[CLASS BUILD] The Healing Wall

[Climhazzard]

I remember finding an item that made you immune to interrupts while wounded that would probably be pretty good for the solo beckoner experience.   Then again, might be hard to find ways to get wounded solo.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Mercbeast]

 

 

 

As I understand it, you don't even unlock the lynchpin of this build until level 19.

 

How much of the game is left at that point? Until you get the 100% HP chant, you've got a relatively subpar healer that can tank. Since your healing is restricted to lay on hands and auras, the auras are not exactly going to carry you through any hard engagements on their own and by the time you hit level 19, with the current state of the game, does it even matter?

 

No doubt, it's a great healer, but it's a great healer at level 19 and 20, and definitely inferior to a healer druid or priest, or priest multi spec of any sort until it hits that point.

Are you talking about the +100% healing chant?

 

So, multiclass characters only get level 7 at 19 and 20?

 

 

Yes, they hit 7 at 19 from what I've seen. Don't get me wrong, this is an extremely potent healer, but it becomes that at level 19. Like I said, how much of the game is even left at that point? I feel like builds should mature much earlier to get max enjoyment out of them.

 

https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Pillars-of-Eternity-2/new_multiclassing_table.jpg

 

 

I play on POTD as an Shieldbearer/Beckoner with Party. Exalted Endurance, Ancient Memory and the Healing Aura from the unique shield you can buy is enough to keep everyone alive ... even my summoned ogres most of the time. Nobody was killed in a fight yet. If someone gets to low Healing Hands is really useful, because it prevents them from dying (upgrade from shieldbearer). The +100% healing chant should make things even better.

 

As for experience ... I haven't played much. But only doing stuff in Port Maje and Neketaka without doing any quest outside these islands has given me enough EXP for Level 12. If Deadfire is somewhat like the first game then you reach max level at half of the game.

 

In think this build can also be used for SOLO (but I would prefer Shieldbearer/Beckoner for this). Your defenses and healing is enough to keep you alive and your summons kill the enemy. There are a couple of items that give scaling bonuses - for instance there is a large shield that gives deflection bonus that scales with Athletics skill and damage reduction that scales with Metaphysics skill. By siding with one of the families in the harbor you can also get an armor that gives a deflection bonus that scales with Intimidate skill. By combining these you can get really high defenses.

 

 

Ahh, see, I never use summons. So my expectations on healing is that it has to be able to actually deal with the damage my characters are tanking.

 

I just dislike summoning as a mechanic, so I refrain from using it. The upside is, it tends to make the game more difficult, because a lot of strategies people employ to play potd, is to use as much summoning as possible, and frankly, the AI is pitiful at dealing with it.

 

So, when I look at a healer, passive healing is awesome, but there has to be significant direct throughput or else characters will just die. This persists quite well into the game before characters can become tanky enough.

[Climhazzard]

I never actually made it past level 18 with this build because I started getting bored.  After level 10 you'll have more healing than you'll ever need with current game balance.

 

The most challenging fights will be against some of the Fampyr groups since they have some kind of reactive auto dominate and like to spam arcane dampener which will negate all your healing, but if you bait out the arcane dampener with the tank the rest of the fight won't be to hard as long as you're on point with your suppress afflictions and liberating exhortations. 

 

Once PotD receives some upgrades and the wiki loot tables become more comprehensive I'll go back to the original post to suggest more early game items to acquire for the build.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Haplok]

Climhazzard, can you please advise how much did your Moon Godlike's Silver Tide heal at level 18? I'd really appreciate this info.

[Gunzwei]

2) Is Resolve checked at all during dialogues? What about the other attributes? What's the highest check you've seen?

 

There's an 18 resolve check in one or two places iirc.

[Climhazzard]

Climhazzard, can you please advise how much did your Moon Godlike's Silver Tide heal at level 18? I'd really appreciate this info.

 

It doesn't scale up at all with level, tbh I rerolled a few times after making this post and settled on Elf as my preferred race so I might change that in the original post at some point as well.  But I want to wait until after PotD upgrades and balance patches before I worry about it much.

[Haplok]

Thank you very much for your answer, Climhazzard. Its a bloody shame it doesn't scale. Seems like I'll need to reload my Moon Berserker/Helwaker too. Will need to decide if he stays a Helwaker or maybe make him a Shattered Pillar.

[TheMetaphysician]

I've been running basically this build since 1.1 dropped, but with a focus on summoning (as a replacement for my Shieldbearer/Beckoner from before 1.1). It is great; you are right that once you get Exalted Endurance at level 10 to pair with Ancient Memory, your healing is awesome. I have some suggestions for gear and race:

 

- Might really helps this build, so using Coastal Amaua for the +2 might (and the Might affliction resistance) is a great fit. The +2 might gauntlets from the peddler in the Brass Citadel are helpful too.

 

- You want all the +healing gear: there is a belt, a necklace, and boots. And the +healing pet (which I gave up to use the Baldur difficulty-scaling mod).

 

- This works especially well with the no-rest strategy detailed here, because of the +50% healing boost you get from the Blessing of the Dawnstars in Port Maje (don't get it before you are ready to never rest again). That is a build-making buff; by far the most important thing you can get for this build.

 

- I also added the concept of getting as many party-boosting buffs on gear as possible: the Baubles of the Fin, the Companion's Prelude upgrade to the chanter saber that boosts action speed for companions, Pallegina's armor until you find something better. The chanter saber also has an upgrade that refunds an empower point when you use it on an invocation, so you can use an empowered Fingers of Daylight once each fight even if you are doing a no-rest run (it doubles the number of beams shot out) to further take advantage of the healing theme and boosts you have.

 

- I just found the perfect late-game armor for the build: the Blackened Plate Armor. The Life in Death upgrade gives you yet another healing aura that does basically the same amount of healing again as each of your other two (from Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance), because it also benefits from might and the +healing gear and buff, as well as intelligence boosting the aura range. It only gets to that full amount of healing when the character being healed is low health, but even when they are high health it does some. You can add to that the Usher's Visage aura, which debuffs armor and causes raw damage (also benefits from Might).

 

- The shield from the Dark Cupboard with the healing aura doesn't really add much to this build, since that healing doesn't benefit from might and the +healing gear the way the Blackened Plate armor's aura does. My Blackened Plate and Exalted Endurance auras are each at about 9 hp per 3 seconds, Ancient Memory at about 3 per second, for a total of about 9 hp per second. The Dark Cupboard shield only does 1 per 6 seconds, or 1 per 3 seconds at night when upgraded. That doesn't amount to much. So I use the shield from Crookspur that has an aura that gives +1 armor. EDIT: I was wrong! The Dark Cupboard shield does benefit from might and healing boosts; I can get it up to 2 hp per 6 seconds or 2 per 3 at night. I still think I prefer the +1 armor, but the healing shield fits the build concept better.

 

When you add all that up, you have the ultimate party leader and supporter: summons, lots of party-support auras, tons of healing both passive and active, and you look like a badass because you are an aumaua with a huge shield. Add the mod that allows facial hair on Aumaua and pick the biggest, most bristling beard available. I'm loving it. I'm using the Baldur the Difficulty-Scaling pig mod and the Deadly Deadfire mod, and this character is completely carrying my party despite doing basically no damage himself. I can outlast anyone, despite not having any healing on anyone else in the party.

 

It works better the more melee characters you have, so that they are all within aura range. I can usually keep Maia in aura range, but it is tricky sometimes.

Edited June 18, 2018 by TheMetaphysician

[Climhazzard]

The healing shield got nerfed really hard with 1.1 anyways, but you don't really need it.  I haven't really been motivated to update the OP for 1.1 but the build still works, it's just a bit less self sufficient since lay on hands can no longer be cast on the caster.  Generally I have Xoti or Tekehu for backup healing though so that's fine.

 

Since the healing on ancient memory rounds up it's nice to be able to get it to 2hp per second as soon as you get it at level 7.  I don't recall exactly what you need but I think it's around 20 might along with the physician's belt, so even if you start at 18 might you can get it to 2hp per second with items acquired in Port Maje.

[TheMetaphysician]

The original post for this build is underdeveloped in some ways – it doesn’t have specific gear recommendations, for instance. I’ve been playing and honing a build based on this one and have made it my own. I wanted to post it with all its details, but I want to give credit to Climhazzard for turning me on to the central mechanic that defines it (pairing Exalted Endurance with Ancient Memory, high might and intelligence, stacking healing bonuses). So I thought I’d post the full build here in this thread.

 

The first decision you have to make is whether to do a no-rest run or not. The chief benefit of a no-rest run for this build will be the ability to use the Blessing of the Dawnstars (+50% healing, gotten in Port Maje), at the cost of giving up per-rest abilities. In the below build I’ve assumed that you will in fact be resting. If you do a no-rest run, that will also affect which affliction resistances you’ll use and whether you want Aegis of Loyalty, since on a no-rest run you’ll probably have a great food buff like Captain’s Banquet up on all your characters which might give them immunity to some afflictions.

 

Here’s my take on the Healing Wall.

 

The Healing Wall
===================================
Difficulty: PotD v. 4.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Solo: not intended for solo
--------------------------------------------------------------
Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer)/Chanter (Troubadour)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Race: Coastal Aumaua (for Might affliction resistance and Might bonus. And you are a cool giant.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Background: Get one that boosts Might or Intelligence. I made mine a philosopher (from Ixamitl) for RP reasons.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Stats: Max Might and Intelligence, everything else at 10

 

Skills: Passive: Diplomacy (for the scaling Captain’s Favor heal on the shield and RP purposes); Active: I went Athletics for the many watcher-only athletics checks in scripted interactions and the great Second Wind, but Arcana might be the best for abusing high might with scrolls, which I don’t like to use.

 

Weapon Proficiencies: Large Shield, Sabre, whatever (medium shield might be useful)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Abilities (!=important, r=recommended, (a) automatic)
PL 1 (levels 1-3)

Paladin

(a) Lay on Hands (!)

Deep Faith (!)

Chanter

Soft Winds ®

Skeleton summon invocation ®

PL 2 (levels 4-6)

Paladin

Zealous Auras (!)

Weapon and shield style ®

Inspired Defenses

Chanter

Wurm summon invocation ®

PL 3 (levels 7-9)

Paladin

Greater Lay on Hands (!)

Chanter

Ancient Memory (!)

Combat Focus

Two Fingers of Daylight (could substitute Aegis of Loyalty for either of these)

PL 4 (levels 10-12)

Paladin

Exalted Endurance (!)

Mental Fortress

Chanter

Ogre summon invocation (!)

Mith Fyr chant ®

PL 5 (levels 13-15)

Paladin

Practiced healer (!)

Iron Gut

Clear Head (could sub any or all of liberating exhortation/reviving exhortation/inspired path for the 3 affliction resistances I’ve selected)

Chanter

Rapid casting

PL 6 (levels 16-18)

Paladin

Inspired Path

Chanter

Eld Nary invocation

Quick Summoning

Ogre summon upgrade

PL 7 (levels 19-20)

Paladin

Stoic Steel

Chanter

Mercy and Kindness (!)

Ancient Weapons summon ®
---------------------------------------------------------------
Items (!=important, r=recommended)
Weapon Set 1: Sasha’s Singing Scimitar (r - +Refreshing Finale, Companion’s Prelude), Shining Bulwark (! - +Defensive Beacon (!)) (Alternative shields: Lathandria’s Devotion, Cadhu Scalth)
Weapon Set 2: Watcher’s Blade/Animancer’s Energy Blade, Shining Bulwark

Head: Horns of the Bleak Mother or Blackened Plate Helm (better yet, use a regular Vailian Tricorn and have the biggest, bushiest beard you can and look awesome)
Back: Cloak of Greater Protection/Deflection (or maybe Badrwn’s Cover)
Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon or Bone Setter’s Torc (!)
Armor: Blackened Plate Armor (! - +Life in Death (!), +Usher’s Visage)
Waist: Physicker’s Belt (!)
Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might/Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (!)
Rings: Gaun’s Pledge (!), Chameleon’s Touch or Ring of (Greater) Regeneration
Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!)
Pet: Prissy (! - +10% healing done)

 

Strengths of the Build:

 

Constant Party-Wide Regeneration: The Core Idea

The central idea of the build is to stack constant party-wide regeneration effects. There are three: the paladin’s Exalted Endurance aura, the Ancient Memory chant, and the Life in Death upgrade to the Blackened Plate armor. To support those regeneration effects, we want to maximize might and stack +healing gear, which is why I’ve chosen the belt, boots, gauntlets, pet and necklace we have. We also want to maximize intelligence to make the auras as wide as possible; also, 20 intelligence allows us to use a second chant as Troubadour (I use Mith Fyr until getting Mercy and Kindness at level 19) without any downtime for Ancient Memory.

 

The amount of healing we can achieve with this setup is just massive. (Some of the comments worry that you don’t get good healing until Mercy and Kindness at level 19; that’s not true at all. I don’t even feel the need for Mercy and Kindness once I get there.) As the playthrough goes on, we can switch in and out some of the +healing gear to hit breakpoints; for Ancient Memory’s healing per second, the game rounds up when you get halfway between a point – so if you hit 1.5 healing per second, the game rounds up to 2 per second, whereas if you are at 2.3 the game rounds down to 2, so we might as well drop (say) the Bone-setter’s torc for a while because the +10% doesn’t make a difference. Power Level affects the healing, so recalculate regularly.

 

Since this healing never runs out, this is a perfect healer for a hardcore deadly deadfire PotD run where fights take forever and ordinary druid or priest healers run out of resources halfway through the fights.

 

Resource-using heals

Since we’ve stacked +healing gear and might, we can also take advantage of other ways to heal. We have two types of those: per-encounter and per-rest heals.

 

Per-encounter: We have two per-encounter heals, Greater Lay on Hands (which as a Shieldbearer also prevents death), and the chanter invocation Two Fingers of Daylight. (I confess I rarely use the chanter invocation, since I use my phrases for summoning.)

 

Per-rest: We also have a total of five significant AOE per-rest heals (in addition to our own Second Wind): 2 casts of Restore from Gaun’s Pledge, 1 cast of Captain’s Favor from the Shining Bulwark shield, 1 Moonwell from the Necklace of the Harvest Moon (if we are using that instead of or before we get Bone Setter’s Torc), 1 from the Watcher ability Sympathy for the Lost (I always get this one, look up the responses you need to get it). All five are boosted through the roof with all the might and +healing gear. The Harvest Moon Necklace’s Moonwell is almost laughably good on this character; really, all of them are, and I love how fast-casting Gaun’s Pledge is and how useful it is to have a fast-casting AOE heal instead of just single-target with the Lay on Hands.

 

Party buffing and enemy debuffing

In addition to providing all the healing your party will ever need, we can take advantage of the large AOE boost from high intelligence and central location in the battle as a tank by getting other constant party-wide buffs. There are four: +1 AR from the Shining Bulwark, +1 AR from Exalted Endurance, stacking action speed from Sasha’s Singing Scimitar Companion’s Prelude buff, and the Mith Fyr chant (until you get Mercy and Kindness at level 19, and frankly you might decide to stay with Mith Fyr at that point anyway).

 

We also get two ways to debuff the enemy. One is the Usher’s Visage upgrade to the Blackened Plate Armor which is an aura that gives -1 AR to enemies. The other is the Eld Nary invocation, which may seem like it doesn’t fit in this build. But since we are using Sasha’s Singing Scimitar anyway for the party-wide action speed buff, we might as well get the Refreshing Finale invocation, for a free empower use every fight (that refunds 3 phrases). Empowering the summons doesn’t do much. But an Empowered Eld Nary is a great fight opener, and then we can still start summoning pretty soon after.

 

Tankiness

One of the coolest things about this character is that it is a healer that operates best planted right in the middle of the fight. Defenses, as is typical for a paladin, are through the roof, and the Large Shield modal is very useful. I open fights by telling this guy to run to where I want my front line to be, activate the modal, and then start summoning and healing. He can still engage while casting.

 

With the gear and ability choices I’ve made, he has 5 affliction resistances: might (from race), resolve (Horns of the Bleak Mother helmet), perception, intelligence, constitution (paladin abilities).

 

This guy basically doesn’t get hurt much in my experience, even while planted in front of all the enemies (the summons probably have something to do with that). If he gets hurt more in your experience, go ahead and use a Ring of Greater Regeneration on him. I think that’s affected by all the might and +healing gear too (though I’m not sure about that right now, since I don’t feel the need for it and use Chameleon’s Touch instead.)

 

Summons

As Boeroer is fond of pointing out, summons aren’t there for the damage. They are more helpfully thought of as a form of very flexible crowd control: they can distract enemies, fill holes in lines, absorb punishment, flank, get summoned next to casters and provoke the casters into casting on them instead of the rest of the party, and much more. This character has 100% uptime on the summons. The Ogres are the best at that distraction/absorption job (due to their size, their health, and the fact that they can engage enemies, unlike the wurms), while skeletons and wurms will hold us over until we get the Ogres. So with this character you really get three tanks for the price of one (himself and 2 Ogres).

Edited January 21, 2019 by TheMetaphysician

[robxara]

^^

 

This is the best tank build I have played, you can also take chilling grave on grave calling and kill your summons, taken with the chant that summons skeletons at 19 it's hilarious- you can use brisk recantation to make them pop out all the time.

 

I also took shared flames which helps a little, I went bleak walker which was fine

[michel.montenegro]

Would this build work with Beckoner?

Edited January 30, 2019 by michel.montenegro

[michel.montenegro]

^^

 

This is the best tank build I have played, you can also take chilling grave on grave calling and kill your summons, taken with the chant that summons skeletons at 19 it's hilarious- you can use brisk recantation to make them pop out all the time.

 

I also took shared flames which helps a little, I went bleak walker which was fine

 

Going with "bleak walker" did not make the build weaker? It sounds pretty cool, his potential damage, and effects, like it?

 

I imagine fulfilling Cure with Wayfarers or Shieldbearer by the Lay of Hand.

 

Has this build been improved by someone or the author?

[darkling.lithely]

Nearing the end of another play-through and am using the The Healing Wall build on this page--thank you Climhazzard and TheMetaphysician! This character will be a staple for me here on out.

[Lampros]

On 1/21/2019 at 4:55 PM, TheMetaphysician said:

The original post for this build is underdeveloped in some ways – it doesn’t have specific gear recommendations, for instance. I’ve been playing and honing a build based on this one and have made it my own. I wanted to post it with all its details, but I want to give credit to Climhazzard for turning me on to the central mechanic that defines it (pairing Exalted Endurance with Ancient Memory, high might and intelligence, stacking healing bonuses). So I thought I’d post the full build here in this thread.

 

The first decision you have to make is whether to do a no-rest run or not. The chief benefit of a no-rest run for this build will be the ability to use the Blessing of the Dawnstars (+50% healing, gotten in Port Maje), at the cost of giving up per-rest abilities. In the below build I’ve assumed that you will in fact be resting. If you do a no-rest run, that will also affect which affliction resistances you’ll use and whether you want Aegis of Loyalty, since on a no-rest run you’ll probably have a great food buff like Captain’s Banquet up on all your characters which might give them immunity to some afflictions.

 

Here’s my take on the Healing Wall.

 

The Healing Wall
===================================
Difficulty: PotD v. 4.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Solo: not intended for solo
--------------------------------------------------------------
Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer)/Chanter (Troubadour)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Race: Coastal Aumaua (for Might affliction resistance and Might bonus. And you are a cool giant.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Background: Get one that boosts Might or Intelligence. I made mine a philosopher (from Ixamitl) for RP reasons.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Stats: Max Might and Intelligence, everything else at 10

 

Skills: Passive: Diplomacy (for the scaling Captain’s Favor heal on the shield and RP purposes); Active: I went Athletics for the many watcher-only athletics checks in scripted interactions and the great Second Wind, but Arcana might be the best for abusing high might with scrolls, which I don’t like to use.

 

Weapon Proficiencies: Large Shield, Sabre, whatever (medium shield might be useful)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Abilities (!=important, r=recommended, (a) automatic)
PL 1 (levels 1-3)

Paladin

(a) Lay on Hands (!)

Deep Faith (!)

Chanter

Soft Winds ®

Skeleton summon invocation ®

PL 2 (levels 4-6)

Paladin

Zealous Auras (!)

Weapon and shield style ®

Inspired Defenses

Chanter

Wurm summon invocation ®

PL 3 (levels 7-9)

Paladin

Greater Lay on Hands (!)

Chanter

Ancient Memory (!)

Combat Focus

Two Fingers of Daylight (could substitute Aegis of Loyalty for either of these)

PL 4 (levels 10-12)

Paladin

Exalted Endurance (!)

Mental Fortress

Chanter

Ogre summon invocation (!)

Mith Fyr chant ®

PL 5 (levels 13-15)

Paladin

Practiced healer (!)

Iron Gut

Clear Head (could sub any or all of liberating exhortation/reviving exhortation/inspired path for the 3 affliction resistances I’ve selected)

Chanter

Rapid casting

PL 6 (levels 16-18)

Paladin

Inspired Path

Chanter

Eld Nary invocation

Quick Summoning

Ogre summon upgrade

PL 7 (levels 19-20)

Paladin

Stoic Steel

Chanter

Mercy and Kindness (!)

Ancient Weapons summon ®
---------------------------------------------------------------
Items (!=important, r=recommended)
Weapon Set 1: Sasha’s Singing Scimitar (r - +Refreshing Finale, Companion’s Prelude), Shining Bulwark (! - +Defensive Beacon (!)) (Alternative shields: Lathandria’s Devotion, Cadhu Scalth)
Weapon Set 2: Watcher’s Blade/Animancer’s Energy Blade, Shining Bulwark

Head: Horns of the Bleak Mother or Blackened Plate Helm (better yet, use a regular Vailian Tricorn and have the biggest, bushiest beard you can and look awesome)
Back: Cloak of Greater Protection/Deflection (or maybe Badrwn’s Cover)
Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon or Bone Setter’s Torc (!)
Armor: Blackened Plate Armor (! - +Life in Death (!), +Usher’s Visage)
Waist: Physicker’s Belt (!)
Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might/Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (!)
Rings: Gaun’s Pledge (!), Chameleon’s Touch or Ring of (Greater) Regeneration
Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!)
Pet: Prissy (! - +10% healing done)

 

Strengths of the Build:

 

Constant Party-Wide Regeneration: The Core Idea

The central idea of the build is to stack constant party-wide regeneration effects. There are three: the paladin’s Exalted Endurance aura, the Ancient Memory chant, and the Life in Death upgrade to the Blackened Plate armor. To support those regeneration effects, we want to maximize might and stack +healing gear, which is why I’ve chosen the belt, boots, gauntlets, pet and necklace we have. We also want to maximize intelligence to make the auras as wide as possible; also, 20 intelligence allows us to use a second chant as Troubadour (I use Mith Fyr until getting Mercy and Kindness at level 19) without any downtime for Ancient Memory.

 

The amount of healing we can achieve with this setup is just massive. (Some of the comments worry that you don’t get good healing until Mercy and Kindness at level 19; that’s not true at all. I don’t even feel the need for Mercy and Kindness once I get there.) As the playthrough goes on, we can switch in and out some of the +healing gear to hit breakpoints; for Ancient Memory’s healing per second, the game rounds up when you get halfway between a point – so if you hit 1.5 healing per second, the game rounds up to 2 per second, whereas if you are at 2.3 the game rounds down to 2, so we might as well drop (say) the Bone-setter’s torc for a while because the +10% doesn’t make a difference. Power Level affects the healing, so recalculate regularly.

 

Since this healing never runs out, this is a perfect healer for a hardcore deadly deadfire PotD run where fights take forever and ordinary druid or priest healers run out of resources halfway through the fights.

 

Resource-using heals

Since we’ve stacked +healing gear and might, we can also take advantage of other ways to heal. We have two types of those: per-encounter and per-rest heals.

 

Per-encounter: We have two per-encounter heals, Greater Lay on Hands (which as a Shieldbearer also prevents death), and the chanter invocation Two Fingers of Daylight. (I confess I rarely use the chanter invocation, since I use my phrases for summoning.)

 

Per-rest: We also have a total of five significant AOE per-rest heals (in addition to our own Second Wind): 2 casts of Restore from Gaun’s Pledge, 1 cast of Captain’s Favor from the Shining Bulwark shield, 1 Moonwell from the Necklace of the Harvest Moon (if we are using that instead of or before we get Bone Setter’s Torc), 1 from the Watcher ability Sympathy for the Lost (I always get this one, look up the responses you need to get it). All five are boosted through the roof with all the might and +healing gear. The Harvest Moon Necklace’s Moonwell is almost laughably good on this character; really, all of them are, and I love how fast-casting Gaun’s Pledge is and how useful it is to have a fast-casting AOE heal instead of just single-target with the Lay on Hands.

 

Party buffing and enemy debuffing

In addition to providing all the healing your party will ever need, we can take advantage of the large AOE boost from high intelligence and central location in the battle as a tank by getting other constant party-wide buffs. There are four: +1 AR from the Shining Bulwark, +1 AR from Exalted Endurance, stacking action speed from Sasha’s Singing Scimitar Companion’s Prelude buff, and the Mith Fyr chant (until you get Mercy and Kindness at level 19, and frankly you might decide to stay with Mith Fyr at that point anyway).

 

We also get two ways to debuff the enemy. One is the Usher’s Visage upgrade to the Blackened Plate Armor which is an aura that gives -1 AR to enemies. The other is the Eld Nary invocation, which may seem like it doesn’t fit in this build. But since we are using Sasha’s Singing Scimitar anyway for the party-wide action speed buff, we might as well get the Refreshing Finale invocation, for a free empower use every fight (that refunds 3 phrases). Empowering the summons doesn’t do much. But an Empowered Eld Nary is a great fight opener, and then we can still start summoning pretty soon after.

 

Tankiness

One of the coolest things about this character is that it is a healer that operates best planted right in the middle of the fight. Defenses, as is typical for a paladin, are through the roof, and the Large Shield modal is very useful. I open fights by telling this guy to run to where I want my front line to be, activate the modal, and then start summoning and healing. He can still engage while casting.

 

With the gear and ability choices I’ve made, he has 5 affliction resistances: might (from race), resolve (Horns of the Bleak Mother helmet), perception, intelligence, constitution (paladin abilities).

 

This guy basically doesn’t get hurt much in my experience, even while planted in front of all the enemies (the summons probably have something to do with that). If he gets hurt more in your experience, go ahead and use a Ring of Greater Regeneration on him. I think that’s affected by all the might and +healing gear too (though I’m not sure about that right now, since I don’t feel the need for it and use Chameleon’s Touch instead.)

 

Summons

As Boeroer is fond of pointing out, summons aren’t there for the damage. They are more helpfully thought of as a form of very flexible crowd control: they can distract enemies, fill holes in lines, absorb punishment, flank, get summoned next to casters and provoke the casters into casting on them instead of the rest of the party, and much more. This character has 100% uptime on the summons. The Ogres are the best at that distraction/absorption job (due to their size, their health, and the fact that they can engage enemies, unlike the wurms), while skeletons and wurms will hold us over until we get the Ogres. So with this character you really get three tanks for the price of one (himself and 2 Ogres).

Nice, but this should've been a separate thread!

[TheMetaphysician]

I keep discovering new things in this game. Here is an alternative armor for this build, which isn't quite as good as Blackened Plate Armor, but which you might get earlier (or like the look of better): Furrante's Breastplate. (You'll need to side with Aldys and kill Furrante to get it -- I don't think you get it if you go the peaceful route and get the Principi to turn on Furrante. That's why I've never gotten it in game.)

Take the "Love of life" (+10% healing received to allies in a 2.5 meter radius) and "Intervention" (redirect 50% of damage allies suffer to self as Raw damage in a 2.5 meter radius). You may want to pair this with more self-healing gear to offset the damage you are taking from allies: the ring of greater regeneration, the three-trolls-stitched cloak, and the Survivor's Tusks soulbound helmet.

I haven't playtested this. I don't actually know if redirecting damage from allies to self would make things better or worse, by focusing the damage on yourself, given that your passive healing affects everyone equally. But it really fits the "tank" idea.

[Mycroft83]

On 1/21/2019 at 10:55 PM, TheMetaphysician said:

The original post for this build is underdeveloped in some ways – it doesn’t have specific gear recommendations, for instance. I’ve been playing and honing a build based on this one and have made it my own. I wanted to post it with all its details, but I want to give credit to Climhazzard for turning me on to the central mechanic that defines it (pairing Exalted Endurance with Ancient Memory, high might and intelligence, stacking healing bonuses). So I thought I’d post the full build here in this thread.

 

The first decision you have to make is whether to do a no-rest run or not. The chief benefit of a no-rest run for this build will be the ability to use the Blessing of the Dawnstars (+50% healing, gotten in Port Maje), at the cost of giving up per-rest abilities. In the below build I’ve assumed that you will in fact be resting. If you do a no-rest run, that will also affect which affliction resistances you’ll use and whether you want Aegis of Loyalty, since on a no-rest run you’ll probably have a great food buff like Captain’s Banquet up on all your characters which might give them immunity to some afflictions.

 

Here’s my take on the Healing Wall.

 

The Healing Wall
===================================
Difficulty: PotD v. 4.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Solo: not intended for solo
--------------------------------------------------------------
Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer)/Chanter (Troubadour)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Race: Coastal Aumaua (for Might affliction resistance and Might bonus. And you are a cool giant.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Background: Get one that boosts Might or Intelligence. I made mine a philosopher (from Ixamitl) for RP reasons.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Stats: Max Might and Intelligence, everything else at 10

 

Skills: Passive: Diplomacy (for the scaling Captain’s Favor heal on the shield and RP purposes); Active: I went Athletics for the many watcher-only athletics checks in scripted interactions and the great Second Wind, but Arcana might be the best for abusing high might with scrolls, which I don’t like to use.

 

Weapon Proficiencies: Large Shield, Sabre, whatever (medium shield might be useful)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Abilities (!=important, r=recommended, (a) automatic)
PL 1 (levels 1-3)

Paladin

(a) Lay on Hands (!)

Deep Faith (!)

Chanter

Soft Winds ®

Skeleton summon invocation ®

PL 2 (levels 4-6)

Paladin

Zealous Auras (!)

Weapon and shield style ®

Inspired Defenses

Chanter

Wurm summon invocation ®

PL 3 (levels 7-9)

Paladin

Greater Lay on Hands (!)

Chanter

Ancient Memory (!)

Combat Focus

Two Fingers of Daylight (could substitute Aegis of Loyalty for either of these)

PL 4 (levels 10-12)

Paladin

Exalted Endurance (!)

Mental Fortress

Chanter

Ogre summon invocation (!)

Mith Fyr chant ®

PL 5 (levels 13-15)

Paladin

Practiced healer (!)

Iron Gut

Clear Head (could sub any or all of liberating exhortation/reviving exhortation/inspired path for the 3 affliction resistances I’ve selected)

Chanter

Rapid casting

PL 6 (levels 16-18)

Paladin

Inspired Path

Chanter

Eld Nary invocation

Quick Summoning

Ogre summon upgrade

PL 7 (levels 19-20)

Paladin

Stoic Steel

Chanter

Mercy and Kindness (!)

Ancient Weapons summon ®
---------------------------------------------------------------
Items (!=important, r=recommended)
Weapon Set 1: Sasha’s Singing Scimitar (r - +Refreshing Finale, Companion’s Prelude), Shining Bulwark (! - +Defensive Beacon (!)) (Alternative shields: Lathandria’s Devotion, Cadhu Scalth)
Weapon Set 2: Watcher’s Blade/Animancer’s Energy Blade, Shining Bulwark

Head: Horns of the Bleak Mother or Blackened Plate Helm (better yet, use a regular Vailian Tricorn and have the biggest, bushiest beard you can and look awesome)
Back: Cloak of Greater Protection/Deflection (or maybe Badrwn’s Cover)
Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon or Bone Setter’s Torc (!)
Armor: Blackened Plate Armor (! - +Life in Death (!), +Usher’s Visage)
Waist: Physicker’s Belt (!)
Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might/Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (!)
Rings: Gaun’s Pledge (!), Chameleon’s Touch or Ring of (Greater) Regeneration
Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!)
Pet: Prissy (! - +10% healing done)

 

Strengths of the Build:

 

Constant Party-Wide Regeneration: The Core Idea

The central idea of the build is to stack constant party-wide regeneration effects. There are three: the paladin’s Exalted Endurance aura, the Ancient Memory chant, and the Life in Death upgrade to the Blackened Plate armor. To support those regeneration effects, we want to maximize might and stack +healing gear, which is why I’ve chosen the belt, boots, gauntlets, pet and necklace we have. We also want to maximize intelligence to make the auras as wide as possible; also, 20 intelligence allows us to use a second chant as Troubadour (I use Mith Fyr until getting Mercy and Kindness at level 19) without any downtime for Ancient Memory.

 

The amount of healing we can achieve with this setup is just massive. (Some of the comments worry that you don’t get good healing until Mercy and Kindness at level 19; that’s not true at all. I don’t even feel the need for Mercy and Kindness once I get there.) As the playthrough goes on, we can switch in and out some of the +healing gear to hit breakpoints; for Ancient Memory’s healing per second, the game rounds up when you get halfway between a point – so if you hit 1.5 healing per second, the game rounds up to 2 per second, whereas if you are at 2.3 the game rounds down to 2, so we might as well drop (say) the Bone-setter’s torc for a while because the +10% doesn’t make a difference. Power Level affects the healing, so recalculate regularly.

 

Since this healing never runs out, this is a perfect healer for a hardcore deadly deadfire PotD run where fights take forever and ordinary druid or priest healers run out of resources halfway through the fights.

 

Resource-using heals

Since we’ve stacked +healing gear and might, we can also take advantage of other ways to heal. We have two types of those: per-encounter and per-rest heals.

 

Per-encounter: We have two per-encounter heals, Greater Lay on Hands (which as a Shieldbearer also prevents death), and the chanter invocation Two Fingers of Daylight. (I confess I rarely use the chanter invocation, since I use my phrases for summoning.)

 

Per-rest: We also have a total of five significant AOE per-rest heals (in addition to our own Second Wind): 2 casts of Restore from Gaun’s Pledge, 1 cast of Captain’s Favor from the Shining Bulwark shield, 1 Moonwell from the Necklace of the Harvest Moon (if we are using that instead of or before we get Bone Setter’s Torc), 1 from the Watcher ability Sympathy for the Lost (I always get this one, look up the responses you need to get it). All five are boosted through the roof with all the might and +healing gear. The Harvest Moon Necklace’s Moonwell is almost laughably good on this character; really, all of them are, and I love how fast-casting Gaun’s Pledge is and how useful it is to have a fast-casting AOE heal instead of just single-target with the Lay on Hands.

 

Party buffing and enemy debuffing

In addition to providing all the healing your party will ever need, we can take advantage of the large AOE boost from high intelligence and central location in the battle as a tank by getting other constant party-wide buffs. There are four: +1 AR from the Shining Bulwark, +1 AR from Exalted Endurance, stacking action speed from Sasha’s Singing Scimitar Companion’s Prelude buff, and the Mith Fyr chant (until you get Mercy and Kindness at level 19, and frankly you might decide to stay with Mith Fyr at that point anyway).

 

We also get two ways to debuff the enemy. One is the Usher’s Visage upgrade to the Blackened Plate Armor which is an aura that gives -1 AR to enemies. The other is the Eld Nary invocation, which may seem like it doesn’t fit in this build. But since we are using Sasha’s Singing Scimitar anyway for the party-wide action speed buff, we might as well get the Refreshing Finale invocation, for a free empower use every fight (that refunds 3 phrases). Empowering the summons doesn’t do much. But an Empowered Eld Nary is a great fight opener, and then we can still start summoning pretty soon after.

 

Tankiness

One of the coolest things about this character is that it is a healer that operates best planted right in the middle of the fight. Defenses, as is typical for a paladin, are through the roof, and the Large Shield modal is very useful. I open fights by telling this guy to run to where I want my front line to be, activate the modal, and then start summoning and healing. He can still engage while casting.

 

With the gear and ability choices I’ve made, he has 5 affliction resistances: might (from race), resolve (Horns of the Bleak Mother helmet), perception, intelligence, constitution (paladin abilities).

 

This guy basically doesn’t get hurt much in my experience, even while planted in front of all the enemies (the summons probably have something to do with that). If he gets hurt more in your experience, go ahead and use a Ring of Greater Regeneration on him. I think that’s affected by all the might and +healing gear too (though I’m not sure about that right now, since I don’t feel the need for it and use Chameleon’s Touch instead.)

 

Summons

As Boeroer is fond of pointing out, summons aren’t there for the damage. They are more helpfully thought of as a form of very flexible crowd control: they can distract enemies, fill holes in lines, absorb punishment, flank, get summoned next to casters and provoke the casters into casting on them instead of the rest of the party, and much more. This character has 100% uptime on the summons. The Ogres are the best at that distraction/absorption job (due to their size, their health, and the fact that they can engage enemies, unlike the wurms), while skeletons and wurms will hold us over until we get the Ogres. So with this character you really get three tanks for the price of one (himself and 2 Ogres).

What is the point of having 3 summons invocation ? It is possible to respec to have only one, so, has you can only have 1 invocation at a time, I do not see the point of not replacing skeleton by wurm and then wurm by ogre.

Also, is Greater Lay on Hands worth it for a shieldbearer ? It mean that the lay on hand will cost twice as much. But I thought that the main utility of a shieldbearer lay on hand was the "cannot die" that is not boosted by Greater Lay on Hands.

Is this build a good one for a party composed with : eder (Swashbuckler dps melee), xoti (priest), Aoth(wizard), and maia(full ranger or scout) ? Or will this team lack dps ?

 

[dgray62]

The different summons shine under different circumstances. Skeletons are great when fighting foes with lots of firearms, like pirates, since they are pierce immune. The pirates will target them since their deflection is low, but will not harm them . Wurms are great for foes with low AR, and can be also used to quickly eliminate caster squishies by focusing fire on them. And ogres are great meatshields. So there's an argument for having a wide range of summons, so that you can invoke the best one for the particular battle.

[Boeroer]

2 hours ago, Mycroft83 said:

It is possible to respec to have only one[...]?

 

Yes

[Marigoldran]

Is this paladin/troubadour (heralds?).

They can literally solo.  

 

You can literally build a party of this and walk into every fight, and stand there and win.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Marigoldran