new XDD build

[starcore]

I currently have an XDD that is level 73, and progressing nicely through hells and abyss. 

The main role I'm filling is that of a support tank.
The  'general tankyness' is great, with not too much micromanagement needed. Can almost treat it like my shifter lash in terms of set and forget. 
The Dragon-fear aura is a really helpful DC drop for casters in particular to be able to land their instant kills. 
Wing buffet can kill fumes and other gust targets
The damage is pretty rubbish, generally sitting a little behind a CS ranger. 

I'm using roughly the below build right now... but about to re-inc and pick up the below planned 'Paragon weapon alternate' for a 2 hander... with the theory being to swap to it when not being attacked directly... and hopefully being able to push out a little more damage. 

I'm super happy if anyone wants to give any suggestions... 
In particular I'm not too sure that my class combination of bard/wm/xdd is the best... Maybe there would be something better using PDK or something like that?


Levels:
Bard 3 / WM 7 / XDD 30

Race: Human
Subrace: Salamander

Abilities: (at creation)
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 12

Skills:
Concentration (32)
Craft armor (max)
Craft weapon (max)
Discipline (max)
Intimidate (4)
Listen (max)
Lore (8)
Parry (max)
Search (max)
Tumble (30)
UMD (23)* (not sure why I have this?)

Artifact: STR

Feats:

Pandect: Blindfight
Pandect: Disarm

From Aug's: Imp crit, Power crit
From Aug's: OC, DC (I don't have this yet)

		Updated build after feedback
Human Bonus	Luck of heroes	Luck of heroes
Level 1	Wep prof: Martial	Wep prof: Martial
Level 3	Expertice	Expertice
Level 6	Weapon focus	Weapon focus	*Any large, I went with Greatsword because I had the aug's for it
Level 9	Spring attack	Spring attack
Level 12	WW attack	WW attack
Level 15	Greater weapon focus	Greater weapon focus
Level 18	Iron will	Iron will
Level 21	Toughness	Toughness
Level 24	Toughness	Toughness
Level 27	Toughness	Toughness
Level 30	Toughness	Toughness
Level 33	Toughness	Toughness
Level 36	Epic weapon focus	Epic weapon focus
Level 39	Epic prowess	Epic prowess
XDD Bonus 1	Toughness	Toughness
XDD Bonus 2	Toughness	Toughness
XDD Bonus 3	Toughness	Toughness
XDD Bonus 4	Toughness	Toughness
XDD Bonus 5	Toughness	Toughness
Level 42	Legendary weapon focus	Legendary weapon focus
Level 45	Legendary luck	Legendary luck
Level 48	Legendary will	Legendary will
Level 51	Armor skin	Armor skin
Level 54	Epic DR	Epic Will
Level 57	Legendary battle hardening	Lightning Reflex
Level 60	Legendary battle hardening	Legendary Reflex
Level 63	Paragon weapon focus	Paragon weapon focus
Level 66	Paragon weapon alternate	Paragon luck
Level 69	Environmental Adaptivity	Environmental Adaptivity
Level 72	Environmental Adaptivity	Environmental Adaptivity
Level 75	Environmental Adaptivity	Environmental Adaptivity
Level 78	Paragon balance	Paragon balance

Current saves (this is @ lvl73 1x demi) :


With the updated build this should go to:
F:73
R:77
W:76

[simpetar]

Looks pretty solid, bard/wm/rdd is an old combo and sally is the only one that can pull it off, so cant go wrong here

1. Where do you put stat points? LBH requires 25 base con, and even with all dragon bonuses, you will reach 22. Also 16 base dexterity after subby doesn't look great for "general tankiness", especially in abyss, let alone limbo.
2. Why Blind Fight pandect? Listen is dragon class skill and CS is better left for rangers (or very high AB tanks, if you want to use the vanilla version). Energy resist, CA, CW might serve you better. Even KD/disarm might be worthwhile; your AB isn't gonna be the best, but your aura lowers skills by -5 (-6 with vestige cape)
3. Reflex (60 @60) and fortitude (62 @60) seem to be bit low, for a build you just want to forget about.
4. With 7 wm levels you need only DC in your weapon, OC is overwritten by Ki critical. DC can be found as green added property and is generally cheaper than full OC/DC aug on a wearable item.
5. 2h weapon on a rdd is kind of a death wish. Your AC will plummet, and you have little to no defense left, if the mob decides to target you (no conceal or full crit imm). I think you might be better picking PWA in a large weapon with another damage type, e.g. if your main weapon is gsword, pick PWA maul or heavy flail to deal with kaortis, amorphions and the like.
6. UMD isn't bad, it protects from gremlins Also if you pump it high enough with +skills (asmo belt is great for that), you can start thinking about putting on the cleric dispel hat or crit imm ring, if situation calls for it.

[starcore]

That's super helpful! Thanks

1)I had 4 points in DEX (taking me to 20 base) and the rest in STR... I think that should be enough with paragon balance? Could do more dex with the reinc if its necessary? It seems to have been ok in abyss so far... Don't know if it will ever be good enough for limbo... 
LBH I don't currently have (was planning on getting with the reinc), didn't realize it had a con requirement... I'm thinking I might change that for saves feats instead for reflex and fort, as you mentioned... they're a little low
2)Will switch the pandect, didn't realize it wasn't necessary.... I really like the idea of having access to disarm... I miss that when not on my shifter lash
4)That's nice to know haven't found DC on anything yet either... I'm sure I will eventually...
5)Yep, I agree 2h totally destroys AC... was just trying to think of ways to boost damage output a little... Like on a boss if immute is up, or if there's nothing dangerous around... HP pool is pretty good with all the toughness feats...  and if I'm actively playing it I think I could react quickly enough for a weapon swap. I'd probably be mainly using the 1h and shield though. I haven't actually tested that on the XDD, but my rogue does the same thing with an xbow/sling+shield and it seems to work out ok... but that has conceal.
6)Ah yes, nice.. i am using asmo belt, and have been swapping in the crit immune ring occasionally, so i am getting some use out of UMD

[tomaan]

kewl build - xDD is what hooked me on HG and still one of my faves, even if it isn't the most glamorous


1) base Dex of 20 is good enough. with paragon balance and +16 gear you you'll be making most checks by 2x demi...especially if you have prince wins
2) agreed with simpetar about the disarm pandect if you can get it
3) also agreed with simpetar about the saves - it's a pretty easy artifact to acquire and should put you into the high 60s/low 70s on each of them
5) XDD damage output has always kinda sucked....even when Div Might was irresistible damage. Don't even worry about it for this build - your breath weapon damage affliction and dragon fear aura are your "damage output". Throw in fume gusting and you're providing more than enough utility to your party.
6) I take at least 25 points of UMD whenever I can - you never know when you're going to need to use a scroll of commandeer some gear.


and my own feedback: Damage Reduction/Legendary Battle Hardening sound more effective than they really are. I had all four LBH feats on an XDD build once - having them didn't suck (I think I was at 80% phys resist), but I didn't really miss them on any of my other XDD builds...I think it's because physical damage itself isn't always your biggest threat on the higher level runs. Feats that boost AB, AC or skills like Hide (mass camo) or Listen seemed to be more effective to me in the long run. (My current XDD build maxes out CON for gust DC and hp....jury's still out on that route).

imho of course!

[starcore]

Thanks to you both for the advise! Much appreciated.

I've updated my build, and included the saves!

[woqued]

I liked the idea for access to 2h from pwa (but exotic prof?), but if you haven't ever been tanky enough to utilize it thus far or just not needed then might drop it for another paragon feat entirely, such as paragon luck - "fire and forget" -type o guy doesn't utilize PWA very well anyways.

If you end up finding search annoying and/or little used, you could try to see if c/c hide with feat investment could get you an extra layer of defense - which might also enable better use of PWA on a merc gsword/lance for 2h multiplier when needed and after getting some dope gear to help pull it off.

PDK thing looks great on paper, but no idea how it stands on keeping uptime on abilities and I would advise for that to be the avenue further if/when you want to upgrade to XR tier, the extra stats and feats help sustaining PDK abilities and the PDK build looks like it could really use the demi/paragon/prince stuff anyway which makes it suitable for high end reincarnation plans. I think I had a 12s/23rdd/5pdk build written somewhere for BFM with pdk, but not sure how it'd play out in practice and never got to making one. The PDK builds kind of write themselves as your class/level/feat selections have very little choice in them before LL/PL, and your access to saves/ac/ab also tend to make that choice for you as well.

[jazzadellic]

Apr 27, 2021 9:00:30 GMT simpetar said:

5. 2h weapon on a rdd is kind of a death wish. Your AC will plummet

I haven't played this game in a long time, and I'm currently waiting for help with CD keys before I can log in, but is my memory off: doesn't an XDD get to treat a two handed weapon as a 1 handed do his size transformation? I could have sworn my XDD was one hand wielding a great sword + a shield. I haven't played him in like 8 years though, so maybe my memory is wrong. If I'm right, then 2-handed is absolutely essential to an XDD build.

[woqued]

Apr 29, 2021 21:18:12 GMT jazzadellic said:

Apr 27, 2021 9:00:30 GMT simpetar said:

5. 2h weapon on a rdd is kind of a death wish. Your AC will plummet

I haven't played this game in a long time, and I'm currently waiting for help with CD keys before I can log in, but is my memory off: doesn't an XDD get to treat a two handed weapon as a 1 handed do his size transformation? I could have sworn my XDD was one hand wielding a great sword + a shield. I haven't played him in like 8 years though, so maybe my memory is wrong. If I'm right, then 2-handed is absolutely essential to an XDD build.

They treat the greatsword as essentially a 1h weapon due to their large size. They do not get 2h multiplier doing so, so it's basically like any other character as 1handed. To get the 2h multiplier (for the extra dmg), they would have to use one size above Large and be unable to use a shield, and those weapons are Lance and Merc GSword, causing the AC to plummet in the process. 

In this context:

1h = anything worn with a shield and not utilizing 2h multiplier for extra damage.

2h = forgoing shield, and using whatever qualifies for the 2h modifier for extra damage.

[jazzadellic]

Apr 29, 2021 21:41:49 GMT woqued said:

Apr 29, 2021 21:18:12 GMT jazzadellic said:

I haven't played this game in a long time, and I'm currently waiting for help with CD keys before I can log in, but is my memory off: doesn't an XDD get to treat a two handed weapon as a 1 handed do his size transformation? I could have sworn my XDD was one hand wielding a great sword + a shield. I haven't played him in like 8 years though, so maybe my memory is wrong. If I'm right, then 2-handed is absolutely essential to an XDD build.

They treat the greatsword as essentially a 1h weapon due to their large size. They do not get 2h multiplier doing so, so it's basically like any other character as 1handed. To get the 2h multiplier (for the extra dmg), they would have to use one size above Large and be unable to use a shield, and those weapons are Lance and Merc GSword, causing the AC to plummet in the process. 

In this context:

1h = anything worn with a shield and not utilizing 2h multiplier for extra damage.

2h = forgoing shield, and using whatever qualifies for the 2h modifier for extra damage.

Ok, that's interesting. Not sure I remember anything about that. But then yes, I agree with Simpetar's original statement then ;o) I remember with my XDD + shield, I still took tons of damage and got dropped all the time on high level runs. I can't imagine losing that AC.