Sun Tempest

[Asymetric_War]

**Updated Aug 2 2010 to revise for update 5**

This is one that a guildie (wuttup Vark!) and I came up with last night while talking about the upcoming content with update 5. The goal is a 2wf dps monster Hate tank with a max strength in the 60's and monk self-healing and group buffs.

Here's the starting stats for a Human

Str 18
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 8

for a warforged it would be

Str 18
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 6

I'll add stats for elf and for the dex-based halfling version later.

End levels are Ranger 14 / Monk 6 or Ranger 12 / Monk 7 / Fighter 1

The essential feats are toughness, dodge (a pre-req), mobility (pre-req), weapon focus (pre-req) and whirling steel strike. Thanks to the monk levels you can easily get those and have plenty of free feats left over to customize your build. Personally I'd take toughness at least twice since my intention is to be a hate tank. if you wanted to go with the fighter splash version you could also max your intim and take bullheaded/skill focus intim. You won't need it to hold aggro once you get going but it can be useful for grabbing trash and bosses whose aggro resets periodically.

This build can either use wind stance to bump up attack speed or use Sun Stance for a +2 bonus to strength and added ki generation. The combination of Sun Stance and a ranger strength build open up some very exciting numbers. earth stance II also adds a bit more hp and 4 dr/- which is nice when your getting pounded. options are good!

At end game it would be something like this: Strength of 18 creation + 5 from levels + 2 tome + 2 stance + 2 Ram's Might + 2 Rage + 6 item + 3 exceptional from crafted tod ring for a level 20 sustainable strength of 40 or 42 if you can get a +4 tome. Add titan gloves to reach 48 Str. for bosses. And if you really want to go all out you can add 4 more from madstone (double madstoned), 2 from a yugo pot, 1 from human versatility and 1 from litany of the damned for 56 Strength. Add a scourge choker to bump it up by 8 more - with all that healing amp you can afford to get hit.

Add it all up and once your gear is fully activated you're sitting pretty at a max of 64 Strength on a Gtwf build. Not too shabby! Thanks to the scourge choker and madstone you'll have a ton of hitpoints too, which is a good thing because you'll need them since you've long since pulled aggro and are hate tanking the boss. Stack on the damage guards and let harry swing as hard as he wants - you're almost impossible to kill thanks to big hp and healing amp and no one but no one is going to pull your aggro unless you're trying to lose it.

Sun stance also bumps your ki generation up and with monk smite (which counts as a positive attack) available in update 5 you'd be able to do a ton of damage and throw your mass self-heal much faster then previously possible, which is where the human, monk, and item healing amps come in very handy. You won't self heal as well as the Solar Phoenix build but you'll do significantly more damage.

Alternately, you could go Warforged for the boost to WF power attack, Elf for the longsword attack and damage enhancements, or half-orc whenever they finally appear for more strength (presumably half orcs will get 2 more str at creation and 2 from enhancements for a total additional strength of 4).

An alternate version of this concept would be a dex build with Monk Ninja Spy II and Tempest I. Preferred race would be halfling for dex bonus and guile and you'd use shortswords or barehanded and finesse but still have a solid strength for damage. The Ninja Spy bonuses would be cool and you'd end with a very high AC but you'd most likely do less damage because of the radically lower strength and smaller attack dice.