While many of the suggested builds have focused on doing repeated small attacks to groups, this build focuses more on being able to do damage to one or two targets. At higher levels, many of the monsters are size larger or larger which makes it hard to get more than one or two around you. This build is aimed at not damage to a group but damage to one or two monsters at a time.
The following is a level by level progression of thoughts and choices.
Race: Elf ~ I am sure other races could do well but I like Elf
Attributes is a 22 pt buy of 16, 14, 14, 12, 11, 8
Str 16, Con 14, Dex 16, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 11
Main Weapon: Heavy Flail, +2 Prof, 2d6 damage, 2H
Main Armour: Scale +7
Level 1 ( 29 hp ) At Will: Cleave, Reaping Strike Encounter: Covering Attack Daily: Villain's Menace Feat: Power Attack
At level 1, the build is not much of an elite killer. Villain's Menace allows us to spike up the damage a little bit and the bonus to hit from the Villain's Menace can balance the usage of the Power Attack feat. Used together that gives a +7 on damage if Villain's Menace hits (or +10 including Str). It is good to save your Elven Accuracy for this attack and try to have a team mate help set up the attack for an additional bonus to hit.
Level 2 ( 35 hp ) Utility: Unstoppable Feat: Initiate of Faith
At level 2, the build gets two sources of healing. Each of the sources are usable once per day and this also opens up the Cleric line for multi classing. Extra healing can be important if you plan to go into fights against elites. Both of the sources of healing use a minor action to activate which is useful when you are possibly tanking by yourself.
Level 3 ( 41 hp ) Encounter: Rain of Blows
At level 3, we get our first real elite damager attack. We have a Dex of 15+ and are using the heavy flail which means that we get the initial two attacks and we get the possibility for two more secondary attacks. If we lead in with the Villain's Menace while using Power Attack then our damage is 2d6+10 per hit. With a team mate helping us set up the combo of Villain's Menace followed by Rain of Blows using an action point, we would hope to do in one round [ 4d6 + 3 + 2d6 + 10 + 2d6 + 10 + 2d6 + 10 + 2d6 + 10 = 12d6 + 43 = 42 + 43 = 85 average damage if all attacks hit ].
Level 4 ( 47 hp ) Str 17, Dex 17 Feat: Novice Power Novice Power: Swap Healing Smite (Cleric Att 1) for Covering Attack
At level 4, we get a third source of combat healing with no loss to our offence damage.
Level 5 ( 53 hp ) Daily: Crack the Shell
At level 5, choose Crack the Shell, this allows a -2 AC reduction to a target which is effectively a +2 to hit which allows for more usage of the power attack with no loss of accuracy. The 5 ongoing damage makes this attack equivalent to Dizzying Blow for damage.
Level 6 ( 59 hp ) Utility: Unbreakable Feat: Fast Runner
At level 6, choose to increase the speed and give the character some more ability to absorb damage. Negating 7 hit points of damage does not seem like much but it is per encounter which means that over a 4 encounter day that your fighter has effectively 28 more hit points.
Level 7 ( 65 hp ) Encounter: Griffon's Wrath
At level 7, choose again an ability like Crack the Shell to lower an opponent's AC which effectively gives us a +2 bonus to hit the target. The focus is on tanking the big tough guy of the group and not the half dozen lesser people that anyone could handle. You could swap Griffon's Wrath for Strengthen the Faithful (Cleric Att 7) and return Covering Attack. I do not think this increases much in the way of healing and it loses the +2 to hit that the Griffon's Wrath provides.
Level 8 ( 71 hp ) Str 18, Dex 18 Feat: Acolyte Power: Swap Unstoppable for Cure Light Wounds Retraining: Boundless Endurance for Unstoppable
At level 8, over the levels some abilities begin to lose their lustre. Unstoppable heals for an average of 7+2 = 9 hit points. This is fine at level 2 but at level 8 our surge value is now 17 hit points. Cure Light Wounds cures almost twice what Unstoppable would provide and is a better choice. You could choose to swap Unbreakable for Cure Serious Wounds instead but that would still leave you Unstoppable as your utility. Further, Unbreakable and Cure Serious Wounds at level 8 heal comparably the same amount of hit points over a 4 encounter day ( 28 hit points for Unbreakable and 34 hit points for Cure Serious Wounds ). Unstoppable will continue to lose its lustre; so, it is good to retrain it with Boundless Endurance (though you still keep the power swap for Cure Light Wounds for the moment) for an after action healing or to mitigate an ongoing damage effect.
Level 9 ( 77 hp ) Daily: Victorious Surge
At level 9, we again get more ways to heal. The build does not have Toughness or Durable but it has effectively 4 free surges worth of healing (Cure Light Wounds, Unbreakable, and Victorious Surge = 19 + 28 + 19 = 66 free hit points). We have done this while picking up another solid 3W attack to use on an elite.
Level 10 ( 83 hp ) Utility: Into the Fray Feat: Adept Power: Swap Divine Power for Victorious Surge Change Acolyte Power: Swap Cure Serious Wounds for Unbreakable Change Acolyte Power returns Boundless Endurance to our Level 2 Utility choice. Retraining: Fast Runner for Weapon Focus Flail
At level 10, Cure Serious now heals 40 hp while Unbreakable is worth still 28 hit points of healing over a 4 encounter day. Making the switch we have now got two sources of regeneration per day. Boundless Endurance can regenerate at 4 hp per round and Divine Power can regenerate at 5 hp per round. With the gain of the utility feat Into the Fray, we do not need the Fast Runner feat to get the extra distance that a charge provides and we arrive in combat able to take a standard action. Divine Power does not do as much damage to a single target but the burst is 2 with 2W damage, gives regeneration 5, attacks Fortitude instead of AC, pushes targets 1 space, and gives +2 to AC to you and your allies. Divine Power is just all types of wonderful. Compared to level 9, the build has lost 28 free hit points but gained two sources of regeneration.
Level 11 ( 90 hp ) Str 19 Con 15 Dex 19 Int 9 Wis 15 Cha 12
Paragon Selection Time with choices from Fighter, Cleric, or full Fighter-Cleric.
Iron Vanguard - requires a good constitution to make effective and our Con 14 is okay but we should have gone Str/Con with a Maul or Axe if we wanted to be an Iron Vanguard.
Kensei - The Kensei works fairly well with this build. The corner stone of the build is Rain of Blows where the +4 from the damage would help to increase (the bonus is also constant which means that over a day of fighting on average 7 rounds per encounter times 4 = 28 rounds you are doing roughly 56 more damage per day considering a 50/50 hit average). The Kensei gives an extra +1 to hit all the time and an extra reroll which can be good with the Elven Accuracy. Ultimate Parry is a bit weak as it stops 10 hit points of damage once per day which is almost the amount of damage that Unbreakable was stopping per encounter. Weaponsoul Dance is a great ability to zoom around the battlefield to get to the opponent that you want to be attacking. Consider on a turn you could move as an Elf 8 (Scale Armour Specialization plus Fleet Footed), Into the Fray 3 (to reach the first target), then Weaponsoul Dance to shift up to 10 squares more to get to the target that you want to reach that might be far away in the rear for a total movement of 21 squares of distance travelled and you could still spend an action point to take another action. Masterstroke is basically Sure Strike at level 21 but granted at level 11. It is not fantastic but acceptable and can allow an extra usage of power attack.
Pit Fighter - If you have the Wis then Pit Fighter at level 16 out performs Kensai for additional damage. Pit Fighter adds the Wis modifier which is +2 for this build while another build this could be +4 or more with Wis focused on instead of Dex. The Pit Fighter All Bets are Off is slightly better then Masterstroke as you get to try and hit with an extra d6 damage and a daze effect. Deadly Payback again is comparable though a +2 to hit and damage is a bit better than the Ultimate Parry. Lion of Battle is best as a finishing move when the target is already bloodied while Weaponsoul Dance is best towards the beginning of a battle to pin down several targets and get you to a main opponent. The big trouble with Pit Fighter is that it gives you a third thing to try and maximize. You now want to have a high Wis to go with a high Str. If you want to be able to do weapon mastery then you also have a third thing that you need at least a 17 in Dexterity for Heavy Blade Mastery. Flail Mastery needs a Dexterity of 19. Points spent on Dexterity take away from the damage that the Wis is providing.
Swordmaster - This path focuses on light blades and heavy blades and many of the features require a light blade or a heavy blade to be used to make them work. The focusing on the heavy flail discards this path from consideration.
Angelic Avenger - This path offers a +4 to hit with an action point. The Astral Wave does decent damage to a burst of 8 which is huge area coverage. The best power is the Angel Ascendant which gives once a day Fly for an encounter and a 5W damage hit. The lack of Cha means that Astral Vibrance will not help much for damage and the other features are nice but not of peak value with not a focus on Wisdom. A build with more Wis or Cha would do better with this path.
Divine Oracle - This is great path and it is always a pleasure to consider. Even the Hammer of Fate which is a Wis based attack is not wasted if you miss with this daily. You could do worse then to choose this path.
Radiant Servant and Warpriest are both Wis focused and not the best choice for the attributes of this build.
Full Fighter/Clerical Multi-class - This path requires a consideration of what powers would be taken or swapped to judge compared to the other options. Of the four At-Will powers that you could swap to get from the Clerical list there are two that are Str based attacks. One gives a +1 to AC and the other allows another to get a power bonus to melee attack equal to your Str (+4 currently and increasing). Righteous Brand as an At-Will power would be a good choice to help your team. This would require giving up either Cleave or Reaping Strike. Cleave is one of the few ways that this build has to mark more than one opponent in a round while Reaping Strike guarantees on a miss of doing some damage. At this level it is better to have the Cleave to mark an extra target.
You also can choose a Cleric encounter power of level 7 or lower. I would choose Strengthen the Faithful which would provide another attack that gives healing and could later free the Novice Power to choose another Clerical power in the Paragon Encounter level.
At 12th level, you can choose a clerical utility power of level 10 or lower. I would choose either Mass Cure Light wounds to offer another source of free healing or Bastion of Health to offer an additional healing surge per combat. It would depend on how heavily I felt the character was being tapped of the healing surges as to which was the better option.
At 20th level, you can choose a daily power of up to level 19. A good choice might be Holy Wrath with a burst 3 for reasonable damage and giving you regeneration 10 and a +2 to attack rolls for the encounter.
It looks like for the Heavy Flail build that the best two choices are Kensei and Full Fighter/Cleric Multi-class. The Kensei offers a bit more increase in damage, a reroll, and useful attack at level 19 while the Full Fighter/Cleric Multi-Class offers a bit more healing and durability.
The focus is on damaging tough opponents with this build; so, I am going to choose Kensei as the Paragon Path.
Paragon Path: Kensei Control Action, Kensei Focus: Heavy Flail, Masterstroke Feat: Armour Specialization (Scale) Retraining: Battle Awareness for Unbreakable
It should be noted that Power Attack now offers a +6 to damage and Weapon Focus offers a +2 Feat bonus to damage. Rain of Blows with Power Attack and Weapon Focus now does 2d6 + 12 per hit. Villain's Menace increases that to 2d6 + 16 per hit.
There are several good choices for feats to take to improve the build. Fast Runner adds +1 speed and Durable adds +2 surges. Choosing Scale Armour Specialization increased the speed at level 11 and the character already has several amounts of regeneration and free healing surges; so, I choose to increase the offence. I do not see there being enough opponents with shields to make Sweeping Flail be a good choice as a feat at the Paragon level and am going to choose to pass on getting this feat.
Level 13 ( 102 hp )
Encounter: Replace Griffon's Wrath with Chains of Sorrow
This is one of the levels that shows the advantage of the higher Dex. The Dex drives this feat which applies a -4 to the target's AC at level 13 and a -5 to the target's AC at level 14 when the Dex increases to 20. Chains of Sorrow becomes the set up attack to hit with a more damaging attack.
Level 14 ( 108 hp ) Str 20, Dex 20
Feat: Durable
The Durable feat adds almost 54 hp to the build at this level in extra damage that can be soaked.
Level 15 ( 114 hp )
Daily: Replace Crack the Shell with Dragon's Fangs
With Chain of Sorrows able to apply a -5 modifier to AC per encounter, Crack the Shell can now be replaced with a power that has the chance to do 3W x2 to a single target. This makes one of the ideal set of attacks Villain's Menace, Chains of Sorrow, then on a round with an action point spent Rain of Blows and Dragon's Fangs. Unyielding Avalanche is a good choice for a person wanting another type of regeneration though regeneration 2 is not very strong but good to help heal up after the battle.
Level 16 ( 120 hp )
Paragon Path: Kensei Mastery Utility: Iron Warrior Feat: Blood Thirst Change: Acolyte Power: Divine Armour (Cleric Uti 16) for Iron Warrior Change returns Battle Awareness Retraining: At-Will Reaping Strike for Sure Strike
With this level the damage bonus per attack increases to Str (+5) Weapon Focus (+2) Kensei Mastery (+4) Power Attack (+6) for a total of +17 per attack. A magical weapon would add roughly another +4 to the damage per attack added on to the base of 2d6 and Blood Thirst can add another +2. With the total bonus of damage on a hit and the -2 to hit using power attack, it becomes important to swing as much as possible with power attack. Sure Strike works to offset the penalty to using the Power Attack. While this approach loses out on the 5 hp of damage on a miss, the gain in making sure that every hit has power attack means that you are adding +6 to your damage.
While I have the Retraining at level 16, you might want to consider this change as early as level 11 when power attack bonus to damage exceeds the damage that using strength to swing and miss does to a target.
Divine Armour gives resist 5 all and a +2 to AC to you and allies in a burst 3. This is almost as good as getting regeneration and applies to the group while Iron Warrior gives on average 39 hp to you alone. This also allows us now to use Battle Awareness for key moments each day to grab initiative.
Level 17 ( 126 hp )
Encounter: Replace Covering Attack with Warrior's Challenge Change Novice Power: Swap Blinding Light (Cleric Att 17) for Warrior's Challenge
I do not really like much of the level 17 Fighter encounter choices for the Heavy Flail fighter. Warrior's Challenge is a good choice for increasing the ability to mark opponents. I would likely though go with Silverstep instead as it allows hitting two targets for 2W each which is better than one target for 3W.
The swap for Blinding Light reduces by 1 the sources of healing in the build. It is hoped at this point the fighter and team have alternate ways to access healing surges. If healing is still needed then Strengthen the Faithful makes another good choice.
Level 18 ( 132 hp ) Str 21, Dex 21
Feat: Fleet Footed
Evasion would be another good choice at this level but I want to keep the Elf fast and mobile.
Level 19 ( 138 hp )
Daily: Replace Victorious Surge with Strike of the Watchful Guard Change Adept Power: Swap Holy Wrath for Strike of the Watchful Guard
Holy Wrath is similar to Divine Power but has a slightly larger burst and gives regeneration 10 instead of regeneration 5. You do lose that Divine Power is a weapon attack verses fortitude, a push of 1, and the benefit of +2 AC applied to your allies. The losses though are worth the gain of regeneration 10 and the slightly larger AoE.
Level 20 ( 144 hp )
Paragon Path: Weaponsoul Dance Feat: Evasion
The elf fighter is now able to make quick deep attacks into an opponent's position if needed or tie up several opponents for a round while the rest of the team operate and develop the battle.
Level 21 ( 151 hp ) Str 22, Con 16, Dex 22, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 13
There is currently only one Epic Destiny really available for this fighter and that is Demigod.
Damage continues to go up with the build. The additional damage for an attack are now Str (+7) Weapon Focus (+3) Kensei Mastery (+4) Power Attack (+9) for +23. A magical weapon adds +5, Villain's Menace adds +4 and Blood Thirst adds +2 more for a possible +34 additional damage per attack.
The chance to recover an encounter power is an important gain in ability along with the ability to cause a critical on a 19+ and worth the loss of Fleet Footed.
Level 22 ( 157 hp )
Utility: Act of Desperation Feat: Triumphant Attack Change Acolyte Power: Swap Cloud Chariot for Act of Desperation Change Acolyte Power returns Iron Warrior to the build
The getting of the Cloud Chariot allows fly after summoned until an extended rest is taken. That is a nice ability to have and can air lift the full party. If you are going to be a Demigod then traveling in style is important.
Level 23 ( 163 hp )
Encounter: Replace Warrior's Challenge with Cage of Chains Retraining: Novice Power with Blind Fight
The level 27 encounter choices for fighter and cleric do not offer much that the level 23 Cage of Chains provides. Further, the encounter choices of Rain of Blows (up to 4 times 2d6+34 damage) and Chain of Sorrows (now provides a -7 AC debuff) continue to be effective in the build. Cage of Chains benefit is the attack on Reflex with the addition of restraining the target till the start of your next attack. These powers can be cycled effectively to provide a solid offence to an opponent.
Level 24 ( 169 hp ) Str 25, Dex 25
Epic Destiny: Divine Recovery Feat: Mettle
The Demigod Destiny starts to provide increased forms of recovery. This builds on the previous recovery amounts that were put in the build. A player might want to do an audit of the amount of the recovery in the build and consider retraining some of the powers to other usages.
Level 25 ( 175 hp )
Daily: Replace Villain's Menace with Reaper's Stance
Villain's Menace previously provided a +4 Power Bonus to damage and Reaper's Stance now provides Dex modifier Power Bonus to damage. We thus gain an extra +3 to damage when using Reaper's Stance and have the advantage that Reaper's Stance is a minor action to activate. Consider the bonus to damage with a +6 weapon on a bloodied target while using Reaper's Stance to be +38 per hit.
Level 26 ( 181 hp )
Epic Destiny: Divine Regeneration Feat: Danger Sense
The daily powers of Boundless Endurance, Holy Wrath, and Divine Regeneration give three types of regeneration per day worth 5, 10, and 7 each. If we had chosen to keep Divine Armour instead of getting the Cloud Chariot then we would effectively have a fourth damage mitigation ability with the Resist 5 All ability. If the group has a good way of traveling at this level and you have a good way of dealing with flying problems then it might be worth considering getting Divine Armour again.
Level 27 ( 187 hp )
Encounter: No selections taken
Adamantine Strike would be a possible alternative to Cage of Chains. The damage is the same and both attacks target reflex. I prefer that Cage of Chains keeps the target retrained which could be important for the rest of the team.
Level 28 ( 193 hp ) Str 26, Dex 26
Feat: Combat Anticipation
The increase in attributes has resulted in the damage increasing to +40 per hit with ideal conditions (Str +8 and Reaper's Stance +8).
Level 29 ( 199 hp )
Daily: Replace Dragon's Fangs with Force the Battle
You trade away an attack that can hit for 3W twice in a round to increasing encounter and At-Will attacks by 1W. The At-Wills are already doing 2W damage which makes them now 3W attacks. Rain of Blows now becomes 4d6+ modifiers of damage. This benefit also lasts a full encounter instead of one round.
Level 30 ( 205 hp )
Epic Destiny: Divine Miracle Feat: Fleet Footed
At the top of the ladder, you now have a good pair of attacks in Chains of Sorrow followed by Rain of Blows. You can also go for a constant hold in Cage of Chains. There are several forms of regeneration along with speed and movement to keep the character active on the battlefield. Good equipment will add to the build.
I just don't have the time to go through this whole thing, but I hope some other people will help out. On thing I noticed is that you say that Cleave can mark multiple enemies. Unfortunately, it doesn't. In order to mark an enemy with Combat Challenge, you have to attack it. An attack requires a roll of some sort, so you only mark the guy that you actually swing at.
I'm not sure that's true, but an attack definitely requires a target. Cleave only targets one creature, and it happens to also deal damage to another one. So, only the first creature is marked.
your build assumes that Rain of Blows gives you 4 attacks, why that? rules say it's only 2.
It's two attacks, and then for each of those attacks that hit you get an additional attack. So, with enough accuracy, you can hit someone with four attacks. Devastating, really.
"One skilled at battle takes a stand in the ground of no defeat And so does not lose the enemy's defeat. Therefore, the victorious military is first victorious and after that does battle. The defeated military first does battle and after that seeks victory."
It's two attacks, and then for each of those attacks that hit you get an additional attack. So, with enough accuracy, you can hit someone with four attacks. Devastating, really.
Devastating, and quite likely to be errata'd out, as RAW it is more powerful than most level 13/17 encounter abilities.
Seems likely the RAI is primary, secondary (total of two attacks). Not primary, secondary, primary, secondary. That makes it in line with the other abilities at that tier, as hitting with both would give you double your attribute mod + other weapon damage, making it the most damaging encounter ability for that level.
I'm wondering how the Champion of the Titan's Maul would do with this build. It is designed to be used with flails, but Kensai is a really good class for this too. Nice build. I think I may use it with my Dwarf Fighter.
I apologize for my ADD in advance (that’s a beast of a post!) and I admit I didn’t read the whole thing. A few things to question though from what I saw:
Why start with 16 Dex? Starting attribute points are valuable for surviving the early game from what I've seen. I realize you need a staggering 19 Dex to acquire Flail Mastery at Epic but a 15 Dex would be so much cheaper to start with and still let you use Rain Blows immediately to its devastating effectiveness when you get it at level 3 (until some kind of errata hits at least). Also starting as an Elf who doesn’t get a Strength bonus I personally never would start with less than a 17 Strength so I could hit a nice solid 18 as soon as level 4.
Just what I’d personally use and go into Pit-fighter since you're building a hybrid striker anyway, the path will match very well with the natural bonus to Wisdom from being an Elf. Constitution being low won’t matter too much (as long as you have a Leader) but if you feel the need to gain more hit-points or healing surges just take Durable and/or Toughness. Or you could knock Wisdom down just a tad and feed some points into Constitution but I’m a fan of hyper specialization since you don’t use a weapon that requires a good Constitution bonus for feats or abilities.
It's two attacks, and then for each of those attacks that hit you get an additional attack. So, with enough accuracy, you can hit someone with four attacks. Devastating, really.
uhu, I see. looks indeed a tad too powerful for a level 3 encounter power.
