A Guide to Fighter Enhancements
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By Nuitaran
The best way to choose Enhancements is to choose ones that best fit
your play style and your personal taste. For example, a friend of mine
plays so conservatively with his limited use per day skills and items
that he almost never uses his Action Boost. I recommended that he
choose something else because an ability going unused isn’t much of an
ability at all. So, if you never use your Action Boost, start using it
or get rid of it. I might rate Fighter's Strategy with a 5 but if you
never Trip, Sunder, or Stunning Blow why bother to take it? Focus first
on the ones that will be used to the greatest effect with your build.
Many of the fighter Enhancements that are worthwhile; focus on applying
greater Dexterity bonuses to tower shields and full plate. Any fighter
with a high Dexterity should be aiming for these first in order to
maximize his armor class.
Your character will gain Enhancements as he increases in ranks;
however, he can only have a maximum of 4 active Enhancements at any
point. The choices for the 4 Enhancements slots are drawn from a list
of both class and racial Enhancements that increase as the character
increases in ranks. This guide will focus purely on the Enhancements
available to the Fighter class.
For this guide, I will focus on the highest level Enhancement from each
line, whether it comes in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th level
versions of the Enhancements. Each Enhancement is given a usefulness
rating of 1-5 (with 5 being the most useful). The notes will state why
this rating is given as such.
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style="font-weight: bold;">Fighter’s Dodge
Official Text: Dodge grants you a greater Armor Class bonus.
Comments: There’s never anything wrong with extra AC. If you have a
spare slot, this is a good one to spend it on.
Rating: 4
Fighter’s
Combat Expertise
Official Text: Combat Expertise grants you a greater Armor Class bonus.
Comments: The amount of Attack Bonus you have to sacrifice to use this
enhancement is not usually worth it unless you are fighting opponents
that are incredibly easy to hit. If you have an outrageously high
Attack Bonus, give this a whirl. If you can still hit using it, more
power to you.
Rating: 2
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style="font-weight: bold;">Armored Agility
Official Text: Reduces the armor check penalty that applies to many of
your skills by 3, regardless of armor worn.
Comments: This isn’t really useful unless you are a heavily skill based
fighter.
Rating: 2
Item
Defense
Official Text: You are skilled at protecting your gear against damage,
granting you a 60% chance to negate potential item wear before it
occurs.
Comments: Although it will save you money and permanent item damage,
there are better options.
Rating: 2
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style="font-weight: bold;">Fighter’s Mobility
Official Text: Mobility grants you a greater Armor Class bonus while
tumbling.
Comments: If you do a lot of tumbling, this may be the Enhancement for
you. Only worry about it if you have a spare slot, though.
Rating: 3
Fighter’s
Strength
Official Text: Grants a +3 increase to Strength score.
Comments: How can you turn this one down? I know I can’t. There is
never anything bad about having more Strength.
Rating: 5
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style="font-weight: bold;">Critical Accuracy
Official Text: Grants +12 bonus to confirm critical hits.
Comments: This is an example of one that sounds better than it is.
Remember that it doesn’t increase your chances of getting a critical
hit, just the chance to confirm it. It’s only going to make an impact
on monsters that are very difficult to hit in the first place. Waste of
a slot.
Rating: 1
Fighter’s
Action Boost
Official Text: This enhancement grants the ability to receive
short-term boosts to attacks, Armor Class, or attack speed.
Comments: Monster ACs were recently scaled down making this Enhancement
less of a staple. I still swear by it as it always helps to kick in the
AC Boost or the Attack Boost against boss monsters and in really tough
fights.
Rating: 4
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style="font-weight: bold;">Fighter’s Armor Mastery
Official Text: Grants +4 to the max Dex bonus on your armor.
Comments: If you have a Dexterity higher than 13, and aren’t lucky
enough to have Mithral Full Plate, or an even higher Dex WITH Mithral
Full Plate this is the enhancement for you! Consider that a Fighter
with a 20 Dexterity, Armor Mastery IV, and a set of +5 Full Plate will
have a 29 AC in nothing but his armor. This Enhancement has the
potential to equal massive armor class, but only if you have the Dex to
make it work.
Rating: 4
Fighter’s
Strategy
Official Text: Grants +6 to the DC of all your combat feats.
Comments: This is another of my personal favorites. With this
Enhancement you will be able to Trip consistently and keep your foes
down for a long time. Combine this with Improved Trip and a good
Vertigo weapon for devastating effect.
Rating: 5
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style="font-weight: bold;">Fighter’s Tower Shield Mastery
Official Text: Grants +4 to the max Dex bonus on your tower shield.
Comments: If you use a tower shield and have a high Dexterity this is
the way to go.
Rating: 3
Skill
Recovery
Official Text: Grants a +8 bonus to Heal and Repair skills.
Comments: There are much better choices. This is only really going to
assist you when soloing.
Rating: 2
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style="font-weight: bold;">Skill Tactics
Official Text: Grants a +8 bonus to Intimidate and Tumble skills.
Comments: If you can’t make up for it in skill points and you regularly
use these skills it might be the way to go, but only if you have a
spare slot. There are better options.
Rating: 2
We've got more DDO Fighter Guides:
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=141">Fight
Portal
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=132">Fighter
Tactics
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=316">Fighter
Feats
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=1602">Which
Fighter Enhancements do you use? Tell us in our forums!