High Accuracy Shield and Weapon Warrior.

[hk79v1]

With the nerf to Deflection stacking and Defender, remaking an optimal tank and frontliner seems to weigh more on them being able to hit the enemy and having fairly high Deflection and DR. Weakest defense for this build is Fortitude but far as I can remember not a huge amount of enemy abilities still strike at this defense.

 

Race: Hearth Orlan

Background: The White That Wends

Stats:

Might: 10
Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 9

Perception : 21

Intellect: 9

Resolve: 19

 

Level 1: Knock Down

Level 2: Weapon and Shield Style

Level 3: Confident Aim

Level 4: Hold The Line

Level 5: Vigorous Defense

Level 6: Cautious Attack

Level 7: Unbending

Level 8: Bonus Knockdown

Level 9: Critical Defense

Level 10: Weapon Focus: Peasant(or any with a 1 handed weapon with a natural Accuracy bonus, I chose Spear in Peasant for simplicity's sake)

Level 11: Unbroken

Level 12: Apprentice's Sneak Attack(if you have a Paladin with you with their Accuracy+ Aura); Gallant's Focus(if no Paladin); Novice's Suffering(stacks with Peasant bonus AND practically negates Large Shield's Accuracy malus) OR Bear's Fortitude(to help shore up that weak save)

Level 13: Into The Fray

Level 14: Check Level 12 for recommendations.

 

To note, Novice's Suffering gives you a dual-wielding high DR, decent Deflection Fighter with 102 Accuracy and 18-21 Crushing damage(and if I remember correctly, most DR's resist Crushing less generally). Picking up the Sneak Attack means you can get bonus damage in the first few seconds of combat and when you knock enemies down with Knock Down or Into The Fray. Gallant's Focus just makes it so you'll hit more often on average.

 

Yeah, this build still has a weak Fortitude save(69 even if you take Bear's Fortitude unless my characters page hasn't updated properly) and so-so Will but overall they'll work better because they can actually HIT THE ENEMY and do damage.
 

On some suggestions from other posters, once you hit level 13 it would be quite a good idea to re-spec and take something else in place of Vigorous Defense(if you travel with a Priest) and switching Resolve up a bit for more Constitution(RES 14 and CON 15 should be fair) since the loss of a few points of Deflection at that high of a level is not that much of a hit compared to earlier levels when EVERY.POINT.COUNTS.

Edited August 31, 2015 by hk79v1

[Elric Galad]

Just be aware vigorous defense does not stack with Circle of protection. Considering Circle becomes per encounter at lvl 13, it might be suboptimal in team build.

[Torm51]

With the nerf to Deflection stacking and Defender, remaking an optimal tank and frontliner seems to weigh more on them being able to hit the enemy and having fairly high Deflection and DR. Weakest defense for this build is Fortitude but far as I can remember not a huge amount of enemy abilities still strike at this defense.

 

Race: Hearth Orlan

Background: The White That Wends

Stats:

Might: 10

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 9

Perception : 21

Intellect: 9

Resolve: 19

 

Level 1: Knock Down

Level 2: Weapon and Shield Style

Level 3: Confident Aim

Level 4: Hold The Line

Level 5: Vigorous Defense

Level 6: Cautious Attack

Level 7: Unbending

Level 8: Bonus Knockdown

Level 9: Critical Defense

Level 10: Weapon Focus: Peasant(or any with a 1 handed weapon with a natural Accuracy bonus, I chose Spear in Peasant for simplicity's sake)

Level 11: Unbroken

Level 12: Apprentice's Sneak Attack(if you have a Paladin with you with their Accuracy+ Aura); Gallant's Focus(if no Paladin); Novice's Suffering(stacks with Peasant bonus AND practically negates Large Shield's Accuracy malus) OR Bear's Fortitude(to help shore up that weak save)

Level 13: Into The Fray

Level 14: Check Level 12 for recommendations.

 

To note, Novice's Suffering gives you a dual-wielding high DR, decent Deflection Fighter with 102 Accuracy and 18-21 Crushing damage(and if I remember correctly, most DR's resist Crushing less generally). Picking up the Sneak Attack means you can get bonus damage in the first few seconds of combat and when you knock enemies down with Knock Down or Into The Fray. Gallant's Focus just makes it so you'll hit more often on average.

 

Yeah, this build still has a weak Fortitude save(69 even if you take Bear's Fortitude unless my characters page hasn't updated properly) and so-so Will but overall they'll work better because they can actually HIT THE ENEMY and do damage.

 

I would take more Con.  I have a Paladin with 14 Con and damn good deflection and since you get hit a lot more you will do a bit more resting...unless you just do not take hits using CC.

 

I like the rest of your build and it should work well.  Agreed with the Circle of Protection issue that was mentioned above.  May want to revamp maybe not depends on what abilities you are using and if you bring a Priest (I just love their buffs so I always do :/)

 

PS The 10 con is fine especially if you have better CC then my party or can kill faster.  Poison type mobs will just be annoying as you wont be avoiding poison cause of the Low Fort.  It does raw damage so you will just have to rest more...unless again you don't take the hits at all. 

Edited August 31, 2015 by Torm51

[hk79v1]

Just be aware vigorous defense does not stack with Circle of protection. Considering Circle becomes per encounter at lvl 13, it might be suboptimal in team build.

Good point, maybe re-spec that once you get to level 13, otherwise per rest skills shouldn't really be taken into consideration.

[hk79v1]

 

I would take more Con.  I have a Paladin with 14 Con and damn good deflection and since you get hit a lot more you will do a bit more resting...unless you just do not take hits using CC.

 

 

I like the rest of your build and it should work well.  Agreed with the Circle of Protection issue that was mentioned above.  May want to revamp maybe not depends on what abilities you are using and if you bring a Priest (I just love their buffs so I always do :/)

 

PS The 10 con is fine especially if you have better CC then my party or can kill faster.  Poison type mobs will just be annoying as you wont be avoiding poison cause of the Low Fort.  It does raw damage so you will just have to rest more...unless again you don't take the hits at all. 

 

Well considering that +9 Deflection really isn't THAT much, it's more than viable to re-spec later on to lower RES and boost CON. Since re-speccing is an in-game option now.

[KDubya]

With only Confident Aim adding to damage (+10% average from the +20% minimum) and no bonus from might you damage output is pretty negligible. Do you find that you can still hold the attention of the two enemies that you have engagement slots for? I'd think that the new AI would determine that you can not hurt them and would just eat a non-threatening disengagement attack and go past you if they physically can.

[hk79v1]

With only Confident Aim adding to damage (+10% average from the +20% minimum) and no bonus from might you damage output is pretty negligible. Do you find that you can still hold the attention of the two enemies that you have engagement slots for? I'd think that the new AI would determine that you can not hurt them and would just eat a non-threatening disengagement attack and go past you if they physically can.

It's all about accuracy, not how much damage you can cause but if you can consistently hit them. Besides, higher accuracy means you'll get critical hits more often and even with taking the Fighters specific damage boosting talents, it's only going to be around a 35% increase overall for the cost of two abilities. But if one is forgoing Vigorous Defense then maybe Critical Defense could be switched out to make them a bit more offensive. Other than that, with 1-handed weapons you're NOT gonna be doing a lot of damage at once, you're going to be doing more consistent damage.