So, i played and finished pillars of eternity shortly after release on PoTD with a melee death godlike cipher (using mainly two-handed swords and estocs). I also managed to kill the Adra Dragon without too many problems.
I recently started several playthroughs trying out patch 3.02 and the recent changes and i read quite a bit of things about ciphers. Some say that they've been nerfed, other say that they've been buffed.
I also read several "class tear" list and everybody puts ciphers, especially ranged ones, on top. Thing is, i've been trying both a ranged cipher and a melee two-handed warrior (full armor+greatsword), and by level 7 the warrior did almost double the total damage of my ranged cipher (41k warrior/ 21k cipher). I know that i have CCs and other utility tools with a cipher but talking about raw damage the warrior is a monster, hitting almost always for at least 50 damage, up to 120 with the flaming sword granted by the forgemaster's gauntlets.
Am i using the new cipher in the wrong way?
Ranged cipher stats 18/6/18/13/18/3 (with gear and racial bonus 18/9/20/15/19/4)
Talents: Biting Whip, Draining Whip, Outlander's Frenzy Abilities:
Weapon: Fine War Bow + burning lash / Exceptional Blunderbuss + burning lash Powers 1-Soulshock / Whispers / Antipathetic Field 2-Psychovampiric Shield / Recall Agony / Amplified Thrust / Mental Binding 3-Ectoplasmic Echo / Puppetmaster 4-Pain Block / Silent Scream
Melee warrior stats 18/7/17//17/10/6 (with gear and racial bonus 20/9/17/23/12/9)
Talents: Two-Handed Style, Savage Attack, Weapon Specialization: Soldier Abilities: Armored Grace, Confident Aim, Disciplined Barrage, Knock Down
Weapon: Fine Greatsword + fire lash + damage against kith or Firebrand's Gauntlets Greatsword
They are both humans
I want to thank everyone for the feedback and your insight. I think i'll fiddle a bit with gear and stats and maybe restart again. To be honest fighter sounded cool and all, but just as in the BG series, after a while is a bit dull (also, i didn't know about the confident aim bug and i really dislike using bugs, even non intentionally). Plus i really can't bring myself to like a ranged cipher, even if it's better than a melee one, i really can't bring myself to like the "psion with a bow". Maybe i'll finally try to roleplay a decent priest, maybe Skaen or Berath. The more i play this game the more i feel like i have to learn more and, as a D&D veteran, it's really refreshing.