Kaylon

I did a few more tests and you can avoid the curse if you're invisible or withdrawn when the table is destroyed. So the easiest way to beat the encounter is to let the enemies destroy the tables and then proceed as usual.

The blight has no duration and is very easy to proc with multi hit weapons (and you can proc it even before the fight by shooting yourself with dual blunderbusses and Rakhan Field Boots). With Rekvu's Scorched Cloak you can also have free heals for your cipher until the end of the fight. But of course it's always nice to be able to extend the buff for the entire fight.

VS high resolve enemies I think it's easier to use a fire blight from the belt of Magran's Chosen as a battery for your cipher.

Yes, you can withdraw them - with maxed arcana and enough scrolls it shouldn't be too difficult. PS. There's a second method to kill Hauani (without the arbalest) - using the withdraw trick. The tactician can become confused easily from Powder Burns and then withdraw one of the oozes to prevent the merge, while killing the other.

Here is one of the most powerful parties you can build - works very well on AI and each character is a real powerhouse on its own. Berseker/Devoted with Lord Darryn's Voulge - melee AoE dps Priest/Bellower - Support/damage dealer Helwalker/Ghost Heart with Frostseeker - ranged single/AoE dps Soulblade/Trickster with Sun and Moon & Tuotilo's Palm/WotEP - melee single/AoE dps Paladin/Bloodmage - tank/damage dealer If you have the Community Patch then you can play instead: Ascendant/Arcane Archer with Frostseeker - ranged AoE/CC Forbidden Fist/Trickster - melee single dps

It's not a downside if you're using the invocations as soon as you have enough phrases or if you just use the most powerful invocations.

The bellower works well with a priest/wizard who can prolong every buff (the +5 PL buff of the bellower included) for the entire fight (using SoT/WoD). The priest has a slight advantage because of better buffs, Barring Death Door and also because SoT is easier to use. Sasha's Singing Scimitar (with Refreshing Finale enchantment) allows to use Empower every fight on Her Tears Fell Like Rain. Empower will trigger the enchantments from the Robes of the Weyc (Muse of Mistery, Omnipotence), Weyc's Wand (Attuned Channel, Follower of the Obscured) and the Least Unstable Coil (all tier 3 inspirations if Her Tears.. hits 6 enemies). Then all those buffs can be instantly prolonged using SoT/WoD for the entire fight which won't last very long. After the first cast of Her Tears... you switch from Sasha's + Weyc's Wand to Blightheart and all the kills (combined with Muse of Mistery and Brilliant) will restore the phrases very fast allowing you to spam Her Tears... (or alternate with Storm of Holy Fire if needed).

Vatnir can become the strongest companion in the game. But using him as a SC priest is wasting his potential... Priest/Chanter (Bellower is ideal) is one of the strongest combos in the game - incredible support and offense. It has access to all tier 3 inspirations (through Least Unstable Coil) and all weyc's buffs every fight (thanks to Sasha's Scimitar). Basically you can spam Her Tears Fell Like Rain and Storm of Holy Fire over and over until all enemies are dead. With Blightheart equipped, Muse of Mistery from the robes and Brilliant you will be flooded with phrases. Of course if you're tired of annihilating everything you can also just buff/heal or CC enemies... Of course some key items are from the expansions and you have to play them ASAP if you want to enjoy his full potential long enough.

If you have the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer and Strand of Favor equipped I think it's enough to shorten the negative effect enough to gain a few seconds of invincibility. If that's not enough you can use Mohora Wraps bonus and a potion of Cleansing Purge on top. Once you're free, you kill the wizard instantly to end the fight and then prolong the untargetable effect with Strand of Favor... However, I think the hardest part would be to find a wizard willing to cast Temporal Cocoon on you.

Maybe there are high level wizards (Concelhaut, Arkemyr, Fyonlecg...) who could cast Temporal Cocoon on the PC, allowing all classes to become invincible.

Yes, but his devoted/street fighter will have some harsh penalties when using an arbalest and without Heating Up he might be also too slow to perma interrupt the oozes.

Yeah, in fact you should just intimidate them...

The best way to lower your reputation is to just farm factions ships before starting their quests.

Neriscyrlas is weak to crush/fire and her low defenses are deflection/reflex. Firebrand (from scrolls) + Ring of Focused Flame can hit her very hard. Melee fighters should use maces/flails/quarterstaffs/morning stars (Sungrazer upgrade lowers her crush AR permanently), while ranged should equip scepters. Veilpiercer bow can be used to purge her buffs once. Use food to increase penetration, the Blackened plate can also lower her AR, try also to flank her... Your herald should use Ancient Memory and Aefyllath if you lack damage or Old Siec if you need more healing. Summon the animated weapons to distract her and to help you flank her. Xoty with a quarterstaff and Instruments of Pain can deal great crush damage at range. Aloth + Fassina should use every fire/missile spell just to finish her because you don't have brilliant inspiration to restore your resources.

The procs are considered ranged because they're basically spells attached to weapons. However spells aren't affected by Driving Flight.

Haha! Killing them in their sleep - great find!

A very simple, powerful and fun build is assassin/bloodmage. Nuking from invisibility or backstabbing with Draining Touch never gets old.

I'm sure Insect Swarm/Plague of Insects were considered poisons at the launch and were even affected by alchemy (giving them huge duration and radius). The alchemy thing was patched, but I think they're still considered poisons (maybe other spells too).

It has two abilities - one passive and one active. The passive one gives +1Res to both "lovers" when close enough to each other (I suppose it works also for a trio). The active one gives intellect immunity to the "lovers" until the end of combat - the summons can't benefit too much, but if you can keep it yourself it's a nice option to have. The wiki doesn't say if it's /rest, but if it's the case then it has limited use, indeed.

Does the Ring of Reset work with the Dichotomous Soul? Also having Harmony equipped does trigger Lover's Bond between you/Dichotomous Soul?

As a herald there are many good helmets you can wear. My personal ranking is Champion's Helm > Horns of the Aurochs > Blackened Plate Helm > Heaven's Cacophony > Death's Maw. Usually the Horns should go to a damage dealer who can benefit more from it, while the Champion's Helm is more suitable for the main tank (your herald in your case).

Melees have better accuracy (Scordeo's Edge buff, no penalties) and more options to debuff deflection (Persistent Distraction + Cap of the Laughing Stock + Rust's Poignard/Sungrazer procs) which means easily 40-50acc advantage over a blunderbuss user. Melees also have better damage and hard CCs (prone, stun, freeze) which makes them superior in almost any situation.

Yes, you can prolong hostile effects multiple times, it works just like Strand of Favor with self buffs. It can be very useful if you want to avoid using modals 100% of the time or if you want to keep dots going forever. To give a strong boost you should apply Enfeebled first and, when it nearly expires, use the debuffs, then apply Enfeebled again right after the first expired. Anyway, you can use that first step with any kind of build without too much hassle. This trick can also allow to easily stack multiple dots like Poison-Dipped from Saru-Sichr or Bleeding Cuts from axes.

It works even better with a trickster/unbroken (Eder can fit that role well) because all disengagement attacks can get sneak attack/deathblows bonuses. One Dozen Stood, Magran's Favor and Magran's Blessings also work nicely with this build (the damage shield gets also sneak attack/deathblow bonuses) and you can get also free attacks from Riposte (especially with the medium shield modal activated).

Then a Forbidden Fist with low INT can prolong multiple times hostile effects.