[CLASS BUILD] The boreal thrasher

[indika_tates]

"He got a vision. Everything was in flames"

 

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The Boreal Thrasher

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Difficulty: PotD v. 3.0+

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Class: Chanter

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Race: Boreal Dwarf

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Background: Living Lands - Explorer 

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The dwarf inside Maegfolc Skull

 

 

Stats:

 

MIG: 21

CON: 19

DEX: 2

PER: 15

INT: 18

RES: 3

 

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Skills: Lore 12, Rest on Survival

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Talents:

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Ancient Memory (!)

Beloved Spirits (!)

Weapon & Shield Style (!)

Superior Deflection ®

Veteran's Recovery ®

Deep pockets (Optional) / Quick switch

Secret's of Rime (O)

Bull's Fortitude (O)

 

- Phrases:

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- Come come soft winds of death

- The dragon thrashed, the dragon wailed (!)

 

- Invocations:

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- Reny Daret's Ghost (!)

- At the sound of his voice (!)

- White worms (!) (This gem when used properly can do insane damage)

- Urdel and Gurdel (!)

- Seven nights

 

- Items:

 

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Weapon set 1: The Flames of Fair Rhian / Black sanctuary

Weapon set 2: Abydon's hammer

 

Boots: Echoin Misery

Head: Maegfolc Skull

Armor: White Crest (Exceptional, Pierce proof)

Neck: Necklace of fireballs / Amulet of summer solstice / Swaddling Sheet (If you get lucky, this item is (!))

Belt: Belt of chimes

Rings: Gwyn's band of union + Iron's circle

Hands: Gauntlets of accuracy / Bracer's of deflection

Quick slots: Every scroll you can spam (Paralisis, Fireballs, Healing, Scrolls of defense and so on)

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This is a simple chanter build, similar to other ones posted on this forum. This build is very simple, walk with your boreal thrasher into the middle of the combat, get surrounded and start spamming "Double Dragon" (because it stacks) until everyone dies. When you reach 5 phrases, either Urdel and Gurdel or Seven Nights depending on what you need.

 

Boreal dwarf is a very strong choice for a chanter for two reason: the first one is +15 accuracy for wilds/primordial mobs. +15 accuracy means more dragon crits (last longer and deal more damage) and the second one is that you don't care of -1 dexterity. Wilds and primordial usually have high Fortitude defense.

 

I'm going to explain why I choose this equipment.

Echoin Misery (A guaranteed proc every encounter because mobs are going to crit you)

Maegfolc Skull (Unbending keeps you alive, +4 MIG is nice)

White Crest (Overwhelming wave & Dancing bolts is welcome). Another option is Ryona's Breastplate but It looks better on Pallegina.

Swaddling Sheet (Another overwhelming wave if one is not enough). This is not a common adventure so before you get it, every item that allows you to spam spells is welcome.

Belt of chimes (Concentration is horrible in this char, so it helps a bit. If you have a priest on your party, or you want to use celebrant gloves be free to put whatever you like here)

Gauntlets of accuracy (This build is about Dragon thrashed, so landing it properly is the most important thing. You can't have enough accuracy)

Flames of Fair for three fireballs/Bittercut. Three fireballs/rest and if you have no use for bittercut on your party infestation of maggots/thorns for more spells/rest.

 

With this setup when mobs crit you there is a lot of pain for them. 2x Warding seal, 1x Overwhelming wave, 1 Ray of Pain.

 

This build works better with a Wizard/Priest/Paladin on your party. Painful interdiction is the opener during the game (dragon thrashed is against fortitude, and mobs usually have this stat as the highest defense so lowering it is a must). Ryngrim's enervating terror is the second option to mass debuff mobs. Put a champion's boon on this character and enjoy massive dragon thrashed damage. A paladin zealous focus is also important because of +6 accuracy and +15% graze/hit conversion (which affect your chants also). If you are going to choose Scion of Flame as one of your talents be aware that it doesn't work with Dragon thrashed (It's a DOT)

 

Abydon's hammer is for stun effect & quick switch before using scrolls. This character with food and spells can achieve a might of:

- 21 (Initial) + 4 Maegfolc + 10 Champion's boon + 2 (Food) + 4 Abydon's hammer + 1 Gift from the machine + 1 Galawain's boon = 43 MIG

 

With this MIG every scroll you can use is going to deal insane damage or healing to your party members/foes. The same applies to your crit/proc items. If you want more MIG/INT choose whoever you hate most to sacrifice being Kana the best candidate (+5 resist affliction).

 

Have fun!

Edited March 10, 2017 by indika_tates

[Livegood118]

Hmm - nice concept, but isn't dragon thrashed vs. Reflex?

[Livegood118]

Also a few other things:

 

– I'd probably only take Lore high enough to get level 5 scrolls. It should be possible to get the +60% bonus to healing then from survival, which would synergise well with all of your regen abilities

– Rather than taking Abydon's hammer, you might consider using a single weapon for the +12 accuracy bonus, which applies to the Dragon Thrashed. Trading 12% increased base damage vs +12 accuracy is probably a pretty good idea considering the accuracy of Dragon Thrashed can't be uber boosted by Devotions for the Faithful or vs. racial abilities/distant advantage. Decent contenders might be a marking weapon (to increase your allies damage) or a weapon that stuns enemies (disables them which also increases ally damage and also making your dragon thrashed more likely to Crit).

– The Stun effect on Abydon's is nice though I'll give you that - maybe it'd be worth trying to fit in an extra weapon slot so you can switch to it and use the stun when needed?

– If rolling with a single weapon all the time then this guy would be the first person I'd put Shod in Faith boots for lots of healing. Going without a shield synergises well with all of the various crit items that you've got and you'll also get crit more often cause you're not using a shield.

– You're probably aware of this, but the accuracy vs racial type bonuses only work with abilities that directly target the enemies - so while it'd go well with missile spells, it won't work with Maelstrom or Dragon Thrashed.

– A side effect of your High Might/High Con approach is very high fortitude saves which are really useful. 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Livegood118

[indika_tates]

Also a few other things:

 

– I'd probably only take Lore high enough to get level 5 scrolls. It should be possible to get the +60% bonus to healing then from survival, which would synergise well with all of your regen abilities

– Rather than taking Abydon's hammer, you might consider using a single weapon for the +12 accuracy bonus, which applies to the Dragon Thrashed. Trading 12% increased base damage vs +12 accuracy is probably a pretty good idea considering the accuracy of Dragon Thrashed can't be uber boosted by Devotions for the Faithful. Decent contenders might be a marking weapon (to increase your allies damage) or a weapon that stuns enemies (disables them which also increases ally damage and also making your dragon thrashed more likely to Crit).

– The Stun effect on Abydon's is nice though I'll give you that - maybe it'd be worth trying to fit in an extra weapon slot so you can switch to it and use the stun when needed?

– If rolling with a single weapon all the time then this guy would be the first person I'd put Shod in Faith boots for lots of healing. Going without a shield synergises well with all of the various crit items that you've got and you'll also get crit more often cause you're not using a shield.

– You're probably aware of this, but the accuracy vs racial type bonuses only work with abilities that directly target the enemies - so while it'd go well with missile spells, it won't work with Maelstrom or Dragon Thrashed.

– A side effect of your High Might/High Con approach is very high fortitude saves which are really useful. 

 

- Lore 12 is for dialog options. There are a lot of lore checks in the game. I like it but you can stop on lore 8-10 if you want.

- Abydon's hammer +4MIG and stun/encounter is great. The quick switch is only for scrolls, then change again to sword&board. With 3 res without enough deflection you're going down very quickly.

- Shod in faith is also an option. But I usually have Maneha in my party so she's another candidate for this item. At the beginning of the game Shod-In-Faith is a no-brainer, but later on you can stack proc/crit items (Ray).

- Accuracy vs racial type works with chants. I tested it against a troll and it got an increased value. (Early game 43 acc Soft winds of death, 58 acc against a troll)

- Fortitude saves are nice. But this monster fortitude is better with defensive web

[Livegood118]

 

Also a few other things:

 

– I'd probably only take Lore high enough to get level 5 scrolls. It should be possible to get the +60% bonus to healing then from survival, which would synergise well with all of your regen abilities

– Rather than taking Abydon's hammer, you might consider using a single weapon for the +12 accuracy bonus, which applies to the Dragon Thrashed. Trading 12% increased base damage vs +12 accuracy is probably a pretty good idea considering the accuracy of Dragon Thrashed can't be uber boosted by Devotions for the Faithful. Decent contenders might be a marking weapon (to increase your allies damage) or a weapon that stuns enemies (disables them which also increases ally damage and also making your dragon thrashed more likely to Crit).

– The Stun effect on Abydon's is nice though I'll give you that - maybe it'd be worth trying to fit in an extra weapon slot so you can switch to it and use the stun when needed?

– If rolling with a single weapon all the time then this guy would be the first person I'd put Shod in Faith boots for lots of healing. Going without a shield synergises well with all of the various crit items that you've got and you'll also get crit more often cause you're not using a shield.

– You're probably aware of this, but the accuracy vs racial type bonuses only work with abilities that directly target the enemies - so while it'd go well with missile spells, it won't work with Maelstrom or Dragon Thrashed.

– A side effect of your High Might/High Con approach is very high fortitude saves which are really useful. 

 

- Lore 12 is for dialog options. There are a lot of lore checks in the game. I like it but you can stop on lore 8-10 if you want.

- Abydon's hammer +4MIG and stun/encounter is great. The quick switch is only for scrolls, then change again to sword&board. With 3 res without enough deflection you're going down very quickly.

- Shod in faith is also an option. But I usually have Maneha in my party so she's another candidate for this item. At the beginning of the game Shod-In-Faith is a no-brainer, but later on you can stack proc/crit items (Ray).

- Accuracy vs racial type works with chants. I tested it against a troll and it got an increased value. (Early game 43 acc Soft winds of death, 58 acc against a troll)

- Fortitude saves are nice. But this monster fortitude is better with defensive web

 

 

All good points.

 

My understanding was that accuracy vs racial types only worked when directly targeting but I'm glad that seems to have been corrected then!

 

Edit: Just tested this myself – the boreal dwarf racial ability does indeed apply to Dragon Thrashed, as does Distant Advantage from Wood Elves. However, the survival resting bonus vs race does not work. Strange.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Livegood118

[HippoJ]

Interesting build.  Question I have, while trying to wrap my head around it, well 2 questions.

 

1)  Why such emphasis on fortitude saves (ie Bull's Fortitude)

 

2)  Not concerned about the low will saves?

[indika_tates]

Interesting build.  Question I have, while trying to wrap my head around it, well 2 questions.

 

1)  Why such emphasis on fortitude saves (ie Bull's Fortitude)

 

2)  Not concerned about the low will saves?

 

Stun and Paralysis (two of the most common and annoying disables) are against Fort. In this build it comes "accidentally" when buffing CON and MIG. Since chanters have low health and they draw a lot of aggro you can run out of your health pool quickly. So this is the reason to max CON. RES is a flat increase to deflection and concentration. You can solve the second one by spells/items/potions. Equipment solves the low deflection. Chants are not affected by interrupts and you don't care about your main attack. Then low RES doesn't affect this character because it gets balanced by high CON. Bull's fortitude is because at level 16 your build is complete and you have to choose a talent. Actually, it doesn't matter but I tend to use ciphers because defensive mindweb is OP as hell. So this is the reason to reach the higher fort defense you can achieve.

 

You can protect your party from affliction that affects will (Charm, Domination) with spells/scrolls so it's not an issue. The reflex save is horrible, sword and shield style mitigate it a bit but reflex spells are going to crit this char often but on the other side he has a massive endurance pool compared to other chanters specially after +5% from the machine and +4 Iron's circle. More than Eder by the way.

Edited March 11, 2017 by indika_tates

[Boeroer]

Nice!

 

I know you chose the Belt of Chimes because of Concentration. But since you want to receive crits in order to trigger certain spell holdings you might want to look at the Girdle of Mortal Protection. It's description says "reduces critical damage by 27%" and people think "wtf? only 27%" - but if you look at it closely then you can see that 27% of 150% (crit damage) is actually ~110%. So if an enemy crits it means that he will only do 10% bonus damage instead of 50%. THis can be a big plus if you get pummeled by crits  lot.

Wht I didn't tet yet is if the whole damage roll (including things like Sneak Attack, Savage Attack and so on) is reduced by 27% if you receive a crit or only the base weapon damage + 50% crit bonus.

Anyway - it's worth considering. I used it on my melee solo priest with a 2hander and it was better than a Blunting Belt for example. 

Edited March 11, 2017 by Boeroer

[indika_tates]

Nice!

 

I know you chose the Belt of Chimes because of Concentration. But since you want to receive crits in order to trigger certain spell holdings you might want to look at the Girdle of Mortal Protection. It's description says "reduces critical damage by 27%" and people think "wtf? only 27%" - but if you look at it closely then you can see that 27% of 150% (crit damage) is actually ~110%. So if an enemy crits it means that he will only do 10% bonus damage instead of 50%. THis can be a big plus if you get pummeled by crits  lot.

Wht I didn't tet yet is if the whole damage roll (including things like Sneak Attack, Savage Attack and so on) is reduced by 27% if you receive a crit or only the base weapon damage + 50% crit bonus.

Anyway - it's worth considering. I used it on my melee solo priest with a 2hander and it was better than a Blunting Belt for example. 

 

This is the reason I never used Girdle of Mortal Protection. If it decreases damage about 40% when getting crit is definitively an option specially because mobs do full damage on criticals. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks Boeroer

[Boeroer]

You're welcome. Sorry for the typos. I'm really bad with those smartphone touchscreen keyboards.

[HippoJ]

 

Interesting build.  Question I have, while trying to wrap my head around it, well 2 questions.

 

1)  Why such emphasis on fortitude saves (ie Bull's Fortitude)

 

2)  Not concerned about the low will saves?

 

Stun and Paralysis (two of the most common and annoying disables) are against Fort. In this build it comes "accidentally" when buffing CON and MIG. Since chanters have low health and they draw a lot of aggro you can run out of your health pool quickly. So this is the reason to max CON. RES is a flat increase to deflection and concentration. You can solve the second one by spells/items/potions. Equipment solves the low deflection. Chants are not affected by interrupts and you don't care about your main attack. Then low RES doesn't affect this character because it gets balanced by high CON. Bull's fortitude is because at level 16 your build is complete and you have to choose a talent. Actually, it doesn't matter but I tend to use ciphers because defensive mindweb is OP as hell. So this is the reason to reach the higher fort defense you can achieve.

 

You can protect your party from affliction that affects will (Charm, Domination) with spells/scrolls so it's not an issue. The reflex save is horrible, sword and shield style mitigate it a bit but reflex spells are going to crit this char often but on the other side he has a massive endurance pool compared to other chanters specially after +5% from the machine and +4 Iron's circle. More than Eder by the way.

 

 

Ok yeah, makes sense in the context of a party.  Just finishing my 2nd playthrough, so still feeling less-than-expert with finer points of class mechanics.  Appreciate the explanation and love the build: feels fairly min/maxed but also pretty thematic.  Thanks for sharing.

[indika_tates]

Hmm - nice concept, but isn't dragon thrashed vs. Reflex?

 

It is. It was my mistake. Come & Come target Fort and Dragon Thrashed targets Reflex which is infinitely better because debuffing Reflexes is easier compared to Fortitude.

[Boeroer]

Also, most enemies' reflex is lower than fortitude in the first place.