Divinity: Original Sin 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2

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Solo Honour Build - Undying Avenger (Retribution Sellsword)
By Lost Sinner
★ Sellsword Build for non-Origin Human or Undead Human. This build is meant for solo experience as a Lone Wolf.

♦ My other works:
• Solo Sellsword Series: link
• All Solo Builds: link
• Honour Walkthrough: link
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★ Showcase Videos
Late game Fights against Adramahlihk and Final Battle


Early to Mid-game Boss Battles: (Orivand, Bishop, Roost Anlon, Aetera, Reimond)
✎ Stats Progression
  • Level 1: 18 FIN, 2 Warfare, 1 Poly, Lone Wolf
  • Level 2: 20 FIN, 12 Memory, 2 Geomancer
  • Level 3: 22 FIN, 14 Memory, 2 Scoundrel, Executioner
  • Level 4: 24 FIN, 12 CON, 2 Necromancer
  • Level 5: 28 FIN, 16 Memory, 2 Poly
  • Level 6: 32 FIN, 2 Retribution
  • Level 7: 36 FIN, 4 Retribution
  • Level 8: 40 FIN, 8 Retribution, All Skilled Up

  • Level 9: 12 WIT, 18 Memory, 10 Retribution
  • Level 10: 12 STR, 14 CON, 4 Warfare
  • Level 11: 16 WIT, 6 Warfare
  • Level 12: 20 WIT, 20 Memory, 3 Poly
  • Level 13: 24 WIT, 8 Warfare, Savage Sortilege
  • Level 14: 26 WIT, 14 STR, 10 Warfare
  • Level 15: 28 WIT, 22 Memory, 2 Aero

  • Level 16: 30 WIT, 24 Memory, 4 Scoundrel
  • Level 17: 32 WIT, 16 CON, 6 Scoundrel
  • Level 18: 28 Memory, 8 Scoundrel, Hothead
  • Level 19: 36 WIT, 10 Scoundrel
  • Level 20: 40 WIT, 4 Geomancer


♦ Academy Lessons:
  • Lesson in FIN: +5 FIN / -5 Memory
  • Lesson in Con: +5 CON / -5 INT
  • Lesson in Wits: +5 WIT / -5 CON

♦ Spider Kiss Talent:
  • Dragon (+2 WIT -2 CON)

♦ Civil:
  • Starts with Thievery for Act l to help set up your early game
    Past Act ll you can respec Civil skills through Respec Mirror depend on your needs: Bartering when Buysing/Selling, Persuasion to pass dialogue checks, Thievery when stealing or lockpicking...
✎ Equipment
Gear:
  • Look out for gear with: +Retribution, otherwise +Warfare, Scoundrel, Geomancer, Finesse will do.

  • Use An Mey Falin (Belt) for +1 Polymorph +1 Warfare and a free Deflective Barrier skill, it can be found in Act ll which is sold or drop from Eithne the Trader.
    You can keep using this belt until you found better Belts with +Retribution.

  • In Act lll, kill Shadow Prince and grab his ring for: +3 Finesse, +3 Wits, +Cloak.


  • Once you arrive Arx, better rush and get these items:
    Rutoma Rivelleis (Amulet) : +5 STR, +1 Retribution, +2 Polymorph,...
    (in Old Mean Golds questline while trading with Cat or just pickpocket it from her)

    An Maflin (Shield) : +5 STR, +2 CON, +1 Warfare, +1 Single-handed, +1 Polymorph, Sets Deflective Barrier, Reflect 10% melee damage as physical damage,...
    (Vault of Linder Kemm)

    Vo Charlen (Head): +5 FIN, +3 Wits, ...
    (below Alchemy Shop basement)

    Nazad Hunola (Chest): +5 Finesse, +2 Scoundrel, ...
    (below Sanguinia Tell basement)

    Last One Standing (Belt): +5 Memory, +3 Finesse and +Skin Graft
    (sold from Lord Omyt in Kemm Mansion.)

    Kallisteis Boots: +2 Wits, +1 Scoundrel, +3 Finesse, +6 Initiative and Immunity to Knockdown / Cripple / Slow


  • Always look for two leveled daggers just incase you want to go all out by dual-wielding instead of turtling with dagger & shield, preferably daggers with rune slots.

    In Arx, player can get Domoh Dumora (Dagger) for:
    +3 Finesse, +2 Wits, +2 Scoundrel, +1 Dual-wield, +10% Critchance


  • As for shields, focus on Shields with + Retribution & +CON and always look for a new one after each level-up.. Not only it will increases your durability, but also gives you more damage for Bouncing Shields and Reactive Armour.

Runes:
  • Amulet: Flame Rune (+4/5/6% critchance)

  • Armour Rock Rune (+% Earth Resistance)

  • Weapon: Masterwork Rune (+9/11/13/15% physical damage)

  • Shield Masterwork Rune (+% physical armour)

Frames:
  • Amulet: Mystical Flame (+1 Pyro)

  • Armour Mystical Rock (+1 Warfare)

  • Weapon: Mystical Masterwork (+2/3 Wits)

  • Shield Power Masterwork (+2/3 STR)

Eternal Artefacts:
It can't be REMOVED once plugged and they are also LIMITED, so only use when you know for sure that piece of gear is going to be with you for a looong time.
  • Gloves: +2 CON, +10% Earth Resistance
  • Helmet: +2 Finesse, +1 Huntsman
  • Belt: +2 STR , +1 Warfare
  • Rings: +1 Scoundrel, +10% Poison Resistance
✎ Abilities Setups
★ Savage Sortilege allow skills like: Bouncing Shield,Tentacle Lash, Reactive Armour,.. being able to deal critical attacks based on your crit chance.

✦ Early Game (1~8)
  • Retribution: reflects received damage to your attacker. In DE, you can get up to 10 Retribution from combat points and higher than that coming from Bull Horns & equipment. Even then there are still more abilities that can improve your "Reflect game" further.
    (e.g: 14 Retri = 70% damage reflection (+5% / per point)

  • Battle Stomp: decent aoe radius in a straight line, dealing 90% dmg and set knockdowns on enemies, also clear surfaces.

  • Bull Horn: Gives +1 Retribution, Lone Wolf character gets +2 Retribution. Grants Bull Rush ability.

  • Bull Rush: Rush at enemies dealing good Damage (can Backstab!), with just one turn cooldown. Use this skill to deal damage and set Bleeding on multiple targets each turn for maximized damage. While also making use of it mobility to position yourself each turn, ideally charging into last enemy back so you can continue with your backstabs.

  • Tentacle Lash: whip your tentacle at a single target with mid range reach, great for disabling enmy eweapon users like Archers, Knights, ...

  • Battering Ram Rush foward to your target, can use as a gap closer as well as to set knockdown on your enemies.

  • Bouncing Shield: Throw shield at enemy & bounce to one nearby target. Damage based on your shield physical armour.

  • Fortify: Boost Physical Armour, remove many debuffs.

  • Backlash: Dealing backstab damage to targeted enemy then teleport behind it back for more backstabs.

  • Adrenaline: Gain 2 AP for this turn but lose 2 AP on the next turn ( a tradeoff), use it when you need to confirm a kill to trigger Executioner talent or when you really want to setup some defensive buffs.

  • Shackles of Pain: mark the target that will receive 100% damage you took, open various combos.
    • Player mark A, A hits Player for 4000, A will receives 6800 damage (+Retribution reflection)
    • Player mark A, B hits Player for 4000, A will receive 4000 damage.
      ...etc
    Tip 1: You can also move around and proc enemies Opportunist attack to trade damage with the marked target.

    Tip 2: You can also drink red potions to self-damage while linked to an enemy. Because this is considered a magical way of dealing damage to your enemy, it will also crit if you have Savage Sortilege.
    (e.g: I drank 1670 with 190% crit multiplier = 3173 self-damage to both player and enemy)


  • Mend Metal: Restores X physical armour per turn for 3 turns.

  • Heart of Steel: grants decent physical armour, you can use it as a pre-buff before a battle because it has long duration (4 turns)

  • Cloak & Dagger: jumping skill for positioning use.

  • Whirlwind: aoe spinning attack with decent range.

  • Cripple Blow: Good single target attack, cripple target in place for a turn.

  • Dome of Protection: create a magical field that restores both Magic & Physical Armour each turn and increases 10% on all elemental resistances when player is inside it.

✦ Mid Game (9~15)
  • Frost Armour (scrolls): Boost Magic Armour, remove many debuffs

  • Bone Cage: Boost Physical Armour based on how many dead bodies near you. Can grants massive amount of Armour if used after you manage to pull off a few kills or just in an environment filled with corpses already.

  • Deflective Barrier: Boost physical armour, also reflect back projectiles attacks or spells at enemies.

  • Reactive Armour: Deal X physical damage based on your current armour to everyone nearby including yourself. Because this is a tank build, this skill can deal massive amount of damage with Savage Sortilege, a good armor setup i can nuke or even one shot most enemies including major bosses.
    Tip 1: You can also combo Reactive Armour with Shacke of Pain, because it is a self-damage spell, this will make enemy get 2 ticks from one cast, double the damage output for your enemy.

    Tip 2: Same as above, but different uses. You can use Reactive Armour to finish a target from afar by linking it with a Shackle of Pain.

    (use Reactive Armor with around or above 80% Physical Armour for optimal damage)

  • Skin Graft: reset all cooldowns.

  • Teleportation: put taget at desired spot to setup your attacks.

  • Uncanny Evasion: Grants you 90% dodge, makes most weapon attacks useless, pretty much you from all physical threats. Use it after Reactive Armor blown your armors up to keep yourself safe while working on armor buffs again.

✦ Late Game (16+)
  • Peace of Mind: great Wits (Critchance & Initiative) boost and small Damage boost.

  • Haste: +1 Start/Recovery AP. You can pre-cast it to get 7AP starting AP.

  • Challenge: mark a target, if they die within 2 turns you get a +20% damage boost for a turn and bonus in both Physical & Magical Armor.

  • Inner Demon: gives you a great boost in Magic Armor.

  • Apotheosis: By the time you reached Arx and obtained Rutoma Rivelleis Amulet for +2 Polymorph bonus, grab Apotheosis to get SP Cost -3 for all source spells in 2 turns. You can use Source powers with no Source cost for 2 turns. You will also get a small boost on all stats like Intelligence and Wits.

  • Overpower: If character physical armour is higher than target physical armour, the attack will destroy all enemy Physical Armours, otherwise deal damage and apply Knockdown. You can easily one shot wreck all armors of anyone when properly prepapred with armor buffs.

    When combined with Reactive Armor, it can allow the build to two shots any single target enemy including major bosses.
75 Comments
opbaritone 19 Nov, 2022 @ 10:08am 
Necromancy at its finest...

Minor DE change or fix: An Maflin sets Death Wish, not Deflective Barrier in DE.

The shield that sets Deflective Barrier is Kemm's Deflector which, sadly, is inferior to An Maflin for this build.

Great build! Thanks for the thread and hope this helps.
ubergarm 7 May, 2020 @ 8:39am 
@DabiSenpai Dagger+Shield unexpectedly *increased* DPS in addition to survivability!

Bouncing Shield w/ Savage Sortilege+Flame rune amulet+Hothead+Crit% gear+Ingenious+10 Warfare dish out great physical damage on targets. Start off on high ground for more bonus then backlash into the fray! 2 turn CD or skingraft/adrenaline to use twice. (see Lost Sinner's comment in The Gatekeeper (Off-tank) comments)

Reactive Armor for big damage as per this build. Prebuff Heart of Steel+Deflective Barrier (both 2AP), Fortify (let your buffer handle that), finally Bone Cage- tbh corpses are just more gravy. At lvl 15 I have >2k phys armor at this point. Shackles of Pain for 2x damage or target distant enemy and watch the fireworks! Be careful: accidently crit'd friendly for 1.2k damage! Works well even w/o lone wolf.

Only as last resort or for CC use weapon attack skills. Hopefully a buffer gives you venomous or sparking swings and use teleport+crippling blow to multi-hit w/ 115% base damage. Fun!
Trash Connoisseur 27 Mar, 2020 @ 11:03pm 
Idk if this thread/game has died down recently, but I'll ask anyway. I've tried doing Shield+dagger playthroughs with friends before, and I've struggled with it. Am I doing something wrong? I feel like I don't deal enough damage without dual-wielding. Also, is there a good time to take the spider's kiss? I took it pretty soon after I got to driftwood and screwed myself over cause I couldn't use a shield without gear boosts which frustrated me immensely
Kala-San 20 Oct, 2019 @ 8:23am 
You're welcome!
lib 20 Oct, 2019 @ 5:51am 
Hi Kala.
Thanks for your reply!
Kala-San 20 Oct, 2019 @ 3:31am 
Hey lib.
You can focus on strength if you want to. This build focuses more on combos, like overpower + reactive armour and retribution as bonus damage. In my opinion, putting points in strength over finesse makes no massive difference.
lib 18 Oct, 2019 @ 11:07am 
Hi! I know you don't reply anymore, but I wish someone could answer me, why this build has to be dagger? can it be like Sword or sth and focus on strength?
Carth 15 Jan, 2019 @ 4:15pm 
If you do rework this build a better name for it might be in order. Like say, Avenger or Retaliator.
Lost Sinner  [author] 5 Oct, 2018 @ 5:19pm 
not really, the build concept is still viable, after all the primary damage of source of the build is from it combos, the retribution more or less is still just support damage even with 20+ back then in previous version. But overall, it is no longer as powerful anymore as a standalone build, because any other builds can stack up to the same defenses if they went for the tanky approach and still have more damaging options.

I'm reworking other builds first, i may come up with something new for this build if i get to it before i burn out again, for now it has a low priority.
SSilver 5 Oct, 2018 @ 2:41pm 
I'm going to assume that the LW nerf making retribution only go up to 10 ruins this build?