Fighter Intangibles

[nat_1]

I'm not very good at this. Maybe there's a few reasons why I'm struggling but they're just excuses, so I'll skip over them and just confess. I (mostly) copied a billy-bad *** fighter build ("mostly" cause I'll be short a half-dozen STR at 28 and a couple other things) and I'm doing a **** job with it.

Cetus? I'm not even Detus. Efftus is more like it. I bought a muscle car and I can't drive stick.

I know a few things I should be doing like:
Have buffs and be as self-sufficient as possible.
Know your mobs DR, if any, and weak saves.
Some animations can shorten activation times.
...um?

Yeah, short list.

I know the biggest contributing factor is going to be improving the part of the build that's interfacing with the keyboard; I'm not expecting to get good at this overnight.

Help. Please. If you feel like leaving some words of wisdom I'd greatly appreciate it. Suggested topics include:

1. Tricks of the trade such as skill activations or order of attacks.

2. Benchmarks like quests to solo or things to kill.

3. General advice on how to approach an encounter and not end up in a backpack or alive but essentially piking.

4. Stuff you think is important that I don't know to ask about yet.

Thanks in advance.
Efftus Minus

[Seikojin]

When aiming to make a sustainable solo melee, you really want to cover a few bases.

How will I heal?
For this you have two big options. Self healing via class (some cleric or warforged arcanes and taking healing amp and hireling healing/pots, umd scrolls. The easiest method is putting some class levels into cleric or fvs and getting warpriest ameliorating strike. It is like a heal burst on you, some restoration, and heals people around you.

How will I deal with Traps?
You have to big options here. Rogue levels so you can disarm, or high saves so you can evade. So monk or rogue splashes do this. Pali can help with high saves. Popular right now is monk/pali for this exact reason.

How will I deal with spells?
You have saves and Spell Resistance only covers non damage spells, so for those you need saves too. An item can give you SR to last a bit, but you really want high saves. So again, monk/pali allows that.

28 points? Depends on if you want sword and board, two handed fighting, or two weapon fighting. You can do stuff to make builds where dex is the primary attack and damage stat, negating the need for str to be higher than 13 (for power attack). That frees up some stat. Most other things you want close to or at 10 so you don't have any penalties to get past.

That should help you complete most heroic content capable builds.

[nat_1]

I've got a build. I'm looking for advice on the rest of it.

One thing I know I'm doing wrong is timing my buff activations. I often have to stop swinging to activate haste boost and if I'd been a little more slick about it I'd have had it up ahead of time.

I know the game, I've played arcane, divine, and a monkcher all to endgame. I know, by and large, what mobs are around the corner of most quests. I know what makes a good fighter on paper. But man am I stinking it up in game. I guess I'm looking for opinions on the habits of good fighters.

[Thalone]

Tactics, tactics, tactics. For a Fighter with a billion feats, tactics means (Improved) Trip (out of combat for up to 30-60 seconds), Stunning Blow (helpless; +50% damage for six seconds), and the severely underused Sap (no save, but wakes up if damaged). If an enemy is CCed, it isn't whacking on you. You can help your tactics land by taking Tactics enhancements (Kensai), going Dwarf/WF (racial tree), increasing Strength, getting DC equipment (e.g., Spare Hand or Stunning/Vertigo items--note at last word, Stunning weapons actually add to trip DC and Vertigo items actually add to stun DC), or debuffing (Improved Sunder to prep for Stuns, scroll Exhaustion to prep for trips and/or slow enemies).

Tactics also means not biting off more than you can chew. Use terrain to your advantage: draw mobs back and fight in doorways or corners so they can't surround you. You can pull small groups by using a returning thrower: aim at the floor ahead of a group of enemies you can handle and chuck until they start coming for you. Careful movement can accomplish the same thing; move until a small group notices you then retreat to a section of the dungeon you've already cleared.

Casters will tend to be your most dangerous enemy: they should die or be CCed first. Note you can cause most of their ray spells to miss or targeted spells to fizzle with good positioning; many casting animations have very obvious tells (they'll raise their hands in the air)--at that point, you want to break line of sight by hiding behind a pillar or something.

If you have issues keeping your health up against incoming damage, let someone else take aggro then whack on the back of things. Try to fit in Blur/Displacement, Dodge, Ghostly on your gear/buffs; and additionally PRR (often conflicts with Dodge).

As you have alluded to, there is an annoying pause after activating a boost and being able to attack. However, doing a special attack (e.g., Cleave) immediately after activating a boost cuts through the pause. In the past, people have claimed that the Quick Draw feat also allows for a shorter pause after boost activations and weapon swapping, but I haven't used that feat in a while.

[bsquishwizzy]

I've got a build. I'm looking for advice on the rest of it.

One thing I know I'm doing wrong is timing my buff activations. I often have to stop swinging to activate haste boost and if I'd been a little more slick about it I'd have had it up ahead of time.

I know the game, I've played arcane, divine, and a monkcher all to endgame. I know, by and large, what mobs are around the corner of most quests. I know what makes a good fighter on paper. But man am I stinking it up in game. I guess I'm looking for opinions on the habits of good fighters.

How do you know you are "stinking it up?" Give specifics. It'll help pin down the problem.

I've got a Fighter (6) / Cleric (3). Basically twink and random loot for gear, and not really using the self-heals at present (group is using hjealbots). We do elite content exclusively. Between Cleave and Great Cleave, he's out-killing everyone. Buffs, action boosts, whatever are not that much of a factor at this point.

Is it because you are going solo? Are traps your downfall?

Are you not getting the number of kills you want?

Are you dying often?

What, specifically, is your exact issue?