This will turn into a multi-part series of character builds covering specific race/class combinations. First, I will cover Dwarf Fighters - one of my best and favorite.

Today I will be talking about how I build my fighters, why I choose dwarf fighters in particular, talent choices, when to raise what talents and stats, combat tactics, egos and artifacts to look for, dungeon completion order, and what to not do.

First, let me give a bit of a background on myself when it comes to dwarf fighters. As of this writing, I've made 42 Dwarf Fighters after profiles were created - and I've had 4 make it to the Far East, and 1 to the Final Battle. They are easily in my top three best played race/class combination, one of my favorites, and to me, the absolute easiest race/class combination to play.

Now then, why a dwarf when playing fighters? Well, for several reasons - they are naturally inclined to be fighters in the world of T4 - with good starting hp, along with strength and constitution bonuses, they cover two of the three more important stats for a fighter. Their racial in particular is probably the best for a fighter, as it will raise your armor [scaling very very nicely, about thirty or so armor], and huge boosts to two saves [something like sixty or so (however saves as of beta15b don't exactly do much - this is slated to change in beta16)]. Their penalty to magic doesn't matter at all anymore as scrolls/potions have been removed, and runes/infusions can scale off of any of the three stats you will most likely max.

I like to max out strength, dexterity and constitution, this will leave about fifteen or so points left after raising those three stats to the natural maximum of sixty. They go to either willpower or cunning, depending on the kit that I have available - and because I should be about level forty-five at this point, it's probably my final kit. I will raise the stats in particular by maxing out strength first, and once I start to reach the 'max per level' cap, the extra points will be going to constitution. Not only will this raise my hp [and allow me to get health], but it will also help the dwarf racial scale, and it scales very well.

My level fifty talent point distribution looks like this:

Class Lvl
Shield Pummel 4
Resposte 5
Overpower 1
Assault 5
Shield Wall 5
Shield Expertise5
Last Stand 5
Shattering Shout5
Second Wind 5
Battle Shout 5
Precise Strikes 1
Rush 5
Quick Recovery 5
Fast Metabolism 5

Generic Lvl
Disengage 5
Track 5
Massive Armor 5
Health 5
Weapon Combat 9
Weapon Mastery 10

Shield Pummel should be maxed because the stun duration is based off of the tlvl of Shield Pummel. Riposte now scales the counter hit chance better with points, and Assault is maxed out of pure lack of good things to put points in. Shield Wall should be your first priority to max out as it's your class defining talent, as should Shield Expertise as it directly effects Shield Pummel, Overpower and Assault. I really like Shattering Shout, especially for fighters as it's a massive cone of damage, and fighters lack AOE attacks entirely outside of this ability. It starts out at a low AOE, but I believe at lvl 5 it's radius caps at 5 - quite large, believe me. Second Wind is also useful for that quick boost to your stamina as at times you will run out stamina in cases that you would prefer not to. Battle Shout is useful for a quick boost to survivability as well. Disengage is your quick escape option, and is also very useful for dashing multiple tiles during the Mount Doom Dash - as is Rush. Rush is also important for chasing down those blasted mages - orc mages in particular. Track is your version of sense - sure it's not passive as Heightened Senses is, but it effects a greater area and scales with a stat you'll be raising anyway. And, of course you'll be maxing Massive Armor, Health, Weapon Combat and Weapon Mastery, because ... well, you're a FIGHTER. Some people will argue that 10 points in both weapon mastery and weapon combat is too much, and, they’re right. It is too many points, as both talents scale horribly with additional points. HOWEVER, other than if you somehow get a good amount of cunning, or you REALLY want to use the field control tree for some reason, there’s no other good options for generic point use. If you do wish to invest in these other tree’s further, take away from weapon mastery, not weapon combat. Attack is scaled off of both strength and dexterity evenly, so as a fighter you will have high attack, but you absolutely want to make sure that you can hit everything all the time. At lvl 50 and fighting things that are level 70/80/90, you WILL NEED attack as high as 200 to make certain that you will hit.

- Class Talents -
I like to save up class points so that I can raise each new class talent level at the same time, and so that I can max out shield wall as soon as possible. After that, I go for shield expertise, then shield pummel and the two regenerative talents.

- Generic Talents -
I put a point into Massive Armor so that I can wear it, and then raise weapon combat and disengage/track going back and forth. Health takes priority over this if I can raise it however. There's no real urgency to get any specific generic talents with fighters.

- Dungeons -
I like to do The Maze, Old Forest, Trollshaws, Kor’pul, Sandworm Lair, Daikara, Tol Falas, Iron Throne, Unknown Cavern, Underwater Cave [amulet of the fish required], Spider Lair, Grushnak, Rak'sor, Gorbat then Vor.

I like to do the maze first because it’s almost entirely 1v1 fighting with things that don’t hit very hard [only minotaurs, and you’ll probably fight only four or five of those]. Also, it doesn’t have escorts, and escorts level off of your level, so it will make doing all future escorts easier. If you would like to pretty much ensure all your escorts will live, after doing the maze, you could do the sandworm lair, but I find that that is unnecessary. OF I like to do second because it’s the next least frustrating and easier of the dungeons for a fighter, also, you might luck out and get some good escorts. Following the initial two dungeons, it’s pretty open actually as you should/could be at about level 12 now, which means you have shield wall and shield expertise maxed or close to it – and that means that you are pretty well settled.

Regarding the order of the prides – it’s mostly for the ease to do them/artifact you acquire. You really want the Glory of the Pride as it makes everything else much easier, thus, Grushnak first – and it’s also you against people built like you, so understanding what you’re up against is a nice thing. Grushnak also has a unique layout that really helps as a fighter, no mass open arena levels like the other prides. I like to save Vor for last as Vor can be one of the easiest or most dangerous depending on how you have your kit and what resists you have. If you have really good cold/fire/lightning resists then you could do Vor earlier. Rak’sor is also the same, it can be either pretty quick death or a relative walk in the park. With Rak’sor however, you’ll want poison/disease/hex/curse resistance/curing, along with blight/darkness/fire resistance. The specific status resistance will be hard/impossible to get, or get high, so a good temporary wild infusion will be fine here.

For the side quests, I would recommend doing them when you feel comfortable with them. Personally, I always do the merchant quest, save the Elven Ruins for right before the Iron Throne [be careful, you WILL be about eight levels under what you are supposed to be to come here], do the cursed once I’m about level 15, and the tempest quest at about level 15 as well, or once I have 50% lightning and cold resist constantly, along with about 500/600 hp. I do the heading back west quest after I do the Unknown Cave, Spider Lair and Underwater Cave mostly. Sometimes I put it off until after I’ve done Grushnak, but not always. Once back west, I do the dungeons again in the same order that I did them the first time.

In this next section, I won’t be using what material or item type because it doesn’t really matter that much as in beta15b and betas before it, egos don’t scale well, if at all, with what material level they are on. This is scheduled to change in beta16 however.
- Specific Egos and Artifacts -
Amulet:
Greater Telepathy
Teleportation
Vitalizing
Daneth's Neckguard
Garkul's Teeth
Choker of Dread

Ring:
Vargh Redemption
Ring of the Dead
Ring of the War Master
Glory of the Pride

• element* of deflection

Fire Dragon Shield
Lunar Shield

Digger:
Delving

Cloak:
Thick/Oiled of fog
Serpentine Cloak
Ureslak's Molted Scales

Belt:
Blurring of the titan/life/resilience
Girdle of Preservation
Girdle of the Calm Waters

Gloves:
Powerful of iron grip
Gloves of the Firm Hand
Stone Gauntlets of Harkor'Zun

Lite:
Scorching of Elbereth
Eldritch Pearl
Wintertide Phial

Helm:
Prismatic/Shalorn of greater telepathy/precognition
Helm of the Dwarven Kings
Runed Skull
Crown of the Elements

Boots:
Stealthy/none of almost any
Shifting Boots
Frost Treads

Weapon:
Elemental of rage
Razorblade, the Cursed Waraxe
Wintertide
Malediction

Armor:
Impenetrable of the dragon
Radiant/Fortifying/Hardened of x
Behemoth Hide
Scale Mail of Kroltar
Plate Armor of the King

The reason that I like these egos/artifacts in particular [not counting the zone artifacts, I’ll add those in later], is because they help with survival the most. Trust me, you aren’t meant to deal damage, you are meant to absorb as much of it as possible. This makes fighters and sun paladins very similar, however, in my opinion, sun paladins have a much easier time. I like to go with as much resistance to as wide of damage types as possible – magic WILL kill you [unlike with paladins]. Your armor will soak up a vast majority of the physical attacks, so you don’t need to worry too much about that. Unlike sun paladins who have to fight back because of using active or triggered talents, fighters survivability is almost entirely non drain inducing sustains, and passives. Fighters simply outlive their opponents, and in order to do that, you need as much resistance and hp as possible.

This will probably be rewritten or at least reformatted as I go into more and more class builds; and decide on the best approach to display and write them. Thank you for your time, and you can expect a write up again in probably a week or two. I hope this helps, if you have any questions or comments, feel free and again, I’ll post another one up soon.

FM