I like using my warrior as a meat shield, and the dwarf warrior is great in this. His main flaw is the reduced mobility. So, I tried to work around it. I would welcome suggestion about making him better. Level 21. Zoltan's Laser Scourge Spear Of Dancing Goblin's Club Tough Leather Cap Slippery Shield Yolotli Armor Argo's Boots Raging Rock Novice Crushing 6 parries, 7 armors, 8 step attack, 4 extra move cards.
1. Spear of Dancing -> Crazy Sal's Halberd 2. Goblin's Club -> Darune's Dagger 3. Tough Leather Cap -> Necalli Cap 1: Because the Blind Rage redirects your draw from the weapons to the armor/blocks/boots, unless you draw Polearm Slash which doubles as armor anyways. 2: Because it's more damage and an extra step attack.--unless you desperately want the bashes. 3: Still've got the AoA, but also 2 Keep movement boosters. Some of these are legendary items that you may not have, but the explanations still hold if you have any similar items to substitute. Also I would recommend a couple of Enchanted Harnesses for your Helmet slot, and then some strong 4+ armor for your Heavy Armor slot. I just think this is more efficient than putting both harnesses and strong armor in the Heavy Armor slot.
Blind rage has its downsides when you choose not to go the easy-cheesy aggro route. It chips away from your health, it gives away infos from your hand, it lures you into attack and pursuit even though your strategy was conceived otherwise. Tough leather cap fits better with the idea then necalli, youre just holding the spot anyway, get more armor/recovery and can command your allies to molest casters. Disorienting is great anti-mage to begin with, for a stationary character as well as any other. Pair it with pressing bash and you can get 2 squares between you and any melee attacker while maintaining your orginial position, all while dealing some solid damage. I would keep them given you want to use laser whip. I'm not really convinced it will do you good to go with zoltans, there are items that are truer to the idea of a monolitic defender.
The whip is there to make the tank move (also, it's a nice damage dealer), I don't want to fill the character with blind rage, because he is not there to deal, he is there to recieve. Of course, beating down opponents is a nice touch. I don't actually know what the items for a monolitic defence are, but he is meant to be a little more mobile than a boulder on a pathway. I used Trained Toughness, before realising I need to draw more.
Considering you only have two non-bash crushing attacks, I'd definitely swap to Novice Bruising instead, or similar. I think Surging Shield Block is a better block card for movement, but that's just my preference. I really like Eixocl's Hammer for bashers, so maybe that instead of Goblin's Club with a tokenless dwarf skill (if you have any decent ones)? It looks like a pretty solid build anyway. Edit: Sparkling Cloth Armor might be worth thinking about for boots for extra movement as well, though it does make it less tanky.
Its harder to find one that isn't. Best fitting the "hard to affect" idea is probably once again Untrained Toughness. Its ridicilous how good this package is.
I didnt adress the shield yet, but seeing Acrobat's Aegis in the DD reminded me of this thread... If you want a character that impacts the battlefield while being rather stationary and care little about cycling, consider that shield over slippery. Traveling Curse is the armored man's friend with a bit of deck compression and the guarantee of considerable pain for your less sturdy foes. The peaks of another disorienting go without saying and the absorbing potentially reinforces your stand. You free a major token that should prbly go to upgrading the boots. Argons are overpriced.
No, no. That would make him stop in his tracks. Slippery shield is not negotiable! I understand your point, but that would make him TOO slow to move. What boots would you suggest?
Sticky slippers actually. But i am obviously far more faithful to the original meat shield theme. Anyway, you got a point, if you play the "occupy VP game", youre looking at a long game. Your opponent has plenty of time to realize that your dwarf is too tough/defensive to bother with him at all, leading to a change of focus on killing his mates. So you either have him participate after all or you design the whole team in a similar manner. If you want to keep the option to activate your "sleeper dwarf", you could go with command moves on his allies though. Hard to pin looks nice but is gone too easily with no other effect then blocking whatever crap flew your way.
I got it. Yes, I considered Sticky slippers. I actually tried them for a while, but it doesn't work. In PvE there are few enemies that deal in moving you around, it becomes exclusively a cycling card. What about using a major token for boots instead?
Didnt realize we talked SP here. If you had to spend a major on boots within the theme, maybe greenguard, the ones with 2x violent spin, sliding boots or something from EttSC with a little bang, like cybernetic or blinking. I guess its more about experimenting with what you like, i can see stuff like mimetic armor or even reflexive teleport work as deterrence factor for stubborn attackers.
