dgray62

Ah, I see, this makes a lot of sense. I see that you will not be able to stack curses so long as EA agony's on and RES is maxed out. Thanks!

@Not So Clever Hound , how do you set up the AI to use the FF attack once the curse expires? Is this possible? I don't see how to set this condition in the AI. When I've tried doing this in the past, my FF monks stack the curse repeatedly, which obviously is something to be avoided.

If you're going the troubadour route you'd probably be better off with a weapon and shield to be sturdier. Probably the best weapon set up for a more caster oriented herald is Sasha's singing scimitar, for the 1/encounter empowered invocation and the action speed aura, and the Lethandria's Devotion shield, for the nice healing and defensive aura. This set up will buff you, your summons and companions. If you go the skald route you'd want to dual wield or wield sun & moon single handedly, to maximize crits. However, anything is fine on story difficulty. You'd want the sword and board for the higher difficulty levels tho.

I love playing Cantors; the Wind Path cantor linked above is a fine build. You'll attack mainly with monk fists, which are arguably the best weapons in the game, and since you'll crit a lot, skald is a natural match, @Jaydchose helwalker for the nice boost to STR, which will boost your damage output. On the other hand, forbidden fist, the choice in @Not So Clever Hound's build, is my favorite subclass. I don't think that you need to worry about mods. Community Patch modded the FF ability to be a weapon attack, which would be important if you went with skald. But if you follow the build and go with troubadour, this won't really matter. And as the build indicates, it doesn't require much micro; you can actually set up the AI to run the character pretty easily. Also, since FF is much sturdier, you won't need to micromanage to keep the character from being overwhelmed, as you would with a helwalker. But there are other options as well. Barbarians and paladins pair well with chanters as well. The former will give you more hit to crits (if you go with berserker) and action speed and pair well with skalds. Paladins make the chanter much sturdier, and can pair nicely with any chanter subclass.

I love monks, chanters and druids, so I second the above recommendations. But you might also consider a single class forbidden fist monk, which is very powerful and durable from beginning to end of the game, and is god-like once you get Whisper of the Winds. If you search for "forbidden fist" in this forum you'll find nice discussions of how to build a FF monk. However, for an even easier game I'd recommend @Powerotti's forbidden fist/steel garrote build, which is extremely sturdy, powerful and easy to play. If you want melee only it is my top recommendation. But if you like melee caster hybrids then a cantor or ascetic multi class would be great fun.

Assassins are great fun, and are one of the classes that can most easily solo the game on PotD difficulty. As for multi class combos, have you considered cipher? Ciphers bring an additional damage boost as well as great DoT abilities, and thus seems to be just what you are looking for. And don't forget borrowed instincts, one of the best buffs in the game, that gives you a huge boost to ACC and all defences. I have played a melee assassin/soul blade which was great fun. If you are interested in a ranged mindstalker, then I'd recommend @Not So Clever Hound's Soul Sniper Mindstalker build. As for Psyblade, I also played @Not So Clever Hound's Assassin/devoted build, which you might want to check out as it's a powerful combo. You might also consider single class trickster, to access nice high level rogue and wizard abilities. As for a zealot build, I wouldn't recommend Priest of Skaen, since it gives you as bonus spells rogue abilities that you'll already have. You might consider a different subclass that would add something extra, like Priest of Wael, for extra defensive buffs (wizard spells) that you wouldn't otherwise have access to.

Following up on @Not So Clever Hound's excellent suggestions, you could also complete the triangle by considering a cantor, perhaps with the Helwalker/Skald subclasses. You might find @Jayd's Wind Path Cantor build to be of interest, as it's designed to maximize movement speed, so you can zip around, frequently unleashing powerful invocations like Her Revenge.

If you get your RES high enough (i.e., 18 at start and then boosted by items and buffs up to around 30) and use clarity of agony, you won't need to worry about healing, as the FF curse will be so short you'll only get one tick of raw damage and then heal by a lot more, so you'll get a steady stream of healing from the ability. So a SC FF monk is totally viable. That said, a brute would be even sturdier from start to finish, and pretty much indestructible once you get unbending. You might also consider a ravager. Leap is by far by favorite mobility ability.

Yes! Too bad Fury druid can't use the cat form, but that would be overkill, for sure!

Thanks! I'm currently trying @Not So Clever Hound's Thundercat 2.0 build again, this time with the mod that raises the level cap to 33. This is particularly nice for solo builds IMO. I'm using the Lifegiver class, so I'll see if I can steal and use any druid summon spells. I'll report back when I reach lvl 10 can can start stealing spells.

Does anyone know if a sorceror can use the grimoire imprint trick to steal spells that you are normally prohibited from casting depending on your druid subclass? For example, could a Fury sorcerer use minor grimoire imprint to steal rejuvenation spells like The Moon's Light and Nature's Balm which you otherwise could not learn or cast? I presume that the answer is yes, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure if this will work or not.

Perhaps I missed when I used it in the past. With a fury druid the range is so long the lines always go off screen.

When I try to cast the spell I get two lines separated by an angle of about 50 degrees. The spell doesn't seem to do much, but I've only tried casting it a couple of times, due to lack of apparent effect.

This seems like an elegant solution. Fists can do serious damage, but do lack PEN, which is why unarmed attacks aren't very effective against armored foes.

I agree. I'll definitely try this out.

Yes, definitely. I hadn't thought of wizard/cipher.....I suppose shared nightmare would boost the AOE of wizard spells too, which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing, at least for spells like Meteor Shower with its lowly 5m range!

I think that boosting unarmed attacks a bit for non-monks is an elegant solution to this problem. It makes sense too. Fists can be dangerous and deadly weapons even when one is not trained in unarmed fighting techniques.

Thanks! I like the idea of a warlock with this mod. Furyshaper/blood mage sounds like a great combo. Only downside is you can't have a ward and an essential phantom at the same time.

Isn't death of 1000 cuts only triggered by hits from cipher shred powers? If so, I don't think anything else would trigger it.

There are many alternate chest pieces you might consider. Without access to the DoC breastplate, you might consider start off using Aloth's leather armor, upgrading to Miscreant's Leather. Later you might consider Casità Samelia's Legacy to boost deflection or Crimson Panoply which is great armor and looks cool on an arcane knight IMO.

Having played more builds in this game than I can possibly count, I wanted to try something new. In particular, I was thinking of downloading and installing Housefly's Level Cap 33 mod, which theoretically raises the level cap to 33, although in practice there is apparently only enough experience in the game (with DLCs) to get to level 27, which is enough for multi classes to reach PL 9. In thinking about this, I wonder which MCs might be the most fun if you are able to get the top tier abilities. Being an incurable monk fan, my fist though was monk/assassin, for the assassinate boosts as well as sneak attack and backstab while using WotW. But a sorcerer with top tier wizard and druid spells would be an incredible caster. I was just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions/ideas about this. Granted, one would not gain these top tier abilities until very late in the game, but I thought it might be fun to try this anyway.

Is this change in the main BPM mod or the BMP nerf mod? I'm asking because I think I will wait until the next update to download.

I agree that troubadour is great due to its flexibility, and particularly if you are aiming for interrupts. Skald is great too if you want to be engaged in melee. In this case, Her Revenge and/or the Killers Froze Stiff are fantastic, since they are fast casts and only cost two phrases for skalds. As for skald weapons, you might consider having SSS and a shield in one weapon set, to use for an initial empowered invocation and also to protect against opening volleys. Then you could switch to Sun & Moon in the main hand only in the other weapon set, for the extra ACC to help you crit more often. This is particularly great for cantors with swift flurry/heartbeat drumming, as you'll often get crit cascades that can do much more damage than you would otherwise expect with Sun & Moon.

I like the stats that @Not So Clever Hound recommended for his Bleeding Arcanist build. It features high PER and INT, slightly high CON and DEX, and slightly low (but not dumped) STR and RES. It worked very well on my SC bloodmage game.

In my experience, the game's most difficult battles include both early game battles on the starting Port Make island. Several of these, like Gorecci Street and the Dig Site, are very challenging for the reasons that you indicate. However, they can be avoided, and they get easier as you gain more experience with the game. But they also include a number of late game battles, particularly in the DLCs. They can be particularly tough if you rush to there areas to get the great items ASAP. If you wait and build up experience then they are easier, but then you have the items for a smaller % of the game. They too get easier with experience and with meta-game knowledge.