Porkchopsandwiches247

Yeah, I echo the sentiments of thelee, Druids are the king of DoTs, particularly if you consider spells like Returning Storm to be one. And you have a good variety of elements to choose from too. Spells like Insect Swarm and Touch of Rot do tons of damage for how early you get them. I will also throw out there that a Tempest sounds near perfect for what you seem to be asking for, subclass of shifter, fury or an ancient depending on how you play. -Barbarian gives you a lot of extra natural health for durability, and Frenzy gives casting speed, damage, and more hp (keep them in the back mostly to not get wrecked by the deflection loss. Blooded applies to spells too if Im not mistaken, so if you get below 50% hp, your DoT ticks will get a nice damage boost. -the thick skinned passive, carnage and one stands alone both work with spiritshift, so enjoy being an invincible superbear cat or boar who does a ton of damage -if you want to lean into the DoT aspect even more, blood frenzy upgrade actually applies to a lot of spells. So you can get a DoT even on your instant damage spells if they crit. Not sure if this applies to Returning Storm, its kind of wonky what it applies to. I prefer spirit frenzy for the staggered effect though, a ton of your spells target fortitude and brute force should apply to deflection based spells too, so you essentially give yourself a big accuracy bonus (crits mean longer DoTs) This build isnt really dependent on gear either. You can pretty much run around naked and spiritshift when you get into melee, you essentially already carry your best equipment around for free from the start of the game.

This is actually very similar to how I build Eder usually. Toutillo’s Palm + Monastic Unarmed Training on a Swashbuckler is perfect for making a main tank who can still do good damage and has a ton of retaliation attacks. Hes not as optimized as your build due to no subclasses, but its still very strong. If you were willing to change up the main weapon (even though that was kind of the theme of your build lol) I think the unique club Kapana Tanga would fit this well too. For one it fits thematically, for two it gives a bunch of engagement slots with bonuses. With the Swashbuckler passives and this weapon, you can have 5 engagement slots, meaning +15% melee damage and 25% recovery speed if you have Mob Stance active and are engaged with 5 guys. AND +20 accuracy if you choose that upgrade. Im actually not sure if ripostes trigger the mob stance counterattack but thatd be pretty sweet, your guy would be getting tons of free attacks in group fights. I can also see an unbroken being a good fit for this with their extra armor and engagement slot.

Hmm actually I had totally forgotten that Spiritual Ally had the endless healing shenanigans, thats a fair argument. I would usually opt for Salvation of Time or Pillar of Holy Fire at that level and dont like that you cant control it, so it doesnt cross my mind.

Doesnt the animal spirit take half a second to summon and have instant recovery? I dont think it would cut into casting time almost at all. The reason I would choose Ghost Heart is 1. Thematically it fits well and 2. You wouldnt have to worry at all about protecting it or the debuffs from losing a real one. I think having to revive or heal the pet would take up more time than summoning it I dont consider Priest summons particularly good or worthwhile compared to their spells at that rank, so I dont consider that a loss. The logic behind the build was that you would start off fights casting buffs and heals, then AoE, until theres only one or two tougher enemies left to focus down, and thats where the single target accuracy bonuses come into play. Actually now that I think on it, does accuracy even matter for buffs or healing? Its not perfect but I thought it was different, fit the theme well, and performed surprisingly well when I tested it out.

Unless the tooltip wasnt showing it (very possible), I dont think there was any multiplicative scaling based on PL

Yes that is the case, thank you for interpreting me correctly. Its true that its not exclusive in terms of unique scaling, but its pretty rate, definitely wasn’t expecting it. From what I’m seeing that seems to be the case. My Howler was at +2 Barbarian PL, and the tooltip was telling me Barbarian level was adding 4 total damage. Math was checking out. Even running the healing chant alongside Soft Winds wasnt enough to mitigate it, and its only going to get way worse as your level goes up. I know there are some builds and equipment that can work around it, but its a much more costly downside than I was anticipating lol

So trying to be a smart guy, I was thinking of making a Berserker/Skald Howler, and saw that the self damage from Berserk is 2 every 3 seconds…annoying, but this is the same amount healed by the Chanter phrase Soft Winds of Death. So perfect, thats some synergy right there. A few levels later however, I see…8.2 raw damage every 3 seconds, while Soft Winds is only healing 3.1 per 3 seconds with my same stats…what is this math!? I know it also scales with Barbarian Power Level, I just had no idea it was this much. Am I correct in assuming that each Barbarian power level equals 1 extra flat damage before any modifiers? This is what the math seems to indicate…(2+4=6, 6*1.36=8.16) Is this a unique calculation just for this ability? Its way worse than I had anticipated, and I dont recall any other ability scaling in such a way off the top of my head.

Honestly I just screwed up and for some reason my brain thought two +5s to con would stack but not +5 and +10 lol

If you roll as a Shattered Pillar, you shouldnt run into that Con stacking problem. It caps at 5 I think anyway, right? Although you then have to deal with some limitation in your abilities. If youre open to trying out different class combinations with a similar theme, a Fanatic has some pretty solid synergies. A Brawler (Fighter+Barb devoted) is even better, because they naturally have a built-in counter to confused along with passive self-heal if youre locked in with a Berserker.

Scout+Ranger with the Red Hand melts everything with very little micro. Im shocked it hasnt been mentioned yet in the thread from what I can see. With 2 shots per reload+her reload passives, she’ll be firing that off constantly and can just erase enemies from the fight at the start. The raw damage and constant interrupts she does in this setup simply outweighs any versatility she gets from Geomancer or pure Ranger in my opinion. And its not even like a ranged Rogue lacks utility. Arterial Strike on a melee enemy at range can obliterate them. Edit: I didnt realize how old the thread was lol

I dont generally like Helwalker since I shy away from glass cannon type builds…to me the 3% dmg/healing per 5% damage taken isnt worth it. Its of course true you can mitigate this through crowd control, buffs, healing, etc. But I tend to play a little loosy goosy lol and like to have durability in all my party members in case I dont want to play safe and just charge the frontlines as a wereboar. Just a personal preference. To me the fun part is the mix of monk abilities + shapeshift forms and how Monk boosts the duration, AoE and piercing of Druid spells. I really dont need more damage when I have so many options for controlling the battle. Sidenote: I find War Caller (devoted fighter + skald chanter) to be equally fun in terms of versatility and synergy.

Interesting, I never make Tekehu as a single class Chanter simply because I enjoy using his unique Druid anilities. That said of course he has his unique Chanter ones too so its not like its a waste. My problem with Aloth as a Rogue-Wizard is the synergy only seems to go one way…although actually as Im writing this, I assume deep wounds actually would apply to a number of Wizard spells too, so I guess its not completely one sided. Fighter bonuses seem to apply more consistently to spells though, which I find a bit more fun. Ive considered going single class Monk with Xoti, its just so hard for me to pass up Blessed Harvest…I love that spell lol. I can definitely see her subclass working amazing as a SC monk though.

Huh thats odd, thought it did. Thanks for the clarification. I still find the intelligence boosts from Monk to be amazing for Druid apells though.

I didnt see it on your list, but a REALLY fun and versatile class is Ascetic (Druid/Monk). It has some excellent synergies. I preferred Shapeshifter and generic Monk, but this is wide open as well. Heres a few fun things: -Shapeshifter on its own is just OK, but really strong when combined with a martial class like Monk. Swift Strikes ups your damage a lot, particularly in Cat and Boar form, and all of your Monk active abilities work transformed -You have a weapon set for all melee weapon types. Crush (monk fists), slash (cat+bear), and Pierce (deer, boar and wolf). Between these three and your naturally high weapon penetration, you can very often get the piercing bonus -shapeshifter gives you a lot of versatility. Bear for extra armor and Frightened, cat for pure melee damage, boar for a massive stacking DoT and healing over time, Wolf for knockdown and closing distance, deer for high defense. And they all function as heals as well in a pinch. -duality of mortal presence mind boosts your intelligence per wound, and clarity of agony gives you smart. This is potentially +15 intelligence built in to your class. This means your DoTs have insane duration and area of effect, your storms last forever and stun for a long time, and your healing over time, buffs, and debuffs all have way higher effect. It gets pretty nuts -Thunderous Blows works for a lot of your instant hit spells and your shapeshifting melee damage -with monk and shapeshifter passives, you can end up getting a+55% elemental lash on your melee attacks. Combine this with a full attack for huge damage -you can do anything. Melee frontline dps? Check. DoT from start? Check. Disabler/debuffer? Check. Healer? Check. Instant damage nuker? Check. And imo you do this better than even a normal single class Druid

What would you say are the most effective or fun builds for story companions? What I generally go with: Eder - Swashbuckler, but I pick up monastic unarmed training and give him Toutilo’s Palm. This lets him get very high defense with Weapon and Shield Style while still having solid dual wielding damage and strong Full Attacks from abilities. Plus you can get a ton of counterattacks from Riposte+Outward Spikes. With 3 default engagements, hes a solid tank that can get +15% recovery speed from mob stance or -30% damage taken in defender stance. Or more with appropriate equipment/buffs. I love having the versatility without sacrificing much damage. Maia - simple. Ranger/Rogue, the Red Hand. Melts everything, not too much setup beyond that needed. Xoti - Monk/Priest, barehands + Maraux Aranth. (Alternatively her lantern with either). I like the echo chance on Priest spells, it can get pretty nuts to have something like Blessed Harvest hit twice on a boss. Hits hard when taking a break from spellcasting. Pallegina - chanter/paladin, dual wield Singing scimitar plus Xotis Sickle. Between the two passive attack speed bonuses from the weapons, Pallegina can attack very quickly while still being incredibly durable and supportive. I like to run Soft Winds of Death on her to ‘steal’ kills for more triggers of her ‘on-kill’ effects from both Paladin passives and Xotis Sickle. The other chant depending on what other chanter(s) I already have running. Tekehu - yeah I make my entire party multiclasses lol. Chanter + Druid, giving him support abilities primarily plus his offensive Friendly-Fire-safe spells. Im never sure what weapons to give him, since hes so busy constantly casting it doesnt come into play too often, so a lot of the time its for burst damage at combat start or passive buffs. Serafen - against my better judgement I risk giving him his Cipher subclass with a twohanded long range melee weapon (too fragile on the frontlines imo). I like using Whispers of the Endless Paths, as it is long range AND hits in a cone, meaning Focus should fill up crazy fast, and with the reduced recovery time per hit on it, he gains momentum as the fight goes on beyond the initial bursts of damage at the start and when casting spells. Generally prefer fast cast Cipher spells so that he can get back to attacking in melee. Switch off to my best available staff or pike when theres only one enemy/boss left. Aloth - Fighter+Wizard, I find these synergize surprisingly well with the Fighter’s passive buffs that generally also buff spells. Plus if you start using some of the fighter’s active abilities with wizard summoned weapons, you can get hilarious results (most notable with Citzal’s Spirit Lance and Clear Out or Mule Kick). I actually like using the Willbreaker with modal to melt enemy defenses, although I will switch off to other two handed weapons to for pure damage in some situations. Blightheart is pretty fun due to the +10% corrode spell damage Interested to hear what other people do.

I dont see this mentioned too often, but oddly I find Ranger+Priest to be a solid combination. The biggest complaint to Priest is usually that they spend so much time casting buffs/spells that they cant do anything else. Consequently, you would want some passives that do things in the meantime. Ranger has the animal companion built in, so it can be tanking and doing damage while youre completing your long cast time spells. Also, thematically if you go Ghost Heart it fits nicely with a Priest of Berath. God(dess) of Death, summoning ghost spectral companions to assist. Plus a ghost heart is even more ‘passive’ than usual, since you can fire and forget it without any babysitting to keep it alive. On top of that, a Ranger can get a ton of passive accuracy bonuses. So you can debuff the hell out of some enemies reliably. And if you want to summon up your Berath Greatsword to take down a stubborn, strong enemy or boss, you will be getting plenty of crits (this might even be one of the few times the Greatsword modal would be worthwhile, since the accuracy penalty would be offset with all your accuracy buffs) In the meantime you could equip an arquebus or dual pistols to unload a big burst of damage at the start of combat before you go into casting mode, which will be an even bigger burst with Driving Flight, and can let you take a break once in a while from casting to pick off fragile targets close to death. So you play the part of an executioner. One last fun thing: if you equip Marux Amanth (dagger) and soulbound it to your priest, you can get a 10% chance to recast your priest spells. If you equip a pistol in the other hand and keep your distance, you will fire with that nonstop at dual wield speed. A ranger with that setup does very respectable damage (particularly with a unique pistol), and you can keep that echo chance at the same time.