Help Deciding on a Build

[CenturySC]

Hey y'all,


Posted here before, got a bunch of help, so I figured this was the right place.

I'm in a position that many people are in right now. I have two things.

1) A LR+20
2) A Level 14(With the XP to hit 16) Character.

He is a True Neutral Human, Ranger/Rogue, 32 PT. He has used a +2 Con tome, and a +1 Int tome, and has a +2 Str tome as well. I'd like to LR him into something that can hold his own in the new system. Specifically, I want to freakin' rush through quests like there is no tomorrow. I'm sick of being mediocre DPS, with traps. I don't really play this game that often, I tend to spend a lot more time theorycrafting than actually playing, so I want the playing time that I have to be optimized, if that makes any sense.

I'm open to anything, although a melee would be preferred. Hirelings are totally fine. I would prefer to not rely on clickies, although pre-fight buffs are totally fine.

Thanks in advance!

[Therigar]

I'm in a position that many people are in right now.

You will get different advice from different people. Some of it will be good advice, some of it won't. All of it will be based on people's past experiences.

The issue will be that much of the advice will be appropriate only if you have the right combination of gear -- something you are not likely to have going for you.

IMO ranger is one of the more difficult melee classes to play because of the way the armor class system works. Light armor offers so little protection and, unless you know what gear to get, this makes the character very vulnerable in a fight.

For heroic content the character class that I find easiest to play is monk. This is not really an option for you because you are N. You would need an alignment change to become a monk.

To me the most reasonable thing then is to stick with your current build and to fix stat, feat and gear decisions to improve the character.

Personally, I think that there are really only two build choices for melee focused rangers at the present time. One is paladin 4/ranger 15/rogue 1. This isn't an option for you because of the alignment issue -- you are N and anything with paladin must be LG.

That leaves ranger 20 as your best build choice. Unfortunately, going pure ranger means making some hard choices about defenses in order to avoid being squishy.

The popular choice is to wear no armor and to rely on AC bracers and high DEX to get a somewhat useful AC. The problem with this approach is that damage output (DPS) can suffer. The alternative is to beef up the other aspects of a character's defenses and to obtain a high amount of dodge. This means getting items that provide concealment (blurry) and incorporeal bonuses (ghostly). It means taking feats that boost dodge and getting the highest dodge item that you can find for your character level.

It also means relying on every available bit of AC that you can muster with every possible form of stacking AC. Because of this, it means that DEX cannot be ignored entirely but that it must be high enough that tome, gear and enhancement increases keep the DEX modifier at or above the maximum allowed for the armor you do wear.

Many players ignore the common feat of defensive fighting. This is a small boost to AC. Better is combat expertise if the build can fit it in. But this means reaching INT 13 with base stats and tomes alone -- something that detracts from starting values in other stats.

All in all it is very much a balancing act to achieve what you are wanting.

Because of the tomes you have already used, I favor you sticking with human ranger and starting with these stats: 16 STR, 15 DEX, 16 CON, 12 INT, 8 WIS, 8 CHA. Stat increases go into STR. Feat selections that I favor are dodge, mobility, spring attack (these for dodge bonuses), khopesh (for melee damage), combat expertise (improved AC), improved critical: slashing (extra DPS), power attack (improved damage) and either maximize or empower healing (for cure spells).

An alternative to the feats selected can be to drop khopesh and combat expertise in order to replace them with quicken (no spell failure and reduced casting times) and two-weapon defense (small compensation for loss of combat expertise). The thinking in the alternate feats is that combat expertise and power attack are (unless something has changed that I've missed) mutually exclusive -- you cannot have both stances running at the same time. Since more damage generally trumps AC it means that combat expertise ends up not running and if a character isn't using the feat then why have it. If you decide to drop combat expertise then you can drop INT to 8, raise DEX to 16 and raise WIS to 10.

Khopesh is the best damage you can get out of a TWF weapon but highest level weapon choices don't include khopesh in most cases. That means the value of khopesh decreases as the character reaches epic levels. Depending on the epic weapons a character has even improved critical: slashing might change -- usually to piercing but sometimes it just isn't needed any longer.

To sum up, IMO the best choice for you without extensive gear changes or an alignment change is to go pure ranger and to rework your stats to support the change in direction.

[droid327]

Hey y'all,


Posted here before, got a bunch of help, so I figured this was the right place.

I'm in a position that many people are in right now. I have two things.

1) A LR+20
2) A Level 14(With the XP to hit 16) Character.

He is a True Neutral Human, Ranger/Rogue, 32 PT. He has used a +2 Con tome, and a +1 Int tome, and has a +2 Str tome as well. I'd like to LR him into something that can hold his own in the new system. Specifically, I want to freakin' rush through quests like there is no tomorrow. I'm sick of being mediocre DPS, with traps. I don't really play this game that often, I tend to spend a lot more time theorycrafting than actually playing, so I want the playing time that I have to be optimized, if that makes any sense.

I'm open to anything, although a melee would be preferred. Hirelings are totally fine. I would prefer to not rely on clickies, although pre-fight buffs are totally fine.

Thanks in advance!

Wish you would have posted your actual current level split and STR/DEX. It'd be much better to adapt your current build into a post-EP viable build, and save your LR token for later. Like, when you want a Bard past life but really don't want to level up a Bard :D Or at least, save it for 20 when you can LR into any build you want, even one that may not be as Heroic-viable (a lot of builds don't really work until you pair them with an ED, for instance). Plus, that saves you from having to re-gear too much.

When you mean clickies, I assume you mean clicky items, not clicky attacks from the new Enhancement system - you cant really get by with just autoattacking anymore, for the most part.

TWF is definitely the way to go for your build. Depending on your stats, you might want to go Scimitar with Tempest, or Kukris with Assassin. Both can use STR or DEX for to-hit and dmg. Get to 6 RGR if you're not already, and take the Deepwoods Core 3 attack - its great damage, and Bluffs, which unlocks your Rogue sneak die. Take Stealthy 3/3 in DWS for an extra Sneak Die, that's 3 from DWS and however many more from Rogue levels and Assassin enhancements. Exposing Strike + Bluff cycling should let you keep your target more or less always Bluffed, and TWF+lots of Sneak die = lots and lots of DPS :)

Get a pair of Disruptors for Undead, Smiters for Constructs since you cant Sneak them.