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you can it is just some minutes to program the ai. It will not be 100% effective but maybe 90%. Always defensive/ low health defensive buffs to self on top of ai, then critical pre nuke buffs like alacrity / gaze on wizard or borrowed instinct/ time parasite on cipher then the nukes in order of the most effective on top and situational on bottom, 0 sec cooldown. Try to optimize for most enemies targeted on aoes or lowest will/fortitude/reflex save or deflection depending on each scripted attack. i say it takes minutes to program ai because to make a clean ai sheet you have to pretty much build one from ground up and always use one ability per slot in order, so not group abilities or spells because then you get clunky stuff happening again. for situational nukes the per slot ability rule helps as you set complicated triggers like "enemy lowest fire ar, enemy lowest will etc".

for a cc cipher beguiler is probably better. just again raise perception as high as possible so your will spells crit and you get focus refunded to cast more spells and (auto) attack less.

What makes Barbarian/Cipher so good? And doesn't Ranger bring a lot more than mere Accuracy? What about Tranquilizing Shot - or the DPS and effects increase from Driving Flight? I am looking at it from the standpoint of a pure spellcaster cipher. Ranger and Rogue cipher are mixxed/martial builds because those abilities mainly buff "weapon" damage and not spell damage and efficiency, monk/cipher, berserker/cipher and pure cipher on the other hand can be more pure spellcaster nukers when you build them right. monk gives fire 20% lash on spells and increased speed, berserker extra pen and speed through frenzy as well as the best late game buffs in blood thirst allowing you to ignore recovery on the next spell or attack after a kill->works great with aoe spells. I try to take out weapon attacking out of the cipher at late levels and use weapon abilities likie Thunderous report etc to generate focus and become pure caster once combat starts. a priests salvation of time on you make acsendant state last a long time. so that's the difference basically as I think ciphers deal most damage when they can cast spells non-stop like wizards, and monk or barbarian multi gives the best buffs for the aoe spells.

Just a note pure ascendant gets the best stuff really early (level 11/12) but falls off in power when getting to level 17+ and is still good. Transendant or Witch are decent at the lvl 10-14 range and become amazing level 16+. Out of the two a witch is less squishy and power level is comparable especially since if you go transcendent you need helwalker and those are made of glass. Berserker gets you savage defiance as insta cast to tank through some damage, the healer does the rest for you. Seer seems very nice but I have never played one as rangers always seemed meh compared to monks, barbs and rogue multi but I think it is solid, just won't have the raw damage output of the others. And having borrowed instinct for accuracy boost I never considered taking ranger multi as that is what ranger brings. Barbs and monks bring speed/damage boosts which is nice for cipher. I am bringing this up because with Kitchen Stove on ai you generally want to position your cipher/x near your tank at the front of the formation if you are gonna use ai script to activate Thunderous report each combat at the start. A witch with savage defiance+borrowed instinct can absorb/tank some of the damage while the helwalker if gonna come under probably rtoo much pressure without a priest casting barring death's door on you asap. Here an example from by witch banshee build, though this is quite late level but with deadly deadfire+ installed.

Level 1 Whispers of Treason, Beam Level 2 Mindblades, also that aoe flanked ability is ok, Recall Agony Level 3 Secret Horrors! , Echto echo Level 4 Pain block , Scream or Mind Lance (melee or streetfighter cipher) Level 5 Borrowed Instinct, Ringleader, Detonate Level 6 Amp Wave, Disintegrate Level 7 Brilliant inspiration Level 8 Time Parasite Level 9 Death 1000 Ascendant for damage no point in anything else Cipher pretty simple but item reliant to build focus fast. So use Thunderous report from Kitchen stove basically and Thundercrack and Amira's Wind as backup Early level is spam secret horrors +mind blades late level spam secret horros+amp wave and if there is one target disintegrate or detonate (if target is near death) Max perception and any items that increase accuracy - accuracy is king on cipher. Also hearth orlan for extra crits. If you want advanced multiclass variations go Transcendent or Witch, you loose a bit of tempo but get lots of nice perks from monk or berserker multi. single class is faster to get to very good high level abilities faster but transcendent or witch become more powerful after level 17/18 than a pure cipher. pure cipher good with kitchen stove and red hand as backup but best with kitchen stove+Thundercrack+Amira's Wind layout and never really auto attacking witch is best with same I guess and Aamina's Legacy should you auto attack/ use barbaric blow to finish near death targets transcendent good with kitchen stove and aoe mortars to generate lots of focus with aoe hand mortars and stunning surge. Mindstalker is weaker in aoe than the above variants but has better single target damage as it is partially a rogue. There you take crippling strike and ring the bell and dual wield scordeo's + xefa's for single target burst or scordeo's+fire in the hole for aoe.

only as a stat stick if you are on a caster if the wizard blightheart upgrade (+10% damage done as carrode) is still applied to a varried range of abilities - it used to work that way but may have been changed

How is this build? I´m new to game and since about 3-4 hours on character creaton screen and no clue https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102507-class-build-the-howitzer/ this except take streetfighter rogue subclass and the blunderbuss proficiency (do not take assassin take streetfighter!). Also in monk you can take either nalpazca or helwalker. Activaye modal on blunderbuss, dual wield two of them or pistol+blunderbuss and profit. There is "One handed styl" in this build, should i take "Two weapon style" ? your choice. two-weapon is probably better dps. one handed is good as you will get more crits from stunning surge monk ability to use it slightly more often on the aoe blunderbuss (or multihit blunderbuss). I would go for two-weapon though-it has better burst and damge especially in a party.

How is this build? I´m new to game and since about 3-4 hours on character creaton screen and no clue https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102507-class-build-the-howitzer/ this except take streetfighter rogue subclass and the blunderbuss proficiency (do not take assassin take streetfighter!). Also in monk you can take either nalpazca or helwalker. Activaye modal on blunderbuss, dual wield two of them or pistol+blunderbuss and profit.

"tanky" dps: Holy Slayer, Swashbuckler, Votary, Brute great dps with utility: Contemplative, Sage, Spellblade, Warlock

Generally mirrored is enough for most encounters - it is cheap and you can recast it if it gades plus if you are sword and board and or a paladin mirrored image often is the only thing you need on top of your great defenses save displaced for "longer" boss encounters.

Yeah I figured as much thanks! Basically pistol modal on and pistol in mainhand+ blunderbuss offhand is the best dps on a shadowdancer streetfighter, as you chain stunning surge pretty fast.

imo the best dual gun build is helwalker/streetfighter. it has the best dps of any gun build I played. streetfighter to reduce recovery when using a blunderbuss like fire in the hole or xefa's (blunderbuss modal on) and scordeo's trophy, thundercrack pistol or a second blunderbuss in the second hand also with pistol modal on if you use a pistol as a second weapon.. anyways try it and you'll be amazed at the damage output nothing else comes close when using guns. To get around pierce immune creatures fire in the hole does slash damage not just pierce and you can use eccea's arcane blaster instead of thundercrack in the second hand because eccea's does raw.

yeah whatever you do pick fighter and then another class preferably with good dps like rogue, monk, berserker. The reason to pick fighter if you do use heavy armor is that fighter has armored grace talent which is important as it will speed up your action speed when in heavier armor.

Well I am doing a playthrough at the moment on hardcore dd with challenges enabled. Did not get to SSS part yet but by then my priest subclass should have salvation of time :)/ For healer I am using Paladin/Troubadour this time instead of Lifegiver/Troubadour - and Herald is a weaker healer in early mid levels than a Theurge because the druid gets strong aoe heals earlier than chanter. Later this should be fine with late game chants. Thing is I prefer a Paladin over a druid in terms of party composition because paladin in the end is the stronger party member than a druid. And I could not fit Paladin into my tank because after long deliberation I decided the strongest tank is simply a pure wizard because they get excellent radius damage spells and instant defense buffs, pull of eora, combustive wounds. (could have gone paladin/wizard as too but level 8/9 wizard spells too good to give up). Other than those two my other damage dealers are Shadowdancer, Contemplative and a Witch. Ai is probably gonna be dumb on Magran's Challenge with some tactics as I cannot pause and micro to retarget, so I'll see how it goes, hopefully will have enough raw firepower to just nuke all the things.

You can make Konstanten tank. Give him good plate, weapon+bash shield, all the +ar barbarian passives. Make him spam stun/push invocation. Recovery in plate is ok with Narvi pet. Mirke btw is one of the best dps companions in the game from a class/stats perspective.

Are full attacks when done with two weapons still calculate recovery based on off-hand or main hand? What happens with fire arms (guns)? Are both guns have to be reloaded after making a full attack or just one? which one? off-hand or main hand. I ask because I have a shadowdancer streetfighter here using firearms and blunderbuss modal. Right now I am using Fire in the Hole mainhand and Scordeo's Trophy off-hand with both blunderbuss and pistol modals on. Is that the correct setup to minimize reloading between full attacks? Or should it be opposite (swap the main and off hand weapons - the pistol is faster reload with modal should it be in offhand as right now or in main hand).? I was considering to change Scordeo's for Xefa's to run Fire in the Hole+Xefa's. you think that is better dps than right now? (I would not do it if my reload is sped up by the pistol modal on). By the way said Shadowdancer is currently doing the most damage in my party though that may change at higher levels once my spellcasters get aoe spell nukes. Streetfighter/Helwalker Equipment -Fire in the hole (main), Scordeo's Trophy (off) -Miscreants Leathers -Thoas Headdress -Gwyn's Bridal Garter -Slippers of the Assassin -Mortification Binfings -Orishia -Ring of the Marksman Buff up with monk bonuses/ spam rogue full attacks and stunning surge

The way the helm works now is seperate instances of damage taken (lightning) do not stack. So if you take 20 lightning damage you get a 20% lash for 15 sec? If you subsequently take 50 lightning damage you get a 50% lash for 15 sec.

Playing new patch, trying to figure out how the heck a level 14 shadowdancer with superior weapons has biggest hit: 450 damage listed in the character tab. No way that's possible unless sneak attack got duped or something or it is some weird calculation bug on multihit aoe attack into one.

aoe damage from mortars - but you would have to be streetfighter to take advantage of a blunderbuss. also aamina's legacy with fast attack modal on is very close in terms of dps to red hand and does best of slash/pierce. I am going to run 2 ranged characters and see who prevails: One Red Hand-er and another with Aamina's. I guess Ranger/Rogue is the best DPS combo for ranged characters? Can anything be better? For Red Hand or Aamina's I like Helwalker/Ranger Wanderer. - less full attacks but more passive buffs to take advantage of auto-attacking. For the Hunting bow you could go Shadowdancer Helwalker/Rogue though as you don't need the gun reload bonuses from Ranger. Streetfighter Scout is good for aoe mortars, so is streetfighter shadowdancer, because there you will be using more full attacks and going two weapon style instead of two-handed.

aoe damage from mortars - but you would have to be streetfighter to take advantage of a blunderbuss. also aamina's legacy with fast attack modal on is very close in terms of dps to red hand and does best of slash/pierce.

But high Penetration won't matter versus pure immunes, no? By the way, how do you compare Darryn's Voulge vs. the Amra Axe as for PotD on a Barbarian/Fighter or Barbarian/Ranger hybrid? Amra only becomes better once it is Legendary/Mythical grade until then LDV is better. Amra slightly better as Legendary to LDV but only on single target , on multitarget ldv is still better even there. At Mythical vs superior sure there is no question Amra overtakes it.

I usually run with a few rests/ playthrough, have everyone eat hot razor skewers and forget about it. Hot Razor Skewers = +2 weapon pen, +1 power level. My ranged builds usually have marksman's ring another +1 constant pen. For melee I prefer weapons with extra pen bonuses like Tarn's Respite (saber) and Rust's. Yeah for my dps builds I always mix classes like devoted, Berserker (+2 pen Frenzy), Cipher (+1 pen on weapons and spells), Monk (Tenacious Blows +2 pen). Finally, I run a chanter /x support in the party and Take "The Shield Cracks" and set it on high priority for heavily armored targets. Expose Vulnerabilities from Wiz works too but I like the Chanter debuff more because it sticks better and is easier to recast.

Helwalker is a bad idea generally if you are going melee and are not combining with a tanky class (Paladin/Fighter) and cipher is not a tanky class. General monk is better for this then.

Spirit lance works but I still hiero is a bit clunky with cipher, nothing major but you are sacrificing lots of passive talents that are great from some other classses for spirit lance with is level 5 spell too. for a good tank/offtank I recommend Inquisitor Paladin/Cipher. For overwhelming dps I would recommend Witch Cipher/Berserker. Even on a Witch, you don't have dump resolve. You get a lot of speed and might bonuses and can have high resolve without affecting dps too much.

use it with chanter summons