Looking for a good solo build for next life

[smb1970]

Hi Folks,
I'm looking for some good ideas for my next life on my artificer who just hit 20 - first life. This character is the one I play when guildies aren't around so is mainly for solo play. I don't know where all the traps are, so it either needs to be a trapper or have saves that will get through most traps and be able to solo most content ideally on elite right up to level 20.

I don't have a problem with using a hireling, so self healing not a priority, although it would be nice for when the hireling dies/goes to sleep.

I'd prefer suggestions that win through DPS and not through a slow surviving slog.

I think I'd prefer elf, half elf, human or drow but could be swayed in another direction by a solid build idea.

I'm probably going to use my +20 heart to LR into a rogue before TR'ing as I think that would be a more useful past life to acquire now rather than artificer.

While I really enjoyed levelling artificer and spent large portions of it soloing content I'd like to try something slightly different. I have some nice long swords in the bank and fancy using long swords, either that or dwarven axes and will probably duel wield them - however I also like the versatility of having some good spells and missile options to call on.

I won't be raiding with this character and so will only have access to standard, blue gear and crafting, although I do have the Abishai set and plan to use this early on.

I've already levelled a druid, a monk and reasonably far along with a paladin and wizard with other characters so I'm reasonably competent.

I've played around with the character builder trying various things but have not come to any conclusions yet. I was contemplating a rogue/ranger/fighter type build and was also looking at maybe Juggernaut - but not sure if this build would work without loads of raid gear.

My monk will be TR'ing into a Henshin/Acrobat so that's already ruled out.
Any and all suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Steve

[mna]

Hi Folks,
I'm looking for some good ideas for my next life on my artificer who just hit 20 - first life. This character is the one I play when guildies aren't around so is mainly for solo play. I don't know where all the traps are, so it either needs to be a trapper or have saves that will get through most traps and be able to solo most content ideally on elite right up to level 20.

I don't have a problem with using a hireling, so self healing not a priority, although it would be nice for when the hireling dies/goes to sleep.

I'd prefer suggestions that win through DPS and not through a slow surviving slog.

I think I'd prefer elf, half elf, human or drow but could be swayed in another direction by a solid build idea.
...
While I really enjoyed levelling artificer and spent large portions of it soloing content I'd like to try something slightly different. I have some nice long swords in the bank and fancy using long swords, either that or dwarven axes and will probably duel wield them - however I also like the versatility of having some good spells and missile options to call on.

Well, let's see... possibly elf, soloable, twin longswords, some way of dealing with traps... sounds like one of the TWF warpriest builds could fit the bill.

You'll want 4+ levels of either FvS or Cleric (Sovereign Host for longswords), something for Evasion and/or trap skills, and then probably Ranger for TWF feats and ranged option (Evasion too if enough Ranger levels).

I think you could probably reach sufficient saves with Monk in there for evasion but no disable, but, 12 ranger/7 cleric/1 rogue could get plenty of things done too. 34 points and whatever tomes you already have...? (A Dex tome would be very useful if you're going for less than 12 Ranger levels. +2 Int for skill points would be very useful for the trapper parts &... well, easier to get those before TR'ing than after.)

12 Cleric/6 Ranger/2 Rogue gets more casting but less DPS, still doing traps if not necessarily all that well. (Compensate for less skill points with Find Traps and racial enhancements.)

11 divinecaster/6 Ranger/3 Monk could be interesting too... 2 more feats (WSS for centered longswords, & prerequisite WF:Slash? In this one you'd like to have Zen Archery too?), more DPS than the 12/6/2R one but no disable.

[Munkenmo]

I would keep the arti past life, the passive umd bonus makes it better than the rogue pl's imo.

If you're interested in deep splash builds, 9druid/2monk/9x can be a solid build choice, googling pastlifenmo
Should bring up my build template.

[smb1970]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I hadn't considered FVS or cleric. I'll give that a look.

I must admit I'm not a big user of UMD, unless I'm in a class that has it as a class skill, whereas I do often run into traps and die as I don't know where they all are. I figure if I get the +2 bonus now it will help out when I do end up taking classes that can't detect traps, although hopefully by then I might have a better idea of where they all are. Although given how poor my memory is I'm not going to count on that.

Best regards Steve