Warchanter Path = bad or good?

[Zeltip]

i made a drow elf warchanter, i used Master's Touch spell for profiency with Great Axes and i just hack away. I go the prestige for Ironskin Chant. But i didn't customize my toon.

How big of a difference is it between a customized warchanter and choosing the warchanter path created when it comes to how well you kill? Big enough where i should restart my toon or not by much?

if you want to look up my toon's stats, its Saloco - in realm Khyber

[Anderei]

The difference depends on how well you would customize.

The default warchanter path is actually one of the not so bad paths from Turbine. Not as uber as some multiclassed warchanter might be, but its still a viable build.

[Freeman]

I'd probably reroll eventually, but only when you are absolutely sure you can make a better character, either by following a build on the forums here or doing it yourself. The Drow Warchanter path isn't terrible(Take Toughness instead of Stunning Blow at level 15 though), so I would use it to learn a decent amount about the game. You can also choose to do a lesser Reincarnation later to redo your stats and feats instead of rerolling completely.

[Irinis]

The path isn't that bad up to about the level you're at. As you play higher you'll notice that Bards (although considered "masters of none") do need to specialize in order to be competitive.

There are four possible aims in a Bard build:

1. Personal DPS
2. Group DPS/Buffing
3. CC
4. Healing

As a Bard, as long as you max out your enhancements on the Attack and Damage lines for your songs, and fit in Extend Spell somewhere in your feats... you can totally cover aim #2. Warchanter is the best PrE for aim #2, in fact, because even when the build splashes a little it still has the best damage song.

Aim #1 has to be planned for in advance because Bards don't get the advantages that Fighters do, for example.
Aim #4 also has to be planned for in advance, as aiming for healing (max CHA) will limit your personal DPS.

Aim #3 can be covered whether you aim for #1 or #4 by different strategies.
If #1, Fascinate is your only CC friend.
If #4, you get decent healing by maxing CHA and it will give you advantages with spell CC not just Fascinate. BUT, your spell CC will never be as good as a comparable Wizard or Sorc - even though your Fascinate with max CHA is the best CC in the game.

At level 8, you might have had a chance to experiment with all these aims and the playstyles that go with them. I would strongly advise a reroll and a careful build that suits your playstyle, but that's up to you.

Read a lot about Bards before rerolling, or play your current one higher until the flaws of the default path build are glaringly obvious to you and then you can begin to make informed decisions about what you want in a Bard.

[Ultrazen]

Things I've learned about DDO

1. You will re roll a lot
2. Every point matters, this game really does get pretty picky with a point here or there.
3. Builds are highly gear dependant

I would get used to re rolling :P I've done it about 40 times.

[sly_1]

regarding fascinate, the right gear makes up for a lot. I have a warchanter bard that started with 14 cha, ate a +3 tome, +1 enhancement, and +6 item: this build when buffed and wearing a +15 perform item (bard's cloak) hits fascinate dc's of 70. That's more than enough even in epic quests.

Moral of the story? It's unnecessary to invest very much in cha to be effective with fascinate.

[tomfar72]

IMO, Drow make great Bards. Since you went Warchanter, I assume you want to dps/buff more than cc/heal. If this is the case, I would LR and take the TWF line. Drow+rapiers+drow enhancements+bard songs=pure sexy. This is because your rapier enhancements and bard songs add to the attck and damage of each attack, and TWF with rapiers will give more attacks than a 2 hander. You will be wanted in groups for your songs/buffs and your damage output should be respectable.