The Emerald v 2.0 Updated for U12 - Monk12/Fighter6/Paladin2

[Droken]

If you like this build, please rate it! =D


(I forgot GH in the above screenshot, so saves should be higher by 4. Also not using barkskin to make the avatar look prettier.)

Reproduction Difficulty: Extreme

This build is incredibly gear intensive and primarily for players who are willing to put in the time and dedication for a top notch melee. Even Kelida still has a few odd stats and a couple of items she's still missing. I'm going to skip the exact level by level break down of skill points, etc and make the assumption that anyone attempting this build already knows their way around the game.

The Emerald v 2.0 puts its predecessor to shame. With nearly double the dps, 15% damage mitigation, 25% incorporealty, and higher AC, this build represents the culmination of all my years of playing DDO, all the gear I have acquired, and my efforts towards making a viable AC tank.

Build Synopsis:

Monk 12
Touch of Death
15% Damage Mitigation
25% Incorporealty
3d6 Sneak Attack
55% Hate
Abundant Step
2d6 Base Damage
Improved Evasion
Full Str Bonus for Off-Hand Attacks
3 feats

Fighter 6
10% HP
4 Feats
25% Hate

Paladin 2
Aura 1
Cha to Saves

Feats:
Monk
Toughness
Toughness 2
Stunning Fist

Fighter
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Critical: Blunt

General
Combat Expertise
Dodge
PL Monk
Toughness 3
Toughness 4
Toughness 5
Toughness 6

Stats:
Str 14
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 8

5 Level up points to Wis
This is based off 36 point buy. Reduce Dex and Wis to 15 for a 32 point character.

Gear in Use:
Adamantine Tier 3 Alchemical Handwraps Air/Air/Air
Icy Raiments
+4 to attack crafted goggles with large augment
Oremy's Ring with Holyburst
GS HP belt of Mineral
Epic Abashai Helm
Epic Abashai Bracers
Epic Abashai Boots
Epic Gloves of Claw
Epic Cloak of Night
Epic Seal of the Earth
Epic Grim's Bracelet
Epic Brawn's Spirits

Slotted Augments: Toughness, Heavy Fortification, +1 exceptional Dex, Con, Wis, Greater False Life, 6 con, 6 dex

Important Skills:
Intimidate
UMD
Concentration

Expendable Items:
Wand of Shield 10th
Wand of Recitation
Yugo Pot Wis
Yugo Pot Dex
Scrolls of Fireshield, Heal, Raise Dead

Enhancements:
Racial Toughness 3
Fighter Toughness 2
Ninja 2
Defender 1
Touch of Death
Half Elf Rogue Dex
Racial Dex
Racial Con
Greater Mountain Stance
Human Heal Amp 2
Monk Heal Amp 2

Suggested Race: Half Elf

Suggested Dilettant: Rogue

Build Summary:
The DPS of this build is insane, especially for an AC tank. I tested Kelida against Elsas (Marilith chain, ESoS with Devil's Ruin), a full ****** DPS barbarian from Zerg Tribe in Epic Devil Assault and got comparable kills. Kelida was actually leading the whole way until the final wave. Previously, Elsas would get about 3x my kills. With crafted wraps ~finally~ fixed after eons of waiting, and the introduction of the new and fully functional alchemical wraps, monks are now a force to be reckoned with. The Alchemical Wraps are the key to this build, and not completely difficult to create. With a DR breaker that also contains lightningstrike, double strike, insight AC, AND +10 stunning, you'll almost never have to switch to any other weapon.

With full stats to wisdom, you'll almost never fail a stunning fist attempt. After it lands, all damage is increased by 50%, including your Touch of Death and Lightning Strike procs. I was killing tieflings in EDA in about 2-3 seconds. With 2d6 base fist damage, full strength bonus for off hand attacks, no penalty for two weapon fighting, fists that essentially count as greataxes in earth stance, and innate 10% alacrity for unarmed attacks compared to any other weapon, there's little doubt that handwraps are the way to go for Update 12.

Despite the fact that this build can only be hit on a natural 20 for all non-epic raids except LoB Elite, the 25% incorporealty and 15% damage mitigation enhances the survivability even further. For epics, non-red named mobs don't stand a chance against the stunning fist DC. Full sneak attack damage on stunned mobs, which is 6d6 for a half elf dark monk.

With the Emerald v 2.0, you have a melee super tank with improved evasion, rediculous saves, epic stunner, and mad DPS powerhouse all rolled into one. Heal Amp is absurd. Heal scrolls land for 3-400. Chained by the LoB while standing in dog goo? No problem! Abundant Step. Knocked into the water? Abundant Step. 80% hate generation ~without~ items, Tough of Death, full intimidate ...

For leveling purposes, buy a pair of holy +10 stunning handwraps. They can be found relatively cheap. I have found that the dps surpasses duel wielding a pair of greensteel weapons due to the +50% damage and sneak attack effectiveness of stunned mobs.

As an alternative, take 2 artificer levels instead of paladin levels. UMD will be maxed for 100% heal and raise dead scrolls, rogue abilities for leveling up purposes, and ranged damage versatility for LoB pillars. Saves will be lowered substancially in trade however.

Item wise, you can squeeze out additional AC and +4 to hit by using Epic Raven's Sight with a Gem of Many Facets between when you have to intimidate if you slot your GS HP item to a belt instead with the only down side being no room for a Large Augment slot. I can already hit 97 AC self buffed, however, and the HP parameters of a monk tank are already quite far behind a fighter tank, so I try to keep my HP as high as possible to avoid being 1-shotted by an unlucky 1 roll on a Horoth Disintigrate or unlucky LoB Whirlwind attack.

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Taking build questions. Please leave your flames at the door.

[-Zyxas-]

I've always been trying to plan the perfect monk tank for one of my characters. I tried 12 monk 6 paladin 2 rogue/fighter, looked at 12 monk 8 fighter builds, and this looks very much like what I've been searching for. There is absolutely no way I can complete this build in any definite amount of time, but I do like the looks of this. You probably won't believe me because I don't post many ideas unless they're basically finished, but I planned monk/paladin tank ideas before I saw any of them on the forums (U7 I rolled him... but he wasn't too successful then; it would be much better now). This looks like the finished product of my theorizing.
I don't like the levels in Wisdom bit. It works out fine for your build, but it makes me feel uneasy. I'm too used to levels in strength on anything that wants to physically hit the enemies. It's just something I don't LIKE, but I accept your reasoning for it. I'm also leaning toward dropping that PL ranger in lieu of more toughness (you were complaining about HP) or completionist (since you're the type of person who seems like they would be willing to grind this out - this is also 1 more AC than the bark and 20 hp more, if you slot natural armor).

[scottmike0]

hmm i think i should try this, it does sound interesting Yet i wonder, how much umd do you get in the stance your in right now

Other than that is, is it fun to play?

[Droken]

Completionist is a loooooongggggg ways away. I do have a character slowly working towards it, but won't be finished any time in the near future. I'm back to working now, so I can't play every waking moment like I used to. My guildies grind out a past life every 5 days, then actually have to wait out their TR timer before they can grind again lol. It's craziness. I wish I could hang along for the ride with them, but I just don't have the time. Sylmeria is currently finishing up her 6th life, so maybe give me another year ;p.

PL Ranger can also be dropped for more toughness once I eventually grind out some more epic ADQ raids to get my hands on a Seal of the Earth. Until U12, monk tank builds just weren't very effective. They lack the HP, and there weren't any super great wraps around. Now they have the best wraps available that allows for insight AC bonus, dps, AND stunning. It's nuts! And their damage mitigation from U12 earth stance can make up for loss in HP.

Str is not all that important of a stat, believe it or not. 4 points into strength would net +2 to hit and damage, meanwhile 4 points into wisdom would grant 2 AC (huge), 2 stunning fist DC (huge), as well as 2 to will saves. Every single point of AC for an AC build is vital. Being hit on a 20 only versus being hit on a 19-20 might seem like just 1 more number, but it actually translates to taking twice as much damage. (Two hits every 20 swings versus one.)

[-Zyxas-]

Yes, I understand. I completely agreed with your reply before you said it. It's just the level-in-wisdom is an uncomfortable choice to me since I'm used to doing that for normal/non-AC melees. This was not a complaint, just something I noticed and recognize as the right choice, but not the popular choice or my normal choice. I'm aware of the wraps and stance; as I said I've been looking into something like this for years, literally.

Completionist was just an idea; if you don't have it I'm not complaining that you're gimp because I'm nowhere near it or any good gear either. =[

[DragonTroy]

Grats on another **** amazing build Kelida. sometime soon i gotta try running another EDA with you on Destructacus, I remember the fighter version kicking some serious tail, and that version doesn't really hold a candle to this one, no offense.

A shame you wont be on as much, you're one heck of a player

if i ever gain the patience i may recreate this build, although i kinda doubt i will ever get all that stuff, even if that is a great build.

Once again, congratulations, and hope to see you in the game soon

-Dest

[Droken]

Grats on another **** amazing build Kelida. sometime soon i gotta try running another EDA with you on Destructacus, I remember the fighter version kicking some serious tail, and that version doesn't really hold a candle to this one, no offense.

-Dest

No offense taken! My original fighter build was amazing for it's time, and an admitted beast of a tank, but she didn't contribute too much during epics. I always just used my FvS to farm stuff instead. This new version is sooooooo much fun to play though! The DPS is absolutely off the charts compared to my previous build, and I can actually contribute much more by being able to take down casters and non-red named bosses with the high stunning fist DC without having to switch to gimpy +1 or +2 stunning 10 wraps and losing out on DPS. The 6d6 sneak attacks drops mobs soooo much faster, and Touch of Death really is a ton of fun to play with. This is my first experience taking a monk past 6th since I've a fetish for AC builds, and all of these nifty abilities are new and exciting for me. =D The tier 2 alchemical wraps are absolutely fabulous, and not even all that hard to get. Roughly 10-15 runs of LoB on normal should be sufficient. Spread across multiple characters, that's not that many.

[MarauderX]

Nice build... Those saves and AC are awesome. So who were the 8 mobs that dared to hit you at Searing Heights?

[chippkipp]

Trying to figure out why Ranger PL instead of Two Weapon Defense like you had before. Since you're slotting +4 natural AC in an epic slot anyways, it seems to be +1 AC either way. Not having to slot +4 Natural would be kinda nice, but also kinda bad in case of recovering from death, or having the Ranger PL barkskin effect dispelled (I assume it can be). Seems like having static permanent AC is best. Figuring I'm missing something here, that I just can't figure out, hope you can enlighten me.

Loving my level 8 TR1 version of this guy. Right at the cusp of 2 monk, 6 fighter, am glad I didn't make it too much further so that I can revamp now. Thank you much for a hella fun build.

[Dark-Star]

Trying to figure out why Ranger PL instead of Two Weapon Defense like you had before. Since you're slotting +4 natural AC in an epic slot anyways, it seems to be +1 AC either way. Not having to slot +4 Natural would be kinda nice, but also kinda bad in case of recovering from death, or having the Ranger PL barkskin effect dispelled (I assume it can be). Seems like having static permanent AC is best. Figuring I'm missing something here, that I just can't figure out, hope you can enlighten me.

Loving my level 8 TR1 version of this guy. Right at the cusp of 2 monk, 6 fighter, am glad I didn't make it too much further so that I can revamp now. Thank you much for a hella fun build.

TWD does not work with handwraps.

[Grieve]

At first glance, I thought you took a build I developed, Rock-Solid, but nope you went a slightly different way with yours and it looks like it turned out well for you. The concept is quite similar though and it is nice to see others had similar ideas. I may actually have to revamp my build again for this update even though I may never level it due to a lack of time.

I am curious why you didn't go the 6/2 as Paladin/Fighter. I am guessing it was due to the extra feats and that the extra threat was unnecessary.

[Pilgrim1]

Very nice!

A few questions:

1) What is your to-hit in epics? I have wanted to make a wis base monk but I worry about my to hit.

2) How much do you gain over going pure monk for this?

3) How do you manage to hit a UMD that lets you use your heal scrolls?

4) is that AC self buffed? How does it fair in epics?


Yugo wis pot gives +4 NA so you can de-slot that from your epics.

thanks!

[scottmike0]

Very nice!

A few questions:

1) What is your to-hit in epics? I have wanted to make a wis base monk but I worry about my to hit.

2) How much do you gain over going pure monk for this?

3) How do you manage to hit a UMD that lets you use your heal scrolls?

4) is that AC self buffed? How does it fair in epics?


Yugo wis pot gives +4 NA so you can de-slot that from your epics.

thanks!

yep thats what i was about to say

[Droken]

Trying to figure out why Ranger PL instead of Two Weapon Defense like you had before.

Darkstar is correct. Two weapon defense doesn't work with handwraps. Apparrently, they only count as one weapon. =O But tons of up sides though, like not getting the -2 to hit penalty as well as full str bonus to off hand attacks.

I am curious why you didn't go the 6/2 as Paladin/Fighter. I am guessing it was due to the extra feats and that the extra threat was unnecessary.

I thought about that. It's actually not a bad option. You'd pick up immunity to fear and disease, an extra Aura, some decent lay hands, and most importantly, unyielding sovereignty. You have to pick up some otherwise unnecessary enhancements though to quality for Defender of Siberys.

The Fighter alternative is easier to qualify for since it only requires fighter intimidate 2 which you would want to pick up anyways, grants a bonus to intimidate and 1 additional AC, nets 2 feats, and you also stand to benefit more from having a paladin beside you. Hrm, I guess you could drop Weapon Focus and Specialization if you go the paladin route. I'm thinking about dropping those two feats anyways in trade for more toughness since my DPS made such a huge leap from going monk 12.

The only problem is enhancement points, in my opinion. If you go paladin 6, you're also going to want the divine sacrifice, which then in turn requires extra smite 2. As is, even with the easy accessibility of Stalwart Defender, I lack enhancement points to take everything I want, such as Monk Healing Amp 3, Wisdom 3, Fighter Strength 2 etc.

But yeah, Divine Righteousness is no longer necessary. The build generates a ridiculous amount of hate.

Very nice!

A few questions:

1) What is your to-hit in epics? I have wanted to make a wis base monk but I worry about my to hit.

2) How much do you gain over going pure monk for this?

3) How do you manage to hit a UMD that lets you use your heal scrolls?

4) is that AC self buffed? How does it fair in epics?


Yugo wis pot gives +4 NA so you can de-slot that from your epics.

thanks!

1) When I go into epics, I switch to my dps gear. Tharne's Goggles, +4 to hit trinket, etc. Hitting isn't really a problem. Also, you almost auto-hit mobs once you land a stunning fist. Let us assume that you spent all 5 leveling points into strength instead of wisdom, and also increased it further with fighter strength enhancement to even it out. That's a big whopping +3 to hit and damage. With melees, it's all about gear. Just a single +4 attack trinket more than makes up for that, or a pair of Epic Raven's Sight goggles coupled with the gem of many facets. Alternatively, you could take the Hound monk enhancement instead of tortoise for +3 additional flanking bonus if you're worried about to-hit.

2) I've put a lot of thought into going pure monk. That DR 10 sure is sexy, as well as increased weapon damage, inherent centered AC, higher DC's for special attacks such as Touch of Death, an additional 5% damage mitigation ... Unfortunately, what you lose out is a whole lot of hit points. 8 levels of fighter or paladin compared to monk equates to 16 hp, then you have the 10% additional hp from Defender stance, and also the loss of 4 feats which when used for toughness equates to 96 hp (88+10%). This translates to a loss of roughly 175 hp which makes you way too vulnerable to being one shotted by either a 1 roll on a disintigrate, a lucky hit from a LoB whirlwind attack, the blast from the purple titan in MA, etc. With that low of HP, you also run into inefficient scroll healing. An artificer can land a healing scroll on me for 5-600 points, but when your max HP is only 600, you're not going to get the full benefit of the scroll. The huge loss of hp stacked on top of the huge loss to intim made me choose this path instead.

3) 6 to cha skills from GS item, +3 from bunny hat, +3 from epic spyglass from anniversary event. I have the spyglass and gs item next to each other on my hotbar for when I need to scroll stuff.

4) Yes, that AC is self buffed and sustainable. No boosts. I can actually hit all the way to 97 with only a few changes such as using +2 exceptional wis from goggles of time sensing, using my ranger PL, and evening out my wisdom with enhancements. How does it fare in epics? It doesn't. Don't even try. ;p Stunning fist sure helps to prevent damage though.

5) I only use Yugo pots during raids that require them. It's nice to have the natural AC slotted all the time.

[whomhead]

The only problem is enhancement points, in my opinion. If you go paladin 6, you're also going to want the divine sacrifice, which then in turn requires extra smite 2. As is, even with the easy accessibility of Stalwart Defender, I lack enhancement points to take everything I want, such as Monk Healing Amp 3, Wisdom 3, Fighter Strength 2 etc.

Since you're fighting with wraps, you actually don't want to use divine sacrifice since it suppresses your unarmed attack. As a result, clicking DS is actually a loss in DPS (not to mention HP and SP) over just regular attacking. So right there your AP dilemma is solved. Yay! You do have to invest more AP into your aura, but that actually will increase AC and saves, so it's hard to see that as a bad thing.

The bigger dilemma, in my attempts at building something similar to this, is that of the starting stats. You dumped charisma, but doing that on a 6 Paladin splash is, I think, inadvisable. As you pointed out you lose two feats if you go paladin, so there goes weapon focus and specialization. But you can more than make up for that loss if you get to 14 total charisma: divine favor and the first tier of divine might give +2 to-hit and +4 damage combined, VS +1 to-hit and +2 damage from the fighter weapon feats. You also get divine righteousness, which is massive threat gen, but may actually be overkill. I sort of assume that more threat is always better if you're the tank, so I count that as a benefit of the paladin splash.

All in all, I see the difference as probably a wash in terms of DPS and AC, unless you have a "real" paladin in the group in which case you'd benefit more from the full aura. Threat goes heavily in favor of the paladin, plus you get better self healing for emergencies.

In any case it is a nice build, and very nice gear!

[MeatSheild]

I've got a DoS that I was going to tr into the emerald after I got the gear, but this has come out and I like. I'm close to the gear now, but will be a 34 point build. In your OP you stated for 32's to drop dex and wis to 15. I'm willing to get +3 tomes for this build and was wondering If I should just drop int to 10, pick up CE later, and keep dex/wis at 16?

Also as a side note, dose the epic cloak of night drop aggro when it procs? I know raid bosses have ts, but I have yet to test it.

[fsupps]

Nice build - can you tell us at what levels did you take what class. Thanks

[allaanon]

TR'd from pure monk into this build about a week ago. Have most the gear waiting for me when I hit 20 including some of the stuff your missing. Can't wait to cap it and see how it runs.

[Droken]

Nice build - can you tell us at what levels did you take what class. Thanks

I used 2 +5 lesser hearts to transform my 12fighter/6paladin/2monk previous version of The Emerald into this one. I didn't actually go through the levels from 1. Although if I did, I would take monk first for the extra skill points. I would probably take a level of fighter early on, like at 2nd or 3rd, to open up Intimidate for max ranks. I would then take the rest of the monk levels to level 13, fighter up to 18, then finish it up with the last 2 paladin levels. That would probably give you the easiest leveling experience. To capitalize on skill points for level 20, however, you would want to mix and match the fighter and monk levels. That way, you won't have to spend cross class points on intim during your monk levels, and concentration during your fighter levels.

I'm willing to get +3 tomes for this build and was wondering If I should just drop int to 10, pick up CE later, and keep dex/wis at 16?
Also as a side note, dose the epic cloak of night drop aggro when it procs? I know raid bosses have ts, but I have yet to test it.

That's not a bad way to go. I don't pick up CE until way later anyways as your AC will already be way overkill for most of the leveling steps of the game. I actually use power attack during non-elite quests while leveling, and then swap it out for something else at 20th, like dodge or toughness depending if you took it as a fighter or general feat, using the 1 freebie feat exchange you get every life.

Epic Cloak of Night does not lose aggro. Not even against mobs that don't have TS. I have no idea why that myth ever started.

TR'd from pure monk into this build about a week ago. Have most the gear waiting for me when I hit 20 including some of the stuff your missing. Can't wait to cap it and see how it runs.

Yeah, I was originally using the Ravager set for the longest time, but that I'm using handwraps, I had to toss in a random DoS ring I had laying around just to slot in the holyburst. I'm looking for one of the Barbarian rings just to get the extra +1 exceptional str since I don't already have that slotted into my epics.

[spencer64]

STOP making killer builds........I can't keep up dude