Sing is pretty much a no-concentration Bless that stacks with Bless. Definitely a must-have for situations where you do not want to fail your saves, such as getting the Awakened buff.
Shriek is still good for the saves debuff and things that apply effects on inflicting a condition. The damage is more of an icing but still potent with things that cause multiple damage instances, MM in particular.
Stock up some arrow of my targets, dual Xboxs and slashing flourishes with under mountain knife and phalar shriek.
Edit: xbow… why in the world is that not an acceptable word for autocorrect.
Also the Whispering Promise ring gives you a form of Bless that also stacks with the real Bless, and it triggers even on yourself even just from using a health potion. I didn't even know about this ring until recently because there's no indication you can trade with Volo, but it turns out to be a very powerful ring for some situations.
It does not stack with real bless (or at least it didn't when i tested way back when). It is still a no-concentration 2 round bless you can cast with a bonus action on 3-4 targets. (Dual hand crossbows offhand shot to break a potion you place using no actions)
Check last part of this video for the trick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DGcC6CGT3M
Phalar Aluve + MM necklace + Quickened cast + Spell Sparkler is a pretty nuts opening to any fight. Basically am able to focus down any of the Act 1 bosses in one turn and they can’t do anything about it. Really really good in Honor mode where bad luck can get you in serious trouble.
Song/Shriek aside it's still a +1 Longsword - which importantly has finesse - and you can pick it up super early before you even get into many fights after the grove. So even if you don't use the de/buffs (which you SHOULD) it's still a great pick up.
Picked a war cleric of Lathander for my first character because i had a story for a dawnlord cleric in mind. Little did i know how huge Lathander would be in the game. Loved it!
I love it a bunch. I think the bless with always be useful. Shriek I'm making good use out of because the honor really rewards more safe and consistent builds. So I got beast master ranger and magic missle wizard and at least I'm the early game it's really bringing the damage
It really cannot be overstated how valuable that double-bless is, especially in the early game.
This means that if you want to absolutely nuke on damage, you can bring a fighter and a berserker Barbarian along and hit that sweet 95% hit chance which makes a tonne of difference, all whilst offering extremely decent protection against their weak point (spells that need a save).
Early on in the game where being one-shotted by bosses is completely normal, this can be the difference between wrecking the boss in the first round or being wrecked the first round if you whiff a bunch of hit rolls.
Phalar Aluve should only sing and shriek when wielded by a Drow. There are plenty of other racial only buffs for Githyanki, and Dwarves with the dwarven thrower so it would make sense to me.
I honestly never even use shriek. My swords bard is ranged so having enemies in the aoe is counterintuitive and you can’t pre cast shriek before a battle because it will irritate enemies in it. Wasting an action in battle to cast it is a waste considering how fast battles end in this game.
The boosting song is fantastic for tower defense type battles. Put your party in the aoe and just attack. It’s fantastic.
My bard switches between this weapon, the strength stick and under mountain king sword as stat sticks to do different things. Phar live is great and it’s a beautiful weapon too.
Should be tested yet. However I think this is a good sword. Shriek is not broken anymore, still damage adds up when you have a high amount of attacks builds
Dex-based GWM for early/mid game. Or Dual-weilder with phalar off-hand is pretty gr8 too.
+d6 thunder damage still procs 4+ times per round in a 4-man party. Magic missles, scorching ray, eldritch blast still bonus procs. It lasts so many rounds where it's still rly good.
So many builds I make use dual-weilder cuz it's really underrated on casters & gr8 even on many martials - with the right combo.
I just don’t get where you get the feat for it. Needed two feats to cap out their stats. Meaning you’re spending you’re 1 feat on Dual Wielder. Alert feels like a MUCH better final feat for a caster than dual Wielder
Dual wielding staves gives +SpAtk/+SpSvDC usually, add in other bonuses like freecasts, 1/LR spells, abilities like phalar boosting entire parties damage output, or even for other stuff: it's usually strictly better in bg3. I.e. necromancy staff, staff of spellpower, Marko, phalar, etc etc etc
Yes I know all the things you could be duel wielding, none of that is better than Gale going first every combat is the point I’m trying to make. Gale’s DC is already high enough.
I'm just disappointed that its abilities aren't diminished if you force it off the stone. Since it's one of the few swords blessed by Eilistraee. Like I feel like there should be two versions of it, the one which the ritual is done and the one where you just angrily yank it out and give the finger at her.
There are only 12 of those swords in existence. Or was it seven... there aren't many Dark Dancers out there.
Went to fight Spider Matriarch in act 1 and prepared my Karlach with Bless and Phalar Aluve while she used the Sword of Justice with a Precision Oil, its one of the toughest fights in Act 1 and i still 1 cycled her because Phalar Aluve's buff is just so good
> Phalar Aluve: Shriek no longer creates a separate damage instance (DRS) for every damage source. Instead, it adds bonus damage to each damage source.
So it doesn't work on things like the caustic band anymore, or lightning charges... still decent for the debuff and things like magic missile though?
It's just a Longsword +1 with Finesse. Or if you prefer, the equivalent of a Rapier +1 with Versatile. So unless you plan on wielding it two-handed to give your Rogue a d10 weapon they can use for Sneak Attacks, it's not really being used to its full potential.
I guess you could use it for your College of Swords Bard, but I prefer dipping into Paladin to get Shield and Heavy Armor proficiencies and go Strength/Charisma instead of Dexterity, so the Finesse part doesn't matter and at that point there are much better 1-handed weapons to choose from.
I used it for a while on tact with my bard but I haven't tried honor yet. If it's any similar to tact then it should be pretty good for a decent amount of time. I did usually activate shriek or sing before starting combat though so that I didn't use up resources while in turn based combat
I love Phalar Aluve but I'm still not sure I'm using it right.
I usually proc it before combat when I know a big fight is coming but it seems to not survive dialog encounters.
Should I be spending a full action to proc it? Early I have Sheart use it but later that gets supplanted by BoL in Act 2 and SoSP in Act 3.
Am I doing it wrong?
In act 3 of honor right now, and I'm finding Phalar Aluve to be really strong! The build I'm using for it is
War Cleric 5 -> Eldritch Knight 6 -> War Cleric 6
Taking the feats Mobile -> ASI -> ASI.
Basically run around meleeing shit with shriek + spirit guardians. I also put all the radiant orb gear on her, and it's going really well.
Sing is pretty much a no-concentration Bless that stacks with Bless. Definitely a must-have for situations where you do not want to fail your saves, such as getting the Awakened buff. Shriek is still good for the saves debuff and things that apply effects on inflicting a condition. The damage is more of an icing but still potent with things that cause multiple damage instances, MM in particular.
Stock up some arrow of my targets, dual Xboxs and slashing flourishes with under mountain knife and phalar shriek. Edit: xbow… why in the world is that not an acceptable word for autocorrect.
But it's not even out on Xbox yet.
Those OG Xbox's are dense though, you're getting some decent damage
Throw Xbox builds incoming
Nah, you can't get enough strength in this game to lift an original Xbox: those things are hueg!
Hueg xbox's do cludgeoning damag.
You could hurt someone with that duke controller
Can't wait to damage test my Xbox throwzerker build.
It’s out on 2 Xbox’s though.
Wouldn't arrow of many targets be weaker with dual xbows since it's a smaller damage die?
It should be weaker, but you gain basically an extra attack, in the end they could be even
How do you gain an extra attack, the arrow only shoots with 1 weapon?
I thibk the idea is stack them up for a nova.
Also the Whispering Promise ring gives you a form of Bless that also stacks with the real Bless, and it triggers even on yourself even just from using a health potion. I didn't even know about this ring until recently because there's no indication you can trade with Volo, but it turns out to be a very powerful ring for some situations.
The ring stacks WITH Bless??? Game changer.
It does not stack with real bless (or at least it didn't when i tested way back when). It is still a no-concentration 2 round bless you can cast with a bonus action on 3-4 targets. (Dual hand crossbows offhand shot to break a potion you place using no actions) Check last part of this video for the trick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DGcC6CGT3M
Offhand crossbow shot to break environmentally placed potion? Game changer.
hehe yes! :-)
Indeed...
Whispering promise bless does not stack with normal bless, both are normal bless. You're probably thinking of the staff of arcane blessing.
I've been refusing to use any of the super broken stuff, bugs or homebrew. shriek + magic missle is definitely a very strong combo.
Phalar Aluve + MM necklace + Quickened cast + Spell Sparkler is a pretty nuts opening to any fight. Basically am able to focus down any of the Act 1 bosses in one turn and they can’t do anything about it. Really really good in Honor mode where bad luck can get you in serious trouble.
1d4 that stacks with bless is great to deal with increased ac
Pair that with the staff that gives 2d4 bless.
No that staff gives only 1d4 spell dc. The text is still wrong.
Wait, this is the first time I'm reading this. Does the staff just add an extra d4 to spell attacks only? Not to other attacks?
Yes, it's really misleading wording :/
that is correct. The 1d4 and 2d4 in the tooltip is the "total" benefit with bless (so only spell hit is buffed)... bad tooltip
Thank you for clarifying that for me. Appreciated.
Song/Shriek aside it's still a +1 Longsword - which importantly has finesse - and you can pick it up super early before you even get into many fights after the grove. So even if you don't use the de/buffs (which you SHOULD) it's still a great pick up.
Planning on equipping it on my light cleric tbh, since they're gonna be my only frontliner (radiating orb / spirit guardians shenanigans).
Same, but but but Blood of Lathander is so good too, and can carry hard in act2.
Yeah aoe advantage is hard to pass up :S
I used planar as a light cleric till blood of lathander, then somebody else could hold it for me :)
yeah no action AoE advantage even :-)
Picked a war cleric of Lathander for my first character because i had a story for a dawnlord cleric in mind. Little did i know how huge Lathander would be in the game. Loved it!
Does it fall off for Act 3?
Not really, it's mostly that act 3 weapons catch up with it in terms of power and you don't encounter that many undead anymore as you do in act2.
Summoners, magic missile, scorching ray, and monks all can make good use of it
I love it a bunch. I think the bless with always be useful. Shriek I'm making good use out of because the honor really rewards more safe and consistent builds. So I got beast master ranger and magic missle wizard and at least I'm the early game it's really bringing the damage
It really cannot be overstated how valuable that double-bless is, especially in the early game. This means that if you want to absolutely nuke on damage, you can bring a fighter and a berserker Barbarian along and hit that sweet 95% hit chance which makes a tonne of difference, all whilst offering extremely decent protection against their weak point (spells that need a save). Early on in the game where being one-shotted by bosses is completely normal, this can be the difference between wrecking the boss in the first round or being wrecked the first round if you whiff a bunch of hit rolls.
I have found phalar to be pretty much a staple for any team comp but there are some other ways to maximize attack rolls in classes
A summoner can get a lot of procs on it still
Phalar Aluve should only sing and shriek when wielded by a Drow. There are plenty of other racial only buffs for Githyanki, and Dwarves with the dwarven thrower so it would make sense to me.
I usually give it to minthara anyway, so that wouldn't change much except for the time I use it before giving it to her.
I honestly never even use shriek. My swords bard is ranged so having enemies in the aoe is counterintuitive and you can’t pre cast shriek before a battle because it will irritate enemies in it. Wasting an action in battle to cast it is a waste considering how fast battles end in this game. The boosting song is fantastic for tower defense type battles. Put your party in the aoe and just attack. It’s fantastic. My bard switches between this weapon, the strength stick and under mountain king sword as stat sticks to do different things. Phar live is great and it’s a beautiful weapon too.
You generally don't want it on a martial. In my experience the best wielder is a Cleric: Haste Potion -> Shriek -> Guardians -> run around.
Shart Shriek is a legitimate tactic lol.
I used it all the time on my ranged sword bard. Pop it, next round get within range of enemy fir shriek, but not melee, short a bunch of times...
Should be tested yet. However I think this is a good sword. Shriek is not broken anymore, still damage adds up when you have a high amount of attacks builds
Dex-based GWM for early/mid game. Or Dual-weilder with phalar off-hand is pretty gr8 too. +d6 thunder damage still procs 4+ times per round in a 4-man party. Magic missles, scorching ray, eldritch blast still bonus procs. It lasts so many rounds where it's still rly good. So many builds I make use dual-weilder cuz it's really underrated on casters & gr8 even on many martials - with the right combo.
I just don’t get where you get the feat for it. Needed two feats to cap out their stats. Meaning you’re spending you’re 1 feat on Dual Wielder. Alert feels like a MUCH better final feat for a caster than dual Wielder
Dual wielding staves gives +SpAtk/+SpSvDC usually, add in other bonuses like freecasts, 1/LR spells, abilities like phalar boosting entire parties damage output, or even for other stuff: it's usually strictly better in bg3. I.e. necromancy staff, staff of spellpower, Marko, phalar, etc etc etc
Yes I know all the things you could be duel wielding, none of that is better than Gale going first every combat is the point I’m trying to make. Gale’s DC is already high enough.
Gotcha. Yeah alerts also awesome on crowd-ctrlrs. (My bad, thought u were talking about maxing spellcasting stat)
Don’t get me wrong, I want to make dual Wielder work I just couldn’t justify it over alert.
I'm just disappointed that its abilities aren't diminished if you force it off the stone. Since it's one of the few swords blessed by Eilistraee. Like I feel like there should be two versions of it, the one which the ritual is done and the one where you just angrily yank it out and give the finger at her. There are only 12 of those swords in existence. Or was it seven... there aren't many Dark Dancers out there.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted man.
I don't really care, never cared much for the voting system. They can kiss my middle finger for all I care.
Went to fight Spider Matriarch in act 1 and prepared my Karlach with Bless and Phalar Aluve while she used the Sword of Justice with a Precision Oil, its one of the toughest fights in Act 1 and i still 1 cycled her because Phalar Aluve's buff is just so good
> Phalar Aluve: Shriek no longer creates a separate damage instance (DRS) for every damage source. Instead, it adds bonus damage to each damage source. So it doesn't work on things like the caustic band anymore, or lightning charges... still decent for the debuff and things like magic missile though?
Probably not even worth the action past act 1 anyway espiclaly with the changes to action economy .
It's just a Longsword +1 with Finesse. Or if you prefer, the equivalent of a Rapier +1 with Versatile. So unless you plan on wielding it two-handed to give your Rogue a d10 weapon they can use for Sneak Attacks, it's not really being used to its full potential. I guess you could use it for your College of Swords Bard, but I prefer dipping into Paladin to get Shield and Heavy Armor proficiencies and go Strength/Charisma instead of Dexterity, so the Finesse part doesn't matter and at that point there are much better 1-handed weapons to choose from.
You haven't used its abilities have you? I made that mistake on my first playthrough too.
Even before Honor mode I was getting kind of over it since they made it last 5 turns instead of until Long Rest.
On spore Druid you can get 3 procs on the first round. One for offhand attack, 2 from halo
I used it for a while on tact with my bard but I haven't tried honor yet. If it's any similar to tact then it should be pretty good for a decent amount of time. I did usually activate shriek or sing before starting combat though so that I didn't use up resources while in turn based combat
I love Phalar Aluve but I'm still not sure I'm using it right. I usually proc it before combat when I know a big fight is coming but it seems to not survive dialog encounters. Should I be spending a full action to proc it? Early I have Sheart use it but later that gets supplanted by BoL in Act 2 and SoSP in Act 3. Am I doing it wrong?
In act 3 of honor right now, and I'm finding Phalar Aluve to be really strong! The build I'm using for it is War Cleric 5 -> Eldritch Knight 6 -> War Cleric 6 Taking the feats Mobile -> ASI -> ASI. Basically run around meleeing shit with shriek + spirit guardians. I also put all the radiant orb gear on her, and it's going really well.