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Post by bunnyman on Jul 12, 2007 17:42:52 GMT
So you're willing to sacrifice several feats and ability points for an ability that lasts all of a minute and 30 seconds but yet complain about the duration of bard epics, any of which are going to last longer than divine might and be considerably more powerful. Sure you have lots of uses of might and it'll do lots of damage with the cha but without extended duration its essentially worthless. Having played many low level smiter builds with divine might it's not really something I even bother to use most of the time since by the time I bother to cast it reselect your target, you could have already killed the thing with normal damage I'd imagine your quantity of time casting might versus hitting with it would be 50/50 at best. 0S I didn't say you should use Divine Might for every enemy, but if you notice yourself doing low double digit or less than double digit damage on something it would be worthwhile to use the 3 second cast divine might -- the difference between a regular dexer and this dexer with divine might will be noticeable on bosses.
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Post by bunnyman on Jul 12, 2007 17:50:49 GMT
Just out of curiosity, what role do you want this char to play in the endgame? You have the ability to tank like a defensive tank. You dont deal the damage of an offensive tank. You cant fill the spot of a caster bard because you lack epic (no matter how short their duration might be, they are really really worth it) and a good song. You can do all that a bit but i guess in a serious hell party ppl will wait for a real bard, a real tank or a real damage dealer. You just have 10 spots and they are usually tight anyway. No offense intended, just my expierience with HG. Jack-of-all-trades dont do well here. While it is a master of nothing, it is still good at what it does do. It has an ab/ac that is as high or higher than the average dex tank (not including pure ac monks) still ends up as a pretty good caster, and with divine might you do more damage than the average dexer to crit immune monsters. But... since you guys still want to see more bard levels/epics i'll draw up an alternate build path.
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Post by atomicsomething on Jul 12, 2007 18:20:30 GMT
But... since you guys still want to see more bard levels/epics i'll draw up an alternate build path. Added -- it's not what we want .... it's for some good reasons When i'm setting up a build, i write down every feat i find usefull an d then give them a priority. Power Attack/Divine Might is nice. i like using it (and using it a lot) on my COT build even if he has only 9 levels Pally, but thanks to my COT levels i have no feat shortage pre-epic, i had even more than i could use. In your case, you're on feat shortage, you didnt even take blind fight, which overall will make much more damage than divine might. Besides, look at your CON : it 10 ... Planning with a BUR subby to compensate it just hides this issue but it's still there. As a tank, a rule of a thumb is to have at the very least 14 CON (well this rule applies for any build ....). High AC does not make you invulnerable, even on 1s you get hit and you should be able to soak it . Putting 6 points in STR with such a low CON is not advised And this build is only good at AC, other are mediocre at best. AB is mediocre (Song, WarCry and GMW count towards the +20 cap btw), and no taunt to compensate it. You may consider dropping the 4th attack and take only 2 levels pally. Song is terrible, 2 drops in saves make a difference if not your you, but for the mages in your party. The other boosts given by song take all their meaning in hells (even before). And there, your song definively sucks. Your spellcasting is mediocre : no +14 gmw, no xtra effect on healing circle, low level and short duration on the rest (even with xtra levels added by PM).
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Post by bunnyman on Jul 12, 2007 18:29:29 GMT
"Your spellcasting is mediocre : no +14 gmw"
Read the feats again...
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Post by alandrian on Jul 12, 2007 18:59:42 GMT
Well I would say that the state of the art hell bard is a caster bard with lots of epics. Such a bard really really helps a lot. I saw it on our nessus run. You want to hug him all day long. So back to this build. With a real bard in group the bard abilities of this build are quite useless. And who wants to leave without a bard in hell? So we have a crit immune dex tank here. Why the bard in the build? To exploit the conceal? Have you considered dropping the bard levels and make a staffmaster? some kind of wiz/wm/pm? I think it would fit the tanking role better than this. And even if you want to stay with bard, have you cosidered changing the race to a more tankish one? Shard make good bards but this build wont reall fill the bard slot (without epics, good song etc.) in a (hell)-group so better focus on the tanking stuff.
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Post by bunnyman on Jul 12, 2007 19:33:59 GMT
I've never said that this was the best bard, but IMO this is at least a good dex tank, and you dont *have* to be the bard of the group, but you can at least be a backup bard -- primary bard fugues/limbo's/leaves (it happens), this character can step up. And taking out out bard to become a staffmaster? Uhh... that would be an entirely different build...
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Post by sabregirl on Jul 12, 2007 21:03:22 GMT
It doesn't really make a good dex tank when you compare it to other dex builds and even compared to the cheese bard (which has considerably more bard levels) and it doesn't take advantage of many useful caster bard advantages either. Without dualing your weapons your damage is going to be low, even with your divine might (for the few hits you get it for). Without full dex modifier your AB is going to be passable at best.
-S
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