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guildwriter

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    (4) Theurgist

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  1. I don't know what scenario Kaylon or you tested, but I just recently tested a fight in the Old City where I hit a Greater Earth Blight with a Gouging Strike and retreated. There were enough enemies of varying distances to "ping pong" constantly between the hostile and passive state. Differing move speeds also contribute to this. I have gotten the scenario that Kaylon describes to trigger in other areas like with the Bardatto quest in The Hole. There the distances are short enough that enemies can ping pong back into place and deaggro to cause Brilliant to proc. It is more accurate to say Brilliant *can* trigger between DoT ticks but it's variable on the encounter setup. This will definitely make SSS and FS potentially non passable for this build as it lacks certain efficiencies to get past the fact that enemies do NOT go passive in some of those fights, even if you are invisible. Something I have found through substantial testing and trial and error using my Assassin/Priest of Skaen. Note that this was in regular PotD with no challenges.
  2. So after some testing I think the reason why Brilliant and Invisibility can work together the way they do has to do with a peculiarity in certain fights in this game. There are some fights where once combat starts, it cannot end until all hostiles are cleared from the map. Examples of maps like this are ship boarding, lots of SSS fights, and certain fights in FS. Even if the enemies can't see any hostiles and deaggro, you are still in "combat" mode and can't reset the fight and your resources. (I can think of a couple of reasons why someone might design an encounter like this intentionally but they seem pretty marginal. It's so prevalent, especially in later content though that I feel like it has to be intentional. This obviously ignores Berath's Challenge which is this exact behavior all the time.) In a normal fight where you can drop combat using invisibility, this trick will not work. Once enemies are out of their "aggro" mode combat will end and Brilliant will flash on once because combat is still going on but there are no party members in combat and no enemies in combat, which technically triggers Brilliant. But Brilliant shuts off right after because combat is also done. Using Gouging Strike in normal combat with multiple opponents never allows you to trigger Brilliant by going invisible because enemies will aggro if a nearby "friend" gets damaged and run towards them. So the check is never fulfilled. The megabosses and other fights like that allow all members to leave the fight, but combat not to drop, which means when Brilliant turns on, it will not shut off. For general play this doesn't help much, but for the fights where a solo rogue probably couldn't win without resource generation it's golden. That's my theory on how this all works based on observing the video Kaylon recorded and doing my own testing on some generic fights.
  3. This is part of why playing Assassin solo is so much fun for me: finding the limits of every encounter and trying to maximize the efficiency. The way fights feel can change dramatically based on approach wheras a lot of the other solo approaches can feel incredibly facerolly due to the way they create degenerate value. Smoke Cloud shooting is definitely safest overall, I just can't play like that for long without getting bored.
  4. Brilliant triggered by invisibility? Well now I have a new build to play after my SC Assassin! Great find. I'm really curious to see what the limits are on this. One of the biggest problems I ran into with the Assassin/Skaen was extracting every bit of value from limited resources. I'd probably consider the following changes if going through a full run through: Pernicious Cloud in the build somewhere to avoid fatigue if you're going for a serious playthrough. You can clearly potentially every fight by shooting once and going invisible but it will get super tedious. You're going for a super high might and int so this will work nicely with it. Arterial Strike - Another fight texture choice. Works incredibly well with kiting. Pair with Boots of Winter for added hilarity. Harley is interesting. I wonder how effective DoC, Ooblit, and Shadowing Beyond could be. Your DPS throughput/overall efficiency could be higher by consistently funding more resources per re stealth. Especially relevant on fights where you can't LoS enemies and are back in the fray once you drop stealth. There are a lot of these in the DLC. Gipon Prudensco or Fleshmender seem like decent options as well depending on fight. I would consider Trollhide Belt or Upright Captain's Belt. The second is insurance if you fat finger restealth and you get grabbed. Prevents a midair death. Unless Obsidian has fixed the way shipboard combat and other such fight setups works, I don't recommend Infamous Captain if trying a Ironman run. There are fights where it will pre trigger combat during the cutscene and then you'll die without being able to do a thing. Lots of ways to tinker with this!
  5. I'd personally like to see some method of resource generation for each class for longer fights. And some love for the Assassin class.
  6. Having played both substantially I'd say that Evoker just isn't worth it. Sure it's cute when the double fireball lands but it's just a bonus. I value the flexibility a lot more as I've found the +2 PL on evocation spells doesn't significantly change the math on fights. Yes it will do more damage, but not enough to change the fact that you're likely going to have to cast twice anyways to blow out the target. As far as the viability of Assassin/Wizard, the class is plenty strong and frankly can clear most of the game+DLC solo potd upscaled if it really wanted to. You'd be surprised what little micro is required when every mass cc lands and you can just AoE to your heart's content and then backstab to clear stragglers. Assassin doesn't need scaling damage on backstabs as much as they need a way to regen Guile points. I think damage scaling on backstabs would be trickier to balance as on the lower settings the character could effectively trivialize content without too much effort (not sure how the scaling goes on normal).
  7. Rep shouldn't be an issue. Not everyone on that party is going to get along as Pallegina won't get along with Xoti or Teheku. But it shouldn't be too much of an issue. The setups depend on how you want to play. Personally I run something like Eder as Swashbuckler, Pallegina as Herald, Xoti as Cleric and Aloth as Wizard and Teheku as Chanter. Personally I think you have a lot of support and would consider some kind of auto attacker that can help carry damage, but if you're going Assassin/Wizard then you can carry damage by yourself if needed. I think my character has 80-90%+ of damage and kills. If you go Assassin max Stealth and some conversation choice that you like. Giftbearer's is good choice for sure if you want. My personal play style is to rely on stealth and smoke veil to prevent damage (untargetable means everything misses including friendly and hostile AoEs. Only rays can target through stealth). So the way I play ends up tanking my deflection and saves for as much offense as possible. One of the reasons to use Modwyr and DoC breastplate. There are no mandatory stat checks that can't be worked around. It's mostly fluff or a way to avoid a fight or save some rep. I will say that you should have someone get Athletics as high as possible to deal with Whernu Cleft when it comes along if you go there. You can generally use a mix of consumables and rest buffs to get through most checks. Your approach is similar to my team. Eder as Swashbuckler(main tank, hold engagements), Xoti as Priest (offtank/heal/buff), Maia Rua as Geomancer (The Red Hand autoattack brokeness and cc), Ydwin as Mindstalker(damage/cc/buff/debuff). I run this because if you play right, you don't really need more than one tank and a bodyblocker (Xoti). The way I end up playing is pseudo solo honestly and many times I don't even get my party involved except to cleanup or hold things in place. Sparkcrackers and Nina's Shadowflame and some of your best friends. I like Ydwin for the additional damage and control but almost anything works in the fifth slot. Reccomended stat priority for Assassin/Wizard is Dex and Int. Dex so you can cast and attack quicker (and pop Smoke Veil ASAP). Int to make everything last longer and larger AoEs. If you have BB I recommend raising Might as well (exception is Blood Mage as the Might bonus affects the self damage. I've almost killed myself with one Blood Sacrifice). I don't reccomend fully tanking Resolve or Con personally but YMMV. Per is nice to have but I wouldn't call it mandatory. I like Wood Elf for the stats and the Dexterity Affliction Resistance. Assassin/Wizard is squishy but it gives as much as you're willing to put into it. Shadowflame from stealth will more often than not paralyze everyone in the group. You can chain shadowflame and other AoEs after that to blow apart the entire group and use your high powered Rogue attacks to wipe out the survivors. If you really want to add insult to injury, bring in your party once everyone is paralyzed and just mass nuke with Aloth and Xoti/Teheku all blasting away. Eder can enjoy the pyrotechnics with a pipe and beer and greet anyone who tries to break out to the backline.
  8. Bleak Walker/Assassin still probably has the highest damage alphas in the entire game. What changed is the difficulty of things and how much HP/Armor enemies have in general. On PotD upscaled at level 20 it's not uncommon to see enemies that have 800+ hp putting them well outside the one shot range. That's why that build is nerfed, it can't trade as efficiently as it once did. It could probably do normal PotD solo but I digress. It's totally viable for party play though on any difficulty. Since you like doing massive damage let's talk some other options: If you don't mind babysitting a character, break out a Helwalker/Streetfighter. Swap Serafen for Xoti. Helwalker will give you +10 Strength through Wound stacking giving you the potential to hit 35 Might for a whopping +75% additive damage bonus. Use the blunderbuss modal to apply flanked to self and get blooded and watch this character just absolutely vomit damage. Xoti is there for BDD + Salvation of Time when things get hairy because this character goes splat real quick. With Pallegina can give the Chanter boost to reload speed and the action speed boost from monk means this character is going to just ream things. You can change Helwalker for Goldpact if you want something that can stand and fight better. Or Wizard if you want more flexibility. Barbarian is an option if you want to make Carnage hilarious. Priest if you want to handle the buffs yourself (go Death Godlike for maximum living on the edge, the PLs will boost Sneak Attack Damage on top of your abilities). My personal favorite is Assassin/Wizard or Blood Wizard. It gives you strong single target Alpha strikes or solid AoE Alphas that you can chain together. The Assassin bonus applies to most everything so not only do spells like Fireball get better, but you can also make it much easier to land AoE CC which is especially relevant on PotD as it can be much harder to consistently land that sort of thing. Not the absolute best damage wise but highly versatile. I like rocking Modwyr and Rust's Poingard, picking mostly Rogue Talents and abusing Grimoire swapping (Ninagauth's or Concelhaut or Llengrath's). All of these would work with your party. I'd avoid Cipher on Serafen as Wild Mind is absolutely tilting when it adversely affects things. He's solid as a pure Barbarian. I'd recommend Maia + The Red Hand for solid ranged DPS as another option.
  9. You can either right click Modwyr and click on the "Talk to Modwyr" button at the bottom where Bind Soul used to be. Or click on your main character and click the talk icon on the action bar while she's equipped.
  10. If you need to group up people on ship battles here are the some locations I recommend to force enemies to group: A corner near the enemy helm Stairs If you're still using the starting sloop, a corner next to the door leading below decks The first is good because if you kite the enemies correctly, the LoS issues will force enemies to either path right up onto the same deck as you or cluster on the stairs. Stairs are great because there aren't many ways up to you and hit detection gets super wonky on inclines allowing you to oftentimes hit many more people than you might think. The corner next to the door works well as it LoSes a large section of the map. For most ship fights your priority should be to wipe out as many targets as possible before worrying about causing max flanking. Especially the ranged units which will be spread out.
  11. I actually value Dex and Int as the highest priorities on my Rogue builds. Dex allows for more actions to be taken and makes the character feel much more responsive as a result. There's a fair amount of ways to buff Accuracy as well so dropping Per isn't that much of a big deal. Most people like to shortchange Might. But if you can swing a +30% additive damage bonus that's pretty huge. Especially as it helps DoTs. It really comes down to what you're trying to do and what you're trying to maximize as a result.
  12. It's a case where Infamous Captain fires at the start of combat and when you start ship boarding you are already in combat. Typically the enemy sailors are stuck in some sort of emote sequence that is timed to end as the camera panning stops. Infamous Captain seems to short circuit this causing the emote sequence to break. As the fear generated by Infamous Captain isn't long and the camera panning takes something like 10-15 seconds, it's enough time for the enemy to exit the fear and start taking combat actions. It's not uncommon for the enemy crew to be able to finish 1-2 spells/attacks before the player can assume control. For party play this isn't much of an issue to be honest unless the enemy ship dramatically outlevels you. The real trouble happens if you're solo and playing something that relies on self buffing or some other non passive form of self defense. I've been killed before I can perform a single action before as a result. Infamous Captain also will break stealth at the start of combat for the main character as it counts as a hit calculation. If an enemy cipher has Psychic Backlash you can end up stunning yourself immediately. Honestly for some characters I don't think it's even close to worth it.
  13. You miss The Willbreaker, Shining Bulwark, Blackblade's Hood (Aeldys) or Fleetbreaker (Furrante). I suppose you could stealth steal the first two. The rewards on the other hand . . .
  14. Stop I have PTSD. [it is a good idea though - I think it will suffer a lot more though in instances where your movement is constricted. See SSS fights and pirate ship boarding fights.]
  15. I wouldn't run it solo until they fix the penetration scaling issues with imbue spells as Fireball is going to be one of your primary methods to trade efficiently. Once they do I don't think this will have too many issues on PotD but upscaled might be a bit much in some cases. I don't think it's capable of taking on megabosses at any point. Here's some basic theorycrafting: AA + Goldpact or Wizard/Blood Mage Either one works well for different reasons. Goldpact gives more armor and defenses and healing. Wizard will give more summons, damage, CC, and buffs. I'd probably go with Wizard personally as you are unlikely to outlast boss fights and the damage potential of Wizard is far higher than Goldpact. Most dangerous portion of most fights is going to be surviving the alpha strike. Will need to eliminate ranged and casters as fast as possible. Melee is nothing to worry about so long as you have space. Weapon Sets: Essence Interrupter, Watershaper's Focus, Scordeo's + Bronlar's Phalanx Essence Interrupter covers armor holes and offers fresh bodies, Watershaper's Focus for the additional bounce when you use Imbue, and Pistol and Shield for when you need to stack as much deflection as possible. Footsteps of The Beast - Will allow you to kite melee indefinitely so long as you have more stride, thus negating them entirely. Consider having Kitchen Stove and Amira's Wing around for mass AoE damage. Giftbearer's, DoC Cuirass, Acina's Tricorn, Ring of Marksman
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