Tempest Trapmonkey for new players (28-pt human & dwarf)

[unbongwah]

I've updated the human rgr 18 / rog 2 build with a few tweaks to enhs & feats and a few brief comments about epic levels & EDs.

[Luzelina]

I've enjoyed this build immensely. My favorite is your Dwarf version. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind creating a halfelf version. I went ahead and VIP and now that I have access to more features I'm curious. I've been reading and researching but to be frank I'm overwhelmed with the amount of information. And I wish I could say I understood half of what I read but my mouse size brain does not compute.

Do you know of any builds for new players to VIP for 28pt druid and monk class?

[~TomAtom]

Hello, would a strength based halfling work or would that just turn out gimped? I just like halflings I thought I could start with lower dex and make it up with enhancements since halflings get dex instead of human adapt. strength.

[Fleckislaupir]

Hi all, unbongwah here. I've been unable to retrieve my original forum account, so ironically I have to post with my F2P alt until that gets fixed. SO glad Turbine "upgraded" the forums!

Do you know of any builds for new players to VIP for 28pt druid and monk class?

Yes, I have some 28-pt druid & monk builds. A few questions:

• Do you have any tomes, twink gear, etc. you can pass to these chars; or would you be starting from scratch?
• For the druid: do you want to be caster- or melee-focused? If melee, do you want to be shapeshifted, unarmed w/fists, THF, TWF, or S&B?
• For the monk: light or dark?
• For either, any preferences as far as race?

Hello, would a strength based halfling work or would that just turn out gimped? I just like halflings

Yes, halflings are fine; any race can be adapted to this build, really. I would probably stick with STR-based, although the Enhancement overhaul looks like it will provide extra options for DEX-based Tempests.

[Luzelina]

Yes, I have some 28-pt druid & monk builds. A few questions:

• Do you have any tomes, twink gear, etc. you can pass to these chars; or would you be starting from scratch?
• For the druid: do you want to be caster- or melee-focused? If melee, do you want to be shapeshifted, unarmed w/fists, THF, TWF, or S&B?
• For the monk: light or dark?
• For either, any preferences as far as race?

I have a +1 Con tome someone randomly gifted me. I'm not really sure about twink gear so I'm going to go with starting from scratch. However, I do have a bunch of items in the AH that I can probably use, if you point out what gear I should keep my eyes on I may have something. I've not experimented with crafting but I hear one can create some very nice gear to start - I just haven't' had the time to figure out crafting yet.

Wow so many options for the Druid class, I love it. What is S&B? I'd like to try melee TWF.

I was reading on the monk class and I would like to try ninja assassin so Dark.

As far as race, well, I want to try all the new races that opened with VIP, Warforged, Half-Elf, and Half-Orc. But my Fav race is Dwarf.

[Luzelina]

Wondering if you had any time to post those builds we were talking about? Points to post before this one.

[Faerzress]

Just curious.... you mention the cleave/great cleave/overwhelming critical path with the epic levels added. Would an alternate route go Combat Expertise/Whirlwind/(something else)? Without really knowing, it seems that whirlwind is better than great cleave and yet it takes the same amount of prereqs (1) to get (since the others have already been taken). Not sure what that something else would be...

Other thoughts... Is Precision something to consider?

Is Power Attack more or less left on all the time?

Is imp. crit -- slash really needed? Are keen weapons that hard to get?

Thanks!

[Faerzress]

(edit post function not working so well atm)

Forgot to also ask about the order of taking the fighter and rogue splashes. Should rogue always be first? I assume its for extra skills at the start? Could you start levels 1 and 2 with fighter then rogue, or rogue then fighter... then rest ranger? Or is it better to splay them out more as you have it in your build?

Thanks again!

[unbongwah]

Just curious.... you mention the cleave/great cleave/overwhelming critical path with the epic levels added. Would an alternate route go Combat Expertise/Whirlwind/(something else)? Without really knowing, it seems that whirlwind is better than great cleave and yet it takes the same amount of prereqs (1) to get (since the others have already been taken).

That is a possibility, however Whirlwind is not a great feat, partly because of the feat cost, but also because of the slow animation; it shows your char doing a double-spin, however you only attack on the first spin, thus the second spin is purely for show. In a DPS-obsessed community, doing things "purely for show" is frowned upon. Also, taking CL+GC opens up Lay Waste & Momentum Swing from the Legendary Dreadnaught ED; that's a lot of AoE goodness.

BTW, this build I posted takes all of the above and should in theory still be viable under the new Enhancement system (knock on wood).

Other thoughts... Is Precision something to consider?

Precision has two main uses: when fighting high-AC high-Fortification targets, the extra to-hit and -25% Fortification may be worth more than +5 dmg -5 to-hit from PA; and it works with ranged atks and will stack with Archer's Focus or Imp Prec Shot, so it's good for the pew-pew.

Is Power Attack more or less left on all the time?

Yes, unless you're having trouble hitting things or switching to Precision.

Is imp. crit -- slash really needed? Are keen weapons that hard to get?

Keen weapons are fairly common, but on random lootgen the keen property occupies the prefix slot; and it's much better to get, say, Holy Burst or something like that. Also, named weapons are usually the best choices and most (tho not all) aren't keen. E.g., if you go with khopeshes, the Cannith water khopesh is good DPS and has Paralyzing, but isn't keen. If you go with piercing weapons instead, the air rapier and Deathnip are great options - which, again, aren't keen.

Forgot to also ask about the order of taking the fighter and rogue splashes. Should rogue always be first? I assume its for extra skills at the start? Could you start levels 1 and 2 with fighter then rogue, or rogue then fighter... then rest ranger? Or is it better to splay them out more as you have it in your build?

In order: yes; yes; I wouldn't recommend it; how soon you take the ftr splash is up to you, but it largely depends on how soon you need that extra feat vs. delaying rgr feats & spells an extra level.

[Faerzress]

BTW, this build I posted takes all of the above and should in theory still be viable under the new Enhancement system (knock on wood).[/QUOTE]

I notice you don't get 18 levels in Ranger. This means no Tempest III, correct? Is that not a deal-breaker? Or can it be sacrificed for something better? If that is the case, is there maybe a 2 rogue/2 fighter/16 ranger build that would work? 2nd rogue level for that nice wand enchancement. 2nd fighter for another feat (i think). Especially if I got Half Elf to get a dilly, the second fighter feat may make up for the lost human one.

Also... I forgot to ask about weapon focus. Seems to me that most builds forgo this. Is the +1 attack just not worth spending a precious feat on? If so, then it seems like this game does not emphasize "to hit" that much (especially considering that Power Attack is standard fare even though you give up 5 attack). This is directly in opposition with many other MMOs where your first priority is to raise your "to hit" to a much higher level. Seems like in DDO, you're not that far from hitting the "to hit" target, which I assume is probably taken care of with raised ability scores and +x gear.

[unbongwah]

I notice you don't get 18 levels in Ranger. This means no Tempest III, correct? Is that not a deal-breaker? Or can it be sacrificed for something better? If that is the case, is there maybe a 2 rogue/2 fighter/16 ranger build that would work?

Right now, Tempest III provides +5% doublestrike, +2 AC, and +5 PRR over Tempest II. That's generally seen as a pretty modest boost to DPS & survivability; plus you have to spend another feat to get T3. So a lot of Tempest builds skip it for more levels of other classes instead. Rgr 12 / Tempest II is considered the "sweet spot" on a lot of rgr builds; but I also like rgr lvl 15, which gets you a fourth FE and two lvl 4 spell slots (CSW & FOM are the best options). That gives you 5 lvls to play with; on the build I linked, you can see I took rog 3 for 2d6+3 SA and W&S Mastery I and ftr 2 for 2 extra feats & +1 STR enh.

Unfortunately, in the Enhancement alpha, Tempest III didn't receive any extra bonuses; actually, it got slightly nerfed, because the PRR bonuses were a separate line of Enhancements, rather than inherent to core abilities. Pure Tempests will be getting a nice melee capstone (finally!), but obviously you lose trap skills on a pure rgr, which defeats one of the purposes of this build.

I forgot to ask about weapon focus. Seems to me that most builds forgo this. Is the +1 attack just not worth spending a precious feat on?

The only reason to take Weapon Focus is if it's a pre-req for something else you want (e.g., Weap Spec). It's not that to-hit doesn't matter; it's that with last year's changes to AC and how to-hit works, there's negligible value in small to-hit bonuses like Weap Focus or OTWF, particularly on a build with so few chosen feats. [On a Tempest III, I'd now rather take TWD instead of OTWF for a bit more PRR.] If you find yourself having trouble hitting things, Precision is a much better choice: bigger to-hit bonus in the long run, works with every weapon / combat style, and reduces Fortification, which means more crits on high-Fort targets.

[EllisDee37]

Would an alternate route go Combat Expertise/Whirlwind/(something else)?

I did this on my tempest trapmonkey solely because I'd already spent the 3 feats on the spring attack line, so figured I'd try it out. He still has whirlwind today, but trust me: it sucks hard.

[Faerzress]

I did this on my tempest trapmonkey solely because I'd already spent the 3 feats on the spring attack line, so figured I'd try it out. He still has whirlwind today, but trust me: it sucks hard.

Good to know... I'll stay away from the WA then, and go down the Cleave/Greater Cleave/Overwhelming Crit line

[EllisDee37]

Updated build is up, thread here.

Feedback is welcome.

[deathfarts]

Ok new player here and this maybe a dumb question but... Can I use enhancements before lvl 8 or is there a reason you wait till 8? Like elven dexterity could be used at lvl 4.

[unbongwah]

U19 has rendered this build obsolete. You should really go use this updated thread instead.