Advice on sturdy, easy to play melee :)

M

mikarddo

Well-known member
I have played casters, alot. I have played ranged, some. I have played tank, a bit.
I have characters with most past lives and 140+ reaper points.
I have played very little melee except for leveling the tank with SoS/ESoS which was easy.

I may bite the bullet and actually try playing a melee. I aim for being sturdy yet able to kill well in R10 and to function decently in R1 raids (no push, so I dont need a truly raid meta build).

I suck at positioning myself 100% correctly and getting the right mob on target fast and always :)
I also suck at remembering to use short term buffs, spell absorption items etc consistently :)

I am thinking SDK with chains, quick cutter and whirlwind for ease of play (except when I kill Vengs, I know). Maybe with a Mew kukri as the weapon - but other ideas are welcome too.

Maybe a Swash Brd/DL/Rog or a pure DL but I am very open to suggestions.
Bonus if the build can be made with an icon without a +1 heart.

Suggestions are most welcome :)
I may never make it happen but for now I am considering it.
 
Dandonk

Dandonk

Beater of Dead Horses
Personally I'm very fond of the shifter 18/1/1 bear, tankish dps. Is great for r10s, and can work as tank in easier difficulty raids. Tanked a few r1s with it. Has good survivability, good CCs, can heal a little for emergencies, and bear charge is great for movement.

Downsides... threat is an issue if you're not actually the tank. Actual raid boss DPS is mediocre. Is not an iconic, meh. Has a dodge clicky, but it's not too good. While defenses as such are decent, HPs are not overly great (have 5k outside reaper) if people decide you need to tank.

But it's sturdy, for sure, and does very fine in r10s.

Also, it has bear /dance2. I mean, what's not to like? :p

Not sure it's what you're looking for, but hey, I like it :)
 
G

Glargfest

Active member
Tronko’s updated THF FB barb is a really good reference that I’d say definitely fits the bill for what you want.

Definitely hone in on getting as much attack/to-hit bonuses as you can. MD AC can get pretty high

I personally take Wade in and lash out in the FB tree while Tronko doesn’t, as I don’t have Completionist of any kind or full tomes.

I think I do pretty well with what I got, and it’s a lot of fun to play
 
woq

woq

Well-known member
are good, both Frenz.Bers and Ravager+VKF. For raiding especially a Razorclaw 18/1fvs/1wlk/ftr/dh, but they may rely too much on weapon swap for blood feast n imp uncanny dodge stuff for your liking, so maybe they're out and do require a bit more positioning and hitting right target timely than something that CC into AoE whoops everything.

is the easiest melee to play, so that's a good place to start. The swash idea is good, as that's a sturdy way to add defences to Dragon Lord that it inherently lacks while not losing out on damage thanks to swash. Both Haxe and Kukri work well. After T5 dl and Swash required spend and the ravager core you can even put the 23ish points in Stalwart for extra tankiness (+10% qual hp, good ac) for r10 practice or older r1 raid tanking when needed, and swap out of the tree for raiding whenever - very R10 questing/low diff raiding friendly build, but swapping enh for raids could get old.

The swash can be made from shadarkai, or aasimar scourge, or razorclaw shifter (even while not using unarmed - just go swash and enjoy the extra leap and endless rages from Razorclaw), no problem if you don't want the rogue level around from skai. Roar + quick cutter + your other attacks like great leveler if in fury t5 etc are more than enough for generic R10 questing, skai chains are often overkill on well built toon. But they are fun to press and shadarkai leap is great.

Razorclaw with unarmed DL works well too - something like 12 barb 8 dl or 12 dl 6 dark hunter 2 barb, but DCs are a bit lower and has to have offstat swap for Cha trance.

12-14 Dark Hunter 6-8 Dragon Lord is also a very viable way to go. +1 threat from DWS, +2 mult from DL, gets nice active attacks and double animal buffs from Fury for big chunk of HP. Especially nice with the new Warhammer and Battle Axe from Den of Vipers. TWF Battle Axe with this build slaps. Can be made iconic, but not as nice. Razorclaw shifter variant works great as a 12/6/2 or 14/5/1.

The 15/5 pala/dl build absolutely claps, but does have more swapping and quick cds to work with. IMO should not be your first melee. Poorly works with iconics unless with a heart.

12-16 dl 3-6 monk 1-2 sacred fist or whatever unarmed Dragon Lord is great fun and good utility, but suffers from low mrr. T5 DL, T3 Shintao, T3 or T4 Henshin - T4 if 4 monk for focus, 1 pt in ravager core, and then whatever with the rest. Good for both raiding and r10s, but maybe not up your alley for a first melee and if you don't care much for absorb swaps and the like. Works with iconics - tabaxi trailblazer is the play if so.
 
S

Sarlona Raiding

Well-known member
Sturdy and easy is how I would describe vanguard.

I play a build similar to this: https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/mechgrabers-endgame-paladin.16448/

Except I am bladeforged and go KOTC Tier 5 / Vanguard capstone - only about 9 points of difference in the AP and few in ED. It's a really nice write-up with alot of "how" and "why" included. In fact mechgraber gave me some good tips when I asked for vanguard help on the paladin forum which really improved my build.

I initially built a vanguard to solo VOD on LH and shortman/solo other raids with looter accounts, but I prefer it over a caster/ranged for soloing quests R6 in in most content. It's a very netflix-friendly solo build even when running content/difficulties that would be tough for some of my other builds.

It's not a max dps build meant as a push raiding dps build, but the dps is much better than I expected and the cleaves clear mobs fast. Boss dps is solid and buffed by being able to have a debuff on your weapon and shield, which is less useful in a group raiding situation where those debuffs may be redundant - but fantastic when soloing/short-manning.

Optimal gearing would involve some raid items and myth drannor rares, but the build does not rely on this gear either, it's just nice to have it.
 
H

Hireling

Well-known member
Warforged Dark Monk based off of Ying's monk.
Absolutely cake walks through stuff solo r4+ while leveling.
Absolutely contributes at cap with DPS and CC at Cap.
The build itself is straight forward. Can farm gear at cap pretty easy too.
 
Kyrr

Kyrr

Well-known member
Gimp-1 said:
"So, you know its good" -Dungeon Soup
Click to expand...
Considering i've seen Cordovan on stream in a Heroic Elite quest "A Sharn Welcome" with +18 accuracy at level 18. It can work, doesn't mean it's *good*. No shade thrown, it was on a character on a server that was rarely run, so the gear was slightly naked.
 
Kyrr

Kyrr

Well-known member
mikarddo said:
I have played casters, alot. I have played ranged, some. I have played tank, a bit.
I have characters with most past lives and 140+ reaper points.
I have played very little melee except for leveling the tank with SoS/ESoS which was easy.

I may bite the bullet and actually try playing a melee. I aim for being sturdy yet able to kill well in R10 and to function decently in R1 raids (no push, so I dont need a truly raid meta build).

I suck at positioning myself 100% correctly and getting the right mob on target fast and always :)
I also suck at remembering to use short term buffs, spell absorption items etc consistently :)

I am thinking SDK with chains, quick cutter and whirlwind for ease of play (except when I kill Vengs, I know). Maybe with a Mew kukri as the weapon - but other ideas are welcome too.

Maybe a Swash Brd/DL/Rog or a pure DL but I am very open to suggestions.
Bonus if the build can be made with an icon without a +1 heart.

Suggestions are most welcome :)
I may never make it happen but for now I am considering it.
Click to expand...
As for those previously stated, barbarian can reach very high hit point levels and press a bunch of buttons to do a bunch of damage, you can rarely go wrong compared to chains with tons of buttons.
 
A

Aaumini

Well-known member
Not sure what you mean by sturdy, but my 20 wrap monk shintao is working well, you can even make it a trailblazer - without the aasimar heal hands (primarily use those for others anyway) and you’d get spring attack and deflect arrows in the racial tree.
 
Bjond

Bjond

Well-known member
The sturdiest one for which occasion? The one I started out with was actually a warlock in eldtritch spirit tree -- TWF VKF with at least T4 in warlock ES. It has huge survive. Pretty easy to go solo R4s on a 1st life.

If you want to spice it up, you can add L5 Barbarian or DL and use Kukri for 15x4 profile and more DPS.

Most of the others I know depend on being fairly adept at strafing off initial mob attacks while landing CC rather than simply bulling through.
 
J

Jasparius

Well-known member
woq said:
are good, both Frenz.Bers and Ravager+VKF. For raiding especially a Razorclaw 18/1fvs/1wlk/ftr/dh, but they may rely too much on weapon swap for blood feast n imp uncanny dodge stuff for your liking, so maybe they're out and do require a bit more positioning and hitting right target timely than something that CC into AoE whoops everything.

is the easiest melee to play, so that's a good place to start. The swash idea is good, as that's a sturdy way to add defences to Dragon Lord that it inherently lacks while not losing out on damage thanks to swash. Both Haxe and Kukri work well. After T5 dl and Swash required spend and the ravager core you can even put the 23ish points in Stalwart for extra tankiness (+10% qual hp, good ac) for r10 practice or older r1 raid tanking when needed, and swap out of the tree for raiding whenever - very R10 questing/low diff raiding friendly build, but swapping enh for raids could get old.

The swash can be made from shadarkai, or aasimar scourge, or razorclaw shifter (even while not using unarmed - just go swash and enjoy the extra leap and endless rages from Razorclaw), no problem if you don't want the rogue level around from skai. Roar + quick cutter + your other attacks like great leveler if in fury t5 etc are more than enough for generic R10 questing, skai chains are often overkill on well built toon. But they are fun to press and shadarkai leap is great.

Razorclaw with unarmed DL works well too - something like 12 barb 8 dl or 12 dl 6 dark hunter 2 barb, but DCs are a bit lower and has to have offstat swap for Cha trance.

12-14 Dark Hunter 6-8 Dragon Lord is also a very viable way to go. +1 threat from DWS, +2 mult from DL, gets nice active attacks and double animal buffs from Fury for big chunk of HP. Especially nice with the new Warhammer and Battle Axe from Den of Vipers. TWF Battle Axe with this build slaps. Can be made iconic, but not as nice. Razorclaw shifter variant works great as a 12/6/2 or 14/5/1.

The 15/5 pala/dl build absolutely claps, but does have more swapping and quick cds to work with. IMO should not be your first melee. Poorly works with iconics unless with a heart.

12-16 dl 3-6 monk 1-2 sacred fist or whatever unarmed Dragon Lord is great fun and good utility, but suffers from low mrr. T5 DL, T3 Shintao, T3 or T4 Henshin - T4 if 4 monk for focus, 1 pt in ravager core, and then whatever with the rest. Good for both raiding and r10s, but maybe not up your alley for a first melee and if you don't care much for absorb swaps and the like. Works with iconics - tabaxi trailblazer is the play if so.
Click to expand...

Basic Barb and basic DL are the go to. Pure Pally is also fun with a bit of spell buffing happening.
 
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