Chargespam combos

[lonebrendan]

There are so many great items and feats which make charging enemies fun. Things like Vanguard Weapons, Horned Helm, and Badge of the Berserker are all awesome and available at low level.

However below epic level and especially in heroic it is difficult to charge the same enemy in subsequent turns. I was wondering if anyone knew some other ways of charging adjacent enemies in one turn, especially at lower levels.

Here are some ways I have found for charging an enemy you start your turn adjacent to. (They are all repeatable every turn without encounter or daily powers)

Long Step (Epic) - shift 1 extra square. Although 21 levels is a long time to wait.

Risky Shift- Shift 2 squares and grant combat advantage. Not bad. Available early as a rogue or multiclassed rogue, but a little dangerous to be doing all the time.

Monk At-Will, Five Storms -Shift 2 as a move action. Available to Monks, monk hybrids or paragon multiclassing as a Monk. Getting any class’ at-will is difficult. Hybrids make a lot of tradeoffs and the monk doesn’t mesh very well with many other classes. Paragon multiclassing is extremely feat expensive, and you give up other paragon classes.

Great Cat Armor- adds 1 to your shift. Level 19 magic armor, and thus is super expensive at 105,000g.

Fey chargers don't work after the errata was published for Fey Charge.

Boots of Adept Charging- shift 1 after a charge. Although cheap they are useless when the enemy just steps right up to you on their turn. Same thing with Unstoppable Charge (epic).

Some of the coolest charging is the most recent I’ve found. They all involve multiclassing into Warlock taking the Utility Power Swap feat for Ethereal Sidestep (At-Will utility) at level 10.

Ethereal Sidestep allows you to teleport 1 square. Lame by itself, but adding items or feats to increase this distance makes for an awesome way to charge. Vanishing from in front of your enemy only to rematerialize 15 feet away barreling toward their flank reminds me of Flash Step from the anime Bleach, or old school DBZ fights.

Mark of Passage- extends the distance teleported with a power by 1, but is only available in Eberron.

Eladrin Ring of Passage- does the same thing as mark of passage and is a level 14 magic item.

Eladrin Boots –extend your teleport by 2. Level 16 item. Awesome in this combo.


I’m sure I haven’t found all the ways. Anyone know of some other chargespam combos?

 

[Ahrimon]

Boon of Avandra. Lvl 3 magic item boon. Let's you shift two when you are adjacent to at least two enemies. It's in DMG 2

 

[Mengu]

Good list.

My barbarian tends to just walk away. If we're focusing fire, the target is probably marked by the warden, and has a -2 to hit me, not to mention the warden gets an attack on them. The trade off is usually worthwhile. If you happen to have a Mantle of Clarity Ardent, all the better.

Halfling Rogue chargers also might not care much about opportunity attacks.

Daring Acrobat PP at level 16 gives you the ability to take further actions after a charge. With boots of adept charging, this pretty much means you can end your turn up to 7-8 squares away from your charge target. This is usually enough to get you behind a defender, ready to charge again next turn (especially if you're a half-orc with good charge distance).

 

[Robtheman]

Level: 2
Race: Human
Class: Avenger
Deity: Any with Skill Domain
Divine Censure: Censure of Unity

Human Feat: Unarmored Agility
Feat 1: Power of Skill (use Overwhelming Strike as a basic attack)
At-Will 1: Overwhelming Strike (slides target 1 square)
Encounter 1: Whirlwind Charge (2W attack can be used in place of Melee Basic when charging)
Utility 2: Distracting Flare (move action - become invisible and move your speed - invisible until end of turn)
Feat 2: Weapon Proficiency Fullblade (why not?)


Items:
Level 1 magic item - Sell
Level 2 magic item - Staggering Fullblade +1 (slide effects from attacks are increased by 1)
Level 3 magic item - Sell
Purchased level 2 magic item - Boots of Adept Charging (shift one square before turn ends after charging)

First purchase after this is Badge of the Berserker.

Tactics:
- Charge with Overwhelming Strike.
- Use the slide 1 from the at-will +1 more from the Staggering Fullblade to move the target of your oath to the opposite side of your allies, thus provoking attacks of opportunities if the creature comes at you on it's turn.
- Do not use the at-wills feature to shift into the square it vacated as a result of the slide.
- Use Boots of Adept Charging effect to shift away 1 after the attack is resolved.
- Charge again next turn.

Contingencies:
- If you get stuck use distracting flare to move behind some cover and stealth.
- Use the daily power on the Fullblade to make this a slide 3.
- Extra weapon effect knocks prone on a crit making it less downgrade a standard to get at you + allies get easy CA.
- You always get to shift 1 away even if you miss. Your allies can mark, immobilize, stun, daze, etc. to help in those cases. However you are rolling 2 d20s with +3 proficiency so you ought not to miss.

Downsides:
- You may have to grant some opportunity attacks to get into position for charges.
- You have to be careful where you position on the slides so you aren't adjacent to two enemies when you complete your next charge. This is to keep your double d20 rolls from Oath of Emnity.

 

[jbear]

Good list.

My barbarian tends to just walk away. If we're focusing fire, the target is probably marked by the warden, and has a -2 to hit me, not to mention the warden gets an attack on them. The trade off is usually worthwhile. If you happen to have a Mantle of Clarity Ardent, all the better.

Halfling Rogue chargers also might not care much about opportunity attacks.

Daring Acrobat PP at level 16 gives you the ability to take further actions after a charge. With boots of adept charging, this pretty much means you can end your turn up to 7-8 squares away from your charge target. This is usually enough to get you behind a defender, ready to charge again next turn (especially if you're a half-orc with good charge distance).

That's what i was going to say.

Just take an opportunity attack. what's the big deal. And if he is marked by a fighter ... well the fighter gets to smack him in the back of the head first.

For using a combo like Badge of Berserker + Vanguard + Horned helm you desrve to be attacked and relentlessly extinguished anyway.

 

[lonebrendan]

Well in my current campaign we have terrible teamwork and a mediocre party role distribution. I explained some of our flaws in another thread.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/290163-durable-improved-rageblood-vigor.html

One of the main problems is that we don't have any marking capability. On top of this I find my barbarian running out of surges too quickly.

Since then I've taken durable and an item that duplicated improved rageblood vigor. With all the great ways to charge why take a needless hit by provoking an OA.

 

[Mengu]

Well in my current campaign we have terrible teamwork and a mediocre party role distribution. I explained some of our flaws in another thread.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/290163-durable-improved-rageblood-vigor.html

One of the main problems is that we don't have any marking capability. On top of this I find my barbarian running out of surges too quickly.

Since then I've taken durable and an item that duplicated improved rageblood vigor. With all the great ways to charge why take a needless hit by provoking an OA.

Barbarians have a number of ways to charge the same target. Rages like Swift Panther and Flying Serpent let you shift two as a move action. Tyrant's Rage lets you push an enemy 1 square as a minor action so you can shift then charge. Sytheclaw Rage lets you push an enemy 2 squares as a minor actin.

Intimidate skill power Everybody Move is handy for setting up charges also.

And if your allies have any powers that push/pull/slide, you could benefit from that as well, though that requires coordination and competence on the part of your allies.

 

[Redshirt]

I played in a one off game with an Ardent (Sir Slidesalot) and had a friend who was playing a charging Barbarian. That was alot of fun, i'd push at least 6 squares and slow the target and the Barb was bouncing between targets.

 

[Thanlis]

If you're playing a druid, there's a somewhat feat-heavy trick for beast form. First, Stampede is a heroic tier feat that allows you to move 2 squares as a free action after you charge someone. Second, Opportunistic Withdrawal is a paragon tier feat that allows you to not provoke opportunity attacks when you're next to an enemy granting combat advantage to you. Third, take Pounce as an at-will; you can use it on a charge, and the enemy you hit grants combat advantage to the next ally who attacks it. Finally, take the heroic tier Patient Hunter feat, which makes the target of Pounce grant combat advantage to everyone until the end of your next turn.

This may not be worth it, but it does work. I'm adding a Horned Helm for charge bonus damage, Claw Gloves for extra damage against enemies granting combat advantage, and a Staff of the Serpent for more extra damage with beast form melee attacks. Once the cycle gets going, I'm going to do 1d10 + 1d8 + 2d6 + 17 damage on a Pounce charge, so we'll see how that works out for me.

Savage Rend is also an option, FWIW, since you can use it to slide the target out of the way on a charge. You don't get the perpetual combat advantage that way, though. Consider Fierce Thrasher Form for an extra square of slide movement if you go that way.