What to do with Cipher Serafan?

[VillageIdiot]

Is he just gimped by WildMind now? everytime i use him he explodes my party or cause a wipe because of hideous negative debuff from wildmind which reminds me to bench him and just go for Ydwin. I've no idea how to build him as a pure cipher, may be a melee so he can explode enemies too? 

[mosspit]

Wild mind is just bad. If you wanna use him as a Cipher, try to cast the spell away from the party. Even that, he can make the enemies invisble or some other bad outcomes.

 

Or be open to reload when he wipes your party. I used him as a witch in an Ironman playthrough. Never again....

[indika_tates]

Serafen is another useless average joe character with horrible stats for both Cipher and Barbarian. As soon as I complete his main quest he's out of my party.

[Ascaloth]

The thing about Serafen is, I might just have a build for him in mind.

 

Going to be testing it in my next PotD run, see if I can make him actually halfway decent. Now the question is, is it even possible to counteract those times when he makes enemies invisible...?

[Verde]

He's a cool char but the absolute worst combat prowress. I never use him unless it's his personal quest.

[arkane83]

If you are not into save scumming (or are playing a mode that disallows it), Serafen is the absolute worst companion in the game as a cipher or witch. The negatives, when they happen, can cause a wipe on a hard fight, as you already discovered. 

 

My suggestion if you made him a cipher? Get unity console and just change his class if you are hellbent on keeping him in your party and already picked anything with Wild Mind. I would make him a Berserker/Soul Blade... yes its cheating, but I can also hire an adventurer with whatever build I want. 

[VillageIdiot]

If you are not into save scumming (or are playing a mode that disallows it), Serafen is the absolute worst companion in the game as a cipher or witch. The negatives, when they happen, can cause a wipe on a hard fight, as you already discovered. 

 

My suggestion if you made him a cipher? Get unity console and just change his class if you are hellbent on keeping him in your party and already picked anything with Wild Mind. I would make him a Berserker/Soul Blade... yes its cheating, but I can also hire an adventurer with whatever build I want. 

Sadly it seems his negatives from wildmind far outweights the positive, since all the positive aspect like debuffs or charm is already covered by base Cipher abilities. The problem is the wildmind explosion which if happens immediately kills at least 2 of my team members. I wonder if send him to melee range and let him be a bomb would be better, that way he stack up focus and wildmind explodes the enemies rather than my own, but dude is a paper in melee and dies faster than my wizard. 

[VillageIdiot]

He's a cool char but the absolute worst combat prowress. I never use him unless it's his personal quest.

Is a shame for such a cool character with a refreshing personality he is absolutely objectively the worst companion out of everyone AND sidekicks, wildmind need some kind of tuning to make Serafan worthwhile. 

[arkane83]

 

He's a cool char but the absolute worst combat prowress. I never use him unless it's his personal quest.

Is a shame for such a cool character with a refreshing personality he is absolutely objectively the worst companion out of everyone AND sidekicks, wildmind need some kind of tuning to make Serafan worthwhile.

Yeah remove it and replace it with something that gives +/- power levels or a wacky combination of miss to graze, graze to miss, hit to graze, graze to hit, and hit to crit for his cipher abilities. Keep the randomness, but remove the self wipe nonsense that makes him useless on higher difficulty.

[gkathellar]

 

If you are not into save scumming (or are playing a mode that disallows it), Serafen is the absolute worst companion in the game as a cipher or witch. The negatives, when they happen, can cause a wipe on a hard fight, as you already discovered. 

 

My suggestion if you made him a cipher? Get unity console and just change his class if you are hellbent on keeping him in your party and already picked anything with Wild Mind. I would make him a Berserker/Soul Blade... yes its cheating, but I can also hire an adventurer with whatever build I want. 

Sadly it seems his negatives from wildmind far outweights the positive, since all the positive aspect like debuffs or charm is already covered by base Cipher abilities. The problem is the wildmind explosion which if happens immediately kills at least 2 of my team members. I wonder if send him to melee range and let him be a bomb would be better, that way he stack up focus and wildmind explodes the enemies rather than my own, but dude is a paper in melee and dies faster than my wizard.

 

As a witch, he's generally durable enough to make the inevitable kaboom count. But yeah, under no circumstances should you use him as a ranged combatant. Wild Mind is bad, but it's considerably more tolerable on a witch than on a straight cipher.

[arkane83]

 

 

If you are not into save scumming (or are playing a mode that disallows it), Serafen is the absolute worst companion in the game as a cipher or witch. The negatives, when they happen, can cause a wipe on a hard fight, as you already discovered.

 

My suggestion if you made him a cipher? Get unity console and just change his class if you are hellbent on keeping him in your party and already picked anything with Wild Mind. I would make him a Berserker/Soul Blade... yes its cheating, but I can also hire an adventurer with whatever build I want.

Sadly it seems his negatives from wildmind far outweights the positive, since all the positive aspect like debuffs or charm is already covered by base Cipher abilities. The problem is the wildmind explosion which if happens immediately kills at least 2 of my team members. I wonder if send him to melee range and let him be a bomb would be better, that way he stack up focus and wildmind explodes the enemies rather than my own, but dude is a paper in melee and dies faster than my wizard.

As a witch, he's generally durable enough to make the inevitable kaboom count. But yeah, under no circumstances should you use him as a ranged combatant. Wild Mind is bad, but it's considerably more tolerable on a witch than on a straight cipher.

Yeah, if you send him in alone as a kinda kamikaze type all by himself. Still sucky if he turns a pack of enemies invisible who then proceed to make your life hell...

[thundercleese]

I've had him turn all the enemies invisible with a Phantom Foes, then he went to cast Pain Link on one of my frontliners and blew up my backline. Was one of the funniest things I've seen in the game. Well, other than Eder getting trapped under the Kraken and then the Kraken teleports out of his pool like "Hey, get away from my butthole!"

 

Best use for Serafen if you made him a Cipher? Sacrifice him to Skaen.

[fced]

I like Serafen but i have to agree, my opinion is Serafen is not finished, i am pretty sure during his personal quest something would have made him more stable with his abilities, but they forgot to implement it... Yes it is a shame... between Xoti fanatism, Maia Colonialism, Paleginna misplaced trust against the VTC, only Serafen, Eder and Aloth are balanced, and 1/3 balanced companions is a bit impossible to use...

They were very inspired by Dragon age origins, and Serafen remind me a bit Wynne, with her spirit abilities, during her quest we had the possibility to retrieve an item to make her abilities more stable and efficient...

They took a lot from DAO but they forgot one or two things in their urgent need of money probably ...

Edited March 1, 2020 by fced

[Seccirsin]

On 3/1/2020 at 9:40 PM, fced said:

They were very inspired by Dragon age origins, and Serafen remind me a bit Wynne, with her spirit abilities, during her quest we had the possibility to retrieve an item to make her abilities more stable and efficient...

They took a lot from DAO but they forgot one or two things in their urgent need of money probably ...

And just like Wynne, you can put Serafen on the bench permanently after finishing his quest and get the fancy hat.
What i mean is, unless you like a companion around, sometimes his/hers usefulness is exaggerated. Case and point being Wynne, the party healer, somebody people will most likely highly recommend. Well, between combat stealth, potions and baby girl Morrigan with Force Field, i finished the game on Nightmare without even breaking a sweat.

Also, i don't agree with your assessment that they were inspired by DAO.
If we look at it fairly (without taking into account the time difference of releases), Deadfire has better build variety and arguably better combat. But when it comes to dialogue and memorable companions, Deadfire falls so short it's not even funny.

Rant over, ontopic: I'm trying a build with Serafen that uses Spearcaster with high arcana + time parasite + Sure handed Ila. On paper it sounds great, but i've yet to test it fully. 

[fced]

1 hour ago, Seccirsin said:

And just like Wynne, you can put Serafen on the bench permanently after finishing his quest and get the fancy hat.
What i mean is, unless you like a companion around, sometimes his/hers usefulness is exaggerated. Case and point being Wynne, the party healer, somebody people will most likely highly recommend. Well, between combat stealth, potions and baby girl Morrigan with Force Field, i finished the game on Nightmare without even breaking a sweat.

Also, i don't agree with your assessment that they were inspired by DAO.
If we look at it fairly (without taking into account the time difference of releases), Deadfire has better build variety and arguably better combat. But when it comes to dialogue and memorable companions, Deadfire falls so short it's not even funny.

Rant over, ontopic: I'm trying a build with Serafen that uses Spearcaster with high arcana + time parasite + Sure handed Ila. On paper it sounds great, but i've yet to test it fully. 

Wynne on the bench ? may be on my first gameplay, because i preferred Morrigan, but next, after i understanding her, nop,... Wynne is the best healer of the game...
I am so much waiting a remaster of DAO on PS4, the game was so well written (not the gameplay of course), everything in this game was qualifying it as a well job..
About the DAO inspiration, i was mostly speaking about the lore (when i saw the shadows, ...)

About Serafen and Cypher, is there any other way to get the Brilliant Inspiration (except from a cypher) ? I tried to search on wikies, but didn't found any spell except "Ancestor memory", not that i need it in regular fight, but when it come to the crucible and the special enemies which have their island (the giant ones, Spider, Ooze), it should be useful, i really had some very very hard time fighting the Ooze, i stopped after it rebuilded itself, my interrupt abilities was empties, Xoti and her crossbow were dead, ...  

[Seccirsin]

1 hour ago, fced said:

Wynne on the bench ? may be on my first gameplay, because i preferred Morrigan, but next, after i understanding her, nop,... Wynne is the best healer of the game...
I am so much waiting a remaster of DAO on PS4, the game was so well written (not the gameplay of course), everything in this game was qualifying it as a well job..

I'm not denying she's a good healer, i'm saying you just do not need a healer .  I usually have 1 mage in my party for CC and utility, so it has always been Morrigan, because her personality (original tsundere) and banter are just so damn good.

 

1 hour ago, fced said:

About Serafen and Cypher, is there any other way to get the Brilliant Inspiration (except from a cypher) ? I tried to search on wikies, but didn't found any spell except "Ancestor memory", not that i need it in regular fight, but when it come to the crucible and the special enemies which have their island (the giant ones, Spider, Ooze), it should be useful, i really had some very very hard time fighting the Ooze, i stopped after it rebuilded itself, my interrupt abilities was empties, Xoti and her crossbow were dead, ...

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Robes_of_the_Weyc
https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/His+Heart+Did+Fill+With+the+Light+of+the+Dawn
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Shroud_of_the_Phantasm

Make of this what you will.

[Waski]

1 hour ago, fced said:

Brilliant Inspiration

Easiest way is Wit of Death Herald on your mc, its 1/rest. Just pick the right answers when talking to gods.

[Boeroer]

Easiest way is solo Tactician/Rogue if you ask me. But wait... nobody's asking me, right?

[fced]

53 minutes ago, Seccirsin said:

I'm not denying she's a good healer, i'm saying you just do not need a healer .  I usually have 1 mage in my party for CC and utility, so it has always been Morrigan, because her personality (original tsundere) and banter are just so damn good.

 

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Robes_of_the_Weyc
https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/His+Heart+Did+Fill+With+the+Light+of+the+Dawn
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Shroud_of_the_Phantasm

Make of this what you will.

Thankyou, at first when i used the Weyc Robes, i didn't paid attention to Brilliance, but after a one hour fight, realised its utility... problem is on though enemies like the ones in Preservation society guides, Serafen can't get enough focus to use brilliance boost at each turn... they are so resistant...

Wait, with the robe of the Weyc, to get Brilliance we need to empower an ability, and usually for though fights (long), i use empower to replenish my ressources (i play as a wizard), so not sure it is a good idea, wait does this mean, i can empower an ability and get +1 on all my wizard spells (all tier), i mean like if i empower my character to replenish ? 
i can't remember if i got all tier spells +1 with Ancestor honor...

Edited March 3, 2020 by fced

[Kaylon]

I don't understand how people get killed by his AoE - you just need 10 shock AR to reduce its damage by 75%. With high reflex defense you can even resist it or reduce the damage even further. Also if he uses mostly his buffs you won't even feel he has Wild Mind.

[Boeroer]

I also had no problem with Miscasts. I even tried to use them as offensive tool when playing him as a melee witch - but it happens so seldomly that I just ignored it and didn't put him too close to any low-shock-AR party members - just to be on the safe side. But nothing too spectacular ever happened. 

[fced]

On 3/3/2020 at 4:55 PM, Kaylon said:

I don't understand how people get killed by his AoE - you just need 10 shock AR to reduce its damage by 75%. With high reflex defense you can even resist it or reduce the damage even further. Also if he uses mostly his buffs you won't even feel he has Wild Mind.

Sometime when your team is low life after a very long fight and everybody stay close to Paleginna to have the healing aura including Serafen, wild mind can do more harm than good, or when your team is all at 25% life, and lose a turn and a chance to finish your enemies because they turned cloaked after serafen use a spell... I got some troubles against Maura Mushroom with this ... But most of the time, this was fun...

Edited March 4, 2020 by fced

[thelee]

On 3/3/2020 at 7:55 AM, Kaylon said:

I don't understand how people get killed by his AoE - you just need 10 shock AR to reduce its damage by 75%. With high reflex defense you can even resist it or reduce the damage even further. Also if he uses mostly his buffs you won't even feel he has Wild Mind.

this thread is old, so it probably predates the wild mind self-damage nerf. but that being said, in the margins stuff like this kind of wild mind matters a lot more than how it helps (viz fced's comment). more variance = bad for player.

 

On 3/3/2020 at 7:55 AM, Kaylon said:

Also if he uses mostly his buffs you won't even feel he has Wild Mind.

not true - his wild mind effects can be bad as buffs. even invisibility. long time ago, i got a party member buffed into invisibility which was actually a horrible outcome because i couldn't target them with a heal while they had a big dot active. they got knocked out.

i'll say it again over and over: wild mind is a trap/garbage subclass.

Edited March 4, 2020 by thelee