Critical hits are overated untill your AC30+ character gets critted twice in a row by an enemy who needs 20 to hit...

Love how you talk. You are direct, but still take time to explain why it's important to get the information we need. thank you

Magic ring is so underrated you're right. Thank god someone else has been using it I thought I was going crazy man. That shit is so busted

With the Gloves of the Growling Underdog, if you use non lethal attacks, when you knock out an enemy, they are still considered to be surrounding you and helps make this buff last much longer.

Great video. Thank you for describing mechanics like how damage reduction is calculated etc.

The synergy of chained/triggered effects is really something only meta-gamers appreciated before BG3. Larian has really unleashed the potential of 5e in a fun and addictive way.

My Tempest Cleric would like to inform you that she considers your failure to include the Water Sparkler boots in this list as an act of sedition against her chosen deity and that you can expect a follow up from her in the form of a max damage, auto-crit, Call Lightning in the very near future.

This video is Unbelievable Good! Just started playing the game and i just love the way you have a deep understanding of strategies and combat. Im still in act one figuring out how to be as good as possible in combat decisions. And the possibility items give you is insane! So content like this is amazing to help me analyzing the game better! Gonna watch more of your videos now

A couple others from the very first trader you meet - the ring that adds 1d4 damage to all Throw attacks, and the bow that gives you Hunter's Mark. The ring isn't *that* important to a Throw build, but it's nice that they give you something to lead you in that direction early. And I used the bow on Astarion until I was able to get him the hand crossbows I wanted - as a Thief he was able to cast Mark, hide, and sneak attack each turn.

Gloves of power procs more than I thought its been fantastic for offseting tactician's +2 to monster attack. It's also nice to see the spell bane in action because it competes with bless and I sadly have never casted the bane spell in my life despite knowing how good control is.

Great advice amigo! Extremely helpful

I will give a shoutout to Adamantine Shield. Great for those that cannot use medium or heavy armor like spellcasters who still want crit immunity. Also the reeling effect on the shield works opposite of the adamantine armors, instead of applying when hit it applies when a melee attack misses.

I used the gloves of belligerent skies on my Tempest Cleric right until the end of the game. absolutely loved them

Just found a ring in act 3 that let's me use illusion and abjuration(I think) spells as a bonus action after hitting an enemie with a weapon attack and it completely warped the playstyle of my sword bard being able to cast greater invisibility or fear at the end of your turn is so good. I love the way items work in this game

I used gloves of belligerent skies on my magic missile build because it combos very well with some other items. Spell sparkler: lightning charges on the mm Psychic spark: extra mm per cast Coruscation ring: spell damage applies two turns of radiating orb on a target Callous glow ring: deals an extra 2 radiant damage to illuminated targets (radiating orb illuminates) Boots of stormy clamour: when you inflict a condition on an enemy also inflict 2 turns of reverberation. A second level magic missile applies 10 stacks of radiating orb making sure they never hit anything, and I think like 30 stacks of reverberation? In addition to the 3 damage per missile you get from lightning charges and the radiant damage. It’s crazy good and you get all the pieces for it by act 2.

Great Video. Thanks

One other note on arcane synergy is that it procs on a dip as well. So with a class where you aren’t using your bonus action you can drop your torch, dip your weapon, and pick it back up and get arcane synergy plus a bonus 1d4 of fire damage from the dip all (sort of) for free.

Oh man, I was looking at those Gloves of Belligerent Skies as well. Seems insane with the Open Hand monk -- they get a level 6 ability that lets them deal radiant damage with every unarmed attack, so you can stack Reverberation really fast. Then hit them with stunning strike when their Con saves are debuffed.

The loot in this game is so fun. I’m already planning a duelist build with a rapier + empty off hand with some of the duelist gear available.

If you wear the sparky gloves that give you lightning charges and throw something it counts as an unarmed attack and you get the lightning charges. My paladin has the spear of returning as his ranged option and I use the sparky hands and it is so fun lol

Very nice! I knew the items had potential. I simply couldn't figure out the use case.

Also, a little cheat-tip for non-spellcaster builds: the Diadem of Arcane Synergy will scale off your primary stat if you dont have a traditional spellcasting ability (aka no spells), so a dex focused rogue assassin for example will gain an additional DEX bonus on their damage just from them starting combat and triggering their assassin initiative on enemies, along with just attacking in general since it's easy to proc (even opening containers will trigger Arcane Synergy for whatever reason)

Great video, as a seasoned 5e optimizer the most intriguing thing for me was the magic items so I'm glad their getting attention! Also It seems they've heavily nerfed the amulet of branding to just be for one attack as it now reads something like "lasts for three turns or until they take damage", which is substantially weaker, there may be some build that can still take advantage of it though tbf it was too strong before.

A very strong item for skill checks in Act 1 is the Shapeshifter's Boon Ring it adds 1d4 to all your checks if shapeshifted or disguised. So if you use Disguise Self it's basically a permanent Guidance that stacks with normal Guidance. To get it you need to kill the Strange Ox in the Grove. If you oneshot it with for example Inflict Wounds it does not trigger combat. It's a bit meta gaming as normally you would meet the Strange Ox in Act2 and Act 3 again and only get in Act 3 you get the dialog option to kill it. Although killing the Strange Ox has the side effect of moving Dammon directly to Act 3 and he will not be available in Act 2, which locks you out of the Karlach romance as you can not get the second upgrade for her in Act 2.

Arcane Synergy is really good for wizards with dual handcrossbows combine that with cull the weak and the ring that adds elemental damage and the one that adds dmg fron concentration that can do some great damage.

Periapt of wound enclosure makes healing from potions so efficent since you always heal the max amount....i have saved so much potions because of this one item

Not sure if the Mountain Pass still counts as Act 1, but the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation is great for casters. You get it in the Gith Creche and it adds your spellcasting modifier to elemental cantrips and it stacks with Elemental Affinity and other effects. From Act 2 onwards in combination with other items I was able to add my Charisma modifier five times to each beam of Eldritch Blast.

Gloves of power on Astarion with hand crossbows is incredible if you build him for multiple attacks Although it states „melee attacks“ in the tool tip it works on range aswell

Great video. man Martial characters eating so good in this game i see why Paladin is #1 pick (im playing Sorcerer). seems like Martial classea are kings of ST damage where magic is for aoe, like i love seeing a big juicy fireball number but that amulet of branding with the other synergy you mentoined in the video..well lets just say Laezel is about to really become Bae'zel. Already planned on Romancing her but now im going to treat her right.

I have gotten so much mileage out of the Hellriders pride gauntlets on my healer build. Adding in the blade ward with each heal nets lots of damage reduction.

@0:15 what you’re describing here is, in game design terms, called “vertical progression” and “horizontal progression”. Vertical progression is when the numbers get higher. It doesn’t change how you play the game or the character; you’re just doing more damage or taking less hits. Horizontal progression is when you are given a whole new mechanic or something which fundamentally alters the way you interact with a previous mechanic. If a big part of a game is going to be built around loot, then it is definitely important for that loot to allow for horizontal progression of the character

Regarding the gloves of power; yes, they removed the negative from them but the bane does not proc unless you're branded. They hid that little fact in the flavor text but it is accurate.

i love putting all my on heal items on astarion since his bite procs a self heal and activates the effect along with the cape that makes you go invis on kill which sets him up for the next turn (also has healing word)

I'm on act 3 and the gloves of power are still amazing. The +1 to slight of hand alone is worth it for those 30 dc locks.

Adamantine armour has taken my shart and laezel all the way through act 2 to late act 3 and I’ve only just swapped laezel’s armour for Raphael’s suit. It’s great for tanky support characters. I also swapped the grymforge helmet out to avoid wasting 2x no crits in the same character.

The problem with Reeling from Heavy Adamantine Armour is that all the stacks are removed if the enemy misses, so having higher AC is kind of a bad things for this, unlike the Adamantine Shield, where it's the exact opposite, enemy gets stacks on misses and they are lost on hit

The magic ring is so OP, I've won so many battles singlehandedly with that item, thanks for the heads-up!

i was a little bit worried that non level based loot could end up leading to some early items being able to carry you and nothing else matters but its neither that or the opposite. like everything is viable

Wapira's Crown is also quite good. While it doesn't seem like a lot on first glance, that free 1d6 self-heal upon healing others has been the difference between a narrow win and a TPK in a couple harder fights. I especially like it paired with BA heals like (Mass) Healing Word or Healing Radiance. It's also just aesthetically really nice for an Ancients Paladin or similar nature-themed build.

Broodmother’s revenge with ring of regeneration and whispering promise is pretty dope

Did not realize they had changed the "brand" requirement on the Gloves of Arcane Power.... Have been selling them... will def try them on my next playthrough

Hei, and thank you so much for these really excellent and clearly articulated guides. I was wondering if there is any advantage to equip this diadem of arcane synergy to Lae'zel, as she is no spell caster, I am confused as of to which characters modified the roll uses, the casters or the targets. this confuses me also in other pop-ups, like pop-ups linked to portent dies, but i will try to figure those out. Never played and DD-type games before. Anyways, Lae'zel is the only Gith in my party, and you said that this would be especially good head piece to giths. Thx.

Another good Act 1 item is the Ring of Protection, it's just +1 AC and +1 Saves, but thats already very good. You get it for stealing the Idol of Silvanus for Mol in the Grove. Doing this after stopping the ritual does not have any consequences. The easiest way is making yourself invisible, grab it and run. After giving it to Mol you should steal it back as having the Idol of Silvanus in your inventory grants Silvanus's Blessing to your whole group, which gives proficiency in Nature and Animal Handling. Although the effect of the idol stopped working for me after a while, not sure if this is a bug as also some other items like the Chest of the Mundane stopped working for me at some point. Btw. Chest of the Mundane is an item available in Act 1 in the Arcane Tower in the Underdark. It turns every item into a spoon, a cup or something similar and turns them back to the oiriginal form after taking the item out, so it's basically a Bag of Holding as you can turn a heavy armor into a lightweight spoon. Although as already mentioned it stopped working for me when entering Act 3 and I assume this is a bug, so make sure not to store something important in it.

@Aestus_RPG I accidentally built a crazy and niche late Act 1 build utilizing the Diadem of Arcane Synergy and a few other items: 1. Obviously the Diadem is most useful for Pact of the Blade Warlock who gains an Extra Attack at 5th level 2. I bought The Baneful Warlock-specific weapon from the Underdark trader and together with the Gloves of Power I consistently inflict Bane on the target 3. I am half-elf so I have Shield proficiency and I forged the Adamantine Shield, which inflicts Reeling when an enemy misses (not hits, like the armors) 4. Multiclassing into Oath of Vengeance Paladin gave me medium armor proficiency which allows wearing the Luminous Armor and it's easy to inflict Radiant damage via smiting or Inquisitor's Might for 2 turns, which also Dazes targets The end result is not just infinite Arcane Synergy but enemy Attack Rolls reduced from 3 different sources: Bane, Reeling, Radiating Orb. I am in the middle of Act 2 at 8th level, but when I hit 10th level I will get a second Extra Attack from the Paladin which would make it even more terrifying. Acquiring shield proficiency requires race/feat/multiclass and forging the Adamantine shield isn't easy. Also, the Radiant damage and Oath of Vengeance Paladin multiclass is just optional and the build still works without it. But it increases the potency while adding other pros, e.g. Paladin aura based on CHA.

I have been having a blast with the reverberation gloves. Its probably still bugged as the 4 turn event are procing randomly even when the stack aren't at 4. But they become a passive crowd control for my tempest cleric (no storm sorc), each call lightning give them reverberation, which when combining with headband of arcane synergy let you also obtain arcane synergy, then if you pair up with the ring of elemental infusion that give you weapon elemental damage based on your last cast elemental spell you become this weird gish that just constantly apply reverberation on everything you hit, and they get a tiny explosion on their turn which might render their whole turn useless XD Even more, if you prepare a water surface then electrocute it with lightning spell, oh boy the enemies are: electrocuted, reverbered, have to take damage while moving out which further give them reverberation stack, condition for days XD Is it strong? probably not, as its just a bunch of debuff with no significant damage buff compare to a pure arcane synergy setup, but its fun as hell

A duergar! yay, you have discovered how good they are!

Its crazy how adamantine heavy armor combined with the shield in a high AC character will trivialize most of the encounters in the game, but I wish I could try the Brood mother's revenge together with that mace that heals you when you hit someone the Shattered Flail on shadowheart or even get a synergy with all the posion items that you randomly find

Bruh i cant believe how underrated arrow of many targets is....as a ranger who love coating poisons in bows the amount of utility, debuffs and damage it does is BUSTED 😅😅😅

wow. that's so nice on pc to be able to see what these things like arcane synergy do. on ps5 I cant highlight the word to see it so i just have to look it up online every time and sometimes I cannot find the information lol. I need my gaming friends to get pcs... lol

Warped headband of Intellect, not the greatest item in the game, but definitly build defining. Probably belongs in honorable mentions

I would add the linebreaker boots to this. Wrath is very strong: potentially +7 dmg - it's basically great weapon master for one handed weapons. With 3 thief levels, you can start every fight with 4 wrath charges

I think Broodmother's Revenge deserves to be on the proper list. It is easy to proc it reliably in most combats without having to build around, or whatever. You have access to about 16-24 "rasberries" that you can forage out in the world in reasonably convenient locations. They are consumable and restore 1d4 HP. And, get this: You can consume them from your inventory WITHOUT using an action or bonus action. So, you can pretty much just add 1-6 poison to every attack in every fight. And, of course, later the ring of regeneration or the helm of balduran take care of that for you. The weapons and items that add dice rolls to damage tend to be 1d4 until Act 3 when more of them upgrade to a D6. And because of reverberation and items that poison a foe when you deal poison damage, you could easily go a step further with a poison build.

Any thoughts on how good the Full Lightning charges or Heat charges sets are? Are they worth thinking about the full set, or just one or two pieces? I think the Bow (Joltshooter) is quite decent early on for an Archery character but haven't really explored the set beyond that.

I've noticed, arcane synergy procs on sooo many random things. Bardic Inspiration for example, cutting words or just boosting allies has procced it for me.

nice vid

Thank you

Fleetfingers gloves are awesome. If you dash, you get a free jump in the same turn

Any thoughts on The Whispering Promise? It's the ring that casts a 2-turn bless when the wearer heals a creature. 2 turns is not very long, but it does not require concentration. So a cleric can turn 1 Mass Healing Word on bonus action to bless the party, then use their action for Wall of Fire/Spirit Gaurdians/etc.

Surprised there was no mention of the hellriders pride + whispering promise + amulet of restoration combo.

Follwing the Blizzard/WoW colorscheme. That magic ring is legendary

Gloves of Power apparently works with ranged weapons too.

the gloves of belligerent sky work good with the legendary trident you can get from the genie in a throw build. doing a big AOE thunder every attack and you'll knock an entire encounter prone. It's so fucking good

Were do you get the diadem of Arcane Synergy. This is the first time I am hearing about it. Also highly recommend the gloves of growling underdog on Karlach and she was my frontline defense through the whole game. In the fight with Balthazar, she wiped the floor with all those undead guys.

I love the gloves of power on my tiefling rogue/bard/paladin. He attacks 6 times per round when hasted by my sorlock. That debuff almost always lands

Can you tell us a bit about the build you are using for the Duergar please? It does look interesting ;)

Does that Devilfoil mask have any special dialogue attached to it if you try to talk to Yurgir in the Temple of Shar while wearing it?

you do need the brand for the bane on gloves of power to work. amulet of branding only works for one hit. adamantine backlash is not that great I think because it resets on a missed attack. the reeling from adamantine shield resets on a hit instead.

amulet of potent healing with wepon like swoed of chaos or shattered flail plus ring of regeneration you get vampiric regeneration basicly +10 hp every round and thats if you hit only once

Brand the Weak combo’d with twin spelled Haste on two party members turns the strongest enemies into puddles of blood.

Hey this is super late but, if you trade with volo in act 1( i did it while he was taking my eye out) he can sell you a necklace, that gives blade ward to any other character you heal

When you are thinking about class tier lists, be sure to pay attention to the 11th level feature that hunter rangers get. It is way better than tabletop -- instead of using your whole action to make the AOE attack, you use one of your attacks, so you can do it twice every round (4 times with Haste up). Volley is especially strong, but Whirlwind Attack is great too (haven't tested if Reach weapons affect the AOE on Whirlwind). It strikes me as perhaps better than the Fighter's third attack, and it synergizes with on-hit effects and such things; Whirlwind goes great with the gloves that give advantage when surrounded and with the Skinburster halberd. I don't think it makes hunter rangers better than fighters, since their spells can't compete with Action Surge/extra feat/Indomitable, but the 11th level feature might be better. It probably does make hunter rangers the best archers, since Volley is so amazing.

nice

Theres a boot that inflicts 2 turns of reverbaration on the enemy when you inflict a stasus on them. ANY status. Especially great on battle master since each stack of reverberation subtracts a point in their dex/strength/con saving throws, which is what BM is trying to beat.

Brood mothers necklace, didn't even knew it existed... gonna have to find it and then put a poison set together for my Drow Shadow monk run through XD

My issue with belligerent Skies is that it only applies on the first instance each turn despite the description saying whenever, would love if it worked right for storm Sorcerer

Hellrider's pride and whispering promise belong on here. Use a level 1 heal to buff someone though the roof.

Broodmothers revenge on astarion is pretty good as he can proc it with his vamp bite

Gloves of power on a dagger thief astarion feels so good

I know it says no weapon, but am going to point out the spear you can get early on that gives you true strike if you miss. Most tabletop players know how powerful this build is already. This is more for new players. You take the polearm master feat, and the sentinel feat you get more conditions to make a reaction attack, and a bonus action attack. On average two extra attacks per turn. If you use this build as a fighter with the extra feat take GWM as well. Do not replace this spear till you have a more reliable way to get advantage.

broodmother's revenge is very awesome with goodberries.

I don't remember the name, but the ring you can buy from Volo that gives you a free Bless on everyone you heal is crazy strong.

Can’t say I’ve ever heard someone say the whole word “die” every time when referring to dice rolls. Usually hear people just say “_d_” not “_die_”

Give those gloves of belligerent skies and combine them with lightning charge staff and items on gale, let those magic missiles stack ridiculously

If gloves of the belligerent skies worked properly eldritch knight would be so much more satisfying than it currently is.

At this point in time, do the Gloves of Power require the mark of the Absolute to proc bane on an enemy?

Yeah with the 'Magic' ring, i actually equipped it for the final encounter and one shot the boss and my entire team also died when i swung my sword. Honour mode run ruined 😭

You can the legendary 1h mace is still act 1, creche isnt act 2 yet, you can also get a the githyanki legendary greatsword in act 1 super early as soon as you get disarming strike on anything but laezel by disarming voss.

You mentioned that the Amulet of Branding benefits a fighter with Action Surge -- how? My reading of the tooltip was the it only benefits one attack (it says the effect lasts 3 turns "or until the target takes damage"), so I usually only use it when I have a rogue about to sneak attack or a paladin about to smite. Or is this just another of those misleading tooltips and it actually applies to all of someone's attacks in a turn?

Being a wild shape Druid is rough lol

Man, I did not read the Amulet of Branding properly. I thought it was random what sort of vulnerability it applied. I sold it in Act 2, and it is gone forever. :( Oh well, an item to look forward to in another playthrough!

I had the same thing i had a fighter with a crazy high ac who got tripple crit on the front line

The only time a game should have a fun item right at the end is if there's an NG+ system that lets you bring items over

Gloves of the Beligerant Skies is just another reason why Glyph of Warding is better than Fireball. Glyph does almost as much damage as Fireball, targets Dex saves, and can change its damage type to Thunder/Lightning which procs the gloves. On a Hasted Wizard or Bard you can Glyph Thunder + Glyph Sleep. Glyph Lightning + Glyph Lightning. Or just Glyph Knockback to 1hit KO. So darn good. If only Sorceror could get this spell...

@aestus_RPG You should look into combining Hellrider's Pride & The Whispering Promise. WIth a single cast of Mass Healing Word you heal everyone, buff them all with bless & buff everyone except the caster with blade ward. Not bad for a single bonus action Also boots of stormy clamour would be amazing if they worked. Hopefully they fix in future patch. You should look those up. Also, be mindful of content you've previously released regarding monks. Almost all buffs don't work with them. Going Ranger dip will not work because it doesn't proc colossal slayer or hunters mark and you also get no benefit from any of the fighting styles. Warlock's hex works but this requires a bonus action which is actually a downgrade in damage because their best fist attacks require a bonus action. So no matter how you slice it, you're sacrificing a double punch for a hex which is just not worth it. Best subclass for monks is way of the palm. Wholeness of body restores your hp, half ki points and gives you an extra bonus action for 3 turns. They have a way to increase damage, have good control & offer versatility in changing damage types. Best dip for monks is thief for fast hands. Whether it's for dealing damage or staying alive with Patient Defence. I wouldn't recommend any other subclass as nothing else can compete with the action economy of either going full monk or monk/thief

I love that you can find 2 pieces of mitral at the grymorge, meaning that if you use both pieces to craft the armors and/or shield, combined with the helmet that's 3 pieces of armor that will prevent critical hits, one of which can be a shield that almost anybody can equip

How would we determine the spell proficiency bonus Diadem of Arcane Synergy provide? Is it based off of the governing attribute of the spell that triggered the condition, or some other way? Would the Diadem of Arcane Synergy work with Hunter's Mark?

Does anyone know the name of the item that upgrades Asterion’s bite skill? I heard/saw it somewhere and I can’t remember exactly. Please and ty!

Just curious why the stat boosting items Warped Headband of Intellect dropped by Lump the Enlightened & the Gloves of Dexterity purchased from the Githyanki merchant in Act 1 didn’t make this list. I gave both to Tav in my current Tactician play-through & he seems totally OP now. Am I missing something here?

I have been dying for your opinions and builds on this game coz so many content creators barely played the game and making bad guides and tier list!

Brand the Weak DOES NOT WORK on Thisobald Thorm. I thought I was super smart by trying this bc he is resistant to almost every type of damage, but it does not work, I tried this during Patch #5, so maybe it could work in the future