Challenge Farmer

[EllisDee37]

Updated August 18th, 2017 (Original version from before the enhancement pass can be found here.)


This is a first life 32pt human monk with a +2 dex tome required for ITWF and GTWF. You can get the dex tome from the 1750 favor reward as you level. Other tomes are helpful but not required or assumed.

The role of this monk, who stays level 16 forever, is to run heroic cannith challenges, be a crucible swimmer to help out guildmates, and also be a storage mule.

Race should be human to allow the dragonmark of passage. DDoor is a key element for challenges. We also use the expeditious retreat clicky from the dragonmark for run speed. (Ideal would be an upgraded quiver of alacrity, but the dragonmark clicky works fine.)


Challenge Farmer
Monk 16
Lawful Neutral Human


Stats
. . . . . . . .32pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ---- . . --------
Strength. . . . 15. . . . . . . . 4: WIS
Dexterity . . . 15. . . .+2. . . .8: WIS
Constitution. . 15. . . . . . . .12: WIS
Intelligence. . .8. . . . . . . .16: WIS
Wisdom. . . . . 15
Charisma. . . . .8. . . . . . . .


Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
. . . . .------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 19
Jump. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 19
Swim. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 19
Balance . 3. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 18
Tumble. . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------
. . . . .16. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4


Feats

.1. . . . : Cleave
.1 Human. : Least Dragonmark: Passage
.1 Monk . : Power Attack
.2 Monk . : Two Weapon Fighting
.3. . . . : Dodge OR Past Life: Monk
.3 Monk . : Path of Harmonious Balance
.6. . . . : Great Cleave
.6 Monk . : Stunning Fist
.9. . . . : Improved Two Weapon Fighting
12. . . . : Improved Critical: Bludgeoning
15. . . . : Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Enhancements (64 of 64 AP)

Shintao (33 AP)

• Bastion of Purity, Protection from Tainted Creatures, Iron Hand, Argent Fist
  1. Difficulty at the Beginning, Deft Strikes III, Ki Shout
  2. Lifting the Veil, Smite Tainted Creature, Iron Skin III, Unbalancing Strike, Conditioning III
  3. Restoring the Balance, Jade Strike, Dismissing Strike, Constitution
  4. The Receptive Earth, Constitution
  5. Empty Hand Mastery

Human (19 AP)

• Damage Boost, Dexterity, Saves Boost
  1. Dragonmark Focus: Orien III, Improved Recovery
  2. Lesser Dragonmark: Dimension Door
  3. Improved Recovery, Heroism
  4. Improved Recovery, Greater Heroism

Henshin Mystic (11 AP)

• Riddle of Fire, Ki Bolt, Sounding Staff
  1. Negotiator III, Way of the: Patient Tortoise
  2. Contemplation III

Ninja Spy (1 AP)

• Basic Ninja Training

You would benefit slightly from the second ninja spy core, which gives dex to damage. (Your dex will be up to 6 points higher than your strength.) That +3 damage would be nice but is by no means required. The build does spend the final 1 AP on the first core to at least give dex for to-hit. (And I couldn't find anything good to spend that last point on.)

If you're getting the dex tome from 1750 favor, you probably won't reach 1750 favor until level 14 or so. In that case, take a dummy feat at 9 (Mobility?) and then when you reach 1750 favor, use the free feat exchange to swap in ITWF. You can't take level 15 until you get the dex tome and make the swap for ITWF.

If you use more tomes, you can switch around stat points taken from enhancements to even them out as necessary.

----------------------------------------------------

I originally just wanted a bank mule, but decided to squeeze as much utility out of the character slot as I could.

Farming heroic challenges will give you a huge penalty when you bring in your epic characters due to the severe overlevel penalty on mats awarded. Some non-epic challenges have a level range of 4-15, others have 15-20, meaning level 15 is the ideal level to farm them all. However, there are many solid reasons to take this monk to level 16, so the build is written for 16. The overlevel penalty on the 4-15 challenges is only 10%, and the recipes that call for those mats only ask for 400 (as opposed to 600) so this minor penalty is acceptable.

For challenges (and crystal cove in particular) you'll want fast movement and ddoor, so I went with a dragonmarked monk for the high run speed and five ddoors per rest. During challenges you generally want to be soloing your particular task without a hire, so this build is a light monk for survivability.

[EllisDee37]

For a heroic challenge farmer, the cannith crafting pass rendered most alternate gear obsolete. Instead of a list of choices, the gear is
now pretty much one size fits all.


ACCESSORIES

Head: Cove Hat (Superior False Life of Concentration +15)
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) see farming video here
Wrist: Bracers of Wind (Resistance +5)
Hand: ML16 Strength 8 Gloves of Deadly 6 w/Ins. Strength 3
Waist: Arkat's Cord (Deathblock)
Feet: ML16 Dexterity 8 Boots of Parrying 3 w/Ins. Dexterity 3 (Jump +9)
Ring: ML16 Constitution 8 Ring of Sheltering 20 w/Ins. Constitution 3 (Blindness Immunity)
Ring: Ring of the Stalker (Good Luck +1)
Trinket: ML16 Doublestrike 9 Trinket of Stunning 9 w/Ins. Stunning 4
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.)

For the augments themselves:

• The Jump +9 augment for the boots essentially doesn't exist; craft on colorless slot boots and just wait for the augment. You can optionally carry jump potions if you like, but it's not really needed.
• Protection, natural armor, and good luck can be bought in gianthold for relics (dirt cheap)
• Deathblock is a store purchase, costing 95 TP
• Blindness ward and heavy fort can either be purchased in the store (75 TP each) or from collectable vendors (12 astrals each)

Swaps and Clickies

Standard buffs:

• Visor of the Flesh Render Guards x 4

Crucible Swim:

• Cannith Crafted: ML16 Belt of Swim 16 w/Ins. Swim 8 (Underwater Action)
• Infused Chaosrobe w/+10 reflex

Beholders:

• Silver Flame Necklace (fully upgraded)

Feather Falling and/or Jumping:

• Cannith Crafted: ML16 Feather Fall Boots of Jump 16

Feather Falling is for lava caves when you want to jump from the first bridge down to the western bridge. It's also kind of nice to soften the blow at the end of the long fall down the stairwell to the mother spider in rushmore's mansion. Really any feather fall swap in any slot will do the trick. A jump swap is unnecessary, but it seemed like a flavorful thing to include. (The build has 33 Jump without any augment or item.)



WEAPONS

For weapons there are actual choices. See this post for analysis of the various weapons.

For dps augments, your choices are between a vampire slayer augment from Mabar, or a cheapo acid augment from gianthold. Yugoloths in extraplanar palace are immune to acid, and some of the demons and devils in various challenges are resistant to acid, so vampire slayer is preferred. But until Mabar rolls around, acid is fine.

For your main trash beater:

• Cannith Crafted (Good of Bludgeon w/iDeadly and a red slot) <=== best dps
• Scraps of Enlightenment
• Adamantine Knuckles (slot Good Bypass in one of the augments)

My guy on live uses Scraps of Enlightenment with a vampire slayer augment and force damage ritual, but any of the above are outstanding choices. Vampiric stonedust wraps can be nice if you need vampirism to survive a tough boss fight. Note that Lit2 wraps are pretty far behind the curve compared to the above choices.


For undead:

• Greensteel triple positive <=== best dps
• Cannith Crafted (Light of Unnatural Bane w/iDeadly and a red slot)
• ML16 Mabar wraps

My guy on live used Mabar wraps for years, then switched to triple positive when they added greensteel handwraps. The cannith crafted version is very strong, with much more on-hit damage than the others but no auto-kill on a 20 feature.


For the archon on Kobold Island:

• Cannith Crafted (Evil of Chaotic Outsider Bane w/iDeadly and a red slot for acid augment)

The archon is immune to electricity and resistant to cold and fire, so acid is the clear choice for the augment.

[EllisDee37]

Stats

. . .Base .Lvl. Item. .Ins. Tome. Ship. AP. Stance. Total .Mod
Str . 15. . . . . 8 . . 3 . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 28. . .9
Dex . 15. . . . . 8 . . 3 . . 2 . . 2 . .1. . .3. . . 34. . 12
Con . 15. . . . . 8 . . 3 . . . . . 2 . .2. . -2. . . 28. . .9
Int . .8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 10. . .0
Wis . 15. . 4 . . 8 . . 3 . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 32. . 11
Cha . .8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 10. . .0


Hit Points

45 Heroic Durability (autogrant)
128 Monk
144 Constitution
20 Way of the Patient Tortoise
15 Conditioning III
40 Superior False Life (cove hat)
20 Vitality (arkat's cord)
10 Draconic Vitality (agents of argo favor)
20 ship buffs (Hag Apothecary)
----
442 hit points


Dodge

6 flurry of blows
9 bracers of wind
3 dodge (feat)
---
18 dodge


PRR

20 iron skin III
9 henshin cores
20 sheltering (ring)
9 insightful PRR (necklace)
---
58 PRR (20 MRR)


AC

10 base
12 monk level 15 (centered bonus)
12 dexterity mod
11 wisdom mod
2 shintao cores
7 frozen tunic
5 protection (augment)
5 natural armor (augment)
3 parrying (boots)
4 ship buffs (Armory)
---
71 AC


Reflex Save

10 monk levels
12 dex
5 resistance (augment)
3 parrying (boots)
1 luck (augment)
4 greater heroism (dragonmark)
2 shintao cores
2 ship buffs (Chronoscope)
---
39 reflex save


Stunning Fist

10 base
8 half character levels
11 wisdom mod
13 item (trinket)
1 ship buffs (Grandmaster's Dojo)
---
43 stunning fist dc


CRUCIBLE SWIM

You need to roll a total of 40 to save vs elite crucible traps, which means 39 reflex + 1 roll will do it if you're under the effects of saves boost, where 1 is no longer an auto-fail. Without boost you only need 38 reflex since a 1 fails anyway. These numbers are for elite; reaper will require higher saves. Figure aim for mid-to-high 40s for reaper, but that's just a guess.

The current is pretty strong if you don't have someone turning the valve. Figure high 40s / low 50s swim as a reasonable target.


Reflex

39 reflex save (see above)
5 infused chaos robe
4 saves boost
---
48 reflex during crucible swim


Swim

19 ranks
9 strength mod
24 item (crafted belt swap)
1 luck
4 greater heroism
---
57 swim

[EllisDee37]

Here are my notes for soloing crucible:

Bring larafay to deal with the maze casters

1) Talk to, in order:
   - Daggertooth (Gnoll) diplo
   - Vrall (Hobgoblin) diplo
   - Gorn (Orc) intim
   - Jorgundal (Giant) twice to begin

2) Maze
   - Turn auto-targeting OFF (press G)
   - With hire on I valve, get two crests above and below I
   - Head back toward entrance, leave I door near start closed
   - With hire on K valve, get K crest
   - Slot crest near K valve
   - Head toward H, leave K door open from start to H
   - With hire on H, slot two remaining crests
   - Grab horn and beat feet

3) Maze, upper level
   - Pull lever at start to reset wheels
   - Kill every gnoll
   - Pull far lever and run to set all 3 wheels
     - Color shows in nth position; flip wheels n-1 times

4) Swim
   - Be sure to open gate with lever right next to swim start
   - Heroism, Parrying, Underwater Action, Swim
   - After killing gnolls
     - Get horn
     - Do NOT touch treasure pile
     - DDoor back to start, head through maze and climb ladder
       (May need to have hire pull H for you)

[Stoner81]

Thanks for the posting the new version of this Ellis it is very much appreciated

Stoner81.

[kuro_zero]

Gear

This is subject to revision, almost certainly including a pair of damage goggles. Meaning I'll need to move my min2 gs goggles. *cries*

I've found deadly/accuracy items on Helms, Cloaks, and rings (got one with green slot too) as well so possible to slot it in either of those items and still keep goggles. Granted, the affix tend to show on goggles much more frequently.

[whereispowderedsilve]

Any chance u can do this up as 1 of the Iconics? I'll let u figure it out :P! ! If not thanks anyways! Cheers! Keep up the great work! !

[nibel]

Any chance u can do this up as 1 of the Iconics? I'll let u figure it out :P! ! If not thanks anyways! Cheers! Keep up the great work! !

Last time Ellis tried to build a iconic challenge farmer, I told him/her to wait until the enhancement pass, so we would have 4 options of iconic races, and the enhancement pass.

The major issue with the plan is still that "optimally", you would like to roll an iconic, jump into challenge farming, transfer mats to shared bank, and delete. I mean optimally, because this way you don't need to farm or craft for gear, and could just remake the build every time you need challenge mats. This means, we need to work with the iconic initial gear (That includes 30 nice healing potions)

If you want to keep the iconic around, and gear him up, and keep them there for anytime you need, I doubt any iconic will be better than this monk runner. I might be wrong.

[whereispowderedsilve]

Last time Ellis tried to build a iconic challenge farmer, I told him/her to wait until the enhancement pass, so we would have 4 options of iconic races, and the enhancement pass.

The major issue with the plan is still that "optimally", you would like to roll an iconic, jump into challenge farming, transfer mats to shared bank, and delete. I mean optimally, because this way you don't need to farm or craft for gear, and could just remake the build every time you need challenge mats. This means, we need to work with the iconic initial gear (That includes 30 nice healing potions)

If you want to keep the iconic around, and gear him up, and keep them there for anytime you need, I doubt any iconic will be better than this monk runner. I might be wrong.

Very true, I agree with you. BUT then I gotta "work" on getting it from 7 to 16! :P! :P! ! Lolz! >><<! Good advice though regardless. I was looking for a "shortcut" ! !

[EllisDee37]

Because DDoor is such an essential element of challenge farming the only viable iconic build I see is a bladeforged with sorc levels.

The downside to sorc is that animated armors are highly resistant to energy damage, which results in quickly draining a level 13 or 14 sorc's mana in any of the extraplanar challenges.

In the end, what we're looking for is some kind of arcane casting combined with sustainable non-energy dps for animated armors and high burst dps for bosses. The various bosses have immunities to cold, electricty and fire, so focusing on an energy to the detriment of other energies may be problematic. If you get 2, I think cold + electricty is still probably the best bet since no one boss is immune to both and both offer effective dots.

This is starting to sound like a wizard to me, since wizard can more easily fit in haste, displace, rage, master's touch, tenser's transformation, etc... in order to have a viable melee option for animated armors while still maintaining enough varied casting power.

I'll keep thinking about the ideal split, because a "disposable" iconic really is the dream for this. No way will it be as effective as this monk build, but it can still be highly effective for almost no work. I'm convinced of it.

[nibel]

Because DDoor is such an essential element of challenge farming the only viable iconic build I see is a bladeforged with sorc levels.

(...)

This is starting to sound like a wizard to me, since wizard can more easily fit in haste, displace, rage, master's touch, tenser's transformation, etc... in order to have a viable melee option for animated armors while still maintaining enough varied casting power.

While making and demaking toons for the wiki update, I think you should stop looking at the bladeforged and notice the sun-elf morninglord. It have +int instead of +dex, some serious light racial SLA, and can fit 11 wizard levels easily for Tenser and Ddoor. And two extra feats from wizard for metamagics.

Mayube something like Cleric 1/Wizard 12/Rogue 2?

[EllisDee37]

And bring a hire for heals?

[nibel]

All iconics receive 30 of the new healing potions on creation (the ones with a HoT effect). But if those do not suffice, we can just turn him into a vampire or wraith.

[EllisDee37]

Oh good point; I was so focused on sorc I forgot that wizard comes with its own healing.

Yeah, that has definite potential.

[nibel]

ok, my first try on the Morninglord iconic. Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Wizard 12/Rogue 2. Skills: Max Spellcraft, Heal, and Concentration. Spare points into jump and balance. (We will use spells for doors and locks)

Starting stats: Str 14, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 8, Cha 8.

With starting gear, Fire spellpower is not all that bad (this is without undead form):



Feats: 9 (6 general, 3 Wizard)

Maximize, Empower, Insightful Reflex, Extend, Heighten, Spell Pen, Greater Spell Pen, Two more (I'm pending towards Augment Summon if we use the skelly, and Power Attack)

Spell-wise, we will have one slot of level 2 or 3 permanently open because we can't learn 5 spells of one of those levels, and since the concept is to create and destroy, inscribing is off the table. I picked placeholders, but we can start thinking of stuff to place there:

Level 1: 5 slots
Level 2: 5 slots
Level 3: 5 slots
Level 4: 4 slots
Level 5: 4 slots
Level 6: 3 slots

I'm working on enhancements, but we have enough AP to get Vampire form and Enervation SLA (or Wraith form and Chain Missile SLA).

The major drawback is that even with elven armored spellcasting, we will stay with a 15% spell failure. But since we might mostly melee, this is reasonable, since it will affect mostly buffing and the ocasional attack spell. SLAs are not affected by spell failure.

[EllisDee37]

This is an elf, right? Can't we just grab any old robe or even go naked?

I think maybe focus more on the melee side with the feats. Kick starting str up to 16 (sacrifice int), take power attack, cleave, great cleave, improved critical, two more regular and then maximize, empower and extend with the 3 bonus feats.

For spells maybe:

Level 1: nightshield, feather fall, master's touch, sonic blast, exp retreat
Level 2: blur, invis, knock, scorching ray, web?
Level 3: haste, rage, displace, magic circle vs evil, chain missiles
Level 4: ddoor, death aura, firewall, acid rain
Level 5: niac's, eladar's, ?, ?
Level 6: tenser's, GH, true seeing

The idea being going with displacement, tenser's, GH and aura while in undead form cleaving away with whatever THF you find in the AH surrounded by firewall + acid rain plus dots if it's a named.

[nibel]

This is an elf, right? Can't we just grab any old robe or even go naked?

Possibly, yes. But the armor have 16% fire crit on it.

I think maybe focus more on the melee side with the feats. Kick starting str up to 16 (sacrifice int), take power attack, cleave, great cleave, improved critical, two more regular and then maximize, empower and extend with the 3 bonus feats.

This build don't qualify for Improved Critical (requires BAB +8). Otherwise, that is my idea too. Melee focus and stuff. I took the feats more as placeholders to check how high spellpower would go.

Using the starting weapon is not too shabby either. The orb have +78 fire spellpower (same as random gen ML 16), and the mace have Solar III (3d4 light damage) on it. Of course, weapon type benefits a two-hander, but if you can't find a good one for cheap on the AH, the basic weapon set is not bad.

[whereispowderedsilve]

Keep the brainstorming going guys! Great work! You can do it!!11 :P! ! Very interested in that Iconic build! ! Cheers!

[raznorw]

How about a melee based bladeforged wizard?

11 Wiz / 2 Pal / 2 Ftr

Take SLA reconstruct from Bladeforged tree for self healing.

This will give a BAB of 9, so ICrit: slashing can be taken at 15 for use with the greatsword.

6 base feats, 2 fighter, 3 wiz
PA, Cleave, GC, ICrit, Dodge, THF (str 15), iTHF (BAB 6, str 17), WF: Slashing
Wiz Feats: Extend, Eschew Materials, Quicken

Fighter Bonus Feats: iTHF, Improved Crit: Slashing (lvl 13, 14)
Feats by level: PA, Cleave, GC, Dodge, THF, WF: Slashing
Take Pld 2, Wiz 10, ftr 2, wiz 1 (to finish skills)

Skills:
Repair - 18 ranks + 13 (goggles) + 2 (int) = 33 Repair spell power
Concentration
Jump (to 10)
Balance

Enhancements: (56 points)
Bladeforged: 23
(1) Improved Fort (core)
(1) Inscribed Armor
(6) Mechanist 3 - 20% Improved healing from repair, +3 repair
(6) Communion of Scribing 3 - 25 SP Reconstruct, 6s cooldown
(6) Improved Power Attack 3
(1) Weapon Attachment - +.5[W]
(1) Communion of Handling - Racial Seeker 2 and grants Adamantine
(1) Power of the forge - Action boost
Kensai: 23
(1) Core I - Focus Greatswords
(6) Extra Action Boost III
(4) Weapon Spec: GS - II
(3) Haste Boost III
(6) Improved Dodge III
(3) Reed in the wind III
48 Points Spent, 8 left undecided
-- Can grab some Archmage SLAs maybe though very low spellpower / dcs

Reconstruct will heal for 150 * 1.2 (enhancement) * 1.1 (item) * ~2.05 (72 repair item, 33 skill)
~405 healing / 25 SP / 6s - unsure if this is doubled from Tenser's
-- probably overkill, can work on enhancements more later

Stats: With default gear:
Str: 14 (6) +3 lvls +5 gear = 22
Dex: 13 (8) +4 gear = 17
Con: 16 (6) + 5 gear = 21
Int: 12 (4) = 12
Wis: 6 +4 gear = 10
Cha: 15 (8) +5 gear = 20

lvl ups in Str - 17 Str to qualify for THF line

uneven con, can shift points some

Saves:
3/0/0 - Paladin lvls
3/0/0 - Fighter lvls
3/3/7 - Wiz lvls
5/5/5 - Divine Grace
4/4/4 - Greater Heroism
2/2/2 - parrying gear
4/4/4 - resistance gear
7/0/0 - con (w/tensers)
0/3/0 - dex
2/2/2 - paladin aura
-----------------
33 / 24 / 24

HP: (w/tensers)
-- 84 base + 105 con + 43 feat + 50 enchanted
= 282 HP

Spell points: 691

Greatsword:
1.5[2d6] + 3, Bloodletter IV, True law
+.5[W] from

Str - 17 + 5 (item) + 4 (tensers) = 26

Dmg/swing: 1.5[2d6] + .5[2d6] = 14 + 12 (str) + 16 (power attack) + 3 (enhancement) + 3 (kensai II)
= 48 avg dmg per regular hit

Crit: 17-20x2, with seeker 2

8 Haste boots + 8 power of the forge boosts, which may be stacking, along with melee alacrity and a lot of glancing blow dmg + cleaves

Overall, should be a fine Melee fighter, decent saves, great self-healing, doesn't need an initial set of components for wiz spells. No Monk run speed or wings, but can't have everything.

Spells:
As above, except take fox's cunning as a lvl 2 spell to be able to cast lvl 6 spells

I don't have a slot free to roll this up yet, so I don't know HP / SP totals. Will try to update later tonight.

Gear:
goggles: +13 spot, 13 repair
head: +75% fortification, +72 repair spell power
neck: deathblock, wis +4
trinket: Cha +5, repair 10%
back: Prot +4, Greater False life
Waist: str +5, dex +4
finger 1: con +5, concentration +13
hands: melee alacrity 10%, attack bonus +2
feet: striding 25%, dodge 2%
finger 2: Parrying IV, intim +13
bracers: resistance +4, doublestrike 3%
docent: +4, vit +20, greater thorn guard

[EllisDee37]

I like where you're going with that. I do have a free slot to roll one up and try it out.

My only concern is...how do you get bladeforged now? Was it only available via preorder? If a brand new player joined today, went VIP and bought both expansion standard editions, would they have bladeforged?