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.

[Artos_Fabril]

The impetus for this particular build was the observation that Wind Stance and Tempest don't stack because they're the same type of bonus.

Looks pretty solid, but this is not accurate.
Tempest haste is a competence bonus
Wind stance is an enhancement (7.5-15%) plus insight (2.5-10%) bonus.
the reason tempest doesn't work with handwraps is that they aren't considered two weapons for the tempest bonuses (you also don't get the tempest shield bonus with handwraps equipped).

Since Rangers don't need dex for 2WF you can pump their Strength to 18 at creation and still get the full 2WF line for free.

Dodge (tempest prerequisite) requires 13 dex, so you'll need at least 11 starting dex, and only that low if you plan to pick up dodge, mobility and spring after character level 7 (unless you still have a no ML +2 tome somewhere, I guess).

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 and finesse but still havea solid strength for damage. The Ninja Spy bonuses would be cool but you'd most likely do significantly less damage.

Might even be higher damage against Sneak Attackable targets. I'd make it 12/7/1 ranger/monk rogue, or monk/ranger/rogue.
12mnk/7rng/1rog halfling would have 130% attack speed in wind stance with short swords unhasted (137.5% madstone, 152.5% madstone+haste boost) with 4d6+19 (with Tharne's) SA damage. Given a pair of rad II SSes, he'd be wrecking worlds.

[unbongwah]

Like Artos said, the problem isn't that Tempest & Wind stance don't stack, it's that up `til now they only stacked with dual-wielded kamas. With U5, we'll have two new options for monk weapons: Ninja Spies can use short swords; or you can use longswords with the Whirling Steel Strike feat. [EDIT: also Midnight Greetings counts as a monk weapon.]

Just to toot my own horn: the Tempest Phoenix, a rogue 1 / monk 7 / ranger 12 build. Decent TWF DPS w/longswords, pretty good free healing via healing ki finishers, 2nd tier monk stances, pretty high AC (eventually), Evasion, max ranks of UMD, pretty good trap skills. Use Wind stance for attack speed boost or Fire stance (w/Jidz-Tet'ka) for better self-heals. I tried to keep it as lowbie-friendly as possible: it's less stat-intensive than the Solar Phoenix (you could even try it on a 28-pt build); it's also pretty light on tomes; and the Jidz-Tetka bracers shouldn't be too hard to get even for a new player.

[Visty]

The goal is a 2wf dps monster with strength comparable to a barbarian and monk self-healing and group buffs.

had to chuckle here esp as i saw this:

That gives you an end game strength of 18 creation + 5 from levels + 2 tome + 2 stance + 2 Ram's Might + 6 item + 1 tod ring + 2 greensteel for a level 20 sustainable strength of 38 or 40 if you can get a +4 tome. Add titan gloves to reach 46 for bosses and you've got a ton of damage.

[Visty]

forum blurb

[Plutocracy]

What does Monk 7 give you that Monk 6 doesn't? I'd go 12 ranger/6 monk/2 fighter for the extra feat and STR enhancement.

Also, I would consider elf instead of human. Why?

1) Aim for a decent AC since you will get both Elf and Ranger bonus to Dex enhancements, windstance bonus to Dex, as well as Monk AC bonus from Wis. Also, since you have evasion it really makes sense to have decent Dex. And you need a 13 Dex anyway for Dodge feat. STR 18, DEX 14 (16 if TR), Con 12, Int 8, Wis 14, CHA 8 would be my split, 40 less HP at level 20 but able to get a self buffed competitive AC even at high level (Monk, barks, Tempest). With a ranger/monk combo high AC is easily attainable.

With +2 or +3 tomes a possible 30 Dex (32 if TR) and 24 Wis all for AC (+18), not including any epic/uber gear.

This build even has +2 more AC potential than the exploiter build (-1 for no tempest III, +3 for more dex from windstance, wis enhancements, and monk level 5)

2) Aerenal racial bonus to longswords, +2 to hit and damage trumps the +2 STR from humans.

[Asymetric_War]

had to chuckle here esp as i saw this:

well I didn't say equal to a barb, there are barb builds that get way up into the 60's and higher, but this is as close to that as you're gonna get to that without the rage ability or power surge.

@unbongwa I just saw your build, looks like the same basic concept. and thanks for the clarification on tempest and wind stance, I haven't played rangers much and apparently had some bad information. One thing I notice about your build is you had it laid out with ranger 11 - not enough to get Tempest II.

[unbongwah]

What does Monk 7 give you that Monk 6 doesn't?

Monk 7 gets you Wholeness of Body and Imp Recovery II; the latter is what's important to my Tempest Phoenix and the Solar Phoenix build which inspired it. Same reason they went human, for the 30% racial healing amp. Elf would have higher DEX and DPS (presuming you could fit all the enhs), but less HPs and significantly less healing amp.

[shablala]

What does Monk 7 give you that Monk 6 doesn't? I'd go 12 ranger/6 monk/2 fighter for the extra feat and STR enhancement.

Also, I would consider elf instead of human. Why?

1) Aim for a decent AC since you will get both Elf and Ranger bonus to Dex enhancements, windstance bonus to Dex, as well as Monk AC bonus from Wis. Also, since you have evasion it really makes sense to have decent Dex. And you need a 13 Dex anyway for Dodge feat. STR 18, DEX 14 (16 if TR), Con 12, Int 8, Wis 14, CHA 8 would be my split, 40 less HP at level 20 but able to get a self buffed competitive AC even at high level (Monk, barks, Tempest). With a ranger/monk combo high AC is easily attainable.

With +2 or +3 tomes a possible 30 Dex (32 if TR) and 24 Wis all for AC (+18), not including any epic/uber gear.

This build even has +2 more AC potential than the exploiter build (-1 for no tempest III, +3 for more dex from windstance, wis enhancements, and monk level 5)

2) Aerenal racial bonus to longswords, +2 to hit and damage trumps the +2 STR from humans.

I am sorry, but I would TOTALLY take Human over Elf ANY day. Especially on a self healing build.
40% healing amp ALONE trumps +2hit/dam of elf
Then add Extra feat, better stat distribution then the awesome Human Versatility.

What does Level 7 monk give you?
Well another tier of healing amp
Wholeness of body, another on demand awesome self healing feat.

Is the extra fighter lvl a bad idea? No, but I guess it will boil down to preference. 1 extra feat vs lvl7 monk extras.

[Jubbers]

Currently working on the build 12 ranger / 1 rogue / 7 monk. The character has been fun to play, currently up to 11.

I took rogue at 1st then 5 levels of monk. At 7 I took my 1st level of ranger (helped my rogue skills a ton especially search). I also ate a +2 multi tome (Ty ddo store sale) which gave me 1 more skill pt (8 per ranger lvl) and the 13 dex I needed to take dodge as my monk 6 feat.

I have currently 1 rogue / 7 monk / 3 ranger. I am feeling the hit from not getting TWF / ITWF / GTWF as my off hand proc rate is 40%, but I have full DD, spot, search skills and enough OL / UMD to pull off wand usage and pop all the at level chests, being a little light on skill points be careful how you spend um and plan well or you'll have to lesser reincarnate.

Str 18
Dex 11
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 8
All stats have a +2 tome and all level ups are in str as well as my human point.

Healing amp breakdown:
20% monk 7 (6 pts)
30% human (12 pts)
25% fire stance 2 and bracers (2 pts)
10% boat buff

[Vazok1]

if you wana tank with self heal survivability with monk heals i saw a real nice monk12/paladin6/ftr2. (personally im thinking of going 12mnk/paly7/rogue1) it uses intimidate not hate tanking but i added it all up about 65base intimi if you run it all properly.

ps. i understand its not what your posting about but if you wanted a look at it for ideas to twist it or something i'll send ya the info about it etc