Armour piercing VS. Constructs

[LeoLionxxx]

Fortification Bypass: How useful is it against constructs? Do a lot of them normally have 100% Fort, and no higher?

I'm crafting myself a mid-epic Robot-beater. The aim is to use this against LShroud portals, Baba scarecrows, and more. I've made my LV 26 sword with Construct Bane and a red slot for the Deconstructor augment. I'm now looking at the other 2 effects I want to put on it and considering Armour-Piercing (http://ddowiki.com/page/Armor-Piercing). Is this a good choice for what I want to do with this sword?

I'll confess, I've never really gotten the whole thing with Fortifications and "confirming critical hits"; in PnP I've only ever done 4th and 5th edition.

[Niminae]

Fortification Bypass: How useful is it against constructs? Do a lot of them normally have 100% Fort, and no higher?

I'm crafting myself a mid-epic Robot-beater. The aim is to use this against LShroud portals, Baba scarecrows, and more. I've made my LV 26 sword with Construct Bane and a red slot for the Deconstructor augment. I'm now looking at the other 2 effects I want to put on it and considering Armour-Piercing (http://ddowiki.com/page/Armor-Piercing). Is this a good choice for what I want to do with this sword?

I'll confess, I've never really gotten the whole thing with Fortifications and "confirming critical hits"; in PnP I've only ever done 4th and 5th edition.

I think that constructs like shroud portals and scarecrows have a 100% fortification. It's hard to tell because the combat log is lacking in a lot of ways including having a very small buffer, so if the information you want is even included in the combat log it's very likely that it'll just get pushed off the log by the flood of useless detail that does get shoved onto the combat log. Some older construct type enemies (such as the Lord of Blades) don't have a 100% fort.

For general details on how critical hits are handled in D&D 3.5 and DDO, the wiki (http://ddowiki.com/page/Critical_hit) has a page with most of the information you'll need.

Be aware that Deconstructor is one of the several named augments which is bugged. It will make any item it is slotted into ML28, not the ML26 the item shows. So your "mid-epic Robot-beater" is going to be more of a "high-epic/end-game Robot-beater" if you do slot this augment into it.

[Razor_Wit]

http://ddowiki.com/page/Blasting_Chime
I carry one of these on me at all times. Switch to it for every fight w a construct. The fort reduction is actually noticeable + your helping everyone in party do more damage. It could fit into your theme well.

[AbyssalMage]

Fortification Bypass: How useful is it against constructs? Do a lot of them normally have 100% Fort, and no higher?
My guess is it goes higher only because they keep handing it out to thematically accurate classes. Unfortunately the only way to prove that is finding a willing* construct to test it out on.

* - "Willing" is defined by something that won't make short work of you as you swing ever so slowly to see if you recorded a "Crit."

[FuzzyDuck81]

I tend to use precision on every melee character that I'm not using power attack on, and the 25% from that certainly leads to crits on constructs & undead, increasing it with other sources makes it even more noticeable.

Rogue mechanics & artificers in particular can give some bonuses vs. constructs for the whole party with wracking shot too.

[Saekee]

my understanding of constructs is that they are supposed to be immune to critical hits & sneak attacks in pnp. However, this was translated in DDO as having at least 100% fortification (a raid boss typically has more). So players here can build to bypass it and get crits and, in some cases, sneak damage.

If you go to the wiki page on fortification, it will list the ways to bypass it through various means. http://m.ddowiki.com/page/Fortification

Great suggestion here:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Blasting_Chime
I carry one of these on me at all times. Switch to it for every fight w a construct. The fort reduction is actually noticeable + your helping everyone in party do more damage. It could fit into your theme well.