Tomucci

Neat trick but I try to stay away from exploits agree though that does seem like the most convenient way to get to +3 Yeah this is prob a deal breaker for my build This sounds interesting, ive been thinking about trying priests in some builds recently Normally I choose pale elves for this exact reason but this time I feel like the PL is central to what I'm trying to acomplish with the build Yeah penetrating strike is definitely something I'd take if I had an extra point spare, and yes with the wizard spells I generally do the exact same thing, I switch grimoires if it's convenient with my spells and ability combos, I try to always make it fit comfortably into cooldowns, and with the grimoires I generally only use ones that have at least 2 or 3 spells I want to use, also I don't really like tactician thematically, plus devoted is pretty central to buffing both lance and fists I thought this defense buff only triggered after blooded? Didn't know this was a thing, sounds like an exploit but def a cool trick for maximising PL for this Thanks everyone for all the info, much appreciated

Ok so first of all I'm aware sage is probably better But... Nature godlike for +1 power level Devoted fighter (pike) for +2 penetration and +25% crit dmg on fists and pike, monastic unarmed training, acute for +1 power level, vigorous defence and unbending, stances, penetrating strike and clear out Blood mage wizard for all the martial buffs and a couple of other good spells, +1 wizard power level and grimoires to be able to invest all my points into fighter stuff I reckon there's some good synergy here: - vigorous defence and mirror image for great deflection/defence - guardian stance and ryngrims repulsive visage for disengagement attacks - nature godlike and acute for +2 power level scaling for fists, devoted adds more bonuses, and I'm assuming there's more ways to increase power level - clear out and penetrating strike with citzals - confident aim, aware, conquerer stance, merciless gaze for +15 accuracy, 30% and 50% graze to hit, 15% hit to crit - devoted and expose vulnerabilities for essentially +4 penetration and another +10 accuracy - +3 power levels on all spells So two things I'm wondering First is can monastic unarmed training actually be good with devoteds bonuses and increased power levels buffing it, and does it compete at all with monk fists? Second is it worth it to sacrifice one of those power levels for intuitives +25% hit to crit? Because that seems kinda decent with all the graze to hit stacked on top of merciless gaze, but at the same time one of the core parts of the build is increasing that fist power level What do you guys think? Any tips or ideas?

Thanks for sharing, much appreciated

Just looked into strand of favor, looks like an exploit? Makes sense for meta gaming/solo play but prob wont use it for my regular team potd run, good to know though. If I remember correctly blade cascade only lasts like 5 secs (maybe 7.5 with 20 int) so without strand of favor is the idea to buff up with quick wizard martial buffs, proc it then cram in as many attack spells/spirit lance attacks as you can?

You wouldn't be building around blade cascade though would you? Because thats a chance ability on a specific weapon hit and most of the time you'll have a summoned weapon anyway right? Good point, didnt realise the difference was so minimal but it makes sense given the multiclass, I might aim for (with berath bonuses) 10 mig / 12 con / 16 dex / 21 per / 21 int / 10 res. I don't like dumping resolve for rp reasons, and I kinda see dex as being important just because how much this build will be aiming to do at once, tbf that might also be due to me not understanding your process for minimising recovery on spells

Tbh I'm reluctant to choose ascendant for that exact reason, I feel like I'd be too tempted to just cast the most powerful option over and over

This is probably the case for soloing but even at level 4 once you get miasma you already begin to get an amazing synergy. Maybe because of the low hp I guess but the other defenses are so good lol, and I feel like raising con is good for this build because the blood mage kinda uses it as mana, was actually thinking of having high con / int / dex and 10ish mig / per / res, which is a really unusual spread for me but the build already gets such great bonuses to accuracy and deflection (and might increases self harm from blood mage) I think its beneficial to boost the other stats that are conductive to its universal functions. If I decide to go full caster I'll prob swap con for per. Seriously so good lol, I'm a sucker for versatile builds, get bored with one trick ponies very quickly, I love that this can be a fantastic caster and then just decide to switch on melee when they want and be great at that too. I'm actually taking a look at all the cipher subclasses and tbh they all look good. I'm leaning towards soul blade because I like having that strong melee option, and the tankiness of the build allows me to cast from the front line regardless. Beguiler also looks great because of how well this build attacks will, so the synergy of casting miasma then deception spells also seems very strong, if casting deception spells refunds enough focus to chain deception > shred > deception then it could be a great option, im not sure if crits affect how much focus is refunded. Psion looks good for the reason thelee mentioned, and ascendant also looks great for the reasons shai mentioned. Blood mage is the only wizard sub I'd want but every cipher subclass looks great for this build. Yeah makes a lot of sense for that high level of the game, but even at more mid / casual levels it doesn't seem like they've gotten much love. Maybe it's like you say and people find it anti synergistic because they feel like they're doubling up on casting when they could be adding something fresh and different to the build like rogue or monk abilities. Tbh the thing that appeals most to me is miasma reducing will by 40 and reflex by 20 combined with borrowed instinct for crazy accuracy bonuses.

Honestly it looks great to me just for miasma because of how much it lowers will and how many cipher spells target will, and even better its all done in an AOE, and better yet you have borrowed instinct to increase accuracy by +20 that targets will so you can drop miasma on a group > cast borrowed instinct and essentially have +60 accuracy for most cipher spells against multiple targets in an aoe. After activating miasma and borrowed instinct you should also have +40 accuracy vs reflex (and can add ring of focused flame for +50 on the wizard's fire spells). Then you can carry a morning star for body blows, that + bowled instinct will give you +45 vs fortitude for fortitude targeting spells such as disintegrate. You can also penetrate decently well with cipher spells between +1 for penetrating visions, +1 on individual elemental types, and expose weaknesses (which lowers armor by -2 and also targets will) and ofc landing crits which increases penetration by 50%. But also they can tank, +20 all defences from borrowed instinct and +30 from mirrored image with other options for defence bonuses and also multiple options targeting multiple defense types (including will) to inflict blind. Another cool thing is availability of ability points, cipher is a hungry class which can make it difficult to multi but wizard's allow you to invest pretty much all your available ability points into cipher stuff. Theres also some great martial stuff between cipher and wizard, like citzals spirit lance and soul annihilation which is a great synergy but theres obv also a bunch of other good martial buffs. So between solid melee, offensive casting and amazing crowd control there's a lot of room for versatility. I know there was a great build posted not that long ago by @Shai Hulud but I feel its been overlooked for a long time, you often hear people talk about multiclasses like arcane knights and spell blades but hierophant doesn't seem like it's ever been popular. Seems strange .

Reckon solo is possible with this build? Nope never used any of these before

My stat spread is similar, from memory (with berath bonuses) it's 10 mig / 7 con / 22 dex / 20 per / 20 int / 10 res When I originally made it I hadn't really factored in off tanking as a function of the build, that being said I don't think I'd want to sacrifice anything else for it anyway. Yeah I think both weapons are really good on this build for their crit effects, just gotten my character to lvl 13 for driving flight and got my weapons and armor so I can start playing around with how the build is meant to function

Unfamiliar with this encounter but you were using the scout right, not one of the other multiclass variations you mentioned? Also is shrouded strike the other eye of wael bonus that procs on 10% of crits? I was looking at that and considering the amount of crits I aim to do with the build it looks really solid, and a good way to make up for how infrequent the invisibility proc is. Haha thats alright, makes sense that it works as described otherwise I think we'd be hearing a lot more people talk about the weapon being absolutely broken and itd be the centrepiece of any tank build. Still though, sounds like very good deflection and the build is primarily ranged anyway, cool to have that available at points during the fight for switching to melee. My int sits over 20 as well so any buffs I get should last a while.

I think the invisibility proc is only 10% from memory, so yeah it won't proc super often but any proc I do get saves me 2 guile, and as a scout I should be doing pretty decent damage in the meantime anyway. Good to know, this was my plan so thanks for testing it for me. Thats actually crazy, good find, I'll keep an eye on that, my build might unintentionally become kinda cheesy Yeah prob has heaps of applications, something that comes to mind is offensive parry builds that use wotep to build resources like focus Yeah tbh I think I have a bit of a false perspective on how many ability points I'll have spare because I think the build is very front loaded with abilities, ranger for instance doesn't have many around half way through its power levels, and I dont need to take many actives on rogue because I'll want to be spending my guile on invisibility and trickster spells. Yeah their accuracy is great, only thing is that rangers double their crit chance because of driving flight so I think for my purposes the scout is better, because like you said before the invisibility doesn't trigger *that* much, and as a cipher I'll also be using weapon attacks less. Assassin cipher would still be great though, same with seer, love both of those multiclasses.

My understanding is that duel wielding ranged and melee still gives you the duel wield weapon recovery and my plan is to be attacking quickly and proccing as many crits as I can, but also that when I do I'm able to run up and do my backstab combo without having to switch and cop the extra recovery time. It's def worth testing though because the extra one handed crits would be conductive to what I'm trying to aconplish and being invisible gives me time to swap weapons. Another thing to consider though is I need an extra slot for fire in the hole to apply gouging strike for my pet to combo with predator sense, so it might come down to how many ability points I have spare. Good to know, I'll have flanked, marked enemy and other acc bonuses in my favor so I should crit fairly often with that too. The idea was to have soul annihilation as an option yeah, but mostly to play ranged and throw out big spells from stealth to capitalise on the assassin bonus, and soul blade doesn't seem particularly inferior to other subclasses in the context of attacking to generate focus and sporadically being able to throw out big crit spells, another reason I like cipher is the acc bonus from borrowed memory to boost crit chance with the eye of wael. As for squishiness you still have escape or that rogue invisibility spell. Yeah I think offensively the assassin is definitely better but aside from tankiness from mirror image I also like repulsive visage and some of the other spells, for example I could hit with my backstab combo then cast repulsive visage and between spear modal and persistent distraction I'll have at least two potential engagements for disengagement attacks which could also proc crits with the extra acc they get. Also I like the trickster more thematically, especially with this build conceptually, and I kinda feel like assassins make most builds one trick pony's.

So was thinking of a basic idea for a scout, and wanted to see what you guys thought. Basically it's a trickster / ghost heart that dual wields eye of wael scepter and stalkers patience (with fire in the hole and the other aoe shotty in the second slot for gouging strike). Trickster: back stab, sneak attack, deathblows, gouging strike, passive that adds raw dmg lash to weapon attacks, mirror image and other illusion spells. Ghost heart: pet, acc bonuses, driving flight, takedown combo. Eye of wael: invisibility procs on crit, chance for illusion spells on hit, bonus power level to illusion spells. Stalkers patience: bonus dmg from stealth skill, raw dmg lash, bonus dmg vs flanked that can be set up with pet. Synergy: rangers acc bonus and driving flight makes eye of wael crit regularly, which procs invisibility, which you can use for stalkers patience backstabs that can be combined with takedown combo and deathblows. This is in addition to scouts regular synergy which ive found really strong for ranged dps in general. Also pet should be doing some decent dmg because everyone will have gouging strike applied. I know it'd be better offensively with assassin but the idea is for the character to be a hybrid ranged melee and I like the extra survivability from mirror image, as well as other illusion spells combined with eye of wael bonuses. Also thematically I really like the trickster ghost heart combo. Other ideas I was thinking of were assassin / soul blade and assassin / blood mage which would be using the invisibility procs to set up spells or other big hits from stealth. The ranger adds driving flight and acc bonuses to proc it a lot more often I think, but obv the single hit back stab isn't as great as a payoff as a fat AOE spell. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting here as well, just typing it up off the top of my head at work, but yeah interested to hear people's ideas.

Very helpful thank you, had no idea about being able to copy weapons into multiple slots so griffin blade sounds good for offsiding my debuff weapons. I'm guessing/hoping that when duel wielding after I switch weapons the primary hand will always be used first so i can reliably use them for debuffs. That shield maybe with the gladiator sword sounds good for the fourth slot, I'll probably either go with that or whispers greatsword for the riposte depending on how my tanking goes. For the phantoms I was thinking of using that hp siphon summoned weapon that targets fortitude seeing as how ill be debuffing fortitude regularly.

Shame about the one handed weapons, maybe there's a particular weapon I can use as a stat stick for spell casting. The idea with black jacket is that I can use morning star / flail / club modals to reduce defensive stats and set up crits with spells (which i plan to do my actual dmg with rather than the weapons). Sun and moon is there for flail modal and the PL buff it gives to fire/ice spells, and I can have all my recovery time covered with a riposte weapon or a sword/shield setup, but I'm wondering if there's other cool combos between wizard spells and weapons. As for stats I've done pretty close close to what you've described, per / int / dex are maxed, mights been dumped instead of resolve to do less self dmg with blood sacrifice and I dont like dumping res on my characters for rp reasons.

So I'm looking at building a blood mage / black jacket battlemage. The basic idea is to have lots of utility and combos for cc and dmg while still being able to tank. Looking for general ideas about weapons and combos, things like morningstar with modal > clear out > aoe spell that lowers fortitude > aoe spell that targets fortitude (if that works, also wondering if instead of clear out, rymigands repulsive visage to trigger disengagement attacks will work with body blows). Same idea with flail / club to follow up with spells that target reflex / will. Might tank with whispers greatsword with riposte to stay active while I'm recovering, are there other weapons that will work well to do specific things or should I just use a sun and moon flail for the PL buff and reflex nerf modal / club for will nerf modal as my other weapon sets? Also does one handing a weapon with empty offhand give me a accuracy bonus to my spells? For stats I'm thinking max dex / per / int because I want my buffs and debuffs to last as long as possible and I want low enough recovery to be able to combo effects before they expire, and per obv just maximises my crit chances on the back of all my debuff set ups for attack spells. For gear the fighter resource gauntlets, DoC armor, helm that adds power level to illusion stuff or aloths helm maybe, prob some HP regen stuff too. Thoughts?

Ah well, thanks for the replies

Quick question, does the burn damage from the fire godlikes passive improve with gear like ring or focused flame or stuff that increases fire abilities power levels?

Yeah its a shame, can't imagine the games still getting patched at this point but maybe they can do something for it in the community patch (if they haven't already, I'm still playing vanilla)

Ok this is good news, I was kinda bummed about the idea not working because its really cool thematically so thank you. Sound like good ideas but I have a weird thing against using consumables and per rest abilities, just rubs me the wrong way. The riposte idea sounds good, seems like it'd synergise well with chill fog (not when I'm standing inside it obv) but if the positioning works out that they're affected by it and I'm not with my defensive buffs up it should trigger fairly regularly. I'll definitely give it a go.

Playing a wood elf FF/BM sage, throwing down binding web to get hobbled, but when hobbled expires I'm not gaining a wound or any healing, anyone know why this might be the case? Edit: did some testing, tried it with chill fog, when wearing defiant apparel (resistance to perception afflictions) I didnt receive a wound/healing but when I took the item off and tried it again I did gain the wound/healing. So I guess it must be intended, FF wound gain doesn't proc on hostile effects expiring if you have resistance to them, whether through racial bonus or gear. Kind of annoying and limits the creativity of this build but there you go.

Awesome thanks for this, I dont play with community patch so not sure how crucial that is but I'll try incorporate as much of this as I can

Feels a bit squishy for melee which is what I'm trying to do though, 30 deflection from mirrored image is cool but I lose 10 of that for being flanked and another 15 if my attackers bloodied so full mirrored image bonus for only +5 deflection with less than 50% hp on a spellblade sounds kinda suicidal Are there any nice synergies with this build?

Originally I had a plan to play a pale elf with perception resistance gear and fight inside chillfog but blinded downgraded to disoriented isn't that great, the -50% recovery offsets the bonus from streetfighter (although the 50% bonus to weapon damage is still nice I guess). I had an idea to play melee/blunderbuss but the distracted affliction doesn't last very long and full attacks from melee don't seem to trigger gunshots in that range so I'd have to alternate targetting different enemies to keep the bonus going (I don't want to play duel shottys). Is there any other potential here? Any clever ways to inflict flanked with the wizard kit? Any other synergies that make this worthwhile?