Not So Clever Hound

Funny thing is I though about your finding with a ridiculously high range Sunlance + Instrument of Pain as I had read your post on this some time ago. But as you said, the point of the AC-130 SPECTRE Build is to cast out of combat, Death From Above style. Furthermore, even without IoP my theoretical spell range exceeds my effective targeting range.

Hi everyone, I've been trying a playthrough with a Solo SC Fury that (contrary to all my other Solo playthroughs) gets to rest a lot and uses the Empower feature to its full extent. I'm having a huge, huge amount of fun with it. I have to take a little break with this toon because I'm going on a trip that is not laptop-friendly. But before I may potentially report on a build if it's good 'til the end, I'd like to share a few things with the community already: 1) This may have been already noted somewhere, but the +20% range of the Fury on Element spells coupled with the inherently huge range of many Druid spells, plus the +20% range of Far Casting, plus all the AoE size bonuses you can get... mean that you can very consistently harm enemies while staying out of their aggro range (even with non-Elements spells). Simply put, I could cheese a fair amount of the early game and nearly every single high-level bounty by staying on the other edge of the map, pummeling the enemy with high range spells and repeating ad mortem. If you wear the Assassin Slippers or use Invisibility Potions, you can get even more cheesy-cheesy enemy KIAs. 2) Even without so much stinky cheese, you can use the above initial strike from afar to soften enemies with something impactful, let them come while you cast Relentless Storm and/or Call of the Primordials, then go Maelstrom crazy. (see below). 3) Early on, strategic use of Shifting Storm (to deaggro and reset fights) and Storm's Rage with Touch of Rot, Insect Swarm, Hold Beast and Returning Storm can own the absolute crap out of Maje - except Gorecci Street. 4) Later on, I went full PL-stacking, Empower-bonanza and Deltro Helm self-harm rampage. Took all the Empower abilities, all the Elements +PEN, wear Deltro Cage, Deltro Helm, Lord Darryn's Voulge, Ring of Focused Flames... then proceed to 1) hit myself with Great Maelstrom to get a 120%+ lash then 2) Empower (if needed) a Great Maelstrom. So far I've been able to one shot many foes I've never one-shotted before with a non-Strand of Favor build. This is routinely doing 500 DMG per pulse and so, so many pulses. It feels like playing an AC-130 Spectre with an away team on the ground, but High Fantasy RPG style. [Fury - Fire for effect. Good effect on target. Be advised, now danger close. Fire for effect. Good effect, no more tangos.]. 5) When I get back, I plan to complete the build with Stage 3 of Wit of Death Herald (Brilliant), Least Unstable Coil (another Brilliant possibility), and the Vithrak Silk Slippers for a 1-in-20 chance to double cast Great Maelstrom when I need the super cheese.

Thematically speaking, Conquest should be ranged and ideally use a bow. Death - could be IMO either SC Priest of Berath or a Berserker/Beckoner kind of Necromancer - summoning and maybe killing dozens of Skeletons. Famine - is definitely a Decay-focused druid (Ancient probably), I'd say multi with Helwalker. War - I'd actually do a Shifter/Devoted or Priest of Berath/Devoted - for Firebrand or Berath's 2Hander. Conquest - I can see a ranged Blood Mage (Caedbald Blackbow!). PS: I should know, I live 10mn away from the Tapestry of the Apocalypse!

You are absolutely correct that it won't affect the pure DoT Damage values, but landing a Hit especially, or a Crit will give you a better duration (+25% on a crit), so more total damage. In the case of a burst +DoT spell like Touch of Rot you win on every possible front (Burst DMG, PEN, Duration...) which is why it scales so well. Indeed, a Barb inflicting AoE Daze (-10 FORT) and/or or a Chanter with the -14 FORT Chant Debuff on top + an Assassin/Ancient or Assassin/Shifter to land those spells = enemies melting away while the party is safe from friendly fire. All these also help land the Relentless Storm CC (which should probably be last to not interfere with landing Insect spells from invis - since the pulsing attacks from the Storm will cancel invis). With just Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects and Relentless Storm (maybe a refresh of the Insect Swarm Cast) we are talking about 1200+ Raw/Shock damage per target, plus refreshing Stun AoE, AoE Sicken, all of it in a giant radius. And then you can potentialize everything for even more Raw damage with Infestation of Maggots. This is just with this one dude's PL2-3-5 spells!

New fail for me: Plague of Insects is secretly keyworded as Poison, but it does not benefit from the +2PL to Poison effects from Spider Silk Robe....

Definitely. I'm playing solo which is different, but I've found that a nice perk of this Shifter/Assassin is that it's an Assassin/Caster that could for once play really well in a party: mostly because the Insect spells are Foe-only. This is really cool since you don't have to worry about hitting your frontline at all. At the same time, those spells are super powerful and scale extremely well but are balanced by targeting FORT (and for PoI, by being a poison effect ) which is where the +ACC from Assassin is amazing.

By the way, I can't believe I slept (as Boeroer would say) on solo Assassin/Shifter for so long. There is so much potential and it is so much fun to play! I cleared everything in Maje Island almost entirely by using Stealth > Insect Swarm > Smoke Veil > Touch of Rot > Flee and Smoke Veil. Once the weak have been culled by the AoE DoT-fest, shift to Boar form to get all those nasty Wildstrike Attack DoTs stack on the few survivors. Feels also very thematically nice with the Shadow Druid vibe. Prowling in the dark alone, casting forbidden plague/decay incantations then shifting to a bloodthirsty beast. When I think that you can add to this routine things like Plague of Insect, Pernicious Cloud, Infestation of Maggots, Sunlance single target sniping... can't wait! EDIT: it also made me fully aware of how insanely powerful Touch of Rot is for a PL1 spell! Right from the start, you can get the burst + DoT up to a total potential of 200+ DMG per target on a crit. In AoE. For a PL1 spell. And it scales amazingly with PL, INT and MIG to easily get to twice this potential later on. With the Assassin +25ACC, +4 PEN and +50% Crit DMG on the initial attack, this is just too good (when it lands).

My idea (not fully pressure-tested yet) would be to pump DEX too and have CON and RES at minimum. I know it sounds somewhat suicidal for such character but my thinking is the following: Solo SC Druid will not survive thanks to his high CON or RES or whatever. If he is focused down by enemies, he will die almost instantly in any situation. He will survive if he can fire off enough spells quickly to either end the fight instantly (Maelstrom glass cannon) or get some active protections going to not be destroyed on the spot (Ooze Summon distraction + Relentless Storm CC) and then go on with his casting routine, and basically drown the battlefield in Great Maelstroms while keeping uptime on Relentless Storm and Summons (he can do that because he will very often use Empower points to replenish spells or become Brilliant from Wit of Death Herald).

It's per rest (if you hover over each of the abilities - Spirit Shield, Ironskin, BDD - you will see the charge per rest).

Well I hear Sunder is pretty good... at least it put @Boeroer in a rockn'roll mood the other day: But playing Eder as an SC Fighter Ranged might not work for you... though he can start melee and go ranged late game, or do both (!). **SUNDER!!** (it's stuck in my head now, thanks Boeroer... ).

It's a half-failed experiment but anyway: an Ancient/Beckoner summoning "Yet its Mate..." can get two small Drakes. Then you can spend their abilities and kill them to get 2 big enraged Drakes that are much, much better but join your team (not your party) though with a refreshed duration. Then cast Wild Growth on them to get really big beasties. Cool... but not as useful as I thought really.

Other than the +PER and to a lower extent +Stealth, it does not benefit spellcasting.

That's a good question! I'm terrible at AI scripting besides automating Salvation of Time chain casting . Maybe someone has viable routines for an SC Rogue, most likely for Ranged/Gambit fest (end game). If you want to use Vanishing Strike and Melee weapons (again, talking end game here), it might be challenging to automate and minimize the "miss: out of range" issue for example, but I honestly don't know.

Ah yes, of course. Refer to @thelee's guide below and follow all sassy options (or most sassy options) in the 3 god talks. Every time, Wit of Death Herald will be upgraded a tier, so after He Waits In Fire you will have a nice 90s (or more/less) Brilliant inspiration per rest that you can use as intended. Or you can use WoD or SoT on it and be permanently Brilliant with a Wizard or Priest. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/watcher-abilities

The quote is empty so I don't know what you are referring to!

Hi there, just a few thoughts on some of your points/questions. For all these MC builds (primarily damage dealers) and knowing it's for party play, you can't go wrong with Hearth Orlan! Have you checked this thread below that @Ophiuchus created for a similar build? Some really nice ideas. I think the first key question is: are you ready to do a lot of micro on him or let him play mostly on autopilot? SC Rogue = lots of micro required, SC Fighter = not a lot of micro needed to fulfill their role IMO.

Yes but beware of the bug with Giftbearer Cloth that if you get for instance briefly transformed into a piglet with Form of Helpless Beast, when you come back to normal you might have lost the object (grimoire or else) that was in your last Quick Item splot. The game buggily removes the Cape when you're transformed, and when you're back you can miss quick items. I lost The Ironclasped like this once and had to reload like 2h before. Oh, I hate Form of Helpless Beast.

Tekehu: "Now I'm resistant to Crush... but I have a crush on you, Watcher. Don't hesitate to give me a big sexy hug with your muscular arms. I can take it."

It's one of my plans to try a SC Druid (maybe Fury) but I'm having a blast right now with a solo Assassin/Shifter. So maybe later . It would be rough especially on PotD (even worse Upscaled) but I think it could be doable if you pick all the sassy options in god dialogues then after Hasongo and He Waits in Fire you will have a once per rest Brilliant Inspiration. Then if you also cast some stuff from Stealth, maybe use a couple potions of invis/Withdraw scrolls here and there, you could just rain down Great Maelstroms like a crazy person (also wearing all the +PL stull). For protection, you can also summon the Primordials (one can have unlimited PoI) and of course use Relentless Storm (you also get a cast from Deltro's Cage). Tough but I'm interested in trying at some point.

It's probably a bit overkill to clarify, but damage received from attacks (enemies or self-targeting) causes interrupts with the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardy, however the self-damaging component of Blood Sacrifice does not cause interrupts. Not to mention that an Arcane Knight for example can pick Hands of Light which gives immunity to interrupts, prolong it with WoD, and not even require the Fractured Casque.

Assassin/Wizard (typically Blood Mage) is definitely a top-tier powergaming build - so is pure Wizard (cough cough, Blood Mage). Pure BM is probably a step ahead over the total length of the game. But it depends on difficulty settings, Magran's Fires settings etc. If you multiply AoE hazard spells that pulse every time on the battlefield (i.e. create an attack roll every pulse that will have an attack resolution: miss, graze, hit, crit - every pulse) in practice you won't be able to go invisible because each of the many pulses will break your invisibility. So no, you can't go balls out casting all those things and stay invisible . Though as @Haplok pointed out in some other thread, even then Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar is still an MVP and too hard to pass for an Assassin/Bloodmage even with that issue. DoTs are different. There is one attack roll which leads to one attack resolution, and this attack resolution + your MIG, INT and PL and the enemy RES and other potential negative effect % reduction quirks will determine how much damage they take per tick (your MIG + PL) and for how long (your INT + PL vs. their RES and some potential other effects).

This is maybe the son of Boeroer's adorable Bilestomper build in PoE1. Beware than Burst spells will work well (Noxious Burst, Death Ring), DoT spells/abilities will work well too (Pernicious Cloud from Rogue tree) however pulsing AoE spells like Malignant Cloud (but also Freezing Pillar and Chill Fog) will interfere with your invisibility (i.e. each time they pulse, there is an attack roll, which will break your invisibility).

Since we're talking about Bells, the unique Arquebus Three Bells Through does shoot up to 3 targets in a line, but it won't spread special attacks/DoT effects (only the first hit gets affected).

Thanks @thelee! Never thought about stacking it in my recent Sorcerer run. If you give yourself Brilliant (e.g. with Wit of Death Herald) and if you use WoD, it means that you can match or maybe surpass a Battlemage in terms of self-healing, only you also heal all friendlies around! (Unless you're getting pummeled by Fire counters). Too bad the +DEF effect is totally separate - I had noticed that and funnily, it also can't be prolonged with WoD and I suspect with SoT too. It's a totally separate once-off.