Warforged - Pros and Cons

[Cisab]

I'd like to see posts from those who have played "Warforged" characters:

They start, according to the DDO Store description, with more strength but less intelligence.

a) Is it harder to obtain enhancements to make the character stronger?

b) In general, what are the pros and cons of playing Warforged?

c) What are the most important enhancements on the character sheet to build on?

Thanks.

[Falco_Easts]

A bit more info is good, what sort of character are you thinking of playing? WF make great arcane because of the self healing for example.

[Impaqt]

I'd like to see posts from those who have played "Warforged" characters:

They start, according to the DDO Store description, with more strength but less intelligence.

a) Is it harder to obtain enhancements to make the character stronger?

b) In general, what are the pros and cons of playing Warforged?

c) What are the most important enhancements on the character sheet to build on?

Thanks.

If thats the description in the DDO Store. Its wrong.

Warforged get enhanced Constitution at the cost of Charisma and Wisdom.

We cant answer questions 2 or 3 without knowing what your trying to do with the race.

[Meetch1972]

b) can be provisionally answered... though there's still a certain amount of "it depends" - somewhat on gear.

Technically, WF gets immunities to disease, poison and related effect, plus hold effects (though no longer earthgrab), and of course they don't need to breathe. This frees up slots for gear choices. However, a fleshie can acquire these immunities through items - and put the immunities on a triple negative greensteel item with slay living guard if they wish, and an underwater action or waterbreathing clickie item for long swims. Warforged also get a 25% fortitude bonus, which means you can get 100% fortification with a moderate fortification item - great for the low-mid levels - and 125% with a heavy fort item - which is particularly useful when you are hit by effects such as inspire recklessness that have the downside of reducing your fort, or debuffs from the enemy.

The biggest benefit I've seen playing a WF is that practically anyone can regen my hit points. Arcanes can repair/reconstruct me - great! Divines can heal me with penalties. Pally Lay on Hands works on anyone, rogue mechanics and artificers can do some repairs - so if your build is for some silly reason not self sufficient, but you're tearing things up in short order, it's not the end of the world in the right group that appreciates your leetness and does what it can to keep you in a state when you can just keep doing what you do best.

Healing curses also only tend to apply to heals, not repairs, so a warforged tank is good for raids like VoD where an arcane or scroll user can keep the warforged tank topped up on hit points through the 100% heal immunity, and most importantly this means they never have to stop DPSing, so are less likely to lose the boss' aggro.

Favored weapons include the greatsword (eSoS anyone?) - a dwarf may get a little extra DPS out of a greataxe, or when TWFing, dwarven axes, especially with dwarven enhancements. Against critical immune creatures this will anecdotally give a dwarf with his racial weapons a modest edge on DPS.

You might want to have a squiz at the hurtlocker thread, which includes WF and non-WF builds - the concept being loaded with saves and immunities.

I'm still tossing up on whether my main's barb TR life will be a dwarf or WF ... (so far dwarf pally, dwarf ranger, WF rogue - and I have a couple of GS DAxes in the TR cache). I'm not sure if I can ever live without the inherent immunities and lower gear dependence again... but dwarves rock!

When he eventually decides to have an arcane life, it's highly likely this will be WF - even Sorc, despite the CHA penalty, because of the self-repairing aspect.

[Cisab]

I appreciate all of the answers.

Having started this game in mid-December I'm not up on all of the abbreviations and terminology yet. Hopefully one day I will be able to discuss things better. I have, however, achieved Level 6 with one character and Level 4 with another so things are improving day by day.

On the screen that shows your character before you enter the play area, there is a link to Upgrade Your Account. On that screen I saw an sale offer to create a Warforged character. At the time I made the first post I did not remember the actual description used but only remembered something about the character starting off with more of this and less of that and I thought it was strength vs. intelligence. Thanks to Impaqt for clarifying what I should have said.

I also appreciate the amount of information posted by Meetch1972. That gives me an idea of what a Warforged character can do.

Falco_Easts, I'm not sure what I can do or how I can initially build the character as I did not buy the option yet.

Is there a tutorial or thread in the forum (link?) that helps someone make the right initial decisions when creating a Warforged character? Perhaps that is what I need to read first....taking into account all of the good info posted so far.

Again, thanks to all of you for helping me with this subject.

[Olath_Senger]

As others have said, what are you planning on doing with a Warforged?

They make amazing Wizard and Sorcerers due to their self-healing. They can also make awesome melee Favored Souls.

Careful when making a Warforged melee, however; while a melee Warforged can be one of the best melees in the game, it takes more gear than, say, a human or dwarf. That penalty to divine healing sucks. There's many a poorly played Warforged Barbarian that has given the race a bad name.

[Maxallu]

WF Pros:

They are awesome
They make the best toons

WF Cons:

None

[DragonMageT]

There really is no reason to play a WF melee toon unless its for the fun factor (which no one can argue against).

If you are looking to play WF my suggestion would be:
Wizzy
Sorc
Favored Soul
any other class for the fun factor

Top melee race would be Horc after that doesn't really matter, pick one WF, Dwarf, or Human.

[somenewnoob]

I think an arcane wf is one of the strongest toons you can have. Just very self sufficient. A wf archmage with a rogue splash is really fun to play, and can solo almost any quest in the game.

On a melee, a lot of what makes them so great at lower and mid levels (the resistances and immunities, etc.) start to lose some of their luster at higher levels, and the healing penalty becomes a big hindrance. You should plan any melee wf with the intention of taking multiple healers friend enhancements to hep balance it out, and also actively seek out sources of healing amp.

I have a wf barb, and a wf archmage/rogue and both are fun to play, and wf in general just kick ass!

[Alex301]

WF aren't really optimal for any of the classes; half elves/humans/horc can all do more damage for melee and Humans/Drow can achieve higher DCs for casters. They do have more health than other races but this is offset by their lower healing amp.

They can make good melee FvS, but i think i'd choose half orc instead due to their higher damage output and higher healing amp.

The main thing they add to wizards/sorcerers is a ton of survivability as they can heal themselves through the repair spells. This makes them great to solo with but perhaps suboptimal in groups as the healer can keep you alive and humans/drow can cast spells with a slightly higher DC.

That said, i'd never swap out my WF sorc for another race as they are very easy to level and make solo farming much easier. It's also nice not to have to rely on the healer any time you're in trouble, which can be invaluable if your are in a pug :P

[zwiebelring]

Rather than comparing classes and WF race it might help talking about WFs and their cons in pug scene or in guild/friends only/static group scene.

The most obvious contra for a WF is its reduced divine healing affinity. That is most notable in pugs being a melee type. In static groups it does not matter, the party is known to each other, they can keep you up and adapt their playstyle to you and you probably to them so no biggie.

Not so much with foreigners, they expect the least possible effort to keep you up and pug healers do *rolleyes* when they see reduced healing numbers. I know that because I react the same but okay, keep a special watch on that machine dude, whatever.

But like almost anything else you can even out this drawback with healing amplification gear. Your biggest problem will be low lvl. to mid lvl. since the gear with this benefit is limitted (when in a guild, a House C crafted Blood Docent of Invulnerability, slotted with [guild size] Gem of Shielding comes to mind which is very useful till lvl 10 and even beyond).

As a Caster it might not even matter that you cannot be healed like other races. Arcane caster/specialists tend to scroll heal themselves or drink pots, divines just heal themselves by sp.

Biggest advantage after all is the very high durability by race. You have heavy fortification much much earlier available than other races do (again House C crafted items with moderate fortification give you a total of 100% at possible minimum lvl. 5, every other toon has to wait till lvl. 8 at least iirc), you have more hp, you are immune to almost all negative conditions. Catch up with your healing amplification and you are less depending on items and can be healed just fine.

With the upcoming changes to fortification and sneak attack, WF might be a very strong race once again.

[ragwa1]

There really is no reason to play a WF melee toon unless its for the fun factor (which no one can argue against).

If you are looking to play WF my suggestion would be:
Wizzy
Sorc
Favored Soul
any other class for the fun factor

Top melee race would be Horc after that doesn't really matter, pick one WF, Dwarf, or Human.

Really?

You LIKE getting held every two seconds in any quest/slayer that has casters? Which turns out to be EVERY quest/slayer?

Really?

I assume you also have a fondness for neg lvls too.

Edit: Question: Do any of you naysayers even play this game?

[karnokvolrath]

I personally love WF.

IMO the pros almost always are better then the cons.

I love them for casters, and FVS. I really enjoyed my WF barb, and fighter.

I will say as a bard i enjoyed my dwarf more then my WF, they both where warchanter.

I tried a WF cleric one time just for flavor and hated it.

But again, as a caster i dont play anything but WF. For most the other classes its debatable either way but for almost all the classes warforged is a solid choice.

I know people can talk for hours about how the human or drow are better, but for me, WF has always been the way to go.

[Alex301]

Really?

You LIKE getting held every two seconds in any quest/slayer that has casters? Which turns out to be EVERY quest/slayer?

Really?

I assume you also have a fondness for neg lvls too.

Edit: Question: Do any of you naysayers even play this game?

FOM and deathward? The warforged immunities are nice whilst levelling but become fairly redundant at cap.

[MaxwellEdison]

Really?

You LIKE getting held every two seconds in any quest/slayer that has casters? Which turns out to be EVERY quest/slayer?

Really?

I assume you also have a fondness for neg lvls too.

Edit: Question: Do any of you naysayers even play this game?

I play a monk. What are these "holds" you keep talking about? Is it some sort of relaxation therapy?

[Cisab]

This is such valuable knowledge and a multitude of options to choose from. It's going to be difficult to choose.

I do know that when I purchase hirelings, there is a usually a WF melee-type present and it does some really bad damage to whatever it hits on a quest and survives throughout the quest.

Looking at the way a WF hireling acts on a quest I thought that a WF melee type character was the only choice I had. I guess I have not taken a strong look at all of the WF type characters while the game is running. From what I'm reading, apparently I would have the option of choosing other types besides melee.

Looks like I'll have to purchase the WF character on the Upgrade screen and see the choices I have.

Many thanks to all for their insight, advice, and opinions.

[Meetch1972]

Oops, there's something very important that I think we've all neglected to mention here...

Remember that you can unlock WF characters on the server by running up enough favor with one character - I think it's 1750? That's not hard to get these days.

Unless you want to throw money/TPs at it, run <something> up to L20 in groups and get a feel for the various races and classes through interaction, then you should be able to start a WF toon at no cost.

The same mechanism also gives you Drow at 400 favor, but they're generally not considered particularly good for most builds. Especially Drizzt copycats.

[ArcaneMelee]

...
Remember that you can unlock WF characters on the server by running up enough favor with one character - I think it's 1750? That's not hard to get these days.
...

That's for 32-point builds. The only way to unlock WF with favor is by saving up the TP you get for advancing in favor, and buying the race.

On the other hand, buying the race with TP unlocks the race on every server.

[Kinerd]

Pro: turning an arcane into an invincible engine of destruction
Con: turning a barb into even more of an SP sink

Healing curses also only tend to apply to heals, not repairs, so a warforged tank is good for raids like VoD where an arcane or scroll user can keep the warforged tank topped up on hit points through the 100% heal immunity, and most importantly this means they never have to stop DPSing, so are less likely to lose the boss' aggro.

One caveat here, not all healing curses are created equal. I found this out the hard way when I dilly dallied in a New Invasion and found myself immune to repair effects as well. I believe the big badda boom at the end of Sane Asylum is the same.

[DarkForte]

Sorcerer or Mêlée Favored Soul are things they can do better than anyone.

Sorcerer because of the quickened reconstructs you throw yourself (wizard has self-healing for anyone, so it doesn't count) and extra hardiness (at the cost of reduced DCs, but it's so hard to get meaningful necro/enchantment DC at endgame with a sorc, even human/drow have trouble with it, and your DPS is almost unaffected).

FvS because of greatsword proficiency/enhancements, innate stacking DR, WF Power Attack.