Critique of my stalwart defender 1-17

[Hokonoso]

super easy to lvl, power lvl'd it up in 2 weeks as a human khopesh twfer

after deleting every fighter i ever leveled at 17 i decided to lesser to a kensai to see the differences.

conclusion: due to more feats was able to take 3 more toughness feats instead of intimidate feats and came out with more survivability for two reasons:

reason 1: more hp so much more time before needing to run and heal, also enough enhancement points to max out human improved recovery for an extra 30% base healing.

reason 2: stalwart stance utterly sux, it kills you plain and simple. the snare = auto death, there is no way to survive while in stance once your hp fall low as you cannot run away and heal, there is no way around this, stalwart defender requires a pocket cleric and that style of play is just lame imo.

I will never play as a stalwart again because of how broken the snare is and the fact that it REQUIRES a pocket healer just to function!

The loss of hp/dps is not worth the ability to lock mobs down and intimidate as a kensai can hate tank very well and hold aggro the old fashioned way, and with more hp is a much better horoth tank than a stalwart would be... i digress, build a char to tank and ended up making him dps and still keeping ability to tank! this game is broken, turbine should get rid of the snare to make this class useful.

[UltraMonk2]

*Raises one eyebrow*

My 20th level pure Stalwart Defender can Solo Prey on the Hunter on Casual.

I use no heal pots (or any other pots of any kind)
I don't need to use the shrine.
I take no hireling with me.
I may go into defensive stance at the end fight, but more often I don't.
I do use a Stoneskin clickie.

He has an AC of 63 and 770 Hit Points

He is not fully geared out yet.

[Baahb3]

I am going to have to question this as well. As long as this is just not a troll post, if what you are saying about your Stalwart it true then there are some things that are wrong with the character.

The stance can be clicked on and off, I mean how often do you really use 7 stances before a shrine? Even then you can tumble at full speed while in stance... VoD kind of stinks now with being in stance while chained but then you just turn it off and then enter it again once you go him.

Pocket Cleric? You should not be taking very much damage at all, that is the whole point of the SD PrE. Besides if you plan it right you can heal yourself if need be with heal scrolls, you are going to have a higher charisma than most fighters, you might as well invest in UMD.

I will leave the rest of my points to Quickster for he will detail them out much better than I.

[TiranBlade]

super easy to lvl, power lvl'd it up in 2 weeks as a human khopesh twfer

after deleting every fighter i ever leveled at 17 i decided to lesser to a kensai to see the differences.

conclusion: due to more feats was able to take 3 more toughness feats instead of intimidate feats and came out with more survivability for two reasons:

reason 1: more hp so much more time before needing to run and heal, also enough enhancement points to max out human improved recovery for an extra 30% base healing.

reason 2: stalwart stance utterly sux, it kills you plain and simple. the snare = auto death, there is no way to survive while in stance once your hp fall low as you cannot run away and heal, there is no way around this, stalwart defender requires a pocket cleric and that style of play is just lame imo.

I will never play as a stalwart again because of how broken the snare is and the fact that it REQUIRES a pocket healer just to function!

The loss of hp/dps is not worth the ability to lock mobs down and intimidate as a kensai can hate tank very well and hold aggro the old fashioned way, and with more hp is a much better horoth tank than a stalwart would be... i digress, build a char to tank and ended up making him dps and still keeping ability to tank! this game is broken, turbine should get rid of the snare to make this class useful.

Are you playing a TWF SD? Because I've played a stalward defender to level 8 and if your usuing a shield it's very soloable, and you save the defensive stance for specific situations. I'm currently planning a Bastard Sword and Board Stalward Defender for Update 7 because of the further changes to the THF feats. This combined with the large increase to Intimidate, AC bonus, DR, and such it makes sense to me to work effectively.

Anyways that's my two coppers, everyone has a different playing style, and this one might not be for you.

Thanks for listening,
TiranBlade

[Bolo_Grubb]

super easy to lvl, power lvl'd it up in 2 weeks as a human khopesh twfer

after deleting every fighter i ever leveled at 17 i decided to lesser to a kensai to see the differences.

conclusion: due to more feats was able to take 3 more toughness feats instead of intimidate feats and came out with more survivability for two reasons:

reason 1: more hp so much more time before needing to run and heal, also enough enhancement points to max out human improved recovery for an extra 30% base healing.

reason 2: stalwart stance utterly sux, it kills you plain and simple. the snare = auto death, there is no way to survive while in stance once your hp fall low as you cannot run away and heal, there is no way around this, stalwart defender requires a pocket cleric and that style of play is just lame imo.

I will never play as a stalwart again because of how broken the snare is and the fact that it REQUIRES a pocket healer just to function!

The loss of hp/dps is not worth the ability to lock mobs down and intimidate as a kensai can hate tank very well and hold aggro the old fashioned way, and with more hp is a much better horoth tank than a stalwart would be... i digress, build a char to tank and ended up making him dps and still keeping ability to tank! this game is broken, turbine should get rid of the snare to make this class useful.

honestly it sounds more like your play style does not match well with Stalwart defender. If you find Kensai works better for you then great, sounds like a better match for your play style.

[Quikster]

honestly it sounds more like your play style does not match well with Stalwart defender. If you find Kensai works better for you then great, sounds like a better match for your play style.

^^This is fact.

60 more hitpoints does not liberate you from needing healing as the OP suggests.

The fact of the matter is this, Kensai does more damage, SD has more ac. If you arent willing to grind out the gear for ac you are going to have a mediocre ac and need to use a shield.

Sounds to me the OP ran this guy to cap and decided he didnt like it instead of getting the needed gear to complete an ac build. Ac builds are definitely niche and need lots of love before they really shine, unfortunate but true.


SD Stance can be annoying if you plan on using it all the time, but if you use it for tanking it does just fine.

Kensai can tank fine, though its going to get tougher once WoE and TS are fixed. Then the extra 60 hps you are talking about will give you exactly 1 more hit from horoth before needing a heal. Considering a 75 ac will negate most hits from horoth on normal, you dont gain a whole lot for defense there imo and defenders can hate tank horoth just as well as a kensai.

[Hokonoso]

honestly it sounds more like your play style does not match well with Stalwart defender. If you find Kensai works better for you then great, sounds like a better match for your play style.

sorry if my post was unclear, my whole point was that my playstyle does not fit with stalwart.... i did not mean to say in any way shape or form that stalwart sucked or was no good at all, just simply that it does not work for me because of how it snares me. im a twitch gamer and a toggle that slows me down is simply worthless to me 100% of the time. and yes i was twf'er so i took a lot more dmg than if i was using a shield all the time, but i did 1-17 without a healer at all, keep this in mind so i was clearly doing just fine without one and using twf, but life was not as easy as i 'thought' it would be being a tank etc...

just a rant about the toggle, nothing else bout the class is a problem, just the fact that it slows me down! sorry if my post came off as dissing the class or saying it is not effective as soloing is what i do and 1-17 without a healer is normal as i didnt have a healer while leveling any of my classes to 20 since i solo/duo at most and none of my friends lvl healers either.

i think if the class/combo wasnt so gear intensive i might have stuck it out but for now i simply dont care enough to gear up a fighter so for the last 3 levels ima go straight dps and finish it off.