Ok, so i've noticed recently that my character has no form or shape whatsoever in terms of what damage he does, what he can hit for and so on. Yet i can't seem to find what i need to be focusing on and could do with a bit of a hand here.

My character is currently a Level 20 Fighter, with the title of "Strapping Hardened Shrouded Fighter" and the following stats, which are found here; http://www.threeplanetssoftware.com/software/dr/profile.php?character=Gapps

I was looking at making my character a fighter who can dish out damage on single targets with his weapons and weapon-related skills and then mop up fodder npcs with shadow damage. How can i achieve this?

As a fighter, you want to have your attack rating (accuracy) 10x your level. So at level 20, it's recommended to have 2000 attack rating. Anything more than that is really pushing it.

Sounds like you want to use Shadow Lightning for the fodder? If you're gonna do that they I suggest putting some points in intellect. Maybe balance your str and intellect. You can have your AR less than 2000 if you're gonna go hybrid, because you're gonna be using Shadow Lightning or other Magic skills a lot anyway, and you don't need attack rating for them.

Unless you run bosses on insane all the time you don't really need a lot of HP.

My ranger is a mage hybrid that uses poison and shadow lightning for fast multiple kills. Look at my build. You might want to go for something kind of like that, but you gotta have some points in str if you want your damage to be consistent. I didn't put any stats at all in endurance because i'm gonna be using BSoL when I turn 25, so I don't need the HP.

That looks like a fun build, romanceplx - here's the one I'm currently using for a hybrid (I tend to swap out a skill or two, depending what I'm fighting, but the core build is pretty much the same):

JazzHands (http://threeplanetssoftware.com/software/dr/profile.php?character=JazzHands)

Please note, the character viewers don't take passive bonuses into account when calculating AR - mine is actually 6200+ in game.

So far, this has been one of the most fun builds I've had. It's also pretty well balanced, at least for PVE, in that I can take out groups of mobs pretty quickly offensively, but have some decent defense, as well (12% block, 14% stun resist, 74% melee reflect, 53% ranged reflect, etc...).

Actually, I changed my build to a fighter now, and I found out that it kills much more faster because of Soul Rend with high intelligence. I just dumped all of my stats on int, and it kind of looks like Ripper's build, but i'm not going to be using mfb, or any fire skills. It's nice. I'm planning on replacing shadow lightning with ray of gosh when I reach the appropriate level. Should be fun. :D

As a fighter, you want to have your attack rating (accuracy) 10x your level. So at level 20, it's recommended to have 2000 attack rating. Anything more than that is really pushing it.

Sounds like you want to use Shadow Lightning for the fodder? If you're gonna do that they I suggest putting some points in intellect. Maybe balance your str and intellect. You can have your AR less than 2000 if you're gonna go hybrid, because you're gonna be using Shadow Lightning or other Magic skills a lot anyway, and you don't need attack rating for them.

Unless you run bosses on insane all the time you don't really need a lot of HP.

My ranger is a mage hybrid that uses poison and shadow lightning for fast multiple kills. Look at my build. You might want to go for something kind of like that, but you gotta have some points in str if you want your damage to be consistent. I didn't put any stats at all in endurance because i'm gonna be using BSoL when I turn 25, so I don't need the HP.

Took your advice and tweaked it a little; put 50 points in strength, 50 in intellect and 15 in Endurance and stole your layout of soul rend on left-click and shadow-lightning on right. Works a treat. Thank you. :)

Took your advice and tweaked it a little; put 50 points in strength, 50 in intellect and 15 in Endurance and stole your layout of soul rend on left-click and shadow-lightning on right. Works a treat. Thank you. :)

No problem. My character at the moment actually only has half of the recommended attack rating for her level. I'm level 20, and it's only 1030 or something. My damage isn't hampered that much however because shadow lightning barely gets resisted by monsters in Algernon or Terror Dome. My low str is compensated by a high damage boost by Soul Rend so I think it's quite safe to say that I do about the same damage as a pure traditional fighter that focuses on str with no int.

Your build however kind of has both : Balanced str and int. Using a 2 handed slow weapon (like your doom mallet) is quite nice for that build because you have strength... meaning that your melee hits still matter quite a lot, so it's nice to pack high damage with your swings. If you decide to try out a build similar to mine or Ripper's, it's best to have a one hand weapon with a fast aspd, because it lowers the cooldown of your melee spells (soul rend), so that means you will be able to use Sould Rend faster and more often. However, I only recommend that if you're really going to focus on soul rend or my flaming buddy as your main damaging skills and is willing to go uber hybrid with all int and bsol.

But hey! In the end, it's all about you. Good builds are all about trial and error.

Your build looks really good right now. I don't see why you would need Smackdown though, since you're a fighter and I don't think you'd want enemies getting out of your range. I think Gaseous Blast or Divine Ascendancy (for soul rend), would fit your build better. Just saying.

Hope all that helped.

Your build looks really good right now. I don't see why you would need Smackdown though, since you're a fighter and I don't think you'd want enemies getting out of your range. I think Gaseous Blast or Divine Ascendancy (for soul rend), would fit your build better. Just saying.

I find Smackdown handy when i'm over-run by npcs, especially those ones which knock me back. I was using Stomp beforehand to do this but they resisted alot of it. The description of the skill itself is also another incentive to keep it on my screen. :D