Current State of Vanguard

[guzzlr]

I am looking at going back to a Sword and Board build soon, and was curious how dps is these days. I don't have crazy high expectations, but it really bothers me when DPS drops below some personal "standard."

I am open to pure fighter, pure pally, or Pally 14-15/fighter 5-6.

I have +7 tomes, and a few past lives, but nothing major. Not looking at anything more than low reapers in a group of 2-4.

Thoughts?

[Hipparan]

I don't do multiclasses very often so I'll let someone else talk about that. As for making a pure Fighter vs pure Paladin, Fighter would be better for damage. The amount of extra feats a Fighter gets blows Paladin out of the water as a class. All Paladin has going for it over Fighter at the moment is some healing and disease/fear immunity. I recommend making an Aasimar Fighter for the Healing Hands as well as the Fallen stance which grants Vulnerability and Fear immunity.

I can't comment on how Vanguard compares today with other builds, but the shield bash stuns are always fun.

[mr420247]

Fighters and pallys kind of got the shaft by proxy with the new melee feat

Any build using silent avenger will be better barbs are good but can be buggy

[Ballrus]

I am looking at going back to a Sword and Board build soon, and was curious how dps is these days. I don't have crazy high expectations, but it really bothers me when DPS drops below some personal "standard."

I am open to pure fighter, pure pally, or Pally 14-15/fighter 5-6.

I have +7 tomes, and a few past lives, but nothing major. Not looking at anything more than low reapers in a group of 2-4.

Thoughts?

Hi.
Vanguard is all or nothing, no multiclass (core 6), 20 speed, stun 10% on shield bash (>>>with the 1 sec cooldown its almost useless<<<, used to be good before the bugfix).
Dps is ok? finished a drow life (20 fighter, 39 kensei/41 vanguard).
Did ravenloft r5 part 1, 2; and r7 part 3, with tank, healer, and no cc, just dire charges and stuns. top count kill or 2nd sometimes (at lvl 29).
At 30, did rl chain again r7 with 5 man party (1 cleric, 1 monk and 2 rogues vkf) and kill almost nothing.

If u want low reaper with no vkf, tempest and/or monk in party, dps is ok.

[guzzlr]

Hi.
Vanguard is all or nothing, no multiclass (core 6), 20 speed, stun 10% on shield bash (>>>with the 1 sec cooldown its almost useless<<<, used to be good before the bugfix).
Dps is ok? finished a drow life (20 fighter, 39 kensei/41 vanguard).
Did ravenloft r5 part 1, 2; and r7 part 3, with tank, healer, and no cc, just dire charges and stuns. top count kill or 2nd sometimes (at lvl 29).
At 30, did rl chain again r7 with 5 man party (1 cleric, 1 monk and 2 rogues vkf) and kill almost nothing.

If u want low reaper with no vkf, tempest and/or monk in party, dps is ok.

Sounds like it will work for me and provide a fighting style I haven't used in a while.

Thanks all for the input!

[Hirosue]

My alt Pally Vanguard is sitting at 88 STR and approximatley 70 to 100 doublestrike .
With capped speed and capped shield bashes he does very nice damage and has stun DC of a little over 100.
This is not top DPS.
But it is lots of fun.
survivable,
self sufficient.

This link explains some of the basics

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-Paladin-(U24)

personally i didnt bother with kopesh or the cleaves and focused entirely on maximising shield damage

[Sam-u-r-eye]

Pally is better IMO for vanguard due to not needing to spend 11 AP for a critmulti that locks you into a weapon type. Forgo epic defensive fighting IMO and carry some heals for others. Your defense tree is pretty good.

Gear is everything though. Grind out a best defense and flow if you don't already have em.