MasterCipher

Longbows let you roll your Dexterity Ranged attack and add your Strength die. Does the strength die include your melee strength modifier? Can Lini use shapeshift to turn her d4 strength die into a d10? If you play a combat strength blessing, will it add 2 dice to the combat check? Can you use the stone item that let's you add 1d10 to melee strength or non-combat fortitude to your combat check? If Valeros, chooses the weapon master role and proficiency that let's him use his melee strength for ranged attacks, does he get to roll 2d10? Does revealing Ebon Armor let you add 2 piercing damage to the combat check?

<Solved by Hannibal_PJV and zeroth_hour below> Hello, I purchased the Obsidian version and linked it to my mobile account. I received the gold, 1000+ cards, runes, charms, and alts. However, I cannot find Eder, Pallegina, or the Goblin Golem of Obsidian, or the 2 new Goblin Characters. Are the Goblin Characters to be released at a future date? Is there a way to check if I received the 3 Legendary rariity cards? The support button in game too me here, please re-direct if there's something else I should do. My accounts is trephoenix #3660 Thank you for any assistance

Companions are free when you find them and start at you level. Hirelings are a 1 time expense but can only start at 1 level below your main character's level. I'm a min/max type, but it's not necessary because overall the devs did a good job balancing stats. It's a matter of preference, most on the forums seem to prefer companions for the RPG flavor. You get to pick talents, skill points, and abilities/spells for your companions, but you can't respec them or modify their attributes. If you go the hireling route, try to buy lvl 1 hirelings as soon can to save coin.

I've never played a Cipher with less than 15 PER, I prefer 15 PER to 18 PER as I prefer to max MIG and hit plenty in early POTD - otherwise your min/max spread is exactly what I use - even for melee cipher. It helps to carry a lvl 2 priest that can buff group accuracy +10 every encounter. Fine quality weapons (+4 accuracy) are available early game if you look for them. If you can land Prone, Paralyze, Stuck, or Blind, these significantly low enemy deflection and reflex. Even if you can't, nothing can resist flanking - just have 2 of your characters melee the same target from opposite sides to lower deflection by 10. If you have a level 3 paladin hireling (hire a pally as soon as you get to black hound) you can take a passive AoE aura that gives you +6 accuracy. I don't know if it states in game, but abilities enjoy a +1 to hit per character level that autoattacks do not. So if you are level 2 and cast Whisper of Treason, you get a +12 to hit (the in game description will only say +10). For ranged Cipher, wood elf is a terrific choice because they get +5 to hit with weapons and abilities to enemies 4m or farther from you, which will be the case much of the time.

I love Boeroer's idea of enduring flames with low INT. I explored the idea of a DPS pally alternative to Bittercut x2 Bleak Walker, but didn't think of this at the time. Given the low INT, all your self buffs are going to be low duration, so you might want to consider bringing Pallegia (first time I've ever recommended a companion for mechanical reasons btw) for her twice/encounter haste buff and have her take exhortation of haste, coordinating attacks and wield a marking weapon (or 2). With a 2 hander, your going to want gauntlets of swift action for yourself to try to get your recovery as close to 0 as you can.

if the situation is advantageous, go melee and the other way around. melee>range for faster focus gain Sustainable melee dps and subsequently focus gain is greater for melee - slow reload ranged weapons are great for spike damage at start; you fire then weapon switch without waiting to reload, aka 1 pump chump or alpha. IMO Stormcaller soulbound hunting bow is still a great ranged option if you prefer a play style where you don't have to weapon switch or move around to position as much. It has duel weapon damage, damage resistance debuff, and an AoE damage proc. Antipathic beam damage foe or friend between you and enemy, but not the target or yourself. If you have multiple melees that can share the tank load, have them form a straight line so the enemies line up neatly in front of them and have you Cipher line up on the flank and target the furthest enemy, who you want to try to kill last so antipathic doesn't end early. As good as this beam is, the 30 focus beam has the highest total damage potential of any single ability in the game.

I prefer to DPS and CC only when I have to or it's supremely advantageous. Ranged weapons have slower attack speed and recovery, but leading with high damage firearms or arbalests before closing melee is effective. Metrics clearing all maps up to Maerwald (except 2nd floor of Eothas temple) on POTD w/ hirelings. Priest and Chanter use ranged weapons and no armor, Cipher melee in no armor, others in heavy armor. Chanter DPS is somewhat inflated because I used to solo kite guls in Anslog's Compass. Dank spore cave was a lot easier than I thought it would be; hardest fight was Skuldr King. Rested 1 time to remove MC sickness and open up map to Caed Nua. Lvl Total Dmg Dmg Taken Holy Radiance Chanter DOT Cipher MC 3 4,426 107 Ranger 2 3,041 253 Stag 2 1,230 910 Chanter 2 2,784 132 680 Paladin 2 3,136 324 Priest 2 1,905 39 560 Monk 2 2,360 289 1 hand weapons for +14 acc at low levels purchased jolt dagger proc for ranger accumulate exceptional weapons, and overseer rings - +2 PER neck is also decent for Cipher learn survival skill first for rest bonuses, with exception of mechanics for lockpicker/disarmer Cipher (Aumua +1 weapon slot) Mig 21 Dex 18 Con 3 Int 18 Per 15 Res 3 Talents drain whip bite whip Lvl 1 Powers Antipathic Beam (off the chart damage if you take the time to position) Mindwave (sometimes worth targeting your own party so the prone cone can disable dangerous enemies) Confuse (stealth and start combat with this whenever you can because enemy force usually all attack the confused target) Lvl 2 Powers Mental Binding Mind Blades (low single target damage, but is longest range Cipher DPS power, up to 6 targets, calls interrupt - all jump spells-powers have bug that stop jumps if it kills target) Pyschovampire Shield (can cast on party before fight as a self buff at higher levels when you have 20 starting focus, debuffing an enemy in combat can also be useful - main point is +25 deflection makes AI more likely to attack others in your party so you can melee)

I've never used the AI, but I don't see a way other than completely disabling the AI for your chanter by going to the character screen, click the "head icon" in the bottom right of the portrait and setting the class behavior to none.

I haven't tested much, but single target like missiles work. Vicious Aim also works with spells, but unfortunately only the accuracy bonus seems to apply and not the damage. Also, vengeful grief is a rare buff that stacks with other haste sources, like paladin martyr - pet sac is a nice way to get your ranger up to 45% recovery, and of course the martyr buff is colossal (-8 DR to enemies, +8 DR to group, +20 or 25% haste to group for 25 seconds with high INT). Driving flight should theoretically work on reflected arrows and spells, but again haven't tested. Ended up incorporating tattered thrust shield rather than duel wield for my ranger. Attack cycle is roughly 45fps with dead pet.

Trap damage vs enemies is a joke, but the chaos orb trap is actually pretty good because it can trigger petrify and jumps around to hit spread out targets. My chanter has 12 base mechanics +1 from class and another +1 from background; 22 INT and 17 PER.

Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (DAoM) greatly boosts recovery between actions by 50% (level 3 spell). Potato/potato Shield tanking gives you more deflection. Tanking with 2 weapons that trigger different disabling afflictions on crit (ie prone mainhand stun offhand) means less opportunity for creatures to damage you. You could even wield a 1 hander with empty offhand for a 15% extra change to convert hit to crit in order to reliably apply 1 disabling affliction. You will probably deal more damage from greater AoE size, longer damage over time, longer buffs, and longer debuff afflictions with 18 INT and 16 MIG than vice versa.

I agree there are good reasons to take interdiction first, but my parties are very weapon based so always take inspiring first to hit against deflection too and inspiring can't miss.

Cipher starting focus was nerfed a long time ago and some of their exploitable synergies (ie retaliation giving focus), but they are still in the top tier of the power curve. Fighters and Rogues are generally considered at the bottom, but even those classes have viable and interesting build choices (ie massive single target damage in the rogue's case), they both just fall short overall when compared to optimized casters. Point being, the game accommodates you playing the classes that suite your play style and this forum is the place to come for plenty of excellent build ideas and combat mechanics information that isn't always clear in game.

So do I understand it correctly that Wayfarers hide for example has 11 crush and 11 slash proof (that is the original value which value isnt displayed)? Exactly. You've got it. MasterCipher, on 30 May 2017 - 4:00 PM, said: So do I understand it correctly that Wayfarers hide for example has 11 crush and 11 slash proof (that is the original value which value isnt displayed)?

I use a coastal aumaua hireling in a melee stacked party so can afford lower CON: Mig 20 Dex 18 Con 8 Int 19 Per 10 Res 3 lesser wounds lightning strikes app sneak attack outlander's frenzy (3 MIG 3 CON yes please) savage attack 2 hand style scion of flame penetrating shot (works with blunderbuss opener, rooting pain, and spell scrolls to setup resonating touch) swift strikes turning wheel (5% fire lash per wound) torment's reach (propagates weapon proc) rooting pain (reactive AoE) enervating blows (works with rooting pain! - very long duration weaken) flagellant path (-10 all defenses AoE debuff ! ) dichotomy of the soul (ice afflicts stuck and fire affflicts 6 dps dot) resonant touch (boom) 5% chance petrify staff ! & nature mark 1/enc (WM1 longwatch) silverflash shock kith (wm1 g lab) weapon2 Ryona bp 3 INT 20acc proc + triggered immunity (WM2) -2 PER 10% flank immune blind (grand adventure) helm 3 MIG (act III Burial) neck gaunlets of swift action (EP 12) 2 CON stuck (avg adventure) belt 3 DEX 5 ref 20 def stun-prone (EP11) ring overseer ring (gilded vale) beam boots when crit ! (more 10 damage hits for resonating) (WM1 Galvino workshop) 12 survival for 20% damage bonus vs flanked 8 lore for scrolls heart of storm is a reasonable substitute for penetrating shot, especially if you carry the jolt touch dagger and electric ward shield in your second weapon set.

It use the wiki site, it lists all damage types even when they are the same as base DR - this is different from in game. Armor only displays the base DR and any DR that is different from base. So Wayfarer's displays 11 base, 14 pierce, 14 freeze, and 6 corrode. When you enchant with crush proof it adds 3 + 11 base = now displays 14 crush (crush was = 11 base prior to enchant).

With Ciphers, focus is a renewable resource during combat, so it's often better to use a high level ability slot on a lower level. Also, some of the lower level abilities have a higher chance to hit and longer duration than the higher level area of effects. 10 focus Confuse and Frighten - amazing fight starter and crowd control Mindwave - fast and cheap prone 20 focus Amplified thrust - fast cast, highest direct damage ability Cipher has, but it's still usually better to save up for AoE or use a control ability Pyschovampire or whatever its called- the only Cipher buff you can still cast before combat. As a melee cipher, you want to have higher deflection than your tank so the AI doesn't choose you Pikachu. 30 focus Soul ignition - stacks with itself from same Cipher and with high MIG actually scales to the same damage per second as Disintegration. Rough numbers example you can cast Disintegration for 450 damage over 30 seconds (15dps) or cast 2 Soul ignitions for (225 damage over 15 seconds (15 dps) ) x 2 = 450 damage over 15 seconds (30 dps). Disintegration doesn't scale as well with MIG for some reason. You can cast on something while it's under a long prone/stun/paralyze or double cast on a boss before you put it in Stasis - this takes a lot of focus but creatures continue to take damage over time for pre-existing conditions. 40 focus Silent Scream - Raw AoE damage and long stun on first target - I cast this every chance I can Wild Leech - 50% chance of an extreme buff or debuff. CON = -50% HP on target, INT = +50% duration/AoE, DEX = +30% cast speed. The other stats aren't as impactful or can be buffed/debuffed easily by other abilities. 50 focus Detonate - Cast on target under 50% health with the goal of killing in order to trigger the superb AoE crush damage explosion 70 focus Speed Steal - colossal 50% recovery haste (weapons and abilities) and AoE jump debuffs enemies the same - worth casting as soon as possible in encounters

I vaguely remember odd conflicts with certain items being considered the same kind of retaliation. Does anyone know or remember if one of these suppresses the other?

Thanks Raven. That worked, but you can't hire any hirelings before popping the chest.

My current party has a ranger and the character sheet doesn't track stats like the rest of the party.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the containers at the caravan hand placed and not random? The first random containers would be Blackhound 2nd floor chest, or minor boxes/tables in gilded vale. So the loot table still works as long as you save and reload before opening your first random container?

Barbs can easily get away without PER and still both tank and DPS, especially with accuracy talents. Abilities like Carnage and Threatening Presence, also have a +1/character level to hit. Barbarians are also a good choice for switching to 2 handers that have 25% to instantly kill spirits/vessels/eyeless even without any 2hander talents. The Binding Rope belt is automatic, it doesn't even roll to hit, but it oddly conflicts with retaliation gear. Fire Godlike Mig 18 Dex 19 Con 15 Int 20 Per 3 Res 3 Talents greater fury scion of flame app sneak attack savage attack accurate carnage weapon focus club two weapon style weapon focus spear Abilites carnage, frenzy blooded one stands alone threatening prescence heart of fury thick skin barbaric retaliation 11-19 dragon leap Gear: dam 3 -5 RES club kith (WM2)/4 MIG hammer(WM2) superb distract vile loner lance kith flame lash (ondra's gift) 2 PER - eyestrike padded 3 pierce proof resist, superb n/a 3 MIG 3dr bypass, 5 slash resist 5% miss to graze 2 CON Stuck when hit (avg) 1 INT arcane dampener overseer ring 3 dr boots -5 attack speed

I use hirelings so please forgive the spelling. These classes will keep you alive and boost your damage the most: Your_Rogue, Pallagia, Kana, Durance, Hrivias, Eder or the Barbarian Companion

Excellent info Max - greatly appreciated!

I know deleterious alacrity and time parasite boost casting, so does outlander's frenzy. I've been crudely trying to time spells with 10 DEX. It seems like cast times are fast = 1s, average = 2s, and slow =4s and I think recovery is 2s regardless of spell cast speed, but it too can be boosted. Does holding a durganized weapon enchanted with haste accelerate casting? Same question with gloves of swift action? Last question, does dual wielding with the two weapon talent affect casting?