Exanos

Anomen, get out of this body!

if you want a very versatile character, try a shifter/XXX (replace XXX by any martial class). Bear form give lot of tankiness (huge universal armor) that you can combine with pala or barbarian bonus AR. Cat form is very nice with monk or rogue for attack speed. Boar form just shred boss or huge health pool ennemy with the RAW dot. You can heal, cast dot, cast burst spell, cc (don't underestimate druid cc power), deal heavy melee damage or tank depending of the situation. All in one.

the thing is, it's not that hard to stay alive if you can crowd control efficiently (have a tank with lot of engage go first is the easiest) shadow dancer can use stealth and invisibility to stay alive and strike when the time is fine. I don't see them as constant damage dealer but as burster

It can work cause you can still generate wound passively with an ability, and you can wait to be hit before casting trickster defensive spells, it will be more of a glass canon except if you invest heavily on RES and deviation stuff. If you want a very hard hitting glass canon, try hellwalker assassin and lvl up arcana. Duald wield sun and moon with sungrazer. You will hit really hard from stealth, can clear room from stealth with some hight lvl scroll (maelstrom for the win). Very dynamic multiclass with lot of way to fight (melee, ranged, scroll...). Need heavy micromanagement. Chanter/devoted will be way more sturdy. With some items and lvl, you can grind through any fight (except megaboss).

Hello, Napazalca/trickster will work fine cause drug will generate wound passively. Fists will be better in early, and sabers/sword will be better when you unlock unique and upgrade them (fists are better when you pill up +PL wich will not be the case here) Both cipher work, question is how you wznt to play. Ascendant want to stop melee and cast spell when ascended, and soulblade want to pill up focus for heavy melee (you can still cast spell though ) Warcaller and harbringer can off tank well, i will go the skald way for cheap invoc and bonus phrase on crit Bloodmage or no subclass will be my pick. You can easily config ia for autobuff, so its not an hassle. Very. To the point it can start being boring . A bit less effective on megaboss cause you need to hit and damage to get ascended. If you have a priest with salvation on time you can enter godmod. Very. I play it as a nucker. Use sascha singing scimitar to empower eld nary, swap to blightheart arquebuse (get phrase back on kill). Recast. Usually everything is dead. Edit: ninja boeroer is in the place

Arcane archer maxing arcana can be quite devastating at range. Either solo (death ring melt group) or mc with a bleakwalker (better vs single entity). Very versatile class good for cc, aoe damage or single damage. Hellwalker/furyshaper can be nice too. Lot of lash, and barbaric smash is a very good execute. Hellwalker/assassin is deadly too from pointblank, but much more susceptible to damage. Edit: you can access to the gunhawk class with a mod.

On ennemy with low to medium health pool certainly, on tanks/boss, the raw dot can escalate to absurd lvl out dpsing catform.

How will you rate a hellwalker/devoted with rapiers (squid grasp & rannig wrath) vs a hellwalker/devoted with sabres (probably scordeos edge & Aldrith blade / Grave calling (while fighting vessels))? Rapiers will have better accuracy (so more crits -> more procs of monk free hit), better PEN and immune to flank; while sabres should have better damage, faster attacks and more versatil (way more sabres...). I'm looking for rerolling a melee dualwield MC, inpired from the blade class (without the bard part) from BG2 (an offensive/defensive spin themed melee build).

well, seeker's fang come quite late, and the two rapier you get before (early) are great on late too. hellwalker/devoted have no real downside when it come to melee : great accuracy, epic pen, ton of damage, lot of crits and epic on crit effects. You are just a whirlwind of blades, with possibly nearly no downtime. Monk/cipher, while very good will have bigger downtime (spell recovery and no armor feat from fighter) and if you just aa, you miss from cipher spells, and if you cast cipher spells you miss great aa effects. It's still a very good MC, don't get me wrong. I will say it depend how you view your character : melee focused or a melee/caster.

I would go forbiden fist / berseker or hellwalker/devoted for a rapier focused melee build.

Getting ressource back on trash mob should not lead to a positive income in the long run (you usualy use ressource for securing the kill + ressource along that for movement/defense/buff/debuff/etc...) it should just make your ressource pool more durable. Biggest issue of brilliant is with caster for PL8-9 spells (->too powerfull) and some specifics spells (salvation of time, barring death door, wall of draining mostly -> too cheesy). Remove this and it's not an overpowered inspiration anymore (still very good). I totally agree with you about meaningful decision and that limited ressource allow that. Honestly, except for ultimate run or some non optimized run (without a party for ex), you don't need to cast it once to finish the game. In 90% of my fight (except boss fights), the fight is over in less than 20sec and i still have at least 60% of my ressource pool (including spells) full (except my arcana archer i admit, she end fight at 0 but take half the ennemy team with it :D), without the need for empower.

I disagree with the needed pre-lv8 refund ressource abilitie. I would much prefer brilliant to not restaure ressource, but just give a fair chunk of +PL (universally usefull, no more question about PL9 spell caster unbalance, etc...). Your ressource pool can easily be played around with : - empower point restauring half of it; - item adding +X ressource for a class (gauntlet mostly for fighter & monk + DoC brestplate), or passive with same effect. To compensate a bit, i would welcome a PL8 passive for fighter ranger and rogue giving ressource back on kill, and for barbarian a tweak for barbarian smash giving back more rage on kill (it will come sooner than PL8 but will be double edge sword : if you miss, it cost, if you kill you gain ). Spellcaster, when out of ressource can still cast scroll or throw bomb (a buff for explosive would be welcome). No one really use scroll (few exception) cause they are not needed with your actual ressource pool for 96% of the fights. If you really want a refund ressource abilitie, chanters have one (buff it for +2 ressource, or make it a pl6-7 with 1 ressource back). edit : gating refund ressource passive at PL8 will make SC more appealing. As multi you have double ressource to play with anyway.

For a berseker/skald, i would say Myth fir (potent lash) + long night drink (debuff fortitude so it's easier to hit : barbarian can target fortitude instead of deviation). Don't sleep on assassin/bellower, it's a very fun gameplay (well, barbarian/skald too in fact ^^). Empower far from defeated (energized = +5might, +2pen, crit interrupt), swap scimitar for bligthheart, shadowing beyond in the middle of the pack (get your tank to aggro at the start), cast seven night with +6pen, +5pl, +25 accuracy, +50% crit damage. see the spell crit. Watch the ennemy group disapear, sleepers of the assasin proc + get lot of phrase back, repeat. If a poor lad manage to survive, land a devastating blow from point blank while invisible. his mama won't recognize him. ever.

Empower an invocation with singing scimitar and swap to the soulbound arquebus wich grant 1 phrase/kill. No need to be a troubadour for quick generating phrase with this setup. Berseker, hellwalker or assasin mix well with chanter for max damage invocation. Hellwalker will make your invocation devastating. Berseker and assassin will boost it too (a bit less, except from stealth for assassin) and give you great finisher abilitie to combo with the arquebuse. Bellower is the go to subclass for damaging invocation. Skald will be great too for cheaper invocation but thats all ( if you play ranged, if you want to melee it's a great subclass)

For a rymgrand priest multi, definitely berseker. Come on, dual summoned axe scream for barbarian . And berseker is just great for an offensive spellcaster.

Nearly each time i see a long post from you, i learn some I love this game. PS : so you were talking about arcane archer, i'm interested. Running with one currently. Having lot of fun with watershaper's focus for aoe blasting hordes (with avenging storm on from scroll or cacophony helm) and spearcaster for though boss. Anything else to try?

True, my bad then ^^. For brilliant restoring spell, can you tweak the chance of getting spells back depending of tier? (Something like 40% for tier 1-3, 30% tier 4-5, 20% tier 6-7, 10% tier 8-9). If you don't have used spell of the lvl, the tick do nothing. Can be an alternative...

I'm refering vs vanilla effect. I don't use much mods except community patch. Let's be honest, vanilla version of brilliant is way to good for a pl7. Keeping it away from multiclass cipher will help making it not that easy to get. Constraining party composition can be part of the fun : in all my run i get a chanter/cipher cause it's a nobrainer... Of course, if you nerf brilliant effect then leaving it at pl7 is fine. I would be quite happy if it just add a good chunk of Pl (benefit to martial and caster) or massively reduce cast time (martial would need a counterpart still).

An other way will be to keep brillant as it is but making it a Pl8 or 9 cipher power. Maybe tweaking salvation of time to not add up can work too (you can't benefit it if you are already under one).

As an optionnal option it would be great. It would make the chanter's refund ressource invocation more appealing for spellcaster (who use it actually ? ). No friendly fire is a big bonus for nuker (but situationnal with good combat management), uselless for other, maybe add a little something to make it more appealing as,a t3 inspiration (like reduced cast time, will fit thematically) ? For martial, keep the ressource regen, it will kill tactician otherwise. Edit : if separating brilliant effect for martial/caster is too hard, i will either go : restore a finite amount of ressource (like chanter) or add a +XPL (3?).

For weapon,you should consider the pike which grant lord of the forest (from biakara bounty, so very early weapon) : +2pl as long as you have woodskin or form of the delemgan on. Easy to trigger as druid, and is universal pl.

Yes it does and that is what make it so nice. You can go full casting or soul anihilation non stop. I think there is a mod allowing cipher spell to target yourself (not needed, but briliant on yourself should be a fun addition). The nice part about wotep and trickster is spreading all your dot in an aoe. Steelgarrote/trickster will work fine, but it is much more melee focused, you will lack ressource regen (not a huge deal for 98% of the game), and not a problem if you have acces to brilliant.

For riposte build, you want to max RES no matter what. Each point invested in is better than the precedent. There is different class combination that work well : Rogue : have a build in riposte (it's better with the community patch) so you don't necessary need WOTEP. Trickster pair really well with a martial class, streetfighter very well with a spellcasting one (easy to get flanked) Blood mage : lot of insta buff with big buff to deviation, can regen spell, making them a must have for long fight if no access to brilliant. Steelgarotte : WOTEP needed, passive health with riposte + endurance aura making it hard to down. Pair extremely well with bloodmage. Cipher : you can buff your defense and massively debuff ennemy's one. regenerative ressource is a must have in long fight. Some fun combination : Steelgarotte/bloodmage with WOTEP; Streetfighter/bloodmage with WOTEP or anything else (i love concelaut draining touch + magran's shield); Trickster/soulblade with WOTEP or anything else (i use WOTEp with it); Trickster/unbroken, you can use fear+disengagement attack fwhen tired of riposte. For liberator it will be less effective as a riposte build, it's more a mobil AOE tower (nature terror + immolation)

Hi, gonna make a chanter with this weapon for my next playthrough and i'm really wondering which class combo i should use for reliable/efficient phrase farming. Don't have much time to run test them so maybe will you be able to help me with advice. Weapon set 1 : Sacha singing scimitar (refresh empower point for more use ) + slayer claw (+1 tier might inspiration for barbarians/pala/fighter) or Kitchen stove (if hellwalker multi) Weapon set 2 : Blightheart Strat is simple,start fight with weapon set 1, get hit by a might inspiration, cast empower eld nary, then switch to weapon set 2. Bellower vs Skald Bellower as a much highter ceiling for damage (those PL bonus are not negligeable : +6 for eld nary = +3 jump, + 30%damage + 2 Pen (with amulet of power)), but skald's invocation are cheaper and skald should be better vs boss cause you can swap bligheart for your melee set and go crit farming. 2. Helwalker vs berseker vs assassin vs bleakwalker Hellwalker : Pro : Getting 35 might and 30 intel will be easy, allowing more damage and duo chant (myth fyr+the reload one). Accuracy bonus + fire lash + elec lash + T2 might inspiration + Dex inspiration is cherry on top. Con : stunning blow is the only special attack usable at range and is not a great finisher. -> If you equip bligheart and flagellant path to an ennemy, will the crits work for skald's phrase generation ? Berseker : Pro : T2 might (becoming t3)+ no recovery on kill make an easy kill farmer. Barbaric blow is an amazing finisher; Con : Lesser might/int than hellwalker = no duo chant and less powerfull invocation. Assasin : for this one i'm not sure how eld nary's bounce take assassinate in consideration does they keep the bonus after the first bounce? Pro : Hight accuracy/pen from stealth, Finishing blow + deathblow make near death target easy kill; Con : no might and no dex bonus. You will exaust guile quite quicly. Not sure it work with eld nary. Bleakwalker : Pro : Sworn rival + FoD is nice for finishing near death ennemy (cheap, and hight accuracy+damage). Eternal devotion lash apply to invocation; Con : no might and no dex bonus. Cruel gameplay (RP > all). Not sure which composition of these class will be the most effective/fun on a full playthrough (POTd upscalled). Any preference ? Edit : corrected slayer claw for barbarian

Do you think berserker/skald is better than hellwalker/bellower with this weapon for kill generation?