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A frigid soul in a cold barren land. She wanders around aimlessly, unknowingly guided by the Cosmo. Always alone but determined, she gazes towards the coal-black unflinching sky, her treasured flute by her side. At a distance spanning mountains wide, there is fire and warmth. A caravan can be seen, perched upon the snow capped mountains, the smell of barley and ale, the jovial atmosphere and the loud chattering of kith resting after a long day's travel. Unmistakably, the group of kith starts hearing a faint but sonorous melody. Not a second too long, a thunderous parade of jagged streaks can be seen painting blue the once austere sky. They jolt gently like falling Sakura leaves, chaotic but peaceful. The once loud chattering of the kith folk stops abruptly as if time itself has stopped. Even the previously biting gale lays still, replaced by the thunderous echoes of a forgotten past yearning for a distant future. As abrupt as it came, the spectacle ceases to exist. The void replaced by stars, slowly forming in the sky. And just like that, this band of weary travelers have bared witness to a famous bard's tale only thought to have been a legend. 1. Watch these Gameplay Videos first before you read on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSX6l2QgP2o 2. Required Mods Mod: Level Scaling Mod Why? We want the game to be harder so it will be more satisfying to beat. We want to DL the file called, "Level Scaling Mod" under the old files section. This is because the new mod file got tuned down as a response to the 1.1 patch which increased the game difficulty. We want the original file. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/24?tab=files Mod: Afflictions and Inspirations Mod Why? This is just an optional mod but it really improves the UI of the game. It's much cleaner to look at and much more informative than the standard base UI the game comes with. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/32 3. Character Creation Race: Pale Elf Why? I just like the way they look. Also, *whispers* Class Selection: Devoted Fighter + Nalpazca Monk Why Devoted? This build has a 46% chance to crit so having that +25% crit damage would prove useful. That's not even the best part. Why we pick Devoted is because of the +2 penetration we get. Since we will be playing on POTD and since we will be using a Blunderbuss (low base pen), we will need as much armor pen as we can get. Why Nalpazca? It's miles ahead in comparison to any other monk subclass. This is because Helwalker makes us too squishy, Shattered is a no go because we need max wounds to take advantage of Turning Wheel and No Subclass gives us no benefit. Nalpazca on the other hand offers us a substantial benefit (+10 pl to drugs) with an easily fixed penalty (we need to take drugs). Also, Drugs are ridiculously good! Attributes: Without/With Berath's Blessing Mig 8 -> 10 Con 8 -> 10 Dex 18 -> 20 Per 18 -> 20 Int 18 -> 20 Res 8 -> 10 Why we only need few of might, constitution or resolve? Our weapon (Blunderbuss) has a low base damage so +% damage from might is not that attractive, the +% healing we get is ok but we have enough ways to keep ourselves healthy. We will have enough defense rating (deflection, fortitude, reflex, will) to offset our non-investment in constitution. Resolve gives us an ok amount of deflection. We also have sufficient tools to lower hostile effect duration through Ring of Solitary Wanderer (-35% hostile effect duration) and Clarity of Agony (-5 sec Duration of hostile effects, -50% Hostile effect duration for 20.0 sec). Why we need a lot of dexterity, perception and intellect? We need dex to attack fast so we can keep procing Avenging Storm which is the reason for this build. Perception is the king of stats, especially in POTD. We want to hit enemies. As a side benefit, both dexterity and perception increases our reflex defense. With sky-high reflex, plenty of the heavy hitting enemy ranged aoe damage will miss us leaving enemies to rely on their puny basic attacks to do damage on us. Enemy spells shouldn't be an issue either as we have enough will to resist it. The reason why we max intellect is for the increased duration in our abilities, scrolls, and drugs. This is more valuable than it sounds! Culture: The White that Wends Mystic Why? Mainly for the Lore. Also, Mystic gives us +1 to Arcana (the active skill we are going to max). Weapon Proficiency: Blunderbuss Why? We will be using Kitchen Stove which is a Blunderbuss. Active Skill: Max Arcana Why? Arcana along with Alchemy are straight-up bonkers as of patch 1.1. +1 Arcana is equivalent to +1 to power level of scrolls. We will be taking advantage of all the scrolls we can find/craft to unleash hell towards our enemies. Avenging Storm is our bread and butter. Passive Skill: Max History Why? We will be using the The Giftbearer's Cloth (+5 all defenses except deflection, increases with the History skill). 4. Equipment and Consumables Equipment: Helmet- Pearlescent Helm or Death's Maw (you can use whatever for this) Necklace - Bonesetter's Torc (for the +5% crit, +10% healing done and injury removal) Armor - Devil of Caroc Breastplate (still the best armor in-game despite the nerf imho) Ring Slot 1 - Ring of Solitary Wanderer (for the -35% harmful duration) Boots - Footprints of Ahu Taka (for the +2 dex and +10% healing done) Cape - The Giftbearer's Cloth (still gives a lot of defenses despite the nerf, +15 at 20 History) Gloves - Firethrower's Gloves (has everything we need for this build, +2 dex and +1 Arcana) Ring Slot 2 - Entonia Signet Ring (you can use whatever for this) Belt - Upright Captain's Belt (for the immunity to push/pull effects) Pet - Abraham (reduces recovery speed by a lot, best pet in-game imho) Weapon: Kitchen Stove - We want to use a Blunderbuss for its multi-shot passive. Kitchen Stove just happens to be the best Blunderbuss. Note# We want the modal on as it does crazy AOE damage. Its negative effect is offset by Intuitive from Disciplined Strikes. Note# The optimal enchantments are Frantic Reload and Wild Barrage. Food: Hot Razor Skewers is really good as it gives us +2 might, +2 pen and +1 to power level. Any other food should be fine as well. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% dmg with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Note# Crusted Swordfish +2 pen with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Drugs: Deadeye is excellent for this build as it gives us accuracy as well as the % interrupt that gets pretty crazy due to multi-shot (Blunderbuss passive). Note# Coral Snuff is not good because its action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# For hard encounters, use Deadeye. For general encounters, use any other drugs or even no drugs at all. Scrolls: Scroll of Avenging Storm - Our bread and butter. This is the reason why this build exists. Nuff Said. Scroll of Circle of Protection - Increases our defenses by 15 until combat ends. This is pretty crazy huh? Scroll of Moonwell - Increases our defenses by 10 and gives us a huge amount of constant healing (26.2hp per 3 seconds) for a long duration (40.5s). Scroll of Withdraw - We will only use this as a last resort. It makes us untargetable while healing us but we are stunned for the duration. Note# I only use these set of scrolls for hard encounters. For general encounters, use any other scrolls or even no scrolls at all. Note# No matter how much fun it is to always use Avenging Storm, I only use it when I actually need it. Use it sparingly as it's hard to craft. Note# I'm not using Scroll of Meteor Shower and Scroll of Great Maelstrom because they just one shot everything with maxed out Arcana. 5. Abilities Abilities by level guide: 2. Lesser Wounds 3. Fast Runner 4. Fighter Stances + 1H Style (+20% critical chance is crazy good) 5. Determination (amazing tanking passive) 6. Confident Aim 7. Disciplined Strikes + Lightning Strikes (core abilities of this build) 8. Rapid Recovery 9. Clarity of Agony (really good against strong damage over time) 10. Vigorous Defense + Thunderous Blows (+2 pen applies to Avenging Storm) 11. Duality of Mortal Presence 12. Crucible of Suffering (amazing tanking passive) 13. Conqueror Stance (+10 to accuracy/deflection is nuts) + Enlightened Agony (we love intellect) 14. Armored Grace 15. Enervating Blows (super useful against enemies that heal) 16. Refreshing Defense + Turning Wheel (we love intellect) 17. Body Control (resistance to might affliction) 18. Unstoppable (resistance to dex affliction) 19. Snake's Reflex + Bear's Fortitude (more defenses) 20. Uncanny Luck AI Behavior Script: