Jaerlach, Defender of Siberys

[svinja]

So I am tired of my gimpy drow twf kotc pally and would like a build with a bit more more self-sufficiency and survivability, and if possible tanking ability, so I am looking at this build with slight modifications. However, I'm not sure I have the gear to make it work. HP and AC breakdowns are with gear I now have, and I would really like to avoid as much grinding for new gear as possible.

Here's what I've been planning to do:

Level 20 Lawful Good Human Male
(20 Paladin) 

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(34 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             17                    25
Dexterity            12                    14
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         11                    13
Wisdom                8                    10
Charisma             15                    17
Level 1 (Paladin)
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Paladin
Feat: (Human Bonus) Power Attack
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Shield Mastery
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Combat Expertise
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery

Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Paladin Weapons of Good
Enhancement: Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good IV
Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice III
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil IV
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys III
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion III
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might II

AC
10 base + 16 cavalry plate + 5 dexterity + 5 deflection + 4 insight + 2 dodge + 2 DoS ToD set + 4 stance + 6 aura + 8 shield + 1 shield ritual + 5 combat expertise = 68 unbuffed
1 haste + 3 barkskin = 72 self buffed
2 recitation + 2 barkskin = 76 raid buffed
+1 armor ritual if it stacks with shield ritual
+4 bard if the bonus stacks with dodge from stance
+3 ship buffs
------------
84 overly optimistic

Healing amp
1.05 (pally PL) * 1.2 (human) = 1.26
Terrible, I know. Lacking Epic Gloves of the Claw. Maximized CSW with sup Ardor pot would, on average, hit for: 31.5 * (1 + 0.3 + 0.75) * 2 * 1.26 = 163 HP. 179 with healer ship buff.

HP
352 character planner + 10 draconic vitality + 40 superior false life + 60 +6 con + 20 toughness item + 40 stance + 45 shroud -5 neg level = 562
Possible 20 from ship buffs and 20 from rage (with -2 AC) for 602. Not too bad for a paladin I guess.

Any suggestions? Not sure about imp. shield mastery... And the self healing seems almost not worth it with my lack of healing amp.

Gear setup is: Cutlass, Swashbuckler (also got levik), Cavalry plate, Conc opp cloak, Brawling gloves, DoS belt and ring, Buccaneer ring (also got Warchanter ring), Arrowhead, new chain bracers, Minos, no good goggles, no good neck, no good boots, none of the epic items have been augmented (I assume I should do silver on cutlass first?). Will I do fine until I can get Torc and epic claw gloves or should I wait until I get them and then TR? I also don't have a bauble or spell storing ring :/

So basically, if I TR into this with the gear I now have, will I just turn my pally into a gimp dps that can't tank either?

[Junts]

So I am tired of my gimpy drow twf kotc pally and would like a build with a bit more more self-sufficiency and survivability, and if possible tanking ability, so I am looking at this build with slight modifications. However, I'm not sure I have the gear to make it work. HP and AC breakdowns are with gear I now have, and I would really like to avoid as much grinding for new gear as possible.

Here's what I've been planning to do:

Level 20 Lawful Good Human Male
(20 Paladin) 

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(34 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             17                    25
Dexterity            12                    14
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         11                    13
Wisdom                8                    10
Charisma             15                    17
Level 1 (Paladin)
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Paladin
Feat: (Human Bonus) Power Attack
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Shield Mastery
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Combat Expertise
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery

Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Paladin Weapons of Good
Enhancement: Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good IV
Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice III
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil IV
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys III
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion III
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might II

AC
10 base + 16 cavalry plate + 5 dexterity + 5 deflection + 4 insight + 2 dodge + 2 DoS ToD set + 4 stance + 6 aura + 8 shield + 1 shield ritual + 5 combat expertise = 68 unbuffed
1 haste + 3 barkskin = 72 self buffed
2 recitation + 2 barkskin = 76 raid buffed
+1 armor ritual if it stacks with shield ritual
+4 bard if the bonus stacks with dodge from stance
+3 ship buffs
------------
84 overly optimistic

Healing amp
1.05 (pally PL) * 1.2 (human) = 1.26
Terrible, I know. Lacking Epic Gloves of the Claw. Maximized CSW with sup Ardor pot would, on average, hit for: 31.5 * (1 + 0.3 + 0.75) * 2 * 1.26 = 163 HP. 179 with healer ship buff.

HP
352 character planner + 10 draconic vitality + 40 superior false life + 60 +6 con + 20 toughness item + 40 stance + 45 shroud -5 neg level = 562
Possible 20 from ship buffs and 20 from rage (with -2 AC) for 602. Not too bad for a paladin I guess.

Any suggestions? Not sure about imp. shield mastery... And the self healing seems almost not worth it with my lack of healing amp.

Gear setup is: Cutlass, Swashbuckler (also got levik), Cavalry plate, Conc opp cloak, Brawling gloves, DoS belt and ring, Buccaneer ring (also got Warchanter ring), Arrowhead, new chain bracers, Minos, no good goggles, no good neck, no good boots, none of the epic items have been augmented (I assume I should do silver on cutlass first?). Will I do fine until I can get Torc and epic claw gloves or should I wait until I get them and then TR? I also don't have a bauble or spell storing ring :/

So basically, if I TR into this with the gear I now have, will I just turn my pally into a gimp dps that can't tank either?

That's a decent place to start. I mean, you might not want to jump straight into tod elite, but its pretty functional.

150 per cure is still more htan you'd get for a heal scroll with no chance of failure. Its not a huge benefit, but it doesn't hurt. Its pretty much for when you arent tanking anyway, like in epics - convenient to be able to take care of yourself ab it more.

All of the things you aren't sure about stacking do stack, and 84 ac is enough to get all grazes in tod on hard, so you're really not in bad shape at all there. Also keep in mind that fvs are like another +2 ac in a way because anything in the aura gets -2 to hit.

I would probably cut ISM for dodge and if you plan to use swashbuckler I would think about whether shield mastery is worth it: swashbuckler is a small sheild so you only get a 10% reduction with it. You might benefit more from another feat (another toughness, possibly, or any host of other things).

[svinja]

That's a decent place to start. I mean, you might not want to jump straight into tod elite, but its pretty functional.

150 per cure is still more htan you'd get for a heal scroll with no chance of failure. Its not a huge benefit, but it doesn't hurt. Its pretty much for when you arent tanking anyway, like in epics - convenient to be able to take care of yourself ab it more.

All of the things you aren't sure about stacking do stack, and 84 ac is enough to get all grazes in tod on hard, so you're really not in bad shape at all there. Also keep in mind that fvs are like another +2 ac in a way because anything in the aura gets -2 to hit.

I would probably cut ISM for dodge and if you plan to use swashbuckler I would think about whether shield mastery is worth it: swashbuckler is a small sheild so you only get a 10% reduction with it. You might benefit more from another feat (another toughness, possibly, or any host of other things).

I guess I'm gonna TR tomorrow then. I did not even think about shield mastery and the swashbuckler, I forgot it depended on the type of shield and wasn't a flat 20%, that's a good point. Maybe dodge+toughness or even stacking 2 toughness feats would be better. I think I'll go 2x toughness, then probably swap one to shield mastery or dodge once I get yugoloth favor for the +40 HP pots which would give me a bit of breathing room. Thanks for the response!

[sephiroth1084]

I would probably cut ISM for dodge

Yeah, I really don't think that the extra 5% damage reduction is worth a whole feat. 5% miss chance from Dodge is kind of borderline, but it gives you some gear flexibility, so you can tag in some more DPS while keeping a high enough AC. I'd rank them: SM > Dodge > ISM if you're going to be using a shield with any kind of regularity.

and if you plan to use swashbuckler I would think about whether shield mastery is worth it: swashbuckler is a small sheild so you only get a 10% reduction with it. You might benefit more from another feat (another toughness, possibly, or any host of other things).

I'm having this debate myself, actually, as I'm now leaning heavily on the 'Buckler, but I'm set up to swap to another shield if needed. Because I don't have the ESoS or THF feats, S&B is actually better DPS for me currently due to the doublestrike on the Buckler and the Cutlass being so much better than the Epic Antique Greataxe (not to mention the extra 20% hate from the Cutlass and the always-on Intim +15 in that set-up).

I think the two styles end up being very close in DPS with a different shield, but it's going to take some crunching and testing to decide whether something like the Epic Warding Shield + Epic Gem + Epic Siren's Charm with Shield Mastery (15% reduction) is a better set-up than the Buckler + Bloodstone + whatever (Torc or...?) + Shield Mastery (10% reduction), or the EAG + Gem + Charm set-up (or even using the Madstone Shield for 20% reduction and -2 AC) are going to be best load-outs for various situations.

Then, if I can acquire an ESoS EVER that will throw another wrench into my plans as it will be clearly better DPS than any of the above, but will remove Intimidate +15 from always on equipment, and will cause some other shifts (same as the EAG basically).

If you're going to use just the Buckler, though, you may be better off with Improved Shield Bash for more DPS...

[Junts]

for dps purposes (pre-threat factor), claw bonus > bloodstone for all weapons, and claw bonus > epic bloodstone for every weapon except sos-style crit ranges.

I use either seeker6/intim 15 or nat armor 5/intim 15 event hats when I tank. Depending, I may use siren's charm or I may use the hyena claw (hyena claw is another 20 hp due to the 7 con/excep 1 con). The tradeoff is basically the 20 hp vs 2 luck (no 2nd slot on swashbuckler) as the doublestrike is an insignificant thing form my perspective, though it can't hurt. In particular I like the luck because it lets me switch the chaosblade on and off and still make the umd check in my tanking equipment, which lets me do my own hasting (take your own boots off, hit clicky, switch back is much faster than having someone else do it, and I have 6 charges of haste).


Sirens charm is important to let you get insight 4 on your sos no matter how you configure, though. On the other hand, I thf tank a bit less than I used to purely because the chaosblade makes staying in the comfortable hp range so much easier. getting 2-4-6 per swing, it does add up pretty quickly in terms of keeping your average hp high.

[sephiroth1084]

for dps purposes (pre-threat factor), claw bonus > bloodstone for all weapons, and claw bonus > epic bloodstone for every weapon except sos-style crit ranges.
I use either seeker6/intim 15 or nat armor 5/intim 15 event hats when I tank. Depending, I may use siren's charm or I may use the hyena claw (hyena claw is another 20 hp due to the 7 con/excep 1 con). The tradeoff is basically the 20 hp vs 2 luck (no 2nd slot on swashbuckler) as the doublestrike is an insignificant thing form my perspective, though it can't hurt. In particular I like the luck because it lets me switch the chaosblade on and off and still make the umd check in my tanking equipment, which lets me do my own hasting (take your own boots off, hit clicky, switch back is much faster than having someone else do it, and I have 6 charges of haste).


Sirens charm is important to let you get insight 4 on your sos no matter how you configure, though. On the other hand, I thf tank a bit less than I used to purely because the chaosblade makes staying in the comfortable hp range so much easier. getting 2-4-6 per swing, it does add up pretty quickly in terms of keeping your average hp high.

Another thing I'm still hunting for parts for, but I think that's where we diverged the most in terms of gear, with me going with a 3-piece Abishai set (and a swappable 4th piece), which makes fitting the Claw gloves in difficult, particularly for ToD. I'd go after them more fervently if we started getting more tankable content, and then I could wear those and the boots/bracers/helm combo.

I'm definitely a fan of the Epic Charm + Gem combo, but until I have other pieces to make up for losing the Bloodstone, I try to stay away from leaning on it if I can. The Buckler + Cutlass set-up is nice as it packs in doublestrike, Intimidate +15, Incite +20%, +4 Insight, +2 Dex (may or may not be meaningful--it will be for me with some more epic tokens...always more peic tokens) and obviously shield AC.

Do you manage to get an intimidate item worked in while going AC with the ESoS? You can't use the Hyena Claw in those situations as you have the Charm on, right? Switching quickly, hitting intimidate and switching back is possible, but I tend to favor having intimidate worked into my gear on a full-time basis as I want to be able to grab aggro immediately if need be.

[Junts]

Another thing I'm still hunting for parts for, but I think that's where we diverged the most in terms of gear, with me going with a 3-piece Abishai set (and a swappable 4th piece), which makes fitting the Claw gloves in difficult, particularly for ToD. I'd go after them more fervently if we started getting more tankable content, and then I could wear those and the boots/bracers/helm combo.

I'm definitely a fan of the Epic Charm + Gem combo, but until I have other pieces to make up for losing the Bloodstone, I try to stay away from leaning on it if I can. The Buckler + Cutlass set-up is nice as it packs in doublestrike, Intimidate +15, Incite +20%, +4 Insight, +2 Dex (may or may not be meaningful--it will be for me with some more epic tokens...always more peic tokens) and obviously shield AC.

Do you manage to get an intimidate item worked in while going AC with the ESoS? You can't use the Hyena Claw in those situations as you have the Charm on, right? Switching quickly, hitting intimidate and switching back is possible, but I tend to favor having intimidate worked into my gear on a full-time basis as I want to be able to grab aggro immediately if need be.

See seeker6/15intim and nat armor 5/intim15 hats.

I'm almost always wearing the latter when I tank because no one plays rangers in my guild anymore, ever.

What used to be problematic in that situation was toughness, but the bracelet fixes it. The epic shining crest is pointless when tanking.

I get why you did the abishai set but I admit in the longrun I think the claw is much, much stronger - both the threat generation and the healing amplification are helpful when not tanking, whereas the ac is of limited relevance. I might make an abishai set if they ever make more tankable content, as I'd do it with helm+boots+cloak and socket wiz6/wisdom6 into the sockets to make the setup work.

[sephiroth1084]

See seeker6/15intim and nat armor 5/intim15 hats.

Dur. Somewhere between reading and posting I forgot that I was going to mention my using the Helm of Frost as prohibiting me from using the event hats.

What used to be problematic in that situation was toughness, but the bracelet fixes it. The epic shining crest is pointless when tanking.

I'm excited for the bracelet outside of ToD, where I can go helm, gloves, boots.

I get why you did the abishai set but I admit in the longrun I think the claw is much, much stronger - both the threat generation and the healing amplification are helpful when not tanking, whereas the ac is of limited relevance. I might make an abishai set if they ever make more tankable content, as I'd do it with helm+boots+cloak and socket wiz6/wisdom6 into the sockets to make the setup work.

I think that if I had had my Min II on my goggles and Conc Opp on cloak, instead of the reverse, I might have done something similar, but I wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of essentially flushing more larges down the toilet, particularly since I can only stomach running The Shroud on rare occasions these days.

[svinja]

What should I aim for in my epic augments? My current slots are red on weapon, blue on armor, blue on shield, green on ring. Red is kind of obvious for a paladin (silver, right?), but not sure about others. I could save a slot with Heavy Fort in there (wearing Minos, have toughness elsewhere), and that could go into the ring as the lowest priority upgrade. Most other useful stuff like deflection, resistance, wizardry and good luck I already have on gear I'm wearing either way. There are some other bonuses that would be convenient to have, but I am assuming I should use the augments to increase my AC as much as I can, ignoring everything else.

I assume +7 on shield (which is a +6 item) would give me +1 AC, and "Greater Nimbleness" on armor would give +2 MDB. As I had misread the DoS enhancement (now that I've actually tested it, I see it only gives +1 MDB to medium armor instead of +2, so I am 1 off in my previous post), the Cavalry Plate is 4 MDB on a DoS, which would be 6 if Greater Nimbleness is +2, and I could easily fill this with dex. So does this work the way I think it does? In particular, does the +2 MDB from Greater Nimbleness stack with +1 MDB from DoS and bring a 3 MDB item up to 6 MDB?

Also, will I lose stone of change alchemical rituals if I add augments? Or will I lose augments if I add rituals? Simply put, in which order should I do these 2 things, or does it not matter?

And a last question, someone told me that the epic augment crystals are temporary and will disappear after some time, this sounds crazy for something that costs up to 30 epic tokens. I am assuming they are incorrect about this?

[Junts]

What should I aim for in my epic augments? My current slots are red on weapon, blue on armor, blue on shield, green on ring. Red is kind of obvious for a paladin (silver, right?), but not sure about others. I could save a slot with Heavy Fort in there (wearing Minos, have toughness elsewhere), and that could go into the ring as the lowest priority upgrade. Most other useful stuff like deflection, resistance, wizardry and good luck I already have on gear I'm wearing either way. There are some other bonuses that would be convenient to have, but I am assuming I should use the augments to increase my AC as much as I can, ignoring everything else.

I assume +7 on shield (which is a +6 item) would give me +1 AC, and "Greater Nimbleness" on armor would give +2 MDB. As I had misread the DoS enhancement (now that I've actually tested it, I see it only gives +1 MDB to medium armor instead of +2, so I am 1 off in my previous post), the Cavalry Plate is 4 MDB on a DoS, which would be 6 if Greater Nimbleness is +2, and I could easily fill this with dex. So does this work the way I think it does? In particular, does the +2 MDB from Greater Nimbleness stack with +1 MDB from DoS and bring a 3 MDB item up to 6 MDB?

Also, will I lose stone of change alchemical rituals if I add augments? Or will I lose augments if I add rituals? Simply put, in which order should I do these 2 things, or does it not matter?

And a last question, someone told me that the epic augment crystals are temporary and will disappear after some time, this sounds crazy for something that costs up to 30 epic tokens. I am assuming they are incorrect about this?

You'll want to do +7 on the shield and greater nimbleness (+2 max dex) in the armor as soon as you can, and yes, it stacks.

And you won't lose alchemical rituals and can add them either before or after socketting.


There are other temporary augments in the game, but the ones you buy with crystals are permanent.

[AylinIsAwesome]

What should I aim for in my epic augments? My current slots are red on weapon, blue on armor, blue on shield, green on ring. Red is kind of obvious for a paladin (silver, right?), but not sure about others. I could save a slot with Heavy Fort in there (wearing Minos, have toughness elsewhere), and that could go into the ring as the lowest priority upgrade. Most other useful stuff like deflection, resistance, wizardry and good luck I already have on gear I'm wearing either way. There are some other bonuses that would be convenient to have, but I am assuming I should use the augments to increase my AC as much as I can, ignoring everything else.

I assume +7 on shield (which is a +6 item) would give me +1 AC, and "Greater Nimbleness" on armor would give +2 MDB. As I had misread the DoS enhancement (now that I've actually tested it, I see it only gives +1 MDB to medium armor instead of +2, so I am 1 off in my previous post), the Cavalry Plate is 4 MDB on a DoS, which would be 6 if Greater Nimbleness is +2, and I could easily fill this with dex. So does this work the way I think it does? In particular, does the +2 MDB from Greater Nimbleness stack with +1 MDB from DoS and bring a 3 MDB item up to 6 MDB?

Also, will I lose stone of change alchemical rituals if I add augments? Or will I lose augments if I add rituals? Simply put, in which order should I do these 2 things, or does it not matter?

And a last question, someone told me that the epic augment crystals are temporary and will disappear after some time, this sounds crazy for something that costs up to 30 epic tokens. I am assuming they are incorrect about this?

You could make a Mineral 2 item, which would give you heavy fort without taking up a slot and save you from having to cast Mass Shield of Faith again.

[svinja]

You'll want to do +7 on the shield and greater nimbleness (+2 max dex) in the armor as soon as you can, and yes, it stacks.

And you won't lose alchemical rituals and can add them either before or after socketting.


There are other temporary augments in the game, but the ones you buy with crystals are permanent.

Thanks, that's good to hear because I have already added rituals to almost everything, and haven't socketed anything yet I guess I need to farm more of those epic tokens.

You could make a Mineral 2 item, which would give you heavy fort without taking up a slot and save you from having to cast Mass Shield of Faith again.

I already have deflection 5 on my ring, so I'm thinking about making my second shroud item (goggles) something like air guard, and just using an augment slot for heavy fort.

[Junts]

Thanks, that's good to hear because I have already added rituals to almost everything, and haven't socketed anything yet I guess I need to farm more of those epic tokens.



I already have deflection 5 on my ring, so I'm thinking about making my second shroud item (goggles) something like air guard, and just using an augment slot for heavy fort.

I'd really look to make at least an existential stalemate item because it provides your wisdom +6 which you need to cast.

keep in mind that in the very long-term, your rings are pretty much committed to the tod set (+2 stacking ac) and the chattering (+3 stacking ac) unless you don't intend to ever farm those items and consequently have less ac. For that reason, a min2 accessory is a good idea (possibly just to plan to re-make it later, when you do acquire both rings). In the longest term, protection on your ring isn't going to fit into your equipment, and protection in augment slots is only +4.

You could us ethe defender of siberys shield of faith clicky, which some paladins do, but I dislike how it consumes turn undeads which are veyr important for a lot of other abilities.

[svinja]

I'd really look to make at least an existential stalemate item because it provides your wisdom +6 which you need to cast.

keep in mind that in the very long-term, your rings are pretty much committed to the tod set (+2 stacking ac) and the chattering (+3 stacking ac) unless you don't intend to ever farm those items and consequently have less ac. For that reason, a min2 accessory is a good idea (possibly just to plan to re-make it later, when you do acquire both rings). In the longest term, protection on your ring isn't going to fit into your equipment, and protection in augment slots is only +4.

You could us ethe defender of siberys shield of faith clicky, which some paladins do, but I dislike how it consumes turn undeads which are veyr important for a lot of other abilities.

I have an existential stalemate cloak (and the mats to make conc opp, I'm just afraid to craft tier 3 ATM because of the bugs) and the DoS tod set. The problem is only the Chattering Ring which I've heard has an insanely low drop rate, and I've never even done titan However, I guess you're right, I could make the shroud HP/SP bonuses work with either min2 or air guard goggles. The min2 tier 3 "special" effect will be useless until I get a chattering ring or something like epic chimera's crown (would love to have +5 barkskin without relying on a ranger) to replace minos in the head slot, but I guess air guard isn't that great either (after all I won't be getting hit that much) and min2 would future-proof the gear setup.

[Hobgoblin]

ok stupid question, but how does it work tanking with tower shield, when you dont have the profiecency?

is your to hit simply that high?

hob

[sephiroth1084]

Also, Genasi seemed to have settled upon changing Grim's Bracelet to provide a +3 Dodge bonus (Chattering Ring replacement moved to neck slot), in addition to a few other bonuses (like a Green slot I think), although when that will go live, or whether it will change between discussion and implementation, who can tell.

[svinja]

I've managed to acquire a lot more gear than I mentioned in my first post, although my paladin isn't all the way back to 20 yet so I can't play with it :/. The only things I am still missing are an epic sword of shadow and a chattering ring. This means that I will use an epic grim's bracelet for +3 dodge once it gets upgraded, which then means I will be missing +4 insight in THF AC mode (in S&B it's on my shield). So now I'm thinking about crafting a +4 insight GS falchion. What I can't decide is whether to make a min2 or a lit2 +4 insight weapon.

I'm currently leaning towards is a holy/shocking burst/insight 4 lit2 - it is good for horoth on normal, and on higher difficulties I would probably have to tank in S&B anyway. Although a pure DPS one would be better for DPS. I am kind of wary of not making a "pure dps" lit2. What do you guys think about this?

Will a lit2 falchion (with 4 insight) even do more dps/threat than S&B with a tier 3 silvered cutlass against 15 DR? Especially as I would probably be able to keep power attack up in S&B, but not in THF. I'm guessing that with twitching, THF will still win, but not sure if the difference is enough to be worth it.

I already have a holy/shocking burst falchion, just can't decide between +4 insight or shocking blast on the last tier.

Edit: Decided to not mess around and just go for a pure dps lit2, and an insight min2 at 20 if I have trouble with threat in S&B.