[CLASS BUILD] The Drake's Ambassador (searing & mesmerizing chanter tank)

[Boeroer]

"This is the life we chose, the life we lead,

And there is only one guarantee:

everyone of us will face the wheel

 

Test me... I'm the drake's ambassador, I rule all those who oppose

Test me... I'm the summoner of fire, I burn all those who oppose

 

Annihilate yourself from all that is real

Push the limit of self indulgence

 

No one cares... who you are... step aside... I'll break your mind!

 

Test me... I'm the drake's ambassador, I bear down those who oppose

Test me... I'm the herald of fear, I panic those who oppose

 

Liberate yourself from all that is real

Push the limit of self indulgence

 

This is the level you could never reach

Now face me for what you can't be

 

No one cares... who you are... step aside... I'll take your life!

 

Test me... I'm the drake's ambassador, I dominate all who oppose

Test me... I'm the harbinger of pain, I crush all those who oppose"

 

Chant of the Drake's Ambassador

 

 

===================================

The Drake's Ambassador

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Difficulty: PotD v. 2.03

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Class: Chanter

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Race: Coastal Aumaua® or Fire Godlike

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Background: Living Lands - Explorer 

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Stats:

 

MIG: 21

CON: 10

DEX: 3 

PER: 16 

INT: 18

RES: 10

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Skills: Stealth 5, Athl. 4, Lore 8(!), Mech. 1, Surv. 9 

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Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important)

Weapon & Shield Style(!)

Scion of Flame

Snake's Reflexes or Ancient Memory

Bear's Fortitude or Beloved Spirits

Bull's Will or Veteran's Recovery

Superior Deflection®

Enigma's Charm or Cautious Attack

 

Abilities (I will not write down all of the names)

Towering Physique (a)

 

Invocations

Level 1: DR-, DR+, Crush/Stun

Level 2: Paralyze, Summon Wurm, Terrify(!), Charm(!)

Level 3: Summon Drake(!)

Level 4: - nothing -(not worth it)

 

Phrases

Level 1: Endurance-(!), Reflex & Move Speed, Concentration-

Level 2: Frighten®, Defense against Frighten & Terrify

Level 3: Slash/Burn(!), Burning Lash

Level 4: Draining (not used) 

 

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

 

Weapon set 1: The Flames of Fair Rhian(!) & Redfield®(Durgan Refined*)

Weapon Set 2: Curoc's Brand (for one additional fireball/rest)

 

Boots: Shod-in-Faith or Boots of Stability

 

Head: Munacra Arret(!)

 

Armor: Fine Plate (*Exceptional, INT+2, Crush-Proofed, Durgan-Refined)

 

Neck: Voice of the Mountaintop

 

Belt: Girdle of Maegfolc Might

 

Rings: Ring of Overseeing or Ring of Protection or Ring of Searing Flames, Ring of Changing Heart(!)

 

Hands: Bracers of Deflection or Spirit Spiral (for 3 more Whisper of Treason/rest)

 

Quick slots: Potion of Flame Shield, Fireball Scrolls, Fan of Flames Scrolls, Rolling Flame Scrolls, Wurm Figurine

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Hi!

This build is more of a theme-build than the others I presented so far. I couldn't find any nice item/ability combos that kind of break the game or something like that. That's because it's difficult to find new or "different" builds for chanters that also work for PotD. The chanter has a lot of phrases and invocations - but because of the somewhat suboptimal evolution of the resource system (phrases take longer the higher their level, high level invocations need more phrases) most of them are not very useful because they a) come too late in a fight or b) are too weak ot c) are too situational. Those which are viable are really awesome though - but that leaves not too much room for fancy experiments.

 

So I decided to concentrate on the phrase that I love most (that's "The Dragon Shlashed, the Dragon Wailed") and to spin a theme and story around this. Some of the story you can read in the introduction of my ranger build "Riptide & THe Pit Fright". I only added some flavour text now. The intro text above is a modified version of a song from Kataklysm, namend "The Ambassador of Pain" (no, I normally don't listen to that kind of music, but one of my friends does and the lyrics were so fitting that I had to use this).

The idea is that this chanter - as an emissary of a drake - uses fire magic for offense, mind control for CC and defensive talents, armor & shield for defense. She's very tanky but - thanks to maxed MIG and INT - still dishes out good amounts of AoE damage with the chant and can do high burst damage with spell binding items and scrolls. The mind control part adds some nice features to this mix. Since she's so tanky, she can afford to take her time for the casts. Casting Whisper of Treason from Munacra Arret takes forever and the dominate spell is also not the fastest. But that's not a big problem. I'll talk about that later.

 

As I said the whole appearence of this lady evolves around fire, terrifying and mind control.

Chanters have some phrases and invocations that do all theses things. I picked them all (see above). 

To be truly a drake's (or even dragon's) ambassador, you also need to hurl some fireballs or other fire magic. That can be done with the special sabre that you only get if you siphon knowledge from Maerwald. This sabre grants 3 uses of fireball per rest. The wand Curoc's Brand has another use/rest. If you have these items, you can use 4 fireballs per rest which is not bad. For tough encounters the ambassador relies on scrolls. In order to make the fire spells really powerful, I maxed might and intelligence. That also helps enormously with the Dragon Shlashed phrase.

For the Mind control part I added Enigma's Charm, the Munacra Arret and the Ring of Changing Heart. This gives you one charm/encounter, 3 confuse/rest and 2 dominate/rest. Now you're like a mini-wizard plus chants & invocations. If you want you can later add Spirit Spiral bracers for another 3/rest confusion, but I didn't need that.

The best part (for me) is the shield: it has the very special enchantment called "Harbinger" that lowers ACC of foes around you by 3 points. That doesn't sound too much, but this stacks with frightened (we have a chant for that) and terrified (invocation). Also: I also had two paladins in the party who wore the Outworn Buckler and the Little Savior. The "Herald" and "Harbinger" enchantments all stack when they stand together (INT influences the range of that). So you will get +13 on all defenses for just standing side by side while burning your foes. Defenses where not a problem in this party...

But besides that, I just think this shield fits the theme perfectly well. That's the main reason I only wore a fine plate (enchanted to exceptional) - it looked cool together with the shield.

 

The (mini) trick for this build is to apply the Dragon Slashed and THEN charm/confuse/dominate people. That way they still suffer from the DoT damage while they are out of combat for some while or fight for you. If you do it the other way round, they will not be affected by your chant because they will be friendly. That's the reason why it's no problem that all the mind control spells take so long. You don't have to do anything to sing phrases, so you can start to mindcontrol right at the beginning of the encounter. By the time your spell goes off, the phrase will have been triggered and all foes in range will be affected. Speaking of range: With maxed INT, a Ring of Overseeing and The Voice of the Mountaintop you get a really big AoE with your chants. And your AoE of invocations also gets very large. Since ou are a tank, you can easily walk into the midst of the mob and then chant the dragon phrase. Most of the time all enemies will be affected by your DoT. 

As second chant I chose the frightening one from lvl 2. The defenses are already high, but another +10 from "frightened" is even better. Your chant is quite long now - so don't expect to use a lot of invocations. But when I did, I always tried to stick to the theme. That's why I chose the drake over the ogres and so on. The level 1 invocation that lowers DR by 5 is pretty good though. If you have 3 phrases on your counter, use that and then cast a fireball. The DPS will rise a lot.

 

And then comes my beloved Combusting Wounds (CW): If you have a wizard in your party or sombody else who can apply CW, do it: If you combine CW with the lvl-1-damage chant and the Dragon chant, you will do +10 extra burn damage per tick. Some fast cast fireballs on top will end the fight very quickly then.

 

Ok, I'm off for the holidays. Visiting my parents in law who live on the coutryside. I have no idea if I will be online there or if I have to milk the cows all the time.

Anyways - have fun and happy holidays!

Edited April 16, 2017 by Boeroer

[L4wlight]

Looks very familiar!

That's almost the way I play Kana - my Jack of all trades and master of pulling enemies. Obviously I make good use of the Island Aumaua racial, so my talents are a bit different on that part (Quick Switch, Arms Bearer, Weapon Focus Ruffian ----> Fellstroke for the Alpha Shot with Runner's Wounding Shot -----> 1 Blunderbuss for some mid-fight burst in combination with Ring of Searing Flames/ Combusting Wounds ----> Bittercut and Redfield for the main weapon set) and less defensive. But just like you suggested, I make good and frequent use of Munacra Arret, Ring of Searing Flames, Ring of Changing Heart and Redfield on him. I use the Aru-Brekr armor (+1 movement speed and ranged deflection bonus) - which also happens to look nice in combination with Redfield - for pulling the foes (out of stealth with Fellstroke) and than run back to my parties position. Once in position Kana switches to The Dragon Trashed & Aefyllath and use spellbind items and fire damage scrolls. One weapon slot is for all the spellbind enchanted weapons (so I change them from fight to fight): The Flames of Fair Rhian together with Scath Gwannek, Taluntain's Staff and Curoc's Brand. Because of the frequent use of all the scrolls and spellbind items I prefer a DEX score of 10. Redfield is very nice for an off-tank, more so if fighting side by side with a Paladin using Outworn Buckler. Funny that you use chanters in the same way than me.

 

EDIT: Imo Bittercut is the better spellbind weapon for the main weapon set (different damage types) and it changes the colour based on the primary and secondary colours.

Edited December 18, 2015 by L4wlight

[mosspit]

Im impressed with the looks of the character. Liking the colour combination.

 

But you might need some changes to the guide when 3.0 hits next month though. If im not mistaken, chanters will be receiving some significant changes. I haven't been using chanters, wizards and druids for 3 playthroughs now so I will most likely have a chanter in my party once 3.0 hits. Hopefully they become less passive as that's one of the main reason I find them boring.

 

I was also using the Little Savior and Outworn Buckler combination in my last run, on a pally and priest. But the thing is Little Savior comes really late, or you have to rush for it where the rush is actually descending to the last level of Endless Paths. It is still great but the application of the combo is limited.

[AndreaColombo]

This looks (aesthetically) a lot like my pure-support priest build, except mine is in clothes—same shield and similar color scheme, though. Also looks a lot like Christmas with all the red :D

 

I like this chanter's concept a lot, but something inside me just doesn't want to play with slow builds. All of my party members are constantly high on ... speed to the point that combat is typically over before I can execute the "slower" combos (which aren't really slow in absolute terms) unless it's a "tough" fight.

Edited December 18, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[Boeroer]

I also think that this build needs a lot of rework after 3.0. But since it's more about the style & theme this time I am totally willing to retrain this build as long as the looks and items still work. And maybe there will be even more fitting abilities and items in WM II.

[Boeroer]

Nothing's faster than 6 ciphers with 6 ectopsychic echos. The Speedful Six!

[DreamWayfarer]

Awesome build as always .

 

Althought I must say, I never make any stat lower than seven. Which stats would this build miss the least if I wished four more DEX?

[DreamWayfarer]

I cannot edit my post (maybe because I created this account today?), but I also want to know if having only 10 resolve is not a problem when casting, considering the very low speed of this build.

[Boeroer]

MIG is really high. I think it wouldn't hurt a lot if you took away 3 MIG and 1 PER or so.

[Boeroer]

I cannot edit my post (maybe because I created this account today?), but I also want to know if having only 10 resolve is not a problem when casting, considering the very low speed of this build.

You mean because of interrupts? I didn't have such problems. Deflection is high enough without maxing RES - and the Ring of Changing Heart adds +3 to RES.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

If you reach Hearthsong you can buy the quarterstaff that has 3 Fireballs per rest. Nice addon! Totally forgot about that. Somebody reminded me today - also forgot who that was. Who was it? Guys? It was a thread about barbs or not? Wha'ever - thanks for reminding me.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Boeroer

[Blades of Vanatar]

If you reach Hearthsong you can buy the quarterstaff that has 3 Fireballs per rest. Nice addon! Totally forgot about that. Somebody reminded my today - also forgot who that was. Who was it? Guys? It was a thread about barbs or not? Wha'ever - thanks for reminding me.

You're welcome.

[Boeroer]

Ahhh - there you are! :D

[Dr <3]

Thanks to 3.0 i' m inspired to try a solo build versione of tour ambassador.

 

I'm not sure about the 3 dex ( i will need more speed for potions, scroll ecc) And the max intellect. In the end intellect apart from aoe ( but i will be in the middle of the fight anyway) only prolong the linger time of chant. Dragon chant is 8 sec chant + 4 sec linger, so +50% is 8 sec + 6 sec, only a 2 sec gain. I suspect that hig perception or resolution ( for def And dialogue checks ) will be more useful.

 

PS: the new talent that gives -40% chant duration, affect only chanted phase or Also the linger? In the first case if the chant become 4-5 sec + 6 sec linger , intellect will be a good choice again... Mmm need to test this

Edited January 25, 2016 by Dr <3

[Raven Darkholme]

Thanks to 3.0 i' m inspired to try a solo build versione of tour ambassador.

 

I'm not sure about the 3 dex ( i will need more speed for potions, scroll ecc) And the max intellect. In the end intellect apart from aoe ( but i will be in the middle of the fight anyway) only prolong the linger time of chant. Dragon chant is 8 sec chant + 4 sec linger, so +50% is 8 sec + 6 sec, only a 2 sec gain. I suspect that hig perception or resolution ( for def And dialogue checks ) will be more useful.

 

PS: the new talent that gives -40% chant duration, affect only chanted phase or Also the linger? In the first case if the chant become 4-5 sec + 6 sec linger , intellect will be a good choice again... Mmm need to test this

Int is the chanters most important attribute and Dex the least important one.

Even if it would give only AoE (I doubt that) having a huge AoE is key in trash fights, which are super annoying if you solo.

[Boeroer]

I maxed it more because of the really huge AoE (together with Overseeing and Voice of the Mountaintop) - so that the Dragon Slashed reaches really all enemies - and because of the AoE of the fireballs and durations of charmed/confused and scrolls. The linger time of the chants is also affected, but that wasn't my main reason to max it.

 

But that was in a party where enemies don't clump together a lot. Maybe for soloing it's better to change the stats a bit. But I don't know, I normally don't so solos. 

[Boeroer]

For 3.0 you may want to also put points into survival. The +10 (or even +15) helps a lot when you try to hit with your chants and invocations (ans scrolls/spells). Some for +DR.

Ancient Memory & Beloved Spirit is now also worth a look. I'm playing two of those guys at the moment and the combined healing is great.

[Reent]

Chanters have sweet spots for Might (at least in 3.0), i tried using the endurance- chant with 4 might and with 18 might - at lvl 16, looked how long it took to kill a 43 endurance enemy while casting it again and again - no difference. The Dragon Chant is a bit different, however it has sweet spots too - so blindly going for max might isnt that usefull for that part of the build.

 

Survival bonus doesnt count for chants - you dont get the +10/15... or did i see it wrong? I tested it 2 times...

 

Shod in Faith isnt that good combined with mind controll - you heal the enemy - not what you want i think.

 

With 3.0 i dont know if Charm isn't lowering your dps too much - everytime you cast dragon chant again you get another damage tick - i tested it vs 79 endurance enemy, with one dragon chant (10 secs duration, 18 might 10 int) the enemy almost died... when i didnt stop casting dragon chant (lvl 16 test char), the enemy died after 5 secs (wtf... that shouldnt be, however thats what the game told me... so it should be even more than one damage tick extra??)

3.0 the damage of dragon chant is insane...

 

scion of flame doesnt work with the dragon chant or does it? (fireball - so its fine)

[Boeroer]

No, Scion of Flame and all the other elemental boosters only work with direct damage, not DoT effects.

 

Might definetly increases the damage of The Dragon Thrashed. However - it's even more useful for the fireballs (together with Scion of Flame).

 

Shod-in-Faith are awesome with high MIG and INT. But most of the time I would put them on somebdy who has lower deflection.

 

Mind Control is always great and can turn difficult encounters into easy ones. Doesn't matter if you accidentially heal a controlled enemy with Shod-in-Faith or not. They are basically out of the game for a certain amount of time and function as additional meat shields. For example all the Lagufaeth encounters get really easy if you first control one of them. All the paralyzin attacks will hit him and not you. 

 

I also came to love the lvl-1-invocation "White Worms". With high MIG and INT ist very powerful if you're willing to pile up lots of bodies and lure the enemies onto that pile. You can use the corpses over an over again as long as you don't reload the game:

 

[Reent]

white worms is amazing - you dont list it in the spells you use, would have recommended but i am playing solo, didnt know if its usefull in teamplay.

 

and might sure is good for dragon trashed, however i am not convinced that every point in might makes a difference - dont know if its worth it to push it so hard that you push everything (race and background) for it.

 

Shod in Faith is really amazing, so amazing that i am running a (normally solo, however since i dont know WM i started taking durance with me yesterday) chanter with no shield, 3 resolve and shod in faith (however i am using the girdle of mortal protection - amazing) but in teamplay and with rather high deflection it doesnt look that usefull - combined with charm healing...

 

Charm for hard fights makes sense, i changed my first lvl 2 spell from wurms to charm to paralyse - wurms were a little help charm helped quite a bit and paralyse is the one spell that makes my solo run not too hard... getting to lvl 9 is a pain... first it looked like charm would be OP as ****, then i had to see some enemys healing badly injured->full... just because the charm crit and i wasnt able to focus them myself (fight reset solo ****...)

[Boeroer]

Yeah you can't edit the posts after some time. When I discovered that White Worms can be cast on corpses over and over again the opening post was locked for editing.

 

Shod-in-Faith is especially useful for a whole party. Just stick to the guy who wears the boots and you won't die.

 

However - soling is a complete different thing. This build is definetely not meant for soloing. As I said in my opening post, it's more of a theme build - Dragons/Drake/Fire and Mind Control. Still works great - especially if you use two of those tanks in a party. Nearly no micro, you can dump a stat with no regrets (DEX), it does some good tanking and lots of AoE damage.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Boeroer

[Reent]

the build looks fun and is really good for group play - i'd rather not use a shield and not use charm, but that makes him very fragile (however i feel that it pushes his acc over the edge and his dps is much much higher - if i look at my solo chanter... the damage is not the problem, not by a long shot... i dont know how long a group takes for fights, but the fights where i can stand in range so i hit all enemys and not get CC... i can use maybe one ogre summon - big maybe - lvl 13 thats 24 secs... not using damage from any source but dragon chant - ok, wm1 area up to the foundry... thats where i died last, maybe other enemys...)

[Ymarsakar]

the build looks fun and is really good for group play - i'd rather not use a shield and not use charm, but that makes him very fragile (however i feel that it pushes his acc over the edge and his dps is much much higher - if i look at my solo chanter... the damage is not the problem, not by a long shot... i dont know how long a group takes for fights, but the fights where i can stand in range so i hit all enemys and not get CC... i can use maybe one ogre summon - big maybe - lvl 13 thats 24 secs... not using damage from any source but dragon chant - ok, wm1 area up to the foundry... thats where i died last, maybe other enemys...)

 

I use small shields, no accuracy debuff then. Good compromise between defense and offense. For tougher fights, you can always slap the larder wall in.

 

The dragon chant I only use on the 5th chant, for 1-4 I use the death chants.

 

That way, I get a UI prompt for when I need to cast a spell invocation at 5 verses. Cause the dragon thrash has a rather noticeable effect on screen, with a sound.

 

Of course I'm always the person that wanted to add in custom voice over lines for specific tactical conditions that have been met in games like Homeworld 1. Makes controlling things easier when combining visual and audio cues, two channels instead of one.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Baltistan]

I'm giving this build a spin for my first playthrough (Hard),  I liked the idea I saw in another thread about having both Kana and my PC built this way.

Would anyone be able to recommend some suitable midgame weapons for this build?  I've got 2 characters using it, and I don't really have weapons that seem right for them them.  I gave my PC Hearth Harvest because Fire+DR Reduction+Deflection seemed like a good combo for a tank with a fire theme, but I get the feeling that I'm reaching the end of it's useful lifespan.

 

 I don't think I have developed a good head for the gear in this game yet, reading this forum, I see I have already overlooked some pretty good items, so I would appreciate any insights.

[Ymarsakar]

I'm giving this build a spin for my first playthrough (Hard),  I liked the idea I saw in another thread about having both Kana and my PC built this way.

 

Would anyone be able to recommend some suitable midgame weapons for this build?  I've got 2 characters using it, and I don't really have weapons that seem right for them them.  I gave my PC Hearth Harvest because Fire+DR Reduction+Deflection seemed like a good combo for a tank with a fire theme, but I get the feeling that I'm reaching the end of it's useful lifespan.

 

 I don't think I have developed a good head for the gear in this game yet, reading this forum, I see I have already overlooked some pretty good items, so I would appreciate any insights.

 

My tanks usually carry alpha range weapons or some kind of warbow/wand/rod for distance dps. Makes them more flexible if their health is low or something is blocking them from a target.

 

So for kana, the chanter, I had hatchet/small shield in the beginning. If it needed more dps then I used warhammer/sshield or sabre/sshield.

 

Sabre has the base damage of an estoc or greatsword, but attacks faster, at average not slow recovery speeds. With near full plate -50%, the greatsword is pretty slow. 

 

There's the Vile Lorner's lance, up in Salty Mast club in second floor, I think. That has a pretty good on hit effect for tanks. -5 to all defenses. Most of the good sabres are in Caed Nua levels. Like Resolution. Bitter Cut, no idea where that is though, that's more end game. Spears have +5 accuracy, ACC. So early and middle game, they can make a large difference for people who attack slowly. As each miss is more noticeable, each graze is soaked by DR.

 

The problem with sabres is that rogues tend to want to get a monopoly on them, especially if dual wielding. But there are plenty of fine sabres around, just use those. Lash effects are pretty cheap these days, put those on. Save the fine/exceptional stuff for the uniques.

 

The lash effect is a huge percentage of your overall dps, especially if your base weapon damage is high. And if your might is high, which a chanter/healer/paladin should have high might.

 

The chanter's death chant, the first level one, doesn't show up on the damage sheet. It bypasses DR, more or less, and doesn't require defenses to save against. It just punches right through and drains enemy's endurance, very good against lots of enemies, high DR enemies, spirits, the usual difficult enemies that are immune to X, Y, and Z.

 

It also pulls aggro around the chanter, which is useful for battlefield management.

 

The death chant and the old aoe heal effect, helped when I was clearing Caed Nua on the crit path at party level 2, using all story NPCs like Eder, Aloth, Kana, Durance. The tanks just needed high enough deflection to ensure the spirits couldn't kill them. Split pulling enemies also helped a lot, taking them on 1-2 at a time instead of taking on 5+ at a time.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Ymarsakar