Keeper Of The Wheel: A Universalist Build

[Stardusk78]

I should state at the outset that this is NOT a solo build but it is very POTD party friendly.

 

RPG Background:

 

A Keeper of the Wheel is someone who is devoted both to the god Berath and the Nature itself as the embodiment of the cycle of the Wheel, meaning he is both a Priest of Berath and a Druid. Despite understanding the artificial nature of the gods and their origins, he sees them as a necessity, not unlike the Leaden Key in maintaining a proper order to Eora and the Beyond. Not malicious but steadfastly both rational and stoic, he does not flinch at the true nature of the gods and seeks to serve both Berath and Nature itself by seeking a balance between life and death, favouring both in equal balance. To this end he willingly returns back to Eora in service to both Berath and the world.

 

The Build:

 

The build is simple but effective and is meant to be a strong support/ healer as well as a consistent buffer/debuffer and reliable DOT dealer. With Priest of Berath and Druid (Animist would be best) you have access both to very strong healing as well as a panoply of corrosive attacks, above all, Touch of Rot, which stays decently useful even at higher levels, in addition to Autumn Decay and many others that you automatically get as a Priest of Berath so the ideal role of this Universalist build is that of healer, buffer and reliable DOT dealer and debuffer. In many ways it is a min-max build. Obviously, stats and race are a matter of preference but I personally like Hearth Orlans the most, both for role-playing reasons and the very high perception, which as a spell caster is essential since accuracy is not gained with level but by other means. Background is optional but I run the White That Wends for even more Perception, so starting stats look like this:

 

Hearth Orlan

 

Strength       17

Constitution  3

Dexerity        15

Perception    21

Intelligence   18

Resolve         4

 

Background is up to you. I went with Mystic from an RPG perspective to play a character who seeks to maintain a balance of the cosmos but that is up to you.

 

Obviously the Keeper of the Wheel is not a front liner and you are best positioned in-between your front line and back line so all your healing/buffs, etc. affect your party appropriately. The Blessings Of Berath can help pad out the low Resolve and Constitution as well as items in the game. Strength is important both for spell damage and healing, hence as high as can be, Constitution is not terribly important because you are not meant to be taking damage. Dexterity is very important because it allows for rapid casting of spells. Perception is king because all your debuffs and damaging spells typically have very low basic accuracy and A) playing a high perception Hearth Orlan and B) using perception enhancing items as well as auras can give you very good accuracy which allows your spells to crit like mack trucks and generally hit in a reliable manner. Intelligence is needed because of AOE and duration, so that is maxed and as you are not going to be hit much Resolve takes a back line to other stats.

 

Generally speaking any items that buff Intelligence, Might and Perception are best as well as items that pad out the very low resolve because in POE 2, item bonuses stack. There is ONE item that I regard as absolutely essential for this build and that is a staff called The Spine Of Thicket's Green. It is the perfect weapon for this build because in addition to starting off as an exceptional staff with extra reach being a staff (and you are smudged in the middle of your party, allowing for deadly crit whacks in-between casting from behind the front line) it has a fantastic upgrade called Empowering Life Blood, which gives you +2 Power Levels on all Plant based spells (great for you as a druid) and BOTH Rejuvenation spells (your healing spells as a Druid) AND Restoration spells (your healing spells as a Priest), which is nothing to sneeze as, in addition to having some nice defence upgrades against disease/poison, etc. Finally it can be upgraded to legendary to give it full damage potential. This item is a must because it enhances your damaging/debuffing plant spells and your healing spells for both Druid and Priest! Fortunately this staff is VERY easily obtainable from almost the beginning of the game and can be stolen in the Dark Cupboard magic shop and the upgrade materials can be purchased in Nekata for the healing upgrade, which is essential. It also does +20% damage to vessels.

 

Everything else is up to you. Obviously, if you do not like support characters and are looking for your main protagonist to be a DPS monster, this build is not for you but if you like healing and debuffing as well as the slow creep of efficient DOT, this may very well be your build. Good luck with maintaining the Wheel and have fun!

Edited June 9, 2018 by Stardusk78

[Clever_Wanderer]

Hi, I like concept of your interesting build, but can you post also list of useful abilities/spells per level? I just have troubles to decide which spells I should pick on druid and which spells must have on priest (besides devotion of faithful and shields of faithful ofc). I just trying to create custom support for my party.Also Touch of Rot are default spell for Priest of Berath, which spell on first druid level I shall pick instead of this?

Edited June 18, 2018 by Clever_Wanderer

[Stardusk78]

Hi, I like concept of your interesting build, but can you post also list of useful abilities/spells per level? I just have troubles to decide which spells I should pick on druid and which spells must have on priest (besides devotion of faithful and shields of faithful ofc). I just trying to create custom support for my party.Also Touch of Rot are default spell for Priest of Berath, which spell on first druid level I shall pick instead of this?

I used dual Touch of Rot with Corrosion Penetration. Very useful. Druid spells; all rejuvenation and anything else that is useful. Otherwise it is pretty flexible.

[peolone]

Hi! I'm thinking of playing a similar build to yours on PotD upscaled. I'll use The Spine of Thicket Green enchanted with Empowering Instinct (+3 All Beasts Power Levels, +3 All Plant Power Levels). I'd like to have some advice from more experienced players. These are the abilities I'm planning to go with. What do you think? Am I missing something important? What can I improve? Is there some other important piece of gear that I should be keep in mind?

 

Lifegiver/Priest of Berath

Level 1 - Nature's Mark/Suppress Affliction Auto: Nature's Vigor/Touch of Rot

Level 2 - Tanglefoot

Level 3 - Restore

Level 4 - Insect Swarm/Withdraw Auto: The Moon's Light/Holy Meditation

Level 5 - Blizzard

Level 6 - Autumn's Decay

Level 7 - Infestation of Maggots/Dire Blessing Auto: Nature's Balm/Spreading Plague

Level 8 - Divine Mark

Level 9 - Stag's Horn

Level 10 - Form of the Delemgan/Devotions for the Faithful Auto: Moonwell/Divine Terror

Level 11 - Spirit of Decay

Level 12 - Shining beacon

Level 13 - Plague of Insects/Rapid Casting Auto: Cleansing Wind/Rot Skulls

Level 14 - Practiced Healer

Level 15 - Litany for the Spirit

Level 16 - Venombloom/Champion's Boon Auto: Garden of Life/Salvation of Time

Level 17 - @

Level 18 - @

Level 19 - Lashing Vine/@ Auto: Nature's Bounty/Rusted Armor

Level 20 - @

Edited November 4, 2018 by peolone

[brasilgringo]

Hi! I'm thinking of playing a similar build to yours on PotD upscaled. I'll use The Spine of Thicket Green enchanted with Empowering Instinct (+3 All Beasts Power Levels, +3 All Plant Power Levels). I'd like to have some advice from more experienced players. These are the abilities I'm planning to go with. What do you think? Am I missing something important? What can I improve? Is there some other important piece of gear that I should be keep in mind?

 

Lifegiver/Priest of Berath

Level 1 - Nature's Mark/Suppress Affliction Auto: Nature's Vigor/Touch of Rot

Level 2 - Tanglefoot

Level 3 - Restore

Level 4 - Insect Swarm/Withdraw Auto: The Moon's Light/Holy Meditation

Level 5 - Blizzard

Level 6 - Autumn's Decay

Level 7 - Infestation of Maggots/Dire Blessing Auto: Nature's Balm/Spreading Plague

Level 8 - Divine Mark

Level 9 - Stag's Horn

Level 10 - Form of the Delemgan/Devotions for the Faithful Auto: Moonwell/Divine Terror

Level 11 - Spirit of Decay

Level 12 - Shining beacon

Level 13 - Plague of Insects/Rapid Casting Auto: Cleansing Wind/Rot Skulls

Level 14 - Practiced Healer

Level 15 - Litany for the Spirit

Level 16 - Venombloom/Champion's Boon Auto: Garden of Life/Salvation of Time

Level 17 - @

Level 18 - @

Level 19 - Lashing Vine/@ Auto: Nature's Bounty/Rusted Armor

Level 20 - @

I did something similar with the same Thicket Green enchantment, except I went base Lifegiver for access to the "free" healing spells at each druid level, plus the +PL that lifegiver gets.

[peolone]

you mean SC lifegiver, right? is the loss of PL suffered by going multi class so severe in terms of healing power, etc. ?

Edited November 5, 2018 by peolone