[CLASS BUILD] Sword'n'Bear -Nalpazca/Stalker

[Powerotti]

Music support - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJzLipDbIA

 

Sword'n'Bear

 

Difficulty: PotD v. 5.0

Solo: i don't think so, but you may try to abuse Dire Talon

Class: Nalpazca/Stalker

Race: any is good. I choose wood elf for +1 per/dex and affliction resistance

Background: Deadfire Archipelago/The White that Wends - Laborer (if going to use Contender's Armor)

 

Stats: dumped con and res, maxed mig/dex/per, rest int

 

Equipment:

Head: Fair Favour

Back: The Giftbearer's Cloth

Neck: Claim and Refusal/Cog of Cohh

Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate/Miscerant's Leather/Contender's Armor

Waist: The Undying Burden (when using Contender's Armor)/Sash of Judgement

Hands: Gatecrushers/Boltcatchers/Corroded Vambracers/Burglar's Gloves

Rings: Chameleon's Touch and Ring of Prosperity's Fortune

Boots: Pathfinder's Boots

Pet: Abraham (and nalvi on eder if possible)

Weapon set 1: Scordeo's Edge (for Adaptive upgrade) and Griffin's Blade (very important because of Howling Blade effect - it helpes to keep enemies dazed in AoE all the time and underpen the bear)

Weapon set 2: WotEP (helpes a lot to stack Hunters Fang - when hit multiple enemies, gives several charges)

Weapon set 3: can be selected when Adaptive stack is full, but Griffin's Blade is a must. Interesting weapons: Rust's Poignard, Modwyr, Aldris Blade of Captain Crow, Dire Talon (my favourite - huge acc of this build and constant crits chained with SF/HBD can spawn a lot of wurms. There is no limit in quantity.

 

Food: Mohora Wraps

Drug: Mouth Char

 

Abilities:

Efficent Anguish - pushing back enemies that get to close and interrupting casters (on graze)

Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming - obvious

Enduring Dance - keep on all the time, push enemies that draw near

Turning Wheel - fire lash and increased effect duration (dazed from griffin's blade, adaptive, swift flurry)

Instruments of Pain - must have, lets you chop chop from safe place behind your bears back

Clarity of Agony - not necessary, but sometimes useful

Two Weapon Style - obvious

Enervating Blows - weaken enemies constantly

Improved Critical - you can skip this if you prefer Concussive Tranquiliser

Marked for the Hunt - more acc

Hunter's Fang - More Acc!

Stalkers Link - MORE ACC ! ! !

Survival of the Fittest - guess what

Resilent Companion and Hardy Companion - with Stalker subclass and bear bonus it gives total 16 ar (remember that enemies are dazed constantly)

One ability point left on PL 7. You can change improved critical for concussive tranquiliser or takedown combo

 

In quick summary, you get very quick striker with more than 180 acc (hunters fang, marked for the hunt, stalkers link, survival of the fittest, adaptive, enduring dance, legendary weapon, high per). That gives very high chance to crit, and spam SF/HBD triggering on crit effects. Fragility of this build get supressed by a decent tank included (mostly because all enemies in aoe are dazed constantly).

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Powerotti

[Jayd]

8 minutes ago, Powerotti said:

Music support - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJzLipDbIA

Nice.

 

Why is there no Stunning Surge? To me the #1 point of playing Wanderer is to replace your auto-attack button with Stunning Surge because it's always free. 

I also always consider Concussive tranq a priority on any Ranger. Best cleanse in the game.

[Vonbek]

any particular reason for Naz?

[Powerotti]

You don't want to get any damage. Enduring dance without other source of wounds may be not enough to keep on instruments of pain and thunderous blows (which i forgot to note ). Alternative is to pick hellwalker and switch clarity of agony for mortification of the soul

[Powerotti]

Stunning surge is not necessery. Weak enemies dies quickly, and tougher ones not always get crits. With 1.4 recovery you burn resources fast, with not so big difference in dps. Stun is also not much difference when they are dazed and knocked down by gatecrushers or rust poignard from alternative weapon set. 

But feel free to propose other ability distribution

[Vonbek]

1 hour ago, Powerotti said:

You don't want to get any damage. Enduring dance without other source of wounds may be not enough to keep on instruments of pain and thunderous blows (which i forgot to note ). Alternative is to pick hellwalker and switch clarity of agony for mortification of the soul

Might spawn via UC and see if I can get it to work with HW, not a big fan of Nalz myself.

 

Looks Solid though, the stalker set always appealed to me.

[Boeroer]

Cool. I especially like the combo of making a supertanky Bear with the use of Griffin's Blade. Never thought of that but it makes perfect sense. 

By the way one could use a hand mortar or blunderbuss to trigger multiple stacks of Hunter's Claw per attack - if you had a melee weapon in the other hand. Maybe this git fixed though. It's still possible to abuse Clear Out this way so I guess tehre's a chance that it's also still possible with Hunter's Claw. Another way is to use Sun & Moon + Keeper of the Flame.

By the way: do the additional attacks from Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming add stacks to Hunter's Claw as well? Never tried...

 

Stunning the enemy via Stunning Surge not only gives you a lot more Full Attacks (because you will most likely regain enough Mortification during an encounter) - it also lowers deflection which increases the chance of chaining Swift Flurry/HBD - compared to Dazed which doesn't lower defenses. I would use it in combination with Accurate Wounding Shot (+20 ACC and -10 deflection from stunned is +30 stackable effective ACC).

If one uses the Community Patch then Forbidden Fist could also be an option (since you don't want to get hit anyway): Forbidden Fist + Swift Flurry and als Takedown Combo can be nice. Also Enfeebled on an enemy prolongs the DoT of Wounding Shots and all other hostile effects on the enemy. Without the Community Patch the Forbdden Fist ability is not tagged as weapon attack and thus doesn't work with Swift Flurry/HBD and maybe not even with Hunter's Claw etc. 

Edited August 14, 2019 by Boeroer

[Powerotti]

Hand mortar doesn't work, that was my first idea to stack Hunters claw. SF/HBD doesn't work also, they're separator skills. That's why i picked WotEP, but aoe won't work with instruments od pain. The cone is sticked to character anyway, do you have to be in close range. 

With F-fist there is not enough stat points to pump resolve

[Vonbek]

@Powerotti, I'm curious about how often it takes large damage?

 

If not often then why not HW with Enduring Dance? Or is it taking too much in the way of Melee hits to make the debuff viable?

[Powerotti]

With so low defences and con you die quickly anyway. The trick is to engage mele enemies with bear and team tank, kill ranged as fast as you can, and keep casters interupted, so you don't take any damage at all. Interupting is easy as a pie with this build, when you have speed, range, acc and efficent anguish. Nalpazca is only for wounds generation, but shattered pillar would be better if no 5 wounds limit, since it uses auto attacks a lot. 

 

@Boeroer

The biggest problem with stunning surge is that there's not enough ability points. You must choose between surge, take down and tranquiliser

[Vonbek]

Was wondering, and that answers it.

Same reason I've had to leave DoD out of my Trickster/HW idea and currently trying to work out what to leave out for Anguish since I don't have a decent renewable Interrrupt in Rogue.

And yeah, SP limit hammers me too for ideas.

[masterty66]

Cool build. Scordeo's Edge comes pretty late in the game though. What would you use before then? The Griffin Blade is the lynch pin for the build and that at least is easy to acquire.

Edited August 14, 2019 by masterty66

[Powerotti]

Modwyr for damage, ball and chain for constant knock down one foe or sun and moon, which works nice with flurry

[Vonbek]

13 hours ago, Powerotti said:

Modwyr for damage, ball and chain for constant knock down one foe or sun and moon, which works nice with flurry

What about Watchers Blade as another Early Game option due to the lash? Just wondering as I tend to hit the Sanctum early anyway.

[Powerotti]

Every sword, sabre, dagger, stiletto and rapier benefit from fair favour. Use this, what you like and what you got at the moment. Posted builds are just sugestions, ideas of what some people do. You can change equipment, stats, and abilities so they suit your style better. 

Another idea that should be solid is heavens cacophony with sun and moon. Avenging storm with many hits from two heads of this flail chained by swift flurry 

[Dr <3]

I think you MUST go for dwarf race.

So you can unlock the mighty sword'n'bear'n'beard style

[masterty66]

Think I'm going to try this out since I always wanted to try a melee ranger. I'm a crazy person and running it through Poe1 too of course, though in that I'm going to use Tidefall instead as it's the best melee Ranger wep in poe1.

Looking forward to seeing how this plays. Looks like a lot of fun.

[masterty66]

Just wanna say I've been playing this build and I'm I think level 12 now. It's pretty fun. With the high per, might, and dex plus swift flurry plus myriad of Ranger accuracy bonuses, it's just a blender. And the daze effect plus the Bear's inherent tankiness makes this a build where your pet isn't just dying 24/7 which is the usual complaint people have with Rangers. 

The Ranger itself actually isn't horribly fragile either. I altered the stat spread a little bit. I did dump Res like you did, but I went with 10 con rather than dumped con. That did mean my Int took a little bit of a hit compared to what you run with, so I'm probably not quite as optimal at maintaining dps. Still, I like the increased survivability. Currently using Griffin's and Modwyr. 

This character has felt like one of the stronger ones I've played and I haven't even hit peak gear or levels yet. Running Eder as a Swashbuckler with a shield and the club that gives more engagement slots so between him and the bear it's relatively easy to maneuver this character onto the squishy targets and chunk them in short order since those two can generally screen my movements. I always make sure to stay close enough to the bear to not take the Stalker malus though.

In all a fun character so far. 

[Powerotti]

I'm glad you like it