How bad have I screwed myself on this life?

[PermaBanned]

First, a little background:
With Bladeforged on sale, I went ahead and bought it. Now that I have this new toy, I naturally wanted to play with it. I took my many times reincarnated Cleric (named "Myhealer" for those who've run with it) and decided to pick up 3 more lives towards Completionist, starting with Fighter. Ok, on to what I've done...

(It may be worth noting at this point that I was not exactly sober during the decision making process ;))

Having not tried this particular build before, I hopped right into the 12/6/2 Fighter/Monk/Pally THF Centered Kensai (currently 8/6/1). I am however lacking some potentially important pieces of gear, such as... my best Docent is the (upgraded) Quarforged Docent of Battle from IQ, and my best Two Hander is Shining Devestation... it's actually the only named 2Hander in my arsenal - so I took the associated feats to become "One with the Blade" with my devastating great club. (It sounded much cooler before I woke up sober and relooked at it). I figure on the upside I have all maxed destinies available when I hit 20, the down side being that I have to hit 28 before Reincarnating again.

After some limited play, I'm underwhelmed at my performance in Heroic Elites - it doesn't suck, but it doesn't feel as uber as I was looking forward to either so my Bludgeon focused epic future is looking kinda bleak... Or will LD with things like Pulverizer make this perform significantly better? Having rarely been fortunate with loot luck, particularly in the weapons department, I'm doubting that I can just go farm up something better to use.

Anyway, has anyone else gone this route? Will Shining Devestaion carry me clear through to 28 well enough or do I need to seriously consider just parking it untill eventually acquiring some better weapons? I'm not the kind of player who needs to lead the kill count, but I do like to pull my own weight in a group. I don't anticipate Heroic Elites becoming an issue on the trek to 20, but how about after that? What sort of Epic DPS am I looking at? Sufficient to contribute in EE groups and/or solo EH?

Helpful advice greatly appreciated, "reroll yer gimp self!" isn't an option and will consequently be ignored...

[EllisDee37]

My understanding, which may very well be wrong, is that a centered kensei build doesn't come into its own until epic levels, or at least very high heroic levels after you've spent most of your enhancement AP. Similar to juggernauts back in the day. Consider that until you hit 20, you cannot use either power surge or divine might.

Shining Devastation doesn't look horrible. I might slot good bypass into it just so it would bypass most of the evil outsider dr.

[Powskier]

i tried tweakin some fav soul instead of monk for whepon enhance stack(bladeforge seems to hang without evasion)...for me the bladeforge dosent seem to do great damage unless in dread ;or crusader w some nice twists added.

[Oxarhamar]

My understanding, which may very well be wrong, is that a centered kensei build doesn't come into its own until epic levels, or at least very high heroic levels after you've spent most of your enhancement AP. Similar to juggernauts back in the day. Consider that until you hit 20, you cannot use either power surge or divine might.

Shining Devastation doesn't look horrible. I might slot good bypass into it just so it would bypass most of the evil outsider dr.

This

Although a centered Kensei with a heroic SOS is a whole different story

You'll get it to work for you with a bit of learning how to play it and some gear

heroic black dragon scale docent is a good one

[the_one_dwarfforged]

This

Although a centered Kensei with a heroic SOS is a whole different story

You'll get it to work for you with a bit of learning how to play it and some gear

heroic black dragon scale docent is a good one

pretty much this, heroic black scale is very good and underrated as an easy to acquire epic level armor, because 10% fort pen at lvl 14 is still 10% fort pen at lvl 28, same deal for the 5% dmg buff. and both of those are really powerful effects (10% is pretty small these days for fort pen but its higher than 0).

also in wind stance with a sos, you should be going through mobs like a hot knife through butter. shining devastation is a decent weapon though. pulverizer should not be stacking with keen edge as they are both listed as competence bonuses, and last i saw people who tested that confirmed it.

the only thing this build lacks in heroics (only considering 15-20) is the short duration str buffs, which are plain not needed to deal dmg in heroics and while more important as a source of damage in epics, are mostly just for the tactics dcs. if you are having trouble with the build in heroics try switching to wind stance and make sure you are spamming your cleaves trip/stun and fists of iron. itll make a difference.

[nat_1]

I did the same thing and was also not feeling it in heroics, although I didn't pull a SoS until 25. It only gets meaner as it gets epics though. It is effected by ED and twists. I tried to level an off destiny and actually got kind of insulted for my performance. The guy was clearly a tool, but it says a little about making sure your ED is doing the most for you.

I also looked at my build and realized I'd made some mistakes, in my case I wasn't going to hit EE tactics DC's. The toon is old so it had a few different hearts of wood so I switched to dex based. Reflex saves are sweet and I went with shuriken for the ranged options so it's got the dex for the typical monk thrower double bonus synergy. Also I took B-word sword proficiency to keep glancing blows and took the SWF line. I'm definitely happy with it these days.

Dropping DM and breaking away from core Cetus it's definitely not the bleeding edge top dps but I was never going to make it perform that way anyway. That build is highly dependent on the player, I think, because I really stunk it up at first and have had a real learning curve about when to use boosts and where to be in the fight. I like Divine Crusader because it's forgiving. Decent sustained self healing to go with Reconstruct oh-**** button, and I don't have to be as efficient with keeping up blitz, and full BaB.

Going bludgeoning really might not be that bad. You've got Sireth waiting for you if you have a raider's box. Plus you could go full time quarterstaff and use Quick Strike from the Henshin tree. That ability is so valuable Cetes has said he swaps in a q-staff just for the buff, then back to a sword. If you do decide to run in Divine Crusader Henshin also has the debuff to fire damage and the cores have synergy too. It is kind of crappy that the really good greatclub will neg level a lawful user.

Overall, and this is totally just IMO, Thunderforged has made weapon choice less important as far as base damage and even damage type (bludgeon/pierce/slash I mean). At 28 I think attack speed is probably pretty important so you can roll as often as possible for mortal fear on trash.

So, no, I don't think you're screwed. That split is so solid it can perform even when it's not completely perfect.

[Rykka]

Well the whole Cetus thing is about being the best eSoS (or whatever the best epic THW is ) wielder you can be.

At 8/6/1 you're still missing pally saves, master of forms, power surge, etc... And being OP in heroic is more a matter of having twink gear than build.

Oh, and getting drunk while playing DDO can have worse consequences, You could've woke up the next morning with a parrot.

[PermaBanned]

Oh, and getting drunk while playing DDO can have worse consequences, You could've woke up the next morning with a parrot.ROFLMFAO! Indeed, it seems I could have done much, much worse for myself!

On some of the things mentioned so far:
• Heroic Black Scale Docent: I certainly have the spare scales, but is it really a better item than the IQ Docent? That one seems like a nice one-stop-shop for HP and some bonus Fortification.

• Weapons: Not any one of my toons has ever acquired the base SoS, so I don't expect my luck to change there. Sireth though, yeah I've still got a box or two. Almost forgot about that so I'll check it out as a possibility. Thunderforged? Nope. I only need melee weapons for class PLs and I so far have Barb & Pally done plus working on fighter; plus I don't dupe so it's not like I have an over abundance of Ings laying around. Bastard sword for SWF? Intriguing, but I think my only named options would be that one from the Lords of Dust chain or Twin Blade from the Tome turn-ins (then later I could get the one from the CitW Box) - would either of those be better options then my club?

I realize swapping to a non-blunt weapon would require some feat swaps... Hell, I've got a stock pile of shards to do it through Fred so that wouldn't be an issue.

[Oxarhamar]

ROFLMFAO! Indeed, it seems I could have done much, much worse for myself!

On some of the things mentioned so far:
• Heroic Black Scale Docent: I certainly have the spare scales, but is it really a better item than the IQ Docent? That one seems like a nice one-stop-shop for HP and some bonus Fortification.

• Weapons: Not any one of my toons has ever acquired the base SoS, so I don't expect my luck to change there. Sireth though, yeah I've still got a box or two. Almost forgot about that so I'll check it out as a possibility. Thunderforged? Nope. I only need melee weapons for class PLs and I so far have Barb & Pally done plus working on fighter; plus I don't dupe so it's not like I have an over abundance of Ings laying around. Bastard sword for SWF? Intriguing, but I think my only named options would be that one from the Lords of Dust chain or Twin Blade from the Tome turn-ins (then later I could get the one from the CitW Box) - would either of those be better options then my club?

I realize swapping to a non-blunt weapon would require some feat swaps... Hell, I've got a stock pile of shards to do it through Fred so that wouldn't be an issue.

Yep you've already got enough Fortification in the Bladeforged racial tree, and HP meh you want to be killing mobs before they kill you as your best defense all day.

[TheGuyYouKnow]

bladeforged arnt powerful they just have a reconstruct sla that is game breaking
they also fit into most builds because paladin so its a win win

[Oxarhamar]

bladeforged arnt powerful they just have a reconstruct sla that is game breaking
they also fit into most builds because paladin so its a win win

IDK

Power of the forge is quite nice & stacks with class or ED action boosts

[Powskier]

they can tank real well in sentinal too...not every roll needs be ultimate killer damage;I use my forge to take aggro away from others,he can sure take a whallopin

[Silverleafeon]

http://ddowiki.com/images/Stout_Oak_Walking_Stick.png

[FuzzyDuck81]

Shining devastation is downright brutal with the right destiny stuff & +W attacks/effects added.. also as others have mentioned, if you have a box there's Sireth, and the stout oak walking stick is similarly mighty with the bonus of being essentially guaranteed so long as you can be bothered to spend the comms on it. Between those 3, you've got good all-round performers vs. just about anything.

[Vanhooger]

http://ddowiki.com/images/Stout_Oak_Walking_Stick.png

Biggest problem with that stick is that every half a quest is already broken.