What do I need to know to plan a Chanter?

[Noctaem]

I dont think he should max out INT.I made a same mistake.There is a thread explaining all, but basicly you cant reach both fronts with your chant even on max int, and durration of linger also remain mostly unaffected.And he dont have that many stunt invocation that would require max out INT

 

1st, create 2 tanks of your chosing.Might be fighter and paladin.So you dont need an off tank.If some mobs break trough, you got your summon spells wich are great btw.And great thing about summons, is that they are unaffected by atributes and last till they die.I would choose phantom.

 

2nd, make chanter ranged.MAX out MIG/DEX.Give him arquebuse, solider tallent, gunnery (also that two handed talent dont work for ranged).Skip healing talents.What you be focusing at is buffing ranged speed of all back row of ranged dps with Ila Knocked chant (And i didnt seen any nerf in 1,03 patch list ).Leave CON as it is,

 

The rest is basicly up to you.Chanter isnt hard when it comes to building...or playing :D

 

Edit : Neat thing about rannge chanter is that you wont be chanting so many (usualy 1 or2) chants.No debufs, no long chants.So you rank up quickly and you can use those invokation sooner in battle.

 

Sorry but I don't agree with most of what you just posted.  

 

Maxing INT is required for a class with AOE spells.  Saying that you can't reach both front and back lines and then using that as an argument not to max INT on a chanter is just silly imo.  I'm currently running a chanter as my main and I don't have this issue.  Positioning is simple to achieve.

 

You don't need 2 tanks, you need 1 and possibly an off-tank.  If mobs break through it'll be at the start of the fight.  So depending on summons that you need about 15 seconds or more to get to stop those mobs isn't realistic.

 

I've posted a link above to a few chanter builds.  What you describe seems to be one of them but I would recommend you watch the video to better understand the class we're discussing.

 

Chanters are easy to screw up.  They are not simple to make.  Once properly made however, they are easy to play since they don't require much macro.

[Zarkhes]

 

I dont think he should max out INT.I made a same mistake.There is a thread explaining all, but basicly you cant reach both fronts with your chant even on max int, and durration of linger also remain mostly unaffected.And he dont have that many stunt invocation that would require max out INT

 

1st, create 2 tanks of your chosing.Might be fighter and paladin.So you dont need an off tank.If some mobs break trough, you got your summon spells wich are great btw.And great thing about summons, is that they are unaffected by atributes and last till they die.I would choose phantom.

 

2nd, make chanter ranged.MAX out MIG/DEX.Give him arquebuse, solider tallent, gunnery (also that two handed talent dont work for ranged).Skip healing talents.What you be focusing at is buffing ranged speed of all back row of ranged dps with Ila Knocked chant (And i didnt seen any nerf in 1,03 patch list ).Leave CON as it is,

 

The rest is basicly up to you.Chanter isnt hard when it comes to building...or playing :D

 

Edit : Neat thing about rannge chanter is that you wont be chanting so many (usualy 1 or2) chants.No debufs, no long chants.So you rank up quickly and you can use those invokation sooner in battle.

 

Sorry but I don't agree with most of what you just posted.  

 

Maxing INT is required for a class with AOE spells.  Saying that you can't reach both front and back lines and then using that as an argument not to max INT on a chanter is just silly imo.  I'm currently running a chanter as my main and I don't have this issue.  Positioning is simple to achieve.

 

You don't need 2 tanks, you need 1 and possibly an off-tank.  If mobs break through it'll be at the start of the fight.  So depending on summons that you need about 15 seconds or more to get to stop those mobs isn't realistic.

 

I've posted a link above to a few chanter builds.  What you describe seems to be one of them but I would recommend you watch the video to better understand the class we're discussing.

 

Chanters are easy to screw up.  They are not simple to make.  Once properly made however, they are easy to play since they don't require much macro.

 

As i sad, my chanter is ranged.So, he is in group of back ranged dps/casters.He wont by any means reach with debuff chants onto enemies, even with max INT.Sadly, the boost of chant range is so small its not worth it.

 

You do need 2 tanks.Not whole PoE is hallway, and when you play on hard, or progress trough game, 2 tanks are essencial.If you make offtank, by the time you need 2nd tank you end with 1/2 tank.Not mentioning combat status that could disrupt your tank.I usualy have 2 tanks, both 2handed weapons as their second weapon.When one doesnt take dmg, he switch to bigger weapon for more dmg.

 

Yes, you can make relatively good offtank chanter, but why do it if he has more potentional as heavy gunner...boosting all of your 2nd row of other ranged dps

[Lasci]

No class is 'easy to screw up'. Characters aren't hard to make in this game. The attributes are pretty straightforward about what they do. Unless you're trying to make a bad character, anything you make will function pretty well. Stop over complicating this with minutiae.

 

Intelligence is good on Chanters -- not great -- because there's not much in the way of essential attributes for the class. But if you want a Chanter with high intelligence, it's probably just best to pick up Kana and roll with it.

 

If you want a tank, put points into constitution, resolve, and perception.

 

If you want a ranged DPS, put points into might and dexterity.

 

Why are we still arguing about this?

[Darkbridger]

Another reason your Chanter doesn't need Int: Your selection of Chants and Invocations is limited. Even if you do have the range to hit multiple things, you won't have multiple things working at the same time (beyond the few seconds of linger). Buff your ranged characters OR buff your meleers OR debuff the enemy. Trying to do all of those will only lead to frustration. Int might help your Invocations, but again, it depends purely on which ones you plan to use as some will benefit from Int and others will not. A ranged Chanter will probably benefit more from Int than a melee/tank Chanter. 

 

I have two tanks, a Fighter and my Chanter. My other 4 ranged characters do quite well (so far) at taking care of themselves, even if something slips past the front duo. 

[Ichthyic]

...and another reason you might actually WANT high int...

because you can use scrolls while you chant.

and scrolls, even powerful ones, are often dirt cheap to make.

and there, your high int has a tremendous influence on what those scrolls can accomplish.

there was a thread a while back, where someone thought it would be fun to create an entire party of chanters.

I agree.  you can create a pure tank chanter, who instead of wasting time attacking, reads scrolls, along with an off tank who focuses on melee offensive stuff, along with a caster chanter who focuses on controlling the field of play and summons things, and a couple of ranged chanters for pure dps.

like a choral of chanters.

only need 5 (and any more you'd have chant overlap at early levels), but I suppose you could toss in another summoner or ranged chanter.

I am very curious to hear what that sounds like... all those chanters going off at once with different chants.





 

Edited April 4, 2015 by Ichthyic

[Ohioastro]

I found a tank chanter surprisingly effective.  I used 8/10/8/18/14/18 for stats and stacked deflection bonuses.  He rapidly became untouchable with a shield and heavy armor.

 

Now, he didn't do much direct damage: but the chants are a nice boost, having a strong offtank was handy, and if battles were long enough, summons and the late invocations are powerful.  I also think that the tier 3 chants are actually quite strong (AoE fire to enemies + fire damage on friendly weapons is a nifty combo for the right foes.)

 

I suppose that you could design a ranged one instead; my question would be why.  The class doesn't have any particular advantages as ranged DPS - so a ranged chanter isn't doing anything particularly special, and losing the front line chants is a big hit on utility.

 

EDIT: I can confirm mechanics checks up to 12, and ones up to 9 are common end-game.  I think that you're best off with a dedicated mechanics character.  Given the way interactions work, it's arguably best that this *not* be your main - as you get dialog etc. options with 5 levels in lore, athletics, survival (at minimum). 

Edited April 4, 2015 by Ohioastro

[The Josip]

I've been trying to like the Chanter and make it useful but so far I'm failing (PotD, sometimes Ironman). Considering that I lack experience I am not going to make any claims but merely gonna post my observations.

 

In PotD (especially Ironman) Chanter seems a liability. 15 seconds is a loooooong time (and that's if using short phrases). The battles in this game are very fast. First few seconds seem crucial. But with a Chanter the team is a man down first cca 15 seconds. That's insane. It means others lose health and endurance more than they would if they had actual support from the first second, which then either increases the frequency of Rests or the chance of defeat. When people in the forum complained about Chanter being slow I thought it could be they just like faster battles on Normal non-Ironman difficulty. So in a way, Chanter would be like a Mesmer in GW1 PvE (Prophecies) - by the time it can actually do anything elementalists blow the place up with AoE's. However, after actually trying the Chanter and playing this game, I realize there's some truth in that. Battles are really fast. If you position your tank and block the door then yeah, no problem, but in this case you win even without the Chanter. There's something else that's important: time. Time is money as they say. Chanters make battles slower. So you might as well just burn the per-rest spells and abilities, and then travel where you can Rest. It's probably going to take about the same time as making Chanter useful.

 

One thing that worked for me was making 4 Chanters and then in the open areas (first few levels) I would start a combat, retreat (while maintaining combat active) and assail the enemy once I had Invocations ready. This makes battles take longer but is probably safer as long as you can run away. My problem here (other that boredom and repetitiveness) was that I had Phantom summon (which seemed really awesome) and when I ran into those Boars the Phantoms died quickly and couldn't hit anything (PotD Ironman) which wiped out my whole party because other than the summon Chanters were freakin useless so when the summon did not work neither did the class. (Of course, I learned not to put all the eggs in one basket.) Related to that, I've been testing Thunder invocation with Kana, and that's even more disappointing. This invocation almost always misses so you can imagine how happy I am waiting for 15sec to do something and then seeing "missed". That's a huge gamble I don't think gambling works in PotD Ironman.

 

Lack of burst. This could, I suppose, be fixed with scrolls. Or maybe making the Chanter a tank or off-tank.

 

Placement. He has to be closer to the frontline which means he's more likely to die, and if he's more back it means his chants are not covering the front. If he's in the middle he is also blocking possible Druid spells for example, and from what I've seen Druid does so much more (although it's rest-limited).

 

Most of the chants are highly situational. If a chant only helps 1-2 allies engaged in combat, then it doesn't help the other 4-5 and you might as well go with Priest or something. If it debuffs enemies then it's either going to take a while to see any difference (endurance loss) or the chance will be only relevant for 1-2 enemies (with certain damage type) while others are unaffected. And while I do lack experience in this game (as I said) the numbers on paper just don't seem so great. I get the idea of "a bit of everything" class, but I'm afraid in combat what helps is a tank who is nothing but the tank, which is why people use 1-2 tanks and not 3 semi-tanks semi-melee damage dealers.

 

 

I really like the names of Chants and Invocations and would like to have a Chanter in the party because I've always liked more unorthodox classes. But I need something that works. I've tried ranged Chanter, tank, and off-tank and wasn't satisfied with either. This is only first few levels. But what scares me is that Chanter doesn't seem to level well. Higher phrases are longer, so it means less Invocations (while other classes get more spells and abilities).

 

Advice is welcome on any kind of Chanter that works because right now I'm about to give up on this class, especially considering that half of the nerfs in new patch are intended for the Chanter.

[Darkbridger]

But what scares me is that Chanter doesn't seem to level well. Higher phrases are longer, so it means less Invocations (while other classes get more spells and abilities).

 

Yep, that right there is the biggest problem with the Chanter. Given how quickly combats resolve, I stick to the level 1 chants. I am only playing on Hard, not PotD or anything, but I really like having the Chanter as a second tank. Both he and the Fighter benefit from the chants, and the 2 archer rogues, cipher, and firearm toting priest do a very good job of killing things. Even if I wanted to replace him, I'm not sure who could fill that role. Paladin maybe... haven't tried one of those yet. But two full tanks work a lot better than my previous tank + reach weapon wielder in the middle. 

 

Dial back the damage across the entire game, and Chanters might become more useful, but then combats would become more of a tedious slog.

 

Ichthyic, even if you want to be a tank scroll user, Int will only offer marginal use. Enemies will be clustered around you as a tank anyway, so I don't think the AoE benefit would be all that great. I guess if you want to open with a scroll, added AoE can be useful, but I'd still consider it marginal to the point that a 10 Int would be sufficient for most instances. Given the problem quoted above, I really wish Int had more of an affect on Chant times... it would go a long way toward making the higher level chants more useful.

[Lasci]

Lower level chants are terrible, though? That's the decision you make with the class -- fast phrases and many invocations, or slow but powerful phrases and the occasional invocation?

[Exoduss]

Best bet on building chanter is going tank and use scrolls with slow phrases and  use invocations as backup in prolonged fights ,dont dump might if you plan to use scrolls , better dump dexterity and constitution , you dont need any speed with chanter and CON is just dumpstat , lol funny how people proclaims that chanters doesnt need INT :D lol..

Edited May 14, 2015 by Exoduss

[JONNIN]

There are lots of ways to play the class. 

People cite int, but int does not affect the range or duration of summons so if your focus is on summoning pets, int is of less value.  I do not know if int affects the range of his chants or healing aura, and if so by how much,  but depending on where he stands the size of the aura may be fine with basic (10) for int.  You need int to use his aoe skills that damage or buff etc -- but the invocations are *usually* better spent on summoning allies.   High int is one way to build.  Low int is not recommended (below 10). 

 

Might is meh if going for a tank.  The class lacks accuracy and is not loaded with talents -- it will never be a damage dealing powerhouse from use of a weapon.  Damage comes from the summoned pets, and that combined with the chanter's damage is pretty high output.  I would build a tank with high defenses, then, ... con, per, and res pumped up over 15 and the rest at 10 or so.  

 

Or, if not a tank, a high dex high might ranged damage dealer is possible -- damage output is still not top notch from the weapons but its solid damage backed by his chanting perks and makes a strong build. 

 

I guess the primary ways to play it are

tank / with some aoe damage  / summoner

ranged damage/summoner / not much aoe

or mass aoe major support character with low weapon damage and weak if any tanking ability (late game tanking with gear but lacking stats for it sort of thing?)

 

and of course one can mix and match the above somewhat,  to make say a medium ranged weapons high aoe. 

Edited May 14, 2015 by JONNIN

[Crucis]

JONIN, as Exoduss points out, you have to be careful about Might if you're going to be casting spells from scrolls.  This is true of INT as well.

 

I'm honestly not sure how one builds a "good" Chanter.  Heck, I suppose the real question is this... What is a "good" chanter?

 

It almost seems like the best thing you can do with a chanter in a party is to build up the other five people in the party to be the best they can be.  Make them the real damage dealers for the party.  And then use the Chanter to make those other 5 even better with his Chants, as well as an occasional Invocation spell.  I'm not even sure that I'd count on this Chanter for damage dealing, pe se.  Oh, you could stick him behind the front lines with a Pike or an Arbalest or Arquebus and take whatever damage he adds to the mix.  But his real job would be to make the rest of the team better more than being a major damage dealer.  Just a thought.

[Bubbles]

If you make a melee offensive chanter, make sure you don't take Savage Attack - the -5 "Melee" Accuracy will also apply to your offensive chants. On the other hand, Scion of Flame doesn't affect chants at all.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Bubbles

[Melusina]

What race and stats are best for Chanter, after the newest patch?

[Raven Darkholme]

What race and stats are best for Chanter, after the newest patch?

 

Ranged: Wood Elf

Important stats, PE, MI, IN

Tank: Wild Orlan

Stats: RE, CO, IN, MI

[Nobear]

 

What race and stats are best for Chanter, after the newest patch?

 

Ranged: Wood Elf

Important stats, PE, MI, IN

Tank: Wild Orlan

Stats: RE, CO, IN, MI

 

This would be for 2.0, not 1.0.6, to be clear for everyone reading.

[Raven Darkholme]

Isn't 2.0 the newest patch?

[Nobear]

Isn't 2.0 the newest patch?

 

Yes, but it's currently in beta and only available to Steam users, so I just wanted to make sure he was clear that you were talking about the latest beta rather than the latest live patch.