Marigoldran

But most of those spells hit your allies too. Also aggros like crazy. And Ciphers can cast their 5 top spells reliably within 7 seconds of fight start AND they can do that again shortly thereafter. Granted, Bloodmages get spells back, but Ciphers get their spells back by doing damage to OTHER people instead of themselves. But to go back on topic: Druid: Great Maelstorm. That spell is OP.

You missed Helwalker/Ascendant. But to mention that would be off-topic to this thread, like your post above, wouldn't it?

Whispers of the Wind doesn't care about armor recovery. That's part of the reason why it's so OP. Get 5 wounds. Bam! Whispers of the Wind. That aggros enemies. They attack your monk. By the time he's recovered, he's got 5 wounds again. Then another Whispers of the Wind. Furthermore, with your 30 Con and 16 armor you can take a whaling (which will also give you wounds for more Tenacious Blows, Resonant Touches, and Whispers of the Wind).

+10 might from Helwalker. +10 Con from Iron Wheel +4 Might from Tenacious Blows. Start with 20 Con and 18 might, add in some item or food that provides might and there you have it. You don't even need to max might if you can get enough items to boost might, saving points for Per. Dump Res so you can keep Per reasonable like 14-16 or something. Int at 10 or maybe even 9. Dex at 10.

1. Heralds because they can solo most of the game. 2. Helwalker/Ascendant. Amplified waves do mass damage and mass prone. You can spam them once you ascend and Helwalker increases both damage and range of Amplified Waves and time of ascension. Mind blades and Echoplastic Echo are high damaging early game spells. Disintegrates massacre bosses (and you only need to hit once to get its effect). Arguably one of the top Damage builds in the game. 3. 30 Con 35 Might Dwarf Helwalker Monks in heavy armor with Whispers of the Wind. They're a tank with 16 armor that does lots and lots of damage.

Ciphers can do everything wizards can do, but better as Cipher damage spells are Foe Only.

Driving Echoes from a Cipher provides +8 pen.

Go Lifegiver, single class. Moonwells and the free potions for everyone spell are the two best healing spells in the game. Their PL 9 spells also do SIGNIFICANT damage.

Ranged: Helwalker/Ascendant. Tank: Herald (Paladin/Troubadour). Healer: Lifegiver Druid Magic: Single Class Ascendant Cipher for Driving Echoes and more Amplified Waves Melee DPS: High Con, single class Helwalker Monk (you'll need the Con to stay alive. helwalker guarantees you'll have more then enough might to do massive damage). Strategy: Keep ciphers alive until they ascend (within 10 seconds of fight start). Spam amplified waves Win. Not only are you doing massive foe only AOE damage with amplified waves, you're also proning the enemies. This means the enemies never get to do anything once your ciphers ascend, until they're dead. Also, with a single class cipher in the party, you can also give Driving Echoes to your Helwalker Cipher and Druid, giving their spells +8 pen. Your "healer" is suddenly a nuker with Great Maelstorm. Furthermore, to generate focus for the pure cipher, you can give your monk Reaping Knives.

How about... Berserker monks? (getting healed by a herald?)

Summon ancient weapons and cast reaping knives on them.

"You summon a bunch of things. Enemy kills them." Happens a lot, right? As a Beckoner, you sit there and get whacked as you wait for your phrases to build up. As a Troubadour, you can immediately summon again because your phrases are so short.

Damn.

Wiz/Druid.

Yes or no? Thinking of playing Emperor Palpatine.

Amplified Waves and Mind Blades (early game). Disintegrate is one of the highest single target (spammable) DPS spells in the game. Unlike other DPS spells, it continues on and on with only a single cast. Heck, even you agree Echoplastic echo is one of the most OP spells out there.

Yeah, but that's a solo build. If you're going to summon imps with Gravecaller, just play pure barb or barb/monk or barb/paladin and have someone else be the chanter. Heralds are better than barb/chanter (unless you're doing the Gravecaller thing). They synergize better as chanter doesn't bring much to a barb since chanters are all about passive abilities and summons, whereas barbs are for active abilities.

Helwalker/Ascendant Heath Orlan. Essence Interrupter. Hunting Bow Modal and Dance of Death. One of the top DPS builds in the game. Monks synergize better with Ascendant than almost anything else as the Turning Wheel +10 int bonus boosts Ascend, Echoplastic Echo, and Disintegrate times. You can easily hit 35 int and 30+ might with this multiclass for 75 second ascensions!

Ascendant Ciphers deserves a mention. Slightly below Heralds but above Wizards. The ability to spam PL 6-9 spells non-stop for a minute or longer? Please. Amplified Waves clear rooms and Disintegrates massacre bosses and Echoplastic Echo and Mind Blades are two of the highest damaging low-level abilities in the game. Multiclass with any other DPS class (especially Helwalker Monk) and you'll ascend within seconds of fight start. Also, all of their damage spells are Foe Only, which is a huge edge over most Wiz spells.

Heralds are by far the easiest class to solo with. They're also one of the two-three classes that can solo megabosses. With the Cadhu shield, large shield modal, high metaphysics and athletics, Patinated Plate heavy armor, Squid's Grasp rapier (can't be flanked) auto-heals, Stoic Steel, armor aura, and healing chants, it simply doesn't die.

Essence Interrupter. Helwalker/Ascendant. It DISINTEGRATES things.

Steel Garrote primarily works multiclassing with another high damage melee class like barb or rogue so they can do the damage to get the healing.

That's because Druids are unusually good vs boars.

If you're soloing, heralds are simply better later on. Unlike Druids, with the right build they can tank EVERYTHING. They have 20-30 more defenses than druid and automatic self-heals that cost no resources and have an extra +4-6 armor. In a team that's not as important but if you're soloing it's super important.

Does it have to be single class? Helwalker goes really really well with Ascendant Cipher. Get the weapon Essence Interrupter, and Dance of Death, and use the Hunting Bow module (where you'll be shooting once every 1.7 seconds) and you'll consistently pump out so much damage it's easy win. If you don't have Berath's Blessings, then Blunderbusses will do the job.