Feat question

[AzB]

Forgive the basic question, but I've never played a fighter before and was looking at the class feats and enhancements.

I've noticed that with other toons that can use a two handed weapon (I have a bard that occasionally uses a great sword for example) that the slower swing and greater arc of the weapon allow you to hit 2, 3, or even more opponents in one swing.

If a fighter has the two handed weapon feat, and is using a two handed axe or sword, would the great cleave feat do anything, or would it be a wasted feat? If it would increase damage, would it be by a significant amount?

I'm just trying to decide if it would be needed on a fighter that would be focused on two handed weapons.

Additionally, I'm also wondering if it would be a decent boost for a two weapon fighter.

Thanks.

Az

[AidanRyuko]

great cleave is a good skill because it hits monsters in a wider arc then regular cleave does. Also the timer is seperate from regular cleave so you can get a nice combo of damage on a whole bunch of mobs.

There are feats with higher priority, but eventually you should be able to put great cleave in there, it won't be a waste.

Greater cleave does do a little more damage then regular, you can actually read up on what they exactly do on the wiki http://ddowiki.com/page/Great_Cleave

hope this helps =)

~aid

[unbongwah]

The THF feats increase your glancing blows dmg; Cleave & GC are special attacks which have a wider arc, can trigger crits and/or sneak atks (I think), and are pre-reqs for the Overwhelming Critical epic feat. Ideally you have all of these feats on a THF DPS build.

[AzB]

Cleave & GC are special attacks which have a wider arc, can trigger crits and/or sneak atks (I think)

That would be good to know for sure.

How would this stack with a rogue sneak attack in a rougue/ftr?

And if you were going to splash one level of ftr to another class, like rogue, to get the feat, would it be worth it if you already had thf?

Thanks for the info so far. Most of my builds have been spell casters so far, and this stuff is pretty new to me.

Az

[Duke-H-]

Great Cleave is a pre req for Overwhelming Critical, that itself makes it worth taking on a fighter.

[Kinerd]

THF swings can get glancing blows on surrounding monsters in a pretty big arc.
Cleaves, Great Cleaves, and Supreme Cleaves can get main hand blows on surrounding monsters, usually in a somewhat bigger arc.

Glancing blows are like main hand blows that never crit, do reduced damage, and do pitifully reduced magical effects.

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While this makes Great Cleave seem like a no brainer, it is important to keep in mind that it can only be used once every 5 seconds, and DDO characters attack very very quickly. Before the advent of Overwhelming Critical (working), it was not a good benefit for the cost of a feat even on most fighters. With that said, OC will probably work someday, plus you do have so many feats anyway, plus fighters can be a little boring to play, so you may as well grab it.

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While glancing blows also never generate sneak attack damage, it is generally counter-productive to use Cleaves if you have significant sneak attack damage due to aggro concerns, and it is extremely counter-productive to use THF if you have significant sneak attack damage due to glancing blows never generating sneak attack damage. Consider...

20 rogue with TWF: 100% sneak attack on main hand, 80% sneak attack on off hand.
19 rogue / 1 fighter with THF: loses 4d6 sneak attack damage from capstone, 100% sneak attack on main blow and 0% on glancing blow.

It's not a mechanically worthwhile trade.