Melee Dark Apostate

[Frantik]

Hi, this is a bare bones description, and when I start this build i'll update this thread. It is not F2P.

Inspired by other contributors (Kali and the Beckon cleric creators). Big wink to the Beckon guys (Griglok and Tronko).

I aim to build for fun and levelling performance mainly with Hardcore in mind. So the idea behind this build is survivability, damage and defence. WIS to hit and damage, CHA-based Trance, Two Weapon Fighting and The Blood Feast filigree set.

Shifter Chaotic-Neutral pure Dark Apostate (no past lives required*)
+8 Supreme Tome recommended
STR8 DEX16 CON14 INT10 WIS16 CHA14 (32 point build, add 2 to INT and STR for 36 points)

*Note1: if past lives (and racial AP), an 18/1/1 barb/FvS would be a very good option

80AP: War Priest 41, Falconry 12, Dark Apostate 8, Shifter 19 (Howl of Terror SLA)
Sun Domain, Longsword
Heroic Feats: MAXIMIZE, QUICKEN, TWF, EMPOWER, KNIGHT'S TRAINING, iTWF and gTWF
Epic Feats: Improved Critical (Slashing), Overwhelming Critical, Intensify and Epic Fortitude
Destiny Feats: Perfect TWF, Doublestrike, Harbinger of Chaos and Deific Warding
Legendary Feat: Celestial for Health, Fire for MRR/PRR or Arborea for MP (i think all are viable)

Destiny Trees (I have 63 points on a first lifer so bare with me!)
- FotW 38 (all tier 5 except Wilderness one), all cores, Quick Cutter, +20% off-hand, +3 rages and +3% chance to recharge rage from melee
- Undying Sentinel 1 (+35 health +5 MP)
- Exalted Angel 24 (4th core Blessing, Wraith Mantle and all upgrades, No Fail Will Save on a 1, Shadows Upon You, Cure SLA, Evo DCs)

Sun Domain should allow flexibility for some ranged dps with EA Sun Pillar; they also proc the Wraith Mantle extra damage, so on my current test build (melee warlock) i can throw Sun Pillar onto a nearby mob, use Leap to get up close and the Wraith DoT is now proc'ed and lasts the full 15 seconds
The Blood Feast filigree set provides +100 health per epic/legendary level; you are a healer. You have (say) 10+ rages that (i) regenerate over time and (ii) regenerate 3% of time you hit something. Receive a huge hit from a boss? Hit the Rage key!
Essentially you have 3 ccs; Howl of Terror (Enchantment), Sunburst(Evo) and Implosion (Evo). The first two are cheap as chips, use them frequently!

Gear
I'm aiming for 3 pc Vecna Lost Purpose set (Legendary Devil's Infernal Dance) +3 Artifact to abilities, +15% Artifact DS, +30% Artifact Fort Bypass, +15% Artifact MP
5 pc Vecna set (as you can/want - the Kept Descent boots are very nice for undead)
3 pc Summer set (Princes Gloves and both rings) +30 Artifact MRR
2 pc Winter set (same gloves and Necklace) +30 Artifact PRR
Off-hand Bone Longsword
Main Hand the best longsword at your disposal
Blood Feast filigree set

As a first lifer, even without tomes, this build will provide +12 WIS, +4 DEX and +4 CON from just heroic trees while raging. Undead form comes with a bunch of free immunities and +100% fortification. The War Priest tree provides +22 AC, +30 fire/light spellpower, +10 MRR/PRR, +10 Doublestrike but most importantly a BAB equivalent to a fighter's! Oh yeah, and approx +30% health, blur and haste. To Hit? WIS-based, CHA trance, Bless, Prayer and Magic Fang.

Currently farming Vecna for items. Will start when farming complete. All feedback welcome!

 

[Asterphen]

This looks very intriguing. I am missing shifter race (easy to pickup) and the summer rings. I am thinking I have two options for the rings: either use the VOD rings (omniscience and tumbleweed for the MRR from mind over matter) or throw the nocturne and winter ring on for 30% heal amp and 10% hp bonus. Regardless and irregardless, This sounds more interesting to me than just running a straight cleric life when I am planning on TRing once I am at cap anyway. .... blood feast filigree from 20-32... intriguing

 

[MacGyver]

Hi, this is a bare bones description, and when I start this build i'll update this thread. It is not F2P.

Inspired by other contributors (Kali and the Beckon cleric creators). Big wink to the Beckon guys (Griglok and Tronko).

I aim to build for fun and levelling performance mainly with Hardcore in mind. So the idea behind this build is survivability, damage and defence. WIS to hit and damage, CHA-based Trance, Two Weapon Fighting and The Blood Feast filigree set.

Shifter Chaotic-Neutral pure Dark Apostate (no past lives required*)
+8 Supreme Tome recommended
STR8 DEX16 CON14 INT10 WIS16 CHA14 (32 point build, add 2 to INT and STR for 36 points)

*Note1: if past lives (and racial AP), an 18/1/1 barb/FvS would be a very good option

80AP: War Priest 41, Falconry 12, Dark Apostate 8, Shifter 19 (Howl of Terror SLA)
Sun Domain, Longsword
Heroic Feats: MAXIMIZE, QUICKEN, TWF, EMPOWER, KNIGHT'S TRAINING, iTWF and gTWF
Epic Feats: Improved Critical (Slashing), Overwhelming Critical, Intensify and Epic Fortitude
Destiny Feats: Perfect TWF, Doublestrike, Harbinger of Chaos and Deific Warding
Legendary Feat: Celestial for Health, Fire for MRR/PRR or Arborea for MP (i think all are viable)

Destiny Trees (I have 63 points on a first lifer so bare with me!)
- FotW 38 (all tier 5 except Wilderness one), all cores, Quick Cutter, +20% off-hand, +3 rages and +3% chance to recharge rage from melee
- Undying Sentinel 1 (+35 health +5 MP)
- Exalted Angel 24 (4th core Blessing, Wraith Mantle and all upgrades, No Fail Will Save on a 1, Shadows Upon You, Cure SLA, Evo DCs)

Sun Domain should allow flexibility for some ranged dps with EA Sun Pillar; they also proc the Wraith Mantle extra damage, so on my current test build (melee warlock) i can throw Sun Pillar onto a nearby mob, use Leap to get up close and the Wraith DoT is now proc'ed and lasts the full 15 seconds
The Blood Feast filigree set provides +100 health per epic/legendary level; you are a healer. You have (say) 10+ rages that (i) regenerate over time and (ii) regenerate 3% of time you hit something. Receive a huge hit from a boss? Hit the Rage key!
Essentially you have 3 ccs; Howl of Terror (Enchantment), Sunburst(Evo) and Implosion (Evo). The first two are cheap as chips, use them frequently!

Gear
I'm aiming for 3 pc Vecna Lost Purpose set (Legendary Devil's Infernal Dance) +3 Artifact to abilities, +15% Artifact DS, +30% Artifact Fort Bypass, +15% Artifact MP
5 pc Vecna set (as you can/want - the Kept Descent boots are very nice for undead)
3 pc Summer set (Princes Gloves and both rings) +30 Artifact MRR
2 pc Winter set (same gloves and Necklace) +30 Artifact PRR
Off-hand Bone Longsword
Main Hand the best longsword at your disposal
Blood Feast filigree set

As a first lifer, even without tomes, this build will provide +12 WIS, +4 DEX and +4 CON from just heroic trees while raging. Undead form comes with a bunch of free immunities and +100% fortification. The War Priest tree provides +22 AC, +30 fire/light spellpower, +10 MRR/PRR, +10 Doublestrike but most importantly a BAB equivalent to a fighter's! Oh yeah, and approx +30% health, blur and haste. To Hit? WIS-based, CHA trance, Bless, Prayer and Magic Fang.

Currently farming Vecna for items. Will start when farming complete. All feedback welcome!

How did you get on?
I really loved leveling the Apostate, super easy leveling build from Kali but I am going to go it alone for my next build.
Dark Apostate and Dragon Lord , 14DA/5DL + 1 of whatever
2WF longswords
DA will never be the king of DPS but makes for a fantastic flavor build.
It can hold its own on R1-R3 quite comfortably and is incredibly tanky
I will be forgoing the Warlock death aura I had last build but its not required, the Harm spell is all I really ever used along side all the free curse on crit enhances, which work well and proc on literally everything you hit.
I think if devs did a rework on the DA it could really shine. Melee wise
For DC caster there is no point in playing a DA, may as well roll a Cleric or FvS

 

[Fenryn]

I recently made a new character on Cormyr before the new 64-bit server changes were announced, and my first life on that character was DLord 6 / DA 14 using SWF. It was a bit rocky early on, but incredibly smooth after getting the undead form. I put very little effort into optimizing the build and I blazed to 30 pretty quickly, though I'd say that's more because DLord is some crazy power creep.

I agree that having Dark Apostate fully embrace the frontliner/debuffer role would go over really well, though I think it would need a few more things to really elevate it. Expanded Favored Weapon options similar to KotC, and a Cleave-Like would be interesting. I would doubly love to see some sort of melee attack effect that would be affected by metamagics like an SLA in its T5, to motivate people taking T5 in Dark Apostate.

 

[Frantik]

How did you get on?
I really loved leveling the Apostate, super easy leveling build from Kali but I am going to go it alone for my next build.
Dark Apostate and Dragon Lord , 14DA/5DL + 1 of whatever
2WF longswords
DA will never be the king of DPS but makes for a fantastic flavor build.
It can hold its own on R1-R3 quite comfortably and is incredibly tanky
I will be forgoing the Warlock death aura I had last build but its not required, the Harm spell is all I really ever used along side all the free curse on crit enhances, which work well and proc on literally everything you hit.
I think if devs did a rework on the DA it could really shine. Melee wise
For DC caster there is no point in playing a DA, may as well roll a Cleric or FvS

Hi, I am so sorry, I didn't actually start this planned build as I got pulled into another direction: Chaosmancer 18/1/1 DA/FvS/Sorc. It's another hybrid melee caster and uses CM fire immunity strip and from memory is something like:

14/8/14/12/18/10 (base)
19 AP into CM for fire immunity stripper
37 AP into WP (6 AP into T5 + core 5)
13 AP into Falconry for WIS to hit and damage
4 AP into War Soul
1 AP into Fire Savant
rest into DA (i have a few more than 80 AP in total) for undead form and evil imbue

THF (bastard sword) with Shield allowing me to use Myth Drannor +15% legendary health large shield (from Ettercap quest).

Fire Domain for amazing AoE SLA.

It's horribly feat starved bc you need metas and you need melee feats so some epic feat choices end up being heroic feats.

At the moment I am going Exalted Angel (Wraithful mantle) as main ED, and 2 secondaries in Primal Avatar (heart, Primal Spell, +2 WIS and CHA) and FotW for Cutter. EA while not being the best choice for melee provides a lot of utility (debuffs, more damage or heals and +25 AC/PRR/MRR by T5). One of the nice aspects to the build is that I only need to think about Evocation and don't take appropriate heroic SF feats (+10 evo DCs from EA).

It's a fun build. Still struggle to self target with Harm but I "cheat" and still use Heal as its naturally easier to use.

 

[MacGyver]

Hi, I am so sorry, I didn't actually start this planned build as I got pulled into another direction: Chaosmancer 18/1/1 DA/FvS/Sorc. It's another hybrid melee caster and uses CM fire immunity strip and from memory is something like:

14/8/14/12/18/10 (base)
19 AP into CM for fire immunity stripper
37 AP into WP (6 AP into T5 + core 5)
13 AP into Falconry for WIS to hit and damage
4 AP into War Soul
1 AP into Fire Savant
rest into DA (i have a few more than 80 AP in total) for undead form and evil imbue

THF (bastard sword) with Shield allowing me to use Myth Drannor +15% legendary health large shield (from Ettercap quest).

Fire Domain for amazing AoE SLA.

It's horribly feat starved bc you need metas and you need melee feats so some epic feat choices end up being heroic feats.

At the moment I am going Exalted Angel (Wraithful mantle) as main ED, and 2 secondaries in Primal Avatar (heart, Primal Spell, +2 WIS and CHA) and FotW for Cutter. EA while not being the best choice for melee provides a lot of utility (debuffs, more damage or heals and +25 AC/PRR/MRR by T5). One of the nice aspects to the build is that I only need to think about Evocation and don't take appropriate heroic SF feats (+10 evo DCs from EA).

It's a fun build. Still struggle to self target with Harm but I "cheat" and still use Heal as its naturally easier to use

I think for me I will mix in Ranger or DH levels and take the Divine Crusader enhance for long bows
Just not decided on how many DA levels to rangers yet.
Ranged AoE is nice and all the top players on our server were all Xbow repeater
I just really hate cookie cutter pew pew pew, but melee DA did struggle a bit on higher R's ( probably my lack of gear )
I think ranged would pump out more dps and be somewhat safer.
Bastard sword is a bit.... underwhelming in all honesty.
There is also kukri vistani as another divine crusader option to make those as favored weapons.
Dual wield could be had with favored weapons

 

[Frantik]

I think for me I will mix in Ranger or DH levels and take the Divine Crusader enhance for long bows
Just not decided on how many DA levels to rangers yet.
Ranged AoE is nice and all the top players on our server were all Xbow repeater
I just really hate cookie cutter pew pew pew, but melee DA did struggle a bit on higher R's ( probably my lack of gear )
I think ranged would pump out more dps and be somewhat safer.
Bastard sword is a bit.... underwhelming in all honesty.
There is also kukri vistani as another divine crusader option to make those as favored weapons.
Dual wield could be had with favored weapons

with Firestorm, Holy Fireball and Wraithul Mantle, you kinda burn through enemies and not sp. But each to their own. gl hf

 

[MacGyver]

Hi, I am so sorry, I didn't actually start this planned build as I got pulled into another direction: Chaosmancer 18/1/1 DA/FvS/Sorc. It's another hybrid melee caster and uses CM fire immunity strip and from memory is something like:

14/8/14/12/18/10 (base)
19 AP into CM for fire immunity stripper
37 AP into WP (6 AP into T5 + core 5)
13 AP into Falconry for WIS to hit and damage
4 AP into War Soul
1 AP into Fire Savant
rest into DA (i have a few more than 80 AP in total) for undead form and evil imbue

THF (bastard sword) with Shield allowing me to use Myth Drannor +15% legendary health large shield (from Ettercap quest).

Fire Domain for amazing AoE SLA.

It's horribly feat starved bc you need metas and you need melee feats so some epic feat choices end up being heroic feats.

At the moment I am going Exalted Angel (Wraithful mantle) as main ED, and 2 secondaries in Primal Avatar (heart, Primal Spell, +2 WIS and CHA) and FotW for Cutter. EA while not being the best choice for melee provides a lot of utility (debuffs, more damage or heals and +25 AC/PRR/MRR by T5). One of the nice aspects to the build is that I only need to think about Evocation and don't take appropriate heroic SF feats (+10 evo DCs from EA).

It's a fun build. Still struggle to self target with Harm but I "cheat" and still use Heal as its naturally easier to use.

I ran the build.
Wood Elf
Strength build ( max strength and Con at start, all level ups in strength )
14 Dark Apostate
6 Fighter ( Kensai tree ) ( take 1st and 2nd levels as fighter then as you feel, 2 levels cleric gives you the shroud. )

lvl 2 Falchion : Borderlands Ethereal , add ruby righteousness
lvl 10 Falchion : free one from into the mists / Ravenloft expansion

This build is crazy awesome DPS, with no gear and just the Borderlands lvl 2 Falchion, I was boringly soloing R1's , like no challenge at all, one shotting everything and doing crits of 160 damage at level 4
I was soloing R4 by level 10

My build is all strikethrough , wood elf falchion dps bonuses, Kensai falchion dps bonuses,
Dont waste feats on Cleave, or Greater cleave, grab slashing focus for Kensai +3 damage, grab other weapon feats
You don't need cleave, your strike through with haste pots just wrecks mobs.

Grab Quicken feat, and maximize at later levels for bigger self heals
Self healing is easy, just stay away from TAB targeting and any inflict will be cast on you
Even with basic neg heal amp, you will crit heal for 160+ by level 8

Run the DA shroud and curse up to Tier 4
Take Tier5 Kensai critical enhance etc .
17-18 points in Wood elf for all falchion damage bonuses
Grab cleric cha trance for added dps ( spam this , keep it on all the time )

Yes, total wrecking ball, immunes, cool looking
Just pack a few hundred haste pots, guild heal pots for early levels till you get your good ones