Looking for current melee builds, preferably fighter heavy.

[dethdukk]

Hey all,

I originally meant this to be a PM to Cetus, but sadly his inbox is full... so hopefully he'll see this and respond! I've been a fan of his since he showed off his Pure 20 Kensai Completionist with SoS build. Outside of that, I am actively looking for help with a current melee build. I stopped playing DDO just before Epic Orchard was released, so I'm somewhat out of date when it comes to items/builds/whats important in high epics.

So firstly, a background on my character: I've got a near-completionist (5 more lives to go) with 3 fighter past lives. In the past (pre-epic and early epic release) I played a Falchion focused fighter, so most of my good leveling gear (and a decent amount of low levels epic gear) is all falchions/heavy armor. This was before PRR and MRR got released, so I decided to try a different build, which is why a lot of my higher level gear is swashbuckler-focused.

My current plan is to get to 30 and TR into a new endgame build, then try to get the gear I would need for that build before finishing my completionist... assuming I ever do. I've got a +5 tome for all stats, so builds that require tomes would be fine.

I'd like to know if a pure fighter build is at all viable... I always loved playing pure fighter, but it lacked in saves/self-healing, and without PRR/MRR it didn't work. Has that issue been fixed? Is a pure fighter build able to keep up with others, or do barbarians still win the DPS fight? Other builds I'd be interested in finding out about are Khopesh/shield intimitank (or intimitanks in general), and just what the "best" dps builds are currently.

Thanks in advance!

[count_spicoli]

Question is what is your playstyle? Mostly like to just swing and see big numbers, tactics (sb, trip, lay waste, dire charge), like to heal yourself and others. Lots of factors for consideratio.

However if your looking for a fun ftr build I use pdk 12 ftr/4pally/ 4 rngr and like it alot. 12 ftr (Kensai tree, and access to tactics feats and heavy armor feats), pally(kotc, and SD tree, loh, dm, and use pally stance) rngr (10% offhand chance, sprint boost rams might)

Str easily gets to 100, tactics dc's in the 110-120+ range. You bring your own cc to the party!

Can take empower heal with pally level 4 so cocoon should be getting you around 300 a tick.

This is a twf build so you might be able to skip ranger and go 16ftr/4pally for thf. This would net you higher tactics dcs and prr and mrr. Remember the feats stack so take as many as you can fit in the build.

[dethdukk]

A good question! And one I should have answered in my last post... My previous build that I enjoyed the most was my pure 20 fighter DC/DPS build. I had a 100% stun chance with stunning blow in every epic, and enough dps that I almost always held boss aggro. I should note that this was before epic levels were released, level cap was at 20.

Having the guaranteed stun was really nice, as it meant I could get helpless damage on mobs even without a enchant focused caster in the group, and made a lot of epics more easily soloed. Obviously enemy saves are higher nowadays, and I don't know if you can still get that 100% stun or not.

So playstyles I'm looking for: full DPS with stun, or full intimitank. I don't know if intimitanks are playable nowadays, but I always liked the idea of being able to full tank a raid, and if tanks work now, I feel like they will be rarer/more useful than melee dps builds. If I could be a tank that also is able to land stuns/trips that would be wicked.


Edit: I've been doing more research on my own, and I'm looking into a possible THF/SnB hybrid... shield build with tower shields + a bastard sword or dwarven axe. That would let me use my falchions for leveling, then switch into a tankier build later on. I'm working under the assumption that the THF feats still affect those weapons, and that the shield mastery feats and THF line stacks. With Vangaurd enhancements and Imp shield bash, you'd have a 60% chance to bash on each attack, as well as the glancing blows that would do I think 60% of your main weapon damage, so damage wouldn't be too dismal. Assuming the Melee power from the 2 lines stack, you'd get 12MP from the 2 lines. This would make for a pretty tanky build that could either go kensai for great damage, or stalwart for a full tank build. Vangaurd also gets me access to a second stun tactic, and the ability to get vulnerability stacks (unsure how important that is).

[the_one_dwarfforged]

fighter has been progressively nerfed more and more both directly and heavily by proxy nerf for a while now. atm its absolute garbage, and a dead class.

paladin and barbarian are both better.

ive played both at level 30, and i think if legendary content is your focus barb is better.

the reason being you get tons of free hp and hamp, only a bit less prr than a pally, more to hit, and a lot better aoe. for non legendary considerations, blood strength gives you an insane level of tankiness and doesnt cost you dps for healing yourself. also because of your run speed and sprint boost completion times can be very fast. its very easy to be very powerful with this class.

paladin is more similar in play style to a 20 fighter, and may be closer to what you are looking for. on my barb build, i wasnt able to slot a permanent stun item, while on my paladin build i can. im not saying thats an issue you would have, but if you have all the best pieces of gear and slot for max dps...it can be. its also easier to get a higher str score for better dcs on a paladin than a barb (stance str bonus + no restrictions on tensers + dm + more consumables able to boost your str > barb rage + frenzies). paladin can get a decent amount of hp and hamp, but it wont be as much as barb. however id say paladin is the more convenient class because you dont have any umd restrictions, your power isnt tied to a fairly limited resource like barb rage, your umd is naturally higher, you get high saves for free, immunity to neg levels, and your main source of healing isnt proc based or tied to being able to attack something. also your mrr will be higher.

as for dps differences, in my personal experience with thf on both classes barbarian is massively superior. much higher glancing blow damage and an additional ability to proc it with, as well as constantly proccing heals in combat instead of needing to hop out to heal means barbs crush enemies literally by the horde, the more the better. paladin though has much more impressive single target nuking (stun -> dmg boost -> smite -> divine sacrifice -> lay waste or momentum swing -> smite -> divine sacrifice = good bye) and based on my very situational dps tests better sustained single target dps by quite a bit as well. other advantages to paladins are that you will likely have a bigger crit multi and therefore see bigger numbers, which is fun, and the buttons you can push feel a bit more fun to me. barb gets more spam of cleaves, but against bosses you dont want to do that, instead just double boosting and hitting a succession of clicky attacks mainly for the buffs they give, all 3 of which have 30 second cooldowns. paladin gets divine sacrifice and exalted smite, which are more fun to micro manage because there is absolutely no downside whatsoever to divine sacrifice and it should be used as much as possible in every situation, which is somewhat intense with only a 3 second cd. smite otoh i save for helpless mobs or giving myself a 5 mp buff on bosses.

ive had fun with both. paladin seems to be closer to what you want to play in my opinion, and is probably the better class to get started with at first.

also, im not trying to advocate for pally/barb or against fighter. personally i like the flavor of fighter more and wish it didnt suck, but the reality is, right now if you are playing a fighter, you are a gimp, period. hopefully the fighter pass doesnt get pushed back (again) and they fix it.

[unbongwah]

on my barb build, i wasnt able to slot a permanent stun item, while on my paladin build i can.
That's surprising; I would've expected gear slots on a pally to be more restrictive than a barb, since you also need to slot CHA and Devotion if nothing else.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

That's surprising; I would've expected gear slots on a pally to be more restrictive than a barb, since you also need to slot CHA and Devotion if nothing else.

with the new rng items, dstrike belt that is better than ragers harness and it has stun on it.

devotion just goes on the weapon, and good isnt a concern because of kotc capstone.

cha isnt really an issue to slot.

plus i have more augment slots because of the items im wearing.

as in, no tod set, no claw set...

[EllisDee37]

Check out the "Character Builds" link in my signature for a list of current builds. It's not exhaustive (there's several build threads I'm keeping an eye on that I'm looking to include) but it's a good starting point.

[janave]

Hey all,


I'd like to know if a pure fighter build is at all viable...

Viable as in playable yes, relying a lot on others, so it matters who you play with.

Once you put Fighter next to Paladin, or Barb or even a Tempest Ranger - nope its not the same kind of viable.

For a returning player id probably recommend Paladin, it feels less reliant on others. For current end-game Knight of the Chalice is a strong primary tree, with the defender stance secondary.

[dethdukk]

First thing I'd like to say: Thank you all for the response! I've been looking through the forums/builds for a while now and have a better idea of whats possible with tactics builds and such. I did see the new Vangaurd paladins, thought those might be fun. I still need to look into the new Barbarian enhancements to see how they work. I do have an idea on a fairly (as far as I can tell) unique build that I'd love some feedback on, which I'll post the basics of here...

So the idea I'm working on is a rework of the Icebreaker Bard. Since PRR and MRR were introduced, I think that evasion isn't as much of a requirement for classes anymore, and so by taking out the rogue portion of the build and moving to a tower shield/bastard sword and heavy armor, you can improve the DC of the tactics in the build by a large amount. Bear with me a little, as I haven't figured out exactly what items it would use, etc... so my numbers may be a little low, a little high, w/e. I'd love if people would look over the build and recommend what I could change to make it better, or if I've missed something that breaks it.

I'm assuming a total of 52 charisma, as that's what the OP of the Icebreaker build recommends getting to, so I assume it's both possible and a good break-point. I'm moving from 12 bard/6 fighter/2 rogue to 12 fighter/8 bard. This allows access to 10 more tactics DC via feats, at the loss of 2 dc from bard levels, 2 freeze duration, and evasion, but allows use of heavy armor and tower shields (due to not caring about evasion). It will have access to 4 stunning abilities, 2 of which are AoE.

Tactics DC for The Frozen Fury, which will be the lowest DC the character has. (This is specific to my character, I know some people cant hit these due to lacking past lives/gear)

10 Base
21 Charisma Mod
10 Stunning item
5 Combat mastery
3 Kensai Tactics
3 Vanguard Stunning
3 Fighter Past
4 Scion of Astral Plane Legendary Feat
2 Epic Tactics Feat
6+4+2 Fighter Tactics Feats
7 Cormyrean Knight Training
6 LD - Legendary Tactics
6 Know The Angles (probably going to be more than 6, but didn't want to overestimate)
4 Bard Levels

96 DC Frozen Fury
100 DC Spinning Ice
102 DC Stunning Shield (107 if character level includes epic levels?)
106 DC Dire Charge

I still need to figure out what I can hit for PRR, MRR, etc, but I assume that the build will be fairly solid with access to full stalwarts stance and using heavy armor + tower shield, with a decent, although not maxed, BAB. I've love feedback on this build, if those DCs are good enough for LE, what I could do to make it better, or if you feel like it, what items I would be best off using for such a build! I'm fairly certain I can get more than int 34, but I don't have the time to do all the research on items just yet and didn't want to overestimate it.

Thanks again for the interest!

[EllisDee37]

I'm moving from 12 bard/6 fighter/2 rogue to 12 fighter/8 bard. This allows access to 10 more tactics DC via feats, at the loss of 2 dc from bard levels, 2 freeze duration, and evasion, but allows use of heavy armor and tower shields (due to not caring about evasion). It will have access to 4 stunning abilities, 2 of which are AoE.You also lose trapping skills, plus cure critical wounds, freedom of movement, and dimension door.

[unbongwah]

I'm assuming a total of 52 charisma, as that's what the OP of the Icebreaker build recommends getting to, so I assume it's both possible and a good break-point. I'm moving from 12 bard/6 fighter/2 rogue to 12 fighter/8 bard. This allows access to 10 more tactics DC via feats, at the loss of 2 dc from bard levels, 2 freeze duration, and evasion, but allows use of heavy armor and tower shields (due to not caring about evasion). It will have access to 4 stunning abilities, 2 of which are AoE.
So there are at least a couple of major issues with what you propose:

Switching from SWF Swashbuckler to S&B Vanguard is going to be a significant loss of melee DPS, I think, even if you find a way to squeeze in the THF chain. You're losing +20% atk speed, +50% dmg mod, and the 15-20/x3 crit profile of most short swords w/Swashbuckling for (at best) 17-20/x3 profile of eSpinal Tap (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Spinal_Tap). [Ignoring DPS bonuses which affect both equally.] The tradeoff is a significant increase in PRR & MRR, of course, I'm just not sure if it's worth it. VG would increase your passive shield-bashing proc chance, but there's no way to sub STR to dmg with shields, unfortunately. :(
You're going to find yourself AP-constrained: you'll want 33-40+ APs WC, at least 11 APs Kensei (max Tactics bonus), at least 21 APs VG (all cores for +10% atk speed), 13-24 APs Stalwart D. (Gtr Defensive Stance Bonuses), at least 6 APs Harper for KtA, and at least 3 APs PDK (CKT). That's 87 to 105+ APs, so obviously there's not room for everything on your wishlist. Kensei is probably the first thing I'd drop, but it's still really tight.
ASF becomes an issue if you use hvy armor + tower shield. Doesn't sound like you're counting on bard spells to be a significant factor, but worth pointing out.


Did you consider sticking with the 12/6/2 split, but as ftr 12 / bard 6 / rog 2? You give up +1 DCs from bard lvl and lvl 3 spells; but keep Evasion & trap skills and can stick with Swashbuckler for higher DPS. So: 33-40+ WC (T5), 11 APs SB (Skirmisher), 3 APs PDK, 13+ APs SD, leaving ~13-20 APs to tweak things.

Alternatively, if you really want to stick with your original idea, consider ftr 14 / bard 6: again, lose +1 DC and lvl 3 spells, but can take Heavy Armor Champion feat for extra +12 PRR/MRR. That's the main advantage of your proposed idea, IMO, so might as well try to max it out. :)

[dethdukk]

First thing: I'm not overly worried about trapping/spells, mostly tactics DC's, damage, and survivability. If I do pick up rogue again it wouldn't be a terrible idea, as I would be able to dump-stat dex and pick up insightful reflexes, that way I could max out my int for both reflex saves and KtA, and course int also helps with trapping... so that's a good idea. I'm worried about survivability in LE, as I've played a similar build and it was getting one-shot by melee mobs any time it pulled aggro and the attack got through displace/dodge/incorp. I was hoping to solve that issue with a full PRR build.

I hadn't taken the time to look at how much AP the build needed (obviously), I was planning to do that later, thanks for taking the time to check it out. I would assume that if I was running into issues with AP I would drop the kensai tactics, as they're fairly expensive compared to some other sources.

The biggest disadvantage to losing more bard levels is that it not only loses DC, it also loses some duration of the 2 freeze effects, as the duration is equal to half bard level in seconds. At bard level 12, that means you can permanently freeze one mob, at 6 you've got a 3 second freeze on a 6 second cooldown... not bad, but not as amazing either. Still, the loss of the bard levels wouldn't affect stunning shield or dire charge, and with good skill rotation you could probably still perma-stun a single mob.

Another option is to go full THF with greatswords? I'm unsure how that would match up with sword and board when it comes to damage/survivability.

[goodspeed]

First thing: I'm not overly worried about trapping/spells, mostly tactics DC's, damage, and survivability. If I do pick up rogue again it wouldn't be a terrible idea, as I would be able to dump-stat dex and pick up insightful reflexes, that way I could max out my int for both reflex saves and KtA, and course int also helps with trapping... so that's a good idea. I'm worried about survivability in LE, as I've played a similar build and it was getting one-shot by melee mobs any time it pulled aggro and the attack got through displace/dodge/incorp. I was hoping to solve that issue with a full PRR build.

I hadn't taken the time to look at how much AP the build needed (obviously), I was planning to do that later, thanks for taking the time to check it out. I would assume that if I was running into issues with AP I would drop the kensai tactics, as they're fairly expensive compared to some other sources.

The biggest disadvantage to losing more bard levels is that it not only loses DC, it also loses some duration of the 2 freeze effects, as the duration is equal to half bard level in seconds. At bard level 12, that means you can permanently freeze one mob, at 6 you've got a 3 second freeze on a 6 second cooldown... not bad, but not as amazing either. Still, the loss of the bard levels wouldn't affect stunning shield or dire charge, and with good skill rotation you could probably still perma-stun a single mob.

Another option is to go full THF with greatswords? I'm unsure how that would match up with sword and board when it comes to damage/survivability.

The problem with legendary is that not being hit is your best best. Norm is kinda like epic elite. Hard on the other hand is where you'd want both hp (like 1k+) and lots of prr (150+.. bit of debate on the tradeoff of going higher on prr vs shoring up more hp, or the trade of prr to achieve high dodge)

This is also where evasion comes in. Atm getting to about 50 reflex isn't to hard. Now originally armor gave you MRR with PRR. But for some reason while I was on break, turbine nerfed the flippn armor. Giving less of one and taking away the mrr. Before, it was a no brainer you went heavy. Hell you even built a mage to wear heavy armor and suffer no spell failure because of the survival.

But with LH and elite survival comes into not getting hit foremost, (dodge, displace, ac (eh its another roll) incorp (which is why I think the pajama could make a return with monks 50%) then the prr to survive a blow mixed with the hp to survive it. I mean even on LH shroud with about 56% reduction (like140prrish?) id say the dmg would be about 700. 30 dmg less iff you had the shadow scale armor on. I mean even with 160 prr the **** blades still nail me for about 91 dmg. Though I did see a pally tanking sorjak in LH tempest once. And this guy just kept dodging that huge flippn death sword. Guy might of been hit once or twice every so very far in between often but he held the line. No idea how he was set up though. Damage wasn't the best but **** was that guy a wall of mist.

Stunning wise, elite ive no clue. On hard a acrobat fighter (12 ftr) build I made did ok with stunning blow (dire charge is way easier though.) He had the stunning feats and some gear for stunning as well as improved sunder to drop it more. Could usually nail the meatier ones like the orthon. Kobolds and devils and stuff would pretty much get nailed. The bard freezes though always seem to be iffy. I still freeze on the forced ones while attacking, but enhancement wise it's more click and see. Maybe with pdk could get it more reliable though seems likes ap's are always stretched to thin. Casting your own displace is nice though when you don't have an armada of heroic clickies though.

[dethdukk]

goodspeed - Thanks, that's actually super helpful info to know. So I should say, my only experience in LE was in Tempest Spine (got carried through super hard...). I was playing on a Swashbuckler melee focused bard, 13 bard/5 fighter/2 rogue split. I stopped playing DDO just before orchard released, and prior to that I was mostly TRing, so I was lacking a little... a lot... on high end gear.

When I ran it, I had about 1050hp, and around 90-100 PRR, 175% fortification. I was running a little under max dodge, maybe 24%, with permanent concealment and 10% incorp. Around... 100 AC I think, which I didn't realize had been changed to actually matter a little. My reflex save never failed once, but when I got hit even once in melee it would do about 1100 damage to me, which of course meant I died in one hit every time. Sor'jek did 1300 in one hit.

I'm wondering what PRR/HP breakpoint I need to hit to survive even one hit in LE's? I feel like if I can survive one hit with around 100 hp left from normal mobs, I'd probably survive a hit from Sorjek, and then I could have healed myself back to full from there by kiting for a bit. Following on that, I thought another idea for a melee class would be to have enough CC/cleaves that you can jump in with dire charge, cleave, great cleave, use another AoE stun, cleave great cleave, then hopefully kill whats left with single target CC, which would remove a lot of the danger as well (ergo trying to work out this build).

Honestly, I don't know what the DC you need to hit in LE to have a 95% stun chance is, so it's entirely possible I could go 15 bard/3fighter/2rogue and still have high enough DCs to hit those stuns, I just won't know for sure without actually stepping into quests and testing.

[Sydril]

Honestly, I don't know what the DC you need to hit in LE to have a 95% stun chance is, so it's entirely possible I could go 15 bard/3fighter/2rogue and still have high enough DCs to hit those stuns, I just won't know for sure without actually stepping into quests and testing.

Not all LE's are the same, LE Tempest is a bit lower than LE Hound and Shroud but I'd wager you need about 100+ to be generally effective. I just posted a general Tactician template that shows DC's close to those and I haven't had much difficulty landing dire charges at 125, I do see some fails on stunning blows at 90ish. Trip is pretty much no fail in that range.

[dethdukk]

Alright, took some more time to work on this build... I'm still wanting some crowd control, but I'm unsure if it's worth the effort to pick up the Warchanter freeze attacks at the cost of T5 swashbuckler. I'm currently working on 2 different builds, one is a Warchanter charisma based freeze build, the other is a Int based Swashbuckler. Both builds run PDK, 15 bard, 3 fighter, 2 rogue. I thought about going pure bard, but that loses trapping abilities, 2 feats, 25 PRR+MMR and 20% HP to start, would cost me a +1 lesser heart, and if I go Warchanter, would lose me evasion as well.

So, Pros vs Cons for each of the builds:

Warchanter Freeze build Pros:
1) Has access to a total of 5 ways to CC enemies.
2) One of its stuns has a longer duration than cooldown.
3) A bit more hp, 6% more doublestrike.
4) Access to Howl of the North (bigger crits on 19-20)

WC freeze build Cons:
1) AP is very tight, unable to access Vanguard at all, unable to get Tier 4 swashbuckler skills.

Int Swashbucker Pros:
1) Access to a perform check instant kill.
3) A double cleave attack that has extremely high crit chance.
4) Access to Exploit weakness.
5) 3 available forms of CC.
6) AP is easily available and can be moved around depending on playstyle desired.
7) Good trapping and reflex due to focus on Int instead of Cha, possibly higher flat damage per hit overall.

Cons:
1) Cannot permanently CC a mob
2) Access to less CC than other build, and only Dire Charge has a low cooldown.

So that's the quick summary of each builds pros and cons. A longer definition is, with both builds I can get my DC's into the low hundreds for all of my crowd control abilities. Warchanter will be amazing if I can kill enemies during the time it's frozen, but will have less trap skills and reflex saves, as well as being AMAZINGLY tight on AP. Swashbuckler has access to an instant kill, and will have much more sustained DPS to bosses due to KtA being higher and access to Thread the Needle + Exploit Weakness.

Edit: Something else I thought of, the int build could use any ranged weapons it wants, allowing for some ranged DPS in situations where you really don't want to be/can't be in melee combat. You'd lose all your swashbuckling/SWF bonuses while doing that of course, but at least its an option.

Both builds have access to the same spells/feats, the only real difference is the enhancement tree build and what stat I focus on.

PDK 15 Bard, 3 Fighter, 2 Rogue
Starting Stats
Str - 8
Dex - 8
Con - 16
Int - 16/18 Swashbuckler
Wis - 8
Cha - 16/18 Warchanter


Feats (not in proper leveling order, just a list so I can show what I'll have so people can make recommendations.)

H1) Single Weapon Fighting
F1) Improved Single Weapon Fighting
F2) Greater Single Weapon Fighting
01) Shield Mastery
03) Improved Shield Mastery
06) Precision
09) Empower Heal
12) Extend (quality of life, can be swapped)
15) Insightful Reflexes
18) Improved Critical: Piercing
21) Overwhelming critical
24) Inspire Excellence
27) Epic DR
30) Tactics
D26) Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
D28) Lasting Inspiration (unsure about this one, feels like a quality of life feat to me, and there's so many choices...)
D29) Dire Charge
L30) Scion of Astral Plane

I'll work on getting Enhancements for each build up so people can look at those soon.

[dethdukk]

Enhancements:
Charisma based Freeze Build

Purple Dragon Knight: 3 points
Core: Human Boost: Damage
Tier 1: Cormyrean Knight Training

Stalwart Defender: 13 points
Core: Toughness, Stalwart Stance
Tier 1: Imp. Stalwart (PRR/MRR) III, Stalward Defensive mastery II
Tier 2: Imp. Stalwart (saves) III
Tier 3: Greater Stalwart: (20% HP) III

Kensai: 4 points
Core: Kensai Focus
Tier 1: Haste Boost III

Warchanter: 40 points
Core: Skaldic Rage (con), Weapon Training,
Tier 1: Rough and Ready III, The Poetic Edda I
Tier 2: Iced Edges III, Action Boost: Sprint I
Tier 3: Frozen Fury III, Charisma I, Ironskin Chant III
Tier 4: Northwind III, Charisma I, Reckless Chant III
Tier 5: Spinning Ice III, Howl of the North I, Chant of Power III

Swashbuckler: 12 points
Core: Confidence, Swashbuckling, Uncanny Dodge
Tier 1: Insults: Scathing words III, On Your Toes III
Tier 2: Fast Movement I
Tier 3: Swashbuckling Style: Buckler I

Harper: 8 points

Core: Agent of Good
Tier 1: Harper Enchantment I, Travelers Toughness II
Tier 2: Know the Angles III

Edit: added enhancements for swashbuckler build

Int based Swashbuckler

Purple Dragon Knight: 3 points
Core: Human Boost: Damage
Tier 1: Cormyrean Knight Training

Stalwart Defender: 13 points
Core: Toughness, Stalwart Stance
Tier 1: Imp. Stalwart (PRR/MRR) III, Stalward Defensive mastery II
Tier 2: Imp. Stalwart (saves) III
Tier 3: Greater Stalwart: (20% HP) III

Kensai: 4 points
Core: Kensai Focus
Tier 1: Haste Boost III

Vangaurd: 9 points
Core: To the Fore!
Tier 1: Shield Specialization I, Shield Smash II
Tier 2: Brutality III, Stunning Shield I

Swashbuckler: 35 points
Core: Confidence, Swashbuckling, Uncanny Dodge, Panache
Tier 1: Insults: Scathing words III, On Your Toes III,
Tier 2: Fast Movement I, En Pointe III
Tier 3: Swashbuckling Style I, Resonant Arms III, Elegant Footwork
Tier 4: Swashbuckling Style II, Battering Barrage II
Tier 5: Coup De Grace, Thread The Needle, Exploit Weakness

Harper: 12 points

Core: Agent of Good
Tier 1: Harper Enchantment I, Strategic Combat I
Tier 2: Know the Angles III, Versatile Adept II
Tier 3: Strategic Combat II

4 Points left over, was unsure where to put these. Thought it might be a good idea to splash into acrobat for lowered hate generation, move points to take the double-strike boost in swashbuckler and drop haste boost entirely… but unsure how effective that would be.