I find the Imp. Deception turning mobs around far more useful than the extra damage from SA.  Just another chance of defense for my playstyle.

Carpone wrote on Sep 17^th, 2013 at 4:08pm:


You need Improved Deception, as a swap at the absolute least. It's good damage mitigation, and beyond good against caster AI.

Persiflage wrote on Sep 17^th, 2013 at 7:01pm:


eGG might be under consideration on a build without incorporeal, but how many melee don't have 6 monk levels anymore? Backstabbers give you DPS and mitigation, and even EE Backstabbers are less of a pain to acquire than eGG (unless you've been farming U13 since inception like me).

Persiflage wrote on Sep 18^th, 2013 at 3:03pm:


Improved deception.  Target spin around and won't swing at you, also lets you get sneak attack when you have aggro.

These gloves are never for sale, at least on my server.  Farming EE Crucible . . . 

I got a pair of STR 10/Dodge 10 gloves that I might just stick with and switch to Golden Guile on red-names.

Bigjunk wrote on Sep 18^th, 2013 at 3:22pm:


Ah, right, thanks for clearing that up...  I got my wires crossed from cdr's post and thought that they were giving some sort of "hidden feature" mitigation that you don't get from eGG.  I can imagine EE versions being pretty damn scarce.  :/

Saecru wrote on Aug 25^th, 2013 at 12:58pm:


I was looking at fleshing this out to possibly give it a go as a fun side project. The problem I'm running into is that the sp's look extremely limited. Assuming you fit in at least 4 paladin levels before 15 you're still looking at a very small sp-pool even with items (assuming no greensteel). Even with greensteel though it looks like you'd be turning to pots quite a bit and unlike with Cocoon we can't rely on magical training to regen enough sp's to use our primary heal/repair.

Also, if you decide to pick up Magical Training it fits great as a level 1 feat (in our required Paladin level assuming they keep that mechanism when we can TR or assuming you're starting one now). That allows you to take Power Attack as a Monk feat (probably at character level 2) and THF as a monk feat (probably at character level 3) which opens up a lot of options about when to take the rest of the levels and feats. You've still got Toughness available for Monk 6 which means that you don't have to take any monk 'filler' feats like Deflect Arrows. Given that I can think of at least 16 heroic feats I'd like to fit in here (PA,Clv,gClv,iCrit,THF,iTHF,gTHF,Quicken,Master of Forms,GMoF,Dodge,Toughness,WFoc,WSpec,gWFoc,Magical Training) being able to avoid those filler feats seems important. Out of those 16 feats I'd probably drop GMoF's. It's hard to fit in as it has to be taken with the level 18 feat or later and since we'll be in Earth stance almost all the time it's just giving 3PRR, 1con, and 5% more ac from armor. That further eases level/class issues in fitting in all the feats.

If I were making this character fresh right now I'd start with 16+levels/12/16/12/6/14 on a 32-point build and get it a +5 con tome from Mabar to qualify for Epic Toughness. The rest of the tomes you could fill in later but other than a +1 dex tome to qualify for Dodge and a +2 str tome to qualify for Overwhelming Critical at 21 (or +1 str tome to qualify at 24) you don't need any other tomes.

nietzsche wrote on Sep 25^th, 2013 at 10:52am:


The bladeforged SLA costs ~25 SP, genius.

Magic training plus a tier 1 twist of Endless Faith gives you thirty SP through echoes.

Probably not worth it because its about 30-40 seconds recovery time, but it would give you indefinite Reconstruct through the SLA.

fluffi wrote on Sep 26^th, 2013 at 9:14am:

Regarding Div Might.
I started with 12 Cha and I am planning on 30 at 28 (+4 tome, +10 item, +3 insight, +1 excep). This is +10 to str or +7 over item insight bonus.
With +200sp topaz I have close to 400sp. With a bauble thats another 400sp.
650SP on cocoon
150SP on Div might = 20 mins (15SP / 2 min 3AP version)

Are smite foe and fists or iron sharing the same cooldown?

I can get to 500 sp with gear. That plus a bauble is roughly 700 sp. Should be enough w/ scrolling recon scrolls to top off.

Some weirdness: I'm just in the process of levelling a 12 Monk / 8 fighter Dorf G-Axe wielder similar to this and have just started getting points in GMoF; Dance of Flowers doesn't seem to be having any effect on my weapon damage multiplier.  Just a display bug, or is it borked?

In an unrelated note, I squeezed Whirlwind Attack into my build and it's totally worth it.  Whirlwind Attack is ...wait for it...  no mean feat on a toon like this.   

For the Bladeforged builds, what does 6Pal gain over 4Pal instead of putting those two levels into Fighter for another feat? I'm planning a 10/6/4 split currently, but debating on whether I want to twist Endless Turning instead and take Fighter to 12 for Power Surge, or drop a fighter level and take Monk to 9 for Improved Evasion.