Something that doens't get talked about the Vest of Soul Rejuvenation is that it triggers Extra Attack. So you can use all your actions and extra actions to punch people, trigger an opportunity attack, get a miss and punish that, then you can make an extra attack

I could really use a post game arcane mode where we could just fight a bunch of hard enemies after the story is done, you get all these great items at the very end and you barely get to use them.

'Cannot be burned' on Helldusk armor means you can make use of Heat without taking chip damage from the burning.

I have binged your content over the last week or two and it is really refreshing to get mostly objective takes for min maxing in this game. One niche I think is under explored in bg3 is team comp videos. Many channels have individual build guides but I think you would be great for show casing full team compositions with set ups that may be less powerful than other builds in a vacuum but become 'greater than the sum of their parts' when group synergies are factored in.

Another thing about Helldusk armor that might be a bug and might get patched, is that bracers of defence don't consider it armor and so its effect still works. Bracers give 2 AC if you're not wearing armor or shield, so it pushes the 21 AC to 23. With the amulet of greater health, my wizard with no tanky attributes put in suddenly has the highest HP and highest AC of anyone in my party with advantage on saving throws. An absolute godsend because my wizard was getting focused every fight.

Loved this series. There have been several examples you’ve shown that corrected my understanding on some items, or even just made me realize “oh hey, I should try that.” Great info

I love all of your BG3 content, Aestus. Great channel

soooo ready to watch this when I get home!! keep up the great work!!

Thank you for finishing this series, hoping for more videos soon.

I'm watching through all your tier list videos while I'm grading -- grade one paper, watch one item or spell discussion, grade the next paper, watch the next one. It is proving to be a pretty good anti-procrastination tool! So thanks! :)

Return of the king

One interesting note about the shield bash bug: the bash still applies mental fatigue. I have the ring that applies 2 mental fatigue when you apply conditions to enemies. Despite not knocking them prone or anything, it seems to apply the mental fatigue. Thanks for the list.

Dude this series is so fun to watch. I really like the RP side of the game (I definitely don't follow your hardcore rules haha), but watching your videos gives me great insight in how I can augment my builds. I hope you continue making bg3 content, I wish you the best.

arrow of many shot + helm of arcane acuity = max out arcane acuity in one shot with a bunch of enemies

You mention armor of persistence and monk armor but not armor of the agility? Best armor piece in the game especially for dex builds. And +2 to all saving throws. Swords bard has bonkers AC with this. And it looks awesome too.

Arrow of many targets give you arcane acuity for each target you hit last I checked (yesterday). If you use one arrow you get 8 stacks or arcane acuity off one attack and can arguably make it the best item for CC sword bards when combined with mystic scoundrel, especially with an elixir that starts you with 3 arcane acuity stacks.

I’d Love for you to do some build videos where you showcase how you’d combine some of these powerful items and weapons on certain classes!

There is no turn limit in the battle you mention . . . the timer there just denotes when some airstrikes and additional enemies will be added. You can kill everything and chill up there as long as you want. The actual turn limit is only in the final battle after you go through the portal (it sets a new limit).

It would be great to see a series on best items/weapons for each class to build around

Also shoutout to Helldusk Helmet. Any way to get blind immunity on non-Warlocks, especially thorwing Barbs, Swords Bards, and Ranger Hunters, opeating in a party with another Warlock casting Darkness allows you to build an entire party comp and combat strategy around that condition. The Eversight Ring being the only other item I can think of that grants blind immunity which you've mentioned in other videos.

15:15 Shield bashes have literally never worked in *any* of my runs, and I have 258 hours in this game. They haven't just been bugged this patch, they've been bugged for as long as I've tried using them. Every shield I collect gathers dust in my chest because there's no point using them since Larian hasn't addressed the issue for months. Most shields I see are "good in theory" and yet utterly useless :/ *EDIT*: To be clear, shields now work as of patch 6.

The bhaalist armour can be used to cancel piercing resistance on enemies. It’s likely a bug. Sometimes you have to turn the aura off and on again. This can be done by dragging the icon from the spellbook to the action bar, it costs no action to do so.

Fun fact: despite the description, shield bash prompts an enemy STR save against your *spellcasting* DC. So casters have (or will, when it’s no longer bugged) a better chance to land it. Given that you usually want your casters at range, it’s probably only clerics, EKs and paladins that would really benefit from it

Great series, thanks! I feel like the Pyroquickness Hat belongs in the honorable mentions. Free bonus action if you cast a fire spell, but you get 2 points of heat which can be a pain. Still, a sorcerer goes from 2 sets of scorching rays per turn to 3, 4 with an elixer of bloodthirst, 5 with haste. That’s pretty amazing for a round one nova. Drawback is that it’s once per short rest. (Iirc)

Helm of balduran will trigger the 1d6 poison damage from broodmothers revenge. Love using that one on a fighter

Moar BG3! Love your coverage

Robes of the sporekeeper with a summon comp are (imo) unequivocally the strongest item in the game. Taking 30 actions and doubling it? I don't see this get talked about enough. Even if you just hasten your companions, on a bonus action for your druid? It's insane, dude. The action economy on it is unrivaled

I'd say a giant omission here is the Armor of Agility which can be directly bought from Stormshore Armory and Gloomy Fentonson. AC17 Medium armor with full DEX mod to AC, no penalty to Stealth, +2 on Saving Throws. I view this as one of the 2 must-have medium armors, the other is from Last Light Inn in Act 2: Yuan-Ti scale mail. Also in Act 3 is Elven Chain mail bought at Rivington General - qualifies the wearer to use it, like Helldusk - great for Wizards.

Yo Aestus! We gonna get a tadpole powers tier list eventually? Appreciate you!

You can also use gloves of soul catching to fully heal your entire party out of combat by using it to punch destructable items like barrels and crates.

With Gloves of Soul Catching, Tavern Brawler perk, Best of Soul Rejuvenation, and the Monk Boots, an Open Hand Monk is pretty amazing.

I’m going to assume that you haven’t used Bhaalist armor, given that it’s the single strongest item in the game, maybe tied with band of mystic scoundrel.

I also like the bonedpike helmet. Menacing attack each turn? Sign me up!

Helldusk Armor will still result in the Rage Impeded condition for Barbarians negating their damage and defense bonus. Unclear if this is a bug or as intended since it is still heavy armor.

Craterflesh bug definitely makes them top 10

BLESS

Nice video! Can you make a list of underwhelming/overrated items and weapons? Especially the "very rare" and "legendary" type.

Gloves of Soul Catching aren't just for Monks. They also work wonders for Moon Druids.

You can access ferg droghers shop by having shadowheart stay behindnso he doesnt spot her causing his confrontation to happen.

12:30 I've always found that timer to be pretty much decorative. I've overstayed it for a dozen turns and it's not a big deal at all. The timer after you succeed is very bad though

How good are the gloves of martial exertion.

there is a build going round based around a warlock/abjur wizard/cleric built around counter damage from armor of agathys/bonespike as well as mourning frost as the weapon with markoheskir as the sub weapon, it's crazy if an opponent dares to hit you they just get wrecked, also has armor of shadows from warlock meaning i think concentrationless mage armor i know it doesn't take a spell slot think it's none con to but don't quote me. if you keep swapping between robes and armor though you can spam the now cantrip mage armor to max out your ward after every fight just checked a build video on it and guy in the vid has mage armor and stoneskin on at the same time, so yeah armor of shadows- concentrationless cantrip on one attack- armor of agathys damage, bonespike garb damage fleshmelter cloak damage then you can follow up with any ice spell backed by encrusted with frost, and the ring i can't remember the name of but it leaves a cold surface whenever you do ice damage you can legit just walk round on purposley triggering opportunity attacks and retaliating for 70 ish damage if attacked in meele, if attacked in range you can still pop your shield from abj, but you also have hellish rebuke for a slight hit on a reaction, also counterspell is abjuration ;) the idea of the build isn't to not take damage, but to take damage negate it and deal a metric shit tonne right back while also having frost spells for CC through freeze armor of agathys only disappates once all temporary HP is gone, while you're negating damage you don't lose HP and you get a free cast at level 6 thanks to markoheskir your concentration choices are stone skin which is basically Blade ward but till longrest or haste which is more optimal as you can get blade ward via reviving hands or hellrider's pride which is basically stoneskin but for 2 turns and doesn't cost a level 4 slot build i saw is 2 warlock 1 cleric (tempest but don't think it matters) 9 wizard (abjuration)

Yes

You forgot to mention that the Helm of Balduran prevents critical hits on the wearer.

I wonder if the Helm of Balduran's crit immunity is a callback to the original games (all helmets in those games gave crit immunity)

Spoilers for the finale of the game coming but I can't ask Aestus the question otherwise: The way you always talk about the time limit in the fight atop the netherbrain I was wondering if that is another challenge you set yourself or if you misinterpret the time limit. Because yes, there is a time limit of 4 turns until a nautiloid arrives but that just starts bombarding and spawning units as it does in the area before climbing up the netherbrain. The important time limit where you can lose only starts after you entered the brain. Love your videos btw. helped me a lot to gain a really good understanding of the game and the mechanics and I beat honour mode with your help :)

Helm of grit act one should be in Honor mode or something like that.

Gloves of soul catching are also great for a wild shaping Druid, as long as they don’t shift into a myrmidon with a weapon. I’m curious, too - would helmet of grit grant an extra bonus action after wild shaping if the Druid was below 50% hp immediately beforehand? Maybe something to test! I’m still not swayed by the idea of choosing a shield over the DW feat for wizards and sorcs, since they get the shield spell. And I think listing the robes and helldusk armour here kinda undermines your argument. With the DW feat, 16 DEX, mage armour and good robes, you have a solid 18-19 AC, which goes to 23-24 if and when you need the shield spell. Or, with the DW feat and helldusk, you have a ridiculous 22->27 AC. At that point you’re already harder to hit than most other characters. It seems difficult to then justify extra defence (and yes, preserving a few 1st level spell slots) over dual wielding 2 powerful staves. The free casting you get from having both Markoheshkir and Cherished Necromancy is crazy (and makes losing spell slots on mage armour and shield pretty negligible). Also a bit surprised that the Weave robes and hood didn’t get a mention. They’re arguably best in slot for the right class, due to the boost to spellcasting potency. Obviously you can’t list everything though!

It ain’t flashy but Armor of Landfall deserves an honorable mention 😢

Vest of Soul Rejuvenation seems awesome on paper, but in practice there might not be many opportunities to actually use its riposte ability. I used it in a few early playthroughs but found that, with how late in the game I get it, I didn't get much use out of it. Enemies didn't melee attack my monk all that much (particularly since my strategy usually revolved around either staying out of melee, or only going into melee when I could kill things before they attack me; plus, by this point in the game, enemies have a lot of ways of damaging you other than with melee attacks), and if they did they didn't miss that much (since my monk's AC wasn't great, even with this). All told, in a given playthrough I probably only actually got to use Greater Kushigo Counter about 3-5 times. I think the main thing that keeps it good is the lack of competition; there aren't really any other amazing armors for monks, so why not use this. (But now if I have a monk I tend to use the Icebite Robe for its 1/day Armor of Agathys, and in late game I just give them Helldusk Armor and forego unarmored movement.)

No Sarevok's Horned Helmet? Not even in the honorable mention? One of the few ways of unconditionally buffing your crit range without forcing yourself into a specific weapon configuration?

I missed the very first ring X_X

I hope I'm not the only dummy who kept waiting for a weapon mention 🤦

I’m also surprised you didn’t mention even ONE of the equipment that gives initiative boost. Hellrider longbow is an amazing stat stick especially for a thrower that gives a whopping +3 to initiative. Why waste your feats with alert when you have stuff like this? Mask of soul perception is also amazing and gives a +2 initiative. Way better than the baldurs helm. That thing is kind of useless. There are so few enemies that stun you in this game, and if you’re using globe if invulnerability in the final battle well you’re invulnerable to it. Also ambusher is another awesome stat stick I see people ignore too much. +1 initiative and d6 damage on enemies that haven’t taken their turn. It procs on ranged damage so it’s perfect for a dex swords bard. +d6 on every instance of sword bard damage builds up very fast .i know you like weapons you can build around and this is certainly one of them. Maybe not a core part of the build but definitely high synergy with a ranged sword bard.

15:30 have you considered doing a feet tier list?

FYI, Hellriders Pride only procs when you heal ANOTHER creature. So, the Helm of Balduran shouldn't work with it. It doesn't proc when the wearer uses a heal spell or potion. Am I missing something or is the wiki wrong?

Honestly shocked bhaalist armor only got on the honorable mention list. It's an entire party build around that can make combat absolutely trivial. I've used a lot of the items on this list and feel like bhaalist armor is the strongest one when fully built around, but otherwise solid list.

Nice video! Hey, would you like more thumbs like the ones I sent you? Please, let me know :)