Review - Konstanten as a Nalpazca/Shifter Ascetic

[crdvis16]

Shoutout to @Porkchopsandwiches247 for this build suggestion.

This was a great build that really felt natural and consistent and did good damage.  You get multiple sources for weapon attack lashes- Wildstrike (of whatever flavor you want but I went for Corrode), Lightning Strikes for lightning damage, and Turning Wheel for some fire.

I would usually start a fight with a quick Woodskin or Delemgen buff (and maybe some drug use if I forgot to do so ahead of time as a Nalpazca) followed by either Nature's Terror or Relentless Storm and then shift into whatever form made the most sense.  Nature's Terror is especially thematic because who wouldn't be scared of a drugged up Bear coming at you?  Delemgen lets you close to your target in a snap.

My thinking on the shifter forms was: Cat to quickly down an important single target, Wolf if I needed consistent interrupts, Bear for off-tanking, Boar to regen.  But best of all (imo) is Stag with its AoE attack.  Monk's Efficient Anguish knockback will hit multiple enemies in your Stag's AoE attack so you can just fling multiple enemies around the battlefield with it, like a cheaper Clear Out that uses a renewable class resource (wounds).  At 1 wound cost and Nalpazca's wound generation you can cause A LOT of Anguish.  Note that this may only work if using BPM as I can't remember now how the vanilla game's Stag attack works.

Thunderous Blows helps you overcome penetration issues.  Note: Cat/Bear do slash, Boar/Wolf/Stag do pierce, none do crush.  Maybe one of them should do crush?

Last- Dichotomous is funny to use when you're shifted because the copies are shifted also.  I don't believe they get your animal claws, though. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by crdvis16

[Boeroer]

2 hours ago, crdvis16 said:

Last- Dichotomous is funny to use when you're shifted because the copies are shifted also.  I don't believe they get your animal claws, though. 

Nope, they will have their frost/fire fists - but those are nice as well. They will have the spiritshift armor though which is pretty great, especially if you summon them when in bear form (+2 AR). Then they have 0 recovery penalty (like in all forms) but very high armor with no weakness (universal value against all dmg types). One of the best armors in the game imo. 

I looked into that a bit more a while ago because I played a Bear Druid/Wizard during some testng sessions and what I really liked was that my Essential Phantom was pretty awesome with high AR but 0 recovery penalty, Draining Touch in the main hand and a bear claw in the offhand.  Didn't go down easily and dealt great damage (for a summon).  

Dichotomous Soul cast from Bear form seldomly died before their (rel. short) summoning duration was over but caused enough ruckus offensively.  

Edited March 15, 2022 by Boeroer

[crdvis16]

Tough little tanks then.  Though more often than not the twins die due to their relatively short summon duration rather than from damage in my experience. 

[Boeroer]

2 minutes ago, crdvis16 said:

Tough little tanks then.  Though more often than not the twins die due to their relatively short summon duration rather than from damage in my experience. 

Yes, that's right. It's more useful on a longer-lasting summon like the Phantoms.