Looking for advice on what to TR next

[Question2005]

I'm finishing my 3rd paladin life and im wondering what to TR next as. Most of my gear is heavy armor/2H so re-using that would be easiest. Fighter could easily use all of my current gear with no problems, but the past life isnt very useful compared to the barb's. Barb's main issue is that if i cant re-use the cavalry plate from crystal cove, I would have to get a lot of new gear (crafed medium armor probably, and +resists elsewhere).

I am only planning to TR at 20, so will not be going into epics and the level 20 capstone will only be used when I am farming tokens to TR anyway. Mainly looking at barb...one of the suggestions that I got was to go human (for early access to cleave), then take 1 level of fighter at 4 to get early access to great cleave. Having both cleaves at level 4 would make leveling a lot quicker. I would also be able to re-use my cavalry plate (at least till i get better medium armor).

I am aware that the uncanny dodge bonus would be capped by max dodge so after level 8 i would probably be better off using medium armor, but this lets me save resources on lower level gear.

Anyone have any suggestions on race/stats/skills/enhancements/etc?

[C-Dog]

There are 2 ways to decide what your "next" TR should be - to look back at your gear, or plan forward to the class(es) after this next series. I.E., what helps most further down the road than +1 life?

(There are several "TR Templates" that use 6+6 levels to form a single "base" for the build, and that can then support 8 levels of any class you want to glom onto that for Past Life. That way, the core gear stays pretty much the same whether it's Wizard or Barb. Just a thought.)


Fighter could easily use all of my current gear with no problems, but the past life isnt very useful compared to the barb's.
Barb PL gives +10 HP, which may seem huge(ish) at Level 1, but those 10 pts get lost long before level 20. Fighter PL's, otoh, increase tactical DC's (and +1 to attack rolls!), so if you're ever* going to use Trip/Sunder/Stun, or have a build that wants to hit everything 95% of the time (always fail on "1"), those help all the way to 30. Re what I said above. :cool:

(* Typically Monk or a Rogue/Stick build, but Artificer's Tier V Thunder-shock enhancement (http://ddowiki.com/page/Battle_Engineer_enhancements#Thunder-Shock_Weapon) is based on Sunder DC - who'da thunk it?! If your Barb is going to use Sunder or Stun (and a lot do), Fighter first might make more sense.)

o http://ddowiki.com/page/Past_Life#Free_feats


Okay, enough w/ answering questions that were unasked... :rolleyes:


Anyone have any suggestions on race/stats/skills/enhancements/etc?
My go to usually starts here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/470423-Build-Repository?p=5759353&viewfull=1#post5759353

And here are a few of the Barb-build threads I've collected over time. (Note that I just copy/pasted from my archived notes, no attempt to edit for your specific needs, sorry.)


o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/486195-Barbarian-Build?p=5968195&viewfull=1#post5968195
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/479090-32pts-Dwarf-Barbarian-Build
& Basic https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/479090-32pts-Dwarf-Barbarian-Build?p=5876628&viewfull=1#post5876628
o generic non-human barbs https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/493647-32-point-dwarf-barbarian?p=6062027&viewfull=1#post6062027
o max crits: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/479651-Can-I-get-a-breakdown-how-a-melee-can-do-12-000-damage-on-a-crit?p=5883410#post5883410
o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/482283-Any-good-Barb-builds-besides-the-obvious
o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/472094-A-few-newbie-barbarian-questions
o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/484619-Past-Life-Bowbarian-(10-Barb-9-Ranger-1-Rogue)?p=5948473&viewfull=1#post5948473
o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/453857-Zoda-Pure-Zergbarian

[cru121]

snip

[spyder7723]

Consider doing iconics. Get the heroic past life AND iconic at once.

[lillentle]

What is your gear? Maybe consider farming some quests for certain loot, like ravenloft

[Question2005]

The +10 hp per barb past life just seems way more versatile. More hp is always good, +1 to tactical DC is not unless you are actually using tactical feats.

As mentioned, most of my gear is 2H/heavy armor focused. I dont have any expansions.

At the moment im thinking of taking 1 level of fighter at level 4 to get great cleave early and access to the 30% attack speed action boost. So that would probably be 18 barb/2 fighter or 18 barb/1 fighter/1 something else. Any thoughts on this?

Another suggestion I got was to do 18 barb/1 druid/1 cleric which would give me heavy armor proficiency, divine might and something called ram's might.

I took a look at the forum builds but most of them require tomes that I do not have, or are just doing pure barb and going into epics, and im only going to TR at 20.

[cru121]

to cast druidic spells, you'd have to have wisdom at least 11 (for first level spell, such as Ram's Might) and follow Druid Oath.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Druidic_Oath

You could remove metal armor, cast the spell, and put it back on, but it's a hassle.

Taking a fighter level at 4 is a good idea and having Great Cleave early is indeed great.

[AbyssalMage]

The +10 hp per barb past life just seems way more versatile. More hp is always good, +1 to tactical DC is not unless you are actually using tactical feats.
+10 HP's (30 total w/3 PL's) basically gives you Greater False Life which is very powerful early on and not so much later on. It becomes a nice benefit but nothing special once you start into your mid/late teens.

+1 Tactical DC's (+3 Total w/3 PL's) is a nice benefit from 1 to 20 (or 30 once you decide to return to Epics). It is absolutely worthless though if your final concept isn't melee oriented.


At the moment im thinking of taking 1 level of fighter at level 4 to get great cleave early and access to the 30% attack speed action boost. So that would probably be 18 barb/2 fighter or 18 barb/1 fighter/1 something else. Any thoughts on this?

Another suggestion I got was to do 18 barb/1 druid/1 cleric which would give me heavy armor proficiency, divine might and something called ram's might.
1 - Power Attack
3 - Cleave
6 - Great Cleave

If you go human, you get it "1-step" earlier. Glancing Blows will take care of most problems until level 6 when you get your second cleave. Going 4 Barbarian/2 Fighter in your first 6 levels isn't going to make a noticeable difference IMO. It works though and people do it so feel free to do it too.


I took a look at the forum builds but most of them require tomes that I do not have, or are just doing pure barb and going into epics, and im only going to TR at 20.
Tomes only help for meeting Feat Requirements, usually. If you are STR based, you will meet all of the PA, THF (x3) line requirements. I could see a +5 Tome requirement if you go into epics for Epic Toughness.

I think you will be fine.

[Enoach]

Things to keep in mind...

You have been running a melee paladin so may not have yet realized the power behind tactical attacks like Sunder, Trip and Stun. To that end you may not want to discount the Tactical DCs

Barbarian's +10 HP per life (30 max) is also a strong feature to have.

Keep in mind that to get the past life of a class you don't need to be pure, to that end you can leverage multi-classing to help maintain aspects you want to continue with that are not necessarily characteristics of the class you are working past lives for.

Example: 1 Level of Fighter combined with 19 levels of Barbarian will give your build Heavy armor proficiency. One way to tackle these types of builds is simply plan to level 18 as you can hold until 20. This works well if simply going for the class past life and plan on TR'ng to the next class once you hit 20.

---
A piece of advice I give people as they are planning to do multiple TRs is to consider Past Life abilities that are universal benefits to any build as you TR. IE Paladin Healing amp, and Barbarian HP, Warlock MRR are useful for just about any build. Then look at builds that have the Active Past Life Feats that would be more useful to your builds going forward.

Then look at builds that will give you PL abilities that help you hone your final build idea. This could be more melee focused such as Monk's damage or Fighter Tactical DCs, or Caster focus such as more spell points, School DCs or spell penetration.

[C-Dog]

The +10 hp per barb past life just seems way more versatile. More hp is always good, +1 to tactical DC is not unless you are actually using tactical feats...
No doubt, which is why I said as much above.

My point was - +10 HP is about 1/10 of one hit at Level 20. +1 DC is always a 5% better chance to do what you're trying to do. And in current DDO, offense is king.

If you never use tactics, then don't bother, natch. But if you ever do, or will, the investment is stronger over the life of the character.


I took a look at the forum builds but most of them require tomes that I do not have, or are just doing pure barb and going into epics, and im only going to TR at 20.
Unless the tome is for a requisite for a Feat, they're not "mandatory" - they just help. And you can also dedicate some of the level-ups to fill in those gaps - it will take away from your primary combat stat, and so be weaker, but it can make a build doable.

You just have to accept that you're not the past-life monster that the poster was, and adjust expectations accordingly. :cool: