Need opinion with skald

[Archaven]

Was thinking if Skald much better than troubadour? But.. in potd upscaled, is it a viable build? Can you crit even you have low ACC but high crit chance?

 

Is it viable against bosses? Otherwise Skald kinda wasred potential. If not viable I'll pass and move on to other build.

 

Thanks!

[Enoch]

I'm early in my Skaldy War Caller playthrough, but I'll let you know.

 

To me, the draw was mostly the -1 phrase cost to Offensive Invocations.  I wasn't planning on doing any summoning with this character (largely a RP decision), and the Non-Offensive Non-Summons invocations underwhelm me, generally.  I know that Troubs in Brisk Recitation mode can probably out-invoke a Skald who isn't hitting crits, but they have to give up Linger to get that.  I didn't want to do that-- the overlap in phrases from a decent-INT Chanter is a useful tool, and I didn't want to have to cripple Phrase acquisition to get it.  I view the Phrase-on-crit as a nice boost when it happens, but I'm not counting on it happening a whole lot.  

 

Through Maje Island, Thrice Was She Wronged likely accounts for the majority of damage done by the whole party.  (The fact that it gets 3 attack rolls per target really helps generate some consistency when I'm a little underwater on the ACC-Defense math.)  And, needless to say, with the limited tools that the starter island gives you, and with PotD-boosted enemy defenses, I'm not generating much in the way of crits. 

 

The build so far is Devoted-Skald.  12M-10C-12D-18P-16I-10R

Hearth Orlan

Weapon: War Hammer.  For crit-maximizing, a faster weapon would do better.  Clubs or Flails would be neat, so that the modal can soften up enemies for your Invocations, although Crush-immunity then becomes a problem.  I went with Hammers because dual damage types are good, because the uniques appeal to me (neat on-crit effects available for all three), because an Orlan gal swinging 2 warhammers looks awesome, and because it just pairs well with somebody who yells to make thunder and lightning.

 

What I gots:

1: Disciplined Barrage; Thrice was She Wronged; Soft Winds of Death

2: The Thunder Rolled

3: Hel Hyraf

4: Fighter Stances; Sound of His Voice

5: Two Weapon Style (Not actually using this yet.  The ACC bonus of 1-handing will carry me until I can get some better ACC boosting equipment, like Last Word.)

 

Planned:

6: [Not sure yet.  White Wurms? I'll eventually want Thick Grew Their Tongues, but I might re-spec back into that.]

7: Disciplined Strikes; Ancient Memory

8: Penetrating Strike

9: [Either The Shield Cracks or Her Revenge Swept]

10:  Vigorous Defense; [whichever of the PL4 Phrases seems most immediately useful]

Edited November 10, 2018 by Enoch

[Archaven]

thanks for sharing. i was thinking of going SC skald. is it better going rogue for crit instead of fighter? looking at dirty fighting there.

 

if multiclassing, you missed out on 2PL and slower PL progression which cost alot of acc and damage?

 

ps.

i have a troubadour at level 10. seven nights deals 100+ damage on hit. for me, it's really low considering the fact i'm empowering it and it cost 6 phrases. even with brisk recitation, i feel it's really SLOW compared to other resource generation classes.

 

that's the reason i was considering skald instead. since potd upscaled, most enemies have high defenses. it's really not easy to crit at all. not to mention the 50% chance to get +1 phrase.

 

i understand why the 50% chance. there are some other classes with alot of hits (mainly guns), i view this actually screw up alot of to procs mechanism. obsidian really did badly in this design.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Archaven

[Enoch]

Dirty Fighting is a pretty small boost.  The more significant sources of Hit-to-Crit are the Intuitive inspiration (25%; available from Fighter Disciplined Strikes and nowhere else reliable) and the enemy being Paralyzed (also 25%, IIRC). 

 

(In hindsight, I should've taken the Will/Fort buff instead of Soft Winds at level 1 and Soft Winds at level 2 instead of The Thunder Rolled (which I don't use a whole lot).  I'd ideally respec out of Soft Winds once the PL4 Phrases are on line, but you can't get out of Level 1 choices.) 

[Archaven]

that's a fair point. fighter seems to be the best candidate then. but still a question remain. does crit chance work separately from ACC? can you crit if you have low ACC? since most enemies on potd upscaled have high defenses so i was wondering if skald can have chances to crit on mid-late game and against bosses

[hansvedic]

that's a fair point. fighter seems to be the best candidate then. but still a question remain. does crit chance work separately from ACC? can you crit if you have low ACC? since most enemies on potd upscaled have high defenses so i was wondering if skald can have chances to crit on mid-late game and against bosses

 

A Berserker could also be a good candidate if you don't mind the -10 deflection penalty for +30% hit-to-crit, not to mention Bloody Slaughter.

 

In addition, a Streetfighter rogue might also be viable, if only for the greatly increased attack speed when flanked or bloodied + Dirty Fighting. Of course, staying bloodied or flanked may be too much work.

 

EDIT: But yeah, Fighter's Intuitive inspiration is certainly an excellent option.

Edited November 10, 2018 by hansvedic

[Frak]

Was thinking if Skald much better than troubadour? But.. in potd upscaled, is it a viable build? Can you crit even you have low ACC but high crit chance?

 

Is it viable against bosses? Otherwise Skald kinda wasred potential. If not viable I'll pass and move on to other build.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Currently I run pure classes. My first char was a skald on POTD upscale. I went through Neketaka with him before re-rolling due to RP reasons.

It's doable. I didn't notice crits (Human. Had I run as hearth orlan they would have been more), but invocations definately became more readily available later on.

Ofc I specced for it. Rapier, single handed. Modwyr and Mins Folly.

 

Conclusion. It works. It's slightly boring, decent off-tanky, but it works.

[Enoch]

On hit-to-crit:

 

First, the game does the normal d100 attack resolution. That gives an initial miss-graze-hit-crit result. Then, each source of upward or downward conversion is run, one after the other. That leads to diminishing returns-- e.g., one 30% and two 10%s adds to 43%, not 50%.

 

On Berserker:

 

Good only if you have a rock-solid source of Confusion mitigation. The constant passive chanting of phrases makes it tough to just endure confusion until you can get Priest help or Modwyr fully upgraded.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Enoch

[Archaven]

here's what i'm planning my playstyle. use redhand with modal. first attack possibly can gain +1 phrase. then switch to 1 handed. was wondering if 1 handed + fighter intuitive, will that be overkill? otherwise DWing will be better to proc some debuffs.

 

also if using fighter, will be missing out on ed nary (and possibly dragon). so maybe multi-classing isn't that great? i wanted a nuker chanter with crit as resource generation.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Archaven

[Killyox]

Use hit to crit potions/spell/items to crit consitently. I was build a swashbuckler who pretty much had 70% crit ratio on POTD due to using Rapier + Modal and small shield modal. So he was riposting with 140-150 acc iirc. Could check it out.

[Flucas]

Barbarian/skald - doc armor. Fair favor. Scordeos edge, aldris/skullcrusher.