THE BEST DD - with comparisons to other builds to prove it

[Emili]

just for comparison, lets see how this stands up to a popular barbarian build in rage an Power attack. (well turn PA on as well)

Maldini's pure dps barbarin, quoted from his own build, FULLY kitted out does +42damage, with a +5 weapon and power attack. (disclaimer: i believe this is for his human build, dwarf will do Have different numbers with a greataxe and enhancements, warforged with their PA enhancements. He also has critical rage, http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=115850 for reference)
barbarians get 4 attacks, making this +168 damage in a round to a single target, assuming no crits.

we have 4 normal attacks +33 (23+5PA +5 Sneak Attack) and 3 offhand attacks +27(17+5PA +5 Sneak Attack): +132 mainhand and + 81 offhand : +213 a round.

Now i know your going to say, but wait! glancing blows do a lot of damage! omgzor! yes they do, about 40 a round to nearby enemies, but remeber that free feat? since we already have power attack, go ahead and take cleave. now you will also do 1d6+33 +1d6 from whatever element you have on your weapon in an area of effect every 5 seconds. Unlike glancing blows you are also able to critical hit on cleaved attacks. This can give you a very respectable aoe power if you desire it.


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another quick comparison: the CON damage TWF
doing 7 con damage a round + and average (assuming rapier/shortsword with improved crit) of 6/20 x4 + 4/20 x3: 36/20: 9/5, (well make it a generous 2) crits of 1d6 con DMG per round. Thats a total of 7+2d6 con DMG, average 14 con dmg a round. on a monster with 20 HD, which is INCREDIBLY generous in current content, this would deal the equivalent of +140 points of damage, bringing it short of the Barbarian and nowhere near this build while not even taking into consideration our criticals. Indeed, a monster would have to have a massive 30HD to make the typical Wounding/puncturing build on par with this build.

(fyi: this build has an average critical damage of 4/20 x 4 x 28: 22.4 mainhand + 4/20 x 3 x 22: 13.2 = +34.6 damage a round.

the barbarian assuming a non-sword of shadows(man that things imba) greatsword /w improved crit and critical rage has (4+2)/20 x 4 x 42: +50.4 damage a round)

These comparisons are very vague indeed... a typical melee way outdoes anything here mentioned in a round. First you need to include the crit threats so add in x2 for 20% of your hits and x3 for 35% of the barbs... also when comparing a 2 handed weapon you need to multiply every hit by 1.5... It is not unusual for a fighter to breach 150hp damage for 1 swing in one out of 5 rolls average with a SoS for instance (sometimes over 160 even without rage running on them) Barbarians even moreso... 7 out of 20 swings will break the 200+ mark usually. An SoS on a barb wearing madstones - in quadruple rage +52 str - is a force not to be recogned with.

A barbarian will normally out DPS a fighter... beit TWF, 2HF or whatever, the barb delivers more average damages consitantly with higher spikes occuring more often... and generally speaking though you should have been more concise in your numbers and others would not have jumped on the chance to dispute the output of your fighter/pally. It is however a nice melee build and should be fun to play.