The whirling steel soul - 12fvs 6 monk 2 fighter build

[FuzzyDuck81]

A build I'm working on at the moment, designed to work on synergies between whirling steel strike, the monk class & the war priest enhancement line.

Human

Starting stats - to be filled in later when i get home.. the character i built it on is a 36 point build but others should work fine.

12 favoured soul, 6 monk, 2 fighter

Feats:
Heroic: 2wf, i2wf, g2wf, dodge, PA, cleave, great cleave, IC:slashing, whirling steel strike, weapon focus: slashing, Light path, dodge, quicken, empower healing, master of forms.
Epic: Overwhelming criticals, others to be decided but perma-haste at level 27 seems a good bet

It's level 18 at the moment & seems very effective - a few highlights:
- Running in earth stance 3 it has some pretty tasty crits which will only get better with OC later
- Some decent buff & curative spells
- Full BAB
- Longswords have an extra +5 enhancement bonus (looking forward to dual oathblades!) & gain some light damage on a vorpal hit
- Longswords also count as spellcasting implement to supplement spellpower further
- FoL plus ameliorating strike gives some great survivability in combat, sufficient for many circumstances & they can be backed up with actual healing spells when necessary - running for a couple hours last night i never had to cast any on myself though.
- Perma-blur & Shadow Veil clicky
- Reed in the wind, a nice extra damage atack that gives a useful dodge boost every few seconds.
- Good dodge % will only get better later with more gear up to the 28% cap.
- 1st tier in the healing ki boost line from Shintao means i have the remove curse thingy for when he's running a number of raids & quests later
- Sting of the ninja for extra poison damage
- Divine vessel for extra periodic AoE damage
- Enflame to boost self & group with extra damage, % elemental resistances & +saves.

Currently i've got some enhancement points in the racial tree, but those will be removed in later epic levels to add more to the AoV tree to allow me to take the archon, adding extra dps capability... and when running in exalted angel destiny it'll let me cast divine wrath frequently for combined AoE damage & healing.

[Ziindarax]

A promising build, but just one problem - Long Swords are not ki weapons (seeing as you have to take ninja or kensai just to make short swords treated as monk weapons), and thus, you won't be centered. In order to receive the benefits of monk stances, I think you have to be completely centered (hence why so many builds looking to exploit monk abilities are rolling 8 fighter levels for all the prereqs needed to get the top tier enhancement allowing you to be centered with greataxes of all things).

Avatar of Nature would be better for your DPS because the tree form is easily sustained via nukes (like your Archon), healing (such as rejuv cocoon), and buffs. Also, you can take on buffs that (I believe) include a bonus to dodge if you're fighting unarmed, in animal form, or are dual-wielding.

Other than that, it appears to be a decent build.

A build I'm working on at the moment, designed to work on synergies between whirling steel strike, the monk class & the war priest enhancement line.

Human

Starting stats - to be filled in later when i get home.. the character i built it on is a 36 point build but others should work fine.

12 favoured soul, 6 monk, 2 fighter

Feats:
Heroic: 2wf, i2wf, g2wf, dodge, PA, cleave, great cleave, IC:slashing, whirling steel strike, weapon focus: slashing, Light path, dodge, quicken, empower healing, master of forms.
Epic: Overwhelming criticals, others to be decided but perma-haste at level 27 seems a good bet

It's level 18 at the moment & seems very effective - a few highlights:
- Running in earth stance 3 it has some pretty tasty crits which will only get better with OC later
- Some decent buff & curative spells
- Full BAB
- Longswords have an extra +5 enhancement bonus (looking forward to dual oathblades!) & gain some light damage on a vorpal hit
- Longswords also count as spellcasting implement to supplement spellpower further
- FoL plus ameliorating strike gives some great survivability in combat, sufficient for many circumstances & they can be backed up with actual healing spells when necessary - running for a couple hours last night i never had to cast any on myself though.
- Perma-blur & Shadow Veil clicky
- Reed in the wind, a nice extra damage atack that gives a useful dodge boost every few seconds.
- Good dodge % will only get better later with more gear up to the 28% cap.
- 1st tier in the healing ki boost line from Shintao means i have the remove curse thingy for when he's running a number of raids & quests later
- Sting of the ninja for extra poison damage
- Divine vessel for extra periodic AoE damage
- Enflame to boost self & group with extra damage, % elemental resistances & +saves.

Currently i've got some enhancement points in the racial tree, but those will be removed in later epic levels to add more to the AoV tree to allow me to take the archon, adding extra dps capability... and when running in exalted angel destiny it'll let me cast divine wrath frequently for combined AoE damage & healing.

[FuzzyDuck81]

A promising build, but just one problem - Long Swords are not ki weapons (seeing as you have to take ninja or kensai just to make short swords treated as monk weapons), and thus, you won't be centered. In order to receive the benefits of monk stances, I think you have to be completely centered (hence why so many builds looking to exploit monk abilities are rolling 8 fighter levels for all the prereqs needed to get the top tier enhancement allowing you to be centered with greataxes of all things).

Avatar of Nature would be better for your DPS because the tree form is easily sustained via nukes (like your Archon), healing (such as rejuv cocoon), and buffs. Also, you can take on buffs that (I believe) include a bonus to dodge if you're fighting unarmed, in animal form, or are dual-wielding.

Other than that, it appears to be a decent build.

You missed the whirling steel strike bit http://ddowiki.com/page/Whirling_Steel_Strike - makes longswords ki weapons & that's kind of the point I'm running this character now (well, at work right NOW but you know what i mean) & it's working well from the experiences i've had with it so far.

As for destiny, i'd naturally work through multiple ones & see which works out best for me - they aren't necessarily the ones i'd have expected, on my ninja for example i really enjoyed fatesinger.

[Alavatar]

- Perma-blur & Shadow Veil clicky

I heard somewhere that the second Ninja Spy core ability (Advanced Ninja Training) is bugged, that it directly substitutes DEX instead of STR even if STR is higher. Have you been experiencing that?

I have been thinking of doing something similar except 6 Ranger/2 Monk to take advantage of the double strike.

[FuzzyDuck81]

I heard somewhere that the second Ninja Spy core ability (Advanced Ninja Training) is bugged, that it directly substitutes DEX instead of STR even if STR is higher. Have you been experiencing that?

I have been thinking of doing something similar except 6 Ranger/2 Monk to take advantage of the double strike.

Can't say i've noticed, but then i haven't really been looking, i've just been running around, swinging 2 longswords, killing stuff & supporting the party with free smitey healing bursts I briefly considered the 6 ranger version, but decided to go with more monk for the extra survivability through more dodge & FoL, though will agree that the 6 ranger, especially with zen archery, would certainly make for a more versatile build.

[kuro_zero]

I heard somewhere that the second Ninja Spy core ability (Advanced Ninja Training) is bugged, that it directly substitutes DEX instead of STR even if STR is higher. Have you been experiencing that?

I have been thinking of doing something similar except 6 Ranger/2 Monk to take advantage of the double strike.

This is an issue with Zen Archery and bows if one has Bow Str. Melee weapons correctly use the higher stat if multiple ability scored can be used.

OP looks good but unfortunately beyond Oath Blades not a whole lot of options in longswords. The CitW longsword is ... meh at best.

Better option is probably Drow (vulkoor), centered with ninja spy saving two feats (WF and WSS) with an upgrade path from commendation Star of Day to CitW Celestias. Oh, still STR based since ninja spy DEX to dmg doesn't work with celestia since it doesn't have slash or Pierce dmg component.

I'm also planning a similar split but as an Elf AA (Silver Flame) Trying to grapple the enhacements - simply not enough AP

[Maelodic]

I would recommend going Drow instead and using the huge amount of shortsword enhancements you get there as well as celestias to do exactly the same thing, only with a few more feat slots and a bit more damage.

[unbongwah]

I was thinking of a drow version too, using SSs saves two feats and if you take Vulkoor you can add Warpriest enhs to boost melee. I see OP & I both thought working in Ameliorating Strike + Fists of Light was a good way of providing a lot of free heals.

[FuzzyDuck81]

TBH the main reason i went with longsword is because i have a couple of shortsword users already so just wanted something ever so slightly different But i hit 20 on the character last night & am loving it, great survivability & a decent dps output.