Barb/Druid Level Split Debate

[WanderingGrump]

Hi folks,

I am pondering a Barb/Druid to make getting through a Barb life easier for me. Generally I don't like playing a pure Barb and a friend of mind used a 12/8 split as part of his completionist toon. I am going to do just a simple bear form melee and do the odd spell here and there. So while planning this I found that you can't take the Natural Fighting feats with just 8 Druid. I plan to probably do a Helf STR build since I don't really want to bother much with DC based spells.

Using a 12 Barb/8 Druid split I am looking at the following feats(not counting the shape feats): Toughness, Shield Mastery, Power Attack, Cleave, IC:Blunt, Imp. Shield Mastery, Great Cleave (may use a caster feat like Maximize here or Quicken, Quickdraw and Improved Sunder are other possibilities here)

With a 11 Barb/9 Druid I am thinking of the following feats: Toughness, Shield Mastery, Power Attack, Natural Fighting, IC:Blunt, Cleave, Natural Fighting

The 12/8 split would let me do Frenzied Beserker II/Nature's Warrior I for PrEs while the 11/9 would limit me to just Frenzied Beserker I, but it would let me take far more stat bonuses than I would otherwise. I also can't see this being a full rage build and just using that for boss fights where casting is not going to be an issue since will interfere with casting.

Also I am debating which Helf Dil would suit better Monk or Rogue. Part of me wants to do Rogue for the SA damage despite the fact that this will be more of an in your face melee build putting the level ups in STR not Wis if the monk dil is even worth using here.

Any suggestions? I am basically just looking for a relatively fast leveling and more import self sufficient build.

[unbongwah]

Does Rage block animal-form atks the way it does spells? That would be my biggest concern.

Also, based on my experience, bear DPS is waaay behind wolf DPS; even if you ignore sneak atks, that +30% atk speed and better crit range leave bears in the dust. And with sneak atks...well, "wolf=DPS," "bear=tank."

[BLaKxDYNAMITE]

recently made 9 (barbarian) 9 (druid) 2 (fighter) WOLVERINE comes with all you want, double strike natural fightingx3, cleave and great cleave, monk pastlife, overwhelming crit, stunning blows and whatevers left in this link http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=398885

[goodspeed]

ya bear dps kinda sucks. Not so much the numbers but how slow you attack. Heh it's like being a ranger only with melee. Wolf however attacks naturally fast and stacks with haste so that wolf head is just rippn flesh from everything.