Reaper of Souls - Devoted/Soul Blade (Fighter/Cipher)

[Ansalon]

Reaper of Souls - Devoted/Soul Blade (Fighter/Cipher)

 

Showcase video

Steam Guide

Twitch Channel

 

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Combat Showcase Timestamp <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

Overview:

 

Hey guys welcome to my Pillars of Eternity 2 min/max item and build guide! Today im going to be showcasing a build which mixes Devoted(Fighter) with Soul Blade(Cipher). The build is built around

stacking up focus quickly by using the Devoteds ablities then dumping focus with Soul Annihalation to instantly kill a target. This synergizes well with the fighter stance Mob Stance which gives you a 

free instant attack every time you kill someone with a melee attack, which will in turn give you more focus to use Soul Annihalation again. The Pollaxe Wahai Poraga makes you cleave the 

4 closest targets to you, which will help you quickly build up a ton of focus. When there are fewer mobs left you can switch to Lord Darryn's Voulge for better single target dps. Devoted scales very

well with accuracy, +crit chance and +crit damge, so all your Gear and Abilties are built around trying to maximize your dps.

 

Attributes:

 

Intellect affects your buffs and CC duration so better to get that then Resolve. Iron Will (+15 Will) from Cipher helps out abit on the poor Will defense of the build.

 

• Might - 17
• Constitution - 8
• Dexterity - 18
• Perception - 21
• Intellect - 10
• Resolve - 4

 

Role: Frontline dps, AoE damage

 

Race: Hearth Orlan - Minor Threat: 10% of Hits converted to Crits

 

Level progression:

 

• Level 1: Disciplined Barrage/Mind Wave
• Level 2: Knock Down
• Level 3: Iron Will
• Level 4: Fighter Stances/Draining Whip
• Level 5: Two Handed Style
• Level 6: Confident Aim
• Level 7: Penetrating Strike/Hammering Thoughts
• Level 8: Disciplined Strikes
• Level 9: Mule Kick
• Level 10: Charge/Greater Focus
• Level 11: Weapon Specialization
• Level 12: Hold the Line
• Level 13: Mob Stance/Keen Mind
• Level 14: Armored Grace
• Level 15: Uncanny Luck
• Level 16: Clear Out/Improved Critical
• Level 17: Overbearing Guard
• Level 18: Reaping the Whirlwind
• Level 19: Power Strike/Echoing Horror
• Level 20: Unbreakable 

 

Skills:

 

Active:

 

Max Athleticism for Second Wind

 

Civic:

 

Max History if you are going The Giftbearer's Cloth

 

 

Weapon Proficiencies:

 

• Pollaxe

 

 

Pros: 

 

• Massive AoE damage
• Really strong burst single target dmg with Soul annhilation
• Strong single target dmg when swapping weapon
• Lots of engagement slots, + recovery speed synergy with Mob Stance
• Some CC

 

Cons: 

 

• Not tanky enough to be solo frontliner
• Can accidentally cleave your frontliners if you are not careful with Wahai Poraga
• Low Resolve but Iron Will (+15 will) helps a lot for the low will defense

 

 

Equipment/Gear:

 

Armored Grace (Fighter talent) is very misleadingly worded. Without going into the math  Miscreant's Leather recovery speed will be reduced to 0%. Heavier armors does benefit slightly more %-wise from armored grace but not by so much that you should select an inferior armor.

Reckless Brigandine (55% recovery time) does have good synergy with your engagement slot stacking so it is a viable alternative when you need to be more tanky.

Soul Annihalations Raw damage only gets hit by the first target from AoEs, which helps focus the damage to kill the target to proc Mob Stance's free attack.

You can swap to Lord Darryn's Voulge when there are fewer enemies left, so you dont cleave your teammates with Wahai Poraga.

You can definitely use other weapon types then Pollaxes if you want, but 2 handers are recommended since fighter attacks/soul annhilation are Primary attacks (Only attacks with main weapon) Blade of the Endless Paths (Estoc)is a good alternative since it offers reduced recovery time,

15% more crit dmg enchant and additional accuracy which synergizes nicely with Devoted Soul class bonus.  https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Blade_of_the_Endless_Paths_(Deadfire)

 

Weapons:

 

• Weapon 1: Wahai Poraga - Reckless Cyclone: Standard Attack AoE hits primary target and up to +3 additional targets, friend or foe At Blade's Reach: -20% Melee Damage Received for 2s on launching attack 
• Weapon 2: - Lord Darryn's Voulge (only upgrades to superb) Bolting Strikes: 10% Chance on Hit with weapons to activate Lightning Strikes Static Thunder: On Hit, applies a stacking effect to an enemy. On Crit, all enemies in an AoE will lose all stacks and take +10 Shock damage for every stack.Minor Spellbind: Ball Lightning: Grants Ball Lightning (Druid spell) (1 per rest) 

 

Equipment:

 

• Helm 1 - Helm of the Falcon Falcon's Wings: 15% of incoming Hits converted to Grazes from Ranged weapons. Raptor's Grip: -10% Recovery time with two-handed Melee weapons. 
• Helm 2 -  Blackened Plate Helm Pallid Countenance: +1 enemies Engaged, +1 Intellect, +1 Perception 
• Neck 1 - Precognition; Heads, I Win: -75% Crit Damage taken Tails, You Lose: +25% Crit Damage given 
• Neck 2 - Claim and Refusal +10% Damage taken from melee attacks, +15% Damage with melee attacks 
• Chest 1 - Miscreant's Leathers; Deft Motion: -10% Recovery time, +8 Reflex. 
• Chest 2 - Reckless Brigandine  +5% Action Speed in Melee. Increases with targets Engaged, +1 enemies Engaged 
• Ring 1 - Chameleon's Touch, Versatile: Gives +1 to an Attribute and a Skill determined by the User's class. 
• Ring 2 -  Entonia Signet Ring Inviolate: +3 Defenses per engagement (stacks 5 times), +2 Diplomacy 
• Boots - Boots of the Stone +1 Dexterity, +1 Resolve, Resistance to Might afflictions. 
• Boots 2 - Bounding Boots; Grants Leap (2 per rest). 
• Belt 1 - The Maker's Own Power: Reforge the flesh; The wearer transforms into a stationary pillar of steel, reducing incoming damage and restoring health 
• Belt 2 - The Undying Burden: Dig Deep: +1 Athletics Grit: Incoming weapon damage reduced as health is lost (max of-10% to damage) Of Constitution: +2 Constitution 
• Gloves -  Gatecrashers Slugger: +2 Might, 50% chance to knock targets down on Critical Hit Reeling Blow: Cone attack that pushes and stuns target (2 per rest) 
• Cloak 1 -  The Giftbearer's Cloth Hidden Depths: +1 Quick Item Slots, +1 Weapon Sets Steward of Memories: +5 All Defences except Deflection ( Increases with History skill) 
• Cloak 2 - Violet Redemption Rebuttal in Blood: When Critically Hit in melee, negate wearer's next Recovery. Pernicious Retribution: While stationary, receiving melee weapon Hits grants 3% melee Damage (Stacks 5 times), While stationary, melee weapon Hits grant a stacking 3% melee Action Speed bonus (Stacks 5 times) 
• Pet - Nalvi (Dog): Reduce recover Penalty for armor (varies by type) - Party Wide

 

Consumables:

 

 

• Mouth Char: Mouth Char -5% damage taken, +15% melee damage dealt for 180 sec
• Potion of Perfect Aim: % Missses to Grazes / Grazes to Hits / Hits to Crits conversion

 

Core Abilities:

 

• Wahai Poraga - Reckless Cyclone: Standard Attack AoE hits primary target and up to +3 additional targets
• Penetrating Strike - The fighter strikes their target with devastating force, gaining significant additional Penetration during the attack
• Mob Stance - The fighter changes to a more aggressive stance, apt for handling groups of enemies. While in this stance the fighter's kills with a melee weapon will trigger an instant AoE weapon attack on all enemies around the fighter. (Mob Stance) - Each nearby enemy reduces the fighter's recovery time between attacks.
• Soul Annhilation - A soul enhanced melee strike that consumes the cipher's remaining power pool and converts it into Raw damage on the target.
• Draining Whip - +20% Damage with weapons, +100% Focus Gain
• Power Strike - Strike an enemy with a powerful melee attack, dealing high damage and Stuning them. Foes behind the enemy are Staggered and take Raw damage.
• Mule Kick - A powerful attack that knocks enemies into the air and then Prone, leaving them disoriented
• Clear out - Swweps the fighter's melee weapon in a large arc, making a Primary Attack on each foe and knocking them back and Prone.

[AndreaColombo]

How come you didn't pick "Recall Agony"? It's very powerful on a melee damage-dealer.

[Dorftek]

I agree about recall agony, with that said, nicely written build guide!

[Verde]

Cool build TC. I like the multiclass.

 

What's the reason behind a 2H AoE weapon?

 

Also I would never pick anything other then Eystrike, Valorious Echos, or Whisper of Treason as a 1st level spell. Mindwave doesn't scale well and you prob wont use it much after a while.

Edited July 22, 2018 by Verde

[grasida]

I like the build, but I want to point out one thing: soul annihilation doesn’t work better with two handers than it does with dual wield. In fact, the opposite is true. Even though it’s “only” a primary attack, you’ll still use soul annihilation significantly more quickly on a dual wielding character. And that actually improves your damage output more overall, since soul annihilation has a non-trivial amount of base damage (10 base damage, equal to 20 focus), so swinging faster applies the base damage more frequently. Also, single weapon style suits soul annihilation well, unless you’re so accurate that you never miss, since it loses comparably more from missing than normal attacks.

That hardly means that the AoE two handers are a bad idea, though, just that two handers in general aren’t the best natural fit for soul annihilation.

 

Edit: I did some testing, and I wonder if a really strong weapon configuration for soul annihilation is sun and moon with tuotilo's palm. Sun and moon hits twice, so the first hit deals the damage for soul annihilation, then the next hit builds focus to use it again. Since SA is a primary attack, you'll never swing with the shield if every hit is soul annihilation, so you enjoy the full damage benefit of dual wielding and get the defense from the shield. And flails are fast weapons, so you'll benefit from SA's flat damage even more. That goes in a totally different direction from this psyblade, though, seeking to get a huge number of fast soul annihilations rather than using class powers to build up a ton of focus, then drop bombs on someone to proc mob stance. I imagine both styles work well, which shows how cool and flexible soul blade is. Sun and moon probably is best with a transcendent, though, since it's cheesy in conjunction with swift flurry and heartbeat drumming.

Edited July 22, 2018 by grasida

[Verde]

^ Good stuff to keep in mind.

[mant2si]

...

Yes, I also found DW better against single target than 2H, but there exist exception - WotEP 2H sword with Riposte enhance, while all other 2H weapon requires at least 1 additional attack to generate focus - WotEP can generate focus without additional attack, as fighter you can stack pretty high deflection and as cipher you can lower enemies accuracy at least by -15 with L1 ability

 

WotEP AOE riposte also very good synergy with Average Storm buff from Heaven Cacophony 

 

I missed borrowed instinct, mental binding, phantom foes - from Cipher side, I assume this is because OP didn't max INT 

 

If I have free time I will post  Devoted/Soul Blade for solo DD

Edited July 22, 2018 by mant2si

[Ansalon]

The reason for 2h is for the weapon Wahai Poragas synergy with fighters Mob Stance and Soul Annhilation. Everytime you kill a target you proc an instant attack. With Wahai Poraga this will be an aoe attack which will  give you enough focus to instakill another target with Soul Annihalation. Reason I didn't pick Recall Agony is because all focus goes into Soul Annihalation for instant kills. The 1st level spell doesn't really matter for this build since you will never really use it.

[raffster]

Can this build kill that mega boss Belranga?