[CLASS BUILD] Lady of Pain - High-speed, heavy-armored DPS Fighter

[Boeroer]

My next playthrough will also be with this build (well, 95% of this build. I want to try out Rapid Recovery plus Cloak of the Tireless Defender plus Trollhide Belt instead of Shod-in-faith for a steady +6? end/3sec base and see how that goes). Now that the engagement and disengagement radius is even bigger, I might also go for Defender. Last playthrough my two animal companions were wrecking stuff with diseng. attacks.

Then I want to try out a dual stiletto painful interdiction skaen priest as main. Rogue with spells that is.

Then my "Prone Drone" auto attacker swashbuckler monk I tested the other day (dual wielding durgan refined Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger and Angio's Gambeson. Uses Force of Ang. and Boots of Speed together with Long Stride). He has +25+20+20+15 = +80% Attack Speed by design without other buffs and can use the Alacrity from the gambeson for his two elemental thugs that use their fists and get +50% Attack Speed for free that way. He's not a superoverpowered DPSer but it's so much fun to watch him go zip zig zag and proning and piercing things without microing.

Then I want to use a build that uses Badgrad's Barricade that I'm testing atm. Not sure which class I will use.

I also want to try a combination of stormcaller (shock DR reduction) and Black Sanctuary tank (Warding Seal on getting a crit). That's what I need the shod-in-faith for. The seal's shock damage might be nice together with the DR reduction. Also not sure which class(es) I want to use for this. A Druid Tank? Or maybe I'll try an unarmed druid with Novice's Suffering and Skandals of the Forgotten Friar. Does anybody know if the +2 unarmed damage bonus of the sandals also applies to Spiritshift weapons? I know Novice's Suffering doesn't.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Boeroer

[AndreaColombo]

I also want to try a combination of stormcaller (shock DR reduction) and Black Sanctuary tank (Warding Seal on getting a crit).

 

What's a Black Sanctuary?

[Boeroer]

A small shield from the Alpine Dragon's den. You get Sabra Marie and Black Sanctuary. It casts Warding Seal 2 times per encounter when you get a crit in your face. Maybe a char that totally delves in getting crits (spell holding)/dealing crits (spell striking) would be interesting: jolting touch stiletto plus black sanctuary - when all charges are gone switch to Bleak Fang stiletto and Badgradr's Barricade. Together with Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith and Cloak of the Master Mystic and so on. Might be fun.

This cries for monk since you need high ACC as well as good health.

Does carnage still do this crazy things with jolting touch?

Edited November 15, 2015 by Boeroer

[Mocker22]

Ya man my problem is I always have too many characters I want to try. Just the short list would be

 

Wiz - melee and standard

Barb - Tall Grass to start then switch to dual battle axes

 

Plenty more but one of those will be my next one. Might run a wiz main for roleplay purposes and then have a nice barb hireling.

 

Also wanting to try a solo run through. Probably with a wiz as I'm just a caster fanboi always.

[Boeroer]

Sad news for the monk: Spell Binding items do no longer work with his duplicates. Bye-bye free Alacrity.

 

But besides that: just tested the Prone Drone monk with the setup I mentioned above. Added Fast Runner at lvl 14 for a hilarious move speed bonus of 6. For dps it would be better to take Apprentice's Sneak Attack though, but this is more fun to watch.

 

With a durgan refined robe, durgan refined dual wielding speedy weapons (Sword o Daenysis + March Steel Dagger) and Swift Strikes on there's no recovery bar anymore - even when I use Vuln. Attack. The puny damage of the rapier/dagger got pimped by Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes, Savage Attack, lashes and superior enchantment. Together with Ryona's Vembraces he has 11 DR bypass for the Sword of Daenysis (rending) and 8 for the Dagger. I just solo'd Nalrend the Wise and hit him for 20 to 60 points of damage every half second or so. That's better than I expected. As I said: no recovery bar visible (without any potions and food and spells). It's just *pierce*slash*pierce*slash*. :D

 

If you turn the AI on and let him use Force of Anguish and Swift Strikes aggressively you can just fire and forget him. He runs around, prones enemies and tiggles them with his speedy toothpicks. Moon Godlike, Iron Wheel and Blunting Belt plus crush-proofed Gwisk Glas for survival. If he goes 1:1 the enemy is perma-interrupted. Very nice auto attacker - needs nearly no microing. Love it! Maybe I will use another race so that I can wear the Dandy Hat of the Diseased Yak together with some vailian cloth outfit to spare the durgan ingots and to make him really look like a noble duelist with rapier and dagger. Style is important!

 
So now I have companion number one for my own Lady of Pain.

Excuse me, I have to test the next idea... 

Edited November 15, 2015 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Whoop! The LoP is a really nice dragon killer, too! I just killed the Alpine Dragon with her. Used Drake's Bell instead of the BotEP - and a Paladin tank to distract the dragon. With the bell and Ryona's Vambraces you accumulate 16 points of DR bypass. Together with Scale Breaker that's -22 DR for the dragon. Ouch! :D 

[AndreaColombo]

^ add in a Sundering Blow for another -8 and I think the dragon's left with about 5 DR or the like.

 

LoP (in a WC3 dwarven voice): "It's aggro time!"

[Boeroer]

Sundering Blow is nice - but I would like it if it would cause lower DR bypass (5 or so) and had a longer duration instead (maybe 15 sec?). The short duration of 8 sec only makes it interesting for fast hitting fighters. Ok, LoP is fast - but we have to think of others, too.  

[AndreaColombo]

Consider that a Fighter with a higher INT would already extend its duration and -8 DR is plenty good in most scenarios. It is true that most people here consider INT a blasphemy on Fighters but it is actually not that bad; I guess this went into it when they decided on the effect's duration

[Boeroer]

I'm just thinking:  Is it melee only?

 

Edit: yes it is.

 

Would have been nice to open the fight from stealth with a sundering shot and then still have two sunderung blows left.

Maybe you could do that with very high stealth?

Edited November 19, 2015 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

Sundering blow with blunderbuss would have been tons of fun ^^

 

But uou can still sunder your target and then blunderbuss it with your teamates ^^

[Boeroer]

So... do they still update the class build index? Because the last edit is from "12 May 2015 - 06:48 PM". At least the Lady of Pain should be in it since she seems to be highly approved by a lot of forum members. But mybe you have to change the title to [CLASS BUILD] and so on.

[AndreaColombo]

I would, but the forum won't let you edit your own posts after a certain amount of time has passed   

 

LoP was posted in July so that last edit in May couldn't possibly capture her Juggernaut, Fulmineo, Backlash, and Schemer should all be there too.

[Boeroer]

If you say so. 

[Merina]

There's a fairly beastly soulbound Estoc too, whose name defies me, that is briefly shown in the trailer for the expansion. It is my understanding that it can be bound to any class but cannot be unequipped afterward.

 

If this refers to The Grey Sleeper

 

the weapon can be unequipped again if the soulbound upgrades are completed. Then it can be changed between multiple weapon slots again, too.

 

The Grey Sleeper - Soulbound, Estoc, Two-handed - Value: 4610cp

 

Speed: Slow

Interrupt: 0.75 sec (Strong)

Damage: 23-33 Pierce vs. Deflection

5 DR bypass

10% chance to cast Paralyze on Hit or Critical Hit.

Grants Slow Spirits (3 per rest).

5% chance to cast Invoke Vessels on Hit or Critical Hit.

Superb: +12 Accuracy, +45% Damage

5% chance to cast Twin Stones on Hit or Critical Hit.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Merina

[AndreaColombo]

Indeed I was referring to that one. I have since been using it as a secondary weapon on my Monk characters

[KDubya]

I would, but the forum won't let you edit your own posts after a certain amount of time has passed 

 

LoP was posted in July so that last edit in May couldn't possibly capture her Juggernaut, Fulmineo, Backlash, and Schemer should all be there too.

 

I started a thread a month or two ago asking for someone to update the class build index but got silence. Every guide there is based on pre 2.0 information and have a lot of erroneous information. They are still interesting to read but for a new comer they will get the wrong information. Not sure if the moderators can update the sticky posts. Maybe we need some Sensuki troll wars in here or some Luzarious "that's a man's face!!!" social commentary to get their attention

 

The frequently listed Steam Guide has some great info but some of the builds just seem like they min max beyond what is necessary, pretty much every build there has one or two stats dumped to a three and most look to be godlikes. This put players into the mindset that you need to min max for success which then expands to the belief that the story companions are worthless because they are not min maxed.

 

All the builds you listed - Lady of Pain, Backlash, Fulmineo and Juggernaut - all have normal stat ranges and aren't min maxed moon godlikes by default. I like these builds because they combine focused stats with talents, equipment and tactics to achieve a desired gameplay. The whole is stronger than the sum of their parts. These concepts can then be expanded into other build concepts with great results. My Juggernaut build was influenced strongly by the Lady of Pain, and lately Boeroer has been putting up some truly interesting and unique builds that find new approaches to the game.

[Vorad]

 

The frequently listed Steam Guide has some great info but some of the builds just seem like they min max beyond what is necessary, pretty much every build there has one or two stats dumped to a three and most look to be godlikes.

Aoe heal as racial is too hard to pass by. I decided to switch from moon goodlike paladin to an Island Aumaua and I really regret it, the prone/stun defense doesn't come even close to 3 powerful(max might ) bursts of aoe heal. Certainly one can play the game even in potd without any kind of hard optimization but some players take extra pleasure on optimizing on top of the rpg element. That being said while there are classes that would be more effective by min/max e.g. wizard there are also classes that profit from a "balanced" all around stat spread e.g. monk.

[mosspit]

I started a thread a month or two ago asking for someone to update the class build index but got silence. Every guide there is based on pre 2.0 information and have a lot of erroneous information. They are still interesting to read but for a new comer they will get the wrong information. Not sure if the moderators can update the sticky posts. Maybe we need some Sensuki troll wars in here or some Luzarious "that's a man's face!!!" social commentary to get their attention

 

The frequently listed Steam Guide has some great info but some of the builds just seem like they min max beyond what is necessary, pretty much every build there has one or two stats dumped to a three and most look to be godlikes. This put players into the mindset that you need to min max for success which then expands to the belief that the story companions are worthless because they are not min maxed.

 

All the builds you listed - Lady of Pain, Backlash, Fulmineo and Juggernaut - all have normal stat ranges and aren't min maxed moon godlikes by default. I like these builds because they combine focused stats with talents, equipment and tactics to achieve a desired gameplay. The whole is stronger than the sum of their parts. These concepts can then be expanded into other build concepts with great results. My Juggernaut build was influenced strongly by the Lady of Pain, and lately Boeroer has been putting up some truly interesting and unique builds that find new approaches to the game.

Yeah, the class build index pretty much requires some consistent effort to keep them relevant. Even if they cleaned them up now, 3.0 seems to be introducing key mechanism changes that will render previous build version inaccurate again.

 

I think I might have come across the particular Steam Guide you are referring to. That guide has a pretty good rundown on the finer details of gameplay but yeah the builds in there are all pretty much min-maxed. Which is questionable for builds that are meant for newbies.

[0rangekun]

Small question: Tidefall still drains endurance in my game and doesn't seem to act any differently than it did many months ago. Were the changes mentioned in this build reverted? My game's up to date and everything.

[Boeroer]

There used to be a bug that removed the draining enchantment from all weapons that had it. This bug was fixed some time ago.  

[0rangekun]

There used to be a bug that removed the draining enchantment from all weapons that had it. This bug was fixed some time ago.  

Ah. So the mention of some speed-draining enchantment instead was a part of that bug?

[AndreaColombo]

Ah. So the mention of some speed-draining enchantment instead was a part of that bug?

 

Yes. The Siphoning weapon enchant was originally named Draining, and overrode the original Draining enchant. It has since been fixed so Tidefall is back to its original form, which was pretty rad to begin with

[AlexDeLarge]

Hi, first of all, awesome guide! Couple of quick questions, is there any reason we don't dump Intelligence to 3? Also, would you recommend going for a tankier build (more resolve, weapon and shield) for the first 6-7 levels, until you get the gear you need to make this work? Or does this char wreck right off the bat?

[AndreaColombo]

Hi Alex,

 

I didn't dump INT to 3 because I didn't want to shorten the duration of my Knock Downs, as well as because I don't particularly enjoy extreme min/maxing. If those are not a concern for you, you may certainly dump INT to 3 and further optimize the build as you see fit.

 

Of course the build really shines as you gain access to the cool buffs, potions of DAOM, and equipment; however I personally find the latter the least important of the three with the exception of Shod-in-Faith, which can be acquired relatively early in Act II.

 

I typically start my play throughs on Normal and switch to hard at level 5; PotD on level 9-10 (this requires the IE Mod.) This way, low RES is never a problem. If you play on harder difficulties from the get-go, you'll need good micro to avoid getting knocked out for the first few levels (you hit hard but you get hit often.) A tankier version is something I would not consider out of personal preference, but YMMV.

Edited November 25, 2015 by AndreaColombo