Boeroer

For Novice's Suffering you don't need a lot of PER because grazes do nearly the same damage as crits - since the 50% malus/bonus only affect the whimpy 5-8 base damage. But your powers might want some bonus accuracy. But on the other hand: those get some bonuses anyways, also the +1/level as extra.

I think so. Anyways - I will build Durance into a feisty puncher now for my final playthrough for exporting to Deadfire. Last chance to try it out.

Yes. But I always think Wild Leech is an unpredictable waste of precious focus. It also stacks with itself by the way - just cast it on different enemies. I mean you can always use a priest to raise somebody else's MIG of course. It's not necessarily the priest who has to pick Novice's Suffering. I just like the idea because priests don't have damage bonuses or good base accuracy anyways. Using those disadvantages and kind of circumventing them seems like fun.

Issues not really. Sounds like a solid plan. Only thing though: the "trick" about priest + Tidefall is that wounding scales with MIG - and there's no other class that can achieve such high MIG scores as a priest. Also the woundig works with Cleansing Flame. Those were the two ideas that started the whole build. The other "weapon" that scales with MIG is Novice's Suffering. Its damage bonus and also the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar will get added to fists' base damage and then multiplied with the MIG bonus. I always wanted to try such a priest but never did. If you manage to reach 40 MIG (21 starting, +4 item, +2 Aggrandizing Radiance, +10 Champion's Boon, +1 Gift from the Machine, +1 Blood Pool Edér or Maneha, +1 Galawain's Boon) you'll get +90% multiplicative unarmed damage which would mean 5-8 (base) +2 (Sandals) +15 (NS at lvl 16) = 42-48 per punch (39-44 per graze, 45-52 per crit). And that would be without any damage bonus talent. Since those don't work well with fists anyway could totally focus on speed and defensive or spell boosting talents. You'd also spare a lot of enchanting resources. Mine would be a brawling mountain dwarf of course. Magran seems fitting.

Well, even a Barbarian doesn't have as much endurance and health as a ranger - because everybody keeps forgetting that the Ranger class comes with two characters. One of them doesn't even have a health pool (or in other words: an endless health pool) which can be a big advantage. If you really don't want to use the pet (which is a mistake) you can still park it in front of your ranger. That way he can take more hits than any barbarian. Anyway I do think that neither endurance nor health have a big impact on the quality of a ranged character. Concerning crits: If we look at the starting values of the Ranger vs. the Barbarian we can see that the ranger starts with an advantage of 5 ACC (30 vs. 25). This gap will never go away. Actually it will only get worse. The Barbarian has no ability that raises his accuracy while the ranger has Vicious Aim (+10) and Stalker's Link (+10). If you want to score crits then a Ranger with +25 accuracy (over the Barb) is the better pick. Everything the barb can bring to ranged combat is Frenzy, Barbaric Blow (works with ranged weapons), Bloodlust, Blood Thirst and Echoing Shout. Barbaric Blow's special Carnage effect is wasted on a ranged weapon, but at least the hit-to-crit conversion works. So mainly it's about attack speed buffs. +6 MIG (or in other words: +18% additive damage) for 12 seconds is negligible. The speed gain is nice, but it's rather short.

I used a pike with modal to lower enemies' defenses from behind my summons, so yes: weapon damage was not the main focus. When doing FoD I switched the modal off. Stats were high INT, RES, DEX (to bring down summoning time and recovery) rest fairly balanced, didn't dump anything I believe. I didn't tank in plate because this slows down recovery after invocations too much for my taste. Ancient Memory gets influenced by RES, yes. So instead of 1 point per sec you can have 1.4 or so. I never tested: does White Flames (from the Kind Wayfarer) procs twice when you use a dual wielding setup? Because if it does I would consider putting on plate and go into the front line with dual weapons.

Beguiler/Trickster is neat, too. A Beguiler actually gets more focus than he spends when hitting enough foes with a deception power like Eyestrike. The Trickster part can apply Confounded Blind in an AoE with rod/Blast if focus is low. He can also use Guile for mind control. It's a good combo for persistent CC on the battlefield. Damage is not overwhelming, but still good.

I also think that the proc chances are generally too low. Problem is that once you include things like Carnage, Driving Flight and Blast suddenly those proc chances are too high. Look at the Redeemer or Unlabored Blade (old version) + Carnage or Stormcaller + Twinned Arrows + Driving Flight... So I guess Obsidian wanted to go a middle route.

What, besides the higher endurance, makes you think that this barbarian is a better ranger? And which weapons, abilities and talents do you plan to use?

So, did a test and compared Knockdown to Stunning Shots: with Knockdown it's as I said: you get all the bonuses for the fortitude roll, including weapon's acc bonus. But the acc bonus of single weapon use (+12) does not apply. ALso fists' accuracy bonus does not work, but that is the case for all special attacks with fists. Stunning Shots: this seems to be very quirky and different. It's basically as you said.It does not profit from:+5 accuracy bonus of spears/daggers etc. weapons' quality bonus (+4 fine, +8 exceptional) the initial attack's special accuracy bonuses (e.g. Accurate Wounding Shots' +10 ACC) one handed style weapon focus it does profit from:​​non-weapon connected acc buffs like Stalker's Link, Devotions, Inspired Radiance and so on it gets +1ACC/level - even when only doing auto-attacks So basically it's your universal ACC (starting value + 3/level) + 1/level + buffs. I didn't test fists' acc bonus with Stunning Shots (maybe that's what I'll do next...). Despite the weirdness it's not that far below you initial roll because of the +1/level, especially when doing auto-attacks. The higher the weapon bonus (trough enchantment and Weapon Focus) the bigger the difference obviously, BUT since the fortitude roll that leads to stun itself only has to graze in order to apply stunned it's totally ok. The initial attack roll has to hit or crit in order to trigger the fortitude roll, so it makes sense that this roll is done with higher accary - or in other words that the stun roll is done with lower accuracy. Because of this mechanic you can say that if deflection and fortitude of an enemy are roughly the same, then a hit/crit with the initial attack roll will nearly always lead to a stun (because ACC is not that much lower and grazes also apply it). I hope that shed some light. It did for me.

First heavy, then light(er). In the early game heavy armor is pretty effective. Later in the game not so much. I really like the Wayfarer's Hide. Superb armor that comes not too late in the game with good defense buffs. But of course it looks very "special" (kind of derelict). I you like the looks of Vengiatta Rugia then it's a great armor for a cipher as well: you can use the survival bonus for flanked enemies (e.g. +20% with 12 survival), Apprentice's Sneak Attack (+15%) and the armor's bonus (+10%) and then use Phantom Foes to trigger flanked on every enemy. +45% damage with Firebrand is great. I hate the look of Vengiatta Rugia though. I also like Kerdhed Pames because it's one of the few armors with a +3 stat bonus and because it looks really nice. The +3 RES bonus doesn't interfere with the belt's bonuses, which is great, too.

As far as I know it uses the same accuracy as all the other "attached" CC effects like prone from Knockdown for example. That means your universal accuracy (starting value +3/level) + weapon accuracy + buffs. No bonus from one handed use. If weapons' acc doesn't work that would be new for me. In case of fists I knew, but I thought all other weapons would use their ACC bonus for the fortitude roll. Maybe Stunning Shots is different because it's pretty strong to begin with. I can check later in game.

Hm... you mean interrupts via spells? I don't think so. For a good interrupt build you either need pulsing spells like Wicked Briars or potentially fast AoE abilities like Carnage or Blast. And most cipher powers have very potent CC effects themselves that make interrupting redundant. I can't think of a power that would be particularly well suited for interrupting. But of course interrupts are always nice to have - or "nice to cause".

Yes, sure. You can use two characters for the same effect. Or imagine two chanter/paladins: one with Mith Fyr + Shard Flames + Zealous Focus, the other with Ancient Memory + Zealous Endurance. Great passive healing/defensive support AND great offensive support.

Well, you asked and I answered your question. No comment from your side so far.

That is true. That's the case with nearly every discussion that is based on beta experience. But the PEN/AR mechanic has this inherent flaw nonetheless. If you don't carefully create encounters around it so that light armors are viable then you'll face the aforementioned problem. Today it's less bad than in beta1 where you only had that hard line: PEN>= AR = full damage, PEN<AR = 25% damage. One point would screw you over really hard. Piling up AR and PEN was the consequence. Now it's a bit better. With a simple percentage based system things would have been... well, more simple. Also for the guys who design encounters and items.

You are awfully late. The game will be out in less than a month. The beta is short (it starts at lvl 6 and goes up to max 9, and it's not the whole game in beta state - it's more like a small testing area with a few quests) and is lacking a lot of stuff. It also seems that it won't get updates anymore. Not a few mechanics already work differently in the final game. The feedback that Obsidian gets from the beta today will most likely not make it into the game. As a beta user I want to warn you: it's not worth the $20 at this point.

I would never give up the belt & Firebrand. You'd have to rebind and level the belt again. That rapier + dagger combo is good with every char who can have dmg bonuses and doesn't do too many Full Attacks. So, fighter, rogue, cipher come to mind.

The damage output is better for the biggest part of the game with those two uniques and some damage modifiers. Just because of the blinding speed. Also, Vulnerable Attack will give you +5 damage per hit and Sword of Daenysis itself is rending, meaning another +3 DR bypass. If you add Ryona's Vambraces at some point you can have +11 DR bypass with the rapier and +8 with the dagger, with 15 DEX you'll hit every 16 frames. That's hard to beat for a two hander (hits every 26 frames with 0 recovery and 0 DR bypass). If a two hander can get to 0 recovery it can compete - but it's not easy to reach 0 recovery with a two hander while it's very easy to reach it with those two weapons. In the early game however they feel a bit underwhelming against high DR - but every dmg bonus and every DR bypass helps. Body Attunement is also great with fast light weapons.

An unarmed Chanter? Never tried, but might work. Too bad chanters have no awesome self buffs besides the two invocations that give +5 to stats (too expensive, takes too long to build up phrases for those) and the Champion (too late, too expensive). Mith Fyr could be nice with fists...

Except the special ones that come with unique grimoires or from quests (Ninagauth's Black Pages and so on). But those don't get erased when you retrain. You will always keep them once you learned them.

Yes, it is viable. With Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger I would use Vulnerable Attack. I the earlier part of the game it's beneficial anyway and later on you can use it without speed loss (because both weapons have the speed enchantment which leads to sub-zero recovery values with dual wielding and Two Weapon Style). Stats: nothing special. Maneha needs Two Handed Style, Scion of Flame, Savage Attack and everything else that gives dmg bonuses like One Stands Alone. And of course Bloodlust + Blood Thirst. Try to have high ACC as well because you want to crit with Firebrand. So Accurate Carnage and Weapon Focus are a good choice.

Starcaller ist a good cipher weapon because the -6 shock DR helps a lot and the dual damage is also very nice. Not to forget that Heart of the Storm gives it +20% damage. The lack of a lash is not so good, but the Soul Shock proc on enemies is cool. It would have been even cooler if it was a Amplified Thrust, but Soul Shock is also ok. All on all I like it better on rangers though. @Stargazer55: concerning "swashbuckler" - dual sabre is a good choice for melee ciphers. Rapier + Dagger (especially Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger), too. Firebrand is also good on Barbs with Blood Thirst, Paladins with FoD+Intense Flames+Scion of Flame, melee priests, rogues and dps fighters. Barb is maybe the best synergy because Blood Thirst/Bloodlust remove the biggest disadvantage: the low recovery speed that can't be improved by enchantments. The Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger combo is also on of the best dps setups for ciphers. The good thing is that both weapons come quite early and can be kept until the end. You'll hit 0 recovery pretty early.

Eh, sorry. Two Handed Style obviously. Stupid typo. Merciless Hand is not mandatory, it's just a great addition. Firebrand itself is Annihilating, meaning it does +100% crit damage instead just +50%. With Merciless Hand it would be +130%. You can do without.

No. Things that generate focus: - direct weapon damage - (non DoT) lashes (doesn't matter if raw/elemental/physical). That excludes wounding and stuff like Runner's Wounding Shot's raw damage, Envenomed Strike and so so on. Procs of whatever spells or effect do not generate focus. There was a time wheere retaliation generated focus, but it was nerfed after I posted a somewhat OP retalition cipher build.