New playing self-sufficient melee build advice

[Munkenmo]

At the earliest you could get them would be level 16, and that is with doing Necro I-IV (minus Abbott) as well as several of the random other Silver Flame quests on elite. If I remember correctly everything level 14 or below, excepting the Abbott raid itself and including the non-Necro quests is 399 favor, so you'd need the first lords of dust quest to break 400 favor. .

This would be incorrect, You can get 400 silver flame favor without doing the LOD quests, or the ascension raid.

It does involve doing every single other quest on elite, but that's not too difficult when going back at high level specifically seeking favor.

The op even said he has a group of friends he plays with, if working together and reading the wiki, it's quite feasible he could obtain sf pots.

(personally i'd skip tomb of tormented, and run an LOD quest instead)

[squishwizzy]

I've got a first life AA and a second-life pally. Between the two, I honsetly feel that the AA is actually better at self-healing than the pally. Maybe it is because of the pally's HP pool (larger) or because the pally has such crappy healing spells for being a divine-based character (with the exception of LoH), I'm not sure which. The AA, however, seems to have quicker heals with the same amount of healing amp, and takes a little less damage due to evasion.

Granted, this is simply my impression.

I know, I know: Lay on Hands is one of the most powerful healing abilities in the game. However, I find that because I have a greatly limited number of them between shrines (it gets a little better past lvl 10), I tend to only use them in real desperate situations. In many cases, I don't use them at all between shrines mainly for this reason.

[Wipey]

Whatever you decide to do, blue bar healing from pally, ranger, umd route with bard, rogue or arty splash, you should spend some time at cap making greensteel ( 6 charisma skills, concordant opposition, weapons or whatever works for you ) and perhaps even knock out 20 Demon Queen completions for Torc and/or some ToDs before you TR.
At least +6 charisma skill item for swap.
It will make your TR super enjoyable.

Imagine something like human ranger with Torc, conc opp greensteel and Levik's bracers and pair of Lit2 khops at level 13.

[count_spicoli]

Hey dyas. Sounds like you are gettong excited about your upcoming first tr which is always a fun thing. Mh first char was a ftr and he was not very good at all. But kept hi at 20 for quite some time and really geared him for his tr life.i would strongly suggest getting at least a couple shroud items maybe hp and a weapon or 2 first for your tr life. Yoh get these at level 11 for item and 12 for weapon and make the experience so much better.

As far as build i loved my kensaii helf ftr with fvs dilly. I chose fvs because you will star cha at 13 which will help yourintim and umd if you decide to utilize that. You will get wands and pots to spam out the gate and at level 15 will get 85% heal scroll use. I recommend twf on ftr myself because of the 4 tiers of ftr haste combined with human versatility 30% dmg boost.that is alot of quick crazy burst dmg especially with weapons that have alot of effects(i use 2 mins for free feat and acid dmg and dr bypassing) i had 14 action boosts at 21 in dreadnought and with no cooldown on ftr haste for ftrs in dreadnought you will essentially be hasted continously. Anyways that is my thoughts. Good luck and hope ypu enjoy what ever you choose.

Ps had 1000 hp in dreadnought which was nice as well.

[count_spicoli]

By the way if you plan on grouping with strangefs and do 12 cleric or fvs anything they will see your divine symbol on corner and expect healing for them. If you just want to solo or static group this os of no concern and can actaully be a nice build. Also rember to get your heal amp up. My scrolls werd hitting me for right around 300. A couple scrolls can get you back fast that wY.