[BUILD GUIDE] - The Soul Devourer - multiclass blood mage / soul blade optimal for POTD SOLO

[Shai Hulud]

[BUILD GUIDE] - The Soul Devourer (5.0)

Class - Blood Mage / Soul Blade (Hierophant)

Concept - Mass drain focus with Citzal's Spirit Lance and use soul annihilation for mass slaughter. This build has extremely high defenses thanks to equipment, various wizard defense spells, and the amazing cipher spell Borrowed Instinct. We also have spectacular accuracy and crit nearly every hit. Use Pull of Eora to group enemies so we can maximally build focus and annihilate souls. Slaughter kith, wilders, monsters, and...destructibles, to drain their souls and build max focus. This build works with any alignment but is particularly suited for EVIL playthroughs as you're rewarded for slaughtering everything for their souls and their spells. I even killed a temple full of Dawnstars. But not the younglings...

POTD - YES

SOLO - YES, in fact this build can handle the Ultimate challenge (link below). 

Companions - Not necessary but would work well in any party as a striker / off-tank.

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Why play this class? I was inspired towards soul blade builds after watching Sarcastic Sarcophagae's ultimate run using a soul blade / ranger, and I started thinking about whether we really needed the ranger part, and no, you don't, though ranger makes it easier to proc focus gain since you can kill the pet over and over. I wanted to create a god-like character that felt like a kensai/mage from Baldur's Gate 2. Capable of single-handedly blitzkrieging large groups of enemies. Despite being a blood mage multiclass, we use very few offensive spells. This is very much a melee build and ideal for a no-rest run.

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RACE: Coastal Aumaua for might resistance. Wild Orlan, wood elf, mountain dwarf, and human are also decent choices, but really you can use any race besides maybe godlikes, since the helmet we use is important. 

BACKGROUND: Old Vailia - Artist (mechanics/history/insight)
Effigy's Resentment: Maneha (+1 MIG is not quite as good as +1 INT, but we get +5 resistance to might afflictions which is great)

STATS

MIG - 13 base, 19 final (+2 Auamaua, +1 Gift from Machine, +1 Maneha, +2 Alchemic Brawn, + items and +5 from tenacious/energized)
CON - 9 base, 13 final (+2 Alchemic Brawn, +2 Konstanten's Boon, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Robust)
DEX - 14 base, 18 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +2 Amira's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Deleterious)
PER - 18 base, 22 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Savage Cunning, plus items and +5 from Eldritch Aim)
INT - 18 base, 22 final (+1 Old Vailia, +2 Alchemic Wits, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Cauldron's Shard, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Brilliant)
RES - 3 base, 9 final (+2 Alchemic Wits, +2 Nature's Resolve, +2 Rikuhu's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Pyschovampiric Shield)

It is easy for us to proc inspirations for everything but might (but that can be done too). In battle the stats are typically something like
26/20/24/28/29/14

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To cheese or not to cheese? This build will work fine in parties and likely solo on lower difficulties without using "cheese" strategies. But the cheese is so good. Don't you want to ascend to godhood?

Cabalist's Gambeson and Strand of Favor are used to extend many buffs, most important of which is the soul blade's max focus buff. For every melee kill you get +10 max focus for IDK, something like 60 seconds, but we can extend that and end up with 15000+ focus by late game, which translates to starting battles with something like 3500 focus! This lets us zerg dangerous enemies when needed, or whenever we feel like it. 

In addition, blood mage's minor grimoire imprint can STEAL SPELLS, permanently. This is super useful in general but especially for solo, trial of iron runs, and ESPECIALLY ultimate runs. We can steal spells like Escape, Withdraw, Nature's Balm (Robust!), Halt, and even watershaper spells like Ondra's Whip and a party friendly Chill Fog! Any spell that's level 3 or lower, and an enemy has it, we can steal it. It works like this. 

DO NOT memorize Minor Grimoire Imprint. Carry a grimoire with Minor Grimoire Imprint. Easiest to get is Aloth's grimoire.
Cast minor grimoire imprint on the enemy. If it hits (vs fortitude), a random level 1 to 3 spell the caster knows is stolen and shows up in your quick bar. Most enemies know 2 spells per level, but a few like Eamund the Fox know more (has ten L1 to L3 spells). 
We can make the theft PERMANENT by swapping to another grimoire and back after we steal it. 
In this way you can get every level 1 to 3 wizard spell for free (wizard spells don't show up in the quick bar), provided it isn't learned already, plus any level 1 to 3 priest or druid spells you'd want, such as Barbs of Condemnation, Divine Mark, Pillar of Faith, Nature's Mark, etc. etc. But don't steal TOO MANY, not sure what happens when the quick bar extends to the edge of the screen.

The spells I stole on my ultimate run were these: every wizard spell I could (because no renewable resources, and just because), withdraw, restore, nature's balm, the moon's light, chill fog (watershaper version), Ondra's whip, Escape, Barbs of Condemnation, and Halt. You can get most of these (minus the wizard spells) from two encounters: Beina, who is a priest of skaen and has other priests in her party, and the watershaper Biakara. These encounters are relatively easy even for solo, and you can watch me do them in Video 13.

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FOOD: Hylea's Bounty! You can get it at the start of the game if you pledged to Hylea in POE1 (everything good import has it). So we can immediately have +2 to all skills which is SUPER helpful in the early game, and the entire game really. It's also GREAT for combat. We get +25% max health, which allows us to dump CON a bit, and even better, +10 to ALL defenses. This is by far the best food in the game for this build. If you have to rest later, I guess I'd go with Captain's Banquet or Shark's Soup for the immunities mainly, but the combat buffs are also excellent. You'll be squishier without Hylea's Bounty buffs though, and skill checks are tougher, and more important you lose your per-rest buffs like Dawnstar's Blessing, so try to avoid resting!

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SKILLS: In the early game, stealth is most important active, then mechanics. Later we want some athletics. With a luminous Adra potion, Hylea's bounty, and the various unguents, plus training, your BASE for every skill should be 7 with no points in it. 

For passives, early we want lots of diplomacy and a little survival. Once you get the GiftBearer's Cloth, pump history as much as you can. For a solo run I wouldn't take it past 12 points invested (which with other bonuses gave me 20 history and +15 to defenses).

My late-game skill investment was something like Arcana 3, Athletics 7, mechanics 9, diplomacy 5, history 12, survival 3. Diplomacy and survival can be boosted with items to around 15 which is enough to pass most checks. 

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ABILITIES

I went through most of the game without taking a single wizard spell, because you can get almost everything you need from Llengrath's Martial Mysteries and Aloth's Grimoire, but eventually I took Pull of Eora because it is really good and I have one or two ability choices that are somewhat free. Here is my suggestion for what to take leveling up as you go. Grab pull of eora at L10 to L12 or do what I did and cast from grimoire and take it late.

1 - Eldritch Aim and Tenuous Grasp (EA is hard to find as stealable spell plus it is just great, TG is a .5s cast but take whatever cipher side)
2 - Iron Will (!)- +15 to will. Will is probably the most important defense on a solo run and iron will STACKS with bull's will!
3 - Lingering Echoes - your cipher spells lasting longer is pretty nice, but mostly we take this because there's nothing better to take
4 - Psychovampiric Shield (!) and TwoHanded - PVS effectively gives +10 accuracy vs the enemy and gives us Steadfast, and a .5s cast!
5 - Draining Whip (!) - Once you build tons of focus you might want to switch to Biting Whip, but I stuck with draining whole game.
6 - Mental Binding - this one is a bit free, Phantom Foes also a good choice but doesn't stack other flank debuffs like Chill Fog
7 - Hammering Thoughts (!) and Bear's Fortitude (!) - HT +1 weapon penetration is amazing, and our fortitude is a bit low
8 - Secret Horrors - really good debuff over huge area, especially for minor grimoire imprint, and a .5s cast
9 - Weapon and Shield Style - before summoning weapons we want a shield for the bonus deflection, so why not get reflex and more deflection?
10 - Body Attunement and Bull's Will - nothing great on cipher side, but BA is situationally useful vs enemies with high AR
11 - Secrets of Rime - for chill fog
12 - Heart of the Storm - becomes relevant when we proc Lord Darryn's Voulge and Conduit (or take pull of eora and this at 19)
13 - Borrowed Instinct (!!) and Tough - the build starts to become very powerful now we have Borrowed Instinct and Citzal's Spirit Lance
14 - Uncanny Luck - hit to crit always welcome, could also take Rapid Casting or Farcasting, we eventually take all
15 - Rapid Casting - get the buffs up faster
16 - The Empty Soul (!) and Improved Critical (!) - TES +10 ACC vs will with the cipher spells we really need to hit (PVS and BI)
17 - Martial Caster - Summon that weapon a little faster
18 - Farcasting - moderately useful, +20% range on most spells (doesn't apply to escape sadly)
19 - Echoing Horror (!) and Pull of Eora - EH is like a perma-frighten and POE means no more grimoire swapping
20 - Psychic Backlash - Kind of free, could sub Recall Agony, Phantom Foes, Ringleader, Arms Bearer, or a wizard spell

MODALS 

Club (!), Quarterstaff (!), Medium Shield (!), Small Shield (!), Pike, Rapier, Morningstar (last two don't really matter, and pike modal not that great)

None of these are super important besides maybe quarterstaff since we use summoned weapons, but the small shield and medium shield especially are nice to reduce damage before we summon the weapon. Club kinda useful early to reduce will. 

GOD POWER

Mien of Death's Herald or Ire of Death's Herald (give Intuitive and Energized respectively). For Mien be diplomatic in god conversations and for ire be aggressive. Intuitive is the only Tier 3 we can't otherwise get, but it isn't *that* much better than aware. Energized is much better than Tenacious for the interrupts which hit your primary and secondary lance targets. But...we can get Energized through other means. In a no rest run these abilities can be used once, so you want to extend them and not lose them. Can wear Effigy's Husk to keep Energized, though you sacrifice some armor and reflex/will compared to Magnera's Chain. It is better vs enemies that use lots of might afflctions though. I took Ire of Death's Herald, and...I forgot to use it. 

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EQUIPMENT WE WEAR

Head - Cap of the Laughingstock - effectively +10 accuracy, and if we use mirror's image or essential phantom we get immunity to resolve (and -10 deflection)
Neck - Protective Eothasian Charm - mostly for the proc, but if worn the healing is doubled from might and dawnstar's blessing
Body - Magnera's Chain, Effigy's Husk - MC has +10 fort/will/ref, and Effigy's Husk immunity to might. Early game wear Devil of Caroc BP.
Rings - Ring of Minor Protection + Entonia Signet Ring pre-escape, then ROMP + Prosperity's Fortune, then ROMPx2 (they stack!)
Feet - Boots of Stealth early, then Bounding Boots or Boots of Stability (with two copies of Bounding Boots, you can use Leap 2x per ENCOUNTER, then put it back in stash between battles and swap back to get Leap back)
Cape - Cloak of Greater Protection early, then Cape of the Falling Star, then The GiftBearer's Cloth.
Hands - Killer's Gloves early, then Gatecrashers, then Firethrower's Gloves, then Left Hand of the Obscured or Onepahau's Strength (or Killer's Gloves again)
Waist - Undying Burden then Upright Captain's Belt so we're unaffected by Pull of Eora

Pet - Pes early (+10%dmg, 5% hit to crit), Bear Cub later (+8 fort, 5% hit to crit), Ooblit even later (+3s duration beneficial effects)

Weapons - You don't actually use the weapons much, but their passive buffs can be useful before summoning.
Squid's Grasp in slot 1 and 3 (copy), Lethandria's Devotion in slot 1, Outworn Buckler and some other weapon in Slot 2, Xoti's Lantern in slot 3 (if Skaen challenge)
The important thing with the shields is if you get hit by something nasty (not likely with all the inspirations but happens occasionally), you can clear it by rapidly swapping slots 1 and 2. Can clear even faster with 2x outworn buckler, but I like Lethandria / Outworn for healing passive and because Lethandria is a better fighting shield. Every switch you're healed 2 points and clear 6% off the duration. This can be scripted so you clear an arcane dampener in a couple seconds (or no time if you can pause). On Squid's Grasp you want Broken Curse and Attempted Parley, this provides a huge action speed buff when you're threatended by 3+ enemies which happens a lot solo, and it applies to spells! On Lethandria take Sheltering Light and Captivating Crystal. On Outworn Buckler take Timeless Perseverence and Symbol of Courage.

Grimoires - LLengrath's Martial Mysteries (or Katrenn's), Aloth's. These are the main two. Jernaugh's Careful Calamities is useful for the spell Jernaugh's Equalizing Burst which is a good opener, also Ninagauth's Shadowflame from Ninagauth's Teachings, but normally we open with Pull of Eora. Might want to hold onto Arkemyr's Illuminating Discoveries or Celestial Grimoire for Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, but I never needed to use it. Escape is not quite as good but a much faster cast.

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EQUIPMENT FOR PROCS - this is stuff we equip only if we want to proc some effect, either temporarily or to extend indefinitely, we extend with first Cabalist's Gambeson, then Cabalist's Gambeson plus Strand of Favor. Takes 10 to 20 seconds to extend something to near infinity, depending where you are it affects how fast you can cycle armor and necklace. The sea is usually the fastest place. 

Thief's Putty / Ungent of Animalism / Blessed Incense / Oil of Allure / Arcanist's Balm (!!!!) - proc these right after getting Cabalist's Gambeson for +2 to all skills
Antidote - permanent immunity to poison attacks

Amra (!!!!) - Tempered Fury gives FRENZY without the deflection penalty! Incredible.
Protective Eothasian Charm's Darkest Before Dawn (!!!!) - gives +10 health per 3s, -25% damage taken (decreases conduit effect unfortunately)

Deltro's Cage Helm (!!!!) - can TRIPLE your damage output if you crit yourself wearing the right equipment at high level with Chain Lightning or even better, Scrolls of Great Maelstrom. Note the scrolls are very dangerous to Vela and yourself so not recommended for iron run, but with max Arcana they do insane damage and you can get +220% lightning damage, which applies not only to melee but spells. Ideally you'll have all of these when you proc Conduit - Chromoprismatic QS's Elemental Induction buff, Improved Critical, Heart of the Storm (make sure you overpen, kill yourself for System Shock if needed), Griffin's Blade (Hound's Courage), +2MIG gloves or Left Hand of the Obscured (arcana for scroll, strength for spells), Kuaru's Ring, Chameleon's Touch, Sash of Judgment, High Harbinger's Robes or Furrante's Breastplate or Deltro's Cage, Sandals of the Water Lily (make it easier to crit yourself). Milx for hit to crit conversion with spells. I crit myself with Chain Lightning in video 28, right before I fight Dorudugan and Huani o Whe. 

Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff (!!!) - Elemental Induction gives +15% damage which applies to everything including SA, Entropy Shield reduces damage by about 8%
Devil of Caroc's BP (!) - 2 health per 3 seconds is okay, but it adds up. If worn this increases to 4. 
Grove's Kin from Nature's Embrace (!!) - gives Woodskin. We could just steal woodskin and cast it, but perma-woodskin is cool too.
Less / Least Unstable Coil (!!) - +15% Action Speed. I proc this during the Maerwald fight because that's when I get it usually and he's a spirit. 
Lord Darryn's Voulge (!!!) - gives Lightning Strikes - quick, +15% action speed, +15% damage as shock with weapons
Outworn Buckler (!!) - would have more ! as this can proc Courageous, but we are already immune to interrupts from insanely high concentration
Rannig's Wrath (!!) - Redoublement gives +10 deflection, which is part of why we can dump resolve
Resounding Call (!!) - Call to Arms procs Tenacious when destroying a destructible. Slayer's Claw can upgrade this to Energized by swapping weapons.
Robes of the Weyc - +1 AR against your chosen type
Sanguine Great Sword (!!!) - Proc Blood Gift, then Greater Blood Gift. They STACK for +20 health per 6 seconds, much more if you have the item equipped
Scordeo's Trophy (!!!) - can be used early game to greatly reduce recovery with Opening Barrage
Scordeo's Edge (!!!!) - can ELIMINATE recovery with Blade Cascade. Can stack accuracy +20 every time you save. Insane. Not necessary to stack accuracy this much but makes things easier. 
Serpent Crown (!!!) - +10 accuracy that applies to spells not just weapons!
Shadow Form (!!!!) (Slipper of the Assassin) - use to steal things with ease, and to start nearly every encounter from stealth (invisible). You don't need to actually wear the boots in combat, after the first proc, switch to the boots you want to wear then extend it and you'll still be invisible.
Shea's War Staff (!) - 15% hit to crit with weapons is nice, though by the time you get this you have Scordeo's Edge
Slayer's Claw (!!!!) - can bump up any might inspiration to Energized simply by cycling weapons
Shroud of the Phantasm (!!!!!) - proc brilliant. It is easy to proc if you have stolen something like Minoletta's Minor Missiles and Restore. Just alternate Missiles and restore. They're .2s casts with speed bonuses, so you can fire off 100 missiles in no time. Wall of Flame also good, but we can't steal it. Make sure to remove clothes when proccing this if you have Abydon's Challenge on. 
Unstable Soul Essence - an explosive that heals you roughly 6 health per 6 seconds. Okay. Heals much more if you have high explosives.
Wahai Poroga (!!!) - At Blade's Reach reduces melee damage by 20% and counterattack returns damage as raw DOT.

Combined with Blood Mage healing, we have passive healing around 10(BM) + 20(DBD) + 20(SGS) + 6(USE) + 4(DOCBP) = 60 health per 6 seconds. Add robust for 40 more, add the moon's light for 32 more. Normally my script doesn't proc The Moon's Light but Robust is usually up, so that's 100 or 132 health per 6 seconds, about 16 or 22 health per second. Plus we are hard to hit, so basically unkillable.

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OTHER BUFFS

Nature's Resolve - +10 accuracy, +2 resolve, best per-rest buff in the game
Dawnstar's Blessing - +50% healing, +2 religion - I know I just said NR was the best, but THIS is the best per-rest one time buff. Or 2nd best IDK. 
Alchemist's Wits/Brawn/Guile - +2 to all stats, per rest
Cauldon Shard - +1 to chosen stat, I took INT, permanent I think
Konstanten's Boon - best prostitute boon IMO, gives +2 CON, +1 PER, +1INT
Savage Cunning - +1 PER, +2 survival, permanent
Rikuhu's Blessing - +2 RES, get from the shrine on Crookspur Island, takes religion 15, choose to rest you get interrupted, with high diplomacy you get the boon
Amira's Blessing - +2 DEX, this is a random proc while traveling Neketaka. When you get the burning house, go in, flee the house, be nice to the old lady
Ngati's Blessing - +2 CON, get from Teo Ramunga on Neketaka Island. I skipped this one since it is out of the way and it removes Rikuhu and vice versa. They also remove Amira so try to get that later (just don't do too much unnecessary map travelling in Neketaka and it should proc Amira later). Once I managed to get all three but I can't figure out how to reproduce it.

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DRUGS

SAY NO TO DRUGS

But seriously, if you don't want to rest and you get hit by even one arcane dampener your drugs will cause a drug crash, even though when the dampener ends the drug effects return. You can actually stack every drug with saves and loads, and if you have every drug benefit plus the crashes, the benefits still slightly outweigh the crashes (except whiteleaf, don't take whiteleaf, the crash effects are awful). So it still may be worth it. BUT you lose mostly perception, and perception is one of the most important stats so I just didn't mess with drugs. I was only hit with one, maybe two arcane dampeners so it would have been fine if I'd used them but you don't need them and it eliminates worry about that risen mage getting lucky and rolling a 100 vs your insanely high will defense...

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MY ULTIMATE RUN

First 20 or so videos are very boring, please don't watch them. It's just me sneaking around, questing, and proccing things. Not a lot of combat. Gets more interesting after that. I tried to script as much of the fighting as possible, but the POE2 engine is pretty limited compared to say Baldur's Gate, where I once wrote a 3000+ line script capable of handling every battle solo on insane with all the mods (God I'm a nerd). This script has just 33 blocks, and basically we try to keep up inspirations at all time, start battles with defensive buffs, summon citzal's spirit lance or sometimes concelhaut's staff, then use psychovampiric shield, borrowed instinct, and secret horrors for buffs/debuffs, cast pull of eora and chill fog on groups, then move in for the slaughter, healing ourself with restore and the moon's light as necessary, and using escape to zip around the battlefield while exploding things.

One relevant note about my pathing. It was not well planned. I should not have gone to Sandswept immediately for the slight XP boost, it cost me later and delayed acquistion of both Shroud of the Phantasm and Lord Darryn's Voulge. I had to get to the Sanguine Harvest island on the 16th (has to be the 16th) for several reasons. You can get the sword, which has really nice healing passives. And you can get the sword again. And again, and again. After a day of repeating that encounter I emerged quite possibly the richest adventurer in Eora, and I drained a few hundred souls for focus in the meantime, so as Korgan would say. "Sigh...a good day".

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkOCqAbkQHxwTJyCKvA_31wYyPWK_87VY

Edited January 4, 2023 by Shai Hulud
Edited because I'm obsessive

[Not So Clever Hound]

Very thorough and funny write-up, I say.  

A compendium of nearly every trick in the Deadfire book, and then some. The scripting part looks super impressive, but my scripting ability stops at automating Forbidden Fist + Whatever.

Sweet, sweet build, and congrats again for taking it all the way through The Ultimate!

[Shai Hulud]

On 12/29/2022 at 6:42 PM, Not So Clever Hound said:

Very thorough and funny write-up, I say.  

A compendium of nearly every trick in the Deadfire book, and then some. The scripting part looks super impressive, but my scripting ability stops at automating Forbidden Fist + Whatever.

Sweet, sweet build, and congrats again for taking it all the way through The Ultimate!

I wish the scripting weren't so clunky. Never could figure out how to script anything with Vela. Tried casting withdraw on ally at various intervals but she isn't tagged as an ally I guess...

What do you automate with forbidden fist? I haven't played monks much in POE2...or at all really. Forbidden Fist seemed kinda complicated. I can't think of what I'd be expiring for wounds besides like Hylea's Talons.

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Oh and random thing I discovered during this run, you can steal enemy chants when their alliance is flipped. I accidentally stole something called "Crunch the bones" 26 minutes in to Video 24 when I used Ringleader on an Eoten at Bekarna's Observatory. Does + ?% crushing damage for ? seconds (thanks Wael!) but apparently I extended it forever because I saw it later when I was trying to proc Conduit. I wonder if it works on human chanters...quite a few easy ship fights with enemy chanters where you could steal a lot of cool stuff. Also some bounties. Chants like "At the sight of their comrades their hearts grew bold" would be really useful, +10 fort / will. 

Hmm. I want to start another run. But what class...

[Not So Clever Hound]

On 1/4/2023 at 12:49 AM, Shai Hulud said:

What do you automate with forbidden fist? I haven't played monks much in POE2...or at all really. Forbidden Fist seemed kinda complicated. I can't think of what I'd be expiring for wounds besides like Hylea's Talons.

It's actually super simple.

The key is to have max RES and low/dumped INT, and manage your action speed through equipment, modals, abilities etc. so that your FF curse duration is very short and just shorter than your attack cycle time (e.g. 2.8s curse duration vs. 3.0s FF attack cycle time). That way you can never build up the curse (which would be lethal to you eventually) and you can keep spamming FF for unparalleled Healing (curse expires every couple seconds) + single target damage. Just have to watch out for debuffs/negative auras that can screw with your RES and % hostile effect reduction (e.g. auras from Elder Fire Bats can lower your RES by 2 points without save as long as you're in the AoE).

I had posted a couple builds using this if you're interested:

 

[dgray62]

On 1/3/2023 at 3:49 PM, Shai Hulud said:

Oh and random thing I discovered during this run, you can steal enemy chants when their alliance is flipped. I accidentally stole something called "Crunch the bones" 26 minutes in to Video 24 when I used Ringleader on an Eoten at Bekarna's Observatory. Does + ?% crushing damage for ? seconds (thanks Wael!) but apparently I extended it forever because I saw it later when I was trying to proc Conduit. I wonder if it works on human chanters...quite a few easy ship fights with enemy chanters where you could steal a lot of cool stuff. Also some bounties. Chants like "At the sight of their comrades their hearts grew bold" would be really useful, +10 fort / will. 

What exactly happens when you steal an enemy's chant? Does this cause you to have a permanent aura causing crushing damage?

[Shai Hulud]

35 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

What exactly happens when you steal an enemy's chant? Does this cause you to have a permanent aura causing crushing damage?

Unclear because I didn't have party members, but I didn't see the chant on Vela, while I did see it listed in my effects, so...my guess is I receive the benefits of the chant but am not saying the chant myself. In this case it gives like +20% crush damage or something (I did check at one point attacking an NPC and looking at the +damage modifiers and IIRC it was 20. ISH) Doesn't look like an aura that does crushing, just passively applies extra damage with crushing weapons and spells like minoletta's minor missiles.  Kind of limited but I did it completely by accident, didn't actually use ringleader much. I'm guessing you can steal any chant an enemy is using (of the form does X for Y sec) if you flip them and kill them last, but I haven't really tested it yet. 

---EDIT: To be clear I believe you steal the *effect* of the chant not the chant itself. Theoretically we can also steal the effects of certain invocations like "The Bridesman Slew Thirty" for +5 might/con/resolve, but you'd need a chanter to cast it on you, and since solo we can't directly control dominated enemies you just have to luck into their AI doing something beneficial...

@Not So Clever HoundThanks, first guy looks pretty beefy. You don't even have Scordeo's procced there do you? Kinda a one-trick pony I'm guessing though? Not that there's anything wrong with that if it's a really good trick. My guy's trick is to explode groups of enemies with soul annihilation.

I'm messing around with a pure blood mage at the moment. Been done a lot but I want to see what I can do with major grimoire imprint. Maybe steal Arkemyr's brilliant departure, writs of sorcery, writs of war, etc. Though the character is probably invulnerable already as soon as you find a priest with barring death's door. Might be too boring idk.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Not So Clever Hound]

6 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

Thanks, first guy looks pretty beefy. You don't even have Scordeo's procced there do you? Kinda a one-trick pony I'm guessing though? Not that there's anything wrong with that if it's a really good trick. My guy's trick is to explode groups of enemies with soul annihilation.

Indeed, it's a one trick (well, one punch) kinda build but it doesn't need Scordeo or anything prolonged via Strand of Favor etc. to win the day (those aren't available anyway as I'm currently using BPM with the nerf package installed as well). Probably not viable for Ultimate though, but that is not my personal currency for deciding if a build is solo worthy or not.

Pure Blood Mage can permasteal all kind of goodies like Crushing Doom and Skaen priest's Shadowing Beyond (hilarious to zapp around the battlefield and keep everybody permacrushed). Of course you can steal Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time to be invincible, but you still need to watch out somewhat for Arcane Dampener/Cleanse. Generally stealing offensive stuff isn't so good because you're casting non-wizard stolen spells at 0 Power Level.

That all being said, as gentleman and scholar of the Deadfire @Constentin Lévine discovered, you can simply cast Temporal Cocoon on yourself and extend the beneficial untargetable effect indefinitely while removing the Stun negative effect. So you can become completely invicible and untargetable at level 16 if you wish. God-like (as prolonging Vanishing Strike on an Assassin) but removes all challenge.

[Not So Clever Hound]

7 hours ago, dgray62 said:

What exactly happens when you steal an enemy's chant? Does this cause you to have a permanent aura causing crushing damage?

Could be fun to steal and prolong all the effects from Eoten and Ogres' chants. Especially the Eoten has a chant-like ability that regularly prones enemies I think (?) called "Knock You Down" but I'm not sure that's stealable, and I'm not even sure that's a chant. I might try to go do some clean up in Nemnok's lair sometime today and find out.

EDIT: obviously that wouldn't be stealable because you can only steal beneficial auras, but I would love to have a proning chant!  

Edited January 6, 2023 by Not So Clever Hound

[Shai Hulud]

44 minutes ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

Indeed, it's a one trick (well, one punch) kinda build but it doesn't need Scordeo or anything prolonged via Strand of Favor etc. to win the day (those aren't available anyway as I'm currently using BPM with the nerf package installed as well). Probably not viable for Ultimate though, but that is not my personal currency for deciding if a build is solo worthy or not.

Pure Blood Mage can permasteal all kind of goodies like Crushing Doom and Skaen priest's Shadowing Beyond (hilarious to zapp around the battlefield and keep everybody permacrushed). Of course you can steal Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time to be invincible, but you still need to watch out somewhat for Arcane Dampener/Cleanse. Generally stealing offensive stuff isn't so good because you're casting non-wizard stolen spells at 0 Power Level.

That all being said, as gentleman and scholar of the Deadfire @Constentin Lévine discovered, you can simply cast Temporal Cocoon on yourself and extend the beneficial untargetable effect indefinitely while removing the Stun negative effect. So you can become completely invicible and untargetable at level 16 if you wish. God-like (as prolonging Vanishing Strike on an Assassin) but removes all challenge.

Yeah I just hit 16. Mostly looking to steal wizard uniques and priest spells I havent used like woedica writs. 

Takes a long time to steal spells sadly. Especially with major Grimoire imprint, because it not only steals 4 to 7 spells but apparently 1 to 3 also so you're looking for a specific spell you might have to cast dozens of times.

I think ill like my hierophant build better. Even if I become unkillable with blood mage my offense seems relatively slow and weak.

Escape (aka poor man's shadowing beyond) works well enough with high defenses. With borrowed instinct and robust I have fortitude like 220, will 230. The build is almost invincible, provided you keep the spells you need up, which isn't too hard with a script. I had no problems in combat after L13 or so, by L20 (earlier) can autopilot every fight. Except maybe guardian of ukaizo because I didn't rest and have only done it twice, but probably that one is fine just need to refine script for boss battles to zerg the guardian rather than go after the mooks...

L16 blood mage is taking a lot longer in fights. Dying also but I've yet to grab the broken stuff. Will be harder to script too. 

If you spam shadowing beyond will enemies still cast arcane dampener? And can you extend potion effects indefinitely? Might be amusing to stack everything and play God mode for a bit.

I haven't tried the balance mod. I can't help but play games at hardest setting and I wonder with nerfs if it is even doable without every fight being a grind fest. I generally dislike nerfs in single player games unless something is game breaking. SOF or SOTP for example make a borderline impossible challenge just hard. And if I can perma extend brilliant vs waiting ages for a fire blight to 1% spawn and then 1% proc brilliant to set up wall of draining etc, i won't want to bash my head in.

Hmm...

Probably just replay DOS2 when I get bored with the blood mage. That game is better in most ways, but it is a bit less challenging. Already did a solo tactician honor run (witch).

Maybe BG2. It's been a while. BG3 coming out soon but doesn't feel like BG imo...

Not many good rpgs these days is there? Pillars, divinity, pathfinder...that's pretty much it.

And I'm totally rambling. Need sleep.

[Waski]

@Shai Huludsc bloodmage is easy mode past lv16 just don't dump resolve and start fight by casting coocon on yourself (just sneak close to enemy), paralyzed is shortened by RES, untargetable not (beneficial) so you will have few sec to extend it with WoD. Throw some healing from gloves and you're guccci.

[Not So Clever Hound]

1 hour ago, Shai Hulud said:

L16 blood mage is taking a lot longer in fights.

IMO SC Blood Mage is more fun to play as a supernova orbital strike build on standard PotD than on Upscaled, because there is a big difference in damage output caused by increased armor rating and higher defenses for enemies. On Upscaled, a lot of enemies have their highest defense (usually FORT) in the 130-140 range and have armor rating in the 15-16 range, or higher. Both of those things have increasing returns on survivability past a certain point (-75% dmg from severe underpen and/or -50% from grazes). So that really hurts the damage output of the BM, because spell accuracy and spell penetration scale a lot slower than weapons and reach a ceiling way earlier. And if you keep spamming spells to debuff defenses and decrease AR, that's time spent not dealing damage anyway...

1 hour ago, Shai Hulud said:

And can you extend potion effects indefinitely?

Yes you can, e.g. Final Stand + Wall of Draining is a poor man's Barring Death Door + Salvation of Time

1 hour ago, Shai Hulud said:

If you spam shadowing beyond will enemies still cast arcane dampener?

They'll try, but you can make it so that it always misses you.

1 hour ago, Shai Hulud said:

I haven't tried the balance mod. I can't help but play games at hardest setting and I wonder with nerfs if it is even doable without every fight being a grind fest.

BPM has actually renewed my interest in the game as I'm trying to find solo builds that can still come out on top even with all the BPM nerfs. But yeah they tend to be a bit more grindy  I might post one other BPM build soon, I'm testing it in all the late game hard fights currently.

1 hour ago, Shai Hulud said:

Maybe BG2. It's been a while. BG3 coming out soon but doesn't feel like BG imo...

Not many good rpgs these days is there? Pillars, divinity, pathfinder...that's pretty much it.

I did a BG2 Wild Mage run recently, after literally 15 years thinking I should do one  it was fun.

Have you tried Tyranny? I started playing it, then stopped a while ago. I always want to come back to it because it really has something, but I loathe the cooldown mechanic which makes solo battles incredibly sluggish, at least in the beginning.

[Shai Hulud]

18 hours ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

IMO SC Blood Mage is more fun to play as a supernova orbital strike build on standard PotD than on Upscaled, because there is a big difference in damage output caused by increased armor rating and higher defenses for enemies. On Upscaled, a lot of enemies have their highest defense (usually FORT) in the 130-140 range and have armor rating in the 15-16 range, or higher. Both of those things have increasing returns on survivability past a certain point (-75% dmg from severe underpen and/or -50% from grazes). So that really hurts the damage output of the BM, because spell accuracy and spell penetration scale a lot slower than weapons and reach a ceiling way earlier. And if you keep spamming spells to debuff defenses and decrease AR, that's time spent not dealing damage anyway...

Yes you can, e.g. Final Stand + Wall of Draining is a poor man's Barring Death Door + Salvation of Time

They'll try, but you can make it so that it always misses you.

BPM has actually renewed my interest in the game as I'm trying to find solo builds that can still come out on top even with all the BPM nerfs. But yeah they tend to be a bit more grindy  I might post one other BPM build soon, I'm testing it in all the late game hard fights currently.

I did a BG2 Wild Mage run recently, after literally 15 years thinking I should do one  it was fun.

Have you tried Tyranny? I started playing it, then stopped a while ago. I always want to come back to it because it really has something, but I loathe the cooldown mechanic which makes solo battles incredibly sluggish, at least in the beginning.

Regarding extending potions I meant could you extend them past the battle and make them permanent... I seem to recall a video by raven darkholme where he said something like when an effect reaches 20000 seconds it becomes permanent. Of course that would take forever with wall of draining but if you spam salvation of time 20k seconds wouldn't take more than a minute or two. 

Yeah you're right about upscaled armor and fort etc. Deflection is almost always lowest stat, still don't understand why they changed resolve to give 1 deflection and perception 1 accuracy vs 2 in the original. Means on upscale POTD the easiest thing to do is usually to beat things to death because your nuke spells miss, graze, and underpen a ton. Tried fighting the messenger at l14 or so and with BM it was impossible. He healed faster than I could damage him even with eliminating recovery 97%. Eventually I figured out to hit him with combusting wounds and spam minoletta's minor missiles and that shredded him, but lot of fights are like that where I just can't do damage very fast. 

Part of why hierophant is so good is the +20 acc from borrowed instinct means fewer grazes, plus hammering thoughts is universal +1 pen. Makes a big difference especially since the cipher buff / debuff spells are super fast casts compared to e.g. expose vulnerability. Plus with soul blade you can just zerg things with raw damage.

I've replayed BG2 so many times. Many thousands of hours. I got bored and started messing with the scripting engine, wrote a near universal script that could solo every encounter. Didnt test it for all classes but it worked for about a dozen runs (tweaking the script while playing). You can script chars to switch from ranged to melee based on distance and prioritize enemies based on thousands of conditions. Rather complex really. Lost the script unfortunately when my last PC died. Haven't played the game in maybe six years though, maybe its been long enough Id enjoy just playing it. I always wanna do something broken like kensai/mage, sorcerer, fighter/mage/thief or ranger/cleric though. Never did a wild mage.

I bought tyranny and tried to get into it but am 2 for 2 in abandoning the run. The plot didn't grab me and the mechanics seem kind of weird. Probably play it eventually.

Crossing fingers this actually posts, wrote it on my phone while playing poker.

[Not So Clever Hound]

14 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

Never did a wild mage.

Wild Mage is actually the most broken thing because if you double cast Nahal's Reckless Dweomer via a hotkey, you can cast all spells in your spellbook (even the ones beyond your current level) for as long as you want as if you had unlimited casts and Improved Alacrity, and only the first 2 of those casts trigger a Wild Surge roll. It's really ridiculously powerful from BG1 to the end of ToB.

[Shai Hulud]

7 hours ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

Wild Mage is actually the most broken thing because if you double cast Nahal's Reckless Dweomer via a hotkey, you can cast all spells in your spellbook (even the ones beyond your current level) for as long as you want as if you had unlimited casts and Improved Alacrity, and only the first 2 of those casts trigger a Wild Surge roll. It's really ridiculously powerful from BG1 to the end of ToB.

Hmm that's clearly a bug but I wasn't aware of it. Was wild mage an enhanced edition add? I dont really remember it back in the day. 

Mage/thief and fighter/mage/thief are pretty ridiculous because for example you can cast mislead and park yourself in another room while your image backstabs over and over and the true seeing doesn't work iirc because you're out of range. 

Or sorcerer / wizard with project inage gives you a copy of the spellbook so you can cast however many project images you have worth of spellbooks. 

Lots of fun cheesy stuff like that but I've forgotten a lot. I like ranger/cleric because in the original at least he incorrectly got access to both druid and cleric tables so you get iron skins (yay!), insect plague and all the cleric goodies like DUHM. Like a fighter/mage/cleric but better in every way except I dont think rangers get grand mastery in unmodded game. 

Really want to play it again but I've been wasting too much time playing video games lately. My day job (playing poker, being generous calling it a job) let's me just take weeks off when I feel like it to, say, do an ultimate run in poe2, but it is a double edge sword of temptation. 

Also gotta remember the huge list of mods I use. I prefer the original with tons of mods over "enhanced edition" which is basically original with the graphics mods. 

I'm going to do it next time I take a break from work. Think I'll do it without scripts. Maybe even use a party! Korgan, Vicky, Edwin, Jan, Mazzy. For some reason the evil characters are best in class, except Mazzy, but she has no problem with the evil characters unlike the other goodie goodies. Imoen is better than Jan but Jan is hilariously insane so he is a must. Sir Anomen if he passes his test is really good but he gets in fights with everyone. Kinda wish POE did that. Would love seeing Maia and Tekehu or Serafen and Aloth kill each other instead of just bicker. 

[mjo2138]

@Shai Hulud Thanks for sharing this build! Do you use the No Forced Rest Mod?  I am thinking of not using it, but it is really annoying to lose bonuses during forced rests. On the other hand, I am trying to play the game as 'vanilla' as possible. 

[Shai Hulud]

On 1/8/2023 at 10:35 AM, mjo2138 said:

@Shai Hulud Thanks for sharing this build! Do you use the No Forced Rest Mod?  I am thinking of not using it, but it is really annoying to lose bonuses during forced rests. On the other hand, I am trying to play the game as 'vanilla' as possible. 

I tried responding the day of your comment but I haven't been able to post in the forum for weeks. Always get an error message. Been testing once a day or so.  Maybe it'll work this time.

-----------
I was formerly using the mod but it gave me some bad habits and it isn't really necessary if you know where the forced rests are. There's only one forced rest that you can't avoid (when you land on Ukaizo) so pack a lunch and you'll be fine. I forgot about that forced rest in my playthrough and nearly died there because the mods are turned off for the ultimate and that was the only one I'd been using.

In SSS you have to do Slayer's Path or you get a forced rest. That's the other major one. The changeling fight on Slayer's path can be annoying on iron runs so that's also a consideration, but I figured out how to do it consistently without vela getting killed. You MUST start in sneak and invisible (I think), else the cipher rushes Vela, you'll be forced to defend her there, and she'll die pretty often when the ranger and/or rogue target her. So instead start from stealth and you circle around to get Vela behind you and kill the enemies which tend to target Vela over you, mainly the ranger and rogue, after that you're fine. Also for rests, avoid plagued ships, storms, etc., don't do the quest Dirty Laundry (you lose your bonuses for some unknown reason), don't rest at shrines besides exactly Bleackrock Shrine once or the Teo Ramunga shrine once. You get interrupted during the "pray and rest" so you don't actually rest, and you get the resolve / con +2 blessing. They don't stack though, they seem to remove each other. I managed to get all three (bleakrock, teo ramunga, and amira encounter) exactly once, but I haven't figured out how to reproduce it. I figured you had to do them in a certain order but I'm pretty sure I've tried every combination. I'd just skip Teo Ramunga. That one sometimes forces a rest also depending on what time it is when you get there. Bleakrock never forces one if it's your first attempt to pray and rest. Teo Ramunga you have to be interrupted by some aumaua but unlike the slavers at Bleakrock they don't always show up and I'm not sure what their hours are. 

Might be worth the forced rest in SSS to do Seeker's Path with this build because the sword you get (Seeker's Fang) is absolutely ridiculous if you bind it as a cipher. Spider's Patience does "raw damage per 1 second on scoring crit (damage scales with cipher's current focus)". Since our focus is stupid high you end up doing several thousand damage per strike, about 500 to 600 in the first tick. I didn't take it because I didn't want to lose rest bonuses and Abydon's challenge was on so using weapons is kind of annoying, but in SSS you can get all the top tier foods in the champion's stand so it might be worth it especially if you don't have on Abydon.

But...I prefer Citzal's Lance. By the time you have procced conduit you do about 200 damage per hit per target, far far more when using soul annihilation, so while its single target damage is lower than Spider's Patience, it handles groups better and is still plenty strong. Spider's Patience would be better for bosses but they generally aren't a problem regardless. 

[Shai Hulud]

And I've been wanting to add a pic of what the build looks like in-combat, so I'm taking advantage of this possibly brief moment where I can actually post. This is with scripted buffs procced. And I realized Llengrath's Safeguard does very little for this build. The defenses don't stack with borrowed instinct, and the armor doesn't stack with ironskin, so its sole purpose is the emergency AOE attack. Its duration is WAY longer than Borrowed Instinct, though, particularly when it doesn't crit, so still worth the cast in some battles but I probably should take it out of the script. And if anyone wanted to see the script I can put that up too, though it would take a lot of screenshots so I'd probably need to upload the script itself.

 

[Okkes]

There is a hide helmet option if you re not noticed

 

 

[Shai Hulud]

On 1/19/2023 at 12:41 PM, Okkes said:

There is a hide helmet option if you re not noticed

 

 

What you don't like the insane jester wizard chic?