[CLASS BUILD] Chilling Tunes - Solo Upscaled PotD Loremaster

[Not So Clever Hound]

CHILLING TUNES

 

Class: Troubadour / Blood Mage

Concept: Pure caster that uses starting invisibility and hoards of summons as distraction to cast in peace and is optimized around a seemingly small but actually awesome synergy: Animated Weapons are immune to Freeze DMG while Blood Mage has loads of outstanding Friend-or-Foe Freeze Spells. Optimized for a No-Rest run.

Game Version: RTwP. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying).

Upscaled PotD Solo Viable: Yes.

Companion: I don’t think so. Chilling Tunes is a solo Watcher.

As always, this is going to be a somewhat long post so please bear with me. I’ll explain briefly why I think this toon is interesting and illustrate how it comes together with some videos, then go over the key stats, equipment and abilities.

 

 

-----INTRO------

 

 

I know this sounds corny but… This build is actually one of the most powerful I’ve soloed, especially considering it’s a multi Blood Mage that doesn’t use Wall of Draining at all.

I started from the not-so-small synergy that Animated Weapons (PL7 Chanter invocation) is an amazing distraction, especially coupled with waves of Many Lives Pass By (PL7 Chant) but at the same time, the Weapons are immune to Freeze DMG, which is incidentally among the top damage spells of a Wizard, those being however balanced out by not being foe-only… so you could easily kill any friendly summons with those crazy pulsing/ray freeze spells… unless they’re immune to it! Yay, a faint smell of synergy!

From there I built around this ability while trying to maximize the core awesomeness of Blood Mage with abilities and grimoires, and picking the most useful Chanter stuff along the way. While tying it all up together with equipment choice for different situations. The result has been very satisfying.

 Here are some of the most impactful choices:

• Brilliant Departure + Summoning will keep almost everyone off your back for entire fights. Sometimes you’ll have to reposition or be careful with certain enemy archetypes; but with Deleterious Alacrity, you’re immune to engagement and Blinded enemies are slow.
• Crusted Swordfish as food is great for +2 Spell PEN, which Makes Chillfog great again for damage. (#makechillfoggreatagain, #butitwasalwaysgreat). Also especially because Chillfog causes flanked, i.e. -1AR so you can get an actual PEN of 10.5 or 11 at night with Sun & Moon. Other spells just get even better.
• Even if it doesn’t seem that way, we’re packing a ton of regen, so Blood Sacrifice is always on the table but rarely needed... that being said, Draining Missiles + Blood Sacrifice + Crushing Doom + infinite summons is as often how we nullify the challenge of certain boss encounters.
• Most of our everyday offense (Chill Fog, Freezing Pillar, Bitter Mooring, Shadowflame and many others) get +10 ACC from Helm of the White Void on ALL their rolls (damage AND afflictions). The significance of free ACC is never lost on Upscaled PotD.
• In certain situations, I also liked using all the pulsing mayhem with Their Champion... Energized invocation for perma-interruption apocalypse. However, it it is less impactful on Upscaled PotD than any other difficulty, because, well, as much as you crit, it occurs less often.
• We most often wield Lover's Embrace with Lover's Quarrel enchant because it gives us one or more almost guaranteed Frenzy every encounter. So we're speedy!

Here are 2 videos that illustrate the gameplay loop somehow (illustrative, not optimal amazing gameplay, just to set expectations).

• Video 1 is the bar fight in Splintered Reef not because it’s challenging, but because it’s easy to make it clear. Also slowed down on the shortcuts etc. to make it clearer.
• Video 2 is in the SSS arena, against Maerwald etc. I wanted to post it because while this fight isn’t very challenging, I messed up A LOT in this encounter  and although I made bad mistakes I still came out on top, so you can see in a way the resilience of the build when stupid-me plays.
  
   

 

 

 

-----SPECS------

 

 

Race: Pale Elf (Whatever, Cold AR and +PER are sweet)

Background: The White that Wends – Hunter

 

FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs):

 

MIG 21 (16 Base +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn)

CON 9 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon)

DEX 26 (17 Base +1 Elf +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing +2 Footprints Ahu Taka)

PER 29 (18 Base +1 Elf +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Kuaru’s Prize)

INT 26 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones +1 Kuaru’s Prize)

RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing)

 

ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS:

 

Food: Crusted Swordfish, amazing for the PEN bonus on spells, making Chill Fog relevant for damage later on.

Adratic Glow

All Trainings

Dawnstar Blessing

Luminous Adra Potion

Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy)

Savage Cunning (Survival)

Galawain’s Gift

Magran’s Blessing

Infamous Captain, Bonus Skills, Champion Stats, Port Maje vendor, Fully discovered Map, Bonus Money… invested all 105 Berath’s Blessing Points

SKILLS: Mechanics and Diplomacy at 13, rest in Athletics and Survival.

 

 

----- ABILITIES ------

 

 

TROUBADOUR

ACTIVE: Thrice Was She > Her Revenge, White Worms > Their Putrid, Their Champion, Called to His… Early on, skellies and ogres are helpful – then respec.

PASSIVE: Come, Come…, Many Lives. Early on, Ancient Memory is helpful.

 

BLOOD MAGE (more or less optimized for using various grimoires as detailed below)

ACTIVE: Chill Fog, Eldritch Aim, Jolting Touch, Infuse, Combusting Wounds, Arcane Veil, Deleterious Alacrity, Noxious Burst, Minor Arcane Reflection, Wall of Flame, Bitter Mooring, Enervating Terror, Freezing Pillar.

PASSIVE: Combat Focus, Secret of Rime, Far Casting, Rapid Casting, Quick Summoning, Improved Critical.

 

Grimoire Supplementation:

• Illuminating Discoveries (Brilliant Departure!!!)
• Vaporous Wizardry (more casts if you're secure or have Concentration layers)
• Nina’s Teachings (Shadowflame & Death Ray)
• Iron Clasped (Crushing Doom & Draining Missiles i.e. the Boss Killer combo)

 

 

-----GEAR------

 

 

Weapon Sets:

• Primary: Griffin Blade + Lover’s Embrace (Lover's Quarrel) for the damage and frenzy buffs which will trigger in every fight.
• Secondary: Duskfall (Drawing Parry), Lethandria’s Devotion (Sheltering Light) if you need add’l regen, or more defense to avoid retargeting by certain enemy AIs e.g. Fampyrs or Dargul Swashbucklers.
• Tertiary: Magran’s Favor + Sun & Moon if you need to go all in on Burn spells against Freeze immunes.
• Grimoires in Quick Slots: Illuminating Discoveries, Vaporous Wizardry, Nina’s Teachings, Iron Clasped.

Head: Helm of the White Void. (will give +10 ACC to ALL spells that have an Affliction component!).

Neck: Charm of Bones.

Chest: Fleshmender (Additional regen + Item/Weapon additional sets) .

Cape: Three Trolls Stitched (regen).

Gloves: Accuracy Bracers, sometimes swap with Burglar’s Gloves or Firethrower’s gloves.

Rings: Kuaru’s Prize + Greater Regen. Keep Focused Flames around.

Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka. Keep handy Boots of the Stone, Sandals of the Water Lily.

Belt: Trollhide Belt for Regen, Upright Captain’s for Doru.

Pet: Dude the Six Toes for Regen, Otto Starcat, Concelhaut...

 

 

-----THE END------

 

 

That’s it. Anything not clear, please shoot. Let me know if you want to play a build like this toon, always happy to chat. Also of course if you have additional thoughts on the choices, strategies etc!

Edited December 14, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Constentin Lévine]

Are you using the Sandals of the water Lily because of Bitter Mooring? Often, this spell immobilize myself and then I take the damage from the spell.. Since, I use the Sandals too.

[Not So Clever Hound]

3 minutes ago, Constentin Lévine said:

Are you using the Sandals of the water Lily because of Bitter Mooring? Often, this spell immobilize myself and then I take the damage from the spell.. Since, I use the Sandals too.

I think this happens when you target an enemy with spell reflection on? But yeah I think Nemnok and (funnily enough) some random Sigils managed to kill me with my own bean a few times. My experience is that it's about reflection.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Katak]

Hello, I decided to get back to the game after 2 or so years and I'm very interrested in your build.

So far only 2 things aren't clear for me

1) What's Mogran's blessing ? (couldnt find relevant info about this)

2) Could you give me a quick and dirty leveling progress skill wise, while working toward the end build ? I know some are more suited for leveling. In higher difficulty it's quite unforgiving and 1 misplaced level can mean the difference between life and death ^^

Cheers

[thelee]

14 hours ago, Katak said:

1) What's Mogran's blessing ?

because the build is optimized for a no-rest run i suspect that what OP is talking about is the special buff you get before going to fight the dragon in the Ashen Maw

[Not So Clever Hound]

1) As @thelee suspected, Magran's Blessing is a buff you get if you ally yourself with the Rathun during "he waits in fire", before going to the lair of the ancient. The rathun priest bestows a +2 Burn AR blessing upon you. not game breaking, but I do like to hoard permabuffs .

2) For leveling, there is a bit of flex I think in terms of what to take exactly at each level. the key abilities at the beginning are the following. Respec when no longer needed or better alternative available.

• Chant: Soft Winds of Death then Ancient Memory when available, ultimately Many Lives
• Buffs: critical are Infuse with VE, Arcane Veil (to survive initial onslaught) then Deleterious Alacrity, Eldricht Aim.
• Summons for distraction: Skellies asap, then Ogres asap, then Animated Weapons
• Offense: super early, Chillfog & Concelhaut staff or Essence Interrupter can be a great option, then keep taking abilities that tick/pulse to synergize with Combusting Wounds (e.g. Ray of Fire, wall of flames, missile spells, then of course bitter mooring and freezing pillar are MVPs).

Basically you can keep applying the basic strategy: buff to survive + distract with summons ASAP then pummel with reach weapon or ranged abilities until everyone is dead. Often, placement and timing will be very important, especially on which terms you start a fight, but it's easier to figure out when actually playing .

As often with a solo char, playing certain parts of Port Maje on PotD is a bit of a pain then it gets a lot better very fast. It's totally doable but in case you don't want to suffer too much you can use stealth in tough places, or wait until after Maje to crank up the difficulty, or hire temporary help... there are always options.