[Class Build] Kana

[jintegrity]

From Reddit to Steam to the Obsidian forums, I've seen people asking for companion builds for as long as the game has come out. There are a lot of threads with helpful guidance, and a few Youtube videos that are... alright. There are awesome builds, presented by the community, that, while not built for companions, that companions can do a good job of running themselves. That said, all of the above takes a lot more effort for a player than just having a guide for said character, so I'm going to do my best to slowly work towards making them.

A few things about these builds: If a contender for BiS (best in slot) can be found in Act 2, and a marginally better item can be found in the bottom of Od Nua, late-WM1/2, or Act 3, I'm going to have the earlier item listed. I want you to be able to reliably use these builds for a playthrough. I will generally not have items that require RNG like Adventure or Azzuro items listed if it can be helped. 

Finally, my builds are not going to be the end-all be-all. If you see something in the guide, but your personal experience/playstyle has found something else to be more effective, do that, and please consider letting us know. I fully expect these builds to generate discussion, and to serve as a more centralized source of information than scouring years of threads on several different mediums in order to try and sift through the information, good and outdated, to make informed decisions.

With all that said, let's get started.

Kana

Stats
MIG:  16 (possible +3)
CON: 12+2
DEX: 9+2
PER: 14
INT: 17+3
RES: 10+3

Talents
2: Ancient Memory
4: Beloved Spirits
6: Veteran's Recovery
8: Sword and Shield Style
10/12/14: Snake's Reflexes, Boar's Will*1, Bear's Fortitude
16 (Choose One): Weapon Focus Peasant or Adventurer, Superior Deflection, Cautious Attack

*1 With the immunities granted by Company Captain's Cap, you may find you don't need as much Will. If this is the case, substitute it for one of the Talents listed under options for level 16.

Abilities
At Recruitment: "At the Sight of their Comrades, their Hearts Grew Bold", "Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe", and "If their Bones Sleep Still Under that Hill, None Can Say".
2. "The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas"
3. "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death"
4. "White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead"*1
5. "Rime and Frost Followed the Footfalls of Karth"*2
6. "At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff"
7-8. +#s
9. "The Dragon Thrashed, The Dragon Wailed"
10-14. +#s
14. "So Singt thy Biting Winds o' Eld Nary"
15-16. +#s

*1 I've never personally gotten this to work, but I know it's good. Feel free to switch it with something else (like the Phantom summon). 
*2 For the Burning House event in Stalwart.

Alright, let me get this out of the way: I know there are more ways to build a Chanter than spamming Dragon Thrashed. However, there are issues when we're specifically talking about Kana: he has a DEX of 9. Even if you give him Viettro's Formal Footwear and Gauntlets of Swift Action, and build him to be as fast as he can be, it's not going to be fantastic. Yes, you can build around "Sure-Handed Ila...". Yes, you can build around "Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr". Kana just isn't necessarily the best candidate. I think he's actually got one of the better stat spreads for his class as far as companions go (high MIG and INT), and is competent at what is the strongest, easiest Chanter strategy available.

In addition, a lot of your choices here will come down to personal preference. At level 8, Wurms, Will-o-Wisp, and "Rejoice, My Comrades!" all make sense depending on how you play your Chanter. I personally am just going to spam "the Killers Froze Stiff" most of the time, so I'd take Rejoice for emergency situations and use Figurines for my summons, but you might prefer a dedicated summoner. As long as you have Dragon Thrashed going on Kana (and or 90+% of Chanters) once you hit level 9, it really couldn't matter less what you take.

I'm inspired to make some non-Dragon Thrashed Chanters now...

Equipment
Boots: Boots of the Long March
Head: Company Captain's Cap
Armor: Ryona's Breastplate*1
Neck: Voice of the Mountaintop*2
Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing or Girdle of Maegfolc Might
Ring 1: Ring of Overseeing*3
Ring 2: Ring of Protection
Hand: Bracers of Deflection*4
Weapon: The Vile Loner's Lance, Little Savior*5
Weapon 2: Forgotten Tear of the Beloved

*1: Earlier on, I recommend Äru-Brekr. It's easy to acquire and is pretty good, granting move speed and increased deflection versus ranged attacks. If Ryona's Breastplate is being claimed by another party member (  ), then He Carries Many Scars serves as a strong substitute. In the event both are claimed, consider Lost Meadow Mail or just staying with Äru-Brekr.

*2: I consider the Neck slot a very strong slot, and it's unfortunate that the Chanter-exclusive equipment is in this slot. If you find yourself not needing the AoE, consider Cloak of Comfort for an additional +5 to all defenses, or Cape of the Master Mystic to free up your Hand slot and for the strongest Of Deflection enchantment.

*3: We don't take Gathbin Family Signet here because its immunities are redundant with our Head piece, and another character could probably make better use of it. If you're not using Company Captain's Cap for some reason, strongly consider using this instead because you don't want your Dragon Thrashed spammer getting charmed/dominated and killing your party. On the other hand, if you don't feel you need the AoE, Frigid Claim, Ring of Unshackling, Ring of Deflection, and Wyrwood Ring are all considerations to replace it.

*4: Bracers of Deflection is here instead of Glittering Gauntlets due to the latter being bugged (at one point?). If it's confirmed that you're no longer going to Daze your Priest for casting Withdraw on your Chanter, then that replaces this item for the slot if you manage to get them. Hands are usually a slot relegated to Forgemaster's Gloves and Gauntlets of Swift Action. However, we carry Little Savior, and don't care about our attack speed, so using this normally highly-competitive slot for Deflection isn't as painful as it appears at first glance. That said, if you can get the Deflection in the Neck or Ring slot, Mourning Gloves, Gauntlets of Accuracy, or Celebrant's Gloves (put this on and trade Ring of Overseeing for Ring of Deflection if you get them) are excellent substitutes.

*5: Little Savior is BiS, and the main reason we're built the way we are. It is also a fairly late game item for most people. As you're leveling, consider Ilfan Byrngar's Solace and Redfield as placeholders. 



This is for a low-micro, low-effort Kana. We're not using many Spellbind items. The point of this character is to sit on the frontlines with 113 Deflection, 112 Fortitude, 123 Reflex, and 118 Will with good immunities before buffs at max level (you can get this higher with some gear substitutions listed above). Kana will live, and kill everything else around him.

Forgotten Tear of the Beloved works well with our immunities, and makes up for our highly-contested Ring slots. You could even forgo The Vile Loner's Lance for it if you really don't care about trying to trigger Disorienting when we're not really trying to make him accurate with the weapon. Chanters get good use out Spellbind items because they don't interfere with Chanting, and the alternative is usually auto-attacking, so if you really want to use a certain Spellbind item, especially if it takes a less-important slot (looking at the Boot slot), go for it.

He appreciates having a Paladin in the group equipped with an Outworn Buckler, or another S&S ally with a second Little Savior from The Helwax Mold. Every party appreciates a Priest for buffs. Due to the nature of defenses in this game, I would recommend this build if you're trying to build a tanky party with stacking Defense Auras and abilities that try to outlast their foes while Dragon Thrashed, Shining Beacon, and other such effects kill the opponent due to attrition. The support builds will not make glass cannons suddenly "tanky", but might make you feel the glass just a little less often. If your party is utilizing low-Deflection strategies to trigger things like Swaddling Sheet, Sanguine Plate, and Shod-in-Faith, you may need to make some adjustments to ensure you're not interfering with your party's overall game plan.

- and that's pretty much a Kana build. This is probably the easiest companion to build simply because his stats naturally lend him towards the most meta build for Chanters anyway, so there wasn't anything crazy here. I'm hoping, as I build other companions, that things will get more creative. Hopefully this build helps you!

Edited January 12, 2020 by jintegrity

[summatsupeer]

Pretty much the same as I do.  I tend to try and keep him as 2nd line, especially early with his CON and RES he isn't tanky.  I tend to focus on making sure Priest is immune to CC and mind control but yeah having a dragon thrashed chanter turn on you is painful.

With his MIG + INT scrolls are great.  I like the reach 2 hander weapons rather than ranged weapons, especially the staff with 3x fireballs per rest.  Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath is the typical armour I use for even more fire spells!

Typically I'll use the 1st level damage chant then add a higher level chant at end so get a quick paralyze type invocation or 7 nights etc.  Lots of options depending what group needs, CC, buffs and debuffs!

The worms invocation does work well but some enemies dont leave corpses and I think enemies who should leave a corpse sometimes don't or it's just a UI bug and doesn't highlight them when aiming worms.  The level in endless paths with all the skeletons and the 3 coloured symbols to open the locked door, you can kill the initial enemy group near the narrow entrance and pretty much one shot the next group if you pull them to the piles.

[jintegrity]

Playing a Priest MC now. Typically I'm far enough back from the action that I don't get CC'ed if I'm allowed to initiate the engagement (and most of the time I am, in my experience). Could see the appeal of putting the Cap on a Priest, but I'm planning to just use less-desired items like Hermit's Hat to cover as many resistances as I can on my priest.

With Kana's low initial DEX, and less than stellar PER, I needed S&S just to get his Reflex up for this version of him (ended up his highest defense). If you've got a big enough front line to have Kana be a second-row unit, then that could definitely work. The issue I usually have with that is early game he's usually taking Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits, so he's not going to be very accurate. At that point, I find it's just better to make him a tank than transition to a second-row damage dealer that won't really come into his own until late. Though, with him not being a front-liner, I bet you could get away with dropping (or greatly delaying) Veteran's Recovery and just build for damage.

Neat idea! Thanks for sharing.

Pallegina always gets my Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath. Good to know someone else loves that armor as much as I do.

I think it's the lack of highlighting that gets me. I click the spell, get no indication it's going to do anything, and just opt for the "safer" option. 

[Boeroer]

I use Kana as Dragon Thrashed tank most of times. Not as the main tank though.

Some things to consider (just pointing out generally):

Chanters get +12 ACC on their offensive chants (like Dragon Thrashed) when using a single one handed weapon.

When withdrawn they keep on chanting.

A Chanter with a Preservation shield and another Preservation item gets +100 to all defenses when withdrawn. You can use this for Defensive Mindweb.

If I have a Priest in the party I often use this to create an invisible chanting "totem" with high ACC and invulnerability. I will take Withdrawn as spell mastery then.

White Worms: sometimes enemies will leave no body if you kill them with a crit. That's the case when the "gib" option is turned on in the game options menu. It gibs enemies' corpses. If you plan to use White Worms you should turn that off. In my opinion it's ridiculous anyway.

Also corpses can explode over and over again (if you reload they are gone though). Because of this behavior White Worms is one of the most powerful tools to clear out maps with lots of enemies (like Raedric's Castle). You can lure them to a spot over and over again - and the more bodies pile up the quicker they die. This way I can kill Raedric very early and clear out his whole castle which gives me a lot of money from loot (esp. from plate armors).

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Boeroer

[jintegrity]

Love everything you said there, Boeroer.

That said, most newer players who need these kinds of guides aren't going to know to do a lot of the things you've listed. Also, while Outworn Buckler/Little Savior stacking is really strong (unless you're doing the kind of things you're suggesting), I find it can be hard to find builds that actually want to use a shield (and specifically Little Savior over things like Badgradr's Barricade) rather than the alternatives. Since Dragon Thrashed tanks don't really need to worry about weapon damage as much, they're objectively good candidates for it.

I actually think I'm going to use Raedric's castle to practice using White Worms then. Raedric himself may be dead, but there's a whole castle of dudes you are distinctly not, and I'm getting to the point where I can't get much deeper into Od Nua at my current level (where I have been acquiring my coin). Thanks for the heads-up.

[summatsupeer]

7 hours ago, jintegrity said:

With Kana's low initial DEX, and less than stellar PER, I needed S&S just to get his Reflex up for this version of him (ended up his highest defense). If you've got a big enough front line to have Kana be a second-row unit, then that could definitely work. The issue I usually have with that is early game he's usually taking Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits, so he's not going to be very accurate. At that point, I find it's just better to make him a tank than transition to a second-row damage dealer that won't really come into his own until late. Though, with him not being a front-liner, I bet you could get away with dropping (or greatly delaying) Veteran's Recovery and just build for damage.

Yeah early game is an issue when it comes to tanks as Eder is the only natural early tank unless your PC is.  At that point I'd have kana take a shot with his gun then switch depending if he needed to tank.  Not having shield helps his accuracy.  My PC reposte rogue would also help engage in melee but like kana cant tank multiple enemies.

Playing 2nd line using scrolls and spells on top of his chants and invocations I find is quite flexible talents wise since dont need offensive talents. Early on I'll ha e him in the heaviest armour I can and typically will get Weapon and shield style to act as backup tank until I pick up Pallegina in act 2.  I tend to rush through wildend plains (think that's the map) avoiding fights to go get her.  Even after got her its useful on wide open areas to have the extra help to protect the back liners.

7 hours ago, jintegrity said:

Pallegina always gets my Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath. Good to know someone else loves that armor as much as I do.

Same! Depends on the group.  I've just completed kana story so wont use him again this save so Palaginas getting that armour.

She's going to be my fire specialist in that group, dont like having too many for when fighting fire immune enemies.  One run I had PC barb (cauterizer), kana dragon thrashed, pallegina and durance all using fire then realised my error, thankfully wasnt an iron mode run!