brasilgringo

Yeh, I think they could have it give you some extra buffs but not too much to outweigh being able to avoid bonded grief. For me, the micro of the animal companion (I think you have to tell it to attack?) plus the fact that it dies very quickly (IMHO) makes the class less fun to play. You can go Ghost Heart for sure, but then you miss the goodies like Arcane Archer (welcome to the goodie room, this is where the job gets fun). Even if the talent just let you avoid bonded grief, maybe that's enough.

1) Have dex afliction immunity item, this is critical - there are boots from the DLC boat, i used those. 2) I possitioned myself at the entrance, the small spiders got in between the boss and me, i let those alive whole fight to ensure i couldnt be melee hit by the boss 3) buff myself, and keep draining wall up, make sure it hits as many targets as possible (this way you will have all the buffs forever), make sure you have undying, with unending duration it will stack and stac kand it will heal for 200+hp per tick 4) kill about 100 of the small spiders to get 100 debuffs on the boss, just make sure you dont touch those infront of the boss. I used draining missiles and sometimes chillfog 5) after i had the stacks i used the draining missiles to kill the boss. I didnt bother with other spells and played it safe. Use only Draining missiles and draining wawe to keep it up. The missiles have huge range, so you are safe from the boss. You cant use the beam spells, because you would hit the small spiders. Freezing pillar has too short range and it would probably hit the spiders too. Man, what an *amazing* strategy! Thanks!!! Nailed it on first try. The "Wall of Draining" plus Unbending/Safeguard is amazing. I didn't know that. I also played it safe but stood close enough to throw in some beams. Album showing the amazing stats you get from wall of draining, on Llengrath's Safeguard and Unbending: https://imgur.com/a/ZYpn6mN Thanks again!

What was the rest of your Belranga strategy? I figure I will stack Dex affliction resistance items (Gywin's Bridal, Engwithian Bracers, Fighter talent) and try to keep some spiders between her and my toon. But after that?

How about a talent pick that let's you remove the pet...

Wondering if this can be done by Tactician/Bloodmage maybe using: 1) Dexterious Alacrity of Motion (to run fast) 2) Chillfog because I think he can be flanked so you get Brilliant 3) Those boots from BoW that leave hobble trail / dmg 4) Essence Interrupter, Revku cloak, and other already-demonstrated gear tips ... Issue is probably it would take *forever* if you can stay alive.

Single-class Priest of Magran using +PL fire items (Sun And Moon, Magran's Favor, Ring of Focused Flame, Kuaru's Prize, Pozzi cat (https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pozzi) or the AOE/dmg pets (Peter - https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Peter), etc. Stack stats like Might (spell dmg & healz), Int, Per .... you can BDD yourself, add Salvation of Time, and run in to nuke ....stack other PL items like Nature Godlike (buff yourself), the Priest spell that gives +1 PL, and Prestige talent. The hard things about Priest nukers: 1) Spell cast times are soooooo sloooooooow even with dex, fast casting talent, etc. 2) Ref the Magran Priest, if you run into fire-immunes you're kind of SoL and need to go back to support Priesting .... (there's a Rymgrand vairant that I don't think has been released yet, but you can mod it, focused on Cold)

i take it he doesn't and it's not worth the fight, if you can resolve peacefully?

So you trigger Wild Barrage with Kitchen Stove and then switch to Watershaper Focus? And the effect carries over? I thought it was only with Kitchen Stove, who knew? Cool.

On a not-quite-megaboss topic, I'm taking my solo POTD Tactician/Bloodmage thru Forgotten Sanctum and I've really hit a roadblock on the first Oracle fight. The Oracle itself is immune to flank so I keep running out of resources since I can't get Brilliant. I'm blowing all my spells basically taking down the helper mobs and then it's hard to stay alive 1v1 vs the Oracle boss. My melee attacks on him basically do nothing (with sun-n-moon). I've tried loading up on 10 heal pots, but I chug thru them. I've tried Plague of Insect scrolls but they don't seem to interrupt him. Dampner seems to do nothing on him. Nor does Crushing Doom from what I can see. Should I be using other scrolls / spells? His beam attacks just start wearing me down, and the one that makes your heath bar disappear is really tough. Tips appreciated! EDIT: So as confirmed with VictorCreed/RavenDarkhome and tested myself, you can use a scroll of withdrawal after killing the helper mobs and reset the fight so it's only you vs the Oracle. At that point, with a stack of heal pots, you can cast Conc Crushing Doom on him repeatedly (using Blood Mage to reset the spell slot, and heal pots to keep from dying from the damage and Oracle's damage....) ... throwing in things like combusting wounds, scrolls of plague of insects / earth's embrace, and maybe using Concelhaut pet for extra Doom PL level. It takes a bit of luck but you can get it down. Pro-tip: having concelhaut and nemnok in your packs makes for some fun dialog choices in FS. Thx

So I posted an album of pics of my stats and gear and talents for solo POTD Tactician/BloodMage at 20: https://imgur.com/a/s5broOf (as noted by Boeroer, this build is largely based on the one Victor Creed / Raven Darkholme streamed on Youtube and twitch, though I had to fill in some gaps). Starting stats were 15/8/18/13/18/3 -- Pale Elf (for +4 AR fire/cold), Deadfire Archepelago (+1 Dex in the stats), and Hunter (+1 mech/suvival/alchemy) I started off with points in Bluff (till about 12) and Mechanics, with a few in stealth/ath, and then respecc'd into Mechanics/Stealth/Ath and Metaphysics and a bit in survival. You can see the stat spread in the album. I also pushed Arcana to 8 to use some key scrolls including Plague of Insects. Also using various permanent stat bonuses as described here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/101300-guide-permanent-bonuses-approach-for-a-no-rest-run/ -- Sagani blood pool sacrifice (+1 Per. +2 acc > 4m) -- Infamous Captain (I got a mutiny early on) -- Gift of the Machine (+1 Might, +5% health) -- Savage Cunning (+1 Per, +2 survival) And then I ultimately loaded up on the remaining no-rest bonuses as described on the link above. Mid-levels were a bit weak and I frankly shoudl have learned how to do ship combat to get Gipon Prudensco earlier (vs. Boarding, since the fight is lvl 19). I used Squid's Grasp early on for a long time (bought it at Treasure Trove in Dunnage using my BB money). For spells, I largely tried to use grimoires to free up power pics -- I'm carrying around Ninagauth's Teachings (my main damage dealer) and Llen Martial Masteries (for buffing)... Some spells I took and barely use, like Wizard's Double and Arduos Delay of Motion. I took Concelhaut Draining Touch just to use it before summoning Phantasm, but I barely use it. I took Maura's Tentacles just because I saw Victor Creed using them to heal in a fight (hitting them with Draining Missiles from Iron-Clasped Grim). I probably could have taken fewer of these spells and instead gone up a tier in fighter abilities to Refreshing Defense and Unbending Trunk -- I figured I had enough resources to keep clicking Vigorous Defense myself, but it's annoying (only lasts about 30 secs). I did take Fearless in the fighter tree because being feared really annoys me and I wasn't sure that Captain's Banquet (my perma food buff) gives immunity to it -- they're resolve afflictions and Cap Banq does Intellect/Percep/Resolve, so I'll likely respec this out into the one vs. dexterity afflictions (getting paralyzed sucks). I need to go respec. I'll probably dump Charge too -- I got it mainly for combat mobility once I went no-rest and Gipon (vs. Squid's Grasp's 1/rest teleport), but frankly in the battles if I need to move around, I probably planned badly and will die anyway. I may well dump the Arduous Delay debuff as well. Not sure what else to pick up. The only fights that have been really hard are ones where I can't flank all mobs, either the because the game considers some in combat that don't show / come to me, or they are flank immune. Well, that and some magic-mobs that dampener me and then hit with paralyzes etc. I found Plague of Insects really helpful in amping dps vs. those tougher mobs as noted in my other post, like Eoten Dwellers and Ancient Lich Battlemage. Fampyr Cave was really easy. Only hard part of Splintered Reef was the Sea-Lashed Crypt entrance area with TONS of mobs that ultimately were paralyzing me (I think because of Dampener). Gonna run thru BoW and FS and see how it goes. Final thoughts for now: 1) on POTD, the accuracy penalty from large sheild (Cadhu Scalth) and Tactician penalty for a mob not being attacked by an ally (Phantasm acounts) gives a total of -13 acc, which is material esp vs boss-level targets. Even casting Phantasm you're still at -8 using the shield. I need to figure out more +acc items. 2) Swapping out pets / gear for specific fights also really helps - like for Jadaferlas fight to stack +AR for fire and fire-to-health items. As does running / splitting where you can. 3) I only self-buffed with Red hand to 10% damage taken/received as I was afraid that 20% received would be too much. But I think I should probably go all in.

Hey thanks, I found out Victors stat spread by watching his video and gameplay. It actually differs a tiny bit from yours. MIG: 15 (17) CON: 8 (10) DEX: 20 (22) PER: 14 (16) INT: 18 (20) RES: 3 (5) I'm rewatching his stream for some tactics and stuff. It starts at 02:43:35 I'll go back and check. I think there were only little differences related to starting +1 buffs. Some of it had to do with my knowing I would start with Sagani blood-pool sacrifice bonus (not sure he did), as well as Gift of the Machine. I also got the Savage Cunning buff from Gawain's quest (you don't fight the Kraken).

Fun fact: Victor Creed (youtube) was casting Maura's Tentacles and then using them to heal himself by shooting the tentacles with C's Draining Missiles. Now, he was doing this "out" of combat area (it was on Sigilmaster fight, who doesn't follow you), but it was a neat trick. The downside is you either need a grimoire to switch to that has the tentacles or you have to take it as a power pick. You also obvioulsy need to pick up C's Iron-Clasped Grimoire.

I agree and had a similar experience. It also may have had to do with which of the convo options I chose with Gawain after getting to the surface. I think I got it after the more subservient convo options, and didn't after the more snarky wheres-my-reward options, but I can't be sure. I know I didn't see it at first, reloaded a save before exiting Cignath Mor, and then chose the more subservient convo options and seemed to get it.

RES is absolute trash. Dump it. I posted my starting and lvl 20 stats for Tactician/BloodMage in the other Theorycrafting thread, FYI.

I think Kaylon stayed at range on a herald for 30mins using Essence Int bow shock damage while his skeletons kept the boss occupied in melee.

I'm doing a solo POTD thing.

One thing I'm noticing is that flank-immune enemies like Eoten Dwellers are really messing up my Tactician / Blood Mage, as in large groups (like Nemnok lair) the whole map gets aggro'd on pull and so many mobs come that I run out of resources before I can kill the Eotens, since they prevent me from getting Brilliant and are tough to take down (I think they self buff and heal). Pretty frustrated at the moment.

I aggro any mob on the Nemnok lower level, i literally get ALL the mobs swarming to me. Same for Flooded Cave - aggro one mob near the entrance, ALL the mobs come running from across the map even corners I can't see. Is this working as intended?

Nicely done, rat. How did you manage to kill Aterio so early (you were level ?

The nerd commando video literally felt like he read the class description and maybe spawned it with the console and threw a build together for clicks on YouTube

I posted my experiences so far with Tactician/BloodMage in the Theorycrafting thread, earlier today. It'll probably get nerfed, because the devs will likely say they didn't want people using Brilliant to create infinite resources with a level 1 spell like Chill Fog, but enjoy it for now

So I've been running a Tactian/BloodMage "the hard way" -- leveling up with no console -- solo, and here are some initial quick impressions: When you can trigger Brilliant and get your infinite class resources, the build is very powerful. However, it's not about "Big Numbers" so much -- it's about whittling away recasting spells like Chillfog, Combusting Wounds, Wall of Fire, Ninagauth's Shadow Flame, Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar, etc. I went Pale Elf for the +4 AR to fire/cold. May be able to post stats etc. later. Dumped resolve to start and now it sits at 12 after gear and no-rest buffs. My out-of-combat stats at 20 are 21/13/24/22/24/12. They started as 15/8/18/13/18/3 before BB. I went with a custom history that let me sacrifice Sagani to blood pool for accuracy and Per bonus. Also got Gift of Machine to buff strength/health and also the Gawain's buff from Cignath Mor which is pretty awesome (you don't get to fight the Kraken, but not important on a solo build that doesn't need Mask of Grotto Deep or the Kraken Eye). I think the Gawain buff used to be bugged but it works for me (Savage Cunning +1 Perception, +2 survival). It starts powerful even on Port Maje due to Chill Fog and the damage it does at low levels. There were some fights I skipped even on Veteran to start, including the drakes/boars at the digsite. Maybe I could have done them, just wanted to move on frankly. Early levels went by fast following a lot of the no-combat run tips (exploring map, Benwith no-combat resolution (bomb in piano), etc.). I switched to POTD only after getting all the no-rest buffs, which I did really late (like level 18+) and frankly POTD has been largely easier so far on the fights i've done. Jadaferlas on POTD was pretty easy at 20 with +fire AR items, Revku's cloak and the other Revku gear, and the no-rest buffs. The key was keeping his magma oozes in front of him so he could't reach me. The issue was my Accuracy (I didn't want to enter melee to hit him with -Reflex flail) which was hurt by not being able to stick a Phantasm on him (no room or died too quick) to avoid the -5 Tactician debuff, and using a large shield. I switched to small shield and tried some items like nature's mark scroll and perfect aim scroll, and he went down faster. Not having to enter melee with him meant I could avoid his wounding bite attack, so it was just time -- which I had, due to infinite resources from Brilliant. Done on 2nd try only because i let him bite me (stood to close for cutscene) on first try, meaning I got a 2nd wound (had one already) and I didn't want to have to remove the wounds and get them again. Concelhaut and his pals were pretty easy because by that point I had the Sigil stones active and could just bascially run up, chillfog them all so they closed to closer range, and then start unleashing perma-resources on them (just had to keep Arcane Reflection up). Slicken is amazing in this fight, it rag-dolls them all. Done first try. Facetanking the lot of them was incredibly satisfying. Ironically the ground-floor foes at the Observatory were harder, largely because it's tougher to make sure you actually get *all* of them to come to you to be chillfogged -- and if you don't, you lose Brilliant. Also the Ogres and other mobs that enter from the closed door mid-fight make things harder. It always came down to 2 orges and a Myrmidon. I had to redo this at least 1 time. Grimoire swtching is a drag. But it frees up so many power pics. I ended up respeccing to use Martial Masteries to self-buff (Infuse, Alacrity, Safeguard, Bulwark vs. Elements when needed), Ninagauth's as main damage dealer. I picked up Iron-Clasped from Concelhaut, but not sure if I'll use. I took Tentacles so I can heal off them with Concelhaut spells if needed. Hats off to Victor Creed (YouTube) for his streams on this build. I wish he'd actually posted his build though. I kept having to try to figure it out. I used Squid's Grasp from VERY EARLY (enough $$ to get it from Berath's Blessings) and only got Gipon later like 18+, it was a hard fight on Veteran early but easy on POTD later. Patinated Plate can be stolen (I stole it using leap boots and thief's putty / burglar gloves) and made things much easier mid-game especially with the upgrade for action speed. I made Gipon Prudensco mythic using the Berath's Blessing stone, but I almost wanted to do it with Patinated Plate given the speed buffs from wizard and the tankiness. Worst fight was the first room of Nagas at Koponga Fang (for Revku cloak) - it's hard to group them, and it took me a while to figure out that fire damage actually *heals* them. When I couldn't group them to flank with chillfog, I lost Brilliant and ran out of resources and died. That's basically the story of the build. I need to figure out some accuracy buffs maybe. I can't seem to find a scroll to make that does it, though some buff perception. I respec'd at least 3-4 times along the way -- started with Bluff and Mechanics and only switched into Athletics (10pts) and Metaphysics (20pts) late game after getting Cadhu Scalth (used Magran's Fire shield early). I'm wondering if Nerian's Ward is a better option but everyone seems to say Cadhu is the best even with accuracy penalty ("malus"). Heading to Splintered Reef right now to see how that goes. More later as I see it. UPDATE: the encounter at Sea-Lashed Crypt, with about a million mobs, was a lot easier than on prev builds. Spell-shaping large area chill fogs and Slickens is key here - both help keep the mobs locked down. What I noticed killing me 1-2 times when I got ****y, with only 4-5 fampyrs remaining, was some sort of Petryfying spell attack. If I remembered to keep casting Arcane Reflection, I didn't have a problem. But with low fort, if I let up the Arcane Reflection and slickens, they would inevitably paralyze me and I would go down. Still, it was way easier than ever before - I think on my 3rd try I used 1 major healing potion and 1 moonwell scroll, and that was about it. I'm running with perma Captains Banquet but I should have tried to dig up some resistance to dexterity affliction gear I guess. Update: Just face-tanked the Fampyr Cave which was a fun change, first try. However the Flooded Cave mobs have killed me 2x due, I think, to buffs from the War Caller chanters and for some reason my not being able to flank/blind the Ancient Lich Battlemage - I keep running out of resources. Will try fresh again later. Update: Nemnok's Lair: Eoten Dwellers are tough, as they are immune to Flank -- so unless I can kill them quick, I run out of resources. And I can't seem to do enough damage with spells to take them down (they are chanters or something and self-heal afaik).. Need to figure out a better strategy than my current of smacking them with a flail (to lower reflex) and trying to nuke them down before running out of resources. Using a lot of Blood Mage spell recovery in groups of them (2-3 per group) and even some heal potions Lower level with Nemnok himself is proving really hard -- can't figure out how to pull only a small group, once I aggro a mob literally every mob on the level comes for me. There are 2 eoten dwellers that I can't flank, so no Brilliant - and then ... i run out of resources and die. Also have to chug a ton of healing potions to try to make it through. Open to suggestions. UPDATE: I finally managed to beat the level with Nemnok himself by loading up on heal potions and using scrolls of Insect Swarm (large radius) -- this gave me enough duration and extra damage to last through killing the Eoten Dwellers, at which point I could get Brilliant again (since they are Flank immune). The battle ended up as me vs. Nemnok, and it wasn't that easy -- it took a while, even trying to flank him with Phantom and chill fog. I saved a level to try this again later. I keep getting dampenered at the start of the fight and some time during it - even though I have Arcane Reflection up. Makes it harder. Anyway, I did finally beat it - but I want to go back and try again. UPDATE: i just saw on Raven Darkhome's twitch that going invisible at the start of the Nemnok-level fight makes up to half the mobs run away, including Eoten Dweller. Sure would have been nice to know this at the time, as I ended up pulling every mob in the place and had to reload a bunch to finally make it thru. Leaving this here in case someone reads it in future. Note in his Twitch he went invis with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, but I'd imagine rogue powers or potions work. Off to try FS or BoW now. Leveling up is kind of a drag and using the console is more fun to me, I think. That way I can start with the gear and test the build at 20 on the harder fights. Shrug.

Ze scolls, they do nothing!

Derrio tried to pet it ... that's how he lost the use of his legs (though magically they work if you toss sparkcrackers in the room, but that's another story).

Class Penalty: Unable to run (-25% Stride), can only be a Walker.