Help: Ideas for Duo builds

[mike32]

I am planning on playing a lot next week with my friend who has not played DDO (but has played lots of WoW, EQ, etc) before.

We are planning not to group, but would like to access as much content as possible. ie. Between the two builds they should have rogue skills, healing (if not both healers), some kind of crowd control and enough dps to do non elite dungeons.

I was thinking somethign like Ranger/Cleric and Rog/Wiz (so both have stealth) or maybe 2 Halflings (one a Pally?). I am open to any suggestions.

[Dirac]

I have two kids that play, and I don't let them group, so we duo. We've done lots of combinations, and on normal they're all ok as long as you have at least one tank. Rogue isn't even necessary. I'm a little wary of your stated pair because you have two low armor class characters at low levels.

However, we've settled into warforged duos. This is nice because the wizard is both CC and healing. We have a fighter & wiz/rog duo as well as a barb/rog & wiz duo. It's worth pointing out that at low levels, the tank is going to get most of the action.

More important is to play the type of character that your friend thinks would be fun. Fun is the name of the game (as long as the pair isn't pathological).

Edit: What server you on? Are you twinking out your and your friend's new characters? If you have money for wands, you could have two melee characters: pally and ranger; say dwarves or halflings. This way you each get a lot of action, kill things fast, and plan to heal up after the battle instead of during.

[mike32]

I don't remember which server my character's were on, I haven't played in a long time, but if they are still there I can probably afford a bit of twinking.

Thanks for your ideas, two tanks might be a good way to go. I think I should be able to fit enough rogue into a build to be useful, though.

I like the WF/wizard idea, also, but that seems to eliminated stealth as a possibility.

[Jefechao]

First is a halfling rog/pal/wizard build with healing dragon marks.
Progression would be rog/pal/wiz/pal/wiz/wiz/pal/rog/wiz for the remainder high intel and dex. Allows you to fight in the earlier levels and become an near unstoppable caster later with great saves, evasion, and decent HP plus theiving skills, combat ability, Healing spells up the wazu and at 14 still gets 4th level spells so plenty of WoF and in the end as high as 7th level spells. So plenty of FoD.

Second would be a battle cleric/ My choice would be 1 fighter and 13 cleric to make it easy. But play your spells on the slightly offensive side. blade barriers, comet falls, destruction at higher levels and tanking and curing at lower ones. Buffing at all levels.

Hope you guys have fun.

[Dirac]

Jef has a nice build, but especially first time out, KISS rules (Keep it Simple Stupid :)). If your friend wants to play a caster, I would push pretty hard for a WF duo. If you friend wants to hack and slash, then two melee is not a bad option.

In the latter case, have a pally and then a ranger(x)/rogue(1). The pally is there to initialize combat, the ranger can TWF. Also, when you minman stuff, range is very useful. Both can use cure wands.

I don't find stealth that useful, however. If you need to sacrifice something, that can go. For your rogue character, make sure you max Search/DD/UMD/Spot with Open Lock next.

Good Luck!

[sigtrent]

I like the WF/wizard idea, also, but that seems to eliminated stealth as a possibility.

Stealth really won't help you with much of anything. it is handy in a few cases but generaly speaking it won't help you finish quests.

The absolute most important thing you have in your group is a good way to kill monsters quickly.
The second most important thing is a way to defend yourselves (healing, magic protection etc)
The third most important is ways to explore content (aka rogue stuff) and really this is pretty optional most of the time.

A WF high STR character and a good WF caster with some durability (aka high CON) is a good combo.

[Xyfiel]

Going off the Rogue skills needed, mixed best with wizard, bard, cleric, ranger or paladin. After you determine which mix to use, figure out the second character. Assuming 2 chars from scratch.


Dwarf rogue1/rangerx str based
Any combo with rogue2/pal2
Any rogue1/wizx enchanter (favoring human for HV)
Human rogue2/bardx can do everything
Human rogue1-3/clericx

I like this combo:
Human rogue3/cleric11 Battlecleric as needed
Human bard1/sorc13 (with HV and sf UMD, you can res/heal fine)

This gives you:
2 chars who can heal/res
2 chars who can take hide/ms
2 chars with Human increased healing
2 chars with HV for whatever you need a boost in
Someone who can handle str/wis and another who can handle int/cha items
2 chars who have UMD so can use any item
2 chars with heavy spell dps, blade barriers and firewalls!
DVs

Hardest part will be the cleric starting stats.
14str 22 +6item/divinepower+1enh(human)+1tome
9dex 16 +1enh(rogue)+6item
14con 20 +6item
14int 20 +6item
15wis 30 +6item+3enh(cleric)+1enh(human)+3levels+2tome(favo r)
9cha 16 +6item+1enh(cleric)

[Rentz]

i would do one of these two combos:

dwarven battlecleric and dwarven wizard 13/rogue 1
this gives you tons of HP, great healing, cc, offensive and defensive casting, great buffs, and some respectable melee ability.

or..

warforged Barbarian 12/rogue 2 (or some combination close to that) with a balanced point distribution so he can get most traps on normal/hard and has evasion with a useable reflex save (20-22), and lots of melee capability. Two-hand fighting feats would be an asset.

teamed with a warforged pure wizard. Repair and reconstruct on top of WF immunities will easily keep you alive, haste/displace/stoneskin/blur/30 point resists/great CC/offensive casting, etc etc.

you could switch that up and add the rogue levels to the wizard - either one works. evasion is just nice to have on a melee character, and running content on normal a low 20's reflex save is enough to mitigate a LOT of damage.


If you wanted to really mix things up, you could do something like a Dwarven or Drow bard and a dwarf cleric. both are very balanced for melee/cc/buffs/casting. bards can be tricky to play for a new player, though.

[mike32]

Thanks for all the replies, some great ideas all around.

After discussing the ideas here with my friend, they are most interested in playing a battle cleric. So Xyfiel/Rent and Jefechao's pairs are looking good.

I don't mind complicated builds, and Jef's seems pretty cool, so I may try that. Does anyone have a link to a full build like that one? (The Halfling rog/pal/wizard build with healing dragon marks). Also, is there a reason for wizard over sorceror? (the charisma synergy would seem to be better with sorc)

Mike

[llevenbaxx]

I would go with a WF rog1/wizX and a dwarven cleric with some melee ability. Try to make sure the WF can get his UMD at least high enough to use CLW wand in an emergency. Will be able to handle all of the early/intermidiate traps as well as kill/CC. Cleric class has the most combat versatility as far as CC/killing/healing goes. There are plenty of close seconds imo but thats what id go.

[Rentz]

(The Halfling rog/pal/wizard build with healing dragon marks). Also, is there a reason for wizard over sorceror? (the charisma synergy would seem to be better with sorc)

Mike

well, EinarMal is kind of an authority on Dragon Marked halflings - look up some of his builds; they should be easy to find. I know he posted one in the Cleric forum in Nick's thread about "intimitank clerics".

i'm not sure i agree with the concept of a dragon marked wizard halfling/rogue/paladin. to me, there's a lot more synergy by just going warforged wizard/rogue (as your healing is built right into the wizard levels).
to make the most of wizard you don't want to give up any more than one or two caster levels...preferably just one.

[Xyfiel]

Well if you take the rogue caster route, wiz and rogue both benefit from high int. Wizards also can change spells and get them on odd levels, so you can take 1 or 3 rogue. You are going to want both chars to be able to res imo, and that is tough to hit consistently on a rogue/wiz, unless you have HV and sf UMD.

17ranks
4gh
3cha
3feat
3boost(more if you want)
3cartouche
1luck
34

Casters are great at high levels. Any cleric with 14 str and power attack can buff and do decent dps. I wouldn't make a battlecleric with max str and sacrifice being able to land spells for a duo, but ymmv.

Dwarf Fighter1/cleric13
Human Rogue1/wiz13 or 3/11
Looks like what your looking for

[Thermopyle]

I thought I would see the obvious duo Pally and a Bard.
Great duo potential!

[Rentz]

you could also do something from the panty thief thread:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=123165&page=3

and wiglin's dragonmarked (self-healing) halfling wizard...just swap out the bard level for a rogue level and dump points into DD/OL/Search/UMD/Concentration.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=125514 (look a couple posts down for the halfing wizard/bard

both characters have top notch self-healing, the cleric is an intimitank to draw and keep aggro - the wizard can instakill/cc/dps to his hearts content. shouldn't be too much that you can't do.

[MrWizard]

I am planning on playing a lot next week with my friend who has not played DDO (but has played lots of WoW, EQ, etc) before.

We are planning not to group, but would like to access as much content as possible. ie. Between the two builds they should have rogue skills, healing (if not both healers), some kind of crowd control and enough dps to do non elite dungeons.

I was thinking somethign like Ranger/Cleric and Rog/Wiz (so both have stealth) or maybe 2 Halflings (one a Pally?). I am open to any suggestions.

Seems like everyone is doing this now...lol

I just started a multiclass..

I did two levels of rogue, intending to do most or all of the rest as cleric.
I did high dex and int for the rogue skills and added repeating crossbow as a feat to go with my dex..(working real well)...get a wounder or a puncturer and you will rock)...

Put skills wherever, but try to max the umd, search, and disable as much as you can.

You will have fun and survive..your 2 levels of rogue will have a good evasion..and your dps will be real good as a ranged toon.. god healer, agile defender, surviver...as far as I have got him so far....

But multis gotta watch zerging on elite..very tough for most ....but fun to build them....

[Casta]

Wf wiz for cc, damage and healing with a wf barb for tanking and damage or if you don't want to play wf toons wiz/rogue and paladin.

Battlecleric would work instead of paladin, but a paladin would be more focused on the tanking and damage then a battlecleric and can still heal.