LRing my fighter

[Sarzor]

So, I was doing a little leveling of my other toons this weekend while waiting on Mabar, and I realized my fighter, well, sucks. He was among my first characters on the server and was built quite some time ago, when healers were plentiful and self-sufficiency was less necessary than now.

He may be seen here.

I was following tihocan's build more or less for quite some time but as I was playing this weekend I noticed a few things. First he had no way of healing himself, and was relying on potions and the goodwill of others (and the goodwill was at times... lacking, combined with my own frustration of playing him since all my other toons are highly self-sufficient casters).

So, since I have the free LR they were giving out some time ago I would like to use it to make him more self-sufficient. I don't care if it would be best to stay greataxe-swinging kensai or go dwarf-ax-kensai, or even stalwart defender. Hell, if you think I should throw a level (after 16) into other classes, I'm willing to entertain that. I just want him to be able to be more survivable and less of a drag in groups. I don't expect to be soloing elites on him, but the ability to solo normal at-level would be good. I would prefer to not rely on hirelings either, but if that's the best way to go, I can give it a shot.

Stipulations given what I have already put on the toon:
1) Must stay dwarf, due to LR restrictions.
2) Must stay 16 fighter, also due to LR restrictions.
3) For some reason I have a +1 tome in STR and CON, and a +2 INT tome eaten on him.
4) I don't own epic destinies, and am more concerned about hitting 20 than focusing on 20-25. I would be interested in flexibility however should I get EDs.
5) Not willing to sink alot of plat into this guy as he is a less-played toon and I am not exactly wealthy. If significant improvements can be gained by a relatively small amount of plat I would certainly be willing to invest however.

[Varashad]

You're a first life fighter with no splashes; self sufficiency does not come from this. My suggestion would be to just keep on trucking as you are, and struggle to 20. Keep in mind that on normal, hirelings suffice for healing, and clerics/favored souls for casting heals are not that hard to find, especially for fun and high exp quests.

I can't think of anyway for you to become self sufficient as such a high level fighter; you would ideally take cleric levels at 8 tops, and then be a battle-cleric who usually solos but, at level 16 there's no real point. The best suggestion I can make is to splash 2 levels of monk, rogue or paladin, and switch to the Stalwart Defender prestige enhancement if you have it.

Evasion from monk and rogue drastically up your survivability, though on a fighter rogue is better imo since you unlock UMD, and I think that, with a 10 base int, you can get your UMD up to nearly max ranks. Paladin will give you access to CSW wands, and much better saves, though you don't get Evasion, and it won't be too useful unless you have stat points to spend on 14-16 charisma at character creation.

But once again, I think you'd be best off just fighting through it as a pure fighter; take the pain, solo with hirelings, and wait for healers. They do still exist. Good luck!

[squishwizzy]

you're a first life fighter with no splashes; self sufficiency does not come from this. My suggestion would be to just keep on trucking as you are, and struggle to 20. Keep in mind that on normal, hirelings suffice for healing, and clerics/favored souls for casting heals are not that hard to find, especially for fun and high exp quests.

I can't think of anyway for you to become self sufficient as such a high level fighter; you would ideally take cleric levels at 8 tops, and then be a battle-cleric who usually solos but, at level 16 there's no real point. The best suggestion i can make is to splash 2 levels of monk, rogue or paladin, and switch to the stalwart defender prestige enhancement if you have it.

Evasion from monk and rogue drastically up your survivability, though on a fighter rogue is better imo since you unlock umd, and i think that, with a 10 base int, you can get your umd up to nearly max ranks. Paladin will give you access to csw wands, and much better saves, though you don't get evasion, and it won't be too useful unless you have stat points to spend on 14-16 charisma at character creation.

But once again, i think you'd be best off just fighting through it as a pure fighter; take the pain, solo with hirelings, and wait for healers. They do still exist. Good luck!

+1

[Kinerd]

I third what varashad said, you're pretty much stuck. You can maximize what you've got by going TWF, getting as much heal amp gear as possible (level 16, hey DT!), and crafting up some Bodyfeeder of Lesser/Vampirism scimitars, but I think you'd be pretty disappointed with the return on your investment. You're better off playing to your strengths or away from your weaknesses: don't be the first into battle if there's no one there to keep you up, you'll do a heck of a lot more damage by waiting an extra third of a second than by waiting in someone's backpack. Check out the Wolf Cloak from out in Eveningstar, just the thing for a non-healing DPS type, and ML 16.

[akash]

Unfortunately even if you LR with the free respec you will not be able to become self sufficient. The best thing you could do is to get the epic destiny and plan it that way. If I was on your shoe, I would just TR to a half elf cleric dilettante fighter or as the above posters recommended few splashes to suite my need.

[hockeyrama]

very hard to make a pure fighter solo survivability high without going stalwart defender and maxing out ac, prr and blur and such. The key is reduce incoming damage, get umd and self heal. 16 fighter, 2 pally, 2 rogue would be my suggestiong. Pally will boost saves (you can put some points into charisma with gear and attributes) this will boost all your saves. The 2 rogue levels gives evasion and also allows you to max points into umd. End result is if done right you can scroll heal. Put on a umd gear (probably just +3 from delera necklace but you can get up to +5),Get a planar gird for gh clicky (can farm or buy off ah). Then you can scroll recitation (adds 2 to skills). So base 23 umd+4gh, +2 recitation+3 item=32 +charisma score. The umd on heal is 40 so no fail is a 39 umd. So all you need is +7 charisma. 14 base +2 ship +2 tome +6 item=24

There no fail scroll usage. If you end up not having the item on you looking at 85% chance if you have something else on your neck.

that +7 charisma would also be added to all your saves and with evasion and light armor you sould avoid alot od spell and splash damage.

That about all i can think of.

Once you get to 20 try to farm tokens and tr into an awesome pure ac tank dwarf who can kick but (i love stalwart dwarves but that just me).

edit: recitation is only a 32 umd so nice one for boosting other skills.

[Sarzor]

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to get more self-sustainability in, but sounds like I'll have to rely on people a bit more than I had hoped.

Thanks!

[hockeyrama]

not sure what you mean. You don't have to rely on people. If you did it the way I said. Add a level of rogue tehn use a free lr or get a heart then you have umd. Then with umd you can scroll heal yourself. I added 2 pally levels so you can get higher charisma which will booost umd and boost all your saves.

End result you able to self heal. NOt sure what more you want.

[Sarzor]

Oh yes, I understand how to go about it now. Basically LR and make my last 4 levels rogue/pally.

I'd been hoping for ideas on how to make those last 4 levels a bit easier to get and as a backup how to add levels into something else in later levels. I got the level up part from your post, but had been secretly hoping for a way to LR directly into something a bit more survivable.

[unbongwah]

Secret to self-sufficiency on a pure fighter (or barb):

• Grind out 400 Silver Flame Favor.
• Purchase massive stacks of SF heal pots.
• ???
• Profit!

Beyond that, you're kinda SOL. You could add UMD as hockeyrama suggests, but Heal-scrolling yourself as a frontline melee is...tricky.

[Wipey]

Or you can save the LR and just swap one feat with Siberys Dragonshard or free feat swap for dodge or shield mastery and go stalwart. Ditch that lvl 8 armor for nice full plate, whatever natural armor and protection item ( perhaps mineral 2 Greensteel for next life ), 1 or 2 Planar Girds, you can get Boots of the Innocent fairly cheap and perhaps get lvl 16 Mabar cloak+ lvl 16 Bracers of Wind. That will get you from 30 ac and atrocious saves to decent ac+ saves+some dodge+ perma blur and ghostly. Much more survivable with pots, easier for hjealers.

But you can get that 500k xp in few evenings so it might not be worth the grind if you don't like challenges or Maban :-D

[Rawrargh]

Meh... I'd stick with kensai. Your stats looks pretty decent and you shouldn't have any problem solo'ing on normal (wich is fine!) with a hireling.

The funny thing about a kensai dwarf with a greataxe as opposed to a half elf stalwart with cleric dilly and a monk splash is that you'll be able to dish out some decent damage instead of just piking while the caster does the work. You might have to compensate a bit for the lack of AC, PRR and saves with some movement, placement and skills.

Please before the negrep starts to hit. I don't have anything against stalwarts/defenders, but it's a bad trend that all of a sudden the only melees you see are SnB tanks who doesn't contribute much outside of certain raids where you don't really need more than one.

[Wipey]

Meh... I'd stick with kensai. Your stats looks pretty decent and you shouldn't have any problem solo'ing on normal (wich is fine!) with a hireling.

The funny thing about a kensai dwarf with a greataxe as opposed to a half elf stalwart with cleric dilly and a monk splash is that you'll be able to dish out some decent damage instead of just piking while the caster does the work. You might have to compensate a bit for the lack of AC, PRR and saves with some movement, placement and skills.

Please before the negrep starts to hit. I don't have anything against stalwarts/defenders, but it's a bad trend that all of a sudden the only melees you see are SnB tanks who doesn't contribute much outside of certain raids where you don't really need more than one.

I didn't say anything about going sword and board :-D I don't understand these con level ups, bajillion toughness, 28 strength sword and board girly meat sacks either.
Stalwart can easily double your AC and PRR , not mentioning saves and more HP so you don't need to "solo" with a hire. You can play naked with club of the holy flame if you have hjealing hire 24/7, but difference between stalwart and kensai survivability on serious pots is very noticeable no matter the content.

Stuff die fast at lvl 16, and if you die it's not because you don't do enough damage but because you bite more than you can chew.

[hockeyrama]

SD can do amazing dps.
Picture your SD S&B dwarf with dwarven axes. Cleave, great cleave, THF feats and 22% doublestrike means taht one wep is doing pretty darn good on a single target. Add in that you can wade into the masses and survive and when you get all the mobs attacking you cleaving with a thf wep does awesome dps to many mobs.

So it not just a few quests where it is good. Add in a manslayer item -goggles or ring- and hitting lots of folk gives you more chances to instakill and of course you able to survive the damage.

I had a pure fighter kensei that i do just almost as much damage as when he was kensei. Teh stalwart gives +6 all the time instead of +8 surge. The crits are better on the kensei for sure but then you run into the issue of way less hps and you die soo much faster. He is just a dps with max strenght and not wearing any real ac but his dps uning a th greataxe is really good. The kensei does more but really with the way less lower hps even a hireling has trouble healing you as u just don't give him enough time to get healed.

Not that I am saying SD are the only way just that if you went fighter i don't see why you would pick kensei over SD. If you want pure dps and no ac then just go barb as at least you can get alot of hps to allow for the hireling to have some time to heal ya.