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> The only time cipher really shines is if you multiclass it with perfect matches like chanter, ranger wizard or priest Well, that's 4 classes to combine with, this "the only time" concept seems good enough for me. Assuming no strand of favor cheese is used, IMO cipher can still be one of best classes for multi (as showed clearing the dig site, gorecci street etc), obviously synergies/what kind of cipher subclass is better varies with the other class I think the problem here is you are measuring class/class combination power mostly with damage per second, I am measuring it with ability to overcome challenges (with/without cheese) in longer times using tactics/synergy with other classes Single class solo no cheese, yes, I may agree there are probably better classes (single class blood mage on top, maybe monk but I have not enough experience with monks) than single class cipher as cipher needs synergy to shine, so multiclass or party. [EDIT] @dgray62 about a mystic class, I've been impressed by Yue Dai Priest of Skaen/Ascendant build used for the ultimate, once you get SOT+BDD+Scordeo+Brilliant+Ascended spells like Mind Blades become another thing, maybe I'd use human instead of death godlike, less powerful probably but easier to survive if your reflexes (I mean the real ones, not player stat) are not top notch

Just a nice thought and thanks for @thelee who opened this thread as « hey guys is there any way someone can mod this out I don’t want to mess with my HUD » and 2 days later everybody is like « yay this is the new SoF but cheesier let’s go nuts! ». I feel like a plea wasn’t heard there

**** - too bad this comes to light so late. It would have been fun to read Josh's reaction to an ultimate run with this trick.

So just SoT is already very busted on a sc wizard. Not having 6 secs cd from brilliant makes for very fast extension. Even made a little vid because I think this is stinkier cheese than SOF :

In my version of the game you only get the PL malus if they're destroyed. I always have a priest with withdrawal in my party, and use that if the ward is being threatened.

Nihilistic city builder 'Frostpunk' is free on Epic Games Store.

while i prefer not playing with SoF and perma brilliant - the reason is: if i play a full playthrough with it i can delete the game, i will never have fun in it again. Nothing compares to perma blade cascade in damage - but i really want to appreciate a bellower casting empowered eld nary every fight, or killing stuff slowly while tanking them - i would never be able to do that if i ran through the game on godmode (why i know that? because thats what happened to other good games for me) But i can appreciate a good cheese. And this can be used in a fun run (same as concelhaut's draining touch). And for you Raven - have fun with an even easier godmode, just don't leave the watershaper guild at the wrong time next run

He's an easy lover. He will take your heart but you won't feel it He's like no other And I'm just trying to make you see

Seems like Xbox is going to have a major presence at E3. According to rumors Obsidian will show something from not only Avowed (which apparently is in very good shape production-wise) but also another unannounced game (with speculation being on whether this will be TOW2 or something else). And Bethesda is rumored to be ready to show Starfield.

Huh? Since when? For me they only did that if they got destroyed. I didn't use a lot of Rage for active abilities. Only Blood Storm (then you don't need that much Rage because it prolongs with kills) and wards. Sometimes HoF at the start of a fight to apply Bledding Cuts to a whole group of enemies at once. I didn't do Megabosses. They just stink. For the rest it was fun. Of course I was only half serious: Barbarian in general really isn't that great for solo. Furyshaper isn't supergood either - but the Blood Ward mechanic makes it viable and lots of fun imo. One of the few combos where it's actually viable (in most fights) to jump right into the crowd and swing your weapon around like a madman. In a party Blood Ward can obviously be totally bonkers (hello Plague of Insects and stuff).

I smell a new cheese meta.

this is Gina the guard dog where i work.

Your wish is granted.

You use either Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole and pick Driving Flight. Imbue shots of the Arcane Archer will proc their effect with the initial hit and with every bounce, too. Initial attack + build-in bounce + Driving Flight's bounce = 3 instances of Binding Web or Pull of Eora. This is extremely useful to start an encounter with. Even the Blast's recovery penalty from Watershaper's Focus isn't a big deal if you can start from stealth. Your first shot (Imbue:Web) will have -85% recovery from stealth - so you can follow up with the second one (Imbue:Eora) nearly right away. After that the recovery will be long. But you did two shots with grand CC in a few seconds and dealt 6 Blast attacks on top of the CC which an many cases also procs Ondra's Wrath. In order to hit as many enemies from stealth as possible you can either send in your Animal Companion as bait or you use traps or Sparkcrackers etc. to lure them. Then fire from stealth. The enemies will get pulled together like crazy and they can't move, too. Tis results in a lot of enemies in a very tight space. You can then shower them with whatever spells you have. I wouldn't use damaging imbue shots because PEN is not scaling for those in vanilla game (that's fixed with the Community Patch). But as Priest you will have enough late-game goodies you can throw at such a clump of enemies. Arcane Archer also has high motivation to raise Arcana to the max - and high level scrolls are very good for soloing. For example you can unload Great Maelstrom onto those gathered enemies or switch to Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole and use Avenging Storm. For emergencies you can use Potion of Invisibility and just leave combat (unless Berath's Challenge is active). Against bosses Stalker is better though imo. Often bosses are resistant to DEX afflictions - so Web doesn't have a great effect. Pull of Eora can still be useful but in the long run the AR and deflection of a Stalker are great. But I guess you can have some good tools as Priest vs. bosses, so maybe it doesn't have to be a Stalker. And as soon as you have that Brilliant + Salvation of Time thing going survivability doesn't matter anyway... I did a solo Stalker/Wizard run and it was very good, no doubt (Megabosses aside which sometimes require some special feats - see Huani o Whe). But in general I value the Arcane Archer higher because of his unique effects that can make most encounters trivial. With Priest I would pick a class that not only has fire damage at its disposal. Berath is nice bc. of corrode dmg alternatives for example. If you want melee then def. pick Stalker imo. Animal Companions are not good at tanking. You can use them in many ways but pure tanking is not what ethey excel at. But you can for example pick the Bear, give him Resiliant Companion and then cast Chamipon's Boon on him. That will give him quite high AR which lets him live longer and also give him +3 engagement. Against every target he then engages you will have +10 ACC because of Stalker's Link. Combine with Marked for the Hunt and your spells will get +20 ACC against those enemies - which is great. If you use good debuffs (Searing Seal + Devotions + Desponent Blows for example) the enemies' ACC will be abysmal and your Bear will be able to stay alive for quite some time while you take out enemies. However - if you play the Barring Death's Door + Brilliant + Salvation of Time game then you can also make your Animal Companion immortal and tank with it forever of course.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57339989 "More than 100 baby squid and 5,000 microscopic animals are set to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday. The creatures, along with other equipment for experiments, will head to the ISS aboard Space X's Falcon 9 rocket. Its hoped that the experiments will be able to help scientists understand the effects of spaceflight. The launch at 13:29 EDT (17:29 GMT) will be broadcast live by Nasa." From this To this?

...Did you have plans at some point? Classic sports story arc stuff...and then the training montages to climb back up to the top, . ...Although this is a show, so that probably won't happen, at least not directly. No Sakura for me...yet. Perhaps to be amended later today.

Yeah, I do use CP. I guess it would quite a bit worse without it. But FF is a full fledged monk regardless. I don't spam FF. Its maybe my every 3rd -5th attack. So I could still benefit from other attacks (like Stunning Surge).

Well, granted this was in Turn Based, real time would be different. But 5 most used damage spells on my spellblade were: 1. MPPB (duh) 2. Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (despite no Assassinate - its just that good!) 3. Ninagauth's Death Ray (it'd work far worse in real time I guess... and couldn't benefit much from Assassinate) 4. Chain Lightning (for Deltro's Cage lash) 5. Ninagauth's Shadowflame (mainly as an opener) Lots of Ninagauth's Teachings there. And... no Fire. In real time I guess I'd try to use Delayed Fireball a lot more. Still, 1 of 5 - not enough for me to focus on.

That's fair, to be honest I prefer that too. e.g. Arkemyr Dazzling Light to lure & group enemies out of combat > Shadowflame from stealth > come close and MPPB/Second Shadow Flame/Second MPPB with the Ghost Blades procs of Engoliero = ouch. It doesn't get any more Arcane Assassin-ish than that . Actually Pernicious Cloud can be a nice fast complement to this strategy too for the huge AoE, long Reflex debuff and high DoT but in my experience things die too fast for it to really matter. When you time right a Delayed Fireball while stacking +5 extra fire PL + scion of flame + crusted swordfish & Assassinate though, the fire damage can get bonkers as well.

I general I agree with most. Except the focus on Fire spells. My experience has been that Fire spells are not that good. Well, maybe Delayed Fireball, but I think its tricky to use. Was next to impossible to use effectively with Assassinate in Turn Based mode. Otherwise Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst does A LOT more damage then any Fire spells for multiclass characters.

Great post and lots of pertinent information for those looking for a review of GW2 from an active player, nice one I will give it a try, I will let you know when I do

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57327177

am thinking people who have not lived where it is sooper hot don't really understand ac. during the summer in sacramento you turn up your thermostat to 78 and pray your newish and cutting edge cooling system doesn't crap out during the numerous weeklong +100 heatwaves. if you got western exposure, you better have a lotta trees in the front o' the house, 'cause a nice unobstructed view means those windows is trying to turn your house into a solar oven. you can keep the blinds closed and add blackout curtains, which helps a bit, but then the high ceilings and bright interior you paid a whole lotta extra money to acquire is kinda a waste, no? god forbid you own a two-story home. most people work during the day, so your house being unpleasant warm even with the ac running is no big deal 'cept for weekends and later in the eve. old people tend to be cold all the time, so they probable don't care if is hot. get home from work and maybe you got a whole-house fan, and ceiling fans and you do all your cooking outside on the grill or with a microwave 'cause until 10pm is too hot to cook for real in the house. maybe find a way to make livable. alternative. gd likely has a bunker he ain't admitting to owning. no doubt his underground haven is cool in summer and easier to keep warm in winter. pm gd and get advice on how to build a nice climate controlled and windowless bunker in some dog p00p ugly and cheap part o' the country where it won't matter 'cause you is living like a moleman underground and windowless. and few homes in ca have basements. too bad. would be nice to retreat to basement during the hottest summer days. @Keyrock don't concern your self 'bout ca. plenty o' people buy homes in ca. that is part o' the problem. no matter how expensive it gets, more houses is being built in places with not enough water to support all those homes. https://time.com/5368610/san-francisco-poop-patrol-problem/ story starts out with a focus on the need for such in sf and the homelessness issue in the bay area. were referenced on these boards btw. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/san-francisco-deploys-poop-patrol-team-to-eliminate-waste-in-the-streets-2019-08-02 $70k, not including nice benefits, sounds like extreme overpay, but once one realizes how much is housing in the bay area... meh. is only a shocking story for those not living in the bay area. people get paid more in many parts o' CA, but not enough to buy homes where they work. chances are when they eventual do buy a house, they buy too much house compared to what they may afford, 'cause banks are right back to where they were with making risky loans like they were doing in the early and mid 2000s. is a whole cycle o' stoopid and is as if nobody in the real estate biz remembers 2008. HA! Good Fun!

I'm going to bed, hope to wake up and see that the Lakers were eliminated tomorrow. I think I read a stat the other day before tonight's game happened that Jokic has played 37 playoff games with Denver, and Denver had never even once won a game while already up one (e.g. 1-0, 2-1, 3-1); tonight finally broke that streak. (e): Oh, also, Jokic will be the lowest drafted MVP ever, after Giannis set that record two years ago (15th pick for Giannis, 41st for Jokic!).

Nuggets in 6. I actually got to watch that game. e: AD already hurt half way through the 1st quarter.

I'm sure they could offer an olive branch to the US military...

That's not a benchmark at all. All summons do well early game, so does pulling single enemies with traps on pretty much any class, so does tb cheese with all casters. (and prolly more I forgot) Beating Gorecci street and dig site was impressive when the game came out, now it's all about mega bosses and some parts of the dlc and cipher just does bad there without SoF. You can't even rate how well a chanter/cipher multi does in those scenarios because summons just change how every class is played (except for those who already have their own summons ofc). I once beat every non ship bounty in the game with a level 10 sc wizard, also beat Arkemyr with the same level and prolly could have done way more fights, just because I had wizard with splodey phantom. I want to point out I'm not one of the people who says cipher is bad, I think it's amazing, but it's much better in a party than solo and there is just so many classes MUCH better than the cipher at soloing. The only time cipher really shines is if you multiclass it with perfect matches like chanter, ranger wizard or priest, or obviously if you use SoF and multiclass it with pretty much anything or even single class.

Secret Horror and mind control abilities are good enough reasons to have them, then there's Valorous Echoes and Ancestor's Memory for buffing. Besides, debuffing opponents give Rogues an easy time to Sneak Attack.

I think something that manages to kill Gorecci street thugs at maximum difficulty solo without strand of favor cheese is not so bad after all, no? Obviously the summons are doing most of the work, but pain link helps [EDIT] not even pain link, I think just Valorous Echoes works, for clearing the Dig Site too

That does seem to be related though, according to research. I mean, from what I've read, with the caveat that I'm no neuroscientist and probably never will be. I'm also not sure a self-diagnosis based on an online test holds much water in my case, but at the end of the day, it does explain a few things, like me never understanding what people meant when they said a book adaptation didn't look like what they envisioned. I have watched some more Attack No. 1, but I spent most of the day playing games (had a public holiday). Anyway, I'm almost 20 episodes into it now and it's taking shape. Kozue and her team unexpectedly won the national championship, and now they're asked for autographs and get preferential treatment from school officials. They're also very quickly developing a sense of entitlement and have become arrogant enough to clash with other school sport teams. Mr. Hongo has quit his job (spoiler: He'll be back) but not before whacking Kozue in the face with a volleyball for coming too late to a training session. Before quitting, he arranged a friendly match against the junior world champions, a team from the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the school paper has printed a somewhat derisive article about the volleyball team's entitled behaviour (written by Tsutomu), who is promptly beaten up by the captain of the soccer team who has taken a liking to Kozue. To her credit, she intervened, but she and Tsutomu aren't on speaking terms at the moment. Not sure if I recall that part correctly, but I think the two (edit's note - captain soccer team and Tsutomu) become friends before Tsutomu's unfortunate incident and captain soccer team eventually becomes Midori's boyfriend. The team also had tryouts where they... behaved less than ideal, mostly making fun of the girls that came. Kozue also laughed off a nervous boy who came to ask her out. School principal whatshisface (no, really, he doesn't have a name, he's just called by his title all the time) wants to allocate all available funds to building a new gym specifically for their volleyball team. The student and school council is divided on the issue. They eventually end up making the fund allocation contingent on the result of the friendly match between the junior world champions and their team. Kozue agrees to that and... having reached the height of her hybris, is sure they'll win. Well, as they say, pride comes before the fall. They'll get their reality check pretty soon. Right, spoiler! They're going to lose their upcoming match against the Soviet team and eat some much needed humble pie, which will eventually end with Kozue pushing her team so hard someone ends up hospitalized. All that and more in the next few episodes! Actually... this is becoming pretty good. The volleyball aspects are totally unrealistic, but everything else around that is quite well done. I mean, once you get over that antiquated charm of everyone being quick to, uhm, beat each other up. Punches, slaps and volleyballs to the face for everyone! *whack* edit: I also want to reiterate how jealous I am that @Bartimaeus gets to watch Sakura's Wonderful Christmas for the first time soon, if he hasn't already. I kind of want to turn back time and experience it again. Well, all of it, I guess, not just that one episode. edit 2: Currently watching the first Cardcaptor Sakura film, after having missed its proper spot after episode 35. Question: Will I ever get tired of Tomoyo saying: "Kawaii desu wa, Sakura-chan."? Answer: Nope, don't think so.

I'd argue that Arcane Archer is the best Ranger subclass by far (if build "properly"). At least it's the Ranger subclass with the most impact on fights in my playthroughs. Double bounce leading to 3 parallel instances of Binding Web and 3 parallel Pulls of Eora with insane accuracy, done in mere seconds (if starting from stealth) is incredible CC. And the damage comes on top. Gunhawks are cool, the higher range and esp. the interrupts are nice - but it just doesn't have the same impact for me.

Ciphers are one of my favorite classes in Deadfire. They have incredible utility, and I generally have no problem with PEN and getting focus on PotD. The Hammering Thoughts ability helps here, naturally. It's one of the best passives in the game when you play PotD. Soul Blade is my favorite in multiclasses, with assassin, trickster or forbidden fist monk especially. SC Ascendent is great for ranged/caster builds.

Cipher is one of very few classes that were successfully used (by @abot above) to beat the Ultimate. It is the only class that can completely trivialize one of the hardest and most annoying fights ever designed (Hauani o Whe megaboss). And at least this last point has been true and known for a while. In a party, every subclass and multi combination of Cipher can be very strong but having an SC Ascendant and a Priest = party god mode with a bit of setup/management. Solo or if you're looking at characters' ability in a self-contained way, you can build amazing synergies around cipher multiclassing both to complement martial melee/ranged and casting playstyles. The only thing if you're playing Cipher as a Caster/Caster is that you need to pay attention to action economy and resource management. This is one of many reasons why Psion Troubadour in particular is highly regarded: it always has resources to do something fun - uses focus, uses phrases, uses focus etc. etc.

This is different. Sacred Immolation emits pulses of burn damage that do an attack roll with every pulse and then apply damage directly. It's not the classic damage over time where you have one initial attack roll and then some ticks without attack rolls for a duration. Dragon Thrashed is a DoT: one attack roll and then a few ticks of burn DMG. DoTs do not profit from Scion of Flame etc. (also see Soul Ignition or Shining Beacon and so on). Sacred Immolation is a Pulsing effect: every pulse does an attack roll which deals direct damage (also see Chillfog or Nature's Terror etc.). Pulsing spells like Sacred Immolation do work with Scion of Flame (and the others as long as the element fits of course).

Solo runs with Assassin tend to be hit-and-run (or hit and vanish) approaches. In the vanilla game I think Assassin/Tactician with Dragon's Dowry the way to go because you'll become Brilliant as soon as you use Smoke Veil - which means you can use Smoke Veil every time after a shot to reload in peace and get back the Guile needed for the next Smoke Veil. No running needed. At least it used to work that way. No idea if invisibility triggering Brilliant was patched out but I think not. Against pierce immune foes you might want a backup weapon - e.g. Eccea's Arcane Blaster or Essence Interrupter or whatever. Ranged Assassin/Bleak Walker is very good in the beginning but I find it to lack dmg output in the later game. You won't be able to one- or two-spot most enemies rel. early which means you'll have to resort to DoTs like Gouging Strike + Brand Enemy eventually. Might as well switch to melee then and use Lover's Embrace, too. Assassin/Skaen is cool thematically but overall not overly exciting, Shadowing Beyonds of the Priest is implemented quirkily and breaks on DoTs which is meh. - Besides that it's just a Priest + Assassinate who has to vanish from combat to survive. Except if you abuse Barring Deaths Door + Salvation of Time + Brilliant of course. Then it's a bit like God mode. Or "Major Avatar"... Use a Death Godlike for thematic and PG reasons. You can then use invisibility all the time for highest DMG output. Assassin/Bloodmage with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure can CC enemies into the stone age without getting revealed and then finish with high impact DMG spells + Shadowing Beyond or Smoke Veil. With Healing Gloves and Wall of Draining you'll have enough health for Blood Sacrifice. All in all the Assassin/Tactician way may be the most easy to play and straightforward. I didn't try it myself for long (only until mid game) but I saw an impressive video by @Kaylonwho introduced this combo some while ago.

Assassin multi can be great with Cipher, Devoted, Bloodmage, Bleak walker. In most cases ranged is more powerful/convenient but melee can be fun. I’ve posted in this forum solo mindstalker and swashbuckler full builds that I can share later or that you can search (on my phone now). SC Assassin is a god if he can get good duration on Vanishing Strike and take advantage of Gambit. An assassin that can actually stay in combat. I’m playing one now with the 2 unique spears and stacking cabalist gambeson, strand of favor (no abuse) and Mari crudia. It’s really fun to have like 12sec of vanishing strike every use and have 4 uses per fight + full gambit refund. However it’s annoying in melee as certain enemies tend to wander around in combat when they can’t see you so you lose time chasing or get “miss: out of range”. So in general the typical Hit n’ Run tactic is more convenient but isn’t for everyone. It’s the easiest/fastest with bloodmage using fire spells and stacking +PL and/or with blightheart or engoliero do espirs. Massive AoE assassination and you can also complement with hard CC and multiple smoke veil to take down an entire battlefield in one go.

The only thing that is too OP for me is that you will still be able to have normal conversations while being under the effect of 7 different drugs.

I don't know if retraining will remove them. Maybe not... It's pretty cool to be able to permanently get Wizard-, Priest- and Druid spells though. A bit like supermulticlassing. And who needs Bloodmage then?

SOLASTA: Crown of the Magister is now out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096530/Solasta_Crown_of_the_Magister/

He’s not the hero we wanted. But he might be the one we needed.