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Bacab
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Warforged Favored Soul
Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:37am
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This was posted on the other forums by Sirgog

I am looking to build this out of my WF FVS.  Going to be TRing him soon (month or two)

Anyway here is the original build with gear

Just to clarify: This is NOT a beginner build. Repeat, this is NOT a beginner's build. It will, however, function well in the hands of a beginner if they play it in a 'healbot' role.

Edit: Changed the ultimate gear setup in post 28, below. I've left the pre-Update 6 gear list intact, but feel the post Update 6 list in post 28 is far stronger. It's also far harder to complete, with multiple epic items, including some very coveted ones.

Favored Souls don't just make excellent healers. They are incredibly survivable - with good saves, inherent DR as a capstone ability, and the best elemental resists available.

The Soul Survivor attempts to be at endgame what the pure Paladin is during the first eight levels - a character that can heal themselves and others, that is very difficult to kill due to multiple forms of damage mitigation, that can establish, hold and survive the aggro of the toughest foes. It's a character that can fill almost any role in a raid.

This build has solohealed Elite Shroud, maintanked Horoth in normal ToD, and maintanked Suulomades in elite VoD. In the Horoth encounter, I was able to look after my own healing while tanking Horoth for the entire period Suulomades was alive (I had other arcane and divine casters heal me before Suulo popped and after he was slain). In the elite VoD, I was able to provide urgent heals to people during the second Orthon phase, and also spam mass cures during the suicide-bomber-bat phase.


The goals of this build:

1) Healing. They should be capable of solohealing an Elite Shroud without mana potions. Assumption - sturdy melees, and a mediocre but acceptable total party damage output of 1500 damage per second.
2) Damage. They should be capable of doing enough melee DPS to pull their weight filling a melee role in any raid on Elite or Epic (they need not be an all-star, but they must pull their weight).
3) Tanking. They should be capable of acting as the primary threat tank on Horoth, Suulomades or any other quest or raid boss with 'standard' aggro except mariliths, without putting undue resource strain on healers. Even better if they can still throw emergency heals on themselves and others while doing so.
4) Soloing. They should be able to solo tough endgame quests such as Elite Sins of Attrition, Elite A New Invasion, and future high-level content.


What the WF FvS 20 platform brings toward these goals:

Healing: The Mass Heal spell, at full effectiveness, as well as the single-target Heal and up to four different Mass Cure spells, plus extreme survivability.
Melee DPS: FvS Lord of Blades Greatsword enhancements, and (depending on whether you can afford to sacrifice the To-Hit) WF Power Attack enhancements.
Threat Tanking: Enhanced threat generation (through WF Brute Fighting 4 and careful choice of gear), significant incoming healing amplification (100% incoming healing from arcanes, and 99-163% from divines, depending on the availability of guild ship buffs, paladin past lives, and access to gear) and significant damage mitigation (DR 13 against melee attacks, 55 Fire Resist, 55 Electrical Resist, 40 Cold Resist and reasonable saves). Extraordinary hitpoints for a divine caster. Plus, mediocre UMD for additional damage mitigation through Fire Shield scrolls.
Soloing:Wings, Deathpact, extraordinary self healing and a weak but still situationally powerful Bladebarrier.
Note - this build really does rely upon the purchased Warforged race and the hard-to-unlock Favored Soul class. It can be built as a Dwarven or Human Clr18/Ftr2, and such a build has its advantages, but will lose the threat tanking ability almost totally.


The Soul Survivor build:

Race: Warforged
Class split: FvS 20
Initial stats (34 point build; these include racial modifiers): 18 Str (plus all level ups), 8 Dex, 18 Con, 10 Int, 6 Wis, 12 Cha. 28/32 point builds sacrifice some Strength, 36 point builds can splash out on another skill by upping Int by 2.
Best past lives: Paladin, Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, Monk (all five have excellent passive past life feats that will improve this character - for the ranger, it's just the stacking energy resistance not the ranged damage). Paladins in particular are likely to be able to pass you down some bound loot that will work very well for you, and have arguably the best past life passive for this build.
Skills: Max Concentration and UMD. Put leftover points (acquired by eating a +2 Int tome at level 7) into Balance. Jump is better than UMD while levelling, but you will have a capped Jump skill at endgame by just using Morah's Belt. UMD allows Fire Shield and Teleport scrolls.
Feats: Empower Healing, Extend Spell, Toughness, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Power Attack, Improved Critical: Slashing (and that's not an unreasonable order to select them in). Optionally: Drop Extend Spell for Adamantine Body.
FvS deity choice: Lord of Blades
FvS Resist feats: Fire, Cold, Electrical (if you want to min-max for tanking Horoth, select Sonic in place of Cold, but Cold is more useful generally)
Enhancements:
Survivability/Tanking-oriented:
WF Constitution 2 (6 AP)
FvS Toughness 4 (10 AP)
WF Toughness 4 (10 AP)
WF Healer's Friend 3 (12 AP - this one is expensive, but has a huge impact on how easily scroll-healed you are in raids - and a threat tank that is easy to scrollheal leads to a cheap run)
WF Brute Fighting 4 (10 AP - keep this on a hotbar, and remember to turn it off when you do not want aggro)
WF Damage Reduction 3 (12 AP)
Healing oriented:
FvS Life Magic 4 (10 AP)
FvS Energy of the Scion 1 (1 AP, required to fill a progression gap)
FvS Capstone (2 AP, grants you enough Charisma for Disjunction-proof Heal)
FvS Scroll Mastery 1 (1 AP - be warned, not having a higher rank here hurts you as a tank healer in raid situations, but I've been able to heal elite ToD and epic DQ2 without it)
Melee DPS oriented:
FvS Greatsword Specialisation 2 (3 AP)
WF Power Attack 2 (3 AP, if you aren't running Epics and thus don't care about To-Hit, take more of this if you can, if you run exclusively Epics, drop this for FvS Attack Boost)


Spell Selection:
This is a list of spells you *must* carry at endgame. Other spell slots can be chosen as desired. While leveling, always carry at least two good healing spells.
I recommend carrying *all* four Mass Cures. Sometimes, you just need to put out extreme AoE healing, and the four spells are all on separate cooldowns. This is most important in the Nytharios encounter, where you should be able to heal sturdy melees through proximity to two Shadowfiends. However, the most important two are the ones with the shortest cooldowns, IMO.
Also, I'm forgetful. Some critical spells are no doubt missing from here.
1 - Divine Favor
2 - Resist Elements
3 - Prayer (when it is fixed - this spell isn't absolutely critical, but it's a somewhat worthwhile raidbuff). Remove Curse (sometimes you need to throw a quickened one)
4 - Divine Power, Death Ward (if not carrying the Mass version), Freedom of Movement
5 - Raise Dead (only one you can cast Disjuncted prior to earning a +3 tome), Mass Cure Light
6 - Heal, Bladebarrier, Mass Cure Moderate
7 - Resurrection (can be replaced with True Resurrection, I keep all three raise spells)
8 - Mass Deathward (the level 4 version is a weak, but borderline acceptable replacement), Holy Aura (this spell is incredibly powerful since it was changed to blind all foes within a Haste radius at the time you cast it, no save but SR applies)
9 - Mass Heal

Gear to aspire towards: Edit - see post 28, this list has been changed - I've left the pre-Update 6 list intact below, but the list in post 28 is far better.
Weapons:
General purpose DPS: Lightning 2 (Holy Shocking Burst Shocking Blast) Greatsword or Epic Sword of Shadows (both are excellent on DR 15 raid bosses like normal Horoth/Suulo/Harry, and passable on DR 25 bosses like their hard versions). If Lit 2, put at least one Adamantine Ritual on it, Greensteel Greatswords are squishier than most drow rangers.
Universal DR breaker: Mineral 2 (Holy Acid Burst Acid Blast) Quarterstaff or Maul - the best weapon in the suite for 35 DR Elite pit fiends, Lailat if you ever melee her, Lich Sor'Jek, Black Abbot, Epic Raiyum, Epic Clay Golems and more. You aren't proficient with Mauls, so you will need to turn Power Attack off in some situations due to to-hit penalties. The Maul is better in non-Epic situations, the quarterstaff is probably better in Epics.
Utility DPS: Triple Positive (Holy Goodblast 30% Healing Amp) Greatsword - your weapon of choice while soloing.

Armor:
Dragontouched Docent, 10% Healing Amp, 20% Healing Amp, Incite 20%
Other Sovereign Runes may be worth considering too - Disintegration Guard, Destruction, Radiance Guard, and possibly others. Incite remains the best choice. (If you go with the Epic Ring of Baphomet setup, replace Healing Amp with Incite 15%).

Rings:
First option:
Slot 1: Encrusted Ring, imbued with +2 exceptional Strength
Slot 2: Switch as appropriate between Warchanter's Band imbued with Greater Devotion 8 and any +6 Cha ToD ring imbued with +2 Exceptional Constitution. (Don't roll on a ring that is the perfect ring for someone else in your raid just for the Con +2, that's mean!). Alternately, if you want to reduce item switching, go Con +2 on your Warchanter's Band.
Second option:
Slot 1: Epic Ring of Baphomet, augmented with any useful +1 exceptional stat (you might change which stat as you obtain new and better tomes, happy Epic token farming)
Slot 2: Encrusted Ring, imbued with 20% Healing Amplification (frees up the DT Tempest slot for 15% Incite, happy Refuge grinding)

Belt:
Knost's Belt should reside in your belt slot most of the time. When the situation calls for it, switch in various clickies, the most important being Amara's Belt, Tokala's Belt, Morah's Belt and the Planar Gird. (It sucks to remove your only source of Greater False Life to use a clicky, but you have the HP to spare).

Amulet:
Generally, keep Torin's Choker in this slot (primarily so Superior Potency 6 is always boosting your Heal spell and the occasional Bladebarrier). Situationally switch to Torc of Raiyum, Golden Cartouche, Silver Flame Necklace, or a Shroud-crafted tanking item. Don't bother epic-ifying the Torc, others need that shard far, far more than you do.

Bracers:
Permanently equip one of your main Shroud-crafted items here. This itemisation may change with Update 6, as it is suspected that the second piece of the Greater Vulkoor's Wrath set fills this item slot.

Cloak:
Permanently equip one of your main Shroud-crafted items here.

Boots:
Switch between a Shroud-crafted item, Boots of Anchoring, and in extremely rare situations, Madstone Boots. If you are invited to a group to play a healer role, never use the Madstone Boots in that group.

Gloves:
The ideal item here is Update 6's Epic Gloves of the Claw, which provide 30% healing amplification on their own (this effect alone is worth the item slot), as well as some effects that do not benefit this character's gear setup. (Epic) Spectral Gloves are also worthwhile to offset the to-hit penalty of Power Attack. I personally use Epic Spectrals with a +1 exceptional Con, which pushes my Con up a bracket due to me having eaten a +3 Con tome.

Trinket:
Switch between (Epic) Bloodstone and Epic Dragon's Eye, as appropriate. Consider augmenting with +4 saves. Litany of the Dead may also fit well, depending upon your equipment.

Helmet:
Minos Legens at present. Looking to replace this.

Goggles:
Tharne's Goggles when playing a melee DPS role. A Shroud-crafted tanking item for tanking situations.

Shroud-crafted items:
There's a lot of items listed here, and as such you will need a lot of cleansing stones to optimize this build. Only the HP item is truly necessary for the build to function. But, if this build becomes your main, you can continue to improve its performance by grinding even more Shrouds (/vomit).

For wearing 'all-day, every day':
Conc-Opp 10/15/20 HP item
SP item (A useful resist 30, 50 SP, 100 SP, with a useful synergy effect - I have this crafted as Smoke with Resist Fire 30, were I to redo it, it would be made as Lightning Strike Guard with resist lightning 30 on the bottom tier to get +5 UMD, or as Disintegration Guard with immunity to blindness on the bottom tier)

Other utility items to consider:
Radiance Guard Fire Resist Item: Either Resist Fire 30/Greater Healing Lore/Resist Fire +10, or Healing Lore/Resist Fire +5/Resist Fire +10 (useful for bosses that spam Fire spells, like most of them)
Lightning Strike Guard Resist Item: As the last one, but Lightning not Fire (if you make both, use a good guard instead of the second Healing Lore effect)
Corrosive Salt Cold Resist Item: Blindness Immunity/Resist Cold +5/Resist Cold +10, or Resist Cold 30/Fear Immunity/Resist Cold +10 (both are exceptional on Lich Sor'Jek, allowing you to safely attack through a Risia mephit shield even on Elite; this is likely to be useful if we ever get to battle The Truthful One in the future)
Crushing Wave Guard Cold Resist Item: Cold Resist 30/+5/+10 - variant on the previous item, with a weaker guard but the full undispellable 45 Cold Resist


Playtips:

Low level (1-11):
Playing a healing-capable class at low level is great practice for higher level play. Group often, both in quality groups and in bad PUGs. Learn when to fight and when to hide in the back lines and heal. Practice your healing reflexes. Learn to quickly identify the squishy players in the group. You aren't optimized as a healbot, but you certainly can play a healbot role when that's what a party needs.
Aim to obtain Moderate Fortification as quickly as you can, and once you have it, aim to control aggro - you want mobs attacking you while the party is at high health, and attacking others when one or more members need a heal. But most of all, get practice throwing instant-reaction heals. You can't heal stupid, and you can't heal 6 Con 0 Fort rogues, but trying to do so will make you better at healing those that can be healed. Make sure to join a PUG Tempest's Spine elite run to put your skills to the test. If you can carry a bad PUG group to success, you have started well.

Mid level (12-16):
Here, you can start to solo more quickly, as even your low-DC Bladebarriers will rip the low-HP mobs of these levels to shreds. If you are not TRed from a Shroud-geared toon, challenge yourself by trying to solo Orchard quests. If you are Shroud-geared due to being TRed, challenge yourself by inviting five other players into Orchard quests and trying to complete them.
Amuse yourself by noting that, in most PUGs, you have the highest hitpoints, most damage mitigation, best DPS, and are also the sole healer.
Turn Empower Healing off for most of the time during these levels. It drains SP, only to make your Heal spell overheal. Don't worry, this feat will become good again.
In groups, work out just how low you can let someone get in HP before they need a heal. Often the Wizard at 60% health is at more immediate risk of death than the Barbarian that is at 25%. Sometimes, the TR'ed Wizard at 25% is less likely to die than the newbie, 0 fortification Barbarian that is at 60%.
Carry Heal scrolls.
Learn to 'twitch fight' - moving to interrupt your attack chain, in order to make the quicker attacks at the beginning of the chain. Note that twitching costs you all of the benefits of Glancing Blows, and gives you penalties to attack rolls. It's usually worth the tradeoff.
If you are TRed and have a hand-me-down Shroud weapon that isn't perfect for your new life, use it! A Radiance 2 Falchion is far better in your hands than anything you will find while levelling.
Start working on getting a Sword of Shadows (to Epic-ify), and a Torc.

High level (17-19):
Wings, baby!
Get flagged for all of the main raids, and run them as often as you can. Don't try to take central roles in Elite runs, but don't be afraid to soloheal Shroud Normal, or to threat tank VoD normal. (Many players won't believe you can threat tank VoD, don't worry, heal their run, you'll get other chances).
Get the feel of wings. It takes a while to learn exactly how they work and how to control them.
Turn Quicken Spell on. Never turn it off, except to buff, or when you have an extremely compelling reason.
Practice the timing of Mass Heal. It's your single best spell, but it takes serious practice to learn to use in battle.
These levels can be zoomed through by running nothing but easy content (IQ/DD, Refuge Normal, Orchard/GH elite, Vale Hard, Amrath casual). Resist that urge and instead try to run things that really challenge you, so that when you hit 20, you know how to play the toon. Try to complete all of the Vale and Refuge on Elite (inluding the raids and SoS if you can find a group) and all of Amrath on Hard.
Try to solo Sins of Attrition on Normal and Hard, A New Invasion on Normal and Devil Assault on Elite. If and when you die, ask 'how could I have prevented that death?'. The answer is probably either 'by having Displacement' or 'by having 40 Jump', so get a Morah's Belt and consider making Shroud Displacement clickies.

Endgame (20):
Test out your newfound DR by soloing quests you'd have been hesitant to run at 19 even in a solid PUG - Sins of Attrition Elite, A New Invasion Hard (elite if you have excellent DR-breaking weapons and a bunch of mana pots, Barnzidu's regeneration is a killer though). Turn Empower Healing back on and never turn it off.
Practice running the easier Epics to learn when you can melee and when you must stand back and heal. Try to take the aggro of quest bosses. Craft more Shroud items.
Learn when *not* to twitch. Sometimes, the attack bonus you lose twitching is more important than the extra attacks you gain from doing it.
Earn Yugoloth potions. Become addicted to them.
Have fun.


That's the concept and build of the Soul Survivor. I TR'ed Numot~Khyber, my Clr18/Ftr2 longtime main into this build, and have noticed an enormous increase in survivability - I went from 561hp standing to 607, take 13 less damage per melee hit, 40 less damage per Meteor Swarm, and of course have Wings to escape many dangerous situations.

Ultimately, the Soul Survivor brings the following to the raid: 90% of the healing capacity of a complete healbot, 70% of the melee DPS of a 'traditional' melee build, the ability to threat tank, and an array of tricks that just might save the day.
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #1 - Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:38am
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Updated Gear...

Redesigning the gear setup:

Given that Update 6 intoduced several new Epic items, this is a new gear setup designed to take them into account. (It assumes that the presently un-craftable Epic Bracers of the Claw are +6 Con, Greater False Life and Heavy Fortificaiton, as suspected on Lamannia, and that these will be available by the time the rest of the gear is acquired).


New ultimate gear setup:

Epic items in purple. Shroud items in [color=green]green[/color. Other raid and named items in yellow.


Docent:
Epic Red Dragonscale Docent, Toughness augment and any one other augment, possibly +1 exceptional Con.
- This is hands-down the best available docent for damage output in content where mobs are not fire immune (most of the present endgame). However, when running Devil-heavy content from the pre-Update 1 endgame, you might prefer another docent, such as an unlocked Quorcraft Docent of Battle, or a Healing Amp 10%/Incite 15%/Incite 20% DT docent.

Weapon:
Switch between Epic Sword of Shadow (any augment, Force Critical ritual) for general-purpose DPS, Mineral 2 Quarterstaff (Force Damage ritual OR 1x Adamantine Ritual, universal DR breaker), Force Burst Rahl's Might and Holy Dreamspitter for situational use, and a [color=green]Cold Absorb 10/15/20% Shroud weapon[color] for the Nytharios encounter (kiting and healing roles).

Gloves:
Epic Gloves of the Claw
- 30% Healing Amplification - /drool, and a set bonus that provides all the threat you need. You'd wear it just for that, but this also comes with more - +4 damage (/drool) and also +6 Strength for the times you are caught in melee without Divine Power active. Take that, beholders.
- Switch in Seven-Fingered Gloves very situationally, mostly for situations like recasting Fireshield scrolls while kiting in the Nytharios encounter. Likewise, switch in the Titan's Grip gloves situationally.

Bracers:
Epic Bracers of the Claw.
- This is all about stat consolidation and the set bonuses, and is your full-time Heavy Fortification item. Note that this is not currently craftable, and you may well be stuck with Minos Legens or the Head of Good Fortune as your fortification item until then.

Belt:
Switch between the following - Amara's Belt and Tokala's Belt (for healing clickies), Shroud-crafted item (this can safely be your hitpoint item, although I recommend the cloak slot). Note that if this is your HP item, you won't be able to refresh the Amara's clickies easily in combats while tanking - this should not be a problem, however, as your empowered Heal will still hit you for enough to get you out of immediate danger.
If it takes you up a Strength bracket, you might consider Epic Belt of the Mroranon, which allows you to replace the Toughness augment in the Epic Red Docent with Good Luck instead.

Boots:
Switch between the following - Boots of Anchoring, Firestorm Greaves, Boots of the Innocent, Shroud-crafted item (this can safely be your SP item). Extremely situationally, use Madstone Boots. Do not use Madstone Boots unless the party knows you are - a good situation where you might use them is in epic VON6, where you might heal the first six Dragon passes, then when out of mana, whack the Boots on and smack Velah around a little harder.

Ring 1:
Epic Ring of Baphomet
- +2 exceptional Strength AND +2 exceptional Con in one neat package. /drool. The Wisdom penalty is irrelevant, the Charisma penalty is annoying (and costs you 29sp for half of the possible tome setups you might have) but is not a dealbreaker. Augment with +6 Charisma OR +1 exceptional Charisma.

Ring 2:
Switch between:
Shintao Ring, augmented with +20% Healing Amplification (for melee and tanking duty)
Warchanter Ring, augmented with Greater Devotion 8 (for healbot duty - sometimes you can't rely on having clickies active)

Goggles:
Switch between:
Tharne's Goggles - for melee DPS
Resist/Guard Shroud items - for tanking
- This item slot offers nothing for a healing role that I can think of.

Helm:
Switch between:
Minos Legens (take this off permanently when you have the Epic items listed above, but it is great while levelling and gearing)
Shroud items - possibly +5 Reflex Saves (air)/Resist Fire +5/Resist Fire +10/Blur/Displace clicky
Epic Chainmail Coif with +4 saves augment

Amulet:
Switch between:
Shintao Cord - use this when the +2 to hit from the set bonus is required. Also use it (just for the Concentration) when you are scrollhealing and mana is not an issue but interruption is a problem (e.g. if you are healing the maintank in VoD from scrolls)
Torin's Choker - use this when you are healing from SP and actively trying to avoid being hit (e.g. anywhere that you have had Invisibility cast on you for healing duty, this is common in ToD and VoD)
Torc of Raiyum - For most situations, this is optimal. Why can't I ever seem to loot it? In particular, wear this while tanking, while soloing with Bladebarrier, and while healing from SP while Quicken Spell is on and you are visible to monsters. With the change to Holy Aura, the Epic upgrade to this is actually worthwhile.
Shroud-crafted 45 Cold Resist item - for the Nytharios encounter.

Cloak:
This can safely be anything - Shroud-crafted items are good here, particularly ones you want on all the time like your Conc-Opp Shroud HP item. It can also be a hotswap slot for Shroud-crafted 45 resist items.

Trinket:
Switch between:
Epic Dragon's Eye - for healing duty, this should also always be equipped while shrining. Use the clicky when you need your Mass Heals to be guaranteed to fill someone up even if they are very low on HP, or for when casting it around undead (Epic Lailat's berserk phase, epic Raiyum, lich Sor'jek). If your usual helm doesn't have +4 saves augmented onto it, here's a good spot to put it.
Bloodstone or Epic Bloodstone - extra damage means extra threat, and it's extra damage.
Epic Dusk Heart - for the extra 10 hp, useful in some situations.
Kardin's Eye - Situationally useful. Be warned - it breaks quickly and so probably needs an Adamantine Ritual.
Xaochasian Eardweller - Fills some of the same role as the Epic Dragon's Eye, and also pumps your Bladebarriers up to be almost as good as those of a no-Eardweller, Wisdom-based FvS.

Possible alternate ToD set to use
You might also situatonally want to use the Stalwart Necklace and Cinder's Ring while tanking to maximize threat. This is most likely to be important if you have melees that insist on wearing the Claw set while they are not tanking (and there's lots of people clueless enough to do that, who will endanger the party to up their own damage by ~3-4%).

Recommended Colorless Epic Augments
+6 Dex (for the Reflex save boost)
+1 exceptional stats - prioritise Con and Str, then look to boost any of Wis, Dex and Cha that are odd


Key defensive stats with this gear setup:

HP - 607 standing, 667 with sustainable selfbuffs (Rage potion, Yugoloth Con potion) with a +3 or better Con tome. 587 standing is easy to achieve.
Threat - 162.5% of base (x1.3 from Greater Vulkoor's Might set, x1.25 from WF Brute Fighting 4). Optionally x1.15 from Defender set
DR - 13 (15 if you take Adamantine Body, which is really tough to afford feats-wise and causes occasional Fire Shield scroll fails - if you take it, sacrifice Extend)
Incoming Healing - 100% Arcane, 117% Divine (128.7% with guild buffs)
Resists - 50-65 Fire (65 if equipping a fire resist Shroud item, 50 otherwise, undispellable), 40 Electric, 40 Cold, 30 Sonic, 30 Acid (depending upon your Shroud item setup, these may or may not be dispellable). In particular, you will largely laugh off Meteor Swarms, taking a mere ~150 damage where other toons may take 280.
Saves - vary greatly based on item setup and buffs. These are at the lower end of what tanks should have.
Guards - Incineration, Fire, plus any you Shroud-craft (which should include Concordant Opposition, Lightning Strike and Disintegration).
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #2 - Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:39am
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More suggestions/questions...

Was never sure of this...

But does the Shroud Exceptional Fire (or any other resist) stack with the FVS Inherant resists?

By your post it looks like it does.

I also really like your Nytheros set up. Hot swap a Cold resitance weapon AND a Exceptional Cold resist Accessory.

One thing you have not mentioned is shields.

Currently I am after/have a few shields.

Lorrik's Shield for the DR and Panacea. Also I pair this up with my Lorrik's Necklace for heal bot status on certain raids. I am still trying to get Lorrik's onto a DT set. I mainly use that Shield/Neck when doing EVoN6 and I am on healing duty. Nice idea of Madstone Boots for when I am out of SP. Never considered that. I also use the Greater Ardor clicky from (one of) my Amrath Belt. Never thought of using Eardweller for that though...Kudos!

Levik's Shiled for when I need to turtle up and be beat on for SP. The "Occasionally casts Heal" seems really strong. I have not gotten this shield yet...hoping to get it soon...only a few hounds to go till I get to pick from a list.

Light and Darkness (upgraded) for anytime when Saves>most other things. I was thinking this shield paired with the Ice gear for Nytheros encounter. BTW I have never kited that part...does the Ice Touch thing have a save? If so, is it a Reflex/Will/Fort? My goal was to use the LnD and Head of Good Fortune over the Kardin's eye.

Death's Door because it looks cool when paired with undying Gaze...is that reason enough to get it? Town gear? Of course it is!

Once again Sirgog...really like your build. But the gear discussion is what really sets this apart. Also I feel with the more shields the less Addy Body makes sense. Before I was 100% sure I wanted to keep Addy body. I never even thought about the Spell Failure to my scrolls from UMD...

Oh and I +1ed ya.

Meant to do that when I first read the thread...but had to spread it around more first.
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #3 - Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:40am
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More stuff...

have a couple of the raid shields on Numot. They have been sitting in my TR cache for a while now, and I doubt they'll leave it any time soon.

The main reason I don't use one while healing is because it's pretty easy to reposition yourself out of range of the boss's melee attacks.

As for your Nytharios question - there's no save. The only mitigation comes from Cold Absorb, Cold Resist and Fire Shield effects. Absorb effects help quite a bit more than resist ones, but both are good.

If you are set on getting the shields - run Hound on Elite and the two shields have extremely high drop rates (HoX elite is, unfortunately, pretty much un-PUGgable). Almost every elite run, one or both of the shields will drop. On normal, the drop rates are miniscule. (20th end reward uses the Elite list, so you should see both there, or at least one of them if a tad unlucky).
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #4 - Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:40am
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My final gear idea(s) selections...

I have the Lorrik's Shield and Necklace. Also the Levik's Bracers...I do agree 100% about the bad drop rate on Normal. I am still chasing the Levik's Defender...very hard to get to drop it seems. Suprisingly no Hound rings yet on this toon.

I only really get my hopes up for gear on Hard or Elite. Normal just helps me get to 20 lol.

Ok so what I am thinking as of now is this...


For Nytharios fight/kiting:

I will find a random 1 Handed weapon on the AH for cheap (like someone messed up in making it) and put triple Ice Absorption on it.

I was thinking Green Steel Boots with Triple Ice on it also. I picked Boots since I will use the boot slot as my "boss fight slot".

Docent will be Upgraded Mindsunder Docent

Thinking a different belt here other than Vorne's (6 CON GFL very open to suggestions)

For Harry:

Weapon will be Lightning Strike Greatsword or ESoS (once I actually make it) on normal.
Mineral 2 on Hard/Elite

Goggles will be Tharne's Goggles since hes hard to actually hate tank (his aggro seems all over the place)

And I will use Firestorm Greaves (boots are boss fight slot)

Docent of Defiance (found one for cheap...added all 3 Addy rituals) or Mindsunder Docent...open to suggestions

Vorne's Belt for the 6 CON and GFL or something different if wearing the Mindsunder Docent is better...open to suggestions

For Sully

Weapon will be Lightning Strike Greatsword or ESoS (once I actually make it) on normal.
Mineral 2 on Hard/Elite

Boots will be boots of anchoring(when fighting him in ToD)

Green Steel Gloves with Lightning Strike Gaurd on it

Green Steel Goggles with Disentegration Gaurd on it (if tanking...Tharne's if not tanking)

Docent of Defiance (found one for cheap...added all 3 Addy rituals)

Vorne's Belt for the 6 CON and GFL

For Horoth

Weapon will be Lightning Strike Greatsword or ESoS (once I actually make it) on normal.
Mineral 2 on Hard/Elite

Boots will be Boots of Anchoring

Green Steel Gloves with Lightning Strike Gaurd on it

Green Steel Goggles with Disentegration Gaurd on it

Docent of Defiance (found one for cheap...added all 3 Addy rituals)

Vorne's Belt for the 6 CON and GFL


For all Fights I will be wearing...

Levik's Bracers for the +6 STR and 20% Healing Amp

Concord Opp Cloak (10HP+50SP(+2 CHR Skill)+100SP(+3 CHR Skill)

Greensteel Helm of Mineral 2 (Wizardry 6 (CHR skill)+ 15HP (+2 CON skill) +20 HP (+3 CON Skill))

With this setup I always have +6 CHR skills for UMDing (mainly GH and Fire Shield stuff)

Vorne's Belt for the 6 CON and GFL

Ultimately...

Mindsunder Docent+some weird belt vs DoD + Vorne's belt
Extra 30 HP due to Superior false life and Toughness and whatever special belt Vs DR 20
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #5 - Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:41am
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Anyway there are a buncha people here that I value the opinion of a TON.  I just want more sets of eyes on this.

Anyway what do you guys think?

Suggestions?

Comments?
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #6 - Sep 13th, 2010 at 3:34pm
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Bacab wrote on Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:41am:
Anyway there are a buncha people here that I value the opinion of a TON.  I just want more sets of eyes on this.

Anyway what do you guys think?

Suggestions?

Comments?


I've never been a huge fan of the tanking aspects of this build.  Seems a lot of focus in terms of ap and gear to threat tanking, which happens how often?  Out of 12 people you can't find a better tank choice than the FvS? Who the fuck are you grouping with? 

It just seems so much effort for a little return.  I can see an FvS with melee DPS ability or some offensive casting ability, but the threat tanking - you lose me on that part.

Your gear choices are interesting, but I counted 8 epic items.  Um...Damn.  Thats a lot of grinding.  And at least 4 shroud items up to tier 3.

And a ton of swapping gear for various purposes.  I don't know how you are supposed to swap all that gear out for all these different purposes on the fly.  Seems like a lot of work and a good chance to forget something.  I have a hard enough time remembering to take off my anchoring boots after a tod run.  I spend the whole next quest wondering why I'm running so slow. 

I'd say build a WF DPS/Healer FvS and leave it at that.  There's a lot of good in the build and can be very fun to play.  Scale down your expectations a bit and it should rock.


  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #7 - Sep 13th, 2010 at 7:41pm
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the 1st thing you must know is sirgog always inflats his own self worth. his fvs while leveling up could not hold agro off my 20ftr and 18rgr/2mnk. he is relaying on incite items to hold agro, any toon with 25% more dps that him will be able pull it off him
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #8 - Sep 14th, 2010 at 4:08am
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Well last week I got to kite the Nyth fight...and ended up taking over the kiting Orthons and Sully.

I was just hoping to tank Horoth while the group killed Sully.

I agree...no matter how well I gear up this toon, I will not be able to hold aggro off of a geared out melee.

Only thing is...I am finding more and more shit-tastic melee.

I have a decent amount of that gear already.

Currently I have...
Lightning Strike Greatsword
Min 2 Greatsword
Sword of Shadows
Triple Pos Maul
Concord Opp Cloak (10HP/50SP/100SP)
Torc
Lorrik's Necklace
Lorrik's Defender
ToD Boots (whupteedo)
Tharne's Goggles
Tharne's Bracers
Bloodstone
Head of Good Fortune
Docent of Quickening
Docent of Defiance
Mindsunder Docent
Glacier Gloves
Titan's Gloves
Gloves of Eternity
Minos Legens (lol)
Levik's Bracers

I have a +3 CON tome banked and I am coming up on my 20th and 40th raid(s) for a few.

I have kinda taken this guy "to the max" as a Melee-ish and Healer.

I just want to try something new.  I am hoping to collect more gear and TR this toon in a month or so.

Just curious more/less where to put my Greensteel HP Item.  I am thinking Gloves or Helm...

If I use Helm...that means I can/will use the Mindsunder Docent for the 6 CON SFL and Toughness.  But it would kinda regulate me into putting heavy fort onto it (boring).

If I put HP onto my gloves...I can put something neat like Disentegrate or Lightning Strike?

Eventually I plan on making Disentegrate or Lightning Strike onto goggles and only wear those when soloing or threat-tanking or even kiting.

You guys see any glaring holes?

One big hole I see is the whole Gloves/Bracers of the claw...

When Epicced they seem amazing...Maybe I should focus on trying to Epic those?
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #9 - Sep 14th, 2010 at 4:55am
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truely, there is no glaring mistakes there, this fvs is currently possible due to main no PrEs which suck up stupid APs, the brokeness of thf which do not require feats to be useful, ability of wf attributes which stack with fvs, the load of exceptional gear required to function

by itself it does seem a superior build but in a raid party, there will always be someone better at a particular role and you will still be relegated to a healing role. unless of coz you are in a guild or friends run
  
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Re: Warforged Favored Soul
Reply #10 - Sep 14th, 2010 at 6:22am
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Aranticus wrote on Sep 14th, 2010 at 4:55am:
truely, there is no glaring mistakes there, this fvs is currently possible due to main no PrEs which suck up stupid APs, the brokeness of thf which do not require feats to be useful, ability of wf attributes which stack with fvs, the load of exceptional gear required to function

by itself it does seem a superior build but in a raid party, there will always be someone better at a particular role and you will still be relegated to a healing role. unless of coz you are in a guild or friends run


Yeah I agree withya.

I have an Evoker FVS that has soloed VoD and all of the Amrath Quest on Elite except Bastion...but in a GOOD party hes a heal bot.  Baisically if I can Blade Barrier kite stuff to death faster and safer than a bad party...why not just solo it.  But like I said in a GOOD party I turn into a Heal bot.

I like this WF build because I can melee pretty good and heal.  I made the Human FVS first...after making this FVS he became more fun to play over-all. 

I am just hoping with enough gear/time I can fill pretty much any/most slot(s) in a raid or quest.  Like if I am doing a PUG ToD or something like that. 

What I am mainly looking for is a way to optimize my gear for every situation.

The Nytheros fight in part 2 of ToD seems to wipe a ton of PUGS.  If I can reliably kite it...I can gaurantee sucess.

The Horoth fight; if I can tank Horoth while others kill sully...or I can kite Sully and the Orthons...I can make sucess a LOT more likely.

And lets be honest...on VoD N/H/E any WF can "tank" Sully if there is a good caster there with reconstruct lol.

I am hoping with enough Incite gear and Incite enhancements, I can hate tank pretty good.  But you do point out a lot of things Aranticus that I agree with.  I have run with some great DD's that just hit soooo damn hard.  I have no problem letting that person be the tank.  But in a lotta PUG raids...you meet undergeared people.

One thing I am looking at is putting Levik's on my Dragontouched Armor and Pairing that with the Levik's Bracers for the bonus Incite.  I am curious of ANY incite gear that I am unaware of.  As long as its not in a "bad slot" I will try to work it into my gear.  I wish "Incite and subtle" were both greensteel effects.  That would make this a LOT easier lol.

My favorite ability of this build is with my Concord Opp and Torc...I rarely run out of SP during most raids...I just make sure glancing blows hit me a little bit.  Be being up there swinging my sword and getting hit with glancing blows just seems so useful.  More DPS (instead of the zero DPS from a caster FVS) and more SP (since many caster FVS/CLRs) tend to hang back.

My goal is to have enough healing to solo heal things and to be sturdy enough to know that I will not be killed easily.  As you know...dead healer in *most* raids = wipe.

Anyway...any gear ideas?
  
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