U46 THF Warchanter (First/Early Life or Completionist)

[Tobril]

This post is for both first/early life and a full completionist.

Heavy gear/life options are described separately after each section. This is to help new/returning players have a solid baseline while still providing ideas for people with more past lives.

Advanced build sections are prone to sudden changes in the game meta and are my own personal preferences (that change day to day) and you should feel free to adjust as you like.


Build Purpose:

Provide significant bonuses to party melee/ranged DPS
Provide DC, spell level, and crit chance for casters
Enhance party sustain via temp HP, trickle healing, and occasional mass cures
Provide a variety of potent CC options
Trapping and Lockpicking
DPS enough to justify a spot if a second Warchanter shows up

(Advanced)
Steath
Light Tanking
Short/Solo questing/raiding


Requirements
+1 Heart
+3 Strength Tome
+5 Dexterity Tome

If you don’t want to use a +1 Heart drop all the trapping/lock/stealth. The build will still perform well for other roles.


Pros
Versatile
Works well on a first/early life and truly shines with more investment
High Saves
High DC Crowd Crontrol
Reasonable skill floor (performs well for a beginning player)
Capable of mid/high reaper on a first-life character


Cons
Poor ranged capability
Requires a +1 heart
A second Warchanter showing up (CC spellsinger would be fine)
Some gear swapping may be required for certain roles
Lots of reading because the main class has a TON of options
While it performs well enough solo, it will not be able to hyper-carry a team like a sorc or alchemist


References and Inspiration
https://ddowiki.com/page/Bardic_music
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...archanter-Bard
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...d-A-Philosophy


CC and Tactics

Here’s the Advanced tactics DCs with no consumables. I don’t run Legendary Tactics or use the Epic Destiny Stance, so they could be up to 12 higher if needed. So far these DCs have been sufficient to land CC in the presence of a Despair.

The basic build is ~10 less on each number.

Vorpal Strikes - Automatic Freeze

134 - Frozen Fury - Single Target Attack+Freeze*
138 - Spinning Ice - Cleave Attack+Freeze

145 - Dire Charge - AOE Stun
105 - Trip - Attack+Trip*

152** - Fascinate - AOE

*This attack can strikethrough
** Requires a Swap


Glam Shot (Self Buffed in Reaper - No Consumables or Shenanigans)





Build

Purple Dragon Knight

True Neutral (Needs to be non-lawful for Bard, you can be Chaotic and/or Good to take advantage of the Crusader twist to gain your alignment to damage types)

RBBBBBBBBBBBBBCBBBBB
(Rogue at 1, Cleric at 15, Rest Bard)

STR 14
DEX 8
CON 18
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 15

This requires 36 points. 32/34 point builds lower INT and drop some skills.

The main priorities are:
17 Strength for Greater Two Handed Fighting (Absolute Requirement)
13 Dexterity for Precision (Optional)

You can take level ups in Strength for feat requirement purposes and take Power Attack instead of Precision.


Feats:

1) Toughness (Advanced: Completionist - Requires Fred swap)
1) Force of Personality
3) Quicken Spell
6) Two Handed Fighting (Advanced: Requires +1 STR tome)
9) Improved Two Handed Fighting (Advanced: Requires +3 STR tome)
12) Improved Critical: Slashing
15) Power Attack (Advanced or +5 DEX tome: Precision)
15) Favored of Silvanus (Advanced: Helm for tanking)
18) Greater Two Handed Fighting
21) Overwhelming Critical
24) Inspire Excellence
26) Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27) Epic Reflexes
28) Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29) Dire Charge
30) Epic Toughness (Advanced: Past Life - Arcane Initiate...might swap this out later)
30) Scion of Aborea


Skills in order of importance:

Perform - You need ranks for your bard buffs and other abilities to work
Bluff
Intimidate
Search
Disable
Open Lock
Jump (Note: I don’t take ranks because this is an endgame build. Put points here as needed if you like. Keep in mind jump maxes out at 40 and your skills will all be high due to songs.)
Balance
Heal
Haggle

(Advanced - Lower Heal and Haggle to make room for these)
Move Silently
Hide

I’ve only listed the Advanced skill progression here because doing both requires a lot of button pushing.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skill Points· · ·44 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11· 8 12 12 12 12 12
Skill Name· · · ·01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20· Total Buffed
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balance · · · · · 4 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 4.0 · 64.0
Bluff · · · · · · 4 · · · ·1· 1 ·1· 2 ·2· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· · ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·2· ·23.0 ·102.0
Concentration · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 68.0
Diplomacy · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 78.0
Disable Device· · 4 ·½ 1½ ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 · · 1 ·1· ·22.0 · 72.0
Haggle· · · · · · 2 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1 · · · 3.0 · 84.0
Heal· · · · · · · 2 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 2.0 · 50.0
Hide· · · · · · · 4 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· · ·1· 1 ·2· 1 ·1· ·23.0 · 86.0
Intimidate· · · · 4 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· · ·1· 1 ·1 1½ 1½· ·23.0 ·103.0
Jump· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 62.0
Listen· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 43.0
Move Silently · · 4 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· ·23.0 · 85.0
Open Lock · · · · 4 · · · · · · · · · · · ½ ·½· ½ ·½· ½ ·½· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· · · · ·11.0 · 67.0
Perform · · · · · 2 ·3· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· · ·1· 1 ·2· 1 ·1· ·23.0 ·121.0
Repair· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 46.0
Search· · · · · · 4 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· 1 ·1· ·23.0 · 76.0
Spell Craft · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 47.0
Spot· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 43.0
Swim· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 0.0 · 73.0
Tumble· · · · · · 1 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1.0 · 55.0
Use Magic Device· 1 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1.0 · 78.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Available Points· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0· 0 ·0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Enhancements

There is some room for customization in several of the trees. What I’ve provided here is a baseline. I tend to reset every couple of days to experiment and refine. Feel free to adjust for your own needs, I’ll point out what I believe is critical.




PDK

Damage Boost
Cormyrean Knight Training - This is key to the build. Drop Expeditious Chant and/or Kingly Recovery from Warchanter if you are low on points.
Strikethrough
Healing Amplification

Cormyrean Knight Training is all you absulutely need. Take the extras if you have racial points.






Warchanter

Iced Edges
Frozen Fury
Northwind
Spinning Ice

The “Icy” chain provides potent CC with a high DC that works on almost everything except reapers, ghosts, and red/purple names.

Inspired Bravery
Ironskin
Chant of Power
Recklessness

Making the party stronger is what bards are all about. I’d reconsider Arcane Shield Chant (Stacking Elemental Resistance) if it was percentage based or a larger number.

Rough and Ready - Personal choice and best of what I saw to advance the tree.
Kingly Recovery - Helpful but not mandatory.
Armorer - This is only for if you swap to fury and have enough MRR to exceed the light armor cap of 100 by a considerable margin. Drop for more PDK tree or Expeditious Chant.
Howl of the North - Helpful enough for personal DPS to be included.

I wanted to fit Expeditious Chant and may still do so. Trying to squeeze in the Charisma would have meant sacrificing other trees and the tactic DCs are already high enough to survive a minor setback.

Cores are important to get more temp HP, damage, and attack bonus.






Spellsinger

Lingering Songs
Charlatan
Flicker - Invisibility Guard is great for personal survival.
Sharp Note - You don’t have to succeed on Fascinating anything and the party will get +3 to hit for 60 seconds. Somewhat useful between fights and approaching a boss.

Sadly much of Spellsigner is top-loaded. Above choices are mainly making the best of what’s available to advance the tree.

Spell Song Trance - DCs for your casters
Song of Arcane Might - Should be increasing spell damage. If more conclusive testing proves otherwise drop this enhancement.
Sustaining Song - The main reason for picking this tree. Works exceptionally well in combination with temp HP from Warchanter to provide exceptional sustain in raids and reaper content.

I don't take the freedom song because you can cast the spell and several good gearsets have it already. Future gear and your own needs should overrule my personal decision.

Taking 4 cores ensures your sustaining song will work on undead and construct allies. They also get bonuses to their appropriate healing/negative/repair amplification. Fascinating different types of monsters is a helpful side benefit.






Warpriest

Divine Might - Much of the reason for Cleric is for the battle stance to improve tactics. I take 2 ranks here to free up a point and still have some leeway on uptime vs constant activation. The basic version has all 3 points for a simpler play style.






Swashbuckler (And Notes on Vistani)

Dodge
Blow by Blow

Not fantastic by themselves, just a way to advance the tree

Deflect Arrows - Critical for survival and the only reason I take this tree
Fast Movement - Helpful enough that I dropped the otherwise superior Vistani tree

I tried hard to use Vistani for Deflect Arrows, Haste Boost, and 5% Doublestrike and found the movement speed more helpful. If you mostly just raid and don’t need the movement speed feel free to drop Swashbuckler for Vistani more DPS.



Destiny

Usually Fatesinger. I leveled in Fury and will occasionally swap back to it for some extra DPS and CC.




Basic Twists

Sense Weakness
Meld into Darkness
Legendary Tactics
A Dance of Flowers


Advanced Twists
Sense Weakness
Meld into Darkness (Swap this for Energy Sheath, Hail of Blows, no-fail save, or whatever you need for a particular raid)
Confront any Foe - Still decent after the nerf
Running with the Wind
A Dance of Flowers

[Tobril]

Equipment is the same for any version of the build.

You can substitute the non-raid necklace until you pull the raid version and be OK. If you can’t stand the loss of doublestrike you’ll need to figure out another setup.

Several of the U46 or other trinkets can be used in place of the Chrism.

The Umber Brim is not 100% essential and other hats can be used instead.


Feel free to make other adjustments to account for your needs and preferences. Part of this list is biased by my swap preferences and reaper/mythic bonuses.


I prioritized as follows:

“Of the Family” set for DPS
Charisma
Constitution
Saves
Ghostly
Accuracy
Tactics (This is why there is a moderate Strength investment for Trip)
Deadly/Seeker
Spellpower for Sustaining Song
Strength for using non-sword weapons in special cases
Permanent Blur (In case of dispelling/anti-magic)

This list is current as of U46.

Gear

Armor: Legendary Enforcer's Coat
Belt: Legendary Belt of Sure Strikes
Boots: Legendary Sunken Slippers (5 Quality Charisma)
Bracers: Brightlord, the Sigil of the Flame
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of the City's Champion
Gloves: Legendary Hammerfist
Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight (21 Constitution, 10 Insight Charisma)
Helmet: Legendary Umber Brim
Necklace: The Family's Blessing
Ring1: Legendary Five Rings (17 Strength, 14 Resistance, 20 Vertigo, 4 Quality Constitution)
Ring2: Legendary Celestial Ruby Ring (21 Dexterity)
Trinket: Bloodrage Chrism

Weapon: The Reflection of Blackrazor

(Advanced)
Mauls or Axes for Fury hits if not running Fatesinger
Greensteel one-handed weapons plus the Magic Missile past life for debuffs


Filigrees

This is what I run on the advanced setup and is subject to change.

I prioritized main stat for accuracy, damage, and tactics. Strength helps with trip and using the occasional non-sword in Fury.

Prowess in place of Shattered Device would be fine if you have it already covered by someone else. Sanctified is decent too if you don’t like swapping frequently.

Filigree 1: Shattered Device: Attack and Damage
Filigree 2: Shattered Device: Melee Power
Filigree 3: Shattered Device: Strength
Filigree 4: Shattered Device: Armor Piercing
Filigree 5: To **** and Back: Charisma
Filigree 6: To **** and Back/Embraced by Light: +2 Charisma
Filigree 7: To **** and Back/Embraced by Light: +2 Charisma
Filigree 8: Sucker Punch/One Against Many: +2 Strength
Filigree 9: Sucker Punch/One Against Many: +2 Strength
Filigree 10: One Against Many: Melee Power
Filigree 11: One Against Many: Melee Power

Use an additional weapon with 5 sanctified for a 60 seconds of 15 melee power activated by Confront any Foe.

Skaldic Rage does not currently trigger Blood Feat HP.

[Tobril]

DPS Examples:

Not fantastic, but serviceable. This is a support build at heart and just happens to be capable of speeding up the fight.


Basic






Advanced

93% Doublestrike
93% Fortification Bypass
~220 Melee Power (Still have room to grow. I don't have absolutely maxed out mythic/reaper bonuses and only 80ish reaper points spread across three trees)

[Tobril]

Stealth


Bluff

The main use of Bluff is to pull away a Vengeance or Doom in order to have a cleaner pack kill. It may seem slow, but carefully pulling a poorly placed reaper can save overall time and XP loss due to deaths. (I pulled a Plague in the below video because I got tired of fishing for a Vengeance)

Another use of stealth techniques is to bypass monsters and/or fight them one at a time to do neat solo questing while the Mission Impossible theme plays in the background.

Notes for Bluff Pulls:
*Reapers will stay aggro'd and eventually teleport to you. (Exception: Dooms)
*Sometimes a reaper will become "AI pathing confused" if it's in the middle of a dense pack of monsters. You may have to pull part of the pack to make a hole or just kill the pack with the reaper present.
*Failing a bluff check will pull everything.
*Bluff does not break stealth.
*Non-reapers (and Dooms) will eventually stop following you when they reach the spot where you activated bluff. They can be "re-bluffed" as needed to keep them following you

[Tobril]

Reserved 1/2

[Tobril]

Reserved 2/2

Feel free to respond

[SocratesBastardSon]

You may want to list your class breakdown somewhere near the top. I looked but couldn't find it. I may be blind, but I usually look for class listing at the beginning. I assume there's a rogue splash in there since stealth and trapping is mentioned.

[Tobril]

You may want to list your class breakdown somewhere near the top. I looked but couldn't find it. I may be blind, but I usually look for class listing at the beginning. I assume there's a rogue splash in there since stealth and trapping is mentioned.

Thanks, I'd like to blame forum performance today but that omission was all on me.

[Tobril]

The forums seem stable today and I was able to fix a few broken/missing things in the build. Should be more or less complete now.

[KrazyKaster]

Hi Tobril!

Love your build and was planning on doing a WC life next so I'm inclined to give yours a shot. I am not a huge fan of PDK and was wondering if you have any ideas on reallocating APs into feydark for CHA hit/dmg and color spray. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are - thanks!

Krazy

[Tobril]

Hi Tobril!

Love your build and was planning on doing a WC life next so I'm inclined to give yours a shot. I am not a huge fan of PDK and was wondering if you have any ideas on reallocating APs into feydark for CHA hit/dmg and color spray. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are - thanks!

Krazy

You have a lot of options.

Sustaining song is pretty good, well, sustain...but it's expensive. I'd drop the spellsinger tree entirely and take fey for to-hit/damage. Extra points into vistani up to 11 to get more doublestrike, haste boost, and deflect arrows. Drop deflect arrows from swashbuckler. Try and get uncanny dodge from swashbuckler.

I'm not sure if the color spray from fey is worth on a no-DC character. I feel like the answer is no, but I could be wrong. Never hurts to try since it's just an enhancement swap.

Worst case you still have a single ice freeze, cleave ice freeze, vorpal ice freeze, trip, dire charge, bard song, irresistible dance, and optionally stunning blow. The single target CC works with strikethrough and give more value on a THF character.

[Carpone]

I'm not sure if the color spray from fey is worth on a no-DC character. I feel like the answer is no, but I could be wrong.

It's affected by EDF, so the range is point blank only. Not worth taking on a melee.