Decoding L29 Paladin Gear

[Marshal_Lannes]

The sheer number of items in the game now can make gearing your at cap Paladin a daunting challenge. I'm going to attempt to decode the gear puzzle here and hopefully, with some input from all you good people, we can present THF Paladins everywhere with a map to follow.

We must start somewhere and begin filling out our equipment based on that. Two pieces stand out as must-haves or at least highly desirable to have. Those are Legendary Collective Sight (Blown Deadline) and Bloodrage Chrism (Old Baba's Hut). The Chrism has benefits you can't get anywhere else for THF and LCS offers Temperance of Beliefs ideally suited for Paladins plus incredible flexibility. We will pick what 21 Stat and +10 insightful we want on the LCS a bit later.

Another must-have is going to be slaver's item because Devotion 185 isn't easy to fit in for Paladins. Shatter 20 is also highly desirable as this directly affects our best ability, Holy Retribution. We can also pick up +4 quality strength. Our last choice is more complex - do we go with Sheltering 45, +17 stat, or False Life 68? Well, there are many sources of False life now, and Sheltering may show up on our armor, so do we take a less than max 17 stat (Paladin's are quite stat heavy)? As for location, generally, we have ring spots open so a ring would be ideal here.

We are also allowed one minor artifact so let's get that slotted. Best choices would be:

Gauntlet of the Iron Council - +22 CON, 52 spell resistance, 26 insightful spell resistance, 53% acid absorption (desirable for those annoying dots) GLOVES.

Brightlord - +22 CHA, 36% armor piercing, 30% speed, 3 extra smites with 15% smite regen BRACERS.

Brand of Kalok Shash - +22 STR, Quality Accuracy 8, Quality Deadly 5, Fire Absorption 53% BRACERS.

The Prince's Gauntlet - +22 CON, 93 HAMP, Quality resistance 4, Quality sheltering 15 GLOVES.

Magmatic Grasp - Alchemical Fire Attunement, Speed 30, Accuracy 36, Deadly 18 GLOVES.

So, it looks like we will be using either our gloves or bracers slot for a minor artifact. Note - there are some decent trinket artifacts but we've already settled on the Chrism as a must-have in that slot. Which one do we select? Now is where our choices become a bit muddled. Two items that offer a lot of slots consolidation although not necessarily best in slot stat-wise are the Legendary Mighty Stormreach Guardian's Helm (Night Falls on Stormreach) and the Legendary Mantle of Fury (Into the Mists, Fresh Baked Dreams). The Guardians Helm gives us +19 STR, 16 Deadly 22 Stunning, and 19 Seeker. That's incredible utility as it captures just about all our offensive boosts in one slot. The MoF offers +19 CON, 22% double strike, and 19% dodge. Or how about Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Belt? From Security Detail, this offers +21 CON, 85 comp HAMP, 40 insightful false life, 50 lifesealed HPs. Or Legendary Levik's Bracers (Legendary VoD)21 CON, 88 HAMP, 74 Vitality, 83 false life. Or the Legendary Cloak of Summer (Wake me Up Inside) 21 STR, 10 insightful STR, 50% fire absorption, 23% double strike. Finally, the Legendary Lore-Fueled Pack Banner (invitation to dinner) offers 10% insightful doublestrike and +9 insightful CON.

Two necklaces stand out - Celestial Insignia (Feytwisted chests) Angelic Grace (bonus HPs on being hit), 85 HAMP, +5 quality CON, +13 quality sheltering. Legendary Family Recruit Sigil (House of Pain) True Seeing, 33% armor piercing, Deadly 17, Relentless Fury.

Now, we haven't even considered set bonuses and from the wide disbursement of items that adds another twist into the plot. And what about armor? I'm not thrilled with any of the Sharn choices so I lean toward either Platemail of the Celestial Sage (LHoX or LTS) 196% FORT, +3 quality reflex, +34 quality potency, 49 sheltering, 9 parrying, blurry, deathblock, Angelic Grace. Or Legendary Platemail of the Barovian Lord 202% FORT, 9 parrying, 50 Physical sheltering, +2 profane. The Celestial Sage armor is really better in every way except for the profane bonus. The main things it has going for it are full sheltering which doesn't seem common on the new armors, plus blurry and deathblock.

For those not thoroughly confused by now that leaves a ring and a boot slot. I don't love any of the boot choices so that is sort of something to play around with. One of the Sharn rings is a solid option, the topaz offers blurry if the profane edges Barovian plate over the Sage armor.

There is a lot of STR/CON overlap on items now. We don't have a ton for CHA unless using Brightlord (which opens up the possibility of near-endless smites along with ED endless smiting not sure if these stack though) If not going with Brightlord then CHA on collective sight or the Slaver's ring is a possibility. Maybe we have to expand our artifact search as if we take the Cloak of Summer, Levik's Bracers and the Bronze Dragonscale belt that covers most of what all those artifacts give us. Well, this puzzle isn't going to be solved in an afternoon, but hopefully this has laid out some pieces to consider.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Artifact update -

We must consider adding the Radiant Ring of Taer Valaestas to the list. The +4 quality deadly we get here, plus the 8 insightful deadly from Hammerfist (along with the set bonus since Family Sigil is already one of the two necklaces we considered) makes this a strong DPS combination. Since we're taking two of the Family, we take Enforcer plate as well for the set bonus. Our slotting now begins to crystalize:

Goggles - Leg Collective Sight
Trinket - Bloodrage Chrism
Armor - Enforcer Plate
Gloves - Leg Hammerfist
Necklace - Leg Family Sigil
Ring - Slavers 45 Sheltering (we need the MRR this covers now since we are losing it from the Celestial Sage) 20 shatter 185 Devotion +4 quality STR
Cloak - Leg Cloak of Summer

Notes - Rockslide Ring from Feywild does have 23 Shatter on it and would set bonus with Crown of Butterflies, Stormscale Plate, Black dragonscale tasset, and Thorn Boots but we still wouldn't reach the 25 artifact bonus to melee power. But we are using the Cloak of summer and the set bonuses from Summer are melee friendly. Boots here would be Red Dragonscale helm Titania's Glory, and Lionheart ring. These add their own confusion with overlap of course.

[dogsoldier]

Yeah, 3-piece Sharn PoTF Set is probably the way to go; each item has useful stats on it. And then try to work in a 4-piece Winter Feywild set. The trouble I have with Feywild is if I go for items with useful stats I end up with 1-2 pieces from each season, never really getting a meaningful set bonus. The only time I have easily slotted a 4-piece Winter set is on a WF Artificer who could use the rune arm, and make use of the Winter bracers with auto repair on them. 4+ set bonuses from Feywild generally means at least one useless piece of equipment used just for the set bonuses.

[PrinceOfAsphodel]

This is the first time I've ever seen someone not consider the Part of the Family set as mandatory on a DPS Paladin. I don't think a gear set without Part of the Family will hold up to the stats of one that includes it.

[Arlathen]

(Warning: Post Got Long. I didn't mean it too, but it just all come flooding out! Tried to break it up into sections to make it easy to read.)

This is a great post, and something I want to contribute too!

I play a pair of Paladins regularly, so I'll drop my thought processes on at-Cap gearing that may help. I think it may help if I put this down in a Q&A format to help organise my thoughts and what I think needs consideration, as well as my process for choosing gear.

1. What is your target content when you reach level 30?
I'm going to assume that you are going to stay at cap for sometime on hitting 30, and generally play in Raids and Reaper quests while you enjoy your capped build. I certainly do! However, there is a big difference between low to mid Reapers and running raids at typical LN/LH difficulty levels, and then pushing into doing R8+ High Reapers and joining in Raid pushing, trying to complete on as high a difficulty as possible.

On the Reaper side, its the difference between wanting a Dire Charge DC of 120 for R1-R5 for most content and needing a DC of 140+ for R8+ content, particularly in Sharn and Feywild.

On the Raid side, its the difference between needing full-time Curse Immunity and a degree of Evil Absorption, or just accepting that your own Quickened Remove Curse is enough. Curse Immunity is very handy to have in the Curse of Strahd, Project Nemesis, Lord of Blades, Visions of Destruction, the Codex & the Shroud raids. Evil absorption is incredibly useful in both Too Hot To Handle and the Dryad & The Demigod raids.

If your primarily raiding, Tactics is a secondary consideration to having DPS. But these choices feed into the gear choices for your Paladin.

2. Have you decided to go STR-based or CHA-based using Feydark Illusionist?
Since Feydark Illusionist was released Paladins can validly choose to use STR as there primary DPS Stat, supplemented with additional CHA that can fit into the build & gear for Divine Might, or can go all in on CHA. My experience shows STR is the better option for straight line DPS (you can achieve higher STR than CHA), but you can achieve higher tactics on a pure CHA build (every 2 pts of CHA is adding +1.5 Tactics, effectively, where you need to find +2 STR and +2 CHA to achieve this on a STR Build). Its a big cost to go the CHA route, requiring a feat and 7 precious AP, but I've ran a CHA-based Paladin in High Reapers very successfully when I have a Dire Charge DC of over 145 and a Holy Retribution DC of over 130.

This is a big choice to make, and directly affects the kind of content you are aiming for and the way you answer 1. above.

3. How are you managing your threat as a DPS Paladin?
Its worth a quick tangent on Paladin Defence here, and why I think Sacred Defender is a critical piece of any Paladin Build. Paladin's don't try and dodge hits, they are orientated to take them on the chin, mitigate as much of that damage as possible, heal through it appropriately and then just keep on swinging. Sacred Defender gives us so much of that in a positive way - PRR, MRR, HP through +CON, HP through a +%, HP for points spent, additional Healing Amp, additional saves on the defence mitigation side. Extra Lay on Hands charges, Positive Spell power for points spent on the self-healing side. Then there is the Quality of Life bonuses - extra permanent Run Speed, casting Raise Spells from our spell list. Of course, we should also try and build in Concealment, Incorporeal and Dodge defences as a layered way to alleviate taking every hit, but Paladins are looking to integrate as much PRR, MRR and HP into there builds as possible.

However, threat is a big problem for Paladins at Cap in Raids, I feel, because one of best Paladin defensive strengths in the Sacred Defence enhancement comes with a huge +150% Threat increase modifier. Unintentionally aggro'ing a Raid boss away from a Tank, causing it to spin and start damaging the (relatively) squishier DPS characters is something we have to think about and deal with. Put on top of that one of our best enhancements in KotC, and we have an extra 75MP on Undead and Evil Outsider targets that is compounding the problem.

But yet again, this feeds into answering 1. and 2. above. Can you simply act as a DPS-Tank in low Reaper or lower difficulty Raids, because you have superior HP & Defences to everyone else in the party? Or do you mitigate that threat for High Reaper quests or higher Raid difficulties through appropriate gearing?

4. What is your Fighting style?
This has become another big Question to answer. TWF, THF, SWF, S&S are all valid choices and have there places. For me, for a KotC-based Paladin I prefer either THF or TWF. Which immediately leads us to the Elephant in the room - the Bloodrage Chrism. Profane Doublestrike +10% and +30 Profane PRR/MRR are both huge in terms adding DPS to your character and adding to the preferred Paladin defence style of surviving mobs through damage mitigation.

But look right back at point 1, and the need for Curse Immunity and Evil Absorption. The Bloodrage Chrism directly conflicts with the Heart of Suulomades here that provides Curse Immunity and Evil Absorption. Evil absorption is currently only found on Trinket items. So this becomes a real conundrum. Normally I would advocate a gear swap for this, but the fact that the Heart is a Minor Artefact makes this a complicated process. I also think this is compounded when you view KotC as having tools to provide AoE damage for a TWF or SWF based character through its two Cleaves and Holy Retribution, as well as being able to utilise Confront Any Foe for the purpose of a further ability in a rotation of AoE attacks.

So again, do you choose to go THF and use the Chrism? Do you go for a different style so you can full time wear the Heart? This is another choice that feeds directly into 1. above.

Choosing Gear
Finally onto something relevant! So with all that in mind, I choose my gear list based on the modifiers it provides my build. You have 12 bodily worn pieces of gear, each of which provides on average 4 modifier slots for a total possible 48 modifiers. The best setups I usually find manage to incorporate around 30-34 modifiers from my list that I pursue. The take away here is gear really needs to provide a minimum of 2, preferably 3 modifiers towards your list of desirables to be worthwhile using. And since each modifier typically has three bonus types to account for in gear (Enhancement, Insightful and Quality), you can very, VERY quickly run out of gear room to get everything in.

My typical list of modifiers:
CHA, CON, STR
Deadly, Accuracy, Doublestrike, Armour Piercing, Seeker
Stunning, Shatter
Sheltering, False Life, Resistance, Heal Amplification, Dodge
Devotion or Potency
Lesser Displacement, Ghostly

Some special considerations before I break this down further:
- Minor Artifact - You need to find a spot for a Minor Artifact in the gear setup too!
- Melee Power - The minimum aim is to obtain the Artifact bonus 25 Melee Power from either a Item Set from Sharn or the Feywild, or use the new 20 Melee Power triple Augment set. You can also get Enhancement and Exceptional Melee Power Bonuses from very specific items, but they are ... negotiable.
- Divine Might - Effectively provides Insightful Accuracy, Insightful Deadly and Insightful Combat Mastery. Don't slot these unless its accompanying 2-3 bonuses you actually want/need on the item.
- Attack Speed - Always a topaz of Swiftness 15% these days.
- Dodge - Currently capped at around 13% for the average Heavy Armour Paladin, so I usually settle for a 12% Dodge Augment.
- Deception - My controversial opinion is not to build for Deception on THF builds, but any you accumulate is a bonus, and that TWF builds should be looking to add Deception since they get almost twice the benefit in 1-on-1 situations (i.e. Raid Bosses).
- Incite - Any item with Incite is generally automatically rejected for my day to day, 24/7 gear setup. I have a very love/hate relationship with the Circle of Malevolence ring.
- Percentage HP - Either a two-piece LGS set for +18%, or a four-piece Winter set for 20%. Incredibly difficult to slot, but almost essential. See below side notes.
- Lesser Displacement - Fitting this in is a big Quality of Life boon, but not absolutely essential. There are ways around it such as Scion of the Ethereal, 11minute Blur Wands, Blur buff from the party. Where concealment is useful, I usually tote around a sackful of crafted Displacement Clickies for 50% concealment.

Seems small, right? But now if I try and multiply that out by my typical list of modifier bonus types I look for...

CHA - Enh, Ins, Qua, Art
CON - Enh, Ins, Qua
STR - Enh, Ins, Qua
Melee Power - Exc, Enh, Art
Deadly - Enh, Qua
Accuracy - Enh, Qua
Doublestrike - Enh, Ins, Art
Armour Piercing - Enh, Ins, Art
Stunning - Enh, Qua
Shatter - Enh, Qua
Sheltering - Enh, Ins, Qua, Pro and/or Art
False Life - Enh, Vitality
Resistance - Enh, Ins, Qua
Heal Amplification - Comp
Dev/Pot - Enh, Ins, Qua
Dodge - Enh
Lesser Displacement
Ghostly
= 37 Attribute bonuses, excluding the Artifact bonuses, as these generally come from Item Sets or Set Augments.

The tool I use for gearing is both Maetrim's DDO builder and also the DDO Gear Planner at https://ddo-gear-planner.netlify.app/ (Creator escapes me, but deserves huge Kudos for building this tool!).

The Gear Planner is great for filtering through different gear options based on modifiers desired, whereas DDO Builder helps relate those gear choices to your actual build to see the

I then usually try this process:

A. Select how I'm getting my Artifact Melee Power bonus - Part of the Family, Feywild Summer Set, or the Set Augments. This will often dictate the first few key items.
B. Fit in my Primary stat, CHA or STR. If it's STR, give consideration to CHA as well around point A.
C. Consider CON. Don't skimp on CON. HP is life, after all if your dead your doing zero DPS
D. Minor Artifact. Plays into B. sometimes as it usually has a top end stat bonus of some type.
E. Insightful Sheltering - Usually one of the most difficult gear choices to slot on an item that is actually effective otherwise. Did I mention my love/hate relationship with the Circle of Malevolence ring?
F. Quality Combat Mastery - Another difficult to slot, but +5 Tactics is really handy for getting those sky high tactics values and works on both Dire Charge and Holy Retribution.
G. Fill in the Gaps. Which ultimately has me playing around with the last 3-4 slots to find gear that maximises modifier efficiency to get as much of what I want in.

Now refer back to Question 2. above, and see why CHA vs STR is a big question for consideration when it sucks up 3 gear modifiers.

I think that covers it really for the points I wanted to make in helping to choose gear, but because I haven't typed enough here's some extra thoughts!

Bonus Side Note 1: Choosing NOT to use Sacred Defender
With the discussion about Threat, it may seem to viable to simply ignore it. To reinvest the AP elswhere, perhaps make up the difference in a different manner. I don't think this is a Valid approach.

For 31AP, you can get:
+35 PRR / MRR
+3 Saving Throws
+10% HP
+31 HP
+8 CON
+6 STR
+6 Lay On Hands!
+20% Heal Amplification
+31 Positive Spell Power
+10% Run Speed (Action Boost bonus, stacks with Striding)
+ Raise Spells added to Spell List

I've play tested re-investing that AP into Falconry and Vistani Knife Fighter, achieving around 21 PRR / 12 MRR and 5% HP back as well as some DPS abilities. There we're three things I immediately noticed about this in actual - the loss of Run Speed, having access to just 2 Lay on Hands and no Quickened Raise Spells, as well as a approximately the loss of 300-350 Hit Points. It made my Paladin feel like my Monk DPS build, capable of pumping out the punches out but definitively worse off defensively.

Defensively, the changes to HP/PRR/MRR were not that significant, except in High Reapers. There it was noticeable that the loss of HP and PRR meant my window of survivable hits generally shrank from 3-4 to just 1 or 2, which is a massive change in efficiency for the character.

Healing wise, my Cure Spells were fine for lower end raid content, but only having 2 Lay on Hands when friends need the occasional help means you lose your own emergency buttons very quickly. And since were using Epic Defensive Fighting, Cure spells are not the answer for helping friends out.
In High Reapers, its the difference between life and more extra deaths between Meld cooldowns. While LoH still isn't the answer for self-healing in High Reapers, I can still heal a couple of hundred hit points so can get you out of the emergency zone in a pinch with 2-4 uses. That's no longer a real option, so you just become another constant drain on the Group Healer, and dice with death a lot more often.

Side Note to the Side Note: I also hate the idea of 'turning off the stance' to save on Threat. That's the loss of 25 PRR/MRR, +6 STR/CON and +3 Saves and a bucket of HP. With EDF, Glorious Stand and 2-piece LGS set I have a bonus +53% HP, so that 90 HP from 6 CON translates to 138 HP. Not insignificant. So my current solution? Slot two -50% Threat Treachery Filigrees, one into my weapon and one into my Minor Artifact. In this way they will stack, and I gain +5 Melee Power to boot from the Treachery 2pc set. This leaves me on just +50% threat, which I think is sufficiently minimised to justify keeping the stance on at all times.

Bonus Side Note 2: Feywild Summer Set vs. Sharn Part of the Family set
What ever works for you. But for me, and the amount of modifiers I go for, I've yet to ever go for a 7pc Summer set. I usually find doing so, when also trying to cram in a gear-based +% HP bonus (see below), impossible to do effectively. I'm usually working with a 3pc Part of the Family Set, fit in Attributes, and then find some missing modifiers such as Enh Accuracy, Enh Stunning, Enh Armour Piercing etc.

Bonus Side Note 3: Becoming a Master Builder with LGS HP set or 4-peice Winter
Think you got the above down and licked, like it wasn't a problem and not worth this essay? Then fit in either a 2pc LGS item set for +18% HP or a 4pc Winter set alongside your choice of Artifact Melee Power / Set / Attribute modifiers / DPS modifiers / Defence modifiers.

Bonus Side Note 4: STR Builds
If your looking for a STR build, you really need to start your gearing with the Legendary Cloak of Summer (Enh STR, Ins STR, Enh Doublestrike) and the Legendary Belt of the Ram (Enh CON, Qua STR, Rams Might!, Speed 30%). This two items accomplish a 6/8 modifier ratio, so are highly efficient in your gear setup but can also still be combined with the Part of the Family set (Armour, Necklace, Gloves). Not to mention you've gained Enh, Ins, Qua STR in the build but also the unique Rams Might modifier for a further +2 STR and Damage.
Bonus Side Note 5: CHA Builds
Ins CHA is notoriously difficult to work in, and 9/10 will end up on the Ins slot of Collective Sight goggles. Which is not a bad item, contributing Qua Resistance and Qua MRR (You are pure Paladin right? So +20 Qua MRR ). This can also help out alleviate issues slotting in Enh CON or Enh CHA.

Other interesting options are the Legendary Celestial Topaz Ring (Enh CHA +21, Lesser Displacement, Ins Resistance) if you have trouble slotting Enh CON elsewhere other than the Goggles, or the Legendary Shattered Onyx Ring for Ins CHA (Ins CHA +10, Ins Resistance, Ins Dodge) if you need to slot Ins CON on the goggles. The Onyx Ring's Dodge is sufficient to alleviate trying to obtain a Dodge Augment, if this is a problem.

If Ins CHA is difficult, Qua CHA is nigh on impossible. You really either go for Legendary Sunken Slippers (Qua CHA+5, Ins & Qua Potency, Lesser Displacement), or its building a Slavelords item for Qua CHA+4. The latter option is often nice allowing you to slot in Enh Accuracy or Enh Armour Piercing which also maybe missing, alongside Shatter +20.

The End. I swear, no more!

[Marshal_Lannes]

This is the first time I've ever seen someone not consider the Part of the Family set as mandatory on a DPS Paladin. I don't think a gear set without Part of the Family will hold up to the stats of one that includes it.

I'm not saying it isn't, this is a discussion. We can look at all options.

Arlathen - great, great post. You bring up a good point about the threat generation from SD but here is my thought on it - this is actually beneficial because it allows you to serve as a budget tank for lower difficulty raids, especially if you drop into US destiny. When running high reaper content there is almost always going to be a proper tank that isn't going to lose agro to your relatively minor SD threat enhancement.

My current set-up for what I actually have (for example don't have a Chrism yet)

Goggles - Collective Sight CHA 8 +3 Insightful CHA. I have the Legendary Goggles but haven't crafted them yet as I'm not sure what final attributes will be and for some reason, you can't overwrite gems that you slot.
Helm - Legendary Mighty Stormreach Guardians
Necklace - Leg Family Sigil
Cloak - Leg Mantle of Fury. I have a Leg Cloak of Balance but it's on the bench because of the doublestrike on Fury Mantle. And yet Cloak of Summer (don't have) might be best here.
Belt - open to all options from Rosemarys, DoJ, Security Detail, Into the Mists, Final Vintage, LGS, Feywild
Boots - open to all options from Riding the Storm Out, Feywild, Sunken Slippers, LGS or Pistons.
Trinket - Slavers 45 Shelter, 185 Dev, 20 Shatter 4 QSTR
Ring - Leg Ring of Prowess
Ring - (artifact) Radiant Ring of Taer Valaestas
Bracers - open (using Leg Lore-Fueled pack banner for +9 insightful CON now that can be put on Leg Collective Sight) for artifact, LGS, Levik's Feywild.

For me, as a THF, the Chrism is a must-have over the Heart so that will take over the trinket slot when I get it and I'll either need a new artifact or slavers item. The accuracy and MP from the Ring are tough to discard. Could acquire Brightlord on bracers and explore eternal smiting if all the smiting boosts stack, would have to test. STR bracers artifact is redundant if using Cloak of Summer. Artifact identification is key for everyone. I haven't settled on one yet leaving me in flux but I still have slot flexibility. Hard to find doublestrike beyond Cloak of Fury and Cloak of Summer I'm finding.

[Ninety]

I’m a str based Pali, here is what I use and consider it my “final” gear list. Always open to suggestions, but it’s working well for me.

Goggles: leg collective sight. 21 dex/10ins cha slotted with sapphire of def 32
Head: Titania’s glory, reaper ability boost 2, slotted with epic litany.
Neck: family blessing. Slotted with festival dex and festival cha
Trinket: bloodrage chrism, slotted with master’s gift, wild fortitude
Cloak: silver dragonscale capelet, 10 ins Str. Slotted with globe of true blood, wild fortitude
Belt: leg belt of the ram
Ring 1: leg celestial ruby ring 21 str
Ring 2: leg celestial topaz ring 21 Wis
Gloves: leg hammerfist
Boots: leg deepsnow boots
Bracers: Brightlord, slotted with sapphire of good luck +2, sapphire of armored agility +2, wild fortitude
Armor: leg enforcer’s coat, slotted with topaz of feather falling

One thing I’m wanting that I’m missing is one of the new swiftness augments. Also have room for 1 more 3 piece augment set, and unsure if I want to try for +4 Str.

[Marshal_Lannes]

You don't miss slotting devotion or shatter?

[Ninety]

You don't miss slotting devotion or shatter?

Devotion only helps cure spells, not lay on hands. Not only that, I believe the augment is only available for a red slot, which I’m not going to waste for better cure spells.

I have been looking for a shatter augment, forgot to list that, my holy retribution only has an 88 dc right now.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Devotion only helps cure spells, not lay on hands. Not only that, I believe the augment is only available for a red slot, which I’m not going to waste for better cure spells.

I have been looking for a shatter augment, forgot to list that, my holy retribution only has an 88 dc right now.

CSW can hit for 400-500. That's not peanuts but yes, it is a red slot. If you're using Collective Sight as a fancy Dex item maybe take a look at Ir'Kesslan's Most Prescient Lens - 22 Dex 22 Dodge 10 Parrying 53% Neg absorb. That's one of the three artifacts I'm kicking around (others being Brightlord and Taer Valaestas ring).

[Ninety]

CSW can hit for 400-500. That's not peanuts but yes, it is a red slot. If you're using Collective Sight as a fancy Dex item maybe take a look at Ir'Kesslan's Most Prescient Lens - 22 Dex 22 Dodge 10 Parrying 53% Neg absorb. That's one of the three artifacts I'm kicking around (others being Brightlord and Taer Valaestas ring).

I already use brightlord for an artifact. can't have 2 of them. and I only put dex on the goggles because it had a spot open, really just wanted the insight cha.

and my csw already hits for 500+

[Marshal_Lannes]

I already use brightlord for an artifact. can't have 2 of them. and I only put dex on the goggles because it had a spot open, really just wanted the insight cha.

and my csw already hits for 500+

Yes, obviously you can only have one artifact. That devotion augment is worth 22 points of charisma. I'm using Heroic collective sight (+11 cha) as I don't want to lock anything in yet on epics and I'm healing the same amount as you with a 185 devotion slot. If I had an extra 22 points of charisma csw would be hitting for 750. But trade-offs, for sure. The only way to find an easy devotion/shatter combo is a slavers item unless I'm missing something. Here is my issue with Brightlord - it ends up being only a 22 charisma item. We already get armor-piercing with the family set. Will already have speed with a variety of items that have it or with blinding speed. I don't even take the smite evil feats from KotC tree but I suppose you could try to build for endless smiting matching it up with the relevant ED boost as well. Haven't tried this.

I've decided the Legendary Cloak of Summer is a slot lock so when I get that I'll have more of an idea of which way I want to go on an artifact. The cloak locks in 21 STR 10 insightful STR 23 Doublestrike 50% fire absorption.

[Ninety]

Yes, obviously you can only have one artifact. That devotion augment is worth 22 points of charisma. I'm using Heroic collective sight (+11 cha) as I don't want to lock anything in yet on epics and I'm healing the same amount as you with a 185 devotion slot. If I had an extra 22 points of charisma csw would be hitting for 750. But trade-offs, for sure. The only way to find an easy devotion/shatter combo is a slavers item unless I'm missing something. Here is my issue with Brightlord - it ends up being only a 22 charisma item. We already get armor-piercing with the family set. Will already have speed with a variety of items that have it or with blinding speed. I don't even take the smite evil feats from KotC tree but I suppose you could try to build for endless smiting matching it up with the relevant ED boost as well. Haven't tried this.

I've decided the Legendary Cloak of Summer is a slot lock so when I get that I'll have more of an idea of which way I want to go on an artifact. The cloak locks in 21 STR 10 insightful STR 23 Doublestrike 50% fire absorption.

You realize that the armor piercing on part of the family (artifact bonus) and the armor piercing on Brightlord (enhancement bonus) are two different types of bonus, so they stack? My Pali has 107% fortification bypass to be able to crit undead and golems and other heavy fort stuff.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Nope, did not know that. Thanks for the tip. Interesting. Well, Brightlord is one of the 3 artifacts I've narrowed down for use. Using the Taer ring now and I have the lens too. Don't use Brightlord atm cause I'm using lore-fueled bracers for the +9 insightful con. I'm either going to get insightful con from Feywild or will put it on Goggles if I use Collective Sight. Not locking myself into anything yet as I talk to people about what they are using and pick up the items in-game.

[Ninety]

Nope, did not know that. Thanks for the tip. Interesting. Well, Brightlord is one of the 3 artifacts I've narrowed down for use. Using the Taer ring now and I have the lens too. Don't use Brightlord atm cause I'm using lore-fueled bracers for the +9 insightful con. I'm either going to get insightful con from Feywild or will put it on Goggles if I use Collective Sight. Not locking myself into anything yet as I talk to people about what they are using and pick up the items in-game.

You really can’t go wrong with the legendary deepsnow boots, from feywild. Insightful con 10 and quality con 5 on the same item, not to mention the permanent freedom of movement (which doesn’t help for sticky traps in sharn)

[Marshal_Lannes]

Yes, those do look great. But they are winter and the cloak I like is summer. Tough choices

[Ninety]

Don’t worry about sets. Look at my gear list, I have 3 piece part of the family, 2 piece summer, and a soul forged set bonus. The 3 piece part of the family set bonuses don’t stack with the summer set bonuses since it’s same bonus type, so the game takes whichever part is higher.

My base solo to hit is around +190. Outside of reaper I stand with 2700+ hp. Dire charge has a 125dc.

[Marshal_Lannes]

The artifact bonuses don't overlap except in one instance.

Summer gives 25 MRR, 25 Fort bypass 5 tac DC
Winter gives 25 PRR 15 HAMP 20% HPs

The Family gives 10 fort bypass so that's the only one that's rendered redundant. I actually like the 20% HPs from Winter but that requires 4 items. Both have great boosts though, the 25 MRR as that's hard to come by and 5 tact DC helps both dire charge and holy retribution. I agree though, I'll probably start slotting items in and worry about the Feywild set bonuses later.

[Ninety]

The fort bypass is a touch redundant in the summer set.

15% T5 ascendency
36% Brightlord
16% family blessing OR lionheart ring
10% part of the family
25% Precision
5% ship buff

=107% fortification bypass.

Which means you are putting in 2 summer items past the good mrr bonus, just to get +5 tactics dc. Even at 88 dc, my holy retribution hits way more often than not, since will saves for will are fairly low on mobs. Ran r7 toxic treatment last night and it was still hitting way more often than not.

Same with the winter set, the 2 piece prr is meh. I’m at 302 prr in reaper without it. The 15 hamp is good, but for example, I’m at 255 hamp without that. Not to mention the winter set items are a bit... lacking. The boots are great, but the other items you can easily get much better stats for the slots for a thf Pali

[Marshal_Lannes]

I'm definitely DC hunting as it's hard to land Holy Retribution in Sharn R6+. But, will that 5 help? If it does, then I'm going for it. If it doesn't and you need 100+ still to land HR in high reaper Sharn then it's not worth it since it already lands in most content.