mindstalker or harbinger better as a "duelist"?

[Pharaun159]

Im in the mood for a fast paced, mobile build that acts the part of the dashing swordsman. Thinking dual weilding rapiers and daggers (might even mess with pukestaber and nights regret ring), abd the red hand. I know the harbinger (trickster/skald) has alot goung for it, but it seems like after the opening salvo, ill spend alot of time waiting for phrases. Atleast untill later levels. A trickster/soulblade i would think is a cc beast that gets focus quickly. Once i git squids rapier be even more chaotic.

 

For both classes thinking eitger camilias legacy or caroc breastplate.

 

My other concern is weapon penetration

 

Any input?

[Haplok]

Don't know if you're still considering this, but it sounds good. Penetration is not a huge issue, you can get Hammering Thoughts for +1, you can spam the cheap Cripping Strike for +2 Pen. Your Soul Annihilation attack doesn't care about enemy armor at all. Stilettos would fit that style and they have high Penetration (although in a somewhat resisted type).

Plus against elite skellies and such you can always temporarily switch to a weapon with different damage type, like flails, maces or clubs.

 

In fact for main hand weapon I would recommend a higher damage weapon, like a saber or sword maybe. That's because your Rogue Full Attacks ignore main hand recovery and only use the offhand recovery value - so you can have higher damage with them "for free" (and generate more Focus).

But of course the light "swasbuckling" arms would work too, are just slightly less optimal.

 

I like DoC for extra protection and the valuable extra Guile resources (2 more Crippling Strike per encounter - 3 more with Empower - and each usually generates enough Focus to follow with a strong Soul Annihilation afterwards), but you can go lighter if you like.

 

I wouldn't call such a build a "CC beast" though. You tend to rarely spend focus on actual CC and it's difficult to max Int for buff/debuff durations due to a bad case of MAD. In the end, you probably shouldn't pick much apart from a few staples, like Secret Horrors. Maybe Psychovampiric Shield for some tough cookies and Tenuous Grasp+Whispers of Treason or Puppet Master for use in particularly difficult encounters. Generally the focus of such a build is on melee damage. For CC pick Beguiler or Ascendant.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Haplok

[grasida]

Trickster/Soul blade isn’t terribly MAD, unless you’re trying to be tanky (which you absolutely have the tools to do, if you want to). You don’t need too much might, since you have sneak attack and can mostly ignore damage spells. You can afford to go lowish on constitution and resolve, since you get lots of really strong defensive spells and powerful debuffs. You really only need perception and dexterity high, since you have no good access to action speed boosts and really want to land your cipher spells. Spare points can easily go into intellect. You can spare a few seconds once or twice a fight to cast secret horrors, then eye strike, which really messes up a lot of enemies at once.

 

Harbinger is a little worse. I feel like you have to choose between might and focusing on damage invocations or intellect and focusing on debuffs, skald gives you fewer defensive perks than cipher, so it’s more painful to drop defensive stats and you’re even hungrier for speed and accuracy. But a harbinger built around delivering afflictions should be quite good at that job and still have decent melee damage too.

[Haplok]

Yeah, I meant an in-your-face melee build. For such a build I'd like to at least keep Con & Resolve + Might average (~10), max Dex and Perception. That doesn't leave many points for Int. Used to high-Int builds when testing, I was surprised how quickly Borrowed Instinct was going off-line (that's with adventurers, so without bonus attributes). Debuffs tend to be even shorter. But sure, I did cast Secret Horrors from time to time.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Haplok

[1TTFFSSE]

I mean if you set a mindstalker vs a harbinger in an arena I am pretty sure the mindstalker would win when ai is set. 

 

Now take mindstalker vs marauder or mindtalker vs swashbuckler and we have a very interesting fight. can the mindstalker keep the mara or swashy cc locked because otherwise they are k-o. 

[Metaturtle]

I've had flail+club harbingers lockdown targets using alternating chants of interrupt chant and resistance chants to clean off cc. If I pull out wisps or chain stun invocation it is game over for them though it's so much micro. Foe chants like the interrupt chant can cause an interrupt on application using energize so a troubadour can cause a possible passive aura interrupt every 3 seconds. It is a lot of interrupt on top of rogue skills, wisps, and energized auto crits. You can even do it as a pure chanter minus the rogue skills.

 

If a skald, just spam that stun invocation on enemy long skill activations since it is cheap. Even might affliction immune mobs that aren't gigantic like Concelhaut somehow still eat the stun.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Metaturtle