Conditional Power Level Stacking

[Synomuumi]

I'd like to compile a list of items that grant conditional power level increases to certain abilities. So far I have:

WEAPONS and SHIELDS:

Amira's Wing (rod): +1 Wind PL

Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff (staff): +1 Acid, Electricity, Fire, and Frost PL

Eye of Wael (wand): +2 Illusion PL

Lance of the Midwood Stag (lance): +2 All PL when under Plant or Beast status effect

Lord Darryn's Voulge (poleaxe, bound to Druid): +3 Storm PL

Magran's Favor (battle axe):  +2 Fire PL

Spine of Thicket Green (staff): +3 Beasts and Plant PL OR +2 Plant, Rejuvenation, and Restoration PL

Sun and Moon (flail): +2 Fire PL during the day, +2 Frost PL during the night

Wand of the Weyc (wand): +3 PL for 20 sec after empowering an ability

Watershaper's Focus (rod): +1 Water and Frost PL

Wild Beast (spear): +2 Beasts PL

Xoti's Lantern (shield): +2 Restoration and Inspiration PL

ITEMS:

Deltro's Cage (armour): +2 Electricty PL

Firethrower's Gloves: +1 Evocation PL

Halgot's Warmth (ring): +1 Priest Restoration PL

Mask of the Grotto Deep (hat): +1 poison PL

Otto Starcat (pet): +1 Fire PL

Spider Silk Robe (armour): +2 poison PL

Stone of Power (amulet): +1 PL, 1 per rest

Whitewitch Mask (hat): +1 Illusions PL

 

Am I still missing any items or did I get all of them? If this list is indeed complete it looks like Storm spells at +5 PL (+3 from Voulge, +2 from Deltro's Cage) and Fire spells at +4/5 PL (Sun and Moon, Magran's Favour, Firethrower's Gloves) benefit the most from gear.

PS. I'm aware there are also items that boost spells outside direct PL increases and might compile a list of them later.

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Synomuumi

[Boeroer]

Watershaper's Focus

Stone of Power 

Otto Starcat

 

I think the spell which profits most from stacked PLs is Great Maelstrom because it comes with multiple elemental keywords.

 

 

 

[Dalzar]

Weycs wand attuned channel

Eye of Wael (illusion)

Wicked beast (beast)

 

[NotDumbEnough]

54 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Watershaper's Focus

Stone of Power 

Otto Starcat

 

I think the spell which profits most from stacked PLs is Great Maelstrom because it comes with multiple elemental keywords.

 

 

 

Are you sure about that? Great Maelstrom is goofy in that it has two components keyworded differently. For example, Scion of Flame only affects the initial damage, and not the subsequent tick damage, which does not seem to be keyworded fire.

[Kaylon]

Spider Silk Robe - +2 poison

Mask of the Grotto Deep - +1 poison

Whitewitch Mask - +1 illusion

[Synomuumi]

Thanks for the suggestions, I've edited them into the main post.

[Boeroer]

2 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

Are you sure about that? Great Maelstrom is goofy in that it has two components keyworded differently. For example, Scion of Flame only affects the initial damage, and not the subsequent tick damage, which does not seem to be keyworded fire.

Maybe, but the initial dmg part will get PL bunuses from fire and shock keywords, the pulsing part will get bonuses from freeze/water keywords and they all should get bonuses from storm and wind keywords afaik. There is no other spell that combines as many PL bonuses in theory. If you pick a Nature Godlike Fury that spells should combine the most PL and PEN bonuses of all abilities think. At least I don't recall any other ability that has that many keywords which overlap with that many PL buffs from items. 
 

[Synomuumi]

So for maximum stacking you'd have a evoker wizard with the following bonuses towards casting evocation school fire spells: Nature Godlike +1, Evoker subclass +2, Flamethrower's Gloves +1, Sun and Moon +2, Magran's Favor +2, Otto Starcat +1,  and Stone of Power +1 for a total of +10 PL? I guess you could also throw a resting bonus or a potion of ascension for top for even more PL.

Its a shame there are so few spells that meet the criteria that really benefit from insane amount of extra power level.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Synomuumi

[Boeroer]

Yes, that's a lot of PLs with very little effort and maybe the most usable way. Fire is one of the more resisted dmg types though. But you'll have plenty of non-fire PL bonuses, too. 

For lots of more versatile PL bonuses one might want to pick a Bellower I guess. Even if the Bellower can't profit from that many fire PLs one can get up to +7 PLs from the phrase counter alone. Nature Godlike + Stone of Power and you are at 9 power levels that are not tied to a certain type of damage. Add Empower once per encounter with Sasha's Singing Scimitar and the Weyc's Wand and you'll have a +14 PL spell once and will have +3PL for some time afterwards.  

 

[Synomuumi]

Hmm, now I'm tempted to roll a Fury/Bellower so that I can throw around +18 PL Thrice Was She Wronged's

[Boeroer]

Why Fury? The passive of the Fury only works with Druid spells that have the "Elements" keyword. Also Lord Darryn's Voulge (+3 PL to storms) doesn't work with Thrice Was She Wronged (afaik). 

For Heart of the Storm?

Imo it would be better to use a SC Bellower (+3 PL compared to multiclass bec. SC reach 9 and can pick Prestige) or some class combo that provides additional spell dmg and/or PEN. Like for example Helwalker (+15 MIG, +2 PEN via passive + Thunderous Blows).

 

[dgray62]

To really rock with Thrice you'd want a SC bellower or helwalker/bellower cantor as Boeroer suggested. You could add various gear and/or racial bonii as noted above, including the +2 electric PL from Deltro's Cage. Here you'd need to judge however if the high recovery penalty from that armor is worth the +2 PL in this case. For a skald I'd say definitely not, but it might be worth it for a bellower, since you'd be throwing out invocations less frequently that would hit very hard.

Another possibility that is viable for a solo run is an assassin/bellower, hitting very hard from stealth.

[Not So Clever Hound]

11 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Another possibility that is viable for a solo run is an assassin/bellower, hitting very hard from stealth.

It is definitely viable but you can't alpha strike with your Invocations from Stealth right? Since you're out of combat you're not chanting? IMO this is what limits the potential of Chanter/Assassin and to a lower extent Monk/Assassin for solo, unless you want to start combat then use Smoke Veil to use your class resources and abilities. But you're missing out on the "free" Stealth strike and its lovely -85% recovery before re-attacking/using Smoke Veil.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

Yes. The Chanter's initial phrase boost only kicks in after combat started. He will have 0 out of combat iirc (also a chanter will not chant when stealthed).

In a party that's no problem because somebody else can trigger combat. 

Using Smoke Veil: offensive phrases will break invisibility? You can just use non-offensive ones of course (those which do no attack rolls).

I never tried but I think a Bloodmage/Bellower (or any other chanter) could use Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure + summons like Animated Weapons (deal damage) + offensive chats (that don't deal dmg) + cc invocations like Killers Frozen Stiff without ever breaking invisibility?

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Boeroer

[Not So Clever Hound]

I don't want to assume anything anymore about what does/doesn't break Brilliant Departure  but you are most likely right. You could maybe even go invisible, summon animated weapons to keep the enemy busy on one side of the map, run to the other side while invisible to avoid enemy line of sight/aggro and continue sending hordes of animated weapons to battle while not being bothered?

Edited May 11, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Reent]

16 minutes ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

I don't want to assume anything anymore about what does/doesn't break Brilliant Departure  but you are most likely right. You could maybe even go invisible, summon animated weapons to keep the enemy busy on one side of the map, run to the other side while invisible to avoid enemy line of sight/aggro and continue sending hordes of animated weapons to battle while not being bothered?

sounds like a normal high lvl "only summon" chanter - with the summon skelleton chant you get the time to summon once - run away and thats it, fight is over (at least there aren't many encounters that can kill animated weapons fast enough)

The part where you stand next to enemies to affect them with chants and use CC invocations is the interesting part - only summon chanter is a no fun character, this sounds like it could be much more fun.

[Not So Clever Hound]

Yes ok that makes sense, thanks. Not typically how I play Chanter anyway .

With a high INT character you can get 30+ sec of invisibility per cast of Brilliant Departure which can be further prolonged by WoD. So indeed if the Chanter's chanting and debuff/CC invocations don't break the invisibility you could get a meaningful usage of that combo for a more fun and dynamic summon-focused playstyle.

[Boeroer]

It would be invisible support (supportive invocations, Mith Fyr, Animancy Cat etc.) and doing debuffs/CC (Shield Cracks, Killers, Ben Fidel's Neck etc.) for your summons. 

Arkemyr's Brillant Departure only breaks when you deal damage yourself. Summons and Walls do not count as "yourself".  "Normal" self damage like Alacrity or Berserker Frenzy also won't end it, but unfortunately Blood Sacrifice counts (there seems to be a hidden attack roll involved thatr determined whether you get low, medium or high self dmg), so it will end the invisibility.

So in the end it has to be Wall of Draining + Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure to sustain invisibilty for long. That's very late.
Our you could use Blood Sacrife only to get back the cast for ABD once it's about to run out. With Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry and invocations you should have plenty of options anyway.  

I guess a Bellower is not the best subclass though because of the reduced chant AoE. Troubadour (again)?   

Edited May 11, 2021 by Boeroer

[Reent]

Tried the build just now (naked... but whatever) - bellower is a bad choice indeed, to keep the weapons on all the time (22 int, lvl 20) you can't use any other invocations - with items etc maybe you can use one summon+one other spell... with troubadour its more.

breaking your invisibility is no problem, i don't think you need it all the time - just to deaggro, with high dex and everything its no problem at all, if you can get your sustain high it could be a really fun solo run - invisibility as fight opener - spam spells while the summons hold aggro and use invisibility again if enemies switch target.

 

Early game you can use Fleet Foot (nature godlike ) to run and summon... 

[abot]

Maybe troubadour/psion (again LOL). Make enemy trigger a trap from stealth, keep summoning / giving summons (at -85%recovery from stealth)  1 / 3 pain links = 25% damage back to attackers, (pain link on renewable party summons is super if enemies can use disengagement attacks). Repeat until max focus gained, then go out of stealth and start spamming e.g. Soul Shock for cheap on your wall of summons

Edited May 11, 2021 by abot

[dgray62]

10 hours ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

It is definitely viable but you can't alpha strike with your Invocations from Stealth right?

That's right. But it's viable solo. What you can do is an alpha strike with an arquebus (blightheart would be your ultimate weapon of choice here) with Gouging Strike, then use smoke cloud to go invisible. The damage ticks from gouging strike will keep you in combat, and then you set up to use an invocation like Thrice, which will hit extremely hard. However, if you go this route, do not complete the final upgrade with blightheart, namely, killing 10 enemies with empowered attacks, at least if you want to use the Assassin's Slippers. This is because Corrupting Beauty breaks invisibility.