dgray62

Thanks, Not So Clever Hound. It should be noted that you could achieve the same with a MC chanter. You'd miss out on Far from Defeated, but this wouldn't matter too much, as you could use abilities from your other class during the down time while you recharge phrases. A troubadour/blood mage seems like a particularly good combination. I like the idea of continually interrupting foes while bashing them with alternating invocations and spells.

I have played solo with SC FF monk, which is overpowered as I know you know once you reach PL 9, SC bloodmage, and also multi classes with mixes of bloodmage, assassin, cipher, druid and chanter. Most of these classes have renewable resources, which help a lot. For the assassin builds I relied heavily on smoke veil as you discuss. I have never tried playing a swashbuckler solo; I imagine that it would be quite a challenge, unless it were an assassin/tactician. That would be fun I'm sure, although I've never tried it.

Mohora wraps also give you +4 STR. And in my version of the game it becomes a passive once you save and reload, and thus stacks with the strong inspiration from barbarian frenzy. If this works for you, you can also get +3 STR from taru taru chew, which will get you to 25 I think. But getting the last 3 points from gear would be much easier.

Very true in the vanilla game. But the Balance Polishing Mod reduces smoke veil to 1 guile, if I remember correctly. It's worth using if one plans to play an assassin.

I'm actually not sure. I think that I was thinking in terms of barb carnage. Maybe it does. If so, it would be a great combo!

I like the idea of a SC soulblade wielding Amra. Shared nightmare would significantly increase the riven gore carnage radius. Too bad you can't get focus from this, however.

Thanks! I gather that you use this when in town, and shark soup when camping.

Thanks for the reply, and welcome back! What is the Captain's Cabin bonus? I don't think I'm familiar with that one.

Doesn't it not crit in the vanilla game? I thought that carnage crits was added in, in either the Community Patch or Balance Polishing mods. But I might be wrong about this.....

That's a great idea, Boeroer. I never thought of prolonging the Bellower's PL boost for Eld Nary casts.

I played it solo as Not So Clever Hound recommended. It's not exactly a tanky build, but relies more on stealth and smoke cloud when the aggro gets too tough. You could use this build in a party as an off tank, however. As for the trickster/FF shadow dancer, that is much more tanky. The trick here is using both the trickster's defensive abilities and also to have high RES, which you need to keep the FF curse to a very short length. You can also use Magran's Favor in the main hand and tuotilo's palm in the offhand, with both modals on. You'd want the weapon and shield style as well. The idea here is you would rarely auto attack, and instead mainly use the FF attack, which when you crit can proc swift flurry or heartbeat drumming using your mainland weapon.

You might want to check out Not So Clever Hound's SC trickster build, which ultimately aims to inflict devastating Freezing Rake attacks. As for shadow dancers, my favorite combo is trickster/forbidden fist. Forbidden fist attacks with sneak attack/deathblows will KO most foes.

The damage invocations benefit highly from the PL boost. A bellower's Her Revenge can completely wipe out mobs, for example. It's the best damaging invocation in the game, IMO. Seven Nights is great against bosses, if you can set it up that multiple projectiles hit. The lightning and fire damage complements the priest's fire damage nicely. You may want to get At the Sound of His Voice; the extra PLs will increase the paralysis duration. Usually I'd just cast Her Revenge instead, however. Definitely get Ben Fidel's Neck. The malus to all defenses stack with everything, so it's great to use against tougher foes. As for the buffs, definitely get Their Champion so as to get energized. The others are unnecessary IMO. But you might want to the other buffs, particularly if you plan on using summons. Bellower's summons get a longer duration due to the higher PLs, but get no other boost. It's probably one of the less impactful way to use your phrases. The Ancient Instruments summons is great however, and is definitely worth getting.

With Kitchen Stove's thunderous report, you can ascend instantly as you know. Also, if your accuracy is high enough, you will often be able to ascend from the two shots of The Red Hand. Another great weapon that is available early is the essence interrupter, which does pierce and shock damage, so it's great against pierce immune foes. These are great early weapons for a SC ascendant. You might also consider trying a melee witch. The speed bonuses on the barbarian side will let you spam powers very quickly which ascended, and melee is generally faster when it comes to building focus in my experience.

For a Fury, I'd recommend the LDV at first, since it's available so early. Later, when you get Great Maelstrom, you'll actually get even more of a PL boost by dual wielding Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon. This is the one build where it won't matter if it's day or night, since the boost to either fire or cold will boost that spell. You can also use Deltros Cage armor for even more of a boost, and Ring of Focused Flame for an accuracy bonus. As mjo2138 recommended, if you eat Crusted Swordfish you'll have enough PEN to melt mobs and do serious damage to bosses as well. The staff is probably best for a different sort of druid build, that focuses on the Beast and Plant spells.

I've been playing this build and it's amazing. Early on the brute was a very sturdy and competent warrior with Monastic Unarmed Training. However, things got crazy once I got Amra and upgraded it. In the first fight following this, a bounty, I struck out at an enemy, surrounded by several other foes and a horde of skellies. Poof! There was a en explosion of greenish skeleton smoke and gibs and everything was destroyed, including, unfortunately, a party member who got too close to the mayhem. It's a crazily OP build, but definitely keep the party members away as Boeroer recommended!

Ah, that makes sense, thanks! I presume that you upgrade fury eventually to Blood Storm, in order to prolong it indefinitely? I know from experience that the spirit frenzy upgrade is no good when you are playing confused, since you'll stagger yourself when you cast it. Although I suppose you could select Spirit Frenzy so long as you were resistant or immune to STR afflictions. Also, do you bother with Amra's Tempered Fury/Unstable Temper upgrade? It seems like it is unnecessary for this build.

Maybe Magran/ Fury? You'd have lots of firepower, with the extra spells on the Magran side coming from the wizard spell book, and you'd get some healing which you'd otherwise lack on the Fury side. You could be a fire/electricity specialist, which gives you more flexibility, since Magran alone is so heavily weighted toward fire spells.

It wouldn't work for this build. You wouldn't want to use LDV while confused, for if you did you'd be hit as well by the AOE lightning bursts. With Amra, you'd damage everyone around you (but not yourself) with both carnage and riven gore, and if you're surrounded by skeletons you'll often kill them, triggering bloodthirst, bloodlust and various on kill effects, such as healing from the Abraham pet.

What food are you using for this build, Boeroer? I imagine that Brew Battered Ysae would be good for the added CON and area of effect bonus.

I also had a lot of fun playing a melee sorcerer build. While it is true that spirit shifting doesn't last forever (at least until you get wall of draining), if you have high INT, as you should, it will last long enough for 90+% of encounters in the game. Also, I'd recommend that you get Monastic Unarmed Training as a backup, and for foes with low crush resistance. Later, you can explore the various summoned weapons that the wizard side can provide. And definitely get Taste of the Hunt, which gives you a quick heal and a devastating DOT when it lands. If you use the Grimoire Imprint exploit you can steal this spell early from bog druids (on Huana boats, for example) and thereafter have infinite casts of it. But if you're not fond of cheese, you'll want to save lvl 2 druid slots for this spell. But this only works if you don't go with Shifter. If you go with shifter, forget about this spell, since you won't be able to cast it while shifted.

Thanks, that was about what I expected. One question however: if you negate distracted with a perception inspiration, don't you also lose flanked (which is caused by distracted I believe) and hence the street fighter's Heated Up status?

That's good to know! In that case, the SC Watershaper option would be very strong.

Thanks for the advice. What stat spread did you use, and what would you recommend now, given your observation that high DEX isn't really necessary. Maybe high PER is what is really needed, since you'll be perpetually debuffed in this stat? Also, what wizard buffs did you actually use regularly? There are so many, and I usually just end up using a few of them, mainly the stat buffs, and then defensive buffs as needed.

At this point you'd probably want to go to Hasango, and from there continue the main quest line, doing side quests along the way as you wish.