How to increase Paladin Survivability

[LouM3]

Looking for advice on how to increase survivability in EE content.
Lvl 30 Paladin with one past life as fighter, one as barbarian. Epic completionist. Brace/Fast Healing/Enchant Weapon
When CE and Sacred Defender active
AC is 249
Prr is 178
Mrr is 77.
Only going to list gear which matters
Trinket- Legendary Planar Compass
Armor- Shadow Dragon Heavy Plate with +8 nat armor/+8 protection
Shield- Ultimatum
Ring- Epic Laurel Helix
Boots- Epic Ship Kickers
Bracers- Epic Barbette Bracers with +8 dex/cha

Link to my build -> https://1drv.ms/i/s!At_Ag2tJ3OSUk6VaUK2yp3dj-16KqA
Note- CE/SD weren't active in this screen shot.

I do have a displacement clicky but it's only 2 shots/2 min each.
I'm willing to trade any DPS I do have which isn't that great, for more survivability.
I can list out all other info if needed, just let me know what specific information you want.

[Enguebert]

Looking for advice on how to increase survivability in EE content.
Lvl 30 Paladin with one past life as fighter, one as barbarian. Epic completionist. Brace/Fast Healing/Enchant Weapon
When CE and Sacred Defender active
AC is 249
Prr is 178
Mrr is 77.
Only going to list gear which matters
Trinket- Legendary Planar Compass
Armor- Shadow Dragon Heavy Plate with +8 nat armor/+8 protection
Shield- Ultimatum
Ring- Epic Laurel Helix
Boots- Epic Ship Kickers
Bracers- Epic Barbette Bracers with +8 dex/cha

Link to my build -> https://1drv.ms/i/s!At_Ag2tJ3OSUk6VaUK2yp3dj-16KqA
Note- CE/SD weren't active in this screen shot.

I do have a displacement clicky but it's only 2 shots/2 min each.
I'm willing to trade any DPS I do have which isn't that great, for more survivability.
I can list out all other info if needed, just let me know what specific information you want.

Something you didn't mention : do you have blur item or blur wand ?
You didn't mention wich ED you use. Legendary Shield Mastery is a good twist if you use a shield

Now : why spending 42 AP in vanguard and not taking the cores ? Capstone is good and increase DPS

If you want more defense, you can go SaD Tier 5 in place of Vanguard Tier5

[psykopeta]

Check the steel maiden in fighter subforum, even if you don't like the build for any reason, it tells yiu ways to improve your toon, an example is don't use tower shields, they cap your dodge brutally, you can reach around 20% instead, or how using elf and 1 wiz lvl can lead you to extended displacement

I played that ob a 2nd lifer and was quite impressive, in my case i got thf line + bastard sword for a bit moar dps

[LouM3]

Thank you @psykopeta, I will check that out.
@Enguerbert. Good questions.
Blur- will double check
ED I use Unyielding Sentinel with Legendary Shield Mastery.
I do see some room for improvement in AP. I had skipped the cores either by accident or I may have used them to boost the SD AC levels.

[JOTMON]

Max Dodge - every miss chance is helpful.

Make more displacement clickies..

Ghostly
- Cloak of night from Mabar Event is a nice fit
- Ghost walking cloak from Gianthold is a decent filler.

Epic Feat Elusive Target - gives 5% miss chance when you would have been hit..
- Each time you would be physically damaged, you have a +5% chance to completely ignore the damage.
(This applies to physical attacks and spells that deal physical damage.)

Twist in cocoon it proc's temp hp along with cures. cycle in as an ongoing cast)

work in items that help to heal..

healing amp is your friend. get the best benefit from any incoming heals.

Golem's Heart Augment. 2% chance of proc a cure on any incoming hits, augments do proc independently so more augs are better but there is a shared cooldown = max 1 proc/30 seconds)
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Golem%27s_Heart

Tower shield is a costly work-in for a Paladin, small PRR gain vs the dodge loss I would look at a large shield like..
Epic Shield of Tireless Aid - Heal amp, Devotion, and Healers Bounty.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Sh...f_Tireless_Aid

UMD is a powerful skill that unlocks access to essentially unlimited stacks of useful resources.. and is underutilized by many players.
gives you added tools to pick and choose in situations where party members are lacking.
a trip to the portable hole and a lot of inventory space to stockup.
GH, Globe of invulnerability, Tensors Transformation, Nightshield/shield, Fireshield, Ice storm (puts out any enemy fires), Gust of wind (blow out several aoe effects), Displacement scrolls, lay down your own aoe's clouds, fogs, glitterdust, protection from elements, and many more..
all accessible in the range of UMD for Heal and Resurrection scrolls that every high level player should build enough UMD to cast.

[LouM3]

Any hints on running for the tireless aid shield ? Run it with or without the box checked for class specific items ?
So far I've landed two Divine Artillery and one dawnbringer running it on Ehard ~20 min per run solo with the Paladin. EE took 40 min and nothing dropped.

[Krelar]

Any hints on running for the tireless aid shield ? Run it with or without the box checked for class specific items ?
So far I've landed two Divine Artillery and one dawnbringer running it on Ehard ~20 min per run solo with the Paladin. EE took 40 min and nothing dropped.

That checkbox doesn't effect chest loot, it only works on end reward lists (even then it only works on end reward lists that contain only random loot)

Try throwing up an lfm that says you're farming for that item, hopefully some other people will join and pass it to you. EE will generally be better drop rates, if you can get a group together you can probably knock that time down a lot.

If you're just running for items make sure you don't waste time going into any of the optionals, there are a few rooms in that quest you can skip to save a bit of time.

[Enoach]

...
Tower shield is a costly work-in for a Paladin, small PRR gain vs the dodge loss I would look at a large shield like..
Epic Shield of Tireless Aid - Heal amp, Devotion, and Healers Bounty.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Sh...f_Tireless_Aid

UMD is a powerful skill that unlocks access to essentially unlimited stacks of useful resources.. and is underutilized by many players.
...

I agree with much of what JOTMON posted, but would like to point out that with UMD the cost of using a Tower Shield is greatly reduced. Master Touch has a UMD of 20, lasts until rest/death, does not suffer from ASF and grants Martial Proficiency for the Martial equipment you are holding in your off hand since a scroll has to be used from your main hand. Tower Shields are Martial, they are often mistakenly thought of as Exotic.

So even with a little investment in UMD you don't need the Tower Shield Proficiency feat which is what makes using this shield expensive. Considering the recommended starting point of Charisma for a paladin and that having a 50% chance to use the 1st level spell, you could be looking at needing between 3 and 5 full ranks to be at 50%, less if you use heroism and luck bonus as well as UMD item. All of which would generally occur outside of combat.

[Captain_Wizbang]

.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Madstone_Aegis

Grants TS proficiency. Saves the feat.

[Alcides]

Paladin survivability comes from a couple of sources. For starters if you want to not die as a shield build I would recommend forgetting vanguard because it doesn't have good survivability enhancements. You want to look at increasing healing amp first PRR second then MRR last. 17 points in human or PDK will get you 60 healing amp and 20 hamp can come from 17 points in KoTC. You can put the rest of you points in Sacred Defender. Human or PDK also grants extra feats and skill points. Vol or Helm has a cool down that gives PRR. Helm gives Bastard Sword for free which uses THF feats. Paladin TR gives 30 hamp for free. You can also get 61 hamp from cannith crafted gloves. Another 50 can come from a shroud weapon I recommend a holy, hamp, holy vorpal 1000 temp hp proc shroud weapon with nightshield. That should fix hamp. As far as PRR goes you'll have to make a slavers set. I recommend using legendary breaker of bodies as your shield. That plus 20 shield bash will give 48 shield bash and a nice large shield. If you farm slavers enough you can actually have 5 piece might and 5 piece endurance. You'll have to socket desthblock but you can get a good set of gear doing that. In addition the ravenloft stuff gets you less stats than you can get from slavers. Which means slavers will probably be good until the next large crafting update.

For charging use dire charge and avenging cleave for your rotation and you'll wonder what the purpose of vanguard was. You can also get a lot to mileage from consecrated ground and the level 30 fire plane feat. If you build your slavers set with fire spell power. Mileage will vary with this but I run a similar setup and completed reaper 7 with my static group on slavers.

I have 214 a.c. 257 PRR 160 MRR and 241 hamp on my paladin shield build and I do just fine. That's with just 3 paladin TRs and 1 Epic TR.

[Captain_Wizbang]

For charging use dire charge and avenging cleave for your rotation and you'll wonder what the purpose of vanguard was. .

Good advice, the more I look into variations of S&B this makes more and more sense, and vanguard less and less.

edit* I also am getting away from true S&B builds, the trade off of dps vs survivability is NOT worth it.

[Alcides]

edit* I also am getting away from true S&B builds, the trade off of dps vs survivability is NOT worth it.

That's why I said tank or DPS. My suggestion fell more on the tank side since that's what I like playing and what the current paladin class is best suited towards. I tried making vanguard work for several hundred hours and builds but to me its just lackluster right now.

[Captain_Wizbang]

That's why I said tank or DPS. My suggestion fell more on the tank side since that's what I like playing and what the current paladin class is best suited towards. I tried making vanguard work for several hundred hours and builds but to me its just lackluster right now.

PM sent