Advise on a build - the Marksman

[Sancho Panzer]

I want to play through the game with a Der Freischutz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Freisch%C3%BCtz) inspired build. The basic concept is a marksman misled and powered by various nefarious forces, particularly via magic bullets for his rifle.

 

Got the game recently never played beta, so advice of some more experienced players would be very welcome. I am looking for flavour and reasonable combat performance.

 

Monk does not fit thematically; and something arcan-ish powered would make a lot of sense. Does anyone have a good build / idea?

[Suxamethonium]

Either of the two builds I am running with at the moment.

 

I have an ascendant cipher who uses guns to build focus and then opens open with spells and a Priest of Margran / Bleakwalker Paladin who uses dual firearms using spells to crowd control and add extra damage.

 

Either are a lot of fun. Cant decide which I like more.

[Lokithecat]

I'd think, from flavour alone, that a Ranger(Sharpshooter if you don't mind micro managing the pet, otherwise Ghost heart) / Chanter (Troubador, or maybe Skald).

 

Ranger makes a great shooter, Chanter has loads of great party buffs (Including a 20% Reload one).  And a singing / chanting character feels a more logical fit to 'based off an opera' than other options.

 

Get Maia as a companion, and steal her Jacket.

[Witness41920]

Given the wilderness theme of the source material and the fact that a few of the main characters are foresters, I do strongly recommend the Ranger (Sharpshooter) as a starting point for your build, it fits thematically and mechanically into what you're trying to accomplish. If you don't want to deal with the pet then Ghost Heart will work as well, but definitely Ranger.

 

As for adding magical attacks to your weapons...the Cipher has a few passives that increase penetration (very helpful for dealing damage) and has several magical style attacks they can use but most of these are more like spellcasting and less like magical bullets. For the magical bullets theme a Paladin will work (Bleakwalker works best for damage output), you could even use Rogue if you want things like Blinding shots and other forms if disabling shots and status effects.

[Jmerc]

Take a look at the weapons list here: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire_unique_weapons. For guns, Dragon's Dowry shoots fire bullets, and Blightheart shoots corrosive bullets. The spearcaster arbalest, while not a rifle, is a magic-powered ranged weapon, which gets better the more you invest in the arcana skill; its not shooting bullets, unfortunately. If you're willing to use pistols, which seems thematically worse, there's Eccea's Arcane Blaster and the Thundercrack Pistol both of which are magic. Closest thing in the blunderbusses is probably Xefa's Empirical Explication, but thats a more sciencey-magic type weapon.
 
Bit of an oddball character but try Ranger (Sharpshooter)/Priest (Skaen). If the character shouldn't have a constant pet, go Ranger (Ghost Heart) instead. You've got the forestry part covered by the Ranger, and the malevolent nefarious god in Skaen. The Skaen priest/rogue skills you get are pretty useful to a marksman, you get two movement abilities in Escape and Shadowing Beyond, a good damage skill in Finishing Blow, a powerful summon in Spiritual Ally and powerful self-buff in Minor Avatar. Take the ranged weapon from the list that feels the most like it fits your vision. From a power perspective, while none of them are terrible the Dragon's Dowry is considered by most to be the rifle to get.
 
I've been trying to find a Marksman build I like for awhile, and while Ranger/Cipher is probably better just thanks to how good Whispers of Treason is, it didn't really click with me for whatever reason. However, it also makes sense for your character, and this post goes into detail about the build: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/100597-class-build-the-will-bender-rangercipher. Cipher's use their psychic powers to beguile and mislead, which seems to be in the ballpark. The Soul Lash passive that Ciphers get adds a bit of bonus damage to weapon attacks, which can potentially be construed as "magic bullets", so there's that. 

[Sancho Panzer]

Thanks Jmerc! I haven't considered the Skaen priest at all and it seems like a surprisingly good match, though makes little sense from the PoE2 canon perspective. The advice on unique weapons hit home as well. Think I'll be going with the Spearcaster for now, if only to get the arcane accuracy bonus.

 

Ranger really boosts accuracy and there seems to be disappointingly little interaction with high accuracy/crits apart from monk's flurry and maybe assassin's one-shot-kills...

[zantesuken]

I find a combination of devoted and chanter with crossbow or arquebus as spec pretty strong.

Chanter has a song that gives +20% reload and 20% recovery which currently results in +40 faster reload time.

Devoted gives huge boost to penetration and another +25% crit damage (which is synergistic with crossbows)

 

Furthermore most fighter feats help in increasing accuracy/damage and hit to crit conversion as well as self sustain .

 

All in all that translates into

+15% weapon damage

+10 acurracy

+5 Perception

+80% graze to hit conversion

+25% hit to crit conversion

+2 penetration

+40 % Reloadtime

+25% Bonus crit damage

And +5 to might constitution and resolve through invocations

 

Of course (if you like cheese) once you get to max level you get the redicolous overpowered brilliance invocation that pretty much makes your char immortal with Unlimited unbendings

Edited May 25, 2018 by zantesuken