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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

Sweeper Agent Class: Harbinger ( Streetfighter/Troubadour ) Difficulty: PotD+ Version: 2.0 Solo?: You can cheese a lot of stuff in solo PotD+ with a chanter (summons) and rogue (dot & run) granted you may have to make a few adjustments in skills and prep your fights, but the build is better appreciated with a party. (Sorry if this is long. I wrote it in a very general way.) DESCRIPTION: The Sweeper's main focus is an interrupt and utility build that is tuned more towards range, but it can handle well also as a midline melee. It does various sorts of things that I will like to call "sweeping" and in this particular build, the unique quarterstaff, "Street Sweeper" is part of the utility kit. The Streetfighter rogue subclass is very popular with the amazing bonuses received when it hits its requirements of being flanked and/or bloodied. A very popular way of achieving this is by using the blunderbuss modal to achieve the speed bonus, but in this build we are achieving this with the harbinger's advanced wisp summons attacking the harbinger with its distracting attack. Now that we have our own wisp battery triggering our "Heating Up" buff with its autoattacks, it gives a lot more freedom in using a wider selection of ranged weapons or meleeing a single target without the need of being surrounded. The wisps also serve 5 other functions: 1. Damaging you down gradually to bloodied (<50% health) for "On the Edge" dmg buff if you like to take it slow to bloodied range. 2. Use the 2nd wisp to act as a spotter that debuffs your target for sneak attack potential. 3. Chain interrupting the enemy with the wisp's interrupt active ability. 4. Being a decoy. 5. Supply another streetfighter ally with "distract" if they don't have super high defenses. If you have more than 2 streetfighters, you can do additional micro to hit additional targets. Technically you could delegate the wisp work to another chanter who then uses those wisps to fuel other Streetfighter hybrids opening up the way to some party combos, but I want to highlight the points for this build combo as a whole package. First Sweep: Sweeping gunfire (or blast! or strikes!). Not new to the hand mortar rogue builds, but using a weapon that has aoe capabilities like hand mortars or rod + modal allows the harbinger to apply its debuffs enmasse. Second Sweep: Sweeping them off their feet (Interrupts) The harbinger's active skills come with a degree of interrupt depending on the grade of the attack. To further supplement the kit, many weapons have modals and crit effects that can keep the enemy from doing stuff efficiently and I'll mention some of these weapons at the weapon section of the guide. The energized buff you can get allows crits to interrupt so it could possibly work with other weapons, but the buff upkeep can be taxing so it is mostly used only when extra PEN is needed. Wisps are your strongest interrupt as they can chaincast their interrupt skill to eat up a massive stack of concentration and lock down even the toughest of enemies like dragons. Third Sweep: Street Cleaning - Buff countering The streetfighter has access to many types of afflictions, which can be very beneficial to countering the buffs of enemies granted they are not immune to the counter. Some hard enemies have no timer on their buffs and require its respective counter to strip them off it. An example is using blind to strip the enemy of the perceptive buff, which then lowers their hit and crit chances on your tank. For other buffs with durations, this is were the quarterstaff Street Sweeper's buff clearing feature shines. For other notable cleaning options the war bow, Veilpiercer, has a chance to clean buffs and even has a on-rest skill that can strip out all duration effects in a tiny area. Fourth Sweep: Cleansweep - Situational AoE burst Chanters have a skill, "White worms writhed in the bellies of the dead," (that I will just refer to as "Corpse Explosion"), where it will detonate a single downed enemy and inflict crush damage within its average radius. The upgraded version of the skill, "Their Putrid Stench Wafts Across", has its tooltip only state that it now applies a long lasting sickened debuff. The upgraded version now blows up every body within the massive targeting circle that now covers nearly the entire screen thanks to the high INT of the build. Even if the target circle does show red in the middle (hazardous aoe), it doesn't actually affect your team at all. It even can target your dead skeletons from the skelly chant if you are fast enough to cast it before its corpse disappears. No reason to not clean those floors up. Assuming you are not facing crush-immune or ridiculously high Reflex enemies, this skill makes having a bunch of downed enemies into a cheap nuke that can escalate into a deadly cycle. I usually like to spend Sasha's Singing Scimitar's free empower point here on trash. Alternatively, with the streetfighter's' fast recovery coupled with a high arcana skill you can machinegun expensive scroll nukes if you have the resources as a last resort. (edited) TIP: Turn off gibs in options so they don't get chunked when they die and not leave a body. Optional Sweep: Minesweeper. With its high perception, you can turn this character into your mechanics monkey and have it sweep the floors for traps. Other notes: It is worth mentioning that I made this build with a skillset to achieve a decent enough PEN to circumvent most enemies with stupid high armor (~15-17AR). I chose Troubadour over Skald since PotD+ diminishes Skald a bit and Troubadour is a lot more consistent. Skald is very good in lower difficulties, but be aware that its phrase gain from crit only applies to melee crits. GAMEPLAY: Open up with Artierial Strike if you have it. Summon your wisps and have them attack you. Stay in the Troubadour's Brisk Recitation modal for the "Energized" buff if you want to use a weapon with no passive interrupt or need the extra penetration for an enemy. If you can comfortably damage with your current penetration or don't need a lot of soft interrupts, turn off Brisk Recitation to have your party benefit from double linger chants. This method is easier since now you only need phrases to resummon wisps and don't suffer from inconsistent chant buffs. Apply all relevant debuffs if enemies are clumped up nicely and you can stay in aoe mode if it is more beneficial for damage. I like to save some rogue power in case I need situational buff countering or to escape since the build is meant for countering/utility and not damage output. With the opener done, Send one wisp to assist you in picking off enemies and/or possibly micro wisp to lock them down if they are extremely dangerous. Once a few enemies are down and the remaining survivors are close to the bodies, detonate them and repeat the process. In case you are using phrases to debuff enemies (Armor debuff invocation) or chaincasting corpse explosions, I recommend going back into Brisk Recitation modal to regain phrases quickly to upkeep your wisps. DISADVANTAGES: If built for more damage by dumping RES and CON, the obvious weaknesses of being squishy applies. The biggest disadvantages of a build with low RES is a deflection rating where enemies will often start chasing you down and the increased durations of debuffs with long timers. Having the harbinger with a long INT affliction can be annoying as it will go about and interrupt your backline. Other things like very long dots with low CON can threaten you if not watched carefully so dedicate a few quick slots to recovery items. Considering that you need to manually autoattack with wisps to make the build work and maintain buffs, it requires a bit of micro that can't be scripted. If you are soloing and having wisps tank and interrupt, prepare for micro hell. If you are playing with a full party on lower difficulties, the burst damage from other classes may leave you with not much to play with. RACES: Human - For fighting spirit synergy when you want to live on the edge. (Used in playthrough) Nature Godlike - Starts with ideal stats. If you prefer a power level over the helm slot using energized to achieve your buff requirement. Has interesting perk with Heart Chime amulet. Elf - Starts with ideal stats. Aumaua - About the same with elves. Hearth Orlan - To squeeze out that extra crit chance with a party. Dwarf - If you plan on using Aamina's Legacy a lot. ATTRIBUTES: My playthrough stats as a Human including background and without Berath's Blessing: (8/8/18/18/19/7). A bit of space to go glass cannon and buff out stats with blessing. MIG - Low/High. If more interested in crits and interrupts then make this "Low" since DEX/PER are better for that path. If deciding to be more of a glass cannon then dump RES/CON and make this "High". CON - Low/Dump. Not too keen on dumping this all the way since a little bit of an HP buffer for self-damage and midlining is helpful. DEX - High. Hey look! It's a DEX chanter. It does nothing for accumulating phrases, but it helps with everything else allowing more actions you can do within your "buff" windows. Depending on your weapon setup, you can get away with less. PER - High. Helps for criticals and landing abilities in early PotD. You can do with less in lower difficulties, but it still is very useful in finding hidden items and traps. You also need a bit to offset the perception affliction's -5PER penalty. In most cases this will probably be maxed in PotD. INT - Maxed. Your most important stat for increasing the duration of summons, buffs, and debuffs allowing less downtime with having to reapply. As a troubadour, you will clip your double chant lingers at some point, but more INT is always good for everything else. RES - Low/Dump. Lowering this helps the duration of the "distract" affliction to last longer for streetfighter to work, but it also increases durations for every other affliction. Too little also makes enemies peel off often to try and get you if your melee can't engage them all, but that is what skelly chant is for :D. SKILLS: Arcana - If you plan on using Spearcaster a lot, then this should be the skill to take. It also greatly helps to make certain hard encounters easier via scroll nuking. Alchemy - Great mileage for self-buffing and healing options. Athletics - Other than being useful for events, it is an okay lazy heal button after taking a bad hit or self-sustaining your hp pool when it gets dangerously low. Mechanics - BONUS RP! If you want to get extra sweepy then make them into your mechanics monkey. Stealth - Handy for ambushes and general roguing. Metaphysics - If you plan to use Chromoprismatic Staff and/or Animancer bow a lot, this skill should be your main passive skill. History - Can be useful if you plan on using The Giftbearer's Cloth. CULTURE & BACKGROUND: This part is flexible, but you will want one that has the main attributes and skills listed above. In my playthrough I took Old Vallia for INT and the Artist background because the Street Sweeper quarterstaff kind of looks like a gigantic paintbrush that paints their enemies dead on the canvas that is the ground. Kaboom! Art. WEAPONS & MODALS: +Good / ?Notable / -Bad ABILITIES: +Good / ?Notable / -Bad EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

Class: Street Fighter/Troubadour Race: Human or Fire Godlike Background: Aedyr - Hunter DIfficulty: PotD Solo: No Descriptor: This build using key gear, Persistent Distraction, and Chanter phrases simultaneously boosts the player's defenses and Armor Rating as they take damage in order to stay in the Bloodied state (required by Street Fighter) with relative safety. Simultaneously it focuses on doing most of its damage via DoTs so you can hit an enemy once, and watch it die while you focus on the next enemy. You have one CC, a couple of buffs, and a great deal of debuffing in your Phrases. All enemies Engaged with this Tank do less damage, and because Persistent Distraction lowers Perception they are Distracted and Flanked for Sneak Attack damage. Combined with Phrase The Long Night's Drink which lowers their Con by 5, might by 2, and reduces healing by 50% the enemies die easily, and they do very little damage as a fight wears on. Late game Rogue ability costs mean nothing with the Brilliant Inspiration. So, you can spam away, and do so very quickly while flanked and/or Bloodied. Starting Attributes: Might: 10-12 Constitution: 10-12 Dexterity: 10 Perception: 16 Intellect: 17 Resolve: 10 These are where I have the attributes set, but you could lose some Perception for Constitution or what have you. Using Blunderbuss modal made early game build whiff too much for my liking. Abilities by Level: Hel-Hyraf, Dull the Edge, and Crippling Strike Escape Arms Bearer Killer's Froze Stiff, Blinding Strike Weapon and Shield Dirty Fighting The Shield Cracks, Riposte Ancient Memory Strike the Bell Silver Knight's Shields, Persistent Distraction The Long Night's Drink Confounding Blind Deep Wounds, Seven nights Ring the Bell The Bride Caught Their Ruse Imp. Critical, Her Courage Thick as Steel The Bride Slew Each Kill fed his Fury (this and The Bride Slew can be swapped for Reny Darret's Voice for a Fear debuff) Set to Their Purpose, and Deathblows This doesn't matter, but I went with Accurate Empower for Rogue abilities. Weapon Proficiency in order of priority; Blunderbuss Spear Shield (I went with Medium) Sabre/Sword/Club/Flail Gear: Primary Gear is Stalker's Presence (Spear found in Sayuka) Reckless Brigandine (Early on Blood Links works pretty well) Entonia Signet Ring The Undying Burder (belt) Nerian's Ward (Medium Shield) Death's Maw (good early and can be swapped out later in the game) Sasha's Singing Sabre Modwyr Etc. After this grab good versions of some of the other weapons you are proficient in. Early on you want a Spear and either a blunt or Slash weapon equipped along with a Blunderbuss for an opening volley with its modal on. Combat Skills: Alchemy (this is your primary Skill) Stealth (this is your secondary, and will be prioritized later in game) Athletics (just a point or two because if you go too much higher it will bring you out of bloodied state) Notes: Spear Modal + Shield + Persistent Distraction + The Silver Knight's Shields = a lot of Engagement. Persistant Distraction causes enemies to be Distracted thus gaining -5 Perception and the Flanked affliction. The Long Night's Drink add Weakened to enemies (-5 con and -50% healing recieved) and it adds -2 Might. These 2 are your Bread and butter Phrases from level 11 on. Ring the Bell, Stalker's Presence, and Deep Wounds = a lot of DoT damage being applied to your target. They melt fast if RtB lands. Seven Nights is just a mob clearer for bigger fights, and since it is a pbAoE it gets anyone you're engaged with. Flail Modal + Seven Nights for more stout targets. Club Modal to help ensure Killers Froze Stiff lands on crucial targets. Modwyr for fun. Scout the enemies to ensure you have the best weapons in your arsenal equipped. Reckless Brigandine + Nerian's Ward + Undying Burden + Entonia Signet Ring all either increase damage and/or saves and AR as you become more injured. This makes sitting in the Bloodied pocket easier. Use Second Wind and switch to a Chant including Ancient Memory or Old Siec to keep you close to the ceiling of Bloodied so that you don't get gibbed. You don't want to rely on healing from Priests, Druids, etc because they usually over heal you. Targets with high Deflection get Confounding Blind or Hel-Hyraf in order to bring them down. If you land Confounding Blind then attack with one of your ranged as well to ensure you stack the Deflection Debuff and they will melt. Early game, you leave Brisk Recitation on since you only have 1 phrase. When you get Ancient Memory you can start to swap it on and off. Then when you get to level 11 you tend to leave BR off in order to maintain 2 buffs at all times. If targets are immune to Weaken then have a Chant Ready for Dull the Edge/Her Courage Thick as Steel + The Silver Knight's Shield. The idea is maximum Engage + debuffs. Use Buffs to start combat, CC's debuffs to help reduce incoming damage, and use Seven Nights/Rogue DoT's to clean up. Swap to Sasha's Singing Sabre (if equipped) for an Empowered Seven Nights. This will let you follow up with another Chant, or get your started back to casting Set to Their Purpose again. Set to Their Purpose is your OP way of ensuring everyone is Blinded or has Ring the Bell DoT applied to them. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Riposte is there because if you aren't Bloodied/Flanked you have the chance of tossing out some damage with your slow Street Fighter recovery times. Some of the smaller fights it can be hard to get Heating Up going. If you want to do more damage go Human, and if you want to counter how squishy early game can be then go Fire Godlike. Chants in late game: Ancient Memory and Her Courage Thick as Steel. The Long Night's Drink and The Silver Knight's Shield The Silver Knight's Shield and Her Courage Thick as Steel. Ancient Memory and The Silver Knight's Shield. You won't use Dull the Edge once you get the other 4 Chants. At least I didn't. Use 1 or 4 to build health back up. Use 2 and 3 to Debuff. So, you tend to slowly switch back and forth between these depending on the situation. Pros: Easy Deathblows later game. This combined with Deep Wounds, Stalker's Patience, and Ring the Bell means you just have to hit once or twice on a target. Fair CC/heal support Solid Tank/DPS late game. Cons: Street Fighter attack speed penalty when you can't get bloodied or flanked. Somewhat Squishy early on. Blunderbuss modal turns off when you weapon swap. So, at the beginning of combat make sure it is on. Summary: That's the thrust of the build. It is really fun, and late game an absolute wrecking ball. Early on it may require babysitting a bit. I hope you all enjoy it. I have. EDIT: Alchemy is predominantly for poisons and buffs, but also for big heals if needed in a boss fight or a fight with a ton of enemies. Stealth increases Stalker's Presence DoT, and that is why you toss some late game points in there. EDIT: This is an update for version 1.1 where Brilliant has been removed thus making Set to Their Purpose not desirable. The only real difference is in talent selection on the Chanter side of things. Replace The Bride Caught Their Ruse and Her courage at levels 15 and 16 with Reny Daret's Ghost spake and Ben Fidel's neck was exposed. Replace Set to their Purpose at level 19 with Her Tears Fell Like Rain or one of the Empower Upgrades.