Paladin DPS Build Help Please: 15-30, 1 level of Ranger

[BoBoDaClown]

Hello,

I need to do a single life, 15-30, stuck with a level of Ranger, Scourge.

Prioritising offence:

Should I run with maces or use something with Knight's Training?

THF, S&B, TWF? What's the best for dps on a pally?

KOTC or Vanguard offers more dps?

18 Paladin? 1 Ranger, 1??

For:
-levels 15-30 R1

I don't need a build (although happy to look at one) - just need some direction on what works well with pally.


Thank you in advance

[voxson5]

Hello,

I need to do a single life, 15-30, stuck with a level of Ranger, Scourge.

Prioritising offence:

Should I run with maces or use something with Knight's Training?

THF, S&B, TWF? What's the best for dps on a pally?

KOTC or Vanguard offers more dps?

18 Paladin? 1 Ranger, 1??

For:
-levels 15-30 R1

I don't need a build (although happy to look at one) - just need some direction on what works well with pally.


Thank you in advance

15p/5r, T5 tempest, t4 DoS, 2wf, heavy armour. Might as well use scourge mace crit for those sweet big numbers.

This is a fairly old build though & I am sure ithers can do better.

[Grailhawk]

I would be thinking about adding more Ranger.

15/5 (Tempest T5)
14/6 (Tempest T5 + Feat)
14/5/1 PLD/RNG/MNK (Tempest T5 + 100% Offhand pPoc)
15/3/2 PLD/RNG/MNK (100% Offhand Proc and Evasion)

Can use longswords and knights training to stay centers and use monk stance in place of Zeal if you want. Sadly 5 ranger 2 Monk won't work because of the lose of Holy Sword.

[BoBoDaClown]

Thanks guys



Thoughts on tier 4 Vistani to go with the pally, since KOTC seems lacklustre?


So, perhaps

15/5 Paladin Ranger


Heavy Armour?
TWF
Tempest 40 points
Stalwart 6, PRR
Scourge: 10-17, depending if using maces

17-24 points to spend in either Vistani
or KOTC?

Thank you for the help

[Grailhawk]

Thoughts on tier 4 Vistani to go with the pally, since KOTC seems lacklustre?


I would stick to Longswords or Khopesh and put the points KOTC and Defender, or maybe a few into Stalker for Sneak attack.

You could talk me in to Heavy Maces, or Morningstar with Assimar Enhancements + Knights Training + Pulverize, but that seams like a lot of work to get it working, the DS, Offhand Proc, and ODS might make it worth it though, especially if there's a weapon that has a bit better crit profile you can use.

I would avoid daggers on this kind of build just think your going backwards using a lesser weapon but I'm sure it would work well enough for a PL.

[BoBoDaClown]

I would stick to Longswords or Khopesh and put the points KOTC and Defender, or maybe a few into Stalker for Sneak attack.

You could talk me in to Heavy Maces, or Morningstar with Assimar Enhancements + Knights Training + Pulverize, but that seams like a lot of work to get it working, the DS, Offhand Proc, and ODS might make it worth it though, especially if there's a weapon that has a bit better crit profile you can use.

I would avoid daggers on this kind of build just think your going backwards using a lesser weapon but I'm sure it would work well enough for a PL.

Cool, thank you for the advice

[Palna]

I'd go 15/5 or preferably 14/6 for T5 tempest and minimum 11 AP in DWS for exposing strike. DoD - > ES and trip you got sone decent CC, debatable if 10% doublestrike from Zeal is more dps but I doubt it beats the CC and sneak attacks. Maybe 23 in defender until you get Epic Defense for HP and Str. Weapon wise I guess depends on what you got in the bank and how much racial ap, should be more or less the same for leveling.

[cru121]

I'd go 14/6. One problem with this build that you kinda suck in heroics, because only at level 20 you get both DoD and Holy Sword. If you have any tasty heroic daggers, you could level with 21+ in Vistani for crit expansion and 33+ in Tempest for Dance.

At 20 I'd switch to Light Armor (Silent Avenger) and run in Shadowdancer for Evasion and stuff.

[BoBoDaClown]

Thank you for the responses.

I went with the 15/5 option, blunt weapons.

[Ralmeth]

Thank you for the responses.

I went with the 15/5 option, blunt weapons.

Sounds like a good plan. The best way to get DPS on a Paladin at the moment is to...splash in something else and use their more modern enhancement tree. The Paladin enhancement trees haven't been updated in almost five years now. Looking back through Wiki, it looks like this was update 23, which was September of 2014. Yup...Paladins are the red-headed step-child of character classes for the developers.

[Coffey]

For 6 AP in VKF you can take the 2nd core for the Deflect Arrows Feat which can be improved from every 6 secs to every 2 secs with Improved Defense from the Tempest tree.
You otherwise dont get the feat at all in this build.

[Kodwraith]

About three years ago I played a 14/6 Pally/Ranger back in the heyday of the Pally 14 splash. The gist is that you are a TWF machine with Tempest 5. The main reasons to go Ranger 6 instead of Ranger 5 are: more feats, and Sniper Shot (sic). I went STR based and mostly ran around whacking things with khopeshes wearing Heavy Armor. You will have a lot of self healing and really good saves.

Nowadays, you should also look at maybe going daggers with Tempest + VKF as much as possible. If you run in shadowdancer, consider also running in Light Armor since you pick up evasion from ShadowDancer and wear a +doublestrike set.

There is one big wrinkle in the build, which an investment of two feats and 3 AP in AA: Imp. Crit Ranged and PBS, you are actually a pretty decent archer when Multishot is off cooldown.

The basic feat layout is pretty straightforward, pick your weapon (longswords, khopesh or daggers) and adjust your feats accordingly: PA, PBS, GTWF, ICrit Ranged, ICrit (Slash or Pierce), force of will.

[Shildor]

About three years ago I played a 14/6 Pally/Ranger back in the heyday of the Pally 14 splash. The gist is that you are a TWF machine with Tempest 5. The main reasons to go Ranger 6 instead of Ranger 5 are: more feats, and Sniper Shot (sic). I went STR based and mostly ran around whacking things with khopeshes wearing Heavy Armor. You will have a lot of self healing and really good saves.

Nowadays, you should also look at maybe going daggers with Tempest + VKF as much as possible. If you run in shadowdancer, consider also running in Light Armor since you pick up evasion from ShadowDancer and wear a +doublestrike set.

There is one big wrinkle in the build, which an investment of two feats and 3 AP in AA: Imp. Crit Ranged and PBS, you are actually a pretty decent archer when Multishot is off cooldown.

The basic feat layout is pretty straightforward, pick your weapon (longswords, khopesh or daggers) and adjust your feats accordingly: PA, PBS, GTWF, ICrit Ranged, ICrit (Slash or Pierce), force of will.

Great info Thank you: Shouldn't Scimitar be first weapon of choice for TWF? (due to crit range)

[Discpsycho]

Great info Thank you: Shouldn't Scimitar be first weapon of choice for TWF? (due to crit range)

Provided you've got the feat to spare, most folks prefer Longswords thanks to the new Knight's Training (https://ddowiki.com/page/Knight%27s_Training) feat. That brings a Longsword up to a base x3 crit multiplier, which gives you a bit more bang for your buck than the extra crit range that scimitars have.

Watcher's Blade (https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Watcher%27s_Blade) is an especially good one because of the inherent x3 crit multiplier (which KT bumps to a base x4 before any class modifiers, or x5 with Holy Sword / other enhancement tree competence bonuses), but you can also snag Oathblade or a Drow Longsword of the Weapon Master in low epics and ride that all the way to 29. There are a few decent named Scimitars, such as Vulkoor's Edge (https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Vulkoor%27s_Edge), but not as many as longswords, and they're not quite as good. I'd still take Watcher's Blade over Cruel Nobility, personally

[unbongwah]

Great info Thank you: Shouldn't Scimitar be first weapon of choice for TWF? (due to crit range)
Scimitars are fine for DEX-based pure Tempests, but like Discpsycho says, either Knight's Training weapons or khopeshes are better for a STR-based Tempest hybrid like this build. If you only take one feat, pick KT, which is nice because it boosts a bunch of different weapon types at once; whereas khopesh proficiency only grants, well, khopeshes. With KT you should even be able to afford to take both IC:Slashing (longswords, battleaxes) and IC:Blunt (warhammers) if you really wanted to max out your weapon diversity.