Review - Vatnir as a Skald/Rogue Harbinger

[crdvis16]

Note: I had the community patch and balance polish mod installed (in case that affects some of the interactions of abilities). 

 

I modded Vatnir's multiclass/subclass choices for this build.  This was one of my favorite builds this playthrough which was good because normally I don't like Vatnir all that much.  I normally play him as a priest/chanter but that build typically has a lot of cold/corrode damage and I'm often using him in the Beast of Winter areas where there's lots of enemies with specifically those resistances so he's always felt kinda useless.  But not this time!

Ok- so the idea for this build is to use the Rogue side to bring the crits and then use the Skald side (which gets phrases from melee crits) to benefit from those crits with lots of impactful offensive invocations.  Dual wielding fast weapons is ideal for more frequent crits.  There are TONS of weapons and items that either help you crit more or give you bonuses when you do crit which also makes this build fun.

Depending on my target I might start the fight with "Their Champion Braved the Horde Alone" for the increased might/pen/interrupt on crit.  I would then Shadow Beyond to my target and open up with some Rogue ability attacks (crippling, blinding, withering... whatever).  Ideally he's going after an enemy with lower deflection for a higher crit rate.  As I crit and regain phrases I would invoke "... It's Crash Could Not Be Denied" (small cone stun) or "... And Their Fear Followed Them Into The Foothills" (larger cone paralyze/frighten).  Either effect can then make it easier to land more crits through either a deflection reduction or hit to crit conversion and the paralyze especially has a large enough cone to hit other enemies as well, even more so if you took Cast Shaping.  I would then continue whacking and building up phrases in order to finish with "Her Tears Fell Like The Rain" (AoE cold damage), "Boil Their Flesh From Skin And Bone" (raw damage), or "... Eld Nary" (cold/crush damage with high pen).

Vatnir played very smoothly with this build- he gets into a good rhythm with melee attacks and invocations.  The invocations are especially impactful so if you're able to generate phrases quicker than normal through a high crit rate and invoke more frequently it can feel pretty strong.  I imagine this might work even better with a Barbarian using Barbaric Smash for really high crit rates.

Edited November 15, 2021 by crdvis16