[CLASS BUILD] Chillfog (cool soothing chanter tank)

[Boeroer]

"All right stop! Collaborate and listen:

Chillfog's back with a soothing bliss, um...

something pumps the heals of me nicely

flows like pure essence daily and nightly.

Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know -

turn off the lights and I'll glow

To the extreme I rock the fight, blow their lights out

Light up my stage and freeze d'mobs like a white-out!"

 

- Chillfog himself in his genuine rythmical parlando -

 

 

 

"You're as cold as ice

you're willing to sacrifice our love

you never take advice

someday you'll pay the price, I know!"

 

- A Foreigner -

 

 

 

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Chillfog

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

Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02

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Class: Chanter

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Race: Pale Elf

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Background: The Living Lands - Explorer

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Stats:

MIG: 18

CON: 10

DEX: 04

PER: 10

INT: 18

RES: 18

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Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 5, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 12

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

Secrets of Rime

Ancient Memory

Beloved Spirits

Weapon and Shield Style

Bear's Fortitude

Veteran's Recovery

Superior Deflection

Cautious Attack or Wound Binding

 

Abilities

Elemental Endurance (a)

Second Wind

 

Level 1 Chanter Phrases

Come, Sweet Winds of Death

Level 2 Chanter Phrases

Nothing special

Level 3 Chanter Phrases

Seven Men

The Silver Knights' Shield

Level 4 Chanter Phrases

Old Siec

Level 5 Chanter Phrases

Mercy and Kindness

 

Level 1 Chanter Invocations

The Thunder Rolled

Level 2 Chanter Invocations

At the Sound of his Voice

Level 3 Chanter Invocations

Seven Nights

Level 4 Chanter Invocations

So Singt Thy Biting

Level 5 Chanter Invocations

Called to his Bidding

 

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

 

Weapon set 1: Sheathed in Autumn (*Durgan stuff) & Scath Gwannek (*Durgan stuff)

Weapon Set 2: The White Spire - just for the spells

 

Boots: Boots of Stability

 

Head: White Crest Helm

 

Armor: The White Crest (*Crush Proofed, *+2 MIG)

 

Neck: Rymrgand's Mantle, later St. Borragia's Tears

 

Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing

 

Rings: Ring of Deflection or Wyrwood Ring, Ring of Protection

 

Hands: Bracers of Spiritual Power or Bracers of Deflection

 

Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Moonwell, healing potions

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Alright - so I made this Bilestomper wizard and was really satisfied how this whole "pile up defenses and then nuke yourself" principle worked out. I decided to do one or two other builds that emphasize on that. But none of them should be a wizard - that would be a bit boring.

 

Well, the only other class that comes to my mind when I think about powerful ice spells is the chanter - just because of his "Seven Nights" invocation which is very powerful. "Hm, that's foe only - so no need for high defenses or DR against freezing attacks" I thought at first. But then I thought "maybe I'll stick to that because you might have a ranged wizard or druid in your team who would like to have a tank who doesn't give a shart if he's standing in the midst of a Blizzard or Chillfog". One reason to wear Rymrgand'S Mantle first.

 

So I tried to make a (n)ice themed chanter tank who is very resistant to cold but can do good freeze damage via invocation and also can summon some aid from time to time. What I absolutely didn't want to do this time was using The Dragon Thrashed or the Aefyllath Ues Myth Fyr - because everybody knows those are powerful, right?

 

In order to gain a lot of phrases quickly (to cast Seven Nights) I sticked to lvl 1 phrases only at first. Since I don't like any of the lvl 1 phrases too much except "Come Sweet Winds" I decided to use that phrase most of the time and combine it with one powerful high level phrase in order to accumulate phrases quickly. I will just pretend it's name is "Come, Cold Winds of Death" for this build.

 

Since chanters can't raise their defenses as high as paladins, fighters or monks without losing a phrase slot and also don't have too much endurance or health, I also wanted to make sure he has some good regeneration. And then I played and tried a bit and finally came to the conclusion that I should really focus on that:

 

So I raised MIG (+30% healing done) and INT to the max and I took Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits and added Veteran's Recovery. Then I put on a Belt of Bountiful Healing (+25% healing received) and later also used St. Borragia's Tears (+15% healing done). I also tried to reach 14 survival temporarily in order to get the third rank of the healing multiplier (+60% healing received). Then, when I finally got the phrase "Mercy and Kindness" that does +100% to all healing, I took that, too. So alltogether my healing gets buffed by +230%, or in other words: *3.3. This not only works with my regeneration, but also with Second Wind, potions and scrolls like Moonwell or items like Shod-in-Faith. For my friends around me it's not +230% of course, but still +145% (*2.45) when I heal them - and obviously +100% whith all other heals from other sources. This is a really serious buff. It also works on draining from weapons or the draining phrase "Old Siec" and all other healing effects.

 

To put it in numbers: My regeneration from Veteran's Recovery alone says is about ~135 points every 3 seconds at lvl 16 if I'm not mistaken! I didn't do excessive tests to verify the numbers but I have over 200 endurance and it jumps from nearly KO to nearly full after 3 secs. If that's not enough I can cast a scroll of Moonwell that does ridicilous amounts of healing over a long time now. Or I sip a potion of regeneration. And Moonwell does not only work for me of course but for everybody around me. Same goes for Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits. With my good deflection I didn't even wear Shod-in-Faith because it would'nt trigger often (there's a more offensive "offtank" variant for that at the end of this build).

 

With Brisk Recitation I can put together the following chant:

1*Healing + 5*Come Sweet Winds - then repeat

Phrases build up very fast after the initial healing phrase. Every 2 seconds you can 1 phrase. It also makes Sweet Winds of Death more deadly because it stacks with itself. Stacking about 10 raw DoT every 2 seconds is pretty nasty. Also great for rangers' pets and Combusting Wounds.

 

This results in a cycle where I can sing Come Sweet Winds five times in a row in order to build up phrases for Seven Nights and at the same time have uninterrupted +100% healing. Once I hit 5 phrases on the counter I walk to the next tough enemy and try to hit him with three bolts of ice while I also try to hit as many of his friends with the other bolts as possible. Normally you manage to take this one and some more enemies out - also because they got weakened by the Sweet Cold Winds before. At level 16 I normally do about 600 to 800 damage with one cast of this against 5 to 10 enemies with DR 10 to 15.

 

I soon found out that this guy is nearly unkillable as long as he's not petrified and as long as his regeneration still works. But health really is an issue because chanters don't have a lot of it. Not like barbs or monks. Although his defenses and DR are good - in tough encouters like bounties it was not his endurance that caused problems - but his health. So for the first time since ages I tried Field Triage and Wound Binding again.

 

Turns out that all the healing mods also work with those. Field Triage heals 66% of my health now instead of 20% - and Wound Binding gives me 132% instead of 40%. So it basically overheals me. That's ok because it's a healing over time and while it works you might get hit again. I finally chose Wound Binding and skipped Field Triage - but know that with this build both might be worth it.

You will walk out of the toughtest fights with 100% endurance AND health.

 

So, it is a very sturdy tank now who also heals his friends on the fly and does good damage with the Sweet Cold Winds plus Seven Nights. Secrets of Rime pays off here. Not only does it raise your freeze DR by 5 - 20% more of the huge damage Seven Nights deals is also not bad. But... "Mercy and Kindness" comes really late. What to do in the meantime? Well, that's the weak spot of this build: it is a quite normal chanter until you get Seven Nights and later on that special healing buff. Use Come Sweet Winds to accumulate phrases, tank and then use your common invocations like summons and so on. But even without those high level things his Ancient Memory heals your party and the Sweet Winds combine raw damage with fast phrase buildup.

And you can hit him all the time with frost spells because his freeze DR is 36 (41 with Wyrwood Ring) - even 46 (49 Wyrw.) with the lvl-3-phrase "Seven Men" - or 51 (56 Wyrw.) with a potion of Bulwark.

And what he also can do is use those freeze spells from his items. Getting the Winter Shield from Azurro can be difficult, but it's relatively easy to get the White Spire from Dunstan at Crucible Keep. Together you will have 6 ice good spells that also work with Secrets of Rime.

 

I also decided to wear the White Crest armor. It's not strictly ice themed but fits beautifully. And look how aweseom it looks with the White Spire. In fact this is the only reason I added another variant to this build.

 

The variant of the tank is a more offensive melee build who mainly uses the White Spire as weapon instead of weapon & shield:

 

 

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The Last Unicorn - imagine a fancy fairytale about a unicorn that became human and so on...

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Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02

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Class: Chanter

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Race: Pale Elf

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Background: The Living Lands - Explorer

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Stats:

MIG: 18

CON: 10

DEX: 14

PER: 10

INT: 18

RES: 08

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Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 5, Lore 8, Mech. 0, Surv. 12

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

Secrets of Rime

Ancient Memory

Beloved Spirits

Two Handed Style

Veteran's Recovery

Weapon Focus Adventurer

Wound Binding

Savage Attack

 

Abilities

Elemental Endurance (a)

Second Wind

 

Chants and Invoc.: look down below.

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

 

Weapon set 1: The White Spire

Weapon Set 2: some good Pollaxe

 

Boots: Shod-in-Faith

 

Head: White Crest Helm

 

Armor: The White Crest

 

Neck: Rymrgand's Mantle, later St. Borragia's Tears

 

Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing

 

Rings: Ring of Deflection or Wyrwood Ring, Ring of Protection

 

Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action

 

Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Moonwell, healing potions

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Instead of Seven Nights all the time I used more summons and "The Champion braved" as invocations as well als Revival and other supportive invocations. You get pretty fast with that champion invocation - not to 0 recovery, but fast enough to take out swarming enemies quickly while also healing everybody around you with Shod-in-Faith like crazy. The healing with those boots, combined with Ancient Memory times 3.3 is insane. Your whole party becomes so much sturdier just because of this guy. I also used the Will'o Whisps because of the "Unicorn" theme - turns out they are not too bad in the mid game. This variant is all about the looks to be honest.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Boeroer

[DreamWayfarer]

Awesome as always Boeroer. I like the second build a lot, not only because of the looks, but because it is refreshing to see a Chanter build that doesn't dump DEX.

[rheingold]

I have a similar type build currently. "Snow White". Obviously pale elf from white that wends. Aristocrat. Wears the same armour which looks great. Has secrets of rime and scion of flame.... It's a theme build - fire and ice. The ice spell does great damage, and then there is dragon wailed. Very useful character. I have not tried your healing trick, I may do that, instead I stacked deflection. She is sitting at around 130 or so. Probably will reach 140 by the end. Also not min/maxed but I did give her 14 con and the yenwood blade. Chanters don't benefit as much as monks or barbs from constitution but so far she is consistently out tanking my paladin tank.

[Boeroer]

Why did you take Scion of Flame? For scrolls and spellbinds? Because (sadly) it doesn't work with The Dragon Thrashed since it's a DoT. Scion works with the burning lash chant though - boosts it from 25% to 30% lash damage.

[rheingold]

Truth be told I only took it for roleplay reasons, I find it a bit weird that pale elves have ice and fire resistance, so I wanted to reflect that duality with the character. But, yeah it is a waste of an ability. She only uses scrolls of revival, moonwell and confusion so no direct damage scrolls. Still chanters are insanely powerful at high level. They do great damage and tank like champions. I kinda use the Ondra tidalfists as a gauge as to how good a tank is. And so far every time my chanter has outlasted my paladin by a substantial time. (POtd, upscaled, 12 level consistently). I must try your health stacking as well though...

[Boeroer]

Yes, high level chanters (lvl 9 and up) can be pretty awesome. I have the impression that high level chanters tank better because they kill all foes faster.

It's a bit sad that most of their low level chants are so boring though.

[rheingold]

I have an issue choosing between resolve and con for a chanter. I don't min/max so its around 17 might and int. The rest (I think 4 points) goes into con. Do you think constitution is worth it for a chanter with their low endurance/health, or is it better to put them into resolve? My feeling with is that the con is better than resolve, but resolve from a rp point of view is much better especially for a chanter.

[Boeroer]

If you care about not being interrupted  (and your DEX is low) I would certainly put the points into resolve. That stat isn't so much about deflection for me, it's more about concentration. When you stand in the middle of a mob and can't manage to drink a potion or cast a spell because you constantly get interrupted, you're screwed.

[Elric Galad]

Getting interrupted while casting Crown of the Faithful : Big fail.

[rheingold]

 

Ok you convinced me, you twisted my rubber arm - I like resolve as a stat anyway. I think I'm going to try your healing trick as well with my next chanter, though I will probably go Boreal dwarf instead of Pale elf. Certainly not as good from a defense point of view.

Edited May 18, 2016 by rheingold

[Blades of Vanatar]

The Unicorn build has 22 extra starting stat points instead of 18???

[Blades of Vanatar]

Question about Rym's Mantle.....

 

Do you take full damage then endurance is added back at 20%? Or do you take 80% damage? Or do you take 80% and heal endurance by 20%

[Elric Galad]

I told you Field Triage and bind wounds weren't so bad, especially with high might and int.

 

Good work as always.

 

I hate swift wind, but combination of draining and healing buff chants would be nice. Even if it reduces Seven night uses so I guess it would be a variant.

 

This one would be even more fun as the 6th guy of a dragon trashers band.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

The Unicorn build has 22 extra starting stat points instead of 18???

Ooops - I think I messed up somewhere while posting. Or I had resting bonuses or something. Must load up a save and look into it. Will edit then... In fact both variants now have 22 instead of 18. Maybe a copy & paste error.

 

 

 

This one would be even more fun as the 6th guy of a dragon trashers band. 

I think it's even more cool in a chanter party to have two guys sing the 30Pt.-Damage Shield phrase all the time, one with this healing setup and only three with the Dragon Thrashed. Supermonstertanky. You can soak up 120 damage every few seconds, regenerate endurance like crazy and also do tons of damage while standing there in fat armor with a shield.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Boeroer

[MaxQuest]

Turns out that all the healing mods also work with those. Field Triage heals 66% of my health now instead of 20% - and Wound Binding gives me 132% instead of 40%. So it basically overheals me. That's ok because it's a healing over time and while it works you might get hit again. I finally chose Wound Binding and skipped Field Triage - but know that with this build both might be worth it.

That's awesome! I felt that there must be something more to those two abilities, but haven't put yet arrived to testing it.

That was one of my gripes with Kana. Everyone was permanently full on endurance, but his health was dropping the fastest on my first run.

Heh I am already seeing taking chanter again. Especially since Sure-Handed chant also speeds-up many ranged spells.

[InsaneCommander]

Interesting build. I wanted a Drake ambassador (another good one!) but it looks too much like what I had for Kana on my last playthrough. So I'll try this instead.

 

Edit: this is just perfect for my character! Everything I picked so far is what you suggest here. Even the armor is the one I wanted for my chanter.

Edited July 13, 2016 by InsaneCommander

[Boeroer]

Thanks.

 

Which one do you want to use - the one with the shield or the one with the Estoc? I have to say in a party with more sturdy frontliners the estoc guy is more fun. Because oif his higher DEX he can dish out invocations faster (DEX reduces the recovery after an invocation which will stop your chanting). So his dps will be better and you might not need the high deflection of the shield version. If you need extra tankyness then I would use the first one.  

[InsaneCommander]

I'll use the first one. Not enough tanks in my party. I have a Kind Wayfarer, this chanter, a pc Schemer's Needle, a Stormcaller ranger with a bear, a wizard and a cipher.

[Kazuma]

I was just reading this build again and realized I had missed something the first time - Brisk Recitation. I didn't see it in your ability list and the wiki makes no mention of it. I'm assuming (hoping) this is something the chanter gets automatically?

 

Speaking of the wiki it doesn't list the lvl 5 phrases either. I had meant to look into that as I noticed it does mention the addition of those in the DLC's page. Any place I can see what was added?

 

If it wasn't for this build being a late bloomer I'd probably have picked this over Drake's Ambassador for my party. 100% Healing... so good.

[DreamWayfarer]

I was just reading this build again and realized I had missed something the first time - Brisk Recitation. I didn't see it in your ability list and the wiki makes no mention of it. I'm assuming (hoping) this is something the chanter gets automatically?

 

Speaking of the wiki it doesn't list the lvl 5 phrases either. I had meant to look into that as I noticed it does mention the addition of those in the DLC's page. Any place I can see what was added?

 

If it wasn't for this build being a late bloomer I'd probably have picked this over Drake's Ambassador for my party. 100% Healing... so good.

Brisk Recitation is automatic, yes. BTW, the content added by the DLCs can be found here:

 

http://www.gamebanshee.com/pillarsofeternity

[Kazuma]

^ Unfortunately I can't seem to find anything about brisk recitation or lvl 5 phrases on that site. I tried manually looking for it and doing a google site:domain search. They have phrases up to lvl 4 in the spell section.

[Boeroer]

You could easily use this build and play it as a Drake's Ambassador (without the Mind Control and no Scion of Flames and Fireballs and so on). I mean the essential part of the Ambassador is The Dragon Thrashed - and the stats are nearly the same. Focus on things like Ancient Memory and Veteran's Recovery and survival. Once you can get Seven Nights you can buy Secret of Rime and turn you chanter into this version.

[Kazuma]

Hmmm.. I might have to consider that. Having 2 x Sacred Immolation and Dragon Thrashed would be putting all my AOE dps in the burn category. Going frost might be the way to go...

 

*edit*

Quick question - On the Drake Ambassador you had 16 PER, but on this build you dropped it for RES. Is Acc a problem or not really? I understand you're reasoning for RES - More deflection and concentration. Win/Win. Just wondering if Acc with chants/invocations is a prob?

 

Oh, btw fwiw the correct stats for the primary build (assuming you want to max might/int and put the remainder in RES) is -

MIG: 19

CON: 10

DEX: 4

PER: 10

INT: 18

RES: 17

Edited July 14, 2016 by Kazuma

[Boeroer]

PER 10 is ok if you can debuff enemies with other chars. At the beginning a bit more PER would be nice, but I used 10 and had no problems. You could switch to a one-handed setup every time the Dragon Thrashed starts anew - because the +12 ACC also applies to the chant. Don't ask me why, it's stupid, but it does. And since your chant does all the damage, the increased action recovery from switching is no problem.

 

Stats look good. Make sure to pick up a Ring of Overseeing, the Hermit's Hat and the Voice of the Mountaintop asap. The bigger your chant AoE the better.

[Kazuma]

I might split the remainder between PER and RES. But I do have Acc Aura in the party so maybe not that big of deal? Will do on the gear.

 

Couple more things

1) With Dex as a dump stat would Snakes Reflex be a better pick than Bear's Fortitude? Or are Fortitude checks more important?

2) I was tempted to grab the "Rime and Frost Followed the Footfalls of Karth" phrase that drops freeze traps just because it fits with the theme but I doubt I'd end up using it. Is it still buggy?

 

Oh, and I stumbled on something that listed the Lvl 5 phrases/invocations not on the wiki - https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84249-data-miners-unite/?p=1775386

Probably dated. Not that you need it Boeroer. Just for anyone like me that didn't know their names/description.