[Is Xoti supposed to be this insane?]

As many have mentioned, I got a fight between Xoti and Pallegina early. The moment after I walked out of the hallway after recruiting Pallegina, Xoti yells "I've HAD IT with you!" and my eyebrows nearly shot off my face.

 

Xoti is definitely less insane when you go down the romance route and have her give souls to the animancers, but she will always have some fixation with death as part of her religion.

[Help theorycrafting a Cipher/Monk combo?]

For this combo, which one would make more sense: biting or draining whip?

 

Everybody on this forum seems to be saying that soulblade = biting whip. But since biting whip is now only +30% and draining whip is +20% AND +100% focus gain wouldn't it make more sense if the idea is to use soul annihilation as often as possible? I don't have the beta but it seems unlikely that 10% bonus damage is more deadly than twice as many soul annhilation... no?

Also seconding this question. I'm not sure if we have enough info to do the math on this (not in the beta, and I haven't seen numbers on Soul Annihilation yet)

[Help theorycrafting a Cipher/Monk combo?]

For stats maybe something like this:

 

Might 18 - it's multiplicative now so it'll be great with your soul whip bonus and for soul annihilation

Con - 10 - I don't like to dump and health is needed

Dex - 14 - faster actions, maybe drop to 12 to add to Perception

Per - 16 - more accuracy for more crits. I think 16 is enough to find all traps and such, maybe go even higher to 18?

Int - 10 - Longer duration is always nice but you're going for more of an up tempo guy rather than a CC'er

Res - 10 - Don't like to dump but with Clarity of Agony available to lessen affliction duration by 50% you could maybe drop a few or a lot here

 

 

 

Grabbing a few good cipher spells isn't a bad idea. You'll have to get a Cipher ability every time you gain a power level so keep that in mind when you level up so you don't waste a free pick on a universal ability like dual wielding instead of using a dedicated Cipher level up. Having an AoE attack or CC is always nice, Phantom Foes is cheap and gets all enemies 'flanked' for +10 to hit and sets up any sneak attackers nicely, well worth a pick and the focus needed.

 

You'll want to get Rooting Pain as a Shattered Pillar as every time you gain a wound you'll activate it. Since you gain wounds by causing damage you'll get a lot, just need to be below max wounds so you'll need to spam something that costs wounds. Force of Anguish is cheap at one or two wounds and causes an interrupt which Rooting Pain also does, maybe better to spam Torment's Reach at three wounds and upgraded causes an AoE cone stun which is very nice for minimizing incoming damage and helps get crits too I believe.

 

You have a nice concept going and it has great synergy. The key features of soul annihilation, soul whip, Torment's Reach and Rooting Pain are all available early, its not some Dreamer Build that only comes into its own at Powerlevel seven at level 19.

 

Thanks. I figure that I will move a couple resolve points into perception for dialogue purposes. Was also not aware of rooting pain.

Does Swift Flurry / multi-attack bonus make up for moving a few points from dex?

 

KDubya, would you rather go for Swift Flurry or Lightning fists, if it were up to you?

 

It looks to me like Lightning Fists is more reliable in a majority of situations but I'm looking to maximize number of attacks too.

[Help theorycrafting a Cipher/Monk combo?]

I'm new to theorycrafting but I thought there could be some cool synergies with a Shattered Pillar / Soul Blade combo. I'm not in the beta, but here's my concept:

 

I would basically try to leverage Swift Strikes --> Swift Flurry plus crit conversion passives plus Hearth Orlan to build resources as fast as possible and just repeatedly slam down Soul Annihilations. There are also a fair number of crit-enhancing passives in both trees, as well as penetration bonuses.

 

For weapons I would do unarmed / rapiers.

 

My questions are:

1. What would a good stat spread look like for this build?

2. What cipher spells would be helpful for this? Is it worth taking shred spells (which compete with Soul Annihilation)? Or more expensive CC?

3. Any other issues with this idea?

 

Thanks.