Axel's THF Melee Cleric Build

[Captain_Wizbang]

Split – 15 cleric / 4 paladin / 1 fighter, Lawful Good

I have 2 "new" human characters already for the cleric pass. And have a few questions.

Is Imp Crit still recommended w/ changes to pally & Ftr trees? I was planning on 14/4/2 (2 ftr for an extra feat)

Not wanting to be known for healing (lol see avatar) I wanted to know if anyone has a tweak for more dps.

In S&B mode bastard swds? Using the THF w/ GS's for situational dps

Was looking at war domain for the pass.

Any help with this is appreciated.

[Kaisheng21]

I would recommend Endless Turning as a twist from DC until you have gear/PLs and you get more tanky. Personal experience.

[Whitering]

I have 2 "new" human characters already for the cleric pass. And have a few questions.

Is Imp Crit still recommended w/ changes to pally & Ftr trees? I was planning on 14/4/2 (2 ftr for an extra feat)

Not wanting to be known for healing (lol see avatar) I wanted to know if anyone has a tweak for more dps.

In S&B mode bastard swds? Using the THF w/ GS's for situational dps

Was looking at war domain for the pass.

Any help with this is appreciated.

You don't need the extra feat though and you lose level 7 spells, which include True Resurrection (which you can scroll I guess), Greater Restoration (fantastic) and mass Restoration for easy clearing of quite a few dots and such.

Also, your aura is based on cleric level.

I guess if you go S&B you might benefit from an extra fighter level for feats, but I don't think a S&B cleric fighter works at all, you will not do enough damage, not if you want Aura. With good gear your Aura ticks hit nicely and people won't be asking for healing very often, but you might still want to cast the odd Mass Restoration or other spell to help your team.

I did 3 epic past lives on the battle cleric, and they were super fast and easy, that was pre reaper though.

[Captain_Wizbang]

You don't need the extra feat though and you lose level 7 spells, which include True Resurrection (which you can scroll I guess), Greater Restoration (fantastic) and mass Restoration for easy clearing of quite a few dots and such.

Also, your aura is based on cleric level.

I guess if you go S&B you might benefit from an extra fighter level for feats, but I don't think a S&B cleric fighter works at all, you will not do enough damage, not if you want Aura. With good gear your Aura ticks hit nicely and people won't be asking for healing very often, but you might still want to cast the odd Mass Restoration or other spell to help your team.

TY, I went to wiki & character planner, taking the 2 lvls of ftr has more downsides than up I guess.

W/ cleric pass, I was leaning towards the War Domain to help w/ melee aspect. And as a die-hard S&B fan, I was hoping to find a "magic" feat/enhancement to bump up the dps to a respectable number.

Thanks for replying. Both toons are parked till the update

[dom_keno]

Hello was wondering what domain's you were thinking about going for? So far was looking and war and destruction look like the two top choices for this type of build.

[Selvera]

If you have 14 or more levels of cleric and you don't plan on getting a competence bonus to crit from another class's enhancements (such as kensai or swashbuckler), and you plan on hitting things with your weapon, throwing stuff or shooting stuff; you want war domain.

If you have 14 or more levels of cleric and you plan on melee/ranged but you are getting a competence bonus to crit the question is much harder to answer; but I'm thinking Animal is probably your best bet.

[axel15810]

Hello was wondering what domain's you were thinking about going for? So far was looking and war and destruction look like the two top choices for this type of build.

War for sure IMO.

[OxfordCalc]

War for sure IMO.

Strength looks pretty good too. War for the proficiencies?

[unbongwah]

War for the proficiencies?

War domain is for Holy Sword. If you don't have crit bonuses elsewhere - and this build doesn't - Strength or Destruction is going to be noticeably inferior, IMO.

There's a cleric 17 / ftr 3 build in my Champions of Silvanus thread now. Uses War domain for Holy Sword (+1 crit range & multiplier), Blessing of Silvanus (+2 crit range), and Celestial Champion (+1 crit range), all of which stack.

[Kurse_Darkstone]

War domain is for Holy Sword. If you don't have crit bonuses elsewhere - and this build doesn't - Strength or Destruction is going to be noticeably inferior, IMO.

There's a cleric 17 / ftr 3 build in my Champions of Silvanus thread now. Uses War domain for Holy Sword (+1 crit range & multiplier), Blessing of Silvanus (+2 crit range), and Celestial Champion (+1 crit range), all of which stack.

may do a version of this on my War Priest (just what I call Him)

thanks for all the work!!

[count_spicoli]

If your looking to be a raid healer than the higher lvls of cleric pay off. If not only go 11 clreric/8 ftr and one of whatever you might want to get something useful(monk, barb, wtevr), THe tier 5 kns tree is just too good too pass up on this build. A good death is a thing of beauty, one with blade for +20 melee power and you will get keen edge for the +1 crit range anyhows. Str domain for the xtra strr, str to reflex and immunity to knockdowns. Tbis build is built for divine crusader and really gives you nice solo ability. Ive got a greensteel salt maul this is nasty at slowing the bad guys down while you cleave away. Basically grinds them to a screeching halt.

[pappo]

Race

Human (or Purple Dragon Knight)

Gives you an extra feat, heal amp and human damage boost. All other races are sub-optimal. Dwarf and Half-orc are not the best choice as they lose a feat compared to human and their racial damage enhancements are not worth the heavy AP cost. In addition, human has higher burst DPS than either of those races due to human damage boost, doesn’t take the -2 CHA hit (and -2INT hit from half-orc) and offers a cheap 1st tier of healing amp.

I have been looking at the new Assimar race on DDO Wiki. Do you think a STR based Assimar, with it's high healing amp, would be a good fit. I know it would lose the Human bonus feat, but would that Gimp the build?

[unbongwah]

If you're using mauls, you really really really want Blessing of Silvanus for the extra +2 crit range. That means you have to be PDK, SDK, DG, or Scourge. PDK gets an extra feat and starts out ftr, so no LR +1 required, making it a no-brainer.

For other weapon types, it's more of a wash, but that bonus racial feat is still helpful, particularly if you stick with the cleric 15 / pal 4 / ftr 1 split which is a bit feat-starved. Something with more feats - e.g., cleric 15 / ftr 3 / monk 2 or ftr 4 / wiz 1 - has more wiggle room.

[axel15810]

I have been looking at the new Assimar race on DDO Wiki. Do you think a STR based Assimar, with it's high healing amp, would be a good fit. I know it would lose the Human bonus feat, but would that Gimp the build?

Agreed with what above post from unbongwah said. PDK silvanus with mauls is basically a no brainer for this build now because of the extra feat and maul crit range bonus. Especially since it seems possible now to get some good endgame mauls in the Ravenloft expansion that just released (I'm not totally sure what's out in Ravenloft maul-wise yet, still playing through it, but the lvl 29 morninglord mauls seem good).

Aasimar doesn't seem to be awful, but it's definitely an inferior choice to going the PDK silvanus route and keep in mind you can get extra healing amp in the PDK and paladin trees. If you're playing only 1-20 and then HTR'ing it wouldn't matter as much, especially if you don't have any good mauls for heroics sitting around in your bank.

On a side note I really need to update the initial post of this thread.

[Captain_Wizbang]

On a side note I really need to update the initial post of this thread.

..

[pappo]

Doing a Morninglord past life. Here is my build:

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

Would you show the enhancements you took, or did you just follow Axels enhancements and change to a Sun Elf ?
Do you use any of the new Cleric Domains ?

Thanks

[Whitering]

Agreed with what above post from unbongwah said. PDK silvanus with mauls is basically a no brainer for this build now because of the extra feat and maul crit range bonus. Especially since it seems possible now to get some good endgame mauls in the Ravenloft expansion that just released (I'm not totally sure what's out in Ravenloft maul-wise yet, still playing through it, but the lvl 29 morninglord mauls seem good).

Aasimar doesn't seem to be awful, but it's definitely an inferior choice to going the PDK silvanus route and keep in mind you can get extra healing amp in the PDK and paladin trees. If you're playing only 1-20 and then HTR'ing it wouldn't matter as much, especially if you don't have any good mauls for heroics sitting around in your bank.

On a side note I really need to update the initial post of this thread.

Yes because Action boosts no longer stack. God I hate that change.

This build works well a PDK (the level 10 Ravenloft Mauls are terrific, before that you just use Carnifex anyway), it also works well on Sun Elf, I've done both. Sun Elf sticks to Falchions, the level 10 Ravenloft one will see you to 20 easily. After that's it's a crafted 20 until TForged, or if you lack TForged, crafted until the 29 Ravenloft one, which you get just for doing the mists quests, even on casual.

[axel15810]

Yes because Action boosts no longer stack. God I hate that change.

Same, it's really aggravating. I always assumed it was WAI since they let it function that way for so many years. It was a fairly sizable nerf for this build in particular. Then again they gave us the domain feat buffs that way more than made up for it. Still, I miss having that burst option. It was fun.

[Lalangamena]

Axel hi,

I saw in your videos that your aura tick for quite constant ~160 HP..
maybe i don't understand the theoretical math in the game mechanics

how do you reach such amount?
aura = 1 hp per 3 cleric levels, lets say intense healing affect aura.
cleric 15+ intense healing 3 => 1+ 18/3 => 1+6=7HP with 0 spell power.

lets say you have 300 positive spell power? (no idea how much, i am guessing here)
lets add improved empowered healing + 100 positive spell power.
400 spell power total is (7*400)/100 => 7*4 = 28 HP

lets say you have 100 positive energy amplification, then its (100+100)/100 => 2*28 = 56 HP per tick...

what is the match of reaching 160HP per tick?

thanx

[Rakstelon]

Thought I'd give this build a try, was wondering a few things thou (sorry if they have been asked already, I did look at a few pages but didn't see any similar)

1. Enhancements- for a new player like myself, in what order would I prioritise these by level?
ATM I am low level and have just copied off your vid, all points so far I placed into the Radiant Servant tree.

2. Skills- What skill setups do you use at diff levels?
I'm mostly using buff skills (Prot from Evil, Nightshield, Shield of Faith) but because of the lack of Wis, I'm drinking Owl potions like no tomorrow)
Obviously the same if I want to heal by skills, drink potion, use heal. At what level does our Wis catch up to what our skills require or are we required to find/buy tomes?

3. Any tweaks needed for current state of the game?

Any advise for this enthusiastic Melee Cleric would be muchly appreciated,

Thankyou.

Follow up; Found an alternative to buying Potions of Owl's wisdom, the Wand vendor next to the potion vendor (Stormreach Market) sells a Wand of Owl's wisdom that has 50 charges for 520ish Plat.
Now just swap weapons in and out buff, can heal for 5mins

Still would like to know any answers to the above questions please