Greetings! I've returned yet again to seek advice from the esteemed PoE community.

It's time for me to plan another character for a full PoE1 -> Deadfire run.
This means that the Base Attributes should not change from the first game to the second game.

Usually I prioritize role-play over power-gaming, but that doesn't mean that I don't wish to optimize the build within the conceptual role-play limits.
For a long time now I've been thinking about Beastmaster.

For this playthrough I'm thinking of choosing:

PoE1: Druid with boar spiritshift

who inbetween the two games found a boar companion and thus acquired some ranger skills, thus:

Deadfire: Beastmaster (druid/ranger) with Boar companion.

In fact for PoE1 I'm going to use the Vigorous Warthog build by @Boeroer with slight attribute changes.
But the way I see it, one of the main points of this build is doing consistent unarmed damage, and this is not easily replicated in Deadfire due to change in some game mechanics.

However, ideally, I would like to keep at least a little bit of build consistency in transitioning from PoE1 to Deadfire (keeping Storm spells, etc.)

So I came here to ask for advice/insights on how to optimize a build within my role-playing concept limitations.
Here are the main considerations and questions.

A. Unchangeable traits that I would like to preserve for RP-reasons in my Deadfire run:

• Boreal Dwarf from Naasitaq (culture: Deadfire);

• Beastmaster: Shifter druid + Stalker ranger;

• Focus on Boar spiritshift form (with its enhanced DOT) + Boar ranger companion + Baby Boar pet (Attacks Interrupt with Melee weapons) and Cutthroat Cosmo before that.

• Base starting attributes should be STR:20 and INT:16, the rest is up to discussion.

B. More context:

I usually play on POTD with a full party without enemy scaling.

Companions will likely be:
Vatnir
Fassina
Konstanten (with The Willbraker morningstar + Body Blows modal)
Eder (who at some point will have Nalvi pet that reduces recovery penalty for armor for the entire party) or maybe Mirke.

The way I see it I will mostly be alternating casting with fighting in spiritshift form.

The rest of the level-up points will mainly go into pet upgrades, ranger accuracy boosts and generic character upgrades.



C. My questions:

1. How to prioritize base stat spread so that it would be viable both in PoE1 and Deadfire?

(I will use +2 bonus attributes from Berath Blessings, but they are not factored in the figures below)

MIG 20
CON 10
DEX 14 (???)
PER 10 (???)
INT 16
RES 08

Should I favor Action Speed from DEX over Accuracy from PER?
As a ranger I will eventually get a lot of accuracy bonuses, but they are mainly single-target-only. Will low-ish PER severely impact my AOE spell-accuracy?
Conversely, most offensive druid spells have long cast times - will I benefit more from favoring DEX over PER in this case? And get more mileage from spiritshift melee attack speed as well?

2. Which Wildstrike Ability is better in this case?

I would like to maintain Wildstrike Shock from PoE1 for character integrity reasons. Is it a significant upgrade
But Wildstrike Fire also seems like a nice option if the Ring of Focused Flames boosts accuracy of spiritshift attacks with it. Does it work like that?
(Also Firebrand becomes an option as pointed out in the Big Game Hunter build by @thelee )
So then: Heart of The Storm or Scion of Fame?

3. What gear might be intersting to use?

The Changeling's Mantle and Survivor's Tusks for thematic coolness factor (and not much else).

Lord Darryn's Voulge or The Spine of Thicket Green as stat-sticks? Both are two-handed.
Should I try to make Two-Handed Proficiency be useful outside of spiritshift by dual-wielding weapons?
As an option: is wielding Kahua Hozi spear with a bashing shield like Magran's Blessing or The Best Defense even remotely viable?

In general I'm averse to using some irl impractical and historicaly implausible combos like dual-wielding flails or hammer+mortar, etc.

4. Spell selection.

I will most likely pick such spells as:
- Insect Swarm & Plague of Insects
- Returning Storm & Relentless Storm
- Moonwell & Garden of Life
- Form of the Delemgan

I would really like to keep the spell selection to a bare minimum due to needing level-up points for ranger stuff.
What spells might be essentioal for this build?
Which from the list above may prove redundant?

Will there be a lot of action-economy troubles with this build?

Thank you!

Edited Sunday at 05:23 PM1 day by smilehigh

12 minutes ago, smilehigh said:

But Wildstrike Fire also seems like a nice option if the Ring of Focused Flames boosts accuracy of spiritshift attacks with it. Does it work like that?

Nope, it does not. Wikdstrike Burn doesn't add a fire/burn tag to your melee attacks. If you were a Druid/Paladin and used Flames of Devotion + Wildstrike Burn it would be beneficial to use the Ring of Focused Flames bc. Flames of Devotion is tagged as fire attack which would profit from the Ring and Scion of Flame.

As a Boar Druid/Stalker you can pick Wildstrike Shock and Heart of the Storm (for the lash PEN and also the several shocking storm spells).

As a Stalker I would assume that Stalker's Patience is a must-have weapon? ;)

Takedown Combo + Sunlance is very good against single enemies with a lot of health btw.

Shifter Boar form has an extremely long woundig DoT (same as the whole Spiritshift duration) and thus deals very high woundig damage. It also unlocks Predator's Sense. It stacks with Taste of the Hunt for a quite impressive multi-DoT attack. So I wouldn't sleep on Taste of the Hunt. When not shifted: it also stacks with Stalker's Patience's DoT (which unlike the Boar woundig doesn't stack with itself though).

If you tend to be away from allies a bit then Nature's Terror is a good spell as well.

I don't see any glaring action economy issues.

Edited Sunday at 01:43 PM1 day by Boeroer

Thank you @Boeroer ! Great advice as usual. Also your Vigorous Warthog inspired me to play this build. (I initially was looking for a class to pair with a ranger).

Extremely useful to know that the Ring of Focused Flame does not work with Wildstrike Burn. So Wildstrike Shock + HotS it is then!

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

As a Stalker I would assume that Stalker's Patience is a must-have weapon? ;)

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

When not shifted: it also stacks with Stalker's Patience's DoT

Nice one! Will try it!
Its backstory has a connection to Naasitaq and boreal dwarves which hits the spot thematically as well!
And it comes Legendary from the start too.

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

Takedown Combo + Sunlance is very good against single enemies with a lot of health

Yes, I was evaluating this initially. Takedown combo adds a lot of extra micro-management though. Especially with a party and the pet attacking the same target.
Using it with Sunlance soundnice though.
Can a DOT tick inadvertantly trigger the Takedown Combo hit? (As with pulsing spells iirc)

Edited Sunday at 04:26 PM1 day by smilehigh

4 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Nope, it does not. Wikdstrike Burn doesn't add a fire/burn tag to your melee attacks. If you were a Druid/Paladin and used Flames of Devotion + Wildstrike Burn it would be beneficial to use the Ring of Focused Flames bc. Flames of Devotion is tagged as fire attack which would profit from the Ring and Scion of Flame.

As a Boar Druid/Stalker you can pick Wildstrike Shock and Heart of the Storm (for the lash PEN and also the several shocking storm spells).

As a Stalker I would assume that Stalker's Patience is a must-have weapon? ;)

Takedown Combo + Sunlance is very good against single enemies with a lot of health btw.

Shifter Boar form has an extremely long woundig DoT (same as the whole Spiritshift duration) and thus deals very high woundig damage. It also unlocks Predator's Sense. It stacks with Taste of the Hunt for a quite impressive multi-DoT attack. So I wouldn't sleep on Taste of the Hunt. When not shifted: it also stacks with Stalker's Patience's DoT (which unlike the Boar woundig doesn't stack with itself though).

If you tend to be away from allies a bit then Nature's Terror is a good spell as well.

I don't see any glaring action economy issues.

Not relevant for OP but does Focused Flame do anything for the fire aoe's for Wildstrike Frenzy (Burn) upgrade on single class?

Druids biggest draw for me is versatility so I like to pick the Wildstrike to cover whatever element I'm going weakest in spells with, more so on Shifters as you arent spellcasting then.

For OP, that would be Corrode or Burn? Shifter only gets Nature's Terror as a free elemental spell. Vatnir can cover all your Frost and Fassina's good for Corrode.

It's not a real concern but burn strike does run into immune enemies from time to time and you cant turn off a wildstrike lash. With two potential chanters in the squad, fire lash is covered too

As part Ranger, you can get some use out of Blightheart too, if you're not inclined to give it to Fassina. Konstantine as Skald shouldn't get it imo.

You put Shifter as Unchangeable trait but 8 Con and 8 Res might hold back the shifting part, even with spiritshift hides. Your high Mig improves all your healing output too but your defensive attributes isn't taking advantage of that. To be honest, from the post focusing on the Boar form more and your spell selection preference on top of two potential Chanters, maybe you could be convinced to go Ancient?

As an Ancient, you still have acces to Boar form, you get Form of Delemgam and Garden of Life for free and both get bonus PL from Ancient and Spine and both are higher level freebies freeing up choices in good PL tiers/investing in the Boar companion. Insect Plague is also boosted and Wild Growth lets you have fun with Fassina/Konstantine chanter summons.

11 minutes ago, Phatrollerknight said:

Not relevant for OP but does Focused Flame do anything for the fire aoe's for Wildstrike Frenzy (Burn) upgrade on single class?

I didn't test it but that should profit from Ring of Focused Flames.

3 hours ago, smilehigh said:

Can a DOT tick inadvertantly trigger the Takedown Combo hit? (As with pulsing spells iirc)

A pure DoT (with no direct damage component - for example Disintegrate) will profit from Takedown Combo without removing it! It is actually the best combo. Or if the direct damage attack roll has already happened and a DoT remains (Touch of Rot, Necrotic Lance, Barrel Axes Bleeding Cuts, Gouging Strike etc.).

I believe stuff like Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects and Infestation of Maggots also work like Disintegrate in that regard.

So... if an enemy has a lot of DoTs on them already, Takedown Combo will boost all their damage per tick by 100%.

Pulsing spells would only profit from Takedown Combo with their first pulse (first attack roll) and then immediately remove the Takedowns Combo effect, making them the worst choice.

38 minutes ago, Phatrollerknight said:

8 Con and 8 Res might hold back the shifting part

Thanks! I'm really interested to hear more opinions on that.
These are base stats that will be increased to 10 by Berath's Blessing at least.
Besides, I will be playing this character as an off-tank. I usually start fights from stealth, then he will spend some time prebuffing (AoE Healing, Form of the Delemgan) and casting offensive stuff. By the time he (and the priest) has stopped casting and is ready to go into melee mode the enemies will already engage other frontline characters. In my experience this removes a lot of the enemy attention from the off-tank. But I'm curious to hear other opinions.

I have considered going Ancient. It is also appealing to me. But the increased wonding DoT damage that only Shifter can achieve with boar form also loolks very convincing.

1 hour ago, Phatrollerknight said:

Druids biggest draw for me is versatility so I like to pick the Wildstrike to cover whatever element I'm going weakest in spells with, more so on Shifters as you arent spellcasting then.

For OP, that would be Corrode or Burn?

I would agree in a solo run and on a pure caster, but in a full party game other party members may cover the gaps in offense. The game is not exceptionally difficult, escpecially with metagaming knowledge after many playthroughs.
I think I prefer to enhance the tools that i have then to try to cover all bases by all means. So I'd rather make Storm spells stronger, then try to diversify. And enemies resistant or immune to electricity might get a dose of good old physical melee damage, either from weapons or from Shifter's many forms (and he has a lot). But it's just a matter of perspective and personal preference I guess.

Then for sure double down on Shock talents and lashes. Lightnings a good theme for a charging boar too.

You mentioned two weapon fight earlier but take care not to pick it for Deadfire as none of the talents effect the shifted weapons. So a storm beastmaster can go two-handed for the Voulge and Frostseeker/Firebrand.

Nature Terror's is going to terrify your own Boar too just to keep in mind as a Stalker.

54 minutes ago, Phatrollerknight said:

You mentioned two weapon fight earlier but take care not to pick it for Deadfire as none of the talents effect the shifted weapons. So a storm beastmaster can go two-handed for the Voulge and Frostseeker/Firebrand.

Wait, I might have worded it poorly in the initial post, but I was under the assumption that "Two Weapon Style" applies its recovery-time reduction to spiritshifted attacks. Is that not so?

I thought in Deadfire the spiritshift weapons ignore the talent but now I'm not sure anymore. boeroer should know

10 hours ago, smilehigh said:

Wait, I might have worded it poorly in the initial post, but I was under the assumption that "Two Weapon Style" applies its recovery-time reduction to spiritshifted attacks. Is that not so?

It is so. While shifted you are dual-wielding your natural weapon and thus Two-Weapon Style applies.

There used to be an issue with the Stormblight form: the natural ranged weapon it has was considered a two-hander for some quirky reasons. But that got fixed with a patch at some point and now all spiritshift forms are dual wielding.