Blood Ward/Old Siec + Damage over Time

[Boeroer]

Hi,

As you may know Old Siec and Blood Ward both work with spell damage which is very handy for offensive spell casters in the party who suddenly don't need other sources of healing anymore (most of times).

So I fiddled around with Steel Garrote/Skald and a Furyshaper and then tried Blood Ward + Old Siec in combination with Dragon Thrashed (because you never know, do you?)...

--> Old Sic seems to trigger only once (when the DoT is applied), Blood Ward triggers on every DoT-tick!

Tested further with different DoTs like Blood Frenzy, Deep Wounds, Bleeding Cuts, Disintegrate and whatnot and it's all the same: Blood Ward heals 15% of every tick damage (you can imagine with Disintergrate or Toxic Strike it's pretty awesome).

Now... Is that new somehow or was is just so that this was missed by everybody?

This makes Blood Ward extremely good and shifts SC Furyshaper to the top of my personal Barb ranking.

Just for laughs an giggles I made a Barb with Bleeding Cuts + Panther's Leap + Barbaric Retaliation + Blood Storm + Blood Surge + Blood Ward and my... he refuses to die. Added an Old Siec Steel Garrote/Skald with Offensive Parry (crits from Offensive Parry can refill phrases) and a Bloodmage with Concelhaut's Draining Touch and Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin. I would say this is totally bonkers... 
 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

Never really wanted to play furyshaper because when the enemy destroys your totem you lose powerlevel and such for the rest of the fight. That's a pretty harsh penalty and not something easily controlled.

[Powerotti]

You can use scroll of withdraw or any similar spell, to protect your totem

[Boeroer]

At higher levels the Blood Ward has good health. But yeah - if it goes down then that's bad. 

Luckily it gets healed by all non-targeted healing effects such as Exalted Endurance, Moon's Light, Consecrated Ground, Restore and so on and so forth. You can even buff it with spells like Shields for the Faithful and whatnot - so it's pretty easy to keep if alive even if you let it alone. Lay on Hands doen't work though. Targeted buffs do work. E.g. Barring Death's Door.

As Powerotti said Withdraw also works (just tried). Which is hilarious.

But you can also guard it. I just placed the Furyshaper in front of it and blasted every enemy who came near with Driving Roar. And everybody else as well because Driving Roar has an insane range. Was supereasy with every encounter I tested it so far. 

The AoE of the Ward is good and it is incredibly useful for everybody who deals consistent damage. You can basically spare a dedicated healer for glasscannons as long as they can deal enough damage.

Tried it with Ancient + Plague spells now and also Wicked Briars. WotEP with Taste of the Hunt was impressive (healing from the spell itself + strong DoT in an AoE). Bloodmage with Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon heals twice. Steel Garrote with Offensive Parry... Barb with Retaliation... althoug those also work fine with Old Siec. It's the DoTs that separate the Ward from the Chant.  

Pretty wild... 

Before getting Blood Ward the Fear Ward is also very powerful. It just terrifies(!) everything that has not enough Will to resist. Because of that it gets attacked very seldomly. And you can buff its ACC with Blessing and Devotions and so on. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

Do you need to be close to it for the ward to have effect? Or is it always applying its buff in any spot during the encounter?

[Boeroer]

5 meter radius - there's a marking on the floor that shows the AoE at any times.

Enemies don't have to be in the circle - only the party member who wants to profit from the draining.
If you combine it with Old Siec (Chanter) you can have double draining. The AoE of Old Siec is usually bigger although chants only have 4 meter base AoE. But usually chanter have high INT. The AoE of the Ward is always the same even if the Furyshaper himself has only 1 INT. But then the summoning duration is very short of course. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

I always liked the Furyshaper because of his very useful Fear Ward and didn't pay much attention to the Blood Ward because you can't multiclass with it. I just assumed it was the same as Old Siec. Had I known that it works with DoT ticks I would have played a SC Furyshaper as kind of "support" earlier (since I Iike SC Barbs anyway but preferred Berserker so far). A retaliation Barb with axes is much better as Furyshaper+Blood Ward than as a Berserker though. Only watch out for the Ward...

Edited April 4, 2020 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

I unfortunately never managed to get my sc Barb through the early levels. He's far too squishy until the higher levels  in my opinion. Man I really wish the Barbarian had the passives of the Paladin with all the extra DR. Barb gets 1 DR for physical damage and that's it. A little extra health and a single DR point is not protecting you from crits and overpen.

[Boeroer]

Yeah - you can't run into the fray with him in the early game unless you skip Frenzy and/or use a shield. -10 deflection from Frenzy, low starting deflection with the rel. low health of any lvl-1-char is a bad combo.

Reach weapons from the second row work well with Frenzy until the higher health (I mean the starting health + the rel. big gains at lvl-up) starts to make some difference.

Savage Defiance also helps (Robust adds some AR and healing over time).