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3 years ago ::
May 23, 2010 - 9:44PM
#21
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level 30
Human, Warlock|Swordmage, Avernian Knight, Sage of Ages
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Heavy Blade)
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Light Blade)
Eldritch Pact (Hybrid): Infernal Pact (Hybrid)
Eldritch Strike: Eldritch Strike Constitution
Hybrid Warlock: Hybrid Warlock Will
Swordmage Aegis (Hybrid): Aegis of Shielding
Hybrid Talent: Swordmage Warding
Twofold Pact: Star Pact
Background: High Imaskar (High Imaskar Benefit)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 14, Con 26, Dex 13, Int 24, Wis 13, Cha 10.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 12, Con 16, Dex 11, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 8.
AC: 46 Fort: 42 Reflex: 43 Will: 41HP: 184 Surges: 15 Surge Value: 46
Unless there's something I'm missing you can drop 1 point out of your DEX, bump wisdom to an even 12 and gain a +1 to your wisdom NAD at epic as well as being able to qualify to retrain wrathful warrior to the superior battle awareness at lvl 11 while losing nothing.
Also does this build lose anything from human other than the +1 to NAD's, 1 feat, and 1 skill by just going gythyanki and evening out the int and con?
Hybrid daily 29: Hurl Through Hell (replaces Infectious Curse)
Why are you using Hurl through hell as opposed to Transdimensional invasion if all you want is damage? single target 7[w] vs party friendly burst 5 5[w] with the potential for 2d10 falling damage off the teleport.
Hybrid utility 22: Shackled Warding
What is the reasoning for using shackled warding? It seems like like if you wanted a swordmage utility at this level either giant's might for the increased reach and damage/attack bonus' or oni's gift to effectively blind your enemies would be better for your stacking penalty strategy.
Hybrid encounter 13: Soul Flaying (replaces Vampiric Embrace)
Silverlight strike at this light seems better than soul flaying and continues your penalty stacking theme i.e. invisible = blind for the purposes of attacking your enemies. It also doesn't seem to mess up the hybrid power progression you have selected.
Hybrid daily 9: Infectious Curse
Seems like if you really want a warlock daily at this level based off con ooze incarnate is better. Multiple attacks against reflex that allow you to push and randomly useful you can squeeze with no penalty if you need to. At the same level you could choose either Blade Bolt for a permanent double mark or Troll Rampage for con mod + 2 bloodied regen both with decent damage from the sword mage selection without screwing up the hybrid power scheme for later levels.
Hybrid utility 6: Dark One's Own Luck
I like this choice but as alternate if you wanted something more tanky you could take Red Leeches of Nehal to get double your surge in temps when anyone spends a surge or an AP enemy or friend.
Hybrid daily 15: Blasphemous Utterance (replaces Armor of Agathys)
Hybrid encounter 17: Despair of Zhudun (replaces Infernal Moon Curse)
Side note I don't like any of these but I'm pretty sure you picked them for the penalties they give even though there are arguably stronger powers you could have gone with.
Evil Expulsion, Tendrils of Thuban or even Thirsting Maw at 15.
Life Force reclaimed, Warlock's Bargain, or Sea Tryant's fury seem generally better at 17.
Hybrid utility 10: Ethereal Sidestep
Also realized you took this with zero ways to increase your total teleport speed so this is basically a teleport shift. Could just take Impenetrable Warding to boost your NAD's once a day.
Swordwing Armor of Dark Majesty +6 - defenses
Also I can't seem to find this anywhere in the compendium and I have no idea what the armor does other than the basic enhancement.
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3 years ago ::
May 24, 2010 - 1:27AM
#22
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2002
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Its in the new Class Acts: Warlock in Dragon 386. Gives you +2 to all defenses against cursed targets. (4/9/14/19/24/29)
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3 years ago ::
May 24, 2010 - 4:45PM
#23
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2008
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Unless there's something I'm missing you can drop 1 point out of your DEX, bump wisdom to an even 12 and gain a +1 to your wisdom NAD at epic as well as being able to qualify to retrain wrathful warrior to the superior battle awareness at lvl 11 while losing nothing.
At the moment, the dex is to enable taking Improved Swordmage Warding at epic. If I decide to abandon that, it would be easy to do as you suggest.
Also does this build lose anything from human other than the +1 to NAD's, 1 feat, and 1 skill by just going gythyanki and evening out the int and con?
You also lose one at-will power, and don't underestimate that +1 to NADs. Those aside, that feat is pure gold for a build as tight on feats as Vader.
Also, githyanki is not an official race. Vader is LFR legal, but he would not be if you switched to gith.
Why are you using Hurl through hell as opposed to Transdimensional invasion if all you want is damage? single target 7[w] vs party friendly burst 5 5[w] with the potential for 2d10 falling damage off the teleport.
I have been playing Vader in some games, and I will be revising my power selection according to my observations. I have noticed some weaknesses in some powers, and continue to love others.
What is the reasoning for using shackled warding? It seems like like if you wanted a swordmage utility at this level either giant's might for the increased reach and damage/attack bonus' or oni's gift to effectively blind your enemies would be better for your stacking penalty strategy.
Giant's Might only benefits melee attacks, which Vader has few of. Oni's gift only makes me invisible, I don't know where you got the idea that it effectively blinds. Shackled Warding is a great stance to deal with teleporters (which are terrible to deal with otherwise), and provides great lockdown for one encounter. Don't knock it, it's one of the best stances in the game.
Silverlight strike at this light seems better than soul flaying and continues your penalty stacking theme i.e. invisible = blind for the purposes of attacking your enemies. It also doesn't seem to mess up the hybrid power progression you have selected.
Seems like if you really want a warlock daily at this level based off con ooze incarnate is better. Multiple attacks against reflex that allow you to push and randomly useful you can squeeze with no penalty if you need to. At the same level you could choose either Blade Bolt for a permanent double mark or Troll Rampage for con mod + 2 bloodied regen both with decent damage from the sword mage selection without screwing up the hybrid power scheme for later levels.
I like this choice but as alternate if you wanted something more tanky you could take Red Leeches of Nehal to get double your surge in temps when anyone spends a surge or an AP enemy or friend.
Side note I don't like any of these but I'm pretty sure you picked them for the penalties they give even though there are arguably stronger powers you could have gone with.
Evil Expulsion, Tendrils of Thuban or even Thirsting Maw at 15.
Life Force reclaimed, Warlock's Bargain, or Sea Tryant's fury seem generally better at 17.
As with Hurl through Hell.
Also realized you took this with zero ways to increase your total teleport speed so this is basically a teleport shift. Could just take Impenetrable Warding to boost your NAD's once a day.
Through most of Vader's career he carries around an Eladrin Ring of Passage. It's only when the Ring of Free Time becomes affordable that he dumps it.
Also, I am in the process of rigging up a way to have an Incisive Dagger to swap in and out to extend teleport distance (okay, it's finished: Thievery+Fast Hands+Deep-pocket Cloak).
Also I can't seem to find this anywhere in the compendium and I have no idea what the armor does other than the basic enhancement.
Armor of Dark Majesty was in a recent CA: Warlock article. It grants a +2 item bonus to all defenses against cursed targets.
Edit: ninjaed!
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3 years ago ::
May 25, 2010 - 11:55PM
#24
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Unless there's something I'm missing you can drop 1 point out of your DEX, bump wisdom to an even 12 and gain a +1 to your wisdom NAD at epic as well as being able to qualify to retrain wrathful warrior to the superior battle awareness at lvl 11 while losing nothing.
At the moment, the dex is to enable taking Improved Swordmage Warding at epic. If I decide to abandon that, it would be easy to do as you suggest.
Unless the build you have posted on the front page isn't uptodate then the only warding feat you take is at lvl 14 in paragon Greater Swordmage Warding which requires STR and CON. You do not have improved swordmage warding listed in your feats atm.
Also does this build lose anything from human other than the +1 to NAD's, 1 feat, and 1 skill by just going gythyanki and evening out the int and con?
You also lose one at-will power, and don't underestimate that +1 to NADs. Those aside, that feat is pure gold for a build as tight on feats as Vader.
Also, githyanki is not an official race. Vader is LFR legal, but he would not be if you switched to gith.
It's actually not LFR legal because you have a dragonmark but other than that your correct.
What is the reasoning for using shackled warding? It seems like like if you wanted a swordmage utility at this level either giant's might for the increased reach and damage/attack bonus' or oni's gift to effectively blind your enemies would be better for your stacking penalty strategy.
Giant's Might only benefits melee attacks, which Vader has few of. Oni's gift only makes me invisible, I don't know where you got the idea that it effectively blinds. Shackled Warding is a great stance to deal with teleporters (which are terrible to deal with otherwise), and provides great lockdown for one encounter. Don't knock it, it's one of the best stances in the game.
I didn't confuse oni's gift with providing blindness. What I did imply is that because you are invisible for the duration of the power you are effectively providing blindness to anyone who wants to attack you giving them a -5 penalty to attack you ontop of everything else. In addition when you attack while invisible it gives you CA. I will however concede that Giant's Might probably isn't that useful given the propensity for non melee attacks.
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3 years ago ::
May 27, 2010 - 9:49AM
#25
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Avernian Knight is excellent for this character, but going with an artificer multiclass and Self-Forged would be more Vaderly...making him more machine than man....
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3 years ago ::
May 27, 2010 - 12:18PM
#26
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Date Joined:
Dec 25, 2009
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Avernian Knight is excellent for this character, but going with an artificer multiclass and Self-Forged would be more Vaderly...making him more machine than man....
In addition to being more machine than man, D. Vader is also a former Jedi Knight who cast aside the light and followed a darker path to power.
Avernian Knight is entirely appropriate by flavor.
The difference between madness and genius is determined only by degrees of success.
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3 years ago ::
May 27, 2010 - 4:39PM
#27
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Though the idea of Assault may seem more appropriate, Vader himself could do Force-shieldy things, but could not teleport, so I believe Shielding is truer to Vader.
In terms of pure effectivess too, such a indomitable bulwark of defense as Vader can prevent a massive amount of damage with Shielding 2x per turn, which will probably be more beneficial to the party as a whole since Strikers with similar levels of optimization to Vader will tend to have DPR or Encounter Novas far beyond his damage capability. In a situation where Vader is defending high octane Slashers, Fishers, and Multiattack abusers, the enemy will be far more hampered by their extended survival than by some extra punishment DPR from Vader.
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3 years ago ::
May 27, 2010 - 5:28PM
#28
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2007
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Though the idea of Assault may seem more appropriate, Vader himself could do Force-shieldy things, but could not teleport, so I believe Shielding is truer to Vader.
In terms of pure effectivess too, such a indomitable bulwark of defense as Vader can prevent a massive amount of damage with Shielding 2x per turn, which will probably be more beneficial to the party as a whole since Strikers with similar levels of optimization to Vader will tend to have DPR or Encounter Novas far beyond his damage capability. In a situation where Vader is defending high octane Slashers, Fishers, and Multiattack abusers, the enemy will be far more hampered by their extended survival than by some extra punishment DPR from Vader.
Someone had to keep the Emperor safe while he blasted his enemies with lightning 
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3 years ago ::
May 29, 2010 - 12:11AM
#29
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If you want more Defences (and who doesn't?) you could swap out your Deep-Pocket Cloak of a Cloak of Translocation - +2AC/Ref whenever you teleport (and with Ethereal Sidestep, that can be constantly).
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3 years ago ::
May 29, 2010 - 9:34AM
#30
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2008
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If you want more Defences (and who doesn't?) you could swap out your Deep-Pocket Cloak of a Cloak of Translocation - +2AC/Ref whenever you teleport (and with Ethereal Sidestep, that can be constantly).
I swapped OUT my cloak of translocation, for 2 reasons:
1. Money. Translocation is much more expensive than the Deep-pocket cloak.
2. Fast Hands. With Fast Hands we can draw/stow 1 item per round, with the cloak we can draw/stow another item per round. Between the two of them, we should be able to draw an incisive dagger, make our teleport to get concealment, and stow it again to keep our swordmage warding.
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