dgray62

Thanks. I wonder if you could forgo Mortification of the Soul and just stack FF curses to get yourself down to bloodied. A few stacks of the curse will bring your HP down very fast, while also magnifying the damage you do even more.

Wow, I didn't realize you could stack PLs so high! Thanks for sharing this. Just for clarification, you have a teammate wear the ooze trinket and use it on you, right? I see that in addition to +4 PLs it also heals you considerably. Do you use Mortification of the Soul after the merge to get back down to near death, and then have a priest companion extend it with Salvation of Time?

I was thinking you could proc Avenging Storm from another source if Gathering Storm gave you something other than Avenging Storm. Wouldn't be quite as OP, but still nice to have AS proc whenever the static charge AOE is triggered.

Hmm, maybe devoted/streetfighter would be great for this weapon. Although it would be also nice to have a barb in the mix to speed the static charge more widely via carnage. I also see that Avenging Storm works particularly well with the LDV static charge AOE attacks. You could also wear Heaven's Cacophony or use a scroll to get this up more reliably.

Maybe this requires another devoted/assassin run, this time with LDV and the Mantle for a thunderbolt ninja? You could harm yourself with lightning at the start of the game and hopefully proc gathering storm, then go invisible and unleash mayhem. You'd probably want to dump CON to make it easier to get down to bloodied.

Looks like you got Relentless Storm in this case. That was very lucky in this case!

I've played Boeroer's geomancer build solo, and it is very tanky once you get your buffs up and summon a phantom to help deal with the aggro. It's definitely a very tanky build.

True. But they scale with weapon quality with respect to damage, accuracy and PEN. Perhaps we could call them "weapon spell-like effects," which is why it is worth upgrading to mythic when you use one of them extensively.

Dual wielding was nerfed, with primary attacks using both weapons doing significantly less damage (-35% if I remember correctly). So dual wielding isn't quite as OP as it was in POE1. That said, certain builds require it; you'll definitely want to dual wield a Kind Wayfarer paladin for x2 the healing from White Flames. Some builds will also want to dual wield when using weapons as stat sticks, to boost their casting. Given this nerf, 2H weapons are not really inferior DPS wise to dual wielding, and there are some great 2H weapons, like Amra and Lord Darryn's Voulge, that are great for melee DPS builds. But on PotD, enemies offensive and defensive capabilities are boosted. For this reason, sword and shield can really be a lifesaver. Single weapon is good for classes or builds that want a lot of crits, like skalds. As for your second questions, both scouts and seers are great for ranged DPS. Personally I prefer seers, as they can get the highest accuracy in the game (which is much needed on PotD), and the cipher side gives you some great CC and single target damaging powers as well. As for your third question, healing is needed on PotD; for this reason I often have a druid in my party, as they have some of the best healing spells in the game. But there are other ways to heal. The pets that heal on kill are great since they mainly benefit your frontline DPS characters, who are likely taking most of the fire. Keep in mind that high AR is also important, especially on PotD. The less damage that gets through, the less need you'll have for healing.

Archibald Troubafist—that's funny! I've been playing a FF/skald lately and am about to get SSS. I'll see if I can replicate this. Will report back when I try.

This is a very clever build! I imagine that you play this with the mod you mentioned in another post, the one that turns per rest abilities into per encounter? That way you could proc Martyr's Memories every battle.

Doesn't Grave Calling actually petrify, so that it is downgraded to paralysis?

Thanks! I didn't realize that brilliant could enable casting Her Revenge out of combat. I've been able to do so occasionally for seemingly random reasons, but I suppose I must have had brilliant enabled that somehow persisted after combat ended.

How do you proc least unstable coil out of combat so as to be able to extend the inspirations with SoF? Does it proc if you cast an empowered spell like Great Maelstrom or Storm of Holy Fire over a bunch of barrels or hirelings?

Thanks! That makes sense. You can switch between the weapons based on the needs of the encounter.

Thanks for the tip and for the link to the mod. My original questions was unclear, however. What I was wondering is how you typically manage these items late game, once you've acquired them all. I understand that you'd start off wielding the wand only. After you get some seals, do you switch to Grave Calling and/or Hel Beckoning, before switching in the end to EdE?

Thanks for the tips. I was contemplating playing a single class soul blade, and this gives me more food for thought. Would you start the battle dual wielding The Weyc Wand, switch to Grave Calling and Her Beckoning, and then switch to EdE once you get some nice seals, noxious clouds and chill fogs pulsing? Also, do you know of a mod that lets you cast Avenging Storm with Heaven's Cacophony once per encounter?

I agree, Soulblade is best melee cipher builds, and there's a nice synergy with rogue since Soul Annihilation benefits from sneak attack/death blows. Assassin is also great; with backstab and the assassinate bonus your Soul Annihilation attacks will live up to their name, and one shot pretty much any foe aside from bosses. Also, if you use Whispers of the Endless Paths the once/encounter ability Run Through is devastating when used from stealth/invisibility.

I've been meaning to try playing a SC Soulblade, which is also my favorite cipher subclass for melee-oriented cipher MC builds. Think I'll start out with Monastic Unarmed Training (which I always take for melee builds when available) but then segue to 2H AOE weapons like WotEP and the Watershaper's Focus once I get Shared Nightmare.

I agree, Concelhaut's Draining Touch is great on a phantom. High base damage, targets will (which a wiz can easily debuff), and weakens and drains.

So you empower Spark the Souls of the Righteous with the coil equipped, and you'll get inspirations every time the spell process? That's really interesting, thanks!

Another mystery explained. Thanks, @Avaritica

Many Wizard spells already have quite high base damage and scale well too, which means you'll do significant damage even with flat MIG. You also get combusting wounds, an amazing spell, which significantly amplifies your damage when used skillfully. So for wizards, unlike some other classes, high MIG really isn't necessary IMO.

Blood Sacrifice can be very painful when magnified by high might, particularly when you reach higher power levels. I'd recommend that you go for high CON but keep MIG flat, and then put the extra points in DEX, PER and RES. This works very well in my experience. Check out Not So Clever Hound's Bleeding Arcanist build for an excellent example of an ideal (IMO) set up for a single class blood mage. If you're multi classing with another class with excellent healing (say, fighter, paladin or druid) then you could probably afford to but more points in STR.

Interesting idea. Would you go with AA/chanter or AA/druid? Maybe the former would be best so you'd always have the essential chants up. Also, regarding Marked Prey, maybe it's worth getting if you upgrade to Marked for the Hunt? The problem with that ability though is the random nature of the transfer of the mark. Too bad you just don't get the bond point back when the foe dies, like the paladin's sworn rival ability.