dgray62

Indeed! I wonder what's going on here, and if any one else has experienced this.

You can get all of the gems including pyrite through pickpocketing. If you have one character invest in max stealth and moderate sleight of hands you can get more pyrite than you'll ever need. The loaded pockets blessing increases the chance of getting better loot, but I think you can get gems without it.

IMO Nature Godlike is worth it if you use the BPM mod, as it provides a much needed boost to the godlikes. However, since I upgraded to a new computer a year ago I can no longer use BPM, as it for some reason crashes the game. For that reason, I typically go with the alternative @Boeroer recommended, a non-godlike race with Stone of Power.

I was playing this build today, and I noticed what might be a bug with Akola Apex Ward, which leads to super crazy weapon damage. My arcane knight landed a hit with his weapon (with eternal flames) that dealt 300 damage. This was pretty crazy since the weapon he was wielding was Last Word, which isn't exactly OP when it comes to damage. I checked the log and it turns out he did 245 piercing damage and 55 fire damage against a pestilent rotgast. Under damage, the log indicated +1400% due to Blood Rage. There was no corresponding boost to accuracy. I have no idea why Blood Rage is doing +1400% damage rather than +10%. I've had the shield for a while, and noticed that the damage was slowly increasing. It seems that the +10% is stacking. This may lead to insane damage eventually.

Very true. I used to rush to Neketaka to get it before I installed the no-rest runs mod.

As @Shai Hulud points out, it's a great combo with tremendous synergy. I'd recommend Whispers of the Endless paths prior to getting the lance; it works in similar manner but isn't quite as effective as the lance. Probably worth keeping in a weapon slot, however, in case your lance is ever dispelled.

Martial characters will also scale up their abilities. I've encountered monks with skyward kick, for example, on upscaled fights with Huana faction ships.

You could always go with blood mage (or another subclass) and just steal Fassina's summon familiar spell with the grimoire switching trick.

It might be easier just to download one of the mods that raises the level cap, as does this one. That way MC characters can use PL 8 abilities once they reach lvl 22, which actually isn't that too far along in the game. You can make it to about level 29 solo if you do all of the quests, bounties, etc. In a party, you can make it to about lvl 27 turn if you turn in quests with your party dismissed.

I've played skalds a lot and I have never encountered this bug. Do you not even get phrases from melee crits? Also, I was wondering, why psion/skald? It seems like a counter-intuitive combo since psion generally wants to avoid combat, while skalds are designed for it. Soulblade/skald would have a better fit IMO if you want to go melee, while a poison/troubadour caster is fantastic.

A cipher/druid gains focus from attacking while spirit shifted, since the claw attacks are considered weapon attacks. But a fury/soulblade wouldn't get concentration or increased max focus from attacks while shifted, since the storm blight's attacks are ranged.

There is a way to have both, if you're really into cheese. There's a nexus mod, TT2 Unique Items Enhanced, that adds a bunch of unique items to the inventory of the Wild Mare Inn in Neketaka, Queen's Berth. Some are of dubious value, like a Hand and Eye of Vecna, straight from D&D. One of them is the dagger "Skaen's Kiss," which has the lacerating/hemorrhaging properties, like Effort. So, if you install this mod, you can dual wield Sasha's in one hand and the dagger in the other, and get both crazy effects every time a spell or chant crits.

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

Thanks for checking on this! It makes that they wouldn't build focus or phrases. Which mod lets you play as a Stormspeaker?

What happens is all crits proc hemorraging, which, being a weapon effect, procs the HT's DoT and Avenging Storm, and anything with an attack roll that crits starts the series all over again. I don't believe that the ticks of HT's DoT proc this, but foes can get multiple stacks of it. As you've noted, it's a really crazy combo, even more with conduit! I wouldn't recommend a SC druid for solo, unless you have a reliable source of brilliant. You don't really need SoT or WoD if you have brilliant, since if you cast an empowered AS, if you recast it before the spell expires it will continue to be empowered. However, if you play with a mod allowing a higher level cap, a fury/bloodmage or fury/cipher MC would be absolutely devastating solo. Have you tried Effort with a Soul Blade? I wonder is the damage procced by Effort builds focus or gives you stacks of concentration. It would be great if it did!

Well, the nice thing about SC druids wielding effort and wearing Least Unstable Coil is casting an empowered Avenging Storm, preferably if you have the Accurate Empower feat, and also wearing Hylea's Talons or the Boltcatchers. Then you can cast greater maelstrom, Plague of Insects, Infestation of Maggots, Relentless Storm, Venombloom, etc. You'd want high PER and some ACC boosts through items and/or SoF shenanigans. That way every time one of your crazy array of pulsing spells crit (and they will crit often) you'll proc hemorrhaging via Effort and possible the DoT or lightning damage from the gloves and Avenging Storm, which will give you a new Tier 3 inspiration every time, and which may very well crit and start the cycle all over again. When playing against anything other than mega bosses you'll rapidly destroy your enemies in a crazy swirl of pulsing, lightning infused death. If you play a Fury druid with Far Casting, you can just absolutely decimate enemies from very long range with GM, and since they'll be hobbled by Effort they won't even get close to you before perishing. A SC druid with these items achieves god mode as soon as you hit level 16, by which point you could get all the needed items quite easily.

You might consider using her fist in the main hand and her lantern/small shield in her off hand. While this isn't optimal in terms of DPS, the lantern shield gives her greater survivability and the threshing aura is great for a party if you max her religion skill.

Ah, I see. In the past when I added potions to the AI they were usually at the bottom of this list. This would explain why the potion drinking animation was often interrupted by AI actions higher on the list. Thanks!

Regarding mods, @Elric Galad's Balanced Polishing Mod is quite popular. You can read about it at length here. It contains two mods, buffs and nerfs. You can just install the former if you just want to supercharge your game, or both to make it truly more balanced. As for other mods, such as those that change class or subclass abilities, that's really more a matter of personal preference. After playing for awhile I added a mod that raised the level cap, just to have more fun with MC builds while playing on PotD with the level scaling on. My favorite ranged build was @Not So Clever Hound's "Soul sniper" mindstalker build, but that's a gun build. For bows, one of the classic favorites is the Ascendant/Arcane archer wielding Frostseeker. There are lots of discussions of this build online; see for example this post. As for Berath's Blessings, I always take Bonus Attributes, Bonus Skills, Unique Item Vendor, Infamous Past, Loaded Pockets and Mythical Discovery. Loaded Pockets is really great if you have a character with high stealth and decent sleight of hand, as it gives you a chance to get extra loot when pickpocketing, including magical items (which is great early game) and gems, including high level gems once you reach about 10th level, including the rare Adra Ban and Sapphires, which are very scarce resources in the game. It's thus a skill which is always worth using.

Would you kindly share how you do this? I am a novice when it comes to AI scripting.

If you go with fighter/wizard you might consider tactician. A fun thing with tactician is you can get fighter resources back when you interrupt someone (with knockdown for example) casting a spell or activating an ability. Plus it's easy to proc brilliant with chillfog. Tactician is great if you like micro.

I don't use potions either, since the potion drinking animation is so slow, and is cancelled by the AI, requiring you to turn it off in order to use them. But if you're into this, you can get as many as you wish so long as you're into grinding.

There actually is an unlimited number if you're into grinding. You can get one potion of final stand (+2 of the best healing potions) as loot when attacking master level Valian ships, so long as you kill the captain quickly before he can use it. Monks are very good for this, since you can zap right over with Flagellant's Path and then permanently-stun with stunning surge.

A SC monk is fantastic against mobs due to WotW. However, as @masterty66 notes, monk/priest is also a great combo. It is particularly good against megabosses and other tough fights in the DLCs, and can handle mobs too although not as quickly as the SC monk. This is because a monk/priest is immortal (by prolonging Barring Death's Door with Salvation of Time) so long as you have a source of brilliant, which is also prolonged by SoT.

In the past I've used SoT to maintain a decent (but not insanely OP) lash. If you prefer a cheese free game, you'd need to self regularly, which may be more hassle than it is worth IMO.