17 - 18k adrenalined Slayer on helpless ( Pinned ), with full stack AF and damage boost, Dance of Flowers twisted, only Titan's/Ram's self buffed. No new deadly crap, plain " old" Visor .
But AF not much used now ofc so it's usually around 5 - 10k on demand, still one shot/heavy damage mobs in a line with IPS.
I bet with deadly, bard, more past lives, Tenser's,  20k is possible.

Bard won't help, as the song is a +competence boost to damage just like the Deadly prefix and EE Visor.


I also forgot that DoF is finally working for bows. Need to get on that shit.

rest wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2013 at 4:36pm:

Last time I played my poor bard was before Motu, but isn't IC morale bonus ?
At least you would get excellence, so don't go all Therigar on me !

Here's what I'm going for:

Half Elf, 12 monk 6 ranger 2 paladin
(Half Elf for the possibility of dual boosts, Rogue dilly for 3d6 SA. Light monk even if I highly doubt I'll ever make use of it).

"Required" feats: (11 total)

PBS
zen archery
PA
10k stars
cleave
great cleave
Imp. crit: ranged
Grandmaster of forms
Imp. precise shot
OC
Combat archery

Extra feats:
Completionist + Paladin PL
(Can't get Empower Healing, and well.. fuck toughness)

You get 10 feats base, 6 monk nets you 3 extras.


Reasoning:
There are two ways of thinking:
- "I got improved evasion and will-based spells can easily be avoided through buffs/boots slot." With a low reflex, you will still take damage and those reasoning like this will probably want to have Empower Healing.
- Personally, I like to solo stuff, and usually, a failed save ends up in a death and frustration. I like to be on the safe side, when I can entirely focus on combat.
However, this means that you won't be able to pick up Empower Healing (No big deal, you won't take much damage if you play smart, and Cocoon was already enough on the sithali build (40 saves and no empower healing).
Also, this can be hard stat wise as you need str/dex/wis/cha and you can't just dump con.

12 monk 6 ranger 2 paladin
- 60+ saves
- 50ish UMD (Always been fan of clicky intensive builds, so - - while scroll healing isn't that used anymore, Tensers is great to have).
- +1 to hit

It just sucks you can actually access DM for 7 AP but that you can't use it.

Shadehater wrote on Aug 24^th, 2013 at 2:01pm:


Dang, if that works that could be pretty fucking buddass. Give up one enhancement tree (from what I read, Ninja is "broken" and applies the dex to bows) and Otto's (Never found it very reliable). Gain +8 damage.

Thanks again for the idea.

Anyone else noticing that their tendon slice dun robar isn't procing on ranged attacks? Or is it just me?

How high are you guys able to get your wisdom if you're a O.Crit build as well?

I'm just thinking about ways to pump my 10k some more.

I think I'm at 42 wis atm buffed. That's not using yugo tho.  (got 8 item, 3 insight, 4 tome, 3 from ENH, 1 from human, 2 shippy, 3-4 level ups)


I just hit 23 on my first Monkcher ever. I grabbed the bow off my 20th CITW from last life as a monk and then TRed. I love the build. But I'm still learning some things. Other questions:

1. Are you spamming anything WHILE in Fury moment + Manyshot? (i click dmg boost too)
2. How are you getting 15k crits? My highest is like 9k atm.  (that's w/o full stack of archer's focus tho)
3. What else should I know?

(current twists are Pin, Dance with Flowers, and Cocoon. but I just got pin and don't fully understand it yet. Do you only get helpless on mobs standing in place? )

I'm really going nuts with the AP on my 9 monk/8 ranger/3 arti. So much stuff that would be worth taking! Here's my list I'm looking at right now:

Arcanotech: 4 points definite, 1 to open tree and 3 for wand/scroll 75%
Henshin: 8 points definite, 1 to open tree, Patient Tortoise, Staff Training for times I cleave, and Contemplation for the ki regen
Deep Wood Stalker: At least 11 points for Sniper Shot. I'm going 14 total points right now to pick up 30% damage boost (gives 3 core abilities, all the boosts to devotion, and 30% damage boost) so I could save 3 here if I dumped down to using human damage boost...that said the 'don't fail on a 1' part of the human saves boost looks really nice as well. I tried out going to 22 points for leg shot as well but was underwhelmed with it, especially considering that Pin is a better version of the same ability (and factoring in bar space as well).
Arcane Archer: I think 34 points is a given here. It'll depend on whether Runebow stacks with Elemental Weapons or Deadly from another Arti or not but if it does the extra +2 to the bow makes it a given. Arrow of Slaying is a given either way. The rest of the AA line can be spent to taste (I'm actually heavily invested in paralyzing arrows right now and groups I run with are loving it in heroic content) but we'll definitely want to spend 32-34 points there. Depending how effective Lethargy from Frost Arrows is and whether it shares some of the issues with Beguile that line could even push us to 34-36 points.

That's it for what I'd consider 100% must-have stuff. Total points already, assuming Runebow works and we stay with 30% damage boost is at least 60 AP.

For the last 20 I see the following nice choices:

Shintao: 12ap total - Core through Iron Hand (Total 15% healing amp, +30 positive spell power), Iron Skin (15 PRR in earth stance)
Ninja Spy: 7-13ap total - 7ap gives 2d6 sneak damage, 2% dodge, and short swords as ki weapons if it ever matters. 13ap adds 1d6 sneak damage, Shadow Veil, and the unfortunate dex replacing strength as the damage stat on bows and slashing/piercing weapons.
Racial (Human in my case): I could spend a ton here and not be disappointed. Sniper gives 2d6 sneak damage and extended sneak range for 11 total ap spent in the tree (6 on that enhancement). As I mentioned earlier, the +4 to all saves has the added bonus of making you no-fail on a 1 while the boost is active. Improved Recovery is outstanding...10% healing amp per tier (2ap each) is wonderful. And on a character that does so much of its damage during 20 second windows Action Surge for strength or dex (depending on which one is your damage stat) costs you 2-3ap to raise your damage 1 or 2 points per hit. I could easily spend 15 points here with Saves Boost, Action Surge for damage stat, boosting my damage stat, healing amp I/II, and Sniper III.

tl;dr: Total of the optional stuff is 40ap competing for 20 open points. This is a sign that Turbine actually did something right in my opinion...you won't see cookie-cutter builds and people will be constantly tinkering to fit their toon to their play style. For someone like me that tends to not run EE's solo unless I'm really bored and plays carefully when they run EE's in a group I might dump Ninja Spy down to 7, skip out on Shintao (it's mostly defensive), and spend more AP's on boosting damage. Someone that pushes the envelope more might skip out on most of the human line, take Ninja Spy to 13, Shintao to 12, and try to snag some points elsewhere to make that work. Definitely nice to see different AP choices as viable on the same build!

Shadehater wrote on Aug 24^th, 2013 at 2:01pm:

Considering there are three super amazing twist choices already, Bane of Undeath is suboptimal:

Tier 3: Otto's Whistler
Tier 2: Pin
Tier 1: A Dance of Flowers

I'm currently playing a 12 Monk/6 Ranger/2 Druid AA.  Assuming Beguile gets nerfed to uselessness, I'll be ditching Rejuv Cocoon and the 2 Druid for 2 Artificer and the above twist lineup.  With 189% healing amp and +75% level 12 Heal scroll use for 4 AP, that's 396 healing per scroll.  That's more than adequate for a full time ranged toon.

kierg10 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2013 at 10:41pm:


The sad thing about Turbine is that they have no idea how to bring balance in their own fucking game. The result is that they change things every update.

Archers focus was "fixed" a few updates ago and it truly was awesome to finally be able to use that ability. Smart gameplay would mean knowing when to switch from PS to IPS stances. Now? The feat is useless again.

I really love the setting of the game. I love its complexity, I love the dungeons, I love the raids. But I just can't stand all the bad decisions at Turbine, the pay to win frenzy or even the game changes every updates. Not to mention the bugs, the bitch-slaps at the players, the low player base and the fact endgame was broken months ago and these guys either don't know how to fix it or don't want to.
I logged a few times in the last few weeks, but I just can't bring myself to really play.

All that to say this is another stupid change from Turbine.

@Carpone - I truly love Pin, but Otto is not only unreliable but its also not very useful since there are not many quests where there are a large number of mobs gathered. And if there really are many mobs, you can kite easily. With the killing power, the speed, the survivability and the great saves, I've never found not having Otto to be a problem.

Carpone wrote on Aug 27^th, 2013 at 8:26am:


Depending on the content being run I'm a big fan of Grim Precision as well. If you're facing quite a few high fort enemies (bosses, undead, constructs, etc) Grim Precision can mean a nice boost to damage output. I definitely like the direction you're going with the build though. I've found my heal scrolls in heroic levels popping off for the low 200's to be more than sufficient as an archer...high 300's should be fine to get rid of Cocoon. I like having it in there and may stay with the 9mnk/8rng/3arti I'm working up...obviously much more healing...but going 12/6/2 allows you to spend twists/AP/feats/gear elsewhere as you don't have to worry about twisting Cocoon, devotion (items or AP), empower healing, or T3 monk stances. I think both would work very well.

My only hesitation on dumping Cocoon is that those temp hp's can often make a big difference when used proactively right before you now you're going to get smashed in the face. That's a nice tool for traps or fights against things that might sneak in a big double/triple melee hit or massive spell damage.

The thing about scrolls is that you have to stop everything in order to use it. Most damage is sustained in heavy battles where Furyshot/10K is needed the most, so you end up wasting several seconds by switching to scroll, activating it, switching back to bow and continuing to fire. Not to mention that your run speed is dramatically decreased and you are subject to interruptions during scroll use.

I have a Mnk12/Rgr6/Art2 who uses only scrolls for healing, and while he does heal for quite a bit, it is fucking inconvenient as hell. It is the reason why I will be going for a FvS2/cocoon setup.

Ewilan wrote on Aug 27^th, 2013 at 12:36pm:



I'm gonna stay optimistic for like another two updates that when they said "okay now we will actually do more content/less changes" that they are truthful......

My main problem with quitting DDO is that there just isn't anything better.

You can make arguments for other games, but the things that keep me here:

Character building. Nothing is as good as DDO for this, I have high hopes for pathfinder online but in the end it may just be another stupid crowd pleaser.

The Eberron setting (because fuck the Generic Realms). Eberron is just fucking amazing.....there is literally a raid where you fight a fucking red dragon on a baseball diamond in space......where else do you see shit like that? (don't mind that the raid isn't the best one/hardest one, just the fact that dragon on a baseball diamond in space.....lolwhut?!?)

The UI. I load up MMOs and see that I can't just move around hotbars and chat boxes and shit at will and I go "ah well, this was expected, but I miss DDO now....." Like really, why would other MMOs think it was a good idea to keep UI so static?

The combat. You may say that GW2 has more fluid combat, or that Tera (or w/e that last one you were playing was, sith) you dodge, block and stuff more fluidly, but I still like the slightly more rustic combat of DDO......IDK why, but it has a better feel for me.

The graphics. Yeah that's right, the graphics. I know a lot of people who are like "ewwww the graphics for ddo are so freaking terribad ew ew ew." but for me I really like the graphics, they just have a better look for me....

The community. This is the biggest thing. There may be some people who just need to be removed from the interwebs force-ably, but in general the community on this game is amazing, and super helpful.

So if someone can give me an MMO with at least most of those things......mainly character creation and combat.......I will be so happy.

DDO would be that game forever if they didn't keep dumbing it down and making it less like it was when i first joined backin 09/10......