I accidentally made a monster

[The Berathian]

Have you ever accidentally stumbled into a build that just works? 

Relevant details: I completed Pillars of Eternity with a roleplay build; a Death Godlike who was a priest of Berath. I used a dwarf body, because, Berath. 

Imported save file into Deadfire. Path of the Damned. Scaling difficulty, all upward. The usual. And then, on a whim, I decided to multiclass. Priest of Barath with an Ancient Druid. Just for funsies. Little did I know. 

First fight on the ship, I accidentally killed Eder and Irena. Immediately, I reload. Killed Eder a second time. Whoops. Friendly fire is mean. It took a few tries, but I kept Eder alive. And then I got to work on the starting island. I started to notice a pattern after a while, and I keep killing Eder and Xoti. Switch them both to ranged weapons and let my summons tank. Much to my surprise, I absolutely obliterate the first island. Managed to beat the drake and recruit Aloth before going into the ruins. I am a virulent spreader of disease and the plague. 

After the first island, things got out of hand. At some point, I noticed that some of my dots were critting for over 100 damage. Nobody can fight me because everybody is sick. I constantly kill my own party members, who get in the way and take friendly fire. I don't kill fast, but death is certain. My character has become the Ravager of Berath and without intending to do so, I created a power build. I'm still trying to sort out why the character is so strong. She has high perception, so she crits often. When things hit the Near Death status, some of those crits get ridiculous. I just go from place to place, spreading disease and the plague, and giving pirates a lethal case of crotch rot, from which they do not recover. It's gross. I've never seen Path of the Damned so trivialised and I have almost 800 hours sunk into the game. 

If you like having fun, I suggest you give it a try. Empowered Touch of Rot is something else. If I was a dedicated powergamer, I'd do an in-depth analysis. 

[Boeroer]

It's good to have fun.

I'd say that's just discovering the Ancient though. The spore summons are very good in the early game and Wild Growth is great, too (has no/unlimited duration, so very long summon durations are great for tanking).

I don't see any special synergy between Berath and Ancient that would explain any exceptional power growth. No speed bonuses, no spectacular ACC bonuses, not vastly increased MIG or INT for the DoTs without having to cast lengthy buffs first.

You'll have multiple sources of certain spells like Touch of Rot etc. though. And thematically it's nice of course.

I'd argue that something like Helwalker/Ancient (+MIG and +INT for your DoTs, longer summoning duration, more ACC) , Bellower/Ancient (Wild Growth on empowered beast and primordial chanter summons) or Stalker/Ancient (ACC++) would be even better? Even Barbarians/Ancient maybe (Blooded + Bloody Slaughter complementing the Death Godlike's passives and giving casting Speed and MIG and also an additional raw DoT on any crit with Blood Frenzy or lowering fortitude with Spirit Frenzy kind of passively).

But maybe I'm missing something. Like "abusing" Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time in order to stay at +3 PL at all times or so. That is of course very good. Especially when combined with Spine of Thicket Green's +3 PL for Beast DoTs like Plague of Insects etc. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Boeroer

[The Berathian]

Having looked at the combat logs, I can say that Death Godlikes and DOT effects go well together. You can see the point where the ability kicks in. Damage tics will be like 5 points here, 20 points there, 10 points there, 15 points here, and then all of a sudden, triple digit damage crit. And gibletisation in gory spectacular fashion. Stacking dots of all kinds wears enemies down so Death's Usher can kick in. Honestly, I've never been impressed with Death Godlikes in Deadfire, and found them disappointing. But this makes them beyond viable. Not sure what is going on though, because the numbers don't seem to add up quite right. Might be that critical damage is calculated weirdly. But all of the applied DOTS, including things like Combusting Wounds, they produce a steady stream of continuous damage, a trickle of small numbers, and then BOOM! Instagib. Big green explosion. I don't pay enough attention to know what is going on, but the crit numbers seem far too large compared to the rest of the damage tics. 

 

I think that, if I were to try it again, I would go Ancient and Cipher, just for Recall Agony and Soul Ignition. And more crippling effects. But there is something about the application of DOTs and the Death Godlike. 

[Raven Darkholme]

Shame that so many enemies are immune to quite a lot of the druid spells.

Sounds like good fun, have to try it at some point.

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, The Berathian said:

Having looked at the combat logs, I can say that Death Godlikes and DOT effects go well together. You can see the point where the ability kicks in. Damage tics will be like 5 points here, 20 points there, 10 points there, 15 points here, and then all of a sudden, triple digit damage crit. And gibletisation in gory spectacular fashion. Stacking dots of all kinds wears enemies down so Death's Usher can kick in. Honestly, I've never been impressed with Death Godlikes in Deadfire, and found them disappointing. But this makes them beyond viable. Not sure what is going on though, because the numbers don't seem to add up quite right. Might be that critical damage is calculated weirdly. But all of the applied DOTS, including things like Combusting Wounds, they produce a steady stream of continuous damage, a trickle of small numbers, and then BOOM! Instagib. Big green explosion. I don't pay enough attention to know what is going on, but the crit numbers seem far too large compared to the rest of the damage tics. 

 

I think that, if I were to try it again, I would go Ancient and Cipher, just for Recall Agony and Soul Ignition. And more crippling effects. But there is something about the application of DOTs and the Death Godlike. 

I don't understand what you mean with crits or crit numbers when you describe damage ticks. DoTs don't change hit quality after they got applied. The ticks' dmg will increase/decrease with power level and MIG etc. - but they will not turn from hit to crit or so. Pulsing spells (like Wicked Briars or Venombloom) can do that though. 

[The Berathian]

I do have some spells that pulse, so that must be it. The other big numbers must simply be the change in power level. 

In general, I avoid power gaming and playing for the big numbers. Being this successful was accidental. 

[thelee]

i'm not quite following some of the numbers - what level are you at this point?

 

it is possible you're seeing mostly the effects of

3 hours ago, The Berathian said:

including things like Combusting Wounds

?

 

combusting wounds stacks very generously in your favor, triggering damage everytime a new stack is applied. With a lot of aoe damage effects you could cause some degenerate numbers (and the druid has pulsing effects that would easily stack a lot of combusing wounds)

 

you don't have xoti or someone in your party, do you?

[The Berathian]

As mentioned in the first post, I have a full party. 

Stuff just melts. I've never been this successful against large mobs. 

[Not So Clever Hound]

By the way I would totally see the Jake Peralta character from Brooklyn 99 somehow lurk in this forum, see the title of your post and answer: