Building a high damage output Chanter

[foxinspace]

Hi! I've been thinking about rolling a chanter for another playthrough and was wondering, what would be the most interesting way to create a more "active" chanter, that uses damage invocations and is pretty good in melee. I have a feeling that it is possible to do both via MC with a Bellower & use empowers via sasha's scimitar, but the linger from Troubadour seems nice as well. I only used Pallegina as a Herald before, and she's been great as support but what I have in my mind is a character that is studry and can dish out great damage via invocations and melee, but CAN switch to support chants if need be. Herald overall seems nice, but what are other fun MC options for such build concept? Or possibly single class for powerful invocations...? I know chanters are also excellent for summoning, but summoning seems a bit boring to me, so not really going for that with this character.

If you have rolled a character with a similar idea or if you have some build advice in mind - I would love to hear your thoughts!
I'm mainly playing on veteran difficulty, with full party.

Thanks!

[Exanos]

Empower an invocation with singing scimitar and swap to the soulbound arquebus wich grant 1 phrase/kill. No need to be a troubadour for quick generating phrase with this setup.

Berseker, hellwalker or assasin mix well with chanter for max damage invocation.

Hellwalker will make your invocation devastating. Berseker and assassin will boost it too (a bit less, except from stealth for assassin) and give you great finisher abilitie to combo with the arquebuse.

Bellower is the go to subclass for damaging invocation. Skald will be great too for cheaper invocation but thats all ( if you play ranged, if you want to melee it's a great subclass)

 

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Exanos

[foxinspace]

26 minutes ago, Exanos said:

Empower an invocation with singing scimitar and swap to the soulbound arquebus wich grant 1 phrase/kill. No need to be a troubadour for quick generating phrase with this setup.

Berseker, hellwalker or assasin mix well with chanter for max damage invocation.

Hellwalker will make your invocation devastating. Berseker and assassin will boost it too (a bit less, except from stealth for assassin) and give you great finisher abilitie to combo with the arquebuse.

Bellower is the go to subclass for damaging invocation. Skald will be great too for cheaper invocation but thats all ( if you play ranged, if you want to melee it's a great subclass)

 

 

Thanks! I completely forgot that blightheart binds with a chanter class. Bellower/assassin or /helwalker seem pretty interesting for strong invocations, albeit a bit squishy - to be honest I haven't thought of a ranged chanter, but both of these MCs seem well-suited for that role. Is it diffuclt to work around the short range for bellower's chants for a ranged chanter?

[Jayd]

I'm not much of a Chanter expert so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I find Skald better for the aggressive playstyle you describe than Bellower. I tried a Helwalker/Bellower before switching to Helwalker/Skald, and the Skald was just more dynamic to play and more effective in most situations. The ability to cast offensive spells more often was just more effective in difficult fights (where the Bellower spells can't just blow everything up immediately) and felt just as good in easy fights. Plus, regaining phrases on melee crits is fun. At PLXII, you can pick Instruments of Pain and farm crits at long distance (monks do a lot with melee crits - synergy!). Makes you feel like a real mystical warrior.

[Boeroer]

Currently playing a Berserker/Skald with Blightheart (like I was talking about in the Blightheart thread I created some time ago). It's pretty wild. I very much like the combination of Barbarian with Chanter because the chants either proc Blood/Spirit Frenzy's raw DoT/stagger, too. They are awesome debuffers and that's what I would normally use a Barb/Chanter for, but in this case I focused on Blightheart + Her Revenge - even if Skald usually cries for melee because of the potential crit refund, Carnage and Berserker Frenzy's crit conversion. I can use a melee weapon - but it rarely happens after leveling up Blightheart. Her Revenge only costs 2 phrases for a Skald and every kill not only gives you 1 * Blood Thirst but also 0.5 * Her Revenge so to speak - which is an awesome combo against all sorts of hostile groups. 

Helwalker/Bellower might also be real nice with Blightheart. I only did some tests on that but it was fun. A lot more dmg per attack roll of course - because of the PL bonus, the MIG and INT bonuses. But the loss of all phrases upon invocation slows casting down considerably compared to Berserker/Skald.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Boeroer

[foxinspace]

56 minutes ago, Jayd said:

I'm not much of a Chanter expert so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I find Skald better for the aggressive playstyle you describe than Bellower. I tried a Helwalker/Bellower before switching to Helwalker/Skald, and the Skald was just more dynamic to play and more effective in most situations. The ability to cast offensive spells more often was just more effective in difficult fights (where the Bellower spells can't just blow everything up immediately) and felt just as good in easy fights. Plus, regaining phrases on melee crits is fun. At PLXII, you can pick Instruments of Pain and farm crits at long distance (monks do a lot with melee crits - synergy!). Makes you feel like a real mystical warrior.

Thanks for the suggestion - Skald seems great with reduced cost for offensive invocations & the crit synergy! Which phrases did you use on this character?

[foxinspace]

19 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Currently playing a Berserker/Skald with Blightheart (like I was talking about in the Blightheart thread I created some time ago). It's pretty wild. I very much like the combination of Barbarian with Chanter because the chants either proc Blood/Spirit Frenzy's raw DoT/stagger, too. They are awesome debuffers and that's what I would normally use a Barb/Chanter for, but in this case I focused on Blightheart + Her Revenge - even if Skald usually cries for melee because of the potential crit refund, Carnage and Berserker Frenzy's crit conversion. I can use a melee weapon - but it rarely happens after leveling up Blightheart. Her Revenge only costs 2 phrases for a Skald and every kill not only gives you 1 * Blood Thirst but also 0.5 * Her Revenge so to speak - which is an awesome combo against all sorts of hostile groups. 

Helwalker/Bellower might also be real nice with Blightheart. I only did some tests on that but it was fun. A lot more dmg per attack roll of course - because of the PL bonus, the MIG and INT bonuses. But the loss of all phrases upon invocation slows casting down considerably compared to Berserker/Skald.

Thanks a lot @Boeroer! I typically don't like using barbarian that much, but maybe worth giving it a go this time... Or maybe helwalker/skald would perform well in a similar role, but with more focus on damaging invocations?

[Jayd]

2 hours ago, foxinspace said:

Thanks for the suggestion - Skald seems great with reduced cost for offensive invocations & the crit synergy! Which phrases did you use on this character?

Eh, was a while ago so can't remember exactly what I was using. The only especially notable chant I'd highlight is the ever-popular Ancient Memory because, with sky-high Might, this character actually provides substantial passive healing. Sky-high INT also means lengthy linger and chant radius. Other than that, no special recommendations. If you use the Community Patch mod, Dragon Thrashed could be good too (it's never worth it in vanilla, I don't think).

[Exanos]

4 hours ago, foxinspace said:

Thanks for the suggestion - Skald seems great with reduced cost for offensive invocations & the crit synergy! Which phrases did you use on this character?

For a berseker/skald, i would say Myth fir  (potent lash) + long night drink (debuff fortitude so it's easier to hit : barbarian can target fortitude instead of deviation).

Don't sleep on assassin/bellower, it's a very fun gameplay  (well, barbarian/skald too in fact ^^). Empower far from defeated (energized = +5might, +2pen, crit interrupt), swap scimitar for bligthheart, shadowing beyond in the middle of the pack (get your tank to aggro at the start), cast seven night with +6pen, +5pl, +25 accuracy, +50% crit damage. see the spell crit. Watch the ennemy group disapear, sleepers of the assasin proc + get lot of phrase back, repeat.  

If a poor lad manage to survive, land a devastating blow from point blank while invisible. his mama won't recognize him. ever.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Exanos

[foxinspace]

40 minutes ago, Exanos said:

For a berseker/skald, i would say Myth fir  (potent lash) + long night drink (debuff fortitude so it's easier to hit : barbarian can target fortitude instead of deviation).

Don't sleep on assassin/bellower, it's a very fun gameplay  (well, barbarian/skald too in fact ^^). Empower far from defeated (energized = +5might, +2pen, crit interrupt), swap scimitar for bligthheart, shadowing beyond in the middle of the pack (get your tank to aggro at the start), cast seven night with +6pen, +5pl, +25 accuracy, +50% crit damage. see the spell crit. Watch the ennemy group disapear, sleepers of the assasin proc + get lot of phrase back, repeat.  

If a poor lad manage to survive, land a devastating blow from point blank while invisible. his mama won't recognize him. ever.

Damn, this sounds fun! Would non-damaging debuff chants force you out of stealth? 

[Boeroer]

Helwalker/Skald can also be nice if you combine Sun & Moon with Swift Flurry (and later Heartbet Drumming). A Skald can only gain 1 phrase from crit per action, but the chance to gain 1 phrase in the first place is significantly higher if you have 2 chances to crit (Sun & Moon) and then also additional Swift Flurry/HBD crits may occur.

I'd suggest Scordeo's Edge with Blade Cascade and Adaptive in the offhand.

   

[Carys]

I've had a lot of success and fun with both Bleakwalker/Skald and Fighter/Skald using 'Thrice she was wronged' and it's upgrade as the primary invocation and having a mix of situational chants as passives.  I'd get the Ice and Tornado invocations, too, for when they were better options for a given fight, but Thrice she was wronged is strong the entire game.