3rd Life Fighter build (seeking tweaks and recommendations)

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

Hi guys,

I've been playing for awhile and put some reasonable hours in and have some basic resources at my disposable but nowhere near completionist and do not have any to any uber gear.

I'm looking for a build which will allow me to solo most EE content and be somewhat helpful on LH content rather than hiding in the corner like i currently have to do. I can easily solo EH content currently - I haven't died in the last 4 months but I currently find EE a bit of a step up but can manage certain quests but I always feel like I am one second away from dying

I have 340'ish crafting and plan to craft a full set of level 34 gear with a few named pieces thrown in where I can, namely legendary knife toed boots, legendary ring of prowess and epic riftmaker. I have one fighter past life and one paladin. I currently have 3 melee epic past lifes (doublestrike +9%) and will be slowly grinding more as time progresses.

Here goes:

Korgz
Fighter 20
True Neutral Purple Dragon Knight


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength        18       +7       4: STR
Dexterity        8       +7       8: STR
Constitution    18       +7      12: STR
Intelligence    12       +7      16: STR
Wisdom           8       +7      20: STR
Charisma         8       +7      24: STR
                                 28: STR

Skills
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Intim     4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Heal      2  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½     11
Search                         ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1  1  1  1  1  2½ 11
Balance   2  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½     11
UMD       2  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½     11
Jump                        1                                          1
         ------------------------------------------------------------
         16  4  4  4  4  4  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  5  6  6  6  6  6  6


Feats

 1        : Weapon Focus: Slashing
 1 PDK    : Two Handed Fighting
 1 Fighter: Power Attack
 2 Fighter: Cleave
 3        : Heavy Armor Training
 4 Fighter: Weapon Specialization: Slashing
 6        : Great Cleave
 6 Fighter: Heavy Armor Combatant
 8 Fighter: Improved Critical: Slashing
 9        : Greater Weapon Focus: Slashing
10 Fighter: Heavy Armor Master
12        : Improved Two Handed Fighting
12 Fighter: Greater Weapon Specialization: Slashing
14 Fighter: Greater Two Handed Fighting
15        : Heavy Armor Champion
16 Fighter: Superior Weapon Focus: Slashing
18        : Tactical Supremacy
18 Fighter: Tactical Mastery
20 Fighter: Stunning Blow
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Insightful Reflexes
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic   : Epic Damage Reduction
28 Destiny: Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic   : Bulwark of Defense
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea


Enhancements (80 AP)

Kensei (42 AP)
Kensei Focus: Axes, Spiritual Bond, Strike with No Thought, Power Surge, One Cut, Alacrity
Extra Action Boost III, Weapon Group Specialization
Tactics III, Weapon Group Specialization, Ascetic Training: Conditioning III
Weapon Group Specialization, Shattering Strike III, Strength
Opportunity Attack, Weapon Group Specialization, Strength
Weapon Master, One with the Blade, Deadly Strike, Keen Edge
Stalwart Defender (26 AP)
Toughness, Stalwart Defense
Item Defense I, Durable Defense III, Stalwart Defensive Mastery III
Resilient Defense III, Armor Expertise III
Strong Defense III, Strength
Tenacious Defense I, Reinforced Armor III, Strength
Harper Agent (9 AP)
Agent of Good I
Harper Enchantment, Traveler's Toughness III
Know the Angles III
Purple Dragon Knight (3 AP)
Damage Boost
Improved Recovery

Destiny (24 AP)

Legendary Dreadnought
Legendary Tactics III, Extra Action Boost III, Strength
Momentum Swing III, Imp. Power Attack, Strength
Lay Waste, Strength
(none)
Devastating Critical
Master's Blitz, Headman's Chop
Twists of Fate (30 fate points)
Sense Weakness (Tier 4 Fury)
Sacred Ground (Tier 3 Crusader)
Consecration (Tier 2 Crusader)
Primal Scream (Tier 1 Fury)

In some ways it is similar to Ung's F2P THF build posted in this forum but i have tried to tweak it to my playstyle - for instance I struggle with too many clicks in my attack routines so I have dropped improved sunder and instead I am relying on armor penetration from knife toed boots and shattering strike (1 click instead of 2). I have not experienced much high end content and so I have quite a few questions I need help with.

1) Firstly, I am concerned about the lack of heal amp. I will have 61 heap amp from the crafted gear I will be wearing and 10 from my pally past life and 20 from enhancements. I will have a good devotion score (Devotion and insightful devotion ML34 crafted) but is sacred ground going to heal me enough? About how much could I expect a tick to heal? I could bump my heal amp up more but I would likely have to drop know the angles which leads into my next question.

2) How much DC is enough for Direcharge and Stunning blow and do I need stunning blow once I get Dire charge? By my calculation my base DC's will be 108 for DireCharge and 83 for stunning blow. KnowTheAngles will take that up to 119 and 94 respectively. Is that needed or can I reallocate those enhancements? It would also give me another 11 damage per hit which would be nice but I would like to go further in stalward defender and the PDK line to boost my survivability while keeping my strength high. Also not sure if my math on the DC's is right,

Strength
18 (base) +7 (levelup) +7 (tome) 
+4 (enhancements) +3 (destiny)
+15(enchantment) +7(insight) +1(exceptional) 
+2 (alacity) 
+6(competence) (stance)
+8(psionic) (boost)
+5(morale) (destiny - primal scream)
=83 

Int
12 (base) +7 (tome)
+15(enchantment) +7(insight) +1(exceptional) +2(festival)
+2 (alacity) 
+8(psionic) (boost)
=54 = know the angles +11

Dire charge
DC 25 +37(83-8 /2) +25(item enchantment/insight) +14(feat) +6(destiny) +1(past life)
=108 (119 kta)

Stunning blow = DC 83 (94 kta)

3) My 3rd question is can I cut back on the action boosts uses or are more the merrier. I haven't played a fighter since about 3 years ago and they have changed quite a bit since then. I have two set of "extra action boosts III" to give me another 6 action boosts and I'm wondering is that overkill. The only boosts I will be using is the kensai power surge and the damage boost and maybe sometimes the LD one the reduces incoming damage. Cut back or not?

4) I will have about 53 int and minimal dex so is insightful reflexes worthwhile? I currently have it in my build but it would be nice to free up another feat (and maybe respec stunning blow at 30).

5) I will have 63 con (After boosts/primal) is that going to give me enough hit points? I honestly have no idea how much to expect, my pally current has 1200 which is barely adequate - but has useless items and around 34 con.

I have a few more questions but I'll leave it at here for now as I am sure I will probably make some significant tweaks. I'm aware it's not the optimal build but I think it will be something I will enjoy but just want to make sure their aren't any fundamental errors Thanks for reading

Oh, the gear breakdown will be something like:

Armor: Prefix: Vitality, Suffix: False Life, Extra: Parrying

Belt: Prefix: Doublestrike, Suffix: Strength, Extra: INS Strength

Boot: Legendary Knife toed boots (armor pen, qual str +4, qual seeker, thorn guard)

Cloak: Prefix: Intelligence, Suffix: Natural Armor, Extra: INS Intelligence (If I drop KtA this will change to Charisma for UMD, intim etc)

Glove: Prefix: Stunning, Suffix: Healing Amplification, Extra: INS Stunning

Helm: Prefix: Fortification, Suffix: Resistance, Extra: INS Fortification

Bracer: Prefix: Protection, Suffix: INS Physical Sheltering, Extra: Sheltering

Goggle: Prefix: Seeker, Suffix: Melee Alacrity, Extra: INS Seeker

Necklace: Prefix: Constitution, Suffix: INS Wizardry, Extra: INS Constitution

Ring 1: Trinket and Ring 1 are not finalized yet.

Ring 2: Legendary Ring of Prowess (Deadly, Accuracy, Melee power)

Trinket: Prefix: Wisdom, Suffix: Devotion, Extra: INS Devotion

Augments: True imperial blood, Festival Intelligence, Festival Wisdom, Striding 30%, Good luck +2, Resists +40 - haven't really finalised yet.

[tigerknee123]

Primal scream will not stack with defender stance since you cannot be raged in said stance

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

Primal scream will not stack with defender stance since you cannot be raged in said stance

Thanks heaps. Those are exactly the kind of tips I am looking for. I guess I will switch it out for rejunventating cocoon which will give me a more mana efficient heal.

[Eryhn]

you are pdk, you should make use of the ability to use both human damage boost and kensei haste boost at the same time. since this is immensly boosting clearing capability and boss beatdowns, you should want more than just the 6 boosts.

if you take a full 12 depends a bit on what other enhancements and destiny stuff you want to get in - personally i enjoy having them but tactics may require slight sacrifice. i usually take +3 in LD and the enhancement only +1 if i an low on AP on a build.

granted, this may not be needed for most quests (though there is something comfortable about being able to zerg w/o shrining)
but is nice in longer content like raids ...

--
i would sacrifice the 3 PRR/MRR from lvl3 feat for another focus for 2 melee power or shuffling some feats down a bit to get more options in epics. i likewise would consider if spending a feat on elusive target is rly worth it

---
not sure if 2 more INT 2 less CON is worth it for better KTA. despite 7 tomes 12 is low for using KTA imho.

regardless of stun DC being boosted by it and it generally being nice to have consider dropping primal scream for cocoon. self heal ability being an issue somewhat on pure, rly think i would want cocoon.

edit: you CAN use primal scream by dropping stance, using scream and then toggling stance back on.

hamp can be boosted with i.e. mysterious bracers or cloak. there is some other options to get stacking hamp in gear, too.

edit: would also slot blue +2 armored agility and make use of max dodge cap. 10ish dodge better than elusive target ....

edit3: slot CHA augment for umd

get at least one displacement clicky by farming heroic shroud so you can better sustain damage output in harder fights. even scrolling 30 sec displacement before fights is worth it for that short time...

edit4: go for divine EPLs next for the passive stacking 3 PRR per life. both the + to saves stance and + pos spellpower stance for coocoon would be helpful to you

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

Thanks for all the advice. You've given me a lot to think about.

For the aug's I think i'll use a draconic aug which will free up a couple of slots for armoured agility and some others. I really like the sound of a bit of dodge for more survivability.

I already have one displacement clicky and I was planning on crafting another one as I have tons of ingredients just no signet stones.

I was planning on crafting a +15/7 CHA cloak to switch the INT clock for when I needed UMD but if the aug gives me enough it would be great to not have to switch out cloaks to use scrolls etc. I just read about tensers transformation scroll which will add some more str/con so I'll try and figure out how much UMD I will end up with so I can fit tensers into the build.

Thanks for the feat advice as well, i was wondering about the value of the 3PRR/3MRR one. I am a little worried about my limited spell points so it would be good to fit some feats that boost spell points in if possible.

Any idea if I have too much/too little dire charge DC? If would been good to free up some points for other things or possible go combat mastery items instead of stunning to maybe maybe trip viable?

[Eryhn]

imho the DC looks more than fine for most EEs and LHs. it may or may not be tiny bit short for LE though probably not. my own tactics builds arent LE viable yet so others will be able to clarify better than I. there also was a thread on DCs around somewhere, i think ...

overall it looks like a very decent build for EE LH. which makes me wonder, is your current gear set much weaker than the one you aim to craft? my now second life maul cleric had no problem soloing LH on his first life, with semi decent gear and +3 tomes. admittedly he has abundant self heals, but dps also much lower than a pure fighter. with the exception of slavers which i havent bought yet and cant speak for, i dont see the above build and gear having any issues on LH quests, at all. the odd EE at level may be bit harder, but prly doable too

and yes, i do think combat mastery over stunning only should work for non LE and trip is worth it maybe.

oh btw one more thing to consider, on that lvl3 feat. if you were to raise INT to, mh, 13 i think is the requirement, you could take combat expertise, which offers the option to use legendary dreadnaught imp combat expertise for situational +20 PRR stance

- actually given tomes you can do that w/o raising int if you shuffle feats a bit and take it bit later ...

[the_one_dwarfforged]

i would drop con to 16 and raise int to 16. its a trade off of 30 hp (before stance multiplier) against 1 dmg (before mp and crit multipliers) and 1 tac dc and 2 reflex save and more skill points. personal preference i guess, but your starting stats just look honky to me.

not that this is relevant to a pdk, but cleave should always be a level one feat on a level one fighter. id take stunning blow way sooner, otherwise why even bother. drop heavy armor training and heavy armor combatant, together they give only the same benefit as heavy armor master, which imo makes them both far too expensive for such marginal gains, even on a fighter; plus you can get feats that are simply just better. if you drop the two weak heavy armor feats, you can shift a lot of other better dps feats down. id take perfect twf over elusive target. id drop bulwark and take something useful.

if you want more heal amp, what i do is when i am healing myself i equip a heroic hamp/hamp/hamp stick (so, during cocoons where i feel i need more healing, as part of an item set with heal scrolls in the main hand and hamp stick in the offhand). im not sure how it would stack or not stack with cannith crafted hamp gear, and possibly an lgs hamp stick is the way to go for using this strategy in epics. as far as how much healing you get from xyz goes, it doesnt matter what numbers heals hit you for. it just matters if youre alive or not. also, i really question spending two twist on consecration...i mean if you have to you have to, but i am not a fan of that strategy for several reasons. you should definitely be taking cocoon imo, as it is not interruptible (though it is cancellable, so some care does still need to be taken when using it), has a quick cast animation, and provides good healing if you can get most of the ticks out of it. imo the best solution to fighter self healing is to be a bladeforged, and the second best solution is more dps.

119 and 94 dcs are ok. i personally have not actually used dire charge because i think deific warding is that good and dire charge doesnt do **** for bosses, but 119 should be able to land on most things. 94 is a bit low of a dc, and you should really look into finding what the missing link is between an expected 94 dc and a good stunning blow dc. that said, 94 is going to work in a lot of content (i bet even in le ts/hox). using a bf fighter that really didnt focus on tactics (with now outdated gear), i had something like a 101-2 stun dc, which is pretty low, and was able to land stunning blow pretty frequently against trash in le shroud (more reliably on casters than melee trash, but its teh casters id want to stun anyway...) but i wouldnt call 101 "reliable" exactly in that scenario. most of everything else though its pretty much no fail. the one major exception from recent history is epic amrath, which has just silly fort saves on the reavers that could probably be hit with a good stun dc these days, but ~95-100 dc is probably 30% success rate or less on those things. improved sunder (which has other significant merits, but ill ignore them for now) can also be used as an alpha strike against something you want to stun to effectively raise your dc against that target by 3.

you should have as many action boosts as you can. depending on how it affects your gear, wear veriks necklace before shrining and when entering quests so that you start with 2 more of each of your boosts. you should be using dreadnaught % dmg boost in situation where you want to cleave a lot (so...packs of enemies) or when you are trying to nuke something you stunned (and orange name that a decent amount of hp that could take you a bit to get through normally, but with helpless damage, dreadnaught helpless damage, possibly sense weakness, and damage boost, is dead in a lot less time). dmg boost is your bread and butter for trash and most parts of most quests, saving your double boost combo for bosses. the double boost is using human % damage boost concurrently with haste boost. the racial boost has the unique property of being usable while any class based action boost is active. if you hit them both at the same time, you multiply your damage by quite a bit. while you are haste boosted, you dont want to cleave because attack speed increases dont affect cleave animation times, so cleaving means you are getting less attacks in than if you just used basic attacks instead (and cleaves dont add so much dmg that it is worth it). seeing as that is the case, you want to save your haste boosts/double boosting for boss fights where you are primarily interested in just killing a single target as fast as possible.

on my bf pure fighter i did not have insightful reflexes. most of the time, it did not matter as i could just eat the damage with my high hp and mrr, and top up easily with recon. lately ive been thinking more and more however that insightful reflexes might actually be worth it, especially with the new crafting systems, which seems to me like stats will be more focused but less varied (i had a high enough dex:int ratio, and was tight enough on feats, and confident enough in my ability to absorb most magical dmg that i thought insightful reflexes was 100% not necessary). on a human fighter, id definitely want to try and avoid getting nuked, so definitely worth it imo.

con is not the sole determinant in your hp stat. you cant just say, "oh you have x con? youre set for ****ing life. you only have y con? youre going to die in one shot to everythign all the time on any difficulty in all content." 63 con is fine, if you want to improve your hp, for starters try maxing tenacious defense. idk how you can suggest that you have difficulties surviving, and not have at least tried maxing that to see if it helped. if you are assuming that this character will only have 1200 hp, yea thats on the low side, but i really expect it to be higher. if it is only 1200, you have a serious problem somewhere.

i think your ap spread looks pretty bad, like how you can not have haste boost i dont even ****ing understand, but anyway i would suggest this:

Enhancements (80 AP)

Kensei (41 AP)

• Kensei Focus: Heavy Blades, Spiritual Bond, Strike with No Thought, Power Surge, One Cut, Alacrity
  
  1. Extra Action Boost III, Weapon Group Specialization, Haste Boost III
  2. Weapon Group Specialization
  3. Critical Mastery III, Weapon Group Specialization, Shattering Strike I, Strength
  4. Opportunity Attack, Weapon Group Specialization, Strike at the Heart, Strength
  5. A Good Death: Melee, Weapon Master, One with the Blade, Deadly Strike, Keen Edge

Stalwart Defender (23 AP)

• Toughness, Stalwart Defense, Overbalance
  
  1. Durable Defense III, Stalwart Defensive Mastery III
  2. Resilient Defense III, Instinctive Defense III
  3. Strong Defense III, Strength
  4. Tenacious Defense III

Harper Agent (11 AP)

• Agent of Good I
  
  1. Harper Enchantment, Traveler's Toughness II
  2. Versatile Adept III, Know the Angles III

Human (5 AP)

• Damage Boost, Strength OR Action Surge: Strength II
  
  1. Improved Recovery OR Action Surge: Strength II

Destiny (24 AP)

Legendary Dreadnought

1. Legendary Tactics III, Extra Action Boost III
2. Momentum Swing III, Imp. Power Attack, Damage Boost III
3. Lay Waste, Critical Damage II
4. (none)
5. Advancing Blows, Devastating Critical
6. Master's Blitz

also, primal scream can be used with defensive stance, drop stance, scream, stance up. that said if i were you, id probably be taking cocoon instead. but i also dont take consecration, so maybe you dont need cocoon idk.

id look at your gear, but that format is unpleasant to try to read, and im not going to.

also, i would not want to skimp on my stun dc, but you should definitely be making your trip just as or nearly as good. id just make a stunning and a vertigo item since youre not going to use improved sunder and youre (as i understand it) just crating everything anyways, so slot configuration shouldnt be an issue.

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I will drop 2 con for 4 int - makes sense. Also I missed ship buffs and I underestimated the tactics DC from enhancements/destiny (missing 6 points) - I think that explains why my stunning blow was lower than what you expected - I'm guessing it will be over 100 now.

I'll probably try and pick up the haste boost but I am not keen on too many click-ables as I struggle to keep up with everything.

You have some great ideas on the enhancements as well and I think i will try to incorporate most of them in. I'm not too sure about a good death as I'm thinking that probably requires a bit of timing and i'm not good at that - I prefer to have attack buttons that I can just bash - but I will give it a shot.

[NaturalHazard]

Primal scream will not stack with defender stance since you cannot be raged in said stance

At the moment im droping stance then screaming then going back into stance, and im still getting the str and con bonus but this is on a paladin. And im only doing it because I need the extra str and con as a lower leveled epic character till I get better gear for better hp and stuns and stuff. It can be a bit annoying though rebuffing it like that.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I will drop 2 con for 4 int - makes sense. Also I missed ship buffs and I underestimated the tactics DC from enhancements/destiny (missing 6 points) - I think that explains why my stunning blow was lower than what you expected - I'm guessing it will be over 100 now.

I'll probably try and pick up the haste boost but I am not keen on too many click-ables as I struggle to keep up with everything.

You have some great ideas on the enhancements as well and I think i will try to incorporate most of them in. I'm not too sure about a good death as I'm thinking that probably requires a bit of timing and i'm not good at that - I prefer to have attack buttons that I can just bash - but I will give it a shot.

haste boost is a must. honestly, i just cant even fathom an le melee without haste boost. it shouldnt be hard to use though, as you are mostly saving it for single target smack downs and the rest of the time using ld damage boost instead. for action boosts, you should pretty much only need 1 per encounter, and not every encounter is worth one, so its not like you have to be spamming them or something (which you cant, even). and i mean honestly, just think about haste boost and damage boost for a second. haste boost increases your attack speed by...30%...30...THIRTY PERCENT. for a grand total of 3 ap. the numbers are right in front of you, recognize the absolute amazeballs godly efficiency of that enhancement. there is nothing else you could spend your ap on to gain that level of power increase, literally nothing. damage boost is pretty similar but not quite as awesome. if you are having troubles, why not try killing things a ********ington faster?

the higher you go, the more a good death is worth it. and yes, it requires a *bit* of timing...but its not much, and the more you use it the more you get used to it. plus, its not like anything bad happens if you mess up, you do get some dps bonus from it regardless and its just a cool down. fighter dps clickies are not designed for mashing. if you just want to mash buttons, id suggest 18/2 ftr/monk so you can get fists of iron and just spam that every 3 seconds, or 14/6 pal/ftr for divine sacrifice and spam that every 3 seconds (personally i find those 3 second cd no cost dps clickies highly entertaining to try and weave seamlessly into your attack combos continuously, but it definitely takes an effort). the fighter exclusive clickies are really more about using them in the right situations/times given that of the four of them, one is just an uber debuff with a kind of long cd, one is just an uber buff with a short cd but short duration and limited uses, one is just a super marginal dps gain with a long cool down (deadly strike...holy **** does it suck balls in all honesty, if you wanted to drop one to the clickies, it better be this one), and one is a pretty good but situational dps gain with a kinda long cool down. so yea, fighter clickies are not designed for spamming/mashing (or what i consider spamming/mashing).

all that said, i think what is clearly the underlying message that i will just come out and say is, if you have decent gear and a decent build, then the only thing left to improve (which imo is the most significant aspect of bettering ones performance in game) is becoming better at using the tools, all of the tools, that you have (which are numerous) in order to succeed at any point in the game.