The Bulldozer - Ultimate Solo Tank

[obsidianmoon13]

I started this build with the idea of using Half Orcs to take advantage of their bonuses to two-handed weapons on a s&b build using bastard swords. I am almost to level 10 with this character and have been able to solo pretty much anything, mostly on hard/elite difficulty, from korthos island on up. At level 9, and not including any party buffs, I can get my armor class above 50 and still be able to deal nice damage.

Here is the build, I will post some notes below:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.8.0
DDO Character Planner Home Page

The Bulldozer
Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Orc Male
(6 Fighter \ 14 Paladin) 
Hit Points: 364
Spell Points: 191 
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
Fortitude: 24
Reflex: 16
Will: 15

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             18                    28
Dexterity            14                    16
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence          6                     8
Wisdom               12                    14
Charisma             12                    18

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               2                     3
Bluff                 1                     5
Concentration         2                     7
Diplomacy             1                     5
Disable Device       n/a                   n/a
Haggle                1                     4
Heal                  1                     2
Hide                  2                     3
Intimidate            5                    28
Jump                  4                     9
Listen                1                     2
Move Silently         2                     3
Open Lock             n/a                   n/a
Perform               n/a                   n/a
Repair               -2                    -1
Search               -2                    -1
Spot                  1                     2
Swim                  4                     9
Tumble                n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device      n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons


Level 3 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 4 (Paladin)


Level 5 (Paladin)


Level 6 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting


Level 7 (Paladin)


Level 8 (Paladin)


Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons


Level 10 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons


Level 11 (Fighter)


Level 12 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 13 (Paladin)


Level 14 (Paladin)


Level 15 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack


Level 16 (Paladin)


Level 17 (Paladin)


Level 18 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Dodge


Level 19 (Paladin)


Level 20 (Paladin)
Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Attack Boost II
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Kensei Bastard Sword Mastery I
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Mastery I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy II
Enhancement: Fighter Kensei I
Enhancement: Fighter Tower Shield Mastery I
Enhancement: Orcish Melee Damage I
Enhancement: Orcish Power Attack I
Enhancement: Orcish Strength I
Enhancement: Orcish Strength II
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude I
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude II
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude III
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good III
Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys I
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma I
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma II
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma III
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II

Notes:
-------------
- Defender of siberys 2 to help maximize AC.
- Kensei to improve DPS with bastard swords.
- Max Intimidate skill to do what an intimitank does best.
- Orcish Melee Damage does not work with bastard swords. I took the first tier of it for when I want to switch to a two-handed weapon.
- Great Weapon Aptitude does increase glancing blows when using a bastard sword in one hand.
- For best AC, the best equipment you can get is necessary. I use a +5 Mithral full plate and a +5 mithral tower shield.
- Spellcasters are the biggest threat, being about the only way to get hit. Take them out first and fast.
- Use shieldblock often. It adds AC and DR.
- I should add that I plan on TR'ing at level 20, and don't plan to play epic content.

Any constructive comments are welcome. Hope you enjoy playing this character as much as I do.

[Battery]

Made a version of this today. Pretty fun,you're right almost nothing hits you except for the casters. Those glancing blows add up too,screen was full of those floaty numbers lol. I may try to level him up higher since he's so fun.

One question though. Why follower of the sovereign host since that affects longswords? I don't see it as a prereq for anything else either.

Also I went wit brute fighting to help with aggro.

[ddo.rsmo.pt]

This build won't work once the casters start using spells you need to save on. No evasion, means you'll be depending either on saves or pure hps to dampen that delayed blast fireball. And for what I see, you have neither, which will kill you in the mid-to-high level content. I won't even mention raids or epics. Game is made so that most classes can pretty much solo stuff up to a point (with or without hirelings).

I would dump the Wis stat down to 8, since that's all you need to cast level 4 spells, and since you won't be an AC build, Dex can be dropped a bit too.

I started doing your build on the Character Planner, and tried to give it a fix, but the problem is that Half-Orc and One-Handed combat don't mix. If you want this build to continue one-handed, and still have glancing blows, maybe swap out to Dwarf, since they get nice bonuses to Axes (one- and two-handed alike) which allows you more versatility. Dwarven Axe is also better than Bastard Sword in DPS.

This would mean quite a turn on your character, so it's really just a matter of knowing if this a toon your planning on just solo'ing quests when you're bored, or if you plan a higher goal for him.

Even if you do this build, I would suggest something along these lines:

Str: 18, Dex: 10, Con: 16, Int: 6, Wis: 8, Cha: 14

Good Luck!! You'll need it.

[obsidianmoon13]

@ Battery: I chose follower of the sovereign host because it is a prereq for unyielding sovereingty, and it is a good heal in case someone in the party needs one. This could be swapped for something else if wanted.

@ ddo.rsmo.pt: This character is designed as an AC build that can also do decent damage. I also chose half orc and bastard sword because I pretty much have a copy of every bastard sword i'll ever need and prefer them over many weapons. I also mainly plan on playing this in a group most of the time. Half Orc also has added bonuses to increase the glancing blows. I just found him to be excellent at soloing by accident when I couldn't find a good group.

I would consider dropping Wis down to 10 or 11. I'd like to keep the dex up since I wear mithril full plate and the Defender prestige helps add higher dex bonus to tower shields and I take fighter armor mastery. Anything I can for higher AC.

As an update, I have started running this toon through Gianthold and he still seems to be strong. I am up to a 52 unbuffed AC and when shield blocking, even when hit usually takes 0 damage. He still fills his primary role of intimitank better than any other i've played. I am trying to address the spellcaster problem, but until then, I wear the highest spell resistance item I can. I have also considered dropping 2 of the Paladin levels for 2 monk. This would give me evasion and add Wis to up my AC even more.

[Kourier]

Just some orienting questions: Why isn't going up to defender of siberys 3 better? What does Kensai 1 give you regarding offensive and defensive capabilities? Would this build be better with monk/rogue for evasion given the high reflex saves? And, this is a build that uses bastard sword + shield and two-handed weapons, right?

[Shade]

ultimate solo? disagree.
Seems like a rather non-optimal solo build.

Because no matter how well your defense are for solo, someone has to kill the monsters. And with such a build, you will not be very good at that. Sure at the low lvls, any melee build can take things down reasonable well, but your about to hit the levle where monsters HP begin to scale beyond what you can quickly handle, and things will be much much harder. (Desert/Gianthold, especially elite.)

Thing is in DDO: A great offense is always the best defense.

Kill the monsters before they kill you, and they do zero damage.

Try to just outlast them, and they will beat you down eventually. Monsters never tire, humans do.

Tankish builds work decent enough in groups.. But ultimately the best solo chars are heavily offensive focused, with just enough defense/self healing to stay alive.

[obsidianmoon13]

@ Kourier: Kensei adds more damage to the build. This build uses bastard sword and shield, as when using a BS in one hand, it acts like a two handed weapon for glancing blows. I am still working on if adding monk/rogue would be a good change or not. This build already has a very high armor class without taking defender 3, as it really wouldn't add as much to the build, where kensei adds more damage.

@ Shade: I should have probably said "excellent solo build" instead of ultimate as each person has their own preference on what they prefer. Bad choice of words. I haven't tested it through the very high levels yet, but through gianthold it still seems to have consistantly good damage. Yes, it won't out damage the pure dps builds, but that isn't what it was designed to do. This character was designed to work in a group, i've just found it has excellent solo ability. I am still working on optimizing the build further.

With the right weapons and gear, this build can keep up with the higher offense builds on the kill list, while using less resources and requiring less healing to do so. This build may not be favorable to some, but it will outlast many. Once you start doing higher level quests, some strategy is helpful. Running in and trying to kill things as fast as possible may help, but tends to take up many resources, pots and cleric's sp. You may be able to kill things a hit or two quicker, but using 4 times the potions and resources in the process.

[sigtrent]

I wouldn't say ultimate solo build because in the upper levels it has a couple of weaknesses, most notably a lack of sustainable self healing and there are opponents that just don't care about your armor class. Running with the devils is a good example as a quest that is quite a challenge to do solo as it tests both survivability and dps.

I will say that at the lower and mid levels, these kinds of builds are wonderful, I have a dwarf along the same lines (though different in some ways) and he pretty much owned everything up to level 12 (where he is now). Long term though he's built for raid tanking and you aren't quite set up for that.

Shade: I would add on his defense that if he's in a group situation his DPS isn't half bad if he just pulls out a nice two hander. Its second tier, but pretty solidly so and in return he gets some decent solo play up to a certain level. He could always switch enhancements to DPS with the same level breakdown and be a low first tier type DPS.

I actually find that leveling up solo, defense trumps offense. I've done a few zergs with a tank like this vs a balls out dps build and while they can run and kill a bit faster, they have to stop to heal themselves as where I just trudge along almost never pausing and finish with the same level of kills and at the same time and having expended far fewer resources. At higher levels this breaks down because its so much easier to progress offense than defense that even the defensive builds will need healing and in solo there is little time for it unless all the monsters are dead.

I'd recommend that you take this build until it starts to fail you, then move it to a more DPS focused set of enhancements with more smiting and power attack etc... and focused on two handers. Obviously something like a sword of shadows would be amazing here.

As much as I like monk splash, it does mean no armor for you if you want the wisdom bonus or light armor for evasion. I'm not sure it makes sense for this character.

[lord_of_rage]

I wouldn't say ultimate solo build because in the upper levels it has a couple of weaknesses, most notably a lack of sustainable self healing and there are opponents that just don't care about your armor class. Running with the devils is a good example as a quest that is quite a challenge to do solo as it tests both survivability and dps.

I will say that at the lower and mid levels, these kinds of builds are wonderful, I have a dwarf along the same lines (though different in some ways) and he pretty much owned everything up to level 12 (where he is now). Long term though he's built for raid tanking and you aren't quite set up for that.

Shade: I would add on his defense that if he's in a group situation his DPS isn't half bad if he just pulls out a nice two hander. Its second tier, but pretty solidly so and in return he gets some decent solo play up to a certain level. He could always switch enhancements to DPS with the same level breakdown and be a low first tier type DPS.

I actually find that leveling up solo, defense trumps offense. I've done a few zergs with a tank like this vs a balls out dps build and while they can run and kill a bit faster, they have to stop to heal themselves as where I just trudge along almost never pausing and finish with the same level of kills and at the same time and having expended far fewer resources. At higher levels this breaks down because its so much easier to progress offense than defense that even the defensive builds will need healing and in solo there is little time for it unless all the monsters are dead.

I'd recommend that you take this build until it starts to fail you, then move it to a more DPS focused set of enhancements with more smiting and power attack etc... and focused on two handers. Obviously something like a sword of shadows would be amazing here.

As much as I like monk splash, it does mean no armor for you if you want the wisdom bonus or light armor for evasion. I'm not sure it makes sense for this character.

I agree with sig here. The build will start seeing issues coming into gh elite the vale and RR. DPS wise it will start to suffer if you keep in s&b mode. Keep a good two hander pref a falchion for increased smite crits on hand. Know when to shift modes. This build will do decent to solid dps depending on gear. However you are not taking exalted smite tiers or divine sacrifice which is your bread and butter for dps as a paladin. You have a 12 base cha so Divine Might 1 at best. And you are not taking it. Id go 14 base cha min to hit dm2 with a +2 tome.You dont have zeal with 12 paladin lvls so no doublestrikes unless its on weapon. You limit your chances of taking more exalted smite or ds enhancements.You are not getting the most out of your dps with this build. IMO this build would be better as a an 18p 2 x. You dont need evasion. Splashing monk on your set up would kill your build. I dont think you need a wis that high to start. I tend to dump wis on paladin tanks. You need too many other stats.

Its an ok build but I think other set ups would be better. You have barely any dps enhancements. I feel the 18p/2x would be a much better choice all around and have more dps.

[Raoull]

Thing is in DDO: A great offense is always the best defense.

Kill the monsters before they kill you, and they do zero damage.

Try to just outlast them, and they will beat you down eventually. Monsters never tire, humans do.

Tankish builds work decent enough in groups.. But ultimately the best solo chars are heavily offensive focused, with just enough defense/self healing to stay alive.

I don't think that is necessarily true. Mind you, in this case, I do agree with you. But I've been playing a clonk with a decent AC, and I definitely am way more defense than offense. My main buffs last half an hour, and sometimes are my only use of spell points. I can run RS sparklies for almost 20 minutes straight, which keeps me up longer than the mobs I'm beating on.

Mind, you I can ramp up the offense when necessary (primarily for regen or healers) with the divine shorter length combat buffs, plus divine might, and of course Blade Barrier. But I can do large swaths of content, including some Shroud flagging quests, by basically wearing down the enemy.

If I can ever pull that Torc, this will be even more true as my mana becomes a renewable resource.

[Battlehawke]

If you stick with the non monk version and lower the dex and wis to the minimum and pump up either con or str more, Maybe even more cha you can still stick with your original plan somewhat. Go with a two hander in most situations. If you invest your AP into Pally clickie attacks(smites, etc.,) along wit your kensai enhancement your DPS will be very good.... You will be hitting very hard... ...and when you need to tank, you just click defender on and put up a big DR shield and throw out the Basard Sword. Max out intim and balance if you can, but really focus on "hate tanking" from both the orc and pally lines... With the ftr extra feats you will not be shy on feats but focus on toughness, the two hander chain, bastie, kensai, PA, sf intim and bull head... Your self healing will be slow but will be fine with LOH, Uny Sov, Csw pots and csw wands. Ultimately play the toon you want, the way you want.. But remember when in groups people expect you to try to win

[furbyoats]

i bet my WF wizard hits harder with a 2 hander than this build does.

dude, your hp is scary....you get into shroud when im healing it...youre staying down for the fight, youll get a kind suggestion to rethink your defenses because you suck up my sp...and then if the same thin happens again, i wont run with ya...

when they say ANYTHING can solo low level content, they werent joking....my tr wizard melee's until firewall...and then continues to melee until arount level 10...

honestly, its good for a flavor build...but for viable raid contribution or just general party contribution...i dont see it impressing me on any level.

[sigtrent]

i bet my WF wizard hits harder with a 2 hander than this build does.

A bet you would likely loose.

dude, your hp is scary....you get into shroud when im healing it...youre staying down for the fight, youll get a kind suggestion to rethink your defenses because you suck up my sp...and then if the same thin happens again, i wont run with ya...

Seriously? It should run around 550 at cap. If you can't heal that in a shroud you need some to reconsider your healing tactics. Character builder totals don't include any items generally speaking so you can add about 200 to whatever they list to get a geared up total.

honestly, its good for a flavor build...but for viable raid contribution or just general party contribution...i dont see it impressing me on any level.

Even flawed its better than half of the characters you would likely pug with in game, to say it can't contribute reasonably is a great exaggeration of its flaws.

[Therigar]

If you splash for evasion you need to splash rogue and not monk. That is because you are depending on the shield to boost your AC. You won't get the AC boost from monk if you equip a shield.

At that point you might as well be using two-handed weapons as you are no longer S&B.

Keep in mind that you'll always be uncentered with your bastard swords. That makes monk the less effective choice in this particular case.

It is too bad you did not think about the rogue/monk splash earlier as you could have gone rogue at L1.

NOTE:

I disagree with the complaint about casters. Most barbarians, fighters and paladins don't have evasion and they are just fine. Even with a solo oriented build all it means is that you need to have a good plan, high HP and access to big healing.

You're planning 14 paladin and sovereign host. You have that covered.

[Therigar]

Thing is in DDO: A great offense is always the best defense.

Kill the monsters before they kill you, and they do zero damage.

There is a lot of this going around and it is bad advice. Having played both types of characters I would much rather have high AC and great saves if soloing.

The fact is, with melee soloists you cannot kill fast enough to prevent mobs from hitting you. You can kill fast enough to not be killed yourself, but you can't kill fast enough to avoid damage.

And, occassionally, you encounter mobs in enough number that killing them fast enough becomes a serious issue.

The only ones who can genuinely live by the offense is best defense motto are players with a significant amount of twink gear or those playing instakill builds who know the quests well enough that they know every mob location.

Offense beats defense in groups when you have competent cleric support. Lately I've seen that as an issue. It is so bad that I've almost made up my mind to switch back to the defense is the best offense mode. If I'm not being hit then I don't need the healing.

Yes, encounters take longer. But, they are ultimately safer.

The only danger in going for AC is in shorting STR too much. There are some situations where mobs regen/heal and you have to put out enough damage to overcome that.

This build isn't suffering from too low STR. If anything it is suffering from not enough AC. But, that is a problem with all builds that use armor and rely on shields. And, with its stat distribution going for the monk WIS/DEX AC isn't really going to help.

[t0r012]

<snip>With the right weapons and gear, this build can keep up with the higher offense builds on the kill list,<snip>

I think you are deluding yourself here. Sure you might be king of your pugs up to Gianthold but that isn't hard to do for anyone with half a brain and the slightest bit of skill.
heck I take a bare naked finesse monk with a half decent pair of level 4 damage wraps and still lead kill counts up through Gianthold in pugs and never touch the stun button.
heck a 10 or 12 str wiz will out melee kill 75% of the pug population from what i have experienced.
-----
doing my server favor dance I had a level 3 barb/wiz run captives on elite with a level 9 pally just to get favor and out killed him 2 or 3 to 1.

----

don't get me wrong it isn't that i'm knocking you just trying to put some perspective on your thinking. because keeping up with the "higher offensive builds" isn't what you are doing. Sure your kill counts might be reasonably high compared to the others your grouping with but that doesn't mean a whole lot depending on who your are running with and what builds/gear they are using and what experience they have.

-----
another example for reference
me and a pair of TRs xp farming delera's part 2 destroying it get joined by a cleric. come to find cleric is turn speced and kills everything with turns. start halfway through a run and winds up out killing the rest of us by the end. long story short his build wasn't so great for much else but he could sure kill some undeads. foot note it was actually awesome, fastest delera's farm I ever had. my monk would run in and agro everything and bring it back to th cleric who would turn them when he caught up.

[obsidianmoon13]

@ furbyoats Funny you should say that, i've pretty much spent the last few days out in the vale. Interesting thing is, this build is still doing well. I may not be at the top of the killing lists, but again, that's not what this build does. Between a really high AC and my shield's DR, I still don't take much damage.

I use a 2-hander on occaision, but find that i still do better with my bastard swords. (+1 Festival icy bursted vorpal of pure good atm). I carry a large mithral shield for easy fighting, but switch to my tower shield when I need the AC or am intimidating. This character has been doing even better than my expectations, but it's main weakness, spellcasters, is still a bit of a problem at times.

This may not be THE best powergaming build out there, but it wasn't intended to be, and still does extremely well.

[sephiroth1084]

Not the ultimate solo melee/tank build.

You would be better off dropping Str to 16 and putting the points gained into Cha for higher tiers of Divine Might.

Make sure you carry a 2-hander around as there will be many situations in which you won't be wanting to use a shield. Your feats support this well, which is good.


Divine Sacrifice, Divine Might and Exalted Smite comprise a lot more DPS than Kensai I, which isn't really worth the investment on this kind of character. It's only +1 damage (+3 when figuring in W. Specialization). After having leveled a 14/6 split, I have to say that the 18/2 version performs much better.

Also, I'll point out that Intimidate does almost nothing for you if you're soloing. The exceptions being the few quests where you have to babysit some NPC. It's worth having for group situations, but if you are just going to be soloing you could probably ditch it.

UMD is your friend and, really dramatically increases your ability to solo. I'd max it out.

While it takes quite a bit of gear, one thing to consider is LRing to a version of Junts' Jaerlech build with self-healing after you've leveled and done some raiding, if you end up doing any. Maximized+Quickened Cure Moderate/Serious Wounds with a Torc makes a very big difference in how well you can solo. Even better than the LR, though, is to TR the character and level with all the goodies. Plays completely differently.

[sephiroth1084]

This character has been doing even better than my expectations, but it's main weakness, spellcasters, is still a bit of a problem at times.

A good two-hander will help a lot in these situations.

This may not be THE best powergaming build out there, but it wasn't intended to be, and still does extremely well.

Then you shouldn't have attached 'ultimate' to the build title. The whole title is pretty misleading, honestly. But then again, very few build titles that try to be witty and enticing like that are accurate. The Exploiter (was) and Blitz are pretty spot on, but few others are. In future, I'd stick with less controversial build titles.

[obsidianmoon13]

Then you shouldn't have attached 'ultimate' to the build title. The whole title is pretty misleading, honestly. But then again, very few build titles that try to be witty and enticing like that are accurate. The Exploiter (was) and Blitz are pretty spot on, but few others are. In future, I'd stick with less controversial build titles.

I agree Ultimate was a poor choice of words. It was late, and I was tired after a week's worth of college finals. lol. Didn't catch it till after I posted.

Also, I'll point out that Intimidate does almost nothing for you if you're soloing. The exceptions being the few quests where you have to babysit some NPC. It's worth having for group situations, but if you are just going to be soloing you could probably ditch it.

This build wasn't meant to be a solo build when I made it. I generally run with my guild members. I stumbled onto this build's ability to solo by accident. I wanted to build a high AC intimi-tank, and I wanted to take advantage of the large pile of good bastard swords I had on hand.

I did a little reading and found that two handed fighting worked when wielding a BS in one hand, so to best take advantage of it, it left warforged and half-orcs for the racial choice. With their penalties, warforged was hard to get the right stats. I should also point out that I plan on TR'ing when I hit 20, so won't be running end-game material.