axel15810
Well-known member
Posting to share my build and thoughts. I used this build in Hardcore Season 8 and had a lot of success with it. I leveled from 1-32, did a lot of endgame R4s and even did some endgame raids and never died or really even came close to dying at all the whole season. When I put this build together the main goal was to be very survivable/tanky for Hardcore but also have good DPS. This build is tilted more in the survivability direction than I would build it if I ran this on the live servers, because well, it’s Hardcore after all and dying is very very bad. I made this build with grouping in mind, I did not solo on Hardcore. If I was running solo and planning to level on Elite I’d probably modify this build so it can get traps. If you’re solo’ing and leveling on Hard traps are not a threat 99% of the time so it’s probably not necessary.
Build Goal
THF melee build made for the Hardcore server that has good DPS while at the same time is super survivable. This is made for Elite and Hard leveling, and R4 legendary endgame once geared. This build is free to play except for the race, it requires PDK race access. STR based build, uses Stunning Blow for some CC and a source of helpless while leveling.
Split
18 paladin, 2 fighter. 2 fighter gives 2 extra feats, haste boost access from the start from Kensei so no need to own Vistani in the store, and extra stun DCs from Kensei. Plus by keeping fighter levels we don’t have to buy a LR+1 from the store.
Race
Purple Dragon Knight
PDK is one of only 4 races that have Silvanus deity access for +2 crit range to mauls, mauls as a favored weapon and extra to hit and damage with mauls from the various deity feats as you level. I went with a Silvanus build because I’m very familiar with them (my main on Thelanis is a Silvanus Maul Cleric). In season 5 I did a more traditional greatsword paladin, but this past season I chose a maul build. PDK also gives an extra feat and Don’t Count Me Out in tier 1 of the racial tree which is nice for Hardcore as it gives some extra unconsciousness range/PRR. As an extra bonus as an iconic you start as a 32 point build even if you don’t own 32 point build in the DDO store.
Starting Stats (32 point build)
STR 16
DEX 8
CON 16
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 16
Skills
UMD, Heal
Alignment
Lawful Good. Must be this alignment to take Paladin levels so don’t forget on character creation.
Feat Comments
I went STR based because on Hard and Elite saves are plenty good enough without going CHA based and STR based lets us take and use Stunning Blow effectively while leveling (really nice for champs), synergy with Power Attack and THF line feat requirements on first life build with no tomes and you don’t have to have bought Feydark tree in the DDO Store. I also did not want to have to use action points in the Feydark tree. You could totally run this as CHA based though if you want it just wasn’t my preference.
I went Power Attack instead of Precision because while Precision is definitely better for endgame legendary reaper where having a high to hit matters a lot, Power Attack means I don’t have to invest in DEX on a first life build with no tomes and I am not going to have to hit problems leveling on Elite, and leveling was my main concern. Not touching Reaper at all until I am at level 32 and geared.
At level 18 you can swap out Power Critical out for something else if you want, such as another Toughness. I felt like I had plenty of hitpoints already so I opted to take the +2 crit damage.
At level 31 you yourself won’t have a source of helplessness as Stunning Blow for the most part falls off in Legendaries since we’re first life and not gearing for stun but I took Crush Weakness because I grouped the whole way and could benefit from it as I had other party members making mobs helpless. If solo’ing you won’t get much of any use from Crush Weakness since we don’t have a helplessness source so swap it out for something else if that’s the case for you. If you really want you could also use the free feat swap token with Fred to swap out Stunning Blow once you get to the endgame where it falls off but I didn’t bother.
Heroic Enhancement Comments
Tier 5 Sacred Defender for survivability, Tier 3/4 Knight of the Chalice for DPS, Tier 1/2 Kensei for haste boost and tactics, Tier 1 PDK for Don’t Count me Out. If I was running this on the live servers instead of Hardcore I would go tier 5 KotC instead.
Epic Destiny Comments
I went tier 5 Divine Crusader for Law of the Divine goodness, Tier 4 Fury of the Wild for Max Adrenaline.
Leveling Mauls Recommendations
I’d recommend you use these mauls while leveling to cap. These are mostly all easy to get and work well:
Min Level 2: Ethereal Maul (borderlands turn in 1 ethereal ingot, very easy to get)
Min Level 5: Flamesalt Maul (saltmarsh, 5 chits turn in, easy to get)
Min Level 5: Ferrocrystal Maul (feywild 20 crystal turn in, somewhat easy to get)
Min Level 10: Barovian Maul (free by talking to NPC after into the mists) use this until level 20
Min Level 20: Epic Ethereal Maul (1 epic ethereal ingot, extremely easy farm as it’s basically free)
Min Level 20: Epic Fury of the Flame (best reasonably easy to obtain option for epics, somewhat easy farm)
Min Level 21: Drow Maul of the Weapon Master (best option for epics if you can get it, hard farm though. If you can’t get it the other options will work fine for epics)
Gearset and Comments
This gearset is not optimal on live servers but on Hardcore with a limited timeframe farming time and farming safety is a big factor so this heavily influenced what I chose to go after. This is what I used because it was plenty good enough for R4s (which is the difficulty level I farmed for RXP on Hardcore) and Saltmarsh sets are 100% risk free and easy to farm since you can roll up a 2nd toon, level them to level 5-7, and use that toon to farm Saltmarsh for your 5 piece set. Very cheap shard rerolls in heroic saltmarsh make it easy if you want to do that. You can then craft that set up to epic when you hit level 20 for a 5 piece epic set to wear (you need 250 total saltmarsh hay), and then to legendary when you hit 30 (you will need 500 hay and 25 star fragments). Really saves time gear farming. Just run Saltmarsh saga several times while leveling at end game and take Star Fragments for saga end reward each time to get the 25 Star Fragments you need to upgrade the gearset to Legendary.
Saltmarsh isn’t the best 5 piece set in the game by any means but it’s by far the easiest and safest to farm on Hardcore and it’s plenty good enough to get you through to all your Hardcore goals. My gearset at endgame was made up of a 5 piece saltmarsh set and a 5 piece isle of dread set. Plenty good enough to prepare me for R4s for Hardcore reaper point rewards.
Endgame Gearset for R4 Reaper Point Farming
Necklace - Legendary Lizardfolk Tooth - deathblock aug
Trinket - The Two Headed Platinum Piece (minor artifact, for levels 20-30 use an epic crocodile tooth instead)
Cloak - Legendary Sailcloth - insightful CHA +5 aug
Belt - Legendary Belt of the Black Sands
Ring 1 - Legendary Ethereal - +1 exceptional STR aug
Gloves - Legendary Admiral’s Gloves - scale slot: CHA, +1 exceptional CHA aug
Boots - Legendary Admiral’s Gumshoes - scale slot: False life
Ring 2 - Legendary Ring of the Sky
Bracer - Legendary Saltiron Bracer
Armor - Legendary Scales of the Exile
Goggles - Lootgen WIS 14 (Can easily replace this with something better)
Helm - Legendary Firemouth’s Diving Helmet (only getting doublestrike from this, can replace with something better if you want)
Weapon - Legendary Shipbreaker - Scale slot: sparkscale, Legendary Ruby of Icy Blast in red slot. Even though the Dino Bone Maul is better, I opted for the Shipbreaker because the Dino Bone Maul does not count towards the 5 piece IoD set and requires you to grind more ingredients to craft it. The Legendary Ruby of Icy Blast I only used because it’s the best red slot augment I had managed to pull while leveling, you don’t need to bother farming it specifically. Just throw in the best damage augment you can get a hold of in the red slot.
Filigree - I would recommend using a Dreadbringer 5 piece set because this set would give you 30% fort bypass which you need. Plus it comes from Saltmarsh and you're already running a lot of Saltmarsh anyway for Star Fragments to upgrade your gear so it's a practical set to go after. You don't have much sentient XP to grind. 3 slots in your trinket artifact and 2 in your weapon will get you your 5 piece set. I used a 5 piece Sanctified Fervor set b/c a very nice person sent them to me for free and I accidently missed fort bypass in the loot tetris initially or I would have used Dreadbringer.
Note: there are many blank IoD and augment slots in what I posted above. The goggles and helm combined only give WIS 14 and doublestrike so feel free to loot tetris in better options there, I just didn’t bother since I already had a plenty good enough gearset for R4s and didn’t want to spend more time farming gear or ingredients.
I didn’t bother farming much gear in heroics. I did not find it necessary. The only exception is I did get a heroic Claw set from Red Fens because it’s good for this build and requires pretty much no farming since the 2 pieces appear on the end reward lists. But mostly, I bought random gen loot for platinum on the auction house and used what named loot I did find. Just make sure you get the basics covered via loot gen for all relevant stats, stunning, insightful combat mastery or insightful stun, deathblock, false life, 100% fortification, etc. and that should be good enough. If you want to farm out a heroic Feywild and/or heroic Part of the Family sharn set you can but I didn’t find it necessary. As mentioned above I farmed out a 5 piece Saltmarsh set on an alt so had that waiting for me for epics once I got to level 20. The Two Headed Platinum piece is Legendary only so you'll need to farm out a Crocodile Tooth in addition to complete your 5 piece epic set.
Classes: 18 Paladin, 10 Epic, 2 Fighter, 2 Legendary
Race: Purple Dragon Knight Alignment: Lawful Good
Class and Feat Selection
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level Class · · · · · ·Feats
1 · · Fighter(1)· · · ·Standard: Power Attack
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Purple Dragon Knight Bonus: Two Handed Fighting
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Fighter Bonus: Stunning Blow
2 · · Paladin(1)· · · ·Follower of Faith: Favored by Silvanus
3 · · Paladin(2)· · · ·Standard: Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning Weapons
4 · · Paladin(3)· · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
5 · · Paladin(4)· · · ·
6 · · Fighter(2)· · · ·Standard: Child of Faith
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Fighter Bonus: Improved Two Handed Fighting
7 · · Paladin(5)· · · ·
8 · · Paladin(6)· · · ·Deity: Blessing of Silvanus
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
9 · · Paladin(7)· · · ·Standard: Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
10· · Paladin(8)· · · ·
11· · Paladin(9)· · · ·
12· · Paladin(10) · · ·Standard: Greater Two Handed Fighting
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
13· · Paladin(11) · · ·
14· · Paladin(12) · · ·
15· · Paladin(13) · · ·Standard: Beloved of the Divine
16· · Paladin(14) · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
17· · Paladin(15) · · ·
18· · Paladin(16) · · ·Standard: Power Critical
19· · Paladin(17) · · ·
20· · Paladin(18) · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
21· · Epic(1) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Overwhelming Critical
22· · Epic(2) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
23· · Epic(3) · · · · ·
24· · Epic(4) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Toughness
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
25· · Epic(5) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Doublestrike
26· · Epic(6) · · · · ·
27· · Epic(7) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Epic Damage Reduction
28· · Epic(8) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Embodiment of Law
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Strength: +1 Level up
29· · Epic(9) · · · · ·
30· · Epic(10)· · · · ·Epic Feat: Epic Reflexes
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Legendary: Scion of Arborea
31· · Legendary(1)· · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Crush Weakness
32· · Legendary(2)· · ·Strength: +1 Level up
Last edited:
