Any suggestions on how to fix my toon?

[Goobermans]

Long story short, me and some friends played DDO and ended up quitting due to one reason or another. We started back up and I do not want to start over and make them wait. Due to some bad decision making(possibly?) I took 1 level of ranger on my fighter. He has gone all over the place because I went from tanking to DPS to tanking for my group of friends.

He is a Human 9 Fighter/1 Ranger
Base stats at 10 are

STR 18
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 8

Skills worth mentioning

Intimidate 13
UMD 6

Feats

Combat Expertise
Dodge
Favored Enemy:Undead
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Toughness
Greater Weapon Focus:Slashing
Weapon Spec:Slashing
Improved Critical:Slashing

Ok, I want to turn him into DPS with a 2 hander. I only took ranger because I wanted to be able to use wands and figured Favored Enemy would be a bonus. I'm pretty bummed I can never get the capstone.

So, what direction would be the best? 10 Levels of barbarian? Any suggestions? Or am I cursed to be stuck as a fighter without haste?

[BLAKROC]

Long story short, me and some friends played DDO and ended up quitting due to one reason or another. We started back up and I do not want to start over and make them wait. Due to some bad decision making(possibly?) I took 1 level of ranger on my fighter. He has gone all over the place because I went from tanking to DPS to tanking for my group of friends.

He is a Human 9 Fighter/1 Ranger
Base stats at 10 are

STR 18
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 8

Skills worth mentioning

Intimidate 13
UMD 6

Feats

Combat Expertise
Dodge
Favored Enemy:Undead
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Toughness
Greater Weapon Focus:Slashing
Weapon Spec:Slashing
Improved Critical:Slashing

Ok, I want to turn him into DPS with a 2 hander. I only took ranger because I wanted to be able to use wands and figured Favored Enemy would be a bonus. I'm pretty bummed I can never get the capstone.

So, what direction would be the best? 10 Levels of barbarian? Any suggestions? Or am I cursed to be stuck as a fighter without haste?

take 5 more ranger levels and get tempest :) bag the thf feats and go twf
search the forums for the Monster build

[InfidelofHaLL]

delete and reroll?

[DoctorWhofan]

TWF tempest. Take 6 levels of Ranger for Tempest. Maximum DPS and the TWF feat for free. So your toon isn't broke.

[VonBek]

TWF Tempest with good STR will work. Do you list your base CON as 12, or with items or tomes? You can get by, though it could use an assist.

[Girevik]

The Tempest option stood out to me as well.

You will probably want to keep an eye on your Dex though.

The TWF chain requires: 15, 17, 17 Dex when selected as feats. (TWF, GTWF, ITWF)

You will get the first two automatically as a Ranger. However, you will need to select the third. That means you will need a naked (starting+level-ups+tomes) Dex of 17.

Depending on how much you raid, how wealthy your character is, and whether you want that extra attack, you may need to think about putting your 12th and 16th level stats into Dex.

On the rich end of the scale, read a +3 tome.

On the poor end of the scale (which would be the route I would need to take), a +1 Tome, your 12th and 16th level stats, and taking 10th Level Fighter (and the Fighter Feat) at 16 and you can have it then.

[Demoyn]

I'm pretty bummed I can never get the capstone.

So, what direction would be the best? 10 Levels of barbarian? Any suggestions? Or am I cursed to be stuck as a fighter without haste?

As a 10 fighter/6 ranger (14 fighter/6 ranger at 20) you'll get the same 10% weapon speed boost you'd have gotten as a capstone (though only on two weapon fighting).

Also, make sure to trade out cleave and great cleave. I'd suggest taking exotic weapon proficiency: khopesh and oversized two weapon fighting to fill their spots.

[Goobermans]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll just accept having to go twf. The stats are his base at level 10 with his 2 leveling up stats that went into STR. He has no tomes, but he does have a birthday cake he hasn't used.

Guess Ill dump Dex with his level ups and the cake.

Here is a question. Are the stat bonuses retroactive for changing out feats? IE. Can I up my dex to 17 and then switch out a feat from a level that I didn't have a 19 dex for GTWF? Thanks.

[Girevik]

Here is a question. Are the stat bonuses retroactive for changing out feats? IE. Can I up my dex to 17 and then switch out a feat from a level that I didn't have a 19 dex for GTWF? Thanks.

I'm not sure -- I think they are -- but I also think it doesn't matter.

From DDO Wiki:
Two-Weapon Fighting (requires Dexterity 15+): Reduces the to-hit penalty when using two weapons at the same time. The penalty for your primary hand lessens by 2 and the one for your off-hand lessens by 6, so it becomes -4/-4 (instead of -6/-10 without this feat). If the off-hand weapon is light, the penalties both decrease by another 2 points, down to -2/-2 (instead of -4/-8 without this feat).
Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting (requires Strength 12+, Two-Weapon Fighting): Reduces the to-hit penalty when using weapons that are not light weapon on your offhand.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (requires Dexterity 17+, base attack bonus of +6 or higher, Two-Weapon Fighting): This feat adds a second Off-hand attack to a two-weapon combo chain at a +5 bonus to-hit.
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: (requires Dexterity 17+, base attack bonus of +11 or higher, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting): Adds a third Off-hand attack to the two-weapon combo chain at a +10 bonus to-hit.

The BAB requirements and the Ranger granted Feats are likely to be your biggest constraints.

Rangers are Granted TWF at level 2 and ITWF at level 6. So, you are not going to want to swap out for either of them.

You are going to need Mobility and Spring Attack in order to Tempest. Hopefully you took Dodge before your Cleaves so that you can swap the Cleaves out for that chain.

It doesn't look like you will be able to take Demoyn's advice to swap for OTWF since that feat requires TWF first.

So, in a perfect world:

Swap Cleave for Mobility.
Swap Great Cleave for Spring Attack.

11: Take Level 2 Ranger at Character level 11 (Grants TWF)
12: Take Level 3 Ranger at Character level 12
Put Stat Point into Dex, now at 16 (14+1 from Cake+This 1)
Select OTWF or Khopesh.
13: Take Level 4 Ranger at Character level 13
14: Take Level 5 Ranger at Character level 14
15: Take Level 6 Ranger at Character level 15 (Grants ITWF)
Select Khopesh or OTWF.
16: Take Level 10 Fighter at Character level 16
Put Stat Point into Dex, now at 17 (14+1 from Cake+Last 1+This 1)
Select GTWF as Fighter Bonus Feat since you now have Dex, BAB, and ITWF.

[Girevik]

So, in a perfect world:

Swap Cleave for Mobility.
Swap Great Cleave for Spring Attack.

That might be perfect, but its not going to let you do it. Since they are chained you can't drop Cleave before Great Cleave.

If you took Dodge before Cleave:

Replace Great Cleave with Khopesh.
Replace Cleave with Mobility.
Take Spring Attack at 12.

If you took Cleave before Dodge, things are uglier.

Replace Great Cleave with Khopesh.
Replace Dodge with Iron Will (a place holder).
Replace Cleave with Dodge.
Replace Iron Will with Mobility.
Take Spring Attack at 12.

(If anyone can think of a better progression, please speak up.)

Another consideration is going 9 Fighter and 11 Ranger. Then ALL of your TWF will be granted without Dex requirements. That way your level ups can go to Strength.

[Goobermans]

Awesome, I'm almost positive I took dodge at level 1.

As for the final levels, someone had mentioned to me the other day in the end to go to fighter 12(ranger 8 I guess, opens up second level spells) so I could get Kensai also, but I don't see any info on that?

Thanks a lot for helping me readjust this character, I have an odd attachment to him.

[johnrbimmer]

Since you Dex is a natural 14, you could take the chance of getting a +3 Dex tome from higher level raids and then you can take GTWF and put your level ups in strength to maintain DPS.

Since you will not have a chance to get GTWF until later level 16 (as you will probably want to take the next 5 levels as a ranger which grants the TWF chain automatically), there is probably very little need to burn level up points in dex.

[Girevik]

The Kensai thought is a good one. The Official Preview is here:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=164684

As for the Level-Ups versus Tomes, that depends A LOT on how you play and how lucky you plan on being.

It could also hinge a lot on the question of Tome effect on Feat Exchanges. If Tomes are in fact retroactive, then if you EVER read a +3 Dex tome you will be able to swap out that level 10 Fighter Feat for GTWF. If not, you had better read that Tome before you level up too high (level 18, since your Fighter level 12 Feat will need to be GWS Slashing for Kensai II).

[Goobermans]

Alright, it's settled. Fighter12/Ranger8. Kensai II, Tempest I(double prestige isn't an issue I assume since no one has said anything about it). Fighter 10/Ranger 6 until next expansion.

Dodge was taken at 1 so Ill have no trouble changing the feats around. Birthday cake to Dex +1, and then level 12+16 to Dex.


Combat Expertise
Dodge
Power Attack
Mobility(Was Cleave)
Spring Attack(Was Great Cleave)
Toughness
Greater Weapon Focus:Slashing
Weapon Spec:Slashing
Improved Critical:Slashing

At Character Level 12: Exotic Weapon:Khopesh
At Character Level 15: Oversized TWF
At Character Level 16 Fighter(10) Bonus Feat: GTWF

[Hadrian]

Depending on how much you raid, how wealthy your character is, and whether you want that extra attack, you may need to think about putting your 12th and 16th level stats into Dex.

On the rich end of the scale, read a +3 tome.




Who knows how common +3 tomes might be by level 20? Look at what happened to +2 tomes. At level 12 they were as rare as +3 tomes are now, but since we've hit 16 they have been relatively easy to aquire. It's getting to the point where they are as common as +1 tomes were back at level 12 or 14.

[Girevik]

Alright, it's settled...

Mobility(Was Cleave)
Spring Attack(Was Great Cleave)
...
At Character Level 12: Exotic Weapon:Khopesh


Not quite, because I don't think Fred will let you do that. Cleave is a prerequisite for Great Cleave and Mobility is a prerequisite for Spring Attack. While it would be nice to swap out chains, Fred only does one Feat at a time, so you have to "peel off" the most recent first. (You can't remove Cleave while still having Great Cleave.)

What you will need to do is swap out the order from above for:

Exotic Weapon:Khopesh (was Great Cleave)
Replace Cleave with Mobility.
At Character Level 12: Spring Attack