The Tuskstunner!

[pSINNa]

I was answering another thread asking for options on Horc favoured souls and outlined my new build in it, then thought 'why not put the build up and see what everything thinks of this' so here goes... The Tuskstunner!~


Started with 16 con and 20 str - 1st round TR toon (previous life favoured soul).


Had +3 str and a +3 int in the bank. Start int was 10, start char was 10, dex is dump, wis is minimal. Took toughness and extend as first couple of feats.
Level ups into str, take 1st level as fighter, and a 2nd fighter level at 12 (after u've eaten that +3 int tome) all other levels are favoured soul.


Now qualified for combat expertise, improved trip and stun for CC, with that crucial extra fighter feat for 2 lvl's of fighter, final Str is 40 unraged.
Str - 20base +5 level ups +6 item + 3 ap's (2 x orc enh, +1 x fighter enh) + 3 tome +3 except (tod ring - has the 'fvs' ring - telvi's except wis+1, char+6, with except str+2 crafted - and a +1 excep STR on 2nd tier of his DT armour).


1 x ap into trip dc, 1 x ap into stun dc (use +10 weapons for this of course).
I also crafted a DT heavy armour before TR, and have greater potency on the sovereign tier at the moment, i'll stick with this for now and am going for probably go for a resist 5/except str+1 on eldritch and tempest to enable some more efficient slotting (though i'm still considering a damage guard, a bit up in the air on that one).



I crafted a holy/good burst falchion before i TR'd him (2 tiers done) for good trash damage, and will be crafting sup dev on the tier 3 when i get him up and back into the shroud (making her a triple pos weapon).
He's been using the new Greatsword from the eye of stone 'coinlord' chest from lvl 10 up till now (Carnifex from lvl 4-10), and my god is that a serious bit of fun weaponry (the con damage is great for making sure that trip/stun land when you throw them).
I've taken improved crit slashing in the character plan (though that will be near the end as quicken will probably be more important in lower teen levels while trying to mass heal and fight my way through GH as a 'healer' :P) and will be sure to see some great damage here (have power attack taken very early in the build as well - more damage is good! xD)



I've a silver/holy/enfeebling greatsword for DR boss beating, though will prob craft a min 2 greataxe eventually (always short on those scales - i'll get to it, eventually :P)



I've put all skill points into intim and umd atm, i'll be catching up on concentration in the mid levels (though he'll be quickened during combat most of the time to be honest) and with his con opp goggles with the except char skills both are fairly useable, though intim probably won't be a no fail for raid bosses (has tower shield prof of course, so tanking trash and orthon's will be a handy thing in some raids).


He's at level 11 atm, and his trip and stun are really coming into their own, he can do lvl 9 spells no problems (when capped of course - his char qualifies), wears heavy armour, and uses great weapons (has the +4 into greatweapon damage horc enh).


Final sp is almost spot on 2500, and with his staff of the petitioner he'll be able to eak those out nicely when he's raid healing (has the glacial bracers in the bank for when he gets there + his con opp goggles to get to this total). I'll be taking mass heal as his only lvl 9 spell, taking into account his DC's which probably won't be useable for implosion.


Final wisdom is 18, which will be 'ok' on his BB, but to be honest, the melee damage he's putting out will make his BB more of a 'soften them up first' option before he wades in for the kill.


I'm finding this an immense amount of fun, and an equal contender with a lord of blades (minus the end game DR, but without the healing disadvantage).


Built for fun, but will be a raid able healer (couldn't fit empower in, but have maximise/extend/quicken, and all usual healer ap's able to be spent).


Another viable option, i'll know just how end game viable he is first time i take him in to solo sins (should be another week or so i spose).

Let me know what you think, it might be a fun option for well geared people out there to play with

Coit out~

[pSINNa]

Incidently, just would like to make a note here, i've heard a great deal about the 'demise of the spell dc caster' in epic's, with flaunted about that 'stun is king' in epic also. Now i don't want to start a big debate about the right/wrong of this, or whether it's strictly accurate, etc. That has all been done in other threads, ad infinitum.


This build was put together with that in mind (as i haven't really given epic a serious go as yet, i just haven't got there, but will be soon, and of course if i'm there, i don't want to be a dead weight healer, i want to bring something to the table).

With the gear setup and numbers i've got on this toon i end up with a 41 DC on trip, and a 37DC on stun.

Will these be adequate for epic? (Because of course, fun builds are great, but if they're usefull for a number of things - raid healing/ solo-ing/ melee contributing/ and perhaps addressing the needs of epic quests, then theyr'e 'really good' xD)

Trip
14 - improved trip
1 - ap
10 - weapon
16 - str bonus when on a rage pot (42 str)

41

Stun
10 - stunning blow feat
1 - ap
10 - weapon
16 - str bonus when on a rage pot (42 str)

37

I know a lot of people do a lot of regular epic, so will have a good idea of the DC's required, so let me know .

Coit out~

(edited to take into account my mistaken assumption that exceptional str skills affects trip and stun dc's)

[pSINNa]

This character has made it to lvl 17 over the weekend, and is proving a force to be reckoned with.

His cure mass light and critical are getting the most use during melee, with full Heal being spot jump cast during combat to keep party members up during action.

The blade barriers have been suprisingly effective in all level appropriate material considering that final wisdom score has ended up at 18.

Final charisma is 20 providing an adequate spell point pool (projected final sp as 2500 has proved to be accurate).

Trip and stun have been landing approx 90% of the time, with smart play targeting caster and boss threats making most mob battles a cinch, minimising party damage to a level very close to what would have been achieved with the usual spell cast CC that was sacrificed to achieve that 40 strength.

Melee damage has exceeded expectations with the improved crit, horc great weapon +4 to damage, 2 tiers of the horc improved power attack having been taken, providing very fast take downs in all level appropriate quests. Weapon use is almost exclusively his GS holy/good burst falchion, his vertigo+10 greataxe, and his stun+10 maul at this point. (very occasionly switching out to his smiter/disruptor/etc when appropriate).

I used a ice guard of invulnerable full plate from lvl 10 to 16 which proved very effective, and have switched to his DT full plate from lvl 16 to now, occasionly switching back (during my recent inferno runs and such).

2 levels of improved heal crit chance, and 1 level of crit multiplier have been taken, and when in full heal mode with a sup pot 6 scepter in one hand and a greenblade in the other are providing raid quality heals already.

Because the usual destruction and greater command options would be useless on this toon, (dc's), he has the full compliment of melee buffing and healing spells in it's stead, making it extremely party friendly (when he does party up, which isn't all that often :P).

Once he hits 18 and puts on his Amrath gear, i'll provide some hard stats on heal and damage output, hit points without his draconic vitality but with a gfl item on are at 398 at lvl 17, promising to weigh in at 450 approx when capped.

Incidently the intim has ended up a little higher then expected with no fail on vod normals already achievable with an item on, tanking Izzy can be done by anyone with a solid fog clicky of course, and would be a waste of spell points considering the high probability of getting 'bees' when performing this function, but groups looking for 'Timmy' might be getting a surprise when i hit that LFM in the near future (his slotting setup actually allows an intim+15 ring without losing anything, just a swapout for this wretched twilight to a char+6 cloak, instead of the char+6 ring he's using till 18 when the telvi's goes on).

More information to come soon.

Coit out~

[pSINNa]

Well i finally got around to getting this toon to lvl 18, and he strapped on his amrath gear, and finally took his Improved Trip feat (last feat to go).

Next step was the test - solo sins of attrition without a torc and without wings.
Sure many people do exactly that, but i count it as a test of toon viability to be able to do so easily (without outrageous major pot and heal scroll useage).

He passed the test, oh boy, did he.

Having maximise (and not empower) was something i thought might be an issue, and with that very low wisdom score (18) i wasn't sure how the usual BB kite strategy would work.

Absolutely not a problem. I was seeing 100+ hits on all BB's, with no saves evidenced by trash, for that matter, even the boss Orthon was being hit reliably (at the table).

I saw very low mana useage, total heal scroll tally was 14 for the entire run, with no mana pots of any type used.

I saw vastly descreased battle times for all mini-boss and boss fights compared to my TR superior soul (lvl 20 pure human dual min2 dwarven axe wielding fvs with twf/itwf/improved crit slash).

I found that the improved trip landed constantly, and mostly when i had my dps weapon in my hand, with the reduced timer on it being a godsend! (though if i really want to no-fail land that trip, i put my +10vertigo falchion on briefly)

This guys dps just makes for pure-d fun. Through quite a few hallways i went hack and slash instead of dropping a barrier and kiting, why?.. because it was just more fun! And becuase he could!.

I believe my idea behind this toon has paid off hansomly and would recommend it to anyone that wants a raid quality healer that can really and truly dish out the damage, with the added attration of providing some real laughs as you trip and stun your way through dungeons.

I'll have him TOD flagged soon, and let you all know how he goes in there, whether it be as main healz (which is likely) or in another role (tanking out the jailer or sulo, or just as a straight dps player depending on what the group needs)

Incidently, i had a few people ask me why i didn't simply go WF Lord of Blades pure fvs20 if this was the type of toon i wanted to play, implying that they would achieve a better dps then this one puts out, i gave that idea some thought, and TR'd another pure cleric i had stashed into one!

He's level 7 at the moment, and proving to be real ball-tearer, but i must say, so far, the dps isn't even close to guy. Time will tell of course, and as always i'll keep posting where i end up on this dps fvs journey.

Coit out~

[Mellkor]

To all the naysayers who trashed me when I dumped wisdom on my FvS, endorsed BB as still being effective with only maximize and posted about it, and got so much neg rep for it. Read the above, and please give it a try before you go and pull stupid knee-jerk reactions.

Dump wisdom on all divine casters at endgame! You wont go back!


This is an interesting twist I havent really tried. Stun spec. I was doing that, sort of, before the stunning weapons nerf with a cleric/monk. After the nerf I figured I would have to give up too much, feat wise, to really make it work in epics. Gonna have to give this a try myself, sounds like fun, as I do enjoy FvS over clerics by a wee bit.

As for FvS Lord of Blads vs Cleric based divine fighters, I can say after playing both that the Lord of Blades is far, far ahead in terms of DPS. What I like on the cleric side, and willing to give up some DPS for, is the healing aura + high healing amp. That healing aura is awsome, IF you can get your party onboard with healing amp. I almost dont have to heal myself at endgame with 54 a tick normal healing auras going all the time. (160+ a tic crit!!). Thats with almost all all the healing amp one can have tho. (around 400%). This often MORE than makes up for the much smaller spell popint pool, as it allows for almost exclusive and effective use of mass heal, and eliminates the need for mass cures (which eat up far more spell points per hitpoint healed)

[voodoogroves]

I would imagine, frankly, the HOrc has better overall and general DPS but the forged has more resiliency.

You could get trip/stun up a bit on a similar 'forged build (racial enhancements would make up fro 6 points of strength) but you'd want to go pure 20 for the DR, that'd be a point of STR and fighter enhancements lost, feats, etc.

[pSINNa]

I would imagine, frankly, the HOrc has better overall and general DPS but the forged has more resiliency.

You could get trip/stun up a bit on a similar 'forged build (racial enhancements would make up fro 6 points of strength) but you'd want to go pure 20 for the DR, that'd be a point of STR and fighter enhancements lost, feats, etc.

Only problem with the above, is that you need that fighter splash for the extra feat so you can take your Combat Expertise and your Improved Trip, otherwise you can't really fit them in without sacrificing a vital 'divine' feat.

Personally i try to avoid splashing my FVS toons as the capstone is such a boon to solo-ing, but in this case, it really seems to have paid off with everything i wanted to fit in being possible, and solo (so far) actually being a little better then my pure guys (so far :P) due to the massively sped up take downs on most fights (dps, it really is a win strategy in endgame if you can get it up there).

Coit out~

[pSINNa]

To all the naysayers who trashed me when I dumped wisdom on my FvS, endorsed BB as still being effective with only maximize and posted about it, and got so much neg rep for it. Read the above, and please give it a try before you go and pull stupid knee-jerk reactions.

Dump wisdom on all divine casters at endgame! You wont go back!


This is an interesting twist I havent really tried. Stun spec. I was doing that, sort of, before the stunning weapons nerf with a cleric/monk. After the nerf I figured I would have to give up too much, feat wise, to really make it work in epics. Gonna have to give this a try myself, sounds like fun, as I do enjoy FvS over clerics by a wee bit.

As for FvS Lord of Blads vs Cleric based divine fighters, I can say after playing both that the Lord of Blades is far, far ahead in terms of DPS. What I like on the cleric side, and willing to give up some DPS for, is the healing aura + high healing amp. That healing aura is awsome, IF you can get your party onboard with healing amp. I almost dont have to heal myself at endgame with 54 a tick normal healing auras going all the time. (160+ a tic crit!!). Thats with almost all all the healing amp one can have tho. (around 400%). This often MORE than makes up for the much smaller spell popint pool, as it allows for almost exclusive and effective use of mass heal, and eliminates the need for mass cures (which eat up far more spell points per hitpoint healed)

Incidently, thought you may like to know the Lord of Blades template i'm following at the moment (with my own changes of course, i had a +3char and +3wis tome banked on the 28point pure cleric healbot i TR'd from, and, i can't help myself, those little changes always make the toon mine) is the one you have posted on the forums, and it's solo'd it's way to lvl 8 in 2 days of on and off play so far, proving to be a lot of fun too .

[voodoogroves]

Only problem with the above, is that you need that fighter splash for the extra feat so you can take your Combat Expertise and your Improved Trip, otherwise you can't really fit them in without sacrificing a vital 'divine' feat.

Personally i try to avoid splashing my FVS toons as the capstone is such a boon to solo-ing, but in this case, it really seems to have paid off with everything i wanted to fit in being possible, and solo (so far) actually being a little better then my pure guys (so far :P) due to the massively sped up take downs on most fights (dps, it really is a win strategy in endgame if you can get it up there).

Coit out~

The WF racials stack with the DR from FVS, so that's awesome that other combos can't get.

On any other race-favored combo though, less useful - espescially if you can get DR some other way (say on armor or something).

[pSINNa]

I'm happy to report that this toon solo-d his first Bastion of Power on the weekend.

I'm finding that this toon is much better suited to stand and fight then BB and kite.

About halfway through the end fight in Bastion i realized that the maralith had more then 1/2 health left, while i was slightly under 1/2 on my mana bar (2200 at lvl 18), at that point i abandoned the BB and kite strategy commonly used by divine's and stood my ground and thrashed it out with the many limbed one.

You get overun at first contact, but once the overun is done you can stand and fight her, quicked heals and fighter haste boosted melee (he has 7 haste boosts - i've taken 2 of the horc enhancements for extra boosts) made this a very quick mana efficient takedown in the end.

I found this to be the winning strategy in the end fight on new invasion for this toon also, where once again i am accustomed to the BB and kite strategy on the end fight, instead he stood and fought, moving back a 'square' when soul drain was imminent. It made for a very quick finish to that dungeon.

I also found his improved trip to incredibly effective during the Bastion run, though the stun seems a not quite as good (there is a significant different in the DC's to be taken into account, the improved trip provides a much better threshold to land).

I must also say that no cheesy 'invisible and zerg' tactics were used in that Bastion run, i cleared each room as i went, and had no real problems, only occasionly having to drop a barrier when a mass spawn threatened to overwhelm him, in most cases he slugged it out clearing the enemy one at a time.

Good times xD.

Coit out~