guildwriter

Tactician seems extremely exploitable. Even rogue can easily trigger brilliant tactician by using pernicious cloud or smoke grenade. One of the strongest of the new subclasses imo. Even the penalty when you aren't assist attacking (-1 Pen, -5 Acc) isn't so bad that it can't be overcome. Lot of ways to deal with flanked or the penalties associated with flanked as well.. I don't mind this as much though as preventing everyone from being flanked in a team setting is a bit harder to execute than with a solo character. I think it's good that there's an option for other classes to have situational access to unlimited abilities seeing how Obsidian seems to favor endurance fights for this game.

Smoke Veil or Shadowing Beyond can work. A good rule of thumb is be at least far away enough that you can't see anything. There are some caveats, but that's the general principle.

Weird, running splintered reef right now on the beta on upscaled PotD and I'm not seeing any placements that are different. Sounds like you might be trying to stand and fight too much. Assassin/Skaen has few things going for it as far as that playstyle. But even then you shouldn't need that many consumables. Personally I only use them for specific fights where the odds are way outside my favor. Try picking off one at a time and dropping combat until you get a sense of how you can take out 3 or more in one pass on an enemy group.

Favored Disposition: Rational, Cruel Disfavored Disposition: Benevolent, Diplomatic

No, just tested that. You get flanked but the afflictions don't show on your card.

Didn't see anyone talking about Priest of Woedica, so here are the spell descriptions: 1 - Writ of Engagement 3 - Writ of Consumption 5 - Writ of War 7 - Writ of Sorcery 9 - Writ of Mending I think the most interesting picks are Writ of War and Writ of Sorcery. Pretty sure Helm of the White Void and the +10 Accuracy it gives to checks on inflicting Body/Mind Afflictions will help here. Shutting down all enemy spellcasters for 30+ seconds using a high Int character would really make some fights go smoother. Writ of Mending feels a bit underwhelming for a PL9 except an AoE Enfeeble is pretty rare and could be comboed with other classes to really ensure things stay debuffed. Overall has potential I think. Favored Disposition: Rational, Cruel Disfavored Disposition: Benevolent, Diplomatic

So Debonaire is even worse than I thought. The Cowardice effect kicks in once you are about 2.5 meters away from anyone with a green circle. That's a pretty short range for such a hefty penalty of -10 Accuracy and -10 to all Defenses. Need to test this some more, but I think Rougish Charm does break stealth. Rougish Charm does break the moment you damage the charmed target. Here's the real kicker. As a "bonus" the Rougish Charm ability gives the charmed target a random inspiration. The higher the character level of the Debonaire, the higher the tier. Not great, but still could be useful to make your charmed guys strong right? Well here's the thing. The charm and the inspiration are separate rolls to hit. Meaning it's entirely possible to miss entirely with the charm effect but still land a positive inspiration on the enemy. I managed to superpower the bartender of the Wild Mare while never charming him once. So yes, you can screw yourself over inadvertently with this ability as it is done. I think this is on track of being one of the worst subclasses if not the worst subclass in the game.

Don't think that's intentional even if I couldn't identify who they were at first. Pretty sure it's a Woedican Paladin as he keeps trying to garrote me.

Slippers of the Assassin do not work. First killing blow results in nothing happening. (Edit) Equipping and unequipping the boots seemed to have fixed the slippers not working. Not sure if I did anything else to change things but I got it to proc now

So I've been testing Pernicious Cloud now that it's Pen is at 7 rather than at 0 in the current live version of the game. Things I've found out: don't pass gas in King's Coffin. Let's take a look see at ground zero before detonation. Guess I really am lactose intolerant! For reference, this radius is with a Int of 21 and no overseeing effects. Multi class Assassin/Priest of Skaen. Level 20. Let's dive into some numbers. Holy moly. That is a lot of damage. This is a good time to mention that the base damage is 9 with the following multipliers (+10% Rogue PL, +27% Might, +5% Infamous Captain). This is why going to the gym is a good idea if you are going with a DoT focused build. Note that this ability does benefit from assassinate, though I don't think it influences the penetration of the DoT during its lifetime. It can overpen as I've seen it tick for 17 on low armor targets. Casting it again on targets that have the debuff already will refresh the duration. Anyways for 2 Guile that is a hell of a lot of value. Corrode isn't the most common immune. I need to test it more but I think it's now well worth the pickup. Just stay away from your party.

It's not sold, it's found with Magran's Favor in the Fire Naga temple.

Kapana Tanga has a large downside and that's the subpar pen it has. At Superb it has a pen of 8. Even with the dual damage that level of pen is low enough that you'll be underpenning or no penning a lot of the time. I agree with Tactician/Soulblade though. Phantom Foes is a god tier debuff. Only thing to mention is that Cipher already has unlimited resources, so it doesn't quite get the full benefits of another resource limited class. But Fighter/Cipher is strong period so the point is moot.

So here's more info on Tactician's bonuses and cons: So if you were going to build a solo build out of this you'd need either Squid's Grasp or Gipon Prudenesco to for their Immunity to Flanked bonus to start with. Confusion would be okayish but Shaken and the -3 PL is too much to swallow. I wonder if Cap of the Laughingstock would block it though? If it would, that plus Modwyr would take care of confusion and it wouldn't matter. As far as all foes are flanked, you would need a lot of engagement to do that sort of thing naturally. Or be a wizard with the multiple blind options. Or as it turns out be a Rogue! Smoke Cloud, Smoke Grenade, and Pernicious Cloud all apply Distracted on Reflex save which also makes enemies flanked. Oh man, these also all interrupt as well so you can recharge multiple Discipline with them as well! Wow there's a use for those abilities now!

12 pen is good as with Red Hot Skewers you're at 14. That being said I encounter high crush armor a lot less than high slash or pierce so that's another check in the column for the Chromoprismatic. Pen doesn't matter that much for the AoE weapons. You're mostly using that to spread afflictions, not actually do damage. I did, I also took deep pockets. I might change it up though as I'm still experimenting. I value the flexibility of weapon sets and items a lot. Worth noting you should drop Escape and Shadowing Beyond for Rogue and pick something else instead. It's rare that you need to escape more than twice and Shadowing Beyond is expensive enough that spending 3 guild per usage cripples your offensive resources.

I think Tactician/Trickster could be quite potent. Enervating Terror to lock mobs into place around you and then smoke veil and hit with something like Oathbreakers using Clear Out and Mob Stance and watch things explode around you. Can swap to a different weapon set and then focus on regaining resources as necessary. Trickster no longer has to worry about running out of defensive resources as much and has decent self heal options if damage goes through. Use Crippling Strike as a cheap interrupt or Knockdown. Overall I agree that Tactician paired with any limited resource class is probably a great option. Need to see the numbers on what the negative effects on Tactician are though to see. The minus Penetration could be an issue on PotD upscaled depending on how much it is.

My personal preference is for Chronoprismatic Staff. WotEP has low base damage and it's more important imo to drop targets ASAP, especially wizards, clerics, and ranged rogues. A backstab full attack from that weapon will likely drop the target low enough that a Toxic Strike DoT will kill them. This is important because the AI will auto swap to healing the target if they can and even cast spells like Withdraw or Beetle Shell, effectively making your actions pointless. It may be different on Veteran, but the scaling on PotD makes standing and fighting hard to do unless the fight is stacked in your favor for various reasons (part of the difficulty of this build is knowing when you can stand and fight and when you have to use other tactics). I have more tests I want to run on other weapons though. I want to confirm some thoughts with Voidwheel and Engolio de Espirs. One other thing worth mentioning is the increased reach of Chronoprismatic makes it easier to land backstabs both on approach and when targets are moving around. There is nothing more tilting then losing a backstab due to an enemy moving out of range. Amra probably requires 16+2(BB) Might and then a +2 might gloves. That way Triumph of the Crusaders propels you to 25 and that should last for ages compared to Minor Avatar which is much shorter due to the PL bonus that Triumph gets. Also will naturally boost your survivability as you start killing en masse. Storm of holy fire will only get the assassinate bonus on the first hit. After that it's a normal spell. My experience on PotD so far is that it's situational in its usefulness. Kitchen Stove - Thunderous Report is per encounter and does immense damage as an opener. Hand Mortar - Send Serafen to get a titjob from Ondra. Nice and easy way to apply afflictions in an AoE and the no recovery cost on firing is really valuable as it allows you to instantly follow up with a different action. DoC Breastplate - BiS. The extra resources plus the adra bath from the luminous bathhouse gets you 12 guile total which really helps. Other things like self mending and con affliction resist are nice to have as well. Gauntlet of Hylea - Not safe early on to use, but later on it works well. The DoT that gets applied is strong. Helm of Grotto Deep - Applies a DoT whose save is calculated using Poison rules (Alchemy). It's not especially strong but every bit can help. Plus the +2 int helps with increase the range of your AoEs. Revku's Fractured Casque - Is useful for some fights where you are going to be massively outnumbered and can't afford an interrupt. Especially good in fights where you can't drop combat and you will be surrounded (Pirate Ships). Platinated Plate - Worth keeping around as a option for dealing with no escape fights. Epsilon (Pet) - Gives stride and armor recovery. I like the additional stride as it makes arterial kiting easier and repositioning faster. Nomad's Brigandine - Nice for immunity to disenagement. Gipon is a bit too paper for this build. With things like the striding cloak, you can swing on melee and then run away before their attack animation completes allowing you to dodge their damage 100%. Bronlar's or Cladu Scalith or Akola's - Again, good for certain circumstances. Cap of the Laughingstock - We don't rely on resolve afflictions so the -10 deflection to enemies can be worth it. Just some thoughts.

Revku's Cloak provides you with immunity to fire and also heals you for a percentage of fire damage dealt. Get someone with Necrotic Lance to inflict Acute Rash upon yourself as that wound shouldn't matter for this fight with this cloak. There are a fair amount of potions and items that either provide elemental damage shields or elemental damage resistance. Wizards can self buff themselves with Bulwark Against The Elements (+5 Burn Armor And To Other Elements). Withdraw and other such abilities can come in handy here. If they are Fireballs, then anyone who has reflex to the gills should be okay.

I don't know about a weapon, but there are some options that provide some healing when an enemy is killed. (E.g., as a pet's party-wide effect.) Sanguine Greatsword provides a small amount of healing on crit. The Twin Eels heals on kill. The spell Concelhaut's Draining Touch also heals (and apparently phantoms will spawn with it as well if you cast it while the attack is active). Those are what I can think of off the top of my head.

From a power gaming perspective I find Debonair to be underwhelming. The special ability that's the keystone for the subclass only works for a subset of fights (also almost none of them being boss fights in the base game). I assume part of the reason why it was made to be this conservative is that you can use it in stealth and not have it break stealth at the same time (Quiet/Quiet means it won't break stealth on cast or on impact IIRC). With the range being what it is and stealth mechanics being what they are, the chance you can apply the effect and then extract without getting exposed would be low unless you totally committed to stealth. All of this to take into account Charm is now a fragile effect and will break if a "friendly" hits them. So we have a subclass whose key ability only works on a minority of fights in the game. And some quite hefty penalties added on top of that as well. I understand that Charm and other effects like it are incredibly strong as is, but this feels way too conservative.

Here are screens of the soulbound gear from BoW that give bonuses if you have afflictions. Some decent bonuses there.

If you haven't seen the latest beta patch notes here they are. Here are also some images of the skills so far. Some thoughts I've had: How are Arcane Knights not straight busted with Blood Sacrifice? Can cheap self heal and have replenishing (random) Wizard resources? It does come down to the damage numbers, but it even has a recovery cost of zero. I dunno it just seems too easy to fuel with a variety of abilities. At first glance, Debonair is really disappointing. The base duration of the charm is immense and the guile cost is cheap making it strong, but it's limited to kith only so that limits the profile of the ability significantly. Personally I think charm is a OP choice to begin with and doesn't really open up much for the rogue from a build/play perspective that it couldn't already do fine or better with a ciper multi. HOWEVER, there might be an interesting implication if Rougish Charm though doesn't break stealth as it does come with Quiet/Quiet. Then it gets kinda busted. Can overcome the penalty with a ranger subclass easily. I don't know if it's losing worth losing engage for being a charm bot though. I guess if you just use ranged attacks the point is moot.

Correct. One of the key ways this build self sustains is to use Triumph of the Crusaders and setup kills so that we reduce incoming damage and heal ourselves at the same time. You don't have to add more to Might and those points could be spent elsewhere. But it is a consideration to make. Keep in mind also that it does allow you to unlock Amra's potential which I would argue is a better option for this build than Oathbreakers. It's mostly important to just avoid the malus though. You could just as easily put it into other stats and still have be relatively good.

Glad to hear that there's interest! I wasn't sure people would be interested as the build does use a lot of different strategies that are considered "cheesy" and is not much of a powergaming build. Don't have access to my rig right now but I can give rough figures. You don't need it but I do use BB as the game is rough enough as is playing this way. Race: Anything but Godlike. Godlike PL bonuses don't make up for the loss of the helm slot where we have a lot of fun juicy options (yes I know about the PL scaling bonuses on Sneak Attack, I value the utility more). Some of those options like Revku's Casque and Deltro's I'd consider necessary to get through some fights. Plus I can't stand the way Godlike look. Personally I prefer Wood Elf for the aesthetics and the racial as effects like paralyze are more or less death sentences. Might: 14-16~ While we are a rogue and have substantial additive damage boosts the healing bonus is nice to have. Also allows us to work ourselves into a position where we can use Amra effectively which can be a early solid 2H and late as well. Con: 10~ I wouldn't dump it as we won't be able to deflection stack enough to survive an alpha volley. Wouldn't mind more honestly. Dex: MAX This needs to be as high as possible. We want this build to be as reactive as possible and it's the kind of situation where you want to be able to switch up or sequence the next action as soon as possible. Per: 12-14~ Most of our casts are self buffs and if we need more we can get the Aware inspiration from Priest. This one is pretty flexible. If you really want you can drop it to 10 or so if you don't mind playing pixel hunt to see traps. Remember that Per 20 is needed to solo acquire Last Word. Int: MAX Another one that has to be as high as possible. All our buffs get extended. This includes Smoke Veil, Shadowing Beyond, BDD, etc. Expands Thunderous Report AoE and Mortar/Rod range. Shove it as high as you can. Get more. Res: 10-12~ You can get away with about this much. I wouldn't drop it lower myself as hostile effect duration does matter for this build.

Keep in mind that the actions I posted are just one approach that I use when fighting groups and is not necessarily the ideal approach for every enemy setup. Also keep in mind I play solo with this character and that heavily influences some of my decision making. Arterial on a healer generally is not the best option. The reason why is that generally the healer AI will not really move once there are things to cast on (itself being a good example). Toxic strike for the heal debuff and the increasing over time DoT damage is a better choice and will generally kill off the target even through some heal focus (if your alpha hit was strong enough). Gouging can be a good choice as it seems like the blind reduces the overall vision of the target changing how they position. Don't know if it works this way for everyone, but for Kraken tentacles it definitely seemed to be that way. Arterial strike kiting works well for high armor targets as the raw damage is potent (probably one of the fastest acting DoTs there is). Concelhaut becomes a complete joke with it. An initial AoE arterial strike hit on a massed pack and then dragging them to the team does work really well. So that might be a better lead off. But against other groups it might be more risky like with a pack full of ranged characters. The initial ranged alpha strike could kill you outright, or interrupt lock you long enough, or even set back your recovery long enough to kill you. Enemy composition and positioning really does influence a lot of how this works.

Nah it's fine, I understand where you're coming from. It's a theory for sure. Personally I hesitate to try to describe the inner workings of a black box when I don't know anything about the internal architecture much less what the intended boundaries of the abilities are. So I'm fine with saying "Sure it could work that way but I have no real way of confirming yes or no". The reason why I specifically think that ABD (Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure - oops got the name wrong earlier) isn't a stealth effect or invisibility per se is that the spells that you can cast and hit with will cause stealth AND invisibility to break. ABD doesn't break when Confusion casts and hits a target, but stealth and invisibility will break if you cast and hit with Confusion for example. I know for sure Shadow Form doesn't grant any kind of recovery bonus. Pretty sure that ABD does not either but I could be wrong. Honestly it could all be unintended behavior though and they're both supposed to conform to normal rules regarding Stealth and/or Invisibility. Sure go ahead. Glad to add to the knowledge pile.