Looking for a decent build for my second life toon

[ChilledMage]

The main goal is to have decent DPS, and some survivability (Just enough so it doesn't die constantly in raids). This toon will stay at cap permanently and do primarily raids so I want to be useful. Race is already set to Aasimar Scourge. Planning on using a +20 Heart of Wood to change class. I have access to Sharn, IoD, Vecna, and MD gear (non-raid and non-rare for now). No past lives for now. Might do a few ER's in the future though.

 

[woq]

1) How much sentience are you starting from?
2) Are you farming your items alone?
3) Do you like weapon swaps?
4) Melee, ranged or ... *shudders* caster?
5) Do you want to do the damage yourself or is it ok if you make others do it better?

 

[ChilledMage]

) How much sentience are you starting from?
2) Are you farming your items alone?
3) Do you like weapon swaps?
4) Melee, ranged or ... *shudders* caster?
5) Do you want to do the damage yourself or is it ok if you make others do it better?

1. 7 on a weapon, will be 8 soon.
2. I usually open a lfm when I farm items so that other people can join and help.
3. Don't like it, but can do it if necessary.
4. I would prefer ranged, but ranged builds especially the ones without many past lives are kind of squishy so melee is fine too.
5. I want to do the damage.

I don't have any rare items on this toon as they are bound to character on my main. I do have imbuement and sneak attack dice gems though, so I could fit these into my gear set if necessary. I can trade with other players for any other non-rare augs. I only have a few raid items. Dino Runearm, Attuned Bastard Sword, BS from FoM, and Dino Light Armor. I also have enough runes for 1 more attuned dino weapon or a set piece

 

[Spook]

The main goal is to have decent DPS, and some survivability (Just enough so it doesn't die constantly in raids). This toon will stay at cap permanently and do primarily raids so I want to be useful. Race is already set to Aasimar Scourge. Planning on using a +20 Heart of Wood to change class. I have access to Sharn, IoD, Vecna, and MD gear (non-raid and non-rare for now). No past lives for now. Might do a few ER's in the future though.

Not sure I would waste a +20 on a second life toon but each to their own.

 

[ChilledMage]

Not sure I would waste a +20 on a second life toon but each to their own.

Yeah you're right. I forgot that leveling a third life is much faster now after the updates. I will probably reincarnate when I hit 30. It will give me +2 additional build points

 

[woq]

I don't know how proficient you are at the game so take anything with a grain of salt. Last time I made a comprehensive list of what might be useful I was met with a "some random dude on forums spouting nonsense pls im not a newb" -type msg. If it's helpful, fine. If it's not, then fine too.

Spoiler: Melee stuff

If melee: go monk for quick strikes or vistani for rapid slash => options are pure monk // DL/Monk split // Sacred Fist - DL - Monk split - this means robes though, so requires knowledge and absorption gearing to live or good mechanical play

Example splits/builds you might consider:
A) 18barb/1fvs/1whatever barb vistani kukris (both swf and twf work): t5 ld t3 sd t3 fury, t5 frenzied berseker, 41 vistani, rest in ravager/fvs tree for trance
B) 20 monk, wraps, 41 shintao 31 henshin rest in ninjaspy; t5 ld t3 gmof t3 sd OR t5 ld t3 fury t3 sd
C) 12 dh 8 dragonlord, 36 pts dl, 21-24 pts deepwood stalker, rest split in vistani/ravager - twf kukris
D) 12 DL 6 monk 2 sacred fist, warlock, dh, whatever could even be 14 dl 6 monk; 36 dl 22 henshin 16 shintao rest whatever (6pts ravager good option)
E) Bear/wolf druid; 11barb/8drd/1clr or whatever, grab t5 frenz and then druid trees: grab the mp while raging from bear tree regarless if u go wolf or druid, trance from cleric and haste from vistani and go to town with a falchion. Less good on aasimar than the other variants imho and lower doublestrike but wolf druid is not bad lowlife dps and they're fairly beefy. On these would recommend Adrenaline and focus on singletarget dmg and 100% ccing hard champ/trash targets with adren and bursting with fury epic moment and time it with a friendly timestopper.

- Melee split destinies: t5 fury or t5 ld, then fill with sd/fury/ld/dc for dmg, doublestrike, sneak/imbue dice/action boosts and tankiness.

- Melee gearing: berserker goggles, dinobone weapon(s), 3 vecna and fill profanes from MD, can go any dinobone arti for now or vecna upgraded belt for cannith combat infusion; grab absorb boots from MD to live even in robes or light armor.
- Use Illithid Tentacle from Pilgrims, Primal Scream and maybe Tenser scroll as well as swaps/buffs before str trance for dragonlords to hit DC's for Jade Strike even as str based split splash; cover str and stun dc as high as you can. Jade Strike + Elemental Words + Dust + Ooze + vuln from LD mantle + 80k weapon + 6k artifact twf kukris will be enough to solocarry dps on LH raids excluding Threats and [maybe] Den of Vipers if you play well and use your actives well.
- Consider the Raging bracers from Feytwisted chest - they're very good non"rare" item on raging toons.
- Ins. Sheltering comes very well for melees from KT Gloves if you wanna hunt for that, especially important for SWF toons.

Spoiler: Ranged stuff

Ranged options:
A) 20 monk shurimonk, 41 ninjaspy, 11 henshin, grab trance from Horizon Walker, rest in falcon/harper/shintao
B) 14 pala 4-6 arti 0-2 dl/monk; 41 inquis 23 battle engineer + either [8-12 harper + falconry/whatever from 2 splash] for int variant or 7 feydark 8 kotc for cha variant; 2 splash options DL gets you +1 feat, and ravager for action boosts while 2 monk gets you two extra feats and evasion with monk granting you deflect arrows which is quite helpful for squishy lowlife ranged and monk does get +1 imbue from henshin 1 core as a cheap freebie. You gain these benefits even if not centered, so you can still keep to light armors and get your monk evasions, henshin imbues and deflect arrows from feats just fine robeless.
C) 17 fvs 2-3 arti 0-1 whatever - gets you wings to stay out of trouble and fvs freebies for absorb&hp; 41 inquis 24+ war soul cha based rest wherever you damn please - 15 pts to do with as you choose. Could grab Caustic Shot/Action Boosts/Shatter Defenses from BE alongside some doubleshot and goodies or something else; 1 barb for ms or 1 dl for cheaper action boosts or whatever.
D) 20 arti; go look at Epicsouls build, don't go inquisitor, grab a repeater and go plinkplinkplink... plinkplinkplink ... plinkplinkplink instead of pewpew.pewpew.pewpew.
E) Go tanky inquisitor: 41 inquis 13-24 sacred defender or stalwart defender, rest in BE. 14 pala or ftr, 4-6 arti, 0 or 2 monk. Gets you +25% comp hp, in fighters case another 10% qual on top; gets you a lot of prr/mrr from sacred/stalwart defense, still okish dmg from inquis and either ftr feats or pala spells.
F) make some bow abomination
G) 12dh 6 arti 2 whatever is fine repeater/ranged toon; so is 12 arti 6 dh 2 rog or whatever. All the enh tree splits are similar: 41 inquis 23 be + grab trance/stat to hit/damage from arti spells/harper

Ranged gearing: 3 razorwit/sorakell, 3 dino/vecna, either 5 dino [with attuned + maybe dino runearm] and/or fill with MD sun/moon pieces. Use dust on your main and go to town.
Ranged split destinies: t5 shiradi t3 fatesinger t3 sd on all of them basically, use pluck and hunts end, press either no holds barred or fusilade or action boost: doubleshot and do damage.
Ranged epic feat notes: grab all the damage, but on first lifer i'd highly recommend defensive tumble and guarded actions. The 20% dr x2 on demand and enough dr t o get you through your NHB/Fusilade is very valuable and frankly underrated for PANIC! unless you simply can't use tumble well
Ranged HP: Going for ranger/dh splits is not bad because you get some free heroic durability hp from the free twf feats and if you go aasimar scourge the favored enemies are well put to use as well thanks to free Undead FE.

Spoiler: Generic gearing notes

Until you get better raid/rare pieces, certain items you should be mindful of:
- The Con +15/3 amulet with fortification from Wizards Lab in new Wheloon is very nice with 3 piece dinobone to cover Fort & Con efficiently; fill ins con with a raid item from Threats/MD or +5 ins con augment or +6 ins con gloves
- Grab False Life aug from one of the augment traders in expansion zones, farm a Ravils Leg Book from Vecna for Vitality and be less ZHP.
- The STR Trinket from Myth Drannor is simply fantastic for its +15 str and covering ins/qual seeker in most fantastic fashion and combines well with Myth Drannor quality strength ring from slayer area
- MD Slayer area drops MRR Cap rare augs; some people have these in excess over excessive farming during anniversary and you might be able to trade for one
- The boots from Portal to Below for all absorbs are so fantastic for living on lowlives that you should probably try to fit them into any setup you'll go for.
If/When you get bis rare artifacts or raid artifacts or something you can rework everything. Go take a look at Tronkos barb builds, Epicsouls artificer build for ideas on feats/enhancement tree splits: they work even on a lowlife, just adjust accordingly. Gear is less easy to work around imo - work with what you get nice boosts for, just cover arti/profane prr/mrr main stat; melee/ranged power and doublestrike/shot, deadly deception and seeker and rest is gravy.

Lowlife low-gear toons will work with what they get/have, so aiming for very powerful individual pieces to cover basics is good like combining the Wheloon amulet with a Profane MRR aug and the Portal to Below boots with Profane PRR aug on it is a stellar item combination for generic defense coverage; then can grab the Insightful +6 caster stat and +3 to all profane stats belt and slam your main ranged/melee power aug on that 3 vecna set + Doublestrike/Doubleshot aug from Dread, Berserker goggles with Artifact PRR and call it good until you feel like you need better stuff.

 

[ChilledMage]

Thank you. Options B, D and E ranged sound interesting. I have seen a lot of people playing 14/4/2 Inquis build. Epicsouls build seems nice too, but I am not sure how it would perform on a second lifer. He has 83 Destiny points as well as all the past lives.
Can you tell me more about options B and E? 25% + 10% qual HP is very nice. But what about self healing?

 

[woq]

Thank you. Options B, D and E ranged sound interesting. I have seen a lot of people playing 14/4/2 Inquis build. Epicsouls build seems nice too, but I am not sure how it would perform on a second lifer. He has 83 Destiny points as well as all the past lives.
Can you tell me more about options B and E? 25% + 10% qual HP is very nice. But what about self healing?

Don't get hit and it's a raid toon, someone should be healing hopefully.

Otherwise, healing spring from Shiradi, low lvl pala spells for the paladin and the Fighter/DL has Second Wind charges that also work for cleansing stat dmg which is a nice boon. But there is not a whole lot of self healing going on in those builds.