Looking for a solid melee build

[stille_nacht]

Right so with the risia event i farmed some, got some icy kits, and made a:
+1 icy burst holy burst scimitar of pure good: lv 10
+1 icy burst holy burst rapier of pure good: lv 10
+3 cold iron icy burst holy burst rapier of pure good: lv 14
+1 icy burst shocking burst rapier: lv 4

I made the weapons in this order, when i made the scimitar, i thought to myself "hey, why not play some melee for my second toon" having played only caster before.

I was thinking about making some sort of high ac dex based build, but i have been told that you need around 80 ac for it to matter in epics, and i am probably not going to be comfortable grinding out 6 epic items just to get enough AC to matter, but if there is a build that gets high ac with relative ease (i understand 2 even 3 pieces of hard to acquire equipment though)

Alternatively, i can go for a DPS build, which i know is relatively easy to do, just get decent bbs, and good to go, ive heard of something called the "Monster" that piqued my interest, but i couldn't find it after forum searching, additionally, i heard that it is a lot weaker now after the twf nerf (not sure what that did)

So, basically, my question would be: does anyone have any really good dps or ac builds? would prefer it do be drow :]

[Victor_1]

It'd be better if you could bring us more info about what you have for built character.
Drow is good race, but slightly less versatile than 32pt races in DPS focused build, at least IMHO.
I know you interested in drow. But hey, more choices are always better

Do you have 32pt character unlocked?
Do you have access to monk/WF/HOrc?
Do you have access to +2 tomes? Not for all status but having access to single +2 dex tome is quite handy.
And what is your purpose of your character, besides the DPS? Needs self-healing? UMD? Trap capability? or dont care about anything but DPS?

As you already researched, making AC character require quite grinding.
On the other hand DPS character functions quite well even w/o single greensteel item.

Also just FYI, monster is still good build that perform more than enough DPS.
Sure, it may not deal much DPS as latest DPS build, such as Blitz.
But please remember, all of these top-notch DPS build assumes all of uberest epic/raid equipment to perform their best DPS.
Most player simply cannot reach this maximum potential, at least anytime soon.

That being said, you do not need maximized DPS character to farm shroud on normal, hence the epics.
Of course reaching maximum potential does benefits you well, but not necessary.

So get us some more info, I'm sure I or someone else here in forum can recommend you sweeties

[stille_nacht]

It'd be better if you could bring us more info about what you have for built character.
Drow is good race, but slightly less versatile than 32pt races in DPS focused build, at least IMHO.
I know you interested in drow. But hey, more choices are always better

Do you have 32pt character unlocked?
Do you have access to monk/WF/HOrc?
Do you have access to +2 tomes? Not for all status but having access to single +2 dex tome is quite handy.
And what is your purpose of your character, besides the DPS? Needs self-healing? UMD? Trap capability? or dont care about anything but DPS?

As you already researched, making AC character require quite grinding.
On the other hand DPS character functions quite well even w/o single greensteel item.

Also just FYI, monster is still good build that perform more than enough DPS.
Sure, it may not deal much DPS as latest DPS build, such as Blitz.
But please remember, all of these top-notch DPS build assumes all of uberest epic/raid equipment to perform their best DPS.
Most player simply cannot reach this maximum potential, at least anytime soon.

That being said, you do not need maximized DPS character to farm shroud on normal, hence the epics.
Of course reaching maximum potential does benefits you well, but not necessary.

So get us some more info, I'm sure I or someone else here in forum can recommend you sweeties

i have 32 pt build unlocked, i have monk unlocked

none of the "special" races besides drow :[, but id be willing to make a different race :P

plenty of +2 tomes (con, int, dex, str) been saving up

dont really care about anything besides dps/ and or ac (though epic-viable ac is seeming pretty unlikely)

[unbongwah]

In general it's not recommended to plan a build around specific equipment unless we're talking endgame gear. Still, I look at those weapons and my first thought is "TWF paladin" - either pure for max endgame DPS or with a rogue / monk 2 splash for Evasion. Could go elf or drow for the racial bonuses to scimitars and/or rapiers; otherwise I'd probably go human for the extra feat.

[rexservorum]

You prefer Drow... you prefer melee DPS. This just screams "TWF Rapier Paladin" to me. The fact that you have some neat rapiers lying around is just gravy, really.

Junts has a TWF Drow Paladin build in his mega-thread that is pretty typical and solid.

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...11&postcount=7

[stille_nacht]

ooh does the paladin get special rapier enhancements or something :]

[Victor_1]

Thanks for the more info
Since you've got plenty of stuff to start "uber" builds, here's some builds I dig up from forum.
Though please note that I totally ignored your preference of rapier/drow thing

The Monster
Just for reference, here's monster build thread.
One of best DPS build when tempest1 used to give 10% stacking perma haste boost.
But monster is still very effective build IMHO.

Orcsploiter
The Prodigy Unarmed
12rng/7rog/1mnk builds that became popular after the update7 AKA TWF nerf.
Part of their DPS comes from sneakattack, so you might not like that.

The Archon v2
Blizt build
Both are 12ftr/6barb/2rog build. Archon is THF, Blizt is TWF.
Can't say which is better. Both are very good DPS build.
If you are to roll these build, you are recommend to have barb past life. But it is not required.

These are build I could recommend to you.
Monster and 12/7/1 build can reach useful amount of AC up to vale, I think.
And some of them are Half-Orc build. Do not worry, you can just modify them into whatever races you want to use.

As for the Paladin build in above reply, I think it's very solid build too.
Though only thing I do not like about paladin is they are not known for sustainable DPS.
You have to activate separated attack for every 3 second or something like that.
But it's just my personal preference I'm lazy player.

[Qezuzu]

ooh does the paladin get special rapier enhancements or something :]

No, but Drow do.

[stille_nacht]

thanks for the links :], if the nerf just took away a 10% haste boost, that means monster only loses to the current highest dps by 10% max right? :], i might do it just for flavorsomeness

question, why is drow good for pally? im sorta confused as to that. also, the damage from pallies comes from their smites or something? confuzzled :/

[rexservorum]

Drow is good for Paladin mainly because of the bonus Charisma. Smites are part of that (along with lay on hands and divine grace), but the biggest reason is probably Divine Might. This enhancement line requires a certain level of base Charisma (starting + levels + tomes) to purchase and adds damage to each of your hits. Drow have an easier time of reaching the 20 base Charisma needed to buy Divine Might IV. Divine Might is of course better for TWF because each hand is getting that bonus to damage.

+2 DEX is another reason. It is easier to achieve the 17 base DEX you need for Greater TWF.

It all just fits together in a nice little package wrapped up with racial bonuses to using rapiers.

[t0r012]

yeah a drow Rapier TWF build 16 str , 16 dex , 12 con, 16 chr.
up to you stay pure or 2 rogue for UMD and evasion or 2 monk for evasion and AC and a couple more feats.
at pally 6 go Hunter of the dead till you hit the vale then switch to knight of the chalice.

holy sword for DR breakers till you can craft up some green steel.

feats TWF, iTWF , gTWF, toughness , IC: pierce, Power Attack and for the last feat maybe extend spell. add 2 more if you go monk splash.

[stille_nacht]

Drow is good for Paladin mainly because of the bonus Charisma. Smites are part of that (along with lay on hands and divine grace), but the biggest reason is probably Divine Might. This enhancement line requires a certain level of base Charisma (starting + levels + tomes) to purchase and adds damage to each of your hits. Drow have an easier time of reaching the 20 base Charisma needed to buy Divine Might IV. Divine Might is of course better for TWF because each hand is getting that bonus to damage.

+2 DEX is another reason. It is easier to achieve the 17 base DEX you need for Greater TWF.

It all just fits together in a nice little package wrapped up with racial bonuses to using rapiers.

ooh thats pretty nice, though ill probably do a little re-speccing once i get a gs khopesh, as those pretty much trump rapier even with racial bonuses :[

[EKKM]

ooh thats pretty nice, though ill probably do a little re-speccing once i get a gs khopesh, as those pretty much trump rapier even with racial bonuses :[

I believe the DPS experts say that Khopesh does beat racially enhanced weapons like rapiers but it is not by a very significant amount. A TWF pally is very feat starved, the benefit may not be worth the cost.