f2p newbie-friendly fighter build

[AidanRyuko]

This build is for new players that want to try a solid fighter. At level twenty you will be a 19 Fighter/ 1 Barbarian. I'll try to write stuff down in a way it's easy to comprehend what to do and why.

Build Goal
The goal of this build is giving new players that like the fighter class a solid build that's easy to maintain and still has decent dps to be useful. This build will give
- high enough hp for a new player to survive
- good offense
- two handed fighting (1 weapon)

What the build doesn't give
- The best DPS
- Highest HP
- High AC

Race
Dwarf, this because dwarfs are a free race that starts out with a +4 modifier to balance, they get an additional +4 bonus to armor class towards giant monsters including trolls and ogres which is a common monster free players will be facing. They also get some saves vs magic and enhancements to boost greataxe damage. Also upon creation they get a +2 bonus to constition and -2 to charisma, which works out great for a fighter.

Alignment
Anything that is not lawful, because we will be taking a Barbarian level. Neutral is a pretty good choice, because that unlocks stability equipment for extra AC if you wish to wear that.

starting points
32 points
Str 18 - 16pts (All Level up points go here)
Dex 15 - 8pts
Con 16 - 6pts
Int 10 - 2pts
Wis 8 - 0pts
Cha 8 - 0pts

28 point
str 18 - 16pts (all level points go here)
dex 12 - 4pts
con 16 - 6pts
int 10 - 2pts
wis 8 - 0pts
cha 8 - 0pts

Explanation of stats
Strenght - this stat is modified into your damage, when using a two handed weapon you will get strength x 1.5 in damage. Strength also affects important skills like Jump, swim and it increases your chance to trip enemies.
Dexterity - This stat is secondary for a figher but still very important not to neglect, this is because dexterity affects your armor class, reflex saves but also is a modifier to the balance skill, balance makes you stand up faster when you are knocked down.
Constitution - This stat gives you your hitpoints and adds to fort saves resisting poison/diseases.
Intelligence - the stat itself is not useful, but it affects how many skill points you get per level, at an intelligence of 8 you get 1 point per level up, at 10 its 2 points, 12 would be 3 points. This build covers two because it's focus is on being simple and usable.
Wisdom - this would add to will saves, but is not useful enough to spend points on
Charisma - the only reason to up this would be for yugo potions, but I felt it wasn't really something a new player should worry about.

Class levels to take
Start out as a fighter with above stats, then when you level up take one barbarian level, after that all levels fighter, resulting in a 19 fighter/ 1 barbarian.

The barbarian level will give you a 10% pasive bonus to run speed and access to barbarian sprint, which gives a 35% bonus to run speed. This enables faster questing and it's good to be able to rush towards something when a teammate is in need of help or an enemy caster is in need of a whooping. You will also get rage for an additional +4 to strength and constitution and +2 to will saves. You can also get the Barbarian power attack and barbarian toughness enhancements.

Feats to take

Level 1 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Power Attack (necesary to unlock cleave early on, don't turn the feat on yet at this level because it reduces your accuracy)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness (unlocks toughness enhancements so you can build up some hp)
Level 2 (Barbarian) (rage and passive barbarian speed feats)
Level 3 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Cleave (an area attack for melee)
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting (increases damage of glancing blows by an additional 10% + 3% chance of magic effects triggering)
Level 4 (Fighter)
Level 5 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Great Cleave (same as cleave but bigger range and seperate timer, so you can hit a group of enemies 2-3 times in one second of time)
Level 6 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons (increases accuracy with slashing weapons)
Level 7 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Two Handed Fighting (increases damage of glancing blows by an additional 10% + 3% chance of magic effects triggering)
Level 8 (Fighter)
Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons (important feat, this doubles your chance to get a critical hit, for example if your weapon has a 10% chance to crit, it will now be 20%)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons (increases damage)
Level 10 (Fighter)
Level 11 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons (increases accuracy)
Level 12 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Handed Fighting (increases damage of glancing blows by an additional 10% + 3% chance of magic effects triggering)
Level 13 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Power Critical (gives a +2 bonus on critical hit rolls and +2 to damage before crit multiplier)
Level 14 (Fighter)
Level 15 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Greater Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons (+2 to damage rolls)
*Feat: (Selected) Stunning Blow (stuns enemies, additionally you also hit harder on stunned monsters)
Level 16 (Fighter)
Level 17 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Superior Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons (+1 to accuracy/attack)
Level 18 (Fighter)
*Feat: (Selected) Toughness (more hp)
Level 19 (Fighter)
*Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Dodge (+3 bonus to dodge, giving more chance to evade damage)
Level 20 (Fighter)

* feats with a star in front can be replaced to your liking.

feats to use in combat
- Cleave
- Greater Cleave - using these two are a great combo for quick killing of multiple targets
- Trip - because it has a strength modifier you can knock enemies on the ground without much effort, hold on to this to take out enemy casters.
*- Stunning blow - This also has a strength modifier rendering enemies useless and more vulnerable to damage, very useful feat.


Skills to get
You should be getting 2 skill points per level (3 with +2 tome) so you have to keep skills basic.
Max balance - this skill defines how quick you get up after being knocked down
Get about 26 jump - Jump is necesary to make it to ledges/shortcuts and to jump over enemies when surrounded or trying to reach a caster. Your goal is 40 jump, but gear can make up for a lot of it.
Tumble - if you have a spare two points put it in tumble to get to rank 1, tumble can be used to roll away when you are knocked down without stopping to defend.

Enhancements to get
Enhancements are basicly up to the player. I do suggest getting the following:
Any strenght enhancements
Tier I and/or II of all possible toughness enhancements for cheap hp
Anything that boosts greataxe/slashing damage
Barbarian sprint - costs 1 point and gives a 35% run speed bonus
Fighter Haste - also costs 1 point and increases attack speed by 15%

Look into fighter kensai, getting it costs a lot of points so it might not be worth it till level 16/18.

Equipment to get
On the early levels you will just want to use whatever you can get, sell spare items to the general store and buy a stack of start potions as soon as possible.

If you are lucky you can get your hands on an item with the feather falling property on it, this is a permanent feather fall rather then a clickie, very useful in several quests.

Bodyfeeder + lifeshield are also properties that can be found on equipment, bodyfeeder is a weapon property that gives +15hp on critical hits. with cleave and greater cleave this can reduce your potion costs by quite a bit, especially if you take an item with 15% base chance of critting like a falchion or scimitar and with improved critical: slashing you will have a 30% chance to crit on any hit. Lifeshield is a property you can put on armor/shields and has a 10% of giving +15hp, this stacks with bodyfeeder.

After those first few levels you will want to get deathblock to prevent instant-death spells, heavy fortification so any regular heroic monster will no longer deal critical hits to you or sneak attack damage. Blurry items are great, they give a better chance for enemies to miss you.

For more tips on equipment and on how to increase survivability you can check this thread out.

[AidanRyuko]

review:
EDIT: promised to finish my review

before writing the build I tried it out in-game to see how it worked. I rolled the toon with no help from other accounts. Because I have 32 points unlocked on argo I made mine 32pt, but 28 points isnt that much weaker, str and con are the same. I'm pretty satisfied with the performance, damagewise I was equal or higher then my teammates in several teams. When I hit level 5 I manged to get a bodyfeeder + lifeshield item that give +15 to maximum hp and stack together, this to test out if it could take away the need for potions or at least lessen it. I found that on elite quests those weren't sufficient, but with cleave + great cleave it's still fine, I think a good damage weapon will be just as useful as bodyfeeder though.

I also did several bloody crypt runs with a team containing TR's of level 7 while I was level 5 (lucky they let me stay:P), killwise I could keep up just fine with cleave + greater cleave, hp wise I only needed 3 potions during an amount of 5 runs and that was just to keep my hp above 90 so I couldn't die by an unlucky hold from enemy casters. I did notice that my strength wasn't really high enough yet to have nearly 100% trip chance on the monsters, but considering I was just level 5 in a level 6 quest with only 20 strength it was okay, I'm expecting that higher levels with more strength from gear and level up ability points will fill this in, because my main started with 20 str and now has 40 str with basic equipment and buffs (easily past 60 fully buffed).

downside were the skill points upon level up, two is not much to go on and I kind of like tumble as a skill but didn't spend any points in it. I do know that I usually end up with more points then I really need on my main, but it's nice to have proper skills early on instead of having to start leveling tumble or some other skill at level 16ish.

As for moneymaking I just grabbed all equipment and gold from chests and sold that **** to the vendor and bought a stack of start potions frm it and later cure serious wounds, it still leaves enough money to buy some cheap auction house stuff or house D weapons. All in all I'm very happy with the build, I didn't get close to dieing in any quests I did, including STK and bloody crypt. Plenty of hp to go around for, DPS is above average, or at least for me. By starting out unlocking cleave and greater cleave you get some nice damage early on and toughness takes care of the HP part.