Thoughts on a Vallian Heavy Roleplay Build - Pro Intellectual Watcher

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys, 

 

So recently I've been toying with a few ideas for a pro-Vallian, pro-intellectual, pro-animancy Watcher, been wanting to make another heavy roleplay focused build. And I have a few ideas for how I want to do it. My issue is that I keep running into this problem where I want to do decent damage, but there's a part of me that hates being really frail. So I'm trying to find a build that offers a good mix of those two things. They approach the concept from two different angles, Ciphers and Priests of Wael.

 

A little about this character, if that helps with suggestions.

 

In his original canon, he's a Mesmer - that's a magic user who uses illusions to disorient and attack his opponents. Roleplay-wise, he's a member of his kingdom's royal guard, who also serves as an intelligence and counter-terrorist agent tasked with rooting out threats to the security of the nation. He primarily fights with blades, but has some skill with firearms. He's an adherent of his culture's goddess of illusions and water, though I wouldn't go so far as to call him a priest. He is well versed in her scripture, though.

 

In Pillars, the closest thing to a Mesmer nominally is a Cipher, but I've also thought that a Priest of Wael would fit too. That said, I'm kind of disappointed that the Priest skill lineup doesn't really change much between gods - it's still incredibly fire based. 

 

1. Priest of Wael/Streetfighter (Zealot): Based on the "Let's Learn with Umezawa" build, and using the Marux Amanth Soulbound dagger because, lore-wise, it's easily the most interesting of the Soulbound weapons. It has a chance to proc a fire AoE on Crit (Targets Reflex, I think), and a chance to give an Evoker type effect with Priest spells (Which are usually pretty high damage anyway). I THINK Sneak Attack damage affects Spell damage, but I'm not sure.

 

Basically, this guy would be played as a frontline tank or off-tank, using trickery and illusion magic to bolster his defenses and get into scrapes, and then spells like Barring Death's Door to keep him alive through the worst of it. According to the person who posted the initial build, it does really solid sustained damage and has pretty significant defenses with things like Llengrath's Displaced Image and Mirrored Image, as well as Priest buffs. Apparently you can solo some of the big fights in the late game with it. 

 

2. Soulblade/Bleak Walker (Inquisitor)

 

3. Templar (Priest of Wael/Bleak Walker)

 

These are the three concepts I was thinking of that might best illustrate what I'm going for here. Of the three, I think the Zealot promises to be both the most interesting and the most challenging to play. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it. 

Edited September 9, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather