Offensive Fighter Talents worth taking on solo?

[Jojobobo]

So I was looking to create a fighter with at least 100 in all their defences for solo PotD, yet still dual wielding with little to no recovery and with great healing (as in, endurance + healing = total health). I thought I'd managed it, but then realised Savage Attack and Defender don't stack (with Wary Defender you're obviously getting +15 defense for the cost of -5 deflection, and it makes you really hard to Flank, so I thought it was worth it).

 

So I've now worked the numbers again, and got back to a situation where my defences are all at least 100 with end game gear by taking one of the defence talents. However, I now how a free ability slot, so I was wondering are any of the Fighter offensive abilities (Clear Out, Sundering Blow, Charge) any good - or should I just take something like Critical Defence for more tankiness? I don't have any CC to speak of apart from Lore 8 and below scrolls and Dominate from Ring of Changing Heart (both of which I should be a dab hand with, given Fighters' ridiculous accuracy) so I thought maybe Charge might be worth it if the damage I've read about is correct (plus it would make up for the fact somewhat that I'm not planning on using any move speed items)? Or, as my weapons won't be the most damaging, is Sundering Blow worth it - the duration seems a little on the short side with 10 INT?

 

My current abilities are:

 

1 - Disciplined Barage

3 - Confident Aim

5 - Weapon Spec

7 - Armoured Grace

9 - Fearless

11 - Unbroken

13 - the free slot

15 - Triggered Immunity

 

Thanks!

Edited June 16, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Raven Darkholme]

Is Clear out still per Rest as the wiki states? If it is it's pretty ****.

Critical defense is quite good, since you solo you take a lot of attacks so 20% is not bad and it works not only for crits (which rarely should happen) but also for hits.

Haven't really played WM fighter so I don't really know those abilities but they all look real meh to me I guess CHarge coulb be good if it's per encounter but doesn't seem super essential.

[Boeroer]

I would always take Unbending. It can so save your sorry as$ when things start to go south. Combined with Disciplined Barrage you can use it to kill one or two foes very quickly, without the need to think about healing or fleeing. Can really make a difference in tough encounters like bounties.

 

Fearless I would never use by the way because there's a lvl 1 scroll for that. And 2 Lore is not that difficult to get.

 

Disciplined Barrage is always nice if you face opponents with very high deflection or fortitude (Knockdown). 

 

Charge is nice when you want to reach casters as quickly as possible - like annoying Andragans who petrify you for about 15 sec (that's a death sentence). It even works when they stand behind their mates - like Flagellanth's Path. And you will do nice damage to all who stand in the way. It's a good ability when you go near the enemy, trigger combat, then run away a bit so they form a line - and then charge towards the end of that line. It's also not bad as an emergency exit when you get surrounded and can't escape otherwise.

[Jojobobo]

I guess I'm not sure about Unbending, do you consider the rate of healing to be of a great deal of importance?

 

I'm planning to use He Carries Many Scars, take Rapid Recovery, be a Moon Godlike and obviously I have Unbroken in toe already - and for survival I'm taking the healing modifier, and my Might will top out at 24. Without even considering He Carries Many Scars or minor athletics heals, my healing plus endurance is a few points greater than my health. Also, I'd imagine Triggered Immunity will add to the beating I can take. However if you don't think the rate would be high enough to stave off unconsciousness to begin with, I might pick it up.

 

Fearless I wanted purely to give me more item slots against difficult fights like dragons, as I don't have space for Deep Pockets in my talents so much. Plus Prayer Against Fear doesn't last forever, this seemed like an easier option.

 

I guess given all this, it's down to Charge vs. Unbending.

[Raven Darkholme]

Unbroken is pretty much a waste, Unbending might be better (don't really like either).

2nd chance doesn't really work when you solo, most times you die if you miscalclated a fight and will only die again after unbroken procs.

Theres rare cases when only one (dangerous) enemy is left standing and maybe severely wounded, but most times that's wishful thinking.

[Jojobobo]

Second Chance sucks sure, but I don't think Unbroken is so bad. For this build I'd be looking at regain my entire endurance pool with my current Might and the x1.6 survival healing modifier (which I assume affects it, seeing as I tested Might and it definitely does) and given all those defensive buffs you would be pretty damn sturdy, even with whatever debuff you get from the maim injury.

 

In any case, I think I've sold myself on Unbending over Charge, and I'll take Wound Binding to make better use of it in long battles. I had no idea it recovered 40% (!) of health, for me that can make my total health for one match 1750 (which I should more or less have access to the entirety of with various healing). This will all be coupled to 100+ defences in each stat, high accuracy, two weapon fighting with almost zero recovery (12.5%), the DR of full plate and other ridiculousness like Triggered Immunity - I'm hoping to have a whale of a time.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Jojobobo

[iostream]

How do you intend to get almost zero recovery with two weapons in full plate? Which items would you use?

[Jojobobo]

One speed enchanted, both durgan refined weapons, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Two Weapon Style, Armored Grace and durgan refined plate.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, it's:

 

[(1.2 x 1.15 x 1.15 x 1.15) + 0.2 - 1.0] x -100% = -102.5% recovery

[(Speed enchant x durgan x durgan x gauntlets) + two weapon - standard recovery --> if you were wondering where the numbers come from

 

[1.0 + 0.5 - 0.2 - 0.15] x 100% = 115%

[standard recovery + plate penalty - Armored Grace - Durgan Refined] --> again to explain the numbers

 

115 - 102.5 = 12.5% recovery.

 

You can obviously go for Outlander's Frenzy or DoAM for 0 recovery, but Outlander's Frenzy doesn't last long plus lowers deflection and DoAM requires extensive potion usage to keep it up (though I probably will pop one when the fight is epic enough). An extra speed enchant weapon would also do the trick, but I didn't want one.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Kaylon]

In my first post about the attack speed 2.0 I was wrong about DW part - I added the correction later (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83777-attack-speed-20/?p=1795215) but I couldn't edit the first post anymore.

 

In fact each weapon has its own speed and the bonuses on a weapon don't affect the other. In your case you'll have:

recovery (both weapons): 50%(base for DW) + 50%(plate) - 20%(armored grace) - 15%(durgan) = 65%

speed weapon 1: 1.2(enchantment) x 1.15(durgan) x 1.15(gloves) - 1 + 0.2(talent) = 79%

speed weapon 2: 1.15(durgan) x 1.15(gloves) - 1 + 0.2(talent) = 52%

 

Which means the speed enchanted weapon will attack with no recovery, while the other one will have 13% recovery...

Edited June 17, 2016 by Kaylon

[Jojobobo]

Thanks for letting me know, regardless that's still pretty much working as I'd hoped - maybe even slightly better with the zero recovery on one weapon.

[iostream]

Thanks for the in depth reply.

 

Is there any additional advantage to getting to zero recovery vs 13% recovery besides the obvious 13% increase in attack speed?

 

Or is 0 recovery not essential if you get something else in the trade-off for a speed weapon?

[Raven Darkholme]

Thanks for the in depth reply.

 

Is there any additional advantage to getting to zero recovery vs 13% recovery besides the obvious 13% increase in attack speed?

 

Or is 0 recovery not essential if you get something else in the trade-off for a speed weapon?

Just use Alacrity potion.

[Boeroer]

That pretty much always works. There are also two items with spell binding: alacrity (1/rest) in the game. You can use those charges first and then use potions if you couldn't rest.

[Jojobobo]

Thanks for the in depth reply.

 

Is there any additional advantage to getting to zero recovery vs 13% recovery besides the obvious 13% increase in attack speed?

 

Or is 0 recovery not essential if you get something else in the trade-off for a speed weapon?

So I'll just post the build up, and do a write up later when I've "proved" the build, but for the short answer 13% recovery is pretty damn low, so there's plenty of advantages to be coffered by weapons lacking the speed enchan which mean you still have to have 13% recovery - which is practically nothing by the way and something I'd be happy to have. The build below is for Solo PotD, so it can be further optimized easily, but is also swell as it is.

 

So, Fighter - Moon Godlike - Aedyr Colonist

 

Skills - Mech 13 when needed: Mech 8 (8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 36 skill points, +5 from Dungeon Delver, Gloves of Manip, Rest Bonus when needed.

Survival 16 when needed (enough for 3 stage AC boosts, but not quite practically): Survival 8 =  36 again, +8 from Fighter, Colonist, temp +2 equipment, Rymyrgand's boon, temp +2 from rest

Stealth 1 (3): one point in, because I find Caed Nua easier that way, buffable to 3 with Boots of Stealth early game

Lore 8: Lore 4 (4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 10 skill points, Viettro's Fancy Footware +4.

Athletics 5 : 4 Athletics (3 + 2 + 1) = 6 skill points, Fighter +1.

 

Total spend 89, 1 left

 

Attributes

 

MIG 18 -> 24 (Rest Bonus, Gift from the Machine, +2 from armor enchant)

CON 9 -> 10 (Rymyrgand's Boon)

DEX 6 -> 10 (Viettro's Formal Footware)

PER 18 -> 19 (Song of the Heavens)

INT 10 -> 10

RES 17 -> 20 (Ring of Changing Heart)

 

Abilities

 

1 - Disciplined Barage

3 - Confident Aim

5 - Weapon Spec Peasant

7 - Armored Grace

9 - Fearless

11 - Unbroken

13 - Unbending (thanks to Boeroer for the tip)

15 - Triggered Immunity

 

Talents

 

2 WF Peasant

4 Savage Attack

6 Two Weapon Style

8 Rapid Recovery

10 Wound Binding

12 Snake's Reflexes

14 WM Peasant

16 Bull's Will

 

Equipment

 

Weapons - Reghar Konnek plus Captain Viccilo's Anger (once patched in) or Hearth Harvest

Rings - Changing Heart and Protection

Neck - Cape of the Master Mystic

Gloves - Swift Action or Ryona's Vambraces as needed

Belt - Looped Rope or Belt of Bountiful Healing as needed

Boots - Viettro's Formal Footware

Armor - He Carries Many Scars (+2 MIG), plus +2 survival armor on rest

 

Alt Dragon Slayer equipment (only listing the differences)

 

Weapons - Persistance

Neck - Cloak of the Frozen Hunt

Boots - Boots of Speed

Armor - Argwes Adra/Rundl's Finery for the lore, +2 lore from resting, + survival from scrolls or leave it as be the +15 beast accuracy

Scrolls - Confusion, natch - plink away and then for as long as poss then go full tank for the finisher, with DoAM potions for the speed likely

 

Or.... just try and out and out tank them, I don't think it'd work but I'll certainly give it a shot at that phase.

 

Weapon speed has been discussed above, defenses are Def/Fort/Ref/Will 107/102/102/104 - relatively more for your melee target when you factor in the Viccilo's debuff. Healing + endurance >= health, depending - hence the choice of Wound Binding.

 

As I said, I'm currently testing this out solo and PotD as intended, if it works out I'll do a full build post - with detailed explanations and ways to mitigate some of the lower attributes early acts, but I think the build is pretty much boss as is. You could probably change your chosen melee weapon here without too much fuss and likely with more damage, but I wanted an all-rounder hence the hatchets - and the synergy with Persistance for the tougher fights is sweet.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Jojobobo