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Early in this build's career, he prefers to focus on defense and securing a hit such that his party can take advantage of the hits. In fact, some would say he was down right nutty for using a dagger instead of the standard mace all his pious brethren wielded. However, his strategy was never a brute force strategy. HL prefers to lead from the front and not drain his party's resources with low AC.

Almost mid-way through his early years, a terrible tragedy falls upon HL. His blood boils at the thought of the defenseless meek, falling asunder the blade of some gutless bully. It's time he brought the fight to them. He decides to learn the wicked art of the practiced War Axe. He calls upon his deity to righteously banish the souls of the wicked and bury his Axe deep within their mortality. The field of battle is for warriors willing to fight warriors, and HL is willing.

CONCEPT
I've seen some other Shifter Ranger/Cleric and Cleric builds out there, some built to wield a nasty Axe. However, I am playing in a campaign that requires a special niche and I decided to build out a shifter variation of the other builds I've made to round out the group.

HL is built for defense, leading, and eventually some tasty tree cutting FREE HIT CRITs. This is a strength cleric with some passable cleric powers, but more importantly, the "Crit Twins" Righteous Rage of Tempus and Prophet of Doom. He is also party optimized and can

If traveling with a mob of strikers and two defenders (like the party I play with), I decided AC was more important than me hitting with a d12 because I'm best used in the party as a strong defensive support machine. You can alter this decision if you like the wet thud sound an axe makes when it sinks into fresh meat by not taking Heavy Shield Prof early on. Instead take War Axe Proficiency.

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MizGrizzle, level 30
Shifter, Longtooth, Cleric, Divine Oracle, Demigod
Divine Spark: Divine Spark Strength
Divine Spark: Divine Spark Wisdom
Background: Aglarond

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 26, Con 17, Dex 16, Int 10, Wis 26, Cha 12.

Starting Ability Scores
Str 14, Con 15, Dex 14, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 10.


AC: 46 Fort: 43 Reflex: 38 Will: 43
HP: 174 Surges: 10 Surge Value: 43

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion, Heal, Insight, Perception, Athletics.

Defense + Healing + High AT = Party Leader

At level 8 is where this build begins to show his true colors. By Level 12, he is Defensed, mobile, and can uncork some support damage.

Selected Feats
1: Ritual Caster
1: Armor Proficiency (Scale)
2: Weapon Proficiency (Bastard sword) (retrained to Weapon Proficiency (Waraxe) at Level 9)
4: Shield Proficiency (Light)
6: Warrior of the Wild (Hunter's Quarry 1/Encounter)
8: Shield Proficiency (Heavy) (retrained to Shield Specialization at Level 11)
10: Novice Power
11: Deadly Axe
12: Righteous Rage of Tempus
14: Armor Specialization (Scale)
16: Devastating Critical
18: Adept Power
20: Shield Proficiency (Heavy)
21: Axe Mastery
22: Epic Resurgence
24: Martial Mastery
26: Font of Radiance
28: Burst of Savagery
30: Robust Defenses

Things of note in this feat progression include picking up Heavy Shield early on and then switching it out at 11th (feat starved) to get rid of the Check penalty. You'll see below that I selected Novice at 10th in order to get Hawk's Talon, the quintessential encounter power for this build. I pick up a bevy of Feats from the Martial Powers book (thanks to multi-classing into a Ranger).

Final Powers are underlined.

Encounters
1, Encounter: Healing Strike
6, Hunter's Quarry 1/Encounter
3, Encounter: Daunting Light
7, Encounter: Strengthen the Faithful (retrained to Hawk's Talon at 10th level)
11, Prophecy of Doom PP
13, Encounter: Mantle of Glory (replaces Daunting Light)
17, Encounter: Blinding Light (retrained to Hawk's Talon at Novice Power) (replaces Strengthen the Faithful)
21, Immortal Curse EP
23, Encounter: Haunting Strike (replaces Healing Strike)
27, No Changes

Seeing as how most Ranger encounter powers are Two-Weapon or ranged, the cleric encounters tend to be more useful for this build, with the exception of Hawk's Talon. Hawk's Talon does a mediocre 2W + STR mod, however, you can stack your growing WIS mod on that AT. This makes a fantastic pairing with on of your FREE CRIT HIT powers. You get +4 to CRIT HIT once it is picked up at 10th. This should go quite nicely with some tasty crit hungry weapons. The rest is built around healing while hitting.

Daily
1, Daily: Avenging Flame
5, Daily: Consecrated Ground
9, Daily: Divine Power
15, Daily: Holy Spark (replaces Avenging Flame)
19, Daily: Fire Storm (replaces Holy Spark)
25, Daily: Nimbus of Doom (retrained to Ranger's Resurgence at 25th level (Adept Power)) (replaces Divine Power)
29, Daily: Astral Storm (retrained to Suffering's End at 29th level (Adept Power)) (replaces Ranger's Resurgence and Fire Storm)

It's the Dailies that provide HL with the hewing power a finely honed War Axe. Ranger's Resurgence at 25th level provide a way to hack 8W out of your Quarry (I like the sound of an 8d12 CRIT). Nimbus of Doom does decent damage and the penalty to all DEF is a nice setup for another CRIT. Finally, as an end all, I switched out Ranger's Resurgence for Suffering's End (replacing Astral Storm) to be able to shift into CA and end a bloodied beasts life with 8W of monster damage.

Utility - Class / Multi // Replaced
2, Utility: Sanctuary
6, Utility: Bastion of Health
10, Utility: Astral Refuge
16, Utility: Astral Shield
22, Utility: Cloud Chariot
26, Repel Legions EP


The Utilities are all Cleric because this is a healing cleric build after all and being feat starved means no Ranger Utilities.


Play
1-8
Defense and Support: leave the damage to the Strikers

8+
Defense/Crit Damage and Support: Use either CRIT Power with Hawk's Talon.

21+
Defense/High Crit Damage and Support: Get a big buff to AT from a team member (desirable), Quarry, Immortal Curse, then blast through your FREE CRIT HIT POWERS and two dailies using the Immortal Curse action point (helps to have a Warlord as a Team Member).

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Adventurer's Kit, Agile Titanscale Armor +6, Heavy Shield, Bloodiron Waraxe +6, Magic Holy Symbol +6, Cloak of Distortion +6

RITUALS
Gentle Repose, Tenser's Floating Disk

Comments are welcome.

Isn't Ranger's Resurgence a level 25 power?