Boeroer

I don't think that The Long Pain can outperform the pure damage of the dual annihilation sabres (your setup is very powerful) - but it's a huge advantage that you don't have to position yourself in order to spam Torment's Reach in really quick succession without getting into trouble. You can reach every enemy within 12m without having to move. You will "only" have damage numbers around 80 with Torment's Reach - but you lose no time with positioning and your normal attacks - when you're out of wounds - are also great - especially when you compare them to other ranged auto attacks.

I didn't do any tests to compare the dps of The Long Pain with other weapons or classes - but I can't imagine any setup (except spamming spells) which does that much dps in ranged and melee combat (as long as you have wounds for Torment's Reach and the target is not immune to crush). THe per hit damage is very high and the attack speed is very fast. I don't know if The Long Pain is slower than normal fists. With Swift Aim and Two Weapon Style I can see no difference when I auto attack. Every attack takes less than 1 second and there's no recovery. And the base damage is way higher than on any one handed melee weapon (which is why high MIG is so good with this ability). I rarely need Resonant Touch because the enemies die so quickly that it's easier to keep using autoattacks than walking into the mob and trigger Resonant's Touch. It's only 10 raw damage per touch and you only cause 1 touch per attack maximum - not 5 when you hit for 50 damage for example. When you hover over your ACC on the char sheet it says +20 The Long Pain - while Transcendent suffering only gives you +18 (when you have your normal fists "equipped"). When you look at the Long Pain Weapon description (right click on the weapon) it also says "x crush damage | +20 ACC against deflection". So I guess it has nothing to do with Transcendent Suffering. The Long Pain weapon just gets a +20 ACC bonus.

Long Stride is a monk's abilitiy and adds a flat +2 bonus to movement speed - which stacks with Maneha's Armor (+1) or Boots of Speed (+3) and the camping bonus as well as with Fast Runner (which I didn't take). It helps you immensely to outrun foes who want to catch you and makes positioning for ranged Torment's Reach really easy and quick. Besides that: there's nothing else you can take... And you can't substitute Long Stride with a talent... since it's an ability. The thing with this build is that talents are very scarce but abilitites are plenty (because so many don't work with the Long Pain or are simply not needed). So Long Stride is a good option for this build I think. Wound Binding can be awesome with the right healing mods - as I showed in the chanter build I posted before this one. You can heal over 132% health with it. But for this guy who doesn't get beaten a lot it's not my number one choice.

Right! Two Weapon Style. Thanks for telling me, I corrected that. If I recall correctly: when The Long Pain was introduced it didn't work with all that stuff. It seems to have changed in one of the late patches. I remember that it used to work with Turning Wheel for example - like Nerd COmmando said - but not anymore. But the situation now is clearly better. Zahuas Anitley thing should work, but I don't know for sure because I didn't test that. But why shouldn't it? All the other speedup-things did work with the Long Pain so far.

Do you know what happens when you knock your paladin prone, then switch to Ilfan Byrngar's Solace + Hatchet + another preservation item ant then cast Defensive Mindweb? THe paladin will have +100 to all defenses as long as he's prone. Would this boost also translate to the Mindweb?

A witch doctor is originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term witch doctor is sometimes used to refer to healers, particularly in the region of Old Vailia, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine. In monks' societies, "witch doctor" is sometimes used derisively to refer to a warrior who hates magic and witchcraft which is not done by kith. this monk absolutley loathes all forms of non kith casters like Pŵgras, Ogre Druids, Vithracks, Cean Gŵlas and so on and tries to purge them from the face of Eora as fast as possible. =================================== The Witch Doctor =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Monk -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Boreal Dwarf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 21 CON: 10 DEX: 16 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 4, Athl. 7, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Weapon Focus: Peasant Two Weapon Style Lightning Strikes ® Ghost Hunter ® Beast Slayer ® Wilder Hunter ® Primal Bane ® Apprentice's Sneak Attack Abilities Hunter's Instincts (a) Transcendent Suffering 4 (a) The Long Pain (!) Torment's Reach (!) Swift Strikes ® Force of Anguish (!) Skyward Kick ® Stunning Blow ® Second Whind (a) Knock Down (a - Girdle of the Driving Wave) Long Stride Flagellanth's Path or Resonant Touch --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Fists/The Long Pain Weapon Set 2: Danulya & Irfarn Byrngar's Solace Boots: Echoing Misery Head: Maegfolc Skull Armor: Maneha's Armor (*Durgan Reinforced, INT+2, Slash-Proofed) Neck: Cloak of the Frozen Hunt Belt: Girdle of the Driving Wave Rings: Ring of Thorns, Bartender's Ring Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves or Blood Testment Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Tanglefoot, Binding Web, Plague of Insects, Prayer against Restraint ----------------------------------------------------------------- After "The Long Pain" was introduced to the game I thought that soon there would pop up some builds around that in this forum. But until today, I saw none specific build. Nerdcommando did a video about this, but it had some errors and didn't point out some of the most amazing features of The Long Pain. So I went out and did some testing to verify what works with this awesome abilitiy and what doesn't. Here are my results and the character I build around that. But first of all I have to explain an important fact: The Long Pain is considered a dual wielded ranged weapon - but for whatever reason it also works with most (not all) melee abilities. This allows for some crazy and relaly powerful combinations, have a look: What abilities, talents and items work/don't work with The Long Pain? Abilities: + Swift Strikes (makes flying fists hit faster) + Stunning Punch (stunning at a range of 12m without using wounds? Aweseome! Also: Full Attack!) + Skyward Kick (like above, but only Primary Attack - still good when you have no wounds left and want to take somebody out of the game fast) + Force of Anguish (pushing enemies away - but keep on hitting them at a distance. So much fun!) + Knock Down (from the Girdle of the Driving Wave; works like in melee but at 12m range. Only primary attack, but +20% damage!) + Torment's Reach (it's so easy to hit a lot of enemies when you stay in the back row, firing off Full Attacks(!) that do great AoE damage - this is the most powerful thing you can combine with The Long Pain - however, you need wounds) + Flagellanth's Path (like with fists - range 10m - but great to escape a mob - works even if you're stuck) - Enervating Blows (don't work with The Long Pain) - Turning Wheel (no fire damage gets added) Talents: + Lightning Strikes (+25% shock damage - since the base damage of The Long Pain is very high, this is awesome) + Two Weapon Style (The Long Pain is considered dual wielding - you get faster with this, tested and confirmed) + Weapon Focus Peasant (and I guess every other weapon focus, too, because The Long Pain is "universal" as all the other summoned weapons) + Marksman + Runner's Wounding Shot + Envenomed Strike + Apprentice's Sneak Attack + All the hater talents like Primal Bane and so on + Penetrating Shot (but I think with that high damage per hit speed is more important than 5 DR bypass) - Savage Attack (no damage added, no ACC malus) - Dangerous Implement (nope - but worth a try ) Items: + Blood Testament (will add raw damage per wound - but you will spend your wounds fast) + all items that spped you up like Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves + Bartender's Ring (20% more damage against vessels and spirits) + Archer's Gloves or Cloak of the Frozen Hunt (+10% damage) - Sandals of the Forgotten Friar (although titled unarmed, those sadly don't work with The Long Pain) Genereal thoughts: As usual a monk doesn't have many things that can boost ranged damage besides MIG, Archer's Gloves, Lightning Strikes and the hater talents. The Long Pain have enormous base damage and you want to add as many dmg modifiers as you can get to squeeze the most out of them. So maxed MIG sounds good. At the same time you want to have them as long as possible, so high INT is also good. High INT is also great for the cone of Torment's Reach and for all the disabling stuff you can have - like from Force of Anguish and Stunning Blows and so on. Because of this I took all the hater talents except Sanctifier - because you will also have St. Ydwen's Redeemer in your party and maybe also a priest. Those are great against vessels so we can skip Sanctifier. Talent points are scarce. And there's also the Bartender's Ring which gives us +20% against vessels anyway. I didn't take Marksman because most of the time I was not fighting at max range. In fact I was running around a lot and fought at melee or mid range most of the time. Standing right behind the front line, intercepting rushing enemies, catching some wounds or just running past some mobs in order to eat disengagement attacks for wounds before firing at the enemy spellcasters with the Long Pain. Also, with the camping bonuses I didn't feel the need for +5 ACC. The Long Pain also has a huge ACC bonus that seems to scale with level. At lvl 16 they have +20 ACC. I chose boreal dwarv as race because of the same reason: I wasn't doing ranged combat exclusively, so it felt like a waste to take wood elf. +15 ACC against two creature groups seemed to be better. I chose the second weapon setup because the shield, combined with the Ring of Thorns, gives you +100 to all defenses when you are prone or stunned. THis can be a lifesaver when you get cc'd and surrounded. Just switch to the second weapon set then and you get nearly untouchable. Once the cc effect wears off, use Force of Anguish to break free. Flagellanth's Path is also good for this. I didn't take it but I consider it a better choice than Resonant Touch actually. Damage, ACC and Speed: The Long Pain's base damage is 24-36 at lvl 16. I can add +10% from the Cloak of the Frozen Hunt (or Archer's Gloves) and also +42% from 24 MIG. The result is 37-55 crush damage against every enemy I meet. When I add the hater talents, it's another +25% against all enemies except kith and vessels. Now add the Bartender's Ring with +20% against spirits and vessels. Apprentice's Sneak Attack will add +15% from time to time. My ACC will get boosted by my racial ability (+15 against wilder and primordial), Weapon Focus (+6), the Long Pain itself (+20) and by resting bonuses (+15, not kith) as well as the cloak (+6 against beasts). So my damage and ACC bonuses would look like this: ------------------------------ Wilder: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +56 ACC Primordial: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +56 ACC Spirit: +97% (47-71), +112% with Appr. Sneak; +41 ACC Vessel: +72 (41-62), +87% with Appr. Sneak; +41 ACC Beast: +77% (42-64), +92% with Appr. Sneak; +47 ACC Kith: +52% (37-55), +67% with Appr. Sneak; +26 ACC (here you could use to use the bonus damage against flanked targets) On top of that, add +25% shock damage with Lightning Strikes... so much damage... ------------------------------ With Mourning Gloves or Gauntlets of Swift Action and Two Weapon Style, combined with Swift Strikes you can reach 0 recovery. So imagine very fast hits at 12 m range with more than 50 damage. It's like a gunshot from an arquebus, but with 0 recovery - you're basically a gatling gun. Now add the fact that you can do Full Attacks with Stunning Blows and Torment's Reach and it really gets ridiculous. If you have wounds and are at range - just use Torment's Reach - Full Attacks with a huge AoE at 0 recovery against a horde of enemies (also debuffing them) is pure fun. I never - really never - saw anything that powerful in my entire PoE "career". Too bad it only works as long you have some wounds left. But your auto-attacks are also pure destruction. CC: I also put together all the CC abilities a monk can have. Because the all work at range you now have a perfect disabler. Another reason is you just don't need all the other defensive stuff at all. You are not a pore front liner like most other monks - you just go in, get some wounds and retreat in order to summon the Long Pain and the start the gatling gun. So who need Crucible of Suffering and stuff? Some othjer things like Enervating Blows and Turning Wheel don't even work, so all is left are those CC things - and the synergy is perfect. Not only is this guy a dps monster when he has lots of sounds - he also can CC when he hasn't any: 2 Stunniung Blows, 2 Skyward Kicks, 1 Knockdown - all without wounds at range with The Long Pain - awesome! And it also triggers Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Theme: I wanted high MIG and the Skull is best for this. Unbending is also good because you want to get hit from time to time in order to get wounds (but you can also shoot this monk in the back to get them of course) and Unbening prevents a knockout when you get surrounded. Together with Maneha's Armor your char will look like a Witch Doctor from Diablo and so I chose this theme. The Mourning Gloves and Unbending work quite well togeher with the armor and high MIG by the way. You will get healed by ~27 points each time you kill an enemy - which was enough for my "non-frontliner" playstyle. Unbending will do more healing. And it all looks funny of course. I added some druidic scrolls which fit into the theme and are also great for CC - Binding Web for example stop the enemies from chasing you. This can happen if you're out of CC attacks for the moment. All in all this is a very powerful combination of DPS and CC. When you let per-rest spells aside, I think this is one of the most powerful dps/cc combinations you can build at the moment. Because you don't have to move at all while you send them all to the ground or hit them with mighty force. And this guy's also not too flimsy. Another good thing is that all the abilities and talents also work with your normal fists. So you're never helpless even if you didn't have time or wounds to summon your Long Pain. Thanks for your time! I'm looking forward to reading your comments. edit: Whoo! Tons of typos! Will fix that later... Added Pen. Shot to the list of talents.

OK, thanks. Now I would like to know if it also gets suppressed on enemies. I'm on vacation - so please feed me guys.

The -6 shock DR of Stormcaller works for every class. You don't have to bind it. It's like a double rending enchantment. But it's a bit of a waste if you have a chanter/cipher/ranger who could bind it. Persistence on a rogue is quite nice because you will have +25% wounding and also +25% lash - which overcome DR more easily because of Deathblows. It's also very nice for a ranger of course. The Mad Hornet's goal was to stack a lot of DoT effects so that you can build up a chain of commands with shift+click at the start of each encounter to mimic an AoE effect and to reduce micromanagement during the fight. And also because it's good in combination with Combusting Wounds. An Envenomed or Runner's Wounding shot with Persistence, including Deep Wounds, results in 3 parallel DoT effects. Each of those triggers Combusting Wounds with every tick.

They used to stack. If they don't then that's a new nerf and Brute Force is not worth one ability point. If they still stack it's a good (not great) ability for barbs who use prone- or stun-on-crit weapons.

It's especially good if you combine Brute Force, Threatening Presence and Painful Interdiction (or any other weakening AoE thing) with a melee weapon that does prone or stun on crit (check also targets fortitude). Like Tall Grass, Hours of St. Rumbalt, The Temperacl, Godansthunyr, We Toki, Mabec's Morning Star and Cladhaliath.

The Backlash Beldam doesn't work as intended and as I described anymore because retaliation no longer gives you focus, sorry. It would either be the Dull Runner because you get a better bonus from Faith and Conviction as the MC - or the Mad Hornet because you can side with the Doemenels and get +0.3 crit damage multiplier and later +0.1 from Dungeon Delver I guess.

I totally agree that you should use the builds in the index as an inspiration, not as a "you have to do it this way" guide or something. If you feel good with a pistol on your wizard and it's fun, then you've done the right thing. P.s.: you might want a blast wizard with implements as soon as you realize that on-crit effects work in an AoE with blast though.

You should listen to guides that say "pick a weapon focus" - because they have more experience than you. It depends on the type of wizard or other caster you're playing. If you are going to cast your a** off in every encounter you don't need weapon focus for sure. But if you play an implement based wizard with blast you should definitely take weapon focus. Same when you're using summoned weapons a lot (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, Citzal's Spirit Lance, Rot Skulls and so on). You can spare a lot of spells that way and still do good damage. I took Weapon Focus Adventurer and Spirit of Decay recently for my Arcane Archer who uses Cadebald's Blackbow. It's devastating for just one spell and it lasts a long time. So it all depends. I think most people who post a build here know their stuff.

I only used it as a variant of my withdraw trick against dragons: block the way of the dragon with a character and then cast withdraw or status shell on him. I didn't test if the chanter + the Dragon Thrashed + Withdraw trick also works with stasis shell.

Did anybody test what happens when you use Father's Teeths' Rot Skulls with a Blast Wizard?

Ooops - I think I messed up somewhere while posting. Or I had resting bonuses or something. Must load up a save and look into it. Will edit then... In fact both variants now have 22 instead of 18. Maybe a copy & paste error. I think it's even more cool in a chanter party to have two guys sing the 30Pt.-Damage Shield phrase all the time, one with this healing setup and only three with the Dragon Thrashed. Supermonstertanky. You can soak up 120 damage every few seconds, regenerate endurance like crazy and also do tons of damage while standing there in fat armor with a shield.

If you care about not being interrupted (and your DEX is low) I would certainly put the points into resolve. That stat isn't so much about deflection for me, it's more about concentration. When you stand in the middle of a mob and can't manage to drink a potion or cast a spell because you constantly get interrupted, you're screwed.

Depends on the dragon. They all have different immunities. It's important to buff your ACC, defenses, DR and endurance into the sky - that they all have in common. Generally speaking, spells/scrolls that do mind control (confuse, charm, dominate) and disable (paralyze, petrify, stun) are helpful (if there's no immunity). Ciphers' helpful powers are Tactical Meld in combination with Mental Binding and Disintegrate. Combusting Wounds with one or more Wall of Flame/Force scrolls or spells can be great if the caster has high ACC or the dragon is debuffed. A good trick is to have a chanter and a priest. The chanter sings "The Dragon Thrashed" and blocks the way while the priest casts Withdraw on him all the time. Doesn't work too good against the Alpine Dragon because he gets really mad and starts to spam Breath Attacks like crazy in his small cave.

Yes, high level chanters (lvl 9 and up) can be pretty awesome. I have the impression that high level chanters tank better because they kill all foes faster. It's a bit sad that most of their low level chants are so boring though.

Why did you take Scion of Flame? For scrolls and spellbinds? Because (sadly) it doesn't work with The Dragon Thrashed since it's a DoT. Scion works with the burning lash chant though - boosts it from 25% to 30% lash damage.

"All right stop! Collaborate and listen: Chillfog's back with a soothing bliss, um... something pumps the heals of me nicely flows like pure essence daily and nightly. Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know - turn off the lights and I'll glow To the extreme I rock the fight, blow their lights out Light up my stage and freeze d'mobs like a white-out!" - Chillfog himself in his genuine rythmical parlando - "You're as cold as ice you're willing to sacrifice our love you never take advice someday you'll pay the price, I know!" - A Foreigner - =================================== Chillfog =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Chanter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 04 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 18 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 5, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 12 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Secrets of Rime Ancient Memory Beloved Spirits Weapon and Shield Style Bear's Fortitude Veteran's Recovery Superior Deflection Cautious Attack or Wound Binding Abilities Elemental Endurance (a) Second Wind Level 1 Chanter Phrases Come, Sweet Winds of Death Level 2 Chanter Phrases Nothing special Level 3 Chanter Phrases Seven Men The Silver Knights' Shield Level 4 Chanter Phrases Old Siec Level 5 Chanter Phrases Mercy and Kindness Level 1 Chanter Invocations The Thunder Rolled Level 2 Chanter Invocations At the Sound of his Voice Level 3 Chanter Invocations Seven Nights Level 4 Chanter Invocations So Singt Thy Biting Level 5 Chanter Invocations Called to his Bidding --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Sheathed in Autumn (*Durgan stuff) & Scath Gwannek (*Durgan stuff) Weapon Set 2: The White Spire - just for the spells Boots: Boots of Stability Head: White Crest Helm Armor: The White Crest (*Crush Proofed, *+2 MIG) Neck: Rymrgand's Mantle, later St. Borragia's Tears Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing Rings: Ring of Deflection or Wyrwood Ring, Ring of Protection Hands: Bracers of Spiritual Power or Bracers of Deflection Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Moonwell, healing potions ----------------------------------------------------------------- Alright - so I made this Bilestomper wizard and was really satisfied how this whole "pile up defenses and then nuke yourself" principle worked out. I decided to do one or two other builds that emphasize on that. But none of them should be a wizard - that would be a bit boring. Well, the only other class that comes to my mind when I think about powerful ice spells is the chanter - just because of his "Seven Nights" invocation which is very powerful. "Hm, that's foe only - so no need for high defenses or DR against freezing attacks" I thought at first. But then I thought "maybe I'll stick to that because you might have a ranged wizard or druid in your team who would like to have a tank who doesn't give a shart if he's standing in the midst of a Blizzard or Chillfog". One reason to wear Rymrgand'S Mantle first. So I tried to make a (n)ice themed chanter tank who is very resistant to cold but can do good freeze damage via invocation and also can summon some aid from time to time. What I absolutely didn't want to do this time was using The Dragon Thrashed or the Aefyllath Ues Myth Fyr - because everybody knows those are powerful, right? In order to gain a lot of phrases quickly (to cast Seven Nights) I sticked to lvl 1 phrases only at first. Since I don't like any of the lvl 1 phrases too much except "Come Sweet Winds" I decided to use that phrase most of the time and combine it with one powerful high level phrase in order to accumulate phrases quickly. I will just pretend it's name is "Come, Cold Winds of Death" for this build. Since chanters can't raise their defenses as high as paladins, fighters or monks without losing a phrase slot and also don't have too much endurance or health, I also wanted to make sure he has some good regeneration. And then I played and tried a bit and finally came to the conclusion that I should really focus on that: So I raised MIG (+30% healing done) and INT to the max and I took Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits and added Veteran's Recovery. Then I put on a Belt of Bountiful Healing (+25% healing received) and later also used St. Borragia's Tears (+15% healing done). I also tried to reach 14 survival temporarily in order to get the third rank of the healing multiplier (+60% healing received). Then, when I finally got the phrase "Mercy and Kindness" that does +100% to all healing, I took that, too. So alltogether my healing gets buffed by +230%, or in other words: *3.3. This not only works with my regeneration, but also with Second Wind, potions and scrolls like Moonwell or items like Shod-in-Faith. For my friends around me it's not +230% of course, but still +145% (*2.45) when I heal them - and obviously +100% whith all other heals from other sources. This is a really serious buff. It also works on draining from weapons or the draining phrase "Old Siec" and all other healing effects. To put it in numbers: My regeneration from Veteran's Recovery alone says is about ~135 points every 3 seconds at lvl 16 if I'm not mistaken! I didn't do excessive tests to verify the numbers but I have over 200 endurance and it jumps from nearly KO to nearly full after 3 secs. If that's not enough I can cast a scroll of Moonwell that does ridicilous amounts of healing over a long time now. Or I sip a potion of regeneration. And Moonwell does not only work for me of course but for everybody around me. Same goes for Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits. With my good deflection I didn't even wear Shod-in-Faith because it would'nt trigger often (there's a more offensive "offtank" variant for that at the end of this build). With Brisk Recitation I can put together the following chant: 1*Healing + 5*Come Sweet Winds - then repeat Phrases build up very fast after the initial healing phrase. Every 2 seconds you can 1 phrase. It also makes Sweet Winds of Death more deadly because it stacks with itself. Stacking about 10 raw DoT every 2 seconds is pretty nasty. Also great for rangers' pets and Combusting Wounds. This results in a cycle where I can sing Come Sweet Winds five times in a row in order to build up phrases for Seven Nights and at the same time have uninterrupted +100% healing. Once I hit 5 phrases on the counter I walk to the next tough enemy and try to hit him with three bolts of ice while I also try to hit as many of his friends with the other bolts as possible. Normally you manage to take this one and some more enemies out - also because they got weakened by the Sweet Cold Winds before. At level 16 I normally do about 600 to 800 damage with one cast of this against 5 to 10 enemies with DR 10 to 15. I soon found out that this guy is nearly unkillable as long as he's not petrified and as long as his regeneration still works. But health really is an issue because chanters don't have a lot of it. Not like barbs or monks. Although his defenses and DR are good - in tough encouters like bounties it was not his endurance that caused problems - but his health. So for the first time since ages I tried Field Triage and Wound Binding again. Turns out that all the healing mods also work with those. Field Triage heals 66% of my health now instead of 20% - and Wound Binding gives me 132% instead of 40%. So it basically overheals me. That's ok because it's a healing over time and while it works you might get hit again. I finally chose Wound Binding and skipped Field Triage - but know that with this build both might be worth it. You will walk out of the toughtest fights with 100% endurance AND health. So, it is a very sturdy tank now who also heals his friends on the fly and does good damage with the Sweet Cold Winds plus Seven Nights. Secrets of Rime pays off here. Not only does it raise your freeze DR by 5 - 20% more of the huge damage Seven Nights deals is also not bad. But... "Mercy and Kindness" comes really late. What to do in the meantime? Well, that's the weak spot of this build: it is a quite normal chanter until you get Seven Nights and later on that special healing buff. Use Come Sweet Winds to accumulate phrases, tank and then use your common invocations like summons and so on. But even without those high level things his Ancient Memory heals your party and the Sweet Winds combine raw damage with fast phrase buildup. And you can hit him all the time with frost spells because his freeze DR is 36 (41 with Wyrwood Ring) - even 46 (49 Wyrw.) with the lvl-3-phrase "Seven Men" - or 51 (56 Wyrw.) with a potion of Bulwark. And what he also can do is use those freeze spells from his items. Getting the Winter Shield from Azurro can be difficult, but it's relatively easy to get the White Spire from Dunstan at Crucible Keep. Together you will have 6 ice good spells that also work with Secrets of Rime. I also decided to wear the White Crest armor. It's not strictly ice themed but fits beautifully. And look how aweseom it looks with the White Spire. In fact this is the only reason I added another variant to this build. The variant of the tank is a more offensive melee build who mainly uses the White Spire as weapon instead of weapon & shield: =================================== The Last Unicorn - imagine a fancy fairytale about a unicorn that became human and so on... =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Chanter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 14 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 08 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 5, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 12 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Secrets of Rime Ancient Memory Beloved Spirits Two Handed Style Veteran's Recovery Weapon Focus Adventurer Wound Binding Savage Attack Abilities Elemental Endurance (a) Second Wind Chants and Invoc.: look down below. --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: The White Spire Weapon Set 2: some good Pollaxe Boots: Shod-in-Faith Head: White Crest Helm Armor: The White Crest Neck: Rymrgand's Mantle, later St. Borragia's Tears Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing Rings: Ring of Deflection or Wyrwood Ring, Ring of Protection Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Moonwell, healing potions ----------------------------------------------------------------- Instead of Seven Nights all the time I used more summons and "The Champion braved" as invocations as well als Revival and other supportive invocations. You get pretty fast with that champion invocation - not to 0 recovery, but fast enough to take out swarming enemies quickly while also healing everybody around you with Shod-in-Faith like crazy. The healing with those boots, combined with Ancient Memory times 3.3 is insane. Your whole party becomes so much sturdier just because of this guy. I also used the Will'o Whisps because of the "Unicorn" theme - turns out they are not too bad in the mid game. This variant is all about the looks to be honest.

Last time I used it Bloodlust was not suppressed by Frenzy. So I guess it stacks. Another thing is Bloodthirst. THis gives you 0 recovery after each kill. It's not really 0 recovery all the time - but with Firebrand and Scion of Flame you will get close.

If you like to accumulate wounds with Turning and Iron Wheel then I'd recommend the gloves. 20% raw damage (if you have 10 wounds) is better than a normal lash. Maybe Gauntlets of Swift Action are better for dps (don't know for sure), but you have to find them first. The sandals are not monk-only. Everybody can wear them. One of my unarmed cipher twins uses them. If you're a fist fighter I'd recommend them. Not only because they add +2 base damage (which gets multiplied by the dmg mods), but also the nice ACC spell with the hughe radius that's on them.

Oh, sorry - forgot to answer your question 'bout spell routine. I planted a poison trap and then started the encounter. Then I made sure to lower fort. on the enemy (sickening stuff, Painful Interdiction, Ryngrimm's spells or whatever debuffs fort) and then also reflex (e.g. via Slicken - for Arcane Assault) then I started to cast Arcane Assault and then my corrosive spells. Malignant Cloud is pretty awesome if you manage to crit the enemy a lot. Works best when fort. is debuffed and your ACC against certain races is buffed by +10 via survival. But of course you have to rest a lot if you have to put out all enemies all by yourself. A wizard soloing and using a summoned weapon is more spell-efficient of course.

I wasn't offended or anything. I mean how could I? You're basically right.