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[CLASS BUILD] Lodefens - Wild Orlan Paladin - Shieldbearer of St. Elcga This is a standard paladin built on achieving highest deflection possible. In the beginnig there was no way to progress with MAX Resolve, so i went for an offensive build until Act II, then I put all in RES. For Llengrath I maxed MIG and CON instead, to avoid dragons abilities and wizards spells. "I won't fall!" (Lodefens motto) PoTD: YES (ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST) SOLO: YES (ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST) Race: Wild Orlan (+2 Perception, +1 Resolve, -1 Might, Defiant Resolve) Culture: Aedyr (+1 RES) Background: Laborer (+1 Mechanics, +1 Athletics) Attributes Initial (with bonus and malus): MIG 17 COS 10 DES 18 PER 18 ACU 10 RIS 5 Act 2 and after (with bonus and malus): MIG 17 COS 10 DES 10 PER 10 ACU 11 RIS 20 See battle against Llengrath for specific respec values. Skill score at 15th level: Athletics: 3 (0 +2 Paladin +1 Laborer) Survive: 2 Mechanics: 7 (6 +1 Laborer) Stealth: 9 Lore: 6 (5 +1 Paladin) At 16th level with respec put enough points to get 6 in Survive, 7 point in Lore and the rest in Athletics. Talents and abilities 1° level: Flames of Devotion 2° level: Two weapons style 3° level: Zealous Focus +6 Accuracy, +15% of Grazes converted to Hits 4° level: Weapon Focus Noble (Rapier, Dagger, Mace) Before Maerwald respec in: 1° level: Lay on Hands 2° level: Weapon and Shield Style 3° level: Zealous Endurance 4° level: Shielding Touch 5° level: Inspiring Triumph Continuing with: 6° level: Deep Faith 7° level: Liberating Exhortation 8° level: Superior Deflection 9° level: Flames of Devotion Before Cail respec in: 1° level: Lay on Hands 2° level: Weapon and Shield Style 3° level: Zealous Endurance 4° level: Shielding Touch 5° level: Sworn Enemy --> here there's only this one or Flames of Devotion 6° level: Deep Faith 7° level: Liberating Exhortation 8° level: Superior Deflection 9° level: Righteous Soul (the only defensive ability at 9th level) 10° level: Cautious Attack Continuing with: 11° level: Deprive the Unworthy (no other defensive abilities) 12° level: Greater Lay on Hands 13° level: Sacred Immolation 14° level: Graceful Retreat 15° level: Abjuration (useful against spirits, no choice for defensive abilities) 16° level: Fast Runner (+5 disengaging) While abilities are always the same choice, you can go for 2 alternatives set of talents after 10th level: First set (more balanced): Weapon and Shield Style Shielding Touch Deep Faith Superior Deflection Cautious Attack Shielding Flames (or Deep Pockets) Fast Runner Graceful Retreat Second set (full defensive): Weapon and Shield Style Shielding Touch Deep Faith Superior Deflection Cautious Attack Snake's Reflexes Bear's Fortitude Bull's Will See Leengrath fight for specific choice for that battle. End game equipement (see notes below for eq used during the run) Weapon set 1: Captain Viccilo's Anger (Legendary, Shocking lash, Durganized, Salying Vessel) + Aila Braccia (Superb, Durganized) Weapon set 2: Bittercut (Superb, Corrisive lash, Durganized, Slaying Beast) + Little Savior (Superb, Durganized) Head: Garodh's Chorus (Preservation) Neck: Cape of the Master Mystic or Mantle of the Excavator Armor: Ryona's Breastplate (full upgraded) Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy or Gauntlets of Swift Action or Siegebreaker Gauntlets Ring 1: Ring of protection Ring 2: Iron Circle or Ring of Changing Heart Waist: Looped Rope Feet: Viettro's Formal Footwear or Boots of Speed or Fenwalkers or Boots of Stability Pet: Concelhaut's Skull Note: St. Wygelt's Cudgel fits weel with this built, you can use also this weapon if you like. See videos for situational equipment. Now a diary and some consideration about the run with equipment used. Initial Equipments were: Fulvano's Equipment Breastplate or Brigadine Rapier + Dagger or Mace Raedric Loot At Raedric's Keep I looted: Gauntlets of Accuracy +5 ACC Ring of Searing Flames Bluntig belt Boot of Stealth Gloves of Manipulation Fine Rapier Fine Large Shields Fine Brigadine Fine Mail Armor Fine Breastplate Several others fine weapons (Pike, Spear, Hatchet etc.) For Maerwald I bought Outworn Buckler. This is my battle agains him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdnAYzQgSO4 At Defiance Bay I bought the Sword of Prix and enchanted it with Slaying Kith e Burning Lash, and bought Hanover's Fist of Dodm and enchanted it with Slaying Vessels and Shocking Lash. In Defiance Bay I had been wearing Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath or Äru-Brekr. I did ALL side quest of Act 2 before The Hermit of Hadret House. I did Missing Sentries with some nice bonuses from Serel, getting 19 MIG, 18 CON and 8 Athletics (without points in it). I did also Clandestine Cargo at 7th, and Cail The Silent at 10th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us4dIDH5zsA I completed WM1 at 10th level, no need for Scroll of Prayer Against Imprisonment for Lagufaeths, I used mostly Resolution with Slaying Wilders and Corrode Slash. For Galvino's workshop I used St. Ydwen Redeemer (upgraded to last stage using The Ring of Wonder for Second Chance). At level 11th I did Iklak, The Dweller and Cyrdel, to level at 12th. Done Durgan Battery with some pulling, but enough easely. Taken The Unlabored Blade and Ryona's BreastPlate, with some difficulty to kill the Bleak Walkers (some of them have 133 deflection!). Now Eyeless at Iron Flail Fort: St. Ydwen's Redeemer, 5 potions di Llengrath's Displaced Image and 5 of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion with Gauntlets of Accuracy bonus +10 against vessels from Survive and splitting them with 3 shadows: killed almost easily.. Before Kaoto I upgraded Steadfast to last stage and retrieved Rundl's Finery. Abbey: flooded Lower Tide quarters, retrieved Mantle of the Excavator and Abydon's Hammer, now I'm 14th. Atsur at Caed Nua! Done the Kraken at 14th with Bittercut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzffqMZIM0 Now I'm going to ACT 3. Kerdhed Pames e Rêghar Konnek for doing Prisons of Ice, killing mostly of Pale Elfs. Taken Blooded Hunter and leveled at 15th. Taken Berath's boon (another +1 RES and +5 against Paralyzed and Petrified). Did At the Mercy of the Tribes and gained Wild Running. Got Song of the Heavens. Oh, ok, the Sky Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op85_i6lVmQ Retrieved Looped Rope at 16th level. At late game you can achieve 185 of Deflection with potions and abilities and 33 Resolve (37 with Redeemer): I took Executioner's Hood and Siegebreaker Gauntlets, they stacks (+10 ACC), but mostly I had worn Garodh's Chorus and Gauntlets of Accuracy. Done ALL bounties except Brynlod... Now Concelhaut, Baelorin and company I had to split them, no problems with Concelhaut apprentices save for Sabel (split/pulling the Skeletons). Concelhaut was easy (tactic involved Wizard's Double, Scroll of Minoletta's Concussive Missiles, Bittercut, Godansthunyr, Aila Braccia and Outworn Buckler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9RhBlbJjNI And now Sefyra with Scale-breaker, 10 Scrolls of Missile Barrage, Infestation of Maggots from Bittercut, Confusion (5), paralysis (5), ring of +4 INT, helm of +4 MIG, coat of +4 PER, shoes of +4 DEX, Wayfare's Hide Durgan Reinforced and +2 Resolve, Steadfast, Aila Braccia and Outworn Buckler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2NrcOcma3o For fun I've done The Champion of Berath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZZFo5IVxk Last (but not least) bounty, Brynlod with 6 charmes, 2 dominates and some Maelstroms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGTQRPve5s For Alpine Dragon I "cheated" a little, put all my fiches on high defense, took foes as a shield killing the Dragon with Persistence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tg3witmUc And in the end Llengrath (I took inspiration from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7SRHml-k4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3iFg1qZT80&t=26s ) : And, finally, Thaos. Very easy with the Redeemer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9SfCeiGUg

Apologies if a question like this has been posted before, but I am looking for some advice on how to build using the Assassin subclass. Also, I have never posted here before or really any online forum, so sorry if I do not format something correctly. I have played through POE2 a couple of times on POTD, and I am just starting another one. I am trying to decide between Single Class Assassin, Spellblade (no subclass) Assassin, and Bleak Walker Assassin. In classic fashion I have started a play-through with all three and have completed Maje Island, but I am not sure which one to proceed with for the rest of the game. From what I understand, single class is usually built around gambit which seems really cool, but doesn't come until much later. I also have concerns about guile management early game, and what to do when I run out of smoke bombs. Spellblade seems to focus more on casting from invisibility, which seems powerful, but I feel like I might miss out on RP of an assassin backstabbing people with a weapon. Finally, Bleak Walker Assassin early game has been super powerful, but does't seem to have much variety beyond FOD from stealth. I also am not really sure what the damage ceiling is for this particular combination. I am planning on playing with a full party, as I am not super interested in soloing. I would apreciate any advice from those who have played any of these. Mostly I am looking for 3 things 1. How powerful does it get in both regular fights and against bosses (not mega bosses) 2. How fun is it to play in terms of variety, strategy, etc. 3. How well does it play in a full party Thanks!

Hi, this is another build of mine, he is a one-handed, Gravestep-addicted Hearth Orlan Rogue focused on hits on crits conversion. I think about a build with the greatest hits to crits conversion rate possible, I check if it is viable and in case fix some lacks, and eventually give up some conversion score for more efficiency. If you wanna know about Hits to Crits conversion reached by this build, go to the corresponding paragraph near the end of post. Hope you like it Llunrwald - Hearth Orlan Rogue, The "Handy Thief" "So do you think I can't hit you? We will see..." Name: Llunrwald PoTD: YES - ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST SOLO: YES - ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST - All TCS achievements. ULTIMATE: No, unless you choose another race* and change a little bit talents and abilities choices. Race: Orlan - +1 Res, +2 Per, -1 Mig Subrace: Hearth - Minor Threat* Class: Rogue - +2 Mechanics,+1 Stealth Culture: Old Vailia - +1 Int Background: Drifter - 1 Mechanics, 1 Stealth *PAY ATTENTION! In SOLO, Minor Threat is useless! It works only with companion, it doesn't trigger with figurines, charmed or dominated foes and/or Concelhaut Visage, SO playing solo with an Hearth Orlan it is the same to say playing without race bonus. Because of that, if you want a race bonus, choose another race for this build. Human, Boreal Dwarf and Island/Coastal Aumaua can fit well --- Attributes - final scores with passive bonus Mig: 18 - 18 base, -1 Orlan, +1 Gift from the Machine Con: 10 Dex: 18 Per: 7 - 3 base, +2 Orlan, +1 Hylea's boon, +1 Song of the Heavens Int: 19 - 18 base, +1 Old Vailia Res: 9 - 8 base, +1 Orlan --- Skills score Stealth: 9 - 13 with Rogue, Drifter, Blooded Hunter and Dungeon Delver, with equipment and bonus rest it can raise even at 17 Athletics: 2 - 4 with Angio's Gambeson Lore: 5 - 6 with Hylea's Boon, can arrive at 8 or even 10 with Aldwyn's Boon, rest and equipment Mechanics: 6 - 10 with Rogue, Drifter and Dungeon Delver, 12 with equipment and even 15 with Rite of Walking Shadows Survival: 3 - 5 with equipment After killed Concelhaut, I respeced with: Stealth: 2 - 6 with Rogue, Drifter, Blooded Hunter and Dungeon Delver Athletics: 6 - 8 with Angio's Gambeson Lore: 7 - 8 with Hylea's Boon, it can arrive at 12 with Aldwyn's Boon, rest and equipment Mechanics: 1 - 5 with Rogue, Drifter and Dungeon Delver Survival: 8 - 10 with equipment --- Talents I took talents and abilities focused on Hits to Crits conversion, so i gave priority to those ones. One-Handed Style - +15% Hits to Crits conversion Vicious Fighting - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Bloody Slaughter - +20% Hits to Crits conversion and +0.5 Crit multiplier against enemies with >10% endurance Deep Pockets - we need scrolls, figurines and potions more than other classes Shadowing Beyond - no brain talent for skipping many encounter and split many groups of monsters Weapon Focus: Knight - for +6 accuracy with We Toki Weapon Focus: Soldier - for +6 accuracy with Godansthunyr Weapon Focus: Peasant - for +6 accuracy with Cladhaliath Bloody Slaughter is an underrated talent for almost all players, I pick it for RPG reasons and for initial goal - Hits to Crits conv., but it can be useful in general with scrolls against many very damaged groups of monsters to kill them with more chances; i.e. shooting a fireball versus 5 ogres with low endurance can result in many hit bu no kill and you have another round with 5 ogres alive; with 1 more crit you have 4 alive the next round instead of 4, if you score a crit by yourself they become 3 and with the others our abilities with more hits to crits conversion, they could be 2... And beside that with boss - dragons ecc with many endurance, 10% can mean 60 or 70, and scoring a crit at that point can make the difference between winning or losing the fight - and your life. Not so bad, after all. Fun fact: if you pick Bloody Slaughter, in th combat log ALL Hits to Crits conversion are assigned to this talent; I suspect it is a log bug, that is, the conversions are made by all talents and abilities, but in the log you say only hit - Bloody Slaughter --> crit and no more other talents/abilities The three weapon focus can be much. You're right, I didn't know what to take and I increased my accuracy with my weapons. You can keep only one or two of them - I'd pick Knight focus because We Toki is our preferred weapons, Peasant can be still usefull... see Equipment session for that. And late game, with high Rogue accuracy, weapon focus is not very important. Dropping some weapon focus talents you can choose other talents as Fast Runner, Outlander's Frenzy, Envenomed Strike, Devastating Blow or what you like. If I restarted the game, maybe I'd drop all the three, I'd pick Gallant's Focus and I'd have +4 accuracy and 2 more talents choice. By the way, after killed Concelhaut I respeced with: One-Handed Style - +15% Hits to Crits conversion Vicious Fighting - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Bloody Slaughter - +20% Hits to Crits conversion and +0.5 Crit multiplier against enemies with >10% endurance Deep Pockets - we need scrolls, figurines and potions more than other classes Shadowing Beyond - no brain talent for skipping many encounter and split many groups of monsters Devastating Blow - +2% Finishing BLow damage, it seems low but it is very good in the damage calculation Fast Runner - more speed is always great for a melee rogue Beast Slayer - Alpine and Adra Dragon, Llengrath's friends and so on, you know Abilities Sneak attack - automatic Recless Assault - no-brain for every rogue I believe Dirty Fighting - no way, I have to pick this for +10% Hits to Crits conversion Deathblows - it's hard to find a rogue without it, +100% damage to enemies with 2 or more afflictions Deep wounds - 3 + MIGHT bonus every tick any time we give slash, crush or pierce damage... I like it for rogue Finishing Blow - +5 accuracy, +50% damage and high damage to low endurance enemy with a weird calculation: trust me, pick it, shoot it when a Dragon is near death and you will see damage going to the sky In my video below there are some single crit near 300 damage with a one-hand weapon. Blinding Strike Crippling Strike Fearsome Strike or Withering Strike - I prefer first one because it give 2 affliction for more time even if it is per rest instead of per encounter Other abilities are defensive or replicable with equipment most of the times, so no many words here. Maybe you can try Shadow Step for more damage or Escape/Coordinated Positioning/Smoke Cloud as panic button, but they make no real difference. Talents chosen/achieved through the run The Merciless Hand - +0.3 crit damage, better than other two and with a Rogue, can't we stay with Doemenels? Gift from the Machine - yes, we want +1 Might and more Endurance ; Hylea's Boon - only because we need +1 Per and above all +1 Lore , by the way, Llunrwald is a artist of theft and deceit, you can say that Song of the Heavens - more PER Dungeon Delver - crit bonus, stealth and mechanics ... food and air for us Flick of the Wrist Dozens Luck Blooded Hunter - more stealth Scale-Breaker --- Equipment Most used equipment Weapon set 1: We Toki - Overbearing, Legendary, Durgan-Refined, Corrode Lash, Slaying - Beast Weapon set 2: Godansthunyr - Stunning, +1 Might, Superb, Durgan-Refined, Corrode Lash Alternative weapon: Cladhaliath - Stunning, Vicious - +20% damage against stunned, prone or flanked enemies, Superb, Durgan-Refined, Slaying - Vessel Armor: Angio's Gambeson - Superb, Athletic, Of Constitution 2, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Slash-Proofed, Durgan-Reinforced Head: Munacra Arret - +12 Will, Whisper of Threason 3 per rest Neck: Cape of Master Mystic - Invisibility when hit by Crit, +12 Deflection, Minor Arcane Reflection Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action - +15% Attack Speed Finger 1: Gwyn's Band of Union - Blassing, +4 INT, Instill Doubt when endurance above 80% Finger 2: Ring of Chainging Heart - + 3 RES, Dominate 2 per rest Waist: Girdle of Mortal Protection - Reduce damage of critical hit by 27% Feet: Boots of Speed - Moving fast can make the difference Pet: Concelhaut - essential for Llengrath fight Some words about equipments - which take at the beginning, predatory weapons, etc. Predatory weapons - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Predatory weapons should fit well for this build, especially Aattuuk because it is a dagger, so +5 accuracy, one hand, and whole place for full enchantment. I try to use that weapon and the others predatory equipment, but Llunrwald can't go through the game with them. He is too squishy, he need to CC enemy and if he can achieve it via scrolls and figurines, this tattic is frustranntig and, above all, expensive to adopt every encounter, so I stuck with deabilitating weapons. You can play with Aattuuk until you get a stunning or averbearing weapon, and the best for us - one handed are the three already cited: We Toki, Godansthunyr and Cladhaliath. By the way, Aattuuk is a dagger and in my run I've already taken weapon focus for war hammer, so just arrived to Defiance Bay I went to Vincent Dwellier, buyed Haba's Hammer - a simple Exceptional war hammer and enchanted it with Corrode Slash and Slaying Kith - Act 2 is plenty of kith to kill, it got its job well in early game; maybe now I'd pick Aattuuk, but it no so decisive. Weapons selection Yet said that We Toki is the best weapon for a one-handed character because it debilitate opponent - prone via overbearing, prone status last long, almost no monster is immune to prone and We Toki can be enchanted at full 14 points with Legendary, having +15 acc/+55% damage - become +20/+80% against beast and +25% corrode damage at top of that. Very good. Godansthunyr is for the few enemies immune to prone, that's all. Cladhaliath was picked only for one reason: I needed a effective one hanb weapons against Eyeless. So I took Cladhaliathand enchanted it with stunning and Slaying Vessel, with a +5 accuracy on top because it is a spear. It did its job at the best... and from that moment I used it against Vessel, obviously, Woedica final statues especially. Armor At the beginning you have to make do with what you find, middle game I took Wayfarer's Hide but then I think that Athletic and Deleterious Alacrity of Motion of Angio's Gambeson was perfect for Llunrwald. You can keep ready armor with stealth bonus and survive bonus, for different moment and situation. Other equipments used often and not already mentioned Let go early game, I often used Rotfinger Gloves - area damage and two afflictions maker and Ring of Searing Flames, end game they become poor and I wear Gauntlets of Accuracy and as rings Bartender's Ring, Orlan's Bramble Ring, Pensiavi mes Rèi or Ring of Thorns. Gwyn's Band of Union is excellent with +4 INT - afflictions last longer and Ring of Chainging Heart is a good way to CC enemies and make allied, such as Munacra Arret. Late game I dropped Munacra Arret for Maegfolc Skull - +4 MIG for damage and Unbending for healing. For neck slot I used also Mantle of the Excavator, Glanfathan Adraswen - for +2 Lore, or Fulvano's Amulet - for Healing bonus. At waist I used the same old Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer but also Belt of the Stelgaer or Trollhide Belt but I found that late game the best is Girdle of Mortal Protection. For foot I wore Boots of Stability, Cat's Whisper - for Stealth bonus, Fenwalkers, and usual Shod-in-Faith or Viettro's Formal Footwear. Quick Slots I was plenty of figurines, apart form this I used scrolls and potion depending on the situation, you can see some "combination" of quick slots items in the videos at the end. Drugs and food I've my usual combination of food, the one that give +2 almost to every attribute, and IMPORTANT I take Gravestep before every hard encounter. It give +25% of Hits converted to Crits for 600 sec and this is far well of +15% Hits to Crits conversion of Potion of Merciless Gaze AND Gravestep can be drunk BEFORE combat, clearing a quick slot item. -20% maximum Endurance for 600 sec is not so problematic. --- Ok, but, how high this blessed Hits to Crits Conversion is? Finally, we take the stock of this Hits to Crits Conversion. We have theese bonus stacking: Dirty Fighting --> +10% Vicious Fighting --> +10% Predatory --> +10% Gravestep --> +25% Durgan-Refined --> +20% Bloody Slaughter --> +20% So, if you stack ALL and EVERY bonus, the final Hits to Crits conversion rate will be: 10 + 10 + 10 + 25 + 20 + 20 = 95% !!! But some bonus are situational, especially Bloody Slaughter, and we wear predatory weapons almost never, so end game the conversion will be 65%, and early/middle game, without Durgan-Refined and Gravestep we can reach only 30% with 2 talents and abilities and a predatory weapon, or 45% with a potion of Merciless Gaze, and this is not so bad early game, after all! My mistake, I wrote a lot of heresies! I'm going to quote the right calculation done by @Boeroer and I'm sorry about my innacuracy, please forgive me! But the effectiveness of the build is the same also with lower hits to crits conversion and what was written without Strikethrough below Boeror quote it is still valid So with all bonuses, including Minor Threat if you don't play solo, i.e another *0.9 factor to NTC rate it gives about 70% conversion rate with all bonuses together. It is very good and perhaps it could be convenient land a crit with conversion than with accuracy... Actually, Dirty Fighting and Vicious Fighting stack, but, since 0.80 is near 0.9*0.9 = 0.81, above calculations remain valid. Middle/end game you will see almost any hit converted to crits, this PG crits a lot also with low Perception. With low PER I can distribute some poin in CON and RES, better than nothing and this give more surivability to the build. But some foes are hard to hit, so you have to reach at least a "hit", not a "graze", because of that accuracy bonuses are welcome. Also, Minor Threat doesn't work SOLO, but in a game with other characters you can put another +10% bonus in front of others, so the previous rates become 105% - ROTFL!, 75% and 55%, very impressive NO, say above for actual rates. Good to hear, but, is this PG viable? Ok, if you wanna go SOLO, the best Rogue is with two weapon style - We Toki and Godansthunyr and the usual build - see for example @baldurs_gate_2 Ultimate Rogue. By the way I beat every encounter with no so high difficulty, except Llengrath: with one hand/low Perception Rogue it is very difficult and it is the only reason this PG can get Ultimate Solo achievements. If you wann go ULTIMATE with Llunrwald, for Llengrath respec in two handed or weapon and shield style and maybe take different quick slot items than my video below. Also Brynlod can be risky, but you can pull/kite easily at that location. All other encounter, with the right tattic - confusion/paralize scroll, figurines, use of shadowing beyond etc. are quite simple, also Adra and Alpine Dragon. And I have to say that many quests can be achieved with stealth/invisibility - i.e. The Rising Tide with no combat at all, skipping many battles. In "normal" game, with other PG and Minor Threat, this could be a good damage dealer and a great "priority target killer". RPG thoughts I thought about Llunrwald as an abandoned infant from Old Vailia, who grew in a circus or somenthing like learning his rogue abilities and at a certain point of his life he decided to go on his way. A day he tried Gravestep and by that moment he was addicted and he found out that his tricks could be better with it ;). He didn't receive a good education, in D&D terms, he can be a Chaotic Neutral PG. --- MEDIA For these battles, I was inspired by @baldurs_gate_2 Ultimate Rogue and also this run. Brynlod Adra Dragon Alpine Dragon Concelhaut Thaos Llengrath

I have decided to play another run of this game on PotD Upscale, as I had never finished the game on this diffuculty before. I have tried few classes as my PC, mostly melee, as I want to play with my nukers NPCs such as Aloth, Hiravias, and Durance. Choosing another caster would make the party "unbalanced" IMHO of course. Among those classes I had chosen, I found Rogue is the weakest melee attacker. It does nothing good enough, even as a single target damage dealer. I know that many topics like this one had been discussed thoroughly in the past. Creating a new one seem unnecessarily redundant. Yet, I find those topics mentioned are not clear and concise enough. Sometimes, those posts even transformed into a war between Rogue-lovers and the opposite, which I do not mind if it was not dragged too far and too long. Anyway, I hope my new post would suit anyone who wants to find the answer on Google about how good Rogue is on PotD Upscale. Rogue has the worst starting stat. Damage dealer Rogue cannot tank or off-tank. Starting with only 15 deflection, Rogue is the worst tank class in this game, while Fighter starts with 30 deflection and monk has 25. The only way to play melee Rouge is to hit an enemy that had been already engaged by another tank or party member, which seems to be the correct method to play. The problem is that if some archers target you, what would you do ? Walking away, Escape, or Shadaowing Beyond means that you do not attack and thus cause less damage. Not to mention that in order to doing so, you must spend some skill points on non-damage skill first, which is not effective also. This low-deflectioned problem will happen or cause another problem no matter how you distribute your stat points. Most people tend to do it either a glass-cannon way or balanced way. The first one is dumping RES to minimum like 3-4 depending on race, and the other one is keeping RES at 10 so that Rogue might mitigate some damage. The rare one is pumping RES to max and gimping other stats, increasing Rogue survivability. The sad thing is that even at max RES, Rogue still has lower deflection than Monk at 10 RES. Reckless Assault does not stack with Savage Attack. I am not sure who decide the rule like this but it hurts so badly. If these 2 skills stack on each other, Rogue would be considered stronger. The net benefit would be +40% atk damage +3 accuracy -8 deflection, which is pretty good. By the way, in reality, they do not stack, which means that other melee damage dealer classes have a way to get +20% as well. The difference would be that Rogue has +13 accuracy more relatively. Aceeptable ? Let's find out later. Sneak Attack requires a target to be debuffed or flanked. In order to flank an enemy in Pillars of Eternity, 2 characters must attack the same target on the opposite side, which means one character needs to spend time walking to the back side or use some skill while the other one engages in the front. Usually, the one doing the walking is Rogue and tank go in front. This seem to be normal and effective for any melee attacker class since you always want an enemy to be flanked as the stat is lowered. However, in some circumstances, you cannot just walk casually to their back side, because in most situation you need to use a choke point to prevent your party from getting swarmed by a horde of enemies. On PotD Upscale, there are a lot of enemies. Without flanking, you need other party members to debuff for you. They may be required to use certain skill or spell for you at the moment instead of doing their things. For instances, Aloth may use fireball or Hiravias may use Spiritshift. All preparations must be done so that Rogue can get +50% damage from melee weapons. As a result, net party DPS may be not as efficient as you think. Comparing Rogue vs Spiritshifted Druid, I also find that by the time Rogue reachs the back side of an enemy, the Spirited Shift Druid (Hiravias) has attacked 3 times already. The damage per hit is also much more than Rogue's Sneak Attack. Spritshifted Druid, they surely hit hard and fast. Rogue has no attack speed buff. Even though Rogue can hit hard with proper setup. Sneak Attack in a combination with Deathblows can produce a big damage number. Rogue lacks attack speed. This is why most Rogue players must put a lot of stat on DEX in compensation. Per rest abilities are not enough. Shadowing Beyond, Finishing Blow, and Fearsome Strike are per-rest skills. Such constraints limit Rogue damage output harshly. When playing Rogue, unless meta gaming (you know what will happen next), people tend to keep these skills for the hard fight, which they do not know whether it will come soon or not. Eventually, they may not have a chance to use them at all. Limiting 1 time per rest on Fearsome Strike is a joke. Backstab is just an illusion. The skill is really hard to use. In order to Backstab an enemy, you need to be invisible or in stealth. With Stealth, you can do Backstab 1 time per encounter. With Shadowing Beyond, you can do 2 Backstab per rest. With level-15 skill Feign Death, you can do Backstab 1 time per encounter. The number of availability is low and what you get is merely +150% damage. Any normal character can reach +200% damage by attacking 3 times. A minmax Spiritshifted Druid may even attack 5 times while Rogue "prepares" to do Backstab. However, you might take this skill anyway because you do not have anything better to choose. This is kinda sad. Dirty Fighting is just a lesser version of +10 accuracy. Dirty Fighting is a great passive skill for any damage dealer. Everyone likes it. This skill is one of the reasons anybody wants to play Rogue as PC. However, other classes might have similar skill too such as Stalker Link from Ranger and Discipline Barrage from Figher. In summary, I want to like Rogue but the class is just not that good in PotD Upscale. All Rogue-lovers, please read this before comment. My opinion is based on PotD Upscale only. If your Rogue works on lower difficulty, I understand, but that is not the point here. Try playing White March II at level 15-16 and choose level upsacle to High Level and you will see what I mean.

[BUILD GUIDE] - The Soul Devourer (5.0) Class - Blood Mage / Soul Blade (Hierophant) Concept - Mass drain focus with Citzal's Spirit Lance and use soul annihilation for mass slaughter. This build has extremely high defenses thanks to equipment, various wizard defense spells, and the amazing cipher spell Borrowed Instinct. We also have spectacular accuracy and crit nearly every hit. Use Pull of Eora to group enemies so we can maximally build focus and annihilate souls. Slaughter kith, wilders, monsters, and...destructibles, to drain their souls and build max focus. This build works with any alignment but is particularly suited for EVIL playthroughs as you're rewarded for slaughtering everything for their souls and their spells. I even killed a temple full of Dawnstars. But not the younglings... POTD - YES SOLO - YES, in fact this build can handle the Ultimate challenge (link below). Companions - Not necessary but would work well in any party as a striker / off-tank. ----------- Why play this class? I was inspired towards soul blade builds after watching Sarcastic Sarcophagae's ultimate run using a soul blade / ranger, and I started thinking about whether we really needed the ranger part, and no, you don't, though ranger makes it easier to proc focus gain since you can kill the pet over and over. I wanted to create a god-like character that felt like a kensai/mage from Baldur's Gate 2. Capable of single-handedly blitzkrieging large groups of enemies. Despite being a blood mage multiclass, we use very few offensive spells. This is very much a melee build and ideal for a no-rest run. ----------- RACE: Coastal Aumaua for might resistance. Wild Orlan, wood elf, mountain dwarf, and human are also decent choices, but really you can use any race besides maybe godlikes, since the helmet we use is important. BACKGROUND: Old Vailia - Artist (mechanics/history/insight) Effigy's Resentment: Maneha (+1 MIG is not quite as good as +1 INT, but we get +5 resistance to might afflictions which is great) STATS MIG - 13 base, 19 final (+2 Auamaua, +1 Gift from Machine, +1 Maneha, +2 Alchemic Brawn, + items and +5 from tenacious/energized) CON - 9 base, 13 final (+2 Alchemic Brawn, +2 Konstanten's Boon, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Robust) DEX - 14 base, 18 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +2 Amira's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Deleterious) PER - 18 base, 22 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Savage Cunning, plus items and +5 from Eldritch Aim) INT - 18 base, 22 final (+1 Old Vailia, +2 Alchemic Wits, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Cauldron's Shard, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Brilliant) RES - 3 base, 9 final (+2 Alchemic Wits, +2 Nature's Resolve, +2 Rikuhu's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Pyschovampiric Shield) It is easy for us to proc inspirations for everything but might (but that can be done too). In battle the stats are typically something like 26/20/24/28/29/14 --------------- To cheese or not to cheese? This build will work fine in parties and likely solo on lower difficulties without using "cheese" strategies. But the cheese is so good. Don't you want to ascend to godhood? Cabalist's Gambeson and Strand of Favor are used to extend many buffs, most important of which is the soul blade's max focus buff. For every melee kill you get +10 max focus for IDK, something like 60 seconds, but we can extend that and end up with 15000+ focus by late game, which translates to starting battles with something like 3500 focus! This lets us zerg dangerous enemies when needed, or whenever we feel like it. In addition, blood mage's minor grimoire imprint can STEAL SPELLS, permanently. This is super useful in general but especially for solo, trial of iron runs, and ESPECIALLY ultimate runs. We can steal spells like Escape, Withdraw, Nature's Balm (Robust!), Halt, and even watershaper spells like Ondra's Whip and a party friendly Chill Fog! Any spell that's level 3 or lower, and an enemy has it, we can steal it. It works like this. DO NOT memorize Minor Grimoire Imprint. Carry a grimoire with Minor Grimoire Imprint. Easiest to get is Aloth's grimoire. Cast minor grimoire imprint on the enemy. If it hits (vs fortitude), a random level 1 to 3 spell the caster knows is stolen and shows up in your quick bar. Most enemies know 2 spells per level, but a few like Eamund the Fox know more (has ten L1 to L3 spells). We can make the theft PERMANENT by swapping to another grimoire and back after we steal it. In this way you can get every level 1 to 3 wizard spell for free (wizard spells don't show up in the quick bar), provided it isn't learned already, plus any level 1 to 3 priest or druid spells you'd want, such as Barbs of Condemnation, Divine Mark, Pillar of Faith, Nature's Mark, etc. etc. But don't steal TOO MANY, not sure what happens when the quick bar extends to the edge of the screen. The spells I stole on my ultimate run were these: every wizard spell I could (because no renewable resources, and just because), withdraw, restore, nature's balm, the moon's light, chill fog (watershaper version), Ondra's whip, Escape, Barbs of Condemnation, and Halt. You can get most of these (minus the wizard spells) from two encounters: Beina, who is a priest of skaen and has other priests in her party, and the watershaper Biakara. These encounters are relatively easy even for solo, and you can watch me do them in Video 13. ------------------- FOOD: Hylea's Bounty! You can get it at the start of the game if you pledged to Hylea in POE1 (everything good import has it). So we can immediately have +2 to all skills which is SUPER helpful in the early game, and the entire game really. It's also GREAT for combat. We get +25% max health, which allows us to dump CON a bit, and even better, +10 to ALL defenses. This is by far the best food in the game for this build. If you have to rest later, I guess I'd go with Captain's Banquet or Shark's Soup for the immunities mainly, but the combat buffs are also excellent. You'll be squishier without Hylea's Bounty buffs though, and skill checks are tougher, and more important you lose your per-rest buffs like Dawnstar's Blessing, so try to avoid resting! ------------------- SKILLS: In the early game, stealth is most important active, then mechanics. Later we want some athletics. With a luminous Adra potion, Hylea's bounty, and the various unguents, plus training, your BASE for every skill should be 7 with no points in it. For passives, early we want lots of diplomacy and a little survival. Once you get the GiftBearer's Cloth, pump history as much as you can. For a solo run I wouldn't take it past 12 points invested (which with other bonuses gave me 20 history and +15 to defenses). My late-game skill investment was something like Arcana 3, Athletics 7, mechanics 9, diplomacy 5, history 12, survival 3. Diplomacy and survival can be boosted with items to around 15 which is enough to pass most checks. ------------------- ABILITIES I went through most of the game without taking a single wizard spell, because you can get almost everything you need from Llengrath's Martial Mysteries and Aloth's Grimoire, but eventually I took Pull of Eora because it is really good and I have one or two ability choices that are somewhat free. Here is my suggestion for what to take leveling up as you go. Grab pull of eora at L10 to L12 or do what I did and cast from grimoire and take it late. 1 - Eldritch Aim and Tenuous Grasp (EA is hard to find as stealable spell plus it is just great, TG is a .5s cast but take whatever cipher side) 2 - Iron Will (!)- +15 to will. Will is probably the most important defense on a solo run and iron will STACKS with bull's will! 3 - Lingering Echoes - your cipher spells lasting longer is pretty nice, but mostly we take this because there's nothing better to take 4 - Psychovampiric Shield (!) and TwoHanded - PVS effectively gives +10 accuracy vs the enemy and gives us Steadfast, and a .5s cast! 5 - Draining Whip (!) - Once you build tons of focus you might want to switch to Biting Whip, but I stuck with draining whole game. 6 - Mental Binding - this one is a bit free, Phantom Foes also a good choice but doesn't stack other flank debuffs like Chill Fog 7 - Hammering Thoughts (!) and Bear's Fortitude (!) - HT +1 weapon penetration is amazing, and our fortitude is a bit low 8 - Secret Horrors - really good debuff over huge area, especially for minor grimoire imprint, and a .5s cast 9 - Weapon and Shield Style - before summoning weapons we want a shield for the bonus deflection, so why not get reflex and more deflection? 10 - Body Attunement and Bull's Will - nothing great on cipher side, but BA is situationally useful vs enemies with high AR 11 - Secrets of Rime - for chill fog 12 - Heart of the Storm - becomes relevant when we proc Lord Darryn's Voulge and Conduit (or take pull of eora and this at 19) 13 - Borrowed Instinct (!!) and Tough - the build starts to become very powerful now we have Borrowed Instinct and Citzal's Spirit Lance 14 - Uncanny Luck - hit to crit always welcome, could also take Rapid Casting or Farcasting, we eventually take all 15 - Rapid Casting - get the buffs up faster 16 - The Empty Soul (!) and Improved Critical (!) - TES +10 ACC vs will with the cipher spells we really need to hit (PVS and BI) 17 - Martial Caster - Summon that weapon a little faster 18 - Farcasting - moderately useful, +20% range on most spells (doesn't apply to escape sadly) 19 - Echoing Horror (!) and Pull of Eora - EH is like a perma-frighten and POE means no more grimoire swapping 20 - Psychic Backlash - Kind of free, could sub Recall Agony, Phantom Foes, Ringleader, Arms Bearer, or a wizard spell MODALS Club (!), Quarterstaff (!), Medium Shield (!), Small Shield (!), Pike, Rapier, Morningstar (last two don't really matter, and pike modal not that great) None of these are super important besides maybe quarterstaff since we use summoned weapons, but the small shield and medium shield especially are nice to reduce damage before we summon the weapon. Club kinda useful early to reduce will. GOD POWER Mien of Death's Herald or Ire of Death's Herald (give Intuitive and Energized respectively). For Mien be diplomatic in god conversations and for ire be aggressive. Intuitive is the only Tier 3 we can't otherwise get, but it isn't *that* much better than aware. Energized is much better than Tenacious for the interrupts which hit your primary and secondary lance targets. But...we can get Energized through other means. In a no rest run these abilities can be used once, so you want to extend them and not lose them. Can wear Effigy's Husk to keep Energized, though you sacrifice some armor and reflex/will compared to Magnera's Chain. It is better vs enemies that use lots of might afflctions though. I took Ire of Death's Herald, and...I forgot to use it. --------------- EQUIPMENT WE WEAR Head - Cap of the Laughingstock - effectively +10 accuracy, and if we use mirror's image or essential phantom we get immunity to resolve (and -10 deflection) Neck - Protective Eothasian Charm - mostly for the proc, but if worn the healing is doubled from might and dawnstar's blessing Body - Magnera's Chain, Effigy's Husk - MC has +10 fort/will/ref, and Effigy's Husk immunity to might. Early game wear Devil of Caroc BP. Rings - Ring of Minor Protection + Entonia Signet Ring pre-escape, then ROMP + Prosperity's Fortune, then ROMPx2 (they stack!) Feet - Boots of Stealth early, then Bounding Boots or Boots of Stability (with two copies of Bounding Boots, you can use Leap 2x per ENCOUNTER, then put it back in stash between battles and swap back to get Leap back) Cape - Cloak of Greater Protection early, then Cape of the Falling Star, then The GiftBearer's Cloth. Hands - Killer's Gloves early, then Gatecrashers, then Firethrower's Gloves, then Left Hand of the Obscured or Onepahau's Strength (or Killer's Gloves again) Waist - Undying Burden then Upright Captain's Belt so we're unaffected by Pull of Eora Pet - Pes early (+10%dmg, 5% hit to crit), Bear Cub later (+8 fort, 5% hit to crit), Ooblit even later (+3s duration beneficial effects) Weapons - You don't actually use the weapons much, but their passive buffs can be useful before summoning. Squid's Grasp in slot 1 and 3 (copy), Lethandria's Devotion in slot 1, Outworn Buckler and some other weapon in Slot 2, Xoti's Lantern in slot 3 (if Skaen challenge) The important thing with the shields is if you get hit by something nasty (not likely with all the inspirations but happens occasionally), you can clear it by rapidly swapping slots 1 and 2. Can clear even faster with 2x outworn buckler, but I like Lethandria / Outworn for healing passive and because Lethandria is a better fighting shield. Every switch you're healed 2 points and clear 6% off the duration. This can be scripted so you clear an arcane dampener in a couple seconds (or no time if you can pause). On Squid's Grasp you want Broken Curse and Attempted Parley, this provides a huge action speed buff when you're threatended by 3+ enemies which happens a lot solo, and it applies to spells! On Lethandria take Sheltering Light and Captivating Crystal. On Outworn Buckler take Timeless Perseverence and Symbol of Courage. Grimoires - LLengrath's Martial Mysteries (or Katrenn's), Aloth's. These are the main two. Jernaugh's Careful Calamities is useful for the spell Jernaugh's Equalizing Burst which is a good opener, also Ninagauth's Shadowflame from Ninagauth's Teachings, but normally we open with Pull of Eora. Might want to hold onto Arkemyr's Illuminating Discoveries or Celestial Grimoire for Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, but I never needed to use it. Escape is not quite as good but a much faster cast. ----------------- EQUIPMENT FOR PROCS - this is stuff we equip only if we want to proc some effect, either temporarily or to extend indefinitely, we extend with first Cabalist's Gambeson, then Cabalist's Gambeson plus Strand of Favor. Takes 10 to 20 seconds to extend something to near infinity, depending where you are it affects how fast you can cycle armor and necklace. The sea is usually the fastest place. Thief's Putty / Ungent of Animalism / Blessed Incense / Oil of Allure / Arcanist's Balm (!!!!) - proc these right after getting Cabalist's Gambeson for +2 to all skills Antidote - permanent immunity to poison attacks Amra (!!!!) - Tempered Fury gives FRENZY without the deflection penalty! Incredible. Protective Eothasian Charm's Darkest Before Dawn (!!!!) - gives +10 health per 3s, -25% damage taken (decreases conduit effect unfortunately) Deltro's Cage Helm (!!!!) - can TRIPLE your damage output if you crit yourself wearing the right equipment at high level with Chain Lightning or even better, Scrolls of Great Maelstrom. Note the scrolls are very dangerous to Vela and yourself so not recommended for iron run, but with max Arcana they do insane damage and you can get +220% lightning damage, which applies not only to melee but spells. Ideally you'll have all of these when you proc Conduit - Chromoprismatic QS's Elemental Induction buff, Improved Critical, Heart of the Storm (make sure you overpen, kill yourself for System Shock if needed), Griffin's Blade (Hound's Courage), +2MIG gloves or Left Hand of the Obscured (arcana for scroll, strength for spells), Kuaru's Ring, Chameleon's Touch, Sash of Judgment, High Harbinger's Robes or Furrante's Breastplate or Deltro's Cage, Sandals of the Water Lily (make it easier to crit yourself). Milx for hit to crit conversion with spells. I crit myself with Chain Lightning in video 28, right before I fight Dorudugan and Huani o Whe. Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff (!!!) - Elemental Induction gives +15% damage which applies to everything including SA, Entropy Shield reduces damage by about 8% Devil of Caroc's BP (!) - 2 health per 3 seconds is okay, but it adds up. If worn this increases to 4. Grove's Kin from Nature's Embrace (!!) - gives Woodskin. We could just steal woodskin and cast it, but perma-woodskin is cool too. Less / Least Unstable Coil (!!) - +15% Action Speed. I proc this during the Maerwald fight because that's when I get it usually and he's a spirit. Lord Darryn's Voulge (!!!) - gives Lightning Strikes - quick, +15% action speed, +15% damage as shock with weapons Outworn Buckler (!!) - would have more ! as this can proc Courageous, but we are already immune to interrupts from insanely high concentration Rannig's Wrath (!!) - Redoublement gives +10 deflection, which is part of why we can dump resolve Resounding Call (!!) - Call to Arms procs Tenacious when destroying a destructible. Slayer's Claw can upgrade this to Energized by swapping weapons. Robes of the Weyc - +1 AR against your chosen type Sanguine Great Sword (!!!) - Proc Blood Gift, then Greater Blood Gift. They STACK for +20 health per 6 seconds, much more if you have the item equipped Scordeo's Trophy (!!!) - can be used early game to greatly reduce recovery with Opening Barrage Scordeo's Edge (!!!!) - can ELIMINATE recovery with Blade Cascade. Can stack accuracy +20 every time you save. Insane. Not necessary to stack accuracy this much but makes things easier. Serpent Crown (!!!) - +10 accuracy that applies to spells not just weapons! Shadow Form (!!!!) (Slipper of the Assassin) - use to steal things with ease, and to start nearly every encounter from stealth (invisible). You don't need to actually wear the boots in combat, after the first proc, switch to the boots you want to wear then extend it and you'll still be invisible. Shea's War Staff (!) - 15% hit to crit with weapons is nice, though by the time you get this you have Scordeo's Edge Slayer's Claw (!!!!) - can bump up any might inspiration to Energized simply by cycling weapons Shroud of the Phantasm (!!!!!) - proc brilliant. It is easy to proc if you have stolen something like Minoletta's Minor Missiles and Restore. Just alternate Missiles and restore. They're .2s casts with speed bonuses, so you can fire off 100 missiles in no time. Wall of Flame also good, but we can't steal it. Make sure to remove clothes when proccing this if you have Abydon's Challenge on. Unstable Soul Essence - an explosive that heals you roughly 6 health per 6 seconds. Okay. Heals much more if you have high explosives. Wahai Poroga (!!!) - At Blade's Reach reduces melee damage by 20% and counterattack returns damage as raw DOT. Combined with Blood Mage healing, we have passive healing around 10(BM) + 20(DBD) + 20(SGS) + 6(USE) + 4(DOCBP) = 60 health per 6 seconds. Add robust for 40 more, add the moon's light for 32 more. Normally my script doesn't proc The Moon's Light but Robust is usually up, so that's 100 or 132 health per 6 seconds, about 16 or 22 health per second. Plus we are hard to hit, so basically unkillable. -------- OTHER BUFFS Nature's Resolve - +10 accuracy, +2 resolve, best per-rest buff in the game Dawnstar's Blessing - +50% healing, +2 religion - I know I just said NR was the best, but THIS is the best per-rest one time buff. Or 2nd best IDK. Alchemist's Wits/Brawn/Guile - +2 to all stats, per rest Cauldon Shard - +1 to chosen stat, I took INT, permanent I think Konstanten's Boon - best prostitute boon IMO, gives +2 CON, +1 PER, +1INT Savage Cunning - +1 PER, +2 survival, permanent Rikuhu's Blessing - +2 RES, get from the shrine on Crookspur Island, takes religion 15, choose to rest you get interrupted, with high diplomacy you get the boon Amira's Blessing - +2 DEX, this is a random proc while traveling Neketaka. When you get the burning house, go in, flee the house, be nice to the old lady Ngati's Blessing - +2 CON, get from Teo Ramunga on Neketaka Island. I skipped this one since it is out of the way and it removes Rikuhu and vice versa. They also remove Amira so try to get that later (just don't do too much unnecessary map travelling in Neketaka and it should proc Amira later). Once I managed to get all three but I can't figure out how to reproduce it. ------- DRUGS SAY NO TO DRUGS But seriously, if you don't want to rest and you get hit by even one arcane dampener your drugs will cause a drug crash, even though when the dampener ends the drug effects return. You can actually stack every drug with saves and loads, and if you have every drug benefit plus the crashes, the benefits still slightly outweigh the crashes (except whiteleaf, don't take whiteleaf, the crash effects are awful). So it still may be worth it. BUT you lose mostly perception, and perception is one of the most important stats so I just didn't mess with drugs. I was only hit with one, maybe two arcane dampeners so it would have been fine if I'd used them but you don't need them and it eliminates worry about that risen mage getting lucky and rolling a 100 vs your insanely high will defense... ------- MY ULTIMATE RUN First 20 or so videos are very boring, please don't watch them. It's just me sneaking around, questing, and proccing things. Not a lot of combat. Gets more interesting after that. I tried to script as much of the fighting as possible, but the POE2 engine is pretty limited compared to say Baldur's Gate, where I once wrote a 3000+ line script capable of handling every battle solo on insane with all the mods (God I'm a nerd). This script has just 33 blocks, and basically we try to keep up inspirations at all time, start battles with defensive buffs, summon citzal's spirit lance or sometimes concelhaut's staff, then use psychovampiric shield, borrowed instinct, and secret horrors for buffs/debuffs, cast pull of eora and chill fog on groups, then move in for the slaughter, healing ourself with restore and the moon's light as necessary, and using escape to zip around the battlefield while exploding things. One relevant note about my pathing. It was not well planned. I should not have gone to Sandswept immediately for the slight XP boost, it cost me later and delayed acquistion of both Shroud of the Phantasm and Lord Darryn's Voulge. I had to get to the Sanguine Harvest island on the 16th (has to be the 16th) for several reasons. You can get the sword, which has really nice healing passives. And you can get the sword again. And again, and again. After a day of repeating that encounter I emerged quite possibly the richest adventurer in Eora, and I drained a few hundred souls for focus in the meantime, so as Korgan would say. "Sigh...a good day". https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkOCqAbkQHxwTJyCKvA_31wYyPWK_87VY

Got an idea of combining prist of woedica 20% raw damage from summoned fists with +20 raw damage frombiting whip added from community patch coupled with soul annihilation for PotD run but I actually wonder how well it will work in practice. On one hand cipher side has some very good melee passives and +40% as raw is pretty big raw damage output. Woedica has some very nice unique spells for more aggressive playstile. On other hand in term of selfbuff priest lives a lot to be desired, compared to wizard for example, minor avatar is a shade of what it was in PoE1. Same with priest passives - most of them are not that useful for melee focused build. Rapid casting and martial casting are always welcome on summoned weapon user. Additionally this class combo completely lacks any type of full attack so no dps boosting Anyone tried this combo themselves? Is it viable for melee focused build with dash of party support or casting and supporting part will mostly overpower melee side even with +40% raw damage?

So, I entered WM at level 7, struggled mostly at the beginning and the end of it, took a short break in base game at the end and gained 1 more level. Now, is being level 12 too easy for WM2 potd and should I thus upscale or is it still fine? It seems weird, essentially not 'grinding' many levels, barely doing more than what is readily available in the DLC and then getting the prompt that I was actually overlevelled for part 2? Or am I maybe even in a bad middleground and should I work my way to level 13 and then upscale?

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.

I am relatively confident in Pallegina's build, and there are many guides as to which spells are good for priest/wizard/druid/chanter/cipher. But Edér... man, I have no idea how to set him up effectively (without either changing his class or his stats). I originally thought just to copy one of the Lady of Pain builds, but they don't seem to work that well for some reason. I would think that a build around Defender would work well with a not-so-tanky party. Taking Defender, Rapid Recovery, Confident Aim, and... that is where I stop having any ideas... Currently, I switch around his weapon setup like they are socks. twohanded, dualwield, SnS-style. The latter seems a bit obsolete, as I already have both Kana and Pallegina with SnS, and of course my whole backline as a backup weapon set. Also for disengagement attacks, I think 2handed stuff would work best?

Right now, I am playing a melee Wiz with 14/8/10/15/16/15 base stats, and I - for the first time - defeated Raedric at party level 4. Lots of resting in the castle, but still, really powerful. Got me thinking, what other classes/builds make for great talkers that are also combatitive on PotD.

like, more balanced stats instead of Drake Ambassador min-max. I saw The Gunslinger just now, and thought that maybe a melee chanter that uses both pDragon Thrashed and offensive invocations to deal damage? I know that casting invocations slows down phrase gain for a bit, but I wonder if that would still be viable from a damage-dealing perspective..? Stat spread I thought of: 15/8/8/15/18/14 ?

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

Hey I've decided to make a tempest multiclass, but I'm having a hard time deciding which barbarian multiclass to go with furyshaper or berserker, I also plan to use lord Darren's voulge in this build and would like some help deciding what other armor and gear to get for the build, I've decided to go with ancient subclass for the druid half of the build as well, I'd also like to know which barbarian passives and skill to take as well as for ancient. Thanks for help .

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

I am currently dungeon delving in Od Nua and I replaced Edér with Kana (for his quest), and Kana is just a so much better tank than Eder while also dealing massive damage with Dragin Trashed. And summons on top... Only, I don't plan on keeping Kana for long, so I wonder if I would be better off making Aloth my second tank next to Pallegina? I don't feel very confident with only 1 tank in my main squad, I tried that in Od Nua 4/5 a bit and it was rough. Without Eder (or better: with Edér as my switcheroo companion), I would only have squishies in my main team aside from Pallegina, so I would like to make one those squishies into a tankie It's pretty much Aloth or Hirvias, and I don't see any mention of druid being a decent tank anywhere..? I read a few bits here and there that aloth CAN work as a tank, just couldn't find any guide for that..? Would making him into a tank be too extreme/niche? Or would I have to ditch all his other roles for it? Currently he is pretty much my main debuffer, with the occasional damage output, but mostly debuffing. I wouldn#t mind making him a tank+debuffer, but sacrificing both roles he currently fills seems meh to me. I asked my buddy if he knows anything, but he only played a melee Aloth in Act 1.

Currently I am having a bit of trouble deciding on a build and as my goto-Youtuber's builds are somewhat outdated I looked thorugh quite a bit of "5.0" build lists but I still can't figure it out so I'm asking the pros . I'm playing RTwP. Am somewhat experienced with CRPGs (played Pathfinder and one or two other CRPGs) and like to min max occasionally. However this time I'm planning to attempt to RP a bit more. These are the things I find important: PotD viable (if possible even PotD solo viable as I want to be able to perform independently from my party even though I plan to bring them along at least sometimes). No hardcore cheese (specificly the one where you spam reequip that one item (?) to extend buff duration). No insane amount of micromanagement required (unless it's not too tedious). Also preferably without too many consumables. Able to do megabosses (again best if solo but for this I dont mind if I have to bring the party as much). RP friendly? (dont know if there is a thing as "rp-friendly" builds). While looking through many posts I found these so far: SC Bloodmage: I played it until Nekataka but somehow it didn't "click" with me and the roleplay of "I'm an all powerful mage" got boring real fast . That is the reason I decided to restart. Herald build that is really tanky and regenerates a lot. For this I could not find any clue on if this is solo PotD viable. I really liked the Priest Brilliant+BDD+SoT strategy and as it needs quite a few levels (exspecially in multiclass variants) I feel it's ok to use it as you probably will be quite late into the story and thus I'm ok with being OP at that stage of a RPG. And if it gets too boring you could always try without. However here im struggling to find out whether these builds are viable without the mentioned strategy. Also wondering which variation of Priest or even which class to multiclass with is the most fun/best. So far i thought about SC/Assassin/Ascended Cipher. I would greatly appreciate any opinions on the priest or herald build. Furthermore if you have any other fun recommendations feel free to post them aswell (if you want to with RP ideas included as I'm somewhat unoriginal). Anyways thank you for reading and have a wonderful day. Should have probably made this a bit shorter

really, only stat spread questions. The problem in big battles is always the same. Either I blast through each encounter, or I lose the moment my Cipher gets targeted. But I like the theme of a melee Cipher a bit more than ranged. Which is ironic because I settled on Wood Elf for flavor My Stats look like the following rn - respecced so often already: M 16 C 8 D 12 P 18 I 16 R 8 16 might gets me massive focus boost it seems when using Firebrand and Perception seems far more important than Dex for a Cipher... Currently wearing Edér's armor for the added defense, simply because of having an 'Oh-****'-button

I have 2 Rangers, 2 Paladins, 1 Cipher and 1 Chanter. I really like this setup so far, also, I cannot think of any classes that would make snese for Sagani/GM/Kana/Pallegina aside from their standard one, aside from Eder, who I think makes quite the fitting Kind Wayfarer Though I could imagine him as a Ranger as well, with his high affinity to animals. But 3 Rangers would be a bit insane I think xD So, stats look like this: Orlan Ranger MC: M17 C3 D19 P20 I15 R4 Arbalest as main (One-Eyed Molina with nexus patch) Sagani Ranger: M20 C4 D17 P19 I15 R3 Hunting Bow main (Currently still her personal one) Eder Paladin KW: M17 C10 D14 P14 I18 R5 Greatsword main (Justice so far, but Imma buy some others soon) Zealous Focus Pallegina Paladin: M16 C10 D15 P14 I20 R3 can't decide and constantly switch between SnS with Outworn Buckler, or dualwield small weapons. Zealous Charge (that thing saved me so many times) is insane. GM Cipher: M16 C8 D14 P16 I16 R8 Warbow/2handed main, switch between the 2 depending on scenario. Haven't found any unique Warbow/Poleaxe/Estoc yet, currently she has Durance's Staff and a Fine Warbow with Wilder enchantment on. Quickly became my second-hardest and most efficient hitter next to MC Ranger. Went down only once (against my first encounter with an Ogre Druid - never again), Kills second highest number, deleted Raedric with Soul Ignition after buffs. Kana Chanter: M20 C8 D15 P14 I18 R3 am really not sure how to build him effectively as a support ranged unit. Just Ila constantly is good enough I guess, collecting phrases for an emergency heal or a summon, but eh, I feel like he's a bit underutilzed there, aside from the tangibly ridiculous speed buff he gives my MC. Also, he has Gallant's Focus to buff the backline even more... I thought (and tried) a gunslinger style setup, but it's weird... Kana I feel like I need the most advice with. The others work very well so far and I feel neither like they are carrying the rest of the party nor that they are underutilized, but Kana is in a weird place imo. But of course I am open to any kind of advice/criticism

I couldn't find a list of recommendations for these items. I made my own list up to Raedric's Hold, but aside from Stalker's Torc and of course the infamous Gloves of Manipulation, I got just some general stuff there.

I thought of binding Belt of the Royal Cannoneer and Company Captain's Hat to Kana (to buff his stats, and also to prevent my main buffer from getting CCed to much - and Firebrand seems pretty dope), War Club to Eder and the One-Eyed Arbalest seems quite intriguing as well, since I adore Sagani a bit too much to not have 2 Rangers now until the end of time. Would Sagani or MC Ranger be good with an Arbalest (this one specifically) or am I better off going guns on one and Hunting Bows on the other? Edit: I have the bugfux for the One-Eyed Crossbow from the nexus installed.

I am stuck in early Act 2. I rushed to Sagani and GM and then wanted to start clearing the surrounding areas. Only, no matter if Woodend Plains or Stormwall Gorge, I canNOT get past the groups of lions (especially the one with the Adragan and the other new humanoid monster). I tried surrounding them, I tried Alpha-striking different enemies (can't insta-kill anything there), I spammed all of my limited spell arsenal, I ate food. Nothing works for me. I don't think it is a problem that I am too weak (level 5), I firmly believe that either my party setup just doesn't cut it (which would suck) or that I just can't come up with the proper strategy here. My party consists of Ranger MC (20/4/17/18/15/3) Boreal Dwarf with Wolf pet Sagani Eder Kana Grieving Mother Durance (who I want to ditch because he just doesn't fit my goody-two-shoes heroine) Considering how easy Maerwald was with Ranger/Eder/Kana/Durance/Aloth, I am at a loss what exactly is my problem now. Am I gimping my combat prowess with 2 Rangers maybe? My current plan for this party would be that all but Durance are my permanent companions, and 1 slot I switch around as I please. Is Kana a good enough replacement for a priest (for buffing and such) or would some other class be a mandatory addition to my team like this?

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.

Glanfathan Soul Hunter Game Version - 1.2 Difficulty - PoTD up-scaled / Solo / Deadly Deadfire Race: Wooden Elf Class - (Ranger) Ghost Heart / (Cipher) Ascendant Alignment - Neutral (The strongest survives) Culture: Aedyr God - Galawain Companion - Bear Increase difficulty mod: Deadly Deadfire Hardcore (https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43) Videos: Showcases L20 - Equipment (On this video I didnt have Bracers of Greater Deflection) L20 - Abilities, Attributes (On this video, I used my old setup, check new version in abilities section) L20 - Queen L20 - Ukaizo L19 - Fampyr L15 - Adra lighthouse L13 - Ondra Temple Attributes Might - 10 Constitution - 10 Dexterity - 19 Perception - 10 Intellect - 18 Resolve - 11 Skills Alchemy 19 History 19 Abilities Whispers of Treason (CL1) + Marked Prey (HL1) Resilient Companion (HL2) Penetrating Visions (CL3) Draining Whip (CL4) + Gunnery (HL4) Marksman (HL5) Weapon and Shield Style (CL6) Ectopsychic Echo (CL7) + Evasive Roll (HL7) Protective Companion (HL8) Hammering Thoughts (CL9) Body Attunement (CL10) + Stalker's Link (HL10) Recall Agony (CL11) Bear's Fortitude (HL12) Ring Leader (CL13) + Driving Flight (HL13) Borrowed Instinct (CL14) Tactical Meld (CL15) Disintegration (CL16) + Survival of the Fittest (HL16) The Empty Soul (CL17) Defensive Bond (HL18) The Complete Self (CL19) + Superior Camouflage (HL19) Snake's Reflexes (HL20) Equipement Pet: Abracham (https://pillarsofete...dia.com/Abraham Weapon 1: Bronlar's Phalanx (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy) + Scordeo's Trophy (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy Weapon 2: Hand Mortal(https://pillarsofete...com/Hand_Mortar) + Cadhu Scalth (https://pillarsofete...om/Cadhu_Scalth) Weapon 3: Dragon's Dowry (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Armor: Patinated Plate (https://pillarsofete...Patinated_Plate) Head: Heaven's Cacophony (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Belt: Girdle of Eoten Constitution (https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Girdle_of_Eoten_Constitution_(Deadfire)) Ring: Ring of the Marksman (https://pillarsofete...of_the_Marksman) + Small Ring of Protection Footprints: Boots of the Stone (https://pillarsofete...ts_of_the_Stone) Gloves:Bracers of Greater Deflection (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Belt: Captain Belt (https://pillarsofete..._Captain's_Belt) Amulet: Strand of Favor(https://pillarsofete...Strand_of_Favor) Modals: * Large Shield * Pistol * Blunderbuss Food: Captain Banquette Gameplay: Charm enemies Put Ectopsychic Echo on Companion Generate Focus and RS with Scordeo If enemies surround switch on Hand Mortal and use Heaven's Cacophony active skills When you Ascended put Disintegration on each enemy around you Tips: Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Rogue distraction and stop enemies sneak attack Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Fear, Terrified Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Domination Alchemy: Potion of Piercing Strikes with Body Attunement helps penetrate Golems and Ukaizo armor Alchemy: Potion of Ascension increase Disintegration damage

Rygmrand's "Artist" Class: Spiritualist ( Soulblade/Chanter ) Difficulty: PotD+ Version: 2.1 Solo: Hel Yes DESCRIPTION: A powerful build that snowballs early into a biawac of destruction and test the power of your gaming contraption! Kill your enemies with ice and decay. If you thought Grave Calling/Hel Beckoning's imp route was neat, you're in for a real big treat. Soul annihilating summons all day! RP: A character I imagined who would rise up to be Rymgrand's top agent. (EDIT) Patch 2.1 - Soul Annihilation's killing blow now has been fixed, but the skeleton and chillfog synergy is still going strong. Difference is now you can either dump SA on enemies or spam cipher spells during chillfog bursts kind of like a semi-ascendant that has Soul Annihilation. I also recommend trying out a Berserker Howler (skeleton nukes) or Harbinger multiclass (deathblow passives) for damage output if you can make do without the cipher utility to increase accuracy or weaken enemy fortitude defenses. There are 2 things that make this build work: 1. Soulblade's Soul Annihilation (SA) despite saying "Primary Attack", will trigger any weapon "on kill" effects if the target dies from the raw damage portion of the attack even if the weapon with the effect is equipped on the offhand. Apparently it also ignores the type of creature it is when it is killed, which will fulfill any "on kill" effect that requires a certain monster type (kith, etc). CAUTION: I am sure this is unintended so enjoy it while it lasts. D: 2. Most abilities that are activated or procced from a weapon will usually calculate damage and special effects using the weapon and any passive abilities the character has. In the case of the cipher, it will generate focus for them. There are some exceptions, but it is usually the case. Technically you could use SA's agnostic killing blow on any soulblade multiclass, which would probably make soulblade/rogue into an insane force of destruction on trash, but the chanter multiclass was the safer choice in order to supply your own "easy fuel" for SA kills and to default back to a chanter summon line on harder fights. Using the raw damage hit of the Soulblade's Soul Annihilation, I am able to 1-2 shot my low HP summons and able to proc the on kill effects of Grave Calling and Hel Beckoning regardless if they are a vessel or spirit. For Grave Calling I have enchanted it to cast chill fog on a vessel kill which will be my skellies. This will result in a free AoE non-hazardous chillfog spell when I kill my summon that blinds and pulses damage to enemies that ALSO contribute to my focus gain, which means I can then use soul annihilation immediately again on an enemy or spam cipher spells. This also stacks my ice lash buff and with the paralyzation on crit enchant, many of the enemies caught in the chillfog spam become blinded and paralyzed as they get torn apart. The afflictions will still persist even if they are immune to freeze damage. The even nastier thing is that if a vessel dies from chillfog it will spawn another chillfog because it is still benefiting from Grave Calling's passives. You will want to cull near-death non-vessels with SA to take advantage of their deaths. POST 2.1 - While this still can work when fighting spirits, it now requires a bit more micro of what blade does killing blows. The other styles seem a lot more viable now and even weapon/ranged can work since the build has no full attacks. In the case for Hel Beckoning, which has procs on a spirit kill and behaves similar to Grave Calling, the two options are a corrode AoE or a corrode imp summon. Although the AoE option is definitely the higher damage option on normal fights, the single aoe cast can miss since it is after all going against fortitude defense, can be resisted by poison immunes, and it doesn't pulse like chillfog does. So for this weapon in solo mode I opted to turn it into a imp summoning tool though in a party you can opt for the AoE instead since you won't have to worry about resistances and survivability as much. The main benefit is to gain ranged cannon fodder separate from the chanter's summons that will also leave usable bodies for "The White Worms AKA Corpse Explosion," which will give a crush damage vs reflex option. Note: The bodies still have the summoning timer and will disappear when it expires. Also of course, the white worms can be used aggressively to unload even more damage on top of the chillfog deathzone to end encounters even quicker without needing focus to spam amplified wave. Hel Beckoning may not always be your main offhand since there are options like Resounding Hammer that gives a free Might+PEN inspiration when killing your summons. Now the obvious weaknesses of the 2 weapons is that the major damage abilties go against fortitude, chillfog is only freeze damage, and maintaining an imp army can only go so far with their pitiful corrode damage PEN. In these specific situations, we can then fallback to the summon meatshield wall of chanters while we pick off targets to gain focus and grind them down via cipher spells or switch to another weapon with another kill effect (although not as strong as Grave Calling but they are "good enough"). We also still have the options from chanter and cipher abilties to lower defenses for the weapon's abilities to land. Some freeze immunes like rime constructs still are vulnerable to the paralyzing effects of chillfog so even if you do no damage, the enemy is prepped to be killed via other means. POST 2.1 - Auto skellies instead and dump SA on enemies while chillfog taps them for focus. While the fire lash chant is great for focus gain, the build does not use it because SA gets countered if your summon is benefitting from the fire lash chant for some reason. In this build, I've opted to use 2 chants: 1. Life Leech Chant: Since you will be doing a lot of damage on trash and hitting your weak defense summons, this chant works great as a healing option. In times of desperation you can back away and "tap" your minions to recover. 2. Skelly Summon Chant: This frees up phrases that would have been used to initiate battles with summons to allow different invocations to be used. Unlike the invocation skellies, the bodies of these skellies can be used for corpse explosion if you are fast enough to trigger it before the body disappears. OTHER NOTES: You do not gain focus from hitting your own summons even with confuse just to be clear with it. There is also a bit of mental micro of needing to know, which blade is being used when auto-attacking your summons. This build also makes use of the Magran belt. While the additional burn damage is nice for minor focus gain, the primary reason is to gain a chance to summon a fire elemental whenever you hit, which is a lot when you have several weapon aoes hitting mobs. The elemental will then serve as easy focus fuel in the midst of tougher or dwindling enemies. There is one really interesting caveat you need watch out for and that is the confused affliction. With the affliction, your aoe zones will damage you which will result in death if you don't have the defenses to get out or survive it if you happen to be in the thick of it. For this reason, INT and DEX resistances are recommended to have. It also serves as an amazing mechanic since now you can just summon your skeletons directly into the chillfog and have them blow up into a nuclear chillfog, which is pretty amazing to watch honestly if your computer can handle it. In a party, have some berserker caster or rogue put a controlled confusion on you for skelly chillfog bombs that would violate the Geneva Convention so hard. Having said that, a howler (berserker/chanter) can do this all by himself using Grave Calling normally. With the SA trick, you could also go double imp enchants for 2 imps for the price of one body. Keep killing your imps to generate more imps as long as you alternate hitting an enemy in between since hitting your own summons does not generate any focus for you. Using this trick, even a non-chanter can build up a ton of imps really quick that can fuel other types of mob builds, but chillfog is too good to give up for an imp. SUBCLASSES: Each chanter subclass has its perks in the build. Skald - Skeletons and wisps have really low defenses so hitting them will generate phrases really quickly, which then can be spent on discounted offensive invocations. Unfortunately it does not generate any phrases from chillfog or noxious blast. Troubadour - Not as bursty as skald's phrase generation, but a lot more consistent than beckoner for rapid phrase generation and helpful when retreating after enemies ripped apart your summons really fast. A skelly every 3 seconds from the skelly chant is also amazing for lazy summon fuel. Beckoner - The lowered HP of the summons helps for initial kills with SA. Even with the lowered duration of summons, a high INT build is still sufficient to be able to have summons constantly up and there is usually enough time to kill a few. It is however, tighter on resources on tough fights until level 19 where the skelly chant will free up some room to use phrases on non-summoning invocations and a bit difficult to use on lower INT builds. It also is the strongest nuclear chillfog subclass when using confuse affliction. Ascended - If you prefer autoattacking summons with just Grave Calling, Ascended works just as well, but this guide will be about Soul Blades since ascended builds perform similar to each other once hitting the ascended buff. RACES: Pale Elf - I chose pale elf to be more in line with the lore of being Rymgrand's BFF, but the real benefit of it is that the fire and freeze AR is extremely helpful when finding several summoned fire elementals chasing your character around or a sudden intellect affliction has the character in the middle of a chillfog deathzone. Wood Elf - Same stats as Pale Elf, but gives a free dexterity resistance. Human - Can be useful in a party since the accuracy boost and damage boost from being bloodied is easier to maintain and control, but you will have to forgo using the life leech aura. CULTURE & BACKGROUND: The White that Wends for perception since accuracy is the highest priority in the build. Matches with the whole RP thing too. You're free to choose whatever though. ATTRIBUTES: SKILLS: WEAPONS & MODALS: ABILITIES: +Good / ?Notable / -Bad EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

Got idea of this type of character for PotD run. Based around idea of stacking as much burn as humanly possible. So wanted to run it down against more experienced people to actually check how viable is it(as I didn't found similar monk builds Race: Fire Godlike (i feel moon will be better but hell, they look cool + fit the theme) Class: monk Origin: Old Vailia - colonist Stats: 18-10-10-10-20-10 Abilities: Swift strike Turning wheel Stunning blow Duality of mortal precence[deflection] Crusible of suffering Flaggelant path Dichotomous soul Iron wheel Talents Veteran recovery Twohanded style Weapon focus: peasant Scion of flame Lesser wound Savage attack Runner's wounding shot Superior deflection For equipment main part of build is deadfire canonier belt so I can summon firebrand. Base idea: high base burn damage of firebran + burn from wounds + scion = ton of burn. And while collecting wound we also trigger Fire godlike aura. For other equipment I am thinking about Angio' Gambezon, Gauntlets of swift action, fenwalkers, ring of deflection, ring of searing flame(why not have more sources of burn?), cloak of comfort. For secondary weapon I am thinking about guildmaster stuff as a source of nonburn damage and ability to swing it from the backs of partymembers in tight coridors. Speed enchantment helps too. Thought about solder for pike, but I feel barbarian from WM1 will make better use of pikes So is it solid idea overall or I am missing some items/ideas?