cloud of daggers

gotten from wizards forum:

1. it deals more total damage to a single target than any other wizard at-will, assuming wisdom 14 or higher.

2. it is extensible with orb of imposition. If have orb mastery, but aren't blowing a daily this encounter, then you will be using the orb on an at-will, and this is one of only 2 ph at-will spells that are orbable.

3. it is the only wizard at-will that is a guaranteed minion kill (well, almost guaranteed, unless something allows the minion to move before its turn).

4. it does exert a small terrain effect -- no other at-will in the game does this. good to plug up small passages, or deny archers the square from which they are getting cover or superior cover.

5. it combos ok with allies that provide forced movement (tide of iron, positioning strike, etc), or even with forced movement you provide (extending the cloud with an orb, or using an action point).

defensive advantage and warlocks

gotten from the wizards forums:

don't neglect to take the defensive advantage feat. Since you gain ca against everyone when you move 3 squares, defensive advantage would also give you an additional +2 nontyped ac bonus against everyone.

iron curtain concept

iron curtain concept utilizing a long mountain range called stone (?) curtain, behind which an enormous goblinoid empire exists.

glaive fighter

glaive

warpriest challenge
combat challenge
combat superiority (+wis mod)
fighter weapon talent (+1)
sure strike (at-will +2)
polearm gamble
heavy blade opportunity
blade opportunity (+2)
combat opportunity (+1)
wintertouched (combat advantage = +2)
lasting frost
immediate interrupt
armor specialiation (scale)

cross class paragon paths

more interesting info from the wizards d&d forums:

divine oracle (cleric): roll attack vs will and initiative twice
radiant servant (cleric): radiant crits on 19 or 20
iron vanguard (fighter): con heal on kills and con damage to enemies you pushed and knocked prone
kensei (fighter): +1 to attack and +4 to damage with chosen weapon.
pit fighter (fighter): +1 ac and wis to damage
daggermaster (rogue): daggers crits on 18, 19, or 20 and dagger crit cause ca.
shadow assassin (rogue): enemy melee misses deal dex to them
knight commander (warlord): +2 attack to adjacent allies and + cha damage to ally's opportunity damage
sword marshal (warlord): swords!

orb wizard who goes cleric for divine oracle (yay, will attacks)
- infernal warlock who goes fighter for iron vanguard (yay, con synergy)
- twf ranger who goes fighter for pit fighter (ZOMG! damage)

one of my favorite builds is a tank warlock that goes bloodmage.
The warlock loads up on ac, temporary hitpoints, healing surges, etc. then goes into battle and uses the temporary hp to unleash massive extra damage. Your ac is between 3 and 4 higher than the mobs average rolls and you benefit from concealment 90% of the time, this allows you to run about cursing every mob with twofold curse, then every time you get a kill, you get 14+ thp, and can use them to power the 2d10 bonus damage to your wizard spells that you swapped for and the bloodmage powers.
blood pulse is also amazing with howl of doom or harrowfire.

4e ranger discussion

here is some interesting ranger information that i copied from the wizards d&d forum:

i can see no reason that a Ranger should ever take the Archer Fighting Style . all it gives you is one feat (defensive mobility), compared to a feat (toughness) plus a unique ability (you can wield a one-handed weapon in your off hand as if it were an off-hand weapon) for the two-blade fight style. unless i had specific designs on an archer ranger paragon path, i'd pick two-blade every time.

i'd take the two-blade ranger, plus the quick draw feat, and aim for powers that worked with both bows and blades. that way I'd be able to quickly adapt to make the most of any situation. i'd try to maximize strength and dexterity and keep investing the free stat boosts in them, with only occasional bumps to constitution and wisdom as needed by any feats or powers. if a ranged-only power was especially good, i'd take it, but since you never know what kind of conditions you'll be fighting in, neglecting the melee powers is foolhardy.

feats:
bastard sword proficiency
weapon focus: heavy blades
two weapon fighting
two weapon defense
quick draw
scimitar dance

stats
an elf ranger can end up with dex 30, str 24 and wis 15.
30 is the maximum stat so far in 4th edition.

18 - base
+2 racial
+1 x 8 (4, 8, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24, 28)
+2 demigod (21)

not the most optimal stat allocation (going for 18 is pretty stupid), but you are definitely not going to suck at Two weapon fighting.
you could also go dex 28, str 26, wis 16, con 14, which only sacrifices one point of dex and is basically one of the best possible ranger twf builds.

the nigh-optimum starting array is 16-16-12-12-10-8. one racial boost to raise your primary to 18, the other to raise your tertiary to 14. 18-16-14 primary-secondary-tertiary.
if dex is your tertiary stat, it's only going up to 14.

16-16-12-12-10-8 turns into 16-16-13-11-10-8. If you can afford no bonus in three stats, you can have a free 13.

builds
a. ranger/pit fighter/demigod = bastard sword
b. ranger/stormwarden/trickster = scimitar

in build a, you do the following:
1. pump wisdom
2. probably go to scale armor specialization
3. cascade of blades (+2 vs +3 prof) + armor splinter
4. weapon proficiency (bastard sword)

in build b, you do the following:
1. pump dexterity
2. hide armor specialization
3. scimitar dance
4. look for powers that use bow and melee.

and the scimitar dance damage does not stack with exploits that do damage on a miss, so if you take a bunch of those powers, you may not want to have scimitar dance.

scimitar dance: if you miss with a melee attack with a scimitar and you wouldn’t otherwise still deal damage on the miss, you deal damage to your original target equal to your dexterity modifier. this damage receives no modifiers or other benefits you normally gain on weapon damage.

of course, i may play against type, and go for the build b, except use the bastard sword. i really like cascade of blades with the +2 to hit from stormwarden, and the extra +1 to hit from bs prof. And the 4 rerolls don't hurt either (1 elf; 3 trickster). With cascade of blades and armor splinter, it may be worthwhile to make sure your cleric has weapon of the gods, or dip for that prayer.

the numbers that I saw showed that they were fairly close, so you can use either weapon with either build. depending on how your gm does magic treasure, I've heard some people may take bs proficiency at heroic, and then retrain it to scimitar dance at paragon.

4e psion

here are my latest thoughts on psion:

(1) role: controller

(2) two builds:
(i) build #1 - charm/enchantment oriented build (psychic damage type) with charisma as primary/attack stat;
(ii) build #2 - illusion oriented build (psychic damage type) with intelligence as primary/attack stat;
(iii) perhaps wisdom could serve as the secondary stat, if any, for each build;
(iv) perhaps telekinesis powers (force damage type) are included in each build for variety;