U74 Bird Master Paladin

handofgood

Well-known member
Welcome to my 2nd build post , (TL;DR video in the first comment)

The main objective of this build is to make a fun melee build that works in R10s and have some dps for pug LH/R1 raids. You'll be able instakill all of the instakillable trash (from distance) , blind a room full of mobs + reapers and be decent dmg dealer to red names.
Race:
Eladrin- good melee race giving you some nice dashing and bonuses and % to hit chance . you'd want to run wis+sneak while in well balanced groups or if you have odd wisdom. otherwise I used the dodge-dash . plus this is the racial I was on.
Alternate - Aasimar for centered version / Shifter for uncetered version.


Class split:
15/3/2 pal/dh/mnk . I used longswords i had in the bank so i needed crit profile from somewhere so paladin made sense to me . Also paladin has nice spells that aid melee with no AP cost . Dark hunter gave me a twf feat , and cool low hanging fruits in its tree (i did not try to disable traps but you could do that in theory). Monk split is common, if i wasnt locked into eladrin I might've done another split.

Stats:
18 con
18 wis
14 dex

Feats/feat order:
taking 3 DH , monk levels at 15 and 20 rest is paladin
1- Dodge , FE human
3- Mobility
4-Onatar
6- Imp TWF
9- Imp crit (slashing)
12- Greater TWF
15- Weapon focus slash , Whirling steel strike
18- Adept of forms
20-Precision
21-Overwhelming critical
22- Perfect TWF (idk if it works but took just in case)
24- Spring attack
25- Crush Weakness
27-Master of froms
28- Embodiment of law
30-Deflect arrows, Scion of the Astral Plane
31- Doublestrike
33-Grandmaster of forms
34- Legendary Toughness

Enhancements:
41 pts into falconry is the core of this flavor build , for me its a fun addition to melee that makes it less linear . Death from above feels great to use on melee , you can target a far archer while facing a red name striking the boss and instakilling the archer on the same hit , furthermore the instakill CD reset procs pretty often . Im grabbing 1 point into each of the bird attacks , sprint boost , the trance , assasinate DCs and wis to dmg. I get wis to hit from henshin mystic 1st core along with 3mp 3prr 1imbue dice. 23 AP in KotC gets me bunch of hit & dmg , good imbue and some dices , favored weapon longsword (while being onatar w/o crusader tree) knights training and exalted smite! great value if you ask me. 9 AP goes into Tempest granting us: 10% offhand strikechance, 2ppr/mrr+ 3sec on deflect arrows and haste boost. Im dipping into DH tree mainly for the 3 assasinate DCs.


Epic destinies:
ED layout for twf melee is pretty straight-forward: LD t5 action hero and legendary rally is very good for dps . shadow dancer is our 2nd tree for general dps and more assasinate DCs. If you have enough points , getting the first tier of the epic strike is nice ; it will have the dcs to land the debuff on the begining on the fight with red names (last for 5 min) . the build has high saves (110+ on all ) so improved evasion is a no brainer from SD . 3rd tree you guess it : Fury of the wild , quick cutter is the main reason , the heal from t4 is the 2nd reason and the last 10% offhand chance is the 3rd reason.

divine crusader might be an option for main tree , idk maybe for raids . Im having fun with LD atm.


Gear :
disclaimer : I used what I have mostly, didnt MinMax . I bet you can do better this is just a template for those who want to start with somthing.

Helmet: DinoBone (Dreadstalker)
Trinket: Hydra's Heart (quality Con 3)
Necklace: Raptor tooth (Legendary bulwark)
Goggles: Legendary goggles of Mediative Mind
Armor: DinoBone outfit (DreadStalker)
Cloak: Legendary Dread Stalker cloak (Dread stalker)
Bracers: Vermin keeper Bangle (Wis 15 , ins Con 6 )
Belt: Waiswap of wild wisdom (Ins wis 6, Prof well rounded 3, Prof PRR 30 )
Boots: Death's Deferral (falconry trance cons leads to this item, qual Wis 3)
Gloves: Masterwork Gauntlets (Leg Bulwark)
Ring 1: Tumbleweed (Mind and matter)
Ring 2: Omniscience (Mind and matter)
Weapons : Two dino bone longswords , thats what i had . Probably better with 1 undying and one dino covering magma and meltfang AND exeptional wisdom +2. ( dust and affirmation )

Filigrees:
slot what you're missing, you feel like u need more dcs? slot wisdom with melee oriented sets. feel like ur missing on dps ? slot mp . nothing too crazy. using suckerpunch/one agasint many ofc . If u want to use swaps , sanctified frevor + prowess would work here.

Pros:
- single target dps , not as much as meta ranged ubers but twf still feels fine.
- Instakill and bird cc got to 136 DC , very fun to play with 10/10 would recommend.
- 42% dodge , 48% with qc . (80% + if ur using eladrin dash)
- gets darkness debuff and mark the prey debuff , has two weapons for debuffs .
- not slow! 2 long jumps + sprint boost .
Cons:
- wears cloth , magic hurts probably should've slotted more absorbs .
- Can't push raids
- lacks high end crit profile

My personal opinion about patience on this specific build: patience slows ur attacks and actives , more time in animtaions = less actives in a given time and i wanted to press on all of my actives all the time, which led me to not take it. I might be wrong but the build functions well imo .

Credits : special thanks for Punneius that helped me with the gear tetris . copied Lominal's build posts format.
 
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Ghostwheel

Well-known member
I've been working on something similar, and I agree its a lot of fun, but currently pure Dark Hunter Aasimar.

Can you provide a breakdown of your assassinate DC? I may be missing something, but are you using an item with an assassinate bonus or the Claw slot on a dino weapon?

What do you find you like most about running as a paladin? DH has been interesting as I am playing as an odd Caster/Melee hybrid focusing on CC. I'm only level 12 with my experiment... so we shall see. Thinking about TRing later as a THF instead of TWF.
 

handofgood

Well-known member
Can you provide a breakdown of your assassinate DC? I may be missing something, but are you using an item with an assassinate bonus or the Claw slot on a dino weapon?
Death from above breakdown :10+ char lvl + wis mod + assasinate
- 45 wis mod + 34 (char lvl) +10 = 89
- 16 Assasinate aug
- 7 ins + 3 qual ( masterwork gauntlets)
- 3 artifact ( solar aug )
- 2 profane ( silverfang)
- 4 scion of astral plane
- 3 dh t2
- 3 falc t2
- 6 SD t1
89+47= 136

What I like about paladin is the well rounded nature of the class . It gets many offensive and defensive buffs/spells + high saves. In addition it gives me the crit profile im missing for using falconry T5 and capstone . THF always feels lackluster at endgame imo unless you're barb or a bear .
 

Ghostwheel

Well-known member
What I like about paladin is the well rounded nature of the class . It gets many offensive and defensive buffs/spells + high saves. In addition it gives me the crit profile im missing for using falconry T5 and capstone . THF always feels lackluster at endgame imo unless you're barb or a bear .

Thanks for the info! I guess I'm mostly imagining blinding a bunch of mobs and then hitting them with a cleave pumped by sneak attack dice (maybe a 3 rogue dip with a staff). Just haven't figured out how to make that work without loosing too much in other areas. But yes I agree with your general thoughts on THF.

Either way, your post is very helpful for us bird attack people. Cheers.
 

MeleeFan

Member
Very cool looking build , i like when you take non meta idea and make a good use out of it ! Lots of creativity .
Does death from above reset mechanism proc often?
 

Ghostwheel

Well-known member
@handofgood Do you know what saves the DCs are based on? The enhancement tree doesn't specify. I assume the trip is reflex with a second fortitude save to get up early (standard trip), and the two blind attacks are fortitude, and Death From Above is also a fortitude save. Is this correct?
 

handofgood

Well-known member
Death from above is fort , trip : reflex , single blind : reflex and i assume the aoe blind is reflex as well , dont have build that is specced to falconry t4 atm
@handofgood Do you know what saves the DCs are based on? The enhancement tree doesn't specify. I assume the trip is reflex with a second fortitude save to get up early (standard trip), and the two blind attacks are fortitude, and Death From Above is also a fortitude save. Is this correct?
 

Ghostwheel

Well-known member
Death from above is fort , trip : reflex , single blind : reflex and i assume the aoe blind is reflex as well , dont have build that is specced to falconry t4 atm
Doh! I don't know why I didn't think to just hover over my abilities in the hot bar.... that's what I do with spells. They are all reflex except death from above is fortitude.

Thanks for the the reply!
 
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