Completionist Project

[EllisDee37]

I think I'm going to try for a completionist in 2015, starting in January and hopefully finishing in December. The primary concept I'm going for is playing each class as a pure build. For non-self-healing builds like barbarian or fighter I'll probably stock up on silver flame pots.

Combining such a large number of builds with my general obsessiveness about planning ahead, it will be easier for me to keep track of everything in a single thread instead of a ton of spreashsheets. This seemed like the most appropriate place to put everything.


Bard: Swashbuckler
Sorcerer: Air/Fire Savant
Paladin: Vanguard
Ranger: Deepwood Archer
Favored Soul: Warforged Melee

[EllisDee37]

The character I'm doing this on is my wizard, who is currently in epic levels (should probably get him to 28 before starting, I suppose) so it should be fairly easy to farm up the TR twink gear I'm looking for. This post will be my checklist of what I need and what I have:

Need
Tharkuul's Bane

Have
Greensteel: 300 spell points w/raise dead clickie necklace (cleansed)
Greensteel: 45 HP concop gloves
Vibrant Purple Ioun Stone
Boots of the Mire
Ring of the Mire
Cannith Boots of Propulsion
Torc of Prince Raiyum
Necklace of Contemplation
Carnifex
Silver Longbow
Bow of Sinew
Whirlwind
Dalorent's Seal
Teraza's Perfect Sight
Maenya's Iron Fists
Katra's Razor Wit
Mace of Smiting
Flametouched Iron maul
Scepter of Healing
Pale Lavendar Ioun Stone
Widowblight
Elemental Khopesh of Water, ML12, tier 3
Ring of the Stalker, ML15, tier 3
Cloak of Invisibility (Heavy Fort)
Greensteel: 45 HP Smoke bracers
Master's Giftx2
Tiefling Assassin's Blade

Crafted (made once and never disjuncted)
Health +6 necklace (BTA)
Strength +6 gloves (BTA)
Wisdom +6 hat (BTA)
True Seeing ring (BTA)
Greater False Life ring (BTA?)
Feather Falling belt of Greater False Life (Master's Gift)
Health +6 necklace (Vitality)
Fire absorption 33% swap item (BTA ring?)
Electric absorption 33% swap item (BTA ring?)
Underwater Action boots of Swim +10 (Striding 25%)

Items in silver I already had before I started this completionist project.

[EllisDee37]

Stats

Since I'm starting this run on a second life wizard, every life will be a legend build...

Skills

...and since that wizard has a +6 int tome, there will be lots of skills.

Gear

As a general rule, I'm going for re-usability over min/maxing. A priority is to reduce the number of items clogging the tr cache, so most of the gear maxes out at ML13. I'll use that all the way to 20 and into epics just long enough to cap that class's native destiny.

Gear lists will be image files with the following legend:

• Yellow: Gear changes in some way
• Italics: A crafted item that is made once and never deconstructed. If it has an augment, it's BTC and was made specifically for this completionist run. If it doesn't have an augment, it's BTA and I re-use it for tr'ing all my alts.

First life will be bard, since I'm excited to try out my fancy schmancy swashbuckling weapons.

[EllisDee37]

Neutral Good Human

Human for the feat, good for pure good weapons at low levels.


Stats

18 Strength + all levelups
14 Dexterity
14 Constitution
10 Intelligence
08 Wisdom
14 Charisma


Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Balance . 4. 1. 1. 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Bluff . . . .1 .1 .1 .2 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .2 .1 .2 .2 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Concent . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Diploma . . .1 .1 .1 .1 .2 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .2 .1 .2 .2 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Haggle. . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. 4. 2. 4. 19
Jump. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. . . . . . . . . . 17
Perform . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
UMD . . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Tumble. . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Heal. . . 2. . . . . . . . .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 11
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .28. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9

Feats

1 : SWF
1H: Extend
3 : Precision
6 : Empower Healing Spell
9 : ISWF
12: Improved Crit: Slashing
15: GSWF
18: Improved Crit: Piercing
21: Inspire Excellence


Enhancements

1. Skaldic Rage, Enchant Weapon, Confidence
2. Tavern Shanties III, On Your Toes I
3. Swashbuckling, Fast Movement, On Your Toes II
4. On Your Toes III, Skirmisher, Resonant Arms I
5. Resonant Arms III
6. Uncanny Dodge, Rough and Ready II, Weapon Training
7. Spellsinger, Lingering Songs III
8. Sprint Boost I, Rough and Ready III, Poetic Edda II
9. High Spirits III, Song of Heroism
10. Doublestrike Boost II
11. Damage Boost, Low Blow, Doublestrike Boost III
12. Battering Barrage II
13. Panache, Thread the Needle, Coup de Grace
14. Exploit Weakness, Strength
15. Sprint Boost II, Poetic Edda III, Iced Edges II
16. Fighting Spirit, Strength, Iced Edges III
17. Reckless Chant III, Ironskin Chant I
18. Roll with the Punches, Ironskin Chant III, Victory Song
19. Second Skin II
20. Evasive Maneuvers, Second Skin III, Sprint Boost III

Spells

1. Expeditious Retreat, Cure Light Wounds, Remove Fear, Detect Secret Doors, Merfolk's Blessing
2. Cure Moderate Wounds, Invisibility, Rage, Blur, Cat's Grace
3. Cure Serious Wounds, Displacement, Haste, Good Hope, Remove Curse
4. Freedom of Movement, Dimension Door, Cure Critical Wounds, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Break Enchantment
5. Greater Heroism, Shadow Walk, Mass Cure Light Wounds, Mind Fog, Greater Dispel Magic
6. Otto's Irresistible Dance, Heroes' Feast, Mass Cure Moderate Wounds, Greater Shout

Gear




Washing up on the beach in Korthos, I skip the tutorial (you get the xp anyway) and head over to the harbor bank. I collect all the daily dice xp rolls I've been saving up for the past few weeks to immediately take level 2 and head on over to the crafting hall. Now geared up as listed for level 2, I head back to Korthos, picking up a level 2 hire along the way solely to protect Heyton in Redemption.

At level 2 I have around 78 HP, and typical damage is 17, 34 on a crit which happens 30% of the time. (Having 26 strength doesn't hurt.) I'm really liking these frequent crits, and think I might change my standard level 2-3 weapon from a screaming of pure good greatsword to a keen of pure good falchion. Fighting with just a single one-hander is an adjustment, but the added 10% attack speed from SWF is immediately noticeable. I do miss cleaves a little, but I'm quickly getting used to not having an aoe attack.

Level 3 brings precision and swashbuckling, which are both awesomesauce. Now I'm doing 20 on a normal hit, 60 on a crit 30% of the time. Against most undead I do a mere 10 damage normally because of the DR I'm not bypassing (stupid rapier) but I actually crit on them for 50, roughly 10% of the time. That same 10% crit rate with 60 damage against ooze and metal dogs is very satisfying. Fort bypass is the bee's knees. So far my only real defense is blur and movement, but it seems to be sufficient for now.

Level 4 brings another huge jump in power: Tiefling Assassin's Blade (13-20x3!), seeker +8 on a buckler, and dodge jumps from 3% to 10%. That combined with 20% blur is most of my defense since PRR/MRR is 19/15, and my HP is a distressingly low 96. I'm normally over 100 by level at 4, I think. The Assassin's Blade is as powerful as advertised at level 4: low 20s base hit, low 90s criticals, and it crits 40% of the time. Totally nuts.

Level 5 tops off the big power jumps for the low levels: Resonant Arms III. With my ML4 sonic augment slotted into the assassin's blade, it seems to frequently do damage in the 40s. That's super helpful against skeletons and zombies in the Catacombs where my base damage is only around 10. Against no-DR mobs I'm doing mid-20s base damage and low 100s (eg: 101) on crits, around 40% of the time. And since crits also include another 40 from resonant arms, pretty much every crit is an insta-kill. Finally over 100 HP with a bullet, at 130, and I decided to go with Vibrant Purple for my trinket, bringing my mana pool up to 472. Never having yet used charisma or perform, I may not bother with a perform item until 11 when I take Low Blow.

Something I'm noticing in the level 6-8 range is that my dps is off the charts. A crit normally does around 130, and resonant arms procs around 35 on crits, for 165 total. Since I crit on a 13-20, that's 8*165=1320 from crits alone. Base damage is around 30, so 11*30=330+1320=1650/20=82.5 damage per swing in the level 6-8 range. That's...insanity. Especially when you add in that I'm attacking at +25% attack speed thanks to SWF + Haste. Next level ISWF will kick that up to +35% speed. And while I'm still not to 200 HP (191 @ 8) I have pretty solid defense: 50% displacement with 11% dodge.

Level 9 brings even more dps with ISWF; for 9 and 10 I'm doing in the mid-40s base, mid-160s crits not counting resonant arms. At 10 I also get ghostly which brings my total miss chance (50% displace 10% incorporeal ~17% dodge) to ~63%. Then 13 brings dps even higher with Thread the Needle (+5 base damage), where crits are now over 200. Not to mention Coup de Grace, which is close to no-fail. Several encounters of note: The optional demon boss at the end of Into the Deep was trivially easy to kill, Ghola Fan dropped like a rock, maybe taking 6 seconds total to kill him, and Desert Caravan was a simple thing to solo thanks to fascinate.

Just hit 18 (took a week break from DDO so my progress slowed a bit) and the build is still crazy good. I did die a couple times, usually from my own mistake, but once was just the game getting the upper hand. In the Flesh end fight, after my PLIS is depleted I got hit with a 424-damage disintegrate, instantly dead. I think my max hp at the point (level 17) was 414, not sure, but it was pretty much an insta-kill. I tip my hat to the game in that instance, as I had been using my spell absorption but it ran out, and bards don't have the greatest fort saves, so to Yalthoon I say: well played.

Here's video of this guy soloing the first fight in Escape Plan at level 18:

[Emizand]

Hmmmm, I started a completionist build and its still going. The basis for mine was staves. Every life to use a selction of staves. Before starting on this project I crafted a min 2 and a lit 2. Bought every staff I could find with huge guild slots. And have collected others along the way. Dont need to worry about weapons when TRing now.

Worth noting that my path is different to yours and will splash one or two classes to utilise/maximise staff usage. Every life to be a staff wielder.

Hope this helps abit. Make sure your builds can use carnifex at 4, if not find a good substitute. Makes life easier, for me anyhows. Set gear ready to equip at certain levels, keep it as generic as you can then slip oin whats needed that life.

P.S. I went bard warchanter, halforc specialising in, you guessed it, staves.

[Makkuroi]

Im also doing staves on my melee builds, and they even help a bit on the caster builds. My TR weapons are mainly wraps, staves, and shuriken, which are quite versatile. Other weapons are quickly crafted depending on needs. Even my barb build will be an ameliorating acrobarb (basically 5rogue/4fvs with barb levels tacked on). Only on my arti build ill deviate from this pattern a bit.

My lives:

Wizard: pale master (pre enhancement pass)
Sorc: 20 sorc, 18 sorc 2 fvs
Cleric: 17 cleric 1 arti 2 monk
Fvs: 18 fvs 2 monk
Bard: 12 bard 6 fighter 2 rogue (PDK)
Fighter: 12 fighter 6 monk 2 paladin centered kensai
Monk: 12 monk 6 ranger 2 arti shuriken
Paladin: 15 pally 4 rogue 1 monk
Rogue: 10 rogue 6 monk 4 pally
Ranger: 11 ranger 6 monk 3 rogue shuriken (current life)

to do:
Artificer: 18 arti 2 monk
Barb: 8 barb 6 rogue 6 fvs
Druid: 17 druid 2 monk 1 rogue

[EllisDee37]

Hmmmm, I started a completionist build and its still going. The basis for mine was staves. Every life to use a selction of staves. Before starting on this project I crafted a min 2 and a lit 2. Bought every staff I could find with huge guild slots. And have collected others along the way. Dont need to worry about weapons when TRing now.

Yep, that's a pretty common (and very strong) tactic: design a unified build concept for many/most of the lives, then craft up a couple greensteel versions of that weapon and rock the house.

I can't run more than two or three lives in a row using the same fighting style. Just too repetitive. Plus, I'm looking at this as an opportunity to try out styles I've never done before. So I'm doing swf, s&b, thf, longbow, repeater, and caster lives. I have all the key weapons I want for those. (Tiefling Assassin/Widowblight, Khopesh of Water/Mace of Smiting, Carnifex/Whirlwind, Silver Longbow/Bow of Sinew)