FvS Lord of Blades Healer/Buffer/Fighter

[Mellkor]

Hey, thanks a lot for posting the build! I'm going to be TR'ing my 18cl/2ftr into this build as it seems to be just a better version of what i wanted to do with my cleric. Quick question if you don't mind, do you just sit at 75% healing received forever? Are there other enhancements or items leveling up that I should get that makes healing myself easier?

thanks much

Sitting at 75% healing recieved is just fine with this build. Getting to 100% or more healing is nice, but hardly required as you can easily keep yourself healed as is. If I could fit healing amp in somehow without taking something else away from my current equipment list, I would do it. I do have a greensteel con op weapon with 30% healing amp on it that I equip when I want to refill spell points (as I tend to let my health get really low before I heal myself when doing this, to use as little SP as possible while filling up, so the healing amp in this situation really helps). BUT, if you set up spell point refilling just right, you wont need to heal yourself much at all. (just enough DR to only take 1-3 damage per incoming attack from 5-6 archers + con op weapon + con op item + torc + Blademark docent + Titan grip gloves + Leviks defender = refill your SP in about 6 mins almost without healing yourself at all)

[Memphys]

Would it be possible to adapt this build to human instead of WF?

[Mellkor]

EWWWW. Why??! stinking fleshies!

No, not really, there are lot of differences between the two races/varieties. WF is a huge advantage over human for this build

[Lasulie]

I have not read all 9 pages of posts in this thread and was wondering why you went pure FvS? wouldn't getting 2 levels of monk improve this build a lot ?

[Mellkor]

No, it would hurt it a lot more than it would help. This has been discussed ad nauseum already, a little in this thread as well as other threads.

[lans]

Thank you for publishing that build and discussing it with us. I found information very helpful.

Melkor, could you pls comment next stats allocation changes in your build considering your experience with it as to levelling and running epic content.
1st) swapping dex12 wis6 to dex8 wis 12. i.e. getting +3will svs instead +3ref saves and +3 balance
2nd) lowering cha11 to cha9 to get con18.
3rd)
a) lowering str16 to str14 to get +4wis (+2will save)
b) raising str16 to str18 by lowering con17 to con16 and dex14 to dex10.

[Mellkor]

Thank you for publishing that build and discussing it with us. I found information very helpful.

Melkor, could you pls comment next stats allocation changes in your build considering your experience with it as to levelling and running epic content.
1st) swapping dex12 wis6 to dex8 wis 12. i.e. getting +3will svs instead +3ref saves and +3 balance
2nd) lowering cha11 to cha9 to get con18.
3rd)
a) lowering str16 to str14 to get +4wis (+2will save)
b) raising str16 to str18 by lowering con17 to con16 and dex14 to dex10.

I have not really had an issue even in epics with will save, so no need to boost that at all IMO. I definently would not do anything to lower reflex save, if anything, I would like this one (after self buffs) to be closer to 40 than 30. I sometimes get flattened by reflex save spells like cometfall, and sometimes fail reflex based effects (epic mephits, mostly) enough to want a little better reflex save, but it is still decent where it is currently. I only very rarely ever fail fortitude and will save based spells on anything besides a 1. In my experience, having 35 to 40 to all saves is optimum. (same goes for balance, wouldnt want to take away from that skill at all, I don't like being tripped by a stupid dog and just watching as he pees on my face!!)

When I TR, I will bump dex up to get better reflex saves.

As for bumping str to 18, that would be great, but I dont think the small gain you get from that is worth the big losses to the other stats/saves. If anything bump con down enough to bump STR to 18, and live with fewer HP and lower fort save. certainly doable since you can self heal well enough, and you can afford the hit to fort save. But I gotta say, I like having 600ish HP in end game, comes in handy a lot.

[hebularks]

2nd) lowering cha11 to cha9 to get con18.

Also for level 9 spells you need 19 cha. so with a 6 cha item you have to have 13 combining level up, tome, enhancement and base cha.

I would not do that unless you have +3 cha tome ready in bank or don't want to spend to much enhancement points.

[Mellkor]

Also for level 9 spells you need 19 cha. so with a 6 cha item you have to have 13 combining level up, tome, enhancement and base cha.

I would not do that unless you have +3 cha tome ready in bank or don't want to spend to much enhancement points.

O yes, sorry I forgot to comment about lowering CHA. I agree with Hebularks on this one. I dont reccomend lowering CHA below 11 unless you got the gear and tomes ready to go. You NEED to be at CHA 19 at level 18 in order to cast lev 9 spells. So you can lower CHA based on whatever gear/tomes you got.

If you dont care about casting high level spells when disjunctioned, then yes, you can dump CHA. I like to start with CHA 11 because you can still have a 16 CHA disjunctioned (good enough for the heal spell) with just capstone bonus, +2 tome, and +1 enhancement with the option of getting to 19 disjunctioned CHA with +3 enhancement and +3 tome.

I find that a 16 disjunctioned CHA works fine, after getting disjunctioned I just cast eagles splendor on myself to cast lev 9 spells again. Works great for me.

[lans]

Thanks for answers. Well im not taking into consideration +3 tomes, but willing to spend 2 enhancement points to get cha+1, so i think making 12 int (using+2 tome i only lose 4skill points) and 10cha(+2tome+1enh+6item) to make con18 worths it. And eagle's splendor will make it 19 when disjunctioned at 20th lvl.

Making 18con saves me 4 enh points (WF Con), and im gonna try saving 8 more on fvs/wf toughness 4, to spend those on Favored Soul Improved Empowering III: (12), i think 20 hp worths it. Lowering dr and, wf construct thinking to 2nd tier, allows to get prayer of encredible life3 (6).
Also i consider staying with WF healer friend1 (after all its only10% for 10 enh point).

Does it worth taking stunning blow feat (instead of extended) and Warforged Tactics II (6)?

[Mellkor]

I think 18 in any stat really takes away too much from other things in this build for the small gain you get going to 18 in anything. Frankly, you dont need it. I already hit most things in the game on any difficulty on a 2, so that +2 to str is only a small % of what you are already doing. Going one more point in CON isnt really needed on this build when you already have 600ish HP. Min/max doesnt really work too well for this character concept, IMO.

As for prayer of incredible life.... Why? It is a waste of enhancement points IMO. It is not something you can rely on, it only works what?? 10% of the time at best? I dont like to rely on crits for heals at all, so I dont waste my precious enhancement points on them

Stunning blow? no, dont waste a feat on that. You dont really have the DC or have the ability to get it high enough for it to be usefull at mid to end game. You are better off with a 5% weighted weapon for that.

As for improved empowering, I tried empower spell, but found just having maximize is a more efficent than empower spell, so I don't reccomend empower spell or the enhancements.

I also dont reccomend skimping on healers friend. You need every boost you can get to self healing.

[Mellkor]

Minor tweaks to equipment:

went +5 reflex, +3 excep reflex, smoke screen, displacement clicky x2 greensteel cloak to replace the +5 resist cloak, and put +4 resist on epic dragon belt yellow slot. This boosts reflex saves by 3 to a 38(self buffed). A nice number for reflex save. A plus 4 tome would put this at 39! I took a -1 hit to will save and fort save, but also gained 20% concealment (smoke screen). It is worth it since reflex saves are the ones I fail most often, by far, of the 3. I only very rarely fail a will or fort save on anything other than a 1 anyways.

I will put earthgrab guard on my greensteel helm that I have yet to remake (instead of heavy fort, which is now covered by the epic dragon belt). This should work really nice, giving auto crits when it goes off

Adjusted numbers to reflect above changes in original post.

[lans]

Can you also comment on your spell selection.
Are there any spells (like mass cure crit) which you'd like to have but had to sacrifice in order to get must have ones (death pact)?
Another q is - which spells (except of cures and nongroup buffs) did you find especially effective on your build while levelling?

[Mellkor]

Can you also comment on your spell selection.
Are there any spells (like mass cure crit) which you'd like to have but had to sacrifice in order to get must have ones (death pact)?
Another q is - which spells (except of cures and nongroup buffs) did you find especially effective on your build while levelling?

HMM.

Not really. Spell choice was easy since I am not focused on offensive casting.

The only 2 that come close are level 7--would be nice to have resurection (as well as true res and raise dead, having all three comes in handy when you have to raise a bunch of folks quickly to get around spell timers)


and lev 9--I teeter between summon monster IX (handy situational spell) vs energy drain (I like this debuff, but is a real manna hog, I tend to burn thru my manna bar too fast when I have this spell loaded, lol)

As for especially effective spells? I would have to say heal!!!!! It was a bit of a struggle manna efficiency wise healing myself and others until I got the heal spell. Getting the heal spell was a HUGE change in healing ability.

[erikmatthew420]

you wasted a feat on improved critical if your using min2.

[Mellkor]

you wasted a feat on improved critical if your using min2.

This feat is far from a "wasted feat". I hardly use min II any more. Epic SOS more than justifies taking this feat. It is also nice to have when not using min II (again, I hardly use it anymore) such as vorpal of enfeebling or bursting greater banes (both of which I sometimes use vs heavy fort, or very high DR mobs/bosses/undead to bypass their DR). Epic SoS hardly leaves my hand tho. Second best is Min II followed by certain bursting greater banes and/or weapon types vs some bosses to bypass their DR.

[Gobbothegreen]

What would you say about a gear setup with ravager set (replacing shintao as i like using the torc), red dragon helm and min 2 cloak?

[Mellkor]

What would you say about a gear setup with ravager set (replacing shintao as i like using the torc), red dragon helm and min 2 cloak?

That would work ok, should work out just fine. I just like the shintao set in epics and elite, getting every bonus to hit and damage counts in those quests. VS. mobs I hit on a -2 or better, I usually wear the torc.

Let me know how it works out! I have heard some people say the ravenger set adds 2d6 dam to every swing which is contrary to what the description says, so please lemme know.

[Gol]

Heh, never saw this thread until now, and Gol has an almost identical build (exact same feats, nearly same stats). My gear plan looks a lot like yours, but I'm just way behind you on that front

Plus, I'm a Dwarf, and I get +5 reflex vs spells for free, but otherwise...

[Mellkor]

Plus, I'm a Dwarf,

I am so sorry. can always TR into warforged, I guess