Anyone have any builds using the weapons from the Sentinels pack? ...

[voodoogroves]

The armbands and armors get lots of love, not so much the weapons. The helm has value in giving more DM uses, but the natural armor bonus is too easily replicated via a spell, the SR is not high enough to be useful for long and the helm slot tends to be busy.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Elyd_Edge
Using virtuoso or other bard songs, spamming them and then regenerating them w/ Eyld Edge or similar?

http://ddowiki.com/page/Chimera's_Fang
Dragonmark focus is kinda cool in that it basically gives you a feat (WP: Bastard Swords), potentially saving you a feat if you're feat-starved and want to DPS but can't afford Khopeshes.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Midnight_Greetings
The big thing that stands out to me is that it uses DEX as a damage bonus. How many assassin's dump STR and go finesse / INT? It also is supposedly a centered weapon, yes? Monk 1 / Rogue lots in wind stance?

[Newtons_Apple]

Only thing I can offer is I'm planning on TR'ing my BS Paladin to be a better BS wielder, and shoot for dual wielding the Epic Fangs of the Chimera.

[Angelus_dead]

potentially saving you a feat if you're feat-starved and want to DPS but can't afford Khopeshes.

Costs a feat in Dragonmark to qualify for the bastard proficiency, and the bastard sword is not what you pick for DPS if you can't get khopesh. Scimitar, rapier, heavy pick, light pick, and kukri would all do more damage than bastard sword, as would battleaxe, longsword, or shortsword if the racial enhancements match. Even if a person did want to DPS with a bastard sword, he'd need a stronger one than +1 Shock Maiming.

EDIT: Oh, Chimera's Fang is actually Shock Touch, not Shock. I keep forgetting it's still only Shock Touch, because that's unbelievably weak. A +1 Frost Longsword would do more damage.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Midnight_Greetings
The big thing that stands out to me is that it uses DEX as a damage bonus.

The damage bonus is from intelligence, not dexterity.

It also is supposedly a centered weapon, yes? Monk 1 / Rogue lots in wind stance?

A 2.5% higher attack speed does not make up for holding a +1 weapon.

You might like this thread, which discusses the potential value of those weapons in some detail:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=243571

[voodoogroves]

The damage bonus is from intelligence, not dexterity.

You might like this thread, which discusses the potential value of those weapons in some detail:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=243571

Meant INT, typed DEX (that's why I mentioned assassin); thanks for catch.

And, thanks for link ;-)

[unbongwah]

The problem with making builds based around those weapons is there's no way to improve them between their base form (min lvl 5) and their epic form. Even if you could come up with a good build for lvl 5, it would be waaaay gimped at higher levels if it still had to use that weapon.

That said, a few ideas which occurred to me (and the problems they face):

Midnight Greetings: a monk-splashed Finesse-based halfling Assassin could dual-wield these and still be centered, which would let them use monk stances and benefit from the Jidz-Tet'ka bracers. And at low levels such a build would probably have higher INT than STR, providing a little extra DPS. But with only +1 to-hit and no elemental or alignment dmg, you'd quickly outgrow them.

Chimera's Fang: the big appeal of this is the free 25% Fortification bonus which stacks; the downside is you need Greater Sentinel DM to benefit which is human-only, can't be taken until lvl 9, and costs 3 feats. Plus its damage bonuses are pretty meh even for a bastard sword. Still, you could do, say, a human TWF fighter who keeps CM in his offhand for the bonuses and uses something else (probably a khopesh!) in his main hand for DPS. And with the forthcoming changes to BSs & DAs (do glancing blows when single-wielded), the CM might be a decent choice for a human tank.

Elyd Edge: any bard would benefit from Anthem in theory, but on my bard I found that 1 song regen every 5 minutes is waaaay too slow to be much good; and I have to keep it equipped the entire time and it's not that great a weapon. The rest of its bonuses are pretty lackluster too. Its epic form might be more useful though.

[voodoogroves]

Best use I can see w/ Eyld Edge is NOT attacking, and instead using it to regen bard songs.

Ie, run ahead - fascinate spam ... hang back, regen, let party kill ... rinse ... repeast

[Angelus_dead]

And at low levels such a build would probably have higher INT than STR, providing a little extra DPS. But with only +1 to-hit and no elemental or alignment dmg, you'd quickly outgrow them.

1. You've already outgrown them at level 5, with something like +1 Shock Rapier of Pure Good.
2. Dual wielding is unhelpful prior to obtaining ITWF. It's better to use S&B, THF, or handwraps.

Chimera's Fang: the big appeal of this is the free 25% Fortification bonus which stacks; the downside is you need Greater Sentinel DM to benefit which is human-only, can't be taken until lvl 9

And notice that level 9 is when you could equip a necklace of 100% Fortification anyhow.

the CM might be a decent choice for a human tank.

But then you notice that offensively it's a +1 Shock Touch Maiming, and that makes it not decent.

Its epic form might be more useful though.

The epic Elyd Edge is no good either.

[unbongwah]

And notice that level 9 is when you could equip a necklace of 100% Fortification anyhow.

Really? I thought the min level for Heavy Fort items was 10. And how likely is it that a new player could obtain a Heavy Fort item by lvl 9?

The epic Elyd Edge is no good either.

What would an epic bard use instead?

[toughguyjoe]

Really? I thought the min level for Heavy Fort items was 10. And how likely is it that a new player could obtain a Heavy Fort item by lvl 9?

What would an epic bard use instead?

The Nightforge Gorget is Min Level 9 and is from a F2P quest that most character can easily run around in and snatch up enough Adamantine Ore so that they could either make their way to the turn in themselves or get a group and finish up the quest to do it.

[Angelus_dead]

Really? I thought the min level for Heavy Fort items was 10. And how likely is it that a new player could obtain a Heavy Fort item by lvl 9?

A new player is much more likely to obtain a nightforge gorget than he is to assemble a Chimera's Fang and also get the Greater Sentinel Dragonmark.

What would an epic bard use instead?

Most likely he'd use Greensteel with lightning strike or earthgrab or such. If he was inclined to get an epic weapon which has charisma attack rolls, he'd want to go all the way to Dynastic Falcata, which uses charisma for damage too.

[SquelchHU]

Really? I thought the min level for Heavy Fort items was 10. And how likely is it that a new player could obtain a Heavy Fort item by lvl 9?

If you run Relic once and get at least 10 ores, or already have them: 100%.

Otherwise, near 0%.

[Newtons_Apple]

The problem with making builds based around those weapons is there's no way to improve them between their base form (min lvl 5) and their epic form. Even if you could come up with a good build for lvl 5, it would be waaaay gimped at higher levels if it still had to use that weapon.

That said, a few ideas which occurred to me (and the problems they face):

Midnight Greetings: a monk-splashed Finesse-based halfling Assassin could dual-wield these and still be centered, which would let them use monk stances and benefit from the Jidz-Tet'ka bracers. And at low levels such a build would probably have higher INT than STR, providing a little extra DPS. But with only +1 to-hit and no elemental or alignment dmg, you'd quickly outgrow them.

Chimera's Fang: the big appeal of this is the free 25% Fortification bonus which stacks; the downside is you need Greater Sentinel DM to benefit which is human-only, can't be taken until lvl 9, and costs 3 feats. Plus its damage bonuses are pretty meh even for a bastard sword. Still, you could do, say, a human TWF fighter who keeps CM in his offhand for the bonuses and uses something else (probably a khopesh!) in his main hand for DPS. And with the forthcoming changes to BSs & DAs (do glancing blows when single-wielded), the CM might be a decent choice for a human tank.

Elyd Edge: any bard would benefit from Anthem in theory, but on my bard I found that 1 song regen every 5 minutes is waaaay too slow to be much good; and I have to keep it equipped the entire time and it's not that great a weapon. The rest of its bonuses are pretty lackluster too. Its epic form might be more useful though.

In terms of my plans with my paladin and the fangs, here are my thoughts:

I will not be taking the sentinel feat line. Rather I will concentrate on DPS and build a human pure paladin KotC with feats something like:

1. EWP: BS
1. TWF

3. Toughness

6. ITWF

9. PA

12. Improved Crit: Slash

15. GTWF

18. Extend

I'll be adding silver to each of the epic fangs, so that at end game I'll be dual wielding Pit Fiend DR breakers at +6 to hit, 2d10 damage, shocking burst, maiming, lightning strike weps that also have destruction for epic AC's.

The criticals still lag behind khopesh of course. I know this. But it's a flavor build, and those two swords are not a bad back seat to the khopesh at all.