Druid 9 - Dragon Lord 8 - Monk 3

Goldy

The Top Side
A Guildie, a very casual player at that, has played a Strimtom Bark with Bite build since before it was Nerfed from Orbit. We have finally convinced him to Reincarnate, however he would like to stay with a similar playstyle for his next life. In discussion about this we had several ideas, when last night I saw a Druid 9, Dragon Lord 8, Monk 3 Wolf build. At first blush it seems like what my guildie is looking for, but I don't know if my googlefoo failed me or what not but I don't seem to see a similar build on the forums. Any thoughts on how this build would be laid out?
 

unbongwah

Well-known member
First off, remember that Rage of the Beast uncenters you, so a druid / monk won't use it. The silver lining being you can go all-in on STR and use DLord's STR Battle Trance + Precision instead.

Second, remember that DLord does not get Kensei's One with the Blade; so you need to use a regular ki weapon, longsword with Whirling Steel Strike, or dagger / kukri with VKF's Deadly Blades. And if you plan to use kukris, I would want to do this as SDK for their chain attacks, although that requires a Heart of Wood to get rid of the initial rogue level.

Stats: max STR > enough DEX for Precision and Whirlwind Attack > max CON

Heroic feats: Natural Fighting x3, Precision, Improved Critical, Whirlwind Attack (plus pre-reqs), Master of Forms for crit bonus in Fire Stance (GM of forms optional)

Enhancements for SDK using kukri: 36 Dragonlord (all T5s inc. +2 crit multiplier) / 21 VKF (Celerity) / 17 SDK (Greater Chain Attack) / 6 Henshin (+6 MP +2 Imbue)
  • Non-SDK would have a lot more flexibility with APs, but obviously miss out on the extra AoE damage from chains, which IMO is one of the main reasons to consider using wolf instead of bear for this sort of hybrid.
Everything works AFAIK, although I don't know what the upside of this build would be over, say, SWF kukri DLord 16 / monk 3 / rogue 1. Without T5 Nature's Warrior, Winter Wolf attack speed bonus caps at 20% vs GSWF's 30%; and GSWF gets 1.5x STR modifier to damage vs wolf only getting 1x for using a 1H weapon. So: lower melee DPS and fewer DLord perks for some buff / cure spells and novelty, I guess?

If you used quarterstaves instead of kukris, you'd regain 1.5x STR bonus to damage and pickup some passives from Henshin. But Quick Strike doesn't work in animal forms, the critical threat range for most staves is a lot worse than kukris, and you'd lose the kukri-specific bonuses from VKF, so it seems like a wash or downgrade to me.
 
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