Build for first ever TR

[EvilGhandi]

I'm thinking of TR'ing my first toon, an 18/1/1 Elf ranger/fighter/rogue. He's not gimp, but also not optimal.

I'm looking for build suggestions for a TR. Ideally it would be primarily melee, good in both solo and group settings, and capable of being a solid contributor in epics. I'm not overly coordinated, lol, so anything requiring a lot of button mashing probably wouldn't work for me to it's fullest potential.

Thanks in advance for everyone's feedback and suggestions. I always appreciate people taking time to read and respond.

[MeatSheild]

Wow, you realy left the door wide open here. Maybe you could narrow it down a bit for us. Maybe some gear you'd like to keep/use or the role you'd like to play or even what kind of things you will be doing (raiding/epics/just TRing again).

[EvilGhandi]

Sorry, I know my question was a bit vague, but I thought I gave enough to go on. I'll try and be a bit more specific. I'm looking for a melee focused build,one that is self-sufficent enough for leveling purposes, but would also be a welcome party member in raids and epic level content at higher levels and when capped. The only gear that I have right now that might be at risk based on a TR would be any Khopeshes that I have, in particular my Min II. I have several good staffs in the bank that I might be interested in using, but I'm not sure if you can achieve meaningful DPS with them.

I have no experience as a party healer, and while I have all the respect and appreciation in the world for the folks who do that and do it well, it's not a playstyle I'm much interested in. Similarly, I don't have much experience with arcanes, although I'm not adverse to giving them a try. My main reason for avoidance so far has been the seemingly overwhelming need to have a dozen hotbars scattered across the screen. As I stated, I'm not overly coordinated, at least when it comes to navigating a keyboard. I'm a 6 fingered typist at best, and I do need to look at the keyboard when I'm typing. I'm not interested in having to attend a Mavis Beacon typing school to be able to play a toon

I guess I'd like to be able to offer meaningful DPS to a group, and if I could provide useful buff support or spot healing between fights that would be great. I have no requirements when it comes to race. I already have a capped Horc fighter that I'm pretty pleased with. I was thinking this might be a multiclass build.

Hope this gave you more to go on. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[PNellesen]

Lol - sounds like your first-life pretty much met your requirements for your 2nd life too

Maybe try a Human 18 Ranger/2 Fighter? I'm partial to Rangers as self-sufficient melees, and a Human with 2 Fighter levels will have more feats than you're likely to know what to do with

Another option, if you have Half-Elf, would be to go some melee multiclass with Cleric Dilettante. I just started a Helf build with Cleric Dilly, and it's pretty nice to be able to use that Eternal Wand of Cure Minor wounds as a Rogue

[IBCROOTBEER]

I like my 18 ranger (tempest) / 2 monk (use of stances and ki strikes) ... I went strength base to help up the damage.

You seem to want to stay a ranger. I'm just judging that from your talk of wanting to be able to assist in buffs, spot heals, and what not. I also find the tempest ranger to be pretty survivable. Heck, with all my epic gear at level 20 I am able to reach a 75 buffed AC (probably could push it a bit higher but 75'ish is my own buffs + bard song which is reasonably easy to get in a raid). I've been able to tank VoD on hard with her and she's a fleshie elf. I also had no incite threat gear on and was able to maintain aggro, so I would say that rangers can also do great damage (mostly on favored enemies).

If I was to suggest a build for you, it would be similar to your current. 18 ranger as tempest with a splash of rogue for sneak attacks and trap skills or splash monk if you want to get a boost to your AC from your wisdom and a little crazy with button mashing or stick to fighter splash for the extra hit points. Really the splash is up to your flavor.

An 18 ranger / 1 monk / 1 rogue build would still allow you to gain the wisdom to AC and the trap skills. I believe this build is posted somewhere in the new player forums (unless it was removed).

If you're ready for a slight change from ranger, you could go full rogue or even a monk ... neither have real buffing abilities, and both in my opinion require a little more button mashing during combat.

[ddohombre]

My first character was much like yours. He was fun while leveling, but not so tough for end game. Now that I'm playing a THF HORC BARB, it seems like night and day!! Things that were an absolute challenge the first time through, are a breeze on this life.

I only mash maybe 3 buttons: Rage, Cleave (Alternating with Supreme Cleave when surrounded) and Frenzy.

Loving it!

[EvilGhandi]

Thanks to each of you who responded. All were great thoughts and suggestions. As I was considering everything, both before and especially after reading everyone's comments, I came to realize as some said the build I described was the one I already have, just not as optimal as it could be.

With that in mind, I think I need to figure out how to overcome my fear of button-mashing if I want to get the most out of the game that I can. I'm kicking around the idea of a 12/6/2 split, with ranger and monk taking up those spots, but not necessarily in that order. The remaing two levels I was thinking about pally. Here are the questions I have.

Would a 12/8 split be better? If not, is pally the right choice for the 2 levels?

Which is the better choice to receive 12 levels, ranger or monk?

Does the TWF feat line work with unarmed attacks?

What order should levels be taken? How would you see initial stats, assuming all level up go into strength?

As always, comments are appreciated.

[IBCROOTBEER]

I'm not sure about a 12 / 6 split of ranger / monk. ranger is mostly about the tempest bonus which you only get while wielding weapons, and the monk is about unarmed and you lose most of your monk benefits when you wield weapons (which is why my ranger is 18 ranger and 2 monk) I'm not sure with this build that you would feel as optimal as you would like. I also am unsure wha tthe 2 pally levels would give you. (Sorry to not be more help on your suggested build). Overall it doesn't sound very optimal for dps or the game style you described above.

There is a build you could look up that seems to be very popular for dps/ac/limited buffing and it fits along your newly suggested idea ... http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=190763 ... its a version of the "monster" build. Something worth looking into.

[IBCROOTBEER]

Sorry, I also forgot to answer your question. Yes, the TWF feat line effects unarmed. It is pretty much a must for monks to take.