Arelith

Hi. Need some ideas for high dmg melee. Like...really high damage, I'm ok with sacrificing both saves and ac.

Frankly, I want to say a WM-based build, enraged barb, or STR spellsword once you hit lv 21.

Horc scythe barbarian weapon master with thunder rage

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kensai

Against something that's sneak-susceptible, the highest damage per round is probably something like 22 rogue / 6 fighter / 3 monk with dual kamas. Take every possible improved sneak attack feat (you can pick up 6 without sacrificing EWF and EWS, if you take the levels in the right order).

Be kensai, drink haste potion, turn on flurry of blows and you have 11 attacks per round. Each sneak attack deals 18d6+12+STR physical damage and 1d6+4 elemental damage. If every attack in a round in a sneak, that gives you an average of 907.5 damage per round, plus 10 times your STR mod (the two offhand attacks add only 0.5*STR mod each). This is before critical hits are even factored in, but they're a minor part in the damage of this sort of build.

I don't recommend this build.

I thought scythes weren't on this server?

20/7/3 scythe wm will be seeing triple digit damage before it sees level 12.

IIllII wrote:Horc scythe barbarian weapon master with thunder rage

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kensai

This. It beat out the previous highest DPS build with the updates.

pure 30 ranger

BegoneThoth wrote:20/7/3 scythe wm will be seeing triple digit damage before it sees level 12.

current level 6 barbs with great axe can get triple digits too.

Ogre barbarian kensai, dual wielding scythes. Every point you have in strength.

Ogres can't dual-wield 2H weapons at the moment. It's an engine limitation.

A thundering rage barbarian wins everything, while in rage.

In PvP high APR sneak attackers will only be applying sneak attacks on the first flurry (and will likely only hit those attacks), though in PvE with a guard they've got good numbers.

Against crit-immune foes I'm fairly certain the answer is an Orog Kensai Barbarian 20 / Blackguard 4 / Fighter 6 wielding a trident (2d6), as it has the same damage type (piercing) as the rage bonus.

*insert obligatory 'Vlad the Impaler' joke here*

Stats: 20 / 6 / 16 / 8 / 6 / 18 ---> 30 / 6 / 16 / 8 / 6 / 18 (with three great strength feats, need to save one general epic feat for thundering rage) Note that 16 constitution doesn't get the full benefit of barbarian rage attack bonus and physical immunity.

By losing one point of rage weapon damage compared to barbarian 24 / fighter 6, blackguard gives you divine might which has 1.5 damage multiplier for two handed weapons in Arelith, so with a full +12 charisma bonus that's +15 damage for a full minute, per use.

Average damage per swing (against crit-immune, assuming no misses): 7 (2d6 trident) + 13 (2d10 + 2 rage bonus) + 3 (natural con modifier) + 6 (epic weapon specialization) + 24 (1.5 * (10+6) strength modifier) + 15 (1.5 * (4+6) charisma modifier) = 68 + weapon enhancements. 6 swings per round in rage, 7 with haste. With a +5 trident and nothing else, that's 511 damage.

Cleave pre-req for blackguard would probably see some use, though I wouldn't bother with great cleave, since your free attack schedule would already be crammed with kensai, thundering rage and haste attacks, so first cleave starts at -15 AB and would only get worse from there.

If you enjoy the ability to crit for stupendous damage, you could take a scythe instead, since all aforementioned damage boni presumably stack with crits, other than blackguard 1d6 sneak attack, of course. Although feats are starting to get scarce at this point for exotic weapon proficiency.

Assuming you'd want more skills, I'd suggest dropping constitution to 14 and getting 12 intelligence, for stuff like discipline, taunt or intimidate. Parry would be promising since you couldn't get expertise unless you dropped con even further, not to mention it being especially nice for barbarians who have +4 dodge AC at level 20 with medium or lighter armors, which have smaller armor check penalties for parry checks. Those counterattacks with even more damage bonuses slapped on top would certainly be something.

Then again, there's a certain flair to playing a crazy, retarded, yet badass charismatic evil orc. Even though OP mentioned sacrificing saves and AC, there's no need, considering dark blessing and divine shield.

Are we asking about the highest possible damage or the highest overall damage, taking into account the reliability of landing hits (if so, the kama-rogue is NOT the answer)? I'd be inclined to think either some sort of two handed WM or some sort of dual-wielding WM, but don't quote me on that.

Paladin 7 / Champion of Torm 16 / Weapon Master 7

Be a human with a keen scimitar, spend your all your pre-epic feats on weapon master, extra smiting and improved critical, and all 9 epic feats on great smiting. Now you do 230 bonus damage with smite evil, 690 with critting, 55% of the time.

Find baddy, smite him/her 3 times. Average damage for the swings is little over 500 probably. Hope you hit and then crit. Go back to rest so you can smite again.



I just couldn't resist.

niceee =)

Thunk Kama rogue CoT monk/fighter is up there, insane sneak attack while dual-wielding, but also divine wrath and smite and stuff, and of course wrath is on a 10 minute cooldown so you can go crazy more often.

BegoneThoth wrote:Thunk Kama rogue CoT monk/fighter is up there, insane sneak attack while dual-wielding, but also divine wrath and smite and stuff, and of course wrath is on a 10 minute cooldown so you can go crazy more often.

8 minute cooldown as of a recent update.

I have a half-orc kensai Barb/ftr/wm using a double axe. He deals pretty nice damage, tho not sure if the build is optimal.

Baron Saturday wrote:

BegoneThoth wrote:Thunk Kama rogue CoT monk/fighter is up there, insane sneak attack while dual-wielding, but also divine wrath and smite and stuff, and of course wrath is on a 10 minute cooldown so you can go crazy more often.

8 minute cooldown as of a recent update.

Ah. Wiki needs to be updated then.

Yeah wiki is getting really out of date.

afreshstart wrote:I have a half-orc kensai Barb/ftr/wm using a double axe. He deals pretty nice damage, tho not sure if the build is optimal.

You can also do a half orc str dual wielder spellsword, using the half orc free feats to get into two weapon stuff with a dex of 8.

half orc str dual wielder spellsword/monk for ten-attack kamas. (don't do this)

One Two Three Five wrote: (don't do this)

too late

The time when tens of people cry about another nerf directed at SS-Monk builds is closing up