Boeroer

1.: It's your health bar. Your endurance can never be higher than your health. Health only regenerates via resting or wound binding (talent, 40%, only self) or field triage (talent, 20%, self and allies) 2.: He sells it to you if you do the quest for him in which you retrieve his stolen goods from the bandits (I believe). However, you have to scroll down a bit in his shop inventory in order to find it.

Indeed - but in fact that portrait's even better for my Engineer build.

Added a short variant at the end of the initial post. This works with ice/freeze instead of poision/corrode.

I think. I was playing this on PotD with a party - so I didn't solo the whole game with this guy. But I sucessfully did some of the most difficult bounty quests solo (like upscaled Nalrend and the WM bounty quests) - just to test if he's able to beat them alone. So I guess it would work. Don't know if you could put out all dragons solo, but I can try to solo the upscaled Sky Dragon (I have a savegame with this char where that dragon is still alive) and tell you what happened.

If you have a chanter with White Worms then Raedric's Keep becomes trivial. Just choose a nice chokepoint on every floor and lure every enemy there. Turn off gib effects in the options and also don't reload. Now pile up corpses in front of the chokepoint. Let the enemies gather at that chokepoint (let them stand on top of their comrades' dead bodies), debuff reflex and then cast White Worms. It works endless times on bodies. Reloading will let them disappear though. You can one-shot Raedric and everybody around him that way. I also build the barracks asap. The bonuses from hirelings are great and help to avoid those really annoying "Slimes and Oozes will attack you stronghold" encounters while giving you more things like Azurro showing up and such.

Tehehe. You're welcome.

It doesn't remove creatures' immunities and resistances anymore. Only buffs like it's supposed to.

"Your a cruel device your blood, like ice one look, could kill my pain, your thrill! I wanna hit you but I better not touch (Don't touch) I wanna smack you, but my senses tell me to stop I wanna smite you but I want it too much (Too much) I wanna hack you but your limbs are venomous poison You're poison running through my veins You're poison I don't wanna break these chains" - Arlise Pooper, Death Godlike wandering minstrel, after meeting Bilestomper - Nobody knows Bilestomper's real name. Nobody knows what he did before he became a drainer in Tâkowa. The only thing we know is that one day he emerged from the sewers in a really pissy mood and went of to the Dyrwood, mumbling something about his own patch of well mucked land... =================================== Bilestomper =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Wizard -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Mountain Dwarf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai - Laborer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 20 CON: 20 DEX: 02 PER: 10 INT: 16 RES: 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 9, Lore 4, Mech. 10, Surv. 5 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Spirit of Decay Weapon and Shield Style Bear's Fortitude Veteran's Recovery Arcane Veil Hardened Veil Superior Deflection Body Control Abilities Hale and Hardy (a) Arcane Assault (a) Second Wind Mastered Wizard Spells Mirrored Image Noxious Burst Pull of Eora Spirit Shield 1st Level Wizard Spells Eldritch Aim Slicken Spirit Shield Wizard's Double 2nd Level Wizard Spells Fetid Caress Mirrored Image Necrotic Lance Bulwark against the Elements 3rd Level Wizard Spells Concelhaut's Draining Touch Noxious Burst Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage 4th Level Wizard Spells Ironskin Pull of Eora Essential Phantom 5th Level Wizard Spells Llengrath's Safeguard Malignant Cloud Ryngrim's Enervating Terror 6th Level Wizard Spells Citzal's Martial Power Death Ring Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst 7th Level Wizard Spells Ninagauth's Killing Bolt Substantial Phantom Wall of Draining 8th Level Wizard Spells Llengrath's Superior Elemental Bulwark Wilting Wind --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Wodewys (*Exceptional, *Corrosive Lash), Little Savior (*Durgan Reinforced) Weapon Set 2: whatever Boots: Bilestompers Head: Iverra's Diving Helmet Armor: Argwes Adra (*Superb, *Crush-Proofed, *Durgan Reinforced, MIG+2) Neck: Father's Teeth Belt: Looped Rope Rings: Ring of Deflection, Ring of Protection Hands: Bracers of Spiritual Power Quick slots: Traps mostly --------------------------------------------------------------- So as some of you may have noticed OBS put a lot of the spells (and monsters' abilities) that do raw or corrode damage into the "poison" or "disease" category with the latest patches. That can be annoying because nowadays some foes have immunities against poison and disease - namely vessels and such. But it also means that the mountain dwarves' racial ability finally makes some sense. So I figured it might be a good idea to use this ability and build around it (I love to take an aspect of the game and take it to the limit and see where this takes the build - if it's viable, fun to play and so on). I mean piling up defenses against all kinds of corrosion, poison, disease and such things. This would allow me to stand right in the middle of such effects and just shrug them off while the enemy would suffer big time. So I thought about which class might get the most out of it. At first the druid came to mind but then I realized that the wizard has the most powerful AoE spells that fall into that category. Also, most of them are not DoT spells and therefore profit from Spirit of Decay (which I planned to use anyway because of the corrode DR bonus). Wizards can also make great short time tanks because of those great self buffs they can learn. You can't tank forever though and that means you also want to kill your opponents fast. Luckily spells like Noxious Burst, Malignant Cloud etc. are very potent. Especially if you don't care if they also hit you. The tactics with this guy are very simple: - lay a poisonous trap - stand right behind it - start encounter - buff - lure the mob onto the trap - cast all those nasty poison spells onto your own head while the monstes try to kill you - watch them all die while you remain unharmed Let's talk about stats and numbers. I went max MIG and CON because I wanted my fortitude defense to be very, very high. That's because most of those spells and effects (and also the most annoying other ones like paralyzing, stunning, prone and so on) target fortitude. So with the stats alone I get a bonus of +40 to my fortitude defense. My armor gives me +2 MIG, so that's +4 fort. Bear's Fortitude makes this +54. I also wear Father's Teeth (around my neck...) which give my another +18 which leads to +72 fortitude. I took the Little Savior because it's another item that gives a bonus to fortitude which stacks with the rest. +77 now! On top of that you can add the racial ability "Hale and Hardy" which adds +25 against poison and disease. I also wear that nice bulky diving helmet which gives my +20 (and +35 against dragon's breath - which is nice because our reflex defense sucks a bit) and the axe Wodewys which adds another +20 to that (and since it's a weapon it stacks with everything). Now... against poison and disease effects we have a defensive bonus of +142. At level 16 that means 207. Without any buffs, potions, scolls, food or resting bonuses. You can add spells to boost this even further if you need. But honestly it's more than enough to avoid that you hit yourself with your own spells. It will never happen. Well - never say never- but if you shoot yourself in the foot, you will have a very high DR against your own spells (28 without buffs, thanks to Bilestomper's boots). You can always cast Bulwark against the elements to boost that to 43. The other DR values are also pretty good, so with the bulwark you won't be one-shotted by dragons. Thanks high CON, too! But there's more: Funnily, most of the monsters' abilities that are considered poison or diseases also sicken, weaken or paralyze you. Since I took Body Control I gain another defense buff: +10. Aaand the Looped Rope adds another +20 to that (and to most toher afflictions, too). All in all, against attacks that are poisonous or a disease AND do sicken, paralyze, petrify, stun or weaken we will have a defense of 237. You can image how a Plague of Insects (poison, sickening)... never even grazes you anymore - while you're bathing in your own Malignant Cloud (after those baked beans). The most difficult and annoying fights suddenly become trivial if you're at this point. Of course it takes some time to get there. But since I didn't raise my ACC too high I started to avoid my own spell efffects quite early in the game. Your ACC gets better and better, and so do your defenses. Most of the time those defenses are way better than your ACC. It's a good thing to use survival in order to get an ACC bonus against certain enemies. That helps to crit them but miss yourself. I seldomly used Eldritch Aim when I wanted to cast Noxious Burst or Malignant Cloud onto my own head for that reason. Later on you can do that because your defenses will be so high that Eldritch Aim doesn't matter at all - for yourself that is. Of course it still helps hitting foes. Keep one thing in mind: this build ois very slooow. So make use of Spirit SHield. You don't want to get interrupted. With high RES and Spirit Shield this almost never happens - but just keep it in mind. If you think you are too slow there's always Alacrity. And last but not least: this build is fun to play. Micromamangement is quite low for a wizard, he's very sturdy - even against other attacks than poinson and so on. He just looks so adorable in his bulky helmet and his green suit, standing in the middle of the mob and melting them. The Devil of Caroc is a great addition to this build because she's immune to all that poison stuff anyway. So you can tank and she can flank while taking an acid shower together. Awesome! And kind of romantic in a weird way, too. Thanks for reading - good night my fellow builders! p.s.: THis build idea also works very well when you use ice/freeze instead of corrode/poison/disease. Use a pale elf and pick up different gear that allows for more freeze DR and feezing spells and such (Wyrwood Ring, Scath Gwannek shield and so on) and pick up the Crossed Patch that makes you immune to blind. Then stand in the midst of you own chill fog while you await the incoming mobs. Chill FOg targets fortitude so will will seldomly get hit. And if this happens the Crossed Patch will prevent you from getting blinded. Tested this and it also works great. I had to decide which element to use and I took the poison route because mountain dwarves got no love so far and I liked the corrode AoE spells better. But chill fog is a really nice spell throughout the whole game.

Yes. Especally if you use the chant that gives all nearby party memebers +100% healing received and combine that with high survival (+40 to 60% healing received) and a Belt of Bountiful Healing (+25%) and St. Borregia's Tears (+15% done) and 20 MIG (+30% done). The chanter himself will have about +230% regeneration on his own Ancient Memory+Beloved Spirits+Veteran's Recovery. As I said: will post a build later.

Yes it does. In fact, with a chanter focused on regeneration you can build a very, very sturdy tank because he heals quicker than anyone can do damage (while also healing his surroundings). You just need a good portion of health to avoid being killed via health loss. I will post a build which focuses on that in a few days. You can find it in the wolf cave in Russetwood where you fight the spiritshifted "werewolf". It's on a skeleton that lies on the floor in the northeast of the cave. I can't remember exactly but I think you need some mechanics to find it.

ROFL - that picture.

He has three options: Magran, Skaen and Eothas. See the colored names in the starting post.

Of course you can. Including the raw self- damaging part.

You can do that. It's very efficient. But it's also a big fuzz. I don't like that much micromanagement. Maybe because I did a lot of playthroughs and most of the time don't want anything that slows me down.

You can get Stormcaller pretty early if you want. No fighting involved except Dazir in Stalwart. Then I would always choose Swift Aim and Driving Flight in order to proc Returning Storm as often as possible and to spread the -6 shock DR around for my fellow party members. I can see where Vicious Aim might be very useful - with Persistence for example, combined with Outlander's Frenzy (the speed buff from Frenzy negates the speed debuff of Vicious Aim, and both together give you +29% damage and a nice bonus to ACC). But with Stormcaller I always want to be faster. Up to -11 DR (-5 from Pen. Shot and -6 from Stormcaller) are great for very fast attacks - besides the Returning Storm thing. When I get Twinned Arrows (and took Swift Aim) I will retrain and remove Swift Aim.

I don't know. During my last wizard-build-testing I noticed that the icons were there in this "bad" or backpack or what's that icon supossed to represent - but I did not enough testing to confirm if the spell holding gets triggered or not.

Only rings' spellbinds work nowadays. So mainly Suppress Affliction, Dominate and Combusting Wounds for the phantoms (and the dichotomous soul diplicates). There was a change some while ago. After 2.03 I guess. In the bag there will also be things like non clickable icons from spell holdings like frenzy from sanguine plate and so on. Other enchantments on items still work. Second chance should work on duplicates - and also the speed buff from boots of speed and such.

Why is that? Will it not get the +150% damage bonus?

There's a lore check in WM that needs 6. But it doesn't do anything special. For me it's: Stealth: totally useless unless you are playing solo and want to avoid fights Athletics: weak. But as Braven said I put like 4 or 5 into it. Lore: it depends on the class and the build and the party. If I have no priest I will have one char with 10 or even 12 lore. A rogue with good ACC, MIG and INT will get 10 also. Scrolls work with Deathblows. Fighters, rangers, chanters and monks will get 6 (for Fireballs). Survival: the rest. I want to put at least 10 points into it in order to get +15 ACC against certain foes. This is immensely powerful - especially against enemies with high defenses like dragons. When I want a build with maximum endurance recovery, I try to reach +60% healing received.

Hi. Thanks a lot. Can do around the weekend I guess.

For me it's more like the "don't interrupt me because that hurts my dps"-stat.

That's true. Bounties are best for verifying if your build will work in a solo run I guess. And I also think that high defenses are very valuable if you do solo runs. I test all of my studier builds solo against all sorts of bounties to see how they perform. It's like a lot of mini solo runs. But as far as I remember Braven did not skip hard encounters. He just relied on maximum regeneration, 0 recovery, high DR and spell holding items. I think he even only had 3 CON and 3 RES when he wrote about his playthrough. So there might be a way to do a solo game where you fight all the foes without raising defenses to the sky. I really can't tell because I don't do solo runs. But I guess it can work without having superhigh defenses. You just have to make sure you don't go down. I just happend to test a sort of "Wolverine" regenerating chanter build with +45% healing done and +185% healing received. He can't go KO as long as there's still health in him. His endurance jumps up from mid to full in seconds. And he does good AoE damage. I can't tell about dragons (didn't test that - maybe he will have a hard time), but he did the upscaled Nalrend bounty solo with good (but not excellent) defenses. No problems there - it was almost too easy. You just have to make sure your fights don't last forever. If regeneration time is up, you will die eventually.

It seems to work because he did a (triple crown) solo run like that if I'm not mistaken. The two mentioned triggered abilities (+20 to all defenses, +20 to ACC) are indeed very helpful if you focus on spell holding and spell striking.

Yeah, it's very nice on a tanky druid like this one. But Avenging Storm comes really late. So make sure the build is of any use before you get Av. Storm. By the way: Av. Storm also works with Battle Forged and Potion of Flame Shield or Mantle of the Wreathing Flame ("or" because potion surpresses mantle). So you can build up to four retaliating Avenging Storms when you get grazed/hit/crit. Battle Forged + Potion of Falme Shield + Scion of Flame + Avenging Storm + Heart of the Storm turns every melee attacker into roasted pulp.

Quick update: Avenging Storm works with retaliation. So you might want to reequip once you get that. See edited starting post.