Feedback needed for Vanguard build.

[Undeadraver]

Hello everyone,

I am very new at this. This will be my fourth life and my first melee. (2 range artificer and 1 *****lock)

I want to KISS (Keep it simple stupid).

So i wanted to play a melee in heavy armor that beat people with a shield.

So i came up with this build of pure fighter. The reason i stopped at 20 is that i don't know the game after that level.

I need your input and advice on this build. My wish is to be able to hurt names and also be able to solo r1 (with a stupid hireling).

i was trying to fit in Stunning blow and was not able as i am not sure all the feat i took are good.

Any advice even play a paladin are most welcome as i would like to be able to farm epic lives (i hated the *****lock).

EDIT: With the advice given by Unbong this is the new build.

F-vanguard
Fighter 20
True Neutral Human


Stats
. . . . . . . .28pt. . .32pt. . .34pt. . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .----. . .----. . .----. . .---- . . ---- . . --------
Strength. . . . 18 . . . 18 . . . 18 . . . 18. . . . . . . . 4: STR
Dexterity . . . 14 . . . 14 . . . 14 . . . 14. . . . . . . . 8: STR
Constitution. . 14 . . . 16 . . . 16 . . . 16. . . .+3. . . 12: STR
Intelligence. . .8 . . . .8 . . . .8 . . . .8. . . .+2. . . 16: STR
Wisdom. . . . . .8 . . . .8 . . . 10 . . . 10. . . . . . . .20: STR
Charisma. . . . .8 . . . .8 . . . .8 . . . 10. . . . . . . .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
Jump. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . 8. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2
. . . . . 8. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3


Feats

.1. . . . : Power Attack
.1 Human. : Cleave
.1 Fighter: Two Handed Fighting
.2 Fighter: Stunning Blow
.3. . . . : Exotic Weapon: Bastard Sword
.4 Fighter: Great Cleave
.6. . . . : Shield Mastery
.6 Fighter: Improved Two Handed Fighting
.8 Fighter: Improved Shield Mastery
.9. . . . : Weapon Focus: Slashing
10 Fighter: Greater Weapon Focus: Slashing
12. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
12 Fighter: Weapon Specialization: Slashing
14 Fighter: Greater Weapon Specialization: Slashing
15. . . . : Improved Shield Bash
16 Fighter: Greater Two Handed Fighting
18. . . . : Superior Weapon Focus: Slashing
18 Fighter: Tactical Supremacy
20 Fighter: Heavy Armor Champion
21 Epic . :
24 Epic . :
26 Destiny:
27 Epic . :
28 Destiny:
29 Destiny:
30 Epic . :
30 Legend :


Enhancements (80 AP)

Vanguard (41 AP)

• To the Fore!, Shield Combat I, Vicious Shield I, Shield Combat II, Vicious Shield II, Shield Champion
  1. Shield Specialization, Shield Smash III
  2. Shield Specialization, Brutality III, Stunning Shield III
  3. Shield Specialization, Follow Up III, Fatal Bulwark, Strength
  4. Shield Specialization, Armor Mastery III, Shield Charge III, Myrmidon's Edge III, Strength

Kensei (39 AP)

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

[Blastyswa]

Hello everyone,

I am very new at this. This will be my fourth life and my first melee. (2 range artificer and 1 *****lock)

I want to KISS (Keep it simple stupid).

So i wanted to play a melee in heavy armor that beat people with a shield.

So i came up with this build of pure fighter. The reason i stopped at 20 is that i don't know the game after that level.

I need your input and advice on this build. My wish is to be able to hurt names and also be able to solo r1 (with a stupid hireling).

i was trying to fit in Stunning blow and was not able as i am not sure all the feat i took are good.

Any advice even play a paladin are most welcome as i would like to be able to farm epic lives (i hated the *****lock).

Several comments:

Your DPS will be a lot better if you go SWF or TWF, or even THF. The reason I steer clear from THF is that you have to give up that offhand weapon slot, but using a falchion or riftmaker/carnifex at low levels will output more damage than S&B. The best damage will be going with a khopesh, either TWF or SWF. Personally, I have a level 20 Fighter at the moment (Wykin on Cannith Server) that I leveled up through quite a bit of reaper content, and I enjoyed him a lot; he is a SWF khopesh kensei. I'd largely steer clear of both the S&B style and the Vanguard tree. My personal recommendation would be an AP split of 41/31/8 Kensei/Stalwart Defender/Harper Agent with Know the Angles, although if you aren't into clicky gameplay (Assuming thats what you mean by KISS) you can go for 8 points into human instead, and even pull 5-7 points out of Stalwart Defender if you want to go deeper human. The basic benchmarks are Core 6 and Tier 5 of Kensei for maximum DPS output, +6 strength, +10% movement speed, and +20% HP from stalwart, with the option to take an extra +1 strength for 2 AP and even +50% armor AC for 3 more AP. Swapping out of shield will not only increase your DPS, but it'll also free up 3 feats.

Personally I'd recommend SWF with a khopesh and keeping improved shield bash to maintain your orb bonus, which is typically able to sustain near 100% uptime while in combat for a decent save bonus. Your two saved feats (Shield Mastery/Improved Shield Mastery) can either go into standard general utility stuff or into more tactics. One in Improved Sunder and one in +6 tactic DCs isn't a terrible idea for improved sunders potential as a leading strike before a stunning blow to make it more guaranteed to land.

The more you can pump hamp the better. 41/24/15 enhancement point split allows you to pick up 2 ranks of human hamp; to get the third rank, you either have to drop some serious benefits from defender or kensei or pick up racial enhancement points, which isn't realistic if you just want to get into the fighter build. Make sure and use hamp items, preferably legacy for lower levels with the higher bonuses, and drink a potion every 30 seconds to trigger +50 hamp from kensei when you have that enhancement. If you aren't benefitting much from the potion itself, you can jump and twitch your keys (Just hit arrow keys all consecutively quickly) to cancel the potion drink while still getting the +50 hamp. My own fighter had full paladin past lives and guild bonus for hamp (50); he also took 2 ranks of hamp from human for +40 more (Putting him up to 90) and constantly used liquid courage after level 6 (140) to be able to self-heal effectively between fights on r1 and below using pots and wands. at level 12 I equipped a triple positive GS with +120 hamp (260), and I used a flesh necklace a few levels after that, putting me up to 280. He's currently sitting at level 20 with 300 in Divine Crusader, and while I wouldn't necessarily recommend that level of investment it is an option if you want to self heal with potions.

[unbongwah]

If you want a S&B fighter, you're on the right track focusing on Kensei and Vanguard for DPS. Whether S&B ftrs are still worthwhile is a separate matter...

While my hunch is Kensei T5 + capstone is better DPS than VG, that doesn't feel "tank-y" enough for me.

See my Dwarven Defender and Iconic builds threads for other examples of pure ftr Vanguards.