Unambitious Brute: Juggernaut 1h fgt30 / wm5 / hs5

[tritone]

I've sketched out a jugger tank build, which ended up being heavily inspired by Chain's "The Pulverizer" build thread
Would love to get some feedback before I commit to playing it.

Design constraints:
- Juggernaut is the bur subbie I have available
- I want it to be low interactivity so I can mostly plop it into combat and focus on another toon
- I don't think I have the gear for a 2h build
- Not meant for soloing
- Hopefully not too squishy during first hell cycle

Gear thoughts:
- heavy mace for 1h bludgening damage with the best crits (19-20 x3) - losing 1 avg damage compared to maul is more than worth it
- medium armor & large shield for a balance between imms and skill penalties
- VoV helm for esf listen

Pros:
- Fighter parry "conceal" and epic dodge
- Mass Camouflage conceal with hide
- Phys resist & crit imm from strength
- wm & oc/dc crits
- hs extra attack and potions
- big size to block doorways!

- weapon specialization

- LSA: Tumble and LSA: Hide

Cons:
- Dex < 40 until double demi @80
- Barely acceptable saves
- Not 2h

Juggernaut (Half-Orc). Any non-evil.

Stats in character creation:
STR: 18
DEX: 16
CON: 8
WIS: 8
INT: 14
CHA: 6

Stats on docks
STR: 24
DEX: 16
CON: 14
WIS: 8
INT: 14
CHA: 6

Stats @60 with +12 and no demi
STR: 64
DEX: 30
CON: 26
INT: 28
WIS: 20
CHA: 16


1 Fighter
- Blooded (Free)
- Dodge
- Expertise (Free)
- Stealthy
- Toughness (Free)

2 Fighter
- Mobility

3 Fighter
- Alertness

4 Fighter (Intelligence +1)
- Spring Attack

5 Fighter

6 Fighter
Intimidate +4
- Weapon Focus (heavy mace)
- Whirlwind Attack

7 Weapon Master
- Ki Damage
- Weapon of Choice (heavy mace)

8 Weapon Master (Intelligence +1)

9 Weapon Master
- Great Fortitude

10 Weapon Master

11 Weapon Master
- Increased Multiplier
- Superior Weapon Focus

12 Fighter (Strength +1)
- Iron Will

13 Fighter
- Improved Critical (heavy mace)

14 Fighter

15 Fighter
- Power Attack
- Weapon Specialization (heavy mace)

16 Fighter (Strength +1)

17 Fighter
- Cleave

18 Fighter
- Great Cleave

19 Fighter
- Improved Parry

20 Fighter (Strength +1)

21 Fighter
- Armor Skin
- Great Strength I

22 Fighter

23 Fighter
- Overwhelming Critical (heavy mace)

24 Fighter (Strength +1)
- Great Strength II

25 Fighter
Discipline +20, Lore +6, Parry +20, Persuade +8, Search +4
- Devastating Critical (heavy mace)

26 Harper Scout
- Epic Skill Focus (Parry)

27 Harper Scout
- Epic Weapon Focus (heavy mace)

28 Harper Scout (Strength +1)

29 Harper Scout

30 Harper Scout
- Epic Skill Focus (Discipline)
- Epic Reflexes

31 Fighter

32 Fighter (Strength +1)
- Epic Weapon Specialization (heavy mace)

33 Fighter
- Great Strength III

34 Fighter
- Epic Prowess (turn to strength)

35 Fighter

36 Fighter (Strength +1)
- Epic Prowess (turn to strength)
- Great Strength IV

37 Fighter

38 Fighter
- Epic Prowess (turn to strength)

39 Fighter
- Great Strength V

40 Fighter (Strength +1)
- Epic Dodge
- Epic Prowess

Feats not associated with any level:
Legendary Skill Focus (Parry)
Legendary Character
Legendary Fighter
Legendary Fortitude
Legendary Skill Affinity (Hide)
Legendary Skill Affinity (Tumble)
Legendary Weapon Focus (heavy mace)
Legendary Weapon Specialization (heavy mace)
Legendary Will


[Server] Saving throws:
Fortitude: 25 + 8 + 9 + 20 = 62
Reflex: 24 + 10 + 4 + 20 = 58
Will: 21 + 5 + 9 + 20 = 55

Skills @60:
- Concentration: 20
- Discpline: 40 + 10 (esf) + 27 (high STR)
- Hide: 31
- Listen: 63 + 10 (esf from helm)
- Parry: 63 + 10 (esf) + 30 (lsf)
- Tumble: 60

Paragon skills:
- Max hide, disc, then rest to craft armor or weapon

Paragon feats:
- idk

It's a little tricky to level up
- need to get wm and hs prereq's in time
- need to grab alertness, iron will, great fortitude with non-fighter-bonus-feats
- need to grab armor skin, epic reflexes, great strength I-V with epic non-fighter-bonus-feats
- need to have disc and parry to 20 before hs levels
- need to grab esf disc and parry at harper scout level 1 and 5
- need to do !charedit to get strength from epic fighter bonus feats, so can't be de-levelled

[desocupado]

Cot, paladin, life threader or dwarf defender might accomplish what you want better. Unfortunately Juggernaut isn't very suited for any of those though. Given the lack of wisdom penalty a Susu druid or a non DC-threader could be played. You can also make a suboptimal character of those classes until you get a book.

------------

Drop starting strength to 16 then increase creation Con to 14 for a good amount of hp and better checks/fortitude saves.

[chainlink]

Its worth trying a variant of the End Game Monk build as I've made both this and the Pulveriser with Juggernaut and got them Demi, the monk build saves scrabbling around with gear for specific mind immunities (once you get 20 monk levels) and the monk physical immunity based on your Str mod has good synergy with the Jugger Str mod crit reduction, plus its way easier to go 2h with that one.
Not to mention if you don't get FoM you won't be too upset as you are amusingly speedy for a giant armoured behemoth.
Paragon feats - Weapon Specialization, Weapon Focus and Adaptivity I-III leaving you with one of your choice, you could take levitation leaving you with both innate lev and wb although personally I like taking the Disarm line of feats as it make Hells a load less painful for both yourself and your party as there are a load of disarmable critters there.
Of course if you do the monk build you'll get one survival for free which might as well be lev so you have even more gear flexibility.
I can roll them both out later if you want so you can have a look and see how they are geared up and ready to roll.

[woqued]

The build is fine on paper tbh for your purposes. Here's a pile of thoughts if interested:

You went a little bit overkill on STR for some phys imms/ab/disc that aren't the primary concerns of this build, neglecting DEX and becoming proper Dex-Check-Bait on Fighter that has tools around it (eprowess transfers to dex). A more Unitank approach would serve you better for this type of 1-handed send-in-and-forget character.

Also, going Hide that is really only going to kick in at 60++ (since you rely on paragon feats/skills for it) is a big booboo tbh, with no ESF or PSF either and low stats for Hide too. Paragon feats as enabler.. Just ask for displacement instead and invest a bit more heavily into Dex and saves would be my strong recommendation. Jugg with +0 int and -2 int is one of the worst ones to do a Hide 1h fighter on. You pay SO MUCH to get Hide you don't use or need (since until PL's and good gear, your Hide conceal is Worse than Displacement) - 1st lvl feat, 7+ in ref/will (slippery soul + Leg level alternative), PL feat unless you save your hideness until 70+ and using complementing gear for Hide skills..

You already have FTR parry, EDodge, on a Shielded character. Might as well lack Hide to make sure you don't get debilitated by failing saves / dex checks - much more likely to kill you than straight up getting punched if you gear properly. You invest SO HEAVILY to get Hide for this build - that you don't really need either. I'd also try to find parry gear and/or augs (used to be cheap, not sure if FTR craze has made them expensive) and drop LSF:Parry too for other stuff.

.. In the vein of people not commenting the build and going with "do something else" - Did you consider Barbarian for a "send in and do it's thing" char? Jugg is great for it, and it would drop saves doing it. But tbh, this Fighter build will do great for it's purpose anyways.

Recommended paragon feats:

PWF, PWS, Para Balance, Lev, Adapts.

If you are adamant on the Hide part of the build, and keeping high STR - just drop PWF until a bit later due high str granting high ab already, and pick up Paragon Skills feat to max out Hide.

[dopplegang]

I agree with Woqued basically. Get dex to 40 at least, and drop the hide skill, improve your saves, don't forget your charisma will get you dominated or confused by lots of things, and you will find your super durable tank standing around being flirty with the Brachina while the Magebane destroys your friends. Paragon environmental feats, paragon weapon focus and paragon weapon spec only leave you with one feat you can freely choose.

[chirality]

Oct 3, 2019 11:34:21 GMT tritone said:

- medium armor & large shield for a balance between imms and skill penalties

nitpicky, late, and derail, but i just would point out that skill penalties should pretty much never be a consideration for armor on hg. you want to max out your ac by optimizing your armor+shield to match your dex mod to its full potential (tiebreaker goes to either best imms or best offstat ability check adjuster); skill pens shouldn't even enter the equation. yes, a fighter looking to capitalize on parry&hide conceal would seem to care about skill pens, but there's really only one option: whatever gives you the highest ac. and light and heavy shall be avoided basically as a universal rule for str "sword n board" tanks; the only time anything other than medium should present itself is when playing dexer, ranger, monk splash or "soak" tank (btw, don't).

[tega091]

personally on character creation I would drop 2 strength to gain 4 con also the 4 con will = a bigger health pool, a bigger health pool less potions less potions more damage also it will help you buffer bigger hits that will happen. Also if you are going sword and board I would use light armor and a small shield get your dex to 28 base, you are a fighter you will have naturally high AB you don't need to go overboard on AB ona non demi fighter better off balancing in some dex to make your dex checks(you won't swing your weapon even once KDed) and give you a bit more ac too. Also note that raising your dex will help with your reflex saves(personally I would worry more about your will save anyways for a hells character.)