How to get saves on a pure fighter?

[lugoman]

Little rant first. Most games balance survivability and damage - the more damage you do the easier you are to kill. Within this framework they usually also balance between saves and hp, meaning a person with high hp and low saves will survive just as well as someone with lower hp and high saves. DDO doesnt seem to do this.

I have 2 fighters, 1 pure and 1 18/2 rogue. The one with reflexes/evasion is pretty hard to kill while the pure is an sp black hole for healers. I would just multiclass him but am waiting for the enhancement redo to see if they will make the fighter capstone worth while.

In the meantime, what is the best way to increase my saves?

[Kilbar]

Stalwart Defender gives some (very) minor save bonuses in the stances, but other than that I think you need to rely on your racial choice to improve saves as a fighter.

[voxson5]

Most of your save bonuses comes from gear, buffs and ED.

+ 4 from Greater Heroism (clicky from Shaverath & Xorian Cypher, pot from kings forest turn ins and soon from collectables, UMD from scroll)
+ 2 from Recitation (luck, scrolls via UMD, Epic buccaneer ring etc)
+ 6 from resistance (I think you can get +7?)
+ 7 from grinding more DEX ( 7 item, 2 insight, 1 exceptional, +4 tome) <- is there a +8 dex item?
+ 1 haste
+ 1 armour of speed buff/ haste guard proc
+ 2 tensors scroll
+ 10 madness armour (doesn't stack with resistance I believe)
+ 2? Greater parrying

Stuff like pally aura, halfling companion etc

+ 6? Unearthly reactions magistar twist
+ 2 brace for impact twist


Sure there is more, can't think of others and away from computer to check

[Dawnsfire]

Just adding that Half Elf with the Pally Dilly is helpful if you invest a bit in charisma. Otherwise it is time to grind items. The armors for the 'Harbinger' series can be 'enchanted' to give +10 reflex or +10 will if you like that route.

[Forzah]

When you go dwarf you can get 5 extra saves vs spells.

[Rusty_Can]

In the meantime, what is the best way to increase my saves?

What other people said about raising your saves. However, it's not the only option: you can also work on damage avoidance and mitigation.

As a matter of fact, some spells can be "dodged"; a lot of elemental damage can be soaked up with proper buffs (e.g. resistance, protection) and gear (e.g. energy absorption).

Many enemy casters can be easily "disabled" with trips and stunning blows.

Last but not least, you can make divine casters' job easier working on your healing amplification.

When you go dwarf you can get 5 extra saves vs spells.

Just adding that Half Elf with the Pally Dilly is helpful if you invest a bit in charisma.

Warforged have enhancements which grant bonuses to Fortitude saves (Hardiness) and saves against Will-based Enchantments (Construct Thinking).

[t0r012]

1st increase the relevant ability score.
Con for fort (your fort save should be your decent one)
Dex for reflex
Wisdom for will

2 stack on some items of resistance , luck , ect.

3 check your enhancements for Saves boosting ones

4 if it is really important to you , you are a fighter with a ton of feats. There are lots of feats that give + 1 or 2 to different saves. Iron will , resilience , ect.

[Inouk]

Little rant first. Most games balance survivability and damage - the more damage you do the easier you are to kill. Within this framework they usually also balance between saves and hp, meaning a person with high hp and low saves will survive just as well as someone with lower hp and high saves. DDO doesnt seem to do this.

I have 2 fighters, 1 pure and 1 18/2 rogue. The one with reflexes/evasion is pretty hard to kill while the pure is an sp black hole for healers. I would just multiclass him but am waiting for the enhancement redo to see if they will make the fighter capstone worth while.

In the meantime, what is the best way to increase my saves?

Others have said most of it, but I'll try to be more concise and specific, and include some items missed.

For items try to slot superior parrying, superior stability, +7 resistance and +2 luck. Those combine for +19 to saves, not bad. Superior stability does require you to be neutral. Alternately, if you are half elf and can get your cha to 20 go for paladin dilly. As mentioned dwarf can improve saves further through racial enhancements

[maddmatt70]

Or you can roll a paladin instead of a fighter. You know the class so many here on the forums disparage. A pally can actually get decent saves whereas fighters really can get only a high fortitude. In LD you do have the clicky which can get out of will saves, but other then that I would dump all saves other then fortitude unless you really build for the saves at least if you regularly play ee.

[lronEnema]

Others have said most of it, but I'll try to be more concise and specific, and include some items missed.

For items try to slot superior parrying, superior stability, +7 resistance and +2 luck. Those combine for +19 to saves, not bad. Superior stability does require you to be neutral. Alternately, if you are half elf and can get your cha to 20 go for paladin dilly. As mentioned dwarf can improve saves further through racial enhancements

Pretty sure that superior stability does not stack with resistance.........otherwise everyone would go true neutral (monks, paladins etc excepted)

[lronEnema]

Taking reflex as the base - to base of 6 (for fighter) add:

+2 Epic levels
+10 dex bonus (assuming start of 12 +8 (item) +4 (tome) +4 (insight/excep) +2 ship buffs for total dex of 30)
+7 resistance item
+4 GH
+4 Superior Parrying
+2 Luck
+1 Haste
+1 Stone of change ritual
+6 Magister ED
+2 Stalwart ED

Those are the fairly eaasily/common bonuses. total comes to 45. Not entirely useless for EE

Other (harder/less common) possibilies

+3 (+1 and +2) exceptional reflex save from Greensteel
+3 From madness item (doesn't stack with resistacnce item so +3 not +10)
+3 Nightshield (have seen it reported that this no longer stacks)
+? More dex
+2 Lighning reflexes

May be others

[Ape_Man]

Others have said most of it, but I'll try to be more concise and specific, and include some items missed.

For items try to slot superior parrying, superior stability, +7 resistance and +2 luck. Those combine for +19 to saves, not bad. Superior stability does require you to be neutral. Alternately, if you are half elf and can get your cha to 20 go for paladin dilly. As mentioned dwarf can improve saves further through racial enhancements

Superior stability no longer stacks.

[squishwizzy]

Little rant first. Most games balance survivability and damage - the more damage you do the easier you are to kill. Within this framework they usually also balance between saves and hp, meaning a person with high hp and low saves will survive just as well as someone with lower hp and high saves. DDO doesnt seem to do this.

I have 2 fighters, 1 pure and 1 18/2 rogue. The one with reflexes/evasion is pretty hard to kill while the pure is an sp black hole for healers. I would just multiclass him but am waiting for the enhancement redo to see if they will make the fighter capstone worth while.

In the meantime, what is the best way to increase my saves?

TR into a pally.

And yes, I'm serious. Was running CC and tanking Jack with my TR-ed pally. I was the only toon out there not affected by Jack's Otto's spamming.

The downside is that you lose some serious DPS.

[Therigar]

A lot of good advice.

Bottom line is that if you want high saves you have to invest in it.

My recommendation is to go half-elf with enough CHA to get the Paladin dilettante and then to boost your CHA gear. With virtually everything having an augment slot now it should become relatively easy to achieve. A base 14 CHA for the dilettante and then +8 enchanted, +1 exceptional, +2 insight and +1 dilettante enhancement = 26 CHA with would give (if it were possible) +8 to saves. Of course, the most you can add is, IIRC, +5 so just +6 item would be enough.

Next, work out gear. Spell absorption items are just as important, maybe more important, than damage mitigation items. Both, if you can fit them, are best. And, of course, don't neglect a resist item.

One thing I noticed is that you run a 2 rogue splash on one character. Evasion is useful in a lot of situations. One way you can do this on a pure fighter is to run in Shadowdancer ED for the evasion. FWIW, I found that Shadowdancer has some other bits to it that are nice as well.

[Todkaninchen]

Also...

Be a halfling.

+1 to all three saves plus enhancements that let you add upto another +3 per save in exchange for AP.