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=================================== The Valkyrie of Gaun, Ultimate Edition =================================== Difficulty: PotD v5.0.0.0040 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Contemplative (Harvester of Gaun + Sister of the Reaping Moon) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Meadow-Savannah Human -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Readceras (Farmer) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation, no Berath's Blessings): MIG: 11 CON: 12 DEX: 15 PER: 12 INT: 14 RES: 11 -------------------------------------------------------------- Active Skill: Athletics (!) Passive Skill: Religion (!) -------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Proficiencies: Small Shield (a) Dagger (a) Hatchet (a) Crossbow (a) Quarterstaff War Bow ® Greatsword ® Flail Arbalest -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) PL1 Priest Blessed Harvest (a) Restoration (a) Suppress Affliction Monk Swift Strikes (a) Force of Anguish PL2 Priest Withdraw (a) Spiritual Weapon Monk Clarity of Agony Common Two Handed Style ® Weapon and Shield Style PL3 Priest Vile Thorns (a) Consecrated Ground ® Dire Blessing (!) Monk Swift Flurry (!) Efficient Anguish PL4 Priest Circle of Protection (a) Devotions for the Faithful (!) Monk Thunderous Blows ® Duality of Mortal Presence (!) Rooting Pain (!) PL5 Priest Wicked Briars (a) Revive the Fallen ® Barring Death’s Door (!) Practiced Healer ® Monk Enervating Blows PL6 Priest Minor Intercession (a) Salvation of Time (!) Monk Turning Wheel (!) Iron Wheel (!) Common Improved Critical ® PL7 Priest Wall of Thorns (a) Resurrection (!) Cleansing Flame Monk Heartbeat Drumming (!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional enchantments; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: The Twin Eels (Renewal*!) (!) Weapon set 2: Saint Omaku’s Mercy (Sacrifice of Saints*!, Galawain’s Harry*) (!) Chest: Furrante’s Breastplate (Love of Life*!, Intervention*!) Helmet: Helm of the Falcon ® Amulet: Bone Setter’s Torc (!) Trinket: Waidwen's Sundial Cloak: Nemnok’s Cloak (!) Gloves: Hylea’s Talons ® Ring: Halgot’s Warmth (!) Ring: Voidward ® Belt: The Undying Burden (!) Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Xoti is one of the most maligned Companions in the game for many reasons, not least of which concerns her role in the party. As a Harvester of Gaun, she’s a variation on the Priest of Eothas that doesn’t offer that much of interest compared to Priests of Skaen or Wael; as a Sister of the Reaping Moon, her starting lantern and sickle doesn’t give her enough DPS to take advantage of her subclass’s ability to gain Wounds on kill, and is crippled even further by the increased Wound cost for her Monk abilities. And as a Contemplative, she loses access both to the useful Tier VIII and IX Priest spells, as well as 2 PLs on her Monk fists; with no apparent synergy, a multiclass Xoti can seem to combine the worst parts of both her subclasses. Small wonder then, that most would recommend keeping her either a single-class Priest or Monk. That said, there is a way to make a multiclass Xoti not only viable, but also more effective as a combat support specialist. With this build, Xoti can keep her party members topped up on health while contributing to damage at the same time, generate plenty of Wounds to feed her increased ability costs, and make her party that much tougher simply by being there; in short, she’ll truly fulfill her role as Gaun’s Chooser of the Slain. (Note on “Ultimate Edition” builds: With the release of the Ultimate Edition on PS4 and XBox, there will be many first-time players of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire who will be searching for builds online, only to find that most available builds were created for earlier versions of the game. While many of those are still viable even in the final version of Deadfire, this would not be apparent to new players; thus, builds such as this will be tagged as “Ultimate Edition” to indicate that they’ve been tested for version 5.0.0 of Deadfire, including all DLCs.) Xoti, the Reaping Most people who note the ability of Xoti’s Monk subclass to gain Wounds on Kill seem to think that she has to be built as a DPS to make use of it, and thus are left disappointed when Xoti’s Sickle inevitably fails to make the cut as a weapon capable of dealing sufficient damage. And while letting her rely on her Monk fists lets her do decent DPS, it only works best for her as a single-class Monk; making her a Contemplative makes her Monk fists less effective due to the loss of PL. That’s why her sickle as well as Xoti’s Lantern are usually seen as trap choices for Xoti DPS builds; it would be a different story if her lantern could be used as a bashing shield, and both it and the sickle scaled with Monk levels like Tuotilo’s Palm, but there’s no accounting for the dev’s design choices. That said, I feel that’s the wrong way to look at it. To make use of her Wound gain on kill ability, I don’t think Xoti has to be a DPS. She doesn’t have to deliver that much damage, nor throw as many attacks as Monks tend to do. All she needs to do is throw one good hit. Specifically, the last one. With that in mind, the sickle and lantern still isn’t going to cut it; she needs a weapon that can help her killsteal her own party members as reliably as possible. Ideally, the weapon would; - Have high base damage so Xoti can land the one good hit for the kill; that pretty much means a 2H weapon. - Has enchantments that helps with maximising the damage per hit as much as possible, and - Comes with an on-kill effect to further incentivise Xoti making the kill. Now, if you’re anything like me, you probably max’d out Xoti’s Religion passive skill as a reflection of her… evangelistic tendencies. That said, doing so makes one weapon in particular hit all three points above; specifically, The Twin Eels Greatsword. The offensive potential of The Twin Eels lies in its Death’s Embrace enchantment, a Hit-to-Crit percentage that scales with Religion; in other words, perfect for Xoti who’s likely to have the most Religion in the party. This can be boosted with an additional Hit-to-Crit roll from the Bone Setter’s Torc Amulet, increased attack speed thanks to the Helm of the Falcon, and complemented with the Swift Flurry-Heartbeat Drumming Monk combo. And the fact that Xoti can gain Wounds for each kill means that she can access a synergy specific to her alone; it turns Rooting Pain from a retaliatory passive into an offensive one, since Xoti earning 3 Wounds per kill also means she gets 3 rolls of the dice to activate it on enemies unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. And when all of this comes together, it can look like this; Also, there are a number of weapons with on-kill effects in the game, but only The Twin Eels has a Heal-on-kill that also scales with Xoti’s Religion skill. With max Religion, plus healing boosts from the Love of Life enchantment on Furrante's Breastplate, Bone Setter’s Torc, Footprints of Ahu Taka and Practiced Healer, the Health that Xoti can heal with each killsteal can add up to a pretty decent amount indeed; With this setup, Xoti is best played not as a DPS per se, but positioned just behind the frontline doing Priest things such as healing and buffing… until her party members have reduced an enemy to Near Death, at which point she becomes an opportunistic killstealer charging in to deliver the final blow, gaining Wounds and healing her party members when she lands it. This let's Xoti contribute to the fight while not neglecting her healing duties, making the best of both her subclasses. Xoti, the Sacrificing With Furrante’s Breastplate, Xoti makes her party members that much tougher thanks to the Bodyguard enchantment, which makes them take 10% less damage as long as she sticks close to them. This comes with the flipside that Xoti herself takes 15% more damage from all sources, making her squishier than usual. This would be bad in most cases, but as a Monk, it also helps to fuel her Wound generation as well, making it a win-win proposition. She can double down on that with the Intervention enchantment, which gives her access to the Take the Hit ability usually reserved for single-classed Fighters. This makes her party members even tougher for a short period of time, at the cost of causing more damage to Xoti herself… fueling her Wound generation even further. And at times when a party member is close to dying and desperately needs a burst heal, Xoti can provide with the Sacrifice of Saints enchantment from the Saint Omaku’s Mercy Warbow; With max Religion, Xoti can heal any party member from dying up to near full Health once per Rest, which comes at the cost of Xoti herself eating Raw damage… which again fuels her Wound generation. Along with Priest staples such as Restoration, Consecrated Ground, Revive the Fallen, Barring Death’s Door and Resurrection, Xoti can thus keep her party alive that much longer simply by being there. However, all this utility comes at a cost of making her pretty damn fragile. So, how do I keep Xoti alive in the face of all this? Xoti, the Undying I do it by giving her The Undying Burden Belt, which reduces the incoming weapon damage Xoti suffers by up to 30% as she loses Health (it also gives her a second use of Second Wind, which is why I recommended Athletics as her active Skill). On top of it, I also gave her the Voidward Ring, which reduces the Raw damage she takes by 25%; very useful for minimising the damage taken from Sacrifice of Saints and Take the Hit in particular. But the key piece of gear that really helps keep Xoti on her feet is Nemnok’s Cloak; while it makes Xoti even more squishy by making her take an additional 15% damage, it also gives her Spirit Shield and Ironskin when she falls below half Health. Together with Iron Wheel, Xoti can go up to 22 AR; It certainly doesn’t hurt that the Cloak also gives Xoti a free Barring Death’s Door when she’s… well, at death’s door. And should all these defenses still not suffice to keep her from falling to 0 HP, the Renewal enchantment from The Twin Eels (which also scales Health regained with Religion) lets Xoti automatically revive for free once per Rest, letting her stand up to get right back it again; This means that Xoti is capable of saving lost fights single-handedly, bringing her fallen party members back to their feet in turn. All these means that despite taking more damage than the rest of the party, this build makes Xoti a tough cookie in her own right, and capable of filling in as an off-tank in a pinch. Final Thoughts Pros: - Contributes to party DPS and Health at the same time by killstealing for fun and profit. - Makes her party members tougher just by existing, and is capable of pulling them back from near death. - Is unexpectedly tough in her own right, and can save seemingly-lost fights by her own hand. Cons: - Several key pieces of equipment are late-game gear (Furrante’s Breastplate, Nemnok’s Cloak), which means this build will not be fully realized until rather late in the game. - Tier VIII and IX Priest and Monk abilities are some of the most powerful in Deadfire, which means the Valkyrie build, despite its effectiveness, still involves trade-offs. - As effective as the Valkyrie of Gaun is, it doesn’t do anything to mitigate Xoti’s zealous and sometimes-annoying personality. Last but not least, see the attached file for the AI script I created for Xoti as the Valkyrie of Gaun. Xoti Custom (Contemplative) (Druid Monk Priest) (e38db4a0-68b9-4f2c-ac8a-5bd58d0a69e3).customai

Since this was requested I will type up this build. It does require a mod from nexus to unlock Woedica Priest subclass - but if you play monk/priest you may as well go all out and play the Woedica priest because of the excellent spiritual weapon synergy on Woedica: +20% raw damage on "summoned fist" attacks that synergize with monk bonuses to fist attacks. Unmodded Skaen/Helwalker also works but is not quote-unquote absolutely optimized and "op". Note: Helwalker can be replaced by Nalpazca if you don't want to be super squishy although barring death's door kind of solves the squishiness later. This build does excellent single target and aoe damage and is very versatile. This is the general guide, for a more solo specific Contemplative playthrough check this excellent guide as it is more focused on solo play: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105553-build-servant-of-death/ Woedica is a more powerful priest subclass for monk combo than barath so this one is definately adabtable. Race: Human or Death Godlike - human if you want more accuracy on cc attacks and death godlike for more damage potential Stats: (no bonuses) Might 14 + 1 (Human) Constitution 7 Dex 15 Perc 18 Int 18 +1 (old Vaila) 3 +1 (Human) note this is strictly the stat distribution for party play if you are soloing you probably want to lower Might and Dex and not dump resolve or con so much - although this build can handle the low stats once you get barring death's door + salvation of time. And even in Party play going dex 10 / con 12 is not a bad idea if you want more room for error and be on the safe side of things. There are some variations in the ability selection involved ! = mandatory , r= highly recommended Leveling 1. Swift Strikes!/ Restore r default spell: Writ of Engagement 2. lesser wounds! 3. halt (early game) / later can be replaced by suppress affliction r or arms bearer or keep halt. Suppress Affliction is probably the best choice 4. Two-Weapon style! / Withdraw ! default spell: Summon Spiritual Weapon (Fists) 5. Dance of Death ! 6. Clarity of Agony or Weapon and shield style (solo), even The Long Stride is an option in strictly party play but you will probably go with either weapon+shield or Clarity of Agony in solo play or if you want to off-tank 7. Torment's Reach! / Dire Blessing! Default: Writ of Consumption 8. Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry: choose one...Lightning Strikes probably is the more consistent dps choice, in a party setting, you may get more mileage out of Swift Flurry since the party can buff/debuff enough for you to land lots of crits. Overall Lightning Strikes is probably the more sound choice. 9. Stunning Blow r ...while optional and not a core ability to the build it is highly recommended, and the alternatives are pretty underwhelming (combat focus???? really) one of the Bulls/Snakes/Bears talents or the excellent Clarity of Agony if you haven't picked it up yet - but those are more options for solo play where some extra defensives are prioritized over offense. 10. Duality of Mortal Presence! / Scion of Flame! Default spell: Divine Terror note: here things get tricky on the priest side. Scion of Flame is the strongest selection for the end-build but you won't need it immediately so you may take Litany for the Body or Devotions for the Faithful. Out of the two I like Litany for the Body slightly more because it is a fast cast (and +2 ar on top of a good armor is very good) cast but given the aoe effect Devotion for the Faithfull is very good in a party setting. In party probably Devotions is better. Absoluely and in my opinion don't fall for the trap of taking Shining Beacon - yes it is an excellent spell, but one that can be more effectively cast from a scroll. Just keep in mind that for the end build Scion of Flame is the thing to take for the end build and all of your other tier 4 abilities will go into the monk tree. 11. Enduring Dance ! 12. Thunderous Blows 13. Raised Torment ! / Barring Death's Door ! Deafult spell: Writ of War 14. Rooting Pain r 15. Stunning Surge r 16. Turning Wheel !/ Salvation of Time ! default spell: Pillar of Holy Fire 17. Flagellant's Path r 18. Litany for the Spirit r - note: around this time it is a good idea to respec and take Scion of Flame at Priest lvl4 And take either Litany for the Spirit here (recommended) or Keep Devotions of the Faithful at level 4 Priest in addition to Scion of Flame 19. The Dichotomous Soul ! / Storm of Holy Fire ! default spell: writ of sorcery note: I now recommend Dichotomous Soul over Heartbeat Drumming as in patch 2.1 the soul summons will be buffed so in the end they will be more effective than Heartbeat Drumming. You can opt to take minor avatar instead of dichotomous soul though - it is a question if you want 2x very effective summons or if you want to boost your own stats a bit more - with the monk bonuses I personally do not think minor avatar is necessary. 20. Skyward Kick ! Alternative Variation: It is also interesting particularly when soloing, to go for a "kiting" approach: in that case you would stack stride via The Long Stride, Boots of speed etc and take The Long Pain (without upgrade) - that way you can run around and attack from range with your buffed fists. It is definitely an interesting approach. Also if solo play is the focus you should probably give up stunning surge in favor of 2 more defensive talents - definitely clarity of agony and upgrade. Overall assessment: This character is very strong from start and gets even more power to the endgame. As you see by the time you hit level 4 your damage engine is already in place: you have the Spiritual summoned fists on the Priest side and Swift strikes from the monk with generous healing abilities in withdraw, restoration and holy radiance, from there it progressively gets stronger. Another milestone is at level 13 with Barring Death's Door and finally the capper at level 19 with Storm of Holy Fire. It tested very favorably in terms of dps beating out a strong witch rdps meaning it should actually exceed aoe avenging storm blunderbuss scouts - but more importantly it does very high single target damage along with aoe damage and is efficient in doing that seamlessly especially at high levels: after casting storm of holy fire it is free to move in with high single target pressure thanks to skyward kick + stunning surge or further aoe pressure through pillar of holy fire and raised torment and flagellent's path. Further, and this is specific to the Woedica subclass of priest, not only does it get a bonus +20% raw damage to your fist attacks through the spiritual weapon, but you have access to nasty "writ" spells that can pretty much disable enemies: How does Writ of War (level 5) sound? Enemies cannot use active abilities (in a small aoe) for 20+ seconds (up to 30 seconds with high intelligence). Or Divine Terror terror (level 4) - frightened for up 40s with high intelligence. Or Finally Writ of Sorcery (level 6) - cannot cast spells for another 30 seconds. You can disable dangerous targets that way while you pummel them. Also even though I do not use ranged weapons, Acina's Trihorn hat is a very good headgear for this because it gives you +5 accuracy on such attacks. Typical play/ ai behaviour is such: (simplified) Always choose by list order First defensives: 1.) If health under 50%-> Second Wind, Holy Radiance, Restore 2.) If near death -> Bearing Death's Door, Withdraw Offensive list order Turning Wheel is active 3.) Lightning strikes 4.) Dance of Death/ Enduring Dance 5.) Storm of Holy Fire 6.) If attacking high armor target -> tenacious blows 7.) if engaging -> spiritual weapon, dire blessing 8.) If target is bloodied -> Stunning Surge 9.) If engaging/engaged by multiple enemies -> raised torment 10.)lowest fortitude -> Skyward kick 11.)weak to fire-> pillar of Holy fire If soloing you want to buff up first with barring death's door +salvation of time before going into attack mode and keep an eye on the buff bar and be ready to withdraw should you need it. Abilities like the writ abilities, summons, and others you can control by hand Recommended gear: Acina's Trihorn head if not choosing death godlike - boosts accuracy on lots of your spell attacks Armor: If you are soloing you want plate until you get death's door/ salvation of time otherwise I like High Harbinger Robes, Pale Hide, Bloody Links or Gipon Prodensco as well as Garari Cuiras. Pale Hide or Bloody Links is probably the best overall choice here. Rings: Ring of Focused Flame (especially later), after that it depends on situation, solitary wanderer if you are soloing and greater regeneration or Kuaru's Prize if you are in a party. Also Ring of Minor Protection is handy too. Neck: Strand of Favor Cloak: Greater Deflection , Frostfur are nice and of course Nemnok's Cloak if you pferer that Boots: there are boots that give you an extra second level priest cast, those are good Belt: I like The Maker's Own power here personally Bracers: Rekvu's are good when soloing because consitution afflictions are nasty, otherwise Accuracy bracers or Hylea's Talons are nice here going with the "fist" attack theme. Weapons: The beauty of summon spiritual weapon: fists is that it replaces any weapons you have equipped with summoned fists so you don't need an extra weapon slot for more versatility. Otherwise, as fire stat sticks you can't really beat Sun and Moon + Marux Amanth, though Magran's Favor + Marux Amanth may be more consistent Magistrate's Cudgel is great against kith and allows for some really nasty things like marked (+10 accuracy for 30 seconds) followed up by writ of war on the target with a very good chance to hit and poof! suddenly because of your ultra high intelligence thanks to monk they can't use active abilities for 35-40 serconds easy. Follow this up by switching to to something like Frostfall and killing things and the duration of writ of war gets extended on the target. Club (especially the modal) is crucial here to debuff enemy will save further if you want to land those nasty writ spells. And your dps bread and butter is the summoned fist attacks. With turning wheel active you get the following bonuses +10 might (if helwalker) +15% lightning strikes (non conditional), +20% fire damage (turning wheel - but average is closer to 10-15% because you won't be at max wounds all the time) , +20% raw (summoned weapon:fist), and of course there is tenacious from thunderous blows for another +2 penetration. In general to take advantage of the fire stat sticks you want to start a fight by doing storm of holy fire and pillar of fire and then transition into monk melee pummeler mode with summoned fists after buffing with dire blessing. Anyways this is a beautiful build and looks badass to play because of the vampiric summoned fists, enjoy and definitely try this one out, I think it is one of the more fun melee pummeler/offensive spell caster hybrid builds out there.