[CLASS BUILD] Sweeper Agent (Harbinger-Troubadour/Streetfighter)

[Metaturtle]

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

 

Note: Penetration from modals do not stack with energize.

I will list some findings I have had with the weapons I used.

 

Blunderbuss:

+Modal - Using the modal skips needing a wisp to distract you and the wisp can be tasked to distracting other targets.  It is a very good starter modal to get right into the streetfighter's speed bonus if you don't mind a bit of friendly fire from the fire cone.  Even with advanced wisps, getting bloodied allows you to achieve full streetfighter bonuses with little micro and allows you to use energized buff for more interruptions.  The multishot projectile of blunderbuss gives more chances for skills to interrupt and crits to interrupt via energize.  Using the armor debuff invocation, the multishot also extends the duration for each landed projectile.

 

+Hand Mortars - Serafen's hand mortar weapons are an effcient tool for debuffing a crowd of enemies with rogue debuffs.  With energize you can interrupt them too.

 

?Xefa's Empirical Explication - You could enchant it for a knockback prone effect on crit though it can get super annoying with the weapon's short range.  Getting the +1 penetration enchant is a lot more helpful. The raw damage lash is also nice and it is probably the strongest single target sustain of the blunderbuss types.

 

?Kitchen Stove - Thunderous Report, is a really good burst damage cone skill that can be use once per encounter.  

-Penetration - Sadly, blunderbuss have a low base penetration where you would need to squeeze out a lot of PEN or crit often to make to make it effective against high armor targets.

 

Pistol: 

+Modal - Good for pistol sustain after exhausting your full attacks in dualwield assuming the enemy does not have stupid high deflection.  Some very interesting equip setups with it.  

 

?Scordeo's Trophy - When used 1hand with recovery enchant + modal, you could wear plate and still shoot faster than average.  An interesting choice if you decide to armor up.

 

?Ecceas Arcane Blaster - A decent overall weapon for its utility.  The raw damage can be helpful as a last resort against enemy targets where majority of the party's damage is being mitigated by the target.  Speccing it into "Force" ammo allows it to have a chance to knockback interrupt the enemy on hit and can be pretty good with the modal, but it is super annoying for a team having to chase an enemy down if they are also focusing on the same target.  The "Freezing" shot is probably the better ammo in a party since the paralyze debuff helps out the team's damage even though its proc rate is low.

 

?Thundercrack Pistol - A situational weapon. The Storm Rune Shot (1/rest) skill has pretty good shock aoe damage that benefits from passives like deathblows and penetration.

 

Hunting Bow:

+Modal - On mobs with average and low deflection the single target DPS sustain from this has high rewards.

 

+Aamina's Legacy - The crush lash on this fast weapon can really hurt enemies killing them quickly once deathblow requirements are set.  This weapon is good enough to roll a dwarf just for it.

 

+Animancer - The shock/pierce damage type on this bow gives more variety to the common damage types for range.  The soul essence debuff can offer much needed help against large packs of enemies and can even summon some really strong creatures.

 

War Bow:

?-Modal - The only ranged weapon with a penetration modal.  Take if if you are super lazy for energize, but the recovery penalty makes this slow weapon type even slower.

 

?Frostseeker - A good weapon for general aoe frost damage.  It doesn't have too much synergy though as other class builds.

 

-Saint Omaku's Mercy - Too slow for my taste with its conditional utility.  The recovery reset enchant is rough when trying to score crits again high deflection enemies in PotD to make its damage any better.

 

?Veil Piercer - Similar to Saint Omaku with the crit to streak proc,  It can have diminished results in PotD on higher deflection enemies. The veil piercing is nice against mages though and its buff/debuff cleaning abilities can be handy if not using street sweeper.

 

Arbalest:

+Modal - The prone on hit makes this an easily obtainable interrupt.  

 

?+Spearcaster - The legendary ranking and availability of it early game makes this a very attractive item for hitting the backline.  It has a knockback so it will be a bit annoying for other party members to chase after the target, but it is awesome when providing another interrupt to a giant target like a dragon.  I like to call it the railgun because of the "Skewer" skill, which sends a bolt (spear?) flying thru enemies (and allies >:D). Skewer provides an on-demand DEX buff counter and the high on-hit proc of the spearcaster gives a MIG buff counter.

 

Arquebus:

+Modal - The added accuracy is very useful in turning a rifle into a decent interrupter and landing an important debuff.

 

+The Red Hand - A popular gun for single target damage.  Buffing stack lasts until rest and can be used with other weapons.  Double tap can also cheese very tough undead.  I wouldn't be surprised if it gets nerfed or fixed at some point.

 

+Dragon's Dowry - A legendary gun that can be obtained early.  Strong damage and its self-hurting abilities can quickly help bring down health to bloodied status.

 

+Blightheart - This weapon turned to be my favorite of the guns as I midlined with it.  All the perks you get helps the build: Heals for maintaining health, an aoe cone with a decent proc rate and damage, and a distract aura and free phrase when you kill something.  Only bad thing is that like with other soulbounds sans Modwyr, you can't get it to Legendary.

 

?Three Bells Through - The only notable point for this gun is that it can reach at least 2-3 enemies in a straight line that a handmortar or rod can not for debuffing and it has extra PEN.

 

Crossbow:

+Modal: Similar to arbalest, but a fraction bit quicker and gains a crit bonus from the weapon type.  Too bad the only unique crossbow currently in the game takes a bit to get.

 

+Fleetbreaker - Very strong stats on this weapon that can be built for long range or short range.  I chose to go short range with it for the PEN.  Unlike spearcaster, it doesn't knockback the target and it also benefits from a crit bonus from its damage type.

 

Rod: 

+Modal - The blast aoe makes for a good alternative (Especially with Tekehu's rod) if some other character is using up the hand mortars.  Despite being 2handed, it does not provide the staggered debuff from "Strike the Bell".

 

+Watershaping Rod - Tekehu's rod bounces its attacks and can possibly cover more area.

 

+Amira's Wing - Strong raw burst AOE 1/rest skill that benefits from passives.  Debuff then nuke.

 

?+Rod of the Deep Hunter - Has a nifty debuff that stacks 5 times providing a maximum of -5 deflection and +15% recover on the enemies it hits.  It is also about ~45-60s long with high INT so that debuff alone is worth noting when facing dodgy, fast enemies.

 

Large Shield:

+Modal - If taking a shield, the large shield modal is helpful for taking a nasty ranged hit or reflex based attacks.  Generally you can use rogue skills to escape, but rogue resources are finite. 

(edited)

+Caldhu Scalth - I think its the strongest choice for damage reduction when taking a hit, but it depends if its not being used by another character.

+Bronxlar's Phalanx - A good shield for when you take a few hits into bloodied zone, giving additional deflection.  The long INT buff is also very nice for extended durations in the beginning moments of a crowded fight.

 

Greatsword:

?Modal - Decent if using Whispers of the Endless Paths greatsword for cleaving from the midline. Average penetration.

?+Whispers of the Endless Paths - Cleave allows for a degree of aoe debuffing.  Can be enchanted to go faster and its range allows for midlining.  Retaliation is nice for deflection tanks, but this build isn't meant to dodge.

 

Sabres:

?Modal - Lazy penetration. 

 

+Sashas Singing Scimitar -  Mostly a stat stick to switch to for the free empower that you get from the enchant. Useful when doing games that involve very little resting. I used it to empower my corpse explosion.  Often paired with my large shield or a 1hander with an activation skill.

 

?+Grave caller - Kill your skellies for imp summons.

 

?+Scordeo's Edge - Really strong sabre for accuracy stacking and that ignore recovery enchant is amazing to proc.  A focused damage build on the team can use it a lot better though.

 

Quarterstaff: These weapons are good for providing crush damage type safely from the midline.

?-Modal - Usually you can rogue escape, prone your enemy, or interrupt with a summon to get away.  This modal is highly situational if you don't have a shield weaponset to switch to for taking hits in melee.  The recovery penalty isn't so bad with all the recovery stacking obtained in the build, but it isn't going to save you much in PotD.

 

+Street Sweeper - Honestly it's an optional weapon that you probably won't need for majority of the fights, but then you may face an opponent that loves to spam its buffs more than your wizard or ranger can dispel off.  Hiding behind its summons, the harbinger can clean off enemies to help nullify annoying buffs.  If enchanted to prone on crit, it is hilarious to watch when prone-locking low deflection targets. If not taking the rogue "Sap" skill, the confuse on hit can be a good alternative to strip INT buffs and probably the most preferable enchant over crit to prone in PotD.

 

+Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff - Very solid damage for the midline.

 

Flail:

?Modal - This modal is useful to land offensive invocations.  Prep a target for corpse nukes or landing that armor debuff.

 

?+Ball and Chain -  This is a hilarious weapon for a 1hand Skald as you watch the enemy board the prone train. The train stops though as soon as you hit anything with high deflection.

 

Morning Star:

?Modal - Just like flails, but for knocking down the fortitude of a tough target when landing skills that target Fortitude. A lot situational than other weapons, but the option is there.  Really great if another character can do this instead though.

 

Rapier:

?Modal - Accuracy boost for critting with energize or landing debuff.

 

Medium shield - 

?Modal - If you find yourself in close quarter melee a lot with little ranged.

 

Dagger - 

?Modal - Poor man's shield while dualwielding.

 

Scepter - 

?Modal - This modal can help to whittle down your life in the backlines to <50% health to upgrade the streetfighter's bonus  A bit suboptimal to take a modal just for it though. 

 

-Small shield - Minor benefit at the cost of sapping your speed.

-Wand/Hatchet - For debuffing the target with a -10 accuracy penalty, but out of the amazing modals to have available for the class this should be far down the priority list.

-Mace - Use your armor debuff invocation instead unless it has high deflection, which in that case delegate armor debuff to another class.

-Club - Not many of your skills can benefit from lower WILL to worth taking a modal for it.

 

ABILITIES:  +Good / ?Notable / -Bad

I will note the skills used in the build and where it is possible to have some flex.  You don't need to follow the guide too much in the beginning until level13 in order to make leveling easier until then.  The build tries to have all the rogue buff counters in its skillset so it can be adjusted if a party member can effectively take care a type of buff.  The same goes for chants.

 

- BUG ( Use at your own risk of being fixed ) - There seems to be a bug where old chants that were specced out of, can still be used if they were already added in a chant list.

 

Starting-

Troubadour: The starting set of skills for the build can be difficult for early game solo in higher difficulties since you have no summons for the initial level.  

 

+And Hel-Hyraf Crashed Upon the Shield - Your armor debuff when fighting difficult bosses and helps a party with lower quality weapons and PotD+ scaling.

 

Depending on party setup when someone else is tasked for armor debuffing, you can switch this out to another invocation.

 

?+The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas - Though you may not use this much after getting wisps, the stun debuff is great for stripping out enemy Might buffs without needing to spend Rogue power.

 

?-Thrice Was She Wronged, and Thrice Justly Avenged - Decent dmg dump when you have excess phrases and there's a bunch of enemies or shock vulnerable types.  Sadly you'll probably get less use of this as you reach higher levels and meet enemies that have higher armor for your average spell penetration.

 

-Not Felled by the Axe - Not bad, but it competes with resources to have it upkeeped and chasing down party members that need it can be annoying.

 

-Summons are wasted once you hit wisps.

 

Chant -  This is a flex skill slot depending how much use you get out of it.  Pick one and don't look back.

+Come, Come Soft Winds of Death - Great starting skill for leveling and an okay alternative if the skelly chant proves to be super annoying in cramped spaces or the fire lash chant isn't helpful to fire immunes.

 

?+Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of his Tribe -  Useful for running and position in battle. The added reflex is nice too.

 

?-Everything else available here is mediocre for the build.

 

Streetfighter:

+Cripping Strike - Cheapest full attack for a rogue and inflicts hobble for countering DEX buffs.

 

?Escape - A good choice for burst mobility.  It is either this or Smoke Veil for escape options if you are not using other items. It has the plus side of only costing 1 guile though and can be 'good enough' in many scenarios.

 

Power Level 1:

+Fast Runner - The chanter speed chant is great, but having passive mobility needing to micro helps to close the distance or escaping.

 

?+Arms Bearer - If not using Giftbearer's Cloth or Fleshmender body armor, this is a very good choice to have for different damage type options and to hold a clicky/stat stick thingy.

 

?-Backstab - Too situational in my opinion when you are mostly going to open with a ranged aoe pull.  You could fish for invis procs with some items, but with wisps attacking you, that is going to be moot.

 

Power Level 2:

+Dirty Fighting - Crit

 

+White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead - Mediocre in its first form, but its a pre-req for the advanced version.

 

+Blind - One of the best debuffs for damage setup and mitigation.  Blinded enemies do not need to be assisted with your wisp.  It also counters perception buffs.

 

+Fighting Styles - (If you decide to choose more than 1 style, you will have to sacrifice in other areas like the upgrades of the rogue skills to compensate for it) 1-weapon for crit interruptions using blunderbuss is nice, 2hand is very versatile for using a great selection of ranged and melee weapons that work well in this build, and 2-weapon is the best to go with full attacks and general burst.  My playthrough I went 2-handed.

 

?Smoke Veil - The other escape option.  Works better for getting aggro off right away.

 

 

Power Level 3:

+My Son, Do You See your Sisters Across the Moor? - The pre-req for advanced wisps.

 

+The Shield Cracks - The upgrade version of the armor debuff that allows hits to extend the duration.  With skelly chant and/or a blunderbuss, you can have this debuff on for a loooooooong time.

 

+Sure-handed Ila Knocked Her Arrows with Speed - If you are going to play ranged most of the time, then pick this up.  Great for range heavy parties and early midgame until you can reach the higher chants.

 

?Ancient Memory - If not taking skelly chant then this is a okay support chant for the party and sustaining your lost health when it lingers.  The shield chant is way better though effective health pool when using brisk recitation.

 

?+Arterial Strike - If you are making the rogue pull or kite, this is an awesome skill to use it with.

 

?+Strike the Bell - The 2handed melee effect provides the rogue with a MIG buff counter. This can be optional if you have other stunners in your party or using spearcaster, I just like my counters.

 

?+Confounding Blind - Super useful in parties if you can manage to land it on high deflection targets.  Makes enemies go from super dodgy to super dead.  With skelly chant, the skeletons can bring down deflection rating pretty quickly.

 

?+Gouging Strike - This is only ranked high because the dot lasts until the end combat, which can lead to some very cheap tactics that solo bosses.

 

?Deep Pockets - If not using Giftbearer's cloth or Fleshmender body, this is a good way to keep a selection of escape, healing, and nuke options via consumables ready.  Really good for solo play.

 

?Combat Focus - Good for not getting interrupted, which can snag your entire flow.  Optionally you can use items like whiteleaf to provide you with it.

 

?Finishing Blow - An okay choice to consider if you plan to play the character to kill targets asap though you will starve the rogue for resources with having so many skills competing with resources.

 

?Defenses - If you want to spend points not into chants or the upgrades of Rogue abilities, taking one of these defense passives is ok.

 

?Debilitating Strike - Turns crippling into single package to enable deathblow eligibility without wisps.  There are many ways to activate deathblows so this is situational.

 

-Riposte - You aren't going to dodge enough to make this worth it.

 

Power Level 4:

+Aefillath Ues Mith Fyr - Fire lash that improves your party's damage output.

 

+Their Putrid Stench Wafts Across - Upgrades the skill to now blow up all the bodies in its target circle.  The more bodies, the deadlier it gets.

 

+Withering strike  - Really expensive for a skill, but it gives the rogue a way to counter Consitution buffs and leads into Toxic strike.

 

?Persistent Distraction - If you are going to melee most of the time, this is a good skill to take off the task of wisps debuffing enemies.

 

Power Level 5:

+The Lights Danced Across the Moo - Aw yea, it's showtime! The wisps finally get distract and now you can streetfight with more variety.

 

+Deep Wounds  - Adds a nice DoT on top of the rogue's dmg.

 

+Uncanny Luck - Crit and Dodge chance is nice.

 

?Her Courage Thicc as Steel - A decent option if you give up skelly chant or another chanter is providing fire lash chant.  With troubadour's brisk recitation, chain chanting this makes it an effective mini shield that refreshes every 3 seconds making you and your party's effective HP bigger.  The wisps distract buff will still hit you if the shield soaks its damage since it is rolled seperately, but getting yourself to bloodied will now require a bit more effort.

 

?Rapid Casting - Even though you have very few long spells to cast, this works for scrolls too.  You can skip it, but in my opinion it is the better choice than the summoning recovery passive in the next power level.

 

?Tough - Nice have more health when you're squishy, but you can skip this if you are in full glass cannon mode.

 

?-Smoke Cloud - It now interrupts, but the area zone is small and it affects your team too. A hand mortared blind does a better job. It does lead into pernicious cloud though.

 

Power Level 6:

+Their Champion Braved the Horde Alon - This is the energized buff to help other weapons interrupt and punch thru thick armor.  It has the added benefit giving penetration to spells including scrolls so it is a good buff to have up when you start nuking.

 

?Old Siec Would Not Rest 'til His Hunger Was Sated - If not taking skelly chant or don't need fire chant, this a possible support chant to take. While it won't leech from corpse explosions, it will leech off your dots.

 

?Quick Summoning - An okay skill to take since wisps are going to be the majority of what you cast.

 

?+Sap - Received pretty late into the skillset, which is a super long confuse with the build's INT. This skill serve as your on-demand Intellect buff counter.  It's optional if you don't plan on countering with it, which is understandable, but I just like having a full set of counter skills and it's great fun quickly muddling up an entire backline using a quick weapon.

 

?+Perishing Strike - One of the few skills that can lead into the rare "Enfeebled" debuff,  the only bad thing is that it takes quite a while to wait for "Weakened" to turn into "Enfeebled" because of the build's high INT.  It may be the much better utility for a party in a long boss fight where they can take advantage of the "Enfeebled" debuff's +50% hostile duration bonus to have a higher net gain overall from their extended debuffs.  Allows for nice setups like a longer confounding blind or having another rogue to toxic strike.

 

?+Toxic Strike - In the opening round of debuffs, this skill can soften up enemies nicely since the really long duration from INT makes the dot to tick into huge numbers.

 

?-Slippery Mind - If you tend to be bloodied a lot, this covers your ass from getting blinded, dominated, and terrified, but that also means no distract from your wisps.

 

?Spell Resistance - Okay defense option. Low priority.

 

Power Level 7:

+Many Lives Pass By, Each Leaving Footprints - For me this is the chanter's best value skill. the skeletons can offer much needed mitigation for an overwhelmed party by intercepting enemies nearby and acts like a Slash-based DoT.  The skeletons that are killed also can be exploded if fast enough to cast where the stronger the enemy is at killing your skeletons, the faster everything around it will die. The mob ganging they do can also refresh armor debuffs and help confounding blind to stack faster.  The biggest disadvantage of this skill is that it can congest cramped areas really bad and trap you if you lack escape options.  

 

Deathblows: TAKE IT.

 

?Pernicious Cloud - If you happen to have invested deep enough for this skill, It is now a massive aoe that can distract and put a small corrode DoT on enemies.  The DoT damage isn't amazing and it still affects your party, but it can quickly interrupt the whole entire backline of an enemy when diving.  Even then I still think it's not worth it.

 

My party playthrough setup:

I had a hard time selecting between range chant, fire lash chant, and skelly chant. While range chant allowed me to interrupt quicker, the overall damage from fire chant helps the whole party.  In solo play, I would pick the range chant over fire lash.  There is room for one flex point at the end that I ended up putting it into tough.  Maybe a fight or suggestion will come around that can solidify a core spot.

 

Level 1:

And Hel-Hyraf Crashed Upon the Shield

Come, Come Soft Winds of Death

Crippling Strike

Level 2:

Arms Bearer

Level 3:

Fast Runner

Level 4:

White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead

Blinding Strike

Level 5:

Two-Handed Style

Level 6:

Dirty Fighting

Level 7:

My Son, Do You See your Sisters Across the Moor?

Arterial Strike

Level 8:

Confounding Blind

Level 9:

The Shield Cracks

Level 10:

Their Putrid Stench Wafts Across

Withering Strike

Level 11:

Strike the Bell

Level 12:

Aefillath Ues Mith Fyr

Level 13:

The Lights Danced Across the Moor

Deep Wounds

Level 14:

Uncanny Luck

Level 15:

Rapid Casting

Level 16:

Their Champion Braved The Hord Alone

Perishing Strike

Level 17:

Improved Critical

Level 18:

Sap

Level 19:

Many Lives Pass By, Each Leaving Footprints

Deathblows

Level 20:

Tough (Flex)

 

EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

Pet: 

+Armor Recovery - Cutthroat cosmo is good if using guns and Abraham's on kill health is good to recoup some lost health.

 

?+Peter - Added aoe damage and range is great with corpse explosions and aoe debuffing. If your party can benefit from it too, that's even better. 

 

+Min stat/dmg - Find one that matches you and your party.

 

Armor: 

+DoC Breastplate - A huge favorite for many builds.  What's not to like about INT affliction resistance, a HoT on crit, +2 class resources, and decent recovery.  Only bad thing is that this might have competing builds wanting it, but not to fret since there's many more good options.

 

+Robes of the High Harbinger - Let's make the human streetfighter have even more incentive to get bloodied. A bit faster and squishier.

 

+Miscreants Leathers - I like the snazzy look of leather armor.  Really low recovery time bonuses and nice defense bonuses since deflection is whatever in PotD+ if you don't go all in.  You might as well take a reduced crit or get lucky and dodge it.

 

+Fleshmender - The low recovery on Fleshmender is really nice since it is leather.  The HoT and regenerating armor on this alleviates the worry of having to babysit the harbinger's HP pool from the wisp attacks.  The extra defenses or quick/weapon slots is also very nice for your loadout.

 

+Pale Hide - It's like this armor was meant for this build.  Wisps do shock damange so the superior shock armor rating on this body armor will jam their damage to the lowest possible making it okay to keep hitting at bloodied.  The defense upgrade helps to compensate some of the deflection lost from distract and you also get some recovery bonus at night.

 

?Sharpshooter's Garb - It's not bad for ranged weapons that needs reloading, but it kind of restricts you to them when wearing this.  The other neat thing about is that if wisps miss you, it activates the dmg boost enchant.  Too bad your wisps will have a pretty good chance hitting your average deflection though.

 

 

Cloak: 

+Cloak of the Theocrat - A cloak with INT on it.  The RES is nice too to make your overall hostile duration less painful.

 

+Mantle of the Seven Bolts - The shock armor is great for keeping wisp damage low. The shotgun bolt rest skill can be brutal against the right trash.  Make sure to have energized up to maximize penetration.  The AoE on death is mediocre.

 

+The Giftbearer's Cloth - Great if you want an extra quick and weapon slot and don't want to take passives for it. The increased defenses is nice too if you have a high history score.

 

?+Nemnok's Cloak - Nice cloak for "oh ****" moments of damage done to you. May have competition with a lot of other builds.

 

+Three Trolls Stitched - Regen is nice for less health management.  Just watch out for attacks with the affiliated penalties.

 

Hands:

+Gauntlets of Greater Reliability - Having skills land is important for a debuff build.

 

+Aegor's Swift Touch - +1DEX, +5% action speed, and small chance to nullify ranged weapon attack.

 

+Firethrower's GLoves - +2DEX, +1Arcana.

 

+Anything with main stats

 

Rings: 

+Chameleon's Touch - Really good stat ring.  Lots of competition.

 

+Kuaru's Prize - Good stat ring and damage bonus works with scrolls.  Lots of competition with casters.

 

?+Ring of the Marksman - If you are ranged, the best ring for you. Competition with ranged.

 

?Ring of Overseeing - AoE range

 

Helm: 

?+Helm of the Falcon - With weapons like the staffs and greatswords, this is a decent helm.  The defense against ranged weapons is nice too.

 

?+Acina's Tricorn - Good if you are using a ranged weapon, Awesome if its a reloading type.

 

+Thaos Headress - Enemies who are distracted are also flanked. Good stats for build.

 

+Heaven's Cacophony - Good stats and utility skills.

 

+Blackened Plate Helm - Good attribute stats.

 

?Horns of the bleak mother - +1PER, +10 acc to bests, and RES affliction resistance.

 

?Blackblade's Hood - Not bad if current weapons match the bonuses.

 

-Deltro's Cage Helm - The wisp's shock damage will trigger the lash bonus from this helmet.  Too bad it is like ~1% shock lash damage.

 

Belt: 

+Sash of Judgment - A decent choice for early combat phases to punch thru full health enemies quickly.

 

+The Amazing and Truly Incredible Instant Potion Belt - I really like this belt since a potion in your favor can be helpful in battles.

 

?Upright Captain's Belt - Concentration is good.  The immunity to pull effects is good to prevent being pulled by monsters into bad positions, but you can escape as a rogue or have a skelly/wisp friend to be a decoy.

 

?Other stat belts.

 

?Trollhide Belt

 

Boots: 

+Boots of the Stone - +1DEX, +1RES, and might affliction resistance.

 

+Footprints of Ahu Taka - For the +2DEX.

 

+Bounding boots - Good for escaping.  I use it a LOT in solo play (mostly because of skellies D:).  Super helpful in encounters like the burning bridge

and ship battles where jumping immediately stops you from being focused and instagibbed.

 

Neck: 

+Necklace of the Harvest Moon - Recovery bonus when you crit and a free moonwell (1/rest).

 

+Bone Setter's Torc - Crit chance.

 

+Anything with main stats.

 

?Heart Chime Amulet - As a nature godlike, this makes you take less damage when you get distracted from your wisps.

 

?Necklace of Fireballs - In the early levels, having this item can really rip an early group up with how fast the harbinger recovers.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Manveru123]

Yet another reason why Streetfighter is so stupid. A build that actually has your own summons attack you. Obsidian plz.

 

Nice idea tho.

[Boeroer]

Nice touch with the Wisps.

 

By the way White Worms explodes all corpses even in the non-updated state. Turn off gib in the game options! Gibbed enemies leave no corpse!

[Metaturtle]

Nice touch with the Wisps.

 

By the way White Worms explodes all corpses even in the non-updated state. Turn off gib in the game options! Gibbed enemies leave no corpse!

 

Odd, the first version only allows me to select one corpse to blow up until I upgrade it.  I wonder if it has something to do with a micro patch not applying changes to previous games.  Nice reminder of gibs too!  I have it off since i play a lot of chanters.  I'll update the guide with that. :D

Edited August 24, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Boeroer]

If it works like that now it got changed.

 

Usually you could target an area on the ground and not a single corpse - and every corpse in that AoE did explode (and unlike PoE, got consumed).

[Tommy1984]

Large Shield:

+Modal - If taking a shield, the large shield modal is helpful for taking a nasty ranged hit or reflex based attacks.  Generally you can use rogue skills to escape, but rogue resources are finite.  Caldhu Scalth I think is the strongest choice for defense, but that depends if its not being used by another character.

 

I think Bronlar's Phalanx is better for this class. It gives a deflection bonus that scales with your health (up to 20 deflection, so +10 deflection when Bloodied), which helps staying in Bloodied state. The deflection bonus is compareable to Cadhu Scalth with mediocre athletics investment, only with full athletics investment Cadhu Scalth is better. And Bronlar's Phalanx also gives a long INT buff at combat start, that helps with your chanter abilities (summon/chant duration).

[Metaturtle]

 

Large Shield:

+Modal - If taking a shield, the large shield modal is helpful for taking a nasty ranged hit or reflex based attacks.  Generally you can use rogue skills to escape, but rogue resources are finite.  Caldhu Scalth I think is the strongest choice for defense, but that depends if its not being used by another character.

 

I think Bronlar's Phalanx is better for this class. It gives a deflection bonus that scales with your health (up to 20 deflection, so +10 deflection when Bloodied), which helps staying in Bloodied state. The deflection bonus is compareable to Cadhu Scalth with mediocre athletics investment, only with full athletics investment Cadhu Scalth is better. And Bronlar's Phalanx also gives a long INT buff at combat start, that helps with your chanter abilities (summon/chant duration).

 

 

I was thinking along the lines that I wasn't going to dodge much from ranged attacks and blanket dmg reduction was nice on top of the redux when eating the hit.  I think just saw deflection and glossed it over because of that lol.  I'll have to test out a run with Bronxlar to see how it feels since I usually always get it kind of late in the game.  That INT bonus is very nice too. I'll have to add a note for it.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Metaturtle

[peolone]

Really nice build. Do you think this build could also work awith the Engoliero do espirs estoc? One could use White worms writhed in the bellies of the dead" to proc Ghost blades, causing some real carnage (thanks to Boeroer for underlining the real power of that weapon on melee casters). In that case, I would fire the Hand Mortars with Arterial Strike as an opening, switching then to the Engoliero when enemies engage in melee, then I'd summon the wisps to sustain the "flanked" state and I'd finally cast White worms as soon as some guys die. The question is: would he be too squishy to do that? What do you think? 

[Metaturtle]

Even with bolstering some defense stats so you're not a 1shot squishy melee, you'll have to play very guerilla-like with your wisps. Have them chain CC the enemy then swoop in for hits trying to maximize your interrupts to stay in as long as possible then have the wisps also bail you out as you recover. Either way you're going to babysit a lot. Against bosses you might want some escape options to take off some aggro so you can resummon wisps to cc chain.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Dorftek]

I really like that you are using wisps with this guy.

[Boeroer]

Yes, that's something new.

[Metaturtle]

Really nice build. Do you think this build could also work awith the Engoliero do espirs estoc? One could use White worms writhed in the bellies of the dead" to proc Ghost blades, causing some real carnage (thanks to Boeroer for underlining the real power of that weapon on melee casters). In that case, I would fire the Hand Mortars with Arterial Strike as an opening, switching then to the Engoliero when enemies engage in melee, then I'd summon the wisps to sustain the "flanked" state and I'd finally cast White worms as soon as some guys die. The question is: would he be too squishy to do that? What do you think? 

 

I had to do some testing with Espirs since corpse explosions has a few cases with skills like the life-vamp aura, but it works for other sources of damage like DoTs.  Turns out I was right and it doesn't work with corpse explosion.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Metaturtle

[peolone]

I'm sad now. But thanks for testing. I'll play him as a ranged character.

[Boeroer]

Ghost Blades will not proc on the corpse explosion itself, but when such an explosion kills an enemy it should. Does it not?

[MaxQuest]

-Deltro's Cage Helm - The wisp's shock damage will trigger the lash bonus from this helmet. Too bad it is like ~1% shock lash damage

Do they hit for 1 shock damage? Or was the formula changed?

 

Iirc, Elebhra (author of "Lightning Rod" build) was mentioning that "receiving x lightning damage will add x% lash damage for 30s." (or "for 10s" after v1.1)

[Boeroer]

I still works as you describe. I just let Aloth hit himself with Jolting Touch (funny that it's possible, but it is), he suffered 38 shock damage and the helmet gave him 38% shock damage for 13 sec (incl. INT bonus).

 

Although when I then cast Minor Missiles the projectiles only seem to get <10% shock damage. I did 7 corrode damage + 0.6 shock damage. Maybe due to different corrode/shock AR on the enemy, no idea.

 

Edit: yes, that was the problem. Now I cast it on an enemy with equal AR and it's 38%.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Boeroer

[Dorftek]

Does lashes use the same pen as the primary dmg source or how does lash vs AR work exactly?

[Metaturtle]

Ghost Blades will not proc on the corpse explosion itself, but when such an explosion kills an enemy it should. Does it not?

Oops, sorry if I worded it that way, but yes I meant kills done with corpse explosion. The life leech relation was a hunch that corpse explosion damage was not linked ( or limited ) to the character in certain ways so kills from corpse explosion did not get credit.

I was expecting a fan out of several ghost blade procs after kills from an explosion, but none happened.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Metaturtle]

 

-Deltro's Cage Helm - The wisp's shock damage will trigger the lash bonus from this helmet. Too bad it is like ~1% shock lash damage

Do they hit for 1 shock damage? Or was the formula changed?

 

Iirc, Elebhra (author of "Lightning Rod" build) was mentioning that "receiving x lightning damage will add x% lash damage for 30s." (or "for 10s" after v1.1)

I've oversimplified the helm in the guide regarding wisps. My hits were hitting around 1 shock damage and sometimes less (.5, etc) since the wisp damage is pretty mediocre for a high lash gain.

[Metaturtle]

Oh, brilliance cape would be awesome for this. Damnit, hurry up 2.1.