Haplok

Seems like rods are Deflection after all. I'm wondering about Fire in the Hole. I thought its Chain Shot upgrade to be the best thing since sliced bread, but now I'm not sure anymore. +15% Reload time can be mostly avoided using full attacks with another offhand. -15% damage hurts a bit more. Particularly when one considers that the bounce seems to be at -50% damage! Particularly on a Ranger with Driving Flight, this could potentially be a damage loss. Does anyone know how to get more information about effects of aoe attacks? Know individual hit and damage rolls? Right now with mortarts it's along the line of: 1 miss, 1 graze, 2 hit, 1 crit or some such. I'd like to know a lot more.

Level 16... that's late.

Well on a cipher the first long cast damage spells I'd want to use are Amplified Wave and Disintegrate. Level 16 on multiclass,so also too late to really matter for me (pure Ascendant already has Time Parasite I think). Earlier pretty much all worthwhile powers have 0,5 second cast.

Its a nice build... but for me there is one problem. It reaches its true potential at level 19 with Blood Thirst. Prior to this I'm pretty sure that playing a pure Ascendant, Mindstalker, Scout and probably even Transcendant is more powerful - and probably more fun too. In case of Transcendant, more satisfying at least (due to long durations and poweful, might boosted effects). For me an important aspect is not only power at cap, but when the build feels more-or-less complete - or at least efficient. I like some skills and combinations in theory, like Fighter's Clear Out, but avoid them in practice, as with PL VI, the game is already nearing the end. This blooms even later. While Streetfighter/Ascendant owns from the get-go, Ascendant is always almost 2 PL ahead with powers (and gets strong speed boosts too) and Scout should feel almost-complete/efficient at level 13 with Driving Flight.

In my opinion, all per rest abilities should be... put to rest. Change to per encounter. Reduce effect/magnitude if needed for balance. Although so far there wasn't any clear power gap between per rest and per encounter item abilities. Some per encounter ones are much stronger then most per rest abilities.

My favourite spell in the game is Autumn Decay, find the DOT still as value, even at later levels. Maybe it is just me though. Are 2 power levels really that noticeable? Not really. But having access to spells 2 power levels higher at any point in the game is very noticeable. Also action economy leads to anti-synergy. You can either cast wizard OR druid spells, not both at the same time. An average encounter won't exhaust all of your spell casts from a single class past mid-game. If they were from either pure class, those spells would have been stronger AND you would have had access to spells 2 power levels higher.

...provided that you can ensure crits. Red Hand knocks back on a regular hit (maybe even graze?).

Yeah, it should be a very good combo. A pity there aren't many great morningstars and it's rater difficult to find nice uniques (one is in Arkemyr's Manor, but its not so great).

Well, my Helwalker/Ascendant is mainly using it for 1. Chargers who get into our ranks and attack the squishies 2. Casters/ranged attackers who are usually spread at range anyway 3. Singular boss mobs It's very useful for those enemies and I like the knockback, even if it can be irritating from time to time. Could be great with Arterial Strike too :D ...although only 1 chance to apply with the Red Hand - but maybe someone else in the party could apply it or you can switch weapons. For clumped mobs surrounding the tank he mostly uses the dual mortars

Plus Paladin's Mental Fortress passive ability. Also Captain's Banquet food and Svef drug. But yeah, Devil of Caroc Breastplate is probably the best and most widely useful. Although Modwyr is a pretty good and cool weapon.

Actually they should pair pretty well with a Paladin. Druids specialized in shapechanging could massively profit from a rogue multiclass as well. Priest compatibility is less obvious... but frankly clerics aren't great MC candidates in general. Maybe monk to boost the stats or chanter to add even more utility.

A nice initiative, thank you. But yeah, not all info feels accurate. A few comments: Barbarians, and particularly Berserkers, are very good caster and ranged multiclass choices. Action speed is great (doubly so once they get Blood Thirst, which works with spells), might bonus is nice and bonus penetration is great as well. Come to think of it, can't complain about bonus hit-to-crit either. Also they have access to healing, albeit pretty late and expensive resource-wise. Soul Annihilation is not a Full Attack, but rather a Primary Attack. Personally I wouldn't multiclass an Ascendant with another caster. You generally want a strong martial class to reach Ascension ASAP. Ascendants are pretty awesome left pure as well, by the way. On the other hand, I'd never play a pure Beguiler (or Soul Blade). Waste of a character slot. Monk does have a Full Attack: Stunning Blow/Surge. Shattered Pillars can no longer spam Tormen't Reach (or other abilities) after the nerf, need to mix regular melee attacks in between. I feel the Ranger description is missing info about their ranged prowess. With Driving Flight they double the number of projectiles they shoot. If pure and with a bow, they can even have 4 attacks from one Twinned Shot. I'm also not sure what hard-to-mitigate drawbacks do the Ranger subclasses have. Well, maybe except Stalker.

I saw you post this in another thread, and it def made sense as a possibility. It also has good spammability, is a full attack (for two weapons), and helps with accuracy. In comparison, am I overhyping how good an extra bounce would be with Ranger? I feel like it would add a lot, with accurate wounding shots. In addition, are damage pets even worth it? I would probably need to keep the pet too, since I would go sharpshooter. I guess Ranger with Driving Flight would also be nice. I only tested the Fury/Bleak Walker variant though. Indeed Ranger with Driving Flight sounds good. And the accuracy boost should be great as well. Pet could be useful to. Only issue is that Driving Flight would come at level 13, While BW can spam FoD right from the get go...

Not true. Upgrade material is available at the herbalist shop in Neketaka (randomly).

Well, I tend to use breastplate on my characters. Preferably Devil of Caroc BP, especially for martial multiclasses.

Monk/Cipher IS pretty awesome. Particularly Helwalker/Ascendant. Takes a while to get rolling, but once you get Duality of Mortal Presence on level 10, your Cipher powers have huge aoes and last forever. +60% Might damage bonus doesn't hurt either. Also nice synergy with the aoe mortar weapons and aoe delivery of Stunning Blows (which later get refunded with Stunning Surge).

Yeah, absolutely no reason.... except for 2x number of ranged attacks with Driving Flight (or 4x on pure Ranger with Twinned Arrow). Some +25 Accuracy vs chosen targets at range, +35 vs chosen blooded targets, +45/55 Accuracy with Accurate Wounding Shot vs chosen targets. Yeah, Rangers really have nothing....

Good info, thank you. Though personally I'm more inclined to pick (double) knockback vs everyone rather then the specific vessel targeting ability. But now I'm really glad I didn't pick the latter.

That's... not quite true, as Power Level affects Accuracy (and durations) also. That said, -1 isn't such a big deal (and you can compensate with debuffs), while +3 IS.

For pure class Cipher - Ascendant is the very clear answer. I think the Red Hand arquebus is the best weapon option for pure Ascendant, by far. Every second shot is "free" recovery wise. And the Arquebus modal is pretty awesome too (+20 Accuracy for a fairly minor recovery malus).

I recently read that mortar aoe actually targets reflex defense. Makes sense, I guess. But what about rod aoe? Is it reflex also? Deflection? Come to think of it, what about Spirit Lance or WotEP?

I'd say you loose a little by going Cipher. But you gain a ton of versatile and potentially powerfull abilities instead.

Outstanding work, Boeroer. Well, to be expected from you, really. I might try the mortar Sharpshooter/Streetfighter variant. Both for the speed and for the added Sneak damage. Probably will drop the Dex a bit and raise the Con a little then - speed has diminishing returns after all. I'm wondering about picking both Escape and Evasive Roll. Aren't they redundant? Or do you think it's worth it to have mobility abilities from 2 different resource pools? I was thinking about picking Evasive Roll only (provides Quick and has slightly longer range). I'm also debating Strike the Bell. A total of +5 Penetration Ability should come very handy on a low Pen weapon vs armored opponents, no? Although I guess your version mostly relies on the massive DoTs, which don't care about that much. Want to also pick Thorny Roots, Slippery Mind. Any comments are welcome.

Then you might want to actually add some active ones prior to character level 16 (well, there's Borrowed Instinct and Body Attunment but... they hardly count and the latter isn't even good post-nerf). Also your ability plan is missing abilities you get on levels 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20. You've only included new powerlevel abilities. So you can get quite a few additional powers and/or spells.

So you don't actually want to use Cipher powers trough most of the game?