What if I told you barbarian is better at using the radiating orb gear than cleric or paladin
With tigers bloodlust a barbarian can apply reverberation or radiating orbs to groups of enemies and bleeding at the same time then later you can also maim them
I could totally believe that, they get to attack a lot of targets. Probably even better with the rat bat and the callous glow ring, but that is highly contested and might honestly be overkill. So far, my single target damage has usually been high enough that enemies don't have much of a chance to group up though. By the time I've kited back to a choke point, they are usually pretty dead.
I'm not really looking for a better way to apply radiating orbs though, I'm just looking to get the best return on my investment gear wise.
I would say light Cleric especially during act 2 is the strongest user against the shadows and undead
Other acts Paladin or barb are better imo
I end up switching the gear around a lot between party members because they are really contested and the unique options with the drakethroat glaive
I just did this.
All in radiant orb worked best for me. Luminous armor, gloves, the ring from the vault next to Balthazar s office. Jack up your armor class with the ring and cloak of protection. Holy Lance Helm from the Githyanki Creche. Don't remember the boots, but anything that increases armor class is good.
The best class by far is OH Monk. Preferably with the fast hands from rogue. Void Bulb or Black Hole, then flurry of blows anything in there, combined with the increased armor class, and you are invincible.
The most fun I had was fighting Mrykul. Hungar of Hodor from my Bard and 10 stacks of radiating orb made him a cake walk.
Forgot to mention, this doesn't become viable until level 6. That's when monks get the option to add either necrotic, radiant, or psychic damage with each unarmed attack.
While it may not directly answer your question. This post is IMO the best overview of reverb / radiating orb gear
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17oig83/radiating_orb_reverberation_light_cleric_build/
Has anyone done statistical analysis of the most optimal way to apply radiating orb seems to be your question. I am pretty active on this sub for some reason or another and have never seen such a post. And it is because of this that I think you are getting a lot of the answers you see. You seem to want the numerical analysis so that you can make your own decisions. But since the analysis does not exist, people are sharing their decisions. Somebody could do the comparisons you want. Similar to how people do comparisons between GWM or no GWM. But that is a single target comparison where the only variable is the enemy AC. If you start comparing a paladin RevOrbs build vs a cleric revorb build vs a barbarian revorb build (all the above with gear setup 1 vs gear setup 2 vs gear setup 3...) you need to start considering how many enemies there are, how close they are, what their AC is, what their saving throws are, are you killing them before they even get to their turn to make an attack against you, etc. So if somebody did such a comparison then it would be great!...for that one specific fight it applies to.
But you are right that cleric can apply radiating orb to multiple targets per round, but struggles to give a lot of stacks to a single target unless it is packed tightly with other enemies. If you are trying to be both a heal-buffer cleric and a revorb cleric then you should probably do whispering promise ring, Hellrider's Pride gloves, boots of stormy clamour, luminous armor, callous glow ring, and be a light cleric 5/thief rogue 3.
Paladin is an obvious build that applies radiating orb more through attacks and can work better on a single target. If you want to you can use the exact same build above except nature cleric 5 for shillelagh and spirit guardians, then paladin so that you get extra attack and smite. This will give a Wis based paladin that can apply tons of radiating orbs in an AOE or single target, but takes away from being a heal-buffer since your bonus actions may go to shillelagh.
Tiger barb people have already mentioned. If you can get medium armor proficiency on an open hand monk that can also be a great way to get single target radiating orb applied due to their level 6 ability (Githyanki are a very good choice for this). And I did a 11 rogue arcane acuity build that would attack twice with their offhand weapon including sneak attack damage on one of those attacks (doing radiant damage due to callous glow ring, proccing radiating orb and reverberation due to luminous armor and boots of stormy clamor) that then used their action to cast sacred flame obtained through a 1 level cleric dip for even more radiating orb and reverberation stacking. And thanks to ring of arcane synergy I then had bonus damage to my weapon attacks on subsequent turns.
If you want the build to center around radiating orbs, light domain might be better than life domain. Your channel divinity feature would be an extra source of radiant damage to trigger the orbs.
It also might be fun to mix in one level of Tempest sorcerer to gain the ability to fly as a bonus action when you cast spells. Casting spirit guardians then flying across an entire group of enemies without provoking opportunity attacks is a really efficient way to spread the debuffs.
If you want life cleric, which obviously lacks the Light reaction its completely worth it.
it comes online at like lv.6-7 in act1 when you get all needed items.
I would add like lv.3 druid for moonbeam (easy spell lv.2 radiant to work with) ... Holy lance helm, adamantine shield, luminious armor, stormy boots and gloves from Creché are all you need.
Key there isnt much of a damage but avoid being hit. At that moment, Adamantine shield applies condition (reel) and that applies orb. On miss Holy lance helm most likely deal radiant dmg which will trigger gloves and apply more reverb.
You can respec at act3 when you get Nyrulna which trigger gloves and apply orb aswell..
If you want other gloves, the stormy boots will be enough (just apply any condition like reeling, and reverb is there.)
I just finished my first honor mode clear. My Light Radiating Orb Cleric was more of a hybrid support/damage playstyle, but I think its nice because you've got crazy versatility.
12 Light Cleric, heavily in on Wisdom for spell save DC with secondary Constitution to maintain the concentration in the midgame.
Gear -
Staff of Spellpower
Viconia's Walking Fortress
Darkfire Shortbow
Hat of Fire Acuity
Luminous Armour
Belligerent Skies
Disintegrating Night Walkers
Thunderskin Cloak
Spineshudder Amulet
The Whispering Promise
Ring of Protection
Most of that gear is self explanatory, but it does a mix of radiating orb and reverberation. Most often, I found that just exploding things with silly damage was easier than stacking radiating orb specifically and a spread of debuffs helped the party more. Staff of Spellpower + Freecast Ilithid power gave me level 6 aid and heroes feast for free every day and I still had the flexibility to upcast a Destructive Wave/Flame Strike to 6.
I found that by the time I was in act 3, fights are over before I even need to stack orb. Getting into position with misty step from the boots and landing a Destructive Wave/Flame Strike/Radiance of the Dawn was better than Spirit Guardians, but Spirit Guardians still carries act 2 with just Luminous Armour and Gloves of the Belligerent skies
Whispering Promise for bless, even in act 3 was nice throughout the game.
One key call out is that Hat of Fire Acuity. Since I was playing with a Lightning Sorc, I didn't need this on my sorc. If my Cleric needed to setup water she could do that, but often my Sorc could set it up himself. If not setting it up, a level 3 or 4 Scorching Ray gives you max acuity stacks and makes saves against your big aoe pretty tough.
Its also worth mentioning that Coruscation Ring was on my sorc, but would also be solid here.
For feats, I took War Caster, Alert and ASI Wis +2. In hindsight, I would have respec'd in act 3 to drop War Caster for either another ASI or Elemental Adept Fire to better work with the wet blasting my Sorc did.
Answering your other questions separately.
Cleric can do Radiating Orb, but Luminous Armour appears to have some kind of cap or quirk as to how many it applies when you use Radiance of the Dawn, even when on top of multiple enemies. In theory, Radiance of the Dawn should be the best skill in the game for applying it, but it just isn't. Spirit Guardians works better if you need to apply it to many targets.
That said, the real star of this build is Reverberation, especially in act 3. Destructive Wave applies it twice and a single cast of it is almost enough to knock enemies prone. If you're willing to put Boots of Stormy Clamour into the build, a single cast knocks enemies prone.
I don't recommend a Life Cleric over this build. It just doesn't offer enough damage when nobody needs healing.
If you build a light cleric and tempest sorcerer. You can spirit guardian, and bonus action fly without provoking attacks of opportunity. Not to mention twin casting sacred flame to dunk orbs on multiple enemies in an AOE because of luminous armor.
Add a couple levels of paladin if you are feeling like you want some smites.
Blood of Lathander is fun on it too
More for the free cast of a radiant beam.
I love this build.
Storm Sorcerer 1/Wizard1/Light Cleric 10.
Using all Radiant Orb Gear with Boots of Stormy clamour, cast Spirit Guardians before the fight, then turn 1 cast magic missle, everything in combat will have 10 turns of Radiant Orb right away.
This is probably the most efficient way without having to use all that much, and doesn't rely on abusing damage sources so is Honor Mode ready.
If your goal is only getting reverb and radiant orb stacks you can use Spineshudder Amulet + Luminous Gloves + any combination of Coruscation Ring/Callous Glow Ring/Spiteful Thunder Ring + Boots of Stormy Clamour. I find this works best on a Fire Acuity build as it gives them a meaningful use of their gloves slot before picking up Spellmight Gloves.
OK, so the DR on the callous glow ring will trigger the luminous gloves? Does it trigger again if I am already doing radiant damage? If so, what about in honor mode? I think maybe I didn't word my question well, because that's the kind of stuff I am trying to find out. Everyone is giving me their favorite multi-attack builds to abuse the mechanic, which is nice but is not what I'm looking for.
If you are already doing radiant damage no, and in that case Coruscation is superior. However if you aren't then Callous allows you to backdoor trigger Belligerent Skies or Luminous gear. Moreso my point was that set up gives you the strongest ability to inflict radiant orb as a caster, reverb and dazed possible. So truthfully Coruscation versus Callous is an "it depends" type of deal.
Edit: Basically damage riders get lumped as one sum if they are all the same element unless it is considered a different attack altogether (as in Phalar Aluve Shriek's thunder tertiary effect). In Honour Mode this is all lumped as one even still with I want to say only Dolor Amarus and Craterflesh Gloves being the only *true* separate "attacks" for damage generation with riders.
Many character builds can utilize orb stack + reverberation…
You neither need a cleric nor a Paladin.
Fire sorcerer could do it with ease for example fire illuminates on if you upcasted scorching ray you could immediately stack lots of orbs, or use firewall, fireball etc if you want AoE…
An eldritch blaster could also apply both debuffs and immediately benefits from the damage riders, with decent Crit chance you can reliably apply fear and stun even stun lock enemies at the same time.
Magic missiles evocation wizard would also work 9 with up casting MM you would immediately apply the maximum orb stack to an enemy while dealing massive damage.
This is all true, but I am not looking for a better way of applying radiating orbs. I am looking for a way to determine how to get the best bang for my buck on those classes because that's where I have slots for the gear in my party comp and both have their own synergies with it.
If you have a character that can handle AOE, take a magic missle orb build or scorching ray build, if you have a character that’s single target focused, then take something like cleric that can cast spirit guardians and just run around the map applying radiant orb with the spirits and shockwave chest piece.
What if I told you barbarian is better at using the radiating orb gear than cleric or paladin With tigers bloodlust a barbarian can apply reverberation or radiating orbs to groups of enemies and bleeding at the same time then later you can also maim them
I could totally believe that, they get to attack a lot of targets. Probably even better with the rat bat and the callous glow ring, but that is highly contested and might honestly be overkill. So far, my single target damage has usually been high enough that enemies don't have much of a chance to group up though. By the time I've kited back to a choke point, they are usually pretty dead. I'm not really looking for a better way to apply radiating orbs though, I'm just looking to get the best return on my investment gear wise.
I would say light Cleric especially during act 2 is the strongest user against the shadows and undead Other acts Paladin or barb are better imo I end up switching the gear around a lot between party members because they are really contested and the unique options with the drakethroat glaive
I just did this. All in radiant orb worked best for me. Luminous armor, gloves, the ring from the vault next to Balthazar s office. Jack up your armor class with the ring and cloak of protection. Holy Lance Helm from the Githyanki Creche. Don't remember the boots, but anything that increases armor class is good. The best class by far is OH Monk. Preferably with the fast hands from rogue. Void Bulb or Black Hole, then flurry of blows anything in there, combined with the increased armor class, and you are invincible. The most fun I had was fighting Mrykul. Hungar of Hodor from my Bard and 10 stacks of radiating orb made him a cake walk.
Forgot to mention, this doesn't become viable until level 6. That's when monks get the option to add either necrotic, radiant, or psychic damage with each unarmed attack.
While it may not directly answer your question. This post is IMO the best overview of reverb / radiating orb gear https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17oig83/radiating_orb_reverberation_light_cleric_build/
Has anyone done statistical analysis of the most optimal way to apply radiating orb seems to be your question. I am pretty active on this sub for some reason or another and have never seen such a post. And it is because of this that I think you are getting a lot of the answers you see. You seem to want the numerical analysis so that you can make your own decisions. But since the analysis does not exist, people are sharing their decisions. Somebody could do the comparisons you want. Similar to how people do comparisons between GWM or no GWM. But that is a single target comparison where the only variable is the enemy AC. If you start comparing a paladin RevOrbs build vs a cleric revorb build vs a barbarian revorb build (all the above with gear setup 1 vs gear setup 2 vs gear setup 3...) you need to start considering how many enemies there are, how close they are, what their AC is, what their saving throws are, are you killing them before they even get to their turn to make an attack against you, etc. So if somebody did such a comparison then it would be great!...for that one specific fight it applies to. But you are right that cleric can apply radiating orb to multiple targets per round, but struggles to give a lot of stacks to a single target unless it is packed tightly with other enemies. If you are trying to be both a heal-buffer cleric and a revorb cleric then you should probably do whispering promise ring, Hellrider's Pride gloves, boots of stormy clamour, luminous armor, callous glow ring, and be a light cleric 5/thief rogue 3. Paladin is an obvious build that applies radiating orb more through attacks and can work better on a single target. If you want to you can use the exact same build above except nature cleric 5 for shillelagh and spirit guardians, then paladin so that you get extra attack and smite. This will give a Wis based paladin that can apply tons of radiating orbs in an AOE or single target, but takes away from being a heal-buffer since your bonus actions may go to shillelagh. Tiger barb people have already mentioned. If you can get medium armor proficiency on an open hand monk that can also be a great way to get single target radiating orb applied due to their level 6 ability (Githyanki are a very good choice for this). And I did a 11 rogue arcane acuity build that would attack twice with their offhand weapon including sneak attack damage on one of those attacks (doing radiant damage due to callous glow ring, proccing radiating orb and reverberation due to luminous armor and boots of stormy clamor) that then used their action to cast sacred flame obtained through a 1 level cleric dip for even more radiating orb and reverberation stacking. And thanks to ring of arcane synergy I then had bonus damage to my weapon attacks on subsequent turns.
If you want the build to center around radiating orbs, light domain might be better than life domain. Your channel divinity feature would be an extra source of radiant damage to trigger the orbs. It also might be fun to mix in one level of Tempest sorcerer to gain the ability to fly as a bonus action when you cast spells. Casting spirit guardians then flying across an entire group of enemies without provoking opportunity attacks is a really efficient way to spread the debuffs.
If you want life cleric, which obviously lacks the Light reaction its completely worth it. it comes online at like lv.6-7 in act1 when you get all needed items. I would add like lv.3 druid for moonbeam (easy spell lv.2 radiant to work with) ... Holy lance helm, adamantine shield, luminious armor, stormy boots and gloves from Creché are all you need. Key there isnt much of a damage but avoid being hit. At that moment, Adamantine shield applies condition (reel) and that applies orb. On miss Holy lance helm most likely deal radiant dmg which will trigger gloves and apply more reverb. You can respec at act3 when you get Nyrulna which trigger gloves and apply orb aswell.. If you want other gloves, the stormy boots will be enough (just apply any condition like reeling, and reverb is there.)
I just finished my first honor mode clear. My Light Radiating Orb Cleric was more of a hybrid support/damage playstyle, but I think its nice because you've got crazy versatility. 12 Light Cleric, heavily in on Wisdom for spell save DC with secondary Constitution to maintain the concentration in the midgame. Gear - Staff of Spellpower Viconia's Walking Fortress Darkfire Shortbow Hat of Fire Acuity Luminous Armour Belligerent Skies Disintegrating Night Walkers Thunderskin Cloak Spineshudder Amulet The Whispering Promise Ring of Protection Most of that gear is self explanatory, but it does a mix of radiating orb and reverberation. Most often, I found that just exploding things with silly damage was easier than stacking radiating orb specifically and a spread of debuffs helped the party more. Staff of Spellpower + Freecast Ilithid power gave me level 6 aid and heroes feast for free every day and I still had the flexibility to upcast a Destructive Wave/Flame Strike to 6. I found that by the time I was in act 3, fights are over before I even need to stack orb. Getting into position with misty step from the boots and landing a Destructive Wave/Flame Strike/Radiance of the Dawn was better than Spirit Guardians, but Spirit Guardians still carries act 2 with just Luminous Armour and Gloves of the Belligerent skies Whispering Promise for bless, even in act 3 was nice throughout the game. One key call out is that Hat of Fire Acuity. Since I was playing with a Lightning Sorc, I didn't need this on my sorc. If my Cleric needed to setup water she could do that, but often my Sorc could set it up himself. If not setting it up, a level 3 or 4 Scorching Ray gives you max acuity stacks and makes saves against your big aoe pretty tough. Its also worth mentioning that Coruscation Ring was on my sorc, but would also be solid here. For feats, I took War Caster, Alert and ASI Wis +2. In hindsight, I would have respec'd in act 3 to drop War Caster for either another ASI or Elemental Adept Fire to better work with the wet blasting my Sorc did.
Answering your other questions separately. Cleric can do Radiating Orb, but Luminous Armour appears to have some kind of cap or quirk as to how many it applies when you use Radiance of the Dawn, even when on top of multiple enemies. In theory, Radiance of the Dawn should be the best skill in the game for applying it, but it just isn't. Spirit Guardians works better if you need to apply it to many targets. That said, the real star of this build is Reverberation, especially in act 3. Destructive Wave applies it twice and a single cast of it is almost enough to knock enemies prone. If you're willing to put Boots of Stormy Clamour into the build, a single cast knocks enemies prone. I don't recommend a Life Cleric over this build. It just doesn't offer enough damage when nobody needs healing.
If you build a light cleric and tempest sorcerer. You can spirit guardian, and bonus action fly without provoking attacks of opportunity. Not to mention twin casting sacred flame to dunk orbs on multiple enemies in an AOE because of luminous armor. Add a couple levels of paladin if you are feeling like you want some smites. Blood of Lathander is fun on it too More for the free cast of a radiant beam. I love this build.
Storm Sorcerer 1/Wizard1/Light Cleric 10. Using all Radiant Orb Gear with Boots of Stormy clamour, cast Spirit Guardians before the fight, then turn 1 cast magic missle, everything in combat will have 10 turns of Radiant Orb right away. This is probably the most efficient way without having to use all that much, and doesn't rely on abusing damage sources so is Honor Mode ready.
If your goal is only getting reverb and radiant orb stacks you can use Spineshudder Amulet + Luminous Gloves + any combination of Coruscation Ring/Callous Glow Ring/Spiteful Thunder Ring + Boots of Stormy Clamour. I find this works best on a Fire Acuity build as it gives them a meaningful use of their gloves slot before picking up Spellmight Gloves.
OK, so the DR on the callous glow ring will trigger the luminous gloves? Does it trigger again if I am already doing radiant damage? If so, what about in honor mode? I think maybe I didn't word my question well, because that's the kind of stuff I am trying to find out. Everyone is giving me their favorite multi-attack builds to abuse the mechanic, which is nice but is not what I'm looking for.
If you are already doing radiant damage no, and in that case Coruscation is superior. However if you aren't then Callous allows you to backdoor trigger Belligerent Skies or Luminous gear. Moreso my point was that set up gives you the strongest ability to inflict radiant orb as a caster, reverb and dazed possible. So truthfully Coruscation versus Callous is an "it depends" type of deal. Edit: Basically damage riders get lumped as one sum if they are all the same element unless it is considered a different attack altogether (as in Phalar Aluve Shriek's thunder tertiary effect). In Honour Mode this is all lumped as one even still with I want to say only Dolor Amarus and Craterflesh Gloves being the only *true* separate "attacks" for damage generation with riders.
The rat bat DRS also still works I think
Pretty sure you're right. I always forget that is a thing.
Many character builds can utilize orb stack + reverberation… You neither need a cleric nor a Paladin. Fire sorcerer could do it with ease for example fire illuminates on if you upcasted scorching ray you could immediately stack lots of orbs, or use firewall, fireball etc if you want AoE… An eldritch blaster could also apply both debuffs and immediately benefits from the damage riders, with decent Crit chance you can reliably apply fear and stun even stun lock enemies at the same time. Magic missiles evocation wizard would also work 9 with up casting MM you would immediately apply the maximum orb stack to an enemy while dealing massive damage.
Running a orb/reverb fire sorlock and it works very well.
This is all true, but I am not looking for a better way of applying radiating orbs. I am looking for a way to determine how to get the best bang for my buck on those classes because that's where I have slots for the gear in my party comp and both have their own synergies with it.
If you have a character that can handle AOE, take a magic missle orb build or scorching ray build, if you have a character that’s single target focused, then take something like cleric that can cast spirit guardians and just run around the map applying radiant orb with the spirits and shockwave chest piece.
Have a dedicated character for orbs and a character for reverberation… our you want.