Is my mixture viable any more?

[ariel7]

After reading the "real" max dps barbarian build, I decided to do most of what it was, but change a thing or two, to suit my own, personal, for-whatever-reason choices and preferences. I planned on going 11 barbarian/2fighter/3 ranger. (I like diehard, wand-whipping, two feats from fighter, and had never played a barbarian before, but it looked cool.) Basically, I took bastard swords (there are a LOT of them) oversize weapon, dodge, mobility and got to level 8 (3b/3r/2f) and unlocked Drow. I was drunk with the power of more points in my builds and made almost all of my alt builds drow. I decided I wanted to unlock 1750 favor with my main...and today I made over 100 favor. I'm not about to level to 9, and am thinking he should just be ranger from here on out.

From what I see, ranger 11 is nice. With Spring attack I can take tempest in 3 levels (have to be ranger 6) and get that boosted speed in twfing. I will get (for free) Improved and great TWFing, Evasion, Many shot, improved shot (and wild empathy which I never use the one I have already, not even hot-barred)). Versus 8 more levels of barbarian gives....3 dr, a great rage, trap sense. I dunno, basically I just double wield. I have 23 str, 14 con and....18 dex. I think those are current #s, no tomes, just a 28 pt human build with normal enhancements, +2 dex item, and +2 str item.

I know I'm not making a build for others to emulate, I'm trying to make something that I find fun, that can work well to my own playing style, and something that I can learn with/from. With a little over 1,000 favor to go...am I setting myself up for failure with my current ideas? (I did run stormcleave on elite, and was second in kills as a level 7)

Please be constructive. I know I'm rather new (about 6 weeks or so) and am sure about little (except I hare short swords/khopeshes as I can't find many (1/4 the amount of bastard swords on the AH and in chests, too, it seems)

Thank you in advance for tolerating my rambling, and for responding with intelligence.

[Ughh]

You know, I will probably get flamed for this, but who cares, here we go. Ariel, i have been here in game for a very long time, and I have seen every imaginable post on every imaginable multiclass build you can possibly come up with lol. Having said that, this is what I always ask people when they ask the questions you have. 1) What do YOU want to do with this toon personally..as in for yourself ? This you have already answered. 2) Does DPS matter to you or are you looking to be a more rounded utilitarian build ? This you have already answered. So being that you have already stated what your desires both build wise and personally are, then opinions do not matter at this point. Make yourself happy, you are here to enjoy the game. There is nothing inherently wrong with what you want , lol you didnt make a dual wielding wizard with a 30 charisma and an 8 strength so play it your way, have fun, learn by your own mistakes or by your own ingenuity, but just have fun.

[Angelus_dead]

After reading the "real" max dps barbarian build, I decided to do most of what it was, but change a thing or two, to suit my own, personal, for-whatever-reason choices and preferences. I planned on going 11 barbarian/2fighter/3 ranger.

Once you decide the build will have fewer than 14 barb levels, then you're not doing anything like a max DPS barb... so...

You are correct that marginally more barb levels won't help much. Go heavy into barb, or a little, but not in between. And since you're too high level to hit barb14, you may as well switch totally to ranger.

[Kalanth]

The mixture is not invalid, for all the reasons that Ughh listed. However, I would do something more like Ranger 2 / Fighter 2 / Barbarian 14. Though there are favored enemies in the Ranger and various other things, the real meat with that class comes at 2, 6, 9, and 11. The enhancment bonus to dex is nice, but not 100% necessary, and can be supplimented with gear and tomes.

Now, you already got to where you are, so those levels can't be changed. Nothing wrong with 6 Ranger / 2 Fighter / 8 Barbarian. Those 6 ranger levels give you ITWF, and a second favored enemy, which is nice. You wont be dishing out the damage like a 14+ barbarian, but it's still fun. Heck, I do good dmg with my Paladin 10 / Ranger 6 using the same concept (Oversized weapon with TWF), so why can't you with your complex mixture of classes.

[ariel7]

After my character becomes ranger 6/barbarian3/fighter2 (2 more levels) I'm going to decide if I keep filling ranger, or finish barbarian.

I've made just under 300 favor in the last two days....that's fun to see that coming along nicely!


But mostly, I want to thank everyone who gave input, and those that read and thought about it, but didn't.

[Kalanth]

After my character becomes ranger 6/barbarian3/fighter2 (2 more levels) I'm going to decide if I keep filling ranger, or finish barbarian.

I've made just under 300 favor in the last two days....that's fun to see that coming along nicely!


But mostly, I want to thank everyone who gave input, and those that read and thought about it, but didn't.

Even there you still have many options. 9 Ranger gives you the Evasion, which is nice, and even nicer if you have a high Dex. 11 Ranger is GTWF and (I think) Precision for the ranged. I kinda like the sound of Ranger 9 / Barbarian 5 / Fighter 2. It's quirky, but it could be lots of fun and resiliant when the fireballs start flying.

[WeiQuinn]

I'm actually building a Bastard Sword wielding Tempest Ranger myself! He's a 32-point Human that splashed 2 levels of Barbarian and 1 level of Bard (for max UMD). The rest will be Ranger.

The rumor mill had been churning about Tempest II being a Ranger level 15 enhancement. If thats true, I may stop at Ranger 15 and either add more Barbarian or Bard levels.

He was originally planned out to be Ranger 17/Barbarian 2/Bard 1 at level 20. I kept Ranger 17 in the mix just in case they implemented Hiding in Plain Sight. Right now he's Ranger 2/Barbarian 2/Bard 1 and my only Strength based character (all my other characters are Dexterity based). He's quite fun to play...

[Lazarus]

i currently play a ranger 6/fighter 2/barbarain 4 that i am nurturing, he is a tempest dual pick wielder with seeker 10 light pick of pure good in off hand and a flaming bursting maiming heavy pick in main hand, with this combo his crits are dishing out over hundred with the just the weapon damage not to mention the bursting and other stuff.
a couple of things i would suggest that i have found useful are fighter haste boost, this paired with tempest turns you into whirling death. i'm also toying with the idea of power attack as well but will have to see about my attack bonuses at cap to see if i can afford the -5 to attack while dual wielding but the attack bonuses shouldn't be to bad with the ranger self buff rams might with barb rage, and i can't wait to get some mad stone boots which stack with rage pots.
my only dillema is what to do with my last few levels, i'm leaning towards at least 6 fighter if they are going to put in a weapon master enhancment or two weapon fighter enchancement and at least 6 barb for similar reasons, but i might just go all barb from here to get the critical rage, eh time will tell i guess