Want To Build An AC-Heavy Dwarven Fighter, No Clue What I'm Doing, Need Help And Tips

[GSilvermane]

Hello there everyone,

I have played this game two years ago, quit due to the game being extremely solo-unfriendly, and came back to try again, thinking I just did things wrong. I built my character just like I would in D&D 3rd edition, and realized I had SEVERELY gimped myself somehow. So I wanted to try again, but this time, I thought I would get advice from the community!

I am a VIP, because I believe in this game and wanted the content, and I also have a 32 point buy and can start out at level 7. I wanted to build a pure Dwarven Fighter with a high AC and survivability. I plan to do a resurrection on him once I get to max level so that I can make him raid effective, but for now I am worried only about survivability, and needing the least amount of healing potions as possible. I usually go down the Stalwart Defender tree, since it gives me the most AC bonuses, but I hear Vanguard is most effective. I haven't figured out how to shield bash in the game yet, so if anyone could tell me, that would be most appreciated.

How many points do I need in each of the main abilities? I tend to put 18 in STR and CON (16+2 Dwarven), and 12 in DEX, with 8 in the rest. I feel that is probably gimping me pretty heavily, and I do not know what the minimum score is for runes and ability checks, like blocked doors. I want to be as solo-friendly as possible. I know it's impossible for me to disable traps or open locked doors, so I will probably need a Rogue hireling with me. I want to be able to level on my own, without having to rely on other people, mainly because I have nobody else to play with.

I know that a Deathblock item is required for higher levels, and I need potions to heal, potions of restoration, potions of remove curse, remove disease. I know I need at least one item with feather fall. Is there anything else I might be missing?

Thank you very much for your time, and your help. I greatly appreciate it!

[unbongwah]

First off, fighters have really fallen behind since you last played DDO. A pure paladin will out-DPS and out-survive a pure fighter, as shocking as that sounds. :eek: See my Sacred Vanguards thread for a couple of S&B pally builds.

Second, building for max AC is a losing proposition in DDO, due to the diminishing returns under the current to-hit formula. Building a DDO tank is all about layered defenses: both dmg avoidance (decent AC, Dodge bonus, concealment & incorporeality for physical atks, high saves & protective buffs & gear for magical atks); and dmg mitigation (DR & PRR for physical atks, MRR & elemental resists for magical atks).

Third, there are two types of shield bashes: active and passive. Active shield-bashing is when you hold down the block button and press attack to take a whack at something. Passive shield bashes are auto-procs which occur during regular attacks, similar to offhand atks by TWF builds; the proc chance can be boosted by Vanguard enhancements (up to +40%), the Imp Shield Bash feat (+20%), the Shield Bashing item property (+10% or +20%). Note that passive bashing has a 1-second cooldown between bashes.

[Bloodskittle]

Hello there everyone,

I have played this game two years ago, quit due to the game being extremely solo-unfriendly, and came back to try again, thinking I just did things wrong. I built my character just like I would in D&D 3rd edition, and realized I had SEVERELY gimped myself somehow. So I wanted to try again, but this time, I thought I would get advice from the community!

I am a VIP, because I believe in this game and wanted the content, and I also have a 32 point buy and can start out at level 7. I wanted to build a pure Dwarven Fighter with a high AC and survivability. I plan to do a resurrection on him once I get to max level so that I can make him raid effective, but for now I am worried only about survivability, and needing the least amount of healing potions as possible. I usually go down the Stalwart Defender tree, since it gives me the most AC bonuses, but I hear Vanguard is most effective. I haven't figured out how to shield bash in the game yet, so if anyone could tell me, that would be most appreciated.

How many points do I need in each of the main abilities? I tend to put 18 in STR and CON (16+2 Dwarven), and 12 in DEX, with 8 in the rest. I feel that is probably gimping me pretty heavily, and I do not know what the minimum score is for runes and ability checks, like blocked doors. I want to be as solo-friendly as possible. I know it's impossible for me to disable traps or open locked doors, so I will probably need a Rogue hireling with me. I want to be able to level on my own, without having to rely on other people, mainly because I have nobody else to play with.

I know that a Deathblock item is required for higher levels, and I need potions to heal, potions of restoration, potions of remove curse, remove disease. I know I need at least one item with feather fall. Is there anything else I might be missing?

Thank you very much for your time, and your help. I greatly appreciate it!
Try splashing a minimum of 15 paladin levels ( I know that makes it no longer a splash). Basically Fighter is the weakest class in the game at this time. Paladin on the other hand is like fighter only better DPS and better self heals. Clearly you want to be tanky so I won't take that away from you. 16 STR 16 Con and then as much as you can put into charisma, I'm not sure what that'll be because I haven't made a 32 pt build in over a year. Use Dwarven axes, take the THF line, take both the shield mastery feats, improved crit slashing, precision. You might have a few feats spare, I'm theory crafting on the run here so not sure, take whatever you fancy though after that. Make sure you take the spells Holy sword and Zeal. The enhancements are a whole different kettle of fish that I don't want to deal with but this split is solid. One piece of advice about the enhancements though is stay out of the racial tree for the most part, its an AP trap.

[Loromir]

Both posts above offer good advice.

I would suggest just going pure Paladin. Dwarf is fine.

Max str
At least 16 con
the rest in Charisma

Trying to run a pure fighter at this point in time might just frustrate you enough to make you quit.

You can make Vanguard your primary tree and still spend plenty of point in Sacred Defender for extra survivability.

[GSilvermane]

These are all good posts full of advice, and I thank you for updating me on a lot of the changes! It sounds like I want to go pure Paladin if i'm looking for survivability. That gives me the defense i'm looking for, plus the ability to heal. I didn't realize Fighters had taken such a nerfing since then. That is a little upsetting, but it's okay. If I can get one character to max level and make him useful, then I can experiment with trickle-down gear on other characters.

Thank you very much for your help, it is greatly appreciated! I'll go see how I do as a Paladin.

[Loromir]

These are all good posts full of advice, and I thank you for updating me on a lot of the changes! It sounds like I want to go pure Paladin if i'm looking for survivability. That gives me the defense i'm looking for, plus the ability to heal. I didn't realize Fighters had taken such a nerfing since then. That is a little upsetting, but it's okay. If I can get one character to max level and make him useful, then I can experiment with trickle-down gear on other characters.

Thank you very much for your help, it is greatly appreciated! I'll go see how I do as a Paladin.



Fighters not really nerfed, it just that Paladin (and Barbarian) got an overhaul that put them far ahead of fighters.

Even Bards (Swashbucker) come out ahead of Fighters in the overall scheme of things.

[Enoach]

With an AC heavy build there are other aspects you need to consider for your defenses

1. Max Dex Bonus <- Dwarven and Fighter have enhancements that can improve the MDB of your armor. The bigger this number the more Dodge you can have as dodge is a straight up Miss Chance it does not fluctuate like AC.

Dwarven Armor Mastery +3 MDB to Armor minimum cost = 4 AP
Dwarven Shield Mastery +3 MDB to Tower Shields minimum cost 11 AP (Keep in mind 4 AP of the Armor mastery makes up that 11 so you just need to purchase 7 AP worth of stuff)

Fighter Stalwart & Vanguard Also have enhancements that increase your Max Dex Bonus.

What you want to do is calculate what your end game Dexterity modifier will be. Take only the enhancements that will allow you to maximize your MDB to match with your Dexterity modifier and Dodge.

2. PRR/MRR - Generally speaking Heavier the armor the bigger these bonuses are. These will reduce the incoming damage from Physical (PRR) and Magical (MRR). What this does coupled with AC is even out your damage so that it does not come in spikes but slow and steady.

4. Dodge - Capped by both your Dexterity Modifier and MDB

Now as a Dwarf you have a unique opportunity to use your Constitution and not strength, this works well if you use an Ax or Pick or Hammer as your weapon. It is Tier 5 in dwarven and will require 16AP be spent in the Dwarven Tree. But doing this means you can start with a lower strength like 14, Max out Constitution (Level up in con) and have enough to start with a 14 Dexterity and possibly a Higher Intelligence to help with skills as well as qualify for Combat Expertise. The disadvantage is in Tactics like Trip/Stun which use Strength, But the Vanguard's Stunning shield/Shield Charge uses your Highest Ability Modifier so focus on Constitution will still get you what you are after.

Now while the Fighter Trees have some nice stuff in the Capstone, if you are up for it to get a higher AC consider 2 levels of Wizard (Possibly taken at levels 1 & 2). This will get you access to the EK Tree which has an Improved Mage Armor +10% ac (good alternate to CE or even used in conjunction) and an Improved Shield which can add +10 PRR as well as other advantages of having the shield spell at a very low cost. The two wizard levels can also gain you Spell points for Epic level use for abilities like cocoon as well as a meta magic feat like Extend so that your level 1 spells last 10 minutes per cast. EK also gives your a Cleave ability for 1 AP and the second core allows you to add an elemental imbue to your weapons.

The advantage of starting at Level 7 means you will have the two Wizard levels and 5 Fighter Levels at the start, you will be at BaB 6 instead of 7, but with a higher defense as well as more damage if you utilize 9AP right off in the EK tree.

As for Shield bashing, there are two ways this occurs. 1) Hold down your Shield block key and while holding this down use your Attack key. I believe the default is the Left Shift Key for Shield block. See your key map settings to be sure. 2) Vanguard core abilities as well as the Improved Shield Bash Feat and some shields add a percent chance to automatically strike with your shield. I think with everything going you can get this percentage up rather high that it nearly matches the off-hand strike of a TWF.

[Enderoc]

I am not a big fan of min maxxing where you build glass cannons...so lets do something a bit different. Lets make a heavy armored dwarf that knows its best to weaken an opponent or defensive positions before going in swinging in blood rage. Yeah you could play Capn' Kundarak with a shield, but using Stalwart you can get high AC without a shield more so with higher dex...and dual wielding Dwarven Axes is a far better option in my opinion. I did not fill the enhancements but the only trees to invest in are Dwarf, Stalwart Defender, and Harper only for the weapon power. I purposely did not take power attack until late, because you will have combat expertise toggled exclusively to tank...but without a shield...you will be head butting and biting the buggers swinging your dwarven axes instead of turtling behind a shield. *Note some epic feats need to have certain spheres maximized so choose Sharadi first, Legendary Dreadnaught second to max out. It is going to be second life after your first Epic Reincarnation before the feats fit really. Once you have both epic destinies maxed they both will fit with this build perfectly.

Iconic Dwarf
Fighter 20
Dwarf


Stats
. . . . . . . .32pt. . .Level Up
. . . . . . . .----. . .--------
Strength. . . . 14 . . . 4: STR
Dexterity . . . 18 . . . 8: STR
Constitution. . 14 . . .12: DEX
Intelligence. . 14 . . .16: DEX
Wisdom. . . . . .8 . . .20: DEX
Charisma. . . . .6 . . .24: STR
. . . . . . . . . . . . 28: STR

Skills
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4. 5 .6. 7 .8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Intim . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Jump. . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Spot. . . 2 .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ . . 11
Balance . 1 .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ . . 10
Heal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1. .1
Tumble. . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .16 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4


Feats

.1. . . . : Combat Expertise
.1 Fighter: Two Weapon Fighting
.2 Fighter: Exotic Weapon: Rpt Hvy Crossbow
.3. . . . : Rapid Reload
.4 Fighter: Dodge
.6. . . . : Improved Two Weapon Fighting
.6 Fighter: Point Blank Shot
.8 Fighter: Improved Critical: Slashing
.9. . . . : Mobility
10 Fighter: Oversized Two Weapon Fighting
12. . . . : Greater Two Weapon Fighting
12 Fighter: Precise Shot
14 Fighter: Improved Precise Shot
15. . . . : Spring Attack
16 Fighter: Whirlwind Attack
18. . . . : Power Attack
18 Fighter: Cleave
20 Fighter: Great Cleave
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : Combat Archery
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Bulwark of Defense
28 Destiny: First Blood

[Loromir]

I am not a big fan of min maxxing where you build glass cannons...so lets do something a bit different. Lets make a heavy armored dwarf that knows its best to weaken an opponent or defensive positions before going in swinging in blood rage. Yeah you could play Capn' Kundarak with a shield, but using Stalwart you can get high AC without a shield more so with higher dex...and dual wielding Dwarven Axes is a far better option in my opinion. I did not fill the enhancements but the only trees to invest in are Dwarf, Stalwart Defender, and Harper only for the weapon power. I purposely did not take power attack until late, because you will have combat expertise toggled exclusively to tank...but without a shield...you will be head butting and biting the buggers swinging your dwarven axes instead of turtling behind a shield. *Note some epic feats need to have certain spheres maximized so choose Sharadi first, Legendary Dreadnaught second to max out. It is going to be second life after your first Epic Reincarnation before the feats fit really.

Iconic Dwarf
Fighter 20
Dwarf


Stats
. . . . . . . .32pt. . .Level Up
. . . . . . . .----. . .--------
Strength. . . . 14 . . . 4: STR
Dexterity . . . 18 . . . 8: STR
Constitution. . 14 . . .12: DEX
Intelligence. . 14 . . .16: DEX
Wisdom. . . . . .8 . . .20: DEX
Charisma. . . . .6 . . .24: STR
. . . . . . . . . . . . 28: STR

Skills
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4. 5 .6. 7 .8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Intim . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Jump. . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 23
Spot. . . 2 .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ . . 11
Balance . 1 .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ .½. ½ . . 10
Heal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1. .1
Tumble. . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .16 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4. 4 .4


Feats

.1. . . . : Combat Expertise
.1 Fighter: Two Weapon Fighting
.2 Fighter: Exotic Weapon: Rpt Hvy Crossbow
.3. . . . : Rapid Reload
.4 Fighter: Dodge
.6. . . . : Improved Two Weapon Fighting
.6 Fighter: Point Blank Shot
.8 Fighter: Improved Critical: Slashing
.9. . . . : Mobility
10 Fighter: Oversized Two Weapon Fighting
12. . . . : Greater Two Weapon Fighting
12 Fighter: Precise Shot
14 Fighter: Improved Precise Shot
15. . . . : Spring Attack
16 Fighter: Whirlwind Attack
18. . . . : Power Attack
18 Fighter: Cleave
20 Fighter: Great Cleave
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : Combat Archery
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Bulwark of Defense
28 Destiny: First Blood


Vanguard is hardly a "turtle up" line. You can do quite good DPS as a Vanguard. And there is enough AP's to still go deep into Sacred Defender.

[Enderoc]

He wanted a heavy AC fighter, so I emphasized fighter in making him versatile. Paladins may have good DPS, but a fighter is a lot more fun to play in combat. Plus with three fighter past lives he will be set to start Monk.

[Knightrose]

The information in this thread is inspiring if you want to make a Paladin. I have to admit after reading this thread I'm upset. I just came back to DDO as well and I also wanted to make a Dwarven pure Fighter tank. It sounds like a complete waste of time, however. That truly is disheartening.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

i havent thought much about a snb fighter since they added mp to the weapon f/s feats, but i think given the amount of feats a fighter get, you could possibly do a reasonable amount of dps with vg t5 and capstone, bastard sword with full snb line and thf line, and lots of mp feats. of course, then you are comparing holy sword on a paladin to nothing on a fighter, except the extra mp feats. so im not sure if such a fighter would even do enough dps to qualify as a viable flavor build like the other melee styles do. and you would still be a wildly inferior tank due to losses in survivability in so many areas, and you wouldnt have sacred threat gen clickies essentially for free...

[kemetka]

I have a sword n board fighter right now that im playing around with, and with the right gear ( as always ) ive been putting out decent damage, and have been outpacing other classes faily well >> this coming from a level 9 mind you << and out distancing standard warlock builds at this level range. I know thats not really saying much as people plan for end game and hardly anyone plans for heroics anymore. But as a human pure vanguard fighter, i have to say so far its not really all that bad ... so far ... so its not impossible to make a good one, just takes some work.

again, only level 9, so will have to see how it goes later.

[Loromir]

I have a sword n board fighter right now that im playing around with, and with the right gear ( as always ) ive been putting out decent damage, and have been outpacing other classes faily well >> this coming from a level 9 mind you << and out distancing standard warlock builds at this level range. I know thats not really saying much as people plan for end game and hardly anyone plans for heroics anymore. But as a human pure vanguard fighter, i have to say so far its not really all that bad ... so far ... so its not impossible to make a good one, just takes some work.

again, only level 9, so will have to see how it goes later.

Its no doubt that a S&B Fighter can dish out plenty of DPS...the problem comes when you have to rely on a hireling or another party member to heal you when things get hairy. DPS wise, Paladin might actually lag behind a fighter until lvl 14 when they can cast holy sword, plus take full advantage of the enhancements from KOTC.

So at lvl 9, it is not surprising that your fighter is doing so well.

[Miow]

Its no doubt that a S&B Fighter can dish out plenty of DPS...the problem comes when you have to rely on a hireling or another party member to heal you when things get hairy. DPS wise, Paladin might actually lag behind a fighter until lvl 14 when they can cast holy sword, plus take full advantage of the enhancements from KOTC.

So at lvl 9, it is not surprising that your fighter is doing so well.

I was just going to say fighters can still do okay in heroics, i think endgame is where they really fall behind.

[bigdmag]

Hello there everyone,

I have played this game two years ago, quit due to the game being extremely solo-unfriendly, and came back to try again, thinking I just did things wrong. I built my character just like I would in D&D 3rd edition, and realized I had SEVERELY gimped myself somehow. So I wanted to try again, but this time, I thought I would get advice from the community!

I am a VIP, because I believe in this game and wanted the content, and I also have a 32 point buy and can start out at level 7. I wanted to build a pure Dwarven Fighter with a high AC and survivability. I plan to do a resurrection on him once I get to max level so that I can make him raid effective, but for now I am worried only about survivability, and needing the least amount of healing potions as possible. I usually go down the Stalwart Defender tree, since it gives me the most AC bonuses, but I hear Vanguard is most effective. I haven't figured out how to shield bash in the game yet, so if anyone could tell me, that would be most appreciated.

How many points do I need in each of the main abilities? I tend to put 18 in STR and CON (16+2 Dwarven), and 12 in DEX, with 8 in the rest. I feel that is probably gimping me pretty heavily, and I do not know what the minimum score is for runes and ability checks, like blocked doors. I want to be as solo-friendly as possible. I know it's impossible for me to disable traps or open locked doors, so I will probably need a Rogue hireling with me. I want to be able to level on my own, without having to rely on other people, mainly because I have nobody else to play with.

I know that a Deathblock item is required for higher levels, and I need potions to heal, potions of restoration, potions of remove curse, remove disease. I know I need at least one item with feather fall. Is there anything else I might be missing?

Thank you very much for your time, and your help. I greatly appreciate it!


Looks like you got some stuff to chew on with all the above posts. I agree that pure pally puts you ahead of pure fighter when it comes to survivability.

Some other stuff that will make a fairly substantial difference is completed Epic Destinies, Twists, Epic past lives and Heroic Past lives. Once you start racking up past lives and open up all your Epic destinies, you will become substantially more effective. Past lives, both epic and heroic are a little less important but can still help.

Gear is another important thing to note. With loot gen gear you'll be ok. When you start gather and equipping some of the really nice named/crafted gear, you will notice a significant increase in survivability and DPS. I should say you can notice a significant increase, you want gear that matches and is useful to your build.

If you were initially having trouble at end game, which in turn cause you to quite the game, Im guessing you not only didnt have past lives, but no ED's or gear either. It can make all the difference in the world. My 1st life toons took a beating at end game, I got owned the 1st time I went into an EE quest. Now 6 or 7 past lives later and really good gear I can go into any EE quest with any of my toons. Lots of stuff going on in this game, take some time and gather up some past lives and gear, open up your ED's, load up some twists and it will get better.

A pure dwarven Paladin in Vanguard swinging a dwarven axe is a nice way to start. Even with non-optimal gear you should be tough as nails and you can heal yourself. Good PRR and good DPS makes for quick work in EN's and EH's. Dont gauge yourself on EE's until you have the gear, ED's and past lives.

[PainStealer]

WOW

The OP asks for a Dwarven fighter and no one here can build one ?

I play a Dwarven Fighter. They can be highly effective. I have also played Paladin recently and quite frankly I prefer to play fighter. Fighters have a great deal of more feats to spend than paladins. This is their great strength. As a Dwarf Fighter you can get a lot higher dodge bonus than a paladin can. You can get higher melee power. Personally I run around 180 AC with power attack on in Legendary Dreadnought (Working on some stuff to push this to 200 ish). I also will be running around 22% dodge in heavy armor. If I need more AC I can jump into that no DPS destiny. With Blitz going I can break 200 melee power. Self healing is taken care of by cocoon.

Admittedly I have multiple past lives however I see no barrier to a first life character making a very effective Dwarf Fighter.

OP if you are still interested in making a dwarf fighter I'll gladly post a full build for you to try.

[kemetka]

Its no doubt that a S&B Fighter can dish out plenty of DPS...the problem comes when you have to rely on a hireling or another party member to heal you when things get hairy.
http://hopontheshortb.us/pics/ddo/solofighter.png

at level ToEE part 2 elite, solo'd off of pots, so i dunno the healing part i may have covered with healing amp and prr/mrr

and difference between human / dwarf is that human will have a better healing amp due to racial / dwarf can have far more hp, so its rather up to your choice which you think is more beneficial

the 1 death was cause i got surrounded and zuggut... that lady used the i kill you power, and i couldnt jump out of the mob or kill them fast enough, but hazzah for korthos cakes.

[Ziindarax]

So, while testing some new toys on Lamannia, I've come up with (and am eager to utilize future Lama rounds for further testing) with a Fighter 11, Warlock 5, Paladin 4 build that achieves high AC (those AC bonuses in Stalwart/Sacred stack with each other, though you'll want to take the tier 4 shield stuff from Fighter so it will stack with the Unyielding Sentinel's shield buffs), decent (if not respectable) saves, mana-free self-healing and single-target damage (can get into the thousands), AND has decent melee DPS with the right weapons.

Please Note: I did this build as a Warforged, as I find Negative Levels extremely annoying. However, this build should be adaptable for a Dwarf. Warlock 5 is for the top-end consume/stricken damage (don't take the wave damage thing as your eldritch damage will suck - best used in the other trees). The Shield bash is at a moderate enough damage level as to proc occasionally (but not as often as if you did a pure fighter/paladin defender/vanguard).

If you feel comfortable with melee dps, you can substitute Soul Eater for Enlightened Spirit for Displacement SLA and defensive buffs (and Shining Through is a MEAN tanking option in most Epic Elites provided you have your CON high enough [which you will given your con for damage] - not to mention the light damage imbue on melee strikes, and aura). For survivability purposes, I took my stance buffs in the Paladin tree so as to try and get some higher saves through the Paladin Aura, as well as a slight boost to AC. In the Fighter defender tree, I took enhancements around the stance (taking Shield Expertise to give either +2 or +3 to my weapons [one of which had a healing augment slotted on it so that it would benefit from the extra universal spell power]).

Provided that the Devs don't do another frackin' character wipe, I can look at my enhancement trees in more detail, and even post a screenshot. For Twists of Fate, I took the first two Shield enhancements from Unyielding sentinel, and then took Sense Weakness. With a Fourth Slot from Epic Completionist, I recommend taking Cocoon. For Primary Destiny, run in Legendary Dreadnought to round off the build (as well as gain a large dodge/PRR Bonus), and increase melee damage. With this build, you will have a durable warrior who can, on single-target terms, out DPS a pure fighter by a large margin, while also enjoying a larger boost to saves.

For Past Life stances, I would recommend Tier 3 Primal Health regeneration, Double Strike, either Save boosts or Mastery over Life and Death to increase healing from Steal Lifeforce, and Enchant weapons. With maxed Martial Past Lives, you will have AC exceeding 200 by level 28, which should make you a bit harder to hit, and as you level, you can use the blur spell (and optionally the Displacement SLA if you chose Enlightened over Soul Eater) to augment defenses.


If Stunning Blow feat had worked properly, by level 28 with top/decent gear, I would have had a guy that could stun fairly well (I focused on STR with my build), but as of the last phase of Lamannia, Stunning Blow does not work at all.

[garzan123]

Can u post that build..would love to play it..I have a 23rd DWF pally..1st life..has 4 +20 hearts and want to use one to see for next life ur build would be good..Ty in advance

[Ziindarax]

Can u post that build..would love to play it..I have a 23rd DWF pally..1st life..has 4 +20 hearts and want to use one to see for next life ur build would be good..Ty in advance

Alright, so you're referring to my build, yes?

In this case, there are several KEY factors to keep in mind:

1 - The principle of this build is to do as much damage as possible through Consume/Stricken, but it CAN be adjusted to use Enlightened Spirit if you want more optimal defenses. Having recently re-computed the AP expenditure, I find that it is difficult to fully distribute the AP across three trees and racial. Fighter 11 gives us enough feats to squeeze in weapon feats, as well as meta-magics. Warlock 5 gives us enough to get the key damage dealing pseudo-spells/SLA's from Soul Eater (or Enlightened Spirit, if you prefer).

2- This build was meant to have high survivability through combining/stacking the AC from enhancement feats, and health boosts.

3- With Dwarf, the best Dwarven Melee tank is one that uses CON for damage (but remember not to neglect strength). Intelligence needs to be high enough to get a decent amount of skill points - Spellcraft and Heal are critical, while jump, balance, and UMD are nice to invest spares into. If you have any left-overs, go for Intimidate.

4 - You want a wide array of self-healing available with this build.

When I get around to testing this build on Lamannia, I will publish this build - the reason I am wanting to wait so long to publish is because my build checked out when playing at level cap w/ high end (and admittedly over-powered) loot, alongside tomes. For a First/Second Life that's doing good to have a +2 tome in more than 3 stats, I would recommend caution because with this build, there's a very large split (initially) in Attributes - For Dwarf, you can get away with about 14-15 str, max con (as high as you can), 10 int, 8-10 charisma. If you have spare points - put enough into wisdom so you're not getting a penalty to your heal skill, unless you have a +2 tome coming into play.

What I wanted to achieve through this unholy build was to grab and retain agro through aggressive toggling of consume/stricken, and it seemed to have worked (to a degree, super-dedicated tanks managed to grab agro, as do hyper-force shiradis). If I remember correctly, my feat set up was - Khopesh proficiency (you can work just fine with D-axes/picks/hammers for dwarven purposes), stunning blow (which did not work, sadly, as I got the DC's high with decent end-gear), Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery (you want to twist, or have active, the bottom two shield enhancements (but make sure you don't take the t4 shield AC enhancer from Sacred Defender, as it and Unyielding will not stack, whereas that same bonus from Fighter Stalwart does). Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack, Empower/Maximize Spell, Adamantine Body (as I went warforged for negative level immunity - here you have room, as with the khopesh, to take something like skill focus heal and skill focus spellcraft), and cleave/greater cleave. Epic Feats were like Overwhelming Critical, the tank-stance feat, and some other stuff.
Next up are AP:

Paladin, IMO, gets better bonuses from its tree than Stalwarts thanks to the extra positive spell power, and aura boosts. So here's how it works out (based on how I chose to build my guy):

Remembering that we only get 80 AP, my build looks something like this (please keep in mind, when I made this dude, I may or may not have had 3 paladin lives, which offsets the warforged H-Amp Penalty enough that one piece of gear still enabled the healing to work you):

Soul Eater - Not less than 32 AP - if you want some of the best damage for your consume/stricken.

That leaves you 48 AP left to spend:

Sacred Defender: Got something like 23 AP - T4 Stance received maybe not more than a rank 2 - For my guy, I focused all my level-ups into STR, and the t4 was either +4 con, or the 2 ranks of % health. For Dwarven Purposes, replace STR with CON at T3.

That leaves 25 AP:

To finish MY build - I put the rest into Stalwart Defender (note how there's no AP left for racials, and it is also here where I will become a bit more specific because you have to remember that you can only have one of those stances active at a time, so buying the right enhancements starts to get a little tricky if you're not careful) - Core 1, and Defensive Mastery - Maybe Defense action boost. Tier 2 - continue investing in your defense - Armor and Shield enhancements are up next - Followed by t3 - here you want to grab about 2-3 ranks of the shield/weapon enhancement bonus because if you can slot a devotion into your shield/weapon, this enhancement boosts the efficacy of devotion by 6-9 spellpower (on the stalwart tree, this is known as Shield Expertise - from the looks of the tree, you will probably get 3 ranks, and to avoid taking the fighter stances, you'd need to take the ability score enhancement [con for dwarf, str for warforged]). Once you have T4 - go for maxing out the Reinforced Shield enhancement. Whatever AP is left, put it on the T4 Paladin Armor version (you won't get maxed 50% armor without sacrificing something).


Now, with Dwarf, this gets more interesting because they need 18 of those 25 points to get Throw your Weight around - I will leave enhancements up to you there - but if it were me, I'd take the tanky-line alongside the weapon line until I got throw your weight around.

You should have around 7 AP left.

Put the rest into Fighter.



GEARING:


With Gearing, you mainly want these things - Devotion (boosts healing from the t4 sla), Radiance (this is what boosts your chaos/alignment damage), strong armor/shield, AND things that boost your: Saves, Healing Amp (where possible), AC, PRR/MRR, Melee Damage/accuracy, and Con,STR, and Charisma. Intelligence would be a nice optional - For end-game I recommend trying to get Memoriam from the Archon Raid alongside the cloak that gives you radiance spellpower/lore. IF stunning blow had worked, I would have recommended going for the monk goggles since they boost stuns considerably [I suppose Boots of the Innocent fulfill this purpose). Next, I'd recommend the Sanctified Gages (you do have smites as a paladin splash, and they provide a decent boost to damage). Neck slot should probably use the Mystic Eidolon (fully upgraded). Armor - Necro 4 armor is passable, but Shadow Dragon armor with the guardian upgrade provides a decent bit of DR, and you can use the clicky to get out of tight mobs). From there, I will leave it up to you - belt/bracers/etc.

Hope this helps! :)


Please note : Because Lamannia is not up, I cannot screencap the actual enhancements on a tree, nor the attribute points. Once it goes up, and the time is available to me, I intend to take some screenshots. Once you have this build at level 20, and it proves reliable/fun enough to go from 20-28 - I recommend going for AC/PRR/Health-Regen (with a high enough AC, you're going to be missed a lot depending on the difficulty, not counting better-than-blur/displacement gear). Followed by Enchant Weapon (2-3 ranks should do).