melee bardlock 12/8 warlock bard

[tokumeiko]

bardlock
12/8 Warlock/Bard
Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf


Level Order

1. Bard. . . . . . 6. Warlock . . . .11. Bard . . . . . 16. Warlock
2. Bard. . . . . . 7. Warlock . . . .12. Bard . . . . . 17. Warlock
3. Bard. . . . . . 8. Warlock . . . .13. Bard . . . . . 18. Warlock
4. Warlock. . . . .9. Warlock. . . . 14. Bard. . . . . .19. Warlock
5. Warlock. . . . 10. Bard. . . . . .15. Warlock . . . .20. Warlock


Stats
. . . . . . . .28pt . . 32pt. . .34pt . . 36pt. . .Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . . 8 . . . .8. . . . 8 . . . 4: CHA
Dexterity . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 8: CHA
Constitution. . 12. . . .14 . . . 14. . . .12 . . .12: CHA
Intelligence. . 10. . . .12 . . . 14. . . .12 . . .16: CHA
Wisdom. . . . . 10. . . .10 . . . 10. . . .10 . . .20: CHA
Charisma. . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 16. . . .18 . . .24: CHA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: CHA

Skills
. . . . . B .B. B .W .W .W .W .W .W .B. B .B. B .B. W. W. W. W. W. W
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
UMD . . . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Perform . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . .4. 4 .1. 1 .1. . . . . . . . . . 17
Balance . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . .3. 3 .3. . . . . . . . . . 15
Tumble. . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .20 .5. 5 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .6. 6 .6. 6 .6. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2
. . . . .24 .6. 6 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .6. 6 .6. 6 .6. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2


Feats

.1. . . . : Single Weapon Fighting
.3. . . . : Weapon Finesse
.6. . . . : Improved Feint
.9. . . . : Toughness
12. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
15. . . . : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
18. . . . : Improved Critical: Piercing
21 Epic . : Epic Eldritch Blast
24 Epic . : Skill Focus: Perform
26 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Blinding Speed
28 Destiny: Lasting Inspiration
29 Destiny: Harbinger of Chaos
30 Epic . : Bulwark of Defense
30 Legend : Scion of: Feywild

.1 HalfElf: Half-Elf Dilettante: Rogue

.4 Warlock: Pact: Fey


Spells

Warlock

1. Shield, Jump, Obscuring Mist
2. Water Breathing, Ray of Exhaustion, Blindness
3. Dark Discorporation, Displacement, Slow
4. Evard's Black Tentacles

Bard

1. Expeditious Retreat, Cure Light Wounds, Sonic Blast, Detect Secret Doors
2. Blur, Suggestion, Eagle's Splendor, Soundburst
3. Cure Serious Wounds, Good Hope, Haste

Enhancements (80 AP)

Soul Eater (31 AP)

• Inhuman Understanding, Inhuman Nature, No Worse Fate, Inhuman Nature II
  1. Consume, Subtle Spellcasting III, Daunting Presence III, Hungry for Destruction III
  2. Stricken III, Feeding Frenzy
  3. Eldritch Cone Shape, Charisma
  4. Greater Hunger, Steal Life Force III, Charisma

Enlightened Spirit (25 AP)

• Eldritch Aura, Aura of Courage, Shape Vestments, Aura of Menace
  1. Resilience of Body III, Spiritual Defense III, Resilience of Soul III
  2. Spiritual Bastion III, Shield
  3. Spiritual Ward III, Charisma
  4. Medium Armor Proficiency

Swashbuckler (24 AP)

• Confidence, Swashbuckling
  1. On Your Toes III, Limber Up III
  2. Sword Dance III
  3. Arcane Marauder, Resonant Arms III, Smooth Flourishes
  4. Loud & Clear

[/color]
Leveling Guide

1. Swa0 Confidence; Swa1 On Your Toes I, II, III
2. Swa1 Limber Up I; Swa2 Sword Dance I
3. Swa2 Sword Dance II; Swa0 Swashbuckling; Swa2 Sword Dance III
4. Swa3 Arcane Marauder; Swa3 Smooth Flourishes; ES0 Eldritch Aura
5. ES1 Spiritual Defense I, II, III; ES1 Resilience of Body I
6. ES0 Aura of Courage; ES2 Shield; ES2 Spiritual Bastion I
7. ES2 Spiritual Bastion II, III; ES3 Charisma
8. Swa3 Resonant Arms I, II
9. Swa1 Limber Up II, III; Swa3 Resonant Arms III
10. Swa4 Loud & Clear; ES0 Shape Vestments; ES1 Resilience of Body II, III
11. ES1 Resilience of Soul I, II, III; ES3 Spiritual Ward I
12. ES3 Spiritual Ward II, III; ES4 Medium Armor Proficiency
13. SE0 Inhuman Understanding; SE1 Consume; SE1 Subtle Spellcasting I
14. SE1 Subtle Spellcasting II; SE0 Inhuman Nature; SE1 Hungry for Destruction I, II
15. SE1 Hungry for Destruction III; SE2 Stricken I, II, III
16. SE0 No Worse Fate; SE1 Subtle Spellcasting III; SE1 Daunting Presence I, II
17. SE1 Daunting Presence III; SE3 Eldritch Cone Shape
18. SE2 Feeding Frenzy; SE3 Charisma
19. SE4 Greater Hunger; SE4 Charisma; SE4 Steal Life Force I
20. SE4 Steal Life Force II, III; SE0 Inhuman Nature II

Destiny (24 AP)

Magister

1. Unearthly Reactions III, Impregnable Mind III, Charisma
2. Charisma
3. Charisma
4. Sigil of Battering III, Nullmagic Guard III, Charisma
5. Charisma
6. Charisma

created another multiclass build that i would like feed back on, nothing to crazy just fighting enemies up close with a rapier and an orb dishing out sonic damage, also considered using drow instead of half-elf but i haven't unlocked them yet (I keep trying to rush my favour collection and having to wait hours in the tavern as a result)

[cru121]

bardlock
12/8 Warlock/Bard
Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf
created another multiclass build that i would like feed back on, nothing to crazy just fighting enemies up close with a rapier and an orb dishing out sonic damage, also considered using drow instead of half-elf but i haven't unlocked them yet (I keep trying to rush my favour collection and having to wait hours in the tavern as a result)

no need to take medium armor from ES, swashbuckling requires light armor
various SLAs from SE tree accept all metamagic feats for free, consider Maximize and Empower if possible.
consider picking up tier 5 enhancements from some tree
If you running with ES aura up, definitely pick up Spiritual Retribution and Brilliance. If not, why do you take various aura improvements?

[Fivetigers33]

You have haste selected as a level 3 bard spell Don't waste a feat on Blinding Speed.

You are missing Overwhelming Critical, your melee dps is going to regret it.

You don't have a T5 in any of the enhancement trees, that's generally where most of the power is. Just something to consider.


You may want to reconsider your level split too. I'm assuming you want the aura to deal passive AoE damage and maybe burst every now and then. The problem is with so few warlock levels and no AP in Tainted Scholar your aura/burst damage is going to quickly become meaningless as you get into epic levels. However, you can pretty much get full swashbuckling DPS with only 3 bard levels and just going up to Tier 3 to use an orb and Charisma to damage. I think the build would be much more effective as a 17/3 warlock/bard split adding melee dps to an auralock build.

If you want mostly bard levels, you'd probably be better off going pure bard T5 in Warchanter for Spinning Ice and melee DPS, then some AP in Swashbukling and some in Spellsinger for the shout SLA. You'd end up with better melee DPS and better AoE spell damage than the original 12/8 split.

Looking at your AP again though you took Eldritch Shape Cone, so I'm not really sure what your plan is. I can assure you that 8 levels of warlock trying to cone blast in epics is a one way ticket to gimp city. What exactly do you want to gain from the warlock levels?

[Zretch]

31 points seems like a very big investment to get consume and stricken, especially if you're not taking the vulnerability enhancement and if you're not taking advantage of the extra blast damage against a consumed foe. I assume you're not using cone shape as it would completely invalidate swashbuckling.

25 points into Enlightened Spirit for a melee build is understandable. Taking Medium Armor proficiency on a swashbuckler and not taking Brilliance makes utterly no sense. You can't swashbuckle in medium armor. Brilliance gives you pulsing temporary health every 3 seconds at level 12 (equal to your Con score, double that in epic levels) which acts as maintenance healing, increasing survivablility dramatically. Spiritual Retribution would add light damage to all of your melee attacks, which would also make more sense than Medium Armor.

I'd drop Soul Eater as a tree and go higher up in Swashbuckler for T5s. Drop Medium Armor, pick up Brilliance and Spiritual Retribution.

[unbongwah]

The first warning sign that you're a newbie builder (no offense) is you spread your APs around to take three sets of tier-4 abilities and don't have enough APs left to afford tier-5 abilities. To me, this always suggests someone who's either trying to do too much or can't make up their mind what they really want to do with their build; either way, the kitchen-sink approach doesn't usually work so well in DDO. There's other red flags, like no Improved / Overwhelming Critical feats on a melee build while taking nigh-useless feats such as Skill Focus Perform.

For reference: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...lock-with-soul!

While obsolete today (predates Reaper for one thing), the Gladys Knight has way more HPs than your build: partly from Shining Through, partly from Tenacious Defense. It doesn't invest in Soul Eater b/c IMO Gnarkh recognizes it would be a bridge too far to try to add that tree on top of everything else it does.

[tokumeiko]

Looking at your AP again though you took Eldritch Shape Cone, so I'm not really sure what your plan is. I can assure you that 8 levels of warlock trying to cone blast in epics is a one way ticket to gimp city. What exactly do you want to gain from the warlock levels?

well i actually took 12 levels in warlock but i totally get your point, i thought soul eater looked good for close combat but now i see i should probably ditch it in favour of other things, and maybe take a few extra levels in warlock to power up my sonic damage.

[tokumeiko]

bardlock revised
14/6 Warlock/Bard
Chaotic Neutral Human


Level Order

1. Bard. . . . . . 6. Warlock . . . .11. Warlock . . . .16. Warlock
2. Bard. . . . . . 7. Warlock . . . .12. Bard . . . . . 17. Warlock
3. Bard. . . . . . 8. Warlock . . . .13. Bard . . . . . 18. Warlock
4. Warlock. . . . .9. Warlock. . . . 14. Bard. . . . . .19. Warlock
5. Warlock. . . . 10. Warlock. . . . 15. Warlock. . . . 20. Warlock


Stats
. . . . . . . .28pt . . 32pt. . .34pt . . 36pt. . .Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . . 8 . . . .8. . . . 8 . . . 4: CHA
Dexterity . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 8: CHA
Constitution. . 12. . . .14 . . . 14. . . .14 . . .12: CHA
Intelligence. . 12. . . .14 . . . 14. . . .12 . . .16: CHA
Wisdom. . . . . .8. . . . 8 . . . 10. . . . 8 . . .20: CHA
Charisma. . . . 16. . . .16 . . . 16. . . .18 . . .24: CHA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: CHA

Skills
. . . . . B .B. B .W .W .W .W .W .W .W .W .B. B .B. W. W. W. W. W. W
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Spellcr . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
UMD . . . 4 .1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Balance . 4 .1. 1 .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .½ .3. 3 .1. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. 20
Perform . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . .2. 2 .4. . . . . . . . . . 14
Listen. . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Tumble. . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Haggle. . 4 .1. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .32 .8. 8 .4 .4 .4 .4 .4 .4 .4 .4 .8. 8 .8. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4


Feats

.1. . . . : Single Weapon Fighting
.1 Human. : Toughness
.3. . . . : Weapon Finesse
.6. . . . : Dodge
.9. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
12. . . . : Mobility
15. . . . : Improved Critical: Piercing
18. . . . : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
21 Epic . : Epic Eldritch Blast
24 Epic . :
26 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . : Epic Reputation
28 Destiny: Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
29 Destiny: Harbinger of Chaos
30 Epic . : Blinding Speed
30 Legend : Scion of: Feywild

.4 Warlock: Pact: Fey


Spells

Warlock

1. Doom, Jump, Obscuring Mist
2. Ray of Exhaustion, Water Breathing, Blindness
3. Displacement, Dimension Door, Slow
4. Evard's Black Tentacles, True Seeing, Greater Dispel Magic
5. Mass Hold Person

Bard

1. Cure Light Wounds, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Merfolk's Blessing
2. Suggestion, Eagle's Splendor, Soundburst

Enhancements (80 AP)

Enlightened Spirit (34 AP)

• Eldritch Aura, Aura of Courage, Shape Vestments, Aura of Menace
  1. Resilience of Body III, Spiritual Defense III, Resilience of Soul III
  2. Spiritual Bastion III, Shield, Defense Boost III
  3. Spiritual Ward III, Charisma
  4. Spiritual Retribution III, Brilliance, Charisma
  5. Beacon

Swashbuckler (29 AP)

• Confidence, Swashbuckling, Uncanny Dodge
  1. On Your Toes III, Limber Up III
  2. Sword Dance III
  3. Elegant Footwork, Arcane Marauder, Resonant Arms III, Smooth Flourishes, Charisma
  4. Loud & Clear

Tainted Scholar (17 AP)

• Tainted Spellcasting, Tainted Lore, Stanch
  1. Planar Power III, Strong Pact, Eldritch Focus III
  2. Strong Pact
  3. Strong Pact, Charisma

Destiny (24 AP)

Magister

1. Unearthly Reactions III, Impregnable Mind III, Charisma
2. Charisma
3. Charisma
4. Nullmagic Guard III, Charisma
5. Nullmagic Strike III, Charisma
6. Charisma

Twists of Fate (37 fate points)

1. Allure (Tier 1 Fatesinger)
2. Charisma (Tier 1 Fatesinger)
3. Lucidity (Tier 2 Fatesinger)
4. Charisma (Tier 2 Fatesinger)
5. Aria (Tier 3 Fatesinger)

ok edited based on advice, how does this look?

[Fivetigers33]

I misread your original split. My question is what are you getting from 6 levels of Bard that you can't get from 3 or 4 levels?

I'm not going to look at every single AP you spent, but taking T5 in one tree is an improvement. However, you took one of the the least beneficial T5 enhancements in that tree. Spirit Blast would be great AOE damage if you are surrounded. Beacon isn't useless, but it's not a T5 caliber enhancement. Shining Through is what you really want. Tons of temp HP, keeps you alive and you can use it like a heal. Displacement is also nice. If you can spare the AP, you can take it and ditch displacement as a spell and take haste instead since you lost it when you gave up some bard levels.

Magister is an odd and very weak Epic Destiny choice. You see Warlocks in Exalted Angel for DCs/spell power or Shiradi for blasting. Melee Bards are typically Legendary Dreadnaught or Fatesinger, sometimes Shadow Dancer or Divine Crusader.

How exactly do you intend to play this character? Walk us through an encounter. You start a quest, you see a group of mobs. What happens next?

[unbongwah]

Also, you are taking every point of Charisma you can get your hands on, but you aren't taking Different Tack in Swashbuckler to apply your Charisma modifier to melee damage.

Smooth Flourishes is the CHA to damage option from Different Tack.

I'm not going to look at every single AP you spent, but taking T5 in one tree is an improvement. However, you took one of the the least beneficial T5 enhancements in that tree. Spirit Blast would be great AOE damage if you are surrounded. Beacon isn't useless, but it's not a T5 caliber enhancement. Shining Through is what you really want. Tons of temp HP, keeps you alive and you can use it like a heal. Displacement is also nice. If you can spare the AP, you can take it and ditch displacement as a spell and take haste instead since you lost it when you gave up some bard levels.

Agreed: really almost all of the tier-5 ES abilities apart from Displace Summons would be worth taking.

Magister is an odd and very weak Epic Destiny choice.

Magister is good for a specific type of arcane caster build, IMO, mostly for the tier-5 CL/MCL bonuses which can't be Twisted. But that's not what this build is going for; Fatesinger would be a big improvement just for the extra Melee Power.

Personally, OP, I think you're trying too hard to improvise before mastering the fundamentals. Learn to optimize the strengths of pure classes first; then learn how to combine them for specific synergies, IMO.

[Fivetigers33]

Smooth Flourishes is the CHA to damage option from Different Tack.

Doh! That's what I get for playing PDK bards...

[tokumeiko]

I misread your original split. My question is what are you getting from 6 levels of Bard that you can't get from 3 or 4 levels?

mostly dodge,the third SB core gives me the uncanny dodge feat, and since SB causes damage and trips monsters that miss their attacks against me dodge is very good.

as for my choice of magister, that's because build editor didn't tell me about innate abilities, i'd have been better off with fatesinger and just twisting magister.

and i guess i'm not really interested in doing reaper difficulty for now since i don't have a regular group to play with, this is just a fun solo build that does't particularly mind getting totally surrounded by mobs.