Voltron

As every Fighter build- cleave in action :D Monk/Devoted, Fighter/Berserker, Fighter/Chanter, Fighter/Paladin. Let's be all honest-> Disc. Strikes ->any other buffs you need -> Charge -> Proc Cleave ->Proc Cleave -> Proc Cleave :D Second subclass for Devoted is just for show :D Props for Guts! I love Berserk!

Ah, Monk/Devoted. Was waiting for someone to finally make a Class Build for it. Absolutely broken combo, insane mobility, Swift Flurry endless damage loop. Pure damage. But why you didn't went with Scordeo's Trophy? Even on my War Caller I pretty much get that 0 recovery proc every fight so with Swift Flurry it would proc like crazy. EDIT: I just tried your build with Dual Wielding Scrodeo and I was pretty much guarantee to proc 0 Recovery in every fight due to Swift Flurry + Charge + Cleave stance. The DPS was just out of the roof. Did same with Wishper of E.P and it was much slower to kill group of enemies. I think Scordeo is perfect for this build and much better than that 2h, which is still nice (I tested it few times now). But that 0 recovery every fight... man... It definitely proc more on this than on My Warcaller and that is just crazy. Also you don't utilize Charge fully if you don't dual wield. Not only that but you also stack + Accuracy from Scordeo every hit and that also counts Swift Flurry and Cleave attacks, which can give you in first two attacks in fight a +20 to +30 Accuracy, which also helps a lot. And they have higher penetration (sabres) on Devoted than 2h swords. Lovely build but I feel like this one is absolutely made for Scordeo sabre. BTW. Is this build solo-viable? Because it seems squishy. For solo would you recommend going Shattered or Naz instead?

Check second build in my Signature. I covered War Caller (fighter/chanter) and Herald (paladin/chanter) there and what you want is Devoted/Troubadour really. Even more for Paladin. Skald could ok for Fighter, but bad for Paladin. Troubadour is best when multiclass. Check, there is everything there.

You mean, other than the stacking boost to recovery on hit, up to -20% recovery, so it eventually matches dual wield-recovery rates while being able to attack multiple opponents? That sword is the best weapon in the game, bar none. And you can get it for 3000 gold as soon as you reach Neketaka. It's insane. Um, with DW of sabers you can get full attacks out of Charge or Cleave or anything else that has Full Attack. Two-handed sword (yours) on my level deals around 60-75 cirt on full attack. While my dual sabers crit 70-80 each so when I do full attack or charge that is 140-160 dmg total. Dual wield is not about DPS, it's about burst with Full Attack abilities. And -20% recovery? I have no recovery after 1-2 charges :D when my one sabre proc or if not I still have -40-90% It's also better to dual wield because you can stack two effects. For example my one sabre stacks Crit Chance 2% each hit while my other stack accuracy 3% per hit, giving both weapons effects. Or one weapon can make you immune to flanking, while second one boost melee dmg 5% per one target attacking you. And other great combos Dual Wield > Two-handed just because of that. Also dmg is higher on most melee abilities because they are Full Attack. I agree that in terms of auto-attack when we have 0 recovery Twohanded>Dual wield. But not by much But if we talk about 0 recovery + Full Attack abilities like Penetrating Strike, Charge, FOD, Cleae etc. Dual Wield >> Two-handed as they always hit twice and sadly two-handed weapons do not really have damage advantage :/, which is my big grip in game. For example Wishper of Endless Path has 15-25 dmg, while one sabre has 23-34 (both weapons are Superb, no dmg increase talents, only pen from Devoted). Sanguine Great Sword looks better= 33-44 damage. Here Auto Attack on 0 recovery would be better, but still lose vs dual wield Full Attacks.

Lol! I have it and never though of that! Gonna make my War Caller faster :D On my 20 Int War Caller it's 45 seconds :D OMG.

So for example if you upgrade Gernics (wurms) to their better version you can still cast either weaker version or stronger version. Both are among invocations you know. Same with "And Hel Hyraf" and upgrade- both versions are available to cast. But for example "At the sound of his voice" when upgraded- the previous version dissapears for no reason and you can cast only upgraded one. If that is intended it would be nice to have it included in description of invocation because it's little confusing. But I think it's a bug since I see no reason why Chanter would suddenly forgot how to sing weaker/shorter version of his invocations...

Well, it's easy to go around with console (just add yourself weaker version again), but it's quite a bug for some casual players-chanters as they won't know why some invocations dissapeared. I will post that in bug sections I think.,

So for example if you upgrade Gernics (wurms) to their better version you can still cast either weaker version or stronger version. Both are among invocations you know. Same with "And Hel Hyraf" and upgrade- both versions are available to cast. But for example "At the sound of his voice" when upgraded- the previous version dissapears for no reason and you can cast only upgraded one. If that is intended it would be nice to have it included in description of invocation because it's little confusing. But I think it's a bug since I see no reason why Chanter would suddenly forgot how to sing weaker/shorter version of his invocations...

Dam, if Psy Blade wasn't most boring subclass and Cipher worst class I would run that! Nice combo you have found!

Fists. If you want to use weapons on monk- swords or sabers as there is most of them (unique ones) in game and they have some nasty dual wield combos.

Correct. Only 1 drug or drug crash penalty may be in effect at any one time. The game doesn't document drug stuff very well. Had to figure out a lot of the mechanics via experimentation. Which I suppose is thematically appropriate, but still rather annoying. Doesn't that make Nalpazca kind of.... bad? Only one drug for all the alchemy investment just for one drug. Not to mention many potions have from start as potent effects as mid alchemy drug. I thought you can be on several drugs at once :/ One is little....meh imo.

Correct me if I am wrong but not all drugs can be running together, no? I remember yesterday I wanted to use 3 drugs before fight (not on Monk) and they just canceled each other and I had only one running on. Or maybe it's just UI thing next to your portrait....

That actually looks like cool build idea for "Inquisitor" role play of Fighter/Priest with rapier/pistol :D. I may try that after I will play Crusader.

Again. For non-offensive invocations? Maybe. Most likely. For offensive invocations. No. Is the Skald inflexible in this regard? Yes. It's just not true that Troubadour in general generates phrases faster when it comes to offensive invocations. At the very least, even with bad crit luck, Skald and Troubadour are equal once you factor in the Brilliant inspiration, with the Skald having the potential to generate way more. Your example: The Troubadour generates enough phrases (6; needs 6) to cast Seven Nights after 18 seconds, yes. The Skald generates only half as much phrases during that time (3; needs 4). As I said, the Skald just needs to generate 1 more phrase per crit during the 18 seconds (!!!) to catch up with the Troubadour. You can generate much more than 1 with the right race/ multi-class combination, gear, talents and party composition (Buffs, Debuffs etc.). The potential is there. There is even a multi-projectile melee weapon that basically doubles your chance to generate crits with each melee-swing. Use your imagination. Even if you ignore the phrase per crit generation of the Skald (and why would you?), the Skald catches up with the Troubadour once you get access to the Brilliant inspiration: The Troubadour now only needs 9 seconds to generate once again 6 phrases (2 phrases per 3 seconds thanks to Brilliant), while the Skald also needs 9 seconds (generates 1 phrase through chanting after 6 seconds and 3 phases per Brilliant after 9 seconds) to generate 4 phrases. Both can cast Seven Nights after 9 seconds. Skald can be faster, if he manages to generate a phrase per crit. That's all wanted to say. When it comes to non-offensive invocation it's a whole other story, yes. As you wrote they MIGHT by equal in speed without brilliant if you mange to crit and if that crit will proc. And they are equal with Brilliant on 9 second vs 9 seconds with then slight edge on Skald as he can also proc hit Crit. But again- pure caster chanter (not Multi) won't crit that much. So if they are equal- I still don't see point taking Skald over Troubadour, who will at the same time be better overall caster when needed and also has access to better chant combos for whole party. Besides once you get Brilliant and you are with party- it does not matter at all, your party will just annihilate whole screen faster than you get that offensive invocation for second time I love Chanter in PoE2 (my fav class now), but after playing with him a lot it's imo Troubadour>Skald>Beaconer>Pure Chanter. The only where I would take Skald is Berserker. Anyway- Level VII is where everything stop making difference because of brilliant.

Agree that a lot of subclasses just does not make sense. For example Corpse Eater on Barbarian. Not only it's useless and can't be use often but just health back? I mean in game you have pretty muhc TONS of healing potions/scrolls etc. If you do not solo- you have so much healing from priest alone that why is that even here. I could understand something like "Devour the flesh of your enemy to gain his strength! Cropse Eater get XX bonus to damage, recovery and XX X after tasting the flesh and blood of his enemies". But current is just stupid. Same Mage Slayer

Thing is the difference between offensive Troubadour and Skald is: the longer and harder fight is = the better Troubadour will be as he does not rely on Crits to build his Phrases faster. Skald has only better initial casts (begining of the fight with max Phrases). Troubadour will be better and more reliable (not relying on RNG chance on crits) offensive Chanter. And he does that from the beginning of game where belive me- you won't crit at all with Skald early to mid-game, especially with party as you won't have enough gold to gear yourself up as fast you can on solo. Skald passive 50% only starts to shine on mid-end game on multi with melee who can crit a lot. If you build pure Chanter for party- you won't crit much due to having to focus on casting and chanters do not have Hits to Crit like Berserkers or Fighters have. Tell me how much often you will crit with pure Skald? With what weapons, accuracy and penetration? And it's still just 50% chance on that rare crits. Even on multi class - you will start crit like crazy only in mid-end game when you get all good Hits to Crit items and it's still only 50% chance. Troubadour will still match that. And if you want to multi chanter with melee- Troubadour just offers more for melee multi than Skald due to Linger and flexibility. But lets just go with Math: On Brisk On Troubadour generates Phrases 50% faster than Skald. One Chant is 6 sec. That is 6 sec per 1 Phrase. For example Seven Nights invocation costs 5 Phrases. 6 Phrases for Troubadour, 4 Phrases for Skald. We start with 0 Phrases. Brisk Recitation on 1 Phrase per 3 sec. Cost: 6. That is 18 seconds to get 6 Phrases for Troubadour. Skald 1 Phrase for 6 seconds. Cost: 4. That is 24 seconds to get 4 Phrases. Even if you somehow crit like crazy on Skald and you get 50% proc often, that is 6 seconds difference, so one full Phrase for Skald, 2 Phrases for Troubadour in Brisk mode. The only advantage of Skald is that in the beginning of fight he can cast 2 offensive invocations in row instead of one like Troubadour. But then when fights get longer= Troubadour will just cast more. The difference becomes staggering bigger if you want to cast something non offensive as then Skald takes forever vs Troubadour. Even as pure offensive you still want Paralyze or Charm to defend yourself at least. Especially if you want to build "offensive" caster- you want Troubadour as you won't crit at all with offensive invocations on Skald till like 13-15 level (unless you play on lower difficulties I guess but on PotD- no. And will scalling on and up- 100% sure you won't) as they have low Penetration and you won't have enough accuracy early to mid game. For multi you could go for Sklad on Zerker/Fighter (though Troubadour is still better imo) as they have Hits to Crit from start (Frenzy/Disciplined Strikes). But for pure offensive caster- troubadour only. That pretty much for me settles who is better offensive one.

I may seem biased but I tried all 3 on my solos and I will say every time: Troubadour. Especially for melee character due to Linger on chants (you only need INT 20 to have in early game perma two healing from Soft Wind + Ancient memory combined or later in game +10 deflection + Mith Fyr, Old Siec + Mith Fyr or finally Mercy and Kindness + any healing one) + phrase generation when you feel you need it to fast cast invocations. When you learn how to manage Brisk- he has pretty much no downside. Beaconer summons are ok, but last too short imo. Unless you empower them every time. And summons look like toys Sklad is ok, but increased cost on Summon/Buff/Debuff invocations is imo not worth it. They are many times much more valuable than straight offensive invocations. Also 50% on crit is what it is= chance. Sometimes it just won't proc when needed. Just my opinion, anyone can disagree.

You can't just completely ignore the phrase per crit generation. Let's take a good mid to high level offensive invocation like Her Tears Fell Like Rain (base cost of 5) for example. The Troubadour needs 18 seconds (6*3) to generate enough phrases, while the Skald is 1 phrase off (3*6) after 18 seconds (needs 4 phrases). The Skald just needs to generate 1 phrase per crit during the 18 seconds (!!!) to catch up with the Troubadour. With the right build you're able generate way more than that. And don't forget about the Brilliant inspiration: The Troubadour now needs 9 seconds to generate once again 6 phrases (to stay with this example), while the Skald also needs 9 seconds (1 phrase normally after 6 seconds and 3 phrases per Brilliant) to generate 4 phrases. Troubadour and Skald aren't equal at casting offensive invocations with a base cost of 3 either, unless you completely ignore the phrase per crit generation of the Skald by default. Also, Brilliant inspiration once again favors the Skald here: The Troubadour needs 6 seconds to cast (for example) The Killers Froze (generated phrases equals phrase-cost), while the Skald also needs 6 seconds but generated 1 spare phrase. For the next Killers Froze Stiff the Skald only needs 3 seconds. As for offensive invocations, Skald is always the better choice in my opinion. The longer fight lasts the faster Troubadour with Brisk will be. Also the very very little difference you mentioned is absolutely not worth giving up flexibility of Troubadour and perma Linger on Chants. Also 50% on crit means that, it's 50%. I tried Skald early in game, but sometimes I crit like 5 times on row and it did not proc at all. I don't like RNG. With Troubadour I know exactly that I will get that needed Phrases in next seconds. Hence why I would take Troubadour on offensive invocation Chanter too, just stay on Brisk on most of the time and you can still have crazy Linger. Or you can stay on Brisk and still summon crazy fast due to passive chant summoning skeleton. Also don't forget that offensive invocations of Chanter are not his main thing. While some are good, summons and crazy buffs/CC (charm/paralyze) etc. can win fight many times better than offensive invocation. And here skald has +1 cost but still has super slow Phrases generation. While troubadour generate Phrases super fast for any type of invocation. Not to mention how fast you can turn off/on Brisk to begin with. Small difference is not worth the sheer flexibility that Troubadour have.

I would not say it's tankier per se , more like has much more crazy sustain due to crazy healing/life leech from chants and regenerating resources which gives you unlimited Lay on Hands or FoD. Though everything is broken when build right. Thats the beauty of RPGs

With Brisk Recitation I think the Troubadour can cast invocations faster than the Skald unless they cost 2 phrases. In this case they cost 1 for the Skald, so they can cast them every six seconds, whereas they cost 3 for the Troubadour, so they can cast them every nine seconds. Once you hit a base cost of 3 phrases the two are equal (2*6 = 4*3) and beyond that the Troubadour can outcast the Skald. For non-offensive invocations a Troubadour using Brisk Recitation is faster across the board I believe (I don't think there are any invocations that cost 1 Phrase). Correct, Brisk give you Phrases so fast that you can out-cast any other Chanter class. Troubadour is best for end game simply because of how flexible he is. For example in the beginning of the fight on my solo War Caller I like to keep linger on myself to have perma two effects = for example Old Siec leech + Mith Fyr as at the beginning I am using DIs. Strikes, Vig.Def + Energize from Invocation and then just Charge through enemies with fire lash + life leech from chants. However then I run out of Fighter resources and I can if need to switch to Healing Chant (old Siec or Ancient + Soft Winds) if I know this fight will still last because enemies are strong and Brisk Recitation and now I am fighting in melee and spam Paralyze/Charm/Seven Nights or summon my trusty wurms every 3 attacks. I generate Phrases so fast I sometimes forget to cast when I have just enough. Troubadour is just flexible. He can be best Chanter caster with Brisk on while still getting very good chants for himself (old siec, ancient memory, her courage, Skeleton summon) and party or best chanting class as he has at lvl 20 perma Linger so you can combine two chants and have them both 100% of time, while having your Invocation in backup (which makes him best option for melee multi mix). Beaconer is ok, but he lacks this flexibility. His summon are fun, but Troubadour summons last longer. Skald has lower cost, so he has better initial casting (beginning of the fight he can cast 2-3 offensive Invocations fast) but during the whole fight he casts slower than Brisk Troubadour. So after playing with him for so long I say Troubadour, simply for flexibility and that little additional micro (chants switch + brisk on/off) that really makes a difference.

I don't think there is a limit for Giftbearer Cloak. As for armor I can't comment.

So I have been respecing my War Caller a little bit to test different stuff. And so I was running with invocation "The lover cried out" which Charms enemies in cone for 8 sec (16 sec with 20 INT). As opposed to mass Paralyze which is only 10 sec. So... What I have noticed: The Good: 1. It's actually quite strong as you can charm melee guys in front of you which will turn and attack their range comrades behind them. This also gives you nice opportunity to position yourself well (for example for Charge) once Charm worns off. 2. It's very strong on high-level enemies because they hit hard so they hit themselfs quite hard. 3. It lasts long enough that with Brisk Recitation you can almost have another one ready before first one wears off. The Bad: 1. Little counter productive for Cleave as if you kill enemy it won't of course proc Cleave on charmed enemies. So if some group fights you may actually make fight longer, not easier. 2. Useless on low recovery enemies. They will attack like one/two times and (and miss...) and be done. What are you thoughts?

Ok so got that Difficulty mode and went on southeast corner of map to kill Fampyr and her minions on Level 16, fully geared up on War Caller (Devoted/Troubadour) and though I won, I had to use summons 4 times, both of my Second Winds, all my Warrior resources, and I died on first try :D. It was rough. I had to switch between Brisk and Normal invocations to be able to get Phrases fast enough for summons or paralyze and I had to keep both healing chants up all the time or I would be dead. So I definitely can say that this mod at least made things little more interesting as it was my first really though fight since level 11.

I have a cat (Prissy) that gives 15% more healing plus health on kill. Superb on melee front liner on for solo game. I am glad they made pets so useful in this game. It's a joy to collect them now.

Just downloaded this difficulty mod and will test if it will change PotD for solo a lot: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/24?tab=files