DPS Build Notes for Melee and Ranged builds.

Created these notes from a discussion with Nimvind and watching How to Build a Meta DPS in DDO
Since I am not familiar with casters, I suggest watching this Video from Vooduspyce on the topic for casters. Increasing spell DC's

Basic things to increase

1. Accuracy
2. Damage
3. Critical Multiplier
4. Fortification bypass

Melee

1. Critical Profile
2. Weapon Attack Speed
3. Improved Critical Threat Range
4. Enhancement points - Racial and tome increases
5. Enhancement Trees
   1. Every Build needs a +1 critical threat range
   2. +1 to critical multiplier
   3. Battle Trance for melee
6. Haste boosts except for ranged
7. Paladin has Holy Sword

Important aspects of Critical profile

1. Weapon Attack speed
2. Weapon Critical attack profile found on the left column of the wiki article

Splashes

1. Devine splashes FVS, Cleric, and Dark Apostate will grant a battle trance
2. Fighter gives a haste boost
3. Barbarian 10% stacking speed and ability to Rage
4. Warlock Enlighten Spirit Tree can give the Arcane Warrior feat

Feats to increase DPS in any build

1. Improved critical
2. Dodge + mobility = Whirlwind attack
3. Toughness
4. Weapons focus

Epic Destinies

1. Overwhelming Critical
2. Patience gives +1 critical with a penalty
3. Arcane Warrior if using a warlock splash
4. Scion of the Ethereal Plan or Arborea
5. Fury of the Wild (Quick Cutter for epic; Adrenalin for Legendary)

Gear

1. Armour Piercing(fortification bypass)
2. Damage or Accuracy boosts
3. Sneak Damage (Deception)
4. Sneak Attack (Seeker
5. Combat mastery (tactics DC)

Survivability increasing

1. Constitution
2. Sheltering
3. Fortification
4. Dodge
5. Saves
6. HP boosts
   1. False life
   2. Vitality

Gear Sets

• Some have a profane bonus
• 5 Piece sets
  • Isle of Dread
  • Feywild
  • Vecna
  • Barovia

Artifacts

1. Feywild
2. Dread
3. Vecna
4. Saltmarsh
5. Mythdranor Solar Gems

 

[tolanj]

Feats to increase DPS in any build
...
3. Toughness

Doesn't increase DPS, belongs in survivability
What does belong there is the relevant attack line (SWF/TWF/THF/SM/NF) (well for melee anyway)

4. Sneak Attack (Seeker

Is also factually incorrect
And I would add Melee/Ranged Power and Doublestrike/shot in the DPS mix, and PRR/MRR in the survivability section (along with something about (night)shield or other MM spam reducer)

 

[WielderofGigantus]

Why is Critical Threat Range not among the basic things to increase?

You mention Solar Augments as a source of Artifact bonus, but you don't mention Lunar Augments as a source of Profane bonus?

 

[Chiefvisigoth]

Why is Critical Threat Range not among the basic things to increase?

You mention Solar Augments as a source of Artifact bonus, but you don't mention Lunar Augments as a source of Profane bonus?

That is why I posted this. So others can contribute to what I missed. Thank you for pointing that one out

 

[ForeverZero]

That is why I posted this. So others can contribute to what I missed. Thank you for pointing that one out

General additions, some already mentioned but.

*Melee and ranged power.
*Sneak attack is severely underrated for general use. Most people should be able to get a decent minimum of 15d6 or more fairly easily specifically at cap.

•6d6 from scion
•3d6 ish from gear sets usually
•3d6 easily from shadow dancer cores
•3d6 from tier 2 shadow dancer
•1d6 if you get 4th core given this thread is in new players this is unlikely to be assessed, but you do you, play around see if you like it.

These are just ones i could think up off hand and at work. May be more, but more obscure. These are faily easy to get and make noticable improvements.

Whats also cool about sneak attack is it has a 1.5x multiplier based on your melee/ranged power.

Quick example.

Assuming 15d6 sneak attack with no added modifiers.
200 melee power
100% doublestrike ( unfeasible at newbie stage, but makes math easier for my addled brain )

1d6 averages 3.5 damage a roll x 15 dice. 52.5 damage, will round down to 52. Base damage ish on sneak attack.

52 x 3 ( melee power ) remember melee/ranged power scale at 1.5x so 200x1.5 = 300, 1 power is basically 1%.

156 damage x2 for doublestrike.

312 damage just from having sneak attack die added to your arsenal. Also this is not including boosts to your damage via say deception items. This is just a rough average strictly based on the die themselves.

My math may be off, correct me if its wrong though yall. But it should be fairly accurate i think.

Almost everyone gets good sneak attack where it matters. Especially raids where you're likely not suppose to have aggro in first place.

Speaking of raids this leads me to my next point. And even high reaper if you're too squishy.

*Threat reduction.

Make sure the baddies don't turn to you and thereby extention your party wracking the baddies wumpus.

Another tangent. If you are a paladin or fighter, ect. Please turn off your defender stances. I understand you want the tankiness and other benefits, but it makes aggro more annoying for the tank to maintain. At early stages of gameplay, likely not a big problem but the higher your dps, the more likely you are to turn the baddie and kill a squishy. But good practice nonetheless.

You can probably play it by feel in the newbie stage. But if you see boss turning around on you if you have stance on, just turn it off and wait a few seconds for tank to do their thing.

Apologies if this is too drawn out. Just specific information i cant really stress enough that honestly made my builds noticiably better.

Edit: spelling

 

[Drachmor]

I do actually think toughness belongs - you can’t deal damage if you can’t survive

 

[Vox]

1. Warlock Enlighten Spirit Tree can give the Arcane Warrior feat

No, it doesn't

Epic Destinies

1. Overwhelming Critical
2. Patience gives +1 critical with a penalty
3. Arcane Warrior if using a warlock splash
4. Scion of the Ethereal Plan or Arborea

None of these are Epic Destinies

Weapon Critical attack profile found on the left column of the wiki article

What article?

Sneak Attack (Seeker

Seeker has nothing to do with sneak attack

5 Piece sets

No mention of saltmarsh 5pc?

Artifacts

No mention of sharn, gatekeepers, docks, or deleras artifacts?

Although, re-reading your OP it does look like you may not be understanding the terminology. Solar gem augments provide , when slotted into worn gear, artifact typed bonus. They are not (minor) artifacts.

---
It may be worthwhile to explain to new players, why each of the bulletpoints is useful for the categories.

For example:

Feats to increase DPS in any build

Toughness

You and I know that dead is zero DPS, but a new player might see this and get the wrong idea

 

[Chiefvisigoth]

Thank you to everyone who made comments. I am no expert, and yes, I missed some things. I wanted to initiate a discussion on this topic because there doesn't seem to be much information available on YouTube about it. I have never played a warlock and completely forgot about the epic destinies.

 

[Chiefvisigoth]

General additions, some already mentioned but.

*Melee and ranged power.
*Sneak attack is severely underrated for general use. Most people should be able to get a decent minimum of 15d6 or more fairly easily specifically at cap.

•6d6 from scion
•3d6 ish from gear sets usually
•3d6 easily from shadow dancer cores
•3d6 from tier 2 shadow dancer
•1d6 if you get 4th core given this thread is in new players this is unlikely to be assessed, but you do you, play around see if you like it.

These are just ones i could think up off hand and at work. May be more, but more obscure. These are faily easy to get and make noticable improvements.

Whats also cool about sneak attack is it has a 1.5x multiplier based on your melee/ranged power.

Quick example.

Assuming 15d6 sneak attack with no added modifiers.
200 melee power
100% doublestrike ( unfeasible at newbie stage, but makes math easier for my addled brain )

1d6 averages 3.5 damage a roll x 15 dice. 52.5 damage, will round down to 52. Base damage ish on sneak attack.

52 x 3 ( melee power ) remember melee/ranged power scale at 1.5x so 200x1.5 = 300, 1 power is basically 1%.

156 damage x2 for doublestrike.

312 damage just from having sneak attack die added to your arsenal. Also this is not including boosts to your damage via say deception items. This is just a rough average strictly based on the die themselves.

My math may be off, correct me if its wrong though yall. But it should be fairly accurate i think.

Almost everyone gets good sneak attack where it matters. Especially raids where you're likely not suppose to have aggro in first place.

Speaking of raids this leads me to my next point. And even high reaper if you're too squishy.

*Threat reduction.

Make sure the baddies don't turn to you and thereby extention your party wracking the baddies wumpus.

Another tangent. If you are a paladin or fighter, ect. Please turn off your defender stances. I understand you want the tankiness and other benefits, but it makes aggro more annoying for the tank to maintain. At early stages of gameplay, likely not a big problem but the higher your dps, the more likely you are to turn the baddie and kill a squishy. But good practice nonetheless.

You can probably play it by feel in the newbie stage. But if you see boss turning around on you if you have stance on, just turn it off and wait a few seconds for tank to do their thing.

Apologies if this is too drawn out. Just specific information i cant really stress enough that honestly made my builds noticiably better.

Edit: spelling

Thank you for all the detailed explanations you gave. I am not much on doing the math part of things. Hope it helps the community

 

[ForeverZero]

@Chiefvisigoth

I dont know how to quote, so just going by ear.

Basic things to increase:


1. Relevant power stat, melee or ranged
2. Crit profile
3. Doublestrike/shot is so valueable.

These should be priority for every melee and ranged, and shouldn't be in any section specifically.

Splashes
1. I dont really like Fighter being here just for haste boost. Wastes class levels imo. Vistani gives crazy benefits and also has haste boost. Much better option imo. Even on my fighter splashes i take about 11 points into vistani.

4. Warlock does not give arcane warrior feat via enlightened spirit, but they are mutually beneficial to have together.
Feats to increase dps in any build:


1. Whirlwind attack doesn't always increase dps, for some weapon types its slow and clunky with a delay before you can attack again. Also this requires dodge and mobility, feats with stat requirements. Better dps boosting options as feats.

2. Toughness is laughable these days. While its true that being dead is 0 dps. Toughness is not realistically going to help anyone really tank another hit. You get 36 hp at cap. And 36 hp doesnt even cover a hit at level 15. I wouldnt recommend. Unless you feel nessessary.

-remove from section here and place more into survivability

3. Weapon focus does help, but should be taken near end of build, as there are better more cost effective options. And only if feats allow.

4. Add Fighting style is very important ( Two Weapon Fighting, Two Handed Fighting, Single Weapon Fighting, Natural Fighting. )

5. Add Power Attack or Precision. The the rule i went with is if you have a class that has boosts to power attack, use that. Primarily barbarian. Ragers this is a muat. As if memory serves me, you cannot rage with precision. Everyone else precision is fine. If you are below 100% fort bypass precision is almost a must for higher teired content, everything else. It can be fine without it for lower teir content ( low skulls and less newer content. ) this isnt a hard set rule, use best judgement, but just a starting point

Epic Destinies:


1. Just a normal feat
- remove and place in different section
2. Also just a normal feat
- remove and place in different section
3. An Epic Destiny FEAT yes. Not a part of a destiny that i recall
- Remove and place in different section
4. Legendary feat ( level 30 only )
- remove and place in different section
5. Actually belongs here.

6. Add shadowdancer for dps and utility. Low hanging fruit includes perma nightshield, sneak attack die, light armor max dex bonus ( which affects max dodge % btw ), ddoor clickie, third core gives evasion if you dont have already or boosts if you do. Fort bypass, shadowstriker gives doublestrike and energy drain immunity.

7. Add Grand Master of Flowers. Its mantle is useful regardless of if you're monk, gives permanant action boost movement speed of 15%, no fall damage ( iffy), tumble through enemies if stuck, and immunity to many knockdown and slippery surfaces the slippery surfaces and knockdowns are a bit iffy too and may be broken and not WAI. 1 metal and 1 alignment dr bypass of your choice. 1w damage, you also get a deflect arrows if youre not ki based. Strikethrough, doublestrike.


Gear:

1. Try to typically go for 2 sets minimum, for example i use dread curse and silent stalker and worked reat of my gear around. I havent played MD or Lamordia since doing trs so idk how well the new sets mesh. May be worth doing more investigating.

2. If you have wilderness lore feats can use thorn boots ( like barbarian ), if you use animal form, theres a couple pieces of gear more specific to that, a helmet from hunt raid, and a cloak from somewhere i forget.


This is juat stuff i can think of off top of my head at work. On my phone, please forgive typos ect.

 

[Shear-buckler]

1. Whirlwind attack doesn't always increase dps, for some weapon types its slow and clunky with a delay before you can attack again. Also this requires dodge and mobility, feats with stat requirements. Better dps boosting options as feats.

Which weapon types would that be?

 

[magaiti]

Which weapon types would that be?

The only issue that I know of is "Vistani Knife Training I" changes your TWF daggers (but not kurkis) animations, and WWA/QC become different, with long windup animation. But it's still workable if you like the VKF animations in general.

 

[magaiti]

1. Relevant power stat, melee or ranged
2. Crit profile
3. Doublestrike/shot is so valueable.

5. Add Power Attack or Precision. The the rule i went with is if you have a class that has boosts to power attack, use that. Primarily barbarian. Ragers this is a muat. As if memory serves me, you cannot rage with precision. Everyone else precision is fine. If you are below 100% fort bypass precision is almost a must for higher teired content, everything else. It can be fine without it for lower teir content ( low skulls and less newer content. ) this isnt a hard set rule, use best judgement, but just a starting point

-1. Hit Chance. Because You deal zero damage when you miss.
-1.1 to-hit bonus:
- Accuracy, Seeker (for crit confirmation)
- Ancient Power EPL stance, Fighter PLs
-1.2 percentage hit chance:
- Precision +5% (always use on cap, except on classes that use true Rage (Barbarian, Druid), because rage switches Precision off)
- Elven racial cores (3x 2%)
- Swashbucker T5 Thread the Needle +5% To Hit
0. Weapon damage
- damage stat (STR etc)
- stat damage scaling (mainly through SWF, THF feats)
- damage / deadly
- Seeker (for critical hits)
- weapon enhancement bonus increases (Enchant Weapon EPL etc)
- size of weapon dice (stuff like 1d8+2) (generally bigger weapons have bigger dice; modern end-game weapons have flat bonus +2, raid weapons have +3, 2h weapons have double flat bonus)
- number of weapon dice (scales with weapon level, +0.5W from Vorpal, +1W from mantles, +2W crackling attack etc)
- misc. bonuses (Good Hope, Ram's Might etc)
- Power Attack (generally more useful while leveling than Precision, especially for THF)

 

[Chiefvisigoth]

Thank everyone for the feedback. There are a lot of things I am not aware of, and I wanted this to be a conversation on how to increase DPS with a build. I am still not that good at increasing DPS, but working on it.

 

[ForeverZero]

Thank everyone for the feedback. There are a lot of things I am not aware of, and I wanted this to be a conversation on how to increase DPS with a build. I am still not that good at increasing DPS, but working on it.

Hence our replies, we got you buddy.

 

[Bjond]

From the perspective of a raid leader, there is very little I want from a DPS joining our raids: don't die and don't flip.

Here's what this means right now: have threat-100 appropriate for your style and do NOT use an imbue build.

Why no imbue builds? Negative threat doesn't work on it. I don't care how much DPS you're doing. If you're flipping the boss, you're a bad DPS.

BTW, part of the problem is that the tank meta is almost universally fixated on push-raid tanks rather than hate tanks. If you're doing sub-R1 or maybe up to R1~3 at most on raids, a push tank is overkill. Make a hate tank and even a newbie paladin in defensive won't flip on you. Plus, they're much more dynamic and fun to play.

Here are two examples of different hate tanks I run in game right now: dodgy melee & frosty caster. I haven't made a physical ranged tank yet, but I've been pondering it. IIRC, Tilo's original ki-bolter was v.tanky, too -- could likely be tweaked in that direction if not.

However, DPS need to work with what's in game right now, not how you wish it was. And, right now, most tanks are intim-only for hate.

 

[Vertigo]

Why no imbue builds? Negative threat doesn't work on it. I don't care how much DPS you're doing. If you're flipping the boss, you're a bad DPS.

That is pure speculation. at best.

There are tanks that can maintain threat and those who don´t.

 

[Bjond]

That is pure speculation. at best.

It's been tested multiple times. Imbue just does not respond to any -threat. Hmm, I think it was Mechgrabber or Vxnr .. can't recall for sure. The tests were quite detailed, basically Tank intim then damage req'd to pull agro with and without -threat (and -ranged threat and -spell threat), with & without imbues.

We know the first number falls under -threat including sneak damage and that Imbue has no -threat. I have doubts about the other numbers, but those have not been tested. I *wish* it was based on weapon type; ie. that if you're using a ranged weapon, then ALL damage you do has -distant threat applied, but it doesn't work like that.

 

[Willsave20]

Created these notes from a discussion with Nimvind and watching How to Build a Meta DPS in DDO
Since I am not familiar with casters, I suggest watching this Video from Vooduspyce on the topic for casters. Increasing spell DC's

Basic things to increase

1. Accuracy
2. Damage
3. Critical Multiplier
4. Fortification bypass

Melee

1. Critical Profile
2. Weapon Attack Speed
3. Improved Critical Threat Range
4. Enhancement points - Racial and tome increases
5. Enhancement Trees
   1. Every Build needs a +1 critical threat range
   2. +1 to critical multiplier
   3. Battle Trance for melee
6. Haste boosts except for ranged
7. Paladin has Holy Sword

Important aspects of Critical profile

1. Weapon Attack speed
2. Weapon Critical attack profile found on the left column of the wiki article

Splashes

1. Devine splashes FVS, Cleric, and Dark Apostate will grant a battle trance
2. Fighter gives a haste boost
3. Barbarian 10% stacking speed and ability to Rage
4. Warlock Enlighten Spirit Tree can give the Arcane Warrior feat

Feats to increase DPS in any build

1. Improved critical
2. Dodge + mobility = Whirlwind attack
3. Toughness
4. Weapons focus

Epic Destinies

1. Overwhelming Critical
2. Patience gives +1 critical with a penalty
3. Arcane Warrior if using a warlock splash
4. Scion of the Ethereal Plan or Arborea
5. Fury of the Wild (Quick Cutter for epic; Adrenalin for Legendary)

Gear

1. Armour Piercing(fortification bypass)
2. Damage or Accuracy boosts
3. Sneak Damage (Deception)
4. Sneak Attack (Seeker
5. Combat mastery (tactics DC)

Survivability increasing

1. Constitution
2. Sheltering
3. Fortification
4. Dodge
5. Saves
6. HP boosts
   1. False life
   2. Vitality

Gear Sets

• Some have a profane bonus
• 5 Piece sets
  • Isle of Dread
  • Feywild
  • Vecna
  • Barovia

Artifacts

1. Feywild
2. Dread
3. Vecna
4. Saltmarsh
5. Mythdranor Solar Gems

These notes feel incredibly vague. Could and should definitely elaborate on several of them to actually help newer players.

Some things to mention:

Helpless damage is your friend. Feat attacks such as Stunning Blow and Stunning Fist (monk) render a monster helpless. Helpless monsters automatically take 50% additional damage. You can increase this bonus damage by taking the Crush Weakness epic feat, taking the Bully enhancement in the rogue, monk, and/or Falconry trees (each bonus stacks). Epic Destiny Mantles such as the Fury of the Wild mantle and Shadowdancer mantle can grant up to 18% additional damage to helpless creatures by upgrading them in those trees. The newer Dragon Lord class also grants +20% temporarily after using Dragon's Roar when you take the tier 5 heroic enhancement. There is a % bonus to helpless damage on many set bonuses found in Sharn, Feywild, Vecna, Myth Drannor, and Lamordia (All paid expansions); Sharn's Part of the Family set bonus being a good example. Not only can you deal more damage to helpless creatures, but if they cant hit you, that increases your survivability.

Secondly, I've found Quick Cutter to arguably out-DPS's Adrenaline, even in endgame, after it was significantly buffed. It not only attacks everything around you (360) twice, but it also adds a huge slashing damage over time effect, usually triggering 2 times, dealing about 5k each on reaper 10. Adrenaline is also single target, while quick cutter is area of affect.

Lastly, I would also make mention of the epic level feats: Patience, Deific Warding, Crush Weakness, and as you have, Arcane Warrior.
Patience increases your weapon's critical multiplier by 1, but reduces your attack speed by 10% (pretty ignorable with a haste boost)
Deific Warding increases your Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating by 2 anytime you take damage, stacking up to +20. Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating are stats which reduce incoming physical and magical damage by a percentage base; ie 250 PRR reduces incoming physical damage by about 75%. This falls off the higher you g ie requires more and more PRR for less percentage return.
Crush Weakness increases your damage to helpless creatures by 15%. I cannot stress enough having one attack/ability that renders enemies helpless.
Arcane Warrior increases your universal spellpower (essentially increases all spellpowers) by 2 every time you deal damage with a melee or ranged weapon, up to +40. Additionally, whenever you deal damage with a spell, you gain +1 Melee Power and +1 Ranged Power, which stacks up to +20. For new players, the reason OP suggested the Warlock splash was so you can use the Eldritch Aura, which turns your Eldritch Blast ability into an aura that deals damage around your player. Each time this aura deals damage, you will gain +1 Melee Power and +1 Ranged Power, as the aura counts as a damaging spell.
Definitely a lot more to add, which I will later on.