[CLASS BUILD] The Gunslinger (PotD solo guns-only Chanter)

[Jojobobo]

“Say hello to my little friend!”

 

As a bit of a foreword, this build is designed to exclusively use guns with class abilities, even in the tough boss fights. I’ve yet to kill any of the really tough bosses (the Kraken, Adra or Alpine Dragons, Concelhaut, Llengrath) but all the bounties are completed as is the Radiant Spore and Sky Dragon, so being an impatient so-and-so I thought I’d post up the build and I’ll post up details of some of the tough bosses as I go along. I’m just at the Abbey of the Fallen Moon, so I’m also missing Gwyn’s Band of Union for the time being – but it will come shortly. I’ll post edits up here as I go when I get the big things killed off.

 

EDIT: All the bosses are now complete!

 

 

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The Gunslinger

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Difficulty: Expert PotD solo, no respec, with full upscaling

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Class: Chanter

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Race: Wild Orlan

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Background: Old Vailia – Colonist

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Starting attributes:

 

MIG: 10 

CON: 9

DEX: 18

PER: 12

INT: 19 

RES: 10

 

Final attributes:

 

MIG: 11/15 (Gift from the Machine, 15 with Maegfolc Skull)

CON: 10 (Rymrgand’s Boon)

DEX: 22 (Viettro’s Formal Footware)

PER: 15 (Elryn’s Jacket, Song of the Heavens)

INT: 26 (Forum resting bonus, Gwyn’s Band of Union)

RES: 10

 

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Skill levels obtained: Survival 11 (Jack of Wide Waters, Rymyrgand’s Boon, Colonist), Mechanics 13 (Dungeon Delver, Gloves of Manipulation, Chanter bonus), Lore 11 (Chanter bonus, Viettro’s Formal Footware), Athletics/Stealth – who cares?

 

These levels weren’t really optimized, I was originally shooting for higher Survival aiming for Lore 8 – but then I quickly found out you really need Scrolls Against Imprisonment in WM part I, so it’s all a bit of a mess. However, I found these levels perfectly adequate for what I wanted to do.

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Abilities and Talents:

 

Phrases:

 

1 – Come, Come Soft Winds of Death and At the Sight of their Comrades, their Hearts Grew Bold

3 – Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe

5 – Sure-Handed Ila Nocked Her Arrows with Speed

7 – One Dozen Stood Against the Power of the Saint

9 – The Dragon Thrashed, the Dragon Wailed

11 – Choice (I went for Aefyllath, but I think Silver Knights’ Shields would be occasionally more useful)

13 – Her Courage Thick as Steel

15 – With All Your Strength Slay the Beast

 

Invocations:

 

1 – But Reny Daret’s Ghost, He would not Rest

2 – White Worms Writhed in the Bellies of the Dead

4 – Choice (I picked Hel-Hyraf, but rarely used it)

6 – At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff

8 – Choice (I never got much use out of Shatter their Shackles, so I’d probably recommend The Lover Cried)

10 – Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept

12 – The Brideman Slew Thirty 'Fore they Crossed Half the Hall

14 – The Bride Caught their Ruse and Set to Make them Pay

16 – Called to His Bidding, the Ancient Instruments of Death

 

Talents by level:

 

2 – Veteran’s Recovery (can pick Ancient Memory with the 3.04 fix)

4 – Gallant’s Focus 

6 – Gunner 

8 – Envenomed Strike 

10 – Penetrating Shot 

12 – Bear’s Fortitude

14 – Deep Pockets

16 – Snake’s Reflexes

 

Additional talents:

 

Gift from the Machine

Song of the Heavens

Rymrgand’s Boon

Second Skin 

Dungeon Delver 

 

Weapons and Equipment (listing only new enchantments):

 

Weapon set 1: Silver Flash (Legendary, Durgan-Refined, Freezing Lash)

Weapon Set 2: Pliambo per Casitàs (Superb, Durgan-Refined, Slaying (Vessel), Corrosive Lash)

Boots: Viettro’s Formal Footware or Boots of Speed when needed

Armor: Elryn’s Jacket (Legendary, Durgan-Reinforced) or Starlit Garb (Superb, Durgan-Reinforced, +2 Perception)

Neck: Cape of the Master Mystic

Belt: Looped Rope

Rings: Ring of Protection and Gwyn’s Band of Union 

Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy

Head: Arret Munacra or Maegfolc Skull

 

You can maybe throw in Ilfan Byrngar's Solace with your fist for when you’re being stunned (no other weapons to live up to the gun-only archetype) but whenever I switched to it while stunned I still got beat down so in the end I didn’t bother.

 

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I was going to break this into individual sections using the spoiler tags so people only have to look at sections they wanted to, but apparently the forum only puts the first paragraph of a section inside the tags  So sorry for the horrendous length of the post, I've put the different topic titles in a nice lurid red so you should be able to spot them easily enough through scrolling. I will however keep the first point in spoiler tags for suspense...

 

EDIT: Turns out I got the spoiler tags working after all.

 

Why would you want to play this build?

Because guns are cool.

 

Why is the Silver Flash so neat?

 

From the off I knew I wanted to make a solo build around Silver Flash. Blinding is a huge debuff, so if you manage to perma-blind a group it makes you much harder to hit (accuracy drop) and them much easier to hit (reflex and deflection drops) – the former sort of approximating the effects of a shield. While perma-blind is tricky to manage (using Penetrating Shot you need Gunner with Swift Aim or Sure-Handed Ila, or to have huge stat boosts from the likes of the Bride invocation or Minor Avatar) it can be done on crits on the blind roll.

 

While crits on that roll sounds like a big ask, you only need one of the blunderbuss pellets to hit or crit on your main target for the blind effect to proc on the group – and the roll itself comes with hefty accuracy bonuses (it doesn’t use any of the Silver Flashes accuracy penalty – instead using your base with +10 for the spell effect and +1 per level, which is pretty nice). Once you have the crit, as it targets reflex and that gets a severe debuff with blind, that one crit should potentially earn you many more. Very few enemies are immune to blind (only the Sky Dragon out of the dragons, etc.) so it has widespread applicability, and even if you only score a hit the enemy will be blind for most of your shot and reload cycle (again, almost like a shield). All in all, it's pretty nice.

 

In addition to the blind effect, the Silver Flash brings other neat things to the table. Divine Mark does hefty burn damage, and while the chance of a proc is only 10%, from testing that’s 10% per pellet hit or crit – not just for the one shot as a whole. Without putting a definite number on it, I found that with around 3 or 4 hits/crits at least you should get a Divine Mark proc around just under half the time – and once it’s active the deflection debuff lasts a good while, enabling more hits and so more Divine Marks and more procs of blind (or, looking at it another way, completely offsetting the -10 blunderbuss accuracy penalty).

 

In my mind, Divine Mark also frees you up to take a different lash to burning on the weapon, with a freezing lash making it look even more pretty (like very shiny silver) and synergising well with the fire damage as they’re more or less opposite elemental sources of damage with few enemies packing high resistances to both. Who can say no to the paradox that is both fire and ice damage at once? Overall, I think the Silver Flash is a very cool weapon that has been a little overlooked.

 

Class choice:

 

I wanted a somewhat tanky class for solo, who had the ability to chain the blind effect without food or prostitute bonuses always active, and who could make good use of the blind effect too. As far as I’m aware I don’t think any class without the capability of attribute boosting to high levels or with some reload speed buffer can do this – even with Penetrating Shot not active, and with Gauntlets of Swift Action plus a Durganized Silver Flash (I don’t think I found a way to Durganize Silver Flash for the full test initially, but the reload time was quite a lot off compared to time between shots so I don’t think it would make a difference).

 

This left pretty much Ranger, Chanter and Priest – I’m ruling a Wizard out of the running as even with Citzal’s Martial Power not using Blast as your ranged attack of choice seems a little inexcusable. Plus, I never bothered testing them so they might not be able to blind chain without an Int boost in the first instance.

 

For the Priest, I was put off as you only have a certain number of Minor Avatars you can use per rest and I wanted the blind chaining to be more or less innate. For a Ranger, there’s several problems: firstly they’re not very tanky with somewhat low base deflection. Secondly, you can’t have both Swift Aim and Powder Burns active at once – meaning you can’t chain blind while Powder Burns is active which seems like the main incentive to use firearms on a Ranger (plus you really need the Crossed Patch to use Powder Burns, which you can’t get on solo). Thirdly, you’re blinding your animal in the process. All in all, it’s not a pretty sight.

 

So onto the Chanter. In testing I realised it offered some nice advantages, as with Sure-Handed Ila (which will last over a Dragon Thrashed chant or lower at level 16) and Durganized gear (which I approximated by wearing no clothes and turning Penetrating Shots off) and with end game Dex and Int (22 and 26) you can chain blind on crits without even needing Gauntlets of Swift Action – freeing up use of something like Gauntlets of Accuracy to maximise your blind effect accuracy. Secondly, with a single cast of the Bride Caught their Ruse you no longer need Sure-Handed Ila to chain the blind due to the Int and Dex buffs (27 and 31 respectively), and can now switch to the Dragon Thrashed. The Dragon Thrashed targets reflex, which blind is severely debuffing, so you’re scoring many more crits with the chant leading to much more efficient stacking of the DoT effects on the enemy – as well as providing damage to pierce immune enemies. Further, if you can squeeze in Seven Nights, it’s also going to effect this debuffed reflex – very nice. In addition, the Chanter is the only class that can summon minions that are immune to blind – the animated weapons – effectively amping up both their defences due to the opponents’ accuracy drop and their accuracy due to the deflection drop and allowing them to lay down some hurt.

 

From all these points, the Chanter stands out as a very obvious choice – exploiting the blind effect they’re causing and having decent tanking capabilities throughout. Their versatility helps a lot early game, when the guns you’re using are quite inferior to your later setup. Lastly Chanters fit the arrogant gun-slinging braggart archetype quite well from a roleplaying perspective.

 

Race, attribute, equipment and talent choices:

 

Wild Orlan is standard for tanking due to the defence boosts when will is targeted – as most bosses target will through fear/terror effects it’s an extremely obvious choice. For me, Arret Munacra is well worth forgoing Moon godlike, the distraction more than makes up for a little healing.

 

Attribute choices were largely discussed above, looking to maintain high levels of Int and Dex in order to chain blind and have large AoE, with modest levels of Per and Might to maintain reasonable accuracy (110 at level 16 for the blind effect factoring everything in, 115 with Bride active) and damage to make your chants/blind effect hit and hit reasonably hard. Res 10 may seem a little low, but as you're not typically right on the front line you don't get interrupted all that often. Such high Dexterity also makes cast times extremely fast, greatly helping late game CC efforts with things like Scrolls of Confusion.

 

Equipment is all equally standard, focusing on attribute boosts primarily. I wanted low recovery armour, and Elryn’s Jacket provides another means of inflicting blind particularly to ranged enemies not in the Silver Flash AoE – plus the backstory I found to be very cool. Starlit Garb can be used as an option in mage heavy areas. At the end of the game, I’m mostly using my survival bonus or potions for speed, however Boots of Speed are handy should you need them. Pliambo per Casitàs I enchanted with a view of taking out Eyeless who, appropriately, are immune to blind – plus disorientating is a nice single target debuff and reasonably easy to chain.

 

In all honesty, I probably used Munacra Arret way more than the Maegfolc Skull. Charming is just too useful to pass up, and again with it having the same accuracy as your blind effect it’s very useful when you’re on the back foot early in a fight. Maegfolc Skull is an option when you need the fortitude, or when the enemy can’t be charmed, or when you’ve run out of Whispers of Treason and don’t want to rest yet.

 

For talents, Veteran’s Recovery (or Ancient Memory as of 3.04) is useful for a bit of healing – but if you think you can do without it (which I’m sure you can late game) Body Control is a better option with your lowish fortitude. Gallant’s Focus effects your chant, weapon and summon accuracy, so it’s a better pick than a Weapon Focus particularly seeing as I didn’t have much room for one. Envenomed Strike is an extremely easy pick with high Int, doing a lot of raw damage. Gunner allows for the all-important blind chaining, Penetrating Shot is useful early game but can be forgone if you only really want to use Silver Flash blind effect as a vehicle to more effective Dragon Thrashed stacking. Deep Pockets gives you more options, allowing you to have plenty of scrolls and figurines for the trickier fights. Bear’s Fortitude and Snake’s Reflexes boost what I would say are the most important defences in the game.

 

When the build was tested, what worked and what didn’t?

 

Theory-crafting a build based on some testing at the initial campsite is all well and good (poor Sparfel, he took way too many face-melting Silver Flash shots), but it’s only through comprehensive playing of the build that you really sense of whether what you want to work is working as you planned.

 

Firstly, I never used the combo of Sure-Handed Ila and another chant to blind stack like I thought I would. The Dragon Thrashed is way too useful and too damaging to pass up not using continually so you really may as well use it instead, then use the Bride Caught their Ruse for the blind stacking.

 

Secondly, though the blind effect does work reasonably, stacking it in upscaled WM part II more or less just won’t happen. Enemy defences can be too high for you to even reliably score pellet hits with Silver Flash, meaning little Divine Mark or group blind procs, despite having reasonable accuracy. Scrolls and potions can somewhat remedy your accuracy, but not entirely (and at that point it's perhaps easier to use other scrolls, like Confuse, instead), so ultimately I think you need to take the blind effect for what it is – something that allows for more effective Dragon Thrashed stacking and modest temporary defence boosts. I think the build would function much better on hard, or without upscaling, but I wanted a max difficultly experience so that’s how it played out.

 

Lastly, while it’s all well and good that blind effectively increases defences by lowering enemy accuracy – you have to get the enemy in a grouping such that the effect covers them, and you also have to take the shot in the first place. This means against tough groups like Magran’s Faithful your defences at the start of some encounters are relatively lower than any tank with a shield as you haven’t taken a shot yet, and it also means it’s more difficult to take a shot in the first place as you can be too busy buffing. You will get shots in and score some blinds, but they will be fewer than you anticipate, and while Elryn’s Jacket can help a little here it doesn’t patch up the problem entirely. Also, this guy’s fortitude is definitely on the low side, which compounds this issue slightly – even though Might and Constitution are extremely buffable with food, items, prostitutes and rest bonuses.

 

All in all, while the build does work, it’s perhaps unsurprisingly less effective on upscaled WM part II than I thought it would be. If you are looking to play this build solo on PotD with upscaling, expect a rather harsh challenge.

 

Different act equipment and chant/invocation advice:

 

Early game (Act I) equipment, chants and invocations:

 

Weapon set 1: Kana's Arquebus (Fine, Burning Lash)

Weapon Set 2: The Disappointer (Accurate)

Armor: Durance’s Robes

Belt: Blunting Belt

Rings: Minor Protection (if not using the cloak) and Deflection where possible 

Hands: Fulvano’s Gloves

Neck: Cloak of Minor Protection and Rymyrgand’s Mantle when needed

Head: Hermit's Hat

 

Chants/invocations:

 

Soft Winds of Death with the Reny Daret’s Ghost will make Act I pretty damn easy, particularly when you use the Bronze Horn Figurine to stall for time until you can summon the phantom. This combo also means you’re not typically on the front line, useful as your defences are sucky in Act I. White Worms can be nice situationally when you have a load of dead bodies in front of you.

 

Mid game (Act II and WM part I) equipment, chants and invocations:

 

Weapon set 1: Leadspitter (Exceptional, Corrosive Lash)

Weapon Set 2: Arquebus (Exceptional, Burning Lash)

Boots: Shod-in-Faith

Armor: Choice (Exceptional, +2 Perception)

Neck: Finreah’s Grace

Belt: Blunting Belt

Rings: Ring of Protection and Ring of Deflection 

Hands: Bracers of All-Consuming Rage, or Gauntlets of Accuracy if you find them

Head: Munacra Arret

 

Boots of Speed are definitely a good idea, Finreah’s Grace can be swapped for Ring of Thorns when you get it to free up a slot for Cape of the Master Mystic. Other than that, fill out the rest of your equipment with the end game equipment as you go.

 

Chants/invocations and talents:

 

Soft Winds of Death with the Reny Daret’s still work well, especially when you throw in Munacra Arret Whispers of Treason. Killers Froze Stiff is nice when combined to your greater supply of figurines, easily allowing your little helpers to score crits on paralysed enemies making short work of them. Envenomed Strike allows you to take down tougher enemies in a mob with relative ease. By mid-Act II you should unlock Dragon Thrashed (you don’t even have to complete difficult quests like the Lighthouse or Cinders of Faith to get enough experience) at which point the rest of the Act becomes a cakewalk. I comfortably cleared up to and including level 14 of the Endless Paths at this point once I got it, and White March part I wasn’t too hard with it either. As before, if you keep spamming Whispers of Treason and your figurines, you shouldn’t ever really find yourself on the front line.

 

I would say make sure you can hit lore 10 before WM part I for Prayer Against Imprisonment (even if it's only through items, I used Rundl's Finery), I didn’t and then sorely wished I had for the Lagufaeth – only unlocking it midway through. Seven Nights can also be pretty handy when you get it, making for a pretty decent nuke especially against large enemies.

 

End game chants/invocations (Act III, WM part II):

 

Instruments of Death are extremely handy, being very mobile and immune to all status that I’ve seen apart from prone and petrified. Though they’re not extremely resilient, they are good distractions, and plus the fact they will last the entire time until you’ve chanted another seven Dragon Thrashed phrases so long as they don’t die. Obviously buffing before big fights goes without saying, and Scrolls of Confuse are also massively useful to handle mobs. Other than that, tactics remain more or less the same – and you finally get your beloved Silver Flash (50 hours in no less, easy-peasy!). For the chants I haven’t mentioned, I didn’t find them to be ever so useful on the build (Her Courage Thick as Steel, etc.), but I’m sure they can be situationally useful in the right circumstances. For a strategic point, you could also turn off Penetrating Shot late game - you don't really need it in the end due to DR being way way higher than you can possibly get past and more rapid blind tends to be more useful.

 

Changes for party play:

 

For party play I’d maybe keep Boots of Speed and Finreah's Grace/Ring of Thorns plus use a Priest to buff him, and/or possibly play a Deadfire Godlike to keep the Int and Dex the same. Pair him with a Crossed Patch tank so you don’t blind your pal, then use team mates who target reflex to make use of the blind effect.

 

Big bosses:

 

 

I was a little lazy in these first three sections when talking about buffing before I edited in more, if you want a comprehensive idea see the Adra and Alpine Dragon sections. As I mentioned above, I'd advise also only using Penetrating Shot when you need it late game - which tends to be not at all due to high enemy DR.

 

The Radiant Spore:

 

Isn’t it great when your end game weapon is safe-guarded by one of the toughest enemies in the game? Thankfully, there is a little trick you can use.

 

Firstly, in the Luminescent Caves themselves, as far as I know there’s no return when you’re down there. In light of this, only take on the enemy groups you have to and split-pull where possible, use Potions of Infuse with Vital Essence to keep your health up without resting, and get the little thingie that opens the door to the spore.

 

Once you’re in there make sure your Resolve or Constitution is high enough to complete the speech check to free the Vithracks, and buff with all the Might and Con food you can find plus the fortitude boosting jerky to keep your fortitude save high (also make sure you rest before the fight). Snake your way around the bottom right wall of the room, in doing so only one Tendril can target you. Once the fight begins, use a Scroll of Defense followed by a Potion of Llengrath’s Displaced Image with Dragon Thrashed to tank and kill the sporelings, as well as summons to distract the Tendril hitting you. When you can and when the sporelings are dead, summon the Instruments of Death and kill off the Tendrils one by one – you should no longer be being hit after you’ve killed the first. Don’t let your group time-expire at any point, just keep summoning when you hit seven chants. Though you can kill the spore to kill off the Tendrils, I think it’s easier to just kill the Tendrils one by one and focus on the spore at the end. Though you probably could surface and fight the spore once the Tendrils are gone, I didn’t want to risk it so I still let the animated weapons do the work.

 

Once it’s dead, go and get your goodies of the Silver Flash and Elryn’s Jacket – as well as all the Mind Grubs (I was really hoping you could take Silver Flash before the fight, but sadly you can't). The Vithrack are no longer hostile, and the sporelings disappear, so you’re free to explore the rest of the map.

 

Magran’s Faithful:

 

Pre-buff as best you can, I focused on resting bonuses for Resolve as a lot of the opening attacks target your deflection, as well as the Ring of Changing Heart (see the Concelhaut section for a better idea here). I made sure to take Carow Golan before the fight (boosting initial deflection and reflex) with a Mind Grub and Whiteleaf to offset the Carow Int drop and provide more reflex, and then obviously any other food to fill in the gaps. With boots of speed, I ran straight to the tree of the right of the map for good positioning (summoning wood beetles as a distraction on the way), used a Scroll of Defence, then spammed Confuse Scrolls, Whispers of Treason and Dominate when I could, as well as Envenomed Strikes and Instruments of Death plus regular Silver Flash shots. As long as you keep your defences up and them fighting one another as well as using Dragon Thrashed, slowly but surely you’ll win. I found only the tanks were left at the end of my fight, so I kept them at arms-length with the animated weapons and took shots at them while Dragon Thrashed did its work – they are a lot slower than you so you can always run back slightly if your weapons die before you hit the seven phrase mark. No split-pulling was necessary.

 

Brynlod’s bounty:

 

Beyond standard pre-buffing, I think you really need to split-pull here as those Wizards are insane and for me at least would kill my character more or less instantly. Confuse the group as per normal, and once you get down to the Rogues with the absurdly high deflection keep them at bay with animated weapons again – using Pliambo per Casitàs as Silver Flash does more or less nothing to them. After a stupid amount of time (10-15 minutes) these Rogues will die, allowing you to go back to the more manageable group of Brynlod and the Wizards.

 

Caryon's Scar and the Kraken:

 

The Kraken itself is actually quite easy, getting to the Kraken is another matter. To deal with the Eyeless on the way, it's best to use you animated weapons (you can use figurines to get closer to seven phrases chanted) to keep them occupied while you're in close enough range for the Dragon Thrashed and to take shots at them with Pliambo per Casitàs. You will occasionally get targeted by Stonepiercers, but they shouldn't hit you too hard that you can't handle it. For the Hammers, as they have an AoE attack, it's best to send one or two weapons to fight them while keeping a third back. Once the first two die, send in the third, then hopefully you shouldn't be too long before summoning more. Once the Eyeless is on low health, send your healthiest weapon out to find more so you don't interrupt the number of phrases chanted by ending combat. The Tentacles on the map can be dealt with in a similar fashion.

 

For the Kraken itself, buff fortitude related attributes (using the Iron Circle, Maegfolc Skull, Dragon Meat Dish, +3 Con resting bonus and Lyrinia's boon) and make sure you use the Boots of Speed to get to it quickly. When combat starts use a Scroll of Defence and a Potion of Llengrath's Displaced Image, then run up to the Kraken and take some shots at it with the Silver Flash using Envenomed Strikes and Sever the Soul. It goes down pretty easily, and I found its Tentacles don't land many shots when you have your fortitude buffed in the 150 range. Following the fight, make sure your Constitution is high enough to survive sinking the moon - I heard 19 is necessary so that's what I aimed for.

 

Adra and Alpine Dragons:

 

These fights handle so similarly that I'll lump them together. For equipment I used the Maegfolc Skull, Elryn's Jacket, Gauntlets of Accuracy, the Iron Circle, Gwyn's Band of Union, a Cloak of Protection, Looped Rope, Boots of Speed for Adra (to make it easier to get the better positioning) or Viettro's Formal Footwear for Alpine, and of course the all important Silver Flash. For buffing consumable-wise I used Dragon Egg Dish, Dragon Meat Dish, Pearlwood Chicken, Farmer's Spread (for the speed), Rauatai Sweet Pie, Wit Dyr Jerky, Whiteleaf, White Ynefer and a Mind Grub. For resting and prostitute bonuses, Stalwart's Golden Whale and Lyrinia's Boon. For quick item slots, x10 Scroll of Defence, x5 Potion of Llengrath's Displaced Image, x5 Potion of Major Endurance, x10 Scroll of Confusion. Scrolls of Prayer Against Fear aren't really necessary with the Whiteleaf and Looped Rope.

 

For the Adra Dragon you're going to want the corner positioning just below the stairs and for the Alpine that nook on the left/west hand side of the cave. Quite simply once your defensive scroll/potion buffing is done, use Scale-Breaker on the Dragon, then Confuse it. The Dragon Thrashed works on confused targets while they are in the wander phase, not the attack friends phase, but as this is a fairly common occurrence it's a great way to rack up damage without doing anything. Use Envenomed Strikes and Sever the Soul, summon up your animated weapons when you can (if the dragon is currently friendly, you can use the "A" key to target them) and keep your defences up. For the Adra Dragon I made sure to pick off the Adragan pretty quickly for worries over Petrification, but I doubt they would have got it to land with my high fortitude.

 

If you have Concelhaut's Skull, you can summon him too, but I killed him later. With these tactics, you shouldn't be in any real jeopardy at any point - I killed both dragons first try inside of 2-3 minutes.

 

Sabel's Room and Concelhaut:

 

For those damnable Steelspine Magi in Sabel's room, make sure your Deflection is as high as possible (Dragon Meat Dish, +3 Resolve resting bonus, Cape of the Master Mystic, Big Durmsey's Boon, Siegebreaker Gauntlets), use Starlit Garb and get positioning between a wall and a table in the bottom of the room. Make sure to buff defensively with scrolls and potions, but otherwise you shouldn't have too much trouble.

 

The fight with Concelhaut is perhaps easier than Sabel's Room as there's fewer Steelspine Magi to bother with. Standard equipment and buffing as listed in the Adra and Alpine Dragon section is fine, using Starlit Garb over Elryn's Jacket. There's plenty of places in that room to get corner positioning, so get to one and buff. The Dragon Thrashed should make reasonably short work of everyone.

 

Llengrath:

 

This was definitely one of the tougher fights, so be well prepared - it took me 3-4 attempts and about half an hour of trying to accomplish it. Unfortunately with Llengrath's dragons, you can't just Confuse Scroll them as with the Adra and Alpine, so the fight is a little tougher.

 

Consumable usage/resting bonus/prostitute boon remains as described in the Adra/Alpine Dragon section, as does equipment apart from using Starlit Garb and picking Boots over Speed of Viettro's Formal Footware. For my quick slots, I used x10 Scroll of Defence, x5 Potion of Llengrath's Displaced Image, x5 Potion of Major Endurance, x5 Scroll of Confusion, x5 Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. You may be able to get away without using the latter for an item of your choice, again I didn't find Scrolls of Protect Against Fear at all necessary with Whiteleaf and the Looped Rope.

 

For starters, drop a Scroll of Confusion on the Xaurip and wizard near you - this is the best means of distracting the dragons early fight and will clear up most of the mobs for later. Run off to the righthand side of the arena and find a spot nestled just above a wall to stay for the fight. Buff with scrolls/potions, and keep those buffs maintained for the fight. Turisulfus should approach you first, but with your positioning you shouldn't have to take any of his dangerous tail/wing attacks. I used Scale-Breaker on him, summoned Concelhaut and used Concelhaut's Crushing Doom on him, and also shot at him with Envenomed Strikes and Sever the Soul. Keep your defences maintained with scrolls/potions, if any annoying mobs show up use a Scroll of Confusion, and summon your animated weapons periodically. I suspect that Turisulfus killed Llengrath when targeting the weapons with a Wing Slam, as she was too close, but I can't be sure.

 

Once Turisulfus dies and with (hopefully) Llengrath also gone, focus on Gafonercos - using any remaining Envenomed Strikes if you have them, and mixing it up with Seven Nights if you see an opportunity and aren't too bothered about the animated weapons. Your defensive supplies should be running low at this point, so do the best you can and start using the Bride and Brideman invocation combo as your food bonuses will have likely run out. This is where the combo of Silver Flash blinds and the Dragon Thrashed really shine, making Gafonercos hit you less and dealing him more damage - in this way tanking him shouldn't be too hard. Once he's dealt with, you can use your animated weapons to deal with remaining trash mobs without putting yourself at risk.

 

Thaos:

 

So for Thaos, don't even try to tank his Cleansing Flames. I think I got my Deflection in the 120-130 range (or something like that) after buffing and Thaos's accuracy was 10 lower - this still means you're going to grazed a lot of the time and hit for ridiculous damage. What you need is figurine distractions, so take 3 of those, x5 Scrolls of Defence, x5 Potions of Llengrath's Displaced Image and x5 Potions of Major Endurance. If you use Potions of Infuse Vital Essence leading up to Thaos, you shouldn't need to rest and so can keep whatever resting and prostitute boon (I'd go for Big Durmsey) intact - perhaps you can still backtrack up to those healing spots when you first enter the endgame area but it's a little bit of a chore. You'll definitely need Boots of Speed in this encounter, so I'd use those with Starlit Garb, Siegebreaker Gauntlets and Cape of the Master Mystic with a Ring of Protection, Looped Rope, the Iron Circle and the Maegfolc Skull - these will keep your Deflection high should you need to take a Cleansing Flames at any point as well as warding off prone from the Judge and Headsman. Standard consumable buffs apply as always.

 

Open with a figurine, then buff with Defence first (to better handle the Judge's and Headsman's prone) then Llengrath. Thaos has relatively low endurance, so if you can keep near him and not get hit by anything too deadly he has (keep on with the figurines and Concelhaut), then he should faint for the first time quite easily. Once he has, lead the Judge and Headsman away from him and finish them off (he's revived after you kill the first one, but unless he's nearby he won't seek you out). Finally use animated weapons and kill him off, I think he has some damaging AoE so my health was pretty low in the finish - but it is doable.

 

In general for handling tough Kith:

 

Because of this builds low Deflection, handling tough kith (e.g. Abbey of the Fallen Moon) can be very difficult. The best strategy is start with a figurine then use a lot of Scrolls of Confusion to keep them occupied and the Dragon Thrashed chipping at their health. Whispers of Treason from Munacra Arret can ensure even lengthier durations of Charmed, and Dominate from the Ring of Changing Heart can be useful to a lesser extent as it doesn't have an innate accuracy bonus. For really tough fights like High Abbot Kaoto or Master Diometto you're going to want to defensively buff too. Use invocations as you get them, the animated weapons are always useful but don't overlook Killers Froze Stiff and Seven Nights occasionally. As Master Diometto is particularly difficult, once I got him on his own I used Scrolls Against Imprisonment on myself followed by Scrolls of Paralysis to keep him still while Dragon Thrashed did its work - but it's still an extraordinarily difficult fight.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

So there we have it, I hope this has been interesting and demonstrated another sweet gun build (and the only solo one) is possible. Let me know if you have any advice or changes to suggest or if you want me to clarify anything, and I’ll try to catch any typos I’ve made later. Cheers!

Edited November 15, 2017 by Jojobobo

[Boeroer]

Great! I love the combination of blinding + Dragon Thrashed + immune animated weapons in solo run. Never thought about that. Blind is such a powerful debuff.

 

Only yesterday I was thinking about how to raise a chanter's ACC (and how to lower enemies' defenses) for better The-Dragon-Thrashed-hits. Besides the obvious Killers Froze Stiff or scrolls nothing useful came to my mind.

 

Should also work nicely with any party.

 

By the way I'm currently doing a playthrough with your paladin-prince-charming and the barb supertank (shield, frighten, fatigue, Stalwart Defiance and so on) and it works really well. Will post both builds (besides one or two others) after finishing off Thaos. There I will def. mention that those are your inventions that I merely playtested. The idea of Sworn Enemy + Charming alone is not enough to "fill" a whole paladin build. So I added some tweaks here and there.

[Jojobobo]

Cool, look forward to seeing the builds once you've posted them up! I've still got the BioShock Collection I'm waiting to play so I'll likely be taking a bit of a hiatus from Pillars after I've completed this build fully anyway.

 

With regards to the Barbarian build, something I had a bit of a brainwave about was using the Executioner's Hood. With it, you'll have a sickening aura and frightening aura at the same time - and while the frightening aura comes in at -10 accuracy the sickened debuffs will by 14 so it actually hits with slightly above base accuracy. I'm not 100% sure if this is worthy competition for the Maegfolc Skull with its Might boost, but Coup de Grace isn't exactly a bad effect (especially when paired with Purgatory and the Dragon's Maw for more endurance recovery as you mentioned) and the hood looks extremely cool (particularly with an Orlan so you get glowing red eyes) in addition to being a non-standard item pick - perfect for an intimidating badass. It might be worth considering, as I said it's hard to say whether it outcompetes other headgear.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Ben No.3]

A very interesting concept... Good to see a new, fresh class concept rather than the fine tuning of known concepts... Sweet build anyway.

[Boeroer]

With regards to the Barbarian build, something I had a bit of a brainwave about was using the Executioner's Hood.

Right! I also thought about that combo. Once I have the hood, I will retrain and skip both yells/shouts that I currently use. Then there's room for Frenzy (just too good for HoF and fortitude defense and my deflection is already very high) and Threatening Presence. Coupe de Grace is guaranteed with HoF.

[Slack83er]

Is this meant to ONLY play solo and PotD or can it be adapted to parties and other difficulties? It's a solid and seemingly fun to play character...would like to test it...

[Boeroer]

If it's viable for solo it's also viable for party play. This one's no exception - you just shouldn't hit your party members with the blind effect, so it could make positioning and targeting a bit tricky.

[Jojobobo]

As Boeroer said it can be used in any difficulty and/or party play. I make a mention of what you can do differently for party play (e.g. use the Chanter as an off-tank on the front line, paired with a full tank with Crossed Patch, and some people to take advantage of reflex debuffs) so I'd try that.

 

What you need to be aware of is that you only get Silver Flash late game (I got it after 50 hours of play, but that was before fully completing every task and quest Act II, getting down to the Adra Dragon, and completing all quests and tasks in WM part I - so you should be able to get it sooner if you prioritise it). In light of this you could maybe build your Chanter as a standard tank, then respec at an inn when you get the gun - as mentioned I didn't use respecing because I'm a bit of a masochist.

 

I'd say regardless you need to have a high level of perseverance to enjoy the build with the weapon coming so late, it's not one of those builds with an early and immediate pay off and I designed it more or less to have a decent and viable firearms build (a weapon I always love in high fantasy games) when many ranged builds are focussed primarily on DPS. I'm perfectly used to waiting late game for a pay off (in Arcanum for example you can get a blessing in the penultimate dungeon that gives you loads skill points, thereby saving you putting points in those skills so long as you hold out allowing you to spend them on other skills or attributes. This also means loads of quests become available after you get the blessing because of the boosted skills, but as mentioned it is the penultimate dungeon - way, way late game - still it's something I do on that game quite regularly). Basically, be aware of what you're getting yourself in for if you choose the build.

 

EDIT: Got those damnable spoiler tags working on the paragraphs now, they need to be (obviously replace with appropriate square brackets):

 

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Text(/spoiler)

 

And not:

 

(spoiler)Text(/spoiler)

 

Normally on other forums it's worked fine either way.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Slack83er]

Thank you guys, I'll take it into account. Maybe if I don't play PotD the build pays off a little earlier since you can use some not so exceptional weapons..

[Slack83er]

I tried to play with him... seems difficult enough when you're on your own... which weapon/shield should he use until he grabs the good guns? I'd try playing party, so I guess Invocations and all should remain the same... Don't know how to build it to last until he becomes the REAL gunslinger...

[Jojobobo]

It works just fine as it is with a little patience, however standard tank Chanter would work fine if you don't want to wait and then just retrain at an inn. Go for high Might, high Int, dump Dex, then put the rest into Con/Per/Resolve as you feel like - I quite like Per given it makes your chants more accurate, but Con and Resolve would be more use on the front lines.

 

Use whatever shield you like, you can't really go wrong, and honestly you can use whatever weapon you like too. If you're going full tank, hatchets can be used to up your deflection to an even greater extent - relying on your chants for damage. Healing abilities and items are certainly useful, things like Ancient Memory, Beloved Spirits and Veteran's Recovery - these are less useful late game so you can again retrain them out.

 

Have fun.

[Jojobobo]

I updated this bad boy with strategies for all the final boss fights, so you can now consider the build totally complete. It's my first and only completion of the game so far!

 

Now that I've finished the endgame (with the first post I'd played up to Abbey of the Fallen Moon and hadn't completed any of the dragons, the Kraken or Concelhaut) I've got a bit of a better awareness of the strengths and weaknesses, so I'll sum them up. If you also look in the Adra/Alpine Dragon guide bit, there's also a decent rundown of buffing which I described a little lazily beforehand in terms of tackling the bosses.

 

Strengths:

 

 

 

• The combo of blind and Dragon Thrashed really does work nicely to do heavy damage, and came in particularly useful when my defensive supplies were running low while trying to finish off Gafonercos. Blind, while difficult (but not impossible) to chain, does work well to keep you from taking hits as even if you can't sustain constant blinds if they're blind most of the time then that is good enough.
• This build is more or less a scroll master, with very fast cast times, long durations and reasonable damage. In particular, Scrolls of Confusion on this build are the bomb - having a huge radius and often 20+ second durations. Confusion has the added bonus of allowing the Dragon Thrashed to hit most of the time (it works on 3 of the 4 confused states - behaving normally, doing nothing and walking in a random direction but not attacking an ally) - making it quite a lot better in my mind than paralysis and petrification in some ways as it's way more accurate and only effects the enemy. In addition other very useful scrolls, such as Prayer Against Imprisonment or Defence, are almost instant cast - the former being very useful against Lagufaeth.
• Beyond the blind of Silver Flash, the Divine Mark proc is an extremely useful way of both doing damage and debuffing. The drop in Deflection really helps your summons to better deal to the enemy.
• Chanters, as I'm sure you all know, are a very versatile and easy to play class - with their sturdy summons and DoTs being a very useful tool throughout the game.

 

Weaknesses:

 

 

 

• The low Deflection of this build, particularly if you don't want to be using a shield at any point like I didn't, is pretty killer and can make fights against kith extremely tough. My advice is try and buff it as best you can, but don't expect too much.
• This build definitely works best with the animated weapons in tow, however getting to that stage takes quite a lot of time when using the Dragon Thrashed, which is still the best option over faster chants due to the insane DoT.
• The build really only starts to shine with the acquisition of Silver Flash, which as I mentioned elsewhere took me about 50 hours out the almost 90 I played. You can obviously leave some content to later to prioritise obtaining it, but I think you'd be hard pressed to get it before the 40 hour mark.

 

In terms of the Top 10 Toughest Fights for the build from hardest to easiest, I'd say it's:

 

 

 

1. Master Diometto. Why this guy isn't talked about more as a difficult encounter is beyond me. Even after I'd killed all his buddies so I could get him on his own, he still was terrible to deal with. He was hitting me with an accuracy of around 140 with his fists (bearing in mind I can't buff close to that region), he takes the hit to crit conversion potion, his hits deal about 40 damage, he hits very fast and he can often stun you as well, he has tough defences and he often reaches you in seconds because of his blazing speed - it's completely ridiculous. Admittedly, I didn't prebuff before him (couldn't be bothered to take around 10 minutes of load screens to be on my A-game) but even if I had this fight wouldn't have been easy. I settled for using Scrolls of Prayer Against Imprisonment, then dropping Scrolls of Paralysis pretty much on myself - and with a nice invisibility proc because of Cape of the Master Mystic (which is pretty much a given with his accuracy) eventually got a lucky match where he died. Still, this was above and beyond the most tricky fight for me in the game due the build's relatively low deflection.
2. Magran's Faithful. The group is incredibly sturdy on the whole, meaning you have to keep alive for ages (upping your chances of getting one too many bad rolls) to take them down and they can be quite resistant to attempts to charm, confuse and dominate them. They also target Deflection a lot, which as I mentioned is a problem for this build.
3. Llengrath. There's so much to kill in this encounter that it really pushes the limit of how long you can defensively buff for, plus the fact if you're caught by a bad spell (looking at you Form of the Helpless Beast) or dragon attack it can mean game over. Unlike the other dragons there isn't really any easily exploitable weaknesses on the pair either, which makes me sad.
4. Thaos. Cleansing Flame pretty much is a one hit death (which targets, again, the low deflection of the build), and he has nasty AoE attacks. It took me quite a while to kill him and I was pleased that the endgame boss was quite a challenge.
5. High Abbot Kaoto. Again he's in a mob that targets your deflection a lot, and he's very durable. Confuse durations, which I like to use to tackle kith, don't last very long on monks upping the challenge. However here nice positioning is easy, and with the right buffing you shouldn't take too much damage.
6. Radiant Spore. You really do need high fortitude here, but if you can survive what the first Tendrils throw at you then you can really on your animated weapons making the fight trivial. It was probably more of a challenge to obtain such high fortitude given this build requires you to do this boss early to get the Silver Flash.
7. Brynlod. His group is again sturdy, and the mages do a lot of damage. It can be hard to split pull the group, which is the best way to deal with them, but once the half the group is dead and the wizards exposed things become much more manageable.
8. Concelhaut. There's positioning aplenty in his room, so as long as you buff it shouldn't be much of a problem to stay alive and kill things with the Silver Flash and Dragon Thrashed.
9. Adra Dragon. Extremely easy due to its susceptibility to Confuse Scrolls, I rate it higher than the Alpine Dragon as the mobs around it are more threatening (Adragans).
10. Alpine Dragon. Like the Adra Dragon but with easier mobs. I encountered a bug with Ryona's Breastplate and so had to do this fight twice, both times it was completely manageable.

The Kraken doesn't even rank he was so easy, it's crazy that the Eyeless leading up to him are actually much trickier than the boss itself.

 

 

In terms of party play, one thing that might be fun to do with the build is pair it to a Chanter tank with Crossed Patch. The tank uses Dragon Thrashed and casts Bride and Brideman on gunner, allowing for the much more effective chaining of blind - particularly if you opt for Sure-Handed Ila on the gunner over more Dragon Thrashed. Something to think about anyway, should be a fun way to use the Gunslinger if you're not opposed to using two Chanters instead of one.

 

I think that's about all there is left to say about the build, hopefully now with this added discussion and talk of the boss fights the picture behind it is much more detailed. Now, onto another solo build!

Edited October 6, 2016 by Jojobobo

[anameforobsidian]

I know it's an old thread, but I just wanted to say thank you for this build.  It's hellaciously effective once you get Silver Flash.  I just beat Llengrath solo on PotD with it.

 

Here are some things I did slightly differently or some general tactics with the build:

 

- For most of the game I've been wearing Ryona's Armor.  The triggered immunity is very useful against high damage elemental attacks, especially against Eyeless beams.  You are slower, but then again you don't really do most of your DPS through direct attacks.

 

- This build is great at kiting.  I frequently start bounties with a 1:1 Wendigrath, Dragon.

 

- I switched out seven nights for the ogres.  The ogres are probably the most useful spell in the game right now, and they're a fairly necessary counterpoint to Ancient Instruments.  When enemies can hit Ancient Instruments, they get wiped out pretty quickly.  The ogres can take a lot of punishment.  Additionally, they make mid-game much, much, much easier.

 

- Magran's Faithful did suck.  I'm not sure, but I think I might have aggroed some nearby mobs to help.  

 

- Her Courage Thick as Steel is really useful as a way to start fights.  Basically it buffs those tough little beetles so they can take another hit each.  In the right situation that can be three hits, which is normally enough to get to the Ogres or close to the weapons.  For tougher fights I go: Courage 1 : Dragon 4.

 

- This build excels at long, drawn out fights.  For some of the tougher bounties I would fight nearby mobs and use them to get my chants up and the drag an animated weapon over to start the next fight while the last one was ending.  This was especially useful for SSerkal.

 

- I didn't enchant Pliambo with vessel slaying.  This was really helpful later on.  The dragon slashed and animated weapons work fine on the Eyeless.

 

 

 

 

- The Llengrath fight took me three or four hours, far more than any other fight.  The strategy I won with was this:

 

Wait for a second and then confuse the acolyte.  He makes the fight a lot harder.  The dragons munch him down in seconds.  This may or may not work.  Run to the top right and buff.  Summon Concelhaut.  Have him smash Turi.   Hit the clustered dragons/ mobs with paralyze.  Llengrath is immune, but just ignore her.  Get close for Dragon Slashed, use some envenomed strikes, generally wreck stuff in the six or so seconds you have.  Run away leaving some very angry dragons with Concelhaut, his parasitic staff will make him last surprisingly long; go all the way to the bottom.  Llengrath will reliably give up if you're far enough away and go back to the middle.  After this, move around the outside in a horseshoe shape.  Hug the edges to keep Llengrath out of the fight.  Use confusion on mobs only if there are no summons out; enemies prioritize summons, thus wasting confusion.

 

To end the fight use crushing doom and paralysis to split the dragons.  The larger the split the better.  If you keep a mob near them, they'll fight the mob and may give up like Llengrath and just stand there after it's dead if you're far away.  I got lucky and split Gafaconeros off; he's weaker, but his damage is more consistent and harder to avoid.  Then I went back to Turisulfus, and he's much easier as a single dragon.  Spread the weapons around him, shoot with pliambo, and come close when Dragon Slashed is going to hit.

• I also had Duc's Meatloaf so that you get the might bonus after the Dragon Dish wears off.
• Gwynn's Band was replaced by the Ring of the Changing Heart.   The resolve is nice, but I was really after the dominate.  Gafaconeros can be dominated for five seconds, which coincidentally is enough to kill Llengrath.  It gave me a nice breather.
• Both Dragons are weak to Paralyze, Gafaconeros exceptionally so.  I brought 10 scrolls and used 9.  This let me safely get close to both for The Dragon Slashed.  I got rid of healing items to do so.  I kept the one scroll that boosts lore for this fight, which made paralysis even better.
• I kept an adra beetle for if I ever got cornered.  I used it halfway through the fight and it saved my bacon.  I would have prefered the Ogre Horn, but that hasn't worked right this playthrough.  This is a situation where defenses and HP count more than multiple hits, so he was the best for the job.
• My boss build has mechanics and survival lower with lore and athletics higher.  Athletics is really useful for an emergency heal after you separate yourself.
• I ditched snake's reflexes for Beast Slaying.  If I respeced for every boss, I'd ditch penetrating shot too.
• I kept on the cape of the master mystic, but that was mostly inertia.  It didn't seem to make a huge difference either way.
• I enchanted Pliambo with Beast Slaying and used it.  I was having a problem where blind wasn't lasting long enough for me to chain it, and the gun was doing no damage.  While disoriented is not as good a debuff it lasts longer.  With both beast slaying on the gun and character I would occasionally get shots for 90 or so damage.  10% of their health is fairly substantial.
• Similarly, enchant Starlit Garb with corrode resistance.  Gafaconeros did more damage to me, so the corrode resistance made a noticeable difference.

 

Alright, three bounties to get and then on to Thaos.

[dolamoth]

Hello, I am just now starting out with this build and would like to point out that getting the bronze horn in act I is now a bit more difficult as it costs 6k gold. I am making my way through, but I was wondering if there are any other items I could use to help me out, especially in closed off tiny rooms, e.g bear cave, spore cave etc.

[anameforobsidian]

I had heavier armor on in the early game, and the caves were still tough.  You can split pull the sporelings though by sneaking, getting their attention, and then moving back quickly.  I used a wendigrath I: winds I to give me that running boost.  I believe was able to only fight two that way, which was still hard, but much easier.  I think you need the horn as a sacrificial summon though.  Any single sporeling should have all the spores you need for the quest.

 

If you want money, the best place to get it is raedric's castle.  If you can make it past the guards on the parapet, fine weapons and armor are just lying around.  There's enough money in the first chapter for the horn and the blunting belt.  The cathedral is doable relatively early, you just have to take it slow.

 

Also, invest in stealth early on.  5 stealth means that you can skip the throne room fight in Caed Nua.  Go up, talk to the statue, drop a summon, run to the stairs.  Then respec.

Edited June 18, 2017 by anameforobsidian

[dolamoth]

Hello thank you for the advice it helped out. I am now in the first level of the mines under The Battery, and I am not capable of beating the ghosts that spawn when I try to take the key from the dead dwarf's body to unlock the workshop. I get instantly stun lock and pulled into several groups of more stun locking ranged spectres.

[dolamoth]

Ah never mind they stopped instantly pulling once I summoned the 3 beetles although they didn't pull the beetles either, the AI can be a bit hard to give the right feedback sometimes.

[dolamoth]

Ok this time It truly is a problem that I can't overcome. I am on the alpine dragon and I simply can not do enough damage to him. The lowest I can get him is injured and for a second very injured but that's it. I am level 16 have silver flash am buffed and so on, the living weapons don't seem to be able to really anything. Dragon thrash does work, it just doesn't seem to be enough to overcome his health regen.

[Redblood]

 

Only yesterday I was thinking about how to raise a chanter's ACC (and how to lower enemies' defenses) for better The-Dragon-Thrashed-hits. Besides the obvious Killers Froze Stiff or scrolls nothing useful came to my mind.

 

 

 

I made some test and the + 15 acc vs wilder end primordial of a boreal dwarf ( hunter's instinct ) stack with the dargon trashed, the dragon wailed.

It could be some kind of apprentice dragon hunter ( i mean Xaurip made their nest around dragons, and ogres ( dwarf friends according to age of wonder    ) are good againts dragon).

Crit on adragan are good too.

[Teldurn]

This week, I came back to this game after a year and a half break. I want to have a go as a chanter, and the idea of a gunslinger seemed very interesting. 

 

How would this build change if you considered that I'm going to play on normal and with a full party?

[anameforobsidian]

This week, I came back to this game after a year and a half break. I want to have a go as a chanter, and the idea of a gunslinger seemed very interesting. 

 

How would this build change if you considered that I'm going to play on normal and with a full party?

 

You wouldn't need that many changes, because if it can stand by itself, it can stand in a full party.  The one thing I would say is that this build is designed to outlast fights, and use a combination of blind and dragons thrashed to wear down enemies.  You might be able to remove some of the defensive feats if it became a back row character, and move to a buff / dragons thrashed combo.  The author includes a guide to changes for a party build in the OP.

[Jojobobo]

snip

Thanks for the update to the build, seems like you made some great tweaks to make things go along a bit more smoothly.

[Boeroer]

Huh? Back in da club?`

[Jojobobo]

Probably not for a couple of months, my degree course is soon finishing where I'll have to surrender my laptop, so I won't be able to have a good go at PoE until after Christmas. Still I'll be popping in from time to time, I'm very interested about the Deadfire Pack items will be.

[Dreamsickle]

I'm really interested in this build, but knowing nothing about how to play a chanter, could you give me a breakdown of the first 5 levels (ie. what gear do you use, what spells and in what order etc.)?  Once past that point, the game seems to get much easier on PotD.

 

Thanks!