SC Troubadour and mastering the art of Interrupt

[dgray62]

You might consider updating your Bleeding Arcanist build to have Lover's Embrace in the offhand rather than a shield, since the latter won't be necessary once you imprint Shadowing Beyond.

[Not So Clever Hound]

1 hour ago, dgray62 said:

You might consider updating your Bleeding Arcanist build to have Lover's Embrace in the offhand rather than a shield, since the latter won't be necessary once you imprint Shadowing Beyond.

That sounds like a great idea @dgray62! It actually might warrant a different post altogether: something like Arcane Roquefort the Cheesing Archmage, a close relative to Shadow Camembert. I think I can actually find enough motivation to play a fresh game and compile how absurd SC Blood Mage can get. I'll keep you posted.  

BTW, I didn't follow through with the SC Solo Fury build because it worked well as expected but didn't have much else to offer - mostly milking Brilliant from Wit of Death Herald + Deltro's Cage Helm Lash on a barrage of neverending Greater Maelstrom - and staying alive until everything is dead. Cool, but nothing interesting enough to further report on.

[dgray62]

I look forward to reading your Arcane Roquefort the Cheesing Archmage build when you're ready to report on it. I'm planning on playing a solo BM again myself, but not until I finish my current game, as a Thrice nuking, heavily debilitating Spiritualist (Skald/Soul Blade) who will ultimately immune to all afflictions once I acquire all of the needed gear. It's fun but not quite as OP as a BM.

[dgray62]

I recently came across an interesting "wit of entropy" spiritualist interrupter build posted two years ago by Constentin Lévine, which didn't seem to get any attention at the time. It uses Thick Grew Their Tongues and Long Night's drink to continually interrupt foes, Her Revenge and Sasha's to get the Tier 3 inspirations, and food and gear to make one immune to afflictions (and hence keep up Energized without interruption). It has a lot of interesting symmetry in gear choice as well. I'm trying it out now, but instead of Beguiler/Bellower I am going with Soul Blade/Skald. Since the build is melee focused I think Soul Blade will work a bit better, and for the same reason skald has nice synergy as well. So far it is very powerful but not OP in an overly cheesy way. It's a great build for a party. Not sure how well it would work solo.

[Not So Clever Hound]

Thanks @dgray62 and @Constentin Lévine It looks like a great build and it should get indeed the attention it deserves .

[Constentin Lévine]

This build work "easily" with a rogue instead of a beguiler because at tiers 6 you are naturally immune to mental afflictions when below blooded, well you have more amplitude for equipement and food  - but anyway, for your interrupting build I suggest to you to equip the skaen robe, with the Armor of flesh upgrade (might immune)!

[Not So Clever Hound]

3 hours ago, Constentin Lévine said:

This build work "easily" with a rogue instead of a beguiler because at tiers 6 you are naturally immune to mental afflictions when below blooded

Yes, Slippery Mind + Shark Soup = immunity to all Afflictions. But you have to be and stay below Blooded which is risky business with low CON and low-ish defenses, unless having a priest cast BDD/SoT.

I like that your build uses some equipment that I don't often see/use. About Frostfall, it's very interesting - I had overlooked it.

When you say "Frostfall (dispersed suffering is awesome, and you can freeze on critical hit, even an dexterity immune ennemie. That is why i use my Mythic Adra Stone on it)" do you mean that the Freeze effect also triggers on Crits that are not weapon attacks (i.e. Chants/Invocations)????

[Constentin Lévine]

Sadly no, just for the mace, I think there is just the spirit frenzy that affect chants and spells..

[Boeroer]

Afaik you can only paralyze foes who are resistant to dex afflictions, but not the ones who are immune.

Freezing effects are of the same tier as petrify effects (dex affliction tier 4) - so they get downgraded to the paralyzed affliction once they hit a resistant target.

A target that is immune to dex afflictions should be immune to freezing, too - unless Frostfall got its freezing implemented differently than Grave Calling for example. 

[dgray62]

10 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Afaik you can only paralyze foes who are resistant to dex afflictions, but not the ones who are immune.

Freezing effects are of the same tier as petrify effects (dex affliction tier 4) - so they get downgraded to the paralyzed affliction once they hit a resistant target.

A target that is immune to dex afflictions should be immune to freezing, too - unless Frostfall got its freezing implemented differently than Grave Calling for example. 

I thought that Grave Calling could also freeze dex immune foes, but I might be wrong about this. I playing the spiritualist now and have Grave Calling. I'll report on whether or not it affects DEX affliction immune foes.

[Boeroer]

It does not.  You can test this with a Berserker/Druid who casts Form of the Delemgan on enemies. The spell grants immunity to DEX afflictions which removes Grave Bound (the freeze effect of Grave Calling).

I just tried Frostfall's Encroaching Frost and it behaves the same.

You could also spawn some dex immuny enemies but I couldn't recall any from the top of my head.  

Edited October 23, 2021 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

Thanks, Boeroer. I remember reading how the freeze effect works particularly well against some of the mega bosses; I guess this is only the case with those that are not DEX affliction immune, but only resistant.

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the Harbinger build,@Constentin Lévine. I imagine that this would work well for a street fighter/skald if you had a priest companion to help keep you alive. As assassin build might be great for a solo run too. I just wish you could cast invocations from stealth/invisibility.

[NotDumbEnough]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:31 AM, Not So Clever Hound said:

Yes, Slippery Mind + Shark Soup = immunity to all Afflictions. But you have to be and stay below Blooded which is risky business with low CON and low-ish defenses, unless having a priest cast BDD/SoT.

I like that your build uses some equipment that I don't often see/use. About Frostfall, it's very interesting - I had overlooked it.

When you say "Frostfall (dispersed suffering is awesome, and you can freeze on critical hit, even an dexterity immune ennemie. That is why i use my Mythic Adra Stone on it)" do you mean that the Freeze effect also triggers on Crits that are not weapon attacks (i.e. Chants/Invocations)????

I believe dispersed suffering applies to any sort of kill whatsoever. So casters can use Frostfall as a statstick and pile on the duration of negative effects. I personally think it's just a win more item though, if you're annihilating lots of enemies than you don't need ridiculously long debuff durations if you just kill em all instead.

What I guess you could do is once again do some sort of Berserker/Beckoner cheese, only instead of spamming Chill Fog, you get a super lengthy Disintegrate on Dorudugan or something so that you can just wait for him to die.

 

Edit: found a hilarious Youtube video of someone doing the Grave Calling cheese with a Tactician instead. Arguably stronger as you're also immortal due to Unbending procs.

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by NotDumbEnough

[Boeroer]

9 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Thanks, Boeroer. I remember reading how the freeze effect works particularly well against some of the mega bosses; I guess this is only the case with those that are not DEX affliction immune, but only resistant.

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the Harbinger build,@Constentin Lévine. I imagine that this would work well for a street fighter/skald if you had a priest companion to help keep you alive. As assassin build might be great for a solo run too. I just wish you could cast invocations from stealth/invisibility.

Iirc no megaboss is immue to DEX afflictions - so I guess that's why Grave Calling/Grave Bound is working for all of them (although it's pretty hard to crit a megaboss reliably and their very high RES cuts the already short duration quite a bit). Frostfall only procs very rarely (10% of crits). The duration is longer but imo the freezing effect is not really useful against the big ones.  

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

I personally think it's just a win more item though, if you're annihilating lots of enemies than you don't need ridiculously long debuff durations if you just kill em all instead.

I do not agree because often there's less sturdy enemies in an encounter* and the 20% added duration in combination with other duration buffs (Lingering Echoes, INT, lowered RES, enfeebled) and Power Level scaling can be useful if you only use weapons as stat sticks anyway. Imo it's def. more useful than something like Griffin's Blade for a Cipher for example. Also in combination with the Helm (which is very good for affliction-slinging chars) it just feels right.

)* which is also the reason why Blood Thirst can be better than one would anticipate at first glance. 

 

By the way: It also works with killing your own summons.  

Edited October 24, 2021 by Boeroer

[Not So Clever Hound]

3 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

believe dispersed suffering applies to any sort of kill whatsoever. So casters can use Frostfall as a statstick and pile on the duration of negative effects. I personally think it's just a win more item though, if you're annihilating lots of enemies than you don't need ridiculously long debuff durations if you just kill em all instead.

In addition to @Boeroer’s point, I think it can also be very strong with abilities like Toxic Strike or Disintegration, that scale off so well from extended duration buffs. In certain scenarios vs. a very sturdy opponent, it can make a sizable difference.

 

3 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

Edit: found a hilarious Youtube video of someone doing the Grave Calling cheese with a Tactician instead. Arguably stronger as you're also immortal due to Unbending procs.

The one and only @Raven Darkholme . I remember the thread about his Chanter class choice for this toon between Bellower and Troubadour. I’ll add a link later (on my phone now). 

[Not So Clever Hound]

The thread I was talking about.

[Constentin Lévine]

With Muse of Mystery from the Robes of the Weyc (since you use the Weyc Wand I suppose you got also the robe), after empowering your phrase, Thick Grew... is going to hit every 2s (or crit and so interrupt). Ennemies' recovery time is rarely quickly than 2s, then (if the chant crit, vs will) they are generally fully disabled. I like to use a MC troubadour - druid because on top of that, I have 3s' pulses spells targeting every kind of defenses, from Tanglefoot (reflex) to Wicked briars and Venombloom (deflection) through Wall of thorns or Retentless Storm (6s)(fortitude) or Nature Terror (reflex and after, will). It is also easy to use the Least Unstable Coil with a chanter-druid, and the cat form provide a +33% action speed non-restricted to the cat form itself ; Druid get 2 spells with "immunity to concentration" targeting fortitude in the case where ennemie will is superior. My best interruptor personally.

As well, it is fun to spawn 1 skeleton every 2s., and it is protective, when the Thick Grew chant doesnt work for any reason.

[mjo2138]

Thanks for sharing this! I am gonna use it now on my SC Troubadour 

Edited October 7, 2023 by mjo2138
new idea