Post by arek on Dec 13, 2011 5:38:49 GMT
NOTE: THIS BUILD IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION, AND NEEDS ONE MORE ROUND IN THE CHAMBER FOR VERIFICATION! DO NOT USE UNTIL I HAVE CONFIRMED IT WORKS!
Raging Blades is an Open Subrace Shapestrong Barbarian. It takes Weapon Master and Harper Scout levels for the amazing benefits they provide. Given those benefits, this build should be able to score very high on the damage charts - often having the highest damage of any tank on whatever run you're doing once you get your Shapestrong Rage token and Harper Scout boots.
On class choices:
As far as weapons are concerned, there are only 4 weapons this build can really make full use of: Dire Mace, Two Bladed Sword, Double Axe, and Double Scimitar. Of these, I recommend the Double Scimitar for its great crit range. This build, with just keen on the weapon, will get 12-20/x3 crits. If you can manage to find an item augmented "Of Devastating Double Scimitar-work" (or are lucky enough to get such an augmenter, or items with Overwhelming and Devastating critical on them), this will improve to 11-20/x4, which is absolutely amazing against monsters that aren't immune to critical hits (of which there are many, even some bosses, since Devcrit no longer instakills here).
Now for the build:
Base race: Human
Subrace: Gnoll
You need to type the subrace in the subrace field exactly as shown. "GNOLL" won't work. Neither will "gnoll". It has to be "Gnoll", exactly (without quotes).
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 15/18
DEX: 15/15
CON: 14/17
INT: 15/13
WIS: 8/8
CHA: 8/8
A note on the odd scores: 15 DEX and 13 INT are required for a number of the feats this build takes, and there's not much you can do about them. The CON will be evened out later.
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (B) and (HS) are Barbarian and Harper Scout bonus feats, respecitvely.
According to the latest version of Shard's Build Tool, this build can get up to 94 AB with full Craft Weapon, no arti, and no demi. Along with that, it shows up as getting 126 AC without gird under the same circumstances, using medium armor and a large shield. For saves, it gets 60F/62R/62W, which is acceptable for Hells. However, in the test chamber, this same build got 98 AB instead, with full craft weapon. I haven't done any calculations on the armor, but I suspect AC should be just a bit higher.
Possible Changes/Improvements:
Tips for levelling:
Tips for playing:
And the most important thing? HAVE FUN
--Arek
Raging Blades is an Open Subrace Shapestrong Barbarian. It takes Weapon Master and Harper Scout levels for the amazing benefits they provide. Given those benefits, this build should be able to score very high on the damage charts - often having the highest damage of any tank on whatever run you're doing once you get your Shapestrong Rage token and Harper Scout boots.
On class choices:
- Barbarian: The meat and bread of the build. Barbarian provides a number of abilities, including 2 types of added damage, immunity to Critical Hits when raging, and the ability (once you get your Shapestrong Rage token) to wield both a double weapon and a shield - while still retaining its offhand attacks!
- Weapon Master: 5 levels provides +1 to your Attack Bonus (AB, your chance to hit enemies) along with +1 to your critical hit multiplier (=more damage when you land a critical hit, which should be fairly often). I'd love to have included 7 levels, but then you lose 2 attacks per round (either by losing shapestrong or Harper Scout).
- Harper Scout: 5 levels allows you to use a pair of boots which provide 2 extra attacks per round for a semi-short duration (enough to last several fights if your team is moving fast enough), along with, once you upgrade (moliate) them, an amazing defensive boost. On top of this, Harper Scouts can brew their own Greater Restoration potions, which he can then use in the place of Heal potions (and give him a restore besides).
As far as weapons are concerned, there are only 4 weapons this build can really make full use of: Dire Mace, Two Bladed Sword, Double Axe, and Double Scimitar. Of these, I recommend the Double Scimitar for its great crit range. This build, with just keen on the weapon, will get 12-20/x3 crits. If you can manage to find an item augmented "Of Devastating Double Scimitar-work" (or are lucky enough to get such an augmenter, or items with Overwhelming and Devastating critical on them), this will improve to 11-20/x4, which is absolutely amazing against monsters that aren't immune to critical hits (of which there are many, even some bosses, since Devcrit no longer instakills here).
Now for the build:
Base race: Human
Subrace: Gnoll
You need to type the subrace in the subrace field exactly as shown. "GNOLL" won't work. Neither will "gnoll". It has to be "Gnoll", exactly (without quotes).
Stats at creation/after subrace
STR: 15/18
DEX: 15/15
CON: 14/17
INT: 15/13
WIS: 8/8
CHA: 8/8
A note on the odd scores: 15 DEX and 13 INT are required for a number of the feats this build takes, and there's not much you can do about them. The CON will be evened out later.
Level Progression:
Feats marked as (B) and (HS) are Barbarian and Harper Scout bonus feats, respecitvely.
- 1: Barbarian
- Feat: Blooded
- Blooded is what we call an "enabler" feat. In this case, it enables you to take Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble which, in turn, allows you to take Tumble as a class skill in Legendary Levels.
- Strong Soul.
- Strong Soul is a Placeholder feat. We'll exchange this for Slippery Soul in-game.
- 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.
- As soon as you get on the Docks, before you do anything else, say "!charedit" (without the quotes). When the dialog comes up, choose to exchange Strong Soul for Dauntless or Slippery Soul, then choose Slippery Soul and confirm the choice if it asks.
- Slippery Soul gives +2 to Reflex and Will, and is needed for Legendary Slippery Soul, later. Don't forget to make this exchange, or your reflex save will be very low at 60!
- Feat: Blooded
- 2: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 3: Barbarian
- Feat: Weapon Proficiency: Exotic.
- WP: Exotic is needed in order to wield Exotic weapons. Like all dire/double weapons, the Double Scimitar is exotic, so you need this in order to use one.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Weapon Proficiency: Exotic.
- 4: Barbarian
- Stat: Intelligence
- While this is a Strength-based build, this extra point of Intelligence will help by allowing it to take an extra skill. The later you take this, the fewer skill points it'll give you, so it's best to get it out of the way now.
- Stat: Intelligence
- 5: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 6: Barbarian
- Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting.
- Two-Weapon Fighting reduces the Attack Bonus (AB) penalty for dual-wielding weapons by 2 points, which is going to make it easier to actually hit enemies.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting.
- 7: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 8: Barbarian
- Stat: Strength
- This is a Strength-based build, meaning that Strength is what primarily determines your AB. With that in mind, you need all the Strength you can get. This build mostly takes Strength on level-up, but there are a couple of exceptions.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Stat: Strength
- 9: Barbarian
- Feat: Ambidexterity
- Ambidexterity reduces the AB penalty on your off-hand attacks by 4 points, which makes it easier to hit stuff. At this point, your AB penalty for using a double weapon should be -2.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Ambidexterity
- 10: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 11: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 12: Barbarian
- Feat: Weapon focus: Double Scimitar
- Weapon focus provides +1 to your Attack Bonus (AB) when wielding the chosen weapon. Since AB represents your chance to hit your enemies, you want as much of this as you can get.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Weapon focus: Double Scimitar
- 13: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 14: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 15: Barbarian
- Feat: Expertise.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Expertise.
- 16: Barbarian
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 17: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 18: Barbarian
- Feat: Dodge
- Dodge provides 1 AC against your current target or last attacker, which is nice, situationally, but not stellar. The real reason you need this feat is as further qualification for Weapon Master.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Dodge
- 19: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 20: Barbarian
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 21: Barbarian
- Feat: Mobility
- Mobility grants +4 AC against Attacks of Opportunity, which is a bit meh, but it's also a required feat for Weapon Master.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Mobility
- 22: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 23: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 24: Barbarian
- Feat: Spring Attack
- Spring Attack makes it so you no longer provoke Attacks of Opportunity by moving into or out of combat, which is nice, but the real reason you want this feat is that it is yet another prerequisite for Weapon Master.
- Feat (B): Epic Prowess.
- Epic Prowess increases your AB by 1 point, and combines with Legendary Weapon Focus, later.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Spring Attack
- 25: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 26: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 27: Barbarian
- Feat: Whirlwind Attack
- Whirlwind Attack is a special action that performs a single attack against all opponents in melee range. This can do a good deal of damage, especially in a large crowd, but It can bug your character so that you can't attack until you relog. In order to avoid this, once you use the feat, do NOTHING until it completes and its icon is gone from your action queue. I really don't recommend its use, since you WILL be flat-footed for that second or so between the completion of the attack and the time you can actually perform another action. The real reason this feat is here, given all that, is that it's a required feat for Weapon Master.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Whirlwind Attack
- 28: Barbarian
- Feat (B): Epic Weapon Focus: Double Scimitar.
- Epic Weapon Focus improves your AB by 2, which is nice. It is also required for Legendary Weapon Focus later.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat (B): Epic Weapon Focus: Double Scimitar.
- 29: Barbarian
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 30: Barbarian
- Feat: Alertness
- Alertness gives a +2 bonus to your Spot and Listen checks, and is required for Harper Scout.
- Skills: Put 4 points into Intimidate. Save the rest.
- You need 4 ranks of Intimidate to take Weapon Master.
- Feat: Alertness
- 31: Weapon Master
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 32: Weapon Master
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 33: Weapon Master
- Feat: Iron Will
- Iron Will provides +2 to your Will save, which is nice, but it's also required for both Harper Scout and Legendary Will, later.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Iron Will
- 34: Weapon Master
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 35: Weapon Master
- Skills: Max Discipline, then take 4 Search, 6 Lore, and 8 Persuade. Save the rest.
- 36: Harper Scout
- Feat: Epic Reflexes
- Epic Reflexes provides a +4 bonus to your Reflex save. This, combined with other feats, will push your Reflex save over 60, which is somewhat important for a tank.
- Feat (HS): Great Dexterity I
- Great Dexterity increases your Dexterity by 1 point. The way it works out in this build, this gives you +1 AC and +1 Reflex, which are both nice.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Epic Reflexes
- 37: Harper Scout
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 38: Harper Scout
- Skills: None (save all points)
- 39: Harper Scout
- Feat: Improved Two-weapon Fighting.
- Improved Two-weapon fighting gives you an extra attack with your off-hand weapon, which gives a significant increase to your damage.
- Skills: None (save all points)
- Feat: Improved Two-weapon Fighting.
- 40: Harper Scout
- Feat (HS): Epic Skill Focus: Craft Weapon.
- ESF: Craft Weapon grants you +10 points to your Craft Weapon skill, which is outside (additional to) the normal +50 cap. This generally means that you get +1 AB in most areas, given that every 40 points you have in Craft Weapon (including bonuses) gets you +1 AB, for a maximum of +3 AB with 120 Craft Weapon.
- Stat: Constitution
- Constitution gives you +1 Fortitude and +60 HP, but the real reason you take CON here is so that you can take Mighty Rage at 60. Without this, you won't have 21 CON before 60, and thus may not be able to take it, due to how LLs work. Even so, you need this to hit 60 Fortitude at 60, so take it.
- Skills: Max Tumble and Discipline. Save any leftover points for later.
- Every 5 ranks you get in Tumble grants you +1 AC, which is very nice. You'll get +8 from this dump, which will help you get to Level 43 (when you can start taking it as a class skill again) safely. :-)
- There are many discipline checks in this module. Some of them disarm you, some remove your armor and/or shield, and some can even destroy your weapon, armor, or shield. You don't want any of this happening to you, so max it.
- Feat (HS): Epic Skill Focus: Craft Weapon.
- 41: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, 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. +1-+2 will, however, be more typical.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor
- 42: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble
- LSA: Tumble allows you to take Tumble as a class skill in later levels, which will allow you to eventually get 63 ranks in Tumble, for +12 AC and a potential of 122 Tumble with buffs, which is enough to halve the amount of time you're KD'd by stat checks about 75% of the time.
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor
- Feat: Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble
- 43: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 44: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 45: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Thundering Rage.
- Thundering Rage gives the weapon you're wielding 1d10 sonic damage for every 5 barbarian levels you have. This build gets a total of 10d10 Sonic damage. It also provides a small damage bonus to your critical hits.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- Feat: Thundering Rage.
- 46: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- Listen reduces the effective conceal of enemies by a percentage based on how much you have. 63 listen provides the same effective reduction in conceal blind-fight does, provided you're not deafened. More is, of course, better. Being deafened reduces the effectiveness by half (avoid deafness if possible).
- 47: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 48: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Double Scimitar
- Legendary Weapon Focus provides +2 to your AB when wielding the weapon chosen, plus a further +1 AB with that weapon if you also have the Epic Prowess feat (which you do), for a total of +3 AB.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- Feat: Legendary Weapon Focus: Double Scimitar
- 49: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Parry, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 50: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 51: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Legendary Will
- Legendary Fortitude increases your Will save by +7, which you'll really need by now, in order to avoid getting killed or disabled by many creature abilities (like amnesia).
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- Feat: Legendary Will
- 52: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Listen, Discipline, Craft Weapon, and Craft Armor.
- 53: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 54: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Improved Critical: Double Scimitar.
- Improved Critical doubles the critical threat range of the weapon chosen. With this and Keen, the Double Scimitar gets 12-20/x3. If you can get Overwhelming and Devastating Critical from an item or items, this will improve to 11-20/x4.
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- Feat: Improved Critical: Double Scimitar.
- 55: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 56: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 57: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Legendary Slippery Soul
- Legendary Slippery Soul increases your Reflex and Will saves by +5, which is a bonus you'll probably need by now. :-)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- Feat: Legendary Slippery Soul
- 58: (Barbarian)
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 59: (Barbarian)
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, and Listen.
- 60: (Barbarian)
- Feat: Mighty Rage
- Mighty Rage gives you +8 AB (inside the magic +20 cap) and gives you a character-based physical damage buff equal to your CON modifier (read: At Level 60, with this build, when Mighty Rage is active, you get +13 damage per hit).
- Stat: Strength
- Skills: Max Tumble, Discipline, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor, Listen, Use Magic Device, and Concentration, in that order. If you still have points left over, put them wherever you want or just let them hang - there won't be enough left to do you much good.
- Feat: Mighty Rage
According to the latest version of Shard's Build Tool, this build can get up to 94 AB with full Craft Weapon, no arti, and no demi. Along with that, it shows up as getting 126 AC without gird under the same circumstances, using medium armor and a large shield. For saves, it gets 60F/62R/62W, which is acceptable for Hells. However, in the test chamber, this same build got 98 AB instead, with full craft weapon. I haven't done any calculations on the armor, but I suspect AC should be just a bit higher.
Possible Changes/Improvements:
- Suggestions welcome, tho I've been over this build several times looking for improvements. Getting a certain dragon blood that grants the Dodge feat would be handy, but it's hardly needed.
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, you also need to find your Harper Scout and Barbarian secrets once you get to a high enough level. Additionally, 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.
- This tank relies Shapestrong Rage in order to gain the defensive benefits of a shield while still retaining the offensive bonuses of wielding a double weapon. With that in mind, you need find your shapestrong rage token. Ask in-game where this is and/or for help getting it (you need to be Level 35, iirc, tho you might be able to get it at 30). Further, once you have the token, you need to jump through a few hoops every time you log in in order to get your full attacks. First, use your shapestrong rage token (going large). Second, equip your weapon and shield. Third, use your shapestrong rage token again (going medium). Once you've done that, you should have your weapon and shield both equipped, and still be considered to be "dual-wielding".
- In addition to Shapestrong Rage, this tank also relies on the Harper Scout boots to get an extra 2 attacks per round. Ask in-game once you're Level 40 and have all your HS levels where to get them. You'll notice once you have them, tho, that they kinda suck defensively when you get them (they're decent at 35, but you need to use them throughout your career, even at 60+). The good news is that they can be upgraded with the Crucible of Moliation once you have the Pit of Moliation tag. Make sure you run PoM enough to get a crucible, then use it on your boots. You'll thank me later. :-)
And the most important thing? HAVE FUN
--Arek