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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Veep" data-source="post: 6707820" data-attributes="member: 6793297">FeatsIn general, as a battlemind you will want to prioritize feats in roughly the following order (a more detailed discussion can be found in the Strategy section below):1) Improving accuracy.  Missing is not fun, and augmentable at-wills only rarely have useful effects should you miss.2) Boosting stickiness.  Making sure enemies stay adjacent to you is vital.  Included in this category is improved marking (as it encourages enemies to come to you) and initiative (as going first means having marks and positioning set up before the enemy can react).3) Improving defences.  You should draw a lot of attacks, and you want to make them miss.4) Improving the effects of your powers.5) Improving your mark punishment.I've chosen to group class and general feats together, and organize them by the above priorities, subdivided by tier.  Given the number of feats available at this point, I've only rated the feats I feel are worthy of mention, either by being worth taking or being bad in a particularly mentionable way.Accuracy Feats Expertise: There are now several feats that provide a scaling +1/2/3 to hit.  You need one of them, but which one is a matter of your build.  Your default choice should probably be Master-at-Arms (HoFL), but other obvious choices are Bludgeon Expertise (HoFL, for the bonus to forced movement) or Heavy Blade Expertise (HoFL, as Lightning Rush means that you will take a lot of opportunity attacks).  Small characters will want to look at Pick Expertise (MME) for the damage bonus. In general, any of the Expertise feats introduced in Essentials are worth considering if they match up with the weapon you've chosen to specialize in.  As of December 2011, the pre-Essentials Expertise feats also scale at 11/21.  You generally will still want to stick with the post-Essentials feats for the added benefits, but the pre-Essential feats do have niche uses: Versatile Expertise (PHB3) if you need to use an implement as well as a weapon, and Weapon Expertise (PHB) unlocks the Weapon Master feat.Heroic Tier Deadly Draw (PHB3):  Battleminds are often forced movement specialists, and given that you'll often be aiming to bring enemies adjacent to you, this might see a lot of use.Impending Victory (PHB3): Since most of your powers are at-wills, this is a great accuracy boost.Weapon Proficiency (PHB): If you can upgrade your proficiency bonus by getting a superior weapon, do it!   Paragon Tier  Epic Tier   Stickiness Feats Heroic Tier Battlewise (PsP): Wisdom instead of Dexterity for initiative will help Wisdom-secondary battleminds a lot.Blurred Speed (PsP): With the exception of harrier battleminds, every battlemind needs this if you don't want to be confounded by something as simple as difficult terrain.Disciple of Freedom (HotFL): Status effects that limit your ability to move are the death of your stickiness.  Most battleminds should be able to pick this up, so do.Harrying Step (PsP): The best upgrade to Blurred Step available, this ensures that as long as you have line of sight to a square adjacent to the target when it's finished its shift, you will be adjacent.  It also means that you can ignore immobilized, restrained, and grabbed while defending, which are all normally defender-bane.  Heavy Armor Agility (HotFL): You definitely qualify for this.  You won't need it if you go after scale specialization, but plate wearers may find this helps them get into the scrum.Improved Initiative (PHB): Going sooner is good.  Retrain to Superior Initiative in epic.Improved Speed of Thought (PHB3): If you're looking to get past the front lines of the enemy, these extra two squares will make a big difference, especially in heroic.Kinetic Reel (DSCS): Increase the odds that your Wild Focus victim ends up adjacent to you.  However, that's not as big a deal as just getting the mark out, so make sure you are prepared to spend the feat on a once-per-encounter benefit.  Pick up Telekinetic Savant, first.Mark of Passage (EPG): One of the rare ways to add a square of movement to Blurred Step.  Sadly, the problem is that you really should be taking the Mark of Warding or Storm instead.Mark of Warding (EPG): Improve all your marks?  Yes.  The defensive boost is just icing.Melee Training (Constitution) (PHB2): Regardless of your solution to OA problems, you will need this for the Heroic Tier at least.  Psionic Reflexes (PsP): Let's be blunt, you need all the help with OAs you can get.Pursuing Step (PHB3): Either this is free CA, or the enemy will decide not to shift.Quick Reactions (PsP): Charisma instead of Dexterity for initiative will help a lot.  Sadly restricted to Speed of Thought battleminds. Paragon Tier Demand's Reach (PHB3): Marking from farther away makes your life a lot easier.Harrier's Control (PsP): The point of this feat is getting a mark out as quickly as possible, and it gives you the best of Wild Focus and Persistent Harrier.Heavy Blade Opportunity (PHB): The stat pre-requisites are a bear and you might not be able to go after this.  However, if you can, it's a great solution to the OA problem.Roll with It (PHB3): Forced movement is a big problem for your stickiness, and this at least gives you a chance to shift into something closer to a useful position. Epic Tier Devouring Demand (PHB3): Now mark up to three enemies.Inexorable Speed (PsP): Zip right through the frontlines of the enemy without fear.  Less appealing if speed of thought already doesn't provoke OAs.Long Step (PHB3): The only general feat which will add distance to your Blurred Step.  Superior Initiative (PHB): Going sooner is good.Surprise Mark (Dragon 387): Getting a mark out first thing in an encounter is great.  Defensive Feats Heroic Tier Armor Proficiency (Plate) (PHB): You do have to bump Strength to get this, but between having plate armour and qualifying for weapon feats that's not too much of a price.  Aiming to get it in paragon will make it hurt less.Hafted Defense (PHB3): If you've foregone your shield to wield a polearm, make sure to pick this up and make up some of your defences. Improved Defenses (HotFL): It's a math fix, you need it, unless you decide to collect all three Superior defences instead.Resilient Demand (PsP): Especially in the later levels, you'll be using Battlemind's Demand a lot.  Why not get a defensive boost while you're at it?Resilient Focus (HotFL): The best saving throw boost in the game at the moment.Superior Fortitude (HotFL):  You'll easily qualify, and resistance to ongoing damage is nice.  However, since you should get this after Superior Will, and you'll want to keep your Reflex up, this is getting to the point of a lot of investment in NAD feats.Superior Reflexes (HotFL): The benefit is not that great, and you'll have hard time qualifying for this.  Stick with Improved Defenses unless you're going to get Superior Fortitude and Will, in which case get Great Reflexes or this if you qualify.Superior Will (HotFL):  The boost to Will is okay but probably marginal, since you should have or get Improved Defenses.  The key here is that extra saving throw, which you should regard as near mandatory. Paragon Tier Armor Specialization (Plate) (PHB): If you've picked up plate proficiency, there's no question but that you qualify for this. Don't skip this unless you're never taking attacks.Armor Specialization (Scale) (PHB): If you have the Dexterity for this (which is sadly a bit unlikely), you should grab it without question.Blurring Speed (PsP): After speed of thought, you are likely to be surrounded by enemies and away from your allies.  Concealment is going to help you make it through.Shield Master (PHB3): The fact that your class NAD bonus is to Will means you won't have the one sky-high NAD that, say, fighters will get.  If that bothers you, pick this up.  Epic Tier Battlemind Menace (PsP): The utility of this obviously depends on how frequently Blurred Step gets triggered, but the answer is likely to be a fair deal.Epic Fortitude / Reflexes / Will (PHB2): Your Reflex will definitely need the help, and depending on the amount of attacks you've been taking, you might want to take your Fortitude or Will over the top as well.Invigorating Demand: You will be using your battlemind's demand quite a lot in regular play, so this is likely to be a steady source of THP for you.Strength Through Challenge (Dragon 387): You might already have enough resistance by epic that this feat adds little, but its condition should essentially always be met by a battlemind.   Power Feats Heroic Tier Alertness (PHB/HotFL): Not being surprised means being able to use your psionic study in every encounter.Beguiling Torment (PsP): Normally nothing to shout about, but Intellect Snap is an at-will unaugmented dazing power with a lot of potential to build around, and this is another tool for doing so.Mark of Storm (EPG): Being able to add a shift to powers can lead to a lot of fun shenanigans, and with Thundering Force battleminds have an easy time of this.Telekinetic Savant (DSCS): This feat is the best reason to take the Wild Focus option: you want to be a forced movement specialist.  Weapon Focus (PHB): More damage on your powers makes them better.  Given the relatively low [W] of battlemind at-wills, you're better off going with this first before superior weapon proficiency. Weapon Proficiency (PHB): Superior weapons are generally good damage upgrades.World Serpent's Grasp (HotFK): Battleminds would really like to be able to slow targets easily, which is probably why they're terrible at it.  However, if you're willing to invest in the multiclassing required to slow easily, this feat is a must-have.  Paragon Tier Hammer Rhythm (PHB): Relatively easy to qualify for, this loads a decent amount of miss damage onto almost every attack you'll make.  Harried Recovery (PsP): Exactly what the trigger becomes is a little unclear. The most reasonable interpretation (you use it the first time an enemy attacks you after the recovery) leads to a reasonable chance that you'll already have used your immediate when it is triggered and hence lose the use of the power.Psionic Rush (PsP): Battleminds can easily burn through a lot of power points, so anything that slows the burn rate down is helpful.Psychic Lock (PHB): You haven't got a huge number of options for psychic keyword powers, but certainly enough to make full use of this great defender feat.Thundering Force (DSCS): Being able to add damage types is never a bad thing.  Where this power is going to grab a lot of attention is when you can combine it with the Mark of Storms. Epic Tier   Mark Punishment Feats Heroic Tier Bolstering Spike (PsP): Mark punishment that makes it less likely for a monster to attack you is a bit silly.  Still, some DMs like to trigger mark punishment and then have the monsters "realize" they should focus on the defender, and this feat lets you get ready for the inevitable grief.Lure of Iron (PHB3): This can be used to prevent the later parts of multi-hit or multi-target powers, especially with boosted forced movement.Punishing Spike (PHB3): Just too situational to be a credible source of threat. Paragon Tier Steel Rebuke (PHB3): Spreading the Mind Spike hate is a good idea, even though you'll find you have positioning woes. Epic Tier Fearsome Spike (PsP): Getting an end-of-next-turn mark from Mind Spike is closing the barn door after the cows are gone, though Rapid Mind Spike makes it better in that regard.  The other problem is that enemies are commonly going to try to spread out, making this less likely to apply.Prescient Retaliation (Dragon 387): Making Mind Spike an interrupt goes a long way towards making it more effective, especially when paired with Lure of Iron.Rapid Mind Spike (Dragon 387): Being able to use your Mind Spike once per round without expending your immediate is a big deal, especially when battleminds have so many competing calls on their immediates.Vengeance Spike (PHB3): This is unlikely to add major deterrence to your Mind Spike, but it will help the enemy go down faster.  Racial Feats Changeling  Deva Ascendant Lineage (PHB2): Makes Memories of a Thousand Lifetimes reliable.Auspicious Lineage (PHB2): An improvement to Memories of a Thousand Lifetimes. Given that it's a fairly small improvement, though, pick up Ascendant Lineage first.Battle Intuition (Dragon 374): A good initiative improvement for Wis-secondary battleminds.Immortal Skill/Resilience/Prowess (Dragon 374): A huge boost to Memories of a Thousand Lifetimes, but it requires a big feat investment spread over three tiers to reach full functionality.  Radiant Recovery (Dragon 374): Constitution modifier THP with every radiant attack.  You need to work to get a decent number of such, but it can be done.Transcendant Lineage (PHB2): Epic tier, but it gives you the best of your racial and Elven Accuracy. Dragonborn Daunting Breath (PHBR<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />): More marks is always good.  Note that if you've multiclassed warden, Primal Breath has no skill-training restrictions and doesn't require you to hit.Draconic Guardian (Dragon 388): A huge multi-mark, if you can actually hit with Dragonfear.Glorious Victory (PHBR<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />): You need to have multi-classed martial to get this, but with your Con, this is an amazing feat.Hurl Breath (PHBR<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />, Dragon 365): Battleminds are weak in the ranged attack options, and this is one possible solution.Infectious Wrath (Dragon 388): A nice leader-style punishment for attacking you.Primal Breath (PrP): You need to multiclass warden, but this is the best way to make dragonbreath a marking tool. Drow  Dwarf Dwarven Durability A huge increase in your durability, but you might find that it represents overkill.  Definitely take this if you've got a way to spread your healing surges out around the party.Dwarven Weapon Training (PHB): A major damage upgrade, especially nice for a class already predisposed to like hammers.Forgeborn Heritage (Dragon 383): Reistances are never terrible, but the real reason to look at this bloodline is the Wrathful Resurgence feat, which will give you a good chunk of THP with your oh-so-dwarfily-convenient second wind.Stonefoot Reprisal (MP): Anything that lets you stay adjacent is good, and you're likely to have been multiclassing fighter regardless.Stoneheart Warrior (MP): Dwarves are considered good just for being able to use their second winds as a minor action; why wouldn't you want it as a free action?  Requires multiclassing martial. Eladrin Eladrin Soldier (PHB): Greatspear isn't a fantastic weapon for battleminds, but this is the best feat to pick them up if you want them.  Also, if you're using a long sword or spear, this is superior to Weapon Focus in the heroic tier.Eladrin's Challenge (MP2; requires fighter): Being able to improve your mark penalty is a big thing.Fey Escape (Dragon 373): Anything that limits your mobility as a battlemind is bad, so using Fey Step to break free is a good option.Feywild Advance (PsP): With no Int investment, this boils down to "ignore difficult terrain and break immobilized with Blurred Step," which is pretty good.  It's better yet if you can justify getting an Int modifier of +2 or higher. Elf Elven Precision (PHB): If you don't want to miss, try to bend the odds in that direction.Feral Advance (PsP): If you take a race without a boost to Wis and want to focus on Dex as your secondary, don't choose Speed of Thought.Wild Elf Luck (FRPG): Another feat to increase the accuracy of your Elven Accuracy reroll.  This is less reliable than Elven Precision, so get it second. Genasi Collapse Into Nothing (Earthsoul; Dragon 391): Taking enemies out of play means they're not doing damage to anyone.Shocking Flame (FRPG): Go to the section on Brutal Barrage optimisation; replace every instance of "Lightning Weapon" with "have Shocking Flame."  This is a powerful feat for damage optimisation.  Githzerai Githzerai Blade Master (Dragon 378): Superior weapon proficiencies and improved weapon focus makes for great feat economy, and the latter aspect in particular is nice for a class with small [W].Iron Trap (PsP): If you're prepared to burn your immediate to not get hit, the monster attacking you probably is (and should be) marked already.Marked Fortunes (Dragon 378): Essentially, you can now mark with your second wind.Tempered Iron Mind (Dragon 378): You'll get more and better use out of Iron Mind when it no longer uses your immediate action.Zerth Instincts (PsP): Three of the four psionic study options are ruined by surprise, and here's a feat that means you can't be surprised, with a benefit for non-surprise encounters.  What's not to like? Gnome  Goliath Enlightened Spirit (Dragon 389): Likely you are the "tough guy" in skill challenges, so getting two skills keying off your primary is both flavourful and potentially useful.Goliath Greatweapon Prowess (PHB2): This doesn't grant you any proficiencies, but given the low [W] of battlemind powers an enhanced feat bonus to damage is almost as effective and slightly more consistent.Unyielding Stone: THP means a benefit from Stone's Endurance that can't be eliminated by the DM not attacking you for a turn. Halfling Lost in the Crowd (PHB): Almost everything is larger than you, and you hope to be surrounded by enemies, so why not boost your defences? Nimble Dodge (MP2): Requirese multiclassing martial, but it's a huge upgrade on Second Chance. Half-elf Adept Dilettante (Dragon 385): In principle, this feat really opens up your dilettante options.  In reality, however, there aren't that many powers that can be used as a melee basic attack, and fewer in classes that you would ideally like to be multiclassing.Defending Dabbler (Dragon 385): Given what you use Dilettante for, this essentially gives you a marking MBA.Versatile Master (PHB2): This feat is the single most compelling mechanical reason to choose half-elf as your race. Half-Orc  Human Action Recovery (PHB): Use an action point to try to shed status effects as well as taking your additional action.Action Surge (PHB): You don't want to miss with your action point attacks.Human Ingenuity (PsP): Any way to recover power points is welcome.Persistent Threat (Dragon 383): This lets you keep at least some of your defender functions while dazed. Kalashtar Battlemind Duulora Initiation (Dragon 385): This makes it possible to start fights with enemies marked, which is what any defender would want.Dual Mind Reserves (Dragon 385): Any way to recover power points is welcome. Minotaur Opportunity Gore (Dragon 369): It wasn't for the poor accuracy scaling of Goring Charge, this would be the perfect solution to your OA problems.  It's still quite reasonable at lower levels.Vicious Ferocity (PHB3): It takes this paragon feat to make Ferocity useful to a battlemind. Mul Sturdy Toughness (Dragon 391): Expands the range of status effects you can cancel to cover forced movement and prone.Unstoppable Fury (Dragon 391): Battleminds hate being immobilized, and this is a cure for that. Revenant Death's Grasp (Dragon 389): Compared to Steel Rebuke, the good news is that it's heroic tier and keys off your primary; the bad news is that it burns power points and is necrotic.  Only consider this feat if you're using Mind Spike a lot, enemies tend to cluster, and you've got a lot of power points going spare.  Which could happen.Fierce Vitality (Dragon 376): With this feat, the one extra turn of actions from Unnatural Vitality becomes at least two and potentially a lot more.Ghostly Vitality (Dragon 376): A full turn of actions when you're supposed to be unconscious, and half damage on top of that?  Okay, if you insist.  Combine with Fierce Vitality to not really care about being healed.Marked for Death (Dragon 376): Battleminds are reasonably good at multi-marking, so this is an okay way to spread some damage around. Shadar-Kai  Shardmind Daunting Swarm (Dragon 387): Nothing wrong with another multi-marking power.Psionic Rejuvenation (PHB3): Any way to recover power points is welcome. Shifter  Thri-Kreen  Tiefling Hellfire Teleport (PHBR:T): You've got quite a few options in terms of how to teleport, so do damage at the same time.Imperious Majesty (Dragon 381): An initiative boost for Cha-secondary battleminds.Psychic Corruption of Malbolge (PHBR:T): Battleminds have quite a few options for psychic attacks, and this is a major damage upgrade for them.Secrets of Belial (PHBR:T): There are some levels where battlemind utility powers are a little underwhelming, so snag something better from somewhere else.Wrath of the Crimson Legion: It requires multiclassing paladin and committing to keeping your Cha on par with your Con, but this is one of the few routes available to get an effective MBA. Warforged Immutability (EPG): For the price of a single feat, your Warforged Resolve can deal with any save ends effect.Psiforged Resolve (Dragon 389): Regaining power points instead of HP is a huge boon for the battlemind, though unfortunately you need to be bloodied.Warforged Tactics (EPG): Basically, either you're getting +1 to hit, or you're doing your job really well. Wilden Burden of Guardianship (PHB3): Get THP out of your racial power.Improved Aspect of Nature (PHB3): If you're going to go with a wilden, you should make the most of its racial power.Nature's Sentinel (PsP): The added multi-marking benefit for Aspect of the Hunter alone would make this worthwhile, but this is essentially three feats that you can switch between during an extended rest.    Bloodline Feats Deva Heritage (Dragon 374): There's only one reason to choose this bloodline, and that's if you were going to go with radiant damage exploitation, in order to get access to the deva feat Radiant Recovery.Elan Heritage (PsP): Nothing here for you at all.Foulborn Heritage (PsP): The entry feat gives you an okay Catch-22 power, and you get nice feat choices with Spike of Madness (an improved Lure of Iron) and Terrible Aspect (a free burst mark at 0 power points).  The associated paragon path is a reasonable choice for defenders as well.</blockquote>

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