Benefits of bloodied

[AAAWiz4rd]

I'm looking to take full advantage of destructive channeling. Obviously that's led me to a human street fighter. I'll need to stay alive, though, so I'm multiclassing with a wizard so I can boost my deflection as high as I need it. Then, perhaps switching over to blunderbuss to be flanked, bloodied, and ready to kill. That part is still up in the air until after some testing or a scathing rebuke from one of you all (assuming you've tried something like this).

Question: who/what else benefits from bloodied or taking damage in general? Aside from front liners, that is. This is a ranged character, so monk is out, and fire godlike is too. Again, I want to maximize the benefits of destructive channeling. Maybe I'm asking too much by wanting more synergy, but if it's out there, I wanna know. Bonus points for anyone who can direct me to any method of self flanking aside from powder burns.

[Elric Galad]

It is not directly linked to the question, but I would go Blood Mage just because it can get bloodied so easily.

Wizard has a spell called Llengrath Safeguard that adds a lots of defense when you become Bloodied. It remains active for the entire duration once you have become Bloodied once, so no needs to stay under 50% health. But that's still a good synergy.

[AAAWiz4rd]

I didn't want to use a blood mage because I like the idea of empowering my evocation spells. I'm actually running an evoker, ATM. Also, there's no point in using destructive channeling if I'm just going to use blood sacrifice. This build is supposed to be all about destructive channeling.

I know about Llengrath's Safeguard. I was thinking about running a priest multiclass so I could use Barring Death's Door on myself, but I think I'll just use Xoti as an SC priest for that.

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, AAAWiz4rd said:

This is a ranged character, so monk is out

Wat? Here comes the Mortar Monk (vid) :

 

Stunning Surge with blunderbusses - especially Serafen's mortars - is one of the best (ranged) abilities. Very high chance for Mortification refunds and hjust absurdely strong CC. Add +10 INT for the mortar AoE and longer durations for "Heating Up" and stuff like Stunning Surge and Arterial Strike etc. as well as longer distracted durations from Hand Mortars "Blinding Smoke" which unlocks Deathblows automatically. Suddenly a Monk/Streetfighter seems like a really good idea (and it is).  If going with destructive channeling first you would also gain wounds very quickly in combination with Dance of Death (later Enduring Dance). Self damage such as destr. channeling doesn't end Dance of Death. There is no source of healing though nor a reliable way to raise defenses once bloodied so a party member would have to provide that. On the other hand you have two summons (Dichotomous Soul) that are superuseful to prevent harm from you.  

Other goodies for such a bloodied ranged Streetfighter char from the top of my head:

• Barbarian: Blooded, +25% dmg
• Barbarian: Unflinching, grants resistance to all Body afflcitions when over 50% health and NOT when bloodied. However, you can use this mechanic to completely remove any affliction. As soon as you heal over 50% the resistance kicks in, removing one tier of affliction (e.g. paralyzed to immobilzed). Then you drop below 50% again (no resistance) and back over 50% (resistance again) and the immobilized gets downgraded to hobbled... and so on.
• Wizard: Llengrath's Safeguard, +defenses and +5(!)AR
• High Harbinger's Robes, the lower your health the higher the action speed buff
• The Magnificent Escape Cape, grants an escape-like ability when bloodied that gives +50 deflection, stacks with all wizard buffs (not with Rogue's Escape!) and can be prolonged with Wall of Draining

As Elric pointed out a Bloodmage is a very convenient way to reach bloodied and then being able to maintain the bloodied state rel. safely. You don't even need scepters for that. Also with mortars the Infuse with Vital Essence spell comes in handy because the +5 INT will enlarge the AoE. 
THe Streetfighter/Monk (e.g. Helwalker) is a lot more impactful offensively though.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Eh - I have no idea why my text is in the spoiler tags, too. Sorry - I can't get it out. Oh well...

 

Edit: removed the spoiler tags. Man those are really messed up...

Edited August 29, 2021 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, AAAWiz4rd said:

Bonus points for anyone who can direct me to any method of self flanking aside from powder burns.

A Chanter can summon upgraded Wisps who will have a distracting attack which does very little shock damage. You can use them as your own "Heating Up Generator" and even combine that with Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain a shocking lash for all your attacks in the process. Makes you go to bloodied even faster, too - in combo with Destructive Channeling. And you can then switch to Ancient Memory to stay at 50% even while still using Destructive Channeling/getting hit by the Wisps. 

Also a Streetfighter/Chanter can achieve even higher shooting speed because Sure Handed Ila and the Streetfighter passive do stack. Combine with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and you'll also have a nice burning lash (and your party, too). 

Upgraded Wisps take some levels to unlock though. 

[AAAWiz4rd]

I definitely thought about going Troubadour/Street Fighter for a different build. That's gonna be my pirate rp.

Maybe I framed this post wrong. Basically I'm trying to make a multiclass wizard that uses destructive channeling with duel scepters. I made it seem like I wanted a street fighter. I could do without the street fighter if it'll make my wiz work better. Blooded seems good, so maybe a warlock. Because the spellblade is too squishy in my initial testing. I was also running low con, though, because I felt like the play was to get to bloodied fast and then not get hit anymore (mirrored image, arcane veil, etc). But you can't stack enough deflection in the early game to even get that far.

Another issue is the recovery loss at the beginning of fights. A street fighter might not be my jam. I'll try one with middling con before I write off the build, though. If that doesn't work, I'm gonna move over to warlock.

TBH, the more I think about this build, the more it seems ill conceived. Destructive channeling can kill you, no? That means I'll lose the damage after getting bloodied and unloading all of my spells. I'll have to turn off the modal. Then I'm reduced to the functionality of an essential phantom. After all, I'm running an evoker as my subclass (because damage is the name of the game, here). I'll be routinely empowering a missile spell for tough targets. So I won't even be able to replenish my resources very often.

[Boeroer]

Yes, Destructive Channeling will kill you if you don't stop to use it - or heal.

A Wizard who wants to use bloodied with scepters can multiclass to a Warlock. You'll have higher action speed right away with Frenzy, you could either cause a raw DoT or the Staggered affliction via Blood Frenzy/Spirit Frenzy - they also work with your spells. The Blooded dmg bonus works with spells, too. 

You'll still have the problem with surviving though - like with the Streetfighter. Barbs get Savage Defiance at some point and that might help, but Frenzy lowers deflection so you will be even more exposed. The Fear Ward of the Furyshaper could help, but it also comes quite late. 

Casting damaging spells as a Warlock becomes a lot of fun once you reach Blood Thirst imo. 

The only other thing that might help a low health Wizard with scepters (I can think of right now)* is the Death Godlike's "Pallid Fate": +3 Power Level when near death (<25% health). +3 PL is a great bonus for a caster. It would stack with all other PL bonuses. If you plan to use a fellow Priest with Barring Death's Door it might be rel. safe, too.

 

)* besides the High Harbinger's Robe

    

 

[AAAWiz4rd]

Looking at the sage, I think it's kinda cool. I discounted the monk multiclass prematurely. 

I'm thinking of going with a Hel Walker/ Evoker or a Nalpasca/Evoker. I like the might stacking of the Hel Walker, and I have nothing to actually spend the wounds on, so I'll continuously get more powerful as the fight goes on. I can unload my spells after biding my time a little. I can still use bloodied if I choose a human. With the Nalpasca, I could use a moon godlike and white leaf to counteract the effects of destructive channeling. I just don't know how reliable a supply of drugs I can keep. They don't seem so abundant as to be relied upon for routine combat. Am I wrong?

With the human Hel Walker variant, maybe I can keep Xoti as a ranged combatant and use consecrated ground to balance out the health loss from Destructive Channeling. Later, I can just use Barring Death's Door, maybe?

This is a really frustrating modal to try and harness. I tried a Moon Godlike Devoted/Hel Walker. It was just a turret. Very boring, and not as high damage as I thought it would be.

[Boeroer]

Right - I totally forgot to mention the humans' Fighting Spirit.

It is very easy to always have enough drugs around for every fight - if you only have one drug user in the party.

I'm playing my second Nalpasca run atm. and after reaching Port Maje I never had a single fight where I ran out of drugs. You find so much stuff including drugs, you can craft them yourself and you can buy them for relatively cheap. I was never "hunting" for drugs either. When I see a shop has drugs I will buy them, but usually the stuff I find/craft is enough. Little exception in the very beginning of the game - you might want to stay sober in the easy fights and only use some in the harder ones - because there's not plenty to loot/collect before reaching Port Maje.

Just one thing about the Nalpasca: if you get hit by Arcane Dampener it will also suppress your active drug effect which will put you right into a crash (no healing, wounds degeneration and the bad effects from a drug crash). And even if Arcane Dampener is over the crash will remain. You can simply take another drug then and get back to normal - but it's quite annoying. So I would see to interrupt enemy wizards who are about to cast Arcane Dampener and kill them asap. 

I also don't like scepters/Destructive Channeling very much. Mostly because the unique scepters aren't too exciting. 

[Elric Galad]

I'm skeptical about a build relying on Destructive Channeling only. As an Evoker, you'll want to cast spells, and that won't do channeling self-damages. At least you'll have Deleterious Alacrity of Motion which could help a lot.

Provided you have any source of party regeneration (Druid spells, Ancient Memory, Paladin Auras - which are really good to have for your whole party) and you are on the backrow, you're likely to not always be under 50%. You'll have to skip these and use mostly (Paladin's) single target heals.

20% raw damages isn't that high. It's like, well 10 damages per swing max ? With around 250 endgame health minimum, that's about 12 swings before getting the effect you build is meant for. I have a caster/scepter user with Destructive Channeling always on and I don't even notice the self-damages. 

 

But that's just my (paranoid) opinion.