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I know but I made sure to check the logs and it always proced once. I was surprised that a hunting bow persistence was so high but I heard it was best vs single targets. I was disappointed by sabra Marie, if it's anahilating worked it would be the highest or at least on paar but not now. Borrasaine does not have rending like cloudpiercer so it is generally lower. Borrasaine and sabra m would be good on a ranged rogue I guess because of the cc on crit effects. As for getting sneak attacks off of stun on Borrasaine I guess that is valid too. But that is mostly useful once a ranged rogue has death blows so it would be easier to generate the second condition for the death blows . for basic sneak attacks hopefully someone else applies an affliction. For Ranger I'd still use stormcaller for cc or persistence for damage. For a ranged cipher a good three weapon slot layout with quick switch would be probably twin sting, lead spitter, and either cloud piercer or godagh field in the final slot for prolonged shooting. And switch it out possibly vse a dragon for persistence.

Warning: Actual battlefield conditions are not ideal given repositioning and maneuvering. So numbers and dps will always wary. I tested some top bows with a level 12 Ranger (but any bow user would do) vs a "average" unit (my tank down-speced for 85 deflection and 18dr across everything). No abilities used, I just auto attacked for a minute with the bow and looked at how much health I chiped away from the tank. All bows were upgraded to superior, 1 lash (shocking), and durgan refined except stormcaller. Results over one minute of auto attack Persistence - 761 damage Cloudpiercer - 703 damage Godagh Field - 680 damage Sabra Marie and Stormcaller: significantly less under 500 and 400 respectively. The crit damage on sabra marie is messed up as in not really working but that is a known issue. I did this twice and averaged the numbers which you see above. Hope it helps. I certainly know which bow I take for dragon hunting though.

She rocks like any barbarian but you have to build up a few defenses before you concentrate on dishing out damage. I have her in my party early since level 5 and along with zahua she has been clocking one of the best dps. Sure she dies sometimes but it should not be a big factor unless she is primary tank which she should not be. And you should have items and abilities to bring her back up and get vengeful defeat to take advantage of it. My suggestion: max Athletics for a strong second wind ability, invest one talent point early into veterans recovery (it synergies very well with high int on barb) , give her a revive item on unconscious like ring of wonder or eders armor (I would not put her in anything heavier than scale). After this just improve her damage output and accuracy. Endgame layout for damage is dual stilettos bleak fang and azureith to proc lots of instant damage on your barbaric blow or heart of fury and then switch to tidefall or blade of endless paths after the stilettos proc. Also just give her a +9 deflection item it doesn't hurt and she won't drop so fast. Other items which work well on her are shod in faith boots obvious, mantle of the dying boar and swaddling sheet. Stack a bunch of those and veterans recovery and she becomes very durable.

So far the best setup I had for her is light armor (wayfarer hide) vengeful defeat glass dps build with ring of wonder and a paladin in the party with reviving exertion. Weapon slot 1: bleak fang + azureith stiletto weapon slot 2: tidefall. You do your burst damage with the stilettos with barbaric blow and heart of fury and switch to tidefall to clean up. Dying doesn't matter as you do more damage that way anyways.

Oh and to the op 80 to 85% of potd can be played with one hard tank one off tank 4 dpsers but there are a few battles like raedric part 2 or the monks in wm2 or the battery sirens in wm where any glass canon toons will be shredded fast no matter what pretty much. I did raedric part 2 just now with level scaling on (don't know if it makes a difference in that) at level 9 and pretty much had to put everyone in plate and even then a low constitution toon got consistently ganged up on that I let him rest while the other 5 did the fight.

The way you do that is use firearms on everyone except maybe one tank and focus fire them then switch to faster weapons. But I like one rogue for certain fights. On ai ranged rogue is safe for this while dw you pretty much have to micro.

Did they nerf the deep wounds retaliation combo BTW? Because although it's not quite the same thing it's similar: I just tested glittering gauntlets on a retaliation build and unfortunately that doesn't work the gauntlets only apply daze on a weapon hit and not retaliation hit.

Item / equipment / money matter more than stats. Also the extra level is better than stats early because of endurance. Mid game a custom party is better. Endgame it flattens out. I personally like a mix of 3/3 or 4/2 story hirelings. Eder, Cana, manhea, Zahua have good stats. Pallegina makes a good ranged dps and support pali. Aloth, durance, durance, hiravias, Gm are a bit lackluster compared to a custom toon of their class.

I really like the dimension shift cloak (+12 reflex, dimensional shift 1 per rest). It's a major 3 turn item. It's maybe nice on a high int ranged dps as if things rush at you you can teleport and stun stuff for up to 8! seconds in between yourself and where you teleport. I may prefer this to the cheat withdrawal cloak even if that one is one per encounter. And considering your reflex are really good to begin with on such a toon they become otherworldly with the cloak on. But on cipher I needed to take draining whip then so I don't need unconquerable anymore. (I wish these were rings not neckslots)

You can hot key quick switch. And it's super easy in 3 seconds of the start of fight you unloaded your guns and have basically full focus to cast stuff like amplified thrust and detonate... Which give you more focus. And no you're not cheating because you are are investing talent points to use a certain ability combo. Dex is needed if you wear say padded armor or robes instead of cloth, to get you back to 0 recovery penalty. But yeah don't drop below 5/5 con res unless you like to be one shoted frequently. And even then try to boost con res to at least 7/7 through items and talents. Before time parasite a mix of gun and good bows(stormcaller or cloudpiercer) is very good. Of course certain pistols like fellstroke or good old lead spitter are also very good of you have a chanter who buffs you with the sure handed phrase.

Yeah that's if he is high level enough to have reaping knives. I did it at level 11 with following composition of party, similar to the op, I had a barb instead of Eder and Cana instead of priest: Get all the best food dragon dishes you can and bonus rest. Craft scrolls of revival and maelstrom and valour,equip revival scrolls on multiple characters just in case and everyone should have potions of endurance. get alectricy of motion pots for you casters and rogue and maybe merciless gaze for rogue. Camp on the far right side of the cave before starting dialog with dragon. Send paladin to the far left side and initiate dialogue with him. Start buffing yourself like crazy with all those potions (flame shield helps too especially on Eder) and send in priest carefully for support. Make sure the dragon is always facing the tank and not everyone else. Meanwhile Eder and the ciphers should take out the mobs. Use figurines for distraction. Then spam amplified wave whenever you can. One of the ciphers may need to cast pain block on the paladin. Rogue should be ranged with deep wounds Park in a corner and pew pew the dragon. Anyways once you clear the trash mobs good job you're halfway there. Your Pali or someone else may have gone down in the meantime so revive with scroll them while someone with boots of speed kites the dragon. When you have focus on your ciphers you should cast pain link on Eder and Pali that will mean the dragon will be taking lots of damage even if it is killing your tanks who can be revived anyways and hopefully the rogue and deep wounds is chipping away at the dragon too. Eventually it will go down just make sure it faces away from your ranged dps during the fight or its breath attack will insta kill your back ranks. You can bring a wizard instead of one cipher to try to land a petrify attack too.

Fighters are durable but you waste their very good offence if you make them into just boring meatshields. And your front row has to deal damage and be effective otherwise enemies will ignore them and go for the back. So the fighter class imo is now the perfect 2 handed backup / off tank to relieve the pressure off the monk in the front lines. Eder can do this. The primary front tank should be a monk like zahua because if he gets damaged it just means he will hit back harder. In the middle you usually have a weapon and shield or long reach weapon priest, chanter, or druid for utility, party buff and enemy debuffer. A retaliation cipher which grieving mother can do well can also be here in this role. And a rogue with something like tall grass (devil of coroc). Now for the back I'd put place a strong aoe nuker like a wizard / ranged druid, or cipher along with single target specialist like a Ranger or a dulcanale pistol rogue or a sabre marie warbow rogue, the later if you like damage and cc all in one like I do - it's a very "safe" option for a glass canon rogue but very efficient. the ciphers, druid, wizard and even priest excel at DEbuffing the enemy while a paladin excels at buffing your party. That is how you manage a party with both say a priest and a paladin. So if you ignore the second front line rogue or priest place pallegina in the back and make her a flames of devotion arquebus sniper and party offence!, buffer, with upgraded accuracy for your back row cipher and wizard who can most from the accuracy buff by disabling the enemies in the front for zahua and Eder to dispatch. So it's like a circle: tanks protect the back line disablers, the Pali buffs them, they in turn disable the enemies in the front line so they don't overwhelm the two tanks and support. this is an efficient way to run potd but there are other ways too. Using this general party comp I can do stuff like high level (10+) content with a level 7 party pretty effectively. Enemies at same level or lower can just be ramboed though at fast speed. In early game you are better off giving full plate and a super large shield to Cana and still have Eder as offensive two hander just beside - he is just better at offence really. Have durance support both by casting consecrated ground just behind them first thing in difficult encounters.

Would soul bound weapons double up accuracy with 2x weapon focus then too?

I find the belt good but a bit lacking (that one second weapon switch recover reduction is good but still slow compared to the talent which reduces it 2x more than the belt - almost completely to .5 seconds and switching guns instantaneously is a big part of burst generating focus with them. Plus there are other nice belts in the game. The one instance where I might forgo quickswitch or sacrifice yet another talent from that list on a death godlike cipher where I want to power up death's usher with bloody slaughter to get more oomph from your aoe damage spells - but that is on a damage oriented cipher. And I agree greater focus is somewhat lackluster still especially if you use guns at the beginning of the fight to build up focus.

Only change is that instead of one of weapon focus or marksman and greater focus I would pick quickswitch on island aumaua and arms bearer and quickswitch on other races - you want those early gunshots to do something devastating like cast two 7+ level powers at the beginning of the fight. Imagine a defensive mind Web and reaping knives to open a fight. Outlander is still useful though as it basically makes you not need to use focus on time parasite. But even that can be interchanged with something else once you get time parasite.

No that was my question so no drawn in spring would not wound on retaliate unfortunately.

No whips but Ravenwing does look good weilded by grieving mother. Probably the next best thing to a whip. Looks good matched with palleginas plate, sura superplate and woedica hood but I will probably replace the armor and helm for more retaliation items later.

Yap thanks I did spec zuhua as juggernaut going forward and he is very strong with that setup. He has perfect stats for it too. Clocking at almost 1000 damage per combat hour atm at level 7. I made sure to take vulnerable attack at level 4 though. But lighting strikes still don't stack with turning wheel or do they? I took lighting strikes and stunning blows for now. Did all the first round of bounties now at level 7 after inserting aloth for the second cipher just for some variation. So far I prefer zuhua with plain old fists. Sure his deflection is lower than with larder door and hatchet etc but he hits back really hard and if he should go down (happens rarely but did happen against dweller and Co) it is already after he dealt a ton of damage to to the enemy. I tried gemstone staff but was not impressed. I like fast weapons except on maneha where carnage sort of compensates for slow estoc weapons. What are post patch 3.0 best weapons for zuhua? And armor? I use hendryks coat (from crucible Knights merchant) because it seems good with the prone push defense and is exceptional, but is sanguine generally considered better or a retaliation armor?

Does drawn in spring work well with the retaliation effect? Why bittercut / sabres if you can use drawn in spring. Or does it not work with retaliation?

Vulnerable attack: good with everything melee especially once you durgan refine your weapon and armor for speed. Get this talent if you have second doubts about what to pick for a melee toon. It is always a good selection. Pen shot: same for ranged as vul attack above always take it if you have a point everything benefits from this except if you are strictly using arquebus, arbalest, or pistol on the ranged toon. Savage attack: take it on toons with high accuracy like rogue if you want but know that there are better ways to increase your damage without sacrificing accuracy. Like apprentice sneak attack, two handed style, dual wield weapon style. It's a secondary or third string talent in the end and you can get it but only if you are running out of other more useful talents to take.

But.. isn't Outlander Frenzy an average cast speed? It feels much faster than chucking a potion. Actually very noticeable faster. But I also don't wear armor and have high Dex and am sometimes on the tail end of pallegina's 20% attack haste effect as I hit the frenzy button to continue the fun. It seems that potions have sometimes a weird delay where your toon doesn't do anything for half a second before taking the pot. Abilities don't have that.

What's funny and perhaps beneficial is that it seems when stormcaller procs soul shock now it procs on both the target hit and on the cipher in a radius at the same time. So double soul shock That's certainly nice.

Well given her average Dex and perception I think it makes sense to make her into a damager rather than interupter. By taking lots of Athletics you can spare a point off Savage defiance since her second wind will be very good and get that frenzy and still keep barbaric yell. Also to get her up to speed defensively without Savage defiance I personally invest a talent point in veterans recovery which was nicely buffed. So by level 6 I have barbaric blow, weapon focus adventurer (can be soldier), and veterans recovery. From here on I would take talents and abilities to boost her offense - maybe two handed style / greater frenzy, apprentice sneak attack etc. With estocs no need for vulnerable attack.

And thinking about it death godlike + bloody slaughter can also be quite good on a retaliation cipher too but retaliation items are only acquired later in the game and the build above is already beastly at level 6.

This is the Mr. (or Ms.) "Speedo" cipher. Priorities are speed and damage all the time. Here is how to get the most out of your cipher sniper by level 6. Race: island aumaua or death godlike Stats potd: Might: max Con: 5 Dex: 13 (14 if you drop con a point) Per: 16 Int: max Res: 5 You can shore up your resolve and con with talents / items during the game. You have to be careful but you won't get one shotted like with 3/3 con res. But you can get two shotted especially early on so be careful. Talents Island aumaua level 2: biting whip 4: quickswitch 6: outlander frenzy Beyond level 8 it's more flexible but some talents like penetrating shot is a must and draining whip is highly recommended: 8+: probably marksman if you find you need more acc, then more damage talents like heart of storm, penetrating shot, apprentice sneak attack, draining whip or arms bearer as last talent if you find you still need more focus generation, if you have too much focus generation still get greater focus and weapon focus instead. Death godlike (I personally prefer that because I am primarily a soul shock / and hopefully later amp wave spammed lol) 2: biting whip 4: arms bearer 6: outlanders frenzy *for death godlike you need coil of resourcefulness asap for - 1 weapon recovery. For both builds I recommend getting stormcaller asap. Until then persistence or sagani hunting bow can suffice in your third weapon slot up until late game final weapon slot. Again level 8: penetrating shot, 10 heart of the storm 12: bloody slaughter 14+: quick-switch(optionall, or marksman, and baby sneak attack or draining whip are good choices). Basic playstyle: burst generate focus fast at the start of the fight via quickswitch,using an arquebus shot and a blunderbuss shot, unload spells, than switch to bow (stormcaller) hit outlander frenzy and keep attacking and unloading more spells fast. 100% tested working and reliable. Who can say no to mini 25% increase in attack speed per encounter which doesn't cost anything and is an instant cast? negligible recovery bar using hunting bow attacks from level 6, no need to wait for time parasite, all the time with no focus cost! I personally see a lot of potential in death godlike deaths usher+stormcaller+heart of the storm+soul shock+bloody slaughter synergy,in dealing very good aoe damage. To compensate for lack of accuracy talents having at least a paladin and maybe also a priest is highly recommended. Plus the good old gauntlets of accuracy. If pallegina opens a battle with flames of devotion and has the appropriate extra talent you immediately get a 25% speed boost from the start while you are switching your guns and generating focus. Later you activate outlander frenzy yourself and pretty much fight the whole fight at a 25% speed and might boost to boot. Oh and this build is fun because it is fairly simple and does not require that much micro just two phases in a fight really, both highly efficient: opening when you use your guns to snipe priory targets like mages and generate focus and the continuation when you go into baby frenzy and mop up the remaining enemies who are near your front line by then and ripe for mind wave / soul shock spam. Try it out! I find it makes a cipher into a super action hero cipher as fast as possible (by level 6). And as stated death godlike will need the coil of resourcefulness belt asap to take arms bearer instead of quickswitch and be on paar (almost) with the island aumaua. Edit: also of big importance is that in 3.0 if you buff your survival asap you get racial accuracy bonuses really fast and can neglect accuracy talents as this build suggests in favor of those other more fun and punchy talents.