Prickly, a 1.4-handed sneakhumping healer build

[Dingleburr]

First, the back-story behind this build: I originally leveled a cleric as a pure nannybot, with all 3 halfling dragonmarks before I knew any better. That build got old fast once I hit cap, for obvious reasons. I’m not ready to TR this character, as other alts have priority on that but I wanted to do something creative via a greater reincarnation. The goal of the reincarnation was to maintain a group-friendly healing build while adding some depth offensively. That depth is achieved via sneakhumping using a single TWF feat (40% offhand proc rate) and the halfling cunning/guile enhancement lines. Since levelups go into wisdom, implosion remains viable for thinning the trash in endgame content where spell resistance isn’t a factor. Nearly maxed divine punishment supplements melee DPS nicely when it’s time to beat down the boss.

Here’s the build. More detail to follow:

Level 20 True Neutral Halfling Male
(1 Fighter / 19 Cleric)
Hit Points: 264 --> ~500 with gear and ship buffs at cap
Spell Points: 1301 --> ~1700 with gear and ship buffs at cap

BAB: 15/15/20/2525
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 9
Will: 19

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20)
Strength 12 14
Dexterity 14 15
Constitution 14 16
Intelligence 8 10
Wisdom 16 24
Charisma 14 16

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Dexterity used at level 3
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+3 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

Feats are as follows:
o Toughness - First rule of healing: die last
o Shield mastery - See first rule of healing.
o Empower healing – Radiant servant.
o Quicken – Less time casting = more time hitting stuff. Also, virtually required to make mass heal useful.
o Maximize – Divine punishment, radiant burst
o Empower - Divine punishment, radiant burst
o TWF – Reduces the to-hit penalty, and it’s all I could afford
o IC: Pierce

Enhancements are somewhat flexible, but I’ve invested in:
o Halfling cunning / guile – I currently have these at Tier4, but am considering dropping to T3 to free up 8AP
o Haste boost
o Toughness – See first rule of healing.
o Radiant servant II – In most content, radiant aura provides enough group healing to allow the focus to be on melee the majority of the time. Fully meta’d (quicken, maximize, empower, empower heal) radiant bursts provide excellent panic healing from within the scrum.
o Life magic / prayer of life / incredible life – Crit enhancements aren’t maxed, but shouldn’t be ignored either as the lower tiers are cheap and they significantly improve radiant aura
o Smiting / prayer of smiting / incredible smiting – Divine Punishment
o Scroll mastery - In some raids, your sole focus needs to be on keeping the meatshield vertical.
o Wisdom – implosion DC, spell points
o Charisma – just enough to round out to an even value for more turns – currently at 13 turns after a shrine


>>Why not replace shield mastery with iTWF?

Sheild mastery and TWF on the same build might seem a bit odd, but I prefer the utility in a couple of situations: When on dedicated tank healing duty, you’ll have shield + scroll in hand, blocking when not actively healing. And if you’re going to anchor on yourself during a boss fight, you’d darn well better not be the squishiest one in the melee pack.

Hard shroud parts 4/5 is an example of where I swap out the offhand weapon for a shield (crafted +5 lifeshield of fire absorbtion with +20hp slotted). This enables me to get in with the melee, turn on auto-attack, activate haste boost, and reactively heal with fully meta’d radiant bursts while maintaining a divine punishment stack. Proactive mass heal from fifty paces is for suckers.

>>Why the focus on sneak-attack?

First and foremost, this is a multitasking healer build - under most circumstances you shouldn’t have agro. The basic idea in melee is to keep the bad guys between you and the barbarian. An additional +21 sneak attack damage per swing yields ~+55DPS with haste and active boost. (+8 halfling guile, +5 exceptional sneak attack, +8 backstab item)

>>Why not HElf for higher sneak attack damage?

Since I was greater reincarnating this character, halfling was a constraint. Additionally, the to-hit bonus from halfling cunning addresses a critical weakness of this build.

>>Why pierce spec?

I made this choice due to the better / more accessible offhand options relative to slash or bludgeon – cove smallblade, phiralian spy dagger, envenomed blade. For the most part though, I use a crafted light pick… more on that in a bit. Mainhand, I favor the elemental rapier of air as a good balance of DPS and debuffing unless a specific beater is required. One tactic I like is to tag several mobs with the shaken debuff and then tap prayer for an effective +3DC before imploding. ZzztPOW. ZzztPOW. ZzzztPOW.

Another fun weapon combo for crazy survivability is a T3 calomel rapier (slotted good) paired with a (flametouched iron) bodyfeeder shortsword of vampirism. Combine with cove armor for demonic shield proc, fabricators bracers for combat infusion, con-opp item, and radiant aura for a constant stream of temporary health and passive healing. The point of all this is to allow you to focus on stuff other than healing yourself, which is great due to the active nature of the build.

>>Why TWF, as opposed to the more traditional (dwarf) greataxe battlecleric?

Like I said, halfling was a constraint. Furthermore, sneak attack synergizes much better with TWF than THF and unlike the strength bonus it doesn’t take a 50% offhand penalty. Since I could only fit one TWF feat, the offhand weapon is used situationally either for amplifying mainhand damage (smallblade, crafted backstabbing or destruction), debuffing (spy dagger, envenomed blade, various crafted options), or even boosting spell casting (ornamented dagger). Ask yourself: What are the chances the barbarian (or anyone else, for that matter) is packing improved shattermantle? This build can squeeze that into the offhand at relatively little tradeoff.

>>Why not clonk?

IMO, a 1-level fighter splash provides more than a 1-level monk splash. And a 2-level monk splash further trades off healing effectiveness, particularly the aura which would take a ~15% hit. In fact, clonk was my original plan for this character... but after a couple of spreadsheet build studies in, I ultimately chose the fighter splash. Dealing with to-hit issues was a major factor, and is easier to do with weapons rather than wraps. Don’t get me started on kamas...

The obvious critical weakness of this build concept lies in potentially poor ‘to-hit’, with low strength (wisdom-based halfling), 3/4 BAB, and an additional -2 for TWF. If you’re whiffing, you’re basically useless in melee. That weakness is addressed through several avenues but the utilization of the off-hand plays a big part. So say hello to my lil’ friend: a crafted +5 holy burst light pick of backstabbing with a large guild augment slotted +4-to-hit:
o Light weapon offhand trades off 1.3 damage per swing for 2 ‘to-hit’ – this build is tight on feats and OTWF simply doesn’t rate. That -2 penalty for an oversized offhand might not matter to a mainline melee, but for this build it does.
o +4 guild bonus - large guild slot in offhand applies to mainhand as well
o +5 sneak attack on offhand weapon also amps the mainhand – improved destruction (+4) is another excellent option for bosses that benefits the whole group / raid, assuming sneak attack can be slotted elsewhere (e.g. tharnes / brawling gloves)

Other key to-hit bonuses include:
o +4 flanking (halfling cunning… though considering dropping this to +3)
o +3 exceptional sneak attack (ring of the stalker)
o Unless there is a bard around, request a GH from your arcane buddy
o Divine favor (+3hit/+3dmg for 10sp) should be running full time when meleeing. I normally tap this plus haste boost while charging into battle.
o Divine power (+5hit for 25sp) is available when needed mainly for high AC bosses, but the above bonuses mean I generally don’t need to rely on it for trash... which is nice because there is always something else you could be doing besides obsessing over buff timers

>>Aren’t weapons with large guild slots impossible to find and/or crazy expensive?

Keep in mind, we’re talking light picks or shortswords here. Most folks consider them useless. While certainly not common, they do tend to show up on the AH from time to time and languish there.

While this was intended as a group-oriented build, I’ve found that it’s far from helpless without one. I soloed hard/elite weapons shipment about a zillion times untill I got a bauble, and am able to scroll farm with this toon in some easier epic content (mostly just for giggles… my pale master is WAY better at it, but he can’t heal a raid). I’m a big fan of non-cookie-cutter builds, and this one is a fun and active build – at any given time, there are about 3 different things that you could be doing and the trick is in picking the one that’s most effective. The only real down-side is the “oh good grief, not a battlecleric!” response that the 1 fighter tag tends to elicit from random pugs.

[firemedium_jt]

IMO, a 1-level fighter splash provides more than a 1-level monk splash. And a 2-level monk splash further trades off healing effectiveness, particularly the aura which would take a ~15% hit.

snip..................


The only real down-side is the “oh good grief, not a battlecleric!” response that the 1 fighter tag tends to elicit from random pugs.

You can build however you want with 17 levels of Cleric. Healing effectiveness is not a reason IMHO to not splash more levels. The trade off for melee verse offensive casting is.

There are so many battle clerics that play correctly for given situations that I am rarely questioned with my CLR18/FTR2 build. Maybe it is because most players at level 20 know this. It may be an issue at mid levels for pugs without a clue, but after they wait 30-60 minutes for a pure healer they get over it and will invite any divine with enough divine levels to get them through the quest.