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Hi,

 

I recently finished PoE 1 with a ranged Wood Elf Cipher (which was very min-maxed). Given the whole herald thing i thought i would try a Cipher/Paladin build. (Soul Blade/Kind Wayfarer). However, i am not entirely sure how to distribute stats.

 

Accuracy (Perception) seems extremely important with this build, to hit with Soul Annihilation and Flames Of Devotion, but i am unsure as to just how important Dex and Mig is. The bonus from Mig seems slightly insignificant compared to the other damage bonuses on this build.

 

So far i have this (Wood Elf again, mostly to match PoE 1 build):

Mig 16

Con 10

Dex 19

Per 20

Int 10

Res 3 (<= figure its can RP as related to the whole missing part of soul bit, but is it overdoing it? :)

 

Any input appreciated, i hate finding out later that i messed up completely.

 

 

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Might is going to be one of the few ways you boost heals and spell damage. If your aim is more martial, you could lose a little since weapon damage bonus has so many other sources and is additive. If you do want stronger heals and direct damage cipher abilities, might is beneficial

 

 

I would consider more intellect. Ciphers have great crowd control and afflictions, which dont benefit from might but DO get more duration with intellect.

 

Maybe consider:

Mig 10 or 15

Con 10

Dex 15

Per 18

Int 15

Res 10 or 5

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Thank you for replying. I am pretty confused on how important Dex is? If it affects recovery time, then it would seem much stronger than Might for DPS? Thats why i am wondering why you are lowering Dex in your example.

 

As to Int, the plan was to focus on melee ( i got tired of being a ranged glass cannon in PoE 1) and destructive cipher abilities (to match the whole Soul Blade thing), and Int did not seem *that* important for that.

 

The build was inspired by this:

https://fextralife.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-builds-guide-inquisitor/

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Thank you for replying. I am pretty confused on how important Dex is? If it affects recovery time, then it would seem much stronger than Might for DPS? Thats why i am wondering why you are lowering Dex in your example.

 

As to Int, the plan was to focus on melee ( i got tired of being a ranged glass cannon in PoE 1) and destructive cipher abilities (to match the whole Soul Blade thing), and Int did not seem *that* important for that.

 

The build was inspired by this:

https://fextralife.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-builds-guide-inquisitor/

That guide is from when whispers of the endless paths worked with soul annhilation.

 

 

Imho dual wield is better and you dont need as much dex when you dual wield.

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Thank you for replying. I am pretty confused on how important Dex is? If it affects recovery time, then it would seem much stronger than Might for DPS? Thats why i am wondering why you are lowering Dex in your example.

 

As to Int, the plan was to focus on melee ( i got tired of being a ranged glass cannon in PoE 1) and destructive cipher abilities (to match the whole Soul Blade thing), and Int did not seem *that* important for that.

 

The build was inspired by this:

https://fextralife.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-builds-guide-inquisitor/

That guide is from when whispers of the endless paths worked with soul annhilation.

 

 

Imho dual wield is better and you dont need as much dex when you dual wield.

 

 

Thank you for the input, after googling a bit, i think i will try dual wield instead. But why is less Dex needed? Dex would seem to translate directly into more DPS by making you attack more often. Is it because the dual wield bonus is so high (+20%)?

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I think you could do something like this to squeeze out more DPS and still get the benefit of a higher int and longer whispers of treason etc:

 

Mig 10

Con 10

Dex 18

Per 18

Int 15

Res 5

 

Right now i am trying this:

 

Mig 14

Con 10

Dex 15

Per 20

Int 14

Res 5

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As someone who's tried inquisitor, it's pretty depressing.  And that was before the recent paladin nerfs.  

 

You're obviously looking to min/max.  So don't play Inquisitor.  Paladin/Rogue, Paladin/Monk, Paladin/Fighter, Paladin/Barb, Paladin/Chanter are all better.  

 

For top tier cipher options it's:

 

Cipher/Rogue, Cipher/Devoted, Cipher/Ranger, Cipher/Barb, Cipher/Monk.

 

As cipher you absolutely need solid conventional weapon DPS and if there's one thing that Paladins don't provide it's that.  

Edited by Marigoldran
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As someone who's tried inquisitor, it's pretty depressing. And that was before the recent paladin nerfs.

 

You're obviously looking to min/max. So don't play Inquisitor. Paladin/Rogue, Paladin/Monk, Paladin/Fighter, Paladin/Barb, Paladin/Chanter are all better.

 

For top tier cipher options it's:

 

Cipher/Rogue, Cipher/Devoted, Cipher/Ranger, Cipher/Barb, Cipher/Monk.

 

As cipher you absolutely need solid conventional weapon DPS and if there's one thing that Paladins don't provide it's that.

Sworn enemy is more than a gimmicky infinite damage over time spell for your herald build. It also provides a fairly substantial damage bonus. Flames of devotion is a full attack for 1 zeal that generates tons of focus (full attack = weapon damage).

 

Paladins are a martial class. They are a defensive one geared towards single targets, but martial nonetheless.

 

Think outside of the MMORPG "trinity" that a character is tank OR DPS OR healer.

 

An inquisitor is going to be a hard to kill, hard to charm damage/debuff hybrid healer that can put a lot of hurt on a single target. It can also leave your enemies charmed, flanked, paralyzed and whatnot. Keeping your allies healed is a bonus.

 

 

I think the problem is we are assuming this has to be a soul blade. Maybe a kind wayfarer ascendant that dual wields pistols and blunderbuss. A full attack blunderbus FOD is going be a fairly easy way to get a ton of focus quick and throw some healing out there...

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Two problems:

 

1.  He's trying to solo the game, in which case from experience Inquisitor does not work.

2.  He's playing in a team comp.  In which case: why combine paladin with cipher? Combine Cipher with Devoted Fighter for tankiness and damage synergy (Cipher + Devoted is one of the best and easiest to use combos), and have someone else be the Paladin and heal and provide auras and mark enemies.  

 

I'm assuming he's trying to min/max.  Of course, with a party, you can beat the game easily with 5 Inquisitors. Having more Paladins is NEVER bad.  But it's counter to his apparent min-max tendencies.

Edited by Marigoldran
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As someone who's tried inquisitor, it's pretty depressing.  And that was before the recent paladin nerfs.  

 

You're obviously looking to min/max.  So don't play Inquisitor.  Paladin/Rogue, Paladin/Monk, Paladin/Fighter, Paladin/Barb, Paladin/Chanter are all better.  

 

For top tier cipher options it's:

 

Cipher/Rogue, Cipher/Devoted, Cipher/Ranger, Cipher/Barb, Cipher/Monk.

 

As cipher you absolutely need solid conventional weapon DPS and if there's one thing that Paladins don't provide it's that.  

 

I really don't understand why you're saying a paladin doesn't provide solid conventional dps, but a Devoted Fighter does? Flames of Devotion is outright superior to any of the single target damage abilities a Fighter brings to the party except for Power Strike, and Power Strike costs way too much to be useful.

 

I could maybe see the argument if cleave still hit in an AOE, or if charge still acted as an attack, but as of right now if you are comparing Psyblade to Inquisitor, I think the Paladin combo brings more to the table.

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It’s really going to depend on which spells you take. If you mostly avoid damage spells, conceivably a case could be made to not max might. But it still is a crucial stat for soul blades, since the extra raw damage on soul annihilation scales with it. So for an inquisitor, might is: 1) multiplying the base damage of your weapon additively with other bonuses. 2) working multiplicatively with the lash damage on flames of devotion. 3) those two increase your focus gain, which determines the base damage of soul anniation’s raw damage. 4) might then multiplies the raw damage of soul annihilation. Compared to, say, a single class fighter or some other character with no lashes, you quadruple dip on might. That’s not to mention how it will improve your heals and damage spells.

 

Dex is very important for you too, since first, you have a lot of high impact spells you’ll want to frequently use like cipher self buffs, and your choice of offensive powers like antipathetic field, ectopsychic echo, recall agony, mental bonding, whisper of treason, eye strike, etc. All of those can do tons of damage or swing fights heavily in your favor, have low resource costs and many have relatively short durations, so dexterity is really important for getting them out fast. What’s more, soul annihilation has a large flat damage component that benefits highly from fast attack speed, so dexterity your melee damage will also scale more aggressively with dexterity than many other characters.

 

I would rate the stats in order of might, dexterity, perception, intellect, constitution, resolve.

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I would rate the stats in order of might, dexterity, perception, intellect, constitution, resolve.

 

I would have though Perception more important, because its fairly critical to miss with Soul Annihilation, Flames of Devotion etc. But you think that my current distribution is pretty bad then ?:

 

Mig 14

Con 10

Dex 15

Per 20

Int 14

Res 5

 

I suppose you would want to transfer Per to Mig and Dex.

 

They balanced the stats pretty well, its tricky to get right :)

 

EDIT: Besides just making sure attacks actually hit, Per (and thus Acc) also increases the chance of a critical hit, right? That also has to be factored in when comparing to Mig.

Edited by ziphnor
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Two problems:

 

1.  He's trying to solo the game, in which case from experience Inquisitor does not work.

2.  He's playing in a team comp.  In which case: why combine paladin with cipher? Combine Cipher with Devoted Fighter for tankiness and damage synergy (Cipher + Devoted is one of the best and easiest to use combos), and have someone else be the Paladin and heal and provide auras and mark enemies.  

 

I'm assuming he's trying to min/max.  Of course, with a party, you can beat the game easily with 5 Inquisitors. Having more Paladins is NEVER bad.  But it's counter to his apparent min-max tendencies.

 

I am not solo'ing. I am using a Cipher because that was the class i used in PoE (where i used it because it fit the plot), and Paladin because i found that build i linked to earlier and found it to fit nicely from a RP perspective with the whole Herald thing. I do wan't to min-max a bit, but lets keep this thread specific to Cipher/Paladin.

 

I am playing on Veteran with Scaling: All / Only Up (or i was, now i am not sure if i want to restart to reshuffle my stats again) :) This is what i "hate" about games like these, i sometimes never get started, because i keep wanting to tweak builds or try other builds.

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That guide is from when whispers of the endless paths worked with soul annhilation.

 

 

 

When you say "worked", you mean that it applied soul annihilation in the AoE and not just a single target (just googled it)?

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That guide is from when whispers of the endless paths worked with soul annhilation.

 

 

 

When you say "worked", you mean that it applied soul annihilation in the AoE and not just a single target (just googled it)?

Yes. Right now soul annihilation is way stronger with a normal legendary greatsword (or any other unique one) due to WotEP having low base damage and only applying raw damage to the first target with SA

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