[CLASS BUILD] The Pindown Poet - overbearing mob'n boss disabler

[Boeroer]

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we discuss 5 builds for Deadfire. This is build 3 of 5 from that collaboration.
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This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. 
I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post
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orn aboard the creaking decks of a ship, Roberto Dilani was raised in the cutthroat world of the Deadfire Archipelago’s biggest pirate faction, the Principi sen Patrina. His mother, a ruthless weather mage with aspirations of command, and his father, a famed marksman who wielded an arbalest with deadly precision, instilled in him the cunning of a pirate, curiosity for the arcane and the artistry of ranged combat. Roberto grew up with a mind as sharp as his aim, constantly honing his ability to strike from afar with unerring accuracy.

Early in his youth, Roberto saved a little piglet from the ship's cook and named him "Tartufo" and the two became close friends despite Tartufo's pretty overwhelming odor. Roberto also discovered his talents as an Arcane Archer, able to weave magic into the very bolts he fired from his heirloom arbalest passed down from his father. The weapon was renowned for its ability to break enemy lines with crushing force, and in Roberto's hands, it became even more dangerous, as his magical prowess allowed him to overwhelm foes with staggering shots of power and precision.

Loving the songs and shanties that were sung on deck he also grew into a skilled Troubadour, learning to use his voice and lyrics not only to inspire his crew but also to further enchant his shots. His ability to suppress and take out helmsmen or even captains on enemy ships earned him the nickname "Pindown Poet". Roberto acted with cunning and strategy, using his arbalest to pin down dangerous foes while his crew took control of the seas.

Though loyal to the Principi, Roberto's ambitions reached beyond petty plunder. He dreamed of exploring the world beyond the archipelago, using his deadly mix of arcane powers, song, and steel to carve a legacy that will be spoken of in taverns for generations. He believes that with an arbalest in hand and the legends of old as his guide, he can shape not only his own future but the fate of the Principi itself.

"Hey, Mr. Arbalest Man, sing a song for us
We're not sleepy and there is no place we're going to
Hey, Mr. mouthy Helmsman, I'll sing a song for you
and the spear I cast will put you on your arse."
- Roberto while spanning his arbalest during a boarding fight -



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The Pindown Poet
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Difficulty: PotD
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Solo: untested
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Class: Wildrhymer - Arcane Archer/Troubadour
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Race: Wood Elf (or any non-godlike, e.g. Boreal Dwarf)
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Background: Old Vailia (or any, e.g. White that Wends) - Mercenary (or any, e.g. Mystic bc. +Arcana)
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Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings. ★=recommendation)
MIG: 11
CON: 08
DEX: 18 (17 + 1 Elf) ★★
PER: 18 (17 +1 Elf) ★
INT: 19 (18 + 1 Old Vailia) ★★
RES: 04
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the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod

Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies  - (!=important, r=recommended)

00. Brisk Recitation (a)
01. Not Felled By the Axe + Dull the Edge + Imbue: Missiles (a) + Marked Prey (r) | Arbalest (!) + Rod (r)
02. Fast Runner  | +1 Arcana(!) (->2), +1 Survival (->2)
03. Arms Bearer (r) (Shattered Vengeance for Coordinated Escape) | +1 Arcana(!) (->3), +1 Survival (->3)
04. Two-Handed Style +Gunner (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->4), +1 Survival (->4) | Large Shield
05. Marksman (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->5), +1 Survival (->5)
06. Protective Companion (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->6), +1 Survival (->6)
07. Sure-Handed Ila (!) + Imbue: Web (a) + Evasive Roll (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->7), +1 Survival (->7)
08. Marked for the Hunt | +1 Arcana(!) (->8), +1 Survival (->8) | Arquebus
09. Resilient Companion | +1 Arcana(!) (->9), +1 Survival (->9)
10. Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir (r) + Stalker's Link (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->10), +1 Survival (->10)
11. Rise Again, Rise Again (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->11), +1 Survival (->11)
12. Nor Flame, Nor Thrusted Blade | +1 Arcana(!) (->12), +1 Survival (->12) | Club
13. The Lover Cried Out (r) + Imbue: Fireball (a) + Driving Flight (!) | +1 Arcana(!) (->13), +1 Survival (->13)
14. Master's Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->14), +1 Survival (->14)
15. Spell Shaping | +1 Arcana(!) (->15), +1 Survival (->15)
16. And Face your Foes + Survival of the Fittest (r) | +1 Arcana(!) (->16), +1 Survival (->16) | Dagger
17. The Bride Caught | +1 Arcana(!) (->17), +1 Survival (->17)
18. Tough | +1 Arcana(!) (->18), +1 Survival (->18)
19. Called to His Bidding (r) + Imbue: Eora (a) + Furious Call | +1 Arcana(!) (->19), +1 Survival (->19)
20. Set to their Purpose | +1 Arcana(!) (->20), +1 Survival (->20) | Pistol
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Items (!=important, r=recommended)

Weapon Set 1: Spearcaster (! - +Legendary, Elemental Bolts, +Pinning)
Weapon Set 2: Watershaper's Focus (r - best weapon for imbued shots, +Ondrath's Wrath, +Legendary)
Weapon Set 3: Shattered Vengeance (r - +Coordinated Escape), Large Shield (any, +Superb)

Head: Acina's Tricorn (r - +Acc and +reloading speed)
Back: Ruata's Walking Cloak (skill Survival for ++stride)
Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon (+reloading speed on crit)
Armor: Sharpshooter's Garb (r, reloadin speed, +Legendary, +Low Profile, +Steel Threaded)
Waist: Huana Charm Belt (+stride) or Spellkeeper (get a free scroll per rest: profit from high Arcana)
Hands: Aegor's Swift Touch (+reloading speed) or Firethrower's Gloves (+reloading speed and +Arcana)  
Rings: Ring of the Marksman (r), Camaeleon's Touch (+1 PER, +1 INT to reach INT 20 for overlapping phrases)
Boots: Boots of Speed (+stride, stacks with belt and cloak)
Pet: Epsilon (-armor recovery, +stride)

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What is this build about:

• reaching very high accuracy and reducing your reloading time with arbalests so much that you can use the arbalest's modal "Overbearing Shots" to prone and interrupt single enemies (or two enemies with Driving Flight) every few seconds, essentially taking them out of the fight - depite the modal's -25% action speed.
• combine that with powerful AoE CC capabilities that have very high accuracy (mostly Imbue:Web + Imbue: Eora)
• High accuracy is achieved with Spearcaster + maxed Arcana skill + Ranger’s accuracy abilities and the Arcane Archer’s Imbue shots - which profit from Arcana, too
• very high reloading speed with no fuzz is achieved with Gunner (Ranger) and Sure-Handed Ila (Chanter) as well as high DEX and items (such as Maia’s Armor, Acina’s Tricorn, pet etc.) and cosumables (mostly food from resting). Sure-Handed Ila applies its -20% recovery time buff twice(!) to reloading weapons such as the arquebus. As long as you sing phrases you’ll always have three times -20% reloading time just from those two abilities (Gunner and Sure-Handed Ila).
• add Aefyllath Ues Myth Fir to give the party and yourself a burning lash for all weapon attacks. 19 INT +1 INT from items (like Chamaeleons Touch) makes sure your Troubadour phrases will have no gaps. You will not use Brisk Recitation most of times
• Spearcaster can cause “immobilized” on hit (in addition to prone enemies with the modal) - so you are combining the prone effect with being stuck. And all you have to do is just by using rapid auto-attack
• against mobs use Imbue:Web and later Imbue:Eora which together create a zone of incredibly powerful pulsing CC which immobilizes and then pulls enemy into the center. Most enemies cannot escape from this. Imbue effects get triggered with every projectile jump(!). This means Driving Flight adds another proc of Binding Web and Pull of Eora. If you can add another jump you'll get another proc. This is the reason why I'm using Watershaper's Focus ()it has an innate projectile jump that stacks with Driving Flight. If I use the rod's modal "Blast" I can add 3*AoE damage to the imbue shot and also I raise the chance to proc "Ondrath's Wrath" which is a high damage AoE water splash. Blast causes very long recovery. But if I fire the first imbue shot from stealth I'll have 80% recovery bonus which means the second imbue shot can follow quickly. After that I switch to Spearcaster and take out single dangerous enemies.  
• it’s the perfect setup for allied casters and other AoE damage dealers who can now hit a lot of enemies at the same time
• give your main tank an item that grants immunity to push and pull effects (Upright Captain's Belt or Horns of the Aurochs) to negate the effect of Pull of Eora and give the tank immunity or resistance vs. DEX afflictions (Spider Silk robes, Shark Soup, Gwyn's Bridal Garter, Engwithan Bracers, Cipher's Shackle, Boots of the White...) or Reflex attacks (Edér's Saint's War Armor: Veteran's Maneuver)
• singular enemies like bosses can be taken out of the fight with prone&pin auto-attacks. Because of the fast reload and the burning lash (and the small lashes of the arbalest itself) you deal good damage - although your main focus is constant disabling/CC
• due to the fact that Animal Companions do not suffer injuries when they get knocked out - and the fact that Chanters can revive allies unlimited times (if no injury occurs) you don’t have to worry about a dead Animal Companion. Just revive! Since I am not using invocations all the time but only in special situations and because I can always cancel reloading the reactivity is superb.
• if Animal Companion is revived it even gets a defense boost. 
• In addition I get the usefulness of Chanter invocations in general. You could add more summons like wurms to your offensive arsenal in the early game or use the White Worms invocation fropm afar - you could use the resitance chants instead of Myth Fir and so on.
• Almost always able to retreat from melee attackers safely (see below).
• A non-Arcane Archer variant that might want to focus on single targets more could also look at crossbows instead of arbalests. They interrupt but don't get the prone effect, but the 10% crit conversion on crossbows is actually universal, meaning it applies to all your attack rolls (including spells). They are also a bit faster of course. Fleetbreaker is an excellent crossbow (if you want to support Cpt. Furrante that is, otherwise it's not accessible) an the late game crossbow Scourge of Bezello is like it's made for a Ranger/Chanter character with its overall theme and especially with its 3 projectiles: each of them can interrupt with the crossbow modal, making it supereasy to strip a target of all concentration and interrupting it very reliably. Thanks to @Elric Galad for pointing this out.

Issues:

• like your party members your Animal Companion should not enter the zone of absolute CC - so you can often only use it as your bodyguard. Because of Stalker's Link and Marked Prey it’s still very useful against bosses etc. when you usually don't use imbued CC shots a lot. 
• If you use a tank (which I recommend) you should add immunity to push&pull effects on that tank as well as resistance or even immunity to dexterity afflictions as I said above. Else your tank will be stuck and tossed around as well.
• the Trouabdour side is mostly there for the chants, not the invocations (no Brisk Recitation). If you use an invocation your chanting will stop briefly, robbing your of the reloading bonus of Sure-Handed Ila.
• although it’s quite versatile for a ranged weapon build: it completely lacks melee capabilities (except with the Animal Companion). Usually you have to bolt if you get attacked. Your defenses will not be great and your health rel. low, too. To be able to retreat safely you cannot get hit by disengagement attacks. I do three different things when I get attacked by melee enemies:
  • if it's only one I will just shoot him down (prone/stuck) until dead
  • if it's more than one attacker I will try to charm at least one of them with an emergeny invocation. If I hit all of them I can run away safely with high stride (from boots, cloak, Fast Runner and so on).
    • if one or more enemies cannot be charmed (but at least one is) I switch to my third weapon set (Shattered Vegeance + large shield). With my Animal Companion at my side and a at least one enemy charmed I get "Coordinated Escape" which makes me immune to engagement (if I'n near 2 or more allies, animal companions and charmed enemies count), letting me run away safely.
  • if I cannot charm enough enemies and/or my animal companion is not near I use Evasive Roll
• if I get shot or cast at and cannot disable the attacker myself I will switch to large shield + modal (greatly reduces AoE and ranged dmg) and use Evasive Roll to get out of the situation.
• it is true that you can achieve the same with any Trouabdour in the party and another Arcane-Archer-multiclass (for example Cipher/Arcane Archer, Rogue/Arcane Archer, Monk/Arcane Archer or Paladin/Arcane Archer). This build however is the best "self-contained" version that doesn't require taking in a separate Trouabdour.   

Why is it fun?

• it’s easy to play because it doesn’t require a lot of setup: you just start combat and everything you need is right there. Shoot and immediate result - the enemy’s down. Blast and the mob is conentrated and controlled
• the swirling field of utter CC is so impactful and makes you feel quite powerful. It happens in an instant - unlike usual spellcasting which take a rather long time to complete
• it’s great against mobs AND single foes at the same time. It never feels useless
• seeing enemies getting pushed over all the time - right when they get up again - is fun
• it doesn’t need a lot of levels to become impactful: you can prone almost every enemy right away (albeit much slower at the beginning due to the lack of reload bonuses) and you can get Spearcaster and most of the other gear pretty early in the game
• you can maneuver yourself out of a pinch easily. Usually you will sit on phrases because the focus is on the chants - but if you need an invocation asap you have the full amount of phrases and can react immediately. It helps that with reloading weapons you can just cancel the reloading (unlike recovery) so you can react very quickly. Having great reactiveness is fun 

 

Hope you enjoy!
Cheers!

Edited September 27 by Boeroer
Added video link

[Boeroer]

What makes builds fun for me?

• they are powerful/impactful (enough) - there's no fun if your character feels like a millstone around the party’s neck
• they don’t need late game gear to function - although getting late game gear to improve them can be a motivation. But having to wait forever in order to make your character click for the last hour of the game can be frustrating
• you don’t have to wait for late game abilities for them to be fun to play ad impactful (same as above) - although having the goal of reaching a great high lvl ability can add to the fun and motivation. Even at lvl 20 (if you have DLCs installed) there's still a good amount of game left to enjoy the highest lvl abilities
• they don’t need a lot of repetitive setups in every fight - that's not as much of a problem if that’s easy to script though (although I personally don't like to use the AI with my MC) but for example: if you need to manually switch several grimoires at the beginnig of the fight the fun will not last and you will stop doing that quickly. If your character's performance relies on that switching you most likely won't feel okay with this character
• No overpowered 1-trick ponies (at least not too early in the game). It’s okay if that happens in the late game, but it ruins the playthrough if you can win every fight with the same trick and the same character - while the rest of the party is only there to watch (looking at you, Grave-Calling Berserker/Beckoner)
• Good reactivity - it gets frustrating if the character plays like a slowpoke but would profit a lot from being more reactive. This can also mean using a reloading weapon is better than using a recovery weapon (reloading can be stopped for other actions, recovery cannot)
• fits the party - best if it fits a lot of party compositions and doesn't need a party build around it. But sometimes that can be fun, too. Anyway: it's no fun to use a build which mechanics don't blend into the others'
• not too much micromanagement - but also not too little. For companions low micro can be great - for my MC I like to (reasonably) micromanage and use active abilites manually.
• this leads to plenty (or even unlimited) resources. I personally like it if resources can be refilled somehow or costs can get refunded. Can also mean the resources are fixed but there are great abilities that aren't too expensive
• general versatility - being good at/useful for more than one single thing
• craftiness/creativity of the build (something to be proud of when a build idea does indeed work)
• out-of the ordinary/original (there's not much exitement when taking a well-trodden path)
• good character story (at least in my head) so it’s not a blank slate. An emotional connection does help a lot. And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use.  
• thematically coherent and somewhat believable
• stylish/cool/badass
• good/entertaining sound effects (surprisingly important!)
• good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)   

Edited September 11 by Boeroer

[thelee]

i love how you have backgrounds and themes to go along with these.

the extent of my thought tends to be "wouldn't it be neat if i used sworn enemy to buff my spell damage"

Edited September 11 by thelee

[Boeroer]

Hehe, yeah - I start with such thoughts as well.

[Chaospread]

14 hours ago, thelee said:

i love how you have backgrounds and themes to go along with these.

the extent of my thought tends to be "wouldn't it be neat if i used sworn enemy to buff my spell damage"

Do we have to wish for a true MULTI class with "n" greater than 2 so we can be a chanter/ranger/paladin? We need a mod for that!

[Chaospread]

Still a great wonderfuld build - Nobody has doubts about that
But, do you use any different icons set? I can't catch some of those in your chanter and ranger abilities tree.

I suppose your animal companion is a boar (Tartufo for sure), but I put it explicitly in the build definition Since this char needs (at least I understand so), why not a "defensive" companion such as a lion (disabling through terrify) or antelope/bear for defensive stats?

Last but not least:

17 hours ago, Boeroer said:

And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use.  

So do you are telling us you write a story for the forum and you are instead using another "private" story? No problem for me, it's only for curiosity and to understand if I catch that right way Oh, and I don't wanna know the "real" story

[Elric Galad]

What about Scourge of Bezzelo? Ok it's super endgame, but I think it worth mentionning at least for the ooze mega boss. 

Triple roll to interrupt, digging into any concentration in the process feels really in line with the logic of the build. 

Also fits the Lore! 

Edited September 15 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

Yes, it's good. Also nicely themed for a Chanter. 

A lot less accuracy though (has a build-in -10 ACC and doesn't profit from Arcana like Spearcaster does) - but potentially three interrupts in a row. 

Spearcaster fits very well for an Arcane Archer (thematically), is early accessible, causes prone, stuck and has a knockback effect on top of the higher accuracy - so I consider it the better pick with this build.

For a somewhat similar build that doesn't use Arcane Archer but maybe Ghost Heart or so - and doesn't skill Arcana and also likes crossbows more (I mean there's the universal crit conversion for all your atttacks, too) - Scourge of Bezello could be great. 

When I have time I can edit the build description accordingly. 

I hate it a bit that the best crossbows are either gated behind a certain quest outcome or come superlate. Should make a mule char that carries Furrante's crossbow so that it's cool to "skill" for crossbows right from the start. 

 

Edited September 15 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

23 hours ago, Boeroer said:

 so I consider it the better pick with this build.

I wouldn't argue against this. That said, it is not like you have to choose once and for all. You can keep Spearcaster most of the time and swap Scourge for the couple of fights when it could be relevant (which is probably limited to Ooze Megaboss, and maybe Belranga and her habit to stack Concentration points on her head (there might be better way, such the Tongue chant). I also like multihits weapon to guarantee hitting those obeslisks with Tranquilizing Shot, that you haven't picked, even if it does no damages). 

All what it costs is like 1 proficiency point anyway.

 

By the way, does multiple Interrupt stacks ? In my understanding, only if you're close to the end of a single big recovery.

[Boeroer]

3 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

By the way, does multiple Interrupt stacks ? In my understanding, only if you're close to the end of a single big recovery.

I don't really know. I see the value in stripping Concentration or making really really sure you interrupt. 

[thelee]

On 9/16/2024 at 7:54 AM, Boeroer said:

I don't really know. I see the value in stripping Concentration or making really really sure you interrupt. 

lucky for you guys i dug into this quite a bit: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/interrupts-vs-concentration
 

On 9/16/2024 at 4:30 AM, Elric Galad said:

By the way, does multiple Interrupt stacks ? In my understanding, only if you're close to the end of a single big recovery.

kinda sorta

TL;DR - interrupts do stack and add 2s of recovery per interrupt, but only up to max(current recovery time, 2s). it does mean that against a target with fast recovery (like a light melee weapon dual-wielder), a minor esports-like high-apm optimization a player could do is space out interrupt attacks options to make sure they don't land all at once, but instead every half second or so. if they land all at once, you "waste" them, but spaced out a bit you can probably interrupt lock even really fast targets.

edit: disorient/blind is very useful for interrupt strategies because on top of their other benefits, the slower recovery time penalty guarantees more interrupt stacking on even fast targets (it even increases the baseline 2s maximum to 3s). on a particularly slow target like an ogre that's been disoriented/blinded, you can clearly see each interrupt adding to the recovery bar, and someone like a dual-wielding rogue with an interrupt ability you'll see it get added in two clear chunks.

Edited September 17 by thelee

[Elric Galad]

On 9/18/2024 at 1:13 AM, thelee said:

it does mean that against a target with fast recovery (like a light melee weapon dual-wielder), a minor esports-like high-apm optimization a player could do is space out interrupt attacks options to make sure they don't land all at once, but instead every half second or so. if they land all at once, you "waste" them, but spaced out a bit you can probably interrupt lock even really fast targets.

And I'm not even considering TB playerbase 

Edited September 23 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

I didn't even know how Soulcalibur plays... had to google that.

[Elric Galad]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I didn't even know how Soulcalibur plays... had to google that.

I think it is the only game of the genre that I ever bought. 

Because they have swwwwoooorrrdss

Edited September 24 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

I added the link to the YouTube video to the build post. Here it is again: