Looking for advice : Tactician/Skald build

[Exanos]

Hello!

I'm currently replaying a run with a tactician/skald (i deleted the precedent one by mistake :/) and i wanted to share the idea behind it for gathering thoughs and suggestions for improving it.

 

Build idea : Proc brilliant (tactician) + energized (chanter) and damage/interrupt in aoe whith chant (dragon trashed..., swift wind of death...) while keeping everyone paralized/stunned/prone with invocation, depending on their lowest def. 

    - Brilliant + crits give you very goodphrase generation (nearly as much as troub with brisk recitation+briliant) on, while keeping 2 chant up (max int + brilliant + stuff/food get you easily at 30 int);

    - Brilliant + interrupts give you heavy discipline refund.

Race : Hearth Orlan (for more crit).

Weapon set 1 : Sun & Moon + Scordeo edge.

   - Sun & Moon hit twice (double chance to crit) + lower reflex (modal) helping your chanter stun  (thunder rolled) or damage (thrice...)

  - Scordeo edge for no recovery (easier to proc with fighter cleave attack), to be prolonged with a priest salvation of time

Weapon set 2 : Amra (if might>25) or Oathbreaker

 When scordeo double strike proc, switch to this for massive aoe damage + dot (modal)

Armor : Devil of caroc breastplate (for int and con resistance)

I don't plan to use sasha singing sabre (could be very nice) cause i'm playing tekehu sc stormspeaker on this run (build around energized+maelstrom + aoe mortar) and he need it to get those 2 invocation up very quickly.

 

With Max int, a cipher (cc + will debuff) and a barb carrying the willbreaker (fort+will debuff), ennemy gets very low reflex/will/fort, making your invoc easy to land. Offensives invocation are cheap with a skald and you regen phrase very quicly. You are sturdy (fighter side), have very good cc, and all the utility of a chanter.

 

Build variation :

   - Replace tactician with a barbarian (more crits) : not a fan in this case. You get a t3 might inspiration with chanter, scordeo proc (easier to proc with fighter) give you instant recovery anyway, and Amra/oathbreaker give you Aoe/dot + all the invoc Aoe of chanter. yeah, it will give you better crits, you can target fortitude or deflection, but you lose briliant.

  - replace skald with a troub (more phrase) : i dont think the difference is so great when you take crits (ennemy are permanently cc)+ no recovery in count.

 

What will you suggest to improve it ? (pretty sure there is a lot of room for this),

 

Thanks and happy new year all!

[Boeroer]

Skalds can't generate more than 1 phrase from an attack - no matter how often you crit with that attack. It is true that Sun & Moon and Clear Our etc. will give you a lot more chances to gain 1 phrase via crits in the first place, but you can't get more than 1. Still good though.

Scordeo's Blade Cascade is great with a Skald: every (auto) attack is seperate so every one of them can generate a phrase but at the same time they are coming so fast that you can refill your phrase count very quickly. 

Due to the lower cost of offensive invocations a Skald can perma-paralyze with Killers (only 2 phrases) which is very cool, especially with highest INT. I nearly always end up ONLY using Killers Froze Stiff - unless enemies are immune or resistant to DEX afflictions. So maybe don't "waste" too many ability points on other invocations. But everybody plays differently so maybe that doesn't apply to you.

Keep in mind that your max phrase count will be determined by your most expensive invocation - so at some point it's benefical to pick a costly non-offensive invocation even if you don't plan to use it.

A Wizard with Miasma and Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights is a great partner for a Skald with Killers Froze Stiff because the -50 Will debuff is excellent to force crits with Killers - which gives you a huge duration increase. 

Variantion:
Interrupting with offensive chants + Energized is better with Troubadour because he will interrupt every 3 secs instead of every 6 secs with Brisk Recitation. He can cast Killers as fast as a Skald if you ignore the Skald's extra phrases from crits (iirc).   
 

[Exanos]

Yes, Sun&Moon is only here for improving the chance to get phrases, my math are a bit rusty but it should be near 85% chance to get a phrase on a full attack (3 hit : 2 Sun&Moon, 1 scordeo, 50% chance for each hit) if all 3 crits. 

I still wonder if going 1h (so no scordeo and no battle axe weapon set) for improving hit to crit is more potent or not (trigering blade cascade is still very rng based). With DoC armor + armored grace + abraham + decent dex, you attack pretty fast anyway.

Good int and low ennemy defense (will/reflex) lead to frequent crit and long lasting cc, so i always had enough phrases for others invocation (depending of my current comp : more damage, more heals...). The cipher and Tekehu also helped with cc so you can really pick what you want.

For interrupting with chant, there is one point i'm not really sure about : Considering 30 int and overlapping chant Swift death + Dragon trashed proc every 3sec (after the first 6s of combat), right? So you should be way more efficient than a troub who can only have one proc every 3sec (no linger) except if he turn off brisk recitation and had a 3rd chant able to interupt, no?

 

[Boeroer]

Yes: 87.5% - if all three attack rolls critically hit.

The only Full Attack for a Tactician/Skald would be Penetrating Strike (and Cleaving Stance procs... but I believe those don't generate phrases - not 100% sure though). So thinking about One-Handed Style isn't unreasonable. Sun & Moon with Clear Out + One Handed Style is def. better for crits than S&M with Clear Out using dual wielding & Two Weapon Style. On the other hand Scordeo's Edge is very strong, not only because auf Blade Cascade but also because of the ACC bonus of Adaptive.

Offensive chants only interrupt when they are applied (when the attack roll is done). How long those chants linger or overlap and also their tick rate won't matter. Ticks of DoTs never interrupt, only attack rolls do.
A Troubadour with Brisk Recitation reapplies his chants very 3 secs (because his chant phrases only last 3 secs and then comes a new one with a new attack roll) while a Skald will do that every 6 secs (new attack roll every 6 secs). So Brisk Recitation is the reason why a Troubadour works better when we talk about "interrupting with chants". An attempt to interrupt every 3 secs in an AoE is better than the same attempt every 6 secs. 

Of course you must crit with the chants in order to interrupt. So I would pay attention to what defense is targeted by each chant and which defense of the enemy is the worst. For example Dragon Thrashed targets Reflex, The Long Night's Drink and Come, Soft Winds target Fortitude, Dull the Edge and Thick Grew Their Tongues target Will (remember the Wizard with Miasma + Dazzling Lights ->it just is good combo) and also removes Concentration(!). So you can have a dedicated chant for interrupts against the weakest defense ready at all times. 
 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Boeroer

[thelee]

2 hours ago, Exanos said:

Considering 30 int and overlapping chant Swift death + Dragon trashed proc every 3sec (after the first 6s of combat), right? So you should be way more efficient than a troub who can only have one proc every 3sec (no linger) except if he turn off brisk recitation and had a 3rd chant able to interupt, no?

i'm not following your math here. for a non-troubadour, the ticks of damage from death and dragon aren't attack rolls so don't interrupt. only the initial application from the start of the chant counts for the interrupt. this means every 6s.

 

edit - dah! ninjaed again by boeroer

Edited January 7, 2021 by thelee

[Boeroer]

[Exanos]

15 minutes ago, thelee said:

i'm not following your math here. for a non-troubadour, the ticks of damage from death and dragon aren't attack rolls so don't interrupt. only the initial application from the start of the chant counts for the interrupt. this means every 6s.

 

edit - dah! ninjaed again by boeroer

Yeah, that's what i wasn't sure off : was wondering if each ticks can crit, i now know it don't. Ty both for correcting me :).

[NotDumbEnough]

On the other hand, Her Revenge Swept Across The Land often makes a crapton of attack rolls, so basically everyone you hit is guaranteed to get crit at least once if not more, which makes it very reliable at interrupting. I actually played a Tactician/Skald before, it's solid, but not super exciting. Compared to other chanter builds I've played before (such as single class Bellower) it really lacks in damage. 

[Boeroer]

An idea:

Hand Mortar's Blinding Smoke counts as weapon attack (even though it doesn't deal damage). With Clear Out (hand mortar in main hand, melee or bashing shield in offhand) you can generate nearly thousand of attack rolls if the enemy stand tightly together. I didn't try but you should be able to not only flank all enemies via disorient from the smoke but also interrupt so many times that your discipline may be full again. Doesn't do anything for the Skald side though.