nemesis205bw

This build was never meant for soloing I said it many times. You could max dex and dumb con and see how its going.

The number stacks, not the actual damage. Like most things in this game.

Why are you afraid of dragons if you can make them fight for you? Reflex saves arent low, but average because of +20 defense buff.

Thats the only way? It wouldnt fix that battleforged talent popup, just lower my armor so it wont take effect. I was thinking about using console to remove and then add that battleforged talent so maybe it would fix it? I am not sure how to do it tho.

I have constant +4 DT even when above 50% endurance. When below 50% it becomes +8. How can I fix this?

Battle-forged is required to achieve highest DT possible in this game and that fire damage synergises so well with with this build. However you can play any race you want. Wood elf is terrible choice tho.

It is dot on target.

We tested this in beta. The strikes all hit but they don't stack on the target, only the longest duration one takes effect.This thread seems to argue otherwise? http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75468-envenomed-strike/ It's possible I suppose but if it does work it is a bug. Josh Sawyer posted over on SA.that the dots should not stack. (Id find you link but on phone). It does look at first like they do - the combat log shows them all hitting, for example -- but as each one hits it wipes the others, because of the stacking rules,and only the longest duration one *should* stick. One way to test would be mouse over the target and see if they had six dots listed or just one. Dragon thrashed stacks. You can have 6 chanters with this phrase and they all deal damage.

http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console "OpenCharacterCreationNewCompanion 0 12" - is the most usefull it allows you to test all builds.

Also, chanter might affect that fire damage but due to bug, description wont change.

I did not know it applied to spells. Does it adds burn damage to all spells? (pure debuff for example) And by DoT, do you mean just DoT in the traditional sense (apply an effect) or do you also mean spells that apply themselves over and over (e.g. fire wall)? And is the burn damage increased by the Chanters talents (+fire damage talents) or the casters talents? I.e. who would need Scion of Flame for the boost to take effect? Sorry for all the questions, but the wiki is rather poor and I cannot test myself atm. Thanks for the responses! Yes it adds fire dmg to all spells, not just fire spells. Dot - spells that apply debuff on enemy that deal dmg over time. Firewall dont apply debuff but deal dmg in intervals so it should work on it too. Probably casters talent but need testing. You can test things by console.

It wont. The skill functionality is different then description. It adds 25% bonus damage (after DR) to all attacks and spells (besides dot spells). So attack that would do 50 damage, with this skill will do 62.5.

speaker to the restless is long range now? I'm still playing 1.02 and there it is 2x per rest and short range aoe. He meant its long range aoe circle around you.

Caster cipher without heavy armor would die shortly after casting first spell. In this build you get the same benefits as regular ranged cipher, but are much tankier and generate focus 5 times faster, which means you can spam spells and that fact ironically makes this build better caster then your "caster cipher". Cipher spells have very good casting speed so heavy armor would make it maybe 0.3 sec longer which is nothing. What do you describe by most challenging fights? If it is single strong enemy you can debuff/CC him and kill easily. If it is alot of average/problematic enemies, position yourself with beam at corner/doorway and tank them with retaliate (for focus generation) and keep spamming CC. If there is 1 strong enemy and thrashes for help, just focus that enemy (disintegrate or CC + aa), thrashes will die by themselves (and they will actually help you with focus). So far I havent had encounter (finishing act III on PotD) where I was against alot of top tier enemies at once. Playing 3 man group and it is boring easy. At this point I think 5th tier spells alone make cipher God-like, he has everything there - strongest CC in this game (which also deal damage because of confused enemies fight each other), strongest and largest AOE damaging spell in this game (which is also CC) and strongest single target damage spell in this game. You can even initiate with disintegrate (need some stealth points) on the most problematic enemy and run away to corner or kite until that enemy die. There is so much ways of dealing with each invidual encounter. That makes this build very flexible, interesting and fun to play.

Pain link is better then deep wounds in every aspect. It deals damage in huge aoe around you for every hit u recieive and you can cast it before combat for free. Cipher make up for adept evasion bonus with much higher deflection. +20 deflection > adept evasion by miles.

Is this on PotD difficulty? I've seen a lot of feedback regarding enemies on PotD having 80+ accuracy and >80 damage per hit. If your deflection is 100 and your DR is 34, suppose you're getting attacked by 5 enemies at once every 2 sec/enemy: 35% of their attacks will graze. .5 * 80 = 40 - 34 DR = 6, so you will take 16 damage from grazes via the 20% minimum damage rule. 20% of attacks hit for 80 - 34 = 46 damage. Average damage/attack, counting 45% miss rate = .35 * 16 + .2 * 46 = 14.8. Damage taken/sec = (5 enemies * 14.8 damage)/2 = 37 DPS. At this rate, the character will drop in about 3 sec. Perhaps what I've read regarding PotD enemies' stats is exaggerated and most enemies are feeble by comparison. Otherwise, this build seems to be rather risky, and minimizing melee exposure or increasing crowd control would decrease risk at the expense of retaliation damage. And of course, rogue or any other char would survive? Cipher atleast have some cc to disable them. If they hit so hard, use confuse and let them kill each other. I dont know how did you came out with these numbers. 80 damage every 2 sec enemy that shows up in number of 5 is abit off. Ogre attacks like once per 10 or more seconds. Other, stronger enemies you just wont meet 5 at a time. You can always farm up to level 5 spells and make most tougher fights trivial with that long lasting jumping confusion. Big enemies have low will saves so it will crit most of the time for like 50 sec duration.

Dex

After maxing might and int and putting 10 points in con and 15 in res, you still have some left points which you can put in dex. Dont forget, that he has buff +20 to all defenses including reflex. Still, reflex doesnt matter because attacks that target it are usually low damaging aoe spells and cipher have highest DT possible in this game, so that damage would get reduced to minimum. Cipher advantages over rogue: -much higher DT -much higher acc -much higher all defenses -more reliable aa damage increase from bitting whip because it doesnt require debuff like sneak attack do and even tho, cipher will deal more aa damage because of higher crits -much more CC and even more aa damage because CCed foes have lower defense stats -have aoe damage spells -more situational spells like -7 DT debuff for high DT enemy -highest single target damage in this game. Recall agony + disintegration = huge damage. -requires only 2 class talents Rogue advantages over cipher: -shadowing beyond -riposte (still, it is waste of talent because only 20%)

This build wasnt meant for soloing. It works best in small teams like 2-3 people and is very fun to play.

Also, on side note, cipher with this build will benefit the most from watcher spells and abilities. Nothing will be wasted and he can use these low range melee powers and they will always land because of high acc. Passives are great, especially these +DT, crit damage modifiers and mob justice (synergizing so well with tactical meld).

Odd Hermit, this build allow both - the highest DT possible and the highest dps because of retaliate dmg + spells spam from generated focus. With my stat distribution you are still left with like 8 free points so you can put them on dex if it hurts you so much. Setting up buffs requires less then 3 sec of fight. Enemies will not even run half way to you, because you initiate fight with long casting buff and then immediately use fast cast buff when battle starts. If you have another cipher in team its not a problem to cast pain block in beginning of combat. DIXI, no

There are plate armors that give 16 +4 enhanced = 20. Pain block and body attunement +17. Now you have 37 There are also some passive watcher spells that give +DT and +4 from fire godlike. Paladin aura is nice too. There is also one item that give you +50% DT when your endurance drop under 25% so you could achieve even 60+ DT.

Yes, they stack. And you do it all wrong. No other class can get as much accuracy and DT at the same time. Average reflex doesnt matter because high DT will reduce all that damage. Reflex is the most useless defense stat anyways.

With tactical mend you start each battle with +20 acc so its easy to land first debuff. You always initiate with borrowed instinct (because of average cast rate) and follow up with body attunement (fast cast). Before enemies get to you, you will be fully buffed already and can spam spells with +40 extra accuracy. You can actually increase your dex because u will have many points left. Just not necessary.