Would a PDK/SDK/ML make a good Sacred Fist?

[shawnvw]

I'm both expanding and narrowing the scope of my previous post. When I asked if PDK would be a good match with Sacred Fist (aka "Handwrap Pally"), it started a discussion of which classes *would* be the best to match with SF.

I'm fine with that discussion drifting from my original post, but I never explained my true intent. Rather than try to wrench that thread to where I want it, I'll restart here.

My guild is starting a new party of Iconics. I really want to try Sacred Fist, so the question is which Iconic race I should start with. So far we have a Bladeforged rogue and a Deep Gnome alchemist. I'd like to be DPS but it looks like I'll be the tank.

The Iconics that aren't taken and I don't have to pay for are Purple Dragon Knight, Shadar-Kai, and Morninglord. I really like the SDK's chain attack, and I think I can use it with handwraps. The PDK starts with STR and CHA gear.

Any thoughts?

[TueNictGut]

Hey there, havnt played in a while and iam by far no pro but i like theorycrafting.

So here are my 42 cents:

I would highly suggest Sk for your goals.
Tankwise it will give you displacement, and as a sacred fist is not able to wear any armor you are forced to rely mor heavily on avoidance tank abilities any way.
Damage and aggrowise the sk chain attacks should be quite useful, the second might be the best aoe attack in the game togerher with exalted smite, which you also get from sf.
Only downside is the reduced cha of sk but that can be mitigated by equipment and tomes pretty easily

Obviously a full deficated tank with shield and hvy armor or a bear will be more tanky,
But maybe more boring too, it really dependa on what you like and on the difficulty you want to tank in and ofc if you need to be the tank in raids.
For Elite and r1 to 3 you could do ok i guess.
To improve avoidance tank abilities and as you cant use armors anyway, i would suggest 1 to 6 lvls of monk
Monk 1 for access to oceanstance for dodgecap and even more saves and a feat.
Monk 6 for Dodge, ac, 4 feats and mainly ninja core 3 for more avoidance. It will also net movementspeed, maybe more ki regeneration and 3 dodgecap. Also 20prr from shintao.
The downside is you only get holy sword as lvl 4 pala spell.

I would try a cha build with enough dex for the twf feats, depending on tomes. You need 7 points in the feydark illusionist tree or 2 lvls of fvs for that and could also try colourspray for heroics. Therefore If you are not taking 6 mnk consider to splash 2 fvs for grace of battle and divine might from warpriest to spare the 7 enhancementpoints in fi.

The main issue, is that you are pretty starved enhancementpointwise, any racial point from pastlives would count.

Enhancement center points to consider:
Sk 11 for displacement, 17 for second chain 18 for massive debuff with chains
Ninja 11 for shadow veil and dodgecap
Shin tao 8 for 10%offhand and 20 prr
Fi 7 for cha to hit and damge 9 for 10prr with shieldspell and 11 for colour spray
Sac def as much as possible for tankiness and aggromanagement
Sf for for damge aoe attacks and 15 prr tier4

Generally i see 3 routes to go enhancementwise:
You could go t5 in sac def for most tankiness and only take aoe attacks and some damage from sf
You could go t5 in sf for max damage and get as much tankiness out of the other trees as possible

You could also invest in radiant servant for aoe healing together with aoe dmg from your aoe attacks.

All in all you will not be able to get all of the good stuff but can easily adapt to to the needed and wanted role by respeccing enhancements

As a sidenote: sf does not really need the chainattacks as he has 2 whirlwinds and exalted smite and incinerating wavespell as aoe attacks already in the tree, so together with 1 to 2 chainattacks, you would have 5 to 6 aoe attacks and pretty much could spam them allday, which might be great fun but might be overkill too. On the other hand the chainattacks should proof very useful to generate ki for the other attacks and shadow veil, so there is definetly some synergy there

Also your Ac will be improved by cha, wis and dex, which might be thing to work with tankwise....

Ok.... That was fun pondering, sry for the Textwall, would be interested in what you decide to play

Have fun TueNichtGut

[jskinner937]

I'm both expanding and narrowing the scope of my previous post. When I asked if PDK would be a good match with Sacred Fist (aka "Handwrap Pally"), it started a discussion of which classes *would* be the best to match with SF.

I'm fine with that discussion drifting from my original post, but I never explained my true intent. Rather than try to wrench that thread to where I want it, I'll restart here.

My guild is starting a new party of Iconics. I really want to try Sacred Fist, so the question is which Iconic race I should start with. So far we have a Bladeforged rogue and a Deep Gnome alchemist. I'd like to be DPS but it looks like I'll be the tank.

The Iconics that aren't taken and I don't have to pay for are Purple Dragon Knight, Shadar-Kai, and Morninglord. I really like the SDK's chain attack, and I think I can use it with handwraps. The PDK starts with STR and CHA gear.

Any thoughts?

ShadarKai only one that remotely would be decent. What is the point of PDK since you already get CHA to hit/dmg with deity weapon. Morninglord really offers nothing.

Drow/Regular Human/Aasimar/Dragonborn all seem to be much better fits to me and easier to get through these extra lives as all the archetypes are worse than their counterparts.

[TueNictGut]

[QUOTE=jskinner937;6547089]ShadarKai only one that remotely would be decent. What is the point of PDK since you already get CHA to hit/dmg with deity weapon.

Oh my bad, i forgot that divine dream will give cha to hit and dmg, while centered at lvl6.
You wont need feydark illu or fvs lv2 for that then

[shawnvw]

ShadarKai only one that remotely would be decent.

Can we confirm that ShadarKai chain attacks can really use handwraps?

[C-Dog]

Can we confirm that ShadarKai chain attacks can really use handwraps?

Answered below your other, identical post: https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...=1#post6547185

[shawnvw]

Answered below your other, identical post: https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...=1#post6547185

Well that was in the Paladins forum. I didn't think cross-posting that particular question would be a problem. Honest.

[droid327]

The answer is mlord, because cha trance. Fist isn't hurting for aoe with two WWAs and Wave, so SDK is somewhat redundant...it just needs divine might and better ki gen, so 18/1 monk/1 clr and run in sun stance

Also, if hand wraps aren't a requirement for your char, it'd be even better as a swf. Use brush hook 15-19 and oath blade from 20+ with gmof making it a ki weapon. Or go daggers in vkf for full offense spec, but if you're tanking too then lsword lets you take sac def as your second tree

[shawnvw]

The answer is mlord, because cha trance. Fist isn't hurting for aoe with two WWAs and Wave, so SDK is somewhat redundant...it just needs divine might and better ki gen, so 18/1 monk/1 clr and run in sun stance

Also, if hand wraps aren't a requirement for your char, it'd be even better as a swf. Use brush hook 15-19 and oath blade from 20+ with gmof making it a ki weapon. Or go daggers in vkf for full offense spec, but if you're tanking too then lsword lets you take sac def as your second tree

You’re the second person who’s said the Spiked Chain AoE Attacks might be redundant, and about the hundredth to say the class needs more ki generation. Wouldn’t the first fact help address the second?

Think of it this way: the Spiked Chain performs 3 AoE melee attacks. Doesn’t that mean that when using it, I’d get 3 ki per target?

[jskinner937]

You’re the second person who’s said the Spiked Chain AoE Attacks might be redundant, and about the hundredth to say the class needs more ki generation. Wouldn’t the first fact help address the second?

Think of it this way: the Spiked Chain performs 3 AoE melee attacks. Doesn’t that mean that when using it, I’d get 3 ki per target?

Generating ki is not a problem 20+. I don’t know who said that. And if you take 1 level of monk for water or fire stance, it’s not really an issue in heroics either.

[droid327]

You’re the second person who’s said the Spiked Chain AoE Attacks might be redundant, and about the hundredth to say the class needs more ki generation. Wouldn’t the first fact help address the second?

Think of it this way: the Spiked Chain performs 3 AoE melee attacks. Doesn’t that mean that when using it, I’d get 3 ki per target?

That'll cover one WW every 12/18 secs, then you're still back with your ki gen being more of a bottleneck than your cooldowns. WWA feat gives you no-cost 2 hits AOE, on a 5 sec CD, which is much better for sustaining your Ki WW and Wave - and its a much faster attack - but that has a lot of functional overlap with Chains