Reaper Endgame Centered Dragon Lord

[Dragxon]

I have tried a couple Dragon Lord builds since the update and this has been the highest dps build of them and probably the best raid dps build I have played period. Its not quite as good in R10s as the top tier dps but it is right below them.

This not a new player friendly build and very skill intensive because you need to play very well to survive situations as it is a squishy build.

My current mentality for builds is that it should strength based and either be raging for the extra strength or be centered in master of sun stance for the extra crit multi on 19-20. This build came from that rule and I am very happy with it.

Aasimar 14 Sacred Fist, 5 Dragon Lord, 1 Monk, GMoF (36), SD (23), FS (14)

https://imgur.com/UVO2XZA

These are my stats self buffed.

Other important dps numbers.

https://imgur.com/CF39x0q

https://imgur.com/R5kfVBq

Enhancements:

https://imgur.com/yzfdUOs

The Dragon Lord tree is really strong and also really cheap so you can pretty much grab all of it. The Sacred Fist tree is also very nice as it gives move speed, offhand strike chance, and probably the best imbue. The tier 4 Sacred Fist imbue is very important to get because it changes the imbue from fire to light damage.
I have been testing dropping Vistani for even more points in Sacred Fist and a couple in Harper but its about the same either way.

Feats

1	Power Attack
3	Follower of the Sovereign Host
6	WF Slashing
9	Improved Crit Slashing
12	ITWF
15	GTWF
18	Adept Forms
Monk	TWF
Fighter	TWF Defense
Fighter	Knight's Training
21	Master Forms
22	PTWF
24	Overwhelming Crit
25	Crush Weakness
27	WS Slashing
28	Doublestrike
30	Child of Faith
30	Scion of Arborea
31	Embodiment of Law

I took Monk at level 5 and Fighter level 13-17 but this is not the optimal order for leveling/feats.

Epic Destinies:

https://imgur.com/dJcNN9j

I am using the GMoF mantle and the Fatesinger epic strike. With the full 75 points I would grab another 10 mrr cap from GMoF.
I have tried out many of the epic strikes and The Sword Sings has been the one I am most impressed with.


Gear:

	14 Sacred Fist 5 Dragonlord 1 Monk						Augments	Set Bonus
Body	Dino 3% Profane DS, Profane SA, 5% Dodge Bypass		2 Profane SA Dice	3% Profane DS	5% Dodge Bypass		2	Dread Stalker
Eyes	Legendary Eternal Flameguard's Lenses		Deadly 11	Q Deadly 3	15% DS	3% Q DS	1	Legendary Temple's Inferno
Head	Dino Int 14, Seeker, Relentless Fury		Int 14	Seeker 14	Relentless Fury		2	Dread Stalker
Neck	Dino Art Str 15, Acc 23, 17 Stunning, 23% AP		Str 15	Accuracy 23	Stunning 17	23% AP	3	The Legendary Dread Isle's Curse
Trinket	Legendary Gem of Many Facets		153% Fortification	36% Electric Absorption	Ins PRR 17		1	Legendary Raven's Eye
Back	Legendary Dread Stalker's Cloak		Ghostly	Dex 14	Ins Deception 5	Ins Seeker 6	2	Dread Stalker
Waist	Legendary Belt of the Ram		Ram's Might	Speed 30%	Q Str 3	Con 13	1	Eminence of Summer
Hands	Legendary Raven's Talons		Dex 13	Bluff 20	Seeker 13	Deception 11	2	Legendary Raven's Eye
Feet	Legendary Magma Waders		Speed 30%	36% Fire Absorption	Fire Resistance 53	Wis 14	2	The Legendary Dread Isle's Curse
Ring 1	Legendary Lionheart Ring		Stunning 15	Action Boosts	9% Ins AP	Ins Con 6	1	Eminence of Summer
Ring 2	Legendary Signet Ring of the Sky		Devotion 149	Radiance 149	Nullification 149		2	The Legendary Dread Isle's Curse
Wrists	Legendary Vambrace of the Summer Court		Ins Seeker 6	6% Ins DS	Extra Smite	Cha 13	1	Eminence of Summer
Weapon	Dino Longsword		Icescale	Meltfang	Flameclaw	Melthorn	2	The Legendary Dread Isle's Curse
Off Hand	Dino Longsword		Icescale	Icefang	Meltclaw	Shadowhorn	2	The Legendary Dread Isle's Curse
							24
Filigrees	Raid +2 Str Rare	x2
	Sucker Punch MP Rare
	Shattered Device MP Rare	x2
	Shattered Device: Attack and Damage
	Shattered Device: Strength
	Treachery MP Rare	x2
	Treachery Threat Reduction Rare
	The Long Shadow: MP Rare	x2
	The Long Shadow: Attack and Damage
	Snowpeak's Gifts: Imbue Dice
Augments	Deconstructor	x2
	Feareater	x2
	Hit Points +54
	Dodge +12%
	Melee/Ranged Power +10
	Emerald of Arcane Empowerment
	Ravil's Book of Legendary Recipes
	Resistance +11
	Heal/Neg./Rep. Amplification +57
	PRR and MRR +36
	Diamond of Festive Strength +2
	Diamond of Festive Constitution +2
	Globe of True Imperial Blood
	Sapphire of Greater Heroism
	Sapphire of Good Luck +3
	Emerald of Greater Smiting
	Legendary Undying Sapphire
	Legendary Sapphire of Riposte
	Insightful Strength +5
	Feather Falling
	Insightful Charisma +5

I have been very happy with this gearset for basically any strength based melee and find it beats out vecna gear dps wise though it is a little squisher. The other good thing is that it only requires a single roll on the gem of many facets for Raven's Eye.
The filigrees are getting some extra imbue dice but you can also just wear prowess all the time if you dont want to swap. If you use prowess fulltime drop 1 treachery MP, the long shadow, and the snowpeaks.

Pros:
Very high DPS and lots of debuffs (Dust, Ooze, Vuln, Shattered Device, Bring Darkness)
Good CC with mid 130s Dragon Roar and 140 ish Blade of Discord
Lots of Absorption (75% fire absorption, 60% electric absorption, 15% evil and chaos absorption)
Lay on Hands and Healing Hands for emergency healing

Cons:
Squishy (70 Mrr, low Prr, and only split the soul as temp dodge)
Low AOE Damage (Only 2 Cleaves)
Lots of around 1 minute temp buffs (Sanctified Fervor Buff, Tensors, Prayer, Divine Purpose)
No Temp HP from rages

Thanks for reading and I will try to answer any questions.

 

[Ying]

What's your standing doublestrike and dodge?

I don't see Whirling Steel Strike listed in your feats, but you only list 2 Fighter bonus feats when you have 3.

 

[Dragxon]

What's your standing doublestrike and dodge?

I don't see Whirling Steel Strike listed in your feats, but you only list 2 Fighter bonus feats when you have 3.

Dodge is 30%
Doublestrike is a little low at 87% with another 5% from aasimar wings. I just use reaper boost to cap.

For feats I get whirling steel strike from GMoF and as a dragon lord your bonus feats at 1, 8, and 16 are the auras.

 

[Ying]

Ah, forgot about the DL aura at level 1. WSS in GMOF makes sense.

You've optimized the damage potential very well -- 399 MP is impressive. This is a gear setup @Viamel would love.

 

[Neurik]

This is the build I am thinking about using to wrap up some of the key archetype lives I am missing. Considering going Qstaff and Human to front load more feats since I am only planning to go to 20 with it. In that case what order would you level, Monk, then 5 DL then all SF to 20 in that order?

 

[Dragxon]

This is the build I am thinking about using to wrap up some of the key archetype lives I am missing. Considering going Qstaff and Human to front load more feats since I am only planning to go to 20 with it. In that case what order would you level, Monk, then 5 DL then all SF to 20 in that order?

If you are going quarterstaff in heroics you should be taking at least 1 lvl of rogue for the 15% attack speed with quarterstaff. This is not a great build for heroics but if you want a 1-20 build with quarterstaff that gets sacred fist past life I would probably go 3 rogue 8 dragon lord 9 sacred fist or something like that. There's not really a point to early sacred fist levels because most of the power of sacred fist comes from holy sword at level 14.

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

why is this not a paladin build? is my 19/1 druid wizard build a wizard build?

 

[Neurik]

Because they are focused on the DL tree for their T5 enhancement choice

 

[Dragxon]

why is this not a paladin build? is my 19/1 druid wizard build a wizard build?

I am calling it a dragon lord build because its tier 5 dragon lord and dragon lord was what enabled the build. If you don't like it that's fine doesn't effect me.

Also if we are being technical it would be a sacred fist build not a paladin build.

 

[Drachmor]

I remember finding a similar split when SF just came out; it is REALLY fun to go balls-the-walls on charisma, because you get saves, AC, and to-hit and damage from CHA automatically with SF. Dragonlord has just made the build even better, because instead of going 1 level of FVS for the cha trance as I did, we can now just stick with dragonlord for the CHA trance AND pick up the T5 which ofc gives the extra +2 multiplier. Granted, your strength is pretty awesome lol, so. Maybe that isn't even necessary at this point.

Would you consider swapping some SF levels for more monk levels? You could free up some feat slots that way by getting some of the stances automatically! You'll also gain a few extra passive defenses by doing this.

Also, an idea that's been floating around in my head lately: Dragonlord for the +2 mult, 3 bard for the insane +4 crit range on certain weapons, and since you lose SF / Monk being a bard, going the rest in... well idk that part yet haha. Rogue maybe, for SA...? But I don't know if pursuing DPS that way is going to totally screw with the defenses, which are admittedly pretty important for high reapers lol.

Also... I've just been struggling to use anything other than Goldcursed in reaper >.> it's too nice man! Especially when I do go for the Vistani capstone, because the extra swingspeed (and melee power, now that I'm using a dagger) and all that jazz is nice.

 

[Dragxon]

I remember finding a similar split when SF just came out; it is REALLY fun to go balls-the-walls on charisma, because you get saves, AC, and to-hit and damage from CHA automatically with SF. Dragonlord has just made the build even better, because instead of going 1 level of FVS for the cha trance as I did, we can now just stick with dragonlord for the CHA trance AND pick up the T5 which ofc gives the extra +2 multiplier. Granted, your strength is pretty awesome lol, so. Maybe that isn't even necessary at this point.

Would you consider swapping some SF levels for more monk levels? You could free up some feat slots that way by getting some of the stances automatically! You'll also gain a few extra passive defenses by doing this.

Also, an idea that's been floating around in my head lately: Dragonlord for the +2 mult, 3 bard for the insane +4 crit range on certain weapons, and since you lose SF / Monk being a bard, going the rest in... well idk that part yet haha. Rogue maybe, for SA...? But I don't know if pursuing DPS that way is going to totally screw with the defenses, which are admittedly pretty important for high reapers lol.

Also... I've just been struggling to use anything other than Goldcursed in reaper >.> it's too nice man! Especially when I do go for the Vistani capstone, because the extra swingspeed (and melee power, now that I'm using a dagger) and all that jazz is nice.

Charisma based is interesting but it also suffers from being around 10+ behind being strength in this build alone and in raging builds it is even further behind. I have also never been happy with a charisma based gear set where this strength gearset is among one of the best. This same problem also applies to the other alternate damage stats, like when I played a dex tempest I really did not like it because my dex was way too low. If you have a suggestion for a full gearset that is for a charisma based dps I would be happy to look at it.

14 Sacred Fist levels are necessary to get the first level 4 spell slot which gives holy sword and that makes the crit profile 16-20 x5. It would be a huge dps loss giving up holy sword for more monk levels and it wouldn't really gain much. The defenses in this build are low because I prioritize damage so it would be counter productive to the build to drop dps to grab defenses. If you really want to do this I would suggest not using longswords and maybe going scimitars.

The Dragon lord, Bard, Rogue split is a common shadar kai split and is a very good build but it is also a much different build then this. There are many chains builds floating which is what you are thinking of.

 

[Mickeymouse]

I think you made some fairly odd unoptimized choices both in terms of gear and destiny.

gear: I always try to fit in raptor necky and the part of the family gloves on a melee for the procs alone.

destiny:
I love shadowdancer. but on this build its uses are very few.
GMOF wihout the epic strike? no wonder you think AOE sucks.. this is the best AOE killer machine for melee in the game. Tier 5 in gmof is weak and you didn´t even bother with EIN for some odd reason.
Fatesinger is just a big meh, you got nothing that meshes well with it, very few builds do. FS epic strike sounds like a winner on paper but in game -- and on this build just nah.

Both DC and Fotw would make stronger choices. Keep Gmof.

side notes, if anyone wonders if handwraps would be good on this type of build. The answer would be yes.

 

[Dragxon]

I think you made some fairly odd unoptimized choices both in terms of gear and destiny.

gear: I always try to fit in raptor necky and the part of the family gloves on a melee for the procs alone.

destiny:
I love shadowdancer. but on this build its uses are very few.
GMOF wihout the epic strike? no wonder you think AOE sucks.. this is the best AOE killer machine for melee in the game. Tier 5 in gmof is weak and you didn´t even bother with EIN for some odd reason.
Fatesinger is just a big meh, you got nothing that meshes well with it, very few builds do. FS epic strike sounds like a winner on paper but in game -- and on this build just nah.

Both DC and Fotw would make stronger choices. Keep Gmof.

side notes, if anyone wonders if handwraps would be good on this type of build. The answer would be yes.

Gear:
Gear will always be dependent on what mythic/reaper/card boosts are on your gear and my gear has been done with that in mind. More so just saying an item that would be nice is great and and all but unless you have a specific piece/pieces that you would replace for it then your feedback is hard to implement so if you have any complete gear suggestions or items that you would replace for your suggestions then I would be happy to have a discussion but I can still address the 2 pieces you suggested because I did think about them when crafting this gearset.

The Hammerfist and by extension cannith combat infusion is good but boils down to 5% doublestrike (since I am maintaining tensors with scrolls) with a low proc rate that is over cap when I use my reaper doublestrike boost. I would say the more interesting cannith combat infusion items are the belts from vecna but I would only use those if I already had rams might from somewhere else.

The Raptor Teeth Necklace is again good but again boils down to enhanced bloodrage. It could be used as a swap to get the proc since its a 3 min buff annd then swap back to the regular neck but for my gear it is not worth it to swap my minor artifact. If you used a dino minor artifact ring along with a dino pendant then you could make the swap to get the proc easier. I did consider this but I have a dino minor artifact neck with reaper power and a signet ring with M3 while I do not have a reaper power boosted pendant and only a M1 dino minor artifact ring I think which leads to me using this gear. But in the future if I could swap my minor artifact to the ring slot I would probably use the raptor teeth necklace as a swap. It is something I could have mentioned in my write up and probably should have.

Epic Strikes:
I might as well talk about epic strikes in general. I categorize them in 2 categories damage strikes and cc strikes.

For cc strikes there is dire charge, drifting lotus, and consecration (in R10s consecration is mostly used as cc and not for the 10% damage boost but in raids it is the highest dps epic strike if its the first copy of it). Dire charge is just pretty bad. Drifting lotus is good and has some aoe cleaves attached to it which makes its aoe pretty decent but its pretty bad for red named damage so thats why I classify it as a cc strike. Consecration in R10s is mostly used to cower mobs since most packs wont last long enough to get the full duration of the crusade buff but on the upside its red named damage is very good.

For damage strikes there is the sword sings, shadowstrike, adrenaline, quick cutter, and consecration (in raids). Lets talk about the easy 2 before the rest. Consecration is the best in raid if its the first one if its the 2nd then its way worse not much more to say. Shadowstrike is only good with high sneak attack dice and was really handicapped by the nerf of it only procing the bane damage every 1 second so its mostly ignored. For the other 3 its pretty easy to just calculate the damage and dps of them and my guildies have done this. For a fight over 20 seconds quick cutter is the highest damage, it is also a whirlwind attack but does not give an offhand hit. Adrenaline is highest spike damage but falls off in extended fights and in R10s can result in damage being lost due to overkill. Sword sings gives an offhand attack and is the best strike for around a 5-15 second fight. It also has the bonus of being an attack chain reset which helps boost its damage.

In general for damage epic strikes I would say thf should still use adrenaline, swf should use quick cutter, and twf should use sword sings.

In regards to this build I have tried using drifting lotus but I found that I already had a lot of cc with dragons roar and I get the cleave attack that stuns from fatesinger as another cc. With that much cc I went with a damage strike and that's sword sings. Also when I say that it is low aoe damage that is because my previous build was chains which is the "best AOE killer machine". I did use drifting lotus with that build and while its good the chains was still the majority of the aoe damage.

Shadowdancer:
Shadowdancer is the best secondary dps destiny out of any epic destinies. What I mean by that is pick the tree you will go tier 5 in and then put 11-23 points in shadowdancer. Its so much more damage than any other tree for the 11-23 point investment. For 11 points in the tree you get:
15 melee power
6 sneak attack dice
30% threat reduction
and at 23 points spent in the tree you get:
20 melee power
7 sneak attack dice
30% threat reduction
5% doublestrike
18% fort bypass
-9 prr and mrr debuff
3% dodge bypass and helpless damage
It is fantastic dps and that's not even counting the utility so I will not hear any shadowdancer slander.

EIN:
I have tried ein out and its just underwhelming, everything else in the tier 5 of grandmaster is better than it for this build.

 

[Mickeymouse]

ypur not not using drifting lotus thou. * drop mic * so we can drop 50% of the textwall you dropped. lets be real here... your in the hands of the best AOE toon ever and you do not realise it. enuff said.

 

[Ying]

IMO Shadow Strike is primarily for applying Shadow Loss which lasts 5 min. It's something you use once to debuff a boss, then use other epic strikes like Adrenaline. Problem is it's reliant on Assassinate. So generally that means only Assassins and Monks (because of Quivering Palm) are going to consistently apply the debuff.

Drifting Lotus is phenomenal for trash clearing. The cooldown is a tad too long IMO. 12 seconds would be perfect.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Consecrate on a melee. I've done many lives acquiring RXP as a Divine Crusader chain Assassin using Cower for CC. But it suffers from two things: Cooldown is twice as long as Adrenaline, and combat is dynamic so it rarely remains stationary long enough to benefit beyond the initial Cower. Consecrate is great for raids where you can tank and ***** the boss.

Anytime I play a melee without Adrenline it just feels bad. But to each their own.

I agree EiN is underwhelming, at least in the delete-six-mobs-every-3-minutes. It's decent to double the bonus from Elusive Target if you like to solo harder content, since you can maintain 100% of the time. I take it on my Monk.

 

[unknown32]

Looks like a solid build; could you give a breakdown of the melee power?

 

[hent]

I use the same build but Horc with wraps, using T5 DC (embodiment of law + free crusade on all smite evil procs)
tier 4 SD basically what you stated
tier 3 GmoF for 3% DS & +6 hit/dmg in fire stance

crit profile is a little bit worse 17-20 x4 compared to 16-20 x5

thought about using Lswords, just wonder why would you completely ignore Divine crusader, as it has so much synergy with Paladin / Sacred fist, even though the epic moment sucks ass, i'll give you that (specifically for soloing).

my epic strikes i'm using is consecration (just if i need extra CC), and the SD one for taking down bosses. Also curious on your MP breakdown as i have much less.

 

[Dragxon]

Looks like a solid build; could you give a breakdown of the melee power?

Melee Power:
4 Tome
72 Epic and Legendary Levels
20 Arborea
3 Henshin Mystic Core 1
5 Ravager Core 2
10 Aasimar Fallen Bond
24 Reaper Points
55 Epic Destiny Cores
10 Melee Power Augment
15 Artifact Set Bonus
15 Profane Set Bonus
15 Righteous Command
2 Weapon Focus Slashing
2 Weapon Specialization Slashing
63 Filigrees
15 Mythic/Reaper Boosted
330 Standing

19 Sanctified Fervor 5 Piece Swap
50 Prowess Swap
399 Temporary Buffs

 

[Dragxon]

IMO Shadow Strike is primarily for applying Shadow Loss which lasts 5 min. It's something you use once to debuff a boss, then use other epic strikes like Adrenaline. Problem is it's reliant on Assassinate. So generally that means only Assassins and Monks (because of Quivering Palm) are going to consistently apply the debuff.

Drifting Lotus is phenomenal for trash clearing. The cooldown is a tad too long IMO. 12 seconds would be perfect.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Consecrate on a melee. I've done many lives acquiring RXP as a Divine Crusader chain Assassin using Cower for CC. But it suffers from two things: Cooldown is twice as long as Adrenaline, and combat is dynamic so it rarely remains stationary long enough to benefit beyond the initial Cower. Consecrate is great for raids where you can tank and ***** the boss.

Anytime I play a melee without Adrenline it just feels bad. But to each their own.

I agree EiN is underwhelming, at least in the delete-six-mobs-every-3-minutes. It's decent to double the bonus from Elusive Target if you like to solo harder content, since you can maintain 100% of the time. I take it on my Monk.

You are correct about shadow strike I just haven't played an assassinate build in years now that I have forgotten about it.

I would highly suggest at least trying some epic strikes other than adrenaline when you have a build that has good cc like a dragonlord. Its just good to remember that you have options when it comes to other dps strikes.

I use the same build but Horc with wraps, using T5 DC (embodiment of law + free crusade on all smite evil procs)
tier 4 SD basically what you stated
tier 3 GmoF for 3% DS & +6 hit/dmg in fire stance

crit profile is a little bit worse 17-20 x4 compared to 16-20 x5

thought about using Lswords, just wonder why would you completely ignore Divine crusader, as it has so much synergy with Paladin / Sacred fist, even though the epic moment sucks ass, i'll give you that (specifically for soloing).

my epic strikes i'm using is consecration (just if i need extra CC), and the SD one for taking down bosses. Also curious on your MP breakdown as i have much less.

The biggest things holding back a combination of T5 DC T4 SD T3 GMoF is having a lackluster epic strike for R10s since dragonlord already has good cc in the form of dragons roar. Another thing is that it would require being woodelf to hit 100% offhand strike chance. Also the epic mantle would need to be the divine crusader mantle which would give 3 more attack and damage but give up 15% helpless damage. Lastly it would be an even squishier build in T5 DC because you are giving up another 10 mrr cap and all the absorptions that come from GMoF along with the epic moment.

It is something I may try in the future but its even more of a glass canon.

 

[hent]

Another thing is that it would require being woodelf to hit 100% offhand strike chance.

Can't you get offhand chance from both DL & SF trees? may be that you need to give up something, but opens using any race. I personally like Horc for helpless + hit & dmg on all weapons