Braven

Resolve has a couple very high requirement conversation options, but they don't impact the game at all if you miss them (and they are more intimidation focused anyways). I don't think you need more than 16 for any conversations that actually has any kind of consequences. If you start with 14, you can easily get to the stats you need with equipment. Even a temporary buff is good enough. Worst case, you see the conversation option and you can reload a save game and change equipment or eat some food or something to get the conversation if it is important to you. There is also a story-related ability you can get that temporarily raises all stats by 2.

Con was sort of a dump stat in version 1, but since patch 2.*, it has gotten a lot better. It now increases health/endurance by 5% instead of 3% that it originally did. Whether you need it or not depends a lot on if you plan on getting hit a lot in combat. If you plan to sit back with a crossbow or gun, it is not needed very much. If you prefer to be in the thick of battle or wear light armor, then it is a lot more helpful particularly since rogues have low health to begin with. Very low con also puts you in range of being one-shot from an enemy spell. I generally find Intelligence to be one of the lowest priorities for rogues when only considering their abilities because the attack debuffs they do are not that good anyways (mostly you use them for the full-attack, and followup sneak attacks). They are single target only and other than the blinding one, they don't really hinder the enemy much. Many rogue abilities don't use intelligence at all. Also, rogues do so much damage that their target is usually dead before the longer duration plays a role. I think intelligence is most useful if you also plan on taking the veteran's recovery talent or if you plan to use items with cast spells. There are some great ones that can heal and charm enemies. I think traditional rogues would dabble with magical items. Starting stats really depend on how you want to play the character. I don't think there is any really wrong way to allocate stats as long as you adjust your play-style and equipment to have synergy with your stats. Like if you have very low CON, you really have to be careful with positioning and avoiding enemy attacks or you will die a lot. I wouldn't worry too much about having high Might. While it increases damage a little, it doesn't increase damage that much relatively because of how additive damage modifiers work and the fact that Rogue's have "sneak attack". While it is pretty good early in the game, it becomes rather negligible later in the game. Personally, I would consider dumping it completely if you don't get the Veteran's Recovery talent or endurance regeneration items. The CON would be more helpful.

I tried borrowed instinct and it won't allow self targeting. With self targetted vampiric shield, it also triggers defiant resolve with wild orlan for another stacking +10 to all defenses, though only for 10 seconds. Maybe worth casting on yourself even in the middle of combat for a defense boost, and chance to trigger your on-crit items. If you crit yourself (seems to happen all the time for me), you can also trigger shod in faith out of combat and get that rolling early. Frenzy armor does not work (that one is setup to only trigger in combat, sadly). I didn't know there were so many charm items. You can easily get 8 charm/dominates per rest with just 3 items (one which is good anyways for +3 resolve). Even with a cipher solo, Those items are worth it in order to charm more enemies at the start of battle before you get the focus engine going.

I am not sure about pain block (didn't pick that power), but I assume it is ally only. I imagine wild leech will work, (maybe you get lucky and drain a stat of an ally that is not important to them), but that is not castable until level 16, because you need the starting focus. I like the prebuff strategy a lot because a low con/resolve cipher relies on charming powers and mental binding and would rather spend early focus on those. I was surprised to find out how effective charms are. They distract he entire enemy force usually. Basically like summoning a figurine and killing an enemy for only 10 focus. And you don't have summoning limits like figurines. Pumping up accuracy and intelligence as high as possible is important to make sure they land and stay.

I retrained to low resolve and can confirm that you can't go below 1 resolve and that you do get the full +23 deflection, possible outside of combat. I also confirmed that the crime family's merchant regularly restocks the drugs, so I don't think there is a limited supply. Still something I would only do for tough battles (I guess the same times you would use food, if you are not lazy). You could also target a friend with PyschoVampiric Shield when playing within a party, if you don't want to lower your own resolve.

Does Tidefall still work best with low INT? I know it used to be bugged, but I thought that was fixed and the DOT damage was the same (just more DOTs with more INT). Also, does "wounding" help generate focus? If both INT and Resolve could be dumped, that would allow some stat points for CON which will help not dying a lot. Ciphers don't have much endurance and can be 1-shot with low Con. The big downside is that the best cipher powers rely a lot on INT. Charms and Mental Binding would be useless and the biggest damage powers are DOTs or AOE. You also lose out on all the good low resolve healing tactics that rely on durations (veteran's recovery, shod-in-faith, frenzy, etc). I guess Amplified Thrust would be good again, with allies to bounce it off of, but still a relatively slow way to do damage in the late game. I really like the big RAW damage spells which are great against high DR enemies (the toughest in the game).

Ouch, so much for this build. I think I will come up with another with 3 resolve and abusing the fact you can't go under 1. Anyone know if the Svef drug attack speed stacks with other attack speed? Does it speed up spellcasting? Can you have more than one drug active at a time? Caron Golan was just his gateway drug; now he is moving on to Svef, haha.

I am not sure. This is still an "idea" build. I am one level off from getting Borrowed Instincts. (I guess I could console cheat to find out). I am "hopeful" they stack. I guess if they don't, this build is toast.

I originally said it lowered STR by 5, but it actually lowered INT by 4. The STR is lowered after "crashing" (it lasts 600 seconds, so the crash never really comes into play). That is actually a lot worse, since you really need INT since you are casting all duration powers. I think it is still worth it for a really tough boss fight where you need all the focus/deflection/reflex you can get (high accuracy and high DR enemies). I think for average fights with this build, you actually don't use it. It is actually deflection overkill for most enemies. You still have way more deflection than any fighter or paladin can easily get with your self-buffs. It is an interesting question if you can go under 1. I can envision a 3 resolve build where you target yourself with PyschoVampiric Shield before battle. Because you can't go below 1, you would only lose 2 deflection and net gain 23 deflection for free. If you want, you can repeat until you get a critical hit for maximum duration. It would be interesting to test if you can also trigger on-crit effects, like shod-in-faith and the frenzy armor for a super pre-battle buff. Also, since you already tanked resolve to the minimum, you can consume Svef with no negative side effects, since both of it's negatives lower resolve and the drug provide +15% attack speed... free gauntlets of swift action. I seem to find Carow Golan as drops pretty often and in containers. Also, there are some merchants that sell it and I think their stock refills, though I haven't tested. The merchant in the crime family house sells all the drugs, by the way (5 each in stock). You also want that faction bonus because you critical hit a ton with this build; basically all the time. All of your powers lowers enemy deflection, some by a lot (mental binding lowers deflection by 40) and you are also buffing your accuracy by 20 with borrowed instincts. I am actually thinking a weapon with increased critical damage is better than Strike Hard. Maybe an Axe would be good to have around, or one of the Sabers with an increased critical damage enchantment. The Purgatory saber is actually looking pretty good since you also don't have any source of healing with this build and you will still take some damage, particularly from spell casters before you have a chance to disable them. Ones with raw DOT fortitude spells are particularly annoying. The Dweller (bounty) is immune to charm and paralyze and has a fortitude DOT... that was a tough battle for this build that relied on figurines and staying way back.

Interestingly, you can target yourself with powers outside of combat and instantly regain your focus. For example, the vampiric shield power will provide +25 deflection to you, but also -10 resolve... still a net 15 deflection and still enough concentration. I wonder if the penalty can be removed with an item that removes debuffs...

I haven't fully tested this build out and I am not completely sure everything stacks, but the idea is to create a character with such high deflection and reflex, that everything misses targeting those. Fortitude is, well, the worst it can possibly get. But this can be compensated with massive defensive bonuses against common fortitude effects (stun/prone) and by paralyzing/stunning/charming enemies that have direct fortitude attacks. Another thing to note is that many fortitude attacks are actually secondary attacks that won't trigger on a deflection miss (like the annoying dart throwers in the first expansion and spider venom). Let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve this setup, while keeping with the goal of super-tank. Class: Cipher Race: Wild Orlan (has bonuses to primary stats of this build, and further defense) Starting Stats: MIGHT: 2 CON: 3 DEX: 15 PER: 20 (spell crits = 50% more duration for our buffs) INT: 19 (longer buff duration) RES: 19 (max deflection) End Game Equipment: Weapon Set 1: Purgatory (you will use both enchantments a lot) and Little Savior (Durgan-Refined) Weapon Set 2: Your choice of Big Gun (something for some quick starting focus) Armor: Blaidh Golan (+2 Perception Enchantment) or lighter armor for more speed if not facing stun/prone possibility. Drug of Choice: Carow Golan (+20% focus, +10 deflection, +20 reflex) - This is key to gaining more focus and increasing defense further. First thing you may notice is: How can you do any damage with such low might? How will you generate focus? Well, first remember that ciphers come with a +20% damage buff and class talent for even more, which help a lot to make up for the lost damage. Also, we will be using DR-Bypass to further reduce this problem and eventually high attack speed. In the late game, with weapon enchantments and talents, the lost might is hardly noticeably with regards to damage output and focus generation. Second thing you may notice is that fortitude is laughably bad and endurance really low. This is on purpose. We want ultra high defenses in all the common defenses and leave fortitude low and just disable enemies with fortitude attacks. A disabled enemy is the same as infinite defense. Health doesn't matter because all enemies will ideally miss. It is possible you might take a graze or two while unloading your initial powers, but even minimal CON can withstand that. Neck: Shimmering Cloak (Mirror Image, +10 Ranged Deflection) Gauntlets: Gauntlet's of Deflection (+9 deflection) Rings: Gwyn's Band of Union (+4 int, "bless" spell per/encounter) and Ring of Protection Helmet: Executioner's Hood (lower enemy accuracy) Waist: Broad Belt of Power (+2 might, +2 Resolve) Equipment focus is on increasing deflection, reducing enemy accuracy, and increasing spell accuracy. Talents: - Vulnerable Attack - Sword + Shield - Cautious Attack - Superior Deflection - Biting Whip - Draining Whip - Snake's Reflexes - Weapon Focus - Soldier Key Powers: 10 focus - Whispers of Treason (Fast and cheap way to knock out single spell casters not immune to charm) 20 focus - Mental Binding (Paralyze + Daze, AOE stuck): For spell casters immune to charm and single target big threats. 20 focus - PsychoVampiric Shield (+25 deflection, -10 enemy resolve). Not only a huge deflection buff, but also lowers enemy will, deflection, and concentration. 30 focus - Puppet Master - instant cast and longer duration charm, for when you have focus to spare later in battle. 40 focus - Body Atonement - reduces enemy DR by 7. This is needed for high DR enemies so you can generate enough focus from them late in battle. 50 focus - Borrowed Instinct - Buffs accuracy and all defenses by +20 (debuffs target accuracy and will). This and PsychoVampiric Shield should be used all the time. 50 focus - Ring Leader - AOE Charm. Good if there are multiple spell casters near each other and there is not time for cheaper charms. 70 focus - Time Parasite - This is a luxury spell for increasing future focus generation. Cast when the battle is under control and you want to speed things along. --- So, this build doesn't really work I think until late game because your defenses just won't be high enough without the equipment and level up bonuses and you will just die horribly. However, if you can get to level 16, in theory, you should be force enemies to always miss and your accuracy is so high that you don't miss yourself. Because of all the deflection and reflex buffs (and drug synergy), the cipher can go much higher than a fighter or paladin ever could. You want to attack whoever you debuffed with your powers because they have greatly lowered defenses allowing you to consistently critical hit them all the time, which generates more focus. The trickiest part is the start of battle, since you want to cast multiple powers in a row but don't have enough focus yet. For those situations, I use per rest items like the hat that gives 3 whispers of treason, or the ring that gives 2 dominate charms, or figurines to distract and then use a gun to generate a bunch of focus, cast powers, then move in and take over. Once your initial set of powers are cast, you should have enough duration time to generate focus with melee to keep your buffs and charms refreshed. Late in the game, you do so much damage that focus generation is not a problem. The only expensive power (focus wise) that you need (borrowed instinct) has a very long duration.

It's damage is not particularly impressive, but it is fast cast (chain spam with high dex) and has a huge area which I think makes it quite good. But the point, of course, is damage AOE spells in general at all spell levels. Often, I find the limiting factor is time (how long it takes to cast), not total damage. Of course, the one that increases your casting speed by 50% (and also a fast cast) is at that spell level and should be used too. Also, there are tons of items that grant fireballs. I think someone figured out once you could have a single character cast something like 17 fireballs per rest by using an assortment of items.

I have 6 words for you. Fireball, Fireball, Fireball, Fireball, Fireball, Fireball Who needs a tank when everything is dead in one ranged volley? ;P For more fun, I can totally see having different wizard party roles. The tank could self buff for very high defenses (wizard double, mirror image, Iron skin, etc). That one will have plate, large shield (doesn't really need accurancy for self buffs) and max resolve and con. Maybe the rest in might for self-healing (veteran's recovery). Pick up the engagement talent and an engagement weapon. The CC wizard would just cast crowd control type spells (disables, not damage), spells like the 1st level one that Prone enemies. I would max INT and PER for maximum duration and area of effect. They could also off-tank by putting the rest in CON and Resolve. Single target damage wizard would do simple damage spells without duration. They could minimize INT and go for MIGHT and PER. They can also off tank, since they only need two primary stats. The AOE damage wizards could do area effect damage (like fireball). They need INT, MIGHT, and PER and should stay farthest away.

Maybe, and yes, in theory a super tank chanter with passive damage aura beats anything. But, for standard attacking without a lot of cheesy moves, I think Fighter is the best class (spell caster novas excluded). Sure, it is encounter limited, but I don't think that matters because once half of an encounter is dead from knockdowns and charge, the rest is just clean up duty that can be done with auto-attacking. The dangerous threats are gone. I like fighter the best because they are so hard to kill and they can start off really strong since all of their abilities are instant cast, pretty much. Currently, I am working on a cipher build that just self-buffs to crazy high deflection (with long-lasting enemy accuracy de-buffs and defensive self buffs). But that is a whole lot more work than just fighter which passively is quite good without doing anything. And isn't good until level 16, really.

I feel like the full attack after charge is a bug. After all, it doesn't behave like a full attack, is not in the ability notes, and there are no indications of the change in patch notes.

It isn't terrible having low int. It just makes some abilities very weak, but that is fine if you don't plan on using them much. Any allocation of stats are about equally good if you are not actively looking for specific synergies with equipment. If you go with low int, I would stick with as many non-duration abilities as you can. Charge, confident aim, and weapon specialization, for example, don't use INT at all. Barrage and stalwart defense should be avoided since they won't last long enough to make much of an impact. While it seems like INT lowers your combat skills, it doesn't if you take abilities like Barrage and stalwart defense. Barrage provides as much accuracy as 20 points of Perception, and the stalwart defense is like 20 points of resolve (and 20 to will, fortitude, and reflex). They are every encounter and instant cast with no recovery. If utilized, you more than make up for the missing stats. CON doesn't matter much because constant recovery will quickly regain your endurance (particularly if stacked with healing multiplier items and the survival bonus) and health can be regained with binding wounds talent (if you don't rest often). If you get hit hard by a high damage crit, you have an ability to auto-revive. Another reason that INT is hard to give up is that there are no items that increase durations. However, there are tons of spells, talents, items, and weapons that buff accuracy and defenses. By the late game, the accuracy/defense stats don't matter much for combat because they are just one of many drops in a bucket. It is true that INT doesn't really fully shine until late game (when you have tons of things with durations). To completely min-max, you could start with low INT and then retrain later to max INT. Obviously, that is not good for roleplaying.

It certainly didn't do that previously. Does the targeted enemy get the charge "crush damage" as well as the full attack? If not, then the total damage is probably similar. When I played, the target of the charge got the same crush attack as the enemies in the path and it did absolutely nothing against that crush immune dragon except give me a recovery bar. I found it very effective for instantly reaching and killing backrow casters. It is the best fighter ability and with 2x per encounter it might be better than even heart of fury since you are killing the most annoying enemies with it and the AOE can be substantial if you can line them up well. Too bad it is not available until level 13. Knock downs are also full attacks which benefit duel-wielder. Start feeling like a rogue once you get four of them per encounter.

I forgot about those. They used to be super bugged.

The problem is not disengagement; it is ranged enemy stunlock (first expansion is full of them). If they stun you once, they will continue to over and over again extending the duration (only takes a graze hit). After the first hit, it is easier for them to continue to hit since the ailment greatly lowers your defenses. Since you can take no actions or move while "stunned", it is game over. Only really a problem for solo players. The only way to fix this is super high passive defenses (particularly deflection) such that enemies almost always miss (rogues don't have this) or summons to distract The enemies and absorb their stun attacks for you. Also, by stun I mean stun/prone/paralyze/petrify since they all work the same way. Stun/prone is no big deal since equipment can give you +100 defense against them. However, while some rare items help against paralyze, the buffs are not enough to prevent enemy grazes. Lowered duration doesn't matter if they just keep reapplying and extending the duration. Sadly, since you must attack from stealth before you can use any items, that backstab is basically worthless against a pack of stun enemies. You could just use a different tactic when facing those enemies, though. Same way you must handle fights with stealth interrupting cutscenes. I mention it because it is an annoying problem with stealth backstabs. Problem other alpha strikers, like "monster lash" paladins don't have.

Unless they changed something, charge doesn't use weapons. It works like a spell and always does crush, even if you are holding a bow or spear. When I did my glass Tsunami build, charge only did a single crush attack to each enemy in the charge path (I had duel weapons). The base damage for charge is very high, and when combined with high Might, it does a lot of damage and is very much worth it. You will use it all the time because it is twice per encounter. Sadly it is worthless against enemies immune to crush (one of the toughest boss enemy is). For war hammers, there is a really good one called "Strike Hard" that can be bought later in the game. Arguably one of the best weapons in the game because it can dramatically increase your attack speed with the right combination of gear and helps accuracy. Also, being a soldier weapon, weapon focus/master/specialization will also carry over to the most damaging ranged weapons, in case you like to start off with a gunshot. Regardless of your build, I think high Might and high Intellect are most important. All the core fighter abilities benefit a grest deal from both, unless you only pick passives. The two best ones you can't avoid taking and help a great deal throughout the game: knockdown and constant recovery. Without high int your (up to 4) knockdowns per encounter won't last nearly as long and constant recovery will expire long before the battle ends. You really need those two abilities to compensate for your lower defenses and it is a waste to nerf them so badly with minimized intelligence. I think it is better to lower perception, con, and resolve, which have minimal impact on your build. You don't need to completely tank them, but around 8 is just fine. With the right (easy to obtain) gear to compensate, you could completely minimize any of those 3 stats without any really noticeable harm. I have done so solo and with a party, they are even less needed. For modals, don't bother with the fighter ones. However, "vulnerable attack" is very good for duel-wielders. Late game you can consider adding savage attack. I consider that one optional and a low priority. Vulnerable Attack is well worth the speed penalty and is particularly noticable early on so I recommend it as one of your first two talents.

Yeah, this build is no longer so good on patch 3.04. One handed style no longer works. I actually found my fighter build to be more effective. Even with the barbarian buffs, I think fighter is better overall. Just is so unkillable and high damage with speed weapons combined with massive DR bypass. I have been contemplating a tankier version of the fighter that only minimally lowers DPS. Something to help avoid disable threats (stuns, etc)

I always liked the "crit me" builds. Main problem though is you can get stun-locked if playing solo. Normally, this is fixed with figurines to distract the dart throwers and then you take out them out quickly because of your high damage output. But if you have to attack before you can summon figurines, this is a problem because they can stun-lock you right after you backstab while you wait on your recovery bar. However if you can get your deflection to ultra high levels (even if only for a few seconds), then most enemies can't stun you because they are usually secondary attacks that only happen if a normal deflection attack doesn't miss. However, I don't really see any way to actually make that work without completely nerfing your backstabs. While cape of the master mystic is good, it is not until late game (and after some very tough battles) before you can get it. Meanwhile, you do have the problem of really only 1 backstab without per/rest... and stealth backstab is very dangerous for the reasons listed above and not possible at all for many battles where it happens right when you enter a new area, open a door, cut scene, etc.

That is interesting. I didn't know that two-handers also got two backstabs per invisibility. That could be a game changer as they have a higher base-damage and great effects. Wounding, in particular is very strong for a rogue because of the damage multipliers. I think you would be torn apart waiting for that second attack, though. I remember it used to be that interrupts prevented the second backstab (with full attacks). Not sure if that is still the case.

I played around with a DPS backstabbing solo rogue in patch 3.02, but was annoyed with the buggy behavior of back stab and the fact I would get interrupted often right after backstabbing making it hard to get away. Because your first action needs to be attacking, you can't distract the enemies with figurines. I found that the early game was easy solo, because you could just one-shot the most dangerous enemies (phantoms) from stealth and had 3 back stabs to do so. Mid game is tougher and you are forced to rely on figurines for tanking. Late game, you have the amazing feign death ability, giving you tons of back stabs (in theory, never tried it though). The other problem was that stealth seemed meaningless in the expansion areas. No amount of stealth helped you get close enough to back stab, at least with melee weapons. In theory, it should play like the dull runner paladin, but instead of just 3 alpha attacks, you have potentially many more. Though, I suppose it isn't until level 15 that you actually have a lot of back stabs and by then the paladin has their super AOE flame ability. Maybe paladin is just better, particularly since their alpha strikes are all per-encounter.

Has anyone tried out a back-stab rogue with the latest patches? It sounded like the issues with strike abilities and back stabs have been fixed, and some of the strike abilities have been buffed a little and escape now seems like a nice way to protect yourself after you backstab from getting interrupted or stun-locked to death (a problem I had with a glass-canon backstab rogue) On the less positive side, sabers are no longer the auto-include for backstab rogues. The new +20% damage modifier seems like a drop in the bucket for rogues who already have tons of damage modifiers. Maybe it make sense now to return to guns? Maybe a different set of 1-handed weapons with useful effects or critical-hit damage boosts is now better. If going both defensive and backstabbing, I think you would have a hard time getting all the talents until the very late game. You could have both a back stab weapon set, and a large shield and hatchet set. Stealth gives you plenty of time to switch weapons before you backstab and right after you can instantly switch to the large shield to avoid damage/stun/interrupt while you wait on your recovery bar and for when you want to use non-combat actions, like summoning figurines, using potions, and so forth.