Bubble'din, SWF Support DPS for Reaper Raiding and R10 Questing

[Hammatimes]

This is the current build I've been playing for a few months. I wanted a support DPS for pushing raids but this build is well rounded enough that it's been great for R10 questing in between raids as well. This build alone can increase the group's physical damage by 96% with the combination of Crusade, Champion of Good, Dust, Ooze, and Vulnerability all while still providing significant personal DPS.

The thing I love about this build is that it really feels like a Paladin should.

• It buffs the party's damage with Crusade and Champion of Good
• Can protect allies with radiant forcefields (Bubbles)
• Heal others with LoHs, greater restorations and Divine Smiting
• Solid defenses
• Both AOE and single target damage by switching axes
• Burst damage with adrenaline Smites
• Mass Rez with T5 DC's Beckon Divinity
• Very high passive social skills for intimidating/bluffing/diplomacy

Here's the link to the build. Little too lengthy to post on forums and I prefer Google Doc formatting.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E8XQ6ClWvfHxQV_9a_X7v9xPTJjoOQPW1QHfRgFyhLA/edit

Disclaimer; this is a reaper endgame focused build, not a leveling build. Many key components of this build do not even work until the toon is level capped. Due to being a support DPS and the weapon swapping there are a lot of things to micromanage to make the most of this build. Providing support on a DPS means that you need to be looking at the party's HP bars and predicting their incoming damage while still managing your DPS and buff rotations. I have a little over 40 abilities/items hotkey'd that I regularly use and that's not even counting numbers 6-0 because they're too far for me to quickly hit. I'm not saying that it's necessary to micromanage everything to play this build, but rather that this build will continue to reward you for each increase in your gameplay.

That said, it all makes this build very engaging and rewarding to play. You never feel helpless in challenging situations, you can pull aggro and tank when necessary, can easily heal and restore others, can add defenses to whoever needs it and can even self heal when necessary and resurrect the whole party if things completely go sideways.

Also, my character is fairly far from 3X completionist. This build relies much more on gearing and build familiarity than it does on past lives. I even included a first lifer version of the AP splits at the end.

 

[Hammatimes]

More lengthy build summary for those that want to know more about the build before opening the Google Doc.

Support:

• 10 Radiant Forcefields (Bubbles) 25% damage reduction, 48s Duration, 1m Cooldown can be cast on tanks, healers or self
• Heals
  • 8 Lay on Hands for Spot Healing
  • Cure Serious Wounds - Positive SP 430, 27% Crit for out of combat healing
  • Divine Smiting - 32d2 Positive Healing every 10s for passive heals
  • 10 Remove Diseases - instant Greater Restorations for neg levels/charisma damage
• Damage Buffing
  • Crusade: +10% Damage, +1 Imbue Dice. Practically full uptime for the entire dungeon with just exalted smite ~2 Minutes fully sustained with constant smiting, 23% uptime when pool is exhausted
  • Champion of Good: +3% Damage for everyone in aura
  • Quickened Prayer
  • Improved Sunder and Divine Sunder
    • -3 to -15 Fortitude Trauma Stacking
    • -3 Saves
    • -20% Armor Class
    • -50% Fortification
  • Ooze on AOE (-10 PRR/MRR)
  • Dust on Single Target (-35 PRR)
  • Vulnerability on crits (+20% Damage)
• Beckon Divinity - Mass resurrect can also be used to resurrect anyone who ran off

Damage:

• AOE with Dwarven Waraxe +184 Damage, 155 Strikethrough
• Single Target DPS with Battle Axe +176 Damage
• 340 standing MP, can add 75 Ascendancy, 50 Prowess, 30 action boost when hastes are spent
• Adrenaline Smites - 26 Smites, 3.5 Smites/Minute regeneration with retribution.
• Divine Retribution Instakills
• Effectively 19 Imbue Dice with Law of the Divine and 9 SA Dice

Defenses:

• 3660 HP, can be 3848+
  • 590 uncon range
• 319 PRR, missing 21 from past lives. Can add 25 with stance
• 183 MRR, missing 15 from past lives. Can add 25 with stance
• 20% Dodge
• 156 AC, missing 46 from past lives
• 113 Fortitude, 106 Reflex, 87 Will
• 180 Hamp, Missing 30 from past lives
• Luck of Olladra R10 Self Heal
• 25% Damage reduction bubbles
• 3 Charges of Dark Discorporation Clickies
• Can use orb swaps for 36% absorption of any element
• Fire Shield (Cold) orb swap for +50% fire absorption in addition to 36% from boots
• Devil’s Blood immunities and Paladin immunities
• Invisibility guard

Misc:

• Social Skills with fast trance swap
  • 123 Bluff for pulling Dooms/Veng’s from packs (97 passive)
  • 128 Intimidate for pulling mobs off squishies (102 passive)
  • 133 Diplomacy for turning mobs away (126 passive)
• Quickened Break Enchantment

Weaknesses:

• Only dodge clickie is Hood of Unrest which will cancel up to 6 Bubbles from helm swapping
• Only source of crowd control is Censure Outsiders on 19-20 and adrenaline
• Very limited mobility with only Lead the Charge
• Only source of temporary hitpoints is affirmation
• Very limited action boost pool of only 11 Haste/Power boosts. Need to alternate boosts and manage prowess/goggle/draconic reinvigoration swaps for long raids

All questions or criticisms welcome here or on discord, I'm always excited to improve or adapt my builds.

 

[unbongwah]

I have a pure dwarf paladin I've been thinking of LR'ing into a SWF build so I'm glad you posted this build. I'm curious if you tried or thought about going CHA-based instead?

Pros:

• Less MAD with CHA as sole DPS stat
• Higher saves, bigger Lay on Hands, higher DCs for Holy Retribution

Cons:

• 7 AP "tax" on CHA to damage from Feydark Illusionist
• Requires Magical Training to unlock FI tree; take the feat in heroics, swap it out when you can grab MT from an ED like Fatesinger
• -2 CHA means dwarf is one of the worst races for CHA-based builds
• Lower DCs for conventional tactics feats (e.g., Improved Sunder)

So on a first-lifer it would be something like this:

Kundarak SWF FeyKnight
Paladin 20
Lawful Good Dwarf


Stats
. . . . . . . .32pt . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . --------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .4: CHA
Dexterity . . . 14. . . .8: CHA
Constitution. . 16. . . 12: CHA
Intelligence. . 12. . . 16: CHA
Wisdom. . . . . .8. . . 20: CHA
Charisma. . . . 16. . . 24: CHA
. . . . . . . . . . . . 28: CHA

Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Intim . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
UMD . . . 1. 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 .11
Heal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. . .2 . . 2. . .2 . . .8
Balance . 2. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Tumble. . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .12. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3


Feats

.1. . . . : Single Weapon Fighting
.3. . . . : Magical Training
.6. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
.9. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
12. . . . : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
15. . . . : Offhand Versatility
18. . . . : Quicken Spell
20 Swap. .: Precision replaces Magical Training
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
22 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
24 Epic . : Bulwark of Defense OR Empower Healing Spell
25 Destiny: Doublestrike OR Perfect Two Handed Fighting
27 Epic . : Blinding Speed
28 Destiny: Embodiment of Law
30 Epic . : Epic Damage Reduction
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea
31 Destiny: Two Handed Specialty

.1 Deity. : Follower of: Onatar
.6 Deity. : Onatar's Forge


Enhancements (Spent: 80 +2r +1u / Max: 80 +2r +1u AP)

Knight of the Chalice (41 AP)

• Slayer of Evil, Courage of Heaven, Slayer of Evil II, Improved Courage of Heaven, Slayer of Evil III, Champion of Good
  1. Extra Smites I, Improved Second Strikes III
  2. Adept Combatant, Divine Might III, Exalted Cleave: Melee, Action Boost: Power III
  3. Divine Sacrifice: Melee I, Lead the Charge I, Exalted Smite: Melee III
  4. Knight's Training, Censure Demons, Vigor of Life
  5. Ascendency, Censure Outsiders, Vigor of Life, Avenging Cleave: Melee, Holy Retribution: Melee

Dwarf (12 AP)

• Dwarven Toughness, Dwarven Constitution
  1. Dwarven Weapon Training: Axe Training
  2. Dwarven Tactics III, Dwarven Weapon Training: Axe Training
  3. Dwarven Weapon Training: Axe Training

Sacred Defender (12 AP)

• Holy Bastion, Sacred Defense
  1. Extra Lay On Hands III, Improved Sacred Defense: Durable Defense III
  2. Improved Sacred Defense: Resilient Defense II
  3. Greater Sacred Defense: Hardy Defense II

Vistani Knife Fighter (11 AP)

• Knife Expertise, Knife Juggler, Quick Reflexes
  1. Undead Hunter, Mist Stalker, Rapid Slash
  2. Haste Boost III

Feydark Illusionist (7 AP)

• Find Familiar: Fox
  1. Familiar's Flourish I, Illusory Weaponry
  2. Familiar's Flourish II

The pieces all fit, I just can't decide if it's a good idea.

 

[Hammatimes]

I have a pure dwarf paladin I've been thinking of LR'ing into a SWF build so I'm glad you posted this build. I'm curious if you tried or thought about going CHA-based instead?

With making builds in DDO it always comes down to "what are you building for?". The more flavor and hybrid you add to a build, the more meta everything else needs to be in order to still compete at the top level. It's technically a support DPS build because of how much damage buffing, healing and defenses it adds to a party but I'm still a top DPS contributor. I just won't be competing with the razorclaws on single target (but who is?). The only time I consider going Charisma based is on a TWF because the mainhand gains 1X modifier, offhand gains .5X modifier, and both weapons gain an additional .5X modifier with trance which means this style benefits relatively more by focusing on the trance stat whereas the other styles that gain a higher modifier like SWF or THF benefit more from the higher strength potential. Even then, I typically only like charisma based when going PDK because it's cheaper and you gain the tactical DCs.

Pros:

• Less MAD with CHA as sole DPS stat

Years ago this was true, but now with being able to augment both enhancement and insightful stats along with current gearing largely benefiting Strength (Lindal's, One Against Many/Sucker Punch, Prowess, Dreadbringer Filigrees, Precision Lenses, Primal Scream, Madstone boots, Titan's Grip, Dread Adversary Reaper tree) it just doesn't make sense to hamstring your DPS by going charisma based especially on a style with a 2X/2.1X modifier. On a toon with full racials and maxed RXP this discrepancy lessens slightly but I'm a ways away from that. Santified Fervor does have +2 Charisma available but it doesn't grant MP and Fervor is better as a swap so I wouldn't double stack it on an artifact except for an artifact trance swap.

• Higher saves, bigger Lay on Hands, higher DCs for Holy Retribution

This is a common trap in my opinion, my saves are 113 fortitude 106 reflex and 87 will which is plenty because will saves are almost all covered by immunities. The only Will saves I worry about really are the damaging ones in SIC and THTH but I believe mine are high enough for those. If you read the guide you'll also see that I swap to my trance weapon when I need a bigger heal for a tank which brings me to 76 Charisma which in my experience is plenty for a heal unless they neglected hamp which is more of a problem with their build, not mine. Holy Retribution targets a low save so it's unnecessary to bring that DC very high and after the absolute dumptruck of a nerf that nerfed the ability from 6 procs to 1 proc it doesn't make sense to build around it anymore, it's a nice execute ability but the main DPS component of it is the smite regeneration.

Cons:

• 7 AP "tax" on CHA to damage from Feydark Illusionist
• Requires Magical Training to unlock FI tree; take the feat in heroics, swap it out when you can grab MT from an ED like Fatesinger
• -2 CHA means dwarf is one of the worst races for CHA-based builds
• Lower DCs for conventional tactics feats (e.g., Improved Sunder)

That 7 AP tax is a large component of why you can't fit in the radiant forcefields in your version and they're an important part of the build. Forcefields cause my 322 PRR and 183 MRR to become an effective 462 PRR and 277 MRR. ((322 + 100) ÷ .75) - 100 = 462. When used on tanks the effective PRR and MRR they gain increases even further plus the visuals of it combined with Undying Vanguard is great.
Improved Sunder is actually the only DC that matters for this build, it's a strong debuff and is great for packs when using a Daxe.


But I have played around with a build I think you'd enjoy. Con to damage, Charisma to attack. When grabbing Radiant Forcefields you'll be above 15 AP in dwarf anyways so it's only 3 more AP to grab TYWA (with the benefit of +1 damage and +10 ST) and then 3 AP to pick up Charisma to hit, meaning it's 1 less AP tax than going full CHA based but with a lot more HP and there's a higher CON potential as well. Unfortunately it works best with a lot more racial AP but with your +3 AP first lifer you could do 41 Kotc, 20 Dwarf (Pick up the increased MDB, dodge is extremely important), 12 VKF, 7 SAD (LOHs, MDB, I don't like threat gen on first life toons that can't facetank R10 Dooms and you don't want it for raids).

If you do forego the dragonmark then for feats I would suggest picking up spring attack, the added dodge and mobility will be more benefit than the metamagics and blinding speed imo.

 

[Zvdegor]

Looks like a build for my secondary or 3rd alt.
My main Is a Vistani ROBOT and my secondary alt is a Holy Stick build atm, which is kinda fun utility build but not 100% my style.
This build looks like worth to TR out from the Holy Stick build

 

[Grunndi]

Love it! Dwarf pallies are very versatile and probably my favorite build to keep my main parked on. Can function as DPS, Tank (hate or intim), or support with some AP/ED swaps.

Currently on a TYWA Tanky DPS. Have been running LD T5, Fury T4, EA T3 (or LD t5, EA t4, US t3 if I need to self heal tank lower diff stuff) but have been pondering switching it up for DC T5. Will probably give it whirl after reading this.

Have you tried using EA for your 3rd ED? Wings add some nice mobility, and I’m hitting 800ish Pos power which makes for some nice aura heals since you’ll be up in the melee pack.

 

[Hammatimes]

Love it! Dwarf pallies are very versatile and probably my favorite build to keep my main parked on. Can function as DPS, Tank (hate or intim), or support with some AP/ED swaps.

Dwarves and PDK's are probably my favorite races for Paladin because of the huge variety of builds they offer. A quick ETR or AP respec and you can be on a completely different build with the same race and class.

Currently on a TYWA Tanky DPS. Have been running LD T5, Fury T4, EA T3 (or LD t5, EA t4, US t3 if I need to self heal tank lower diff stuff) but have been pondering switching it up for DC T5. Will probably give it whirl after reading this.

So if I were optimizing purely for quests and especially pugs I would also likely end up in LD T5 FotW T4, the added defenses from armor of Dusk, helpless damage, epic moment and rest of LD's T5 are all great. I enjoy raiding for building for raid optimization and an often occurrence with push raids is seeing who draws the short straw and needs to run DC T5 for beckon. With the synergy of Mighty Crusade and Exalted Smite's 4s duration and 3s cooldown I saw this as an opportunity to build a support DPS that minimizes the penalties of going T5 DC largely due to still being able to use Adrenaline for the epic strike while still buffing the entire party with Crusade.
Law of the Divine is also the strongest passive dps bonus of all the T5's by adding 12d6 Law damage and it does properly scale with 200% MP. It also makes it awkward to swap T5's though because Embodiment of Law becomes a bit of a dead feat compared to the other options. The lack of a real epic moment is unfortunate but Smite spamming essentially becomes your epic moment since Crusade is a stronger buff than Turn the Tide and you'll have it on demand with a much higher uptime. The bonus +3 damage with the mantle is also better than the helpless damage from LD's for rednames.

Have you tried using EA for your 3rd ED? Wings add some nice mobility, and I’m hitting 800ish Pos power which makes for some nice aura heals since you’ll be up in the melee pack.

The extra mobility would be amazing since this build can't fit in Spring Attack. I actually have the repulsor boots hotkey'd but the cooldown doesn't show when it's not equipped. Unfortunately I'm only at 69/75 EDP so going T3 in the 3rd tree is pretty tough but it is manageable if you drop the mass rez, fotw doublestrike and lean on reaper strike, then possibly drop the Bring Down Wrath but with so many people running Dino debuffs I'm always uncertain if Vulnerability is going to be provided.
With 8 LoHs I usually have plenty of combat healing and the build focuses more on damage reduction by providing bubbles to whoever is taking the damage and Hood of Unrest when 6 bubbles are used. The passive healing from Divine smite is useful but it won't be properly timed since smites are used for dps. CSW is still great for topping off people between fights especially with quicken. The build could be adjusted to provide more healing with the changes you've made but I think it's more efficient for a caster to provide the consistent heals with their spell rotation and they're already building for spellpower, spell crit and metamagics. Plus they're often invested in EA anyways. The other issue for raids is that I can't sacrifice the 30% threat reduction from SD. When I only run 70% threat reduction even with epic quiver of alacrity to reduce the threat from imbues I consistently flip aggro even in low skulls and double slotting Treachery threat reduction would sacrifice 5mp in addition to the mp loss of losing SD cores.
The other option of course is to just intimidate and take the damage yourself. For questing you can take on the extra 25 prr/mrr with Sacred Defense stance. Stance would bring my prr/mrr to 344/208, finishing my Divine and MRR lives would bring it to 365/223, then bubbles brings it to an effective 520/330 with dark Discorporation covering the 12s cooldown if necessary.

 

[Grunndi]

I didn’t consider the loss of threat reduction from SD. I’m built for moderate endgame DPS and light tanking (r10s and low skull raids) with reasonable self healing in lower skulls, so threat reduction isn’t on my radar.

And yeah, the “Who’s bringing Beckon?” roulette game is always fun.

Didn’t see it before but I’m probably set up closer to your vanguard build, axe and shield like a good dwarf should be

 

[Hammatimes]

Ah nice, I hope to revisit the Vanguard someday when I get enough racial ap to run it to my standards and flesh it out more like this build. The reduced cooldown on stunning shield is very exciting.

This builds tanky and can tank most R10s with heals but it's definitely smoother with a dodge dps like barb/rogue/monk tanking and providing them with Bubbles and heals. I've tanked LH skellies with this dps setup without a problem since that's not really a difficulty where you need a real tank but R1 would definitely be beyond this builds capabilities. Even with all the defenses I'm barely pushing 4k hp currently.

 

[unbongwah]

But I have played around with a build I think you'd enjoy. Con to damage, Charisma to attack.

Yeeeeees, one more for my collection.

When grabbing Radiant Forcefields you'll be above 15 AP in dwarf anyways so it's only 3 more AP to grab TYWA (with the benefit of +1 damage and +10 ST) and then 3 AP to pick up Charisma to hit, meaning it's 1 less AP tax than going full CHA based but with a lot more HP and there's a higher CON potential as well.

Good point, I was thinking 12 dwarf / 7 Feydark but 18 dwarf / 3 Feydark is only two more APs, nets more HPs, and benefits from the extra CON from dwarf, Hardy Defense, etc. My to-hit is a bit lower from not going max-CHA but between Divine Might and Precision, it shouldn't be a problem, at least for the content I expect to run.

 

[Hammatimes]

Updated for U61.
U61 brought a lot of gear flexibility with the new augments and the new clickies are obviously very powerful. The Action boost and armor piercing augments allowed me to drop the Precision Lenses swap and use the Raptor Teeth Necklace full-time for questing and the Warrior's Necklace for raiding. Also added an alternate DPS focused swap by using Flameguard lenses over Collective Sight. Also added some more details on swaps/clickies

 

[Tuxedomanwashere]

Question. Do you suppose that with more ED points it would be worth it to go up EA for the extra mobility, saves debuff, and restoration or PA for the temps instead of SD, or is the threat reduction and SA too important to pass up? Also, what do you think of the prospect of picking up Consecration and its upgrade for a 4-second mass helplessness?

 

[Hammatimes]

Question. Do you suppose that with more ED points it would be worth it to go up EA for the extra mobility, saves debuff, and restoration or PA for the temps instead of SD, or is the threat reduction and SA too important to pass up? Also, what do you think of the prospect of picking up Consecration and its upgrade for a 4-second mass helplessness?

So the threat reduction is really only a concern in raids that ran at R3 or below. Reaper causes a weird dynamic where the damage reduction from increased reaper difficulty lowers the threat generation from the DPS players but the threat generation from a tank's intimidate or other threat abilities are unaffected and so 100% threat reduction should start to become unnecessary around R4. So for questing I've actually started to drop the threat reduction in Shadowdancer to pick up more damage elsewhere and use LGS nightshield clickies instead.
I personally don't see myself ever running Exalted Angel, the cure moderate SLA is not worth the cast time in combat and the mantle sacrifices too much damage as well as the cores lacking Melee Power. The saves debuff is tied to turn undead usage which is too slow. A completionist toon could fit 13 AP into Shadowdancer getting the 15MP and 6 SA dice which will scale hard with the high melee power.

Shard Storm/Shard Reflection from PA is a strong ability for temporary hitpoints so it's often used for soloing reaper but this build isn't designed to be a solo build. Solo builds make too many sacrifices where they're suboptimal in a group setting and they don't interest me, there are better single player games IMO. In a group, the extra defenses are unnecessary and not worth the DPS loss. If more self healing in mid skulls is desired then FotW's T4 Unquenchable Rage is the better option that sacrifices a lot less damage and it hits hard when paired with Prowess and/or a hamp swap. This build also has Luck of Olladra for R10 self healing.

Consecration is a great CC ability but it's one of the worst epic strikes for damage. It also has a 20 second cooldown compared to Adrenaline's 8 seconds and Adrenaline can be prebuffed as well. This build is designed around using Adrenaline so it would be a completely different build from the T5 epic destiny to the weapon choices if Consecration were used as the epic strike.

 

[paddymaxson]

Thanks for posting on my thread in general, I'm giving it a go but with the above suggestion of using Throw your weight around and 3 points in feydark. I've gathered a few hearts of wood from gold rolls over the years so I can always try both!