Cleric AC/S&B/THF Question

[Autolycus]

First a little background. My human Cleric/Ftr 8/1 is based on a "Melee Capable" build. He is meant to be like PnP clerics, able to offensively cast, heal, and melee as appropriate depending on the situation. I intend to take the remaining levels in Cleric unless convinced to take a second level in Fighter. He started with Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 10.

I've heard that you need to have a VERY high AC at higher levels in DDO for it to be useful. Since my guy started with an 8 Dex and relies on heavy armor and shield, I'm wondering if he will be able to have an AC that matters at higher levels?

Also, considering the recent changes to THF, should I go THF or stay S&B?

[Corzak]

I'll chance a reply to this. . .

First off, I guess I should answer your AC question. From my experience (there's the disclaimer!) you do need what would seem to be a very high AC to be successful as an AC reliant character. I'd say, just offhand, selfbuffing somewhere into the mid 50s might be the low end of a good number. I havn't played an AC character high enough to really answer the question exactly, so if someone's got better info there, please share. Also from my experience, and from looking at your stats and character build, you probably won't find it easy to hit an AC number that high. I think it would be possible, given the right DT armor, enhancments, and various other items, but maybe not easy. Then again, if something's easy it's not worth doing, right?

Now for S&B vs THF. Personally, I'm a big THF fan. But sometimes it helps to whip out that shield for a little extra defense (though I'm only hitting maybe 45 AC with a +5 heavy mith shield on, so it's not a huge help). My suggestion would be, if you're not spending feats going either way, pack a couple of each. You WILL do more damage with a 2 hander than with a 1 hander either way, especially considering that you started with a decent strength score. It might be something that you only pull out for certain special occasions, such as smashing portals in Shroud Part 1, if it ever goes live again, or other similiar situations where you don't so much need to be worried about healing as smashing something, or for soloing/duoing where you might wanna do a bit more damage to move through content faster.

To finish out, I'll point out what you'd pick up from taking a second level of fighter. I won't try to convince you to take it, but I'll lay out what you get. There isn't much, but you'll get another Fighter feat, a couple extra hit points and Fighter's Strength I. I think you'd give up a level 9 spell slot, some spell points and... that's all I can think of off the top of my head, someone fill in the blanks please!

I hope all that helped, good luck!

[Autolycus]

Thanks for your helpful reply Corzak. +rep to you for helping a newb! I'm surprised that there haven't been any other replies.

For the "free fighter feat", do you think it would be better to take THF or WP:Khopesh or something else? I'm thinking maybe going THF unless/until I get lucky with finding other equipment.

I may take a second fighter level later. Not sure yet. I'd like to level up to see the BB that I keep hearing about.

Thanks again.

[Angelus_dead]

I've heard that you need to have a VERY high AC at higher levels in DDO for it to be useful. Since my guy started with an 8 Dex and relies on heavy armor and shield, I'm wondering if he will be able to have an AC that matters at higher levels?
Also, considering the recent changes to THF, should I go THF or stay S&B?

DDO clerics can hardly ever have enough AC at high level. It's just not worth trying.

You should probably go THF. Weapon Focus is not a good feat, and Khopesh is also not really good unless you either have GTWF or high shield AC.

[FluffyCalico]

DDO clerics can hardly ever have enough AC at high level. It's just not worth trying.

.

However AC is not the only reason to wear a shield. Espically since the only current way to get superior devotion 8 involves wearing a shield.

[Hellllboy]

First a little background. My human Cleric/Ftr 8/1 is based on a "Melee Capable" build. He is meant to be like PnP clerics, able to offensively cast, heal, and melee as appropriate depending on the situation. I intend to take the remaining levels in Cleric unless convinced to take a second level in Fighter. He started with Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 10.

I've heard that you need to have a VERY high AC at higher levels in DDO for it to be useful. Since my guy started with an 8 Dex and relies on heavy armor and shield, I'm wondering if he will be able to have an AC that matters at higher levels?

Also, considering the recent changes to THF, should I go THF or stay S&B?

I guess my thought on this is-if you are a Cleric-A/C doesn’t matter as much. You can get it to a reasonable level with little effort-but the main benefit to being a "melee capable" Cleric is the fact that you can self heal. Add the Quicken feat for melee healing and you should do just fine. It really should not matter if you get hit or not-because you are considered self sufficient (meaning-sit in the scrum fighting until you get low enough on h.p.-drop a heal and keep on trucking). It may be to your benefit to increase your h.p. vs. A/C as to last longer in a melee situation prior to dropping that heal.

As for the sword and board question-Unless you are receiving a benefit to having the shield on (i.e. DR or Devotion) it would be to your benefit to use a 2 handed weapon-as would lower the time you receive damage and generate more DPS.

[Autolycus]

However AC is not the only reason to wear a shield. Espically since the only current way to get superior devotion 8 involves wearing a shield.

Thanks Fluffy, I did not know that. I'll be on the lookout for one, as a devotion item sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, so far I've only found "normal" (+1,+2, etc.) magical shields.

Everyone: Thanks for the info! Think I'll try THF for a while. I have a couple of followup questions along that line.

First, any opinions on two-handed weapons? Greatsword? Greataxe? Other?

Second, just to be sure I understand. Since the Fighter level gives me proficiency with most (all?) two-handed weapons, is it worth using the "free" fighter feat for THF?

[Corzak]

First, any opinions on two-handed weapons? Greatsword? Greataxe? Other?

Second, just to be sure I understand. Since the Fighter level gives me proficiency with most (all?) two-handed weapons, is it worth using the "free" fighter feat for THF?

I'd just use whatever the best 2 hander you've got is. Since you arn't going to be specializing down a particular path with weapon focus/spec/kensai like a fighter, and you likely won't have the feat to take improved crit, all 2 handers will work similiarly for you. That said, however, you might consider going with a Falchion for the very high crit range. Other than that, go with whatever suits your fancy. They've all got strong and weak points, but their speeds have been mostly equalized, theoretically, so they should be pretty much all decent to use.

THF is a nice feat, but I'm not sure it's worth taking unless you plan to follow it up with the others. It increases the damage of your glancing blows (mine went from about 5-9 up to 10-14ish when I got THF) and gives you a (tiny!) chance to proc weapon effects on glancing blows. This can mean a nice bit of increased damage output, but not a whole lot. If you can wedge in Improved THF, then your glancing blows will do 20ish damage, depending on where your strength number is. Greater THF is the king of swings, giving you another glancing blow, and a glancing blow while moving, which is, ehem, hot ****.

However, you might consider spending the feat on Power Attack (if you feel like a -5 to hit won't hurt you too much) or Improved Crit xxxx which would corespond to the damage type of whatever 2 handers you choose, most likely Slashing since that covers all 2handers except Mauls and Great Clubs.

*edit: Had a thought! If you plan on meleeing at later levels, Toughness will be a must for you. As Hellllboy mentioned, hit points would likely be a good thing to focus on over AC, especially if you're going THF. Also look into getting items like Minos Legens and a Greater False Life item around level 11 to 13, the extra hit points from those can make a huge difference, solo or in a group.

[Angelus_dead]

First, any opinions on two-handed weapons? Greatsword? Greataxe?

Falchion is better than either of those.