Warforged melee-focused Air-Savant

[galois]

Inspired by this thread: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=309544

I came into those adjustments:

Same except:

Stats:
Str 18
Dex 8
Con 18
Int 10
Wis 6
Cha 10

Feats
1 Toughness
3 THF
6 Maximize
9 Empower
12 SP:Evocation
15 Quicken
18 Power Attack

Enhancements:
- Air Savant 1: 15
- Air Savant 2: 21
- Air Savant 3: 36
- Others: 8
Total: 72

Other enhancements:
- WF Inscribed Armor (1)
- Toughness 1-1-2-2 (6)
- WF Greater Weapon Attitude (1)

Pros:
- Level 9 spells
- Capstone
- Air Savant 3

Cons:
- no TWF
- Late Quicken
- APs eaten by Air Savant 3

What do you think about this?
Is this viable
- solo-wise?
- end game-wise?
- leveling-wise?

Thanks

[Cartheron]

I personaly think earth savant is better for this kind of build - air provides alot of excelent spells, but they almost all share 1 drawback - they are save for half. And being air savant kills your melfs, burning blood, acid rain, which are exceptionaly good, no save, fire and forget DoT spells.

As earth savant, you could use Niacs bitting cold instead of electric surge and full spectrum of acid dots. Additionaly, earthgrab is much better than air special, and with 15sec cooldown is much more user friendly.

PS. Another problem is that combined melf, burning, acid rain and Niac bitting cold provides so much dps that whatever you are doing with your 2hander is purely flavor, especially after stacking vulnerability curse

[Infant]

I'm by far not a build expert. But wouldn't IC:Slash be better than THF for DPS?

Infant

[Geonis]

Drop THF, move Spell Focus to 3 (and make it Conjuration for Earth), move Quicken to 12, PA to 15 and 18 feat is Imp Crit.

Much better damage all around. (As noted earlier, pretty much no Acid spell has a save)

Edit- And I might just steal this build idea

[Cardtrick]

I feel like the build you linked to is a better option. I don't see how a 20 sorcerer could really be a viable melee combatant -- but with such a low CHA, and without Heighten or Spell Pen, it won't be a very good caster, either.

If you really want tier 3 of Air Savant on a melee sorcerer (and I can understand that, for the knockdown immunity and wings), then you should look at an 18/2 or 18/1/1 build. I don't think there's much point in evasion, since you're going to have a very low reflex save, so I would say 18 sorcerer, 2 fighter (or 1 fighter, 1 monk). You'll get 2 extra feats out of that, allowing you to take Improved Critical, THF, and ITHF.

I would actually also consider dropping Empower and replace it with GTHF. (2 fighter levels will get you to the necessary 11 BAB, but not until level 20, so one of the fighter levels will have to be taken at L20, taking GTHF with a bonus feat. I think that works.) GTHF is where much of the payoff from THF and ITHF comes in -- it gives you glancing blows on your 3rd attack, too, so you're getting them 75%+ of the time.

2 fighter levels also lets you take Fighter Toughness I, Fighter Strength I, and Haste Boost I, which will all make a big difference. Additionally, you get a better BAB, so you can actually hit some stuff even with power attack on, and more HPs.

The pure 20 sorcerer route just looks like it will be a completely ineffective melee combatant and a gimped sorcerer. Going this way instead, at least you could be a somewhat useful melee combatant (and an even more gimped sorcerer). I think it would play similarly to a Warforged Lord of Blades favored soul in terms of melee and soloing capabilities, lacking any party healing capabilities, but with the ability to buff the whole party's Lit 2 performance and situationally lay down some direct damage spells.

It would probably be fun to play, but would likely have some trouble finding groups.

EDIT: Also, if you decide not to multiclass for extra feats, then everyone else is absolutely right -- Improved Critical is far more useful than THF.

[PresentTense]

Not to repeat myself too much, but this does seem to be becoming a popular idea. I'm planning roughly the same build, actually, over here - http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=307496. I went TWF for more lightning strikes, even though it's tougher on the dex. However, I added two monk levels instead of the last two sorc levels. This gives me the spare feats I need - monk feats are TWF and toughness, giving me room for ITWF and IC:S. I also took khopesh proficiency instead of power attack - the feats are tight, and even with divine power clickies, your to-hit won't be amazing - you'll probably be kicking power attack off regularly against anything with an AC.

While I agree acid is probably the better call for many sorcs, I don't think it's the best call for a melee sorc. This build will be depending on its curses to boost the damage from holy/shocking burst/shocking blast/lightning strike/shocking blow/greater shocking blow weapons. Even discounting the acid immunity that a lot of end-game enemies have, there's no equivalent acid damage to boost when it comes to lightning strike, epic charged gauntlets and the bold trinket.

[voodoogroves]

Drop THF, move Spell Focus to 3 (and make it Conjuration for Earth), move Quicken to 12, PA to 15 and 18 feat is Imp Crit.

Much better damage all around. (As noted earlier, pretty much no Acid spell has a save)

Edit- And I might just steal this build idea

This, but move PA to 18. Improved Crit will be more useful than PA most of the time and in this range you're toting the banishers/smiters.

[jakeelala]

Not to repeat myself too much, but this does seem to be becoming a popular idea. I'm planning roughly the same build, actually, over here - http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=307496. I went TWF for more lightning strikes, even though it's tougher on the dex. However, I added two monk levels instead of the last two sorc levels. This gives me the spare feats I need - monk feats are TWF and toughness, giving me room for ITWF and IC:S. I also took khopesh proficiency instead of power attack - the feats are tight, and even with divine power clickies, your to-hit won't be amazing - you'll probably be kicking power attack off regularly against anything with an AC.

While I agree acid is probably the better call for many sorcs, I don't think it's the best call for a melee sorc. This build will be depending on its curses to boost the damage from holy/shocking burst/shocking blast/lightning strike/shocking blow/greater shocking blow weapons. Even discounting the acid immunity that a lot of end-game enemies have, there's no equivalent acid damage to boost when it comes to lightning strike, epic charged gauntlets and the bold trinket.

CounterPoints:
-Going acid and Min2 saves a feat on ImpCrit Slash and is also MUCH more effective against most raid bosses, where you might actually get to stack a curse.
-Acid seems to be a much better class for no save and DoT damage. For a sorc without Cha, this is pretty important.
-The 3rd level of PrE ability for earth is a lot better than air, arguably. Although being able to haste yourself and zoom with wings would be nice.