Looking for PDK Pally build

[Vindraxx]

As per the title, I'm looking to do a PDK/Pally life after I finish my current one (which will not be for a while) and looking for suggestions. I am mainly doing this for the past life feats, so the final build does not need to be successful for end game raiding etc... and I don't want to have to reincarnate out of the initial fighter life. Gear wise... I have a lot of khopeshes including the Cannith khopeshes of water and various leveled thunderforged from my last TWF ranger. I am not sure if it is better to try to build around this gear that I have or try to obtain new gear. I see a lot of the builds in this forum are recommending THF and bastard swords.

Open to any ideas, I have tomes anywhere from +2 to +5 across my traits (including planning on getting another +5 after I finish this 5,000 favor life). If you have a link to a build on this forum you'd recommend feel free to link it below or go ahead and post your own build. Thanks!

[Phil7]

I would recommend THF or SWF for higher AoE damage and faster trash clearing. I don't recommend using TWF without Dance of Death. Unless you play a fighter build that switches between THF and TWF (trash/boss).

If you want TWF with DoD as paladin check this out: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-a-Tempestadin
you could try 14P/5R/1F, it would still be strong.

DoD vs Cleaves is all about player taste.
DoD is better when you can't burst a group of mobs quickly enough with cleaves. This can happen on R10 for example if you have only 1 or 2 melees.
Cleaves are stronger on squishier mobs which u can burst down fast, so pretty much most heroic R1 quests and let's u zerg faster on easier difficulties.
DoD is less effective when the enemy mobs are not balled-up/stuned/held properly and you are hitting less than 4 targets during your DoD and also has the annoying disadvantage of being completely useless when your DoD roll is 1. Can also happen when you lag, mob moves away etc.

Bastard Swords are a trap, avoid them. The Glancing Damage is a joke, forget it just use khopeshes if u S&B, TWF or SWF.

For THF/SWF full paladin version you can go 18P/2F,

20Str,16con,16cha or less con to add DEX for precision (recommended)

Feats

Feats

.1. . . . : Two Handed Fighting
.1 Human. : Power Attack
.1 Deity. : Follower of: Amaunator/Silvanus
.3. . . . : Stunning Blow
.6. . . . : Improved Two Handed Fighting
.9. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
12. . . . : Greater Two Handed Fighting
15. . . . : Precision
18. . . . : Cleave
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : weapon focus
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic . : weapon focus
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic . : weapon focus
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

*If you play THF and want to use Momentum Swing + Lay Waste then you will need the Cleave feat.
If you play SWF then you can take something else instead (Empower Heal, Quicken, Epic DR w/e). Lay Waste and Momentum Swing are not that great on SWF and TWF (less aoe range and much lower burst damage from MS).

Max Knight of the Chalice, take PRR/MRR, +6STR, +20% HP from Sacred Defender and throw the rest in the PDK tree for str, hamp, dmg etc.

And yes I recommend playing in LD for all builds and styles. IF you go TWF with DoD you can also play in Divine Crusader, to compensate for ur slower aoe-burst damage.

This build can be a beast if played properly, like most melee builds. Enjoy and if u have more questions feel free to ask

[Vindraxx]

Perfect this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I'll have to make some determinations if I want to stick with khopeshes and go SWF or a THF build. What type of Two handed weapons would you recommend I keep an eye out for? I'm taking my current build to 30 probably twice through epic levels so I can try to accumulate some things along the way.

I'm very familiar with dance of death and could look at possibly going that route if I want to keep things familiar, but I would be up for trying something new. Your feats above don't include fighter bonus feats right? If I stick with Khopeshes would use one on that, then maybe empower heal? If I go with a martial weapon I could probably take empower and quicken unless you have other suggestions.

[Phil7]

Perfect this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I'll have to make some determinations if I want to stick with khopeshes and go SWF or a THF build. What type of Two handed weapons would you recommend I keep an eye out for? I'm taking my current build to 30 probably twice through epic levels so I can try to accumulate some things along the way.

I'm very familiar with dance of death and could look at possibly going that route if I want to keep things familiar, but I would be up for trying something new. Your feats above don't include fighter bonus feats right? If I stick with Khopeshes would use one on that, then maybe empower heal? If I go with a martial weapon I could probably take empower and quicken unless you have other suggestions.

THF:
cannith crafted Keen Falchion of Ghost Touch
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Carnifex
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Sword_of_Shadow
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Shining_Devastation (slot good augment)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Sword_of_Shadow
http://ddowiki.com/page/Drow_Greatax..._Weapon_Master
http://ddowiki.com/page/Drow_Maul_of_the_Weapon_Master
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Riftmaker
+ Thunderforged and LGS Falchion & Maul if you care enough

TWF/SWF:
cc Keen Khopesh of Ghost Touch or http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Nicked_Scimitar
http://ddowiki.com/page/Itemeathnip (2x)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Oathblade
http://ddowiki.com/page/Drow_Khopesh..._Weapon_Master
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Balizar...or_of_the_King
+ TF and LGS Khopeshes

Yes sry I forgot the 2 fighter feats. Take Khopesh proficiency or Metamagics. You can also add Force of Personality, but I wouldn't do that. Well geared, your saves should be very high and most will-based spells can be countered using scrolls and pots. Improved Critical: Bludgeon is also an option if you use your Maul a lot.

You can also play Silvanus THF which is very strong, perhaps a bit stronger than Eriftmaker on THF, I am not sure really. I haven't done any math on paladins after the Fighter update. But be careful with Silvanus, because you need a crafted LGS or TF Maul after level 26. The Drow Maul will not carry you at high epic levels, it's weak compared to LGS/TF.

If you don't care about Silvanus then choose the Blessing of Amaunator for cold resist

Edit: I just realised that I completely forgot to mention S&B
Propably because it's flavor to me. Anyway if you are interested in Vanguard then read this:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-Paladin-(U24)

Use Erkids build with a Khopesh and play in LD. As a vanguard you have a lot of CC and want to abuse the helpless damage and Melee Power from LD to burst down targets very fast after stunning them.
Problems with S&B are AoE damage and survivability, because even tho you use a shield, you lose a lot of enhancement points (ty Vanguard) and you kill trash slower, which means u take more hits.
As I said flavor build, but fun if you try it as a pure paladin or fighter especially with the Vanguard Capstone.

For gear use the TWF weapons I mentioned and

Shields:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Talon
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Madstone_Aegis or http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Purple_Dragon_Shield
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Demonic_Slab
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Ultimatum (DR breaker)

At level 30 with Edemonic Slab on a fighter you can crit helpless mobs for 20k+ it's lolz how fast they die after the stun.

Armors:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Mithral...iding_version)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Executioner%27s_Platemail
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Giantcraft_Plate_Armor
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Flawles...gonplate_Armor
http://m.ddowiki.com/page/Item:Plate...estial_Avenger
http://m.ddowiki.com/page/Item:Breas...estial_Avenger

[Enguebert]

As per the title, I'm looking to do a PDK/Pally life after I finish my current one (which will not be for a while) and looking for suggestions. I am mainly doing this for the past life feats, so the final build does not need to be successful for end game raiding etc... and I don't want to have to reincarnate out of the initial fighter life. Gear wise... I have a lot of khopeshes including the Cannith khopeshes of water and various leveled thunderforged from my last TWF ranger. I am not sure if it is better to try to build around this gear that I have or try to obtain new gear. I see a lot of the builds in this forum are recommending THF and bastard swords.

Open to any ideas, I have tomes anywhere from +2 to +5 across my traits (including planning on getting another +5 after I finish this 5,000 favor life). If you have a link to a build on this forum you'd recommend feel free to link it below or go ahead and post your own build. Thanks!

I currently try a Ftr1/Monk1/Pal18 PDK Paladin of Helm

Tower Shield + Bastard Sword (Proficiency given by follower of Helm)
THF line for glancing blows
Shield line for increased PRR
Force of Personality

Why Ftr 1 ? => Pdk start with 1 ftr and i don't want to use a lesser heart
Why Monk 1 => Extra feat, 1 AP in Hem for 10 MP and 3 PRR (better than going Ftr2)
Pal 18 = to get core 4

Plan is to go Tier 5 and Core 4 KoTC, Tier 4 and Core 4 in SaD
Vanguard is probably better, but i want to try something different
PDK : 5 AP to have Cormyrean Knight Training, going full CHA (Attack, Damage, Saves, LoH)

Currently just done some lvl10-14 Elite quests (necro IV) and it look solid. DPS not exceptional (don't have yet Holy Sword nor Avenging cleave so mostly single target) but barely need to heal (cure moderate wound is enough, haven't use LoH, but had to use raise scrolls in Temple of Vol :-) )
Only time i was low on health is because i was dumb and fight in the middle of a trap :-)

[Warinx]

I would recommend THF or SWF for higher AoE damage and faster trash clearing.

snip

For THF/SWF full paladin version you can go 18P/2F,

20Str,16con,16cha or less con to add DEX for precision (recommended)

Feats

.1. . . . : Two Handed Fighting
.1 Human. : Power Attack
.1 Deity. : Follower of: Sovereign Host
.3. . . . : Stunning Blow
.6. . . . : Improved Two Handed Fighting
.6 Deity. : Unyielding Sovereignty
.9. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
12. . . . : Greater Two Handed Fighting
15. . . . : Precision
18. . . . : Cleave
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : weapon focus
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic . : weapon focus
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic . : weapon focus
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

*If you play THF and want to use Momentum Swing + Lay Waste then you will need the Cleave feat.
If you play SWF then you can take something else instead (Empower Heal, Quicken, Epic DR w/e). Lay Waste and Momentum Swing are not that great on SWF and TWF (less aoe range and much lower burst damage from MS).

Max Knight of the Chalice, take PRR/MRR, +6STR, +20% HP from Sacred Defender and throw the rest in the PDK tree for str, hamp, dmg etc.

And yes I recommend playing in LD for all builds and styles. IF you go TWF with DoD you can also play in Divine Crusader, to compensate for ur slower aoe-burst damage.

This build can be a beast if played properly, like most melee builds. Enjoy and if u have more questions feel free to ask

Thanks for this, considering a iconic tr with 2 epic tr with this build.

What would you pick up as the 2 fighter feats. Also I'm assuming you don't pick up a two weapon fight at lvl 28? (marked it in red)

How would you compare this to a deeper kensei split for more damage and heavy armor feats. (like 14/6 or 12/8 or 12/6/2)

[cru121]

Also I'm assuming you don't pick up a two weapon fight at lvl 28? (marked it in red)

Why not? Perfect TWF grants +5% Doublestrike.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Perfect_Two_Weapon_Fighting

[unbongwah]

Why Monk 1 => Extra feat, 1 AP in Hem for 10 MP and 3 PRR (better than going Ftr2)

An AP into Shintao is also worth it for the heal amp and 10 Pos Spellpower.

Plan is to go Tier 5 and Core 4 KoTC, Tier 4 and Core 4 in SaD
Vanguard is probably better, but i want to try something different

If you're going S&B, you definitely want some VG, even if you still make KotC your primary PrE. Something like 37 KotC (5th core + T5s) / 21 VG (4th core) / 13 SD (+20% HPs) / 3 PDK / 1 Henshin / 1 Shintao with 4 APs left over to tweak things would be a good config, IMO.

[Selvera]

I've been fairly happy with my Helm tank. I might not be able to zerg low difficulties as fast as those completionist warlocks, but I recall it being very satisfactory to level, even without tons of pastlives, good enough that I plan to do it again on a different character in a few lives. Now I hang around with it at level 30 and I can tank raids pretty effectively with it (EE with primarily self-healing only); even without many pastlives (1 epic). It can also clear trash in said raids fairly effectively.

Weapon styles:
THF -> Highest base damage translates into highest damage on cleaves. Hit a bunch of cleaves, clear trash finish quest. Easy simple effective.
TWF -> Highest attackspeed which translates to best damage when you need to stand and autoattack an enemy for a while. Basically it cuts down bosses much faster then THF, but most quests have more trash mobs then bosses so most people prefer THF.
SWF -> Sort of halfway between THF and SWF. Higher base damage then twf for cleaves, higher attackspeed then THF for bosses.
S+B -> Is essentially a TWF style with somewhat lower damage (offhand attacks are better then shieldbashes, doublestrike and glancing blows makes up only some of the difference). But it has the highest defenses. This can be the difference between not having pastlives and having a full set, which can mean it can gather larger mobs; as long as it can still kill those effectively.

S+B weapons:
Khopesh -> Highest one handed weapon damage translates into the best damage if you do not invest in THF feats.
B Sword/D axe -> These get glancing blows in S+B style, which means if they invest in glancing blows (THF feats) it becomes better single target and better AoE dps then khopeshes. If you do not have the feats, khopesh is better.

My build:
1 Fighter -> PDK starts with this. It grants a bonus feat so it's not that bad.
15 Paladin -> Just enough to give both Holy Sword and Zeal.
4 Favored Soul -> Exactly the amount you need to get Ameliorating Strike, which is an awesome free self heal.

Deity: Helm (free B-sword proficiency, Fvs grants free +1 hit/damage with this, Active grants more PRR for a moderate amount of time)
Feats: IC, THF line, Shield line, Shield Bash, Force of Personality, Combat Expertise
Epic Feats: OC, Bullwark of Defense, Perfect two Handed fighting, Epic Damage Reduction, Perfect two weapon fighting, Deific Warding, Blinding Speed, Scion of Celestia

Enhancements:
3 PDK -> I like getting Cha to damage. Maybe you don't and can skip this. Probably higher damage if you stick these in divine might instead.
41 KotC -> Makes you immune to pretty much everything bad that could ever happen to you. Mix that with the insane saves and good PRR of this build and your small HP pool goes a long way. Also gives you some nice cleaves, smites and passable on-hit damage.
14 SD -> Picking up 20% HP is too good to pass up. Also 25 PRR + 25 MRR is great.
22 WP -> Ameliorating Strike is a 0 mana self heal which heals 1-4 times for 500-600 each at cap. It also is a few lesser restorations. It also is AoE. It also stacks vulnerability on the target. This tree can also get you some PRR and hit/damage on the side. (Amel heals once per hit, doublestrike counts, shield bash counts and glancing blows can count sometimes, offhand hits also count, as do offhand doublestrike).

Destany: LD (Blitz is the best PRR and best MP you can get from destinies, and it's very sustainable whenever you need it.)(This also gives you an easy pickup of improved combat expertise)
Twists: Legendary Shield Master, Shield Prowess, Divine Energy Resistance

[Phil7]

Thanks for this, considering a iconic tr with 2 epic tr with this build.

What would you pick up as the 2 fighter feats. Also I'm assuming you don't pick up a two weapon fight at lvl 28? (marked it in red)

How would you compare this to a deeper kensei split for more damage and heavy armor feats. (like 14/6 or 12/8 or 12/6/2)

Copy-Paste: Yes sry I forgot the 2 fighter feats. Take Khopesh proficiency (if you want to TWF) or Metamagics. You can also add Force of Personality, but I wouldn't do that. Well geared, your saves should be very high and most will-based spells can be countered using scrolls and pots. Improved Critical: Bludgeon is also an option if you use your Maul a lot.

I do take perfectTWF at level 28. It gives +5% doublestrike which is nice. You can also take it at level 26 and choose perfectTHF at level 28. It doesn't matter really, weaker cleaves->higher boss dps.

Look personally I wouldn't even play paladin. I would roll a fighter/monk and call it a day, but that's my taste and others prefer to sacrifice dps for survivability.
Now melee builds are not like DC casters. Multi-classing does not hurt them so much. You don't lose spell pen, SP, DC and max caster levels and high level spells.
You lose hit points, saves and core enhancements. You can even play 8/6/6 Silvanus and have higher dps than most melee builds, but you will sacrifice a lot of HP and saves. This also applies to your examples (14pal/6fig) where you gain damage from the Kensei tree and the fighter MP feats, but you lose HP and saves. You can do it yes sure and your dps will be higher, but I don't recommend it to new players. The heavy armor feats are not that great and you need 10+ fighter levels for the last two feats. Also kensei crit enhancements don't stack with Holy Sword so your dps gain is not that big.

And if you throw in monk levels (12p/6f/2monk or w/e) you will get more dps and evasion and dodge, but sacrifice PRR and HP. Your feats will be limited, because of Master of Forms and the build and gearing will change drastically. You will then have to account for evasion and reflex saves and how to increase them (DEX or INT+Ins.reflexes). This will also hurt your other stats at level 1.

It is like an entirely different build and I am not really interested in posting such a build, because to me it is not beginner-friendly nor a best-at fotm melee build.

[Phil7]

snip

yes this reminds me of Steel Shrine
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...2-Steel-Shrine

very defensive build with decent dps, recommended for beginners aswell and nice versatility.