Whirling Stick of Truth

[Selvera]

Foreward: At the request I got somewhere, I decided to post my build. I mostly made it because I wanted to make a stick build, I wanted to knock off an iconic life and I wanted a robes-wearer, so this is what I came up with. Full warning, this build was made by me for my own needs, given my gear, past lives and tomes, and might not work as well for newer players.

Fighter 8/Rogue 6/Monk 6 Purple Dragon Knight
(Any race possible with slight adjustments to skill points, but iconic is recommended, because I designed to build to “come online” at level 15. I was strongly considering Shadar-kai so that level 1 would be a rogue level.)

Stats (and required tomes) (36 point build):
Strength: 14 (+3 tome required for two handed fighting feats)
Dex: 17 (All stat ups into Dex)
Con: 16
Int: 12 (+1 tome required for combat expertise, Skill points listing below assumes at least +2 tome)
Wis: 11
Cha: 8
All stats are used in this build, so all tomes are good to have (I'm averaging at about +3/+4 each), but the above mentioned is all that’s required.

Leveling order, feats, and skill ranks:
1 Fighter: Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning, Dodge, Mobility, 2 Search, 2 UMD, 4 Jump, 2 Concentration
2 Monk: Deflect Arrows, 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 3 Concentration, 1 Tumble
3 Monk: Two Handed Fighting, Sneak of Shadows, 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1 Concentration, 3 Tumble
4 Monk: 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 3 Jump, 1 Concentration
5 Monk: 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1 Jump, 1 Concentration, 2 Balance
6 Fighter: Spring Attack, Power Critical, 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1 Jump, 0.5 Balance
7 Fighter: 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1 Jump, 1 Balance
8 Fighter: Weapon Specialization: Bludgeoning, 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1 Jump, 0.5 Concentration, 0.5 Balance
9 Fighter: Improved Critical: Bludgeoning, 0.5 Search, 0.5 UMD, 1.5 Concentration
10 Rogue: 7 Search, 4 Disable Device
11 Rogue: 1 Search, 4 Disable Device, 6 UMD
12 Monk: Improved Two Handed Fighting, 1 Disable Device, 5 Concentration
13 Monk: Combat Expertise, 3 Disable Device, 1 Concentration
14 Fighter: Greater Two Handed Fighting, 2 UMD, 1 Jump
15 Rogue: Master of Forms, 4 Search, 6 Disable Device, 1 Open Lock
16 Fighter: 2 Jump, 1.5 Concentration
17 Fighter: Greater Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning, 2.5 Concentration
18 Rogue: Grandmaster of Forms, 3 Search, 3 Disable Device, 5 Open Lock
19 Rogue: 1 Search, 1 Disable, 3 UMD, 6 Open Lock
20 Rogue: 1 Search, 1 Disable, 9 Open Lock

Skill totals: 23 Search, 23 Disable, 17 UMD, 21 Open Locks, 14 Jump, 20 Concentration, 4 Tumble, 4 Balance

Epic Feats:
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Bulwark of Defense
26: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29: Deific Warding OR Dire Charge
30: Epic Reflexes, Scion of the Asteral Plane

Enhancement Points:

Kensai (35 points):
3 Cores
9 Weapon Specialization line (Martial Arts)
3 Haste Boost
6 Improved Dodge + Athletic Mastery
3 Agility
3 Critical Mastery
2 Dexterity (1 point)
2 Improved Destruction
4 All other T5s not mentioned above

Stalwart Defender (9 points):
2 Cores
3 Durable Defense
1 Stalwart Defense Mastery
3 Resilient Defense

Thief Acrobat (19 points):
3 Cores
3 Acrobatics
4 Staff Training x2
6 Quick Strike
3 Sweeping Strike

Purple Dragon Knight (3 points):
1 Skill boost (Can swap this out for damage boost if you’re not concerned about skills at all, I find this useful for UMD and on rare occasions for traps as well)
2 Healing Amplification

Henshin (14 points):
3 Cores
4 Staff Training x2
2 Way of the Patient Tortoise
2 Elemental Ki Strike of your choice (I took fire because you can never have enough fort-bypass, and I like fire-light-fire finisher, which is very fast with a ki strike.)
3 Lighting the Candle

Gear (designed for use between levels 15 and 23, all Cannith crafted gear is ML15, all gear is usable at level 15 except the weapons):
Weapon: Rahl’s Might, Luminous Truth or Random Loot
Armour: Black Dragonscale Robe
Goggles: Cannith Crafted Seeker of Deadly with Hamstring and augment of False Life
Helm: Cannith Crafted Sheltering, Parrying and Insightful Magical Sheltering, augment of Protection
Bracers: Greensteel Bracers (HP + Blur)
Trinket: Pale Green Ioun Stone
Belt: Cannith Crafted Dodge, Natural Armour and Insightful Dodge, Augment of Sonic resist
Gloves: Cannith Crafted Doublestrike, Healing Amp and Insightful Dexterity, Augment of electric resist
Cloak: Ghost Walking Cloak, Augment of Wisdom
Boots: Boots of the Devil Commander
Necklace: Jorgundal’s Collar, Augment of Strength
Ring: Cannith Crafted Constitution, Dexterity and Insightful Constitution, Augment of cold resist
2nd Ring: Whatever you want, I use this as a swap slot for effects I want.

Trapping gear: Whatever search, disable device and open lock equipment I’ve found/find that’s best. It’s suggested to have both enhancement bonus and insightful bonus for Search and Disable Device, since traps can be tricky on elite with a Dex-based build.

Destanies and Twists:
While Grandmaster of Flowers has some great advantages, including nearly infinite Ki, extra AoEs and CC and unfailable saves, and the ever useful Everything is Nothing, I typically run in Legendary Dreadnought since it puts out better raw numbers which are more useful for LE content (except, perhaps if you need a hurl for the crystal in shroud). However, grandmaster is better in some situations.

Here's my typical load-out:
Tier 1: +3 action boosts, +6 tactics DC's (6 points spent)
Tier 2: 30% damage boost, +20 PRR in combat Expertise (5 points spent)
Tier 3: +6 damage on critical hits (3 points spent)
Tier 4: Lightning Mace (2 points spent)
Tier 5: Advancing Blows, Devastating Critical (4 points spent)
Tier 6: Master's Blitz (Prr), Pulveriser (4 points spent)
Twists: Grim Precision (Tier 3), Hail of Blows (Tier 2), Dance of Flowers (Tier 1), Rejuvenation Cocoon (Tier 1)

About the build:
For these calculations I’ll assume no tomes and no past lives, even though the build was partially built around my 3 martial past lives (for AC and double strike). I’ll also assume Grandmaster Ocean stance, which is what I typically run in. Despite the build being level 20, I will not include destinies, which help a lot.

Offense:
Damage: +51 (19 AP, +5 Weapon, 2 feat, 19 Dex, 6 Deadly)
Attack Speed: +27% (15 AP, 12 Melee Alacrity)
Double strike: 10% or 35% (1% AP, 9% Gloves, 25% Quick Strike)
Melee Power: 62 (30 Henshin, 20 Kensai, 12 Feats)
Armor Piercing: 10+ (Dragonscale Robe, + multiple sources of armor destruction)
Seeker: +19 (6 guild, 3 Kensai, 8 Goggles, 2 Feat)
Critical Profile: 18-20 x4 (Rahl’s Might) or 16-20 x3 (Luminous Truth).

And of course, there's Relentless Fury, granting 5% damage buff after killing an enemy (most of the time).

Defenses:
HP: 528 (164 base from classes, 45 Heroic Durability, 160 Constitution, 45 Greensteel, 20 False life, 40 Vitality, 15 Tortoise, 9 Stalwart, 10 Draconic Vitality, 20 ship buff)

AC: 67 (10 base, 8 armour, 6 Monk, 4 Protection, 8 Natural, 13 Dex, 5 Wis, 6 guild, 1 Stalwart, 10% Combat Expertise)
Dodge: 42%/43% Dodge (6 Monk, 12 ocean, 8 enhancement, 3 insightful, 5 feat, 3 Kensai) Max Dodge (25 base, 8 ocean, 6 Kensai, 2 Thief Acrobat, 2 airship)
PRR: 66 (19 sheltering, 9 Insightful, 4 Quality, 9 Henshin, 25 Stalwart)
Other: 100+% fortification, 20% blur, 10% incorporeal, clickie for displacement 2/rest.

Fortitude: 34 (13 base from classes, 8 Con, 4 Resistance, 3 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild)
Reflex: 43 (12 base from classes, 13 Dex, 4 Resistance, 3 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild)
Will: 33 (9 base from classes, 5 Wis, 4 Resistance, 3 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild)
MRR: 50 (capped) (19 Sheltering, 9 insightful, 25 stalwart)

Utility/pre-20 healing:
Fists of light: heal 1 to 3 per attack, which is pretty good with your attackspeed.
Healing Ki: (3x light finisher) AoE heal of about 40ish. Not a good primary heal, but good for topping up, and you won’t be taking that much damage in the first place.
By level 15 you should have enough UMD to use raise dead and teleport scrolls with at least 30% success (probably more) (with an appropriate UMD item such as the Golden Cartouche). As mentioned, Skill boost can buff this up by 20% more, and fire-light-fire another 10%.

Conclusion: I’ve had a lot of fun with this build, and I vastly out-perform most people I meet in most quests that I’ve played so far, and I can solo pretty much any quest on elite at level without a hireling which is good enough for me.

One problem I’ve run into so far is no-save magic damage such as magic missile. I really need to get myself some protection against that. (**** MRR cap for robes).

Feel free to comment/critique!

Edit:

[Enderoc]

Magic missile? There is potions for that, if you don't want to mess with wands...

[Selvera]

I'm always learning. Wands shouldn't be much of a problem unless they're harder to use the res scrolls

I'm rather skeptical about the duration of potions and/or wands, but even a 3 minute buff would still be useful, I'm reading that I can get wands in the marketplace, is the duration of these wands good, or should I look somewhere else to get a stack of wands of shield?

[DownClan]

Destanies and Twists:
I’m still playing around with Destanies, but the 3 that look most appetising right now are Grandmaster of Flowers for nearly un-failable saves and extra AoE damage with EiN and Lotus attacks or Legendary Dreadnaught because it just does a ton of physical damage.

Thank you for posting your build.

I'm just a newb (yes, I'm only a newb....) but my experience with a 20 Monk/5 Epic (which is where'd I'd completed both destinies) was that Legendary Dreadnought put out more DPS than Grandmaster of Flowers. But I was TWF, so EiN just didn't fit into my style - very few opportunities to increment the count.

[NaturalHazard]

I'm always learning. Wands shouldn't be much of a problem unless they're harder to use the res scrolls

I'm rather skeptical about the duration of potions and/or wands, but even a 3 minute buff would still be useful, I'm reading that I can get wands in the marketplace, is the duration of these wands good, or should I look somewhere else to get a stack of wands of shield?

I use them I think they are like 5-3 minutes lol but I find they are good.

the umd requirements are really low.

[Eth]

I'm always learning. Wands shouldn't be much of a problem unless they're harder to use the res scrolls

I'm rather skeptical about the duration of potions and/or wands, but even a 3 minute buff would still be useful, I'm reading that I can get wands in the marketplace, is the duration of these wands good, or should I look somewhere else to get a stack of wands of shield?

The ones from marketplace last 5 minutes. Higher ones (as in higher CL, therefore longer duration) come only from chests.

If you can be bothered with running legendary shroud, the nightshield clicky is fairly cheap and lasts 20 minutes. http://ddowiki.com/page/Legendary_Gr...l_items/Active

[Selvera]

Replying to grandmaster vs LD:

Grandmaster does more AoE damage currently for me; since the build doesn't include cleave/greatcleave I can't use the LD cleaves, but I can use the grandmaster AoE flowers moves.
Drifting Lotus is particularly good to keep enemies knocked down when they get up from Sweeping Strike, while A Scattering of Pedals can be used to give yourself super-high dodge while you wait for Sweeping Strike to come off cooldown. Either (most enemies will be knocked down or you'll have about 70% dodge) indefinitely. I found this quite useful in EE.
Grandmaster has more passive melee power then LD, but less during blitz.

Grandmaster also has huge bonuses to saves and “do not fail” saves on a 1. I’ve done a little testing, and I’ve saved against traps on a 1 in some EE content far above my level so far (Cry for Help at level 20).

And Grandmaster’s Ki regeneration means that you’ll pretty much never run out of ki unless you’re spamming flowers moves at a wall to charge EiN. And the heal is a nice top-up + restoration, especially before you’re able to reliably use heal scrolls.

LD does a lot more single target dps, since you can pick up damage boost, action boost cooldowns, and bonus damage on crit and bonus critical threat range with weapons other than the Sirith. It also has the highest melee power during blitz, which you shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping up unless there’s a bunch of ranged people in your party killing everything before you can even hit it.

So on paper it looks like LD is damage + more damage, Grandmaster is AoE + Utility. Right now I’m using Gradmaster to give it a good chance, but I’ll probably end up in LD.

As for wands of shield:
Yep, marketplace wands are 5 minutes, I picked one up yesterday and found a situation where it saved me quite a bit of HP. Easy to get, affordable, easily usable with this much UMD, and shores up one of the build’s biggest weaknesses: recommended for anyone using this build.
I do do LGS, although mostly I’ve been farming weapons to completion so far. However, LGS is ML 26, so it doesn’t really help the lower levels. I’ll recommend a LGS nightshield clickie on a swap item for end-game gear (+3 saves is a nice bonus too).

Additional note:
Reached level 21, where I can use a seal of house avathoul (insightful wisdom, improved deception and sneak attack damage), which is a very nice option for the second ring option; and a Drow Quarterstaff of the Weaponmaster, which is an impressive direct upgrade to Luminous Truth.

[DownClan]

I very much appreciate your discussion about tactics for Grandmaster of Flowers. LD with Advancing Blows and Master's Blitz ticking (and Blinding Speed epic feat of course) are just amazingly scary, especially if you pick a weapon with an expanded crit range (because, well, you always should...)

But there is no CC from just those two abilities, and your reference to Sweeping Strike really helps me start to think about how I should be working to bring CC techniques into my builds and playstyle.

[Selvera]

So I got this build to level 30 a while back, and I've been working on farming some gear for it. So far, I'm enjoying the build and I can solo LE slavers with it, if I'm smart and make sure to keep up deathward + not get surrounded by enemies. A hireling helps a lot. I have not yet finished the gear listed below, but I'm getting pretty close. Calculations will assume no past lives and no tomes beyond the required +3 strength and +1 int tome for this build.

End Game Gear (although let's forget augments and mythic boosts for now eh?)
Armour: Shadowscale Outfit
Goggles: Cannith Crafted: Wisdom (+15) of Melee Alacrity (15%) with Insightful Seeker (+7)
Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Bracers: Cannith Crafted: Protection (+12) of Insightful Physical Sheltering (+18) with Parrying (+7)
Trinket: Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords
Belt: Slavers Crafted: Constitution (+17), Resistance (+14), Heal (+22), Quality Con (+4)
Gloves: Cannith Crafted: Doublestrike (17%), Healing Amp (61) and Insightful Dexterity (+7)
Cloak: Cannith Crafted: Intelligence (+15), Dodge (15%) of Insightful Wisdom (+7)
Boots: Slavers Crafted: Sheltering (+45), Positive Spellpower (185), Tendon Slice, Quality PRR (+11)
Necklace: Legendary Pendant of Warior's Focus
Ring: Slavers Crafted: Dexterity (+17), Deception (+14), Stunning (+10), Quality Dexterity (+4)
2nd Ring: Ring of Prowess
Set bonus: Slave Lord's Might (5 piece)

One very useful augment to drop in somewhere is mana for cocoon, other then that they're mostly just nice to have (false life, vitality, natural armour, good luck, exceptional stats, etc).

A comparison of (named) Sticks:

Stuff I have:
Sireth: This is a great weapon, from the critical profile to the d10 damage die and attached on hit damage procs to the possible upgrades you can get for it. When it's fully upgraded you can even drop a ruby in it to make it a harry beater if you want (or whatever DR is best for whatever boss you're looking to farm). I even use it as a swap for feather-fall and FoM when I want. The only problem with this staff is that it does not benefit from pulverisor, but there are only 2 sticks on this list that can match the crit profile even with that enhancement included.

Drow Quarterstaff of the Weaponmaster: I tend to use this as my go-to stick for nearly all content. The damage dice and critical profile are good enough to put your damage up in the range where you can compete with the barbarian in the group for dps, while the attached Vetigo +10 is a nice bonus to CC. Solidly above random loot (even ML 30+ random loot) in terms of dps, but you will feel your dps go up if you switch to Sireth (or bone crusher or elemental bloom).

Dreampiercer: This stick's claim to fame comes pretty much from being crystal, meaning it does not take damage from oozes and rust monsters. Also, it has hardness 36, which means it will nearly never break, ever. On top of that, it comes with a red slot without having to upgrade it, making it an easy DR breaker when you drop in a ruby of DR breaking without too much effort. The d10 hit die is nice and the damage procs aren't bad, but without the critical profile to go with it the damage will be significantly lower on any low fortification mob unless you're breaking a significant amount of DR (like Harry, for example). The upgrades to this aren't breathtaking.

Stuff I don't have:
Epic Elemental Bloom: This stick has an amazing critical profile which only gets better with pulverisor then any other stick. Other then that, it doesn't appear that this has too much going for it. The abilities are nice, but not super. 5[1d6] is just slightly worse then 2.5[1d10] for base damage when you consider a dance of flowers. However, the crit profile alone would make this an amazing staff for any end-game build.

Mythic Bone Crusher: The wiki page has this as 16-20 x2 in the stats, but 18-20 x2 in the picture. Which is it? If it's 16-20 then it's a great critical profile, better then Sireth since it can use pulverisor, but if it's 18-20 its only a "good" critical profile, which even with pulverisor isn't as good as Sirieth without. As mentioned above, 2.5[1d10] is pretty much the best damage die you'll find on a staff (outside of an upgraded Sireth), and the on-hit procs sound good, but I haven't tested them. The stats it gives are pretty useless, as your gear is likely to give you better dexterity and seeker regardless of what weapon you're wielding.

Epic Light Unending: The highest level named Q-staff in the game, and it fits solidly into a utility role of DR-breaker, given the base damage die and critical profile don't impress. +12 is nice though. This stick's claim to fame is that it is an awesome DR breaker, it's got flametouched and metalline built in, and a purple augment slot allowing it to break even more DR's as you need. The on-hit procs are easily as good as random loot stuff, meaning this is much better then any DR breaker you can craft with Cannith crafting. It also has a lot of durability.


Passive Offense with Drow Q-Staff of the Weaponmaster: (1,462 + 138 DPS (Base + Glancing Blows) as per Vanshilar http://mmlddo.com/DDODPS.html)
Damage: 4.75[1d6]+79 (19 AP, +8 Weapon, 34 Dex, 14 Deadly, 4 slave lords set)
Bonus Damage Per hit: 2d8 fire (scaling with melee power = ~20) (Lighting the Candle)
Attack Speed: +30% (15 AP, 15 Melee Alacrity)
Double strike: 41% (1% AP, 17% Gloves, 7% necklace, 13% feat, 3% Hail of Blows)
Melee Power: 114 (30 Henshin, 20 Kensai, 30 epic levels, 12 Feats, 18 Legendary Dreadnaught, 4 Slave lords set)
Armor Piercing: 21 (Necklace)
Seeker: +41 (6 guild, 3 Kensai, 17 Helmet, 7 Goggles, 2 Feat, 6 LD)
Non-Scaling Crit damage: 6d10 force (scaling with melee power = ~70) (Lightning the Candle)
Critical Profile: 15-18 x3, 19-20 x5 = 1.80

Buffed Offense with Sireth: (3,480 + 287 DPS (Base + Glancing Blows) as per Vanshilar http://mmlddo.com/DDODPS.html)
Damage: 5.75[1d10]+84 + 30% (19 AP, +8 Weapon, 34 Dex, 14 Deadly, 4 slave lords set, 5 advancing blows, 1[w] Combat Brute, 30% damage boost)
Bonus Damage Per hit: 2d8 fire (scaling with melee power = ~26) (Lighting the Candle) + 3d6 Good (= ~10.5) + Lightning Strike (= ~9.2) + Cloudburst (= ~5 lightning + 3.75 sonic)
Attack Speed: +30% (15 AP, 15 Melee Alacrity)
Double strike: 66% (1% AP, 17% Gloves, 7% necklace, 3% Hail of Blows, 13% Feat, 25% Quick Strike)
Melee Power: 184 (30 Henshin, 20 Kensai, 30 epic levels, 12 Feats, 18 Legendary Dreadnaught, 4 Slave lords set, 70 Master's Blitz)
Armor Piercing: 41 (Necklace, Armour Destruction)
Seeker: +41 (6 guild, 3 Kensai, 17 Helmet, 7 Goggles, 2 Feat, 6 LD)
Non-Scaling Crit damage: 6d10 force (scaling with melee power = ~94) (Lightning the Candle)
Critical Profile: 14-18 x3, 19-20 x5 = 1.85

Defenses:
HP: 933 (164 base from classes, 45 Heroic Durability, 100 epic levels, 510 Constitution, 15 Tortoise, 9 Stalwart, 10 Draconic Vitality, 60 from Legendary Dreadnaught, 20 ship buff)

AC: 100 (10 base, 11 armour, 6 Monk, 12 Protection, 22 Dex, 13 Wis, 6 guild, 1 Stalwart, 4 bulwark, 7 Parrying, 10% Combat Expertise)
Dodge: 47% Dodge (6 Monk, 12 ocean, 15 cloak, 5 feat, 3 Kensai, 4 scion) Max Dodge (25 base, 8 ocean, 6 Kensai, 2 Thief Acrobat, 2 airship, 4 scion)
PRR: 148 to 188 (45 sheltering, 18 Insightful, 11 Quality, 9 Henshin, 25 Stalwart, 20 Improved Combat Expertise, 10 Epic damage reduction, 10 to 20 Deific Warding, 0 or 30 Master's Blitz)
Other: 130+% fortification, 25% blur, 10% incorporeal, action boost for 25% reduced damage, clickie for displacement 2/rest (you can keep using your heroic as a clickie)

Fortitude: 69 (13 base from classes, 17 Con, 14 Resistance, 7 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild, 2 Bulwark, 5 epic levels)
Reflex: 81, don't fail on a 1 (12 base from classes, 22 Dex, 14 Resistance, 7 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild, 2 Bulwark, 5 epic levels, 6 feats)
Will: 61 (9 base from classes, 13 Wis, 14 Resistance, 7 parrying, 3 Stalwart, 5 Ocean, 3 guild, 2 Bulwark, 5 epic levels)
MRR: 50 (capped) (45 Sheltering, 25 stalwart, 10 to 20 Deific Warding)

With an LGS trapping item, I'm able to reach DC's high enough to trap LE slavers, however, there are no traps in LE slavers which are able to damage me (except the poison traps doing STR damage), as I save against the traps on a 1 and have evasion. This doesn't mean you're completely immune to traps though, spell-wards and whirling blades don't target reflex so they can still damage you.

For AC, 100 is just at the point where investment starts being worth it, past lives, AC augments or a caster casting epic mage armour on you go a long way here, Or... even going in earth stance can help a lot. If you have none of those it might be worth considering dumping AC feats/gear a bit and focusing on damage more. I find my ~130 AC very useful though.

[Arktanis]

Epic Feats:
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Bulwark of Defense
26: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29: Deific Warding OR Dire Charge
30: Epic Reflexes, Scion of the Asteral Plane

I just found you a bonus Epic Feat!

[Selvera]

Rather confused by that, are you implying that I didn't have perfect twf in my feat list and that you suggest that I do, or that I had perfect twf and I couldn't get it at that level? Because neither are true. Perhaps you meant something completely different.

You gain an "Epic Feat" at levels 21, 24, 27 and 30; I took
21: Overwhelming Critical (+1 crit multi on 19-20)
24: Bulwark of Defense (+4 AC, +2 all saves)
27: Epic Damage Reduction (+10 PRR)
30: Epic Reflexes (+2 Reflex, do not fail reflex saves on a 1)

You gain a "Epic Destiny Feat" at levels 26, 28 and 29; I took
26: Perfect Two Handed Fighting (+10% glancing blow damage, +10% chance for weapon effects to trigger on glancing blows)
28: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting (+5% doublestrike)
29: Deific Warding (+10 PRR, +10 MRR, getting hit stacks this bonus up to double)

You gain a "Legendary Feat" at level 30; I took
30: Scion of the Asteral Plane (+8% doublestrike, +4% dodge and dodge cap, +4 tactics DC's, +4 reflex)

A word of warning for anyone trying this on a life without their destinies maxed yet: To get PTHF and PTWF you need to max 1 destany in the primal sphere, to get Deific warding you need to max all 3 destinies in the divine sphere, while getting dire charge requires you to max all 3 destinies in the martial sphere.

[Razor_Wit]

Thanks for posting this. I've just TR'd and am giving it a try. As for the shield clickies, this has always been my go-to item, and as you can see they're not exclusive. http://ddowiki.com/page/Protective_Gloves

[Selvera]

Thanks for posting this. I've just TR'd and am giving it a try. As for the shield clickies, this has always been my go-to item, and as you can see they're not exclusive. http://ddowiki.com/page/Protective_Gloves

Very cool! I hope it works out well for you. I'm still enjoying the build myself (staying at 30 for a little bit this life, farming out some 20th lists on raids and working on finishing up that slaver's set). Be sure to tell me how it goes.

PS. About shield spell and unbockable magic damage...
(I now carry around wands of shield, purchasable in the market for plat and I easily have enough UMD. However, magic missile becomes less of a problem in legendary content, then the worrying things are more level drain or other unblock-able magic damage (visor of flesh render highly recommended, I carry 2 of them around since the buff is kind of short). Or, you can die if your enemies get lucky and get through your ac/dodge/blur/incorp defense matrix a few times in a row with LE levels of damage.

I have not figured out any way to mitigate or avoid the damage from Markessa's blast besides outright leaving melee range when she's casting it, however to this build on LE it does 800-900 damage per pop (never more, unless she's a champ), which means you will live as long as you were at full. Try not to get damaged by anything while fighting Markessa, her other attacks are weak and the adds are easily killed first. When she bursts, cocoon asap, then hit her with fists of light to heal back to full. If your heal amp isn't quite up to par you might need to scroll a heal or two.

Against LE levels of physical damage, it is highly recommended to weave displacement clickies with uncanny dodge to keep up a long duration of very high don't get hit defenses. You can also weave in the 25% damage reduction from LD.