Stat bonuses on items

[FreddyK]

So I have a question about stat bonuses that can appear on items. Now that my main toon is getting to a somewhat respectable level and I find myself getting really nice stuff, just picked up my third set from the Red Fens, I am having to replace my other somewhat more normal gear.

So my question is this, are there only certain items a stat bonus can appear on? For example I need to find something with ogre strength on it, but my belt, gloves, boots, both rings and bracer slots are full with set items and I really don't want to take them off. Are there any helmets or capes of ogre strength out there? Or does ogre strength only appear on gloves, bracers and belts? If they do only appear on certain items, does anyone have a list of what stat can appear on what item type? What does dex appear on, etc? Thanks.

[Zirun]

Some bonuses do in fact only appear on certain types of items (as far as I can tell). I don't know or have a list of what they all are, though.

I think, generally, physical stats (STR, DEX, CON) are on belts/gloves/bracers/boots and mental stats (INT, WIS, CHA) are on necklaces/goggles/helmets. Rings I'm not sure of, I think I've seen Ogre Power rings before, but I could just be delusional.

[awang20]

I believe all the stats appear on rings, but they're a bit rarer.
Str commonly comes on bracers, gloves, and belts.
Dex commonly comes on gloves and boots. Con comes on belts and necklaces.
Wis comes on helms.
Charisma comes on cloaks and helms. Int comes on helms and goggles.
I think Wis and Int comes on necklaces, but I'm not quite sure of that.

[Azonalanthious]

While generally agreeing with what was said above, I'll add (just in case it wasn't obvious) that this is on randomly generated loot. Named items, anything goes. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any cloak/helmet Str bonuses other then Epic Helm of the Red Dragon, but I wouldn't be shocked if there are some other named possibilities out there.

[sephiroth1084]

Typically,
Str appears on Bracers, Belts and Gloves
Dex appears on Gloves, Boots and to a lesser degree Bracers
Con appears on Belts and Necklaces
Int appears on Goggles and Helms
Wis appears on Helms and Necklaces
Cha appears on Cloaks and Helms

Any can appear on rings, and there is a cycle of Ioun stones with +2 for each of the stats that can be upgraded to +6, though these are hard to come by and require access to a level 20 quest to unlock.

There are named items that are exceptions to the above, but even most named items keep stats in their associated locations. From the looks of it, you need to drop soemthing to fit Str in, as I don't believe you'll be able to find an item in the cloak or helm slots. Well, except for The Helm of the White Dragon (http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/jgould2005/DDO/Items/Helmets/HelmoftheWhiteDragon.jpg).

What set items are you wearing anyway?

[English_Warrior]

but my belt, gloves, boots, both rings and bracer slots are full with set items and I really don't want to take them off.

...which is why most toons don't wear those sets...usually the basic +stat items provide more benefit for the number of slots you are using.

Unless the sets have been made epic they are almost all underwhelming considering how many slots they use and how little benefit you get.

[Bobthesponge]

Cape of the Roc (http://ddowiki.com/page/Cape_of_the_Roc) has a +6 STR clicky, and Epic Cape of the Roc (http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Cape_of_the_Roc) has +3 Exceptional STR.

That is the only cloak I know that has STR on it. Aside from crafted items.

[sephiroth1084]

Cape of the Roc (http://ddowiki.com/page/Cape_of_the_Roc) has a +6 STR clicky, and Epic Cape of the Roc (http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Cape_of_the_Roc) has +3 Exceptional STR.

That is the only cloak I know that has STR on it. Aside from crafted items.
The Str clicky is garbage.

And epic items open up many more possibilities since most have colorless slots that can hold any +6 stat bonus.

[sweez]

Dex appears on Gloves, Boots and to a lesser degree Bracers


Aren't the only dex bracers Tharne's and the... um... ones from Necro4?

[fuzzy1guy]

Scorched bracers. +6 dex

[sephiroth1084]

Aren't the only dex bracers Tharne's and the... um... ones from Necro4?
There is also a set from Tangleroot and I believe I've come across others, but may be mistaken.

At the very least, those cover +3, and +6, and aren't too difficult to acquire (1-4 runs of TR, AH for Inferno Bracers, or 5-10 runs of VoD likely results in a set of whichever you're after).

[sephiroth1084]

Scorched bracers. +6 dex
Think you mean Inferno Bracers. Scorched Bracers are from Chronoscope and don't have Dex on them.

[FreddyK]

I'm a level 11 DEX build Halfling Light Monk. I'm currently wearing the Marshwalker set, Siren's Ward set and the Raven Eye's set from Red Fens. The Jidz-Tet'ka bracers, a random helmet, the sacred band from Red Fens for +4 Wisdom, a Charisma +3 cape because I don't have anything better at the moment and a robe of Deathblock with Medium fortification. For a trinket I can't remember what it is called, I'm not at my computer currently, but it gives me +20 HP. That's what I'm curretly using.

Before the Red Fens I was wearing boots of +3 DEX but traded them out for the Marshwalker set. So I traded my +3 STR gloves for the Raven Eye's set so I could get my DEX bonus back. So any advice anyone has would be appreciated.

[sephiroth1084]

Get rid of the Marshwalker junk.

[Cardtrick]

Get rid of the Marshwalker junk.

I agree with this, mostly, except that I think they're both still worth keeping in your bag if you're around those levels. Underwater Action is handy to have, sometimes, and boots is a nice slot for it. And spearblock (from the ring) is handy to have sometimes when there are a lot of archers, even if you already have invulnerability (since the spearblock DR will block magical arrows, too).

Still, they're each only situationally useful, and the set bonus is pretty useless (you can get better striding items at that level anyway).

Siren's Ward is a terrible choice for most characters . . . but your dex build monk is one of the few that might have a high enough AC to make the set bonus useful. And an armor bonus on a belt is quite nice, since it frees up your bracers.

You should probably get rid of the Raven's Eye set, unless you're missing a lot (in which case your build has bigger problems). Even if you need that +2 to hit, you'd be better off using the goggles of insight (for +1 to hit) and gloves of dexterity + 4 or +5 -- you'd get the same hit bonus, but higher AC.

You should also probably get rid of the bracers, unless you're in fire stance most of the time and want them for the healing amp. The armor bonus is duplicated by your belt, you should already have a better + to your will save, and the other stance benefits aren't worth much (especially air stance's, which I'm assuming you're in most of the time).

The one Fens set that really is extremely useful to most meleers is the Vulkoor's Might one. That will give you +3 strength and +2 damage (for a total of +3 or +4 damage depending on whether your STR is odd or even). The damage adds to your base damage, so it's multiplied by crits. As a nice bonus, you'll get moderate fort from the bracers, so you could swap your robe for a Deathblock of Invulnerability for DR 5/magic.

EDIT: And that cloak isn't doing you any good. If you really are a high-AC build, get a cloak of protection. Otherwise, get a cloak of resistance. If you don't get a cloak of resistance, you should get a helmet of wisdom and swap out your wis ring for a resistance ring. You definitely want resistance, especially since as a monk your saves are all high enough to matter in most content. Also, you're at the level where cloaks of greater elemental resist (30 fire resist, 30 acid resist, etc.) become available. You might consider picking up a couple of those to swap around when there's no one to cast Resist Energy.

[sephiroth1084]

Hanging onto the Mire gear for UA, Spearblock or whatever is reasonable, but not as a permanently slotted pair of items. UA, especially, I regard with utter disdain: I've stopped carrying such items on most of my characters entirely simply because there are basically only 2 or 3 places in the entire game where you need one. Even if you feel that you want a UA item, you can basically swap it in to any slot that doesn't contain Str, a bonus to HP or a bonus to saves as you don't really need anything else while swimming.

If you want Spearblock, it comes on robes. I know that I have 2 or 3 different robes with Spearblock on them due to its usefulness in some situations.

The Vulkoor's Might set is excellent but by level 11 you have access to +5 Str items, which offer +1 attack and damage, which is almost always going to be better than +2 damage in that level range, particularly since the vanilla Str item requires only one slot to the Claw's two.

Personally, when I'm leveling a very MAD character (paladin, monk, and to a lesser degree rogue), I make fitting in the necessary stat items my first priority and then filling in stuff around them, sometimes swapping gear around a lot. If you're also an AC build, that throws another wrench into things, and then you need to balance that with stats, but everything else should probably be coming second.

Anything you end up missing in gear, make up for using pots, wands, clickies or House P buffs.

[FreddyK]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I did in fact take the advice and stopped by the AH today while playing to change out my boots, gloves, helmet and a ring and things are a lot happier now and enemies don't take forever and a day to die. Thanks again!

[SardaofChaos]

Poking my head in to say that a striding bonus on a monk is overkill. Trust me, I've got a 20 and was using some boots of striding 15% because they had a tumble 10(got to get those front flips, you know) on them and it was ridiculous how many times I had to stop walking in order to stay within range of the healer. Ended up tossing them in the bank.