Challenge Farmer

[C-Dog]

Couple questions/thoughts about the gear layout...

o Devotion - that's just to improve scroll/pot use, right? How important is this, in your opinion, or was it just an open crafting slot filled w/ the best available? So an augment could work, if you could find a red/purple slot? (ML 16 Ruby of Devotion = +78, vs. 97 crafted. Less, but not too shabby.)

(EDIT: All wrong. Devotion does not help item use, and is key to the build. See following post.)


Then, just found myself thinking outside the box...

For a heroic challenge farmer... the gear is
now pretty much one size fits all.

ACCESSORIES (edited)

• Eyes: ML16 Wisdom 8 Goggles of True Seeing w/Ins. Wisdom 3
• Neck: ML16 Spell Saves 6 Necklace of Devotion 97 w/Ins. PRR 9 (Natural Armor +5)
• Back: Cloak of Invisibility (Heavy Fort)
• Waist: Arkat's Cord (Deathblock)
• Ring: ML16 Constitution 8 Ring of Sheltering 20 w/Ins. Constitution 3 (Blindness Immunity)
• Body: Frozen Tunic (Protection +5)

The design is to allow situational swaps with minimal impact, as well as easiest availability of augment slot base items for crafting. The natural armor can go anywhere; it doesn't have to be necklace. Whatever green slot base item you find, put it there. (Goggles, necklace, gloves, or even boots.)

I was wondering if a Cloak of the Mimic wouldn't add more than the Invsibility one...

The Cloak of Invisibility has:

• Invisibility — 1 Charges (Recharged/Day:1)
• Invisibility (Protection +2*)
  (* Does NOT stack w/ Protection +5 augment, above - both are "Deflection" bonuses - right?)
• Ghostly (10% incorporeal miss chance)
• Green Augment Slot
• (potential Mythic Cloak Boost +1 or +3)

The Cloak of the Mimic (ML 16) has:

• Sticky Goo Guard
• Deathblock
• Fortification +97%
• Physical Sheltering +20
• DR 10/Law
• Green Augment Slot

Essentially, you're giving up a 10% miss for the DR 10 plus Goo Guard, which (I'm told) is money.

Plus it throws in your Heavy Fort (well, 97% of it) and Deathblock, which can be rather expensive augments, so for some players it could make life easier. And it frees the yellow slot on Arkat's Cord*, but more it means the Cloak + Frozen Tunic provide all the green slots you need, so no need to scrounge the AH for a green-slot blank.

(* maybe for a Striding +25% augment, if you don't have the Quiver of Alacrity?)

(The 20 PRR... meh, without the MRR half of Sheltering, proly not worth the loss. You could live dangerously and hope you never get damaged by magic, or just craft as above. I think I know which I'd do, but maybe it wouldn't hurt ~that~ much? ED?)


Also, since blanks w/ clear slots are easy enough to find, thinking about adding a Diamond of Balance, and another of Heal, just cuz it can't hurt. Heh, or, since it's essentially a Wisdom build, might even throw in a Diamond of Listen, just to say I did - gawdz know they don't sell on the AH. ;D


With less convincing results, was also trying to shoehorn this in...

ACCESSORIES (edited)

• Eyes: ML16 Wisdom 8 Goggles of True Seeing w/Ins. Wisdom 3
• Ring: ML16 Constitution 8 Ring of Sheltering 20 w/Ins. Constitution 3 (Blindness Immunity)
• Trinket: ML16 Doublestrike 9 Trinket of Stunning 9 w/Ins. Stunning 4

(Edit: To save reading a flawed thought, the 10% Concealment miss chance from Dusk does not stack w/ the 20% Concealment miss from Bracers of the Wind - see posts below. And the effects on the Trinket just can't be shoehorned in anywhere else. So... nupe!)

o Symbol of the Slave Lords (trinket)

• True Seeing: Passive: You gain the benefit of the spell True Seeing.
• Insightful Constitution +2
• Dusk (10% Concealment miss chance)
• Green Augment Slot
• Blue Augment Slot
• (Against the Slave Lords Set Bonus)
• (potential Mythic Trinket Boost +1 or +3)

This would free up the crafted True Seeing suffix in the Goggles, add Dusk (a different 10% miss chance), cover +2 of the +3 Insightful Constitution (freeing up the 3rd crafted slot in that ring), and adds 2 more augment slots, a blue and a green - but for what, I don't know atm.

Since we're dropping from an even number in Con, we do lose 16 HP, but that should be more than compensated for by the additional 10% miss chance - 1 or 2 missed hits diff covers that. And it frees up 2 more build points* - maybe a starting 10 Cha for +1 to UMD. Whatever, go crazy.

(* Edit: On the build in the OP - there are several variations in later posts where it only saves 1 pt.)

Obvious problem is that it replaces a very important set of bonuses that the current crafted trinket provides - Doublestrike 9 + Stunning 13 - and atm I'm struggling to juggle all the saved slots combined to see if they can be transferred somewhere - but am losing hope that the mix is there. As nice as the other perks would be.

[unbongwah]

o Devotion - that's just to improve scroll/pot use, right?

Devotion has no effect on potions nor scrolls. It's there for Fists of Light's finisher which is boosted by Positive Spellpower.

[Matuse]

This would free up the crafted True Seeing suffix in the Goggles, add Dusk (a different 10% miss chance)

Dusk stacks with Incorporeal, but not Blurry/Displacement, and a challenge farmer should have no trouble getting those. The Symbol is a useful item, but the Dusk is not why.

[C-Dog]

Devotion has no effect on potions nor scrolls. It's there for Fists of Light's finisher which is boosted by Positive Spellpower.

Ah, so hardly an afterthought - check.

Dusk stacks with Incorporeal, but not Blurry/Displacement, and a challenge farmer should have no trouble getting those. The Symbol is a useful item, but the Dusk is not why.

OP gearlist includes permanent Blurry (Bracers of Wind). Since both are "concealment" chances, then you're 100% right.

(It wouldn't fit anyway, that trinket is kinda key to the mix.)


Thanks to both!

[EllisDee37]

Point taken that the cloak's ghostly doesn't grant you the "ignore incorporeal miss chance" part of it, since the listed gearset includes ethereal on the ring of the stalker. Without that, ghostly is nice but easily discardable if something better comes along.

The remnant cloak is a possibility, for example, though with all the devotion and healing amp in the build, we don't really need more healing.

Shadowhail cloak seems like a clear upgrade compared to cloak of invisibility, at least. It still has ghostly, which we don't strictly need but is nice to have, has the same green slot, and then deception instead of invisibility.

And yeah, that mimic cloak looks solid. I do loves me some DR 10/(whatever). The devils in short cuts ignore DR/Law, but for everyone else, every little bit helps. Especially devashta and her six khopeshes.

In any case it's looking like I need to revisit this build in the near future after henshin mystic cores lose their shiny.

[C-Dog]

The ring's "ghostly" isn't available until ML 20. The ML 16 version has "Ethereal" = ghost touch. So the current cloak still gives that, np.

o http://ddowiki.com/page/Ring_of_the_Stalker

[EllisDee37]

The ring's "ghostly" isn't available until ML 20. The ML 16 version has "Ethereal" = ghost touch. So the current cloak still gives that, np.

o http://ddowiki.com/page/Ring_of_the_Stalker

Yep, exactly. My point was that since we're getting ghost touch from the ring, the ghostly on the cloak only offers 10% miss chance. That's nice to have, but not mission critical. (But as far as comparing effects with each other goes, 10% miss chance by itself is still pretty darn good.)

[C-Dog]

Ah, got it, I misunderstood your emphasis - nm.
o7

[Saekee]

In any case it's looking like I need to revisit this build in the near future after henshin mystic cores lose their shiny.

Due to power creep the challenges are even easier than ever—no champs or reaper stuff. But the escorted allies are still vulnerable ofc. I would try to add haste boost for faster boss kills as an option. Vistani, while dagger-based, has it at 8 AP. Costly, but something to consider since this build will smuck everything anyway.

The ravenloft undead wraps are a cinch to get & something to consider too.

[C-Dog]

I'm leaning toward starting w/ Arti rather than Rogue, but that's (mostly) for general utility and out-of-challenge solo-ability. You lose some if you're chasing the Social Skills*, but gain:

• Dog as a lever-puller
• Heavy Repeater to start far-away combats (and/or plink Reapers)
• A couple lowbie spells (pro'ly including Enchant Weapon for +1/+1)
• +2 UMD/+1 Caster Level for scrolls.

He can still make the Crucible social rolls*, it'll just require a higher roll to do so. Ymmv when that roll is "too high to be (acceptably) reliable".

(* See post on previous page, and the posts just above that one leading up to it)

[EllisDee37]

Well, I can say with confidence: A crossbow alt is a fantastic challenge farmer. Here's mine on my dualbox account. When cove rolls around I run torches with the monk and defend the center with the mechanic and it works awesome, but the mechanic can also easily solo any of the heroic challenges.

[EllisDee37]

Due to power creep the challenges are even easier than ever—no champs or reaper stuff. But the escorted allies are still vulnerable ofc. I would try to add haste boost for faster boss kills as an option. Vistani, while dagger-based, has it at 8 AP. Costly, but something to consider since this build will smuck everything anyway.

That's not a bad idea. We do use human damage boost, though, so we're at least getting some kind of boost for boss fights. Since you can't use them at the same time anymore, I don't know how much more dps haste boost gives over human damage boost, but it'll end up being something less than 30%.

The ravenloft undead wraps are a cinch to get & something to consider too.

I haven't bought ravenloft yet, but will check them out. (My guy is currently using +++ greensteel.)

[Matuse]

Assuming you went for all damage, +++ is:
1.5[W] +2d6 Holy, +1d6 Good Burst, +6d6 Greater Disruption. --> 31.5 damage per hit.
On an 18-19 Crit, you add 6d6 in Burst and Blast damage. --> 21 damage per crit.
On a vorpal you add another 3d6 from Good Blast, and 100 damage or instant death from Greater Disruption. --> 109.5 per vorpal, assuming target isn't vaporized.

Barovian Handwraps are 1.5[W] +3d10 Bane, +3d6 Holy, +3d6 Fire --> 37.5 per hit.

It's not much of a comparison. Only real advantage Barovian has is the Silver and red slot....with heavy Shintao splash, you're covering /Silver from enhancements regardless. GS at least gives you /Evil if you're doing kobold island for killing the lantern archon.

[Saekee]

Assuming you went for all damage, +++ is:
1.5[W] +2d6 Holy, +1d6 Good Burst, +6d6 Greater Disruption. --> 31.5 damage per hit.
On an 18-19 Crit, you add 6d6 in Burst and Blast damage. --> 21 damage per crit.
On a vorpal you add another 3d6 from Good Blast, and 100 damage or instant death from Greater Disruption. --> 109.5 per vorpal, assuming target isn't vaporized.

Barovian Handwraps are 1.5[W] +3d10 Bane, +3d6 Holy, +3d6 Fire --> 37.5 per hit.

It's not much of a comparison. Only real advantage Barovian has is the Silver and red slot....with heavy Shintao splash, you're covering /Silver from enhancements regardless. GS at least gives you /Evil if you're doing kobold island for killing the lantern archon.

thx for breakdown—looks like they hold up well and one gets them free

[EllisDee37]

GS at least gives you /Evil if you're doing kobold island for killing the lantern archon.

I use crafted evil of chaotic outsider bane for the archon. None of the +++ procs hurt it.

thx for breakdown—looks like they hold up well and one gets them free

Not really, except when fighting The Disruptor (the named giant skeleton), red-named weeps at large extractors in Kobold Chaos, or Jack Jibbers in crystal cove.

Against trash mobs the +++ are just flat-out superior for the insta-kill.

[Matuse]

thx for breakdown—looks like they hold up well and one gets them free

What I meant was that the +++ wraps are vastly superior to Barovian.

The good damage from +++ will hit almost everything in every challenge except for the lantern archon and some constructs/mephits (who will ignore the holy, but still get hit by the good burst/blast). Bane and Fire damage on Barovian will be resisted by a lot of stuff.

+++ also gives you a raise dead clickie for ressing a hireling if you use one for center defense in the lava caves or the like.

[Swimms]

Point taken that the cloak's ghostly doesn't grant you the "ignore incorporeal miss chance" part of it, since the listed gearset includes ethereal on the ring of the stalker. Without that, ghostly is nice but easily discardable if something better comes along.

The remnant cloak is a possibility, for example, though with all the devotion and healing amp in the build, we don't really need more healing.

Shadowhail cloak seems like a clear upgrade compared to cloak of invisibility, at least. It still has ghostly, which we don't strictly need but is nice to have, has the same green slot, and then deception instead of invisibility.

And yeah, that mimic cloak looks solid. I do loves me some DR 10/(whatever). The devils in short cuts ignore DR/Law, but for everyone else, every little bit helps. Especially devashta and her six khopeshes.

In any case it's looking like I need to revisit this build in the near future after henshin mystic cores lose their shiny.

Is this still a viable build for someone who has not soloed the challenges before?

[EllisDee37]

Is this still a viable build for someone who has not soloed the challenges before?

Yep.

I only meant "revisit the build" in terms of re-evaluating how many AP to spend in the Henshin Mystic tree since they're removing most of the melee power from the early cores.

[Swimms]

Yep.

I only meant "revisit the build" in terms of re-evaluating how many AP to spend in the Henshin Mystic tree since they're removing most of the melee power from the early cores.

Perfect thanks, I had an alt (1 fighter PL) that I TRd into a monk who just hit 16 today so I crafted up the gear and will give him a go tomorrow after watching your videos a bit more. I am obviously missing the vaults of the arti gear but was able to craft everything else and had picked up the ml 16 mimic cloak so I'm gonna give that a shot. Thanks again for your efforts.

[Swimms]

I spent some time.running labor shortage and buying time today, I would say the build made those runs very easy. I farmed enough for T1 bracers but figured I would post here before exchanging any more mats. Are the other challenges as easy and straight forward as these quests or is it just a matter of jumping in, making mistakes and learning to get more efficient with runs? What quests are easiest to run for stalker ring mats? Thanks for the build idea it has been a refreshing change of pace