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-----Part 1 : Build Base----- Version: 5.0 Build Name: Druidian Grandet Description: She's the younger sister of Eugenie Grandet, basically a Windfury Shaman + Affliction Warlock... Class: Tempest (Solo: Furyshaper + Lifegiver) or (Party: Berserker + Lifegiver/Ancient) 1.What' new? Nothing, sorry... just love to build around less popular classes 2.Synergy? (1) Blood Frenzy adds raw DoT to every crit of Druid spell pulses, and Druid does a myriad of those attack rolls targeting Reflex/Deflection (Well, as you have expected, Berserker + Slayer's Claw grants Energized and will also enable you to almost interrupt-lock group enemies, but that self dmg from Frenzy can be devastating on Solo + Iron Man. So if you choose to play in party, Berserker is a solid choice) (2) Brute Force applies to Druid spells as well, namely Wicked Briars and Venombloom (Your main group dmg source). (3) Wards are regarded as summons, so you wont lose much being a Lifegiver since only one group of summons is allowed anyway (4) Yes indeed, your poor Wards can be used as precious decoy to separate enemies or to help you retreat and de-aggro. Druid creatures take centuries to summon (base 6s) , leaving you extremely vulnerable to interruptions, so..meh (5) Lifegiver provides cheaper Robust, various HoTs, and limited but good +AR spells to help Furyshaper build inner defense, since Barbarian has miserable Deflection and has to use AR and healing to stay alive when solo. (6) HoTs can help Barbarian remain Bloody a little longer than instant healing. Race: Pale Elf (Solo: +1 Dex and +4 Fire and Freeze AR) or Nature Godlike (Party: +1 Dex and +1 PL while Frenzy) Background: Deadfire Archipelago + Hunter Difficulty: Triple Crown A painful but rewarding experience... this build is a nuke in party(confirmed), but i have to admit that it lacks solutions to real threats when solo, i.e. 3 of the 4 megabosses. After some regrettable failure, i had to re-roll a full DEX character and picked up Scordeo's Edge, and eventually converted to Strand of Favor (which are usually banned from my list), making it another victim of Strand of Favor shenanigans. To make some clarifications, this build wont have any problem dealing with main game bosses, some DLC bosses and plain Guardian of Ukaizo (although you need serious micromanagements from time to time). To this end, it is a Triple Crown viable build. Solo: Yes But not recommended, drop Iron Man if you do want a solo run. 15 Required Bosses: Depends on your code If you do mind Strand of Favor cheats, then 8 only (5 main game + Neriscyrlas + Belranga + plain Guardian of Ukaizo) Or, all 15 if you dont. Below is a combat pic of Dorudugan WITH Strand of Favor cheating PoE1 Set Up: Hiravias for additional DEX and Slash AR(Apologize in advance) and Hylea's Bounty Stats: MIG: High. Healing and dmg bonus all together are so good for this build. CON: Low. Tempest has great inherent HP number, you wont suffer much lowering CON a little. DEX: MAX.. PER: High. You need crits to proc Blood Frenzy. INT: Medicore. To keep Scordeo's Edge effect a little longer. RES: 8. I dont have strong evidence to support that, because crits from high level enemies can easily tear your AR apart... My Game: iirc, 16/6/18/16/14/8 (You may need to increase RES a little) -----Part 2 : Abilities----- Watcher Abilities: Almost mandatory (1) No Time for the Lost (+10s Beneficial Effects) (2) Wit of Death's Herald (+Brilliant) Character Abilities: Level 1: Frenzy, Tanglefoot, Spiritshift: Wolf (Solo) Or Cat (Party) (Spiritshift will replace your armor and thus lower your AR, also as a Livegiver, you will suffer dramatic PL penalty (iirc, stacking with penalties from destroyed Wards)when Spiritshift is over. So, by the time you decide to spiritshift, it is the time you retreat and reset the combat,that's why +25% stride is really great when solo) Level 2: Fast Runner Level 3: Blooded Level 4: Thick Skinned, Two Weapon Style(*) Level 5: Autumn's Decay(*) Level 6: Accurate Carnage(*) Level 7: Bloodlust(*), Bear's Fortitude Level 8: Bloody Slaughter Level 9: One stands Alone(*) (Yep, you do that, but it doesnt work when enemies also stand alone..) Level 10: Blood Frenzy, Wicked Briars(*) Level 11: Spell Shaping Level 12: Woodskin(*) Level 13: Interrupting Blows, Nature's Terror(*) (Nature's Terror is personal preference,it always reminds me of that OP Nature's Beauty from Baldur's Gate) Level 14: Uncanny Luck Level 15: Practiced Healer Level 16: Brute Force, Venombloom(*) Level 17: Improved Critical Level 18: Rapid Casting(*) Level 19: Blood Thirst(*), Spell Resistance(*) Level 20: Blood Storm (*): Replace these abilities with Tough/Snake's Reflexes/etc. when facing certain bosses -----Part 3 : Equipment----- (Anything can help you solve your problem will be the best) Head: Helm of the White Void/ Pearlescent Rhomboid Helstone (+1AR)/ The Maw of Ingimyrk (Helm of the White Void applies to almost all your Druid spells) Cloak: Cape of the Falling Star/ The Giftbearer's Cloth Armor: Patinated Plate Necklace: Strand of Favor/ Sisyfo's Stone (Strand of Favor is good even if you dont use it to cheat) Gloves: Firethrower's Gloves/ Gatecrashers/ Corroded Vambraces Belt: (Depends on your AR requirement) Boots: Boots of the Stone Ring 1: Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (Keep your money MORE THAN 200,000 please.... no?) Ring 2: (Your Choice) Pet: Epsilon/Pes/Giftwrapper/Grog/Ooblit ---Weapon Set 1---Main: Scordeo's Edge Off: Animancer's Energy Blade (Personal Preference) ---Weapon Set 2---Main: Sungrazer/Scordeo's Edge Off: (Any ranged weapon) ---Weapon Set 3---Main: Oathbreaker's End (Boss Killer) /The Willbreaker (If you can benefit from Weapon Modal)

Hello, so lately I know I've been asking around alot about various builds, trying to find the another build that is just as fun as the two builds I have only beaten the game with (Steel garrote/ Bloodmage) and (Forbidden Fist/Ascendant), So I tried other half caster multiclasses but they didn't Have the same fun feel as the previous 2, but one thing I keep coming back to for the caster half is Druid as I really like the spell list you get with it , with all the Storm, Plant, and Beast spells. But sadly they have a finite pool of spell slots/number of times you can use your spells, which gave me the idea of combining it with tactician which has the brilliant ability to regenerating class resources, which would allow me to cast spells like the more infinite resource having classes, But I'm having trouble picking a druid subclass for this warden build and also having trouble on how I would proc brilliant using said druid class(Fury,Ancient or maybe Shifter), I would really appreciate the help and advice thx.

Hey everybody been having fun playing various melee caster builds I decided on trying a potd solo run with a liberator, and I'm stuck on which version I should go with (kind wayfarer/fury or shifter), or (steel garrote/fury or shifter) and whether or not to use magran favor+sun &moon or darryns voulge as 2h for this run, would really appreciate the advice and help thx

So, yeah, I am completely hooked on my Priestess of Berath from the White That Wends (Death Godlike on top) and finally stopped contemplating over different classes in the Dyrwood. My main team will consist of Aloth and Pallegina, with a certain focus on Vailian related quests and NPCs (I only know of Ydwin and Fassina by accidentally spoiling them - they seem cool). But lo and behold, Deadfire is on the distant horizon. Last time I asked about Cipher MC I think, so yeah, that is thrown out of the window for the most part. Single Class Priest of Berath vs /Druid vs /Wizard vs /Cipher vs /Chanter I am mostly uncertain if i would lose a lot of singleclass power of the Priest if I went for a MC? As far as I understand it, I not only lose the last 2 spell levels of both classes (or however it is calculated with the Chanter), but also the Power Level of each class' spells is missing out on 2 levels, which would mean weaker damage/heal spells? And also I would get my spells at a much slower rate, like ~5 levels later for my 'last' tier of MC spells? Seems like a lot of wasted potential, unless I am missing something, as I look at it all from a rather uneducated perspective? Like, looking at the unique Berath spells, the final 2 tiers seem like a huge boost in damage dealer potential, especially as Berath's spells add a lot of non-fire spells, which would be pretty cool. But on the other hand, my POE1-stats are more focused on talking (12/6/15/15/15/15), so I wonder if I would even be a worthy addition to DPS anyway. Though I am doing a lot of damage in POE1... don't know how much changes in Deadfire. But then with a MC I would have a lot of versatility added. Wizard would get me both potent self-buffs and aoe debuffs (which could be subbed for with Aloth/Fassina), Druid would get me massive AOE damage spells (storms and such - the only Universalist build on the build page lists DoT as a main selling point), Cipher (Psion for passive Focus or Ascendant for powerful spells?) again with the debuffs and self-sufficient resource, Chanter with passive resource replenishment and passive buffs/debuffs. I am slightly more inclined to go for singleclass, but as usual, I am VERY unsure... Any advice is always much appreciated

Sorcerer, Fury edition Wizard : No Subclass Druid : Fury Version : 3.0.1 Difficulty : PotD Solo : untested, unlikely. After my first sorcerer run I decided do away with the niceties, I realised that I was using only half the spells I had, some of them I had used about once in the entire run, and PEN was a real pain in the ass for the later third of the game. Race : Any, I played Aumauna Background : Rauatai & Scholar (or one of the other giving Metaphysics) Skills : Metaphysics and Athletics Stats : MIG : 16 CON : 8 DEX : 12 PER : 18 INT : 16 RES : 8 To be boosted with Gift of the Machine, Effigy Ressentment, Cauldron Brew, Savage Cunning (I wanted to go all PER but I forgot to change effigy, so it was DEX) Grimoire : Ninagauth’s Weapons : dagger and medium shield (start), Cadhu Scalth (Old City) & Griffin’s Blade (Random encounter Neketara), Chromoprismatic Staff (Nemnok) Armor : Aloth’s Leather Armor Rings : Kuaru's Prize (Huana Quest line), Ring of Greater Regeneration (Brass Citadel Shop) Gloves : Firethrower’s Gloves (Berath’s Blessing Merchant or Ashen Maw) Belt : The Undying Burden (Delver’s Row Shop) Boots : Leaping Boots or Footprints of Ahu Taka (Whenaru Cleft) Headgear : Horn of the Bleak Mother (or any +PER) Necklace : Protective Eothasian Charm (Gorecci Street) Cloak : Cloak of Greater Protection or Shroud of the Phantasm (Berkerna’s Observatory) Abilites: Free (f), picked upon leveling (p), Grimoires (g). Abilities I won't use are unmentioned. lvl 1: Dancing Bolts (f), Chill fog (p), Sunbeam (p) lvl 2 : Fleet Feet lvl 3 : ADL (p) lvl 4 : Infuse with Vital Essence (p), Burst of Summer Flame (f), Insect Swarm (p) lvl 5 : Weapon and Shield Style (p) lvl 6 : Automn Decay (p) I didn’t write in Burst of Summer Flame at the beginning, but that’s because I didn’t notice the cast time. It’s a great little instant damage button, sometimes Insect Swarm is not the right spell. lvl 7 : Returning Storm (f), Infestation of Maggots (p), Expose Vulnerabilities,(p), Ninagauth's Death Ray (g), Fireball (g) lvl 8 : Llengrath’s Displaced Image (p) lvl 9 : Combat Focus (p) lvl 10 : Hail Storm (f), Calling the World's Maw (p), Ninagauth's Shadowflame (g), Secrets of Rime (p) lvl 11 : Overwhelming Wave (p) lvl 12 : Heart of the Storm (p) Hail Storm is not great except for its massive AOE, I enjoyed using it as a out of stealth opener. lvl 13 : Plague of Insects (p), Relentless Storm (f), Rapid Casting (p), Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (g) lvl 14 : Embrace the Earth Talon (p) lvl 15 : Llengrath's Safeguard (p) lvl 16 : Sunlance (f), Venombloom (p), Death Ring (g), Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (g), Gaze of the Adragan's (p) lvl 17 : Scion of Flame lvl 18 : Spirit of Decay lvl 19 : Rusted Armor (p), Tayn's Chaotic Orb (p), Ninagauth's Killing Bolt (g) lvl 20 : Accurate Empower This is not a difficult build. Stay back, buff, throw a Stun/Blind/Paralyse, look for the smallest AR/Defense rating, cast, repeat. Plenty of room for adaptation, no grimoire/weapon switching, no PL to keep track of. The last quarter of the game was spent casting CC in a chain and watching every possible ennemy getting their ass helplessly handed to them by Eder and Maia, while still having the highest dps.

so, yeah... I struggle a lot deciding on which caster class to pick for my MC. They all are very appealing to me, I played them all up to Caed Nua on potd and loved it all. Now, as I haven't been past CN, I have yet to meat GM and Hiravias, but thanks to me spoilering back when, I know for a fact that I'd want to keep them in my active party a lot. Only, equally I want to keep Aloth and Durance in my party. Not that I will have them all 4 as 'permanent' companions, but I will probably use them all a lot... Now my question is in the title. Which caster class is getting the most out of using two of them? As far as Act 1 goes, I *think* Wizard is the best in that regard, as I can either slot different spells for different specialties on me and Aloth, *or* I can balance spell usage between the 2 and reduce my need for resting - the latter should also be true for the Druid.

Disclaimer: This will be long. Very, very long. This is not quite a build guide but rather a more in-depth look at the Fury Druid and all its components. Most of it comes from my own personal testing and experiences playing it and the game, as well as some other sources, such as the Pillars Discord and C.LE's An Almanac for the Deadfire. As such, I'll be discussing a lot of things in more detail, so if you wanted a short concise guide, this won't be it. I'll be giving my opinion on pretty much everything about the class, from creation, to leveling, to gameplay, to itemization. Of course, my opinion isn't infallible, so if I do get something wrong, or you have any other form of suggestion or criticism, I'm always open to hear it. With that out of the way, let's get into it. First up, a bit of an introduction, I guess. I've been playing Deadfire since 1.1 when I sped through Pillars 1 so that I wasn't lost in the story of Deadfire. Since then Deadfire has been a game that I regularly come back to when I just want something comfortable to play. I'm by no means the best player there is, though I would like to think I'm at least quite decent at it by now. One more thing, which will come up in the guide quite a lot, I really dislike playing "meta" builds and using some of the, for me personally, more exploity interactions in the game. While I will mention them in the guide if they have a place in it (looking at you, Brilliant), I do not regularly use them. I also do not enjoy playing solo, so I have no clue if anything written here is solo viable. I usually play RTwP, on PotD with only the Critical Path quests upscaled and Galawain and Ondra's challenges active, which is what all the gameplay and tests were done on. This is, of course, still a very personal thing to my style of play, so I am neither encouraging people to play like I do, or chiding them if they don't. It's a your own game, after all, so you're free to play it as you see fit. So why even write this guide then? Well, first off, I really like the Fury druid. It was the first thing I picked when I started Deadfire, and then promptly abandoned since I didn't understand a thing about the game and how to play it. Since then, it's been one of those classes in the back of my mind everytime I open up the game, but just never got around to it until recently. Plus, I really wanted to write a guide, and there aren't that many on the Fury, so, hey, two birds with one lightning bolt. So, pleasantries out of the way, let's get to the actual guide. What is a Fury?: The Fury druid, from what I've seen, is an often times overlooked subclass of the Druid. Which baffles me, honestly, since I find it one of the most unique subclasses there are. In it's essence, the Fury is the full-on damage dealing subclass of the Druid, trading a lot of utility for just dealing more damage, which is clearly reflected in the bonuses it gives: Bonus 1: Elements Fury spells have +20% range and +1 penetration. From the get go, 1 penetration to some of your most damaging spells is great. The range bonus regrettably only affects cast range and not AoE, so spells centered around the caster, like the Storms, won't see a big benefit from this. Still, it lets you stay comfortably further back from the thick of the fight, which also plays into the second bonus. Bonus 2: Storm Blight. I'm going to be quite honest here, this was the sole thing that drew me to the Fury in the first place. The whole idea of just transforming into a big angry storm cloud sounded really cool (though it probably helped that I was coming in from playing a Balance druid in WoW and this was the closest to it). The Storm Blight form is quite different from all other spiritshifts. The first, immediately obvious difference is that it's a ranged form instead of melee. Which just enforces the basic idea that the Fury is supposed to stay at a safe distance and fling spells at people. Your attacks while shifted, in addition to being ranged, also bounce one time to a nearby target within 4m. This is just a nice bit of extra AoE in most cases, and actually quite thematic still, because, as we'll see in the spells section later, Fury is all about AoE damage. While at launch, the Storm Blight "claws" were a two-handed weapon, they've now been changed to two one handed ones. They also deal pure shock damage, which is something to keep in mind for certain ability interactions and enemy immunities (to my knowledge, only rain blights are shock immune, but admittedly I haven't checked every single enemy). In addition to altering your attacks, the Storm Blight form also provides a few other passive and active abilities. Any kill you make while spiritshifted will increase the duration of the spiritshift. This is quite a strong effect that other druids can only get if singleclassing from the Wildstrike Frenzy passive. It is actually stronger than Frenzy, since it adds 5 seconds to the duration instead of 4, and also triggers on any kill you make, be it by spell or attack, whereas Wildstrike Frenzy only works on kills you make with autoattacks. Oh, and if you do decide to singleclass the Fury (more on that later) the two effects stack, so a kill with an autoattack can potentially add 9 seconds to your spiritshift. The first active ability you get, Shifting Storm, is basically your own little Rogue Escape. In essence, it's a repositioning tool. You break engagement and zap to the target location. It doesn't trigger disengagement attacks, has a tiny 0.5 cast time and no recovery, so it's very handy to use to get away from enemies. It is however a once per encounter ability, so you can't freely zap around the battlefield. As you can see, the theme of staying far away from enemies continues. The second active ability, Storm's Rage, is again a once per encounter spell that damages a single target and stuns them. It deals a very respectable amount of damage early on (32-48 Shock) and the stun lasts a rather long 8 seconds. Unfortunately, it has quite a few issues accompanying it to make it a less than desirable spell to cast. First things first, it has a huge combined cast time and recovery time, 4.5 sec cast and 3.0 sec recovery, siphoning out a decent chunk of your spiritshift duration. Second, the two effects target different defenses, the damage targeting deflection, while the stun targets fortitude, so it is completely possible for one to not apply if you can't debuff both. And third, and by far the worst, it has absolutely no PL scaling whatsoever. At first I thought it was a bug on my end, but doing a completely clean install on the game confirmed it, the spell does not scale with PL at all, in fact, it has a permanent -1 PL on itself somehow, which reduces all of its PL scaling effects, permanently giving it -5% damage, -0.25 penetration, -1 accuracy and -5% duration on the stun, as you can see here (apologies for the link, I couldn't manage to get an image to attach...): Storm's Rage I honestly have zero idea why it's like that. My best guess is that since they made spiritshift not scale with PL, Storm's Rage also became non-scaling. But the actually negative one, I have no answer for. The lack of scaling hurts the spell badly, and later in the game it loses both damage and penetration to the point that it's just not worth the lost spiritshift time to even cast it. As for the maluses, well here comes the big one. A rather large reason I've seen why people dismiss Fury is the penalty it gets: you can not cast Rejuvenation spells. It's a bummer, I know, especially since Druid Rejuvenation spells are some of the best heals in the game. But it just enforces the role that the Fury has, which is to deal damage and only that. I personally do not view it as that much of an issue. Sure, you personally can't heal, but that doesn't mean that no one else in your party can't heal, or that your class is dead. It just means you're shoehorned into being a damage dealer, which, let's be honest, if you didn't want to be, you wouldn't be playing a Fury. Apart from the issues with Storm's Rage, the bonuses are pretty consistent and thematic, making the Fury a "stay at range and fling spells and attacks" character. This is exactly how I chose to play it, and how I think it's supposed to be played and function. Why is this important, you ask? Because of the next part: Creating a Fury: This will probably be the most in-depth portion of the guide, as I will go through all the steps of making a Fury druid, give my thougts on the various aspects of Character Creation and the benefits and negatives of certain picks. This will not be a "pick this thing at this level and have these exact stats or else" kind of runthrough. I will mostly be commenting on usefulness of different aspects, as well as giving a sample in the form of what I chose while making my Fury. So let's get started. Firstly, before we even get to have a nice chat with Berath while we look at cards, gameplay mode. As I said at the start, I play in RTwP. It does not mean that you can't play this in turn-based, but there is just no guarantee that things will work like they're written here. I do not find TB enjoyable myself and I don't plan on making a TB Fury guide, so sorry about that. Secondly, Magran's Fires and Berath's Blessings. God challenges are, IMO, personal preferences. I play with Galawain's and Ondra's on in all my runs since they just flawlessly integrate into the base game. As for Berath's Blessings, once again, up to personal choice. I play with them, and there's quite a few really good bonuses from them. +2 to all stats is insane, +50k starting gold, which admittedly I've never spent in any run, just makes early game economy easier, starting at level 4 with Fine weapons and armor is really damn good, Reduced enchanting costs really comes into play late game when enchanting Legendary quality on items, and Infamous Captain, even though the fear doesn't work at all if you upscale your game, still gives +3 Intimidate and +5% damage across the board. Those are all generally really good to have, though I will also mention two others. If you're planning on keeping Eder in the party for most of the game, giving him a pet slot is actually really nice, as pets can have some amazing bonuses for the party. The Mythical Adra Stone, on the other hand, is a lot less useful. As we'll see in the items and gameplay sections, we rarely want to attack with weapons or take hits, so we don't really have anything to use the stone on ourselves. Still good for putting it on other companions, like making a mythic Red Hand for Maia. It is however a lofty 30 points, so it's up to you. I personally didn't take it. Race: With those pre-creation choices out of the way, it's time to finally create our Fury Druid. The first major choice we're given is what race to pick. Honestly, the choice of race won't make or break your build, so I'd advise to just play what you want. But then again, you can say that about everything, and this guide would serve no purpose if that were the case, so let me give a few suggestions. The biggest choice in race is whether you go Godlike or not. Godlikes, Death and Nature specifically, have rather good bonuses for us, so they would be the prime picks, with Death technically giving you the most damage you can squeeze out of a race choice, not only giving you more damage against low health targets to increase the chances of you getting a killing blow and extending your spiritshift, but also giving you 3 extra PL if you yourself are low on health. While the latter effect is rather easy to abuse, I myself don't like doing so. Nature Godlike gives you a much more easily available +1 PL while you have a body inspiration active. I personally went with Nature Godlike in my run. Godlikes do suffer from being unable to equip helmets though, and one helmet is incredibly good on this build in particular: Heaven's Cacophony. The helmet is the earliest that you can get an on-demand use of Avenging Storm. While it sadly doesn't benefit from the +1 Elements PL that the class passive gets, the spell is nevertheless amazing, plus you also get a cone AoE Stun with Shout of Hosts and +2 Int and 1 Religion. Both spells are per rest, but with them being so strong, it's little wonder that they are. There are some other good helms for the build that I'll go over in the itemization section, but this is in my opinion the best one. If you do decide you want to wear a helmet, your choice of race will not have that big of an effect on your overall performance. Hearth orlans with the hit-to-crit conversion are probably the most impactful, followed by humans, and, versus certain enemies, Boreal dwarves. Class: Now we're getting to the fun part. Obviously, this being a Fury guide, we'll be picking Fury, duh. But here comes the biggest decision of character creation: to multiclass or not? I can't give a definitive answer on that, and will instead go over all possible combinations and rank them based on a few criteria. Before we get to those criteria, I'd like to do a little jump to the future of the guide and discuss the gameplay that I'm going for with the character creation and itemization choices. My intention for playing the Fury, and writing this guide, was to utilize all the bonuses that the subclass gives, meaning both the buffed up spells, and the spiritshift. Which, simply put, translated into laying down the druid's long lasting AoE spells before shifting into the Angry Cloud form and flinging lightning at them from my fingertips. With that gameplay plan in mind, this is what I'll be judging the class combinations on: Gameplay compatibility, including fitting the role of the Fury, action economy, and synergy of gameplay styles, how much it helps your spells, and how much it helps your attacks in Storm Blight. I will be ranking them from worst to best, but do keep in mind that these are my personal opinions from my experience, and it doesn't mean that the lower ranked ones are unplayable, I just wouldn't recommend them. So, let's start. Ranf F: Nahhh, just don't. Wizard, Priest, Cipher - collectively just too incompatible with the gameplay I'm going for The very bottom. Unfortunately, these three just don't fit the gameplay we're aiming for. It's my belief that Caster/Caster multiclassing is quite, ehh, bad, if for nothing else than for pure action economy alone. Adding more long casting abilities to your repertoire just means you get to spiritshift even less often, and in some cases, like the priest, it detracts from your purpose of doing damage to instead give you back the utility the Fury takes away. Wizard is in much the same boat, though when you discount the damaging options, you're left with self buffs that other classes do better, and debuffs that other party members can cover instead. And lastly, Cipher struggles due to lack of focus while casting spells, then lack of opportunities to cast while spiritshifted, since you want to be attacking more than casting in that form. There's a case for Psion, but it's rather small, since it takes a rather long time to regenerate enough focus for a big spell, and you lose the one big bonus you get to your spiritshift, Soul Whip. Rank D: Giving utility where it wasn't needed Paladin - The Best attack skill in the game, and that's it Yes, Flames of Devotion is incredible. Getting it to bounce is even more incredible. But that's really it. Everything else that the paladin provides just isn't what we're looking for. Absolutely no bonus to your spells other than Inspired Beacon, which requires you to go against your core principle of staying the **** away from enemies. The defense bonuses are also rather wasted when we're playing to not have to use them. We got rid of our utility and healing when choosing Fury, and paladin brings some of it back, along with the auras, but they can easily be handled by another party member. Chanter - If paladin auras were a class Alright, so chanter multis well with everything. it's true. It's not even that bad here either. It's just that all the bonuses the chanter gives can easily be given by another teammate who is a chanter. The only effect that is completely exclusive to it is Energized, given by Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone. Energized, however, isn't all that big of an improvement over Tenacious, and there are multiple better ways to get Tenacious. Just bring another Chanter with you if you want one so bad. Rank C: Doing one thing really damn well, but we need two Rogue - Attacks for days, single target damage for days, but what about our poor AoE spells? Here is where things start picking up. Rogue is probably the single best pick you can choose if you want to focus solely on your Storm Blight form. You have a wide variety of attacks to choose from, and a huge amount of bonus damage from passives. However, you get absolutely nothing to buff your spells up. No inspirations, no buffs, nothing. Also, their subclasses involve a lot of gimmicks to make them work, and I really don't like doing that. And some passives don't work, like Deep Wounds, since your claws deal shock damage. Ranger - Gods of single target accuracy bonuses. We do AoE. Ah, ranger. I love ranger. It's one of my absolute favorite classes. If we were any other class, it would've been a great combo, just the sheer amount of accuracy buffs you can get on a single target from effects like Marked Prey and Stalker's link. Later in the game, Survival of the Fittest does work for AoE, and it's another 10 accuracy, but it's just not enough to carry the class. Add to it that some people really dislike having to micro the pet, and it's unfortunately the epitome of C rank. Rank B: Big Angery Storm Cloud Singleclass - Higher PL, more on-demand spells, no self buffs at all Finally, the pure Fury. I originally had this as a Rank D, but further testing bumped it up quite a bit. The immediately obvious bonus you get is just more spells to cast. Unfortunately, apart from Avenging Storm, they aren't that great. The even more unfortunate part is that you can get every single PL 8 and PL 9 druid Elements spells in scroll form. That's right, Avenging Storm, Great Maelstrom and Tornado all have scroll versions, meaning that you can technically get the same spells as a multiclassed Fury. Which ****ing sucks for the exclusivity of the spells. Priest and Wizard don't get all their spells available in scroll form, but Druid gets aall of the big nukes available? Hell, with proper investment, you can actually cast them more as a non-singleclass, just from scrolls alone. Still, it's not all bad. You do get access to Wildstrike Frenzy, which is a decent amount of really good effects when it procs, despite only proccing on autoattack kills and being centered around you rather than the enemy you killed. And, when combined with Prestige, you get +3 PL to your spells, which is really nice. There's just other classes that provide more, and they can still use your strongest abilities. Rank A: Now we're talking Barbarian - Amazing self-buffs for both spellcasting and attacking, poor Attack skills FRENZY!!!!! Honestly, I could just leave it at that and it would be enough info on why this is such a good combo. Frenzy is just overall an amazing buff. Might, Constitution and Action speed for 1 rage, daaaamn. Couple with it things like Bloodlust and Blood Thirst, and even more mobility with Wild Sprint and Leap, and you have a really good package. Areas where the Barb struggles are attacks however, with Barbaric Blow really not being all that good, especially since Carnage doesn't work with ranged attacks either. Barbarian does however open up an interesting itemization option that will be discussed more in-depth later in The Slayer's Claw, allowing you to transform any Strong inspiration (like say, the one that you get from Frenzy) Into Tenacious, which gives you 2 pen to all your attacks and spells. You could also get it from choosing Berserker, but then you'd also be screwing your entire party with your spellcasts. Furyshaper, however, is a really decent pick, with the wards being really useful in all stages of the game. Plus, it even has Fury in the name! Furyshaper or no subclass if you decide to go the barbarian route. Fighter - Great selfbuffing, decent attack skills, poor passives While not as flashy as Frenzy, Dsiciplined Strikes is an absolutely amazing buff, giving you Intuitive for a decently long duration at a very cheap cost. You also get a really good and cheap attack in the form of Penetrating Strike, and, with Conqueror Stance, a sizable accuracy bonus, as well as a lot of defenses from Unbending and Vigorous Defense if you're ever in a tight spot. There's nothing really too flashy about the fighter, just solid useful things. Unfortunately, you don't have proficiency in your elemental claws, so a decent chunk of the fighter's passives are worthless to you. You do get Armored Grace though, which opens up the ability to use one of the best armors for the build without having to gimp your recovery speed too much or forcing you to use a select pet. Since we have no proficiency, Devoted is worthless, and Black Jacket doesn't really come to that much use. Unbroken is also out since we won't be tanking. Tactician is an amazing choice if you can manage it, and is probably the single iteration of Brilliant that I'm kind of okay with, though I still don't really use it. Tactician or no subclass would be go-to. Rank S: The absolute best Monk - Insane buffs to both spellcasting and attacking, covering pretty much all you could ever want. Mediocre, but situationally really powerful attack skill Well, it was the only one left, and holy ****, is the monk an amazing combo with Fury. In fact, it's so good that I'll get the bad things out of the way first, and then go to the good ones. Of which there are so damn many. Turning Wheel, Heartbeat Drumming and Swift Flurry don't work with ranged attacks. Force of Anguish and Torment's Reach do, but their range is melee. You'll be extra squishy if you go with Helwalker (which you should, more on that in a bit). That's it. That's a lot, I hear you say? Yeah, maybe. But here comes the really damn good stuff. The buffs. Oh. My. God. The buffs. I'm usually a big fan of using your wounds and not hoarding them but in this case, naaah, hoard them away. With 10 wounds, you get 10 Int from Duality of Mortal Presence, and if you're a Helwalker (You really should) 10 might too! Which stacks with the Tenacious inspiration you can get from Thunderous Blows. You don't even need to get hit, Enduring Dance has your wound generation covered, and even gives you 12 accuracy to both your attacks and spells! And did I mention Lightning Strikes as well? You get everything you could ever want, speed, damage, accuracy, penetration, a lightning lash, aoe, duration, everything. it's absolutely insane. Sure, the only attack you can cast is Stunning Surge which costs Mortification but ehh, with all them buffs you're not complaining for attacks. Plus, if either your main target or your bounce target gets crit by Stunning Surge, the cost gets repaid. And if both crit you actually gain 2 Mortification on top of that. If it wasn't obvious, I picked Helwalker monk in my run. The rest are decent-ish, but just don't come up to the sheer bonuses of 10 might to all your spells and attacks. Especially since you don't want to be spending wounds at all. This is where the guide also becomes a build of sorts. Going forth from this point, I will be discussing things from the viewpoint of making a Fury/Helwalker Ascetic. Most of the things apply to any other combo, however, and when we get to spells, I'll also discuss the PL 8 and 9 spells in case you want to singleclass instead. Starting skills for level 1 will be discussed in the Abilities portion later on, so now it's time for stats. Attributes, Culture and Background: First, and second most important choice after Class, attribute distribution. I'll be honest with you, I dislike completely minmaxing my stats. I've played the game with a 13/13/13/13/13/13 (technically one of them was 12 but it got bumped to 13 with the appropriate culture choice) stat spread, which the +2 stats Berath Good Boy Reward bumped to a 15/15/15/15/15/15. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. And it worked amazingly. Did I need all that res, especially since I played it on a Sharpshooter/Beguiler? Absolutely not, but it worked. What I'm trying to say is that absolutely perfected stat spreads aren't necessary, and if I was to give you one, you don't have to follow it exactly or the build just won't work. It will. So instead, I'll give you a guideline of important stats to get, then what I went with in my run, then the optimized stats if you do want them. Per and Int are your two most important stats. Per is a no brainer, Accuracy is king. With all the AoE, long duration spells and self buffs you have, Int is also obvious. After that, Dex and Mig are quite close to each other, with Dex maybe being slightly better since it allows you to get your casts out faster and attack more while spiritshifted. Plus you get +15 Mig from Helwalker and Thunderous Blows. Res isn't really useful, and you can dump it if you wish. Same for Con, though with it it's more keeping it at a comfortable for you level. For me that's 8, bumped to 10 with the blessing. Stat Spread I went with: 15 Mig, 7 Con (8 with Rauatai Culture), 15 Dex, 18 Per, 19 Int, 3 Res Optimal Spread: 15 Mig, 3 Con, 19 Dex, 18 Per, 19 Int (20 with Old Vailia Culture), 3 Res Both spread were done on a Godlike, so just remove 1 Int and 1 Dex when changing race. Speaking of cultures, honestly, choose whichever one you like. They are way more for RP than for basing an entire build mechanically around them, and one stat point won't completely make or break your game. I chose Rauatai for RP purposes. There is a miniscule incentive to pick a few of them which I'll cover in the next section. Background. Pretty similar to culture, really. Pick whichever one you want for your character and RP. Will not make or break the build. The miniscule incentive I mentioned comes into play here. A bit further into the guide I'll be recommending putting all your skill points into Arcana. There are only 3 backgrounds that have a bonus to Arcana, and they are faction specific. So if you really want that single extra point of Arcana, the choices are: Mystic (The White that Wends), Scholar (Ixamitl Plains, Rauatai) and Scientist (The Living Lands). And we're almost done. All we have left is weapon proficiencies, and suprising no one, they don't matter at all. You will generally never be attacking with your weapons to ever make use of them. However, the proficiencies you pick at character creation affect what weapons you're given in the locker at the start. Since you'll always be given the two weapons you selected, you could pick a flail and a morningstar. Not for you to use, but to hand them over to a squadmate that you make proficient in them. Why those two? Because their modals reduce Reflex and Fortitude respectively. And those are the two defenses your abilities target the most. This is especially good if you're using the BB to start with Fine weapons and armor. Eder early on can make great use of a flail, and Pallegina can make rather good use of a morningstar. But neither are required, and you can still pick what you wish for proficiencies. Picking those two will just save you a bit of money from having to buy them. Playing a Fury: Right, this might seem a bit strange and out of place, but we're going to discuss the gameplay before we dive into what abilities and passives to pick. This is actually rather important to mention, because I'm going to be basing my choice and recommendation of skills based on how they fit into the gameplay. Gameplay isn't hard. The core idea is to utilize both aspects of the Fury: spellcasting and spiritshifting. Which basically means, we'll be laying down long duration AoE spells before shifting into angry cloud form and attacking. Simple as that. What spells we use depends on the situation and encounter, however. I'm going to go over the options at each PL for both Fury and Monk, as well as PL 8 and 9 for Fury, giving my thoughts and ratings on the things you can get, and then at the end, I'll give an example build (might not be the exact same I went for, I don't remember exactly what i picked at every single level). PL 1: Druid: Some really good spells to start off, expect to be using them constantly. Touch of Rot: Decent damage, but low penetration, cast range and AoE, and no other effects. 2/5 Sunbeam: Solid damage, cast range, penetration, decent lasting aoe Blind. Overall really good. Tied for best spell in this PL. 5/5 Vile Thorns: Damage is on the low side. Incredibly short range, but very long-lasting Sicken. If you can make get into range to use it, it's amazing. Doesn't work on poison immune enemies. 3/5 Nature's Mark: Incredibly long-lasting and quite hefty Deflection and Reflex AoE debuff. The second candidate for best spell. 5/5 Winter Wind: Suffers from the same issues as Vile Thorns, while having less useful effects for marginally more damage. 2/5 Tanglefoot: Basically, an AoE Hobbled hazard. There's better sources of Hobbled, and better characters to apply it. 1/5 Charm Beast: Incredibly situational, plus costing you a spell slot that could be spent on a better spell. 1/5 Talon's Reach: Same issues as Touch of Rot, though with more penetration and upfront damage. 2/5 Dancing Bolts: What we get for free. Same issues as Touch of Rot and Talon's Reach, but with even less damage but more cast range. 2/5 Monk: Force of Anguish doesn't work with ranged attacks. Swift Strikes is amazing, Dex inspiration and even more Action speed on top. Passives: Neither Fast Runner or Lesser Wounds are much use. Arms Bearer has situational usefulness in very long fights where your Spiritshift ends and the fight is still going. Will be explained in itemization section. PL 2: Druid: Only one really good spell, but a few situational ones as well. Overall on par with the previous PL. Insect Swarm: Huge duration, decent AoE raw damage, the big bonus is the immunity to Concentration, great vs enemy casters. Best spell in this PL 5/5 Hold Beasts: Marginally more useful than Charm Beast, with the exact same issues. 1/5 Woodskin: Yes, it's utility. But it's really damn good utility. Especially for buffing Pierce armor vs most ranged attackers. 4/5 Taste of the Hunt: Melee. Single-target. The heal doesn't really matter. 1/5 Firebrand: Incredibly good on pretty much any other build but this one. You will never use it. 0/5 Blizzard: Good AoE, decent duration, but low Pen and can hit allies. If you can only hit enemies with it, the debuff is quite strong. 4/5 Autumn's Decay: Difficult to target since it's a short cone, no additional effects, Insect Swarm does just as much damage. 2/5 Conjure Lesser Blight: Summon one of your younger cousins. Unfortunately, they don't really know how to fight since they're so young. 0/5 Burst of Summer Flame: What we get for free. Incredibly fast cast time, but that's about it. No other effects, but it is Foe only. Still, Blizzard is just better. 2/5 Monk: Clarity of Agony is just not what you're looking for. Dance of Death is amazing, and vital to wound generation, as well as providing you with up to 12 accuracy. Mortification of the Soul is a good backup to have in case you run out of Mortification, though won't see use all that often. Also good for a starting burst of wounds before activating Dance of Death. Passives: Let's get the generic and monk ones out of the way first. Neither Graceful Retreat nor Long Stride matter for the build. Pick Two Weapon Style for faster attacks during spiritshift. Wildstrike: The thing that makes your Spiritshift attacks actually hurt. If multiclassing, the element does not really matter that much. Fire and Frost are more often immuned by enemies than Shock and Corrode are. Thematically, Shock is the obvious choice. If singleclassing, pick Corrode, specifically for its Wildstrike Frenzy effect later on. PL 3: Druid: Very similar to the previous PL, one amazing spell and one that just lags behind it, but both will see frequent usage. Returning Storm: What we get for free. Finally a good spell we get for free. One of your core spells, in fact. Makes sense, given that we're a walking storm cloud. Huge AoE and duration, like all storm spells. Good damage and stuns enemies. Biggest issue is that it targets two different defenses for its effects. Still, often one of the first spells you'll be casting. 5/5 Spreading Plague: Potentially incredibly strong. Unfortunately, does no damage on its own, and Weakened is only slightly stronger than Sickened, which you can apply with better spells. Still, can really **** over groups of enemies. 3/5 Twin Stones: Really cool to look at, but a nightmare to aim and just doesn't offer enough to see frequent use. Combine it with its low Pen and it just doesn't stack up to the other options. 1/5 Stag's Horn: Easier to aim than Twin Stones, still rather impressive visually. The debuff is quite substantial, but it is single target only, and if you miss somehow, it's a wasted spell slot. 3/5 Infestation of Maggots: The second long-lasting Raw damage AoE. Much bigger area than Insect Swarm, but only does damage without having other effects. Still, it's a sizable amount of damage, and the second spell from this PL that you're very likely to cast at the start of a fight. 4/5 Beetle Shell: It's not a bad ability per se, just wasted on this specific build. Any more supportive build would make much better use of it. 1/5 Monk: Lightning Strikes is even more damage on our spiritshift attacks. Blade Turning has no place in the build. Torment's Reach doesn't work with ranged weapons. Stunning Blow does, but you won't see much use of it until you get Stunning Surge. Still, pick it up at some point before PL 5. Passives: Soul Mirror is the only unique one this tier, and it's not something you're looking for, and neither are the defenses ones. Combat Focus, however, is something you really want. Free concentration at the start of the fight could easily mean getting a spell off that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. PL 4: Druid: This is one of your worst PLs for spells, if not the worst one. Hail Storm: What we get for free. Unfortunately, unlike the previous PL, this isn't as amazing. The damage is decent for the level, but the penetration is not. Combine with it having a huge AoE, you're almost certain to be hitting your own party members as well as the enemy. It does have two damage types, so at least it won't get immuned. 2/5 Wicked Briars: Hey, remember Tanglefoot? It's the same spell but now also deals a small amount of Pierce damage. Gets the same score, though. 1/5 Overwhelming Wave: If you can position it to only hit enemies, it isn't that bad. You have plenty of other sources of stun, but this will at least reliably hit everything in its path. Tied for best offensive spell on this PL, which unfortunately isn't worth much. 3/5 Calling the World's Maw: And the award for most epicly named spell goes to this one. As for effects, it's not bad. Prone is kind of ****, but the damage it deals is solid and has good penetration. Having less area than Hail Storm also makes it much easier to aim. Runs into the issue that it's basically just a good burst of damage, which means it gets pushed really far down on the priortity of spells to cast, to the point that you probably won't use it in most encounters. The other contender for best offensive spell on this PL. 3/5 Boiling Spray: This is basically the exact same thing as Winter Wind, except it targets Reflex and deals Fire damage. Gets the exact same score too. 2/5 Form of the Delemgan: Woodskin's bigger, stronger brother. Everything that was said about Woodskin is just as true here, plus it also gives Stride and immunity to Dex afflictions. The best spell on this PL, which really speaks ill of the offensive options. 4/5 Conjure Blight: Summons another cousin of yours, this time a bit more adept in combat. Unfortunately, still not enough to warrant casting it, even with how bad the other spells are. 0/5 Monk: While the druid spells on this PL are less than ideal, the monk abilities you get are absolutely stellar. With the exception of Enlightened Agony, since we don't make any use of Clarity of Agony to begin with, you want all the rest. Duality of Mortal Presence, Thunderous Blows and Enduring Dance. Hell, you'll be pressed for which one to get first. Passives: None of the monk side passives matter. The druid ones, however, do. Greater Wildstrike is your priority, get it immediately. Heart of the Storm does wonders for your Storm spells, same with Scion of Flame for Firebug and Sunlance (more on that later), though if you have party members like chanters that can reliably reduce enemy armor, they become less important, as you'll be able to easily reach up to 14 Pen on your storm spells without it, and with a chanter reducing enemy armor by 2, you'll very rarely find yourself underpening. Heart of the Storm does increase the Pen of your Storm Blight attacks, however, so it's still a good investment on that front. As for Spell Shaping, ehhhh, it's not really a priority. If you have a point later on that you can spend, get it. As a rule of thumb, you'll never be using it to increase the AoE of spells since that reduces PL by 5. You can use it to lower the AoE, on boss fights for example, but even then, that will only increase PL by 1. PL 5: Druid: This is, by far, your best PL for spells, which is a welcome change after the last one. In fact, you have so many good spells to choose from, it actually makes the overall PL worse since you're strapped for choice and how many of them you can cast. Plague of Insects: The third, and strongest long duration huge area Raw damage spell. Deals slightly less damage per tick than Infestation of Maggots, but also sickens all targets hit and lasts longer. And it has the effect of Insect Swarm that makes targets hit unable to gain Concentration. The only downside to it is that it's countered by Antidotes, which means that poison immune enemies are unaffected by it. It's a weird interaction but eh, what can you do. 5/5 Relentless Storm: What we get for free. Hey, remember Returning Storm? This is it but even better. Sure, less damage per strike, but more frequent strikes. Just like the other storm spell, a mainstay in your spell priority, to the point it will often be the very first spell you cast. 5/5 Wall of Thorns: If you can aim it so that it won't hit your allies, it's a long line that weakens things. Unfortunately, as was the case with Spreading Plague, Weakened isn't that huge of an upgrade over Sicken, and you have ways to apply SIcken much easier. 2/5 Nature's Terror: On any other build, this would've been really good. Unfortunately, you want to be as far away from enemies to make any use of it. 0/5 Embrace of the Earth Talon: Damn, druid earth spells really go all out with the names, eh? After a few less impressive spells, we're back to the big dogs. This thing is ****ing amazing. It pains me to even admit that I completely ignored it in my run and only realized how great it was when I went back for additional testing. Great range, great Pen, decent AoE that's easy to aim, damage is a bit on the low side for the level, but that Petrify effect is just so damn good, that you can remove all the others and I'd still consider it a contender for best druid spell. Paralysis and Petrify are very rare, and very potent effects, and especially on this build, with the +10 Int from Duality of Mortal Presence, this can easily double its base duration. That's 16 seconds of AoE petrification. The only downside is that it's a ground effect, so it can't affect flying enemies. 5/5 Firebug: So, what are you supposed to do if you run into a group of, say, Rain Blights, that are all immune to Shock damage? Simple. Throw a Firebug at them. Hell, throw two. Great backup damage spell, or if you want to change things up in a fight. Pen is a bit low, which, this late into the skill tree, regrettably means that it can only really be fixed with Scion of Flame or directly reducing enemy armor. 4/5 Monk: Ah, how the tables have turned. Last PL, druid had barely anything to offer, while monk was packed with things we wanted. This PL it's the opposite. Stunning Surge is the only thing that you want to take, and since the passives are also not that vital, it should be the only thing from the monk side that you'll take until the next PL. Passives: Speaking of passives, the only unique monk one, Enervating Blows, doesn't work with ranged weapons. Uncanny Luck also isn't really all that useful, as the chance for it to proc is incredibly low, but it's still better than nothing if you really have nothing else to pick. On the druid side, however, we get Rapid Casting. It should be self-explanatory why you want this. Farcasting is honestly not needed, as we already get a range boost on our elements spells, which are our most used ones. Tough is a safety pick, if you feel you're a bit too squishy, by all means, take it when you have free points. It will generally help you survive at least one additional hit, which can make all the difference. PL 6: Druid: Unfortunately, not as good as the previous PL, though nothing really is. You still get some good picks, so it's not as bad as PL 4. Rot Skulls: Same issue as Firebrand. A really good summoned weapon that you will never use. 0/5 Conjure Greater Blight: Heeey, they grow up so fast! And you're still not going to ever use them! 0/5 Venombloom: If you can get this behind the enemy's lines and plop it down so that it only hits the enemy, it's absolutely insane. Unfortunately, the cast range is abysmal. Use at your own risk. 2/5 Sunlance: Massive ****ing spear made of pure sunlight. Big damage, check. Great penetration, check. Insane cast range, check. Dual damage type, check. Is an Elements spell, check. Oh, and we get it for free when we reach PL 6. 5/5 Monk: Unfortunately, nothing you can make use of. Turning Wheel does not work with ranged attacks, and Flagellant's Path will usually leave you in a worse position after the cast than before. Plus it costs Mortification, for which you have a better use. Passives: Rather bad as well, the only one you should ever consider is Improved Criticals. This is the PL to go back and take things from earlier levels that you still haven't got. PL 7: Druid: Nothing too groundbreaking, but some situationally very powerful spells. Rusted Armor: Really good when fighting bosses and tough enemies to strip them of their armor. That's about it, it does exactly what it says in the description and does it really well. Since it isn't competing with any big damage spells, it'll probably be your most used spell of this PL. 3/5 Lashing Vine: It's a good summon, but you only get one spellcast as a multiclass, and the alternatives are better. On singleclass it's much better and you can afford to cast it. 2/5 Call to the Primordials: This on the other hand, isn't that good, both in multiclassing and singleclassing. 0/5 Weather the Storm: What we get for free. Situationally can turn the tide when faced with really high elemental damage. It's incredibly likely that this will raise your team's elemental armors until enemies start underpening them. Still, it's only situational, and won't see use every fight. 3/5 Monk: Again, nothing that you really need. The Dichotomous Souls is a good option to have, and it's the best summon you can get, but using it will cost you 4 wounds, which, if you want your spells and attacks to be at max effectiveness, will mean you need to wait 12 seconds before casting anything else. Passives: Absolutely nothing of note. Heartbeat Drumming doesn't work with ranged attacks, and you'd be much better off empowering for spell slots rather than single spells. Pick up some things you still haven't instead. PL 8: Druid: This is the PL that makes it worth playing singleclassed. Entropy: Too much setup and management to be effective. It only affects the next three attacks, from any target, so it's easy for them to get used up by mistake. 1/5 Avenging Storm: What we get for free. The granddaddy of all storm spells, and it lives up to all the expectations. Use it right before spiritshifting and become a lightning bolt machinegun. Unfortunately, it's also available from a helmet and scrolls, so not exclusive enough to make singleclass the prime choice. 5/5 Fire Stag: Honestly, I've never found a use for the spell. Enemies don't really focus it enough to make it worth it, and there are just better summons and better summoners than you. 0/5 Passives: Wildstrike Frenzy, the other thing in this PL that makes it worth singleclassing. Regrettably, only triggers on autoattack kills, and is centered around you, so you'll need to get in closer. Corrode is the best one bar none, while shock is the weakest. PL 9: Druid: Big damage that anyone that invests in Arcana can also get. Aspect of Galawain: Cool name, horrible summon. 0/5 Great Maelstrom: Massive AoE and damage. Terribly low Pen for the level, and an extremely long cast time. Did I mention anyone can get it from a scroll? 2/5 Touch of Death: You finally get an execute. Since you only get one PL 9 cast, you better make damn sure it doesn't miss. But if it connects, nothing can resist it. They just go poof. 3/5 Tornado: Massive AoE and damage. Terribly low Pen for the level, and an extremely long ca... this sounds familiar. Hell, it's available on a scroll, too! 2/5 Passives: I singleclassed a Fury and all I got was 1 additional PL from Prestige. Not bad, actually. Well, we got to the end. As promised, here's an example build for Fury/Helwalker: Level 1/Char Creation: Sunbeam/Swift Strikes Level 2: Nature's Mark Level 3: Arms Bearer (will get explained in itemization) Level 4/PL 2 unlock: Wildstrike Shock/Dance of Death Level 5: Insect Swarm Level 6: Two Weapon Style Level 7/PL 3 unlock: Infestation of Maggots/Lightning Strikes Level 8: Combat Focus Level 9: Stunning Blow Level 10/PL 4 unlock: Greater Wildstrike: Shock/Duality of Mortal Presence Level 11: Enduring Dance Level 12: Thunderous Blows Level 13/PL 5 unlock: Embrace of the Earth Talon/Stunning Surge Level 14: Rapid Casting Level 15: Plague of Insects Level 16/PL 6 unlock: Firebug/Improved Critical Level 17: Form of the Delemgan Level 18: Tough Level 19/PL 7 unlock: Rusted Armor/The Dichotomous Soul Level 20: Spell Shaping Before we close this part of the guide (yes, there's more), a brief word on what skills to pick when leveling up. In general, I find Arcana to work best on most offense focused characters, and this one is no exception. I'd say get it to at least 13 to be able to use Avenging Storm scrolls, but you can take it even higher to buff your scrolls even more. As for conversation skills, do whatever you wish, those are RP based 99% of the time. Plus we don't use any gear that scales with them. What to wear as a Fury?: Finally itemization. I do mean finally, this is the last big part of the guide. There will be a bit about spell priority after it, but that won't be as long. I'm also not going to cover fights and encounters as this is more of a guideline how to build a Fury rather than completely hold your hand through an entire run. So with that out of the way, items! Itemization will be explained in a very similar way to skills. I could just tell you wear this this and this, but what are you supposed to do until you get those items? Pretend the game doesn't exist? Instead, I'll go over slot by slot, give some notable mentions and the item I went with in my run. Won't cover all available options like with spells as that would take forever. Let's get the big ones out of the way first: Weapons: In general, you don't want to be using your equipped weapons to attack, but rather to buff your spells while you're casting them. In essence, they're just stat sticks. Until you get the recommended items, use whatever, as it won't have an impact really. The obvious choice, and for all the right reasons, is Lord Darryn's Voulge. 3 PL to all your storm spells is an amazing bonus. However, it only benefits Storm keyworded spells, and you won't be casting just those. My recommendation is to have a second set with Griffin's Blade, enchanted with Hound's Courage for extra damage with spells. Do note that it is only 10% damage, which is less than what Lord Darryn's Voulge gives to Storm spells, so always swap to it when casting those. If multiclassing with a paladin, fighter or barbarian, you can also dual wield Griffin's Blade with Slayer's Claw, which would make all Might inspirations you receive upgraded by one tier, essentially always giving you at least Tenacious. As for that Arms Bearer in my example build, here's the deal. There will be fights where spiritshift just runs out. Nothing you can do about it. In those cases, you still want something to attack with, but you don't really want to be in melee if you're using the recommended stat sticks. Having a third weapon set with a ranged weapon for those cases is quite handy. My personal pick would be a pistol, any of the three unique ones will do the job. The reason being that you can interrupt your reload with firearms and crossbows/arbalests to cast a spell if you need to. Body Armor: Again, this is a big stat item for you. While spiritshifted, none of the effects of the body armor will carry over, so we want armor that buffs the spells we cast before shifting. As an additional note, I absolutely hate armor variety, or rather the sheer lack of it, in this game, to the point that I consciously avoid using Miscreant's Leathers and DoC armor. I'm just so tired of seeing them every single run and knowing that there isn't really that much better options. Straight away, Aloth's armor can give you a decent boost to your area of effect, though with your huge intelligence, it's already massive for most spells. To my distaste, DoC is readily available, and gives you +2 mortification, which gives you a lot more freedom in how you spend it. Another option, and the one I personally went with, is the Cabalist's Gambeson, enchanted for beneficial effects duration, to increase the duration of all your self buffs and spiritshift as well. If you, however, want direct damage increases, there's only really two armors. One is Deltro's Cage, giving you an additional 2 PL to your storm spells. The downside is that it's a plate armor, and will **** your recovery, unless you multi with a fighter, or use one of a few select pets to somewhat combat that. Oh, and you need to kill Ezzali Bardatto to get it, and i really like making the two families get along. The other option is High Harbinger's Robes. Taking more damage really doesn't matter that much, considering you're already taking 50% more from being a Helwalker. The downsides are that they're quite late game, unless you rush BoW, and that they probably really smell of decaying flesh. Vatnir wears them, after all. With those out of the way, it's time for accessories. We have a bit more wiggle room here, since accessories still give you bonuses while spiritshifted, though in general items that buff your spells are still better than those that buff your attacks. Helmets: Only used if you didn't pick a Godlike. Honestly, as previously discussed, there isn't much that can beat Heaven's Cacophony here. And it's available incredibly early, just got to get to Neketaka to buy it. If, for some reason, you don't want to use it, the only really good alternatives I can recommend are Contender's Helm for another Concentration on combat start or Thaos' Headdress. The conditions on it are incredibly easy to meet as long as you have a cipher in your party to cast Phantom Foes. It does require a specific choice in Pillars 1, however, and not everyone wants to make it. Amulets: There's only two really standout options here. The first is Strand of Favor, giving you +1 Int and +10% beneficial effects duration, making everything you do last even longer than before. It's available quite early as well, at Hasongo. The second, available much later, is The Third Eye, with its 10% hit-to-crit for spells. Honestly, I'd still pick the Strand of Favor over it. Other alternatives include Charm of Bones and Stone of Power. Cloaks: There's unfortunately only one big option here, and I really hate it. Shroud of the Phantasm. I really dislike Brilliant in any of its forms, and this is by far the worst. But the cloak, even without the Brilliant inspiration, is still really damn good. One thing to note is that you don't have access to a mind inspiration as an Ascetic, so you will need allies to provide one (more on that at the end). There really isn't any alternatives to it either, and nothing to really wear before it. Handwear: A few decent options that won't make or break your build, nothing too flashy here really. If you don't plan on having an evocation focused wizard in your party, Firethrower's Gloves with their 2 Dex and 1 Arcana are a great option that you can get incredibly early with the Well-supplied merchant Berath's Blessing. You'll probably want to aim for Woedica's Strangling Grasp, which is what I wound up using, but in all honesty it is only marginally better than the basic Gauntlets of Ogre Might. This is one of the slots where the non-unique items are really good, and you can get a lot of mileage out of the aforementioned ones, or things like Mortification Bracers. If you want a large bonus to your Arcana, The Left Hand of the Obscured gives +3, but the other effect it has only works with melee weapons. Rings: Surprisingly, not that much choice, despite being the slot that you're going to need to fill the most of in your party. There's really only one standout ring that you definitely want to aim for, Kuaru's Prize. Absolutely no reason to not use it. For the other slot you have a few choices. If you find yourself using Firebug and Sunlance often, Ring of Focused Flame gives both +10 accuracy. later into the game, Whispers from the Depths can also work really well. Unfortunately, my favorite ring, Chameleon's Touch, isn't that useful, since you get Res from being a druid. If none of those sound too appealing, you can just go for a basic Ring of Overseeing. Boots: Unfortunately, not that many options at all. There are Vithrack Silk Slippers, but those are all the way from FS. Before that, honestly, just wear what you have available, there really isn't a lot of variety. Pathfinder's Boots and Boots of the Stone both grant +1 Dex so at least it's better than nothing, I guess. Belts: Unfortunately, much the same as with boots, though at least you have marginally better options. Sash of Judgment is an interesting option to get a bit more damage out early. i personally went with the Upright Captain's Belt, for one more concentration at the start of combat. Trinkets: I'll be honest, I routinely forget that trinkets are even a thing. No clue really which ones to suggest here as I just haven't used them, and since I came out just fine, I don't think they'll make that big of an impact. Pets: Yup, pets. Pets often get overlooked but they can provide you with some great bonuses to round out your build. Unfortunately, you're a bit screwed when it comes to pets, as there is a pet that boosts every other element except shock. There's still some great options however. Peter is a cat you can get incredibly early that boosts both your area of effect and area of effect damage, and it can easily last you the entire game. You can buy Milx in Neketaka, which gives +1 Int and 5% hit-to-crit with spells. Later on, you have Nemnok, who gives you an additional cast with PL 1 spells, and Boras from FS, giving 5 accuracy with spells. And then there's Ooblit. Ooblit gives a flat 3 seconds increase to all beneficial effects. This includes all self buffs and spiritshift. If you want to wear Deltro's Cage, I'd recommend using a pet that reduces armor recovery penalty. There are a few options, though the best is probably Nalvi from Junvik Village, only because the recovery penalty reduction is the party wide effect, which means you can put it in Eder's pet slot and still benefit from it. Consumables: Honestly, these are not required at all, they're just optional things you can use to give your character another bit of oomph. Potion-wise, you have two big options: Potion of Ascension for +2 PL, which lasts for the whole fight too, and Potion of Perfect Aim for the hit-to-crit conversion. If you choose to only go up to 13 Arcana, you can use the leftover points in Alchemy to increase the duration of Perfect Aim potions. Drugs on the other hand, aren't quite as useful, especially since we're not a Nalpazca. As for scrolls, have I mentioned Avenging Storm scrolls anywhere in the guide? I can't quite remember... Food: Last but not least, food. Damn, how I hate that food counts as an active bonus and therefore doesn't stack with a lot of things. It really should have been a passive bonus instead. Anyways, food is less of a necessity and more of a useful bonus to have. The end all food you'll probably want is Captain's Banquet, but quite honestly, it's time consuming and expensive to craft, so I'd just reserve that for facing fampyr and Sigilmaster Auranic. In the meantime, you can do perfectly fine with just eating Oysters for that sweet 10% damage with spells. Fury tips: Just a few closing points on the Fury druid. First up, to finish up on gameplay. You'll be starting fights by activating your 3 big buffs from monk: Enduring Dance, Thunderous Blows and Lightning Strikes, after which you'll start laying down your spells. Depending on the length of the encounter, you might not need to use all spells at your disposal. Good spells to consider opening with are Embrace of the Earth Talon, Plague of Insects and your Storm spells. Do keep an eye on what enemies you're facing. If they're flying, or immune to Dex afflictions, there's no point in casting Embrace of the Earth Talon. If they're immune to poison, ditch Plague of Insects in favor of Insect Swarm and/or Infestation of Maggots. If they're immune to shock, cry silently as your bread and butter gets taken away from you. All other spells, you can cast depending on the situation: if you need single target burst, Sunlance to the face, really dangerous damage dealers can eat a Sunbeam, fighting a big, tough boss, throw down all your Raw DoTs and Storms, Rust their armor and get ready to shift. When to spiritshift and what to do during it: In general, you wan to spiritshift after you're done casting your initial spells. Once you have the storms and at least one of your Raw DoTs, you should look to refresh Lightning Strikes and Thunderous Blows, read an Avenging Storm scroll if you have any and spiritshift. During the shift, you want to mostly focus on autoattacking, though at times you may need to emergency cast something, most often Shifting Storm, Sunbeam, Form of the Delemgan or Weather the Storm. There are also times when you should completely ignore spiritshifting, namely when facing shock immune enemies, as your attacks deal pure shock damage while in the Angry Cloud form. Your best friends: AKA party composition. I personally don't stick with the same party all game long and regularly swap companions out, so, just like the rest of the guide, I can't exactly give you the optimal party comp. I can, however, recommend some options: A cipher. Yes, I hate it. Yes, Brilliant is amazing. Yes, ciphers are the only class that can spam out Brilliant. You get the idea. A priest. Dire Blessing is an amazing buff to your overall performance. Later on, you can use Salvation of Time to extend a lot of your buffs, including your spiritshift. A paladin and/or a chanter. Best if both at the same time, the almighty Harold. Auras for days. A buddy with a morningstar. The morningstar modal reduces fortitude by an absurd 25. A lot of your abilities target fortitude, so such a huge debuff is a massive help. Unfortunately, since morningstars aren't sabres or swords, and therefore are just not pirate-y enough, the selection of unique ones is rather poor, only two unique ones, in fact. Of the two, The Willbreaker is flat out better, though Saru-Sichr is available earlier. Works best on a tanky frontline support like a paladin. Of the base companions, Pallegina, in any of her three class options, makes a good morningstar wielder. Another buddy with a flail. Much like the morningstar, but it debuffs reflex. Your storm spells, except Avenging Storm, target Reflex for their damaging component. Unlike morningstars, flails were apparently a symbol of the pirate world, as there are 5 total unique ones, which is tied third for most unique one handed weapons of a type, and tied fourth for most unique weapons of any type. None of the unique flails are really standout in their stats so just use whichever one you like. Keeper of the Flame can be enchanted to reduce will, which can be useful for the rest of the party. Straight off the bat, Eder can make great use out of a flail, and in general so can anyone that ends up tanking. Closing statement: If anyone actually made it all the way to here, I salute you for your dedication, and probable insanity. Any feedback is welcome. Now go play a Fury, nerds.

Hey, looking for advise as I'm using Durance, Druid, & a 2H offtank-ish Paladin in my team. So there's these sulbound weapons.. Gyrd Háewanes Sténes: Will this fit Durance or Druid better? I do have Aloth in my party, but he's already using Golden Gaze & Summon Minor Blight wand. Stormcaller: Currently on my druid as he has Heart of the Storm(to boost his Wildstrike Shock) but sadly can't bind it. How is it as a ranged weapon for Grieving Mama? Abydon's Hammer: is it better than Tidefall on a 2H offtank Paladin?

When I was but a tween, addicted to the original Neverwinter Nights on our crappy family computer that could hardly run it, I refused to play anything but the Shifter prestige class. The idea of shapeshifting into different creatures to face my enemies was too exciting to even consider abandoning. Now that I’m much older and only very slightly less single-minded (sadly my computer can run Deadfire only slightly better than the old junker could run NWN), I’ve imported my love of shapeshifting to this game, resolving from the beginning to make the most of the Shifter Druid subclass. At this time, I believe I have some insights that are worth sharing for others who may be interested in this subclass. This post will be a bit long and unusual, because I will provide a brief analysis of the strengths of Shifters in general as well as my favourite class build to illustrate my points (it’s a Tempest build, so Barbarian fans, stick around). I hope that the post encourages others to give the Shifter subclass a shot, whether in the form of my Tempest build or otherwise. Let’s jump in. First Principles The biggest pitfall one may succumb to when planning a Shifter build is to think of the Shifter as an entirely martial subclass. Spiritshift has the benefit of two strong single-handed weapons in combination with armour as strong as superb Heavy Armor (when fully scaled) without any recovery penalty, and with no vulnerabilities (i.e. the armour has the same rating for all damage types unlike regular armours, which have weaknesses). This is a solid foundation to build on, but it is not equivalent to the martial benefits of an entire martial subclass like Fighter or Rogue. Shifters are still Druids, and Druids are spellcasters. Now let’s take a step back and ask what makes Druids special. What is their niche? I would provide two answers to this: healing and versatility. If there is one single thing a Druid can do better than any other class, it’s keeping a team healed. But that’s far from the whole story. Druids can also do significant damage, valuable crowd control, have some good summons, and a few very useful party buffs. And, of course, they have bursts of martial power from Spiritshift. No other class packs such diverse value in a single team slot, even though other classes will be better at most specific aspects. Druid subclasses leverage this versatility by offering specialization in one of the dimensions of the Druid kit, usually compromising another. This might lead one to think that a Druid subclass should be built to focus on that one specialist dimension and no other, but this is simply the general form of the pitfall that I mentioned at the beginning of this section. Versatility remains a core strength of the Druid class in each of its subclasses. The subclasses emphasize a dimension of the class – they do not invalidate all others. Your Lifegiver can still drop strong damage spells. Your Fury can still summon and do plant/beast DPS. Forgoing such versatility will always just make your Druid worse than they could be. This class is not supposed to just do one thing. Our first principle of building a Shifter follows easily: spellcasting must be respected as a core part of the character. Shifters are Druids, not furry warriors. And because Shifters lose their spellcasting when they shift, each battle must be divided between casting and martial phases if we want to benefit from all the character’s strengths. These are the parameters within which we will be thinking in what follows. Single Class vs. Multiclass I admit that I’ve never played a SC Shifter (I’ve had 3 Shifter playthroughs; a man only has so much time) but theorycrafting it is pretty straightforward. It would be decent. The main Shifter-specific benefits from SC would be Avenging Storm and Wildstrike Frenzy. Shifters will have good melee attack speed (especially cat form) and relatively low deflection, so AS is liable to put in some decent work (though nothing at the level of what can be metagamed with hand mortars, blunderbusses, Frostseeker, etc.). The Wildstrike Frenzy passives ought to be the #1 draw, but they are unfortunately lacklustre. Their effects only proc on kill with a shifted animal-weapon attack, not on spell kills (thanks to Boeroer for testing this). As we established in our first principle, good Shifter will be doing a lot of damage with spells, and Shifters will emphasize spells that do continuous damage while they are transformed. This means Wildstrike Frenzy will do nothing when the final blow comes from Avenging Storm, Nature’s Terror, Plague of Insects, Relentless Storm, or several other DPS spells you may have cast. Now, ‘on kill’ is an inherently weak trigger condition: the goal of combat is to kill enemies, therefore on-kill effects reward you for having already been successful and can’t help when you are struggling to get kills. On kill effects can still be very good for momentum (see the build below), but they need to be reliable with a trigger with such an inherent drawback. SC Shifters will be doing most of their damage from spells since they lack martial passives to help with melee, get higher level spells, and benefit from high power level (shifting doesn’t benefit from PL). That Frenzy doesn’t work with spell kills is therefore a major disappointment. A great thing about SC Shifter is that Shifters don’t lose access to any Druid spells (before they shift), meaning that you can enjoy the complete Druid spell list with the added benefit of sustained martial abilities. I would recommend SC Shifter to a player who primarily wants to play a caster but likes the idea of having a respectable melee presence without much fuss (i.e. no relying on buff chains or specific gear). Multiclassing is where we can get a bit more creative in drawing out a Shifter’s strengths, most obviously by giving our Shifter access to martial passives that will help their melee power. But if there is one thing you take from this post, let it be this: try to pick a second class that synergizes with the Shifter’s spellcasting as well as its melee ability. You’re going to be spending a significant amount of time casting spells and relying on spell damage so, ideally, you don’t want your second class to be irrelevant to that dynamic. A shifter has two major dimensions, two combat “phases” – you want to build for both. The class build below demonstrates what this looks like. Beast Tempest Shifter/Fury Shaper Dive into your enemies’ midst and thrash them to pieces with spells, claws, and teeth. Game version: 5.0 Difficulty: POTD (upscaled) Solo: Untested Overview: Perhaps most importantly from a synergistic point of view, Barbarians are most effective in melee when going after groups of weakened enemies. That’s because they get damage spikes against low-health enemies and massive action speed benefits on kill (see writeup on Blood Thirst below). This means that their damage per second increases significantly when they can crush multiple low-health enemies, back-to-back. Accordingly, compared to other possible martial multiclasses, you get significantly more value out of your Druid spell damage-over-time effects that you will have casted earlier in the fight. Making every enemy weaker before you start your melee phase therefore has a direct and noticeable effect on Barbarian power. This alleviates the inherent martial-caster action time tension whereby spell damage and melee damage compete with each other since time spent doing one is time not spent doing the other. With a Tempest, time spent casting damage feeds into your melee power directly. Note well that, unlike Wildstrike Frenzy, Barbarian on-kill buffs (Bloodlust and Blood Thirst) do indeed trigger on spell kills, so no need to worry about what gets the final blow (except for when a spell steals your Barbaric Smash kill and you lose resources), and you’ll find that when you have multiple spells going on against a large group of enemies, these buffs will pop up regularly when you didn’t even notice you got a kill. Finally, the action speed and Might benefits from Frenzy obviously help in your spellcasting phase. Furthermore, Barbarians have some tension in their design: with very low deflection, very high health, an armour passive, and more, they are meant to take hits. This screams, “get the highest armour value possible!” They also have multiple ways to increase action speed, so you want to build them them to swing fast. Unfortunately, heavy armour comes with a hefty recovery speed penalty, so if you try to maximize your armour, you action speed bonuses get eaten up compensating for it. You’ll recall, though, that Spiritshift armour has a high rating and no action speed penalty whatsoever. Therefore, while shifted you will fully leverage a Barbarian’s tankiness and action speed perhaps unlike any other context in the game. You can see that though Barbarian is traditionally a “martial” subclass, it benefits from the characteristically Druid form of spell casting (damage over time across a wide area) and it powers up spell casting as well. Add this to Spiritshift’s inherent speed and armour benefits and you’ve got yourself a beautiful set of synergies. I chose Fury Shaper because access to Fear Ward is worth the Will penalty, especially on a caster Barbarian because you can leverage Captain’s Banquet, which gives you immunity to most of the most dangerous stuff that targets Will. No subclass would work fine too, as the wards aren’t essential to the build. Mage Slayer is out because you’ll resist your own Druid stuff, and I find Corpse-Eaters looks pretty bad, but do your thing if you really want to be a man-eating werewolf. Berserker could do a lot of damage but Confused is particularly bad for a Druid with their dependence on Intellect and powerful foe-only AOEs, so you’ll have to constantly make sure you’re managing that. Also, this build uses high Might, which increases Berserker self-damage, making you significantly squishier. Attributes: I’m not going to give numbers because they depend on whether there are Berath’s Blessings, the player’s comfort with stat dumping, role-playing, and so on. Instead, I’ll give priorities. MGT: High DEX: Medium CON: Medium PER: High INT: High RES: Low Druids rely on a lot of damage and healing over time, so MGT is better than DEX for both (DEX helps you move through your casting phase faster, but it’s not going to make your spells tick faster; this is unlike burst damage/healing or buffs where getting a spell off a little faster can significantly change the flow of the fight). In addition, you’re getting a lot of action speed buffs as a Barb, so it’s better to give more weight to each swing than try to be the Flash. PER is a priority for anything that needs to hit enemies, and Barbarians have some nice on-crit benefits. INT is critical for all your many AOE radii and (de)buff durations (including Spiritshift). You want as much of this as possible. DEX and CON are good but should only be invested into when the priority three are maxed out. Having some RES can be nice so hostile effects don’t keep you down, and you don’t get crit against deflection to a ridiculous degree (crits give bonus penetration, potentially bypassing your high AR), but if you want to dump a stat this should be it (as per usual). Skills: I like a split between Athletics and Stealth. Athletics for some heals and Stealth so you can more reliably get a cast off while sneaking for the reduced recovery. Not super important. For non-active skills pick what you want. Abilities: I’m going to give brief writeups on key abilities so the reader can get a good sense of how this plays. The “no brainer” passives are Combat Focus, Blooded, Two Weapon Style, Wildstrike and upgrade, Thick Skinned, Unflinching, One Stands Alone, and Brute Force. Along with what is detailed below you will have a couple free points. Use them where you like. Frenzy: Blood or Spirit? – The Spirit line has great synergy here: spell hits cause Staggered as well as melee hits, and Might afflictions are valuable for lowering Fortitude, which synergizes with Brute Force and many strong spells. The AOE terrify can also be clutch in buying yourself casting time when surrounded. However, you may be using lots of Might Afflictions elsewhere on your team (I nearly always run Serafen spamming Dazing Shout) and find that you’re not getting much mileage out of Staggered, and would prefer the resource-saving Blood Storm over Spirit Tornado’s short terrify (especially if you’re packing Fear Ward anyway), in which case the Blood line works just fine. I personally find the Spirit line generally better because of the reliable Staggered, and Terrified lasts for about 10secs, which can save your skin and help you to cast in a pinch. I don’t think you’ll usually benefit that much from Blood Frenzy’s extra crit damage because melee targets don’t usually last long enough to experience all the DoT. Barbaric Roar: Your only command interrupt; always good to have. Especially nice as a quick-cast, foe-only, ranged attack. More valuable than the alternative upgrade – you’re not a main tank. Leap: Jump right in. Just do it, you'll be fine (usually). My playstyle usually involves tanks taking the initiative and diving at enemies to start combat, which effectively takes a lot of pressure away from the backline. This character isn't a main tank, but can and should certainly be right up in the thick of things with the tank. You want Leap to get around with no fuss and Daze enemies while you cast. You can take Wild Sprint as well as sometimes that's all you need and it's cheaper, but it's no replacement for Leap. Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter: You can get some big damage numbers with these. A bunch of crit conversion, up to +100% crit damage, and increased base damage can save you a few attack resolutions (plus your animal form gives a little roar with each swing that sounds cool). Depending on the enemy, casting this around 40-30% usually reliably picks up the kill for no Rage cost, allowing you to continue your rampage. Don’t overlook the bonus penetration. Blood Thirst: better than I originally thought. Turns out not only does this cancel the recovery of your killing blow, but it also cancels the recovery of the next action you make within the buff’s duration. That means that after you kill an enemy, not only do you not have to recover, but your first attack against the next enemy doesn’t impose recovery either. I kept wondering why I seemed to be getting random Full Attacks in combat until I realized this. Remember, it triggers whenever spell damage gets a kill, too. Moonwell/Garden of Life: This character can be a primary healer. Insect Swarm/Plague of Insects/Infestation of Maggots: Core spell damage, and you get two for free! Stack these on enemies and watch them wither away. Do note that Plague does not affect Poison-immune enemies (and there are quite a few), but Swarm and Infestation do. Plague of Insects is absolute gold because apart from its good damage and stripping Concentration, the Sickened affliction increases your accuracy via Brute Force and lowers enemies’ max health (all the better for smashing). Nature’s Terror: A fantastic spell for this build. You want to be standing in the middle of enemies anyway. Having damage from this constantly wearing them away along with Carnage is great, and the Frightened affliction can block dangerous abilities and make them easier to hit (if you’re using Spirit Frenzy, it debuffs both Deflection and Fortitude). It’s friend-or-foe, so watch your step, but don’t let that make you afraid to use it. Having teammates with resolve affliction resistance can help (Wild Orlans like Serafen come with it, Fighters have a perk, etc.). This spell also seems bugged in that randomly it will sometimes do like 5 ticks of damage to a single enemy instantly. Not sure what causes it. Most important of all, the spell looks really cool (Tempest indeed). Relentless Storm: Of course. Depending on your needs for the fight you can and should cast any two of this, Plague, and Nature’s Terror. Cast all three if you get resources back. Venombloom: Must-have for any Druid, in my opinion. Does nothing against Poison-immune enemies but is devastating to anything else. And with Brute Force it will hit the lower of Deflection and Fortitude. Gear: Weapon: Spine of Thicket Green - unfortunately, your damage bonus on Beast/Plant spells will go away when you shift, but the duration and initial accuracy bonuses from power level are done deals at the time of casting. There's very little reason to use any other weapon. The crush damage and extra effectiveness against Vessels (who are often pierce immune or resistant and tend to be more vulnerable to crush damage) also means this is very occasionally worth using over shifting. Head: Helm of the White Void or Survivor’s Tusks – HotWV gives +10 to every attack roll involved in affliction-causing attacks (i.e. not just the roll for applying the affliction but also for dealing damage, etc.). For this build that means Barbaric Roar, Spirit Tornado, Plague of Insects, Nature’s Terror, Relentless Storm, and Venombloom (Fear Ward, being its own “creature” does not benefit). If you want to use this on another character, Survivor’s Tusks can give you survivability, though the Spiritshift upgrade is less valuable on this build because you will usually have Strong from Frenzy anyway. Neck: Strand of Favor – more INT and beneficial effect duration means longer shifts, etc. Armour: Garari Cuirass – any light armour can work here but I like this one because it gives you as much AR as light armour can so you can take hits before you shift. See also Miscreant’s Leather for the recovery bonus and Cabalist’s Gambeson for the extra effect durations, but remember your normal armour gets replaced when you shift. Feet: Rakhan Field Boots – always nice to dash around and get another interrupt. Footsteps of the Beast can be nice too since you tend to run around a bit. Cloak: Greater Protection Hands: Woedica’s Strangling Grasp – extra Might and AR Rings: Kuaru’s Prize + whatever you like Pet: Giftwrapper or Abraham – Abraham speeds your casting up but Giftwrapper gives you free AR when you get her. Both offer a bit of healing. Food: Captain’s Banquet – Immunity to half of the affliction types, including those which most often target your debuffed Will, is huge in itself. Extra spell damage is fantastic on top. Unfortunately, the action speed buff gets overridden by Frenzy, but with this you don’t need to cast Frenzy at the beginning of your casting phase just for the speed. Being able to wait without much drawback let’s you use Spirit Tornado when it’s most impactful. Closing comments: Embrace a Shifter’s versatility and you’ll be rewarded for it, in both power and fun. The build I’ve detailed has been my favourite to play in the game and is no slouch in power. I hope this post encourages more people to consider playing a Shifter and to play around with getting the most from the subclass. I can confirm that Ascetic builds are great, and I bet interesting things could be done with Wizard, Priest, or Paladin. Thanks for reading.

I have finished the PoE, and at the first game my toughts about druid was "meh". What about the PoED? I'm planning to go druid, but I cant decide which form I should pick up. What are your suggestions? Please write down every pros, cons for each form

Hello :) First of all, I want to say that It's not a build, but rather a cetain tactic how to use soulbound items from the Forgotten Sactum DLC as a Druid. Here are the steps, provided you have at least Weyc's Wand (WW), better to have the robes to use Empower at full potential: 1. Empower your ability, any, that dosen't really matter for the further steps. 2. With the WW you have Follower of the Obscured ability which allows you recover immediately after anything you do, particularly you do not have recovery between shots with WW. 3. Cast Avenging Storm, now every second you have one shot + one lightning bolt hit every second. 4. Use your priest to prolong the aforementioned effects 5. Try to stack you hit to crit chance like orlan Druid, ring of Prosperity's Fortune, one-handed style. Upgraded WW has Revelating missiles, which make 50 % of your crits leave a seal (looking like Wael's eye) on the ground which deals like every second raw damage to nearby enemies. 6. My personal favorite: every time the seal hits an enemy, Avenging Storm STRIKES EITHER. You just watch lightnings dancing waltz. 7. ZEUS IS READY!!!!!! P. S. Robes of the Weyc, The Mask of the Weyc and Nemnok are not necessary, but recommended.

The Thundercat - or 'crit me maybe on more time!' --------------------------------------------- Difficulty: PotD; Game version 3.02 --------------------------------------------- "The Thundercat is on the move, The Thundercat is loose, Feel the magic, hear its roar, The Thundercat is loose. Thunder, thunder, thunder, Thundercat! Thunder, thunder, thunder, THUNDERCAT!" Intro Pictures Race, Heritage and Background Attribute Scores Talents & Abilities Spell Mastery Skills Equipment Buffs & Party Composition Spell Guide

Hey! I found a way to make Fire Stag somewhat useful: Fire Stag has an unlimited use of self-destruct which does good burn/pierce damage in a fixed (friendly fire) AoE. Unfortunately it kills itself with the self-destruct (obviously). So the limitless uses are of little... use. But if you cast Lay on Hands (Shieldbearer) or Barring Death's Door (Priest) on the Stag it will not get killed in the process, allowing it to repeat the self-destruction over and over again as long as the barring effect lasts. This can be prolonged with Salvation of Time. All those spells can be cast on the Stag because it's a "steerable" summon which is not on autopilot and thus counts as "ally".

Hey all, I made a mod to add a couple of new spells into the game. You can download that from here if you want to give it a try. But I'm also looking for feedback on what other kinds of spells or abilities people might be interested in seeing, as well as feedback on what people think of new spells added. Thanks for your time!

Hi. Long time lurker and I appreciate the help this community gives and seems friendly. So I got the highly addictive case of restartitus and have been looking for a build (still haven't completed the story though putting quite a few hours in but still fairly new) playing on veteran I'm interested in the fate testarossa build but I would love to use dual guns. Then I came across the gypsy thunder build but when trying it got bored fairly quickly, which then gave me an idea. Would those 2 builds work together? Could I cause a thunder storm while shooting thunder at them? So this is where I am at also taking a few inspirations from sintee's gunfu monk. (awesome build but as my MC I don't want to be forced into decisions) Class: monk (helwalker) /druid (fury) Race:pale elf Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 11 PER: 20 INT: 16 RES: 03 Adding berath blessing for +2 onto each Skills and abilities I'm currently not sure on those going to pick as I go. This is what I really need help with. Next problem is blunderbuss or pistol? If pistol I'm looking at going towards arcane blaster and thundercrack. If blunderbuss not a clue other than kitchen stove (maybe hand mortars) however have I made my build not as effective with blunder as my might is high? I'm thinking deltro cage might be the armour for that boast to lightening damage too. Don't know if the recovery time will be worth it though. Anyway thanks for reading and looking forward to your input. PS. Kind of imagining this char loosely based on storm from x-men

The -mostly- finished version, in testing, of Waethir the mean. Version: 2.1, POTD Compatible, Solo run untested. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorcerer: Animist / Wizard (No Subclass) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A magical dps that focus on dmg, CC, Debuff and general unpleasantness. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mystic Background ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Might: 15 Con: 8 Dex: 14 (+1 NG) Per: 15 (+1 NG, +1 White that Wends) Int: 15 Res: 8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Metaphysics (for the Chromatic Staff), Sneak and Sleight of Hand (for fluff) or any you want. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Focus: Medium Shield, Dagger, Staff, Flail ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spellbooks: Ninagauth's Grimoire & Snakeskin Grimoire ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirit Form: Stag ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abilites: Free (f), picked upon leveling (p), Grimoires (g). Abilities I won't use from the grimoire are unmentioned. lvl 1: Sunbeam (f), Chill fog (p), Nature's Mark (p) lvl 2 : Fleet Feet (p, replace once you get DAoM) lvl 3 : Talon's Reach (p, replace with Touch of Rot later) Slicken (g) Sunbeam and Chill Fog both blind, but don't deal the same dmg/target the same defense. Nature's Mark makes Sunbeam and Talon's Reach hit easier. Talon's Reach got great early dmg, but will be replaced with Touch of Rot for additionnal DOT dmg to synergize with Combust wounds. Fleet Footed will be replaced by Arkemyr Dazzling Lights. lvl 4 : The Moon's Light (f), Infuse with Vital Essence (p), Insect Swarm (p) lvl 5 : Automn Decay (p) lvl 6 : Combust Wounds (p) Could pick Combust Wounds earlier but felt like I needed enough DOT to make it worthwhile (YMMV). At this point I rush to Neketara to do the Arkemyr Manor and get my grimoires and some items. lvl 7 : Returning Storm (f), Infestation of Maggots (p), Llendrath's Displaced Image (p), Arduous Delay of Motion (g), Ninagauth's Death Ray (g), Noxious Burst (g) lvl 8 : Deleterious Alacracity of Motion (p) lvl 9 : Expose Vulnerabilities (p) lvl 10 : Conjure Blight (f), Moonwell (p), Heart of the Storm (p), Ninagauth's Shadowflame (g), Ironskin (g) lvl 11 : Calling the world's Maw (p) lvl 12 : Form of the Delemgan (p) Here I got Nannasin's Cobra Strike. It doesn't work that well with the build, but I must try it once to see if it's as cool as it seems. lvl 13 : Plague of Insects (f), Relentless Storm (p), Rapid Casting (p), Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (g), Malignant Cloud (g), Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (g) lvl 14 : Embrace the Earth Talon (p) lvl 15 : Llengrath's Safeguard (p) lvl 16 : Sunlance (f), Venombloom (p), Death Ring (g x2), Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (g), Gaze of the Adragan's (g) lvl 17 : ? lvl 18 : ? Another two slots I'm not sure how to fill. I already got all the spells I wanted, so either more spells (if I missed something important, do tell) or passives. lvl 19 : Lashing Vine (f) Nature's Bounty (p), Lasting Empower (p), Tayn's Chaotic Orb (g), Ninagauth's Killing Bolt (g) lvl 20 : Potent Empower ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipments! Weapons: Dagger and Medium Shield at first for the increased defense using the modals (only if I read correctly and the additionnal recovery time is only for weapons), then options are; The Spine of Thicket Green, Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff, Magran's Favor or Watershaper Focus & Sun and Moon, Griffin's Blade, The Eye of Wael are all going to be in my bag. Griffin's Blade and Chromoprismatic Quaterstaff have my preference however. Armor: Aloth's Leather Armor, Miscreant Leather, Effigy Husk or Spider Silk Robe all feel like good choices. Gloves: Firethrower's Gloves Neck: Baubles of the Fin, Charm of Bones or Stone of Power Rings: Kuaru's Prize, Ring of Greater Regeneration Cloak: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak Belt: The Undying Burden Shoes: Footprints of Ahu Taka This build plays pretty easely; Buff up, throw a spell that include Crowd Control or Debuff that your enemy is weak against, throw a few DOT spells, add Combust Wounds and wrap up with Infestation of Maggots. Although I included more defensive spells and items, it's still pretty damn fragile and qualifies for the crystal chekhov armory. I intend to have a pretty amoral POE1 backstory to have Effigy ressentment (CoC). This build can Blind, Stun, Petrify, Sicken, Weaken, reduce defences and attributes... I hope I'll make Galawain proud.

Did you ever wanted to use druid elemental claws, but not as a druid? Well now you can and I am 100% sure this is a bug. Probably a reason why we can't use summon weapons as a druid. :9 Why Fury? Because it's the only druid claw that is somewhat unique in comparison to the slash and pierce types of the other forms with its ranged shock type damage and +1 bounce. The other shapeshift forms' weapons do not retain their form's passive or active abilities (eg. boar dots, cat frenzy), BUT they do retain all the animal grunting from attacking. So feel free to fabricate those other claws using this technique if you're into that kind of thing. Make a Sorceror. Level it up to level 7 (PL3). Learn or get a grimoire that has Concelhaut's draining touch. Get into battle and shapeshift then use Concelhaut's draining touch. Recommended that you do it near the end of the battle since the druid's weapons will bug out when trying to weapon attack anything after that and you can't switch out your weapons unless you cast another weapon summoning spell. End combat. Repeat process for a pair. Equip elemental claws on another class and enjoy! Pew pew pew Notes: Receives ranged damage and Heart of the Storm PEN bonuses. Does not receive extra bounce from ranger's driving flight or unarmed proficiencies. Sells for 150cp. Can't attack your teammates with it unless berserker. Also, I think it starts to mess with your selection boxes. D:

Seeing how a lot of people sing the praises of the Liberator and Warden, I got to wondering if combining the Druid and Cipher in the Oracle multiclass would at least be functional. It kinda fits with some of the ideas I've had for my Cipher Watcher from PoE1 since day 1, adding a spiritual aspect to the Cipher, without directly tying myself to the gods and stuff, especially as a Mystic from the White that Wends. The end result almost feels like a Jedi from Star Wars, using the "Force" of Soul energy that flows through and binds all living things, with a strong influence on the weak-minded! Hel, if I made the character an orlan, they could basically be Yoda! Obviously I'd be interested in following a similar route to the popular Liberator setup, using the Lifegiver Druid subclass to provide healing and defense, while the Paladin (usually the Bleak Walkers or maybe Goldpact Knights) provides the offensive might. To that end, I suspect I'd have to use the Soulblade subclass, as if I'm going into melee like a Liberator, Soul Annihilation will be an vital tool. Other than that, though, I'm not exactly sure how to approach constructing this build. What say you, the more experienced forum goers? Is this a workable idea? And what would MAKE the idea workable? Thank you all in advance!

Hey guys, in response to the new update v1.20 which gives us access to a mod manager and makes the integration of custom classes easier than ever, I thought it would be a cool idea for the community to make a library of all the class and subclass ideas they have that could be integrated into the game. One of my favorite things about Neverwinter Nights 2 and other crpgs is the sheer amount of classes and subclasses available for us to choose. While Deadfire has added to the number it never hurts to go the extra mile with mods to tailor your experience. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to start off with the Priest of Abydon, a priest focused on defense and uses a variety of transmutation and earth like abilities. Description: Abydon is the god of duty, preservation, hope, progress, aspiration and industy. The patron of balcksmiths, laborers and the Crusible knights, the god inspires excellence in your chosen field and encourages honest work and tenacity. Abydon sacrificed himself to stop a cataclysmic event from wiping out the Entwithan civilization. He rebuilt himself from scraps of his essence and the help of Magran into the Golem, a being made of metal, however the geas that drove him towards preservation was lost. The watcher chose whether to remind him of it or let it remain forgotten. (Favored dispositions: honest and stoic, disfavored dispositions: deceptive and clever) The priest gains spells that correspond to Abydon when they reach a new power level. The Blessings of the white forge: +Deflection bonus when wearing heavy armor and if possible, can enchant normal equipment to highest level but not legendary and add lass to equipment (meant to help early game not replace unique equipment) Spells and Abilities gained: Fan of Flames: Bellows of the forge Firebrand: lose access to spiritual weapons or if these two options are in the realm of possibilities: 1. Spiritual weapon: Warhammer, crushing dmg and 2. Gift of the Forge: add burning lass to currently equiped weapon/s Twin stones: the hammer of Abydon could send shockwaves across the earth Ironskin: known as the god of constructs, Abydon rebuilt himself into a being made of metal Calling the World's Maw Embrace the Earth's Tallon Rusted Armor: Corrode poorly forged armor Unbreakable: Rebuild yourself as Abydon once did, if possible could include Symbol of Abydon: deals crushing damage and provides deflection bonus Citzal's enchanted armory: Fabricate weapons and a breastplate out of thin air, and Incarnate: Summon Steelclad Construct The Golem Reconstructed Edit: Decided to change the disposition to honest and stoic, fit better.

Plague of insects receives massive bonus from power level. For a level 19 druid, you have +220% damage and +110% duration from power level when other skills of the same tier only receive +60% damage and +30% duration. Or is this intended? It seems plague of insects is the only ability of druid that receives an unusual bonus. Updated: It's actually caused by alchemy. Skills that have poison as a keyword receive 1 power level per 1 alchemy, but i still report this as a bug for you can have over 20 power level by this way.

So I'm considering a Pathfinder: Rogue(Trickster or nothing) + Druid(shifter) as my watcher and main tank The plan is to abuse the hell out of the free heals from shifting forms to just face tank all the damage while using rogue abilities to setup sneak attacks on target. Did a quick test and trickster's illusion "spells" are treated as abilities for the purpose of shifter's penalty, hurrah for 10 free instant heals and mirror image+riposte Looks decent on paper, but the paper leaves out some information I'm hoping to get from people around here First and most important, Does the heal from form shifting scale, and if so from what? I assume might since might scales all the other healing, but is there anything else, Character level(ideal but not expected) Power level(expected) or Max HP(Could be fun). This is more or less the crux of the build and I'd hate to be level 14 and find out my main trick is no longer keeping up. Second, do passives that don't specifically mention shifted forms effect shifted forms? the big ones here being riposte, dirty fighting and two-weapon style(every form available to shifter dual-wields) Lastly, any suggestions on druidic spells? Stat spread is going to be very INT heavy for shift duration, and very perception heavy for landing afflictions and its relying on a lot of passives and rogue tools, in the build I kinda spec'd out there's only room for ~7 druid spells beyond what's auto-granted so gotta be very judicious on which ones i pick. side note: which wildstrike element holds up best throughout the game?

Hello, My problem is thus. I'm playing a druid, using Gyrd Haewanes Stenes. I've been able to level the weapon to the point where I have to dominate 15 times. I've been using it for a long time now, and it just doesn't ever proc dominate. I'm including dropbox link to a zip containing my save, dxdiag specs, screenshots and output log. As requested. I've read a thread here about the v3.03 beta having this bug in it, and that it would be patched... either it never got patched or another update broke it again. Idk. Hopefully, this issues will get fixed soon. I'm not going to keep playing this save until it is, which is sad, because I'm loving playing a druid, and really liked the idea of a soulbound weapon. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gvz3h1n9fdqtobi/gyrd_haewanes_stenes_not_working.zip?dl=0

Looking over the wiki, and theorycrafting a shifter druid (as I have a mac and can't play at the moment) and I noticed that all of the animal spirit shifts have an armor calculation of (8+ Power Level +1 every 5th Level), with the exception of bears which have (8 +2 +1 every 5th Level). It looks like bears are supposed to be a tank form. Does this mean that they are strong at 1st level, but falls behind all the other forms shortly after? Or is it supposed to be {8+(2 x power level)+1 every fifth level}? Can someone with access to the game check this please? because as it stands it looks like the elk and boar forms seem to be stronger tanking options.

I love the Concept of a Shapeshifted focused Druid, Though, I wonder, do we really need all 5 Transformations ? What's your opinion on the Subclass ? I'd rather choose & Focused my Gameplay on One Form rather than having all five personnaly. Moreover, in my mind, going into a Shifter focused Class, I kind of don't want to rely on "Magic Spells", you know. Developp my Character more on the Passive side of the Ability Tree, where in that case, lacks for some more Passive Options to choose for. I don't really like Leveling up & being forced to choose a Magic Spell, that I don't wanna rely on because of the Nature of my Class, because there's no more Passive Options left to choose from... So here's the thing regardind the Shifter Subclass : I'd like Josh & Devs to take kind of the same approach towards this Subclass. More Options : When Shifted - A variety of Active Abilities if you're aiming at an Active "Micro-Management" Playstyle. And Options to be Passive. Natural Tankiness [skin Upgrade], Regenerating Over-Time [similar to the Fighter Recovery], DPS oriented Passives [upgraded Claws, Auto-Leap when switching target (1 meter range)], Etc. Lol I don't know, just iterating here. I know it kinda implies they'd sort of have to create custom Ability Trees for Forms but, wouldn't it be worth... Anyway, for now I guess my main concern is to be forced to choose a Magic Spell, when I don't want to. I imagine i could try to Multiclass a Shifter with a Fighter [unbroken if I wanna Tank], but I don't want the penalty of Lower Power-Level, Etc. EDIT : Even when Multiclassed, still forced to choose a Magic Spell at some point. [Hint : Any Form + Monk's "Swift Strikes" = Shred your way through Ennemies.] Dedicated Shifted Druid that can Access the highest potential of its Class, Passively or Actively. Also, I'm a Shifter, shouldn't I be able to "Toggle" ? And comeback to my Form ? It shouldn't be regarded as a Consumable thing that is lost because you used it... I'm a Shifter, I'm a Master at it.

First off, the dual class system is what I dreamed of while playing PoE1. This kind of thinking really blows the class system wide open. Being able to further specialize an ability like Smite to get another bonus is also a great choice. I acknowledge and like how removing general talents makes individual classes more unique, but without those 30-40 general talents there really are so few options each level. Right now it feels like a 1:1 trade off with dual classing instead of talents; however, if some form of general talents were added, this system would be incredibly versatile. If there are more soulbound items than in PoE1 that allow a character to develop through items, that would also solve this lack of options. I love how the soulbound weapons invite you to pursue certain achievements in the game world. Finally, a personal desire of mine: allow druid wildshape weapons (claws, etc.) to count as unarmed for the sake of being able to use the barbarian's weapon focus or the monk's transcendant suffering. I think creating an unarmed weapon proficiency is all that's needed to rectify this. I love the shifter subclass but a multiclass druid misses out on many of the martial classes' accuracy/defense increases. A multiclass monk also finds itself lacking synergy.