PestWulf
11-24-2010, 01:38 PM
Hey guys and guru's.
First off, I'm playing around and experimenting, I fully expect things to fail at some point and i'll start over, but it's fun finding things out.
To that ends, I wanted to ask how important the THF line is for damage and agro generation. For a brief bit of what i'm trying to accomplish:
I'm duoing with a friend, we will pretty much exclusively duo things. My friend wanted to play with some high damaging scimitar build and I'm trying to think outside the box and come up with some things that would keep things interesting.
For my friend, I put together a TWF Barbarian focusing on STR and CON mainly and using several toughness feats, improved critical and the like and focusing on the crit factor of scimitars. Now that TWF does nothing for speed and instead increases the chance of offhand attacks on mainhand attacks, I'm leaving it with a 20% base, plus the first TWF and the oversized TWF (which will probably drop later if it turns out the tohit isn't needed). This gives him a 40% chance to proc. I realize there are mobs that will negate crits, but with rages he'll still put out significant damage even if his crits are somehow blunted. So I'm letting him be a berserking ball of fury, loading him up with double bodyfeeder scimitars and likely a lifesteal type of docent (we are both warforged) to give additional chances to proc the 15hp buffer. I plan on letting the 15hp buffer procs fuel his Frenzy and Death Frenzy to help take the edge off as well as take out some incoming damage. I'm loading him with massive CON to extend the rage durations as best i can and with multiple toughness feats to give him a nice reserve to pull from and grant me more time to heal him.
For myself, I'm going favored soul. And what I *WANT* to do, is limit myself to as few feats as needed, but still be able to pull of the Tank/Healer role while dishing out mediocre damage with my greatsword. To help with this, I wanted to keep my spell selection to a more buff and heal oriented role and cut out a lot of the spellcasting requirements like Empower, etc. Though I may or may not get Extend, still debating that one.
So with the feat reduction, I'm trying to determine how much not having the THF line is going to hurt me. From what I understand by not having the THF line I will be missing out on increasing the base amount of splash damage and the chance to proc effects increases. My goal is to hold agro, survive handily and let my friend shred them from relatively safety. I've been experimenting with the Brute Fighting that the warforged gets and even at lvl 4 (veteran start), I'm pulling mobs off of him and keeping their attention just by swinging my sword around and getting a few glancing blows. I plan to get the Sight agro and the first damage agro if I can to combine it with the ongoing damage agro of my swings and brute fighting. My not work as well as I hope, but with us in control of our agro and in tune, I have high hopes for it.
I plan on dumping my stat points into STR mainly. I won't be an AC tank (though I should still have a mediocre AC), I plan to try and tank through DR and leverage the Favored Soul elemental DR feats combined with the warforged adamantine DR and lvl 20 ability.
I do have a question as to how often we'll be hitting mobs that will hit adamantine DR, not sure what it's like in the high levels for that, but i'm hoping it's not a complete Screw You in terms of mobs beating it.
But my real question is how much am I going to miss the THF line considering my primary goal is to tank efficiently with a DR/AC combination and my secondary goal is to be a better than average healer for the both of us. (we'll get two of the healer friend enhancements and pick up some amp gear to even out a bit eventually). I just don't know how to judge the agro and damage upgrade the THF line will give me. My friend is already averaging hits of 17+ non-crit with those scimitars and I'm still taking and holding agro with only the 10% brute fighting turned on at the moment. So it's doing great so far, Just wondering what folks thought might happen to that equation in the future.
keep in mind, this is not some optimal cherry picked build. Im sure a lot of pro's will find this ugly. But it's fun and I'm committed to finding out how it works out, so while I won't do something silly and ask you not to jeer at it, I will ask that you keep the jeering to a minimum please :)
Thanks, your insight about why my plan will or will not work would be appreciated.
First off, I'm playing around and experimenting, I fully expect things to fail at some point and i'll start over, but it's fun finding things out.
To that ends, I wanted to ask how important the THF line is for damage and agro generation. For a brief bit of what i'm trying to accomplish:
I'm duoing with a friend, we will pretty much exclusively duo things. My friend wanted to play with some high damaging scimitar build and I'm trying to think outside the box and come up with some things that would keep things interesting.
For my friend, I put together a TWF Barbarian focusing on STR and CON mainly and using several toughness feats, improved critical and the like and focusing on the crit factor of scimitars. Now that TWF does nothing for speed and instead increases the chance of offhand attacks on mainhand attacks, I'm leaving it with a 20% base, plus the first TWF and the oversized TWF (which will probably drop later if it turns out the tohit isn't needed). This gives him a 40% chance to proc. I realize there are mobs that will negate crits, but with rages he'll still put out significant damage even if his crits are somehow blunted. So I'm letting him be a berserking ball of fury, loading him up with double bodyfeeder scimitars and likely a lifesteal type of docent (we are both warforged) to give additional chances to proc the 15hp buffer. I plan on letting the 15hp buffer procs fuel his Frenzy and Death Frenzy to help take the edge off as well as take out some incoming damage. I'm loading him with massive CON to extend the rage durations as best i can and with multiple toughness feats to give him a nice reserve to pull from and grant me more time to heal him.
For myself, I'm going favored soul. And what I *WANT* to do, is limit myself to as few feats as needed, but still be able to pull of the Tank/Healer role while dishing out mediocre damage with my greatsword. To help with this, I wanted to keep my spell selection to a more buff and heal oriented role and cut out a lot of the spellcasting requirements like Empower, etc. Though I may or may not get Extend, still debating that one.
So with the feat reduction, I'm trying to determine how much not having the THF line is going to hurt me. From what I understand by not having the THF line I will be missing out on increasing the base amount of splash damage and the chance to proc effects increases. My goal is to hold agro, survive handily and let my friend shred them from relatively safety. I've been experimenting with the Brute Fighting that the warforged gets and even at lvl 4 (veteran start), I'm pulling mobs off of him and keeping their attention just by swinging my sword around and getting a few glancing blows. I plan to get the Sight agro and the first damage agro if I can to combine it with the ongoing damage agro of my swings and brute fighting. My not work as well as I hope, but with us in control of our agro and in tune, I have high hopes for it.
I plan on dumping my stat points into STR mainly. I won't be an AC tank (though I should still have a mediocre AC), I plan to try and tank through DR and leverage the Favored Soul elemental DR feats combined with the warforged adamantine DR and lvl 20 ability.
I do have a question as to how often we'll be hitting mobs that will hit adamantine DR, not sure what it's like in the high levels for that, but i'm hoping it's not a complete Screw You in terms of mobs beating it.
But my real question is how much am I going to miss the THF line considering my primary goal is to tank efficiently with a DR/AC combination and my secondary goal is to be a better than average healer for the both of us. (we'll get two of the healer friend enhancements and pick up some amp gear to even out a bit eventually). I just don't know how to judge the agro and damage upgrade the THF line will give me. My friend is already averaging hits of 17+ non-crit with those scimitars and I'm still taking and holding agro with only the 10% brute fighting turned on at the moment. So it's doing great so far, Just wondering what folks thought might happen to that equation in the future.
keep in mind, this is not some optimal cherry picked build. Im sure a lot of pro's will find this ugly. But it's fun and I'm committed to finding out how it works out, so while I won't do something silly and ask you not to jeer at it, I will ask that you keep the jeering to a minimum please :)
Thanks, your insight about why my plan will or will not work would be appreciated.