell it'll be a tad different. In the first layer you can play it more or less as you did in the LL areas, but be aware there are many more instakill abilities here. Don't get surrounded away from your party and try to lead the spawn back a little, generally into the clouds casters put down. Your main job in hells is to be the guy that tanks and holds dex check creatures. The most noteable are Malebranches and advespas, though there are others. Beware of Pit fiends and kytons. They do knockdown vs your str, dc 44 and 40 respectively and will be a problem for you without a bard. If you can find a universal contumacy, +14 to str item and a bard you will be immune to both the basic checks (non paragon) unless you roll a 1. That being said, in kyton and pit fiend heavy areas you should avoid being the one that spawns if possible. Don't be leeroy, but don't be scared either
CLOSING
But wait, what about X, or Y?!?
GO TALK TO PEOPLE AND EXPLORE.
The best way to learn is to do, and ask as you go. This is a pretty helpful community and if I really went over all the stuff a prospective new player should know this would be at least a 3 page build. You'd end up with information overload and probably have head explody. There are newbie guides if you want to read em, all I'm doing here is giving a foundation to build on. And I think it's a rather solid one to start with. If I may say so. Which I will.
GO PLAY
Edited to show HGE required for feats (thx Stick)
Added role section
Added double demi stats
Note: This build requires HG Enhanced in order for certian feats to show in the feat list.
ON TO THE BUILD!
Shaolin Thugbear
Race- Human
Subrace- Bugbear
Starting stats [After subrace edits]
Str- 14 [16]
Dex- 15 [17]
Con- 10 [12]
Int- 15 [12]
Wis- 14 [14]
Cha- 8 [5]
All points into Dex
Feats
At creation
Strong Soul
Luck of heroes
lvl 3
Weapon Finesse
lvl 6
Weapon Focus (I reccomend nunchuks. More on this later)
lvl 9
Greater Weapon Focus
lvl 12
Improved Critical
lvl 15
Toughness
lvl 18
Power Critical
lvl 21
Great Dex 1
lvl 24
Great Dex 2
lvl 25 (bonus feat)
Epic Weapon Focus
lvl 27
Great Dex 3
lvl 30
Great Dex 4
Epic Prowess (bonus feat)
lvl 33
Great Dex 5
lvl 35 (bonus feat)
Armor Skin
lvl 36
Great Dex 6
lvl 39
Great Dex 7
lvl 40 (bonus feat)
Superior Critical
Legendary Feats
Legendary Weapon Focus
Legendary Hardened Soul
Great Dex 8
Great Dex 9
Legendary Luck
Great Str 1
Great Str 2
Skills (ranks)
Concentration 30
Craft Armor 40
Craft Weapon 63
Discipline 63
Listen 63
Parry 63
Tumble 60
Stats at 60 in +12 gear
Str- 30
Dex- 58
Con- 24
Int- 24
Wis- 26
Cha- 17
AB- 95 (94 when craft weapon sub 120)
AC- 135
Saves
Fortitude- 64
Reflex- 75
Will- 65
+1 to the above with +14 gear.
Artifact- Orb of Dragonkind
Pandect- Craft Weapon
Survival abilities: Waterbreathing and Levitation (these are the most useful for legendary and lvl 60 runs and are picked at lvl 20 and 40 at the spell pedestal at the docks)
-----------------------
Stats at Double demi in +14 gear and arty
Str- 36 [str, dex, con +4 on checks with asmo belt]
Dex- 64
Con- 32
Int- 30
Wis- 32
Cha- 23
AB- 98 (97 when craft weapon sub 120)
AC- 143 (144 if you can maintain 80+ Craft armor)
Saves
Fortitude- 68
Reflex- 78
Will- 68
--------------------------
So there's the basics. Solid AC and AB on an open sub diet with good saves and immunities thrown in. Even if you can't max out your AC due to penalties or modest gear, you still have 80% conceal to fall back on from empty body. This build should have no problem with the legendary areas, or headed into the depths of hell. It has the dex needed to make all the dex related checks, and a str that will give protection from many str checks and that when paired with a bard will help it stay off the carpet and hit the magic 36 at double demi. (Most Str checks you will encounter range from 28-44. The most common effect is being knocked down, though there is a creature that can dominate you, which is fancy talk for standing there drooling)
Now on to the meat.
INNATE DEFENSE
Earlier I mentioned immunities and this build has some doozies. This build offers complete mind immunity, artifact level poison immunity and item level disease immunity. What this means is that you have no need to cover from gear: Sleep, Stun, Daze, Confusion, Fear, Mind affecting, Poison, Disease. In addition all but the disease is an absolute immunity, meaning that effects under those categories that would normally bypass item immunity, you are unaffected by. The first 4 on that list are generally hard to come by on gear anyway, and not having to worry about them at all is pretty huge. All of that plus 135 ac and 80% conceal is pretty beefy and makes you a frontline tank for any situation.
DON'T LET IT GO TO YOUR HEAD, YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE
A Shaolin Thugbear you may be, but you are only one facing the horde. Even with all immunities accounted for there are still many abilities, spells and effects that fall outside what you can cover. All it takes on many of these is to roll a 1 and you will fall. There are also effects that have no saves, simply walking into an area around a monster will inflict a vulnerability upon you. If a creature rolls a 20 it hits you. Get crit by some creatures and it is game over. There are environmental hazards, and the dreaded KB to worry about. KB being kickback, damage of varying elemental and exotic types that are reflected upon you or the entire party when striking an enemy. Being immune to everything is of no help if you beat yourself and your party to death on a creature with KB. Always be aware of your surroundings, and don't forget to restore yourself between fights.
OFFENSE
You should sit at 94 to 96 ab depending on the gear you can scrounge. With an attack progression of -3 this isnt too shabby. With max ranks in listen and that ab you'll end up with a pretty solid hit rate and do decent amounts of damage while fighting on the front line. When possible you should hit something that either isnt hitting you, or is also being attacked by someone else as this gives you a +2 flanking bonus to attack rolls. While it takes time to learn these things, try to find out what can, and can't be easily killed by casters. Once you know, go blast the tough critters and let the squishies think they carried the run
ITEMIZATION
This section has the potential of becoming a magnum opus all by itself so I'll try an keep it short.
WEAPONRY
I HIGHLY reccomend specializing in Nunchuks. While you can focus in kama and get an extra attack from flurry I don't like the math. -2 to all attacks for one extra per round is, IMO, mediocre at best. Even on my BUR sub monk I don't use it. If you really want an extra attack rustle up some toyshop boots and have at it. The main reason I reccomend Chuks is because they cannot be slagged. It's not a common effect, but in several deep runs there are creatures that can turn metal armor and weapons to a chunk of slag, costing you 100 million a pop, or consumables that are not easily farmed. And still cost you 50 million. As an example, there's a guy you'll eventually visit that has a slag DC of 135 if you are wearing robes. Every round. Considering that at best you will have 127 discipline, and only if you have GR cast on you, the math is not in your favor. Oh and on the way you fight critters for an hour or two that do the same thing at varying DC's
GEAR
Well here things get tricky. I can point you out a set of gear that would be awesome and a perfect fit, but in the end, you have to get your hands on it. Randomization also throws a kink into things, as a normally sub par item can suddenly become awesome, or an awesome item can become...well, slag
Things to cover:
You want Death Magic covered at all times. Paralasys and Level Drain are good ideas, and always have an item with haste on it. Freedom is very good to have as it prevents many movement impairing effects. Knockdown will prevent some of those types of attacks but be warned that many KD effects are not preventable through gear. Sneak attack is also usually a good idea, nothing worse than getting crit and snuck at the same time for 3/4 of your life or dead.
You want to maximize your AC. As a dexer you will be wearing robes. Early on your best bet will be trying to find anything with decent AC. Keep in mind only dodge AC stacks with itself, all other types the highest amount takes priority.
You want to get your resists for physical and elemental damage up as early as possible. Items with x / - reduce damage by that amount from that source, ie Sonic 35 / - will always mitigate any sonic damage you take by 35, and this is after your % based immunity is calculated, whatever it may be.
Earlier I mentioned an artifact, and a pandect. These are items you wont be able to use, or get access to until lvl 55 or later. You can only use one of each, and those are the ones I reccomend for this build. The artifact because it grants a boost to your Con score, adds some regen, gives you an attack that inflicts fire vulnerability once every 5 mins and, most importantly, grants you a higher immunity to poison than what you could otherwise get. And that will be very important and useful to you later, as there are a multitude of common monsters that bypass item level immunity and will kill you if you fail the save.
The pandect gives you +10 to craft weapon and helps you to keep your AB up. While AB isnt the end all be all of a melee character, being able to land hits on the big nasties is very important and shouldn't be overlooked.
YOUR ROLE
In LL areas your job is to run in to the middle of spawns an get em real pissed off. Find the big nasties and beat em down. Keep your hp up and keep everything lookin your way. Even sub 60 if you max your ac as best you can that and your immunities and conceal should render you resistant to almost anything that will be thrown at you. Beware of infliction and don't forget to restore.
In hell it'll be a tad different. In the first layer you can play it more or less as you did in the LL areas, but be aware there are many more instakill abilities here. Don't get surrounded away from your party and try to lead the spawn back a little, generally into the clouds casters put down. Your main job in hells is to be the guy that tanks and holds dex check creatures. The most noteable are Malebranches and advespas, though there are others. Beware of Pit fiends and kytons. They do knockdown vs your str, dc 44 and 40 respectively and will be a problem for you without a bard. If you can find a universal contumacy, +14 to str item and a bard you will be immune to both the basic checks (non paragon) unless you roll a 1. That being said, in kyton and pit fiend heavy areas you should avoid being the one that spawns if possible. Don't be leeroy, but don't be scared either
CLOSING
But wait, what about X, or Y?!?
GO TALK TO PEOPLE AND EXPLORE.
The best way to learn is to do, and ask as you go. This is a pretty helpful community and if I really went over all the stuff a prospective new player should know this would be at least a 3 page build. You'd end up with information overload and probably have head explody. There are newbie guides if you want to read em, all I'm doing here is giving a foundation to build on. And I think it's a rather solid one to start with. If I may say so. Which I will.
GO PLAY
Edited to show HGE required for feats (thx Stick)
Added role section
Added double demi stats