The Riposte Turtle

[FuryFlash]

Mine was a charisma based Purple Dragon Knight. It was 15 paladin, 4 fighter, one wizard. By stacking the percentage based ac enhancements in both fighter and pally, i was able to get over 250 ac. When it's that high it actually works. The wizard enhancement mage armor gives 10% ac, that's why the wizard level. Free feat too. The charisma based gives a high intimidate score, and great saves. And you can still hit stuff fairly well when you have to. Cleaving when turtled with a shield works great.

PDK is an excellent race for this build. However, I don't want to make an iconic because I dislike them overall. They start at 15, skipping some of my favourite levels, and they force you into a level of one class. In this case, I don't want to sacrifice Wlk or FvS for super AC. Additionally, I hate having to gather gear for that level when the starting gear is so spread out. Overall, no-no on the PDK, matter of personal preference.

So, not counting iconics, what do you guys think?

[FuryFlash]

Ok, so I have decided on a 12 Paladin/4 Warlock/4 Favored Soul build and have tested it up to level 5 (just pally atm), since that's all I had time for. Here's my suite of guards:
All ML4:
Full plate of lightning guard II - 2d8 lightning damage
Heavy pick of riposte II - 2d8 slashing damage (tested on a champ who had vulnerability to slash and resistance to bludgeon and pierce - was seeing purple numbers)
Heavy shield of fire guard II - 2d8 fire damage

Throughout testing the build with these items, I have noticed two things that I did not know before:

1. If you have two items with the identical guard - they do not stack. At level 3, I had a shield of Acid Guard I and half plate of Acid Guard I - however, I was only seeing one number. I re-equipped and tried again, with the same results. So, I tried with one item on at a time - they both worked. My take from this is that if it's the exact same guard, it doesn't stack. I found this very strange, but I'm willing to accept it.

2. This one made me very happy. It turns out, that at least with lootgen guards, they do not activate on being hit. They activate on being attacked, as per official in-game description and through several quests of testing. This means, happily, that I can stack my AC as high as it will go because it doesn't matter whether or not enemies hit or miss, they'll be damaged either way.

So, overall, this makes the build a little more viable than it was before this discovery. If anyone has anything to add about the build, any suggestions or anything, please post them!

[unbongwah]

FYI, Shield of Condemnation and Light Guard (WP) both say "when struck." Harbored by Light only says "when attacked," but you need to be shield-blocking. Ward Against Evil should always proc when attacked regardless of whether you get hit.

Good luck.

[Nightmanis]

I'm still going to suggest leviks defender. Healer's bounty for a toon that never isn't shield blocking would be really good.

[Firewall]

(...)If anyone has anything to add about the build, any suggestions or anything, please post them!

Cacophonic Guard on the Blasting Chime is one of the best damage guard effects in heroics.

You can also find it in Epics on the Broken Music Box as hidden effect.

For low levels consider wearing Rock Boots.

Some other good guard effects are Trap The Soul Guard (Instakill, Will save), Greater Disruption Guard (Undead Instakill, no save) and Enervation Guard (1d4 Level Drain, no save) from Greensteel items.

Radiance Guard (light damage + Blindness) helps you stay alive and Concordant Opposition restores HP and/or SP.

You can also find some guard effects on Tier 2 and 3 Dragontouched Armor runes in heroics.

Aside from Golem's Heart you can also slot a Sapphire of Crushing Wave Guard in a blue slot.

A nice Epic guard effect is Spike Guard on the Battlerager's Harness.

A fine defensive shield with Healer's Bounty and Improved Demonic Shield: Epic Shield of Tireless Aid

You can find Riposte XII on upgraded TOEE caster weapons.

Draconic Reinvigoration on Thunderforged Weapons has a chance to restore Action Boosts/Turn Undead/Smite Evil etc. on damage or spell damage

[FuryFlash]

Cacophonic Guard on the Blasting Chime is one of the best damage guard effects in heroics.

You can also find it in Epics on the Broken Music Box as hidden effect.

For low levels consider wearing Rock Boots.

Some other good guard effects are Trap The Soul Guard (Instakill, Will save), Greater Disruption Guard (Undead Instakill, no save) and Enervation Guard (1d4 Level Drain, no save) from Greensteel items.

Radiance Guard (light damage + Blindness) helps you stay alive and Concordant Opposition restores HP and/or SP.

You can also find some guard effects on Tier 2 and 3 Dragontouched Armor runes in heroics.

Aside from Golem's Heart you can also slot a Sapphire of Crushing Wave Guard in a blue slot.

A nice Epic guard effect is Spike Guard on the Battlerager's Harness.

A fine defensive shield with Healer's Bounty and Improved Demonic Shield: Epic Shield of Tireless Aid

You can find Riposte XII on upgraded TOEE caster weapons.

Draconic Reinvigoration on Thunderforged Weapons has a chance to restore Action Boosts/Turn Undead/Smite Evil etc. on damage or spell damage

Thanks for the list.

[FuryFlash]

I had another question for you guys. Should I take tower shield proficiency? I want to be able to shield bash to do extra damage when I need to.

[Nightmanis]

I had another question for you guys. Should I take tower shield proficiency? I want to be able to shield bash to do extra damage when I need to.

Pretty sure if you don't have proficiency you don't get the prr, so that'd be a good idea.

[unbongwah]

Master's Touch grants tower shield prof; so just UMD MT scrolls from the Portable Hole.

[mezzorco]

Pretty sure if you don't have proficiency you don't get the prr, so that'd be a good idea.

If you don't have proficiency you still get full PRR and MRR. It only gives you armor check penalty to hit, so -9 to hit.

But...

Master's Touch grants tower shield prof; so just UMD MT scrolls from the Portable Hole.

...this.

[Saekee]

Just to add to your list of possibilities: the beholder Plate armor from reign of madness has telekinetic guard and can have an altar guard upgrade added to it, such as curse guard or melodic (you could do the delirium if you want displacement to proc).

It also has an antimagic spike for crits that may affect your guards, but it would require testing.

[Saekee]

Mournlode plate armor has undead guard (3d8) and healer's bounty.
if you just do the level 16 version tier 3 you can craft onto it life shield so as to have two defensive restorative qualities.

Remember to scroll fire shield for more defensive damage. it is not much but it all adds up...

[FuryFlash]

Thanks for the information. I will use UMD for Master's Touch and for fire shield. I didn't know that about Mournlode - will have to look into it. I think that even though it's more work, dragontouched will be way better, mainly for the damage part. As for the Beholder Plate, I am avoiding any guard that incapacitates without dealing damage, like freezing guard or telekinesis guard, because all that means is that it takes longer for them to die.

If you guys know of any more guards, let me know. Thanks for the help so far.

[cdbd3rd]

Don't mean to turn your thread into a marketplace or anything, but I looted a tower shield and thought it would be good for someone trying this build. It's on the AH at cost+AH fee buyout. Thelanis.

Min lvl 16 Magecraft Tower Shield; Ice Guard III and Riposte IV. No aug slot unfortunately.

[lifestaker]

for gimp dps and letting things die from old age just run a 4 warlock (aura)/ 4 fighter (feats, stance, proficiency)/ 12 druid (Bear).

Healing from druid, cleave focused, shield blocking in combat with no pen (animals can attack at full speed while blocking), 200+ AC with low investment (did something like this lives ago for a lol life and was running 280, prior to warlock and many epic lives), high PRR, and HP to be happy about.

can also drop the fighter to 1-3 wizard (10% bonus ac for the 1 level and a cleave). If so then bump warlock to at least level 5 for temp HP, though you will be very tight on AP.

Race... go PDK, just so you are a big bear, but really does not matter.
Pact... go fire, just so you can shoot fireballs in winterwolf form, but again is up to you (Too low a level for good damage numbers anyways, but is free dps for the aura defensive perks)
Scale heavy armors, stonewall or tireless aid if you do not have a wall of wood or the runestone.

Skills into UMD, Heal, Spellcraft.
Feats are standard shield tank, with added empower healing and quicken. If you want the warlock cleave then invest into max/empower, but at 4 warlock may not be worth it.

Build should get things done the way you want, but I would not say it is a good build. Just something to sit around and watch things die over time. But, I am not a pally fan so like putting out different options.

[Firewall]

If you go PDK, Shadar-Kai or Morninglord and take 6 paladin levels you can also take Aumanator's Brilliance for permanent Fireshield (Fire),