Best two melee feats for a heal-specced FvS?

[jsaving]

My heal-specced favored soul (13th level Sovereign Host) is looking to acquire a melee-oriented feat or two, mainly for ease of play when soloing but also for beating on portals and the like. What are my best options? On my battle favored soul I've been reasonably happy with IC, PA, TWF, and ITWF but can't spare that many feat slots on this character.

[Gercho]

My heal-specced favored soul (13th level Sovereign Host) is looking to acquire a melee-oriented feat or two, mainly for ease of play when soloing but also for beating on portals and the like. What are my best options? On my battle favored soul I've been reasonably happy with IC, PA, TWF, and ITWF but can't spare that many feat slots on this character.

If its for portals, power attack and twf, if its for general mobs ic and maybe twf or pa

[sirgog]

Don't take Power Attack if you are healing specced.

You won't have the Strength to hit with it active (although it will help a lot in Shroud part 1).

Improved Critical and Toughness all the way. (If you already have Toughness, there are less good choices).

[Matuse]

if the main focus is smashing portals, then improved crit is useless (unless you have an anarchic burst or holy burst of greater construct bane weapon). Power attack or take TWF and ITWF for increased offhand attacks.

[jsaving]

I've enjoyed my healing-specced favored soul but have a couple of reasons for wanting at least a slight change. One is the solo play experience, which can be a bit of a grind with exceedingly low melee DPS. Another is to be able to chip in a bit more when the party is delivering a beat-down on portals, (greater) commanded enemies, etc. A final, related reason is to be slightly less of a one-trick pony while retaining just about all of a healbot's curing power, which is the main reason why I'm not willing to pick up all the standard melee feats or go all the way to Impaqt's "superior soul" (a great build but way too melee-oriented for my purposes).

[AylinIsAwesome]

Why take feats to melee?

Just use Blade Barrier. It's like putting the mobs through a meat grinder.

[jsaving]

Why melee? Only for the reasons I said -- portals, solo play with archers and other guys who don't move much, a bit of variety. Admittedly none of these reasons justify a huge alteration to the standard healbot build, and that may be what you're picking up on here. No melee feats are "needed", they'd just make life a bit easier at times.

I wouldn't mind going with TWF/ITWF, but upping my DEX from 8 to 15 would entail some adjustments for sure. Perhaps IC for everyday melee and PA for situational use only would be best for me.

[oweieie]

Toughness. If you have it already Maximize and empower. If you have those then extend and quicken. If you have those then heighten and evocation or necro spec.

[Vorph]

I think melee feats are absolutely needed if you intend to solo. A caster build is just about helpless in 4 of the 6 amrath dungeons, and even vale dungeons other than rainbow aren't any fun. Trogs, bezekiras, most tieflings, and many of the bosses walk through blade barriers like they aren't even there no matter what your DC is. I got fed up with it and switched to superior soul, and every dungeon I used to struggle with became as easy as Sins of Attrition. It hasn't changed my ability to heal in raids/epics at all either.

I'd say make room for three feats though... TWF and ITWF aren't enough, you really need either GTWF or IC: Slash as well.

[oweieie]

I think melee feats are absolutely needed if you intend to solo. A caster build is just about helpless in 4 of the 6 amrath dungeons, and even vale dungeons other than rainbow aren't any fun. Trogs, bezekiras, most tieflings, and many of the bosses walk through blade barriers like they aren't even there no matter what your DC is.

You must have really aweful DCs because soloing elite running with the devils is a cakewalk and I can't for the life of me think of ANY amarath dungeons that aren't easier to do with casting than melee.

[Vorph]

I had 34 wis, both evoc feats plus heighten, and a napkin. I could have gotten it a bit higher but it was far from "aweful."

I'm not saying I melee every mob in the dungeon, I thought that it would be obvious that you still kill 90% of the stuff with BB. What I am saying is that when you're running through Bastion of Power and you hit a bezekira room you are screwed without melee. Or you zone into new invasion and find the RNG picked out a nothing-but-trogs spawn for you. Wrath of the Flame--which is now actually useful--has a lot of bezekiras too, and the orange/red names all save. Hell, even Sins is irritating as a caster if you get the bearded devil in the dining room instead of the orthon.

When I LR'ed I dropped 2 wis and the three feats above to pick up TWF, ITWF, and IC:S. I notice zero difference in how well my BB's work in Amrath. Sins of Attrition is still a cakewalk like always. The difference is that I can plow through Bastion of Power and bad New Invasion spawns now too.

[Carpone]

@OP - You don't need melee feats to beat on portals in Shroud. Picking up feats for that is a waste.


I think melee feats are absolutely needed if you intend to solo. A caster build is just about helpless in 4 of the 6 amrath dungeons
Sins of Attrition, A New Invasion and Weapons Shipment are quite easy to solo as an evoker FvS. No melee feats required.

As for Vale quests, I'd rather do them as a caster than a melee any day of the week. Let Sleeping Dust Lie is made for Destruction.