Need some suggestions about my solo FvS

[charmor]

I'm building my warforged favored soul as a buffed melee to solo content. Now at lvl 9 I have Adamantine Body (mostly for the additional DR), Extend, Toughness and Power Attack.

I almost never use offensive spells, but at lvl 12 I'll get BB and things of course will change. At this same lvl my plan is to get Maximize and start using BB to fight groups, and melee against trash mobs. My starting Wis is only 12, so it will eventually reach 20 with enhancements and items. I know Wis 20 is bad to have any hope of playing as a caster, but my initial idea was really playing as a buffed melee with additional resources, such as BB kiting, Destruction to get rid of enemy casters and beholders, maybe a few Holy Smites, etc.

So, I have two questions regarding this toon:

1) Is this really a good build idea for soloing normal content? I mean, focusing on melee with supporting spells? Or focusing on the caster side (with more metamagic, holds, higher Wis) is simply better for solo?

2) Later at lvl 15 I'll probably have to choose between Improved Critical to enhance my melee side, or Quicken. People say casting BB without quicken is anoying.. but how much anoying? In other words, you guys believe I can live without quicken by just having a high concentration?

[Cardtrick]

2) Later at lvl 15 I'll probably have to choose between Improved Critical to enhance my melee side, or Quicken. People say casting BB without quicken is anoying.. but how much anoying? In other words, you guys believe I can live without quicken by just having a high concentration?

Maybe swap out Adamantine Body and take both? Or, if you're sure you'll only be soloing, I guess you could do without Quicken; but I think you'll feel the pain of that more from being unable to cast quickened Heal/Mass Heal than BB. If you think you'll be partying, and especially if you plan on raid healing, you'll almost surely want Quicken.

[Seventh]

1) It's a great setup for soloing, better that a caster setup in that regard IMO, although caster builds can solo too.

2) You *need* quicken. Even if you're never planning on healing a raid group, an interrupted heal at a bad time during a solo run can kill you, and points in concentration are often simply not enough (some enemies just deal more damage than concentration can protect you from). And the long casting time on Bladebarrier does get annoying if left unquickened, but that's secondary. You also really want Imp Crit. I would recommend dumping either Adamantine Body or Extend Spell so you can take both Quicken and Imp Crit. I personally like Extend, but lots of folks figure you don't need it past the mid levels.

A bit of advice on the WIS: dump it. Past the lowest level content a WIS of 20 won't help much, those points are more useful elsewhere. Bladebarrier is still incredibly useful for bringing down large groups at half damage. Most other offensive spells you'll have to give up on, but BB is great no matter what.

[brucelee82]

Lord of Blades is a great solo build. Personally I don't have extend, most buffs last the whole quest or until the next shrine. I kept adamantine body for the DR. Having DR 15 at level 20 is great. You will want quicken for sure. I started with a wisdom of 6 and got it up to 16 and in Amrath my BB's will still hit anything without evasion for decent amounts of damage.

[wax_on_wax_off]

I'm building my warforged favored soul as a buffed melee to solo content. Now at lvl 9 I have Adamantine Body (mostly for the additional DR), Extend, Toughness and Power Attack.

I almost never use offensive spells, but at lvl 12 I'll get BB and things of course will change. At this same lvl my plan is to get Maximize and start using BB to fight groups, and melee against trash mobs. My starting Wis is only 12, so it will eventually reach 20 with enhancements and items. I know Wis 20 is bad to have any hope of playing as a caster, but my initial idea was really playing as a buffed melee with additional resources, such as BB kiting, Destruction to get rid of enemy casters and beholders, maybe a few Holy Smites, etc.

So, I have two questions regarding this toon:

1) Is this really a good build idea for soloing normal content? I mean, focusing on melee with supporting spells? Or focusing on the caster side (with more metamagic, holds, higher Wis) is simply better for solo?

2) Later at lvl 15 I'll probably have to choose between Improved Critical to enhance my melee side, or Quicken. People say casting BB without quicken is anoying.. but how much anoying? In other words, you guys believe I can live without quicken by just having a high concentration?

I think I cast about 1 blade barrier on my cleric the first time that I got it and straight away and went and swapped a feat. It takes about 5 seconds to cast it (or that's how it feels). Blade Barrier is almost totally useless without Quicken Spell. Additionally, Quicken is needed to be a good healer later on in raids.

My feat order for my Soul Survivor:
1: Toughness
3: Power Attack (put it on, leave it on ...)
6: Maximise (this is useful with searing light sometimes)
9: Quicken
12: Improved Critical: Slashing (this was the awesome bit, bodyfeeder, pure good, icy burst greatsword with 17-20 crit + maximised and quickened blade barriers)
15: Empower Healing
18: Adamantine Body (before this I just saw a Bladesmarked Docent which gives higher, almost as useful DR without taking APs, at level 20, Adamantine Body is good imo to get 15 DR/Adamantine instead of 13 DR/Adamantine).

No extend on my build which is annoying sometimes but overall I appreciate the extra 2 points of DR. Kinerd summed it up nicely pointing out that recasting without extend will equate to about a 0.75% loss in DPS which is fine with me.

Casting style FvS is a better soloer than this build but this build is awesome too. I really love my Soul Survivor, he really is unkillable and hits pretty well too.

[charmor]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Removing Adamantine Body is an option, but this is basically my only way to mitigate damage since I have no AC at all, and I have to melee. And playing solo, taking damage means more heals = less sp for offensive casting. Anyway, maybe I can really get rid of it later when the difference between DR 5 or 3 is not that much.

Removing Extend is another option. I know extend will eventually become almost useless for the long term buffs, so it is really only a question of confort to keep me from casting Divine Favor/Power all the time. But casting quickened BBs also must be a question of confort, so I think this will be my first option to swap for Quicken.

And another question:
My idea of not dumpÃ*ng Wis was to be able to cast at least some spells nice for solo, such as Greater Command and Destruction.. Can those still work fine with average Wis on speific mobs (such as Destruction on beholders, Command on low-will melee mobs, etc)?

[Seventh]

Spell DC's are an all-or-nothing situation, You can get away with it for a while, but eventually if you didn't build as an offensive caster you simply won't be able to land spells- a few points in Wis won't help. Even when targeting weak saves, you need to be in the 38 range to be successful in the easier endgame content (Easy epics, IQ, constant Shroud farming, etc.) and 42+ for the tougher (rough epics) or caster unfriendly (Amrath) content. As for DR, keep in mind you get a stacking 10 DR at cap, although with DR more is always better. And I cannot stress enough how important quicken is, it is not a matter of comfort, it's about getting off heals when you're getting nailed for 100+ points of damage a swing and concentration won't protect you.

[Jeromio]

I'm building my warforged favored soul as a buffed melee to solo content. Now at lvl 9 I have Adamantine Body (mostly for the additional DR), Extend, Toughness and Power Attack.

I almost never use offensive spells, but at lvl 12 I'll get BB and things of course will change. At this same lvl my plan is to get Maximize and start using BB to fight groups, and melee against trash mobs. My starting Wis is only 12, so it will eventually reach 20 with enhancements and items. I know Wis 20 is bad to have any hope of playing as a caster, but my initial idea was really playing as a buffed melee with additional resources, such as BB kiting, Destruction to get rid of enemy casters and beholders, maybe a few Holy Smites, etc.

So, I have two questions regarding this toon:

1) Is this really a good build idea for soloing normal content? I mean, focusing on melee with supporting spells? Or focusing on the caster side (with more metamagic, holds, higher Wis) is simply better for solo?

2) Later at lvl 15 I'll probably have to choose between Improved Critical to enhance my melee side, or Quicken. People say casting BB without quicken is anoying.. but how much anoying? In other words, you guys believe I can live without quicken by just having a high concentration?

To make a solo melee WF FVS that can take on any current normal quest:
Put 18 in str and con, dump dex and wis, put 10 in cha and enough in int to get the skills you want (depends a bit on number of build points you've got).
Take feats Adamantine Body, Toughness, Extend, Power Attack, Impr Critical: Slashing, Quicken, Empower Healing. At high levels, switch out Adamantine Body for Maximize (if you want a bit more useful BB to kite through while swinging your greatsword).

Take spells for buffing yourself and others. Also take mass cures in addition to single target healing plus some raise spells. You'll need this if you want to shroud and do HoX/VoD/ToD where you might have trouble being accepted unless you join as a healer.

Result: you'll have a fun build and you can easily solo any regular quest and several raids as well. You'll also be a good raid healer. Amrath quests on normal will be like Korthos all over. You'll be far from the best DPS characters, but you'll be extremely endurable.

General Don'ts for a melee FVS (according to my opinion at least ):
* Don't take just a few points in wis. It's quite pointless at end game where you need max wisdom for offensive casting.
* Don't skip extend on a melee FVS. You want to have Divine Power and Divine Favor up all the time. It's so convenient to have them extended and it's a pain to renew them every 2nd minute.
* Don't take Empower instead of Empower Healing. This is something that's been debated a lot, and there are many that have a different opinion.
* You'll already have plenty on spell points, so don't waste any unnecessary build points in charisma.

[Ebonta]

I'm building my warforged favored soul as a buffed melee to solo content. Now at lvl 9 I have Adamantine Body (mostly for the additional DR), Extend, Toughness and Power Attack.

I almost never use offensive spells, but at lvl 12 I'll get BB and things of course will change. At this same lvl my plan is to get Maximize and start using BB to fight groups, and melee against trash mobs. My starting Wis is only 12, so it will eventually reach 20 with enhancements and items. I know Wis 20 is bad to have any hope of playing as a caster, but my initial idea was really playing as a buffed melee with additional resources, such as BB kiting, Destruction to get rid of enemy casters and beholders, maybe a few Holy Smites, etc.

So, I have two questions regarding this toon:

1) Is this really a good build idea for soloing normal content? I mean, focusing on melee with supporting spells? Or focusing on the caster side (with more metamagic, holds, higher Wis) is simply better for solo?

2) Later at lvl 15 I'll probably have to choose between Improved Critical to enhance my melee side, or Quicken. People say casting BB without quicken is anoying.. but how much anoying? In other words, you guys believe I can live without quicken by just having a high concentration?

I'll comment on the caster part, you said that you almost never use offensive spells, but at level 12 are going to change? BB kiting will still work, even with only 20 Wisdom, but you can forget trying to use Destruction, it won't work with 20 Wisdom... the DC will be something around 17 base + 2 Heighten if you have it + 5 Wisdom Modifier = 24. So I'd swap Destruction out for something different.

Also, I don't believe you can live without Quicken. Blade Barrier has such a slow cast time, if you have another caster character cast a spell like Cloudkill with Quicken on, that's how slow it is. High concentration can mitigate this, but you'll still get interrupted sometimes. Plus it's handy for throwing down Heal, Mass when you're not soloing.

Just my thoughts, good luck !!!

[wax_on_wax_off]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Removing Adamantine Body is an option, but this is basically my only way to mitigate damage since I have no AC at all, and I have to melee. And playing solo, taking damage means more heals = less sp for offensive casting. Anyway, maybe I can really get rid of it later when the difference between DR 5 or 3 is not that much.

Removing Extend is another option. I know extend will eventually become almost useless for the long term buffs, so it is really only a question of confort to keep me from casting Divine Favor/Power all the time. But casting quickened BBs also must be a question of confort, so I think this will be my first option to swap for Quicken.

And another question:
My idea of not dumpÃ*ng Wis was to be able to cast at least some spells nice for solo, such as Greater Command and Destruction.. Can those still work fine with average Wis on speific mobs (such as Destruction on beholders, Command on low-will melee mobs, etc)?

Get a bladesmarked docent (DR 5/magic, lifeshield) or a x docent of invulnerability (lightning guard, ice guard, fearsome, deathblock are good options for the prefix). The DR 5/magic will give you similar DR in almost all situations. While leveling up not many enemies have magic weapons.

Then drop adamantine body. Imo, adamantine body is only useful once you get to level 20 to use it with the innate DR that WF FvS' get which pushes you up to 15 DR/adamantine which is *awesome*.