Not So Clever Hound

Without the Potion, I'm at generic PL11 (9 +1 Prestige +1 Hot Razor Skewers, not counting Illusion-specific +3PL from Whitewitch Mask and Eye of Wael). With the Potion I get to generic PL13 (I checked my numbers just now, potion does stack properly the +2 PL). That gives me MUT Fists with: +65% DMG, +18 ACC, +5 PEN. So it's not post-Mythic I think (?), it's near-Mythic - I'm just missing +10% DMG increase vs. a Mythic-grade weapon. If I was a Monk, I guess that would give post-Mythic Fists, but MUT gives an upgrade every "buggy" 3PL I think from what @thelee explained which seems to line up with my toon.

To your point though, Potion of Ascension is particularly nice for this build when heavily using Monastic Unarmed Training, to cobble together the last PL necessary to get Mythic Fists. Similar to your Punchy Puncher build in that regard, but with Vanishing Strike + Gambit + Backstab on top .

You were right this is referring to Forgotten Sanctum. Good reminder though to not write too much in Deadfire gibberish . @Raven Darkholme is talking about the Weyc's Wand Final Soulbound Upgrade: Attuned Channel: After Empowering an ability, gain +3 Power Level for 20.0 sec

Yes indeed, by beneficial effects I meant those that explicitly appear as a buff on your character. I was about to say that to simplify, we could say that any effect that has an aggressive component (e.g. Repulsive Visage, Relentless Storm but also "Borrowed" spells) aren't prolonged but all the "pure" buffing effects are but this is very wrong. Cloak of Death for example can be prolonged and you can't find more aggressive. I think the Piercing Sigil too. and even Llengrath's Safeguard can be prolonged but has an aggressive Push component. It's not even a matter of whether there is an attack roll or not. Nevermind...

Thanks for sharing. It is nice indeed on characters that benefit a lot from stacking PL - Monks, spellcasters, certain Rogue builds... You could use it in combination with all the other general and keyworded PL boosting items on a Fury druid with Brilliant and Greater Maelstrom... the Perfect Storm. In general, those megaboss trinkets are far from impressive, but this is probably the most useful one. As a general rule of thumb, I **think** that all beneficial effects can be prolonged in combat with SoT/WoD unless they are "borrowed" (e.g. Borrowed Instinct). What can be prolonged outside of combat is a bit more funky.

A Berath/Fighter will be on theme and have some power and fun. And if you're playing Solo PotD and your fear is to be too overpowered, you can relax. It won't be the case .

I'm with @Haplok on this. Especially without WoD. The one strong thing going on for a Melee BM/Priest would be that you could buff yourself up to absolute oblivion and back, then go to town on the enemy with Spirit Lance. But without WoD your first buffs will be over by the time you've finished casting them all. On the other hand, a Battlemage or Sage would synergize perfectly and bring outstanding melee prowess to whatever playstyle/weapon type you like. If it's for RP fluff then of course do whatever you like. But not using WoD/BDD on top... on any serious difficulty you are going to have a very hard time.

As a pet I mostly used Harley for the ranged bonuses (DMG bonus also applies to spells) but depending on the situation Frau Nils or Ooblit are also great. For a well-rounded pet with relevant bonuses no matter the situation/ play style, Abraham is a very solid idea indeed (as it often is).

You make a great point about Pernicious Cloud - probably more solo friendly, fortunately it is definitely not crucial. I didn't use Tuotilo's Palm on this build. When I switch to fists, it's either because I'm invisible with VS or because enemies are Terrified/Petrified so I'm just looking for DPS Gambit is most helpful to me with Fists + Repulsive Visage Combo. I've used a lot the Mortar but mostly to apply status effects in AoE. That being said, I think it's a good idea too. Gambit + Mortars would be best on a SC Streetfighter I think. Vanishing Strike with Powder Burns, Gambit like crazy... rinse, repeat. The only issue is to have all enemies in a small area and to have a large enough AoE radius.

Thanks! Backstab: useful with MuT when using Vanishing Strike + Melee rampage on certain very dangerous enemies with lots of health (e.g. Splintered Reef's Fampyr's). It just gives a huge spike in damage when it matters. The DPS is impressive and you're safe because of VS so you can surgically take out those problematic customers and reset to take out their posse with less pressure. Smoke Veil and Upgrades: Smoke Veil is a staples of any Solo Rogue, including this one. Pernicious Cloud is very strong in certain fights because our high PL and stats makes the DoT pretty good, its radius is huge, and it enables Deathblows/lowers Deflection. MegaBosses: I did Doru and Belranga Rogue-Style (Gouging Strike) to get the mythical stones. You can totally take Auranic, I haven't done it (yet) but it is totally viable for it. I wouldn't risk Hauani. (EDIT: I mean of course with a Rogue and SoF you can take Hauani, its entire blob family and the whole of Deadfire without a scratch - but without SoF, a Blood Mage or a Cipher I don't want to try it anymore).

[CLASS BUILD] The Man of Mistery – SC Trickster Solo Upscaled PotD Class: Trickster Concept: Fun and Versatile Rogue that mixes spellcasting, ranged and melee attacks to adapt to each situation and tricks his enemies into certain death. Optimized for a No-Rest run. Game Version: RTwP. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). PotD Solo Viable: Yes. Of note, I think this is a Solo build that is particularly well compatible with party play because he can do so many things that will benefit others. Companion: Nope. -----WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THIS BUILD?------ Why go with an SC Trickster? As an SC Rogue, it’s probably not the strongest Solo option (arguably it is Assassin). As a Trickster, multiclassing is usually the way to go as it pairs so well with other classes, in particular martial ones. I wanted to try out this build nevertheless to see how much mileage I could get out of its unique access to high-level Illusion spells, notably by stacking as much Illusion Power Levels as I could while achieving a really cool, nightmarish style (see this thread) fitting well the fluff of an Arcane Rogue who vanquishes his enemies with scary illusions and deadly, freezing tricks. I was especially curious about using Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake and Wall of Many Colors as a Rogue. These are spells that I’ve loved since PoE1, particularly for their utility against certain Adra/Alpine large beasts, but in Deadfire I haven’t used them so much as a SC Wizard because 1) there is usually another certain Wall spell that I want to keep up and 2) there is a lot of competition on PL8 spells and offensive spells in general. All in all, I’ve found this SC Trickster quite surprisingly powerful and very fun to play Solo, mostly for its versatility and because it’s a Rogue archetype that doesn’t play exactly like a typical Deadfire Solo Rogue. Here are some key highlights: We reach PL14 on Illusion spells (we can even reach PL16 on Freezing Rake wielding Sun & Moon at night). That is a lot of PL, which combined with high No-Rest stats make all Illusion DMG and CC attacks hit like trucks. Huge AoE, nice ACC, long duration, large damage… We can then supplement that with powerful ranged and melee offense depending on the situation. I would usually always start with Dazzling Lights to lure/group enemies but then every combat sequence can be totally different depending on the enemies and layout. I’ll detail key abilities and strategies below. Because it has so many options, this build is the opposite of a one-trick pony and can actually stay in most fights for some time before resetting the encounter or abusing Gouging Strike, if at all. Even if in many situations on Upscaled PotD you still have to go invisible/resest before the end of the fight, I have found that you might reset less often than Assassin for instance, and can take down a lot more enemies than you thought in one go (ah, the random power of Fyonlecg's Wall of Many Colors…). Of course, it should be also be said that as a SC Rogue with non-renewable resources, completing the harder DLC fights (non-resettable, small battlefield, lots of enemies with lots of health) without cheese requires Arcana. But that’s also true for an Assassin. Or you know... abuse Strand of Favor and remove all challenge (that is not what this build/post is about, but it is a possibility). -----SPECS------ Race: I went with Pale Elf for style and +PER Background: The White that Wends – Hunter FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 22 (15 Base +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Hot Razor Skewers) CON 12 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon +3 Girdle of Eoten CON) DEX 27 (18 Base +1 Elf +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing +2 Footprints Ahu Taka) PER 30 (18 Base +1 Elf +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Ajamuut’s Cloak +1 Kuaru’s Prize) INT 26 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones +1 Kuaru’s Prize) RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Food: Hot Razor Skewers Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift Magran’s Blessing Infamous Captain, Bonus Skills, Champion Stats, Port Maje vendor, Fully discovered Map, Bonus Money… invested all 105 Berath’s Blessing Points SKILLS I just spent between Mechanics, Athletics, Stealth and Survival, Diplomacy. Max Arcana temporarily for certain end-game situations. ----- ABILITIES ------ ACTIVE Crippling/Arterial Strike, Blinding/Gouging Strike, Smoke Veil/Smoke Cloud/Pernicious Cloud, Withering/Toxic Strike, Gambit, Vanishing Strike. PASSIVES Key: Backstab, Fast Runner, Monastic Unarmed Training, Arms Bearer, Two Weapon Style, Dirty Fighting, Persistent Distraction, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Deep Wounds, Improved Critical, Deathblows, Prestige. Optional: Snake Reflex, Combat Focus, Adept Evasion, Wall of Flashing Steel. -----GEAR------ Weapon Set 1: Hand Mortar (Blinding Smoke), The Eye of Wael (The Hundred Visions, Shrouded Strike). Weapon Set 2: Kitchen Stove (Thunderous Report, Everything and Anything) single wielded. Weapon Set 3: Monastic trained Fists. Head: Whitewitch Mask. Neck: Charm of Bones. Chest: Pale Hide (Ghost in White, Dread Howl). Cape: Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak. Gloves: Gauntlets of Accuracy. Rings: Kuaru’s Prize, Ring of the Marksman. Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka. Belt: Girdle of Eoten Constitution. Pet: Harley. -----STRATEGIES------ I’ll just outline a few simple example situations but there are so many fun combos to create and you can mix depending on the situation and the resources you have left (I always start with Weapon Set 1): Melee Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, get close in stealth, combat starts, cast Repulsive Visage to Terrify everyone, Switch to Fists, Use Gambit as much as you want (you have 11 Guile ), reapply Repulsive Visage, Gambit ad nauseam and other Rogue attacks or autoattacks. Can also use Dread Howl. Works surprisingly well! Mage Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Gaze of the Adragan, 2 or 3 Freezing Rakes, mix and match with Wall of Many Colors and Thunderous Report for fun. Dread Howl can help if survivors get aggressive. (EDIT: one Freezing Rake can do about 300 DMG per target on a Crit, on average definitely in the 200s). Rogue Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Fire AoE with Vanishing Strike from stealth > combat starts, all enemies are stunned and you’re invisible. Follow up with AoE Gouging Strike (you have reloaded instantly the shot from stealth), Pernicious Cloud, Smoke Veil. From there, you can try to add an Arterial Strike + Smoke Veil or simply just retreat to a safe location and wait it out. Won't be long . Weird/Wael Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Gaze of the Adragan, Wall of Many Colors to hit all enemies, see what happens then and what is best to apply next. -----THE END------ That’s it. Not the strongest Solo build but really fun to play, especially if the unique features of the Trickster subclass have triggered your curiosity. I also think it would be an absolute monster in a party. Let me know if you have any comment or question!

Could be indeed, but I've seen the DoT of Gouging Strike start at a value, then go down to another value much later, then go up to another value some time later - without using True Love's Kiss. Yet another mystery of the Deadfire I guess. Not really important, anyway this is only noticeable when you apply perma-DoT on incredibly sturdy enemies. Still I wonder what's going on under the hood...

That's true and that's a lot of Guile, but with max Arcana a No-Rest Assassin can also wreck those harder, no-reset encounters . Which is also true for many other non-renewable resources classes IMO. On No-Rest runs though I do like to use an Empower point here and there to renew Guile for very specific fights (e.g. Auranic, the Oracle fight in FS, maybe one fight in SSS, still leaves one point to spare). Actually I think that you could potentially stretch 36 points of Guile (12 x 3 Guile for Vanishing Strike) with a VS duration-maximizing build to almost 3 minutes of invis. I'm counting 36 because you'd wear Cabalist Gambeson, not DoC.

It's a good idea as there are only so many variables that can influence DMG taken, but I'm talking about Raw DMG DoT that inherently bypass armor. Otherwise I'm not aware of any active/passive Doru ability dynamically and directly influencing AR. If Doru PL increases through Charge Helstorm (?) could it influence AR via Scaling (and in some buggy way also affect Raw DMG, but that is a stretch!)?

Seriously though, I'm only doing no rest runs and I'm positive in all these instances there were no Empower shenanigans. They were also not involving Chanter where I would be tempted to use Sasha's Scimitar or anything. No Empower, just me applying a DoT to Doru and then retreating to the south east corner of the map. Could Doru's PL (its "charging" abilities) influence the DoT he takes?

That's fair! But then if it was refunding on Crit without limits, dual wielding Blunderbusses/Mortars could Crit 8+ times per Full Attack (not including Powder Burns, Blinding Smoke etc. just the main attack that is the only thing that counts for Gambit). That would potentially refund 16+ Guile per Full Attack, effectively making any Assassin a never-stopping cloaked Terminator. Therefore I guess it's OK as is, after all SC Rogue is still the only class in the game with a built-in God Mode. I think that having Gambit refund Guile without limits would be **almost** like extending Vanishing Strike with Strand of Favor: the most powerful thing in the game, but that removes immediately all the challenge.

Thanks @thelee. In my experience certain DoTs have a very funky behavior of their own. I have killed Dorudugan in many many (too many) instances with Gouging Strike and/or True Love's Kiss (not because I'm a coward who likes shortcuts mind you, my religion simply forbids me to engage this construct in open combat ). My DoTs applied to it have been very often all over the place in the long duration of its demise, sometimes Gouging Strike was starting at 8DMG/3sec then going up to 12DMG/3sec, then changing again to a different value... same for True Love's Kiss. I can understand how the initial application can determine the DMG ticks, but why would the value of the ticks change dynamically and randomly to different values without other conditions changing? (I did not quaff a Potion of Ascension halfway through, I did not get bloodied/near death to trigger racial passives... nothing).

Thanks @dgray62 I'll write about the build as soon as I've played a little more DLC stuff. Great weather and family fun have got in the way of playing Deadfire in the last few days . I am using the Community Patch but not (yet) Elric Galad's mod so I can't speak to that. In my version of the game, Wall of Flashing Steel doesn't regen Guile, it just adds a short DEF buff. Gambit is amazing but sadly, cannot give back more Guile than the 4 points it uses, even if you use Multishot or AoE weapons - at least in my version of the game. This is true with Mortars, Blunderbusses and Sun & Moon. It's still really good because you get more chances to Crit and get your Guile back, but you can't get more than 4 points. The best SC Rogue for Gambit IMO is Assassin, if you use Vanishing Strike then as many Gambit as possible before reapplying VS. You can get a long duration for VS (~15s), then Gambit will hit like a truck and crit all the time and every hit you also get an instance of Backstab... it's really strong, as long as enemies don't wander all over the place when you're invisible. Very strong combos include Magran's Favor + Sun & Moon with Ring of Focused Flame, but I've also loved using the dual unique Spears that you get in Sayuka/Cignath Mor. You want to wear the Cap of the Laughingstock. Throw in a Pernicious Cloud at the beginning and you will also enable Deathblows while dealing serious DoT to everyone! The SC Trickster I play makes a more selective use of Gambit in certain situations. For example, you have a pack of melee/close range foes: you can group them with Dazzling lights, approach in stealth and hit them all with a PL14 Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage (nasty!). Then switch to Fists with Monastic Training while everybody's Terrified for a super long duration each time the ability pulses, you can pummel enemies with Gambit with of course Persistent Distraction on (Deathblows), reapply Repulsive Visage as needed... very efficient use of Guile and can completely destroy a whole pack of melee/close-range enemies. But for this build Gambit is not the primary tool, just because Trickster has so many other, well, tricks up his sleeve. Anyway more to come soon .

I really don't know what you mean

Even better, they're not mutually exclusive! You can have both enchants Namely Ghost in White and Dread Howl.

I don't know what good enough is but yes you can be fast. I have 27 DEX and low recovery armor so a full attack+recovery cycle with Daggers dual wielded with the 2WS ability is under 2s from the tooltip. That is not outstanding but that is fast. The interesting thing about Trickster is that you can approach things in many different ways. You could for instance attract/group enemies from stealth with Dazzling Lights used as sparcrackers, Gaze of the Adragan from stealth, jump in and yank everybody with your dual daggers while reapplying Gaze of the Adragan (which you could do 6 times per fight or 7 with DoC Breastplate). That is a suboptimal but interesting take on the Solo Melee Rogue playstyle: to survive and kill, you don't use Vanishing Strike, but Petrify effects. You would have the (highly theoretical) potential to Petrify a whole battlefield for over 90 sec per encounter with the right build I think. But Gaze of the Adragan can be hard to land on high FORT enemies, and there are many on PotD. TBH apart from flavor if you play Solo I think it's hard to find an optimal Dual-Dagger SC Trickster style. Even if you want to be overwhelmingly a melee character, Monastic Unarmed Training would probably be better IMO with the Perma-paralyze style. Permanent Distraction + Deathblows + Near-Legendary MUT fists = Brutal. But it also depends very much on the difficulty level you want to play at, and what you want to complete in the game.

Berath Blessing, max PER, INT, DEX, then MIG, dumped CON and RES. No Rest Run with all the benefits. Stack as much Illusion PL as possible via Prestige, Weapons, Items, Hot Razor Skewers... mixing supercharged "spellcasting" and rogue abilities with powerful ranged weaponry and Monastic Unarmed Training for when I want to get upclose and personal to finish Terrified enemies. I'll write up a little build in the coming days if you'd like to have a look, but I want to play a bit more high level content before that. So far it's been really awesome to play. Very fun, can really adapt to different situations and bring a surprising amount of oomph to the fight. PL14 Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage, Gaze of Adragan, Freezing Rake or Wall of Many Colors are no joke.

I haven't done serious/controlled testing, but I have used Toxic Strike a lot with a wide variety of weapons and against a wide variety of enemies on Upscaled PotD, and with a balanced mix of Hits and Crits (well, mostly Crits ). In my experience, I have always reached consistent numbers, from the initial application and then with the ~+3DMG added every tick up to the total meltdown of the enemy. Over/under-Pen would add enough DMG variation that I **think** I would have noticed. This is questionable evidence at best of course but empirical and based on dozens of encounters Solo. Do you guys have a different experience?

Hi everyone, I'm doing a Solo run with an SC Trickster build which I will write about a little later (very fun, very versatile and surprisingly powerful). For uber-style, I went with the Whitewitch Mask and the Pale Hide which is a unique armor that, to my great shame, I hadn't thought a lot about or used much before. You probably know this but for those who don't, it turns out it's a really great armor, so I wanted to write a little dedicated post about it. Of course, the 20% Hit to Graze enchant can synergize really well with things like Llengrath's Displaced Image. So can the elemental AR bonus with Pale Elf and various armor buffs. But what really surprised me was the enchant Dread Howl, which gives a per-encounter Frighten ability. Maybe this doesn't look amazingly strong but with a high INT, high ACC character this gives: A gigantic radius around the caster and fast cast, so ideal at the beginning of combat. With good placement you can hit everyone. Relatively long duration (30-35sec easily achievable on Hit, more on Crit). All afflicted enemies suffer -5 Deflection, -10 Will, +15% hostile effect duration, -3 all PL, AND cannot use Hostile abilities (any offensive spell/ability except autoattack) for the whole duration. Per-encounter, can be obtained right after Maje. In fights where enemies pummel you from the start with a barrage of powerful abilities that interrupt, CC, debuff, or do very high damage, this ability can increase the survivability of certain builds, in particular Solo ones, by A LOT! It can give enough breathing room to gain the upper hand and deal with the most dangerous customers before the duration expires. On Upscaled PotD (which is the difficulty I play on), enemies will still be able to hit you hard with autoattacks. But no Arcane Dampener, no Helpless Beast, no Accurate Wounding Shot, no Gouging Strike... for 35 sec! It works really well with this Trickster build, but I think this armor could have even stronger incremental usefulness on other solo/party builds and if you haven't already, I encourage you to try it. Plus, it looks awesome, almost has a little Planescape Torment vibe . Let me know if you have other thoughts about it!

Haha nice tongue-twister. Since we're talking about silly Deadfire jokes: The other day I fought Onadere the Syren and her posse of creatures. Ishiza really did a number on those Earth Blights, he nailed a couple of them pretty good. I guess I killed two stones with one bird...