I'm mostly just wondering if this will work out in the long run :) So that I don't invest TO much money into skills is all.

RM: Dark Conniption
LM: Cleave (make dark conniption even more dangerous I would think yes?)
1: 1h swivel arm action
2: retribution
3: Acidic blight
4: average BMI
5: Awesome Cleavage
6: I'm rubber, your screwed
7: Gym Freak
8: Way of the Roo

Will dark conniption stack and get even more chances to activate using cleave? if not, cleave/awesome cleavage will be changed. I figure dark conniption + 1h swivel + cleave + awesome cleavage = a lot of procs. lots of mana drain of course but...

Anyway, will this setup work? It seems like it would but...I'm only level 15 :P

Maybe switch out average BMI with bookworm...would cost hp but would give me a lot more mana >.> not so sure thats a good idea in melee lol

*wonders where the edit-post button is*

Just so you know, the Edit button times out and goes away after a certain time. I can't remember how many minutes though. :)

Will dark conniption stack and get even more chances to activate using cleave? if not, cleave/awesome cleavage will be changed. I figure dark conniption + 1h swivel + cleave + awesome cleavage = a lot of procs. lots of mana drain of course but...

I've never tried that combination, mainly because I don't use 1H weapons. My current fighter does Flaming Buddy + Cleave (the Lakergirl in my sig, if you're curious about the build), but my understanding is that you can only use one active skill at a time. So if you hit Cleave, you will finish the full cleaving spin before you can use DC on the mobs.

Your set of passives is really good, but if you want to drop Cleave and its awesome booster, I suggest putting in Bookworm to help you with the mana use, and the Mage skill Dark Wizardry, which essentially is an all-shadow skill booster that will make DC hit way harder.

Ooooo I didn't realize that would help my dark skills as well. That will save me a ton of mana from not using cleave. All I would have to do is remember to activate it before each dark >.>

RM: Dark Conniption
LM: Bookworm
1: 1h swivel arm action
2: retribution
3: Acidic blight
4: average BMI
5: Dark Wizardry
6: I'm rubber, your screwed
7: Gym Freak
8: Way of the Roo

Seems like a good setup. The only one is...I would like to fit in Mad Melee Mastery if possible, to allow more points from Dex to go to the other stats. But what could I take out? Average BMI maybe? Or is mad melee mastery a bad idea with bookworm?

RM: Dark Conniption
LM: Bookworm

I would swap these around. That way you can just hold down your left mouse button, and it'll reactivate DC as soon as it can. Just be ready to spam pots to make up for the mana usage.


Seems like a good setup. The only one is...I would like to fit in Mad Melee Mastery if possible, to allow more points from Dex to go to the other stats. But what could I take out? Average BMI maybe? Or is mad melee mastery a bad idea with bookworm?

This is one of those tricky areas where the answer is "whatever works best for you". I use Mad Melee Mastery, Gym Freak, Way of the Roo, and Bookworm, because that is the combination that works best for me. Average BMI is more of a mage skill to me, but once again, if it works for you, go for it.

In that combo, I'd personally get rid of either BMI or Retribution in favor of Mad Melee Mastery. Retribution is basically melee reflect only and it's rare that you're fighting all melee mobs. Personally, I like it when I'm fighting bosses or when I have it stacked with tons of reflect gear. You'll be able to make up the difference in damage by allocating more points to str instead of agi with mad melee mastery, especially since melee gets a bonus to damage and def based on STR.

For a crazy alt build, check out JazzHands (http://drunners.110mb.com/index.php?c=jazzhands)... I've used a very similar setup to yours and I often swap out skills depending what I'm doing. Please note, the character viewer doesn't calculate in the additions from passive skills, so I've included a static snapshot of my in-game char window, too:

Char Viewer (http://drunners.110mb.com/index.php?c=jazzhands)

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa64/ripper_mcgee/Dungeon%20Runners/JazzHands73.jpg

Please note, this is pretty much a PVE/mob-killing build. I'd definitely modify it for boss fights/pvp.

Also, if your having problems with mana, mana steal can go a long way to saving a little potion money.(offhand cant think which 1-h have manasteal but there are a few)

Just to make sure...will I be able to activate the 1h swivel and then activate dark conniption? The stacking attack speed is sorta the whole point to taking them both :P

Just to make sure...will I be able to activate the 1h swivel and then activate dark conniption? The stacking attack speed is sorta the whole point to taking them both :P

Yes, those two go together :)

My newest powerset :P

LM: Dark Conniption / Soul Rend
1: Acidic Blight
2: Dark Wizardry / Divine Ascension
3: 1H Swivel
4: Mad Melee
5: Way of Roo
6: Gym Freak
7: I am Rubber
8: Average BMI
RM: Couch Potato

I am not sure if this is the best way to get the best bang for my buck but...

Mad Melee drops off 20% health right off the bat but with it I can use little to no points in agility once I'm high enough level to have good agi bonuses to equips without sacrificing my other stats. Gym adds 50% so that gives me a base of 30% bonus to health, but a 25% penalty to mana. Using BMI and Couch Potato gives me a 35% bonus to health and only a 5% penalty to mana once you add both in. I was going to attempt Bookworm but trying to recover the lost hp seems to be a pretty nasty task. However I know I am going to be eating MP so I may end up having to use bookworm in place of couch potato at some point. On the other hand, replacing couch potato with book worm ends up with an overall 25% boost to health and a 70% boost to mana. The 10% loss to health might be worth such a massive jump.

Having Divine and Soul as backups seems like a good idea since I could end up in a dungeon full of shadow mobs. Not so sure how well my dark attacks would fare in that sort of situation.

Yes, I may be thinking a little to much into this but I find planning to be fun lol. Let me know what you think ^^;;

[edit] Also, I do hope the item shop (if it ever comes out) comes with a name changer. Now that I'm designing something like a Dark Paladin character, I REALLY need to change my name....

LM: Dark Conniption / Soul Rend
1: Acidic Blight
2: Dark Wizardry / Divine Ascension
3: 1H Swivel
4: Mad Melee
5: Way of Roo
6: Gym Freak
7: I am Rubber
8: Average BMI
RM: Couch Potato


I'm not sure if you need all those passives--when I played the White Paladin build I had Ray of Gosh and Bookworm instead of Average BMI and I am Rubber, but if this works for you, by all means roll with it. The thing with DR is that since it allows for so much flexibility, every build ends up being very personalized... so what works for me will not necessarily work for you. And that's the beauty of it :)

Oh I agree completely. What I want to know though is the sort of harm my numbers could cause, since those would be somewhat more universal. Is a melee fighter getting only 25% increase health in serious danger?

And I can't edit again...

Problem I forgot to think about. I have a bling gnome...I don't really think I want to not use it. So which power to give up for it T_T

Also...

How much do resistances really play in? I'm currently using Soul Rend against divine ratlings and it rips them up anyway. Do mob resistances not matter as much? Would be nice not to have to level them if I don't need them :P

Testing may have made this easier. Rubber/Screwed is obnoxious >_< everytime somebody bounces off they go flying away and I have to chase them.