Jaerlach, Defender of Siberys

[Junts]

Updated: 17 Dec 2010.

This build is now updated to current, reflecting changes in equipment, paladin access to intimidate, and the transition to a 36 point build.

People interested in making this build should consult the very bottom of the post, where I'll discuss what statistical layouts are appropriate for someone who isn't building their statistics around +3 and +4 tomes. I've also chosen not to take divine might 4: I'd need to drop a strength bracket to get it, and I'd rather have 1 hit, 1 damage and spend 0 AP than get 0 hit, 2 damage and spend 4 action points. It simply improves the build more, especially for epic quests, where I'm pretty much able to never turn off power attack. With the change to epic mob to hit, it's also pretty easy to become unhittable for epic trash, though I rarely find this necessary in a good group; its easier to two-hand and kill the held stuff. It is, however, a nice option if something's going badly.


Jaerlach, Defender of Siberys v 4.0
Human Paladin 20 (36 pt)

Str: 40/42/44 (18 base + 4 tome + 5 lvs + 1 enh + 6 item + 4 DoS + 2 yugo, and +2 helm swap and +2 ring swap)
Dex: 22	(12 base + 4 tome + 6 item)
Con: 22/26	(14 base + 2 tome + 6 item, +4 dos or +2 excep)
Int: 13	(10 base + 3 tome)
Wis: 17	(8 base + 3 tome + 6 item)
Cha: 26	(15 base + 3 tome + 6 item + 1 excep + 1 enhancement)

Note: Ship buffs not included in statistics (add 2 to each for all 6 shrines if you wish)

Skills:

11 ranks UMD
23 ranks intimidate
23 ranks concentration
6 ranks balance
1 rank tumble

Feats:

1:  Toughness
H:  Khopesh
3:  Dodge
6:  Power Attack
9:  Improved crit: slash
12: Combat Expertise
15: Maximize Spell
18: Quicken Spell

Equipment layout: Ideal gear

Note: I have a ton of swap items.


Eyes: Mineral 2 goggles: wizardry 6, 15 hp, 20 hp, 1 cha skills, 5 con skills, heavy fort, protection +5
Head: Epic Shining Crest of St Markus (deathblock, gtr healing lore, toughness), Seeker +6/intim 15 event hat, natural armor 5/intim 15 hat
Neck: Torc of Prince Raiyum-de II (no need to epic it: it's just a colorless slot), Epic Hyena-Claw Necklace (15 intim, con 7, toughness), Epic Siren's Charm
Cloak: Concordant Opposition: 10 hp, 1 str skills, 150 sp, 5 cha skills, 6 wisdom
Belt: Belt of the Defenders of Siberys (6 con, greater false life) or Colethenis's belt (6 con)
Hands: Epic Gloves of the Claw (6 str, 5 stacking intim, 30% healing amp), Seven-fingered gloves
Boots: Epic Kundarak Delving Boots (fom, 6 cha), Epic Firestorm Greaves (fire absorb, 6 cha, greater falselife), Epic Golden Greaves (striding 20, 6 cha), boots of anchoring
Bracers: Chaosgarde (dodge +2), Epic Bracers of the Claw (heavy fortification, +2 excep con)
Ring1: Band of Siberys (6 strength, 1 charisma, healing amp or +2 str, dos set bonus), Ring of the Ravager (6 str, 1 str, 2 str, ravager set bonus)
Ring2: Chattering ring (dodge +3), Epic Ring of Venom (6 dex, sneak attack +4)
Trinket: Epic Bloodstone, Epic Gem of Many Facets

Armor: Epic Red Dragonplate: Socketed Greater Nimbleness, +6 dexterity

Shield: Epic Kundarak Warding Shield, socketed +7 ac and Good Luck. Epic swashbuckler also an option for doublestrike.

Weaponry:

Mineral 2 Khopesh: Insight 4
Lightning 2 Khopesh: Insight 4

Epic Sword of Shadows, silvered: main DPS weapon

Epic Chaosblade, silvered: Main threat-tanking weapon

Major gear swaps:

Sevenfingered+epic big top is 39 UMD. Ravager ring+belt and ring of venom provide DPS mode, along with Claw Bracers+gloves. In tanking mode, the epic gem of many facets allows continued completion of the claw set bonus (4 damage, 20% threat) as well as completion of the epic Siren's set, providing insight 4 when using either the epic sword of shadow or the epic chaosblade. The chaosblade is, accordingly, a better threat weapon than the mineral2 khopesh by a fair margin. These combine to significantly improve threat-tanking ability. Hyena claw provides intimidate and toughness and can be socketed +1 con to provide 20 additional hit points.

The helms are interchangable: The shining crest is Minos Legens on steroids, providing greater lore for my healing as well as toughness and a free deathblock. Putting +1 str on the helm of the red dragon means its +2 str to wear it in dps situations, meaning that in straight DPS gear I'll run 40+ strength before titan's grip with full sneak attack, seeker, and an epic SoS that break all raid boss DR. Its not quite the same as the same build as a KOTC, but for a character who's DPS mode is their 3rd priority, it's incredibly good. Its also more flexible than KOTC dps builds against non-outsider damage, making it a more flexible damage-dealer for epic content. Big Top provides a UMD bonus to help make up for the UMD I've shed through giving up Command and my old skill focus: UMD.

Especially in tank mode, the saves on this build are incredibly high, well into the range of being meaningless numbers (the buffed numbers are over 40 in every category).

In addition to covering the armor class and damage, the healing amplification is also extremely high: 20% from human, 30% from claw, 20% more from tod ring, 5% from paladin and 10% from the airship buff create 216% healing amplification. With a +2 str ring instead of the healing amp ring, it's a mere 180%. Combining the 85-90 armor class with healing amplification on that level ensures that the waves of exhaustion fix does not make tanking overly difficult.

The AC and skill breakdowns will follow the enhancement layout for those interested in the specifics.

My enhancements:

Divine Might 1-3 		[6 AP]
Paladin Cha 1			[2 AP]
Human Str 1			[2 AP]
Human Healing Amp 1-2		[4 AP]
Bulwark of Good 1-4 		[10 AP]
Resistance of Good 1-3		[6 AP]
Follower/Sov host 		[2 AP]
Unyielding Sovereignty 		[4 AP]
Extra Smiting 1-3 		[6 AP]
Exalted Smiting 1-2 		[3 AP]
Divine Sacrifice 1-2 		[6 AP]
Extra Lay on Hands 1-3		[6 AP]
Defender of Siberys 1-3 	[8 AP]
Paladin Weapons of Good 	[2 AP]
Paladin Devotion 1-2 		[3 AP]
Divine Righteousness 		[1 AP]
Racial Toughness 1-2 		[3 AP]
Paladin Toughness 1-2 		[3 AP]
Total				[76 AP]

(defender of siberys requirements: 3 AP)
Focus of Good 1
Courage of Good 1
Paladin AC Boost 1

I have one left-over action point. I use it on extra turning to have an even number of turns for when divine righteousness and divine might are dual-purposing.

AC breakdown (base)

10 base
16 plate
06 dexterity
05 protection
03 chattering
02 chaosgarde
06 own aura
01 dodge
02 set
01 armor alchemical
04 stance
05 natural
04 inspire heroics
01 haste
02 recitation
04 insight
03 airship buffs
--
75 ac base

THF mode:

+4 shield wand
--
79 ac THF PA mode

S/B Modes

09 shield
01 shield alchemical
---
85 ac s/b PA

05 combat expertise
---
90 ac S/B CE mode

Airship buffs make a big difference.


---

Skill breakdown:

Intimidate:

23 ranks
15 item
6 charisma skills
8 charisma bonus
4 greater heroism
2 luck
5 gloves of the claw
2 coinlord feat
2 bard song
--
67 intimidate

UMD:

11 ranks
6 cha skills
8 cha bonus
4 gh
--
29 before swaps
+3 epic bigtop
+5 seven-fingered gloves
+2 luck
---
39 umd swapped around (though there's rarely a need to do that)

New Character advice

A gear layout that's more modest, especially one that isn't based on the red plate, is a lot easier to do: only 20 dex, not 22, is necessary for even the other epic armors. This makes it easier to go 12 dex and drop to 16 strength to bring charisma to 16 for a new build. It'll also be necessary for those players to find one more point for intelligence, so it might be easier to go to 15 str and keep the 13 dex: then you can hit 20 with regular spectral gloves before you get your epics, too. A 15/13/14/11/8/16 build is probably the way to go for a new 32 pt build.

If you are a 34 or 36 pointer, you should spend those points bringing back strength. A 16 str is very good (a 34 pt) so that you are back at a bracket with just a +2 tome (putting you 1 tome, 1 base behind me, so just 2 points).This is the kind of build that benefits a lot from doing a lesser reincarnation after you've raided a while and really started to tome twink, since almost everything is based on a minimum-required statistic (dex, int, cha).

I have no commentary on your action points. Action points are variable and easy to reset. What's best for you will depend on particulars of your equipment and exactly what you're doing at a given time. You need to learn to figure that stuff out yourself. With a character like this, you'll adjust all your AP every time you get a new item or tome to take advantage of AP savings offered by human stat enhancements.

I have no comments on other racial variants. I think the human healing amplification and feat are very important to doing this particular build. I would not want to make the commitment to 12 con for a drow build. I don't think the elven falchion advantage is significant either, since both it and drow bonuses cost a lot of AP that you simply do not have. Human healing amp I + 1 feat + better stat enhancements = win.

[uhgungawa]

Just a thought,

How would it look if you took 2 monk instead of fighter ?

Points of intrest

would lose 1 point of STR
Hunt a +3 tome (just take time)

would have a few less HP
you can spend 2 enhancement point and be +1 for the swap

not shure how the AC would work out, but you can go one setup for evasion, and go back to heavy if the ac is better when needed

you still get 2 extra feats, but they are limited
but the toughness and dodge feats you have listed are part of that list

monks get more skill points.


No matter how you look at it, you have a good looking build. and my thughts are just off the top of my head, and haven't looked into them to see how it would fall.

My way does have a major down side. if the heavy setup gives you the AC you want, that's a lot of gear to get to have both setups

[Junts]

Just a thought,

How would it look if you took 2 monk instead of fighter ?

Points of intrest

would lose 1 point of STR
Hunt a +3 tome (just take time)

would have a few less HP
you can spend 2 enhancement point and be +1 for the swap

not shure how the AC would work out, but you can go one setup for evasion, and go back to heavy if the ac is better when needed

you still get 2 extra feats, but they are limited
but the toughness and dodge feats you have listed are part of that list

monks get more skill points.


No matter how you look at it, you have a good looking build. and my thughts are just off the top of my head, and haven't looked into them to see how it would fall.

My way does have a major down side. if the heavy setup gives you the AC you want, that's a lot of gear to get to have both setups

If you were changing the splash, changing 2f into 1f/1rog would probably work better; wisdom is the dump stat here, and there dexterity mod is already maxed out in plate; an evasion-form of equipment would require you to do the following:

take off fp and shield (-26 ac)
add a dragontouched robe that covers the same sets of effects (because required modifiers like gfl and cha are on the dt plate, so double your grind), which is +6 ac, and gain 3 ac for wisdom (net loss -17)
Then use a two-handed weapon for dps, or a single weapon without shield for stat/effect, since you lack the feats for twfing.

That's a degree of sacrifice that I don't entirely find feasible; also, doing the monk levels costs you intimidate as a class skill, making it all that much harder to make your ac effective.

a 2 rog splash could use the shield still and might be able to muster an evasion semi-ac form, but at the cost of feats.

If I were gonna modify this build to gain -new- abilities that it doesn't have, it would be to drop str 1 point, put 2 of thsoe points into dexterity, and reach 17 with a +3 tome; then, drop sf: intimidate, dodge and use the lv 18 feat to acquire the whole twf line (giving up elite-quality intimidating and 1 ac for a 'I have zeal-30 str-dps mode' twfing khopeshes.

In fact, until the defender prc came out, I wished I could do the second, which might be an even more flexible build, though it would probably still have to cart the shield a lot; a character with 20 dex and 16 wisdom is very dependant on heavy armor to reach ac levels that let 5 lay hands per shrine (in m9 anyway) and healing amp carry it through entire quests.

In any case, there are very few locations/spells that give me issues; with firestorm greaves and a 32 reflex (using the circle of hatred and hogf) plus self-cast 30 point resistance, I'm about to trade my cloak of ice for lack of use; fire damage isn't an issue, and this toon routinely zergs ahead through the fire section of sos, and is capable of healing itself through the entirety of that (in a bad run, it then has to shrine, if thrown about 5 scrolls, which with some scroll mastery hit it for 180-200 from a cleric, it goes the whole quest without shrining) while killing things with con damage; people do forget that s/b swings much faster than thf, and with zeal/haste his swing output is 124 swings/minute (I've counted this many times); that's enough to take mobs down quickly.

only debuffing aoe users (abbot), mazimied aoe users (abbot and sorjek chain lightnings, or living spell-cast spells without the appropriate ring of the djinn/firestorms) and cometfall offer serious reflex-save damage issues, cometfall is by far the worst due to the inability to mitigate it's damage with resistances or absorption equipment.

This is sort of the example of a character that has so much of everything else that, at least in the present content, lack of evasion is a relatively minor problem; it would be nice, but there's so much healing amp, physical damage mitigation and absorption/self healing that he gets by well without it.

Not to say evasion isn't necessary, but Nick's posted a barbarian that has an equal lack of difficulty with it's lack of evasion; 10+ reflex save etc makes a big difference between what happens to this guy and what happens to your typical s/b fighter. (8 saves from divine grace, 4 more from aura)

[uhgungawa]

- FP & shield = -26
DT robe +6 (w/ dodge bonus +9), Dex bonus +5, W/ +3 wis tome and 1 monk wis is wis bonus 4 = total of +18
total difference of -8 but have evasion

and you can still swap as needed. not saying that it's the right path for you, just different. I would think that being able to have evasion in the need arises would be nice

[Junts]

The 5 dex bonus is already accounted for; he's got this in heavy armor. So is the dodge 3 (he has the chattering ring, no stacky).

I thought rog2 would be a better evasion mechanism; otherwise, you're giving up entirely on being an intimitank (without max ranks), etc - it's a totally different character then.

[Comfortably]

Well amist trolling the forums I happend to walk across this thread I have to say that an intim/snb tank has never really apealed to me much before 4 nights ago during a vod and I thought to my self...normal? If other people aren't going to roll a tank that can fill this slot then I will.

Not even finding this thread untill my verson of this build is lvl10, I am almost positive that we have the same starting stats and somewhat the same "build goals". I'd just like to say that I have had alot of fun lvling up this toon, being able to pull agro off a gimp party member is great lol.

/free bump Junts

[Junts]

Updated some numbers and eq things and the like to make it current again.

[Valezra]

Jaerlach, have you confirmed that the Superior Defensive Stance does indeed stack with Combat Expertise? Also, is the superior stance a timed duration? Thanks in advance.

Val

[Junts]

Jaerlach, have you confirmed that the Superior Defensive Stance does indeed stack with Combat Expertise? Also, is the superior stance a timed duration? Thanks in advance.

Val

Its an entirely different sort of affect and it stacks; it works like monk stances (it shows in your affects bar when activated, etc)

[Junts]

bumped as it now features fairly significant updates for mod9

[Quikster]

bumped as it now features fairly significant updates for mod9

Made some changes to mine today after getting one shotted by The General on a 1 vs disintegrate..........TWICE lol. Was sitting at 520 HP and guess what it hits for lol.

I had to give up a lot IMO to get the hp up, but now stand at 530. Should be better once I hit DOS III in another level but **** I was impressed, first mob to take me down with one shot.

[Junts]

Made some changes to mine today after getting one shotted by The General on a 1 vs disintegrate..........TWICE lol. Was sitting at 520 HP and guess what it hits for lol.

I had to give up a lot IMO to get the hp up, but now stand at 530. Should be better once I hit DOS III in another level but **** I was impressed, first mob to take me down with one shot.

Get the yugoloth favor, I set the goal of making it to 600 hp in superior stance with gear swaps for our first elite ToD run, as we had learned long before that normal/hard the disintegrates got up to 530ish, and I was afraid that elite would scale further

it turns out it doesn't really, but the hp buffer is really, really helpful .. his damage output is so high that you'll rarely be all the way topped out when he casts one, and having 1 melee strike worth of damage as a buffer is really helpful.

The 40 hp from the Yugoloth con pot makes a tremendous difference.

[Quikster]

Get the yugoloth favor, I set the goal of making it to 600 hp in superior stance with gear swaps for our first elite ToD run, as we had learned long before that normal/hard the disintegrates got up to 530ish, and I was afraid that elite would scale further

it turns out it doesn't really, but the hp buffer is really, really helpful .. his damage output is so high that you'll rarely be all the way topped out when he casts one, and having 1 melee strike worth of damage as a buffer is really helpful.

The 40 hp from the Yugoloth con pot makes a tremendous difference.

Yeah I read something about that and was going to make that a priority as soon as the parents leave town. I can buff to just under 600 now, but that requires me to get a madstone proc off, which is a PITA when he barely hits you and your wearing boots of anchoring. So it will become a gear switching game till I get those pots (of course I only tank with this guy every 4-5 days with the rotation we seem to have in guild and the amount of time I get in there with him)

[Junts]

Yeah I read something about that and was going to make that a priority as soon as the parents leave town. I can buff to just under 600 now, but that requires me to get a madstone proc off, which is a PITA when he barely hits you and your wearing boots of anchoring. So it will become a gear switching game till I get those pots (of course I only tank with this guy every 4-5 days with the rotation we seem to have in guild and the amount of time I get in there with him)

Being in defensive stance will block madstone rage from affecting you, though you can activate rage before you go into stance and retain the benefit. Madstone boots are of extremely limited use on stalwart/siberys charactersfor that reason.


with ToD on hard you need the following for easiest access to the pots:

16 tod hard
24 genesis elite
21 sins elite
7 invasion norm
7 bastion norm

if you dont do tod on hard, you'll have to get invasion or bastion to elite as well

[Quikster]

Being in defensive stance will block madstone rage from affecting you, though you can activate rage before you go into stance and retain the benefit. Madstone boots are of extremely limited use on stalwart/siberys charactersfor that reason.


with ToD on hard you need the following for easiest access to the pots:

16 tod hard
24 genesis elite
21 sins elite
7 invasion norm
7 bastion norm

if you dont do tod on hard, you'll have to get invasion or bastion to elite as well

Yeah i figured that out tonight while tring to get my hp up in the raid. It seemed easiest to: A. wait for a banish B. drop out of stance C. pop on madstone boots and wait for a proc. D. get haste, rage spell, and recitation E. get back in stance F. Pop boots of anchoring back on. Very much a PITA. I dont have TOD on hard on this alt unfortunately. I may have to go hard next time just to make this happen. Thanks for the tips

[Junts]

Yeah i figured that out tonight while tring to get my hp up in the raid. It seemed easiest to: A. wait for a banish B. drop out of stance C. pop on madstone boots and wait for a proc. D. get haste, rage spell, and recitation E. get back in stance F. Pop boots of anchoring back on. Very much a PITA. I dont have TOD on hard on this alt unfortunately. I may have to go hard next time just to make this happen. Thanks for the tips

Tod on hard is not a lot different from normal, given the trophy awards there is no reason to run normal unless your group is particularly poor.

rage spell is wiped by defensive stance, unlike madstone rage (madstone's not is clearly an oversight, so I'd expect that to be fixed).

Too bad really, but I suppose the hp bonuses would get out of control.

[Quikster]

Tod on hard is not a lot different from normal, given the trophy awards there is no reason to run normal unless your group is particularly poor.

rage spell is wiped by defensive stance, unlike madstone rage (madstone's not is clearly an oversight, so I'd expect that to be fixed).

Too bad really, but I suppose the hp bonuses would get out of control.

Agreed on all points. I have only done hard on my bard I believe, maybe a rog I cant remember.

As a side note, im happy they have a spot for a defensive tank instead of a twf huge ac moderate HP machine

[Junts]

Agreed on all points. I have only done hard on my bard I believe, maybe a rog I cant remember.

As a side note, im happy they have a spot for a defensive tank instead of a twf huge ac moderate HP machine

Agreed, the design of the raid does a lot to encourage the use of the two defender prcs. its too bad it appears the +200% hate generation doesn't function, as I hate needing to build significant aggro before bringing in the fb dps because I know they'll outpace me so quickly.

[Fresnel]

How would you adapt this char for a 28 point non twink build. I like the idea but new to the game. Or would it be too much limited by that and I should do something else?

[Junts]

How would you adapt this char for a 28 point non twink build. I like the idea but new to the game. Or would it be too much limited by that and I should do something else?

I've had a few requests about this so this thread's the place to do them:

There are two ways, depending whether or not you want to go with the "Dodge" feat: if you can handle losing one armor class, it becomes way easier. If you want to preserve that one armor class, you'll give up quite a bit of strength. My build stats have an 'error': The character was made before the divine might enhancement line, and didn't start with enough charisma. Becuase he's been one of the incredibly rare few to get a +4 statistic tome, that's not a problem, but you absolutely would want to start with more charisma on a modern build.

Losing Dodge:

15 strength
8 dexterity
14 constitution
12 intelligence
8 wisdom
16 charisma

(you could reverse str and cha if you wanted to wait to get a +3 tome for divine might 3.. Its not what I would recommend, though, as that 1 str point isnt that big a deal)

Keeping Dodge:

14 strength
12 dexterity
14 constitution
12 intelligence
8 wisdom
15 charisma

As you can see, this variant really starts to hurt on the damage-related statistics, and I'm not sure I'd pay that much for one armor class. However, it is a managable build. It just differs from Jaerlach in that Jaer is really a 'max dps for sword and shield use' kind of character (that's not that good dps, but its everything thats available with a shield in hand), whereas the keeping-dodge stat line is really a 'someday my dps might be ok, but I'm almost solely a tank type' character, as you won't have divine might 3 until a +3 tome, and your strength will always be fairly poor. Keep in mind either way you will need a +1 int tome by level 9, but that isn't too much of a stretch and you can always use your free feat swap to put Combat Expertise in that place after you get the tome, and take a placeholder feat in the meantime.

I'm not sure I'd pay that price for 1 ac, especially when that dex otherwise doesn't do you a lot of good and you have to acquire a +1 dexterity tome in order to take the feat at the right level .. I'd very much go for the first build, and use Dodge for another feat (maybe an intimidate feat, which I've dropped, to help with your tanking). However, the new ideal 32 point Jaerlach would use the 2nd statistic layout and put the last 4 points towards 1 str and 1 cha (15 12 14 12 8 16), for the benefit of any new player who's buying 32 point builds.

A 28 point build will have a few less skill points than Jaer more than likely; drop the points out of jump, as there's good jump clickies at higher levels. If you are doing the no-dodge variant, you will need to take 2 more ranks in tumble than I did in order to tumble for movement in defensive stance (eg 5 ranks). Take these from Jump, too. Expect to suck at jumping and to swap to a 2 handed weapon to do it at lower-mid levels before Morah's belt (a belt with 3 charges of lv 15 jump). Also keep in mind that the 8 dex variant won't max it's armor class out until it gets a +2 dexterity tome, but this is again not that big a deal. As an added perk, for most of your life you'll be able to use adamantine instead of mithral plate, becuase you won't have the dex to fill out mithral anyway. The 12 dex base will be able to fill mithral, but will end up with 'extra' dexterity it doesn't need eventually.

Please keep in mind that the self-healing aspect of this build (with spell points, anyway, eg quicken/maximize) is a very advanced thing: it simply does not work prior to the acquisition of some fairly important raid loot, as the build is dependent on the sp income from the Torc of Prince Raiyum and Concordant Opposition shroud item to have enough of a sp pool to heal itself: It has 590 sp geared out at level 20, and the healing spells cost 60 sp for 130-170 hp. The torc returns 15-25 spell points roughly 5-7% of the time you are hit, and the concordant opposition effect returns 20-30 sp 2% of the time you're hit. The feats/healing spell exist to take advantage of this effect (since you're a tank, with high ac, most hits on you are grazing hit that do very low damage but can still recharge your spell points). Prior to having those two items and the bonus spell points of the shgroud item, you will struggle to have enough sp per shrine to keep yourself buffed, much less heal. Please don't expect that part of the build to mature until you have played for months, and choose other feats if you don't intend to do the raiding required to get those items; they will do you absolutely no good if you don't seek out the two items I mentioned.