[CLASS BUILD] Chillfog (cool soothing chanter tank)

[DreamWayfarer]

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

 

Most of your defenses work to protect you from afflictions first and damage later, as a disabled character is not only unable to meaningfullu contribute to the party (with some exceptions) but also more likely to receive critical hits that make things worse.

 

The afflictions Reflex helps against are generally mild, and it is mostly useful against damage. Yes there are some times bad reflex can lead to long blinds or being prone for some time, bit it is mostly an stat against AoE damage, which in most encounters can be tanked through with self-healing. Plus, the weapon and shield style talent already increases your reflex by a significant amount.

 

Fortitude, on the other hand, protects against some of the most annoying afflictions in the game: stun, paralysis (both of which are dealt on hit by certain common foes) and the dreaded petrification.

[Kazuma]

Ah, I see. I honestly hadn't even looked at what weapon and shield style gave you. lol. Fort is the bigger pain so Bear's Fort it is.

[DreamWayfarer]

Ah, I see. I honestly hadn't even looked at what weapon and shield style gave you. lol. Fort is the bigger pain so Bear's Fort it is.

Note that what I said is subjective. If enemy Druids or Wizards are giving you too much trouble, Snake Reflexes may be the way to go. Adapting builds to your playstyle is a hundred per cent better than following a rigid guide.

[Kazuma]

I hear ya. The build called for Fort. I figured Beoroer knew what he was doing but I like to tinker with things. It's one way to learn. In retrospect Snake's Reflex isn't enough to cover the -12 Reflex save from low dex and it's probably better to have two good save scores than 1 good and two mediocre. Coupled with what you mentioned about afflictions and the old trope, "Get the guy in the dress!!!", Fort really does serve this build better, imo.

[Boeroer]

I feel the same as DreamWayfarer.

[Boeroer]

Watch out guys! Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits is still bugged. It turns off once you cast your first invocation and won't turn back on. This is no problem for chanters who only chant The Dragon Thrashed - but for this build it's quite bad because it uses invocations and is dependend on the healing. It works in the first 10-15 secs of combat (when usually you suffer the most) and so it's not a complete waste, but it surely is not working as intended. So decide for yourself if it's worth taking. Most likely you will be better off with two other (defensive) talents atm. Just use postions (Regeneration) or scrolls (Moon Well) instead.

 

I didn't realize it because the tremendous self healing of Veteran's Recovery + all the healing mods of >100% masked the fact that it turned off after some time.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[rheingold]

Love thIs build. Playing it at the mo, not min/maxed of course, but the self healing is insane, even at 5 th level with fulvanos amulet and the survival bonus. Makes an awesome tank. Just a pity about the bugs, I like using loads of invocations....

[Boeroer]

Yepp, it's very sad. But since the self heal is good enough, you can take those two talent points and do something useful with them until OBS fixes this bug (and introduces some new ones of course).

[QuiteGoneJin]

 

 

Background: The Living Lands - Explorer

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Stats:

MIG: 20 

CON: 10

DEX: 14

PER: 10

INT: 18

RES: 10

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Love the build, little confused by these numbers, post gear I take it?

[Boeroer]

Yeah, sorry. Normally I take off all the gear after a successful playthrough and then copy the stats. But sometimes I forget resting bonuses, story talents like Gift from the Machine and so on or some food that's still active. The sum of all stats should be 78 (75 + 2 from race +1 from culture), not 82. So obviously I forgot some lingering effect while writing these down.

 

I fixed this quickly. Thanks for letting me know.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Boeroer

[QuiteGoneJin]

About using chants properly, should you just be weaving two of the same level back and forth all the time? Are there tricks to having more going at once?

[Boeroer]

The only trick in this build is to use the very long linger time of the healing phrase to sing very short phrases in order to build up the phrase counter quickly.

[Lampros]

Hmmm, do any popular Chanter builds use The Lover Cried out to the Beloved, "I am Yours!"? I ask, because the ability to charm is one of the appeal of this class for me.

[Lampros]

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.

 

Da heck. I did the same, because an online guide posted that Dragons Thrashed is modified by Scion of Flame

 

Oh, well. I guess it's still good for the Burning Lash...

Edited September 6, 2017 by Lampros

[Boeroer]

If you installed MaxQuest's mod then it's fixed.

[Lampros]

If you installed MaxQuest's mod then it's fixed.

Oh, good

[Lampros]

Ok, so Boerer, I have gotten to level 13 with this guy, and I have a few questions and comments.

 

First of all, I continue to love this guy. I think he will be my permanent tank on every playthrough. Almost indestructible and still does high DPS - and all those things with near zero-micromanagement. A lazy man's dream. (Now only if I can find a girl who does not demand to "reciprocate"!)

 

Having said all that, here are the questions:

 

1. Why Bear's Fortitude? I followed your stat and talent distributions to the letter, but I am not sure about Bear's Fortitude. Is there a fight upcoming that requires this? So far I have had zero problem with survivability. He's the only who has yet to be knocked out, and he's never come close to being knocked out. And I send him first and hold everyone back at first even. At the moment, I have done up to Act 2, 7 levels of Endless Paths, about a third of WM 1, and all of non-WM bounties. Will the Dragon fights require more Fortitude? I have 86 at level 13.

 

2. Equipment: Here are a lot of differences indeed. Let me go through one at a time.

 

To begin with, I do not like activation items as a general rule, because that's more micro-management. But in particular, I find Scath Gwannek to be more of a headache than it's worth, because it is not foe-only AoE. Other than thematic reasons, is there a game-play rationale? The "Bash" skill also seems to actually lower my DPS and does not add much other utility - unless there is a mechanics benefit I am overlooking.

 

Also, why stack healing items rather than avoidance items? It seems to me that if anything is going to trouble a Chanter tank, it's probably a streak of big hits spike, given the low relative Endurance of Chanters. So isn't it better to stack Deflection and Defense rather than heals?

 

Finally, once again I know that you said the armor choice was partly thematic. But is not -1 Movement on a tank quite crippling? I have worn it since I got it, but I am thinking of getting rid of it soon.

 

3. Just a minor question on Skills: It seems like your Skill distribution is kind of all-over for a lot of your builds. For instance, here you have no Stealth, whereas in the Drake tank Chanter build, you have a whopping (for a tank) 5! Any particular reasons? As a general matter, I am kind of clueless on how to distribute Skills - other than the need to have a Mechanic monkey. I suppose Athletics 5 and Survival 7 most is bare minimum for most - but anything beyond that? Perhaps Lore 4 so you can at least use some non-offensive scrolls?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Boeroer]

The items are mostly for the ice theme. I like spell bindings a lot, but they are not mandatory for this build. So feel free to use different ones. Also the case with the White Spire. It just looks so cool on this build with the rest of the items.

 

Bear's Fortitude helps against nasty afflictions like Lagufaeth blowdarts and banshee cries and so on (if you hane no priest).

 

The whole build's idea was to stack as much regeneration as possible. This way you can be a good tank while having enough offensive potiential. In a party you normally don't need a tank who can survive for ages but can't deal damage himself. Although the weapon & shield version already has high RES.

 

As for the skills: in between the implementations of skills got changed a lot. Nowadays survival can give you several bonuses while camping, athletics will give you Second Wind and so on. THis was not always the case. For example in the earlier days of this game you got fatigue after long travels and athletics helped. It gave no Second Wind. Survial only gave you longer potion duration and nothing else. So the skill distribution of my older builds will be a lot different than my newer ones.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Boeroer

[Lampros]

 

The whole build's idea was to stack as much regeneration as possible. This way you can be a good tank while having enough offensive potiential. In a party you normally don't need a tank who can survive for ages but can't deal damage himself. Although the weapon & shield version already has high RES.

 

As for the skills: in between the implementations of skills got changed a lot. Nowadays survival can give you several bonuses while camping, athletics will give you Second Wind and so on. THis was not always the case. For example in the earlier days of this game you got fatigue after long travels and athletics helped. It gave no Second Wind. Survial only gave you longer potion duration and nothing else. So the skill distribution of my older builds will be a lot different than my newer ones.

 

That's the beauty of tanking Chanters though: You don't need to equip for DPS and yet you still do more DPS than the DPS-ers themselves!

 

In terms of skills, so what skill distributions would you suggest today? Most of your builds seem from 2015 or early 2016 - and not sure if they are pre- or post-change.

[Lampros]

What do you think of Malina's Boots to off-set the speed debuff from the armor in this build? Azzuro sold me 3 (!), and the huge Defense while Prone or Stunned is not bad either (albeit not as good as Defense against those attacks).

Edited September 8, 2017 by Lampros

[Boeroer]

They are ok-ish.

[Lampros]

They are ok-ish.

 

Well, alternatives to Boots of Stability?

 

So far items are beginning to get plentiful, but helmet and shoe slots do not look all that impressive. Maybe it will stay that way.

[Boeroer]

Fenwalkers are nice.

[Ymiraku]

I must be doing something wrong because on lower levels having a chanter tank just gets annihilated in two or three hits in PoTD. Even with the high deflection his hp and endurance is just way too low and reflex defense is low so you get wrekced by aoe's. I find a barb or fighter as a main tank to be so much more effective. Thoughts???

[Lampros]

I must be doing something wrong because on lower levels having a chanter tank just gets annihilated in two or three hits in PoTD. Even with the high deflection his hp and endurance is just way too low and reflex defense is low so you get wrekced by aoe's. I find a barb or fighter as a main tank to be so much more effective. Thoughts???

 

Interesting. The Chillfog tank was amazing in my playthrough, but I played at Normal, so I have no idea how it would perform in PoTD. Perhaps focus a bit more on "survival" stats and then re-spec once you hit level 9?