Acme's "The Crusher" Centered Kensei

[Zer0AcmE]

Welcome one and all to the fabled halls of Acme's "The Falling Anvil", pull up a chair, grab a cup and plop your butt as I regale you with the mythical tales of the "The Crusher".

The Crusher is a Two Weapon Fighting Bladeforged Centered Kensei (full x3 Completionist), built around high dodge, evasion, stunning blow/dire charge and high DPS.

I originally started the build as a 12 Fighter/ 6 Monk/ 2 Paladin but have since TR'd the build to 12 Fighter/ 6 Monk/ 2 Favored Soul, while I lose +8 to all Saves I more than make up for with Divine Might and additional DPS from Warpriest.

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Animanaics.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Animanaics.jpg.html)

Pros:
110 Strength
40 Dodge/25% Incorporeal (Shadow Veil)/50% Concealment (Displacement)
100+ PRR
2000+ HP
85+ Reflex Save (no fail on 1)
135+ Dire Charge (almost never fail in any LE content)

Con's:
No healing amplification (best I could come up with)

Leveling order, stats and feats are as follows:
F,FvS,M,M,M,M,M,M,FvS,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F

Base Stats:
Str: 16/23 (All level ups)
Dex: 12/19
Con: 18/25
Int: 12/19
Wis: 6/13
Cha: 14/21
*This is one of only two characters I play and has been endowed with all +7 tomes, which is important to note for feat progression*

Fully (self buffed) Stats:
Str: 110 (did I mention Divine Might earlier, to be fair though this is maxed with Owlbear/Hezreu cookies, most of the time I run around at 100)
Dex: 48
Con: 88
Int: 34
Wis: 28
Cha: 36

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Character%20Sheet.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Character%20Sheet.jpg.html)

Feats:
1. Stunning Blow
F1. Exotic: Khopesh
3. Completionist
M. Toughness
M. Dodge
6. Power Attack
M. Mobility
9. Quicken
F2. Spring Attack
12. Master of Forms
F4. Improved Critical: Slashing
F5. Cleave
15. Two Weapon Fighting
F6. Great Cleave
18. Grandmaster of Forms
F7. Weapon Focus: Slashing
F8. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
21. Overwhelming Critical
24. Epic Toughness
26. Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting
27. Epic Reflexes
28. Tactician
29. Dire Charge
30. Greater Two Weapon Fighting
L. Scion of Astral Plane
*Now I could easily swap out Toughness/Epic Toughness for a multitude of other choices, these feats are simply a preference as on DPS characters I to strive for the 2K hit point plateau.*

Enhancements:
(16) Bladeforged
(32) Kensei
(13) Warpriest
(11) Ninja Spy
(8) Harper

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Enhancements_01.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Enhancements_01.jpg.html) http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Enhancements_02.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Enhancements_02.jpg.html) http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Enhancements_03.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Enhancements_03.jpg.html)

Gear Layout:
Goggles: Legendary Green Steel (Negative, Opposition, Material)
Helm: Legendary Green Steel (Positive, Opposition, Material
Necklace: Legendary Pendant of the Warrior's Focus (Dexterity +8 slotted)
Trinket: Legendary Empowered Dragonscale (Globe of Imperial Blood slotted)
Cloak: Mysterious Cloak (Golem's Heart slotted)
Belt: Belt (Spell Resistance +48, Insightful Spell Resistance +26)
Ring 1: Legendary Ring of Prowess (Feather Falling slotted)
Gloves: Dazed 17 Gloves of Repair Amplification 59 (w/ Insightful Reconstruction +75)
Boots: Legendary Knife Toed Boots (
Ring 2: Epic Ring of the Master Artificer (Eldritch Resistance, Good Luck +2, Repair +15 slotted)
Bracers: Mighty 16 Bracers of Dodge 16
Armor: Docent of the Celestial Avenger (Resistance +8, slotted)
Primary Weapon: Legendary Green Steel Khopesh (Salt, Nightshield slotted)
Secondary Weapon: Legendary Green Steel Khopesh (Affirmation)

Destiny:
Legendary Dreadnaught
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa405/Acme1047/Legendary%20Dreadnaught.jpg (http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Acme1047/media/Legendary%20Dreadnaught.jpg.html)

Fate Twists:
(4) Sense Weakness (30% extra damage to helpless)
(4) Purify Weapon (add Good, 1d6 damage to weapon)
(1) Unearthly Reaction (+3 Doge, +6 Reflex save and phase tumble thru foes)
(1) A Dance of Flowers (+1.5W damage while centered)
(1) Primal Scream (+5 Str/Con while raged for 3 minutes)

Screen shots and more to follow...that's all (for now) folks...

[Cursed]

Is 110 Str enough for the strength levers?

:P

[Relenthe]

looks very impressive. What is the motivation for the monk levels though? Sure you get a stance but with the stats you currently have +4 in one is a drop in the bucket. You do get a nice free dodge cap to reach 40% dodge, but isn't your prr super low so when you do get hit on le it will still be 1-2k? Also you get evasion but with 85 reflex and 2k health I can't imagine spells being a huge threat to you anyway.

If you drop the monk levels then the 2 fvs levels is giving you a nice chunk of strength for damage and dcs, but the kensai capstone is comparable with 15% doublestrike, 2 dcs and +2 to all scores.

Also what stance do you run in? fire for the str or earth to reach high ac for more defense?

[Discpsycho]

I'm not entirely sure why he's forgoing Stalwart Defender for the Bladeforged tree - even though he's in cloth, 6 AP would get him +25 PRR. I'd like to know exactly what his PRR is - it's possible he's got a lot from gear (I'm too lazy to check the gear stats, which I don't know off the top of my head) and Blitz gives another 30 while it's up, but I'd consider packing more on a melee, even one with 2k health.

6 Monk:
- +2 feats at low levels, -2 feats at high levels (stances)
- +15 PRR, +1 multiplier on 19-20 (Earth)
- 10% runspeed
- Evasion
- 40% dodge cap
- Minor AC and dodge bonuses
- 30 BAB

6 more levels in Fighter:
- 24 BAB
- Heavy Armor (+48 PRR with 24 BAB)
- Far lower dodge cap (depends on gear)
- 3 more feats (heavy armor mastery? superior weapon focus?)
- One Cut (+20 MP, +1/4 avg. crit multiplier)

My guess is that the next-best splits would be Ranger or Bard, but each would require a hefty AP investment to make it worthwhile and they'd be a fundamentally different build.

I guess he could run in Fire, but I don't think it's worth giving up Earth. +5 ki on-crit and +1 ki on-hit are only good for monk moves, and +4 Str is a drop in the bucket. +1 Crit on 19-20 effectively gives +10% base damage and outweighs +2 damage from the Str, and 15 PRR isn't too shabby on a build that already looks a bit vulnerable to physical damage

[Saekee]

I'm not entirely sure why he's forgoing Stalwart Defender for the Bladeforged tree - even though he's in cloth, 6 AP would get him +25 PRR. I'd like to know exactly what his PRR is - it's possible he's got a lot from gear (I'm too lazy to check the gear stats, which I don't know off the top of my head) and Blitz gives another 30 while it's up, but I'd consider packing more on a melee, even one with 2k health.

6 Monk:
- +2 feats at low levels, -2 feats at high levels (stances)
- +15 PRR, +1 multiplier on 19-20 (Earth)
- 10% runspeed
- Evasion
- 40% dodge cap
- Minor AC and dodge bonuses
- 30 BAB

6 more levels in Fighter:
- 24 BAB
- Heavy Armor (+48 PRR with 24 BAB)
- Far lower dodge cap (depends on gear)
- 3 more feats (heavy armor mastery? superior weapon focus?)
- One Cut (+20 MP, +1/4 avg. crit multiplier)

My guess is that the next-best splits would be Ranger or Bard, but each would require a hefty AP investment to make it worthwhile and they'd be a fundamentally different build.

I guess he could run in Fire, but I don't think it's worth giving up Earth. +5 ki on-crit and +1 ki on-hit are only good for monk moves, and +4 Str is a drop in the bucket. +1 Crit on 19-20 effectively gives +10% base damage and outweighs +2 damage from the Str, and 15 PRR isn't too shabby on a build that already looks a bit vulnerable to physical damage

+1 crit on 19-20 is a 10% dps increase if 1) you do not have any crit profile (impossible) and 2) THF or swf

just nitpicking, props otherwise

I would imagine the best dps stance would be air for the DS since his regular crit profile and dps is very high; earth for defenses really

he does get shadow veil from monk which is awesome

[the_one_dwarfforged]

looks very impressive. What is the motivation for the monk levels though? Sure you get a stance but with the stats you currently have +4 in one is a drop in the bucket. You do get a nice free dodge cap to reach 40% dodge, but isn't your prr super low so when you do get hit on le it will still be 1-2k? Also you get evasion but with 85 reflex and 2k health I can't imagine spells being a huge threat to you anyway.

If you drop the monk levels then the 2 fvs levels is giving you a nice chunk of strength for damage and dcs, but the kensai capstone is comparable with 15% doublestrike, 2 dcs and +2 to all scores.

i wonder some of the same things.

the advantages of a pure heavy armor fighter seem largely superior imo, especially given some of the choices youve made.

if going centered, why not take ninja poison?

if youre going to spend ap on +10 prr from warpriest, why not just go spend 6 ap on +25 prr from stalwart defender instead? please do not say rage.

if youre going to use divine might, why is there barely any investment in your charisma?

you are missing out on a lot of damage from kensei weapon focus enhancements, that seems kind of painful.


all that said, i do like your con score, i think mine is only topping out around 60 something (not that con is a very high priority to me). id be interested in a breakdown of what you did to get it that high.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

I would imagine the best dps stance would be air for the DS since his regular crit profile and dps is very high; earth for defenses really

the sucky thing about air stance is that it does not stack with the insightful double strike from warriors focus (air stance is an insight bonus). also, hes twf, meaning that double strike would only go to his main hand anyway while the crit multi from earth is applied to both weapons. i think that considering those two things, any dps advantage to wind would be so small that earth is just way better.

[Zer0AcmE]

looks very impressive. What is the motivation for the monk levels though? Sure you get a stance but with the stats you currently have +4 in one is a drop in the bucket. You do get a nice free dodge cap to reach 40% dodge, but isn't your prr super low so when you do get hit on le it will still be 1-2k? Also you get evasion but with 85 reflex and 2k health I can't imagine spells being a huge threat to you anyway.

If you drop the monk levels then the 2 fvs levels is giving you a nice chunk of strength for damage and dcs, but the kensai capstone is comparable with 15% doublestrike, 2 dcs and +2 to all scores.

Also what stance do you run in? fire for the str or earth to reach high ac for more defense?

The monk levels are mainly for Shadow Veil (25% Incorporeal), the evasion is also nice. As for PRR, +100 is really the only goal as the curve after that is so steep and I run mainly in earth stance for the PRR.

I can also say from having played this character as a pure 20 fighter that this split is much more affective.

[Zer0AcmE]

i wonder some of the same things.

the advantages of a pure heavy armor fighter seem largely superior imo, especially given some of the choices youve made.

if going centered, why not take ninja poison?

if youre going to spend ap on +10 prr from warpriest, why not just go spend 6 ap on +25 prr from stalwart defender instead? please do not say rage.

if youre going to use divine might, why is there barely any investment in your charisma?

you are missing out on a lot of damage from kensei weapon focus enhancements, that seems kind of painful.


all that said, i do like your con score, i think mine is only topping out around 60 something (not that con is a very high priority to me). id be interested in a breakdown of what you did to get it that high.

I love Sting of the Ninja, and may reconsider it, right now I'm simply trying these enhancements (and the extra 6 AP have to come from somewhere). I went with extra AP in Warpriest for Smite Weakness (stacks of Vulnerable) and Inflame (+4 hit/damage) the Wall of Steel was to just break the PRR +100 barrier. Also, the Stalwart stance prevents Primal Scream (rage). I would go to the Stalwart Stance if I decided I needed to generate the extra hate.

As for the charisma question, I have a macro setup to switch in a tier 2 charisma khopesh, Legendary Dashing Gloves (+4 Quality) and perform a Power Surge before I hit Divine Might, so my charisma is at 64 before I boost (it also performs the same swaps/affect for int., raising it to 64 for Know the Angels).

True on the damage, but I do plenty regardless.

Oh, as for Doublestrike, mine sits at roughly 50% (wind stance only raises it by 2, I believe it doesn't stack with past lives or the insightful bonus from the necklace).

[Axeyu]

As for PRR, +100 is really the only goal as the curve after that is so steep and I run mainly in earth stance for the PRR.

Would you also say that the curve for HP is steep after a certain point or do you believe PRR have diminishing returns?

[the_one_dwarfforged]

I love Ninja Poison, and may reconsider it, right now I'm simply trying these enhancements (and the extra 6 AP have to come from somewhere). I went with extra AP in Warpriest for Smite Weakness (stacks of Vulnerable) and Inflame (+4 hit/damage) the Wall of Steel was to just break the PRR +100 barrier. Also, the Stalwart stance prevents Primal Scream (rage). I would go to the Stalwart Stance if I decided I needed to generate the extra hate.

why not drop the 8 ap from warpriest that arent needed for divine might and pick up 15 more prr and ninja poison though? more prr, more dmg.

also, drop defensive stance, primal scream, reup stance. like i said, dont say rage.

[Zer0AcmE]

Would you also say that the curve for HP is steep after a certain point or do you believe PRR have diminishing returns?

Diminishing returns, here's why, once I kick off Blitz I sit at 132 PRR (57% reduction), compare the to my pure 20 PDK paladin with 217 PRR (68.5%), we're talking roughly 10% less damage for having to add over 100+ to PRR, not worth it in my opinion.


why not drop the 8 ap from warpriest that arent needed for divine might and pick up 15 more prr and ninja poison though? more prr, more dmg.

also, drop defensive stance, primal scream, reup stance. like i said, dont say rage.

I could do that, but I would lose out on the DPS from vulnerable (<- this is really the reason its making it hard to swap 'em) and the action boost.

And yes I could swap in and out of stance, but not really seeing the need for the additional 15.

[Relenthe]

Diminishing returns, here's why, once I kick off Blitz I sit at 132 PRR (57% reduction), compare the to my pure 20 PDK paladin with 217 PRR (68.5%), we're talking roughly 10% less damage for having to add over 100+ to PRR, not worth it in my opinion.

It doesn't look very attractive if you word it that way. Let me make an example.

Let's say you get hit for 1000 damage before reductions.

If you have 57% reduction, you take (1000 * (1-.57)) = 430 damage

If you have 68.5% reduction, you take (1000 * (1-.685)) = 315 damage

So you take (315/430) = 73% damage with 217 PRR compared to 132 PRR. So again it might not be worth it to you, but it is much more than a 10% decrease.

[Cetus]

I'm not getting the aim of this build, is this just to survive LE content?

Foregoing the tier 5 kensei enhancements is a huge DPS loss, so this doesn't seem like an optimal DPS build, the defenses look great however.

I've been experimenting with an 18/2 monk splash vs. pure 20. The damage output of that monk splash seems to be very high so far.

[adrian69]

Just glad to see someone creating something and having fun with it. Congrats.

[Axeyu]

Diminishing returns, here's why, once I kick off Blitz I sit at 132 PRR (57% reduction), compare the to my pure 20 PDK paladin with 217 PRR (68.5%), we're talking roughly 10% less damage for having to add over 100+ to PRR, not worth it in my opinion.

Well, no. There are no diminishing returns for PRR. Each point increases your effective hit points by 1% (of your HP).

For the numbers you cite, you are comparing them wrong. 57% reduction means you take 43% of the damage and 68.5% reduction means you take 31.5% of the damage.
43/31.5= 1.37. Thus the build with 132 PRR takes 37% more damage from hits than the 217 PRR build. That is significant.

[Zer0AcmE]

I'm not getting the aim of this build, is this just to survive LE content?

Foregoing the tier 5 kensei enhancements is a huge DPS loss, so this doesn't seem like an optimal DPS build, the defenses look great however.

I've been experimenting with an 18/2 monk splash vs. pure 20. The damage output of that monk splash seems to be very high so far.

Yes, for the most part the build is focused on survival in EE,LE (I'm this close to having the build dialed in to solo LE Tempest Spine, but this is where my lower PRR does appear to rear it's ugly head, I have to pin myself in the corner against Sor'jek in an attempt to not be blown off and if he gets two shot in a row on me I'm toast).

When you say tier 5 kensei are you referring to A Good Death and Deadly Shot? At this point I'm going to assume so, as I stated earlier I'm still testing enhancements, I'm going to drop 4 from Warpriest (Inflame and 1 Toughness) and have added both of the focused melee attacks.


Well, no. There are no diminishing returns for PRR. Each point increases your effective hit points by 1% (of your HP).

For the numbers you cite, you are comparing them wrong. 57% reduction means you take 43% of the damage and 68.5% reduction means you take 31.5% of the damage.
43/31.5= 1.37. Thus the build with 132 PRR takes 37% more damage from hits than the 217 PRR build. That is significant.

It would appear that your's is a much more accurate take on the PRR difference than mine, but this is why I chose the level split/enhancements that I have (I am hit much less often).

[tpbtoc]

What about instead of TWF you choose SWF to make momentum swing/lay waste faster and also get Iron Fist?

[Zer0AcmE]

What about instead of TWF you choose SWF to make momentum swing/lay waste faster and also get Iron Fist?

I've tried SWF in the past (I do like it a lot) but I prefer the extra effects from a secondary weapon.

Looking into Iron Fist now...

*After some very valid comments and initial testing I've made the following adjustments to this build...*

Added:
A Good Death
Deadly Strike
Fists of Iron
Sting of the Ninja

Removed:
Wall of Steel
Inflame

[tpbtoc]

er, actually I made a mistake, the name is Fists of Iron but you get the idea :p

[slarden]

Nice build. I've seen this in action and "Crush" is very accurate.

It's amazing dps.