About to make a new Clonk, looking for advice.

[Blaiseblah]

Hey guys. I'm looking to make my first Clonk and was hoping to see if anyone can tell me if I messed up before I make him.

The goal of this build was to be a good caster, with decent melee. While this build sounds fun, if I can't perform well in epic elite I don't think I will make the character. Here's the build:

Human 36 pt build

18 Cleric 2 Monk

Stats

14 Str
15 Dex
12 Con
8 Int
18 Wis with level ups
10 Cha

Feats in no particular leveling order:

Maximize
Empowered Healing Spell
Stunning Fist
PL: Arcane Initiate
TWF, ITWF, GTWF
Heighten
IC: Bludgeon
Quicken

A point of concern I have is if my melee would be even worth using at endgame with lowish strength and no PA. I'd really like to keep some offensive casting, otherwise I'll probably just TR into another Wiz. My biggest concern is that I'm spreading myself too thin and trying to do too much. But if I can be a good caster while being decent, not super uber or anything, melee I think it could work. My stunning fist should be solid too.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[polymath]

I am also very curious about a build like this. Hopefully someone can chime in and give some insight here.

[AbyssalMage]

Hey guys. I'm looking to make my first Clonk and was hoping to see if anyone can tell me if I messed up before I make him.

The goal of this build was to be a good caster, with decent melee. While this build sounds fun, if I can't perform well in epic elite I don't think I will make the character. Here's the build:

Human 36 pt build

18 Cleric 2 Monk

Stats

14 Str
15 Dex
12 Con
8 Int
18 Wis with level ups
10 Cha

Feats in no particular leveling order:

Maximize
Empowered Healing Spell
Stunning Fist
PL: Arcane Initiate
TWF, ITWF, GTWF
Heighten
IC: Bludgeon
Quicken

A point of concern I have is if my melee would be even worth using at endgame with lowish strength and no PA. I'd really like to keep some offensive casting, otherwise I'll probably just TR into another Wiz. My biggest concern is that I'm spreading myself too thin and trying to do too much. But if I can be a good caster while being decent, not super uber or anything, melee I think it could work. My stunning fist should be solid too.

Thanks for any help in advance.

My first thoughts would be no if you are looking to do well in EE also. I guess it would depend on the Destiny you pair with it.

p.s. To clarify, Healing should not be the issue. It would be the casting side. I don't think you would have enough "umph" to do anything but tickle end game EE mobs with their inflated HP's. Warpriest should allow you (and everyone else) to nice damage through melee.

[stoerm]

I had a similar build, albeit first life. I felt stretched thin and TR'd. Stunning fist worked well but TWF feats were a waste, so low was the damage output. Monk gives you +2 wis, evasion, 2 feats etc, but I'd focus on the casting side and use melee mostly for debuffing and CC wraps.

If you want to focus on melee damage I'd consider going either the str route (eg. horc, qstaff and 2hf) or perhaps con (dwarf, gaxe and throw your weight around). In either case you'd probably want to focus on melee and forget about offensive spells, at least DC/spell pen ones. Light and possibly BB would still work.

Please report on your choices and how it works out.

[Soulfurnace]

I had a similar build, albeit first life. I felt stretched thin and TR'd. Stunning fist worked well but TWF feats were a waste, so low was the damage output. Monk gives you +2 wis, evasion, 2 feats etc, but I'd focus on the casting side and use melee mostly for debuffing and CC wraps.

If you want to focus on melee damage I'd consider going either the str route (eg. horc, qstaff and 2hf) or perhaps con (dwarf, gaxe and throw your weight around). In either case you'd probably want to focus on melee and forget about offensive spells, at least DC/spell pen ones. Light and possibly BB would still work.

Please report on your choices and how it works out.

Why do people think wis based has so much less damage than str based?

Also, TWF feats aren't really a waste. Stunning fist has offhand procs (maybe doublestrike, don't know, not fussed). 1.8 chances to hit versus 1.2? (Or 1.9 versus 1.3 if you have 10% offhand enhancement)

[Fefnir_2011]

I have a clonk (wis-based caster) that I enjoy quite a lot. Just a couple of things about your build:

strength is nice, but with divine might, not as necessary. Those are points you could be spending in charisma for more turns and DM, or in int to flesh out your skills. As a 36 pt build, I did STR 10, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 18, CHA 12.

While the TWF feats are also nice to have if you have the feat room, you won't really have the space on clonks because they can be so feat starved. I went with:

Epic Spell Penetration
Grandmaster of Forms
Maximize
Empower
Heighten
Quicken
Stunning Fist (first monk feat)
TWF (second monk feat)
SF: Evocation (so I can twist in my +5 from Draconic and Magister)

Not exactly group healer oriented when you also consider how little I invested in Radiant Servant, and I'm still questioning if Grandmaster of Forms is really worth three feats. But you can hit quite the high wisdom, and combined with evasion, sky high saves (just sitting on the boat with a GH I'm at 43/36/56), CC from spells and stunning fist, and some consistent melee damage, you can do a lot more than people think. When you're in Grandmaster of Flowers it isn't hard to get a Everything is Nothing DC in the 60s. The main problem is finding good kamas!

And even with my strength pretty much dumped, i hit 30 strength in Ocean stance. I don't hit for much, but it's SP-free damage, which is the important part. I've taken to using Grave Wrappings as my trash beaters also, and that helps on both melee and casting ends. When you really want more DPS (say for boss fights where you aren't DC casting), you can step into Wind stance. I also use Earth stance occasionally for the damage mitigation. I've only found the other stances worthwhile since i switched to having Grandmaster of Forms, though.

Anyway, I really based my clonk build off of Groan's fvs/monk build from the earlier days of MotU. He does a better job of explaining the why's and how's of a monk-splashed caster divine in post-20 content than I can. Just keep in mind the differences between fvs and cleric, and also some things have changed since then like the level cap increase and the enhancement pass.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...nded-divine%29

[stoerm]

Why do people think wis based has so much less damage than str based?

Because I tried it and couldn't get it to work. Perhaps I just did it wrong. Note we are talking two or three monk levels on a clonk, not a pure monk. With a pure(ish) monk it's different as you get increased die steps in unarmed combat and doublestrike from wind stance.

[Soulfurnace]

Because I tried it and couldn't get it to work. Perhaps I just did it wrong. Note we are talking two or three monk levels on a clonk, not a pure monk. With a pure(ish) monk it's different as you get increased die steps in unarmed combat and doublestrike from wind stance.

I use earth stance. The prr and +1 to crit multiplier is great fun. (Water if I need more DC, of course)
You can improve stances with u19, which might be worth it depending on build.
However, 2 monk versus 6 (my melee wizard) gives .5 die step to me, which doesn't help much.

Anyway, this is str versus wis. Let's say you start with 10 str, 18 wisdom, all levels into wisdom. Then compare it to 18 str, all levels into str, no wisdom.
That gives 10 str versus 25 str. Assuming 25 gets you another mod, 26.
(10-10)/2=0 mod. (26-10)/2 = 8 mod.
8-0=8. The str build has 8 dmg/hit more.
So, wis build has a 6 second stun with 1.9 chances to land.. and a 6 second cooldown. Str build has an 8 dmg advantage, but only a 6 second stun with a 15 second cooldown - and only 1 chance to land.

Overall, wisdom tends to get more dps on everything except red/purple named. (Also, you don't start with 10 str. That's just an example. The actual difference (for me) tends to be 7 str, or 3-4 damage per hit.)