dgray62

Yes, I can see that it would be great to cast an empowered PP at the start of battle, and then, wielding Effort, cast Avenging Storm and other pulsing spells.

Thanks. How exactly does Pollen Patch work? Do you have to move around to get healed? And how exactly does the LoC proc once you've cast an empower PP—is it everything a party member moves and heals? I ask because I have only played a SC fury. I think I will have to try SC druid of another subclass. Perhaps Lifegiver to make PP even better?

Sounds like exactly what one would want for a hireling healbot!

This is an incredible find. Thanks! You could keep up the empowering pulses for an entire battle with this trick.

Yes, I agree with @Okkes, the FF/SB combo is very strong and sturdy so long as you max RES. If using CP biting whip is definitely the best choice. There's great synergy between the two subclasses since the cipher lingering echoes will extend all of your afflictions, and enfeeblement will extend all negative effects, including borrowed instincts. I also tend to take as many passives as possible. Crucible of Suffering is great for a near constant boost to defenses with FF. And with your high defenses you'll often reflect missiles and spells with soul mirror. And Hammering Thoughts is essential, of course. But I feel your pain regarding the loss of trickster. If triple classing were possible in this game, the first thing I'd try would be FF/SB/trickster.

It also leads to more varied and fun gameplay. A SC Fury becomes a one-trick pony once you reach PL 9, and that becomes tiring once the novelty wears off.

I'm not sure about your first question, but you're right, if it works, you've found an incredible heal bot. HotWV applies the +10 accuracy on any attack that applies an affliction, so I'm sure it would work with auto attacks while spirit frenzied. Carnage, unfortunately, does not apply any modal effects or on-hit or on-crit effects, with the exception of Static Thunder from LDV, and also carnage hits with spirit frenzy apply staggered. It's the main reason this weapon is so great for barbs; definitely pick Spirit Frenzy if you're planning on wearing HotWV.

Fury gives you not only extra PEN (which stacks multiple times with spells like GM) but also extra range, which is great as you can attack from long distance outside of the visual range of the enemy. The storm blight spirit shift also features an escape like ability that you can use to reposition or flee, when needed. The downside is you lose most healing spells, but fortunately not all of them; you can select Taste of the Hunt which you can use for damage and healing when needed. You can do a fury on solo PotD, although it's harder than some other classes early on, but gets absurdly easy later once you get your tier 8 & 9 spells. If you're not going solo, just bring along a healer companion or two. As for gear, you'd want to stack PLs, which means equipping items that give you bonuses to storm, fire, cold and lightning attacks; whatever you equip stacks. So you might want to equip deltro's cage armor for +2 electricity PLs. You can also wield Lord Darryn's voulge for the +3 to storm PLs, which gives you +5 overall. You can get an additional +1 PL from Nature Godlike if you wish, from food, and from Stone of Power, which would give you +8 I believe. A potion of ascension would give you +2 (an additional +1 since it doesn't stack with the food). You can get even higher if you dual wield Magran's Favor and Sun & Moon, +4 I think (+4 fire or +2 fire/+2 cold, depending on how you upgrade the latter, and if you are willing to put up with the day/night nonsense). This is on top of the native +10 PLs from a level 19-20 druid with the prestige talent. Each PL gives you a boost to damage, PEN and accuracy. With the native fury bonus to PEN you'll devastate most foes. And if you cast AS and wield effort, each time GM procs, if it crits they'll be hobbled or sickened by Effort, and as the game considers this a weapon attack it will proc AS, which can crit, repeating the process, potentially creating a vicious spiral of destruction with absurd damage tallies. Also, if you empower either GS or AS, that spell will get an additional +5 PLs, raising you from +18 (if my math is correct) up to +23. Switching to Effort will lower the PL for later procs of the spells, but it's worth it. For more info. on possible gear, see @Not So Clever Houndpost on a solo fury build.

Yes, a SC Fury druid wielding effort can wipe out not only mobs but even some tough cookies like the lich in the cave just by casting AS and then GM from a very far distance. It's funny and sad watching them trudge through the waters, hobbled by Effort, while being pummeled by GS and the AS procs. A SC druid can get off a good number of crits from GM if you stack enough PLs, which is very easy to do with the right gear.

A dose of khapa tea, which confers immunity to poison/disease effects, is available in the Port Maje Governor's house. It was almost certainly placed there to prepare the MC for the dig site. It makes you immune to the spider's paralysis attack, and also the Xaurip's paralytic poison later. It's definitely worth using as your food for your first rest before heading to the dig site.

They're totally different. The Paladin ability Iron Gut gives you resistance to CON afflictions, so you can shrug off sickened and downgrade weakened and enfeebled, which is good because these afflictions are rough given the penalty to healing. Righteous Soul on the other hand makes you immune to abilities (such as many druid spells and rogue abilities) that have the poison and disease keywords. It's nice too because some of these effects, like toxic strike, can be nasty. The overlap is that many of the poison/disease abilities attack fortitude, which is lowered by CON afflictions, so getting hit with the latter can make you more vulnerable to the former.

True. I neglected to mention that soul blades can have, by far, the highest max focus if you're willing to (ab)use SoF. If not, the ascendant would definitely be the best choice.

This is incredible; thanks for sharing this build. Have you considered going with soul blade rather than ascendant? I believe that soul blades have the largest possible max focus, and could thus really expand the AOE size.

That's interesting. You should have gotten the FF healing and wound when hobble expired. Good to know that it is not working as expected.

I agree. For this build I usually go with PER and RES of 18, and then balance out the other attributes.

When in doubt, give it to the monk. The balanced shield upgrade, which only works for monks, is amazing, and is much better than the weak retaliation alternative available to other classes.

I've played the FF/SG votary several times. Usually I go with higher INT (at 15) and somewhat lower STR and DEX. But you can make adjustments as you wish. The build is very strong since you easily afflict enemies and then heal when you damage them. As for needing a chanter, while they're often very handy to have around, they're not really needed in my experience for this build. With your high RES and Clarity of Agony, afflictions aren't a problem, you'll shrug them off very quickly, and then get healing and a wound. So you'll find that you actually welcome afflictions, or may even be tempted to deliberately inflict them, by walking through a tanglefoot spell, for example.

Skald/monk is a lot of fun as well, and very low micro. Punch-punch-zap! You'll auto attack until you have two phrases (this usually happens very fast) and then either paralyze or electrify your foes, as needed.

I think blood mage/nalpasca is probably the best combination from the perspective of game synergy. But I am currently playing FF instead because I just love the FF ability. It's amazing for any build that features debuffs and DoT attacks. Also, with high RES, Clarity of Agony and Enduring Dance, the FF sage will accrue wounds rapidly. And if you use the Grimoire Imprint trick, you also won't need to use blood sacrifice very often.

I'm currently playing a blood mage/ forbidden fist, and it is a lot of fun. Wizards have great disabling spells and DoT spells that you can prolong with the FF attack's enfeeblement. I am playing a pale elf with 10 STR, 15 CON, 14 DEX, 18 PER, 15 INT and 18 RES, with Berath's Blessings. The nice thing about this build is that you can take a lot of the great monk abilities since as a wizard you can rely on grimoires and/or the grimoire imprint spell trick for your casting, and thus don't need to select spells when leveling up as a wizard, except lvl 1 when you are forced to do so. Since fists and summoned wizard spells are so great (Concelhaut's Draining Touch and the Citzal's Lance) you don't really need to worry about weapons, although ultimately you may want Magran's Favor or the Seeker's Fang for your main hand. But I strongly recommend Tuotilo's Palm for the offhand for extra defense. With it, weapon & shield style, Arcane Veil and Mirrored Image you can get insanely high DEF very early in the game. Clarity of Agony is essential, and I recommend as well the monk passives like soul mirror and crucible of suffering, which will proc a lot due to your high DEF and very short FF curse durations, respectively. Enduring Dance is worth it as well as you won't be hit enough to break it very often. Touch spells, like Kalkoth's Sunless Grasp and Jolting Touch are also thematically fun. The former does a nice debuff which you can extend with the FF attack and the latter has many jumps once your PL is high, and can wipe out small mobs as a result.

Yes, a forbidden fist/soul blade systematically destroys foes, one by one. It is very powerful and can handle upscaled PotD solo. However, it can get a bit boring simply because you become so powerful once you gain a few levels and the right equipment.

That's pretty great that it launches the fire AOE attack even on a graze. I've never uses KotF with a barb. Would the AOE launch on carnage grazes or hits?

I agree with the first two points, and as for the question, I'd say no. It doesn't make sense to summon a weapon "made of pure flame" when fighting fire immune foes.

SP/SB would be a great combo; transcendents are one of my favorite MCs. As for a witch, I personally prefer witch ascendants, since the great barb speed boosts let you cast more powers while ascended. But I'd say a fury shaper/ascendent is probably the best combo for a witch caster, since a zerker is best for a melee MC.

The enfeebled affliction is great with any affliction, and for this reason FF is great with any classes that feature CC powers, like chanter or cipher. For this reason, I would go with FF chanter. However, if you have the BPM installed you might also consider a chanter/cipher, since BPM boosted Fractured Volition so that it inflicts enfeeblement as well. Either could easily do upscaled PotD solo; with high RES and tuotilo's shield in the off hand you'd be very tanky and could be a master disabler. As for chanter subclass, skald is great since you will crit a lot and can repeatedly cast damaging low level invocations (Her Revenge) or the paralysis invocation, as needed. Troubadour is fantastic for perma-interrupts as @Constentin Lévineindicated. The downside is that the disabling chants don't last long at all when you fast chant. Bellower is also fantastic for the PL boost. If you are soloing, the reduced radius for chants won't matter since the enemies will swarm you.