Acrobat ideas and questions

[chrichton]

I am thinking of rolling an Acrobat. I have read up on a good number of threads and proposed builds - lots of great discussion out there. (But - some acrobat builds do not even focus on staff usage, which I don't understand.)

Anyway, it seems to me an acrobat would be constantly on the move, thus I would consider taking Spring Attack, but I don't think I have seen a single build take that. If you have either Power Attack or Combat Expertise on, and you are moving around, that is a total of -9 to-hit. I don't think that is trivial.

Any acrobats out there - how do you play them? Do you move around a lot or just jump in, stop moving, and do your thing? I know - Spring Attack is at the end of a feat chain (Dodge --> Mobility --> SA) and that is probably why it is not taken, but how do you mitigate the big to-hit penalty?

(I am still not sure if I should go Ninja Spy or Kensai or maybe even berserker.)

[Jaid314]

power attack is generally assumed regardless, for any melee build.

you will move around a lot on any melee. the general recommendation is to work on getting your to-hit high enough that even with the moving around, you still hit easily.

spring attack requires 3 feats, which as a general rule have never been particularly valuable in the history of DDO to my knowledge, apart from as a qualifier for tempest. while many acrobat builds have more feats than a pure rogue, that is not the same thing at all as having lots of spare feats that could not be better used elsewhere (particularly if the feats are being used to qualify for something else).

but so far, the general advise has been to simply focus on getting your to-hit high enough that you regularly hit in spite of any penalties. my experience has been that this is not always as easy as people make it sound, at least on a first life character that isn't being fed twink gear.

then again... i really wouldn't recommend an acrobat build for a first life character with no higher level characters to feed it twink gear anyways.

(oh, and some acrobats don't focus on quarterstaff because knockdown immunity is a powerful advantage, and even with +20% attack speed you're generally going to deal more damage using two khopeshes or even two rapiers; acrobats are the best DPS with a quarterstaff around, but that doesn't mean the highest DPS acrobats are the ones that use quarterstaves).

edit: one thing to consider for almost any build that requires equipment not available at low levels, is to consider leaving feats that you won't benefit from too much until higher levels. for example, power attack. it's a huge bonus to damage. no question of that. unless it makes you miss too often, in which case you don't want it. for a rogue, consider leaving power attack until you've gained a few levels and have an easy time hitting things, which may not happen until the later levels.

[chrichton]

I was also trying to find out if the qstaff weapon has special properties. For example - I thought I read somewhere that it had a bonus for Trip (and maybe other things) but I have not been able to find that info recently.

[chrichton]

Bump - any help?

[Nyxianne]

Like Jaid314 said, it's at the end of a long chain of feats, and so depending on the build there are other things that are more important to work in. On my acrobat, I actually find that I'm not moving while attacking a mob, usually I'm attacking when the mob is aggroed on someone else - so unless that person is kiting, that mob isn't moving much. Once a mob has been killed, I'll move on to the next one and so forth. But I also am just a brute melee type, I like to improve sunder or trip my mobs and then brutalize them down .
As far as quarterstaves, it's not a bonus to trip that makes them so popular, its that acrobats get a bonus to attack speed when using them plus a lot of times they can use their dex modifier to add to their sneak attack damage. Plus a lot of builds splash in a bit of monk (bonus to saves, bonus from stance, extra feats) and the qstaff is one of the few weapons that won't uncenter you .

[chrichton]

Yes - I am already aware of the benefits of the acrobat prestige enhancement.

I was trying to find out if the weapon "quarterstaff" has any special properties not found in other weapons.

[Jaid314]

Yes - I am already aware of the benefits of the acrobat prestige enhancement.

I was trying to find out if the weapon "quarterstaff" has any special properties not found in other weapons.

nope. there's nothing like the bonuses to various combat maneuvers that exist in pen and paper for various weapons, and the quarterstaff is not considered a double weapon.

it is essentially a perfectly standard two-handed weapon (albeit the one with the lowest base damage and worst crit profile, excluding named ones).

the only "special property" i could describe it as having is that it's so weak that sometimes the devs will give really nice bonuses on a named quarterstaff that they wouldn't give on any other weapon =S

[Imatotalnoob]

Acros are a bit gear intensive and there is a high pressure on stat points
Just something to keep in mind

Hell of a lot of fun though!

Cheers

[FranOhmsford]

Like Jaid314 said, it's at the end of a long chain of feats, and so depending on the build there are other things that are more important to work in. On my acrobat, I actually find that I'm not moving while attacking a mob, usually I'm attacking when the mob is aggroed on someone else - so unless that person is kiting, that mob isn't moving much. Once a mob has been killed, I'll move on to the next one and so forth. But I also am just a brute melee type, I like to improve sunder or trip my mobs and then brutalize them down .
As far as quarterstaves, it's not a bonus to trip that makes them so popular, its that acrobats get a bonus to attack speed when using them plus a lot of times they can use their dex modifier to add to their sneak attack damage. Plus a lot of builds splash in a bit of monk (bonus to saves, bonus from stance, extra feats) and the qstaff is one of the few weapons that won't uncenter you .

Yes but if you take that monk level you're gonna be better of using wraps anyway.

Seriously Staves need looking at.

1. That trip bonus would be very nice as an ability on ALL staves no matter what class.

2. Acrobats should get Dex to hit and Damage on ALL staves regardless - Staff of Nat Gann is a joke for DPS.

[t0r012]

Nothing special on staves in DDO.
except the huge number of named staves available.

Spring attack would be awesome for an acrobat , I'd love to fit it on mine. Just can't.

I'd love to see acrobats get spring attack as a bonus when the enhancement system gets it going over.

[chrichton]

I was also trying to decide if I wanted to roll an acrobat soon, or wait till August. I may roll, save tomes for later, and just see how it feels at lower levels.