Help me craft an Iconic Challenge Farmer

[unbongwah]

Taken from other thread:

If I were going to make an iconic challenge farmer I'd probably go with a 13/2 bladeforged sorc.

That's what I did pre-U19; Air Savant w/fire & ice spells (and DDoor, natch). Only drawback is all the lightning-resistant/immune mobs in Extraplanar Palace. Were I to redo it, I'd probably go Fire primary, Air secondary. I also thought about sorc 12 / FvS 2 / pal 2; losing lvl 7 spells kinda hurts, but having Scourge + Just Reward just might be worth it, particularly in the ones w/no rest shrines. I also experimented with sorc 12 / monk 2 / pal 2, the idea being to have some melee DPS + Tensers to deal with weaker foes (or just for fun); I went Earth Savant, just to be different. Part of why all this works so well is the ML:12 & 16 Cannith gear is darn near perfect for a BF sorc: master artifice (SPs + Recon), wind bracers (Blurry + Lightning), cloak of flames, and/or rock boots.

I'd also be tempted by Shadar-kai rog 2 / wiz 14; with Eldritch Knight on the way, maybe I could work in half-decent melee as well.

[EllisDee37]

Yep, I hear ya on the wizard/rogue build. The only concern there is the lack of spell points for the longer challenges. But yeah, with EK coming that could be mitigated pretty nicely by picking up a THF smiter for animated armors.

I get very nervous about sorcerers for challenge farming if only because they get 1 or 2 weak elements:

- Skeleton boss immune to cold
- Devashta immune to electricity
- Fire giant immune?/resistant to fire

The one universally useful element is acid, so maybe an earth savant? Acid rain is a nice room clearer, plus you get a primary dot for bosses plus no-penalty niac's. The only issue may be the disruptor, since he's immune to niac's and eladar's would be weakened.

This is completely ignoring eveningstar challenges, which I'm comfortable with. If we were to include them, fire would be right out: there's an entire challenge (Ring of Fire) where pretty much everything is flat-out immune to fire.

[Arcanegrin]

I've been following some of your builds for a while, Currently my main challenge toon uses your monk build. I haven't tr'd him yet though (enhancement pass put him at level 18).

I've been playing around with a few toons for challenge farming which fit with Iconics. The ones which work well so far:

Purple Dragon Knight Barbarian:

10 bard / 4 fighter / 1 barbarian

str 15
dex 8
con 16
int 9
wis 8
cha 20

He gets to hit etc. from purple dragon's cha.

Out of the box he gets: 100% fort, 10% faster movement speed, extended haste, ddoors, empowered self healing, solid dps , deathblock, blindness disease and poison immune items, resist +5, featherfall, and speed V (25% movement), extended displacement, and frozen fury (1.5 [W] and frozen solid unless 14+cha mod reflex save, 6 second cooldown).

The only items to add in from box are:
Great sword (I gave him a bound to account Insanity)
Armor (still not sure what to give him, but plenty of options)

He goes kensai, and warchanter for doublestrikes, extra crit modifier (howl of north), +1 [W] (boast)

Pros:
10% movement speed
6x 50% sprint boost (bard line)
Extended haste, displacement
Good self healing
Solid DPS
Easy stunning attack (frozen fury)

Cons:
No evasion
Songs take a long time to cast (annoying on challenges)

[Arcanegrin]

The other build I rolled up is:

Wizard 7, Monk 5, Rogue 3 (if you take level 16 add one more monk for 5% more movement speed)

He rolls around in vampiric form for undead aura self healing (and looks cool). Has ddoor, extended haste and 5% extra movement speed.

Rogue monk and wizard are all comfortable with using staff weapons, rogue level 3 allows dex mod for attack and damage. Int at 16 allows trapping and spell casting. His normal melee attacks with henshin do pretty decent damage however it takes some time to get used to casting and fighting hand to hand. As with most casters this build is partially reliant on SP which is a bummer. Generally its ok though since Henshin deals decent damage.

His main problem area is in self healing, while undead aura is decent it sometimes doesn't do enough and leaves you vulnerable.

Items to switch over, Quarterstaff with whichever element you want to use (fire for me) and some armor.

Pros:
5% speed
Ddoor
Extended haste
Evasion and reflex at 26 unbuffed (crucible)
Trap skills

Cons:
Poor self healing
Very moderate DPS

[EllisDee37]

Purple Dragon Knight Barbarian:

10 bard / 4 fighter / 1 barbarian

str 15
dex 8
con 16
int 9
wis 8
cha 20

He gets to hit etc. from purple dragon's cha.

Out of the box he gets: 100% fort, 10% faster movement speed, extended haste, ddoors, empowered self healing, solid dps , deathblock, blindness disease and poison immune items, resist +5, featherfall, and speed V (25% movement).

The only items to add in from box are:
Great sword (I gave him a bound to account Insanity)
Armor (still not sure what to give him, but plenty of options)

He goes kensai, and warchanter for doublestrikes, extra crit modifier (howl of north), +1 [W] (boast)

Pros:
10% movement speed
Extended haste
Good self healing
Solid DPS

Cons:
No evasion
Songs take a long time to cast (annoying on challenges)

I'm liking the looks of that a whole lot.

Is the barbarian level just for increased run speed, since bard prevents you from taking a monk level? Barbarian rage prevents heals, ddoor, placing torches, etc...? Would druid (wolf form) work? Never run a druid so I have no idea how viable wolf run speed is; switching back and forth may make it a net loss for all I know.

It's worth pointing out that a crucible swimmer is wholly unnecessary for a "disposable" challenge farmer. I only added that into the pure monk version because I was putting a ton of effort into that alt anyway, and it was achievable, so may as well, y'know?

[Arcanegrin]

I'd also be tempted by Shadar-kai rog 2 / wiz 14; with Eldritch Knight on the way, maybe I could work in half-decent melee as well.

Either this or Paladin 2, 13 Wiz or sorc with Eldritch Knight, if they added cha or int based dmg/ attach this would for sure be best iconic challenge farmer.

In fact it might even give the original challenge farmer a run for it's money. Air savant sorc with wind dance gets speeds around same as monk (15% from 15 monk levels is still slightly better) however sorcs clear rooms far faster then monks do. 3 seconds compared to 1 second is still a big thing on Cannith challenges. Eldritch knights would have plenty of fighting prowess to clear whether or not they have spell points.

[Arcanegrin]

I'm liking the looks of that a whole lot.

Is the barbarian level just for increased run speed, since bard prevents you from taking a monk level? Barbarian rage prevents heals, ddoor, placing torches, etc...? Would druid (wolf form) work? Never run a druid so I have no idea how viable wolf run speed is; switching back and forth may make it a net loss for all I know.

It's worth pointing out that a crucible swimmer is wholly unnecessary for a "disposable" challenge farmer. I only added that into the pure monk version because I was putting a ton of effort into that alt anyway, and it was achievable, so may as well, y'know?

Yeah the barb is only for increased speed (10%), i find the speed is one of the big benefits to the challenge farmer. I don't use the barb rage, really.

I tried wolf out but the bonus is an enhancement bonus.

Oh one big bonus for bard I forgot to include is that it gets a sprint action boost, 50% movement speed for 30 seconds. With the ftr levels I get +1 action boost, so 6 speed boosts per round. Gonna edit my post for that.

[EllisDee37]

Oh one big bonus for bard I forgot to include is that it gets a sprint action boost, 50% movement speed for 30 seconds. With the ftr levels I get +1 action boost, so 6 speed boosts per round. Gonna edit my post for that.

Yep, sprint boost on a challenge farmer would be huge.

I rather like the idea of a bard challenge farmer simply by virtue of it being a bard, which I wouldn't otherwise play. Class variety is good.

[Arcanegrin]

Yep, sprint boost on a challenge farmer would be huge.

I rather like the idea of a bard challenge farmer simply by virtue of it being a bard, which I wouldn't otherwise play. Class variety is good.

While testing it (rolled it up on Khyber) the main problem was that I was running too fast to put torches down correctly.

[whereispowderedsilve]

While testing it (rolled it up on Khyber) the main problem was that I was running too fast to put torches down correctly.

/tongue in cheek Lol wut? There is such a thing as running *to* fast? LIES! :P! ! !

Keep up the great theory crafting peeps! (Obviously I am partial to the bard idea myself heh).

Cheers! :P! ! !

[Ermin_Sivarch]

/tongue in cheek Lol wut? There is such a thing as running *to* fast? LIES! :P! ! !

Keep up the great theory crafting peeps! (Obviously I am partial to the bard idea myself heh).

Cheers! :P! ! !

haste with extend is pretty solid to speed up movement...probably an Arch mage wizard or sorcerer that uses summon monster VI or VII as an extra push for more dmg helps mitigate dmg on yourself, also false life to mitigate dmg along with displacement with extend.

[EllisDee37]

haste with extend is pretty solid to speed up movement...probably an Arch mage wizard or sorcerer that uses summon monster VI or VII as an extra push for more dmg helps mitigate dmg on yourself, also false life to mitigate dmg along with displacement with extend.

The only concern there is that any character who relies on elemental spells for dps will have mana problems with the numerous animated armors in extraplanar palace.

[Arcanegrin]

Was going to add some screenshots of the enhancement line + a shot of a labor shortage finish. Will post them later if I can figure out the image system on here.

Anyway labor shortage with base equipment + insanity greatsword + no armor. Run at level 15 with a 15 hire. Got 297 extra crystals, easily destroyed Devashta, total 436 scrolls.

Forgot to add to build: extended displacement, and frozen fury (1.5 [W] and frozen solid unless 14+cha mod reflex save, 6 second cooldown)

[unbongwah]

The one universally useful element is acid, so maybe an earth savant? Acid rain is a nice room clearer, plus you get a primary dot for bosses plus no-penalty niac's.

That was the idea behind this build:

BF sorc 12 / pal 2 / monk 2
Acid Savant (fire backup)
Monk feats: Power Atk & Toughness
Heroic feats: FoP or Mithril Body (1), Max (3), Emp (6), Quicken (9), Heighten (12), IC:Slash or Extend or SF:Evo (15)

First feat has to be non-meta, unfortunately, since it starts pally. I miss out on the lvl 7 spells that sorc 14 / pal 2 would get (delayed blast fireball is probably the one I would miss most); but I gain Evasion and some decent melee DPS when I'm trying to conserve SPs. I might add EK too, tho I wish perma-Tensers was T4 instead of T5.

This is completely ignoring eveningstar challenges, which I'm comfortable with. If we were to include them, fire would be right out: there's an entire challenge (Ring of Fire) where pretty much everything is flat-out immune to fire.

Now that Eveningstar ingredients are BtA instead of BtC, I could easily see making separate farmers for Cannith & Eveningstar. Heck, make one for each challenge if you've got the char slots and really wanna minmax for each!

One other option: Morninglord cleric 1 / wiz 15. +4 INT from sun elf, Heal skill from cleric splash, lvl 8 spells; if you can spare the APs, Feywild Tap helps with SP shortage. Either pure Necro or Necro+Enchant Archmage: I kinda like the idea of using Mass Charm & Dancing Ball to mez mobs, esp. in Rushmore's.

[Caprice]

What about a DEX-based Shadar-Kai Bard10/Rog3/Ftr2? I think Arcanegrin's is probably more useful but I was kicking around with this idea long enough that I figured I would toss it out.

DEX-based is convenient because Shadar-kai start out with +6 from gear, it is a racial enhancement stat, and it increases Reflex saves that much more.

Shadar-kai gives you the chain AoE for dealing with large trash pulls as suggested previously, some extra mobility on 1 min CDs in Shadow Phase and Shadow Jaunt, and some more Dodge and SA dice if you want.

Rogue 3 gives you DEX for to hit and dmg with Daggers from the Assassin tree and 2d6 SA, both of which work well with the starter daggers and their Deception set bonus. Bard 10 gives you DDoor, Haste, Displacement, Blur, and some healing and status removal. Inspire Courage sits at +2 before enhancements. 4 AP in Spellsinger gives you the Magical Training feat for AP, and in total gives 180 much-needed SP and Echoes for some low level healing endurance. As Arcanegrin mentions you get Sprint Boost for even more mobility. Fighter 2 gives you 2 feats, extra Action Boosts, and cheap Haste Boost (for only 3 AP rather than Thief-Acrobat's 11 AP investment).

Level 15 gives 6 Feats, plus 2 Fighter bonus feats:
TWF, ITWF, GTWF (BAB is 11 @ level 15), IC:P, PA, Cleave, GCleave, and one to spare - maybe Precision to get more out of your SA, or Dodge, or Force of Personality to improve saves a little. Weapon Finesse is great if you want to keep it for a while and want more weapon options, e.g. Calomel Rapiers for dragon killing, Mournload Shortswords & Light Maces for undead, but is useless at the start.

I just threw one together. Starting stats were 14 / 18 / 14 / 8 / 8 / 14 and final stats with gear & enhancements are 18 / 28 / 20 / 8 / 8 / 14. 274 HP & 413 SP. Saves with gear are 18/24/12. I grabbed Dodge as the optional feat and you start with Dodge 4% in gear, so I have 7% of the 11% allowed by the armor. I will probably rejigger the enhancements to cap that.

I look forward to dropping a Disco Ball down, Displacing, and then hitting the AoE chain attack to see how the "Challenging Mosher" does.

The one thing you are missing gear-wise is some Devotion. If you have Vet2 and a shared bank, roll a quick Cleric and grab the BtA "Splinterskull Acolyte Ring" ring you get for that (42 Devotion) and slot it in place of the "Ring of the Runaway" since Open Lock and Assassination DCs aren't important here. You could even slot the empty colorless slot in the ring with something interesting if you have something spare laying about.

If you have access to high level guild shrines then you are in decent shape, but if not then don't forget to pick up some Resist Energy wands. You're going to need them.

[EllisDee37]

Now that Eveningstar ingredients are BtA instead of BtC, I could easily see making separate farmers for Cannith & Eveningstar. Heck, make one for each challenge if you've got the char slots and really wanna minmax for each!

One other option: Morninglord cleric 1 / wiz 15. +4 INT from sun elf, Heal skill from cleric splash, lvl 8 spells; if you can spare the APs, Feywild Tap helps with SP shortage. Either pure Necro or Necro+Enchant Archmage: I kinda like the idea of using Mass Charm & Dancing Ball to mez mobs, esp. in Rushmore's.

I finished designing an epic challenge farmer to be used for farming epic cannith challenges and eveningstar challenges; it's a drow pure wizard pale master, will be level 21 with low 50s necro dc and 37 spell pen on a first life. (No intention of TRing.) Destiny will be draconic for energy burst, dragon breath and that abundant step-like ability.

The only twist needed is +3 necro from magister, meaining take magister to 4 then switch to draconic rest of the way. Optionally grind out endless faith from exalted if you really want to go to town. The gearset is all easily-attainable stuff. The toughest items to get would be non-epic darkstorm helm and staff of the necromancer, both of which are trivially easy to acquire. Then a bunch of guaranteed-drop shadowfell heroic gear (+8 int goggles, etc...) and spell power/lore gear from cannith challenges. Plus the war wizard commendation set (-10% spell point cost) which means you don't even need a greensteel item.

The key to make this a fun departure from my actual wizard is that he'll take the complete skeleton pet line. Did some testing, and a maxed skeleton pet is able to handle incomings all by himself while soloing CR25 lava caves. Woot! Leave you pet to guard center and check back when it's convenient for you! Oh yeah.

The irony is that I finished speccing it out Friday afternoon, and was getting ready to post it when the devs s*** all over the idea of farming epic tokens. That kinda took the wind out of my sails. I did at least roll him up (vet 2 level 7) and gear him out. I'm definitely curious to see how leveling with a pet goes. Hopefully it'll be fun.

[whereispowderedsilve]

What about a DEX-based Shadar-Kai Bard10/Rog3/Ftr2? I think Arcanegrin's is probably more useful but I was kicking around with this idea long enough that I figured I would toss it out.

DEX-based is convenient because Shadar-kai start out with +6 from gear, it is a racial enhancement stat, and it increases Reflex saves that much more.

Shadar-kai gives you the chain AoE for dealing with large trash pulls as suggested previously, some extra mobility on 1 min CDs in Shadow Phase and Shadow Jaunt, and some more Dodge and SA dice if you want.

Rogue 3 gives you DEX for to hit and dmg with Daggers from the Assassin tree and 2d6 SA, both of which work well with the starter daggers and their Deception set bonus. Bard 10 gives you DDoor, Haste, Displacement, Blur, and some healing and status removal. Inspire Courage sits at +2 before enhancements. 4 AP in Spellsinger gives you the Magical Training feat for AP, and in total gives 180 much-needed SP and Echoes for some low level healing endurance. As Arcanegrin mentions you get Sprint Boost for even more mobility. Fighter 2 gives you 2 feats, extra Action Boosts, and cheap Haste Boost (for only 3 AP rather than Thief-Acrobat's 11 AP investment).

Level 15 gives 6 Feats, plus 2 Fighter bonus feats:
TWF, ITWF, GTWF (BAB is 11 @ level 15), IC:P, PA, Cleave, GCleave, and one to spare - maybe Precision to get more out of your SA, or Dodge, or Force of Personality to improve saves a little. Weapon Finesse is great if you want to keep it for a while and want more weapon options, e.g. Calomel Rapiers for dragon killing, Mournload Shortswords & Light Maces for undead, but is useless at the start.

I just threw one together. Starting stats were 14 / 18 / 14 / 8 / 8 / 14 and final stats with gear & enhancements are 18 / 28 / 20 / 8 / 8 / 14. 274 HP & 413 SP. Saves with gear are 18/24/12. I grabbed Dodge as the optional feat and you start with Dodge 4% in gear, so I have 7% of the 11% allowed by the armor. I will probably rejigger the enhancements to cap that.

I look forward to dropping a Disco Ball down, Displacing, and then hitting the AoE chain attack to see how the "Challenging Mosher" does.

The one thing you are missing gear-wise is some Devotion. If you have Vet2 and a shared bank, roll a quick Cleric and grab the BtA "Splinterskull Acolyte Ring" ring you get for that (42 Devotion) and slot it in place of the "Ring of the Runaway" since Open Lock and Assassination DCs aren't important here. You could even slot the empty colorless slot in the ring with something interesting if you have something spare laying about.

If you have access to high level guild shrines then you are in decent shape, but if not then don't forget to pick up some Resist Energy wands. You're going to need them.

I like it a lot! Very interesting, a different twist/take on it! I will let Ellis & unbongwah critique it though! Keep the ideas coming guys! Cheers! :P! ! !

[Jasparion]

Pure Cleric or 2 Monk / 13 Cleric Morninglord. Focus on spell casting. SLAs you will never run out of SP. Maximised, Empowered, Heightened, Quickened for nothing.

You really only need to use SP on Blade Barrier.

Starting gear is okay. Can pick up a couple of items on the AH to fill in any gaps.

Do not bother with melee, but you can still spend some points in Warpriest. Blur and Haste are nice, but Im not sure you can get that deep at level 15 - you really want to get as far in to Divine Disciple as possible.

[Arcanegrin]

What about a DEX-based Shadar-Kai Bard10/Rog3/Ftr2? I think Arcanegrin's is probably more useful but I was kicking around with this idea long enough that I figured I would toss it out.

DEX-based is convenient because Shadar-kai start out with +6 from gear, it is a racial enhancement stat, and it increases Reflex saves that much more.

Shadar-kai gives you the chain AoE for dealing with large trash pulls as suggested previously, some extra mobility on 1 min CDs in Shadow Phase and Shadow Jaunt, and some more Dodge and SA dice if you want.

Rogue 3 gives you DEX for to hit and dmg with Daggers from the Assassin tree and 2d6 SA, both of which work well with the starter daggers and their Deception set bonus. Bard 10 gives you DDoor, Haste, Displacement, Blur, and some healing and status removal. Inspire Courage sits at +2 before enhancements. 4 AP in Spellsinger gives you the Magical Training feat for AP, and in total gives 180 much-needed SP and Echoes for some low level healing endurance. As Arcanegrin mentions you get Sprint Boost for even more mobility. Fighter 2 gives you 2 feats, extra Action Boosts, and cheap Haste Boost (for only 3 AP rather than Thief-Acrobat's 11 AP investment).

Level 15 gives 6 Feats, plus 2 Fighter bonus feats:
TWF, ITWF, GTWF (BAB is 11 @ level 15), IC:P, PA, Cleave, GCleave, and one to spare - maybe Precision to get more out of your SA, or Dodge, or Force of Personality to improve saves a little. Weapon Finesse is great if you want to keep it for a while and want more weapon options, e.g. Calomel Rapiers for dragon killing, Mournload Shortswords & Light Maces for undead, but is useless at the start.

I just threw one together. Starting stats were 14 / 18 / 14 / 8 / 8 / 14 and final stats with gear & enhancements are 18 / 28 / 20 / 8 / 8 / 14. 274 HP & 413 SP. Saves with gear are 18/24/12. I grabbed Dodge as the optional feat and you start with Dodge 4% in gear, so I have 7% of the 11% allowed by the armor. I will probably rejigger the enhancements to cap that.

I look forward to dropping a Disco Ball down, Displacing, and then hitting the AoE chain attack to see how the "Challenging Mosher" does.

The one thing you are missing gear-wise is some Devotion. If you have Vet2 and a shared bank, roll a quick Cleric and grab the BtA "Splinterskull Acolyte Ring" ring you get for that (42 Devotion) and slot it in place of the "Ring of the Runaway" since Open Lock and Assassination DCs aren't important here. You could even slot the empty colorless slot in the ring with something interesting if you have something spare laying about.

If you have access to high level guild shrines then you are in decent shape, but if not then don't forget to pick up some Resist Energy wands. You're going to need them.

Sounds pretty good, while doing some testing on another build I tried out the full spinning blade attack. It took down Devashta and Salteshka within the 20 seconds, Dev was already at around 60% though. Seemed to have some problems doing enough dps to clear quickly, perhaps would work better with the shortswords and rapiers, I just ran around with my starting daggers.

[Arcanegrin]

Heres a pretty weird build.

Bladeforged Sorcerer 8 / paladin 2 / fvs 5

I rolled it up and it worked, saying that before hand because its odd. Basically you get one maximize feat for your one damaging spell (acid blast) and for your SLA (acid spray).

Everything else is for dps with greatswords, two handed fighting, power attack etc.

Main focus with this build is to get him fighting nasty with his original bladesworn gear. So in FVS warpriest line get all the weapon enhancements all the way up through Wrathful Weapons then also get Divine Power. Make sure to get Divine power also (add cha modifier to STR, I got +6)

In the bladeforged line grab what you like but make sure to get weapon attachment and communion of scribing (reconstruct sla).

All together with the FVS and Bladeforged lines you end up with pretty great dps on your sword 2x[2d6] +8 weapon. Your spell damage with acid blast is ok for groups, you'll never run out of healing (300+ hp reconstruct). Your SP sits at around 1000 so you'll be fine there. Full fighter's BAB.

You get ddoor, haste, blur.

Not sure how this stacks up to other bladeforged sorcs but the damage is pretty good.

The real key for me here is that rolling the toon and putting it together take very little time. You only get 1 skill point per level. Little to no need for most of your spell choices. All starting gear is fine so your good to go from the start.

Pros:
Haste, ddoor, blur
Range splash damage from Acid Blast
deathblock, 125% fort, feather fall
Good self healing from reconstruct
Strong DPS
Not SP reliant
Bladeforged look cool

Cons:
Tons of spell power but nothing to do with it
No movement speed increase other then haste
No extend