Not So Clever Hound

Ah it's interesting. For example you could start encounter, cast e.g. Tactical Barrage, then switch to e.g. Duskfall with Drawing Parry (+15 Deflection at fight start), which would only start then and last longer because of INT and PL buff (vs. having it already in your hands at the start of the fight).

Hi folks, Apologies if this is already well known, but definitely not by me. If your game is RTwP, approaching enemies from stealth and very quickly unstealthing/stealthing with the Alt key starts combat but keeps you stealthed. So more or less the same thing as the "trap trick" used by some in The Ultimate, but without any hassle. So if you're a Troubadour/Psion/Nalpazca or whatever, you will automatically start generating resources, if you're an Assassin/Something you will have access to combat-only openers while keeping Assassinate. If you want to summon while staying out of enemies' sight (e.g. Psion/Troubadour with summons + pain link) you can keep the fight going without ever going out of stealth - as with the trap trick. Of course, it's even better with Berath's Challenge on (combat doesn't end). In the video I posted below, it's even a bit more weird (I didn't have Berath Challenge on): I approach enemies > unstealth/stealth with the Alt key > combat starts while I'm stealthed > I wait until having 7 phrases to cast Animated Weapons > just at this time the encounter resets and summons disappear > encounter starts again while I'm still stealthed and back at 6 phrases > at 7 phrases I cast Animated Weapons and this time the fight goes on > I just walk away still stealthed > animated weapons wreak havoc until duration ends > encounter stops > of course i'm still stealthed so I can rinse & repeat.

The STR inspiration upgrade comes as default with the weapon. You can get energized as a SC Wizard, that’s how I tested your find. No need to have a soulbound eligible class.

You don’t need to soulbound the item to have the strength inspiration upgrade. Just equip it. Exactly. Edit: you can also use SoT or WoD for example in poko kohara exterior you have several places where you can destroy a barrel and fight lots of easy/drainable enemies at the same time.

This has to warrant a build . I really like this new way of getting Energized for anyone super easily. Before I would use Resounding Call + Slayer's Claw, but I personally don't often go into the Vault in the Bardatto/Valera quest so I often miss out on this possibility later. Now you don't have to. Sorcerer might officially become the best interrupter in the game. Sure a Troubadour with "Thick Grew Their Tongue" is awesome but... layers upon layers of Chill Fogs, Wicked Briars, Malignant Cloud, Venombloom, Freezing Pillar, Wall of Draining (!) plus Returning and Relentless Storm..!

I think this is also why Unbending doesn't proc from things like Berserker frenzy, DAoM etc. it only procs from incoming attack damage. But I don't think it's about having a hit roll or not, because AFAIK Thrust of Tattered Veil, Minor Missiles or a Grub's Crush attack will trigger Unbending and they're unerring - they don't have a roll.

This is really nice because anyone (in particular casters) can very easily get an extendable Strong from Frenzy (Lover's Quarel) on Lover's Embrace, right at the beginning of a fight. Then do a couple weapon switches and you're instantly Energized! And all your pulsing AoEs will interrupt on crit, on top of getting +2 PEN. This is amazing.

Nice find/testing about Obfuscation! Shadow Form prolonged by SoF is a known tool for sneaking around particularly for The Ultimate. Personally I like it on a solo Char with very strong single target DMG because it can turn you into a mini Assassin: you can start encounter > obliterate an enemy > turn invisible and run away > reset encounter > repeat. Can help you punch above your level in terms of doing the bounties. Obfuscation/Eye of Wael seems more useful, but is more of a pain to use practically. But if you want to permanently extend it on a Summoner with SoF, it's very good indeed. Like a SC Beckoner who can purely rely on summons to get things done. (yay, 8xmini animated weapons with 2xFoD, 2xarcane assault, 2xknockdown, and 2xwounding shots). That said, if you want to summon in peace at the beginning of a rough fight without getting completely wrecked (e.g. when doing something like Trial of the Nagas in SSS where half the map rushes to murder you with certain enemies at 150 ACC and all have Interrupt, Enfeeble etc...) then you can just gulp a potion of invisibility right at the beginning > summon > gulp another potion and do something impactful. etc. With the right sequence, timing, placement, it works. and no need for SoF.

Of note, if the Troubadour is ranged and uses Blightheart, this might change a bit the picture in their favor. As @Exanos had explained in another thread, Blightheart can get phrases from enemy kills, especially if they start with Sasha set > empower Eld Nary > switch to Blightheart and reap the rewards of Eld Nary kills to chain cast Her Revenge or another Eld Nary or whatever.

That's right! I somehow overlooked that part (although I thought I did thoroughly read your post) and (re)discovered it on my own... oops. I guess I should spend less time playing Deadfire and more time reading through the posts... Or should I?

Just a cool thing that I discovered with this Empowered Fury toon: the absolute best resting bonus for this kind of build is: Tikawara - Ocean's Song: +3 Intellect AND Attacks interrupt with Empowered attack!!! Overlapping, interrupting, empowered Great Maelstroms are not to be trifled with, as a number of Fampyrs, Darguls etc. just found out.

1) As @thelee suspected, Magran's Blessing is a buff you get if you ally yourself with the Rathun during "he waits in fire", before going to the lair of the ancient. The rathun priest bestows a +2 Burn AR blessing upon you. not game breaking, but I do like to hoard permabuffs . 2) For leveling, there is a bit of flex I think in terms of what to take exactly at each level. the key abilities at the beginning are the following. Respec when no longer needed or better alternative available. Chant: Soft Winds of Death then Ancient Memory when available, ultimately Many Lives Buffs: critical are Infuse with VE, Arcane Veil (to survive initial onslaught) then Deleterious Alacrity, Eldricht Aim. Summons for distraction: Skellies asap, then Ogres asap, then Animated Weapons Offense: super early, Chillfog & Concelhaut staff or Essence Interrupter can be a great option, then keep taking abilities that tick/pulse to synergize with Combusting Wounds (e.g. Ray of Fire, wall of flames, missile spells, then of course bitter mooring and freezing pillar are MVPs). Basically you can keep applying the basic strategy: buff to survive + distract with summons ASAP then pummel with reach weapon or ranged abilities until everyone is dead. Often, placement and timing will be very important, especially on which terms you start a fight, but it's easier to figure out when actually playing . As often with a solo char, playing certain parts of Port Maje on PotD is a bit of a pain then it gets a lot better very fast. It's totally doable but in case you don't want to suffer too much you can use stealth in tough places, or wait until after Maje to crank up the difficulty, or hire temporary help... there are always options.

I'm not sure... Auranic for example will run out of spells until she's Brilliant. Not sure about non-Kith enemies like Concelhaut etc. I usually try to eliminate them BEFORE they run out of spells . EDIT: Silly me just remembered a previous long Concelhaut fight and he did run out of spells - at least the higher level ones.

Persistent Distraction alone unlocks Deathblows, right? Because all PER afflictions cause Flanked on top.

One way to trick the Wizard into doing that would be to interrupt every spell cast that is not what you want them to cast. Ultimately and with a bit of luck, the wizard should cycle to Temporal Cocoon... But I fear that Concelhaut for example would gladly try to cast 2 Wilting Winds before resorting to Cocoon, then he'd be out of Tier8 spells.....

Speaking of untargetability, I had a funny thing happen to me in Splintered Reef the other day. I think one of the Fampyrs had a wall of draining active on some of my summons and then activated Shadow Leap - which gives untargetability for a very limited time. Because of what I assume was WoD boosting the duration, the fampyr ended up with 50s of Shadow Leap untargetability... so I had to wait for it to wear off before I could finally end him. After having broken the game in small pieces with a SC Assassin under perma-Vanishing Strike, I did appreciate that the game gave me a taste of my own medicine .

I just tested to be 100% sure and yes it is implemented the same way: so Might Immunes will get the full effect including the Stunned-like effect (which is uniquely called "Stasis Shell" in game). Actually Constentin just explained it in this thread, lol.

It seems to be implemented as a different effect than Paralysis even if the spell description says otherwise: If you cast Cocoon with e.g. Sandals of Waterlily on, you still can't move but the red message that appears on top of the char isn't "Paralyzed" it's "Temporal Cocoon".

I've just played around with your Temporal Cocoon trick and indeed it is so easy to pull off. Amazing find. As if SC Blood Mage needed more power lol! Now you can zap around the battlefield with Shadowing Beyond, chain casting Crushing Doom on everyone, being immortal AND permanently untargetable. Maybe also with a permanent 100,000% Deltro lash for good measure.

Good to see you around @Raven Darkholme

My first reaction @Constentin Lévine is that I love how your mind works to come up with that and all the recent posts . You seem adept at emerging gameplay, or whatever name is in use now to designate something new, fun, powerful and unexpected.

I think this happens when you target an enemy with spell reflection on? But yeah I think Nemnok and (funnily enough) some random Sigils managed to kill me with my own bean a few times. My experience is that it's about reflection.

CHILLING TUNES Class: Troubadour / Blood Mage Concept: Pure caster that uses starting invisibility and hoards of summons as distraction to cast in peace and is optimized around a seemingly small but actually awesome synergy: Animated Weapons are immune to Freeze DMG while Blood Mage has loads of outstanding Friend-or-Foe Freeze Spells. Optimized for a No-Rest run. Game Version: RTwP. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). Upscaled PotD Solo Viable: Yes. Companion: I don’t think so. Chilling Tunes is a solo Watcher. As always, this is going to be a somewhat long post so please bear with me. I’ll explain briefly why I think this toon is interesting and illustrate how it comes together with some videos, then go over the key stats, equipment and abilities. -----INTRO------ I know this sounds corny but… This build is actually one of the most powerful I’ve soloed, especially considering it’s a multi Blood Mage that doesn’t use Wall of Draining at all. I started from the not-so-small synergy that Animated Weapons (PL7 Chanter invocation) is an amazing distraction, especially coupled with waves of Many Lives Pass By (PL7 Chant) but at the same time, the Weapons are immune to Freeze DMG, which is incidentally among the top damage spells of a Wizard, those being however balanced out by not being foe-only… so you could easily kill any friendly summons with those crazy pulsing/ray freeze spells… unless they’re immune to it! Yay, a faint smell of synergy! From there I built around this ability while trying to maximize the core awesomeness of Blood Mage with abilities and grimoires, and picking the most useful Chanter stuff along the way. While tying it all up together with equipment choice for different situations. The result has been very satisfying. Here are some of the most impactful choices: Brilliant Departure + Summoning will keep almost everyone off your back for entire fights. Sometimes you’ll have to reposition or be careful with certain enemy archetypes; but with Deleterious Alacrity, you’re immune to engagement and Blinded enemies are slow. Crusted Swordfish as food is great for +2 Spell PEN, which Makes Chillfog great again for damage. (#makechillfoggreatagain, #butitwasalwaysgreat). Also especially because Chillfog causes flanked, i.e. -1AR so you can get an actual PEN of 10.5 or 11 at night with Sun & Moon. Other spells just get even better. Even if it doesn’t seem that way, we’re packing a ton of regen, so Blood Sacrifice is always on the table but rarely needed... that being said, Draining Missiles + Blood Sacrifice + Crushing Doom + infinite summons is as often how we nullify the challenge of certain boss encounters. Most of our everyday offense (Chill Fog, Freezing Pillar, Bitter Mooring, Shadowflame and many others) get +10 ACC from Helm of the White Void on ALL their rolls (damage AND afflictions). The significance of free ACC is never lost on Upscaled PotD. In certain situations, I also liked using all the pulsing mayhem with Their Champion... Energized invocation for perma-interruption apocalypse. However, it it is less impactful on Upscaled PotD than any other difficulty, because, well, as much as you crit, it occurs less often. We most often wield Lover's Embrace with Lover's Quarrel enchant because it gives us one or more almost guaranteed Frenzy every encounter. So we're speedy! Here are 2 videos that illustrate the gameplay loop somehow (illustrative, not optimal amazing gameplay, just to set expectations). Video 1 is the bar fight in Splintered Reef not because it’s challenging, but because it’s easy to make it clear. Also slowed down on the shortcuts etc. to make it clearer. Video 2 is in the SSS arena, against Maerwald etc. I wanted to post it because while this fight isn’t very challenging, I messed up A LOT in this encounter and although I made bad mistakes I still came out on top, so you can see in a way the resilience of the build when stupid-me plays. -----SPECS------ Race: Pale Elf (Whatever, Cold AR and +PER are sweet) Background: The White that Wends – Hunter FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 21 (16 Base +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn) CON 9 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon) DEX 26 (17 Base +1 Elf +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing +2 Footprints Ahu Taka) PER 29 (18 Base +1 Elf +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Kuaru’s Prize) INT 26 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones +1 Kuaru’s Prize) RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Food: Crusted Swordfish, amazing for the PEN bonus on spells, making Chill Fog relevant for damage later on. Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift Magran’s Blessing Infamous Captain, Bonus Skills, Champion Stats, Port Maje vendor, Fully discovered Map, Bonus Money… invested all 105 Berath’s Blessing Points SKILLS: Mechanics and Diplomacy at 13, rest in Athletics and Survival. ----- ABILITIES ------ TROUBADOUR ACTIVE: Thrice Was She > Her Revenge, White Worms > Their Putrid, Their Champion, Called to His… Early on, skellies and ogres are helpful – then respec. PASSIVE: Come, Come…, Many Lives. Early on, Ancient Memory is helpful. BLOOD MAGE (more or less optimized for using various grimoires as detailed below) ACTIVE: Chill Fog, Eldritch Aim, Jolting Touch, Infuse, Combusting Wounds, Arcane Veil, Deleterious Alacrity, Noxious Burst, Minor Arcane Reflection, Wall of Flame, Bitter Mooring, Enervating Terror, Freezing Pillar. PASSIVE: Combat Focus, Secret of Rime, Far Casting, Rapid Casting, Quick Summoning, Improved Critical. Grimoire Supplementation: Illuminating Discoveries (Brilliant Departure!!!) Vaporous Wizardry (more casts if you're secure or have Concentration layers) Nina’s Teachings (Shadowflame & Death Ray) Iron Clasped (Crushing Doom & Draining Missiles i.e. the Boss Killer combo) -----GEAR------ Weapon Sets: Primary: Griffin Blade + Lover’s Embrace (Lover's Quarrel) for the damage and frenzy buffs which will trigger in every fight. Secondary: Duskfall (Drawing Parry), Lethandria’s Devotion (Sheltering Light) if you need add’l regen, or more defense to avoid retargeting by certain enemy AIs e.g. Fampyrs or Dargul Swashbucklers. Tertiary: Magran’s Favor + Sun & Moon if you need to go all in on Burn spells against Freeze immunes. Grimoires in Quick Slots: Illuminating Discoveries, Vaporous Wizardry, Nina’s Teachings, Iron Clasped. Head: Helm of the White Void. (will give +10 ACC to ALL spells that have an Affliction component!). Neck: Charm of Bones. Chest: Fleshmender (Additional regen + Item/Weapon additional sets) . Cape: Three Trolls Stitched (regen). Gloves: Accuracy Bracers, sometimes swap with Burglar’s Gloves or Firethrower’s gloves. Rings: Kuaru’s Prize + Greater Regen. Keep Focused Flames around. Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka. Keep handy Boots of the Stone, Sandals of the Water Lily. Belt: Trollhide Belt for Regen, Upright Captain’s for Doru. Pet: Dude the Six Toes for Regen, Otto Starcat, Concelhaut... -----THE END------ That’s it. Anything not clear, please shoot. Let me know if you want to play a build like this toon, always happy to chat. Also of course if you have additional thoughts on the choices, strategies etc!

Yes indeed. My point here is that it would be cast on a toon that has a lot of increased damage taken, so that enemies kill themselves hitting it [very very rougly: 30% x (incoming damage +165% +other applicable additive damage modifiers) or something like that]. Not to fuel Deltro's Helm. Does that make sense? Probably not very efficient anyway except with BDD or Ring of Reset shenanigans...

I should add to this that you can add % DMG received by willingly getting hit by a Sigil of Pain. Max Curse of Pain Stack is +25%; so you can reach +165% damage received on a Helwalker/Assassin with the Pain curse, Shard of Woedica Curse, High Harbinger Robe, Red Hand, max Wounds and Assassin passive. Now with Barring Death Door, Deltro's Cage and Pain Link it might lead to interesting results? Might test later.