My test Tempest Kensai build, huge dps.

[stille_nacht]

is only 2ac bonus. but 2ac can make all the difference. that is not the main reason i have put ranger into this build though, the free feats for twf is why i added ranger. and tempest is a bonus that goes with the class. barb didnt seem to fit the build how i wanted it to. the wand usage of a ranger outweights the barbarian multi class option.

ah, earlier game ranger will be more useful seeming than barbarian, and ac makes a difference.

later game, youd better have 70+ ac or its not even mentioning, and the heals from wands is too slow to keep you alive :O

but if you are f2p, you might not like ddo enough to get to late game :[, once you get to 14 or so, you have to choose if you like ddo enough to spend money on it.

[stupid123]

can't, need the tempest abilities. and extra ranger feats help to save on feats later on. so ranger has to be there to make this build work right. plus its dual weild khopesh build. way way more dps then a two handed weapon frenzied barbarian.

He meant blitz build...which is better dps(twf khopeshs)

[Uchuujin-San]

yeah i see what your saying, but i wanted him to be able to avoid as much "mortal danger" as possible, and his enchantment resistance helps a ton. and, drow being my favorite race, it works out well. i hate human builds honestly. they just get a few extra feats but really don't have much individuality. you have to admit. for a melee fighter with decent hp this build can evade a ton of damage ;p even though in the process of avoiding damage, it has slightly lower dps then some builds. but it can top kills im sure. gotta test it first i guess >,> im curious but i wan tto make sure the best changes can be made before i go off and try to complete it. thoguht i guess the best way to find flaws would be to try it, eh ?

The thing with mitigating damage is that theres basically only 2 main ways of doing it: high AC or high HP. high AC is a ridiculous and meticulous grind and planning to get to the 75+ areas when it becomes useful at end-game (lvling an ac of 40ish till gianthold and 55-60 in vale and you're fine). which means that having enough HP to soak what damage you take (and you will take damage no matter how well you play) very important.

Evasion is great, but you need to put some work into it for it to be dependable. That means +5 resistance gear, +6 Dex gear if you can slot it, GH clickys in case, etc. No point having evasion if youre gonna fail on 19 or lower. The spell resistance is great for lover levels but once you start getting to the higher levels the caster lvl's of mobs start getting much higher than your SR and some epic mobs have a CL of 35 or 40 making that SR useless.

Basically, and imo, your build is certainly not gimp or broken. and geared well you'll be a decent asset in any party. But (and i'll be honest i'm a powergaming ****** ) it's far from great. You'll do alright at end game (epics and the harder raids) but you'll be noticeably behind the powercurve. Not far behind the average, but generally noticeable enough with a party of equally geared and played WF or humans or smelly dorfs.

[Espario]

<< Outsider looking in

I'm guessing for any trapsmithing at all, at end game, you need max ranks of search and disable. Half ranks or whatever you call it is a waste. So, if you can't figure out your skills, maybe ditch the rogue levels and use two monk levels. I think your saves, HP and AC will be better, not to mention more feats to play with.

I don't play end game, so maybe I'm wrong but I'd go full ranks in trapsmithing. What if turb creates the next "must do" quest with high search level traps? What if they randomly place the boxes?

the build is mainly dps. finding traps is secondary, in which case, it has thoughs skills maxed out every level. or as close to maxed out as possible. its possible to just wear a good item to buff thoughs skills. and rogue 2 gives evasion. which helps greatly with avoiding damage and traps. aswell as sneak atk damage. though its only aorund 9 extra damage. it makes you more able to crit on a sneak atk. and with khopesh's high crit rate and x3 crit damage. they hit very well.

[Uchuujin-San]

to hit the elite traps at end game you need a buffed search in the high 40s and disable around the same (i cant remember exactly but for epics its a 52 search and 56ish DD inc buffs AND gear) so you do need both max ranks and gear.

Also i'm fairly sure than SA damage is not multiplied by crits. And crit chance is solely dependent on your weapon.

[Espario]

ah, earlier game ranger will be more useful seeming than barbarian, and ac makes a difference.

later game, youd better have 70+ ac or its not even mentioning, and the heals from wands is too slow to keep you alive :O

but if you are f2p, you might not like ddo enough to get to late game :[, once you get to 14 or so, you have to choose if you like ddo enough to spend money on it.

haha not true. i love ddo. ive had 3 lvl 20s. but all of which were deleted due to bordome and interest in other builds. the lvl 20s where frenzied 2h barbarian, AA ranger, and a stalwart defense fighter. atm i have 3 lvl 12's which are all close to 13 and eventualy will be 14. if you farm the right quests you can get to 20. there are a ton of quests. makes it very much so possible for a f2p user to get into the game and stick to it.

[Espario]

to hit the elite traps at end game you need a buffed search in the high 40s and disable around the same (i cant remember exactly but for epics its a 52 search and 56ish DD inc buffs AND gear) so you do need both max ranks and gear.

Also i'm fairly sure than SA damage is not multiplied by crits. And crit chance is solely dependent on your weapon.

you missunderstood me. in the weapon stats it says crit rate chance and what the base damage multiplier is when you hit a crit. for khopesh's its x3. and that can mean alot of damage when you have good feats that increase crit rate and confirmed crit rate.

i know sneak attacks are not multiplied. but the damage that goes with them is. (the base attack) your ability to crit is higher when you have a flanking bonus and are unnoticed by the enemys

[Blank_Zero]

you missunderstood me. in the weapon stats it says crit rate chance and what the base damage multiplier is when you hit a crit. for khopesh's its x3. and that can mean alot of damage when you have good feats that increase crit rate and confirmed crit rate.

i know sneak attacks are not multiplied. but the damage that goes with them is. (the base attack) your ability to crit is higher when you have a flanking bonus and are unnoticed by the enemys

I think I get what you're saying, but it is worded badly.

[Nysrock]

One thing I noticed is your ending up with 23 Str. I would either look at dropping Fighter Strength II enhancement for something else or dropping your starting Str by 1 and adding those points to another stat. Unless you plan on using an exceptional Str item or a +1 ship buff that 1 extra Str is wasted atm.

[stupid123]

yeah, self heals is more beneficial at end game then just a small amount of dps extra by going barb. but you arent getting it, twf for this build comes from the ranger. also has 2 favored enemies, undead, and evil outsider. both extremely resistant enemies at levels 6-20. and having resistance towards them plus the extra ac bonus form tempest and 10% extra hit rate on off hand with x3 crit and 20% crit rate and a huge amount of bonuses to critical and confirmed hits. i think this build is well off on dps and survivability at end game. a barbarian will not have as much defense as this build. plus, this build saves against traps. and is made to avoid damage while dealing it out massively.

Ya but blitz is still better. Nuff said

[LordPiglet]

For all who dont know, i am a F2P player. im just trying to make the best of the free things about DDO.

for f2p, it would be bettar as a 32 point human build. 8 int, with skills into umd, and something like balance and jump. I took 4 points of open lock, didn't care about DD as that would require extra int to get the skills you want.

I'm running a 36 point helf 12/6/2. dps isn't bad in all honesty, but I'm also almost fully geared.


I plan to move to a 12/6/2 fighter/barb/ranger with the rogue dilittante for a fourth life.

[kernal42]

This build is made for end-game.
<snip>
Level 20 Neutral Good Drow Male
<snip>

I'm confused.

edit: And so are you!

your ability to crit is higher when you have a flanking bonus and are unnoticed by the enemys

Hint: Flanking and aggro have no effect on crit rates.

-Kernal

[Jiirix]

I would take 12 levels of ranger for the free 100% second hand proc and dump dex to 12 (13 is needed and with capped alts you should afford an +1 tome) Or take 16 dex and take no ranger at all.

[OldAquarian]

because. not everyone has the money to buy a +2 tome -,- *glary face* this is a build anyone can make.

For entry level f2p builds it is reasonable to add a single +2 tome
You get a free +2 tome at 1750 favor

http://ddowiki.com/page/Favor (see Champion 1750 favor)

In general it is also reasonable to add +1 tomes as they are not uncommon, nor very expensive in the AH

So 15 +2 DEX is a good suggestion - even for f2p builds - so you can put away your *glary face*

[Promethie]

If the main goal is dps, it would be much, much, much better to trade out power critical and two weapon defense for power attack and quick draw.

[krud]

If the main goal is dps, it would be much, much, much better to trade out power critical and two weapon defense for power attack and quick draw.

/agreed

Also, if you take 2 levels of rogue you really, really should invest in the UMD skill. You could lower dex to 16, use a +1 dex tome for GTWF, and put 2 more points into int if you are concerned about skill points. Also take yor second level of rogue much later. You can invest your skill points much more efficiently if you wait till at least level 10 or so to take that 2nd rogue level. UMD for heal scrolls will work so much better for you at end game than a level 1 ranger cure light wounds, or cure serious wands.

You could always drop khopesh and stick with rapiers if you need room for another feat. With the drow rapier enhancements it is almost the same dps as a khopesh. It's only a few % less damage in auto hit circumstances (where only 1 = miss) and draws even at about 4 or lower = miss.

a better level progression to max skill points would be something like the following:
1 rog
2 ftr
3,4 rgr
5 ftr
6,7 rgr
8 ftr
9,10 rgr
11 ftr
12 rogue
13-20 ftr

the later you can take that 2nd rogue level the better. If you can alternate ftr, rgr, ftr, rgr,...it's even better

[Major_Pain]

I have this build all the way to level 20. I have TR'd this build in to a ranger as that what always my plan.

Excellent Trap Skill and DPS can be had with this build. A lot of talk has been about DPS. If trap skills are what you need then this is a better build. I find that a Rouge is the second most sought after addition to any party.

This build is made for end-game. thus haveing some good feats given later on instead of earlier. all prepareing for reaching lvl 20. This build has a HUGE number of feats. due to the classes it is cc'd with, it also has evasion, and sneak atk ability with decent trap finding ability, but always wear a good +10 disable device item if you can find one ;p

[/code]

Here is my life notes that goes into the pros and cons of each build characteristic
http://my.ddo.com/major_pain/2011/02/01/life-2-notes/

Here is my build page. It is only to level 14 because I was thinking of using it for ranger as well. I decided on an exploiter instead.
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=277568

[Yajerman01]

TO OP,

There are several variations to yuor posted build that have been around for a long time. My halfling build w/dragonmarks sans rogue for monk has higher ac and better heals and dolled out very good damage as well.

Post 21&31 for ranger splash version on my sig below

[Balkas]

is only 2ac bonus. but 2ac can make all the difference. that is not the main reason i have put ranger into this build though, the free feats for twf is why i added ranger. and tempest is a bonus that goes with the class. barb didnt seem to fit the build how i wanted it to. the wand usage of a ranger outweights the barbarian multi class option.

The 2 AC bonus doesn't stack with the +4 AC from the Shield spell, which you can UMD from scrolls and wands since you're a rogue.

6 Ranger does grant you TWF and ITWF automatically, but you are using 3 less than stellar feats (Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack) to get Tempest.

With the UMD you have from Rogue, you can use Heal scrolls on yourself.

Power Critical and Two Weapon Defense are definitely weak feats; Power Attack is a MUST have for any melee wanting to do damage.

I'm not disagreeing with your class split; it's a good one. Ram's Might and Favored Enemies rock. I'm just not so sure if Tempest I is worth getting anymore. You may want to consider going Elf and grabbing AA instead for some very sexy Power Surged-Haste Boost IV'd-Slayer Arrowed Manyshots.

[krud]

The 2 AC bonus doesn't stack with the +4 AC from the Shield spell, which you can UMD from scrolls and wands since you're a rogue.

Have you ever actually tried this? With a 1min duration it's a pain in the arse having to constantly refresh it. Relying on short term clickies and scrolls for buffs makes these melee worse than paladins as far as number of clicks and gear swaps required before jumping into combat. I'll take innate or long duration abilities over gear swapping and short term buffs any day.