Solo Melee FvS for high lvl content (Raids and Epic) - Need advice from experts FvS

[Ghustor]

34 pts, VIP

THW FvS focus on solo for high lvl content, mainly Raids and Epics (Scroll and Chest run). Ok, i know that its REALY hard, but possible with good equips.

I dint think about what TR choce, i need some advice for this as well, but my main doub is about the build. I was thinking about between WF 20 FvS or Half-Orc 12FvS/8Bard.

Half-Orc FvS/Bard:
pros - Str 4 pts higher than WF (+2 to hit, +3 to damage), songs giving +5 to hit and +6 to damage and DR 5/-, Hast and Displacement extended to 1:36 min, Fascinate, more skills points and heals are 100% effective.
cons - no wings, low DR, less SP, 1 elemental resistante less, less damage on pew-pew archon and no whirlwind summom

WF 20 FvS:
Pros - DR 16/adamantine, WINGS!!, more SP, 1 more elemental resistante, better pew-pew archon helping on DPS, Summom Monster VIII (whirlwind), Bladie Barrier
Cons - less to-hit and damage (-6/-9), no displacement, Hast only by pots and/or itens (30 seconds), healed like a WF.

Final considerations:

*Well, despite the big difference between both to-hit and damage, the archon prob could supply this, so, i think that about DPS both are pretty equivalent.
*DR 16/adamantine are huge, but displacemente are so...
*Summom monster VIII (air elemental) works well even on epic content, but only in trash, it helps.
*Fascinate can reach a DC 1d20+50, but usefull only in trash.

Now i want to know for more experients FvS, what do u think about this? Can u help me with the better build and TR choce? I dont wanna to run a TR char to discover that he isnt so good as thinking

TYVM!!

[Heronous]

Id go full FvS.

The DR is HUGE and you can always take a bard hireling with you for the free haste songs and displacement.

Also, when you take only 12 levels in FvS. You are not going to be a very good healer nor a very good bard for in a raid party.

Go full FvS

[protokon]

honestly, the most potential soloer is going to be a pure 20 evoker. human works really well.

in the end, though, it's the pilot not the plane

[Malky]

honestly, the most potential soloer is going to be a pure 20 evoker. human works really well.

in the end, though, it's the pilot not the plane

^ this, with the healing capstone and imo half-elf with monk dilly for more healing amp. Pretty much impossible to bring that thing down and BB / DP is enough to take out trash&bosses.

[brucelee82]

I prefer warforged. You are missing out on the WF immunities which are very good for soloing. No level drain is huge especially in any content with beholders.

[voodoogroves]

I've played an Evoker and a Superior Soul. My preference is for the laser build with a big weapon.



STR 10 build points
CON 10 build points
INT at least a 12 (10 if human) so you can get UMD and Concentration. If you put more points here or eat a tome, Balance.

That's 24 build points, we've got 8 left. Put at least some of those in CHA to save any hassle with casting spells (or only 2 or 3 depending if you have low ML twink CHA gear) and the rest wherever you want. Level ups into STR.

Feats: (1) Toughness, (3) Weapon Proficiency feat, (6) Maximize, (9) Empower, (12) Quicken, (15) Improved Crit then (18) CHOICE

Choice: Extend, Power Attack or Empower Healing depending on what you feel is most useful for the content you run most typically and your playstyle. The laser can accomodate any of them. Power Attack is more useful if you enjoy smashing face. Empower Healing can be useful if you find you’re a Heal / Mass Heal person and not just a Mass Cure (splat) user. Extend gives you some extended buff options.

For proficiency, I like Greataxe for Maelstrom and Carnifex early but do what makes sense with the gear you’ve got available. Some racial-modifications below:
- Human: Add Extend, Power Attack or Empowered Healing
- Half-Elf: Fighter dilettante frees up a feat; adding Extend or Empower Healing

Naturaly an Elf build may prefer Falchion, a dwarf Greataxe, etc.

If you feel like you are meleeing less in the late game, you can de-emphasize that aspect of your build by Fredding-out the proficiency and swapping in another feat; you can still use some decent staffs like Rahl’s Might, Epic Souleater or a craftable, etc.

[dkyle]

Feats: (1) Toughness, (3) Weapon Proficiency feat, (6) Maximize, (9) Empower, (12) Quicken, (15) Improved Crit then (18) CHOICE

I just LR'd my FvS into something basically exactly like this (Human for PA + Extend), without seeing this. I'm glad to see it now, though. It felt kind of insane to be spending a feat for a single martial weapon proficiency, but I don't see much alternative besides WF for Greataxe (which wasn't an option for an LR).

I wish non-WF religions actually got useful weapons. A one-hander is almost completely pointless when it takes dumping almost all Divine-casting ability to get viable TWF.

[Illiain]

I just LR'd my FvS into something basically exactly like this (Human for PA + Extend), without seeing this. I'm glad to see it now, though. It felt kind of insane to be spending a feat for a single martial weapon proficiency, but I don't see much alternative besides WF for Greataxe (which wasn't an option for an LR).

I wish non-WF religions actually got useful weapons. A one-hander is almost completely pointless when it takes dumping almost all Divine-casting ability to get viable TWF.

They need to fix Master's Touch so you can scroll it while wielding a two hander. Then you could train up UMD. 11 ranks +Chr should be more than enough for scrolling.

[samdsherman]

mine is a helf with 3 pally past lives, if u dont wanna put in that much work u can go human its fine too

[pSINNa]

Pure fvs, whatever race you want really.

The little caster things you want from your bard splash can mostly be hit with an exceptional char skills item and umd. (I prefer a concorcant opposition item with spell points on it and +5 exceptional char skills to jack up umd on my pure fvs guys).

Gear helps a lot too, a smoke 2 item (perma blur 20% with displace clicky), earthgrab guard or destruction on your sovereign tier of the DT armour (both pretty handy, have 2 sets in robes if you want the utility of choice there), enervation guards, a torc! (must have torc! sooo good, lol - my fvs guys start solo-ing dq's for their torc at lvl 14 these days, must have torc!), stoneskin clickies (either shroud items - min2 weapon or item, or seal of earth from dq, or umd stoneskin scrolls, a very cheap option), a nice high DR shield to tank up with (can't beat the leviks defender for this, best DR - non epic that is - in game imo), shroud trip/haste guard item (with 90sec haste clickies , etc,etc,etc.

It all helps, but being a pure fvs of whatever type will make getting all that relatively painless (or monk2/fvs18 if you're really in love with evasion i spose, i can take it or leave it myself).

My two cents, i'm sure whatever you use, with practice you'll make it work, it's the player not the character that makes serious solo-ing possible, the gear is just so you can be lazy .

[Gabrion]

Especially in terms of long-term sustainability (which IMO is a big part of soloing epics) I have to agree with the folks saying pure FvS. The item combo that works best on my WF FvS is DoD+Torc+ConcOp+shield (obviously better is better, but I use madstone atm). I was on the fence about free searing light or free cure light, but in retrospect it was silly to consider anything but cure light.

Going into "turtle" mode with defiance up and shield blocking your DR will be in the 50s and with free cure light you can charge up full mana before every boss fight. The DR 10 before defiances procs is also helpful, but not a deal breaker as you can UMD stoneskin or get it from a pet. Its all about what you have fun playing, but I think FvS missing capstone lose more than many other classes.

Edit: two things I forgot to mention.

1) If you have the heal spell and high enough DR you can still maintain mana equilibrium in epics if you go the torc+concop route, its just harder as you actually have to spend SP on healing.

2) Displace or blur are fine, but they are counterintuitive for the mana regen play style. If regaining mana requires mobs to hit you, you want them to hit you, period. You goal then becomes reducing the dmg you take, which in this case requires that you face off against melee mobs and reach high levels of DR. If a mob hitting you 50% of the time has a net effect of gaining you mana, them hitting you 100% will let you regen 2x as fast. The only time this isn't true is in fights where you aren't trying to regen mana (bosses for instance if you walk in with a full bar and that's enough to kill them), but in those cases you should be able to find ways of achieving the displacement effect without building for it (ie clickies, hirelings, scrolls, etc.)

[voodoogroves]

Especially in terms of long-term sustainability (which IMO is a big part of soloing epics) I have to agree with the folks saying pure FvS. The item combo that works best on my WF FvS is DoD+Torc+ConcOp+shield (obviously better is better, but I use madstone atm). I was on the fence about free searing light or free cure light, but in retrospect it was silly to consider anything but cure light.

To each his own. I prefer searing light.

[Gabrion]

To each his own. I prefer searing light.

I should clarify...I wasn't saying searing light is a silly choice objectively, just that I tried both and for my playstyle cure light fit so much better it should have been obvious from the start. I agree though, to each his own.

[jakeelala]

To each his own. I prefer searing light.

in voodoos defense, free searing lights make for more mana for healing oneself. It's probably pretty close to a wash. Unless you can get more effective as offensive casting than you can at healing (what you're better you should stick to)

[Iaga]

... Going into "turtle" mode with defiance up and shield blocking your DR will be in the 50s ....

50s?!?! Was this an exaggeration for emphasis or a legit number?

[aristarchus1000]

50s?!?! Was this an exaggeration for emphasis or a legit number?

Well, if you have DoD:

DR:
20 from DoD Proc
15 Hound Shield
10 from 20 BaB after Divine Power
---
45

So pretty close to 50.

If you add things like Lifeshield and Demonic Shield Procs, it is possible to effectively break 50.

[Iaga]

Well, if you have DoD:

DR:
20 from DoD Proc
15 Hound Shield
10 from 20 BaB after Divine Power
---
45

So pretty close to 50.

If you add things like Lifeshield and Demonic Shield Procs, it is possible to effectively break 50.

*nods* That's good. My human evoker with hound shield has a blocking DR of ~28. I didn't know about the DoD proc. nor factor in the HP procs. Thanks

Your blocking DR = BAB/2

I believe that is what the reference was to, not the capstone.

And for what its worth, the Evoker build is amazing for soloing.

Yep - Divine Power does bump your blockign DR while it's running and Yep, i love my evoker. I have yet to find a situation it doesn't work well for

[Carpone]

Forget Bard. You can cast Haste and Displacement scrolls via UMD, or get some clicky items. Fascinate isn't necessary either, since you want to kite stuff through your Blade Barrier.

If you're going to splash at all, then it will be two levels of monk or rogue for evasion. You don't _need_ evasion, but coupled with excellent FvS saves, it's amazingly good.

I absolutely love lord of the blades, but I absolutely cannot stand the miserable heal amp. You must compensate for the heal amp through gear (epic Gloves of the Claw and unlocking 20% heal amp on a ToD ring). That will limit your gear options.

[Ngha]

Solo...and no rogue levels....hmmm.

[Matuse]

I absolutely love lord of the blades, but I absolutely cannot stand the miserable heal amp. You must compensate for the heal amp through gear (epic Gloves of the Claw and unlocking 20% heal amp on a ToD ring). That will limit your gear options.

I'd get the 20% amp on DT. Aside from a guard (which I'm not a fan of as a whole), there's not much in Tempest that blows any wind up my skirt.