PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

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Yunim
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PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by Yunim »

This is a Stone Golem tank that takes advantage of the new rage mechanics.
For those of you who aren't aware, Rage now gives 10% physical DI while Mighty Rage gives 15% physical DI. They also both give bonus damage while raging, but that isn't important for this build.
This build assumes that the bonus DI from rage goes above the 35% physical cap as it currently does. Since the rage buff is fairly recent this might change, if that happens I recommend switching to a Druid 5 / Shifter 13 / Dwarven Defender 22 which I will post below.

Risen Lord DDs are a fairly popular build for farming since they can tank most attacks, but they can only be healed with Harm. Stone Golems have similar DI to Risen Lords but can be healed with normal healing spells, making them a better choice for a high end PvM tank.
Stone Golem shape has 35% Piercing DI (BSK nerf), 25% Slashing DI, and 50% Acid DV.
When fully equipped and not raging, this build can reach 35% Piercing DI, 35% Bludgeoning/Slashing DI, and 30% Slashing/Bludgeoning DI (35% of one, 30% of the other). Rage pushes this up to 45/45/40 DI, far above what any non-shifter can achieve.

The main advantage of this build over a generic Rog13/DD26/Figh1 tank is being able to achieve 45% DI against dual-damage attacks in comparison to the 15% DI most non-shifter tanks can achieve. Losing Epic Dodge in exchange for 30% DI is worth it for some bosses, and there is at least 1 boss where a Rog13/DD26/Figh1 is completely outmatched by this build. For single-damage bosses a Rog13/DD26/Figh1 is usually better since both builds can hit the 35% DI cap and Epic Dodge is usually better than 10% DI for those bosses. Other advantages of the build come from Stone Golem shape, which gives Mind Spell immunity, Sneak Attack immunity, and Stunning Fist immunity, in addition to other benefits.

The main disadvantage of this build is that it is a Shifter.
The only items that can be used while shifted are potions, wands and scrolls are not useable. In particular, this build is 100% reliant on party members for heals and mid-combat buffs, it has no capacity for self-healing at all. If you are in an experienced party with a reliable healer this won't be much of a problem, but if anything goes wrong (and it will) then your party could potentially wipe due to the tank being unable to do anything useful.
Another problem is being limited to 3 Stone Golem shifts per day, once those shifts are gone this build is useless until it rests. Dying will deshift you, Time Stop can deshift you, and you may need to deshift during combat to use scrolls or switch gear.
You have 6 rages and each rage lasts (9 + CON modifier) rounds, which gives you about 12 minutes of rage. If the fight lasts much longer than that then a Dru5/Shift13/DD22 might be a better choice.

The build has 13/- DR, 5/- Cold/Electrical/Fire DR, 10/- Sonic DR, and 20/- Acid DR. It is built to use both a "Ring of Power" and a "Socketed Shield", you will need to get 10/- Acid DR and 10/- Sonic DR from your other gear.

In terms of useful shapes, it gets Wyrmling at level 22, Kobold at level 28, and Stone Golem at level 40.

Onto the actual build itself, there isn't much room for customisation with this build. Dwarf and Gnome are the only choices for race, I chose Dwarf for the increased carry capacity. Blind Fight and Great Fortitude are the only spare feats, but there isn't much that they can be replaced with. The level order and some of the feats could be rearranged, but overall there isn't much that can be added to the build.

This build has 129 skill points to spend by level 40.
I recommend 20 Tumble (cross class), 9 Lore (resulting in 10 Lore after adding your INT and racial modifiers), and 1 point in all of the skills which require training to use.
Levels 38, 39, and 40 can be used as skill dumps for any class skills that you choose.
Levels 38 and 39 are interchangeable, so if for example you want to max Spellcraft you should rearrange those levels so that Druid 6 is taken at level 39 rather than Barbarian 21.

With +11 CON, it will have the following while shifted:
HP: 404 (base) + 400 (CON) + 40 (feats) = 844
Fortitude: 24 (base) + 10 (CON) + 2 (feats) = 36
Reflex: 16 (base) - 1 (DEX) = 15
Will: 19 (base) + 8 (WIS) = 27

===

Code: Select all

Barbarian(21), Druid(6), Shifter(13), Dwarf

STR: 9
DEX: 8
CON: 20 (21)
WIS: 17 (27)
INT: 8
CHA: 6

Code: Select all

01: Barbarian(1): Toughness
02: Barbarian(2)
03: Barbarian(3): Resist Energy: Fire
04: Barbarian(4): WIS+1, (WIS=18)
05: Barbarian(5)
06: Barbarian(6): Resist Energy: Cold
07: Barbarian(7)
08: Barbarian(8): WIS+1, (WIS=19)
09: Barbarian(9): Resist Energy: Electricity
10: Barbarian(10)
11: Barbarian(11)
12: Barbarian(12): WIS+1, Great Fortitude, (WIS=20)
13: Barbarian(13)
14: Barbarian(14)
15: Barbarian(15): Blind Fight
16: Barbarian(16): WIS+1, (WIS=21)
17: Druid(1)
18: Druid(2): Alertness
19: Druid(3)
20: Druid(4): CON+1, (CON=21)
21: Druid(5): Epic Damage Reduction I
22: Shifter(1)
23: Shifter(2)
24: Shifter(3): WIS+1, Epic Damage Reduction II, (WIS=22)
25: Shifter(4)
26: Shifter(5)
27: Shifter(6): Epic Damage Reduction III
28: Shifter(7): WIS+1, (WIS=23)
29: Barbarian(17)
30: Barbarian(18): Epic Energy Resistance: Acid I
31: Barbarian(19)
32: Barbarian(20): WIS+1, (WIS=24)
33: Shifter(8): Epic Energy Resistance: Sonic I
34: Shifter(9)
35: Shifter(10)
36: Shifter(11): WIS+1, Epic Energy Resistance: Acid II, (WIS=25)
37: Shifter(12)
38: Druid(6)
39: Barbarian(21): Great Wisdom I, (WIS=26)
40: Shifter(13): WIS+1, Construct Shape, (WIS=27)
Last edited by Yunim on Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yunim
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Re: PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by Yunim »

PvM Tank Build - Druid 5 / Shifter 13 / Dwarven Defender 22

This is an alternative Stone Golem tank that doesn't rely on Rage.
Most of what I wrote for the Barbarian version also applies to this build, the main difference being that this has 11 more DR at the cost of the 10% DI from Rage.

The build has 24/- DR, 5/- Cold/Electrical/Fire DR, 10/- Sonic DR, and 20/- Acid DR. It is built to use both a "Ring of Power" and a "Socketed Shield", you will need to get 10/- Acid DR and 10/- Sonic DR from your other gear.

It gets Wyrmling at level 6, Kobold at level 12, and Stone Golem at level 28. The level order was chosen to reach Construct Shape as quickly as possible. You can edit the build to reach EDR 3 early and get Construct Shape later on if you choose to.

The only spare feat in the build is Blind Fight, you can choose something else if you want to.

This build has 128 skill points to spend by level 40.
I recommend 20 Tumble (cross class), 8 Lore (resulting in 10 Lore after adding your INT and racial modifiers), and 1 point in all of the skills which require training to use.

With +12 CON, it will have the following while shifted:
HP: 408 (base) + 440 (CON) + 40 (feats) = 888
Fortitude: 25 + 11 (CON) = 36
Reflex: 19 + 1 (DEX) = 20
Will: 22 (base) + 8 (WIS) = 30

===

Code: Select all

Druid(5), Shifter(13), Dwarven Defender(22), Dwarf

STR: 8
DEX: 13
CON: 18 (22)
WIS: 17 (27)
INT: 10
CHA: 6

Code: Select all

01: Druid(1): Toughness
02: Druid(2)
03: Druid(3): Alertness
04: Druid(4): WIS+1, (WIS=18)
05: Druid(5)
06: Shifter(1): Resist Energy: Fire
07: Shifter(2)
08: Shifter(3): WIS+1, (WIS=19)
09: Shifter(4): Dodge
10: Shifter(5)
11: Shifter(6)
12: Shifter(7): WIS+1, Resist Energy: Cold, (WIS=20)
13: Dwarven Defender(1)
14: Dwarven Defender(2)
15: Dwarven Defender(3): Resist Energy: Electricity
16: Dwarven Defender(4): WIS+1, (WIS=21)
17: Dwarven Defender(5)
18: Dwarven Defender(6): Blind Fight
19: Shifter(8)
20: Shifter(9): WIS+1, (WIS=22)
21: Shifter(10): Great Wisdom I, (WIS=23)
22: Dwarven Defender(7)
23: Dwarven Defender(8)
24: Dwarven Defender(9): WIS+1, Great Wisdom II, (WIS=25)
25: Dwarven Defender(10)
26: Shifter(11)
27: Shifter(12): Great Wisdom III, (WIS=26)
28: Shifter(13): WIS+1, Construct Shape, (WIS=27)
29: Dwarven Defender(11)
30: Dwarven Defender(12): Great Constitution I, (CON=19)
31: Dwarven Defender(13)
32: Dwarven Defender(14): CON+1, Epic Energy Resistance: Acid I, (CON=20)
33: Dwarven Defender(15): Epic Energy Resistance: Sonic I
34: Dwarven Defender(16)
35: Dwarven Defender(17)
36: Dwarven Defender(18): CON+1, Epic Damage Reduction I, Epic Damage Reduction II, (CON=21)
37: Dwarven Defender(19)
38: Dwarven Defender(20)
39: Dwarven Defender(21): Epic Damage Reduction III
40: Dwarven Defender(22): CON+1, Epic Energy Resistance: Acid II, (CON=22)
Yune
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Re: PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by Yune »

Where is the rage change documented? I don't see it anywhere.
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driller
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Re: PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by driller »

It is in testing.
Yune wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 7:20 pm Where is the rage change documented? I don't see it anywhere.
Kram of House Kram
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Re: PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by Kram of House Kram »

Is there a specific weapon type or it really doesn't matter too much since he's a tank?
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Re: PvM Tank Build - Barbarian 21 / Druid 6 / Shifter 13

Post by driller »

It applies to all.
Kram of House Kram wrote: Thu Jul 11, 2019 3:30 pm Is there a specific weapon type or it really doesn't matter too much since he's a tank?
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