Jabbers are the most powerful level 9 melee build. While their stats look low compared to heavy hitting sac paladins and charged up TS sins, their crit strike, dodge, and fast uninterruptable attack more than make up for their low displayed damage. Just like all vlld builds, a godly jabber can get quite expensive, and finding godly jewels can take a long time. A jabber also needs to find an ethereal throwing spear with replenish to be competitive. This not only saves 10 dex (30 life) but the 50%ED bonus to base weapon damage is very important. A jabber will have lower damage than most characters, so every bit of extra damage will give them a respectable percent increase in their final damage.

Gear:

Amulet: perfect stats for level 9 are:
35AR
5 str
5 dex
10 life
12 DTM
5 replenish

Str/Dex/Rep/Life are most importat on an amulet. My jabber uses a 5str/5dex/4rep/4mana amulet

Rings: perfect stats for level 9 are:
95AR
2 str
2 dex
5 replenish
5 life

Try to get a lot of your AR from your rings, along with as many of the other stats as possible. My jabber uses a 1max/79AR/2dex/5rep ring and a 75AR/2dex/5rep/6mana ring.

Rep life is very important to all vllds, but especially important to a jabber. Jabbers live longer than other characters due to their 34% chance to dodge, and their fast atack speed, which will trigger hit recovery or block animation often. The longer a character lives, the more life he will rep over the course of a duel. My jabber has a total of 14 rep life on amulet and rings, which is an extra 1.4 life per second. In a 30 second duel, this is 42 more life.

Weapon: Ethereal throwing spear with replenish.

If you can find one with 10ias, this will move your first jab attack up 1 frame. Other mods to look for are ED, AR, +max, and ctc amp damage.
My jabber uses a 10ias/65ED/54AR eth/rep tspear.

Belt: Deaths

Gloves: Deaths

Boots: Good rare boots.
10fhr/3dex/15AR are perfect. 10 frw is nice for chasing down pubs.

The rest of your gear will be jeweled items. Here are some perfect mods for a level 9 jewel that are improtant to vlld.

5max (prefix) 9max (suffix) - 14 max is the highest possible
4min (prefix) 4min (suffix) 8min is the highest possible.
40AR
-15% req
12% DTM
3 dex
8 life
20% enhanced damage
1light/10AR

Of course, max or min damage is the most important mod to look for on a vlld jewel for this build. AR is also crucial.

Helm: 3 socket superior mask with 3 good jewels

Armor: 4 socket superior Ancient Armor with 4 good jewels. Each jewel should have -15% req making the armor 40 str req.

Shield: 3 socket Large Shield with 3 good jewels - since you need 55 dex to use an eth tspear, you only need 1 more point into dex to hit max block.
Some people use a vulpine shield of deflecting with 2 good jewels. However the faster block frame isn't very important since jab is uninterruptable.

Skills:
9 Jab
6 Crit
4 Dodge
1 Inner sight

Many people prefer putting 1 point into Jab and 9 into Inner Sight. This is a good choice for newer vllds who cannot afford top of the line equipment, because a level 1 jab will cost much less mana, and the high level Inner Sight will make up for low AR. However, if you can afford a full inventory of 15life/10-12 AR large charms, and you have a fair amount of intrinsic +mana or dtm on gear, neither AR nor mana will be a problem for you.

Stats:
Str: Enough for gear (40)
Dex: Enough for 75% block (56)
Energy: None
Vitality: The rest.

Charms: 15 life Large charms with mana or AR. 7 mana is perfect, 12AR is perfect.

Some things to note:

Mana and DTM are very important for a jabber since mana pots are not allowed in vlld duels. Look for mana or DTM on your jewels, rings, and charms, but try not to sacrifice damage for DTM or mana. My jabber has 85 mana and 33% DTM.

Since Jab is a low ED build, ED jewels are a cheap alternative to godly maxers. Using a 60ED/AR helm or shield is pretty effective and cheap to make, as is using a 80ED/-60req armor. In fact, your first few ED jewels will do more damage than maxers, until you hit the point of diminishing returns where your +max is low, and the extra ED isn't being multiplied by enough straight damage. Bottom line - use 1 piece with ED jewels in it, and put maxers in the rest. Keep in mind that ED/max is bugged so make sure you DON'T have any +max on your ED piece.

Another alternative to my armor/shield combo is a 4 socket superior gothic with 4 godly -req jewels, and a large shield with 1 of the jewels having -req. This will let you stay at 29 str, but you will have lower defense. I prefer the Ancient Armor route.

1 other possible build would be Bloodfists with Hsaru's boots and belt. FPA is always more important to me than some extra AR and life though, but I have heard some people discuss the viability of this build in the past. I've never seen it first hand but I am confident that Deaths is a better choice.

This post was edited by breakbeatz2 on Jan 31 2007 08:53am

If you say you "prefer the ancient armor route" for higher defence, then why do you use a mask and not a crown?

40 str build

-15% Req jewels?

This means you will loose 9 vit points not 10 ;D (tspear is 65dex)

Nice build ^^

Edit: -req jwl in crown takes away 6str so 3 godly -req jewels in crown>mask

This post was edited by Terje on Jan 31 2007 10:03am

Lets say I'm using a 3 mod jewel. I'd rather have a 3rd damage, AR dex, or life mod rather than slightly higher defense from the -req mod. If I'm using a 4 mod jewel, I'd rather have a 4th damage, AR dex, or life mod rather than slightly higher defense.

-req jewels will always be worse than an equivalent jewel without -re because they waste 1 mod on -req. In an ancient armor it's worth it because you gain a ton of defense. However, using 2 -req jewels for a crown isn't nearly worth it IMO.

I said I prefer Ancient armor because i like higher defense more than than 33 life. However, there are other downsides to using a 4x -req gothic.

1 jewel in your shield will need to have -req, which means it will be worse than a jewel that doesn't waste one of it's mods. Also, you lose out on 5.5% EDamage from losing 11 str. Overall I think Ancient armor is much better.

I want to change the opening paragraph to say eth spear saves you 9 dex instead of 10. It won't let me edit anymore though.

Oh well, good catch though..

This post was edited by breakbeatz2 on Jan 31 2007 10:32am

hehe thanks ;D (i hate the edit time limit thing too..)

Block% on large shield for amazon: 37%

dex required = clvl*2*75/block% + 15
It's 51, not 55.

heh, break is a noob.

OK, I was wrong about that but I was right about saving 10 points now HAHAHA