[CLASS BUILD] Riptide & The Pit Fright (dps & offtank melee ranger double team supreme)

[Boeroer]

The ranger Ody Kellen and his wolf (nick: Ryder) were two mercenary buddies from the Saint's War. They decided to stick together and open up a dogfight business in Ondra's Gift, Defiance Bay.

After some time they realized that most of the fights where poorly choreographed and they lacked a real champion to attract wealthy, pleasure-seeking and gambling-addicted people. The two friends decided to offer a more exciting bet: they would climb into the pit together and defend a pot of gold against any other two opponents who challenged them.

Trained and hardened by the war, they were an excellently coordinated double team and always managed to defend the pot.

 

After some time, they where called Riptide and The Pit Fright and their fame rose. Kellen, who loved to fight at close range with blades instead of using bows, would cleave deep wounds with his great sword. That would put Ryder into a blood rage which nobody could withstand. At the same time, Kellen would watch out for rabid Ryder and heal his wounds with magic he learned from a brilliant, but mentally inept druid. The druid once told him that the Dyrwood was formerly known as the Drywood because it used to be so swampy - obviously this guy was batsh!t crazy. M'Ray Batsh!t Crazy, to be precise.

 

They two pit fighters were so powerful that word of their prowess (and their gold pot) reached the Living Lands. There, a woman who lived near a dormant vulcano heard about the two pitfighters and their big fat pot of gold. The locals called her "The Drake's Ambassador". However, her master, a very clever, fiery, proud and greedy drake (on the brink of becoming a Fire Dragon), demanded that she travelled to Defiance Bay and won the purse for him.

"No sooner said than done", said the Drake's Ambassador - and just did it: She went to Ondra's Gift and challenged Riptide & The Pit Fright alone. The two friends answered that a two-on-one would not be fair - but they accepted on condition that anybody could join the Ambassador during the fight.

The pitfight started and the Ambassador turned out to be a formidable defender and terrifying warrior who furthermore wielded powerful fire magic. She also was able to confuse and charm the wolf (remember his nick, Ryder?) during his blood rage. He turned against Kellen... who barely survided the merciless (and vicious!) attacks of his own companion. But soon after that Kellen was able to hit Ryder with an unshackling kick in the butt. That brought Ryder to his senses and with even more rage he jumped at the Drake's Ambassador and wounded her severely. Defeat was staring her in the ugly face when she let out a terrible screech into the sky (we could name her Screaming Mimi for that)...

...and Hell-Gyraffe crashed upon their heads! The Ambassador's master knocked them all down and burned their skin and fur with his breath until they finally surrenderd. Man, that really hurt! Not only physically, but also emotionally.

 

Standing inside the remains what was once their prospering, gold potted livelihood, burned and bruised, Hell-Gyraffe offered them a deal: "Go to the Searing Falls, take my Ambassador with you, search the cave of Cail the Silent (who's quite talkative by the way - so maybe he has the same humor as the druid mentioned above) and slay him. Bring me the burning hot stone he hoards - everything else you find there may be yours. Do that and I will give you back half of the gold you lost today.

 

With no other alternative left (that didn't include hard, honest work or some bootlicking), Riptide and The Pit Fright agreed and set off to the Searing Falls. On the way, Ryder peed like a thousand times at the Ambassador's leg until she dominated him with her frightening, monocled gaze and let him fetch dried xaurip poop all the time - which was not too dry because the dyrwooden path was quite swampy...          

 

 

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Riptide & The Pit Fright

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Difficulty: PotD v. 2.03

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Class: Ranger & Wolf

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Race: Pale Elf®

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Background: Deadfire Archipelago - Mercenary

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Stats:

 

MIG: 18

CON: 10

DEX: 20 

PER: 10 

INT: 17

RES: 3  <- wtf? Yes, only three

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Skills: Stealth 1, Athl. 3, Lore 10, Mech 0, Surv. 10

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Abilities/Talents (a=auto, !=important, r=recommended):

Elemental Endurance (a)

Marked Prey®

Stalker's Link(!)

Predator's Sense(!)

Swift Aim®

Wounding Shot

Defensive Bond

Play Dead

 

Weapon Focus Soldier® or Gallant's Focus

Vulnerable Attack or Apprentice's Sneak Attack

Savage Attack®

Two Handed Stylec

Merciless Companion(!)

Vicious Companion(!)

Resilient Companion(!)

 

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Items (* = additional echantments by me; ! = essential, r = recommended):

 

Weapon set 1: Tidefall(!)(Freezing Lash*, Durgan Refined*,)

Weapon Set 2: arbalest or arquebus

 

Boots: Shod-in-Faith(!)

 

Head: Tempered Helm

 

Armor: Heldrik's Coat®(Durgan Refined*, Perception+2*)

 

Neck: Stalker's Torc®

 

Belt: Bluting Belt®

 

Rings: Ring of Thorns® & Ring of Protection (Ring of Unshackling if you fight against charming/dominating enemies)

 

Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action® or Gauntlets of Accuracy or Gauntlets of Puissant Melee or Bracers of Enduring

 

Quick slots: scrolls (Moonwell, Revival), potions(Iron Skin, Spirit Shield) and so on 

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Greetings! This ranger build is a melee one. It's dps focus is on the animal companion, which is a formidable damage dealer if you manage to activate all it's special abilities in a fight. So, this ranger's task is to do that as often as possible. In the best of cases the enemy is constantly afflicted with a status effect which allows sneak attacks (in this case called Merciless Companion) AND suffers from a DoT effect. At the same time the animal companion - although he's quite sturdy compared to past versions - should be kept alive while he's doing it's work. And last but not least he himself should not go down. At the same time it would be a big bonus if our ranger would cause some good damage, too. All this should require as little micromanagement as possible.

Phew! What a statement of requirements! How can our ranger achieve all that?

 

If the ranger's using melee weapons, he and his pet can easily flank the enemy - that qualifies for sneak attacks. A weapon with the wounding enchantment would activate the Predator's Sense. A draining weapon would heal the ranger and help him to prevent knockouts. That calls for Tidefall. This great word also does some really nice damage (Swift Aim for speed, Two-Handed Style, Savage Attack and Stalker's Torc for the win) and is superb. I also used Vulnerable Attack. Now I think that Apprentice's Sneak Attack might be a better alternative, but it's tricky to determine without a lot of testing. Vulnerable Attack works like a flat +5 damage bonus per hit and also applies when you only graze. But it also slows you down. Apprentice's Sneak Attack might result in more dps, but only if you manage to flank your foes all the time. You decide - I can't say which is better. Glanfathan Stalking Boots would fit nicely - but I just don't have the space for it. Vengiatta Rugia would also be nice - but it's too thin for this build. Well - you always have to make compromises I think.

I also thought about putting on Sanguine Plate and take Vicious Aim instead of Swift Aim. That would result in +13% speed (+33% minus 20% instead of +20%) and would grant us +17 ACC in comparison as well as +20% damage. Sounds great! But honestly I still don't know if Vicious Aim even works in melee (description says no) and I like my high attack speed a lot, so... Please try it out if you like and report if that's better - I'm very curious.

 

We also want to hit/crit our enemies and not graze them - so why the low PER? And Swift Aim without Swift and Steady on top of that?

Luckily, a ranger with Stalker's Link gets +10 ACC when he's attacking the same foe as his pet - and we always want to do that anyway. Secondly, the foes will always be afflicted with "flanked" for the same reason. That's the same as another +10 ACC (or -10 deflection). Together with superb and Weapon Focus we'll have an effective ACC-bonus of +38 points. Swift Aim is -7, so we end up at +31. That's enough for us. We don't rely on any on-crit effects. I didn't even take Swift and Steady because of this. Talents are very rare if you want a dps pet (but plenty of abilities!). You can take Gallant's Focus instead of Weapon Focus if you also want to buff your pet's ACC a bit - I didn't.

The points that you don't invest in PER will be used to max out MIG (buffs Tidefalls pierce/slash damage, Tidefall's DoT, Tidefall's healing and Consecrated Ground's healing), DEX (we want attack speed!) and INT (buffs duration of Tidefall's DoT, Consecrated Ground's healing, Wounding Shot's DoT and Marked Prey).

 

But how can we heal the pet without using scrolls or other partymember's abilities all the time (which means a lot of micromanagement and would lower our own dps)? Our two buddies will stand very near to each other during fights - so we can use the Shod-in-Faith boots - they come with the endurance pump! All you have to do is to lower your deflection a bit in order to receive a nice crit in the face. As soon as this happens, you will get ehaled by Consecrated Ground and your pet will also be healed. Very nice! Now you're not only doing tons of damage together (a rogue turns pale in the face of this damage output) without even using a single special attack! All you have to do is to position your two friends and let them autoattack. Against tough foes use Marked Prey and/or Wounding Shot - but normally you don't need that. Even heavy armored kith will just explode after a few hits. At the same time your double team is also quite sturdy. You can absolutely use them as offtanks. The ranger has a high starting deflection - so the dumped RES doens't hurt as much as you would think - deflection is still around 60. Thats not good, but not superbad for a Two Hander either. Remember that you get healed by Shod-in-Faith and Tidefall all the time. Just watch your health bar. Use DR+ items to improve your survivability because you want to get hit and you will be. The rest of your defenses are like 90, 110 and 70. Your will defense is low - and that's the weak spot of this build: if your pet gets confused,charmed or dominated and turns against you, you will face hard times. You're lucky that you can stand some bites because of all the healing, but it really hurts. You can also be turned and then all the nice synergies go down the drain. That's why I chose the Tempered Helm: it gives you +10 defenses against this at least - while also buffing your defenses against paralyzed and the like. Heldrik's Coat gives you +30 against prone attacks which is very nice because lying prone on the floor will also end the flanked affliction and your pet's dps would suffer. The rest is standard I'd say.

 

It was a pretty powerful build and turned out way better than I thought it would. As I said: they explode!

 

Cheerio!

Edited December 13, 2015 by Boeroer

[KDubya]

Were interrupts an issue with the really low resolve? I'd expect that you'd get interrupted a lot with a slow two hander.

 

Are there any other weapons with wounding besides TideFall and the hunting bow Persistence? Dual wielding would open up lots of cool weapon effects like marking, vicious and the like. A custom enchanted clad-something spear would work nice with the double team aspect of the pet.

 

I'd be tempted to flip the intellect and the resolve and go 3 and 17. The wounding property gets refreshed on hit so there will always be a DoT effect, no need for the Wounding Shot and Marked Prey lasts a really long time anyway. A 3 intellect would probably have it last long enough and you'd gain the hard ass dialogue options, +42 concentration and +14 deflection.

 

Too bad we can't add this and your other twenty some odd builds  into some sort of sticky post index.

[Boeroer]

You don't want high deflection. Consecrated Ground woudn't trigger two times in a row (that's what makes the healing so powerful - it's actually two Consecrated Grounds) and the pet would die.

I needed to lower RES in order to make this work.

I nearly never went down after I got Shod-in-Faith plus Tidefall.

 

I also tried Vienna's Leaves (vicious) and Drawn in Spring (the only other wounding weapon) with dual wielding - but the overall performance with Tidefall was way better. Plus: Tidefall comes early, Drawn in Spring quite late.

 

Interrupts were no issue - only at the beginning. As I said: they explode after some hits. And if you get interrupted, the wolf's still hitting and killing the target quickly. And this is no full tank. So I didn't put him in the middle of the mob of course.

 

P.s.: they are kinda odd - but also very powerful in their ways - most of the time.

 

P.p.s: It's only 7 builds so far. One for each class. 4 to go I think...?

Edited December 13, 2015 by Boeroer

[Torm51]

look cool man.  I just don't know why heavily dumped stats make me cry. 

[Blades of Vanatar]

The dumped Res completely makes sense in this build. Very crafty. Looking forward to your Chanter build.

 

I am trying to build a "Leader/Pally" type of character with a PC Chanter. Gallants Focus, any Phrase that ups party ACC, Speed and Defense, Sword and Shield, anything that ups deflection and DR. My big hurdle is I haven't played the game enough to know the best equipment for the end of the build to make it a "Specialty" build. I want him leading from the front, swinging and singing.

[rheingold]

Nice build as usual, though like Torm I do weep at the min/max 3 resolve . Do you think it would work dual wield as well. Thinking of playing a dual wield axe ranger with boar pet. Really obnoxious man from the wilds. But I'd like to go axe/ dual wield....

Edited December 14, 2015 by rheingold

[Boeroer]

@rheingold: Sure you can. As long as you have another source of DoT to trigger Predator's Sense you don't need a wounding weapon. We Toki plus Edge of Reason are a great team indeed. I used them once on a rogue. And of course you can raise RES abd give your ranger more defl. and concentration. Might be a good idea if you don't want to wear thick armor. The 3 points - together with the brigandine - worked best for me though. 

 

@Blades of Vanatar: Chanter tanks work really well. In fact my incoming chanter build is one. But I played some chanter tanks before that as well. I like them a lot.

If you want, I can post that build next - I wanted to post the druid build first, but it doesn't really matter.

About equipment: If you want to cover a really big area with your chants, then I would recommend maxed INT, a Ring of Overseeing and The Voice of the Mountaintop (amulet). This makes your AoE very large - which is important if you're in the front row and want to reach all your friends in the back row.

Besides that there are no "must have" items for a chanter tank that are different from what other tanks would to use. Maybe the Dunryd Demon helm for +2 INT, but besides that...

At higher levels I always switch to "The Dragon Slashed..." because it's DPS is so awesome if you have high MIG and INT. And since it's a DoT it works perfectly well with Combusting Wouds (which I really love - as most of you might know by now). And it stacks - meaning that two or more chanters with that phrase are devastating.  

[rheingold]

Thanks - boreal dwarves ranger with boar here I come.

A boor with a boar indeed.

[Mocker22]

Very cool looking build. Think I'm going to start a playthrough with it ASAP. Lots of cool roleplaying possibilities here as well. Jon Snow fanbois anyone?

[Vorad]

Very nice build and well written as always! My only concerns when it comes to ranger is his pet survivability vs heavy aoe(shoed in faith + pet talent help a bit but...) Would you think perhaps moon godlike would be a better race? Since in that case you still gain your much needed dex buff and on top of that you gain more aoe heals(high might profit) for you and your pet. Yes you loose the headslot so in the end you gain same base stats as before and the only difference is: 3 aoe heal pulses(which are useful in all encounters) vs 5 dr fire/frost(situational) + head(tempered helm:decent item overall).

 

edit: Also it's worth to note the ring of unshackling when it comes to suppress affliction vs dominate it won't work because the dominated target is not considered a party member for the purpose of the spell(unfair).

Edited December 14, 2015 by Vorad

[Mocker22]

So I'm wondering what your main reasoning for maxing out intel is. Sure there are a couple of items/abilities that would have a longer duration but is it really necessary? I don't like dropping stats too low so I'll prob keep Resolve around 7-8. Do you think some points from int could be bettered served in perception or even con/res to make you a little more tanky. You make good points about the lack of perception, but hey more never hurt, that's for sure.

[mosspit]

Very nice build and well written as always! My only concerns when it comes to ranger is his pet survivability vs heavy aoe(shoed in faith + pet talent help a bit but...) Would you think perhaps moon godlike would be a better race? Since in that case you still gain your much needed dex buff and on top of that you gain more aoe heals(high might profit) for you and your pet. Yes you loose the headslot so in the end you gain same base stats as before and the only difference is: 3 aoe heal pulses(which are useful in all encounters) vs 5 dr fire/frost(situational) + head(tempered helm:decent item overall).

 

edit: Also it's worth to note the ring of unshackling when it comes to suppress affliction vs dominate it won't work because the dominated target is not considered a party member for the purpose of the spell(unfair).

 

2 minor corrections: Elemental Endurance is +10DR to Fire and Cold, and Suppress Afflictions does work against Dominate as of 2.03.

Edited December 14, 2015 by mosspit

[Vorad]

 

Very nice build and well written as always! My only concerns when it comes to ranger is his pet survivability vs heavy aoe(shoed in faith + pet talent help a bit but...) Would you think perhaps moon godlike would be a better race? Since in that case you still gain your much needed dex buff and on top of that you gain more aoe heals(high might profit) for you and your pet. Yes you loose the headslot so in the end you gain same base stats as before and the only difference is: 3 aoe heal pulses(which are useful in all encounters) vs 5 dr fire/frost(situational) + head(tempered helm:decent item overall).

 

edit: Also it's worth to note the ring of unshackling when it comes to suppress affliction vs dominate it won't work because the dominated target is not considered a party member for the purpose of the spell(unfair).

 

2 minor corrections: Elemental Endurance is +10DR to Fire and Cold, and Suppress Afflictions does work against Dominate as of 2.03.

 

Lapsus there my bad. So have they officially fixed it then? That's good news.

[mosspit]

Do note that I only referred to Dominate

[Boeroer]

I put a lot of points into MIG and INT for some reasons:

- max duration and healing of Consecrated Ground

- max duration and damage of Tidefall's wounding

You can really feel the difference. Once had these boots on a 3-INT/12-MIG rogue and he fell on his face quite often.

 

But it wouldn't hurt too much if INT was lowered a bit and some points went into other stats. PER 10 is a bit difficult at the start of the game - so maybe to improve early game experience you could put some more points into PER.

 

Moon godlike would work of course. Then you would have 2 sources of healing. But to be honest I think that Silver Tide will not be triggered very often. The high INT and MIG lead to a very good healing of Consecrated Ground - mind that it's triggered twice most of the time = twice the healing. While Cons. Ground, once triggered, will give you an constant stream of endurance, Silver Tide is difficult to organize. Sometimes it will be triggered when your pet is at full health - sometimes it will be triggered when your pet is already dead. But all in all I think Moon Godlike would be a good choice. 

[Blades of Vanatar]

@rheingold: Sure you can. As long as you have another source of DoT to trigger Predator's Sense you don't need a wounding weapon. We Toki plus Edge of Reason are a great team indeed. I used them once on a rogue. And of course you can raise RES abd give your ranger more defl. and concentration. Might be a good idea if you don't want to wear thick armor. The 3 points - together with the brigandine - worked best for me though.

 

@Blades of Vanatar: Chanter tanks work really well. In fact my incoming chanter build is one. But I played some chanter tanks before that as well. I like them a lot.

If you want, I can post that build next - I wanted to post the druid build first, but it doesn't really matter.

About equipment: If you want to cover a really big area with your chants, then I would recommend maxed INT, a Ring of Overseeing and The Voice of the Mountaintop (amulet). This makes your AoE very large - which is important if you're in the front row and want to reach all your friends in the back row.

Besides that there are no "must have" items for a chanter tank that are different from what other tanks would to use. Maybe the Dunryd Demon helm for +2 INT, but besides that...

At higher levels I always switch to "The Dragon Slashed..." because it's DPS is so awesome if you have high MIG and INT. And since it's a DoT it works perfectly well with Combusting Wouds (which I really love - as most of you might know by now). And it stacks - meaning that two or more chanters with that phrase are devastating.

Hey, thanks for the offer but post'em as you see fit... we're all interested in ALL of your remaining builds.

[Boeroer]

By the way: I take it that nobody here knows the TV show "Riptide"? Maybe I'm too old... 

[Blades of Vanatar]

Anne Francis.... for some odd reason my uncle had a bikini poster of her next to Farrah and Cheryl behind his bar... yuck.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Blades of Vanatar

[Vorad]

I'm only afraid of big aoe burst with similar builds especially when it comes to pets since their dr even with talent is abysmal. That's the only reason why I was thinking of a moon godlike. The procc from shoes is really good vs sustained damage hands down best source of healing but something to counter big bursts(especially aoe) so far I have noticed silver tide is quite effective even when compared to lay on hands/chain healing. Ideally I would like my priest to focus on buffing instead of healing so aoe heals are not high on priority list for me let alone the fact that silver tide is instant cast even if the char is prone/unconscious/etc.

[Boeroer]

That's a plus, you're right. Against dragon's breath or something like that it might save you and your pet.

 

In very tough or long encounters consecrated ground would stop at some point. For that reason I later always had a scroll of moonwell and revival in my pocket. But I didn't have to use them a lot.

[Boeroer]

Anne Francis.... for some odd reason my uncle had a bikini poster of her next to Farrah and Cheryl behind his bar... yuck.

Haha - I totally forgot about her being in the show. 

[limaxophobiacq]

At higher levels I always switch to "The Dragon Slashed..." because it's DPS is so awesome if you have high MIG and INT. And since it's a DoT it works perfectly well with Combusting Wouds (which I really love - as most of you might know by now). And it stacks - meaning that two or more chanters with that phrase are devastating.  

 

I haven't actually used a chanter since 1.06, when was Dragon Slashed damage (and chants in general) changed to account for Might? It always used to list modified damage when you took it on level-up but just apply the base damage if you looked at the combat log. Attributes not meaningfully affecting chants was a big part of why i completely stopped using them.

[Boeroer]

I honestly don't know when. But I know for sure that MIG does influence healing and damage for chants as well as for invocations. And INT modifies the linger time of chants, the duration of invocations and the AoE size of both.

[Mocker22]

So I've got this build up to level 6 right now, and I'm loving it so far. I decided to focus on talents that boost damage for my wolf and took two-handed style, before going for Weapon focus. Kana's Fine Estoc with a burning lash is destroying right now, so I'll probably take Weapon focus at level 8. Stalker's Link does a ton to help make up the difference, and I did end up starting with 12 perception so that helps a touch too.

 

What level do you think getting Tidefall will be possible for PotD. Group is Juggernaut Monk, Tank pally, preist, wiz, and the 6th slot is fairly open. Right now I'm using Hiravas. All of the druid DoTs work wonders for boosting pet dps, add in Combusting Wounds and your rocking. Raedric fight was a joke with an all level 5 party.

[Boeroer]

Happy you like it.

 

I think it is possible to kill Cail at level 6 with 6 men, but it will be tough. You'll need summons and potions and so on. You could hire another pally tank or a second priest just for that fight. Repulsing Seal you know.

 

Edit: What also worked for me: I used the Mad Hornet build to diminish the xaurips. I just fired around to affect as many of them with Persistence & Deep Wounds as I could. You have to be at least lvl 5 to do that. But watch out: two hits and your squishy ranged rogue is KO at that level - against these opponents.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Boeroer