The Tactical Fighter - No means no!

[yfront]

The Tactical Fighter
Creating my tactical fighter is still a work in progress (on my 3rd run), and the goal is to create a solid melee character that works in all situations (including epics) while being a viable asset to the team by controlling mobs, dishing out good damage and using scrolls/wands.

What is a tactical fighter?
My interpretation of a tactical fighter is an attacking player that helps control the flow of the team’s offensive play. A player not constrained to a single position, and with good tactical awareness. He can support the defensive line, as well as the offensive.

With stunning blow, sap, improved trip and 3 x earthgrab's and freezing ice guard you can, and will disable most mobs while dealing insane damage during auto-crit moments.

UMD or not UMD, that is the question!
On this 36pt build I’m maxing out UMD in order to cast no fail heal scrolls, raise dead, knock-wands etc. In order to do so the build depends on an epic item. If you do not have this item; skip UMD for scrolls and only put enough points into UMD to use race restricted items.

I would also like to mention that this build doesn’t require tons of epic items, and even though there’s a bunch of named items that helps this build out, it works well without them, just skip the UMD part


Pros and cons
+Mob control & damage enabler
+High damage
+Evasion
+UMD above 40
+Very fun to play

-36pt build
-Need lots of +1/+2 tomes
-Need one epic item


The character
Race: Human
Class: 18 Fighter / 2 Rogue
Alignment: Anything goes


Abilities (36pt)
STR: 18 + all ability raises.
DEX: 15
CON: 15
INT: 11
WIS: 8
CHA: 9

On a 32/34pt build you need to pay attention to dexterity and intelligence to pass the requirements for combat expertise/improved trip and to enable two weapon fighting chain. Rest goes into strength and con.
Remember that the strength modifier is directly related to your stunning blow and improved trip.


Skills
Max out UMD and balance. Should end up at 25/23.

[yfront]

Feats
2 x Past life: fighter
Sap
Stunning Blow
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip

Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons

Weapon Focus: Piercing Weapons
Greater Weapon Focus: Piercing Weapons
Superior Weapon Focus: Piercing Weapons
Weapon Specialization: Piercing Weapons
Greater Weapon Specialization: Piercing Weapons

Toughness
Toughness (can be swapped for something else)

Power Attack
Skill Focus: Use Magic Device

Quick Draw (can be swapped for something else)


Enhancements
Fighter Attack Boost 3
Fighter Extra Action Boost 1
Fighter Haste Boost 4
Kensei Heavy Pick Mastery 3
Fighter Critical Accuracy 3
Fighter Kensei 3
Fighter Strategy (Stunning Blow) 3
Fighter Heavy Pick Specialization 2
Human Adaptability Strength
Greater Adaptability Constitution
Human Improved Recovery 2
Human Versatility 3
Racial Toughness 3
Rogue Sneak Attack Training 1
Rogue Dexterity 1
Fighter Strength 2
Fighter Toughness 2

You will hit everything!
As a past life fighter with maxed out weapon focus/specialization, kensai 3 and the Verik's set, you will almost never miss your target.
My to-hit is in the +60's without attack boost, which means that your hits (read earthgrabs) will proc at a very high rate.

[yfront]

Weapons
Weapon mastery 3 and Improved critical increases your critical threat range by 2, enabling your heavy picks to crit on 18-20.
And with the heavy picks x4 multiplier to damage you'll see some sweet numbers on anything that is stunned or grabbed.

• 2 x Earthgrab heavy picks - your best friends in 98% of the content
• 2 x Metalline of pure good – Boss beaters
• 2 x Maiming Rocksplitter – golem beaters
• 1 x +10 stunning weapon – for situational use
• Whatever good banishers, smiters, disruptors, portal beaters etc you can get
• 2 x Min2/Lit2 Heavy picks is very nice but requires some grinding.
• Don't forget to carry a weapon with Improved Destruction (which works on all mobs).
  Imp. destruction reduces the targets AC with -8 (or, the way I see it; gives your team +8 to-hit) for 1 minute

How does it work
The tactical fighter is a dual wielding heavy pick fighter that relies on three feats and one primary guard in offensive purposes:

Stunning blow

• Stuns a target for 6 seconds guaranteeing critical hits.
• DC10 + STR mod – Fortitude save
• 15 seconds cooldown

improved trip

• Renders a target immobilized up to 60 seconds.
• DC14 + STR mod – Balance check
• 10 seconds cooldown

Sap

• Renders a target immobilized for 18 to 30 seconds or till it receives damage.
• No save! Works very well in epics.
• 15 seconds cooldown

3 x Earthgrab guard (2 x heavy picks, 1 x DT armor)

• 5% chance of “hold monster” guaranteeing critical hits.
• DC 35 reflex save

1 x Freezing Ice guard (1 x DT armor)

• 10% chance of “hold monster” for 9 seconds guaranteeing critical hits.
• DC 35 fortitude save. Freedom of movement blocks it.

1 x Air guard (1 x GS hp item)

• 5% chance of knockdown or 30 seconds haste.
• DC 35 save.
• Reflex save and AC bonus from Air Guard Haste stacks to "regular" Haste. (Very nice since you use evasion!)
  Movement and attack speed from Air Guard Haste doesn't stack

Example
So in a fight you would typically trip the first target and leave him for your party to take care of.
Sap the second target and let your team take care of it as soon as they are done with the first.
Stun the third target and beat it down (or leave him for a party member).
Move on to the fourth target and start bashing away hoping for your earthgrabs to proc.

By now your feats should have reset, and you can restart the process.


Gear

• Helm: Minos Legens
• Trinket: Bloodstone, Mummified Bat, Head of Good Fortune, Optic nerve
• Goggles: Tharne's
• Necklace: Verik's Necklace
• Ring #1: Verik's Ring
• Ring #2: Epic ring of the silver concord (depends if you're going for the UMD build or not)
• Bracers: Greensteel 45hp and air guard
• Cloak: Epic Cloak of Night
• Boots: Gyroscopic, Firestorm, Madstone
• Gloves: Titan's grip, Spectral gloves, Seven fingered
• Belt: Belt of Tounge, GFL (depends if you're going for the UMD build or not)

Dragon touched armor

• +5 resistance
• Freezing Ice guard
• Earthgrab guard

Stunning blow
In order to make your stuns land you need to increase your strength, specially if you're running epics.
To make this happen you have to time your Power surge and Titan's grip, and occasionally swap to +10 stunner in your offhand.
Rage potions, cookies and ship buffs also help.

My fighter has a standing DC of 28 with +8 from rage, power surge and titan's grip, ending up at 36.
Add a +10 stunning weapon and you're at 46.

UMD
I will add more information after the holidays.

[BlackPlague]

I applaude the use of sap. +1 just for that. Fantastic, very under-utilized feat.

As per my title. You will also wish to incorperate a Freezing ice Guard.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Freezing_Ice_Guard

Both Earthgrab and Freezing Ice are tremendously amazing when seperated, but together they are a devastating combination. I'd reccomend having one on a Dragontouched armor designed for Trash Mobs, and one a Greensteel.

When you've got stuns rattling off every few seconds, Saps and trips keeping monsters prep-ed and ready for the chopping board, and Both auto-crit guards, **** will hit the fan for mobs.

[Veileira]

Epic ring of the silver concord is +8 charisma and Command.

Any tower ring with 6 charisma can be crafted with +2 for a total of +8, and you can get Command somewhere else if the +2 is that important. Or am I missing something?

[Dartwick]

"No means no"?

What is this some dort of female empowerment build?

[TheDearLeader]

I would like to mention one thing I see wrong:

Improved Trip - it uses your Strength mod. However, an enemy Mob's Save is based off of a Str/Dex check, whichever is higher for them. The Balance check is secondary, to see how quickly they get back up.


Edit : Also, how many HP is this thing rocking? Its got a (relatively) low CON, and only two toughness feats, and 50/70 possible HP due to enhancements.. I'd be interested in knowing what the anticipated HP and Reflex saves would be.

[yfront]

As I said at the very bottom of the post. As soon as I have the time I'll complete the build with items and some number crunching and hopefully that will answer some of your questions.

But to answer the question about the ring. Yes, the epic ring of silver concord is sort of the icing on the cake.
Basically 25 UMD, skill UMD +3, Silver ring +6, bunny hat +3 and GH +4 puts you at 41 UMD.
I guess you could push the numbers using ship buffs (+3 UMD) etc, but I never use those numbers to my builds.

[yfront]

I would like to mention one thing I see wrong:

Improved Trip - it uses your Strength mod. However, an enemy Mob's Save is based off of a Str/Dex check, whichever is higher for them. The Balance check is secondary, to see how quickly they get back up.

Indeed. The balance check is done every 2 seconds to see if they get back on their feet. Will change.

[rexservorum]

Doubtless you have thought about this, so consider it a question born of curiosity rather than a suggestion.

Why Human instead of Dwarf or Warforged? If this is an "active combat feats" concept build, stacking PL: Fighter and stuff, you could squeeze even more DC out of their Tactics enhancements.

Great build, trip/stun/etc. is always the element I've found most fun about playing a Fighter.

[yfront]

Doubtless you have thought about this, so consider it a question born of curiosity rather than a suggestion.

Why Human instead of Dwarf or Warforged? If this is an "active combat feats" concept build, stacking PL: Fighter and stuff, you could squeeze even more DC out of their Tactics enhancements.

Great build, trip/stun/etc. is always the element I've found most fun about playing a Fighter.

That is actually very true. I'm not even sure why I didn't consider dwarf/warforged? I got a couple of nice DT-armors for this toon, so I guess dwarf would be a solid alternative.
Gonna do some crunching tomorrow and see how it plays out in comparison with the human feats, versatility etc.

[Feithlin]

I was thinking about something similar for the TR of my fighter (not anywhere soon, but I prefer to plan it before to see what kind of equipment to prepare). I give it in another thread to not hijack yours: here.

[locus]

"No means no"?

What is this some dort of female empowerment build?

No, it sounds more like a stun/immobilized focused build.... :P