Axel's THF Melee Cleric Build

[Rophez]

Axel, this build looks really fun. I'm about to run a Sun Elf (er.. Morninglord) life, and I was wondering if you think this build would work? What feat would you drop if you had to drop one (no human bonus feat.) Would anything in the morninglord enhancement tree be worth taking over the enhancements you've chosen for this build?

[axel15810]

Axel, this build looks really fun. I'm about to run a Sun Elf (er.. Morninglord) life, and I was wondering if you think this build would work? What feat would you drop if you had to drop one (no human bonus feat.) Would anything in the morninglord enhancement tree be worth taking over the enhancements you've chosen for this build?

Yeah the build will work, it just won't be quite as good since you won't be human/pdk.

Not really anything from that tree worth the AP for this build. You can take Rejuvenation of Dawn if you think you'll use it but I'd rather have something else from another tree.

I'd probably drop Precision or Intensify.

[Sproutecus]

Thanks for you post Axel, great read.

I am getting ready for my 2nd life and want to try your build.

I just bought the expansion since it was on sale on Steam and was wondering if you tweak anything if you go PDK.

In particular I was thinking of switching the bonus stats to CHA once I got Str to 17 for improved THF. It seems like the Str-->CHA weapon bonus would dovetail well with a lot of the paladin abilities and some of the Cleric ones as well. It would also allow you to select Cha over Wis for the Radiant stat enhancements. Of course you burn a ton of stat points getting to 17 STR for effectively nothing, but the value in other areas seems like it might make up for it.


Second question, I read in one of your posts that Falchion is better than Greatsword, but i am not sure why. The increased threat range of 5% vs the extra damage of the great sword seems to favor the Greatsword, what am I missing.

Thanks,

[axel15810]

Thanks for you post Axel, great read.

I am getting ready for my 2nd life and want to try your build.

I just bought the expansion since it was on sale on Steam and was wondering if you tweak anything if you go PDK.

In particular I was thinking of switching the bonus stats to CHA once I got Str to 17 for improved THF. It seems like the Str-->CHA weapon bonus would dovetail well with a lot of the paladin abilities and some of the Cleric ones as well. It would also allow you to select Cha over Wis for the Radiant stat enhancements. Of course you burn a ton of stat points getting to 17 STR for effectively nothing, but the value in other areas seems like it might make up for it.


Second question, I read in one of your posts that Falchion is better than Greatsword, but i am not sure why. The increased threat range of 5% vs the extra damage of the great sword seems to favor the Greatsword, what am I missing.

Thanks,

Glad you found this thread helpful.

No, I wouldn't tweak anything for PDK over Human.

Greatsword is great for heroics if you're using the Sword of Shadows.

Are you referring to Cormyrean enhancement to use CHA for attack/damage? Bonuses like divine might and tenser's are STR based so if you go CHA based you won't benefit from them in terms of your DPS. And that enhancement limits weapon types but that might be OK if using SoS while in heroics but I don't see it being worth it. Also you need some STR anyway to meet feat prerequisites.

[Warbler]

Doing a Morninglord past life. Here is my build:

SE CLR PAL FTR
15/4/1 Cleric/Paladin/Fighter
Lawful Good Morninglord


Level Order

1. Cleric          6. Cleric         11. Fighter        16. Cleric
2. Paladin         7. Cleric         12. Cleric         17. Cleric
3. Paladin         8. Cleric         13. Cleric         18. Cleric
4. Paladin         9. Cleric         14. Cleric         19. Cleric
5. Paladin        10. Cleric         15. Cleric         20. Cleric


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength        16                4: STR
Dexterity       13                8: STR
Constitution    14               12: STR
Intelligence    11       +5      16: STR
Wisdom           8               20: STR
Charisma        16               24: STR
                                 28: STR

Skills
          C  P  P  P  P  C  C  C  C  C  F  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Heal      4     2  1  1  1  1  1  1  1     1  1  1  2  1  1  1  1  1  23
Diplo     2     1     2     2     2        1  3  1  2  1  3  1  1  1  23
UMD       1  1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1     1  1     11
Jump                                    4                       ½  ½   5
Tumble                                                             1   1
         ------------------------------------------------------------
          8  2  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  4  4  4  4  4  4  4  4  5  5


Feats

 1        : Two Handed Fighting
 1 Deity  : Follower of: Amaunator
 3        : Power Attack
 6        : Cleave
 9        : Great Cleave
10 Deity  : Amaunator's Brilliance
11 Fighter: Improved Two Handed Fighting
12        : Improved Critical: Slashing
15        : Greater Two Handed Fighting
18        : Empower Healing Spell
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Intensify Spell
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic   : Maximize Spell
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29 Destiny: Deific Warding
30 Epic   : Quicken Spell
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

[Epistolary]

Thanks for the work on this build! My basic question is this: could I ask you to sketch (simply) how to make this work for someone new to the game? What can I use and what can't I use? At this point (parts of the thread are a bit old), how would you recommend ordering classes and feats as I level? (It's been said in a few places in the thread that order isn't that important; I'm just wondering if that's still true).

I played DDO very briefly years ago, and I'm getting back in with 3 friends. It's a bit of a misfit group, but I've decided that a war cleric would both work for the group and be fun for me. I'm starting from scratch, and I'm still very much in the process on reading as much as I can on the forums to understand how DDO works. I really like what's going on with this build, but I'm not quite at the point where I can fully understand all the choices being made. (I haven't watched the video in the OP yet, so that may help break it down for me.)

Basically, I'm asking if you could sketch out what's still valid (with updates and whatnot) and how to level up using this build (no past lives or anything, I know that it won't be optimal). That will help direct how I go about doing further research on the forums.

Thanks so much!

[axel15810]

Ok, I broke down and finally listed my feat/class order by level in the original post because I keep getting requests for it.

I didn't want to post this in the past as to not make people think there was a required leveling order for classes and feats. But it seems a lot of newer players really do need a more specific indication of what to take at what level. And I suppose there are ways you could mess things up. The feat and class order is pretty flexible though, and can be modified depending on personal preference.

Epistolary, hope that clears everything up.

[Raiztlin75]

Axel i applaud the build is this super gear dependent to lvl as i am thinking of my third life i still dont have alot of gear the build looks super fun as your not a heal bot your a battle cleric and this somewhat appeals to me my 2 previous past lives are both paladin while not bad i felt they needed gear that may not suite the cleric as well i have a beauty of a piece at lvl 13 i plan to use my riftmaker

[axel15810]

Axel i applaud the build is this super gear dependent to lvl as i am thinking of my third life i still dont have alot of gear the build looks super fun as your not a heal bot your a battle cleric and this somewhat appeals to me my 2 previous past lives are both paladin while not bad i felt they needed gear that may not suite the cleric as well i have a beauty of a piece at lvl 13 i plan to use my riftmaker

It's not very gear dependent at all. Though it's more effective with better gear of course. The most important thing as far as gear is having a good of weapon as possible so you don't lag behind the true melee classes as much in the DPS department. I'm not super up to date on heroic weapons but in the past I've generally used the Carnifex from delera's at low heroic levels, SoS or LIT2 greensteel at mid and high heroics. Then I'll use a combination of epic antique greataxe/thunderforged weapon/cleaver in epics until I get to level 28, where from then on I'm currently using the epic riftmaker as well.

[Raiztlin75]

Ty for your speedy reply how is this working in u32 with all the changes thanks in advance

[axel15810]

Ty for your speedy reply how is this working in u32 with all the changes thanks in advance

There really hasn't been any changes recently that affect the way you build or play this type of cleric. It's about the same as it has been in terms of viability. It's no warlock, you won't be solo-ing LE endgame content on this. But it's good enough to contribute and hold it's own in LE in groups. The survivability is amazing but the DPS is only decent (it's a lot better if you use your clickies/boosts/twitch fight effectively). But you can play party healer easily with bursts and aura, that's the trade off for the DPS loss.

[unbongwah]

So I haven't been paying close attention to U33, but any thoughts yet on TRing into PDK Silvanus version? Because this sounds pretty awesome for this build (Release Notes): "Blessing of Silvanus: You are a devoted follower of Silvanus, and your faith has been rewarded. Toggling this on gives you Blessing of Silvanus: You gain +4 Natural Armor bonus to AC, and Mauls you wield gain +2 to their Critical Threat Range. This stacks with other sources." So mauls should be 16-20/x3 w/BoS, IC:Blunt, and Pulverizer all stacking, right?

[axel15810]

So I haven't been paying close attention to U33, but any thoughts yet on TRing into PDK Silvanus version? Because this sounds pretty awesome for this build (Release Notes): "Blessing of Silvanus: You are a devoted follower of Silvanus, and your faith has been rewarded. Toggling this on gives you Blessing of Silvanus: You gain +4 Natural Armor bonus to AC, and Mauls you wield gain +2 to their Critical Threat Range. This stacks with other sources." So mauls should be 16-20/x3 w/BoS, IC:Blunt, and Pulverizer all stacking, right?

I saw that as well. Yeah, if all those stack then Dreadnaught with mauls seems to be the clear way to go.

I'm also looking forward to what the Favored Soul pass brings when it comes to the Warpriest tree. This build may be changing quite a bit depending on what they do with that tree.

[ArekDorun]

So I haven't been paying close attention to U33, but any thoughts yet on TRing into PDK Silvanus version? Because this sounds pretty awesome for this build (Release Notes): "Blessing of Silvanus: You are a devoted follower of Silvanus, and your faith has been rewarded. Toggling this on gives you Blessing of Silvanus: You gain +4 Natural Armor bonus to AC, and Mauls you wield gain +2 to their Critical Threat Range. This stacks with other sources." So mauls should be 16-20/x3 w/BoS, IC:Blunt, and Pulverizer all stacking, right?

I haven't checked this myself or on Live, but Silvanus was apparently a bit bugged on Lamannia: Instead of giving +2 Crit Range, it was giving +2 Crit Multiplier. Not that it matters much, either way Silvanus+Maul looks Awesome, and I'll probably go with that when I eTR (or iTR) my PDK version of this (heck, I considered burning her +0 HoW for this purpose).

--ArekDorun

[ArekDorun]

Axel i applaud the build is this super gear dependent to lvl as i am thinking of my third life i still dont have alot of gear the build looks super fun as your not a heal bot your a battle cleric and this somewhat appeals to me my 2 previous past lives are both paladin while not bad i felt they needed gear that may not suite the cleric as well i have a beauty of a piece at lvl 13 i plan to use my riftmaker

As Axel said, this is not all that gear-dependant. There is one caveat, tho: If you start as a PDK (and this may also apply to other iconics, depending on their default kit), you'll need a +WIS item (and/or tome) in order to cast all of your spells. When I realized this, I hopped onto my main and farmed up a Shadowsight from "Through a Mirror Darkly" (Heroic Hard). You need a total of +8 WIS to cast Level 6 spells, +9 for level 7. You get +2 from your guild airship's buffs, which is why the Heroic Hard version of Shadowsight is "just right" for a character with no tomes (yet). Crafted/Rangen also works, if you have the friends/resources.

--ArekDorun

[torchen]

Hi Axel...


I tested your build a long time ago, and it was so funny.

Can u tell me how to mix your build with monks???? Maybe droping fighter level, and a pair of clerical levels????...........
But we have wis to low too........

Hard mix it seems

[Whitering]

As Axel said, this is not all that gear-dependant. There is one caveat, tho: If you start as a PDK (and this may also apply to other iconics, depending on their default kit), you'll need a +WIS item (and/or tome) in order to cast all of your spells. When I realized this, I hopped onto my main and farmed up a Shadowsight from "Through a Mirror Darkly" (Heroic Hard). You need a total of +8 WIS to cast Level 6 spells, +9 for level 7. You get +2 from your guild airship's buffs, which is why the Heroic Hard version of Shadowsight is "just right" for a character with no tomes (yet). Crafted/Rangen also works, if you have the friends/resources.

--ArekDorun

With the new crafting, all of the stat boosts are low hanging fruit and can easily sit in the trinket spot until you don't need it anymore.

I did use this build on my first life cleric which I burned by LR+20 to get to, and I didn't have much gear and was a half elf besides that, I still powered through 3 epic past lives before TRing. There are many easy to get heavy armors that are top notch, and maybe cost 5 or 6 astral shards if you time it right, other than that, powerful crafted weapons are also low hanging. I crafted a Blunt damage, Light Damage, Vampirism with a red slot ruby of endless night that I will throw Freezing burst on come winter, that kicks many other weapons asses, that was on a short sword for my wolf build, but I would happily build that for my Cleric next time I run it, which might be right after I hustle through 2 more druids (I bought otto boxes especially for this task). Because I think you can reliably use the same gear for a Favoured Soul/Fighter build. I have farmed up some nice mauls in case I want to go the Sylvanus route next time around.

[Epistolary]

I'm looking at this build for my third life, and I have a simple question: how suboptimal would it be to play this build with mauls but without Silvanus?

As is the case for many others, battle cleric = bludgeoning weapons for me. I'm never going to play a PDK (just no); I guess that I'd try a sun elf, but I don't think that they have access to Silvanus. That leaves me thinking about a human who uses mauls.

I know that it' a suboptimal choice, but I'd like a better sense of how suboptimal before I do it.

Thanks!

[Kaisheng21]

How is this affected by U34?

[goldgolem]

About to tr and I am going to try this as a R1 farmer on my main. Will add how it goes

OK, was good for lvl 4, lvl 5 is starting to get harder with champs...

I can see some changes I would make for this as a pure 1-20 and then tr build - basically pali levels dont help you really if you just go to 20, so I would have lowered CHA and put a bit more in INT

Will take quicken at 6 - heals just have to work asap and no fail on reaper