U19 Pure Tempest Helf with Monk Dil

[CThruTheEgo]

I'm planning to TR my fighter into a tempest and would appreciate some build feedback, mostly with the gear.

Ranger 20
Helf with monk dilettante
34 pt build

Stats:
str: 18
dex: 13
con: 15
int: 8
wis: 13
cha: 8

All level pts in str
+3 tomes in str, dex, con, wis, cha
+2 tome in int

Feats:
1 power attack
3 toughness
6 cleave
9 imp crit pierce
12 empower healing
15 gr cleave
18 quicken
21 overwhelming crit
24 two weapon defense
26 perfect two weapon fighting
27 epic damage reduction
28 epic spell power positive

Gear Set:
Weapons: Celestia x2, Agony, Balizarde, Pinion
Armor: Flawless Black Dragonhide Armor (haste guard/armor pierce20/relentless fury/acid res40/blue slotted PRR16/set doublestrike3)
Goggles: EE Dream Visor (attack5/dmg5/ghost touch/spot20/yellow slotted blindness immunity)
Helm: EE Helm of the Black Dragon (insightful con3-str3/green slotted resistance8/yellow slotted wizardry10/set doublestrike3)
Neck: white EE Jorgundal's Collar (melee alacrity15/striding30/green slotted heavy fort/colorless slotted exc str1)
Trinket: Planar Focus of Prowess (insightful str3-con3/set attack4, damage4, PRR15)
Cloak: Adamantine Cloak of the Wolf (exc seeker5/dodge4/attack4/diversion20)
Belt: EH Arkat's Cord (toughness/green slotted HP40/colorless slotted exc con1)
Ring swap: Seal of House Avithoul (dex7/exc sneak3/sneak attack5/imp deception)
Gloves: EE Nether Grasps (seeker10/demonic might/open lock20/diversion20)/doublestrike6 of heal15
Boots: GS HP (45HP/dex skills6/blur/displacement clickie)
Ring: Epic Ring of the Stalker (ghostly/manslayer/seeker6/colorless slotted dex8/yellow slotted wis8 OR deathblock)
Bracers: EE Manacles of Ceaseless Toil (str8/con8/remove exhaustion/yellow slotted fear immunity)
Quiver: EE Quiver of Poison (ranged 1d10)

I won't list all the enhancements I plan on taking, but I'll have enough to get full human and monk heal amp, as well as damage boost from helf; the positive spell power enhancements from deepwood stalker; and everything I want from the tempest tree. I won't be spending any in the arcane archer tree.

Options:
I initially considered going dex based, but since they did not let the full dex mod to offhand attacks go live, I don't see any reason to.

I would like to keep dex at 13 in case I ever want to switch to rogue dil if I don't need the added heal amp from monk dil. But I could also just dump dex and raise con to 17, eat a +4 tome and take epic toughness instead of two weapon defense.

I'm still working out the gear set and would appreciate some help with that. With all the doublestrike, I want to keep the manslayer and improved deception effects since they should proc often. I'd like to fit in doublestrike6, but that is only available on rings and gloves. So I'm not sure if I should keep the nether grasps or swap that out with a set of doublestrike gloves. Their dps seems comparable so it might not matter either way, and with the manslayer/improved deception procs, doublestrike might have a slight advantage. I don't know.

I'm open to suggestions on all aspects of the build. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Nodoze]

I'm planning to TR my fighter into a tempest and would appreciate some build feedback, mostly with the gear.

Ranger 20
Helf with monk dilettante
34 pt build

...I won't list all the enhancements I plan on taking, but I'll have enough to get full human and monk heal amp, as well as damage boost from helf; the positive spell power enhancements from deepwood stalker; and everything I want from the tempest tree. I won't be spending any in the arcane archer tree.

Options:
I initially considered going dex based, but since they did not let the full dex mod to offhand attacks go live, I don't see any reason to.

I would like to keep dex at 13 in case I ever want to switch to rogue dil if I don't need the added heal amp from monk dil. But I could also just dump dex and raise con to 17, eat a +4 tome and take epic toughness instead of two weapon defense.

I'm still working out the gear set and would appreciate some help with that. With all the doublestrike, I want to keep the manslayer and improved deception effects since they should proc often. I'd like to fit in doublestrike6, but that is only available on rings and gloves. So I'm not sure if I should keep the nether grasps or swap that out with a set of doublestrike gloves. Their dps seems comparable so it might not matter either way, and with the manslayer/improved deception procs, doublestrike might have a slight advantage. I don't know.

I'm open to suggestions on all aspects of the build. Thanks in advance for any feedback.I am very interested in what you finally decide on both gear and enhancements. If you can share that it would be appreciated.

I ask because we currently have a Drow Exploiter in our static party and he asked me to help him respec after I finished redoing my character and helping others in our party...

Since he is stuck with Drow I was thinking he should go pure Dex to-hit/damage based & get the Tempest cap-stone but I am now not so certain after reading above that "they did not let the full dex mod to offhand attacks go live" and reading on the Exploiter thread that the Tempest capstone is currently broken... Since he is stuck with Drow it may still be the best option for now even with the bug(s)/decsion(s) but my knowledge is lacking in this area.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[CThruTheEgo]

I am very interested in what you finally decide on both gear and enhancements. If you can share that it would be appreciated.

I ask because we currently have a Drow Exploiter in our static party and he asked me to help him respec after I finished redoing my character and helping others in our party...

Since he is stuck with Drow I was thinking he should go pure Dex to-hit/damage based & get the Tempest cap-stone but I am now not so certain after reading above that "they did not let the full dex mod to offhand attacks go live" and reading on the Exploiter thread that the Tempest capstone is currently broken... Since he is stuck with Drow it may still be the best option for now even with the bug(s)/decsion(s) but my knowledge is lacking in this area.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

The half dex mod to offhand is working as intended. It was in the release notes. All stats apply the same way to weapons now (e.g. dex is now 1.5 mod with two-handed weapons, etc.), or at least they are supposed to.

Gear is pretty much set, but it is for str based. I'd plan a little differently for dex based. I can comment more on that later.

I'll have to get back to you about enhancements when I have time to write up the full list. I'm also trying to clarify with Troll about the capstone, so that might change things as well.

[CThruTheEgo]

@Nodoze: Teh_Troll tested the capstone on Lammania. Basically, the offhand doublestrike chance is only available when the mainhand doublestrike chance procs. This was confirmed by devs to be a bug. I'm curious if anyone has tested this since it went live. With the possibility that this went live, I am rethinking the whole build, since we know how quickly bugs get fixed (*cough* combat archery).

That said, here is what I can offer for your friend's drow.

Dex based is certainly more viable than it was before the enhancement pass, but since all ability mods work the same, str is still the superior choice due to having more ways to boost it and it's requirement for overwhelming critical. I think this is disappointing, personally, since full dex mod to off-hand attacks would have made dex based competitive against str based and left most of us with a choice between str dumped, dex based without overwhelming crit or str based, dex dumped with overwhelming crit. Instead we have the same flavor builds with greater viability, and the same optimum choice.

Your friend can still go str based as a drow and go for overwhelming crit. If that is the case, I would probably stick with the same feats as in the OP, possibly taking maximize instead of empower healing since there won't be any heal amp enhancements. These are the starting stats I would go with as a str based drow:

str 18
dex 12
con 14
int 10
wis 8 (maybe go 10 dex and 10 wis depending on what wis gear/tomes are available)
cha 10

If going dex based I'd start with the following stats and feats:

str 8
dex 20
con 14
int 10
wis 10
cha 10

1 weapon finesse
3 precision
6 toughness
9 imp crit pierce
12 imp crit ranged
15 point blank shot
18 maximize/empower heal
21 quicken
24 two weapon defense
26 perfect two weapon fighting
27 epic damage reduction (blinding speed if not covered buffs or gear)
28 epic spell power positive

Imp crit ranged and point blank shot will help with ranged damage since str will be dumped. There's only a few pieces of gear I would change for dex based. Use EE treads of falling shadow, put GS HP item in the bracers slot, and get con 3 and 8 on the helm and planar focus, then just slot str somewhere.

These are the enhancements I would take as a drow dex based tempest (I'm going off of wiki's point values, so they may not be 100% accurate):
Drow tree: 20 total (I'd take the same from this tree if str based)
Core:
spell resistance 1
dex 2
spell resistance 1
dex 2
Tier1:
weapon training 2
Tier2:
venom lore 3
weapon training 2
Tier3:
weapon training 2
Tier4:
venomed blades 3
weapon training 2

Deepwood Stalker tree: 8 total (6 if str based)
Core:
far shot 1
Tier1:
Increased empathy 3
Improved empathy 2
Tier2:
Improved weapon finesse 2 (skip this one if str based, obviously)

Tempest tree: 46 total
Core:
shield of whirling steel 1
tempest 2
graceful death 2
deflect arrows 2
whirlwind 2
dervish 2 (skip if str based, for now anyway)
Tier1:
whirling blades 2
improved reaction 2
Tier2:
improved parry 6
whirling blades 2
haste boost 6
Tier3:
whirling blades 2
str or dex 2
Tier4:
whirling blades 2
str or dex 2
elaborate parry 6
Tier5:
evasive dance 3

That leaves you with 6 points left to spend as dex based, 10 if str based. In tempest you could dump them into crit accuracy and crit damage, growing storm and thousand cuts, dance of death. In deepwood stalker you could sneak attack from the core or sneaky3 from tier1 for some sneak attack. Or some combination of those. As usual, it depends on goals and playstyle.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Since the capstone may not be working, I'm seriously considering a multiclass now. So that'd be a totally different build.

[Nodoze]

@Nodoze: ... Wow that was a better response than anyone could have hoped for! Very appreciated.

I subscribed to this thread and will report back if I confirm or see other confirmation that the capstone is indeed bugged on live. Please do the same as I think we both were really liking the idea of Pure Ranger but don't want him to be gimped... I was even thinking of LRing my Drow Paladin into Ranger...