Haplok

Avoid spamming the Fist. Most of the time, you should limit yourself to 1st Tier Curse. And only use it again, once the Curse expires. The self-damage is nearly negligible then (and can even be outhealed by slight heals you get when hostile effects expire - if you have such additional hostile effects (for example from Hylea's Talons) or enemies trying to CC you. Obviously you want to max Resolve to reduce the duration of hostile effects (particularly Forbidden Curse) as much as possible. Probably also eat food with hostile effect duration reduction (Mohora Wraps are great for a FF!).

Rogue/Fighter works okay, as long as you build him for Riposte and/or Disengagement attacks. One attack per round (2 if dual-wielding) really isn't spectacular. But if you can greatly damage enemies passively, while they try to attack or you move around the battlefield or they try to run away from you (Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage from Trickster), that can be a solid contribution. I tend to recommend casters for Turn Based. Among them, the Wizard shines the most due to his multitude of Free Action buffs. A Bloodmage is even better IMO, as his Blood Sacrifice is also a Free Action, so he's capable of fully buffing on round 1 and then using Blood Sacrifice to recover all these spell slots used + cast another serious spell. Single Class Bloodmage should be okay. As far as muticlassing goes, I know you wrote you're not too fond of the Assassin, but he really fits like a glove in Turn Based caster multiclassing. Free Action stealth with Shadowing Beyond to make your wizard untargetable and safe while he casts - and land a nuke or CC with +25 Accuracy, +4 PEN and +50% Crit damage.

I think it is more restrictive/rigid in Turn Based. Some attacks in Real Time can be pretty quick, while providing a lot of Focus. Some weaker Powers can also be spammed much faster then effectively every 6 second blocks. But my POV mostly applies to an Ascendant, who, should he fail to Ascend in the 1st round, would feel late to the party (and therefore not contributing enough). It might be that the other ciphers are okay-ish.

Not a huge fan of ciphers for Turn Based. You spend your turns either attacking and building Focus or casting powers. Meanwhile other casters usually can keep casting every round. As for classes... hmm.. Assasin specializes in big blows, that could generate a lot of Focus - and can also vanish in safety as a Free Action. Potentially cast a Disintegrate or some some with huge Assassinate Accuracy bonus. The Cipher subclass could be a Beguiler, as he is less reliant on actual attacks to gather Focus.

IMO might as well dump Res. Its not doing much for you anyway.

A Soulblade would be different. More melee combat oriented, with far less Cipher power usage. Certainly a much worse fit for the Seeker's Fang rapier. Doesn't mean that it would be bad.

Correct about Dethblows on spell lash. It only displays that. And sure, the build is cheesy as hell in TB mode. Less so in Real Time IMO, where its quite fragile and its action economy is far worse. Although I guess you can still use typical Wizard cheese, such as Potion of Last Stand / BDD + Wall of Draining.

It is a really cool combo in Turn Based. Combusting Wounds sadly failed to impress in this mode, so I gave up on it. But Avenging Storm... yeah... that would be brutal to mobs. This was kinda fun, even if I was probably grossly overlevelled at this point. It basically took one spell to trigger the chain reaction and destroy all the Vines (after prepping them for Deathblows with a Chillfog from Fassina).

And you can get Grave Calling VERY early.

Exactly right. In Turn based you micro-manage every character anyway. Shodowing Beyond is a Free Action, so going Stealth doesn't disturb the Turn Order/action economy in any way. Most Wizard buffs are Free Actions too.... The latter is the main reason why I prefer a Bloodmage. In Turn 1 I can (nearly) full buff, Blood Sacrifice to recover nearly all spell slots, vanish and proceed to destroy enemies (who cannot even target me on their turn, as I'm in the middle of cast action and still invisible). While enjoying the Human Blooded Accuracy and damage bonuses after Blood Sacrifice... Another reason why I prefer a Bloodmage is that with another wizard subclass I basically feel obliged to use Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry for extra spell slots AND Rekvu's Casque for interrupt immunity. Meanwhile I can use other grimoires and other spells on a Bloodmage AND another helmet - and on an Assasin/wizard, the Deltro's Cage Helmet can provide up to 135% extra damage after I stealth crit myself with lightning (the nice thing is that after the initial Chain Lightning strike, the bounces that hit enemies already carry this lash damage bonus). Needless to say, this is HUGE. The Deltro's lash obviously also works with weapon attacks and as an Assassin you add huge sneak attack and Deathblows damage bonuses to weapon attacks. Actually using actions on attacking is wasteful IMO, but carrying a weapon that does an aoe attack after every enemy kill (such as Engoliero de Espirs), is not a bad deal. Even better when it also full heals you with the damage it deals.

Indeed. Of course, with a Chanter in your party you can also spawn your own vessels - skeletons - to kill with Grave Calling and create those party friendly aoe paralyzing Chillfogs, that provide Focus with each tick! I like to spawn them in front, soften them - and incoming enemies that engage them - with a fireball or some such and then manually go for the kill.

When hostile effects expire on your character. Note Forbidden Curse you get when you use Forbidden Fist also counts as a hostile effect. As does the small DoT the Talons inflict you with. Later on you can also get a lot of Wounds from Parting Sorrow (also triggers when an enemy you're engaging dies...). About Cipher subclass... depends on your taste, I guess. All have pros. Well, I guess a Psion is ill suited for close combat. Personally I like Ascendant the most. Also because it has the highest Focus cap and can stay at max Focus for longer periods, even when actively using powers. And Seeker's Fang rapier does a mini Disintegration-like DoT on crit with damage scaling off current Focus... Certainly one of my favorite weapons, particularly on a Transcendent.

I agree its a top weapon for an Assassin/Bloodmage. I only liked Engoliero de Espirs more late game - Blightheart is more... reliable and works from the start, but Engoliero large aoe damages, kill cascades and huge self-heals are just too much fun. However I'm not sold on "wasting" the Stealth resources that way to pick single targets. Instead of a single target shot from a Superb weapon, followed by another single target spell, I'd rather use the Assassination bonuses for aoe effects, that will affect multiple enemies (and potentially do just as much damage to each of them with something like Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst).

... also Seekers Fang Spider's Flurry. Not only fill your Focus in one move (vs 3+ enemies), but most likely also condemn several foes to death by RAW DOTs soon afterwards, while also rooting them. ...also per encounter BTW.

Hm, Amplified Wave does solid damage to big crowds. Disintegrate is one of the top single-target damage powers. Obviously you want to debuff enemy Fortitude to land them reliably. Before that, mind Blades are decent when there are 2-3 enemies and the Blades keep bouncing between them. And Ectoplasmic Echo ray is always good.

Giving up Deltro's Cage helm on an offensive mage is a real shame. Although I guess its even nicer on a caster wizard and duration might be a tad short on a melee character. But there's always Wall of Draining....

Not sure. But I do remember the Lance being ineffective VS pierce resistant enemies.

1. Yeah, neutral Dex sounds good for me. 2. Regarding Int, don't forget it also affects aoe effect sizes. 3. I'd guess a summoned weapon specialist can work, but personally I'm not a fan of weapon attacks in Turn Based mode. Even if that weapon is a lance with an aoe effect. A one large area spell (say, Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar) can accomplish so much more then a single attack... and in Turn Based both will use the same time segment (round). Also the lance sucks vs pierce resistant enemies. Usually the reason to go a more gish-y path is to conserve spells, but its not like you're gonna run out of spells slots in Turn Based mode on a Bloodmage...

1. The usefulness of Dex is very dubious (outside of boosting Reflex defense). In theory you COULD make a fast, agile character, focused on going first and interrupting enemies. But in practice its difficult to pull off, as the game lacks controls over turn order (delay simply puts you at the end of the round queque). So you can't wait until an enemy wizard starts casting, then go in and interrupt him. In practice its much better to let enemies come to your party and then counterattack, place aoes AFTER the enemies have moved (can't change aoe target in Turn-Based mode!). And focus on damage, rather then speed. The other use of Dex is that it will reduce the time to Cast spells = reduce the window of opportunity for enemies to interrupt. The value of this is difficult to measure however. Enemies in a given encounter often share similar Initiative values and everyone goes together, without a chance to react for your party. Might be helpful sometimes to be faster. Again, I suggest waiting after the enemies have moved and only casting then instead (and hopefully not being disabled before by enemy CC! - well, staying in the back under Stealth at combat start helps). 2. Haven't done the math, but I did enjoy high Int (boosted via Infuse with Vital Essence during combat). You say only 1 round difference, I say 1 round is huge. Most non-boss encounters should resolve (or at least be decided) in like 3 rounds. 3. Blatantly false. The duration of buffs grows really fast and Free Action buffs are simply OP. Most buffs last 10+ rounds (something like 14, I think). Some shortest ones can last like 3 (Eldritch Aim and Deltro's Cage lash mostly), but its still great. Also you're forgetting Wall of Draining and Salvation of Time.

That's why IMO its better to spread the pain - use the Assassination boosts on multiple targets via aoe abilities. Also the Deltro's Cage shocking lash is difficult to overlook. Having a 130% lash is... pretty good.

Yes, but then the (single target) damage per round would be the average of a regular attack and Assassination attack (also 1 auto-attack might not be enough to actually max Focus to get a full power Assassinate).

In Turn Based mode I doubt its even particularly high DPS, DPR or whatever. As you're NOT sitting at max Focus all the time. To land those big hits, you basically have to gather some big Focus first. And landing even a very big hit every 2nd round or so shouldn't win any consistent damage contests...

I think Psion is a bad choice for a SC Cipher, actually. On a SC you want to cast a lot of Cipher powers - something a Psion can't enable trough most of the game. Meanwhile a Beguiler, Ascendant, or even a Vanilla cipher will be able to spam their powers a lot more with a strong weapon (a Beguiler doesn't even need one most of the time). A Psion is actually a MC material - for casters. Cast some spells from another class, meanwhile charging Focus, then some cipher powers, than again spells from another class....

I think its doable (not sure anymore). But 2 rounds to pull of 1 action? That's bad (and painful) action economy. Have another party member "enabler" IMO.

Hmm, about 2 rounds AFAIR.