Post by Vichya on Jan 8, 2012 12:20:03 GMT
This build is dexterity or strength tank with decent damage and good upgrade potential for better subraces.
If new players want to build a tank the first question is whether to be primarily stength or dexterity based. Being a universal tank is most often impossible because open subraces lack the bonuses to achieve high secondary ability scores.
The advantage of strength tanks is the higher damage, better physical damage immunity and for some clases the ability to become immune to critical hits. There are also more strength than dexterity checks in Hell runs. On the other hand strength tanks have lower armor class, especially considering that new players won't be able to use the Strongheart amulet unless they are extremely lucky to win one. Without Asmodeus artifact and Strongheart amulet it's not possible to achieve good armor class on most strength tanks. Veterans can easily negate this with good immunity items, but new players using an open subrace build won't.
For this reason I decided to recommend a dexterity tank. They have significantly higher armor class, which makes it possible to use worse immunity gear than a comparable strength tank since they will be hit less. Paladins also get some nice damage buffs and in combination with the Boots of the Wanderer they can do about the same damage as many strength tanks. The only disadvantage is missing full critical hit immunity and not being resistant to many strength checks in Hell without a bard or warchanter in the party.
As an alternative I will present a strength version of this build in the summary. There is little difference so I don't go into details for it.
As a paladin you will have quite a few buffs available to help yourself and your party members. Some of these are unique in the way that only paladins can cast them, others - like weapons buffs - make you depend less on other casters. The Harper Scout levels give you access to some really good potions and to the Boots of the Wanderer. The Fighter levels add some bonus feats and make it possible to use (Epic) Weapon Specialization for additional physical damage.
Goals of this build
Summary
Explanations on the most important aspects
Taking only full base attack bonus (BAB) classes before level 21 maximizes the attack bonus.
To get Epic Weapon Specialization with only 4 fighter levels you need to take the 4th fighter level at an epic level where you also get a feat, so you can take Weapon Specialization and Epic Weapon Specialization at the same time.
2 fighter and 18 paladin level pre-epic results in better saves than any of the other possibilies (Ftr 1/Pal 19, Ftr 3/Pal 17).
Taking Harper Scout in epic levels gives you access to Great Dexterity or Great Charisma as bonus feats on Harper Scout class levels 1 and 5. Harper Scouts can also take tumble as class skill, so you can use the levels to increase your armor class with it.
Divine Might and Shield are almost required feats for Paladins. Unfortunately they require high Strength and Charisma which is hard to get on open subraces. Therefore I chose to take them in Legendary Levels to use the charisma bonus Paladins get there.
With exotic weapon proficiency you can use nearly every weapon in the game, but this selection gets a lot smaller since the weapon for the dexterity paladin has to be finessable. If you want to do Aboleth runs - after all that's one of the runs where paladins are very good - you should use a slashing weapon. Katanas would be a great choice, unfortunately katanas are sought by many players so acquiring them is very hard. Kukris are slashing weapons with good critical hit range and are much easier to get, so I recommend using them.
For the strength version Bastard Swords would be great, but like Katanas they are very hard to get. Longswords are a decent alternative. With the strength build you can also take Overwhelming and Devestating Critical which will increase your damage on critical hits.
Detailed leveling information
1 Fighter
Concentration +4, Discipline +4, Parry +4
Blooded, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Proficiency (exotic)
2 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
3 Paladin
Weapon Focus (kukri)
4 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
5 Paladin
6 Paladin
Greater Weapon Focus (kukri)
7 Paladin
Lore +6, Persuade +8, Search +4
8 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +2
9 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
Improved Critical (kukri)
10 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +1, Parry +2
11 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +2, Parry +2
12 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
Metamagic (Extend Spell)
13 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
14 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +3
15 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
Iron Will
16 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
17 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
18 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Alertness
19 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
20 Fighter (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Blind-Fight
21 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity I
22 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
23 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
24 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity II
25 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Weapon Focus (kukri)
26 Fighter
Discipline +1, Parry +1
27 Fighter
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Weapon Specialization (kukri)
Weapon Specialization (kukri)
28 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +30
Great Dexterity III
29 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
30 Paladin
Concentration +11, Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity IV
31 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Armor Skin
32 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +5
33 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
Great Dexterity V
34 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
35 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Prowess
36 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity VI
37 Harper Scout
Discipline +1, Tumble +5
38 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
39 Harper Scout
Discipline +1, Tumble +2
Great Dexterity VII
40 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +1
Great Dexterity VIII
40-60 Paladin
Discipline +20, Craft Armor +43, Craft Weapon +43, Parry +22, Tumble +20
Legendary Weapon Focus (kukri)
Legendary Skill Affinity (Tumble)
Great Dexterity IX
Great Dexterity X
Power Attack
Divine Might
Divine Shield
Harper Scout levels are chosen at character levels where you can maximize your Tumble ranks to multiples of 5 early in epic levels. This increases your armor class a lot. The class distribution between 20 and 27 allows you to take both normal and epic weapon specialization early to help with your damage output.
Abilities
Lay on Hands before legendary levels is a heal ability, but you can also use it on undead to damage them. In legendary levels this ability grants the target immunity to critical hits for CL rounds (around 5 minutes at level 60). This ability is very useful, druids, clerics and bards are good choices as targets. If you use the Quality of Mercy gloves from Elysium using this ability will also give you the same critical hit immunity as the target of this ability.
Guardian Angle resurrects you once per rest if you have activated it. You have to use it after resting. Ask people in game if you want to know where you can find this ability.
Mass Resurrection resurrects all dead party members in a medium area.
Craft harper item can be used to create useful potions. You have to spend some money and experience points to create them but two of the potions are extremely useful. Greater Restoration potions work like heal potions but also restore you when you use them so you get rid of any negative effects you might have. With 1 million gold for a stack of 50 potions these are the most expensive potions but in fights with lots of infliction they are worth every single gold piece. Shadow Shield potions are cheaper and provide the same effect as the spell. Their main purpose is to give full immunity to negative damage and to all Necromancy spells. This is useful because in some areas enemies ignore general immunities such as immunity to Death Magic but not immunity to Necromancy spells.
Assist other helps other players to stand up when they are knocked down. You find this useful ability in the radial menu for your fighter class abilities.
Spells
Paladins have plenty of useful spells, unfortunately many of them share spell levels which makes it necessary to use a metamagic feat in order to have enough casts. Most of the spells are lasting quite long, with the exception of Divine Favour and Holy Sword. Divine Favour should always be casted as an Extended spell. This is not possible for Holy Sword even if you have gear with level 5 paladin slots since with only 14 base wisdom you won't be able to cast level 5 spells.
Level 1:
Bless Weapon
This spell adds 1-2 dice of divine damage. You will most likely be the only one in the group who can do that, it's very useful in legendary levels and Hell. Make sure the weapon you use it on already has divine damage to get most out of it.
Deafening Clang
This spell adds 1-4 dice of sonic damage. Bards can cast it too, but it's still good to have if there are no bards in the party.
Diving Favour (extended)
This adds 3-5 physical damage and 3-5 attack bonus. As an extended spell it lasts up to 4 minutes. The 5 attack bonus makes sure you hit or get close to the +20 cap on attack bonus, even with no bard in the party.
Endure Elements
This adds CL/6% elemental damage immunity. This is a nice-to-have spell, the maximum you can get out of it is 8%.
Lionheart
This spell gives the target full fear immunity for CL rounds. In order to understand how useful it is you first have to understand how immunities work on Higher Ground. There are several levels of immunity effects, starting with the most general level (such as Immuntiy to Mind Spells on items), to immunity from spells (like Mind Blank) to more specific immunities (Fear immunity on items) and class/spell/artifact level immunity (fear immunity from Aura of Courage paladin feat, Wisdom artifact and the Lionheart spell). There are different version of effects in Higher Ground, for example Immunity to Mind Spells from items is good enough for most effects before you hit legendary levels, but when you fight dragons you'll need fear immunity. In Illithids Mind Spell immunity on items is not good enough, you need at least Mind Spell immunity from a spell, or Stun immunity on an item to be immune to the effects there. And there are fear effects which ignore all immunities except for highest tier of protection, i.e. Aura of Courage feat, Wisdom artifact and the Lionheart spell.
Thus Lionheart is most useful when fighting mobs that ignore normal fear immunity, such as Dreamlarvas in Aboleth and Graz'zt Abyss.
Level 2:
Aura of Glory (extended, to make space in this level for Divine Favour)
Adds cha modifier% physical and cha modifier/2 % positive immunity for a long time. This will give 9% physical and 4% positive immunity at level 60. The 9% physical immunity is about the same as the difference between robes and medium armor, so you have decent physical immunity for a robe user.
Level 3:
Greater Magic Weapon (GMW)
CL/3 (up to +10, or +13 once you read a Tome of Enchantment) enchantment bonus for your weapon, in case nobody has anything better. If you use an Enchantment Draught (you will find plenty of them in legendary level runs) you can even get +14 bonus.
Prayer
This is most useful to maximize attack bonus, the duration is not long and you don't have the spell slots to cast it for the saves decrease effect like a cleric.
Level 4:
Freedom of Movement (FoM)
It will increase your speed, which is nice. But the main use it that this spell makes you immune to some effects, like grapple effects from Glabrezus. Make sure you use it before you use the Boots of the Wanderer, or it won't work. Like GMW this is best used if there is no one else to cast it. Clerics and Druids usually have more than enough to cover everyone in the party.
Death Ward
For a dexterity paladin this spell doesn't do much as you lack the 40 base strength to get critical hit immunity from it. However it will protect you from some death effects, like Bodak death gaze, which makes it useful after all.
Holy Sword
This adds a short duration (CL rounds) on-hit breach effect as a weapon buff. It is most useful against enemy spellcasters or any other buffed mobs.
Leveling
Paladins are rather easy to level compared to other tank classes without an ability to self-buff. With GMW, Prayer and Divine Favour you can increase your AB a lot even at early levels. Deafening Clang and Bless Weapon increase your damage especially if the weapon you use already has sonic and divine damage.
But playing in a party is still the best way to level, it's faster, safer and far more fun than playing alone. After leveling 40 you should try to get the legendary level tags so you can use set items from these areas. The most important runs at that level range are Sissy, Dustbone and Illithids. Once you hit level 55 you can get the workshop token, which allows you to port to Zerial's Workshop from Ascenscion. This is the starting place for most end game runs. Ask people in game if you want to know how to get that token.
If you feel comfortable with your gear setup you can start doing hell runs. But be warned, Hell runs can be considerably harder than most legendary level runs.
Gear
Randomized items make it impossible to give any specific gear advice. Thus I will only give hints as to you should be looking for.
As a dexterity tank you should use robes - or at early levels light armor - and a small shield to maximize AC. You have plenty of slots for which to select your gear but for the boots slot you should use the Boots of the Wanderer to gain the two extra attacks a Harper Scout gets.
In general you need you cover the most important immunities first, then damage resistance to physical, elemental and exotic damage followed by physical damage immunity and reduction and elemental immunity.
You should try to cover immunity to mind spells, poison, death magic and knockdown. As a paladin you are immune to fear and thse five immunities are most of what you need in legendary areas. Damage resistance is very important. At a minimum I would try to get 15 physical, 20 elemental and 10 exotic resistance. For some legendary level runs - including Dustbone - having 15 or even more resistance to magical damage can be very beneficial. For Hell runs you should try to increase your resistance to 20 physical, 30 elemental and 20 exotic.
The next thing you should try to maximze is your physical damage immunity. This is more important to a tank with high AC as some might think because the majority of damage you will receive even with great gear is physical. 40% is good to have from level 50 on. Damage reduction can also be useful (expressed as S/+E or +E soak S on items). It means your physical damage is reduced by S unless the enemy hits you with a weapon with +E bonus or higher. So in order ot be effective the +E part should be large. The best you can hope for is +16, but +15 works for many mobs.
Elemental immunity is often the last thing you cover with your regular gear setup because that depends a lot on the run you go. Most if not all of your elemental immunity will usually come from rings. Immunity rings, especially the UR or BUR ones, are extremely important and you should try to get a good collection of them.
Consumables
Things you should always carry with you:
Healing potions are vital. At the start of the game cure wound potions will work perfectly, but in epics levels you want to use full Heal potions. A Bountiful Beaker of Healing which can found on the Illithid run provides unlimited healing potions.
Scrolls of Resurrection or at early levels Raise Dead scrolls to resurrect dead party members.
Potions of Negative Energy Protections to make you immune to negative damage.
Potions of Clarity to cure some effects like daze.
Saint's Blood Pearls to restore yourself and others if necessary.
Teleport gems to port back to town.
Weapons
On Higher Ground you can customize your weapons. You can change the damage types it does. This is important for some areas because certain mobs heal when you hit them with some element. For instance all Pharlans on the Rona run heal from electrical damage. It is a good idea to have multiple weapons with you all the time to have some flexibility in damage.
This is even more important on Hell runs, especially with a high demi count. Every superior or elite creature you see will heal from some element.
Unfortunately crafting weapons can be expensive, both in terms of money required and items to acquire before you can craft. Please refer to in-game help or ask other players for detailed instructions but essentially you will need around 120 million gold and six 6d12 gems to craft a Dustbone weapon, and roughly 250 million gold, four 16 gems and two 2d12 gems to craft a Dis weapon.
There are two choices of weapon configurations which work well in Hell each consisting of two main weapons.
Acid Cold Sonic Divine Negative Positive: for your main enemies like Pit Fiends, Malebranche, Brood Serpents but also Cornugons and non-superior or elite Ichors
Electrical Fire Sonic Divine Magical Positive: Ichors and anything you can't hit with the first weapon. It's also very useful in Dis, Minauros, Stygia, Malboge and Cania.
or
Cold Electrical Sonic Divine Negative Postive: for Pit Fiends, Ichors, Brood Serpents, many hell bosses.
Acid Fire Sonic Divine Magical Positive: for Malebranche, Cornugons, non-superior or elite Ichors and many mobs found in Dis, Minauros, Stygia, Malboge and Cania.
Both these weapons deal sonic, divine and positive damage but there are only a few mobs that heal from these. For those few mobs you could switch to a level 50 or mega damage weapon.
Subraces to look for
History:
2012-01-08: inital post
If new players want to build a tank the first question is whether to be primarily stength or dexterity based. Being a universal tank is most often impossible because open subraces lack the bonuses to achieve high secondary ability scores.
The advantage of strength tanks is the higher damage, better physical damage immunity and for some clases the ability to become immune to critical hits. There are also more strength than dexterity checks in Hell runs. On the other hand strength tanks have lower armor class, especially considering that new players won't be able to use the Strongheart amulet unless they are extremely lucky to win one. Without Asmodeus artifact and Strongheart amulet it's not possible to achieve good armor class on most strength tanks. Veterans can easily negate this with good immunity items, but new players using an open subrace build won't.
For this reason I decided to recommend a dexterity tank. They have significantly higher armor class, which makes it possible to use worse immunity gear than a comparable strength tank since they will be hit less. Paladins also get some nice damage buffs and in combination with the Boots of the Wanderer they can do about the same damage as many strength tanks. The only disadvantage is missing full critical hit immunity and not being resistant to many strength checks in Hell without a bard or warchanter in the party.
As an alternative I will present a strength version of this build in the summary. There is little difference so I don't go into details for it.
As a paladin you will have quite a few buffs available to help yourself and your party members. Some of these are unique in the way that only paladins can cast them, others - like weapons buffs - make you depend less on other casters. The Harper Scout levels give you access to some really good potions and to the Boots of the Wanderer. The Fighter levels add some bonus feats and make it possible to use (Epic) Weapon Specialization for additional physical damage.
Goals of this build
- Attack bonus and armor class good enough for end game runs
- Strength high enough to resist checks with a bard or warchanter in the party
- Good damage output
- High survivability
- Build that can be easily upgraded to ultra rare or beyond ultra rare classes
- Self-buffing tank that can hit the +20 cap to attack bonus
Summary
Build | Dexterity Fighter 4/Paladin 31/Harper Scout 5 (Fighter 2/Paladin 18 pre-epic) | Strength Fighter 4/Paladin 31/Harper Scout 5 (Fighter 2/Paladin 18 pre-epic) |
Race/Subrace | Human/no subrace | " |
Abilities at character creation (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) | 14, 14, 12, 14, 14, 10 | 15, 14, 12, 12, 14, 10 |
Pre-epic and epic ability progression | Dexterity 10 | Strength 10 |
Legendary level ability progression | Dexterity 10 | Strength 10 |
Pre-epic feats (including Fighter bonus feats) | Blooded Weapon Finesse Weapon Proficiency - Exotic Weapon Focus - Kukri Greater Weapon Focus - Kukri Improved Critical - Kukri Metamagic - Extend Spell Alertness Iron Will Blind Fight | Blooded Weapon Proficiency - Exotic Weapon Focus - Kukri Greater Weapon Focus - Kukri Improved Critical - Kukri Metamagic - Extend Spell Alertness Iron Will Blind Fight Power Attack |
Epic feats (including Fighter, Paladin and Harper Scout bonus feats) | Epic Weapon Focus - Kukri Epic Prowess Armor Skin Weapon Specialization - Kukri Epic Weapon Specialization - Kukri Great Dexterity I - VIII | Epic Weapon Focus Epic Prowess Armor Skin Weapon Specialization Epic Weapon Specialization Cleave Great Cleave Overwhelming Critical Devestating Critical Great Dexterity I & II Great Strength I & II |
Legendary level feats | Legendary Weapon Focus - Kukri Legendary Skill Affinity - Tumble Power Attack Divine Might Divine Shield Great Dexterity IX and X | Legendary Weapon Focus Legendary Skill Affinity - Tumble Divine Might Divine Shield Great Strength III - V |
Artifact | The Orb of Dragonkind (Con +2, Poison immunity) | " |
Tome | Enchantment | " |
Pandect | none required Craft Armor or Craft Weapon pandect can be useful | " |
Abilities at level 60 (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) | 32, 58, 28, 28, 28, 28 | 58, 30, 28, 26, 28, 28 |
Skills at level 60 | Concentration 31 Craft Armor 43 Craft Weapon 43 Discipline 63 Parry 63 Tumble 60 Lore 6 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) Persuade 8 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) Search 4 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) | Concentration 31 Craft Armor 43 Craft Weapon 43 Discipline 63 Tumble 60 Lore 6 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) Persuade 8 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) Search 4 (prerequisite for Harper Scout) |
AB at level 60 | 98 | 98 |
AC at level 60 | 135 | 128 (131 with Strongheart) |
Saves at level 60 (Fort, Ref, Will) | 67, 74, 61 | 67, 60, 61 |
Explanations on the most important aspects
Taking only full base attack bonus (BAB) classes before level 21 maximizes the attack bonus.
To get Epic Weapon Specialization with only 4 fighter levels you need to take the 4th fighter level at an epic level where you also get a feat, so you can take Weapon Specialization and Epic Weapon Specialization at the same time.
2 fighter and 18 paladin level pre-epic results in better saves than any of the other possibilies (Ftr 1/Pal 19, Ftr 3/Pal 17).
Taking Harper Scout in epic levels gives you access to Great Dexterity or Great Charisma as bonus feats on Harper Scout class levels 1 and 5. Harper Scouts can also take tumble as class skill, so you can use the levels to increase your armor class with it.
Divine Might and Shield are almost required feats for Paladins. Unfortunately they require high Strength and Charisma which is hard to get on open subraces. Therefore I chose to take them in Legendary Levels to use the charisma bonus Paladins get there.
With exotic weapon proficiency you can use nearly every weapon in the game, but this selection gets a lot smaller since the weapon for the dexterity paladin has to be finessable. If you want to do Aboleth runs - after all that's one of the runs where paladins are very good - you should use a slashing weapon. Katanas would be a great choice, unfortunately katanas are sought by many players so acquiring them is very hard. Kukris are slashing weapons with good critical hit range and are much easier to get, so I recommend using them.
For the strength version Bastard Swords would be great, but like Katanas they are very hard to get. Longswords are a decent alternative. With the strength build you can also take Overwhelming and Devestating Critical which will increase your damage on critical hits.
Detailed leveling information
1 Fighter
Concentration +4, Discipline +4, Parry +4
Blooded, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Proficiency (exotic)
2 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
3 Paladin
Weapon Focus (kukri)
4 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
5 Paladin
6 Paladin
Greater Weapon Focus (kukri)
7 Paladin
Lore +6, Persuade +8, Search +4
8 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +2
9 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
Improved Critical (kukri)
10 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +1, Parry +2
11 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +2, Parry +2
12 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
Metamagic (Extend Spell)
13 Paladin
Concentration +2, Discipline +2, Parry +1
14 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +3
15 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
Iron Will
16 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
17 Paladin
Concentration +1, Discipline +1, Parry +1
18 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Alertness
19 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
20 Fighter (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Blind-Fight
21 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity I
22 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
23 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
24 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity II
25 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Weapon Focus (kukri)
26 Fighter
Discipline +1, Parry +1
27 Fighter
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Weapon Specialization (kukri)
Weapon Specialization (kukri)
28 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +30
Great Dexterity III
29 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
30 Paladin
Concentration +11, Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity IV
31 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Armor Skin
32 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +5
33 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
Great Dexterity V
34 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
35 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Epic Prowess
36 Paladin (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Parry +1
Great Dexterity VI
37 Harper Scout
Discipline +1, Tumble +5
38 Paladin
Discipline +1, Parry +2
39 Harper Scout
Discipline +1, Tumble +2
Great Dexterity VII
40 Harper Scout (Dexterity +1)
Discipline +1, Tumble +1
Great Dexterity VIII
40-60 Paladin
Discipline +20, Craft Armor +43, Craft Weapon +43, Parry +22, Tumble +20
Legendary Weapon Focus (kukri)
Legendary Skill Affinity (Tumble)
Great Dexterity IX
Great Dexterity X
Power Attack
Divine Might
Divine Shield
Harper Scout levels are chosen at character levels where you can maximize your Tumble ranks to multiples of 5 early in epic levels. This increases your armor class a lot. The class distribution between 20 and 27 allows you to take both normal and epic weapon specialization early to help with your damage output.
Abilities
Lay on Hands before legendary levels is a heal ability, but you can also use it on undead to damage them. In legendary levels this ability grants the target immunity to critical hits for CL rounds (around 5 minutes at level 60). This ability is very useful, druids, clerics and bards are good choices as targets. If you use the Quality of Mercy gloves from Elysium using this ability will also give you the same critical hit immunity as the target of this ability.
Guardian Angle resurrects you once per rest if you have activated it. You have to use it after resting. Ask people in game if you want to know where you can find this ability.
Mass Resurrection resurrects all dead party members in a medium area.
Craft harper item can be used to create useful potions. You have to spend some money and experience points to create them but two of the potions are extremely useful. Greater Restoration potions work like heal potions but also restore you when you use them so you get rid of any negative effects you might have. With 1 million gold for a stack of 50 potions these are the most expensive potions but in fights with lots of infliction they are worth every single gold piece. Shadow Shield potions are cheaper and provide the same effect as the spell. Their main purpose is to give full immunity to negative damage and to all Necromancy spells. This is useful because in some areas enemies ignore general immunities such as immunity to Death Magic but not immunity to Necromancy spells.
Assist other helps other players to stand up when they are knocked down. You find this useful ability in the radial menu for your fighter class abilities.
Spells
Paladins have plenty of useful spells, unfortunately many of them share spell levels which makes it necessary to use a metamagic feat in order to have enough casts. Most of the spells are lasting quite long, with the exception of Divine Favour and Holy Sword. Divine Favour should always be casted as an Extended spell. This is not possible for Holy Sword even if you have gear with level 5 paladin slots since with only 14 base wisdom you won't be able to cast level 5 spells.
Level 1:
Bless Weapon
This spell adds 1-2 dice of divine damage. You will most likely be the only one in the group who can do that, it's very useful in legendary levels and Hell. Make sure the weapon you use it on already has divine damage to get most out of it.
Deafening Clang
This spell adds 1-4 dice of sonic damage. Bards can cast it too, but it's still good to have if there are no bards in the party.
Diving Favour (extended)
This adds 3-5 physical damage and 3-5 attack bonus. As an extended spell it lasts up to 4 minutes. The 5 attack bonus makes sure you hit or get close to the +20 cap on attack bonus, even with no bard in the party.
Endure Elements
This adds CL/6% elemental damage immunity. This is a nice-to-have spell, the maximum you can get out of it is 8%.
Lionheart
This spell gives the target full fear immunity for CL rounds. In order to understand how useful it is you first have to understand how immunities work on Higher Ground. There are several levels of immunity effects, starting with the most general level (such as Immuntiy to Mind Spells on items), to immunity from spells (like Mind Blank) to more specific immunities (Fear immunity on items) and class/spell/artifact level immunity (fear immunity from Aura of Courage paladin feat, Wisdom artifact and the Lionheart spell). There are different version of effects in Higher Ground, for example Immunity to Mind Spells from items is good enough for most effects before you hit legendary levels, but when you fight dragons you'll need fear immunity. In Illithids Mind Spell immunity on items is not good enough, you need at least Mind Spell immunity from a spell, or Stun immunity on an item to be immune to the effects there. And there are fear effects which ignore all immunities except for highest tier of protection, i.e. Aura of Courage feat, Wisdom artifact and the Lionheart spell.
Thus Lionheart is most useful when fighting mobs that ignore normal fear immunity, such as Dreamlarvas in Aboleth and Graz'zt Abyss.
Level 2:
Aura of Glory (extended, to make space in this level for Divine Favour)
Adds cha modifier% physical and cha modifier/2 % positive immunity for a long time. This will give 9% physical and 4% positive immunity at level 60. The 9% physical immunity is about the same as the difference between robes and medium armor, so you have decent physical immunity for a robe user.
Level 3:
Greater Magic Weapon (GMW)
CL/3 (up to +10, or +13 once you read a Tome of Enchantment) enchantment bonus for your weapon, in case nobody has anything better. If you use an Enchantment Draught (you will find plenty of them in legendary level runs) you can even get +14 bonus.
Prayer
This is most useful to maximize attack bonus, the duration is not long and you don't have the spell slots to cast it for the saves decrease effect like a cleric.
Level 4:
Freedom of Movement (FoM)
It will increase your speed, which is nice. But the main use it that this spell makes you immune to some effects, like grapple effects from Glabrezus. Make sure you use it before you use the Boots of the Wanderer, or it won't work. Like GMW this is best used if there is no one else to cast it. Clerics and Druids usually have more than enough to cover everyone in the party.
Death Ward
For a dexterity paladin this spell doesn't do much as you lack the 40 base strength to get critical hit immunity from it. However it will protect you from some death effects, like Bodak death gaze, which makes it useful after all.
Holy Sword
This adds a short duration (CL rounds) on-hit breach effect as a weapon buff. It is most useful against enemy spellcasters or any other buffed mobs.
Leveling
Paladins are rather easy to level compared to other tank classes without an ability to self-buff. With GMW, Prayer and Divine Favour you can increase your AB a lot even at early levels. Deafening Clang and Bless Weapon increase your damage especially if the weapon you use already has sonic and divine damage.
But playing in a party is still the best way to level, it's faster, safer and far more fun than playing alone. After leveling 40 you should try to get the legendary level tags so you can use set items from these areas. The most important runs at that level range are Sissy, Dustbone and Illithids. Once you hit level 55 you can get the workshop token, which allows you to port to Zerial's Workshop from Ascenscion. This is the starting place for most end game runs. Ask people in game if you want to know how to get that token.
If you feel comfortable with your gear setup you can start doing hell runs. But be warned, Hell runs can be considerably harder than most legendary level runs.
Gear
Randomized items make it impossible to give any specific gear advice. Thus I will only give hints as to you should be looking for.
As a dexterity tank you should use robes - or at early levels light armor - and a small shield to maximize AC. You have plenty of slots for which to select your gear but for the boots slot you should use the Boots of the Wanderer to gain the two extra attacks a Harper Scout gets.
In general you need you cover the most important immunities first, then damage resistance to physical, elemental and exotic damage followed by physical damage immunity and reduction and elemental immunity.
You should try to cover immunity to mind spells, poison, death magic and knockdown. As a paladin you are immune to fear and thse five immunities are most of what you need in legendary areas. Damage resistance is very important. At a minimum I would try to get 15 physical, 20 elemental and 10 exotic resistance. For some legendary level runs - including Dustbone - having 15 or even more resistance to magical damage can be very beneficial. For Hell runs you should try to increase your resistance to 20 physical, 30 elemental and 20 exotic.
The next thing you should try to maximze is your physical damage immunity. This is more important to a tank with high AC as some might think because the majority of damage you will receive even with great gear is physical. 40% is good to have from level 50 on. Damage reduction can also be useful (expressed as S/+E or +E soak S on items). It means your physical damage is reduced by S unless the enemy hits you with a weapon with +E bonus or higher. So in order ot be effective the +E part should be large. The best you can hope for is +16, but +15 works for many mobs.
Elemental immunity is often the last thing you cover with your regular gear setup because that depends a lot on the run you go. Most if not all of your elemental immunity will usually come from rings. Immunity rings, especially the UR or BUR ones, are extremely important and you should try to get a good collection of them.
Consumables
Things you should always carry with you:
Healing potions are vital. At the start of the game cure wound potions will work perfectly, but in epics levels you want to use full Heal potions. A Bountiful Beaker of Healing which can found on the Illithid run provides unlimited healing potions.
Scrolls of Resurrection or at early levels Raise Dead scrolls to resurrect dead party members.
Potions of Negative Energy Protections to make you immune to negative damage.
Potions of Clarity to cure some effects like daze.
Saint's Blood Pearls to restore yourself and others if necessary.
Teleport gems to port back to town.
Weapons
On Higher Ground you can customize your weapons. You can change the damage types it does. This is important for some areas because certain mobs heal when you hit them with some element. For instance all Pharlans on the Rona run heal from electrical damage. It is a good idea to have multiple weapons with you all the time to have some flexibility in damage.
This is even more important on Hell runs, especially with a high demi count. Every superior or elite creature you see will heal from some element.
Unfortunately crafting weapons can be expensive, both in terms of money required and items to acquire before you can craft. Please refer to in-game help or ask other players for detailed instructions but essentially you will need around 120 million gold and six 6d12 gems to craft a Dustbone weapon, and roughly 250 million gold, four 16 gems and two 2d12 gems to craft a Dis weapon.
There are two choices of weapon configurations which work well in Hell each consisting of two main weapons.
Acid Cold Sonic Divine Negative Positive: for your main enemies like Pit Fiends, Malebranche, Brood Serpents but also Cornugons and non-superior or elite Ichors
Electrical Fire Sonic Divine Magical Positive: Ichors and anything you can't hit with the first weapon. It's also very useful in Dis, Minauros, Stygia, Malboge and Cania.
or
Cold Electrical Sonic Divine Negative Postive: for Pit Fiends, Ichors, Brood Serpents, many hell bosses.
Acid Fire Sonic Divine Magical Positive: for Malebranche, Cornugons, non-superior or elite Ichors and many mobs found in Dis, Minauros, Stygia, Malboge and Cania.
Both these weapons deal sonic, divine and positive damage but there are only a few mobs that heal from these. For those few mobs you could switch to a level 50 or mega damage weapon.
Subraces to look for
- Secret: Aasimar, Kurai
- Ultra-Rare: Baseborn Titan, Dragonblooded, Whisper Gnome
- Beyond Ultra-Rare: Cambion (for a strength build), Half-Cloud Giant (for a strength build), Half-Eladrin (for a strength build), Half-Guardinal, Half-Kyton, Hound Archon, Pharlan, Salamander, Undying
History:
2012-01-08: inital post