I've played Fighter since 2007 when a frantic guy popped out of the large wooden doors of the Marriott ballroom and asked if I'd like to join his party. I did, and on that run, in the hallway between rooms, I found an uncommon Bastard Sword on the floor that I used for the next four years.
Over the years, my gear has gotten better but I've always stayed a sword and shield Fighter. Today, I use Welfor's and the Blessed Redoubt Shield. I have added EVERY possible maxed-out Str and a fair amount of damage buffs to my build including...
Redoubt Set
Stupendous Pendant
Surtr's
Mithral Gauntlets
Shirt of Blessed Strength
Kilt of the Dungeonbane (Str)
Boots of the Four Winds
Ioun Stone Onyx Cube
Greater Onyx Charm
Rod of Seven Parts Segment 1
Fiendish Charm
Ring of the Eel
Ring of the Drake
Decay Runestone
Rungestone Fitting base with another Decay Runestone
Ioun Stone Infernal Fire Prism
...and still only do an average of 41 pts of damage with melee per round. I run with a great crew who are also maxed-out or close to maxed-out in their classes which means combat lasts 2 rounds on Nightmare if we're really unlucky. Using his Legendary backstab twice with the Viper Strike bonus, our Rogue does at least 100 pts of damage for those two rounds. The Barbarian does a little more. Do I need to even mention the Ranger's damage?
My point is, these other classes have other abilities that put stat bonuses to work.
Fighters do not. Even with our new abilities on the Legendary token, we are still at the BOTTOM of the damage pile. If that where you want Fighters to be, then these tokens are just right. If you think Fighters should be closer to the middle, give us the stats back. If you want us on par with Babarians and Rogue, expand our crit to 18-20 with a one-handed melee weapon.
Here are just some of the voices who agree with me. There are many more.
Wade Schwendemann (Dr. Uid) wrote: Fighter needs to go back, at least at legendary. A bump from Relic seems fine though. Maybe make the legendary +2 Str?
Fiddy wrote: Jeff, please put the Fighters back.
Unless you're also planning to adjust the Fighter card soon in some way to bump them up, the previous iteration does not result in some overpowered build.
Endgame wrote: I concur with giving Fighters back the 1str and 1 Dex they lost.
Harlax wrote: OMG
It was late and I missed the loss of DEX.
I’ll say it again. 5/3/4 relic, 7/3/4 legendary. Throw some meat to the wolves on the relic, fix the legendary.
Or just put the relic back.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Fighter