[CLASS BUILD] Rygmrand's "Artist" (Soublade/Chanter)

[Metaturtle]

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:

 

I have tried with great success to making this build work in both HIGH INT and LOW INT flavors.  

 

The high INT build in my opinion is the safer route for soloing since it maximizes your summon time, allows for bigger aoes, and longer buffs/debuffs when a snag in the chillfog streak occurs.  I opted to round out my low priority stats rather than hard dumping RES, but you are free to turn the build into full glass cannon.

 

When I say low INT, I only mean dumping INT on character creation and NOT reducing it to 1 via mule's wit since any INT gains are still valuable for the build although mule's wit still does serve a purpose with disintegrate and anti-charm for some fights.  The playstyle for low INT revolves around tighter circles so positioning is much more important.  You just need enough INT to have your summons long enough for you to gib them.  Since you are dumping INT, that means you can either make the character faster by pumping DEX or tankier by pumping RES.

 

MIG - Medium/High. More damage and more focus per hit.  Also a higher soul annihilation hit to make sure those summons die.

 

CON - Medium.  More health is nice as a buffer so you can leech health back when needed.

 

DEX - High. Adjust accordingly if the character is dumping INT or RES.  Allows for quicker focus taps in between SA kills and recovery from chaining spells in between.

 

PER - Maxed.  The skills heavily uses abilities that go against fortitude defense and having a higher rating maintains a steady focus gain from weapons.

 

INT - Maxed/Dump.  Max out if using high INT or dump it if not.

 

RES - Varied.  Adjust accordingly if the character will be a dedicated damage dealer or a side tank.  Reduces hostile debuff timers on you the more you have.  If abusing confuse affliction in a party, then having this low is great since it increases confuse duration.

 

 

SKILLS:

Skills are flexible though here's a few notes in context of the build.

 

Arcana - It does not get affected by your low INT if opting a low INT build.  Avenging Storms scroll is amazing with chillfog since it turns the aoe into an even stronger maelstrom of death.

 

Alchemy - Gives good mileage in solo play.  The extended self buffs from potions are always great especially when using the accuracy pot.

 

 

WEAPONS & MODALS:

 

 

POST 2.1 - The items that require a specific enemy type or was more useful as an offhand have been deprecated.

 

Modals - Starting with sword and sabre modal is good early game, but the PEN from it does not benefit chillfog/noxious aoe while energize's buff can and will overwrite any active PEN weapon modals. I recommend at least getting the club, flail, and shield modals while leveling.

 

Grave Calling - Primary weapon that can be attained really early after you get your ship repaired. Enchant it for chillfog on kill and paralyzation on crit.

 

Hel Beckoning - The corrode partner to Grave Calling.  Use it to summon imps on kill.  You could use it to apply sicken on crit, but I prefer a more damaging lash. 2.1 Do what you want!

 

Watcher's Blade - The raw lash on this is not too bad for focus gain and can be attained somewhat early ingame though you have to upgrade it.  It will spawn a shade on kith kill, but with SA you can now spawn it on demand on anything and keep on gibbing it over and over. A decent alternative to Hel Beckoning especially if you decide to enchant Hel Beckoning for full AoE instead of imps.

 

Resounding Call - Free might and penetration buff on destructible kill.  Good alternative when not using Energize for PEN.

 

Eager Blade - If positioned correctly, the instagib of your summons will trigger the damage splash of this weapon.  For some reason the splash damage is considered range damage, which I found really odd. The splash damage doesn't work with ranger's driving flight (I tested!) but benefits from ranged items like marksman's ring.  Estocs have really good penetration values so this can be a decent weapon when fighting frost immune enemies.

 

Engoliero de Espirs - Similar to Eager Blade, but is attained late into the game.  You will be pretty much triggering ghost blades on anything killed which means 1 SA'd summon equals to 1 ghost blade proc, which then splashes enemies and fills your focus up. It doesn't even need to be SA or melee hits since even cipher spells can trigger the kill effect. Watching it chain react on enemy kills is really fun to watch. It is an awesome alternative weapon. Sadly ghost blades doesn't work from kills with corpse explosion. 2.1 - It now does not work on many spell kills but the proc just makes it a have a bit more mental overhead when killing stuff.

 

Oathbreaker's End - If you manage to crit your summon or an enemy with the debuff when you finish them, it will do a raw damage AoE of around ~50 or so damage that will give you focus gain for each enemy hit.  Even if you do have a good crit rate against your summons, I think it might be better to just hit the enemy.

 

Bardatto's Luxury - There's an enchant where if an ally or summon dies (you killing them >:D), you will gain the Hardy Inspiration for a minute (adjusted with INT).  Kind of useful if you need some armor or to get a CON affliction off you since for some reason the chanter stat STR/RES/CON buff isn't a recognized CON inspiration. Though if it's just for CON affliction removal then the >50% health enchant removes the hassle of needing to kill with it . 

 

Last Word - Free resolve buff that can extend its effect each time you kill something.

 

Modwyr - For the INT affliction immunity

 

 

 

 

ABILITIES:  +Good / ?Notable / -Bad

 

 

Starting-

Soulblade: The starting skill of the cipher can vary depending on preference.

+Antipathetic Field - This skill's base duration does not get affected by INT so it can be very nice splash damage for low INT builds when used in the middle of battle of a paralyzed group and super cheap.   

+Whisper of Treason - Always nice to have some cheap CC for battle openers.  Get a wizard buddy to reflect it back on you for nuclear chillfogs!

 

Chanter:  Choose a chant depending on preference, but I recommend either the raw dot chant or the speed chant.

+Skeleton Summon - Easy fuel for SA!

+Armor Debuff - In a party or when you have skelly chant, this will help reduce enemy armor for chillfog to punch thru effectively.

 

Power Level 1:

+Take the skelly invocation or armor debuff if you haven't yet.

+Penetrating Visions - For antipathetic field and ectopsychic echo.  Also helps for Amplified Wave, but my preference is not to take amp wave since you have plenty aoe and CC already.

+Lingering Echos - Great to maximize your debuffs durations.

+Arms Bearer - Useful to hold more clickies like Kitchen Stove for thunderous report to generate burst focus or to hold different weapon combos.

?Thrice was she wronged - Great for early levels until you have higher invocations to use phrases on. Don't take it as a starter.

 

Power Level 2:

+2-Weapon Style - Allows for faster focus generation from auto attacks while dual wielding.

+1hand style - This works with the weapon AoEs so it is really nice to ensure long paralyzation from chillfog since Grave Calling will be doing most of the work by itself.  You miss out on SA's double weapon benefit though.

?+Weapon and shield style - If you plan to play it safer and tank more.

+Draining Whip - Increased focus generation.

+White Worms Writhed... - Corpse explosion! Not as good until you upgrade it though.

+Recall Agony - A neat spell for bosses where chillfog application is limited.

-At the sound of his voice... - Paralyzation is an awesome debuff for chanters, but grave calling will usually do this for you in a fight.

 

Power Level 3:

+Hammering Thoughts - Bypass more armor for damage/focus generation.

+Ancient Brittle Bones - Upgrade skellies for longer duration and more skellies on deaths!

?+Secret Horrors - Great since corpse explosion requires a body to initially put sicken on an enemy and comes with the bonus of frightened.

?+Ectopsychic Echo - Using summons, this is a strong ability against enemies vulnerable to crush and resistance to freeze.  Works great with summons benefitting from speed chant to run deep into their backline.

?+My Son, Do You See Your Sisters... - If you plan to use skeletons from skelly chant and took the armor debuff as a starter, this is a good summon option for spirits to kill with Hel Beckoning auto attacks. I particularly like wisps because they can lock down very dangerous targets for quite a while using their active skills while you tap focus or setup other skills.

?Combat Focus - In combat openers this can be somewhat useful until you can get a melee kill for concentration from Soul Blade's passive.

 

Power Level 4:

+Upgrade white worms if you have it.

+The Brideman Slew Thirty... - A great buff that synergizes AMAZINGLY well once upgraded.  Its STR and RES inspirations means you have a padded stun and fear resistance in fights.

?+Silent Scream - With high INT builds, it's -5MIG debuff from the stun helps lower fortitude even more.

?Greater Focus - Optional and taking it is mostly for increased maximum on focus to SA with.  You already have enough max focus to gib your summons, but having more when you are gaining lots of focus means you can squeeze out a bit more damage to execute enemies near death.

?-The Long Night's Drink - Lowers fortitude by applying sickened on enemies and reducing their might. Can be a catch22 because it has to target fortitude to apply it where secret horrors and white worms targets WILL.  It's perk of being free and -2 MIG is notable though.

 

Power Level 5:

+Rapid Casting - Recover faster from casting spells during focus gains.

?+Tactical Meld - To gain PER inspiration. The 50% graze to hit is great for dodgy targets and in parties it is great to give to a partner.  You can only use it on summons you are able to manually control.

?+Borrowed Instinct - Good skill to buff your accuracy on dodgy targets.  The added defenses is also great for survivability.

+Uncanny Luck - Crit and Dodge chance is always nice.

?Tough - Good for tanking and staying in battle longer.

?Far Casting - Can be useful for low INT to maximize ranged.

 

Power Level 6

+Each Kill Fed His Fury - Killing your own summons extends the buff by 10 seconds, so basically you can have it on forever.  The upgrade also adds a CON bonus, but for some reason isn't reconized as a CON inspiration that can prevent CON afflictions being applied to you.

+Old Siec Would Not Rest... - Life leech aura and your lazy heal while you damage your summons.

?+Braved the horde alone - If you need additional PEN for spells.  The Resounding Call War hammer can be a good alternative instead since the cipher already has so many abilities for buffing/debuffing and having to buff juggle isn't productive for damage.

?+Disintegrate - This can be a good option against targets like bosses with very high armor.

?Mind Plague - A decent choice to lower might since Silent Scream's stun base duration is pretty low and the -4 penetration is good for tanking.  The Aoe is also really large for application.

?Improved Critical - More Damage is nice, but points are tight on this tier thanks to the many abilities here.

?The Empty Soul - Nice to have if you can manage the point for it.  It's either this or Improved critical.

?Amplified Wave - Although super strong on normal fights with massive focus generation, chillfog's aoe is already good.  It doesn't help so much on boss fights with little mobs and you could use the point somewhere else.

 

Power Level 7:

+Many Lives pass by... - Skelly chant for more chillfog fuel! Skellies blocking your way? Kill them! Win-win.

 

FLEX POINT - The Cipher skills here are nice to have, so decide where to spend your last points here.

+Ancestor's Honor - If you happen to be in a party, then this should be taken since it is way overpowered with a priest in the party.

?The Complete Self - Nice to gain focus if it happens.  Optional though since it's really hard to measure how effective it is with chillfog spams and against difficult targets.

?Screaming Souls - A notable skill since as a chanter you can generate your own vessel/spirit to cast this on.  The raw damage AoE can be useful in softening up your summons for easy autoattack kills.  Be careful since it hurts everyone and a high INT build has a huge circle.

 

 

 

 

 

EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

 

 

Pet: 

Peter - Bigger and stronger AoE.

Corlagon - Stronger aoe damage and healing.

Abraham - Armor recovery and life on kill.

Loki - Bigger AoE and more stride.

 

Armor: 

+Fleshmender - Passive health regen, good armor for taking a stray hit, and additional weapon/quick slots.

 

+Nomad's Brigandine - Heavy armor is really good for taking hits.  This armor is useful for the disengagment immunity against bosses when you need peel off.

 

+Miscreant's Leathers - Good recovery to attack faster.

 

+Harbingers - More flat damage boosts for being squishy.

 

?+Guardian Plate - RP REASONS.  Really good benefits if you rest a lot or if abusing confusion affliction.

 

?DoC Breastplate - The additional power pool is wasted, but the intellect resistance can be useful when needed.

 

Cloak: 

+Cloak of the Theocrat - +1INT and +1RES

 

+Ajamuuts Stalking CLoak - +1PER

 

?+Nemnok's Cloak - Nice to have for a safety net.

 

?Cloak of Greater Deflection - More deflection is nice for tanking. Doesn't stack with bracers until 2.1 though.

 

(2.1) Cloak of Phantasm

 

Hands:

+Gauntlets of Greater Reliability - Having attacks graze for some focus is better than no focus.

 

+Gloves of the Dungeon Warden - +3 Accuracy.  Lockdown ability can be a decent CC.

 

+Woedica's Strangling Grasp - +2MIG for more damage.  The strangle CC is awesome too.

 

?Hylea's Talons - Gives your sabres and swords more damage and a dot on either the enemy or you.  The raw dot is less worrisome since you can just leech health to counter it.

 

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

 

?Gatecrashers - +1MIG and chance for knockdown on melee crit. Knockdown does not work with chillfog aoe.

 

 

Rings: 

+Kuaru's Prize -  It is still awesome for the stats and your cipher spells.  Sadly this does not buff your chillfog. 

 

+Chameleon's Touch - More stats.

 

?Ring of Overseeing - AoE range.

 

?Harmony - For that INT affliction Immunity... and "RP" reasons D: !

?Ring of Mule's Wit - An interesting option for super low INT builds where a fixed damage dot like disintegration gets deadlier the shorter the duration is.  Helpful when you know disintegration will be much easier to handle in some fights.

 

Helm: 

?+Fair Favor - Awesome if you are not playing solo since the main weapon types are sabres/swords.  

 

+Helm of the White Void - In keeping up with the RP style, this helm is awesome for a cipher especially when trying to land afflictions on tougher targets.

 

+Heaven's Cacophony - +2 INT and free avenging storm per rest!

 

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

 

Belt: 

+Belt of Magran's Chosen - Although the fire lash is nice and your summons also benefit from it, the main reason is to have a fire elemental spawn when hitting things.  The elemental is then used for chillfog fuel.

 

?+The Maker's Own Power - +1MIG. +1 Crush AR. Reforge the flesh is a decent automatic panic button.

 

?+Gwyn's Garter Belt - The build lacks a DEX affliction resistance from being completely paralyzed.  This is a good option.

 

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

 

?The Amazing and Truly Incredible Instant Potion Belt - Not bad early ingame if an accuracy pot shows up.

 

Boots: 

+Boots of the White - +1RES, +2 freeze AR, and DEX affliction resistance.

 

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

 

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

 

+Rakhan Field Boots - Ability is per encounter and can provide early focus generation.  Also can be used for mobility.

 

+Bounding boots - Good for mobility.

 

Neck: 

+Torc of the Falcon's Eyes - +2 PER

 

+Nericyleas' Hope - Get free stats when your summons die!

 

+Bone Setter's Torc - Crit chance.

 

+Charm of Bones - +2INT and +5 acc to vessels

 

+Stone of Power - +1INT and power level to increase damage and acc of skills per rest.

 

?+Cog of Cohh - Kind of a niched thing since it is pretty hard for your summon to kill something, but the aware buff is great.

 

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

 

?+Cipher's Shackle - DEX affliction resistance since the build lacks resistance against it.

 

?Claim and Refusal - More melee damage for more focus and can turn into tanking mode if needed. Sadly does not increase chillfog damage.

 

?Baubles of the Fin - If a party member wears this, you can benefit from the damage boost, but if you wear it in solo only your summons benefit.

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Boeroer]

Oh wow... nice find with the Chillfog etc.

 

Nerf incoming!

[dunehunter]

 

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:

 

Does this means any raw damage will work, or only SA? Because I'm pretty sure I test with Grave Calling + Hel Beckoning and I killed the boars I summoned with Arterial Strike, both proc on kill effect is not triggered.

[mant2si]

Man, you posted Grave Calling build before DLC release, shame on you, I only hoping that Obs skip this topic and don't limit proc rate to 1/per rest

I like mix Grave Calling with Blunderbuss on Streetfighter/Chanter, you proc Blunderbuss modal, Troubadour passive start summon skeletons, you kill your own skeletons and spam Chill Fog, Chill Fog receive ALL Streetfighter bonuses, i.e get 150% DM bonus from rogue and +100% on crit, you cast Life Leech Chant and just stay in Fog and watch how enemies DIE ;D

Edited September 10, 2018 by mant2si

[Metaturtle]

 

 

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:

 

Does this means any raw damage will work, or only SA? Because I'm pretty sure I test with Grave Calling + Hel Beckoning and I killed the boars I summoned with Arterial Strike, both proc on kill effect is not triggered.

 

 

I've tried it with a few other attacks and it seems to only work with SA. I'm guessing it has to do something with how the raw damage is calculated since that is the only part of the attack that seems unique compared to other attacks.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Metaturtle]

Man, you posted Grave Calling build before DLC release, shame on you, I only hoping that Obs skip this topic and don't limit proc rate to 1/per rest

 

I like mix Grave Calling with Blunderbuss on Streetfighter/Chanter, you proc Blunderbuss modal, Troubadour passive start summon skeletons, you kill your own skeletons and spam Chill Fog, Chill Fog receive ALL Streetfighter bonuses, i.e get 150% DM bonus from rogue and +100% on crit, you cast Life Leech Chant and just stay in Fog and watch how enemies DIE ;D

 

Yeah, streetfighter harbinger was one of the first combos I definitely went straight for since rogue passives make any weapon triggered effects so strong.   I just had to share a soul blade spec since the soul annihilation trick is pretty neat to share as well.

[Metaturtle]

So 2.1 has landed and now the task of updating these builds come.  Major change to this build is that Soul Annihilation triggering offhand and any "monster type" killing blow has been fixed and possibly partially bugged in a new way.  The build is still effective with its chillfog farming and now functions where you just dump focus on enemies rather than to constantly gib your summons with SA.  A bit more micro, but it still is strong.

[Boeroer]

 

 

Major change to this build is that Soul Annihilation triggering offhand and any "monster type" killing blow has been fixed

 

What does that mean?

[Manveru123]

SA kills used to proc on-kill effects from the offhand regardless of monster type.

[Metaturtle]

Ya, what Manveru123 said. SA allowed the build to proc both equipped weapons' on-kill effects from a killing blow on any type monster.  I am thinking it shared a similar bug with essence interrupter, which was related to how weird the kill effects could be when abilities resolved themselves. The new "bug"? It now does the opposite and not even proc the on-kill effects with a killing blow complete with a missing string! wooooo

Edited September 12, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Manveru123]

Sounds cool. I'm glad they have (again) thoroughly tested the change before implementing it ^_-

[Verde]

Ya, what Manveru123 said. SA allowed the build to proc both equipped weapons' on-kill effects from a killing blow on any type monster. I am thinking it shared a similar bug with essence interrupter, which was related to how weird the kill effects could be when abilities resolved themselves. The new "bug"? It now does the opposite and not even proc the on-kill effects with a killing blow complete with a missing string! wooooo

Obsidian should get some kinda award for this stuff. Can you fight the final boss yet?

Edited September 12, 2018 by Verde

[Metaturtle]

 

Ya, what Manveru123 said. SA allowed the build to proc both equipped weapons' on-kill effects from a killing blow on any type monster. I am thinking it shared a similar bug with essence interrupter, which was related to how weird the kill effects could be when abilities resolved themselves. The new "bug"? It now does the opposite and not even proc the on-kill effects with a killing blow complete with a missing string! wooooo

Obsidian should get some kinda award for this stuff. Can you fight the final boss yet?

 

 

Ukaizo? The boss has like 160+ fort with decent AR so it takes a bit of dancing until you can line up enough accuracy buffs for chillfog to do decent focus farming, but anything is possible with a skeleton wall lol.  I found it way easier just going gravecalling for trash and ecceas for focus gain then just targeting reflex with cipher ectopsychic.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Haplok]

That's pretty sweet.

I'm thinking of playing this (or maybe a Mindstalker with a Chanter in the party), but am somewhat worried about penetration issues. On PotD do you think that Penetration is sufficient? I guess you can get Tenacious from the Chanter's buff or from a Priest and you can also use Hel-Hyraf to lower enemy armor (but then you don't use skelly invocation or white worms). Do you find that's sufficient?

 

I tried using upgraded White Worms a few times, but it seemed to do next to nothing. I guess maybe due to Penetration issues.

[Verde]

 

 

Ya, what Manveru123 said. SA allowed the build to proc both equipped weapons' on-kill effects from a killing blow on any type monster. I am thinking it shared a similar bug with essence interrupter, which was related to how weird the kill effects could be when abilities resolved themselves. The new "bug"? It now does the opposite and not even proc the on-kill effects with a killing blow complete with a missing string! wooooo

Obsidian should get some kinda award for this stuff. Can you fight the final boss yet?

Ukaizo? The boss has like 160+ fort with decent AR so it takes a bit of dancing until you can line up enough accuracy buffs for chillfog to do decent focus farming, but anything is possible with a skeleton wall lol. I found it way easier just going gravecalling for trash and ecceas for focus gain then just targeting reflex with cipher ectopsychic.

I mean I literally can't fight him. He is invisible and talks then there is no fight. I know this was a common issue before not sure if it was fixed.

[Haplok]

I loaded up an old save, where I haven't visited Crookspur/enchanted Grave Calling with imps yet, got the sabre and went to the catacombs below temple of Berath to get the tables and maybe (locked) Engoliero. There were lots of weak skellies in the first encounter (with some elite skellies mixed) and... oh boy... that was crazy!

 

Of course Grave Calling's huge Accuracy bonus vs vessels certainly also helped, because there were lots of crits.

 

Like it a lot so far. Might continue playing with that char (a level 11, now 12 Helwalker/Ascendant), although he was supposed to be ranged. But always having more options is nice and he can snipe primary targets/stun enemy groups/spam cipher spells such as secret horrors/mental binding/mind blades/mind lance and now also create deadly, blinding/paralyzing hazard zones.

Helwalker seems also a nice wielder of Grave Calling due to the high might bonus, easy access to Penetration bonuses, long durations, large aoes

If the going gets hot, he can mental bind annoying enemies (or the fog might paralyze them). If he's mobbed in melee... I suppose I could try to fit Blade Turning... somewhere... That could be pretty cool, particularly with SoT from Xoti.

 

I will retrain Pallegina to get the skelly invocation and also to try white worms again

Edited September 18, 2018 by Haplok

[Metaturtle]

That's pretty sweet.

I'm thinking of playing this (or maybe a Mindstalker with a Chanter in the party), but am somewhat worried about penetration issues. On PotD do you think that Penetration is sufficient? I guess you can get Tenacious from the Chanter's buff or from a Priest and you can also use Hel-Hyraf to lower enemy armor (but then you don't use skelly invocation or white worms). Do you find that's sufficient?

 

I tried using upgraded White Worms a few times, but it seemed to do next to nothing. I guess maybe due to Penetration issues.

 

I usually use white worms with Sasha's empower and with energize up which should bring me up to around 14-15 PEN, which is decent for a first wave of dead bodies.  With just energize it middles around 13ish PEN, but since it's supplementary damage the phrases are prioritized to summons and buffs first.

 

 

 

 

Ukaizo? The boss has like 160+ fort with decent AR so it takes a bit of dancing until you can line up enough accuracy buffs for chillfog to do decent focus farming, but anything is possible with a skeleton wall lol. I found it way easier just going gravecalling for trash and ecceas for focus gain then just targeting reflex with cipher ectopsychic.

I mean I literally can't fight him. He is invisible and talks then there is no fight. I know this was a common issue before not sure if it was fixed.

 

 

Never had that happened to me before

 

 

I loaded up an old save, where I haven't visited Crookspur/enchanted Grave Calling with imps yet, got the sabre and went to the catacombs below temple of Berath to get the tables and maybe (locked) Engoliero. There were lots of weak skellies in the first encounter (with some elite skellies mixed) and... oh boy... that was crazy!

 

Of course Grave Calling's huge Accuracy bonus vs vessels certainly also helped, because there were lots of crits.

 

Like it a lot so far. Might continue playing with that char (a level 11, now 12 Helwalker/Ascendant), although he was supposed to be ranged. But always having more options is nice and he can snipe primary targets/stun enemy groups/spam cipher spells such as secret horrors/mental binding/mind blades/mind lance and now also create deadly, blinding/paralyzing hazard zones.

Helwalker seems also a nice wielder of Grave Calling due to the high might bonus, easy access to Penetration bonuses, long durations, large aoes

If the going gets hot, he can mental bind annoying enemies (or the fog might paralyze them). If he's mobbed in melee... I suppose I could try to fit Blade Turning... somewhere... That could be pretty cool, particularly with SoT from Xoti.

 

I will retrain Pallegina to get the skelly invocation and also to try white worms again

 

If you have a party, then a lot of great combos can be done as long as you have a chanter or chanters to bring the fuel and  armor debuff.  I personally like the craziness of a berserker since all vessels become fair game in the chillfog and with a few chanters the PEN on super high armored targets isn't so bad when they are perma-paralyzed and being whittled down by like 20-40 chillfogs.  

Edited September 18, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Faustus2]

What starting perception do you recommend?

[Metaturtle]

What starting perception do you recommend?

 

Usually I just max it out since my watcher is usually my cache/trap spotter especially if I am soloing.  More perception is nice just so you have as much of an edge when it comes against high defense enemies when the chillfog rolls around and you don't have your skellies shrugging you off when you miss them.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Haplok]

Sadly in 3.0 beta I was not able to cast Tenuos Grasp or Whispers of Treason on party members (to reflect with Mirror/Reflection and self-confuse for mass skelly kills and mass deadly fogs).

[Metaturtle]

Sadly in 3.0 beta I was not able to cast Tenuos Grasp or Whispers of Treason on party members (to reflect with Mirror/Reflection and self-confuse for mass skelly kills and mass deadly fogs).

 

I thought this was always the case where you can't complete the action of casting those spells on party members without needing to be confused first.  Unless this was as a berserker? 

[Haplok]

So I misunderstood the suggestion to apply confused in a party. Obviously can't do it, unless the caster is confused himself.

 

But now that I think about it, a rogue's Sap could maybe work? Will have to check when I get there.

[hansvedic]

Does Screaming Souls do raw damage for each vessel hit with the initial attack, or just once?

[LeoAugustina]

I'm actually loving this build for my first Path of the Damned, thanks!