actually just looked at Rubbinns swf pally, does that work okay and have there been any changes/improvements to it. and I don't recall there being any orbs till level 12.

gotcha thanks for the tips. I have been looking over a lot of different builds here and on the mother forums. looked at the tree (glad to see it made a comeback ) and the swf wolfie (had the precursor build before swf came around)

the wolf and its variations look interesting and I sent Lelo apm asking some questions, of course I might just play a retard dps barb to get back into the game, don't know yet

5 Foot Step wrote on Feb 13^th, 2015 at 10:55pm:


was the pally buff that good? 

DropBear wrote on Feb 13^th, 2015 at 8:55pm:

There were 2 nerfs lowering both the doublestrike and the damage from swf to 50% instead of 100.

Lehane wrote on Feb 14^th, 2015 at 2:36am:

Stay pure 20 as human.

Do not take thf feats with bastard sword.

Either 2 builds.

One is go thf with a two hander and dont take shield mastery feats.

Or play vanguard. Improved shield bashing and improved shield mastery. Improved Crit slash, Exotic weapon Bastard sword, Tower Shield, OC, empower heal, quicken, pthf( lets bastard sword glance weapon procs), ptwf.

Lehane wrote on Feb 14^th, 2015 at 2:36am:


I should have mentioned that THF and SM will not stack. You can take the feats but only one will be active depending on what you equipped most recently.

Stay pure, the capstone is pretty good and you won't need extra feats since you don't need THF.

1. Exotic Weapon
1h. Shield Mastery
3. Improved Shield bash
6. Power Attack
9. Improved Critical
12.Improved Shield mastery
15.Empower Healing
18.Quicken
21.Overwhelming Crit
24:Bulwark of Defense
26:Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27:Epic DR
28:Perfect Two Weapon Fighting

41 points in Vanguard
25ish in Defender
rest in racial and/or KotC

update, thanks for all the advice guys, currently breezing through mid level elites (not any achievement though) and I must say I am staggered, that not only is S&B pally not gimp but its actually very good as well.

its also very nostalgic being back in ddo after going cold turkey a year ago. thanks everyone.

5 Foot Step wrote on Feb 14^th, 2015 at 3:47am:

I would take these feats except swap out bulwark for tower shield unless you have madstone aegis. And swap out epic dr for cleave. This way you have access to legendary dreadnought. If you wanted to go one step further replace quicken for great cleave and retain access to cleaves in divine crusader.

for heroics I would actually consider using kotc. 2 reasons stuns for chaotic or evil outsiders on vorpals no saves. and holy retribution. The last one is an insta kill aoe in heroics. so OP ;p

after some research rogue over arti, don't even get rune arm use till 2 so even if that was a good idea its out. and FvS over Cleric, saves, Cha based, spell points, just beter.

looks as follows:
Race: Dark elf
Stats: only required is to have a dex of 13 for precision at 3 or 6, leaning towards 6 so I can get the +1 tome bonus in and start lower base.

Feats:
1 Swf
3 Extend spell
6 Precision
9 ISwf
12 ICrit
15 Empower Healing
18 GSwf

probably take quicken at 21

skills are balance to qualify for Swf then don't care (7) UMD, spot, search, disable device, perform. (open lock if I have the points)

Progression
1- Rogue
2-9 Bard
10 FvS
11-20 Bard

as far as SWF two choices, just one weapon for the damage, or buckler for the dodge, figure it wont be hard to swap as needed but a lot of Bucklers make up for the dps loss of wielding it so I don't see why not.

the reason for dm is because there are just so many ways to up Str compared to Cha, though I have been out of the loop so correct me if I am wrong, and even with Cha to damage we still have to worry about to hit, though not that big of a deal running precision.

I do plan on still going mostly Cha based though, because every 2 I put into Cha is 1 Str compared to 2 Str and no Cha. but bard alone has +8 to str in skaldic rage and the rage spell alone before anything else.

I am really not worried about evasion, I would have to focus really hard on reflex to make it work reliably (most monchers I recall would go for improved evasion then not give a shit because there only taking half all the time. and with MRR it is just a lot more reliable to get a decent number and reduce your damage taken all the time instead of only reflex save some of the time (the loloneshot still exists with evasion)

I really have considered dropping the 1 rogue and picking up 1 of something else, and fighter is a choice for all the freebies and feat. 1 dip options?

-Fighter = Feat, haste boost, etc.
-Wizard = Feat (meta) shied and mage armor sla, doublestrike, a kind-of-cleave, etc.
-Rogue = trap monkey and skill points.

Rubbinns wrote on Feb 14^th, 2015 at 2:29am:


Yeah, but still good fun.
Takes 3 hits instead of 2 to bring down epic mobs.
Ah well.

Munkenmo wrote on Feb 15^th, 2015 at 4:22pm:


Agreed.