The Grim Drummer - Musical Support (Patreon)

It's been a bit of a while since we've done a dive into a build and with the advent of the Grim Muffler (Winter Solstice Lucy) we have some additional space in the game to explore and I'd like to start with a look at one of the earliest (and most synergistic) of the musical options with the Rawhide Drums.

Drums have had a bit of an interesting journey over the years, they've been stuck in a pretty poor position for a long time, sandwiched between the awkward crafting cost (using hide and needing drums/music, which was a weak tree until 1.5 turbo charged it) and the ever present shadow of the Harvester (which remains one of the most egregious portions of KD:Monster's hunt meta). In addition, unlike the Whisker Harp which has strong uses against a wide range of mood using nemesis monsters, Drums just doesn't have that unique punch. It's a tiny insanity bonus plus a wide range encourage.

For posterity here is what the 1.31 Drums used to do.

In truth, this ability is strong, giving a 60% flat save against intimidates is both unique and powerful, but the thing holding back drums was not the ability, it was and always will be the noisy keyword (Which is why the Muffler matters). 

I'll be completely honest here, now that we have the Grim Muffler, I do wish that Drums hadn't been changed because the 1.31 Drums are just a good item without any need to combine them with anything else. 

Still, better doesn't mean more interesting. And one of the single most interesting aspects of the new Drums is the combos that this item offers. The fact that this item now links itself to the survival action Encourage is an interesting one because that allows for other things which trigger on Encourage to affect everyone (apart from the deaf). Now this is one of those points where things are a bit washy when it comes to the rules, but normally Encourage only works on knocked down survivors - but Drums changes this, while the initial target still has to be valid, everyone else (including the user) are affected because of the use of the word 'all' without any further conditions added to it. This is a pretty sweet deal and as such we want to be looking at all the different places where this can be triggered outside of just the normal 'knockdown, stand everyone up'.

That place is in fighting arts at the moment. 

Sadly the Grim Muffler does not work with Rhythm Chaser, this means that Rhythm Chaser based builds are still constructed around the Gorn (Gorm instrument).

Leader is the classic one, giving Encouraged survivors +1 speed until the end of the round. Now usually +1 speed is not a good deal, neither is having a temporary token. However, together, in addition to being able to stand up a knocked down survivor - this creates a fantastic opportunity, depending on the state of the Hit Location deck and the weapons you are using. 

Lure Epilepsy is worth a quick mention because it gives a quick set up, another survivor can hit themselves with a rapid knockdown in order to give the drums an opportunity to trigger. 

It's not clear if Defender works here because of the wishy wording used 'words of encouragement' is not explicitly 'Encourage'. So that's something you'll have to judge for yourself.

There is also some Gear that works with Encouragement, the Raptor-Worm Collar is an interesting option with some very strong applications.

With the Rawhide Drum + Raptor-Worm Collar together you can remove insanity from your survivors with the encourage action (and you don't spend survival to boot). Now most of the time, Insanity is a positive, however there are a few monsters where you are punished for having Insanity. In particular the Screaming Antelope and the Slenderman. 

This gives you a party-wide 'on tap' method of avoiding hitting the 'you die' Insanity cap and is a major benefit against the Slenderman in particular (but also a great piece of protection/safety valve for things going wrong against the danger deer).

The final big piece of the puzzle is our old friend Infernal Rhythm, while it does not directly work with the Drums ability, what it does do is turn your drums into an improved Cat Eye Circlet.

This fighting art (which should be sculpted at the first opportunity) turns your Drums into a CEC which makes it a very versatile and useful item, removing the need for you to carry an actual CEC/HL control item elsewhere and effectively giving you an extra slot in your hunt party. This is always a useful area to look for 'squeezing efficiency' out of your builds because 

Now when it comes to armor, the obvious choices are either Rawhide or Screaming Armor because focusing onto an item like this pushes you into the Support category of builds, especially if combined with Infernal Rhythm.

Rawhide Armor provides access to the set bonus, the head AI control and some survival gains.

This means it's the main contender for builds, but as an alternative, if you do not care about AI control so much and want something that can help in a more active role you can go for Screaming Armor, because the Arms, Head and the Body pieces provide a lot of utility/support. 

In truth, if we had access to an AI control item that was not just the Rawhide Headband, I'd be recommending Screaming Armor over Rawhide for sure, especially if you are going to make use of the Raptor-Worm Collar (because it reduces survival requirements for using Drums). 

When it comes to weapons, my preference on a Support survivor is to avoid Bows (because they are slot intensive) and look at things that don't need to be used every turn because they provide utility, things like Whips or Spears. Whips are a very tricky entity to use however, the lack of strength on them is a huge issue and they're certainly not for the 'beginning player' Spears have synergy with Screaming Armor. The other option is just to take a powerful, but cheap reach weapon like a Greater Gaxe or the more expensive Counterweighted Axe and use them. Ultimately support survivors don't want to be attacking too often because of how harsh and problematic reactions can be for lower armored survivors. Still if you're hybrid DPS/Support those are the kind of things that I think make for good options, Screaming Armor with a Reach 2+ weapon.

Rawhide Drummer - Leader & Infernal Rhythm

The most basic of the options we have available, this build seeks to take advantage of its own +1 speed token  (once you have access to Surge) in order to remove moods via the Whip, which then in combination with Infernal Rhythm means that you have most of the support options a party needs sorted along with a deep pool of survival. 

• AI Control
• Mood Control
• Bleeding removal
• HL Control

Screaming Drummer - Leader & Infernal Rhythm

This is a more offensively orientated option (again using only core game pieces), this time the build seeks to be nearer the monster and provide support through toughness reduction, insanity gains, healing (Acanthus), resource gains (Acanthus) and take advantage  of its own speed gains with the automatic wounds that come from the Counterweighted Axe.

The Feather Mantle can be any item with a down red affinity.

Dancing Drummer - Leader & Infernal Rhythm

In order to demonstrate the fun things you can do with adding expansion stuff into the mix, here is a highly mobile DPS character who supports themselves and others by using Drums in order to increase the power of an already incredible weapon (Sunshark Bow is easily one of the top 10 weapons in the game). 

Here we're not a dedicated support build (though this build does support Ink Sword DPS survivors very well), instead we're mostly providing powerful damage along with a lot of solid support. The other two builds are stronger, but this is a better build if you don't have access to Infernal Rhythm.

There are plenty more things one can do, at the moment we've only really scratched the surface of the weakest musical option out there right now, but it's set a lot of foundation for exploration ahead!