MadDemiurg

Mental binding isn't as good as you people put it. Stuck for half duration? Binding base duration is 6s. 3s stuck is nothing. At half duration you wouldn't be able to land a single hit while it still lasts (with the cipher himself). I would agree with removing aoe from it as aoe isn't its main purpose, but not duration nerf or changing main effect. It's one of the few spells that actually fit a single target striker role cipher is supposed to be. You're comparing it with Fetid Caress, but the problem is that Fetid Caress is crap and needs serious buffs. Compare it to Chill fog/slicken/curse of blackened sight/bewildering spectacle. Fractured volition could use a slight buff, but it's already better than MB in some situations as it has over 3x duration and lowers will and fort, which is important for landing some of the more devastating spells. Tenuous grasp is again one of the few spells that makes cipher good at focusing single targets. It's 4s only, no aoe. Again, compare to bewildering spectacle. It doesn't need a nerf. As for buffs: Soul shock range debuff was weird, but it's still a decent spell, as it hits enemies adjacent to the target anyway. It does more damage than mind blades for what it's worth. Mind Wave is quite good for a level 1 spell, if you buff it to 5 sec in bigger aoe it will be better than Mental Binding. Eye strike - accuracy penalties do not stack, so -25 accuracy only. I think it's ok. Psycovamp - agreed Recall agony - I'd give it even more than +10 Pain link - agreed Fractured Volition - maybe an accuracy buff, I think many debuff spells should get it SIlent scream - needs a serious buff, like and aoe stun with shorter duration Soul Ignition - damage buff is in order Body attunement - I guess it's ok Detonate - damage buff is in order Disintegrate - it deals quite good damage, but I'd reduce casting time to average There are some other spells I'd buff, but I don't want to go through the whole list here. What I'd actually nerf: Amplified wave (8m aoe is too large) Mind plague (duration is too long for an effect as powerful as confusion) Ectopsychic echo (foe only with very high damage)

Killing the caravan. Without even trying - chanter (speed chant + phantoms) Moderately difficult - monk, wizard (chill fog + arcane assaults), druid, cipher (antipathetic field) Doable but difficult - fighter, paladin (use pike from a corner, get a caravaner attack you and kill tougher enemies in the 2nd row first using pike, then kill the caravaner ) Not sure - Barbarian (carnage kills the caravaner block strategy), rogue (bit too squishy with no aoe), ranger (using pike strategy and hiding a pet can work I guess), priest (level 1 spells are too weak for direct combat)

Thing is, melee dps is much higher. Even in heavy armor melee dw would do more dps than any ranged weapon with robes/clothing. Also, quite a few cipher spells are good at short range when in melee. Max dps would be melee with robe of course, but then you have to babysit such character a lot.

Tbh the difference between most class base tanking stats is fairly marginal in 1.05 and you can make anything out of anyone. It's more about unique abilities and spells usually. Cipher has 5 deflection more than a rogue and 5 less than a chanter. They all have the same endurance and health. People often use chanters as offtanks. It's also about how fast you kill, because if you kill faster you don't get hit as much. Same if you CC better. Granted, I wouldn't use cipher as a main tank if I wanted an optimal party, but in a 6 man party you can do whatever you want really.

That's all kinda funny given that wizards are one of the tankiest classes in the game.

Melee cipher IS the best cipher since melee dps > ranged dps and dps is directly tied to cipher's casting ability. Cipher's also only 5 deflection and 2 endurance/level below classes like monk. Never heard complaints about monk being a bad offtank. Low level cipher tanking spells are pretty weak though (I'd really like to see psychovampiric shield buffed). Borrowed instinct/body attunement are good but come quite late. Main tradeoff in melee vs ranged is robe vs heavy armor. Stat distribution is about offense vs defense, but in cipher's case offense is also defense in many cases. Your stat distribution looks viable, although I'd go more dex over might actually. As for weapon style, I'd go both DW and W&S in your 2 weapon sets and switch accordingly (when focused by multiple enemies -> shield). The question is what style talent to pick, as you are light on talents. If you're not soloing I'd go with DW (although it's more like 10% speed actually because it only affects recovery, so not gamechanging but still good). You still should keep a shield as a backup (best shield is Sura's supper plate as it gives retaliation). Good items: Resolution (saber) Purgatory (saber) Sura's supper plate (retaliation, shield) Hiro's mantle (retaliation, if you can buy it) or Finreath's grace or Talisman of the Unconquerable (random loot) Coat of ill payment (retaliation) or Sanguine plate (no retaliation in 1.05, but frenzy is good) Shod in Faith boots Blunting belt or Girdle of Maegfolc Might Ring of deflection Ring of protection rotfinger gloves Dynryd demon (helmet) or Helmet of Darksee(bit of extra defense) or Munacra Arret (extra charms never hurt anyone) There are some other good item combinations, but this is a good baseline to look at. Adra dragon is actually not too difficult as a cipher with mind plague . Some more exotic stat distributions: 1. Lower (or even dump) dex: This allows to get better deflection via higher per. But this build is reliant on retal items for focus generation and effectiveness drops significantly if there are no enemies to fight in melee. Note that firearm attack speed is less dependent on dex, so they are a good option for some burst generation when retal is not optimal. 2. Dump int: This is really weird for cipher, but it can work, as a number of powerful cipher spells gets nothing from INT: Antipathetic Field Amplified Thrust/Mind Blades (well, these are not so powerful, but still) Ectopsychic Echo Mind Lance And stuff like Amplified Wave is still decent because it has a huge AoE in the first place. This guts your CC but is actually a decent option for pure dps. 3. Dump both per and res and max con. Go Fire Godlike with heavy armor, retal and scion of flame (soul whip damage bonus works with battleforged). You'll likely want to stick to faster abilities and weapon and/or use concentration buffs, but you'll be quite survivable, deal crazy retal damage and get a lot of mileage out of retal damage and focus gain. (A common misconception is that battleforged generates focus - it does not (which is weird btw as it's a retal attack), but it's still good because it gets a 40% damage bonus).

High int Darcozzi dropping 2x Inspiring + 2x Reinforcing without any recovery every encounter is the best support paladin hands down. No way KW or Shieldbearers can compete with that. Pure tank paladins are more or less unchanged by the patch (they still benefit from LoH and auras buffs though, but nothing gamechanging). After some quick testing FoD accuracy bonus is different from most ability accuracy bonuses. It seems to be a one time magical bonus, so it won't stack with ZF or other magical accuracy boosters. So it means it's effectively +14 with ZF and +5 with warpaint. Well, you're not using warpaint often, but that certainly limits some min/maxing strategies revolving around getting crazy FoD accuracy.

Please no HP bloat. There are better ways to make it more difficult. This is not Diablo.

If you're not hitting with a warbow for more than 24 damage on average lategame you're doing something wrong. And that's the point where the new draining whip starts to become better than the old one.

Most of the high damage numbers come from using petrify traps in these vids. Barb is not the best class for this fight, but it should be manageable with the right build and tactics. And yes, it's definitely still possible in 1.05.

You have to flank and take out enemies 1 by 1. Pets have enough endurance to survive if not being focused by multiple enemies. Works well with stunning shots from the ranger. It's not like pets can't use a buff but you can make it work.

Well, since they've already touched it they could as well do a bit better. And it's not like changing 1 ability formula is a lot of work. But as I said, I'm more or less fine with it, no NPC paladin fix is the only major gripe about the patch for me (but you can use IEMod for that I guess). I would also like to see +1/encounter FoD talent. Just giving +1 FoD for free with the 1.06 buff would be too good imo, but 2/encounter still feels too low for me to specialize with other FoD talents. Having to spend a talent for an extra use would be a perfect compromise I think. But it's unlikely that the dev team is going to add any new talents in scope of balance changes, which is a shame.

bump

1.06 Seems to solve a lot of the Paladin issues. I hope they'll focus on Druid or Ranger in the next patch.

Well, if poking enemies to death 1 by 1 is more true to the character than cleaving through them with carnage then OK .

Well, in case of abilities like Deep Wounds, they do not need scaling as they constantly add something on top of another effect (your weapon attack), so it's always nice. Stuff like accuracy bonuses or hit quality converters all scales by default. Stuff that provides a separate flat value effect like LoH should scale IMO. Also, what are we actually arguing about? Do you think that current implementation is better than the one that would scale as I suggested?

It's not that OP so I would cry for nerfs, it just seems fundamentally wrong to me that it does not scale with level (and thus starts the most powerful at level 1 and essentially degrades with each level). It's like a spiritshift deja vu (although LoH is much better than spirit**** at high levels, but the pattern is the same). I would rather have a smoother scaling instead.

Well, 2xLoH at lvl 1 can bring 2 characters into red health from green as of now . This is more of an issue with how heals work in the first place, since they don't make you invincible, but rather "borrow" some health from future encounters. But as far as heals go, it IS OP for level 1, compared to pretty much anything else.

I think OP used a standard split and wait tactic. Thaos is not a threat 1 on 1 if you wait out his buffs and vs cleansing flame - basically distract with summons and hope he doesn't decide to hit you (he has only a few seconds to do it anyway). Killing him fast once he's alone and without buffs is not difficult as he only has 200ish health. You have to practice splitting and do it perfectly though because if you fail it on TCS you're screwed and that's the main risk (and also why I don't like this tactic, apart from it feeling cheesy). As for low CON - my solo wiz had 3 . Judge would be a bit risky on a melee rogue built like this even 1 on 1 though as he can basically stunlock you with kncokdowns and you need some durability buffer to recover.

I must say I don't really approve of LoH changes though. +1 use is a good change since it allows you to spread out your heal more. Straight up healing buff is not so good, as LoH already was a very strong low level heal. Now It's completely OP at low levels while still degrading towards high levels (but it's decent even there, so that must tell you how much of an overkill it is for low levels). I think more abilities need some scaling with level in the game, like battleforged. I think it should be more like 10+ 3*(level - 1) per tick or smth like that instead of flat 25, so it's much weaker for low levels while being stronger for high levels.

Looking pretty solid, imo the only thing they've missed is somehow fixing Faith and Conviction for NPCs.

They are probably a bit op if you summon like 6 of them in a 6 man party, but 1 figurine individually is not more op than say some spellbind items.

Carnage is what defines barbarian, not frenzy.

Should be a barbarian, not fighter. DPS fighter is a sad sight. Imo carnage is a perfect ability for the archetype you're looking for.

Druid is generally better at AoE nuking. Wizard is better at CC and has more survivability with the right spells. Main selling point of wizard is wider array of available CC/debuffs and ability to target all saves in my experience. Most druid CC targets fortitude and damage targets reflex of fortitude (with a few deflection spells), which is not optimal vs many enemies. I'd roll a Wizard but both are good. Psychevore's party comp is also good (although chanter with level 3 chants is pretty cool too). If you're open to party changes definitely ditch the ranged rogue and then you can go with both wizard and druid. Paladin is tankier than a fighter if PC.