What are your favorite PVE builds?

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I_Am_King_Midas
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What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Tue Jan 09, 2018 5:32 am

What are your favorite pve builds and which do you think excel? I have seen wizards and clerics performing quite well. How do warlocks and true flames do? What are some of your favorites?
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Baron Saturday
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Baron Saturday » Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:42 am

Warlocks (of both varieties) are fantastic in PvE.
Summoners in general have a very easy time of it, be they cleric, druid, or mage. Necromancers less so, though they're hardly bad at it.
Most builds on this forum, frankly, will do fine in PvE. Those with greater sustainable power will generally perform better than those whose best features only get a few uses/rest - though these days, most key class features are on a cooldown.

Honestly? PvE is generally less about build and more about knowing what to expect - as such, when going somewhere for the first time, be extra cautious, and bring a buddy or three. (Says the guy who just got his Snuggybear whooped because he just went somewhere new alone.)
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Barradoor » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:06 am

blackguard palemaster bard
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Look to Windward
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Look to Windward » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:16 am

I'm a sucker for Baron's STR Shadowdancer Build. I prefer to sprinkle two more rogue levels (one pre-epic, and one in the late epics) in there for skills (and swap a bit of CON for INT, to make it work). All the same, you've got an outstanding tank in the form of your shadow (handily immune to the level drain that is the bane of low-level characters), the ability to disarm traps and open locks, and a very healthy bit of damage, thanks to STR and all those sneak attacks.

I'm growing increasingly convinced that shadowdancers are some of the best PvE characters about, for those who don't have a regular group. You won't be exceptional at anything, but you can do most everything. Your saves are abyssal, but as long as the spells are being thrown at your shadow it doesn't matter.

And you get to disappear in a puff of smoke whenever you feel like it. That's nice too.
It's crooked, but it's the only game in town.

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Baron Saturday
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Baron Saturday » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:52 am

I'm playing a variant of that right now, it's pretty entertaining. You're right about the saves, though - just had a perfectly good adventure ended by Storm of Vengeance.
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Hesitation marks » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:23 am

Baron Saturday wrote:I'm playing a variant of that right now, it's pretty entertaining. You're right about the saves, though - just had a perfectly good adventure ended by Storm of Vengeance.

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Baron Saturday
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Baron Saturday » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:31 am

Quiet you
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Astral » Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:08 am

4 rogue, 16 bg, 10 pdk

20 favoured soul, 6 cot, 4 fighter
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One Two Three Five
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by One Two Three Five » Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:22 pm

Conj druid is remarkably easy.
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Clerics are just socially acceptable warlocks.

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Dr. B
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Dr. B » Tue Jan 09, 2018 5:09 pm

A single-wielding str WM is pretty easy to solo. Stock up on potions (Barksin, Warding, Clarity, Shield, Haste, and Invisibility). Once you get your WM level it can kill most things before they even become a threat. If you have to fight a dangerous boss just drink a Haste and Invisibility pot and then ambush it with KD spam. Max out heal and bring kits. In a party it's also highly effective.

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I_Am_King_Midas
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:01 pm

Do you typically prefer conjugation or necromancy summons as well?
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Rex » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:14 pm

I play a lvl 30 True Flame, Arelith isn't a place I've made several characters. But I can say I've had a blast playing him, especially in PvE since the speed of killing things are boosted by several times (Mostly trough lvl 18 to 25, afterwards we have those super meat-grinder characters who slay anything with a glare)


Positives; You feel epic and awesome. You litterally have answers against everything that takes dmg from magic.

Negatives; You can't do anything without a meatshield, you WILL die if you go alone.

My experience is people don't know how to create a True Flame since they're a bit hard to actually work around; they really don't solo stuff. Anyways that's my favorite from nwn1 and nwn2.

Second build would be Kensai/fighter/wm/maybe a few rouges? :P

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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Hammerwell » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:39 pm

One Two Three Five wrote:Conj druid is remarkably easy.
I can second that ... and the added complexity of managing an army of 6 (with OK AI) is much easier with functions like player tool control & the -fetch command.

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Cortex
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Cortex » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:40 pm

B A R B A R I A N
:)

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Dr. B
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Dr. B » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:14 pm

Jeloran wrote:Do you typically prefer conjugation or necromancy summons as well?
Neither, I prefer declension.

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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by 3d6InOrder » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:16 pm

I recently tried a Fighter / BG Kensai which was great to solo. But my favourite for PVE have to be strength based bards. They have lots of buttons / build directions. And when you do party up you’re an asset to almost every build.

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Opustus
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Opustus » Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:36 pm

The most versatile and, incidentally, the best non-magic/non-summoning character for PvE I've played was on another server, Rogue17/WM7/Fighter4. On Arelith this build should be Rogue13/WM7/Fighter10. Epic dodge, rogue stealth, reliable damage output even if you can't get the sneak attacks in against all targets due to massive Discipline, this was by far the easiest time I had had in PvE with a plebeian character. On Arelith, I imagine this build tap its most potential on a hin/half-elf/human/elf.

Funny thing: I tested Improved Whirlwind on that build, and to my surprise it was very effective in high-end dungeons with swathes of mobs that cannot be KD'd. Usually I just snuck in on the spawn stealthed, took down the casters with a burst of sneak damage and solid WM crits, then KDing the mobs that could be KD'd. Against certain sneak attacking enemies, the Improved Whirlwind was specially handy, because you can't be flanked while whirlwinding.

Other mentions about the DEX Rogue/WM build are that you can reliably cornersneak, set traps, and use ranged weapons when need be. It's gr8 m8!

Another honourable mention, albeit a gimmick build, goes to WM5/Fighter7/DwD18 or WM7/Fighter8/DwD15 with Epic Damage Reduction III. I don't think it performs nearly as well in Arelith as it did in my former haunt.

About STR Shadowdancer: Damn you all to RL, now I feel like playing a double-axing STR half-orc Rogue7/SD17/Fighter6 or Rogue11/SD14/Fighter5. The dammuge! *salivates*
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:48 pm

Anything that has access to movement speed increases and some form of "stealth" or varied movement. Casters that can caste haste, monks, and barbarians, and then either being able to get stealth, invisibility, darkness, or summons. Also being str-based.

Exploring and wandering are what I do 99% of the time. It's still exciting, but being able to move quickly and quietly through areas is essential. Otherwise getting from A to be B can be a slog.

The thing I'm looking forward to in a hak server is way more ways to "move" around the server and explore. Movement has been one of the most difficult things to translate from a PnP environment.

So, some builds-

Barbarian/rogue/SD
Ranger/monk/X
Sorcerer/monk
Bard/ranger
Bard/paladin
Monk/Knight/rogue
Etc
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by MoreThanThree » Tue Jan 09, 2018 11:16 pm

20/7/3
20 RPR GANG

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PenguinNinja
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by PenguinNinja » Wed Jan 10, 2018 2:56 pm

As someone who has solo played on a TF before, I can tell you they ARE viable, just very aggravating before 12. Once you get bigbies they’re relatively easy you just have to choose what’s mobs you fight very carefully, Myconids and anything else with fire vulnerability is a good choice.

On the note of conj druids, they’re disgustingly op for pve elemtanl swarm rips through mobs with your animal companion

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Lorkas
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Lorkas » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:52 pm

Did you play them after the AI update that made the whole group attack you when one of them gets aggroed?

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I_Am_King_Midas
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:56 pm

Barradoor wrote:blackguard palemaster bard

What’s the level breakdown here? How does it end up looking?
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by One Two Three Five » Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:00 pm

Lorkas wrote:Did you play them after the AI update that made the whole group attack you when one of them gets aggroed?
TFers? Oh, yikes. Is Darkness still broken?
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Clerics are just socially acceptable warlocks.

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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by PenguinNinja » Wed Jan 10, 2018 5:20 pm

I played them through sporadic periods throughout the module, only a few months ago last time, and darkness helped a lot, the biggest issue the arose with it was the darkness bug that made your whole screen black and impossible to target anything... I also played a Imp, which has perma UV, which works insanely well of course with TF, but by level 12 or so I rarely used darkness, really.

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Lorkas
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Re: What are your favorite PVE builds?

Post by Lorkas » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:11 pm

PenguinNinja wrote:I played them through sporadic periods throughout the module, only a few months ago last time
10 Sep 2017 was the update that killed the strategy of hitting one enemy in a group with a Bigby's without the whole mob swarming you. You can still do it, obviously, but you need to be able to succeed on the roll for every monster in the group before the group reaches you for the strategy to work now.

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