Spell N Weapon

[Darkstar1996]

Hello,

Ive been playing a little and with the eldritch knight release there is a lot to be done. I've alwys wanted a spell plus X weapon. All of the classes I've played I love the Arti and Ranger AA. There great. And with eldritch knight there cool, just there melee damage dosnt seem to be that good. Is there hit based off str or int? And would it be good to multiclass with arti for Insightful Damage maybe? I'm just thinking what's the better class combo. I love them all justwhich shshould I max first.

Pure Arti

Pure Ranger AA

Pure Eldritch Knight

Or 6/14 Arti/Wiz eldritch for insightful.

Ty

[Darkstar1996]

Anyone?

[unbongwah]

I don't think anyone's come up with a great EK build yet; although based on the number of arcanes I see wandering around Stormreach / Eveningstar with perma-Tensers activated, it's not for lack of trying.

To my mind, there are several issues with EK:

• Can't use casting stat (i.e., STR or CHA) for melee or ranged dmg / to-hit. A PDK sorc EK can use CHA for casting & melee; so can an arty / wiz hybrid w/Insightful Dmg (tho a hvy arty splash limits your wiz spells). Still seems less than ideal, though, esp. since Tensers of a STR&CON bonus.
• Unless I missed something, Eldritch Strike / Tempest can't be meta'ed, which will cap their usefulness. Between that and the relatively long cooldowns (15 & 30 secs. respectively), I can't see them providing a lot of DPS. [BTW, does anyone know if they can proc Shiradi effects?]
• You can get a lot of ASF reduction from gear now, rendering the EK enhs redundant or unnecessary most of the time.
• If you play a pure caster, BAB issues will restrict what melee feats you can take; if you MC, you have the same issues as all MCed casters (i.e., loss of capstone, lower Spell Pen, etc.).
• Several EK enhs overlap ftr, but a heavy ftr investment is better for DPS & tanking than EK.

Basically I think the survivability & melee DPS bonuses in EK are rather weak compared to the caster DPS in the other arcane trees. Apart from the Spellpower bonuses, I suspect EK will be most useful to a post-U20 Tukaw-style build (e.g., WF/BF sorc 16 / monk 2 / pal 2). I also had some ideas for Defender / Pale Master / EK combos (ftr 6 / wiz 12), but no real builds.