The Ice Baron: Freeze Specced Pure Bard Swashbuckler

[macadope]

The Ice Baron "A Bard's Bard"
20Bard PDK

Past Lifes: Rogue, Bard, Fighter x3, CoTQ x3, Dubstrike x3, Brace x3, Enchant Wep x3

Feats: Quicken, Power Attack, Cleave, SWF, iSWF, gSWF, ic: peirce, Force of Personality
Epic Feats: Inspire Excellence, great cleave, pTWF/pSWF, OC, Lasting Inspiration(effects WC capstone)
Skills: Perform, Balance, UMD, Heal, Jump, Haggle
Twists: Sense Weakness, Legendary Shield Mastery, Hail of Blows, Cocoon

[macadope]

Head: Black Dragon 3Con (Good Luck +2)(Power250)
Neck: Greensteel Air(HP)
Trinket: Epic Litany(green)(blue)
Cloack: Addy Cloack of the Bear(ex seek5)(dodge8%)
Belt: Chord of Repraisals (Cha11)(35false life)(???)
Gloves: Iron Mitts (Con8)
Boots: Boots of the Innocent(stun12)(resist 11)(Prot8)(Nat8)
Ring1: Avithoul (7wis)(sneaky sneaky)
Ring2: Darkness(Seeker12)(CM5)(Draconic Soul Gem)
Bracers: Epic Ethereal Bracers(deadly X)(green)(blue)
Armor: Black Dragon (heavy fort)
Goggles: Field Optics (3Cha)(Anthem)(Globe of True Blood)
Sheild: Epic Swashbuckler (2dex)(blue)(7% dubstrike)
Weps: TF (Touch of Flames)(Paralyzing Fear)(mortal fear)(heal15)(meteoric)
Quiver: Epic Quiver of Alacrity

Stats:
Double Strike-46%(76% boosted)(4 more ETR's for 3% dubstrike twist which will bring to 49%)(and Epic Quiver of Alacrity will bring it to 50%)
Freeze Stun-79
Dodge-28%
AC-97
Perform-88
Positive Spell Power-264
Songs-6:00/warmaster 3:00
Enchant- 48 Disco, 50 Mass Charm

Stun Breakdown: 10+10(half bard level)+24(cha mod)+8(1/3 cha mod pdk tactic bonus)+12(boots)+5(darkness ring)+3(fighter PL)+6LD+1shipbuff=79

Double Strike Breakdown: 9%(martial PL)+7%(swash shield)+3%(blk dragon set)+7%(legendary shield mastery)+5%(SB cores)+6%(WC chant)+5%(pTWF)+6%(???)=46%

[macadope]

This build is totally do-able with 16Bard/2Fighter/2Rogue

I will discuss this furthur here.

[MadCookieQueen]

Overwhelming Critical will no longer have it's previous set of requirements for U23...all you will need is Improved Critical.

You can drop Power Attack and Cleave to pick up Precision (for Exploit Weakness) and Improved Critical.

Personally I find you get more mileage out of Maximize or Empower (you know self healing and all that) than Extend for a metamagic.

You'll get better results for your doublestrike with a higher legendary shield mastery (which requires feats) -- 2% doesn't seem really worth a twist slot.

I'd like to see the breakdown on your Stunning DC.

Are you using your Perform and/or running out of songs on a consistent basis? Otherwise I wouldn't recommend Allure as a twist.

For twists you'd be ideally served with Primal Scream, Brace for Impact and/or Purge the Wicked (putrification is a win)

What does "xx" mean in your feat list?

What are your skills? Is it possible to get a list of everything as trying to go back and forth with the wiki and the images is kind of cumbersome.

Little more info about this build would help a ton to give better feedback.

[macadope]

Overwhelming Critical will no longer have it's previous set of requirements for U23...all you will need is Improved Critical.

I thought all they dropped was the need for great cleave. Either way I like cleave and great cleave. I mainly solo and the need to take down multiple mobs surrounding is a normal occurrence. But I will think about the precision thing.

You can drop Power Attack and Cleave to pick up Precision (for Exploit Weakness) and Improved Critical.

Personally I find you get more mileage out of Maximize or Empower (you know self healing and all that) than Extend for a metamagic.

I heal fine.

You'll get better results for your doublestrike with a higher legendary shield mastery (which requires feats) -- 2% doesn't seem really worth a twist slot.

I have all 3 tiers of legendary shield mastery. U can keep it if you do shield mastery then Etr and legendary will stay maxed out. So it's 15prr and 7%.

I'd like to see the breakdown on your Stunning DC.

U can figure it out, u r probably just missing the pdk cha bonus to tactical dc's

Are you using your Perform and/or running out of songs on a consistent basis? Otherwise I wouldn't recommend Allure as a twist. I use coup de grace. So a high preform is sometimes needed. Perform is 91.

For twists you'd be ideally served with Primal Scream, Brace for Impact and/or Purge the Wicked (putrification is a win)

Primal scream doesn't do much, my hit and damage are on cha, and allure boosts my perform into the 90s., I swap in brace for raids when appropriate. Explain the purification thing a bit. I run in dreadnought so I don't get how this would help me as most trash dies in about 3-4 swings.

What does "xx" mean in your feat list? Forgot which feat I took. It was ic:Peirce, corrected it.

What are your skills? Is it possible to get a list of everything as trying to go back and forth with the wiki and the images is kind of cumbersome.

Perform is a 91 with allure and 85 without, this is the only relevant skill. What else do u wanna know?

Little more info about this build would help a ton to give better feedback.

Answers up in your post, mainly posting so no one else does and tries to claim it as there own, but your info may prove useful.

[MadCookieQueen]

Wasn't really looking for feedback, mainly posting so no one else does and tries to claim it as there own, but your info may prove useful.

and how was I or anyone else to know that you didn't want feedback? Why post on the forums if you didn't expect any feedback?



Hate to break it to you but an Ice themed PDK bard has been done:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...archanter-Bard

[macadope]

and how was I or anyone else to know that you didn't want feedback? Why post on the forums if you didn't expect any feedback?



Hate to break it to you but an Ice themed PDK bard has been done:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...archanter-Bard

I realized after I typed that it was offensive. I apologize for that.

And the ice breaker is not a 20 bard. And is a t5 war chanter. Pretty different imho.

[MadCookieQueen]

I thought all they dropped was the need for great cleave. Either way I like cleave and great cleave. I mainly solo and the need to take down multiple mobs surrounding is a normal occurrence. But I will think about the precision thing.

Nope, all the pre-requires gone...which made the archers VERY happy and it made more sense.

Precision: you gain +5% to hit and reduce the target's fortification against your attacks by 25%. Since CHA to hit is essentially lower than STR to hit (after you figure buffs and max numbers) that bonus is helpful. Also less Fortification helps with critical.
Also you lose out on Exploit Weakness with is another +5 damage.

But I get the desire to hit multiple targets at once, but in the grand scheme I think you are short changing yourself a bit.

I have all 3 tiers of legendary shield mastery. U can keep it if you do shield mastery then Etr and legendary will stay maxed out. So it 15prr and 7%.

I find that interesting and wondering if that is WAI, doesn’t seem like it should be since the feats are pre-reques for the tiers. *shrug* add it to my list of things to ask about.

I'd like to see the breakdown on your Stunning DC. U can figure it out, u r probably just missing the pdk cha bonus to tactical dc's

Not helpful…but *shrug*

Primal scream doesn't do much, my hit and damage are on cha, and allure boosts my perform into the 90s., I swap in brace for raids when appropriate. Explain the purification thing a bit. I run in dreadnought so I don't get how this would help me as most trash dies in about 3-4 swings.

Bonus to HP is helpful and for a party situation it’s a ncie to have for everyone involved. Also with a high perform and essentially a boost to your sonic spell power it can do a nice AOE effect for up to 1k HP damage.

Purification. Purification: -1 Attack Damage, -2 Spell Power, stacks up to 25 times. – this is great for longer battles…like huge HP bags on EE. Also it was a suggestion or something IMHO better than Allure.

It was ic:Peirce, corrected it.

Perform is a 91 with allure and 85 without, this is the only relevant skill. What else do u wanna know?

Not so much for me…but I figured you were trying to be helpful by posting a build on the forums. Others might be curious. However for assistance with self-healing...taking Heal (even as it’s a Cross Class) grants positive spell power.


I’m figuring that for the most part you’re using Perform for CDG...even at 85 most thigns won’t survive a CDG, let alone a good fascinate. You could go without allure and still be very viable.

[MadCookieQueen]

I realized after I typed that it was offensive. I apologize for that.

And the ice breaker is not a 20 bard. And is a t5 war chanter. Pretty different imho.

Like I said...ice themed (didn't say exact same build)





(oh and good luck getting it out of your head for a while *L*)

[macadope]

Nope, all the pre-requires gone...which made the archers VERY happy and it made more sense.

Precision: you gain +5% to hit and reduce the target's fortification against your attacks by 25%. Since CHA to hit is essentially lower than STR to hit (after you figure buffs and max numbers) that bonus is helpful. Also less Fortification helps with critical.

I am sticking with cha to hit and damage to maximize freeze dc. I loose pdk bonus to tactical if str exceeds cha.

Also you lose out on Exploit Weakness with is another +5 damage.

I don't think exploit weakness gives bonus to damage. Only critical threat range. If u are referring to thread the needle. I have power attack which give the +5. I'm strongly considering dropping cleave and pa though in favor of precision, next week. For now I need it to charge blitz.

But I get the desire to hit multiple targets at once, but in the grand scheme I think you are short changing yourself a bit.



I find that interesting and wondering if that is WAI, doesn’t seem like it should be since the feats are pre-reques for the tiers. *shrug* add it to my list of things to ask about.

Probably not. But I'm enjoying it.

Not helpful…but *shrug*

Break down for stun:
14+10(half bard level)+24(cha mod)+8(1/3 cha mod pdk tactic bonus)+10(stunner ring)+6(bear cloak)+3(fighter PL)=75. I gotta figure out what I'm missing here. Maybe a ship buff or some thing.

Bonus to HP is helpful and for a party situation it’s a ncie to have for everyone involved. Also with a high perform and essentially a boost to your sonic spell power it can do a nice AOE effect for up to 1k HP damage.

I will think about it. But my theme(flavor) of the build is "a bard's bard" and having a ridiculous perform fits that. I know it doesn't make since.

Purification. Purification: -1 Attack Damage, -2 Spell Power, stacks up to 25 times. – this is great for longer battles…like huge HP bags on EE. Also it was a suggestion or something IMHO better than Allure.

Probably right here. My raid twist set up drops allure most of the time for either brace, or and appropriate save boost(reflex or fort) allure is actually the modular twist.









Not so much for me…but I figured you were trying to be helpful by posting a build on the forums. Others might be curious. However for assistance with self-healing...taking Heal (even as it’s a Cross Class) grants positive spell power.

I will post a skills page later. I have heal, balance, perform and umd maxed.

I’m figuring that for the most part you’re using Perform for CDG...even at 85 most thigns won’t survive a CDG, let alone a good fascinate. You could go without allure and still be very viable.
U r right here too.

Answers up top.

[macadope]

Like I said...ice themed (didn't say exact same build)





(oh and good luck getting it out of your head for a while *L*)

I love the song thanks for the reminder.

Thanks for your input though! (Edit: I'm an idiot)

[MadCookieQueen]

I was thinking of Thread, not Exploit...maybe I need more coffee or something ^^ Also I blanked on you needing cleave to charge for blitz...with all the changes are you still looking at blitz going forward...otherwise Divine crusader is awesome.

Thanks for breaking down a few things...it should help others out and maybe people can figure out what you can improve.

Gear:

As another thought...you can swap out Avithoul ring for a Ring of Deceit...you'll still get improved deception but you'll also get a +20 to your perform..which would compensate for the loss of Allure.

I would move some augments around: put anthem and heal in your ring of deceit (versus weapon so then it's "always on"). put false life in your goggles (replace anthem) and get yourself a belt of health 10/dodge 10 to make up for the avithoul.


Have you looked at U23 gear yet? If you have...there's lots of options there.


If you go with the gear swaps, here's your Perform skill without Allure:

90 (+24 CHA, +20 item, +1 charlatan, +23 ranks, +8 epic, +4 skill tome (I'm assuming you have one), +2 luck, +4 morale, +1 profane (spider cult mask), +3 ship)

[macadope]

I was thinking of Thread, not Exploit...maybe I need more coffee or something ^^ Also I blanked on you needing cleave to charge for blitz...with all the changes are you still looking at blitz going forward...otherwise Divine crusader is awesome.

Idk will require imperical testing. I will go with what serves me best.

Thanks for breaking down a few things...it should help others out and maybe people can figure out what you can improve.

I will add stun breakdown to op.

Gear:

As another thought...you can swap out Avithoul ring for a Ring of Deceit...you'll still get improved deception but you'll also get a +20 to your perform..which would compensate for the loss of Allure.

I have the ring but I don't want to loose all that sneak damage. Think of allure more as my variable twist. I fill that it to compensate for different quests. As for the reason it's on the post was to display max perform.

I would move some augments around: put anthem and heal in your ring of deceit. put false life in your goggles (replace anthem) and get yourself a belt of health 10/dodge 10 to make up for the avithoul.

I'd loose 10hp and stunner ring has 7% on it. I'm at max dodge while blitzing and at 27/31 when not blitzing. Not worth it imho.


Have you looked at U23 gear yet? If you have...there's lots of options there.

Yea. I will be swapping things around when that stuff becomes available. As for now this is the best I can come up with. Next week will be a whol new ballgame.

I think the main changes in the build will be the pa/cleave/great cleave vs precision, and maybe shield masteries.

[MadCookieQueen]

Think I found what you missed in your stunning calc.

Stunning:

82 (+14 base, +10 bard, +24 CHA, +8 PDK, +10 item, +6 combat mastery (cloak), +3 fighter PL, +6 tactics (LD), +1 ship)


As for dodge...there are bonuses out of SB that raise your dodge cap...so you might have more room than you think

Also...10 HP isn't going to make or break you ^^

[macadope]

Think I found what you missed in your stunning calc.

Stunning:

82 (+14 base, +10 bard, +24 CHA, +8 PDK, +10 item, +6 combat mastery (cloak), +3 fighter PL, +6 tactics (LD), +1 ship)

Ld. tactics is correct, and it's not 14 base its 10. Thanks!!!!


As for dodge...there are bonuses out of SB that raise your dodge cap...so you might have more room than you think

Help me out here. What am I missing. The bonus to dodge while blitzing is gonna fill that gap regardless.

Also...10 HP isn't going to make or break you ^^. Lol no it won't.

Feels like I'm defending a doctoral thesis. Lol

[MadCookieQueen]

Feels like I'm defending a doctoral thesis. Lol

and you're doing just fine ^^


as for the stunning calc...I list 14 as the base because of your previous calculation for it...which 14 is the base for Frozen Fury...meaning I'm mislabeling this as simply stunning:

14+10(half bard level)+24(cha mod)+8(1/3 cha mod pdk tactic bonus)+10(stunner ring)+6(bear cloak)+3(fighter PL)=75. I gotta figure out what I'm missing here. Maybe a ship buff or some thing.

Dodge:

Blitz bug (for those not in the loop):

• The dodge bonus is incorrectly subject to the armor cap of whatever armor you're currently wearing.

However you do increase the dodge cap bonus in your armor with:

SB Cores: +5 to max dex bonus of armor
SB Roll with the Punches: insightful +5
SB Second Skin +4 to max dex bonus of armor (which feeds into dodge)

Flawless Dragonhide (which I'm guessing you're in) has 19 listed (aka 19% dodge cap)

so your cap: +19 armor, +9 armor dex increase, +5 dodge cap increase = 33% dodge cap

You top out at 31 (according to a previous post) so you can benefit from more dodge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah you will lose sneak attack damage from not having avithoul and to try and put it back in there...would be really re-toolling the gear.

It was just an option to get more perform and such ^^

[Alternative]

I ran 16/2/2 version of freeze bard, the biggest issue was the need to spend more ap to gain essentially the same DCs as a pure bard, and I didn't have enough left to extend song durations which was a pain. However I ran with tier 5s from WC and it was easier that way to get evasion from rog levels rather than going all the way for SB capstone. I also have to agree the cleaves are absolutely beast on SWF blitzer, at least for the time being.

I played this build on my ex-monk, and sadly I probably won't play a monk for a very long time, there's just no comparison in terms of freeze that works on EVERYTHING (even fire eles yo!) with ALL weapons, to stunning fist that works on limited mob types and needs to use unarmed that no ability ever works with.

Kudos on reaching those saves, that's about the only thing this build might struggle with.

[macadope]

I ran 16/2/2 version of freeze bard, the biggest issue was the need to spend more ap to gain essentially the same DCs as a pure bard, and I didn't have enough left to extend song durations which was a pain. However I ran with tier 5s from WC and it was easier that way to get evasion from rog levels rather than going all the way for SB capstone. I also have to agree the cleaves are absolutely beast on SWF blitzer, at least for the time being.

I played this build on my ex-monk, and sadly I probably won't play a monk for a very long time, there's just no comparison in terms of freeze that works on EVERYTHING (even fire eles yo!) with ALL weapons, to stunning fist that works on limited mob types and needs to use unarmed that no ability ever works with.

Kudos on reaching those saves, that's about the only thing this build might struggle with.

Yea, I saved the 3rd post for the 16.2.2 t5 warchanter version. Looks to be pretty awesome, but ap's are so tight.

And my fort save is the weak point right now, especially in WGU. However i can do the boost in LD which brings it up 20.

[drnknmnky]

I have been following this thread since you posted it anxiously awaiting the multiclassed version. I am curious as to whether you would use high intelligence, be able to trap and take advantage of harper and vanguard trees. The suspense is killing me.

[macadope]

I have been following this thread since you posted it anxiously awaiting the multiclassed version. I am curious as to whether you would use high intelligence, be able to trap and take advantage of harper and vanguard trees. The suspense is killing me.

I am truly flattered.

I have been having too much fun with the new necro quests. Been freezing everything in sight lol. With new boots the freeze stun is at 80.

I have put some thought into the multi class versions and here's my internal debate:

1. The int based bonus is too much of an ap expense. And truthfully not needed.
2. I haven't studied vanguard enough to make an informed comment on that.
3. I have considered 15/3fighter/2rogue and perhaps taking the fighter stance for big hp/saves/prr
4. I have considered 18/2rogue. I'd loose 2dc from freeze stun, but I'd be able to go t5 warchanter and have freezy cleave, better 19-20 crits, and 6% more damage. The loss of cdg wouldn't mean much but the loss of exploit weakness is significant.

So I have to figure out what I want to test next and I will post results. If you'd like me to just throw up a working build so u can toy with it then let me know and I will make it for you. But until I've put together the build and tested it I don't wanna post.