dgray62

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize that you could translocate with Shifting Storm up to the platform above. That makes a lot of sense. I gather from what you said above that you select Touch of Rot and Hold Beast at PL 1, and Blizzard and PoI and PL 2. Do you select Fast Runner too? I imagine that this would help with quick escapes.

Have fun! The stats look fine IMO.

Yes, I was wondering how you use Shifting Storm to deaggro and reset fights. Is the idea that you attack with a spell from the farthest possible range, then shift and translocate far enough away to end combat? If so, I can see why it wouldn't work on Gorecci Street, since there's not enough room there, while it would, presumably, at the dig site.

If you're going with option one, I'd recommend skald, which synergies nicely with berserker. Focus mainly on martial invocations, but get one or two non-martial ones, since doing so will boost your phrase cap. For option two, I'd recommend Berserker in combo with Helwalker or Nalpazca, wielding Amra. Boeroer discusses the rationale for this here. And you can use fists as a backup weapon of course. You'll have so many wounds you can spam efficient anguish, forcing the victim into the carnage and wanton gore zones. Although I love the FF subclass, I wouldn't recommend it for a berserker ravager MC. As for Powerotti's Rumbling Boar build, it's one of my favorites, and it's actually not as squishy as you'd think, mainly because it can kill so quickly, spamming Her Revenge, which fries mobs. It's not a tank build, but can hold its own nicely as an offtank. Rather that single wielding Sun and Moon, however, I prefer dual wielding Sasha's Singing Scimitar and Sungrazer. You won't crit quite as often, but these weapons are more impactful and powerful IMO. You could use FF instead of Helwalker, but you wouldn't be able to dump RES if you do. This is viable if you do a no rest run, stacking the various stat bonii, preferably using one of the mods to make these permanent or to avoid the forced rest encounters.

Sounds like a fun build! I'd love to learn which spells you selected at each PL. I imagine that you took many but not all of the elements spells and some summoning spells as you mentioned. Did you take Taste of the Hunt for emergency healing?

Sounds great. Any party needs a bard and chanter (or a howler) IMO.

Thanks! I guess this won't be a problem for me, since I use BPM. BPM also gives you decay +PL when you pick wild strike corrode, which would benefit you I think with this build. Even though you have to cast the spells before shifting, I believe that once you shift, the ticks of decay spells like touch of rot will benefit from the damage boost due to higher PL.

For me the answer is no to both questions, which is why I always play blood mage when I'm playing a mage. However, if you want to use empower, Andrea Columbo made a mod that makes the rest bonuses permanent, so you can empower away without worrying about losing those bonii.

So assassinate helps you land the spells in the first place, right? But am I correct in recalling that it won't affect the DOT damage? Given how well this works in a party, I see that having a FORT debuffing barb on the team would be a big help.

Could this be fixed in the Community Patch or BPM?

If you go the SC druid route, you probably will want to build up to Great Maelstrom, which is a monster of a spell. In fact, once you get it, you'll probably end up casting it every battle. If you want to focus on this spell, fury would be the way to go. And since it does cold, fire and lightning damage, it benefits from PL boosts to each element. You can stack crazy PLs when you cast this spell if you wear Deltro's cage armor and wield the chromoprismatic quarterstaff. I believe that it will benefit from the Ring of Focused Flame.

If you want to try this option, I'd definitely recommend you consider thelee's Umezawa build. It's micro-intense but fun and powerful.

I agree. Both rogue and fighter bring great things to the MC, and complement each other well. You also don't loose too much at the 8th and 9th PL tiers by MCing.

Powder Burns will distract you, resulting in -5 accuracy, but Enduring Dance will boost your accuracy, and will help mitigate this while it lasts. As for street fighter soul blade, it would be a lot of fun, I am sure. Soul blade is my favorite cipher subclass. You'll do serious damage with soul annihilation, boosted as it is by rogue damage buffs like sneak attack and death blows. I think that the blunderbuss build would be the easiest to manage, since you could renew powder burns easily whenever needed. But there are other ways to do this, as you know. You can have a chanter summon wisps, and you can have them attack you. If you do this, wear Deltros' Helm (as Boeroer often suggests) to get a lightning lash for awhile. Your spell blade could also cast chill fog over him/herself. If you go with this route, you might want to take svef, to downgrade blinded to disoriented. But you'd still get the recovery time penalty. Not sure if it's worth it.

Keep in mind that if you select the bloodmage subclass, or have a way to generate the brilliant inspiration, you can renew resources, which for mages is a periodic regeneration of one used spell slot, at a random level if several slots are used. There is also a way to gain unlimited uses of spells per encounter. This is by stealing spells via the minor and major grimoire imprint spells. These can be made permanent if you cast the imprint spell from a grimoire, and then switch to a different grimoire without the spell before the encounter ends. It's somewhat cheesy, but works of you're so inclined.

I think you made a good choice. Fury is a tough sell for solo since it's cut off from most of the druid's healing spells. But fighter brings healing to the table, while Fury gives you a spell that blinds, which helps too.

Following in this vein, I would recommend a Corpse Eater/shifter if you are playing with the Balance Polishing mod. The buffs to forbidden food in this mod are great for Corpse Eaters, and it thematically fits very nicely. Shifter also has the best automatically learned spells IMO. Too bad you have to cast them before you shift.

Given this problem, it's probably best when doing a tempest to go with ancient or shifter, focusing on the decay, beast and plant spells for DOT, and ignore the lightning spells. If you really want to do a lightning fury tempest, I agree that the blood frenzy path would be better.

Oops, I'll correct that!

Especially if she casts combusting wounds before you unleash the beast fury.......

If I remember correctly, watershapers can't cast beast spells, so Teheku won't be able to pick up this spell. But Fassina could get it. She' a great addition as a sorcerer IMO.

I agree with Boeroer, and recommend prioritizing INT over STR. You'll be dishing out lots of afflictions, and will want them to last as long as possible. Also, if you're using WotEP, it'll make the cone larger, allowing you to potentially hit more enemies with each attack, and thus generate even more focus.

I agree. But Force of Anguish and Torment's Reach could be dropped. Both are inferior to the FF attack, which you'll be using whenever you can, as soon as the curse expires. But you should get Stunning Blow and the upgrade, as it's just a fantastic ability.

Based on past play thoughs, I'd say no. I believe that the DoT is only triggered by movement. When I play rogues, I usually take eye gouge as well. I'd recommend using it against stationary targets, since its DoT is unconditional.

Why don't you try one as an MC, and bring along the other as a custom hireling for your party? If you realize that the hireling's build is better you can always restart. It never hurts to have two shifters in a party IMO.