Build Feedback

[Zretch]

Hello all. Posting an end game druid wolf build to get feedback on optimization. It's a falconry Wis to hit/damage build focusing on melee DPS but with functional Mass Frog. Am I missing something obvious? This is my first melee based character. I've had him at cap for a few weeks and he's feeling pretty good, but I'm not sure if I'm tilting too much towards melee.

Edited to include: plenty of past lives and tomes, so not a first life build.

Character name: 
Classes: 20 Druid, 10 Epic
Race: Aasimar Scourge      Alignment: Neutral

     Start Tome Final
Str:    10    7    46      HP:       1493      AC:   140
Dex:    12    7    51      PRR:       243
Con:    16    7    65      MRR:        82      +Healing Amp:    95
Int:    12    7    37      Dodge:   30/23      -Healing Amp:    20
Wis:    20    7    80      Fort:     217%      Repair Amp:      20
Cha:     8    7    24      SR:          0      BAB:             20
DR: 1\-
Immunities: Poison, Spawn effects of Undead, Knockdown, Falling damage, Blindness, Fear


Class and Feat Selection
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Level Class            Feats
                       Level 1 Requires a +1 Heart of Wood to switch out of Iconic Class
  1   Druid(1)         Standard: Martial Weapon Proficiency: Great Sword
  2   Druid(2)         Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Wolf
  3   Druid(3)         Standard: Natural Fighting
  4   Druid(4)         Wisdom: +1 Level up
  5   Druid(5)         Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Bear
  6   Druid(6)         Standard: Natural Fighting
  7   Druid(7)         
  8   Druid(8)         Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Winter Wolf
                       Wisdom: +1 Level up
  9   Druid(9)         Standard: Quicken Spell
 10   Druid(10)        
 11   Druid(11)        Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Dire Bear
 12   Druid(12)        Standard: Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
                       Wisdom: +1 Level up
 13   Druid(13)        Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Water Elemental
 14   Druid(14)        
 15   Druid(15)        Standard: Natural Fighting
 16   Druid(16)        Wisdom: +1 Level up
 17   Druid(17)        Druid Wild Shape: Wild Shape: Fire Elemental
 18   Druid(18)        Standard: Spell Focus: Evocation
 19   Druid(19)        
 20   Druid(20)        Wisdom: +1 Level up
 21   Epic(1)          Epic Feat: Overwhelming Critical
 22   Epic(2)          
 23   Epic(3)          
 24   Epic(4)          Epic Feat: Dodge
                       Wisdom: +1 Level up
 25   Epic(5)          
 26   Epic(6)          Epic Destiny Feat: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
 27   Epic(7)          Epic Feat: Precision
 28   Epic(8)          Epic Destiny Feat: Mass Frog
                       Wisdom: +1 Level up
 29   Epic(9)          Epic Destiny Feat: Dire Charge
 30   Epic(10)         Epic Feat: Burst of Glacial Wrath
                       Legendary: Scion of the Ethereal Plane

Enhancements: 80 APs and 12 Racial APs
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Aasimar: Scourge of the Undead - Points spent: 12
 1 Core  (1) Stronger Bonds I
 2 Core  (2) Ability I: +1 Wisdom
 3 Core  (1) Stronger Bonds II
 4 Core  (2) Ability II: +1 Wisdom
 5 Tier1 (2) Improved Recovery I
 6 Tier2 (1) Arcanum
 7 Tier2 (1) Arcanum
 8 Tier3 (2) Improved Recovery II
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Falconry - Points spent: 30
 1 Core  (1) Summon Falcon: Summon White Falcon
 2 Tier1 (1) Out in Nature
 3 Tier1 (1) Out in Nature
 4 Tier1 (1) Out in Nature
 5 Tier1 (1) Practiced Accuracy
 6 Core  (2) Ability I: Wisdom
 7 Tier2 (2) Killer Instinct I
 8 Tier1 (1) Practiced Accuracy
 9 Tier3 (2) Killer Instinct II
10 Tier3 (1) Strike for the Eyes: Strike for the Eyes
11 Tier3 (2) Conditioning
12 Core  (1) Well Rounded I
13 Tier1 (1) Rugged
14 Tier1 (1) Rugged
15 Tier1 (1) Rugged
16 Tier2 (1) Action Boost: Sprint
17 Core  (2) Ability II: Wisdom
18 Tier4 (1) Deadly Instinct
19 Tier4 (1) Deadly Instinct
20 Tier4 (1) Deadly Instinct
21 Tier4 (1) No Mercy
22 Tier4 (1) No Mercy
23 Tier4 (1) No Mercy
24 Tier4 (1) Coordinated Strikes: Coordinated Cleave
25 Tier4 (1) Expose Weakness
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature's Protector - Points spent: 6
 1 Core  (1) ature's Protector
 2 Tier1 (1) Improved Nature's Defense I: Enchanted Defense
 3 Tier1 (1) Improved Nature's Defense I: Enchanted Defense
 4 Tier1 (1) Improved Nature's Defense I: Enchanted Defense
 5 Tier1 (1) Fey's Blessing
 6 Core  (1) Nature's Defense
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature's Warrior - Points spent: 44
 1 Core  (1) Natural Adept
 2 Tier1 (1) Take Down
 3 Tier1 (1) Take Down
 4 Tier1 (1) Take Down
 5 Tier1 (1) Bestial Nature
 6 Core  (1) Nature's Senses
 7 Tier2 (1) Flight
 8 Tier2 (1) Flight
 9 Tier2 (1) Flight
10 Tier2 (2) Ghost Wolf
11 Core  (1) Nature's Bounty
12 Tier3 (1) Ghost Wolf Pack
13 Tier3 (1) Essence of the Shrike
14 Tier3 (1) Essence of the Shrike
15 Tier3 (2) Ability I: +1 Wisdom
16 Tier3 (1) Prey on the Weak
17 Tier3 (1) Prey on the Weak
18 Tier3 (1) Fight
19 Tier3 (1) Fight
20 Tier3 (1) Fight
21 Core  (1) A True Hunter
22 Tier4 (1) Fatal Harrier
23 Tier4 (1) Fatal Harrier
24 Tier4 (1) Fatal Harrier
25 Tier4 (1) Four Legs Good
26 Tier4 (1) Ferocity
27 Tier4 (1) Ferocity
28 Tier4 (1) Ferocity
29 Tier4 (2) Ability II: +1 Wisdom
30 Core  (1) Howl of Winter
31 Tier5 (1) Alpha Strike
32 Tier5 (1) Alpha Strike
33 Tier5 (1) Alpha Strike
34 Tier5 (2) Swift Hunter
35 Tier5 (1) Throat Rip
36 Tier5 (2) Jaws of Ice
37 Tier5 (1) Go for the Kill
38 Core  (1) Beast Form Mastery
39 Tier1 (1) Bestial Nature
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Active Destiny Tree
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legendary Dreadnought - Points spent: 24
 1 Core  (0) Shrug Off Punishment
 2 Core  (0) Action Hero
 3 Core  (0) Unstoppable
 4 Core  (0) Action Boost Unmovable
 5 Core  (0) Action Boost Thick Skinned
 6 Core  (0) Combat Brute
 7 Tier1 (2) Ability I: +1 Constitution
 8 Tier1 (1) Extra Action Boost
 9 Tier1 (1) Extra Action Boost
10 Tier1 (1) Extra Action Boost
11 Tier2 (2) Ability II: +1 Constitution
12 Tier1 (1) Legendary Tactics
13 Tier3 (1) Critical Damage
14 Tier3 (1) Critical Damage
15 Tier3 (1) Critical Damage
16 Tier1 (1) Legendary Tactics
17 Tier1 (1) Legendary Tactics
18 Tier3 (2) Ability III: +1 Constitution
19 Tier3 (1) Action Boost Haste
20 Tier3 (1) Action Boost Haste
21 Tier3 (1) Action Boost Haste
22 Tier5 (2) Devastating Critical
23 Tier5 (2) Advancing Blows
24 Tier6 (2) Master's Blitz Epic Moment: Masters Blitz: PRR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twists of fate - 35 of 37------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fate points spent.
Twist 1 - Tier 4: Fury of the Wild: Sense Weakness
Twist 2 - Tier 3: Shadowdancer: Grim Precision
Twist 3 - Tier 2: Magister: Spell School Specialist: Spell School Specialist: Evocation
Twist 4 - Tier 1: Divine Crusader: Ability I: +1 Wisdom
Twist 5 - Tier 1: Exalted Angel: Ability I: +1 Wisdom

Equipped Gear Set : Standard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor         Legendary Mist-laden Vestment
Belt          Legendary Braided Cutcord
Boots         Cannith Crafted Boots
              Cannith Boots Prefix: +15 Dodge
              Cannith Boots Suffix: +38 Sheltering
              Cannith Boots Extra: +7 Insightful Dodge
              Yellow: Empty augment slot
Bracers       Legendary Lore-Fuelled Packbanner
Cloak         Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Gloves        Molten Silver Gauntlets
Goggles       Cannith Crafted Goggles
              Cannith Goggles Prefix: +6 Transmutation Focus
              Cannith Goggles Suffix: +15 Melee Alacrity
              Cannith Goggles Extra: +7 Insightful Wisdom
              Yellow: Topaz of Feather Fall
Helmet        Legendary Mighty Stormreach Guardian's Helm
Necklace      Fleetfoot Necklace
Ring1         Legendary Ring of Nightfall
Ring2         Legendary Ring of Prowess
Trinket       Echo of Ravenkind
Weapon1       Legendary Echo of Blackrazor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goggles and Boots are cannith crafted. I'm about 1500 codex runes away from being able to make a 2 piece oppo set for some additional hitpoints, which may go into those slots for added ability to survive, though with the melee defensive changes coming, that may not be necessary as my feats should qualify for 50% hitpoints. Goggles and Belt can be swapped for Garstone's and Silverthread if I need to come out of wolf and be dedicated healer. Vulkor's Edge swap for metaline.

Feedback welcome!

[elvesunited]

Temporary spellpoints are fuel that allows the wolf to rapid cast all thier innate attacks. And you get them for critical hits. A falcion 15-20 beats a great sword 17-20. Is blackrazor really powerful enough to justify running out of spell points?

I'd consider going for the core 5 in Falconry. +3 melee +3 PRR +3 MRR +2 spot. Just 1 AP more in falconry and you can probably get it from Nature Warrior.

You're probably going to end up overloading your primary hotkey bar with attacks.

Baiting Bite / Trip / Jaws of Winter /Snowslide / Go for the Kill / throat strike / alpha strike / ghost pack / dire charge / 3 bird strikes

That's 12 melee attacks! And more attacks than you can realistically use. Decide which attacks you will use and don't waste AP on those you aren't going to use. I'd probably skip throat strike and jaws of winter and free up 2 AP.

[Hjarki]

If you're going with Aasimar Scourge, it really pays to take Improved Scourge Weapons for the +5% Doublestrike.

[Rush007]

Some suggestions.

Dodge or evocation feat at 24 I'd switch to mauls. Alot of blunt DR is around and you can't master touch a two hander. Pick up a Tremor from Baba and slot with deconstruct augment so its good vs skeletons and golems. If the dodge is needed can twist or put more points into defensive reaper tree. (Dodge feat is no longer needed for for legs good)

The WIS twists seem strange to me. 1 dc and 1 hit and damage. Could be stealthy for 6 assassinate dc or legendary tactics for 6 dc on snow slide/dire/jaws. Assassinate DC seems to be a hard one to raise I'd put priority on stealthy.

I'd nix the evocation DC idea as gearing does not support it as your going to be missing quality, artifact, insight and also from build stand point enhancements and legendary feat. 9-13 dc. Maybe past lives get you into useable range but its doubtful.

[Zretch]

Temporary spellpoints are fuel that allows the wolf to rapid cast all thier innate attacks. And you get them for critical hits. A falcion 15-20 beats a great sword 17-20. Is blackrazor really powerful enough to justify running out of spell points?

I'd consider going for the core 5 in Falconry. +3 melee +3 PRR +3 MRR +2 spot. Just 1 AP more in falconry and you can probably get it from Nature Warrior.

You're probably going to end up overloading your primary hotkey bar with attacks.

Baiting Bite / Trip / Jaws of Winter /Snowslide / Go for the Kill / throat strike / alpha strike / ghost pack / dire charge / 3 bird strikes

That's 12 melee attacks! And more attacks than you can realistically use. Decide which attacks you will use and don't waste AP on those you aren't going to use. I'd probably skip throat strike and jaws of winter and free up 2 AP.

I haven't really run out of spellpoints, except in protracted fights like shroud. Normally I can get to a shrine with half or more mana left. Blackrazor hits hard, and the neg level procs are very nice. I feel like it outperforms the Tail of the Scorpion, but I will probably run some trials to confirm.

I'll look at some of the attacks and see if I can re-jigger for well rounded 3. I run active abilities on 3 hotbars, using shift and ctrl to toggle which attack to use. And yes, all three are full of stuff. Throat strike isn't often used, I can probably swap some stuff around there.

[Zretch]

If you're going with Aasimar Scourge, it really pays to take Improved Scourge Weapons for the +5% Doublestrike.

I had assumed that only worked with the scourge weapons. I knew I missed something obvious! Thanks.

[unbongwah]

I had assumed that only worked with the scourge weapons. I knew I missed something obvious! Thanks.

Some of the Scourge abilities only work with their racial weapons; but the +5% doublestrike which Hjarki mentions is a generic bonus. Since you're already spending so many APs into your racial tree anyway, might as well shift 2 points into that. Probably by dropping Arcanum; you don't need Spell Pen for most druid spells.

[Zretch]

Some of the Scourge abilities only work with their racial weapons; but the +5% doublestrike which Hjarki mentions is a generic bonus. Since you're already spending so many APs into your racial tree anyway, might as well shift 2 points into that. Probably by dropping Arcanum; you don't need Spell Pen for most druid spells.

Yep, did that last night. My standing doublestrike is 90%, and the level 18 core pushes it to 100% for 10 seconds of every 30, so that fits perfectly. Arcanum was where I took the points.

Thanks Hjarki and Unbongwah!

I also shifted a point out of go for the throat and put it into the next well rounded in Falconry.

I was running some numbers between L Tail of the Scorpion and L Echo of Blackrazor. They seem almost identical in average damage output (114.75 for scorp, 115.5 for razor), but I'm still thinking Blackrazor is the better weapon.

Entropic 9 is untyped vs Poison 9 which can be resisted. On a roll of 20, the 3 neg levels works against more things more often than a vorpal that has a 3k hitpoint requirement. Yes, the falchion crits more often but between 45% base attack speed (30 in wolf form + 15 melee alacrity) with an additional 30% from haste boost, 25% from fatal harrier, and 90-100% doublestrike....I crit a LOT, even with the 17-20 vs the 15-20 crit range. Add on top the blackrazor can accumulate up to +20 damage and +20 melee power if you're getting killshots (which I do when I solo) and it's just icing on the cake. I think I'm going to stick with Proficiency Greatsword and look at Mauls to see if Maul Proficiency is what I want to do with the Dodge feat (I'm at 27% dodge via gear, and my cap is 28%, so the dodge feat is really only giving me 1%). I'm about 2 runs away from being able to buy another Baba item, but I'm not sure I want to pay that price for a DR breaker vs something that might be useful for more types of builds.

[Zretch]

Some suggestions.

Dodge or evocation feat at 24 I'd switch to mauls. Alot of blunt DR is around and you can't master touch a two hander. Pick up a Tremor from Baba and slot with deconstruct augment so its good vs skeletons and golems. If the dodge is needed can twist or put more points into defensive reaper tree. (Dodge feat is no longer needed for for legs good)

The WIS twists seem strange to me. 1 dc and 1 hit and damage. Could be stealthy for 6 assassinate dc or legendary tactics for 6 dc on snow slide/dire/jaws. Assassinate DC seems to be a hard one to raise I'd put priority on stealthy.

I'd nix the evocation DC idea as gearing does not support it as your going to be missing quality, artifact, insight and also from build stand point enhancements and legendary feat. 9-13 dc. Maybe past lives get you into useable range but its doubtful.

Great suggestions on the twists. I went lithe to replace Evoc Specialist, Stealthy for one of the wisdom twists, and the +reflex and tumble through mobs tier 1 for the other wisdom twist. 91 hide goes nice with Scion of Ethereal, and a mid-80s reflex save makes me feel better about taking the evasion tier 5 in wolf.

Thanks!

[ThomasHunter]

I think this template is quite helpful - thanks!

How about using quarterstaves instead of the other choices? Is the loss too great for DPS? I do like the flavor of it!

Thanks!

[Zretch]

I think this template is quite helpful - thanks!

How about using quarterstaves instead of the other choices? Is the loss too great for DPS? I do like the flavor of it!

Thanks!

You can certainly give it a try. Being in wolf form, the look and animations are all the same no matter what weapon you choose, so if there's a quarterstaff you like better than other weapon selections (elemental bloom or some other q-staff with a proc or effect you really want), then swap over to it. At cap, I tended to do my best damage with keen weapons as the +2W adder made a meaningful contribution to my damage numbers.

[unbongwah]

How about using quarterstaves instead of the other choices? Is the loss too great for DPS? I do like the flavor of it!

Staves vs other 2H weapons:

• Pros: higher attack speed and Quick Strike (+20% doublestrike) from Acrobat or Henshin
• Cons: lower base [W] and lousy crit threat range (20/x2)

The pros of staves don't carry over to wolf form, while the cons do. Shillelagh works with a lot of staves, but the best named ones are not wood so they won't benefit. So unless you have plans to use specific staves - e.g., Sireth should be fine just due to its high crit range - it's a major DPS hit.

[ThomasHunter]

Staves vs other 2H weapons:

• Pros: higher attack speed and Quick Strike (+20% doublestrike) from Acrobat or Henshin
• Cons: lower base [W] and lousy crit threat range (20/x2)

The pros of staves don't carry over to wolf form, while the cons do. Shillelagh works with a lot of staves, but the best named ones are not wood so they won't benefit. So unless you have plans to use specific staves - e.g., Sireth should be fine just due to its high crit range - it's a major DPS hit.

Thanks for spelling this out nicely. Maybe at low levels I'll go with it, but I'll switch to a two-hander later on (I was planning on going pure druid).

Thanks again!