Boeroer

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.

Hm... could be possible with a barb who has Bloodlust I guess..?

Well, who does better dps than a chanter optimized for The Dragon Thrashed? Pretty much nothing I guess. Everything pales in comparison to a chanter with high MIG, INT and PER at high levels when he's chaining that phrase. Especially if you have Brisk Recitation at 50%. And you can also do invocations on top. But you have to be at least lvl 9 for that. Before he's a bit underwhelming. Not bad, but also not very powerful. This guy on the other hand is a wizard and therefore he's very useful from lvl 1 and up. And the good thing about this build is you can nuke him with pretty much everything that is poison or disease while he's tanking. I can imagine another party member glass cannon with poisonous spells who casts stuff on him. And as I said: he's great together with the Devil of Caroc. Really a funny tag team. When I refine my builds the first thing I always do is to send them do the Nalrend Bounty because it's so nasty. If your defenses are not good enough you will die instantly because of the high damage output and ACC of the Ogres - if your offense is bad you will also lose because those Ogres have tons of endurance and healers. So if a build can do that bounty solo it's totally viable I think. But of course nothing beats this bounty better than a tanky chanter with The Dragon Thrashed. It's just too much damage and it also works if you're prone or have a Withdraw spell on you (little hint: Black Sanctuary is great for such a chanter ) So I guess in most situations nothing beats that build. This Bilestomper guy, however, was pretty amazing in Galvino's Hut (alll those vessels with their corrosive spells) and against most other enemies who like to stun and paralyze. My Drake's Ambassador for example died several times because he got paralyzed or stunned (=stops chanting). This guy didn't even get paralyzed or stunned (well, not often). So it all depends I guess. And I also don't want to post 22 variants of a chanter.

The first 1.5 would be dual wielding - which is kind of impossible with a two handed weapon.

6 to 9. 6 is very hard and 9 is quite easy. But you will still meet foes in some maps who are too hard. But that's OK - come back a bit later then. Maps from easy to hard: Stalwart-Russetwood-Durgan's Battery- Longwatch Falls. Russetwood is very easy with lvl 9 (except two encounters which may be too hard if you're not an expert). I say that from my perspective as somebody who played this game for a long time. Maybe beginners see it differently. And I don't use scrolls, potions and other consumables in every encounter, just the hard ones. Food and drugs I only need against dragons.

It's also my favorite. It looks a bit grimy and paints the picture of somebody who we'd call "Fäkalientaucher" in Germany. I think that would translate into something like feces diver or so.

Yes, that's why I recommended Spirit Shield (potion or spell). It helps a lot.

Doesn't stack with the diving helmet (which I like very much). And because you get that mantle very late. So I chose the helmet and the teeth. You can get that stuff early via stronghold quests. Together it's better in terms of defense against poison. But of course you can use the mantle. Especially i you don't like the diving helmet.

Are you sure you're in the right thread? But yes, it does.

Yeah. Exactly - you pretty much nailed it. Shadowflame is a great spell to spam. Maybe because of that you should also consider the talent for a bonus 4th level spell and wearing that wizardry ring that gives you another 4th level spell use. +2 uses of shadowflame can be very useful. Not entirely sure how much defenses against the paralyze effect you can pile up. Surely not 237. But I think you can get enough to avoid the paralyze effect.

Last time I tried that it didn't work (anymore). So I don't want to recommend that. Maybe somebody can confirm if this was a bug or was patched intentionally. Yes - but you can do all the "starting quest" of every faction. This will unlock the shop of the faction (important! - some of the best items in the game you can buy there) and also open up the possibility to do the "real" faction quest. If you take one of those quests you can't do the other "real" faction quests. Those quests lead to the rewards I posted above (mainly a free talent for the main char and a unique weapon).

Hmm, I'm too tired to finish the frozen yoghurt chanter build post. Will do that tomorrow.

Well that depends. The Crucible Knights will give you a nice sword and a fine plate armor and a free talent that gives you +2 DR. House Doemenel will give you either a lot of money or a good stiletto and a talent that gives you a damage bonus to your critical hits (*1.8 instead of *1.5). The Dozens will give you a nice war bow, you can craft yourself a unique spear and you will get a talent that gives you +5 ACC when you attack the same target as an ally. So, for tanks the Knights are better, for rogues and such the Doemenels. The Dozens can be good for ciphers and rangers. It also depends if you like a faction or not. Most people here hate the dozens' attitude and therefor don't side with them.

No. Once you shift you will have two claws. Doesn't matter what you had in your hands before you shifted. No item or it's effects will be available when you are shifted. Only exception: the Wildstrike Belt will give you a bonus to your unarmed damage when you are shifted.

Like I added to the original post: it's very easy to turn this guy into a tanky frost mage. Same tactics. Used the White Crest armor and other "winter style" items. But I remembered our conversation about a freeze based character (I think we also talked about chanters and that they are kind of limited to The Dragon Thrashed or Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr) and build a frosty chanter tank which I like very much (although his true awesomeness only starts at lvl 15). No Dragon Thrashed, no burning lash chant, no Sure Handed Ila... I'm writing that class build post at the moment. So stay tuned.

That's right. You have way more health than endurance. In every fight, when you get hit, the damage you receive will be substracted from endurance and also health. Endurance can be healed in a fight with all kinds of spells, talents and abilities. Health however can only be healed by resting or with those special talents I spoke about. Normally your health is so much higher than you endurance that low health is only an issue if you didn't rest for along time - or when you have an offensive melee build that has poor defenses and relies heavily on healing (or regenerating) in order to stay up and hitting. THose builds will run out of health sooner than others. Also, health loss can be an issue in the early game because the gap between heatlh and endurance is not that high. With every level this gap gets bigger and you will have to rest less often because of health.