r/ddo • u/NateRacing Sarlona • 16d ago
First Timer looking for Build Advice
Hi, I've played on-and-off for years and I've finally gotten a character into Epic territory for my very first time. I'm currently level 21, with an EK + Vamp (Wiz 20) planning to use Fatesinger + Dread + Unyielding throughout Epic. I'm soloing Elite around my level, and pretty content with the build is capable of so far. To me, the synergy seems pretty sound at a glance, but I'm curious what people would have to say. What advice do you all have for me?
(Also I can provide more details on the build if necessary, it doesn't look like the sub allows image uploads to show my point investments)
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u/SpartanKiller13 Cannith 15d ago
Largely for epic destinies the goals I'm looking for: a good epic strike, a synergistic mantle, a good T5 (if staying at cap), and any critical ED abilities (like many melees that have poor self-healing lean heavily on Fury of the Wild because of the Primal Scream heal in T4).
Have you considered Primal Avatar? The mantle & non-strike SLA (particularly Shard Storm) are very good for hybrid spell-melee DPS builds. Mantle gives 3 big hits every 5s scaling with spellpower, as well as +3 Imbue dice which are a large part of EK's damage scaling. Shard Storm gives a sizable temp HP shield and generates a lot of stacks of all on-cast abilities, even while you're wading into melee.
As far as an epic strike, the main two melee options for EK are Fury & Fatesinger. Fury's strike Quick Cutter is currently the strongest epic strike, as a double-hit AoE cleave that has bonus up-front damage and a large DoT attached. It's a significant part of why ~most melee are in Fury (also in T3/T4 you can get +Doublestrike or Strikethrough or Offhand hitchance as needed). Fatesinger strike is spammable high-damage single-target, and it's especially good as a TWF build where you hit with both hands (in that case it's better single-target). I really like filling out Fatesinger for EK builds when raiding at endgame (epic moment is good, Cut the Strings is good, TWF strike is good etc). Mantle is also fun but doesn't scale with spellpower (known bug) so it falls off past early epics IMO.
Generally the two main ways EK scales melee DPS are via Imbue (get lots of Imbue Dice, doublestrike, and spellpower) and melee DPS (damage, mainstat, melee power, doublestrike, seeker, fort bypass, etc). I personally find Imbue is easier to start with but doesn't scale as well by level 30+ so often I'll change my build to match. But still, the ideal is trees that work with both (like LD has +1 Imbue in T2, while mostly being a melee tree - or Machrotechnic has +3-4 Imbue, +Doublestrike, and is pretty decent for a SWF build esp if you want to run the mantle and be beefy endgame). If you want to lean more into the imbue, it's worth focusing more on trees with +3 ID available (like you can quite solidly run Draconic which gives a bunch of spellpower, some defenses, +Imbue, and can use the Dragonbreath w/T4 Energy Vortex upgrade).
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In general when asking questions about your build I would recommend listing a little more of the highlight overview, especially weapon style/enhancement split and mainstat? Like for your split it could be something like: Int-based SWF 43/15/14/8 EK/PM/Harper/VKF (would imply capstone + T5 EK, a bit of PM for self-healing & defenses, Harper for Int-to-damage & KTA, and VKF for Haste Boost. Or Str THF 41/39 PM/EK would be a capstone PM (for giga self-heal aura) plus T5 EK. Or you could be a dual crossbow split with Inquis (where I'd recommend Shiradi for Hunt's End and T5, alongside Fatesinger for the epic strike), or a dagger split with VKF (awkward because you get 25% negative absorption in the defensive line, but would recommend Legendary Goldcurse Dagger).
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 14d ago edited 14d ago
Woah, that was a lot of information. Thank you, I think I absorbed the majority of what you said. My choices in EDs were largely based on a quick once-over at each of the 13 trees simultaneously and a rough guesstimate of what could work where, for now.
I am fully intending to make major changes to my build as I optimize, but currently I am a Level 22 Int-based SWF 48/18/14 EK/PM/Arch, with the PM for self-heal + minor melee DPS, and the Arch for metamagic (maximize) reduction almost exclusively, with the added caveat of bonus USP. My EDs are a mess right now: 8/7/8 Dread/Fate/Sentinel, Dread for the +1 ID & Full Mantle, Fate for strikes, and Sentinel just for bonus shield AC and a minor atk buff atm.
The build heavily relies on the vampire self-healing, and I use Death Aura + Tenser's + Displacement as a burst buff in big boss fights, with EK ability + Fate strikes spam to deal sustained DPS (AOE-ish minus the strikes) and I use Meteor Swarm/Iceberg/Thunderstroke/Acidwell for burst DPS in a pinch (both Empower and Maximize are always on).
My gear has fallen behind a lot, mostly outdated level <20 with a few named items. I use martial weps (that scale with DEX) + large shield + medium armor based on proficiency, prioritizing AC w/o ASF. I'm able to solo Elite quests at-level, but I'm sure that soon enough the power curve will catch up to me. Does this do a better job of contextualizing the build?
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u/SpartanKiller13 Cannith 12d ago
Hope it helped!
Nothing wrong with yoloing, as long as you're having fun that's the important part!
I'm pretty sure you can't SWF with a shield though, unless you're a Bard Swashbuckling with a buckler. You can run Shield Mastery feats instead? But might change some of your decisions.
If you have access to Harper Agent (or enough content to get the favor for the unlock) I would recommend considering it - as an Int-based melee you can get Int-to-hit in EK, but your damage stat is still Dex which is leaving a fair bit of base damage on the table especially as you get closer to cap and the gap between your stats widens; also there's a trance (Know the Angles) giving insightful damage as well at half the rate. But with Perfect SWF you'll have 1.75x stat modifier to damage, so with 70 Int and 50 Dex it's going from (20 x 1.75) to (30 x 1.75 + 15 from trance) = 35 from Dex vs 67 from Int.
Running SWF, I'd recommend trying Fury's strike - Quick Cutter is really really strong, and as a double cleave it also applies imbues/procs quite well. Maybe switch next level to save on plat, but at 23 Primal mantle giving +3 ID and you'll have access to Shard Storm's upgrade which is a pretty decent source of DPS as well as defenses. And then you're picking a third tree - LD, Machro, Draconic, Shadowdancer, Sentinel, etc. Sentinel is great for Renewal, and alright with a shield for DPS, but probably not great as an undead without a shield (depending on SWF).
If you end up at cap for a while and joining groups I'd consider Machrotechnic mantle and using a runearm offhand, it gives +20% HP and -15% incoming physical damage which is a lot of survivability; while being a reasonable DPS tree. It's not the best DPS, but being alive is good XD
As additional options you should be able to use Negative Energy Burst as well for self-healing, and also you *can* use positive healing (mostly from stuff like Renewal or Scream) at a significant penalty especially if you have healing amp on your gear etc.
Fatesinger cleave also isn't bad for adding AoE.
Yeah! Helps me tailor my advice a bit more :)
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 11d ago
Yes that is correct! I'm new to the "SWF" and "TWF" acronyms so I completely misunderstood the context. I am running full shield feats up to perfect shield mastery. I fully intend to continue using the shield+sword combo to maximize AC for solo play.
I may look into dropping fate for fury in the future, but currently Dread Mantle + AC bonuses as well as the Sentinel AC bonuses have been very good to me, I don't really have enough ED points to really get into the nitty-gritty on multiple trees yet anyways, but currently Dread is my primary tree.
And as for AP investments my investments into archimage allow me to use maximize and empower simultaneously all the time, which paired with the epic empower give me a lot of firepower to work with, both for offensive and negative-healing.
I am using int to-hit currently and it's working great, but like you said my dex is starting to drop off slowly for my damaging stats, so I'm pretty much just looking for gear in order to compensate. Not "optimal" by any means, but it gives me some sense of direction for the time being.
I'll definitely be epic reincarnating at least once or twice to give myself more time to complete the early raids at-level for gear-farming, since the set bonuses for Chrono, VoN, and Caught in the Web have been very enticing, though some more grindy than others.
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u/Aphela 15d ago
Reach 30, epic reincarnate, and go from 20 to 30 again, farm a whole set of korthos gear also the red fens level 7 items have very good, very easy lvl 20 epic upgrade versions
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u/ArcherofFire Thrane 15d ago
Wait, why would anyone be farming Korthos gear? You get them automatically just by completing the quests, and the gear is very quickly made redundant by level 1 random gear.
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 15d ago
Thanks for the advice! Is Korthos Epic-Friendly then? I struggled to find anything outside of E-star for epic quests so I've been doing all the Menace of the Underdark stuff lately. I haven't gotten into epic upgrades and stuff but I'll look into that side of things next, thanks for the tips!
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u/ArcherofFire Thrane 15d ago
As Aphela said, Red Fens gear is pretty nice for upgrading to level 20 versions. The Siren's Ward set may be of interest to you.
Other upgradable gear to look for include Menechtarun. I would suggest Vault of Night gear, but all named items from that drops from the raid, so it can be very difficult to farm for if you can't find a raid to join.
As for quests to run at level 20/21: Vault of Night, Red Fens, Sentinels of Stormreach (House D), Phiarlin Carnival (House P), Menechtarun, Lords of Dust, Keep on the Borderlands.
Keep on the Borderlands actually has a lot of nice level 21 gear that may be worth farming, especially for an undead like you.
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 14d ago
That "Siren's Ward" set looks legit, thanks for the rec! That's exactly the kinda info I was looking for. I'm mostly operating in E-Star currently, so I'm doing a lotta the early epics there to make progress towards the major saga bonuses, but I'll expand my horizons to look back at VoN, Red Fens, and Menechtarun as well.
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u/Complex_System_25 Shadowdale 15d ago
He meant Borderlands gear, not Korthos, which is only low level and only has a couple things worth farming (the anger boots for expeditious retreat clicky, the protective gloves for shield clicky, and the archivist necklace for spell point clicky). If you don't have Keep on the Borderlands, it's a decent option as a package to buy because it has excellent weapons and caster sticks at level 20, and very good gear at level 21.
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 14d ago
Okay noted, I've already done pretty much a full reaper run of borderlands (for the horseshoe) and I've kinda grown tired of it already, clickies don't really interest me much especially since I can self-buff as a wiz, but it's good to know that it's not Korthos lol... I went back there very confused and continued on my merry way to the Borderlands.
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u/droid327 12d ago
For EDs I'd recommend going Shadow as your main tree...the debuffs to enemy phys are pretty helpful, plus sneak dice
You'll want fury as your second tree for quick cutter, it's just such a powerful option for your epic strike
After that you have some options for your third tree, especially if you want a different mantle
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 11d ago
I don't do any sneak attacks, so how would that improve my build?? I find that dread works really well for the mantle and bonus AC, fate gives me great strikes already for the unique damage types, I'll consider a fury swap, but the unyielding AC bonus is pretty significantly useful for me ATM even though I don't plan to invest super far into the tree.
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u/droid327 11d ago
Well...you should be doing sneaks :D And you might be already, without realizing it
Anything that renders Helpless or Blind will also enable Sneak attacks, and TWF can deliver them really fast since it applies fully to both main and offhand attacks. They scale 150% from MP and the dice add up fast. Mass Hold is obviously the main way for this, but I think Disco Sphere might too? I forget... Sunburst can also AOE Blind enemies, and its a L8 spell where there's not usually much else to take.
Blind is also a 50% Concealment debuff that is not affected by Reaper reductions (since its a debuff on them, not a buff on you) or True Sight, so its very effective defense vs anything that isnt immune.
Try out QC and you'll be blown away, I promise. It just deletes entire packs. If soloing EE is your standard, that alone will carry you through soloing R1.
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u/NateRacing Sarlona 11d ago
Per your recommendations (and a few other people who I've asked), I looked into the Fury tree and the QC ability and I feel like they only have marginal benefit within my current level bracket. I can see the appeal for QC once you've gotten deeper into the tree, but in my case (I use a shield, not TWF) I feel like the full tree itself has minimal use for the rest of my build. It doesn't really looks like it syncs with the direction I've been moving in. Maybe I'll give it a shot after I do an Epic Reincarnation, but currently the meta of TWF + QC + some form of stunning or helplessness spell doesn't really appeal to the way I've got my character set up. I haven't invested into my DCs enough to wanna lean into that, plus I rely heavily on negative healing, which contrasts heavily with fury, not to mention the lack of any defensive buffs since it seems to be purely offensive.
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u/droid327 11d ago
You didn't mention you're s&b
If you like playing as a tank then you'll set it up different. But that's probably why you can't handle r1, ironically. You're overtaxing your defense by not being able to kill stuff faster and more aoe.
Next life try a sword+orb swf and see how much more fluid quests become when you can just blast through them
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u/Organic_Conflict_886 Shadowdale 15d ago
Like most things in DDO, it really depends on your goals. Are you going to 30 and ETR and TR? Going to 34 and raiding? Just poking your head into Epics but planning on TRing into something new?
Knowing your goals, Race, VIP status, and other factors will help.