Mitheriana, Transformed to Grace

[Tilomere]

Mitheriana, Transformed to Grace

This build is dedicated to an amazing person who is missed. Not only was she an amazing DDO player, she was an amazing person who appreciated the legends of classic rock and alternative music, and definitely did it her way. This is for you mith:



My original Lich, with Axe PM/EK build didn't have the armor penetration I wanted to do more recent content. But THF and EK was still powerful enough that tempest, zombie, and THF was nerfed. I wanted to come back to EK, but Tempest nerf meant I needed to swap to SoS/ESoS at the time (no raid falchion yet) and change it into a leveling build to make up for loss of crit profile in nerf. Original PM/EK also had to go con-based for disintegrate saves in reaper, while this can go strength for more damage due to divine grace saves bonus. Original build also lacked a trance, which locked out dire charge, which that and trip this has access to. This makes this build have a far more graceful flow of combat.

So I planned each charted course testing leveling builds, walking each and every highway, starting with inquisitor to learn combat mechanics, then paladin because Feydark Illusionist was new to learn melee defense, stress testing them in legendary reaper solo at 20 to learn enough about leveling in legendary reaper to come back to this. This has the armor penetration to gracefully transition through any content, including legendary reaper at level 20. Paladin was neutered in update 48.4, but I was planning on dumping it anyways since paladin lacks self-healing and CC while leveling, and charisma paladin is bound to high level Unyielding Sentinal for knockdown immunity, and as such that build is dead anyways as soon as ED nerfs arrive.

In that time, a raid falchion was introduced so this build could be extended into a cap build as well. Negative healing, zombie, and wraith also got the axe with loss of exceptional spell power, elimination of incorporeal in reaper, and zombie nerfs, but I was already planning on dumping undead form entirely for armor penetration. Lack of passive death aura healing makes one more vulnerable to dying 100-0 in trip, so had to go strength based to reduce that.

I traveled each and every highway, and what I've learned is that SSG generally targets and neuters individual over performing builds like paladin, and what you should look at instead are loosely grouped builds. For example, this build can be adapted to a bunch of double recon + AoE damage builds, using arti or bf or Mechanus Recon SLA. Arti or wiz or sorc will give recon. WF or BF or arti construct essence feats will enable repair healing. Dance of Death (any combat style), THF, or Bastard Swords (including sunblades)/Dwarven Axes SWF or S&B with strikethrough will give AoE attacking. Because we are gearing both repair and positive energy amplification, and powering spells with potency, we can also use heal instead of recon spell, opening up alchemist, cleric, fvs, and druid as well. For example, a BF 1 Paladin, 14 Cleric War Domain, 5 Ranger, SWF + DoD Tempest + Falconry + Inquisitor will have strike through on SWF from DoD, haste boost from tempest, holy sword, armor pen, plus recon SLA and heal. SWF, but otherwise same gear, same double healing + AoE dps, but with a cleric icon instead. 15 arti 5 ranger DoD will have double recon and AoE auto attack on SWF or TWF combat style. Druid is interesting, in that it has heal + regenerate, so it doesn't need recon for double healing. 15 Arti 5 barb is very nice as well. With paladin, I did what I had to do, and just dumped it and moved on.

End up with a build with a bit of everything. Some healing, some CC, some damage, some tankyness, some debuffing. It works fairly gracefully in any lower difficulty that allows enough self healing to go through. I noticed on BF paladin lives that there wasn't generally healers for melee in about 80% of groups, so one needs to build to parallel solo to play within most groups, so this does that even better. This does a bit of everything, so whatever is missing in a group, or everything sometimes, it can gracefully provide. You can even twist healing and with a solid mana pool, spell power, and defenses act as a healer. And now the end is here, but it isn't so much a single build, as much as a collection of builds you can make.

I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. SSG wants to nerf leveling more than cap play. Therefore, I also wanted a build that was graceful through the ED nerfs to come, where my guess is they implement their previously floated idea to level ED trees up with epic levels to neuter early epic power. This is consistent with the U48.4 nerfs to THF where they primarily nerf leveling by 15% since that is where your stat matters, and by 6% at end game where most of your damage is non-stat. This is also consistent with U49 nerfs to bow manyshot/10k flat high bases to a level formula and nerfing base bow speed from 86 shots/min at level 1 with haste pots also to a level formula that caps out at 77 shots/min making bow leveling worse for most levels. Since existing ED implementation allows a well-built character to solo legendary reaper at 20 on any archtype (melee or just see level 20 post below, ranged, or caster), such a nerf has to be in the works. As such, this build is entirely self-contained while leveling, and doesn't need anything out of any ED, and can even be used to level any ED or even without one which I think is coming.

I keep iterating through this and improving it slightly with tweaks, so most of the pictures are all slightly off and don't have the FvS level I just added, but the build itself as written is now in final graceful form.


My friend I'll make it clear, with pictures you can open in a new page to click and zoom into.

Bladeforged or WF

Enhancements, as per pic while leveling, you may need to drop some armor pen (falconry or inquisitor) depending on your AP for Bladeforged Recon SLA until 30 with Scion of Mechanus, drop a bird single target attack once you have enough attacks for toolbars and drop true seeing once you can cast it. Get BF first, then EK, then KoTC, then Inquisitive, then falconry last. If you want a slightly tankier but less armor pen version, you can swap the inquisitor to SaD defensive stance, but you will want Boulder's Might then as a second AoE crit gib since your AoE crit gib eldritch tempest won't break fortification and crit as often. Replace single target bird attack with Boulder's Might on toolbar.


(Open in new window to zoom)

At 26 with helpless dire charge, we redo enhancement for more helpless damage see here.

ED: LD primary (above pic is out of date) for helpless dire charge, gmof for stunning bonuses, and FoTW last for boulder's might.

Skills: Maxing balance and repair, then whatever you want. I commonly do intim, to tank for groups.

Fortification Bypass at level 20:
25% Precision
5% Guild
5% Artifact Part of the Family Set
12% Enhancement Part of the Family Necklace
15% Twists (Grim Precision)
5% Sentience
75% Inq. + Falconry
------------
142% Fortification Bypass at Level 20 (195% at 30) (Enough to level in legendary reaper at 20)

Red named dungeon bosses in reaper mode seem to have around 10+5xdungeon level in fortification (180 in level 34 dungeons), so 142% is good at 20, and 195% is perfect at 30, especially since 15 of that is over time destruction stacks. Reapers have fortification around 90+5xdungeon level, or 90+5x15 = 165% in heroic Gianthold for example, which resists most critical hits at only 72% armor penetration:


See note on fortification here.

These enemy mobs use the same fortification bypass on us as well, which is why we sentience and built the way we did. We want 100% fortification, plus the same amount as our and mobs fortification bypass (180 in level 34 dungeons) = 280% fortification in level 34 dungeons, which if you notice we have above at level 20 for leveling in legendary reaper.

Stats: Dex 13 with tomes +4 by level 9, Charisma 13 with tomes +8 by level 27, Strength 15 with tomes +3 by level 3, Strength 17 with tomes +5 by level 12

I do max + levels Str, Cha/Con 16, Dex 9, leftovers Int with +8 tomes on a BF, sometimes less Con for more Int.

Levels and Feats
1 Paladin Adamantine Body (Delay this for WF some, taking ASF reduction in racial tree)
2 Wizard1 (Wiz Feat: Quicken)
3 Wizard2 THF (Str 15, tomes +3)
4 Wizard3
5 Wizard4
6 Paladin#2 Completionist (if you don't have completionist, take Force of Personality here and Epic DR at 30)
7 Wizard5 (Wiz Feat: Extend) > (Feat swap at 20 to Eschew materials if you are in Fatesinger with maxed out EDs)
8 Wizard6
9 Wizard7 Precision (Dex 13, tomes +4)
10 Wizard8
11 Wizard9
12 Paladin3 THF#2 (BaB 6)
13 Wizard10 Mental Toughness
14 Wizard11
15 Wizard12 Improved Critical: Slashing (BaB 8)
16 Wizard13
17 Wizard14
18 Paladin #4 THF#3 (BaB 11)
19 Favored Soul 1 (FvS here so we can get a cheaper Divine Might at level 26 for only 4 AP to get helpless falconry damage to go with dire charge and no fail will for legendary reaper)
20 Wizard 15 Improved Mental Toughness
21 Construct Exemplar
22 Perfect THF
24 Overwhelming Critical
26 Helpless damage (Helpless Dire Charge LD) (swap to Warpriest Divine Might, saving 4 AP for Falconry No Mercyx3 and Inquisitor Mind Like Iron (no fail will saves), see final AP Split here)
27 Epic Reflexes (to avoid horrid wilting 1 shots from famine reapers)
28 Deific Warding
30 Scion of Arborea (Mechanus for WF or those without racial AP), Epic Fortitude (to avoid disintegrate 1 shots from famine reapers)

For what is a robot, what has he got? If he lacks gear, then he has naught. A lot of people ask for builds for reaper. Builds don't walk into reaper. Geared characters do. The better the gear and character you have, the higher the difficulty you can walk into. The build itself will only take you so far. That being said, this build takes one a lot farther than others. Heh. Example 15 and 20 gear sets are posted below, as are upgrades as you level at 24 and 26 28, 29, and 30. We are going strength based so we don't get 100-0 killed in trip as often.

Death Aura Gear: LGS Dust + Ooze (Swaps in for casting these spells)

Toolbar setup I use is as pictured:

(Open in new window to zoom)

There were times, there were a few, where there were too many buttons, than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and tool barred it out. Toolbars 1-4 are only ones visible for normal play, with 1 primarily used, and toolbar 2 first 3 slots bound to ` and extra mouse buttons. Toolbar 3 and 4 are less used abilities.
5 is hidden and rarely used, as is 6 which holds your charisma and int skills and swaps. Toolbar 7 Holds your always active abilities hidden. Toolbar 8 is hidden and bound to number pad, so as you run around you can run your right hand up the pad and rebuff short term buffs, including LGS Dust + Ooze death auras. Hidden Toolbar 9 you use when you log in, and 10 is rarely used Rock boots for Tempest Spine and Propulsion boots for a few spots, and LHox stuffs. I faced the impossible 10 toolbars of abilities, and did it my way.

Basically, the double recon with some extra spell power from reaper tree/reaper boost combine to sorta compensate for the 60% R1 self healing penalty, so you can self-heal in low-mid reaper. Now high is relative to the character and build in question, but this build doesn't work in high reaper due to the 90%+ self healing penalty and 55% positive energy healing penalty from divines, and the lack of willingness for other arcanes to generally heal or repair anyone or life salve you so you can be healed by divines. But that's ok, we just won't play in high reaper.

Even before dire charge you can Power Word: Stun or Otto's Irresistible Dance reapers or champions, trip multiple targets, occasionally blind stuffs with AoE bird attack, and knock everything down with eldritch tempest. Plus there is always the old standby sleet storm, a personal favorite. A mix of CC for a mix of targets.

ED update: follow Dire Charge around, getting Dire Charge + Rally (LD) (replaces trip on toolbar), stunning (GMoF), and whatever else you can afford.
Also, I wrote this one full year in advance of the ED update, to specifically be adaptable to the ED update due to not needing EDs while you level. Heh.

[Sikaril_Shadowblade]

Looks nice enough to try at some point but , how are you getting insightfull on sl unless its just augment +5 ?

[Tilomere]

Ye, just augment. I have a bunch from something or other. Maybe some event?

[Tilomere]

Updated for 48.4, removing Confront Any Foe from build. Could have replaced it with almost equivalent Boulder's Might, or moved feats or grabbed a fighter level for momentum swing, but decided to go with easier access to 2nd bird attack for fort debuffing bosses. At cap can swap to reaper action boost spell power since near 100% standing double strike.

Also shows feat swap from Epic DR to Force of Personality. Those are some pretty styling saves ... for a melee ... or a wizard.

The well-balanced damage, self-healing, tankyness, CC, and debuffing really do well in R1. I like all the utility too of buffs and sprint boosts. But what I really like best is that I had the foresight to make this build self-contained, so as SSG does ED revamp stuff like zeroing out Confront Any Foe we can just drop them, since this build doesn't need an ED, or any ED abiltiies. Plus the build is an amorphous idea. We can also drop wizard, drop our race, any enhancements, any weapon, any combat style, or anything else at the drop of a hat. I'm even comfortable dropping recon SLA and redesigning the build around positive or negative healing.

I guessed properly that ED nerfs were coming in my choice to reroll to this. Some just arrived, but more are coming*.

That means this isn't going to be the collection of ultimate choices and thus an ultimate or singular build, but merely a blob of good enough choices that you can just reach in and grab bag a handful and go. Also updated build to be more new player friendly with reduced AP choices, to not feat swap unless in filled fatesinger, and alternate weapon at 20.

For next life:
Swap 30 feat to Scion of Fire to improve self-healing more. Noticed had so much spell power it does ok damage as well, and it has some PRR/MRR. Seems all purpose, better fit to build.
Swap wisdom augment to balance in second cloak at 30 with Force of Personality, to get improved tripped less often 100-0 killed, or maybe to repair, to self-heal more.
Could grab a fighter level for stunning blow feat, but I think instead we will just use gust of wind to improve crit profile and keep battlefield under control. We already have stun and trip, want something that works on a wider variety of mobs in a larger AoE.

*There is no mathematical way to avoid massive leveling ED nerfs in order to give that power back through epic leveling. You can't just start people at 20 with the ED power they have now at 30 and still let them level EDs more, or the power they get leveling will unbalance cap play. Conservation of energy is unforgiving like that.

[Tilomere]

Open gear in new window to zoom if needed!

[Tilomere]

Basically want 280 or so fort for legendary, then some RAmp, melee power, and strength, some defense.

Oh, and stats and build test, for legendary leveling capability:



Optional swap stick to bring melee power up a short time, to launch an eldritch tempest with. Have extra number keypad buttons to bind it to:


I didn't have this yet when I made build. It takes an artifact sentience slot to complete Fervor, and you get smite evil +2 charges in KoTC as you level. Could just use it for Prowess 20-28 and keep original sentience. I'll probably use this 20-25 before swapping it out for LGS Dust + Ooze swaps. Or maybe I'll just swap it to an alt. Dunno yet.

[Tilomere]

Open pictures in new window to zoom if needed!

Here are a set of level 23-24 gear upgrades:



And a set of level 26 gear upgrades:



I don't think the LGS Vacuum Falchion is an upgrade, so much as a side grade in dps and a bit of a down grade in survivability, but it gives a bit broader range of debuffing for groups and raids. Might be an upgrade if you don't have a fully decked out ESoS. Oh, and found we need some sort of tanking setup to tank raids. Fatesinger underlevel legendary raid tanking wasn't working out very well:



This will bring us to 300% fortification, which is a good # to have for legendary raid bosses.

[Tilomere]

Open pictures in new window to zoom if needed!

Some Level 28 Gear Upgrades:



I've tetris'd it so it all upgrades smoothly, the chains to belt, shackles to boots.

And last but not least, some Level 29 Gear Upgrades:



I've tetris'd it so it all upgrades smoothly, keeping the chains, shackles, bloodrage chrism, pansophic, and ring of malevolence. End up with 4 piece One against many, 3 piece sucker, 5 piece shattered, 2 piece mechanus.

At 30 can put a Litany Augment in a second set of gloves.

Quick and dirty R8 test at cap:



I can't get enough self or group healing to work with this setup in R10. Could swap Bladeforged AP to reduce positive healing penalty instead of more repair amp for R10 and that would work, but I'm fine with just being able to solo R8. The record shows I took all the blows and did it my way:


This is going to go up a bit next life with FvS enabling more helpless damage, and then up a bit more with new prowess/fervor swap stick.

[Tilomere]

Had to swap to US for more hp for this. I knew that US setup was going to come in handy! Or at least I hoped it would...





-------------------------------------------------------

This build needs 1 more adjustment, to do a bit more damage and be even harder to lock down and kill. I noticed when swapping to US I wanted more damage. Need to swap Paladin 5 with FvS 1, which gives divine might at 4 AP. Take the 4 ap saved and move into falconry 30% helpless damage and inquisitor core 3 for no-fail will saves at level 29 when you can apply dire charge helpless.

Then can wombo-combo Dire Charge > Bird Cleave AoE fortification debuff > Eldritch Tempest @ near 100% doublestrike and tons of fortification bypass and tons of Helpless Damage

We won't even lose any net saves overall, since Mind Like Iron is +3 will, and FvS has strong base saves. Will also give us a bit more mana, but haven't really had issues with mana ever. We won't need the Paladin strike through as much after our Wombo-combo is fully built out. Updated OP.

This is now a finished work of grace, at least to the extent I am able to make. It weaves a triple class build together, with a feat swap, enhancement swaps, and gear swaps, that does a bit of everything. It is also independent of ED, allowing it to do well now in any ED you need such as tanking in US then DPSing in Fatesinger, any ED you wish to level, and also in the future ED nerfs to come, whatever form they may take. It has been tested and performs gracefully in legendary reaper solo at 21, soloing a legendary reaper raid at 30, as well as solo R8.

[Saekee]

I love the name and its dedication

[Tilomere]

^^ She was one of a few. In RL she reinvented herself as she wanted to be, which is a real struggle, and put up with me, an equal struggle. In DDO, she mostly leveled our guild to cap, mostly built out our airship, and became a winged triple completionist that zerged like the wind!

[Delasom1962]

Hi Tilo,

in your leveling guide you state:

19 Favored Soul 1 (FvS here so we can get a cheaper Divine Might at level 29 for only 4 AP to get helpless falconry damage to go with dire charge and no fail will for legendary reaper)

Yet in all your screenshots you show 15 Wiz and 5 Pally, which is correct/better?

Thanks

[Tilomere]

Hi Tilo,

in your leveling guide you state:

19 Favored Soul 1 (FvS here so we can get a cheaper Divine Might at level 29 for only 4 AP to get helpless falconry damage to go with dire charge and no fail will for legendary reaper)

Yet in all your screenshots you show 15 Wiz and 5 Pally, which is correct/better?

Thanks

Heyo!

The 1 FvS is quite a bit better at 26+ and an itty bitty bit worse 19-25. Here is AP split we can swap to at 26 for why we went /1 FvS to go with helpless Dire Charge:



If warforged or if you lack AP, I would pick up the boost from EK. If you have really good gear/sentience for armor pen, can also swap inquisitor to VKF.

[Tilomere]

Done with revamp. Think this is last melee build for a bit. Gona swap to ranged or caster now. Maybe work on an alt. This is with Epic DR instead of Epic Fortitude. Dunno if it is a good trade. Don't think so. Overall this is well-balanced enough for me. Solid everything. Could get a bit more hp from favor, but I kindof like it right where it is.



Did a real test instead of quick and dirty one above now that build is in final form: Just Business takes 31 mins solo on R6, but it also has more mobs that are all tougher than the entirety of RL Chain 1. This is a 20% improvement over PM/EK pre-THF, pre-exceptional spell power, and pre-eldritch tempest nerfs.

[Kielbasa]

Interesting build soul has been raving about it to anyone that will listen.

How annoying is it to keep up observance stacks?

If someone wanted to run this on an alt without a significant portion of the past lives you have how much of a drop off would they see? Functional up to around r6?

What lgs weapon types would be the most universal to craft?

One of these days you're going to get necro auras and lgs nerfed hopefully not for a while at least. It always seems you post fun crazy builds and the devs get hangry for a nerfing.

[Tilomere]

How annoying is it to keep up observance stacks?

If someone wanted to run this on an alt without a significant portion of the past lives you have how much of a drop off would they see? Functional up to around r6?

What lgs weapon types would be the most universal to craft?

So observance stacks when you use diplomacy on any object. It could be a vase, door, other player, whatever, so it isn't so bad to stack. Inquisitors at long range typically build stacks off other players. If you dislike it you can just spend the AP elsewhere in BF or SaD trees for more defense.

If geared, would be functional through R10 grouped if you wanted to take reduced healing penalty instead of more repair amp. I don't see any well-geared well-built character having problems in groups through R6. Solo, yea, this may work in easier R6 on an alt.

LGS Dust and Ooze you don't swing anymore, since they don't take sentience, so whatever you want them in as long as they are 1 handers. Daggers or kamas or short swords or long swords are all good choices since you can use them on centered builds and center them as well. LGS Dust on a throwing dagger main hand is also a good choice, since you can use it for inquisitive or VKF builds as well.

Pfft, this is the result of them nerfing my flavor charisma paladin. It took less time to build this than it did for lammania to finish.

==================
A note on fortification bypass

This is my 150 base fort bypass raiding alt, with 15 more bypass from destruction stacks, getting 0 crits and 0 sneak procs, putting mob fort at ~260% or higher:


Reapers have about 260 fortification end game in R6. This build will get some crits on them. The formula for reapers is around 90+5xdungeon level, or 80 higher than red names, maybe up or down a bit based on skulls, with some reapers having lower fortification than this. This is why deception is sacrificed first to get repair spell power/repair lore. PUG raids don't have this much fort though, so you can have around 100 fort bypass on a raid alt and be fine. Basically, if you are building a reaper dps, you put 41 points in your dps tree, 11 points in inquisitive for fort bypass, and 28 points in falconry for trance and more bypass. Then you use a set for more bypass, with Summer 25%> Sharn 10%. Sharn is a smaller set to build around what you want so is better for hybrids, so I use it here for all-purpose build. Feywild 7 piece Summer is anti-hybrid single role specialization for when you want to trade survivability and hybrid ability to do other things for a bit more armor pen for reapers.

The purpose of this much fortification is to control players. You buy access to fortification bypass to deal damage to reapers with the right support trees and right gear from the right content, and then build, gear, and play in a way SSG allows to deal good damage in reaper.

[Walls]

Open gear in new window to zoom if needed!

How are you getting so much to +dmg at 15? All same gear, (seems we had same idea on cc for melee ) and I have All epic pl except for a couple martial and arcane. (the lamer ones) x1 heroic completion, and x3 on monk (some more, but this only one that gives dmg).

are you getting it all from Reaper? Because I only have 28 rp.

[Tilomere]

How are you getting so much to +dmg at 15?

StrengthModx2 (46)
EPL Primal (6)
HPL Monk (3)
IPL Razor (3)
Deadly Enhance (6)
Deadly Insight (8)
Enhancement weapon (10)
EK (3)
KoTC Holding AP until we can afford Inq. ArmPen (3)
1 Reaper
--------------------------
89

At start of level 15 we have 56 AP. 39 in EK leaves 17, which isn't enough for KoTC (8) + Inq (11). So I held extra 9 AP in KoTC/racial tree until I had enough to get both KoTC + Inq. But thats only a few points of total.

(seems we had same idea on cc for melee

01101101010

Robotic minds think identically.

[Tilomere]

Multistrike finally is allowing this build to showcase what it does best. Before the mobs would die in the first hit of the doublestrike trying to show how much damage this build deals! This is without a swap stick for prowess/fervor but a bit of dust/ooze debuffs and Fatesinger ult. Figured I had enough buttons to buff with already. These are x6 crits, the x8 19-20 crits are around 100k. The /1 Fvs is paying off here with more helpless damage:



Is it necessary to crit that high? No, but I find it all so amusing.

If you want a slightly tankier but less armor pen version, you can swap the inquisitor to SaD defensive stance, but you will want Boulder's Might then as a second AoE crit gib since your AoE crit gib tempest won't always break fortification. Replace single target bird attack with Boulder's Might on toolbar.

Oh, and the reason we went so tanky with reconstruct + reconstruct SLA is that modern red names in R6 hit for 800/2sec normally, and down to 650/2 sec debuffed, which under an 80% self-healing R6 penalty means we need 4k self-healing/2 seconds to recover from.


Each reaper difficulty is an increase in incoming damage of 30%, and an additional 4% self-healing penalty. So our self-healing more than anything else determines the difficulty we can run. R6 is also a 2/3rds outgoing damage penalty, and mobs have 15k hp or so in RL-Sharn, so we want an Eldritch tempest for 45k AoE to instakill most of them, which if you notice above we have.

[Kodwraith]

First stupid question: Does the platform core concept still work as an 5pally / 6 WIZ / 9XX? (or 6/6/8x). Using that basic platform of pally/wiz split for self healing melee that is racial agnostic seems like a good thing.

Alternatively can you run 4/1/15 sorc?

I need a bunch of heroic and racial past lives and have a lot of Greatswords and hate constantly re-gearing.