Favorite Cipher Builds?

[Boeroer]

Are you sure it didn't destroy loot? Because often players don't exactly know which loot is supposed to drop. And you don't miss stuff that you know nothing about in the first place. 

It is not a bug that occurs 100% of times. But it does still occur. After patch 4 or so I tested it and it seemed to be fixed. But then later I tried it again (just recently) with Nomu the Marauder who drops Chamaeleon's Ring. I shot him dead with Essence Interrupter (including crit and then death) several times and several times the Ring didn't drop. Killing him without the bow gave me the ring 100% of times (it's not a random drop).

So even if it doesn't occur all the time it's still there. And I guess it will stay. 

Community Patch didn't touch Essence Interrupter. I also guess the bug is too deep in the code for a mod to fix it.

Edit: I just now tried it again and killed Nomu several times with EI. This time the loot dropped. It may be that this bug does not occur in every playthrough - like the stuttering bug (the one where you command your party member to execute an ability but instead the ability keeps getting abandoned and reexecuted in an infinite stuttering loop until you cancel). In some playthroughs you might have it, in others it will not occur once. So it may totally be the case that you can play with EI and not lose loot. I would still be careful though and try it out on bounties and bosses before fully committing myself to the bow. I mean you can also reload and try again should you experience loot destruction. But maybe that can become a bit tedious. And the uncertainty is unnervig as well. 

Another possibility is that it got secretly fixed recently without any patch notes. Don't think so because patching's supposed to be over, but silent fixes like that did happen in the past. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Boeroer

[Blunderboss]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Another possibility is that it got secretly fixed recently without any patch notes. Don't think so because patching's supposed to be over, but silent fixes like that did happen in the past. 

Hopefully this is the case since it was fixed for 4.0 and then was happening again maybe obsidian silent fix it for 5.0x version

I have tried it on some early game mini bosses giant worm in old city and giant adra animat before poko kohora entrance and it dropped their materials just fine also I haven’t noticed any unique items disappearing throughout the game. I was mostly concerned about all kinds of enchanting materials since unique items can be exported from other saves in case they get destroyed.

Weapon itself is amazing imo especially with Debonaire/Beguiler you can game any combat encounter with it - Whispers of Treason wait a bit until charm is about to end crit the enemy with some rogue ability and it becomes your ally, later in the game you will be critting all the time anyway even without charm and shock damage is op throughout the game.

Another good combo with Deb/Beg is Ringleader Kitchen Stove Thunderous Raport, mostly used late game to devastate entire groups of enemies so I keep it in my second weapon set, cast 2-3 ringleaders and thunderous report for insane blast it does so much damage it’s insane 

This ranged rogue build is so fun that I can’t stop playing it for second time in a row now 

p.s. 

Quote

 It may be that this bug does not occur in every playthrough - like the stuttering bug (the one where you command your party member to execute an ability but instead the ability keeps getting abandoned and reexecuted in an infinite stuttering loop until you cancel). In some playthroughs you might have it, in others it will not occur once.

I have this stuttering bug in almost every encounter ...

Edited October 14, 2019 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

Yes, the synergy of Debonaire/Beguiler I also experienced myself.

Did you know that you can cast Disintegrate on a charmed enemy and it will not flip back? That's rather awesome. +50% duration almost guaranteed and no backlash.

Another nice combo (especially with Community Patch which turns Forbidden Fist into a proper weapon attack) is Forbidden Fist/Cipher with Stunning Surge and a Morning Star. Enfeeble (+50% duration of hostile effects) + Stun + Body Blows + Turning Wheel's INT bonus + a potential crit with Disintegrate (-45 fortitude after all) means a really long disintegration duration. And against high RES enemies (who usually laugh about DoTs) you have Psychovampiric Shield which removes 10 RES and further prolongs Disintegration. It's a fun combo.  You just "infect" enemies with that combo and go to the next.

 

 

[Blunderboss]

Great idea with disintegrate as I always have plenty of focus with this build since almost all actions generate it 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Blunderboss

[Marigoldran]

1.  Run Helwalker/Ascendant or Soul Blade in front lines.

2.  Enemies all focus him.

3.  Dead.

I've tried Helwalker/Cipher front line.  It doesn't work.  Your allies have to spend all of their time healing you.  Also, Turning Wheel damage bonus doesn't matter. What really matters is the extra might and int that synergizes with Cipher ascension.  

 Sure, there's tricks to keep him alive in the front lines, but if you're asking for advice on the game that means you're noob which means it's probably best to keep the squishies in the back.  

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

That anecdote - if anything - is only suited to show that you didn't know how to play that particular character (which we know nothing specific about).

Of course you can't storm into the enemies first with a glasscannonish Transcendant build. You picked a Helwalker which is the most squishy monk class in the first place!
But that your Helwalker/Ascendant was made from wet tissue paper doesn't mean that all "ciphers are very very squishy in the front lines" in general.
My anecdotal evidence clearly says that Ciphers and Transcendants can be more than sturdy enough to be played in melee and even in the front line (which is not the same). You can even build them a bit squishy - if you don't make the mistake and go in with them first (which is a suboptimal thing to do with any character who's not a real tank).

You also don't throw an egg at the wall and then say "Here's my experience with round objects: they all do shatter if you throw them at walls!".

Well at least I hope so...

I made my arguments that show how Transcendants can be sturdy enough to be played in melee if you wish so - which you didn't comment on. 

I played a Shattered Pillar/Soulblade recently with Whispers of the Endless Paths and its Offensive Parry. That's all tankyness and high deflection and it's very well suited for the front line. High deflection through Borrowed Instincts and crazily stacked defense against disengagement attack makes this Transcendent build quite sturdy AND gives him a crazy high focus and wound generation due to the Offensive Parry (which generates wounds for Shattered Pillar and focus for the Soulblade and also works with Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming and Turning Wheel). He can go solo against 6 CRE_Tigers and destroy them in seconds. A squishy character would just die in seconds. Transcendants don't have to be squishy. 

10 hours ago, Marigoldran said:

Also, Turning Wheel damage bonus doesn't matter. 

Of course it matters if you want to compare the focus generation of melee vs. ranged setup. I mean you are saying it's always better for a Transcendant to go ranged. But you don't back it up with the "why" - besides the "very, very squishy" argument which is not generally true. It's only true for your once tried cipher...

So we have to compare the pros and cons of melee vs. ranged. When going ranged you will not get the burning lash of Turning Wheel which will result in lesser focus generation. So, besides the fact that melee weapons have higher dps in general you also can't generate focus as quickly with a ranged weapon as you an with a melee one (hand mortars aside) because you lack a lash. On top of that you can't even use a lot of the Monk's special abilites because most of them are melee only (see Heartbeat Drumming, Swift Flurry and more). Also Enduring Dance's ACC bonus (+12) doesn't stack with Borrowed Instinct's (+20). You can take it for the wound generation at range then, but the nice ACC part is doing nothing unless you forego Borrowed Instincts. Those are some things that have to be mentioned in order to make an informed choice.

10 hours ago, Marigoldran said:

What really matters is the extra might and int that synergizes with Cipher ascension.  

Yes - but you can have it all: Turning Wheel's lash + high MIG and INT + Ascension. And since Turning Wheel is a multiplicative dmg bonus you will profit from your MIG even more. So if you compare for example Monk's fists  + Turning Wheel using Stunning Surge with Essence Interrupter + Stunning Surge (because there is no other attack ability you could use with a bow) then you can see that fists do more damage and thus produce more focus in a given time, Ascending you faster. The pro of a ranged weapon is that you don't have to move to targets which can raise the dps compared to a melee setup. If enemies are standing in a crowd the melee will do considerably more dps/focus while against enemies that stand far apart the ranged weapon might be better.  

10 hours ago, Marigoldran said:

 Sure, there's tricks to keep him alive in the front lines.

 The only tricks are to not build him with 3 RES and 3 CON and let the tank engage first before you go in. This is really simple.

10 hours ago, Marigoldran said:

if you're asking for advice on the game that means you're noob which means it's probably best to keep the squishies in the back.

It's always good to keep real squishies in the back if you don't know how to keep them alive. However - as I showed above: a Transcendant doesn't have to be a squishy. He can have higher defenses than a single class monk and thus he can be more tanky than a single class Monk if you build him right. So you don't have to keep him in the back if you don't want to. You also wouldn't want to keep all SC Monks in the back row...

You forgot that this "noob" explicitly asked for advice on a melee Transcendent. What's best then is to tell him how that can work (if it can - and it can indeed). It's ok to suggest another approach, but at the same time telling him (non-veridically) that his preferred combat style won't work just because you are searching for yet another opportunity to place your overly precious "Helwalker/Ascendant with Essence Interrupter" (let's call it "HAwEI" from now on) build is not best. It's just pushing.

***

Whatever - just to give two quick examples what can be fun melee Transcendants (don't know if that's the vibe the "noob" was searching for - and most likely it's too late for that anyway since the post was already ten feet under before it got necroed by a random HAwEI):

• Nalpasca/Beguiler
• use a Morning Star + modal with Stunnig Surge --> -35 Fortitude
• use Secret Horrors on a group --> -45 Fortitude, most likely a lot of focus because Beguiler-refund. If focus is too low cast Phantom Foes.
• use Borrowed Instincts --> +20 ACC
• either use Force of Anguish with Swift Flurry --> targets fortitude. You now have the equivalent of +65 accuracy which leads to a crapload of crits usually. Especially on non-PotD difficulty settings. This can one-shot enemies which have lowish fortitude to start with. THen you will also gain a ton of focus because the additional attacks from Swift Flurry etc. do generate focus. Against touch ones is nice to bring down their Fortitude immensely in order to apply:
• Disintegrate. It targets Fortitude which usually makes it hard to use it on the big ones since those tned to have lots of it. Not if you brought it down by 45 first... If you want to specialize on Disintegrate it can make sense to use a Helwalker instead since the higher MIG works well with the DoT ticks. But of course this is more squishy. You also might want to cast Psychovampiric Shield first because its RES debuff will make the Disintegrate last a lot longer (RES influences the duration of hostile effects)
• To help with the Swift Flurry multiprocs you can also utilize Mental Binding. With Lingering Echoes + Monk INT bonus (eithr from Enlightened Agony or Turning Wheel) it will paralyze for a really long time and give you a 25% crit conversion against that enemy. 
• Play this like a flanker since it's not too sturdy. You don't want to rush in first but come from the sides when the tank already engaged. 

Another one (very sturdy)

• Forbidden Fist/Beguiler
• max RES, high MIG and INT, generally stack all stuff that has bonus RES and -% fo hostile effects to shorten Forbidden Curse as much as possible - use Enlighened Agony (-50% duration hostile effects, -5 sec hostile effects, +5 INT).
• stack deflection with stuff like weapon & shield style, cape an whatnot.
• use a thickish armor - Devil of Caroc is sufficient though. Other nice ones are Casita Samelia's with high Intimidate skill. Aim for the Kāhako Nihi in SSS.
• use Iron Wheel
• Tuotilo's Palm + fist.
• Hylea's Talons. Will give you a wound once it expires on you (very short duration because of your high RES and Enlightened Agony), will put a lash on your melee attacks which increases focus gain.
• Lingering Echoes
• use Forbidden Fist ability: target is enfeebled --> -10 Fortitude and +50% duration of all hostile effects on the tartget. Stacks multiplicatively with Lingerung Echoes and high INT in the Transcendant
• use Stunning Surge: --> now -20 Fortitude, stun lasts a really long time because of high INT, enfeebled and Lingering Echoes
• use Psychovampiric Shield if the target probably has high RES (if you are a Beguiler it costs only 5 focus if you hit). This will prolong hostile effects on the nemy even further.
• cast Disintegrate: if you hit the Disintegrate will have a very long duration due to enfeeblement and Lingering Echoes, INT and eventually -10 RES. Go to another victm because this one will most likely die...
• Forbidden Fist does not generate focus in the unmodded game. Hence Beguiler. If you use the Community Patch mod it will generate focus.
• Forbidden Fist's Enfeeblement is a very strong tool for Transcendants because of the synergy of Lingering Echoes with high INT and the +50% duration effect. All afflictions will last a crazy long time. Like Mental Binding, Stunning Surge, Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master - you name it.
• You can also first charm or dominate the enemy and then cast Disintegrate. In both cases the mind control will last a very long time and DoTs don't make chamed enemies flip back alliance. So you can turn them against your foes while they are dying from the DoT. It's very effective.
• You can play this a bit less sturdy and reactive with a Morning Star. Fortitude debuffing will me much better but attack speed and survivability will be lower.  

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by Boeroer
typos

[Kaylon]

Of course you can play a melee cipher, but you won't be a very good caster. To be tanky you need good armor and defensive attributes/items which will make you a mediocre caster.

If you want to be a good caster it's better to play as a ranged character because you can focus more on casting and less on defense. The best multi-class for a caster is obviously the helwalker which adds mig, int, speed, penetration, accuracy and summons, but makes him even more squishy (which forces you to become even more defensive or to play in the back to avoid damage).

PS. If you stack reflecting items on yourself (head, neck, chest, back) the Dichotomous Soul can be used to reflect back to you spells that work only on allies (Pain Block, Ancestor's Memory)

[Boeroer]

If you want to put yout whole focus on casting cipher powers - like you might want with an Ascendant - sure. You want to have very short recovery then.

But on the other hand a melee cipher potentially generates focus more quickly even with armor. If you - for example - use Devil of Caroc's Breastplate with a pet like Abraham then your recovery isn't that bad in the first place while you will be a lot sturdier than without. Adding Body Attunement on top and you're sturdy enough yet fast enough to be a good melee character and being able to cast pretty quickly. 

There's also the question if you want to go armorless if you are ranged - boarding fights for example can be a nightmare if you are without armor. Get focus-fired by some gunners and you're done - no matter if back row or not. 

Then there is a whole cipher subclass that is supposed to go into melee combat (Soul Blade). If that wouldn't be possible its defining melee-only ability wouldn't make much sense, would it? I mean you played plenty of melee Cipher/something yourself. You wouldn't have done it if didn't work.

Also you don't necessarily need to be very tanky to play melee as long as you are in a party. You just need a fitting party composition. Different story for solo of course. But I don't think that the questioner had a solo Transcendant in mind. And if you really want to combine back (or second) row and melee there's always reach weapons (first) and Instruments of Pain (later). That's still melee but with a lot less risk and not much need for thick armor. 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by Boeroer

[Haplok]

Well, a Transcendant offtank with Grave Calling saber is very fun. Helwalker Int will extend the duration and damage of party friendly Paralyzing Chillfogs once you destroy some vessels - which can be summoned by your party Chanter. Enemies standing in those Chillfogs will even generate Focus for you at every tick!

[Boeroer]

Chilling Grave is completely broken (balance-wise). Not only does the Chillfog gain all the weapon quality bonuses (legendary) - but Grave Bound will trigger on the Chillfog-hits, paralyzing all foes in the AoE. I think it also procs Avenging Storm. And then it also generates focus.  

[FleetFeet]

On 10/14/2019 at 3:04 AM, Blunderboss said:

I played trough the game twice with essence interrupter on patch 5.0 and never had my loot destroyed even when essence interrupter turned named enemies into xaurips and oozes. You sure this bug still in the game? I am using community patch, was essence interrupter fixed now in community patch ?

FYI, I just encountered a situation where loot was destroyed using essence interrupter :

It was fighting the enchanted armor in FS( the one that drops/is crimson panoply), Had a Devoted(bow)/Cipher with EI focused on him so I'm confident he was soul charged  and was not using disintegration. Nothing dropped when he went down. I re-loaded and did it with EI out of the fight and the armor dropped. One thing I noticed, when he went down, one of his summons was still around. It's possible that if nothing was left standing then he wouldn't have had a chance to morph and the loot would not have been destroyed.  At least that's one explanation as to why it's been tricky to reproduce.  

p.s. Playing 5.0 with community patch(HUGE thank you to those involved while I'm here!)

p.p.s First post never made it, so sorry if this ends up being dbl post. 

[Marigoldran]

Hunting Bow Modal + Light Armor + Ranged means you build focus faster than melee, which requires that you move close to the enemy before doing damage.  

You shoot out arrows like a machine gun, and attack 2-3 times where everyone else attacks once.  Also, the arrows have penetrative power because of the electric modifier on the Essence Interrupter.  

Furthermore, it's something that's powerful from the very beginning.  

Edited October 16, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

I already said that ranged characters have an advantage when enemies stand seperate but melee do if enemies atand near together.

Also with Rapid Shots you simply trade attack speed for accuracy. It's a modal that you can't just leave on if you wish to be effective since it depends on the enemy which is better (ACC or less recovery time). Thus it doesn't alter dps and therefore focus gain a lot on average. For example it's a pretty inefficient modal in the early game. Simply awful to use -15 ACC right from the beginning (dpends on the difficulty settongs though). You also need a ton of cash to buy the bow. 

If you compare dual fists (works right away with no money or resources) with Hunting Bow + modal (actual ingame values at 10 DEX):

1. Hunting Bow:
   • 0.9 sec attack speed + 4 sec recovery
   • with modal: 0.9 sec attack speed, 2 sec recovery, -15 ACC (generally roughly estimated as -30% dmg loss on average)
   • dps with modal: base dmg of 19 * 0.7 modal / 2.9 --> dps of 4.58. If we totally ignore the ACC then 6.55
   • dps without modal: 19 / 4.9 --> dps of 3.88
2. Fists:
   • 0.5 sec attack speed, 1.9 sec recovery
   • base dmg of 16.5 * 1.2 Turning Wheel / 1.9--> dps of 10.24
   • base dmg of 16.5 / 2.1 (no Two Weapon Style, no Turning Wheel - right from the beginning) --> dps of 7.85

If the melee guy wears the most heavy armor (+50% recovery penalty) with no pet you will end up at the same dps (roughly). Then factor in that you can't use a lot of melee abilites of the monk. And that -15 ACC is a bad thing for Stunning Surge (the only attack ability that you can use with a hunting bow), too.

So clearly a melee Transcendant can potentially do more dps and gain focus faster than a hunting bow Transcendant.  

Essence Interrupter has great features, no doubt. Especially since you can get it as exceptional item with a lash so early in the game (if you have the cash). But while your setup def. works well and ranged monks in general can be great - it just doesn't justify to say "melee ciphers or transcendants don't work, go ranged" when somebody asks for a melee Transcendant. They totally work. 

And then the problem with the Essence Interrupter destroying loot - which I informed you about several times in the past. 

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

@FleetFeet: Thanks for the update!

[Kaylon]

The hunting bow modal isn't viable on the first island, but later is just as reliable as melee attacks. Hunting bows come with +5acc, add the Ring of the Marksman and Acina's Tricorn and you have the same accuracy as melee weapons.

The Essence Interrupter is nice for the shock damage, but Aamina's Legacy and the Red Hand have better dps overall If you don't have penetration issues.

[Boeroer]

If you go for a lot of crits (e.g. use Mental Binding + Stunning Surge) I would also argue that Veilpiercer and St. Omaku's Mercy with their recovery-skipping can lead to higher damage output. 

By the way is the shocking lash of EI broken or did I just have a game hickup? I skilled my char's metaphysics to 20 but the shocking lash stayed really low. 

[Kaylon]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

By the way is the shocking lash of EI broken or did I just have a game hickup? I skilled my char's metaphysics to 20 but the shocking lash stayed really low. 

If I remember well it's 10% with 20 metaphysics.

[Boeroer]

That seems to be right when I look at the combat log. Then the wiki is up to date as well. I somehow rememberd that it scaled better.

[doggiep0op]

On 10/15/2019 at 12:49 AM, Boeroer said:

That anecdote - if anything - is only suited to show that you didn't know how to play that particular character (which we know nothing specific about).

Of course you can't storm into the enemies first with a glasscannonish Transcendant build. You picked a Helwalker which is the most squishy monk class in the first place!
But that your Helwalker/Ascendant was made from wet tissue paper doesn't mean that all "ciphers are very very squishy in the front lines" in general.
My anecdotal evidence clearly says that Ciphers and Transcendants can be more than sturdy enough to be played in melee and even in the front line (which is not the same). You can even build them a bit squishy - if you don't make the mistake and go in with them first (which is a suboptimal thing to do with any character who's not a real tank).

You also don't throw an egg at the wall and then say "Here's my experience with round objects: they all do shatter if you throw them at walls!".

Well at least I hope so...

I made my arguments that show how Transcendants can be sturdy enough to be played in melee if you wish so - which you didn't comment on. 

I played a Shattered Pillar/Soulblade recently with Whispers of the Endless Paths and its Offensive Parry. That's all tankyness and high deflection and it's very well suited for the front line. High deflection through Borrowed Instincts and crazily stacked defense against disengagement attack makes this Transcendent build quite sturdy AND gives him a crazy high focus and wound generation due to the Offensive Parry (which generates wounds for Shattered Pillar and focus for the Soulblade and also works with Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming and Turning Wheel). He can go solo against 6 CRE_Tigers and destroy them in seconds. A squishy character would just die in seconds. Transcendants don't have to be squishy. 

Of course it matters if you want to compare the focus generation of melee vs. ranged setup. I mean you are saying it's always better for a Transcendant to go ranged. But you don't back it up with the "why" - besides the "very, very squishy" argument which is not generally true. It's only true for your once tried cipher...

So we have to compare the pros and cons of melee vs. ranged. When going ranged you will not get the burning lash of Turning Wheel which will result in lesser focus generation. So, besides the fact that melee weapons have higher dps in general you also can't generate focus as quickly with a ranged weapon as you an with a melee one (hand mortars aside) because you lack a lash. On top of that you can't even use a lot of the Monk's special abilites because most of them are melee only (see Heartbeat Drumming, Swift Flurry and more). Also Enduring Dance's ACC bonus (+12) doesn't stack with Borrowed Instinct's (+20). You can take it for the wound generation at range then, but the nice ACC part is doing nothing unless you forego Borrowed Instincts. Those are some things that have to be mentioned in order to make an informed choice.

Yes - but you can have it all: Turning Wheel's lash + high MIG and INT + Ascension. And since Turning Wheel is a multiplicative dmg bonus you will profit from your MIG even more. So if you compare for example Monk's fists  + Turning Wheel using Stunning Surge with Essence Interrupter + Stunning Surge (because there is no other attack ability you could use with a bow) then you can see that fists do more damage and thus produce more focus in a given time, Ascending you faster. The pro of a ranged weapon is that you don't have to move to targets which can raise the dps compared to a melee setup. If enemies are standing in a crowd the melee will do considerably more dps/focus while against enemies that stand far apart the ranged weapon might be better.  

 The only tricks are to not build him with 3 RES and 3 CON and let the tank engage first before you go in. This is really simple.

It's always good to keep real squishies in the back if you don't know how to keep them alive. However - as I showed above: a Transcendant doesn't have to be a squishy. He can have higher defenses than a single class monk and thus he can be more tanky than a single class Monk if you build him right. So you don't have to keep him in the back if you don't want to. You also wouldn't want to keep all SC Monks in the back row...

You forgot that this "noob" explicitly asked for advice on a melee Transcendent. What's best then is to tell him how that can work (if it can - and it can indeed). It's ok to suggest another approach, but at the same time telling him (non-veridically) that his preferred combat style won't work just because you are searching for yet another opportunity to place your overly precious "Helwalker/Ascendant with Essence Interrupter" (let's call it "HAwEI" from now on) build is not best. It's just pushing.

***

Whatever - just to give two quick examples what can be fun melee Transcendants (don't know if that's the vibe the "noob" was searching for - and most likely it's too late for that anyway since the post was already ten feet under before it got necroed by a random HAwEI):

• Nalpasca/Beguiler
• use a Morning Star + modal with Stunnig Surge --> -35 Fortitude
• use Secret Horrors on a group --> -45 Fortitude, most likely a lot of focus because Beguiler-refund. If focus is too low cast Phantom Foes.
• use Borrowed Instincts --> +20 ACC
• either use Force of Anguish with Swift Flurry --> targets fortitude. You now have the equivalent of +65 accuracy which leads to a crapload of crits usually. Especially on non-PotD difficulty settings. This can one-shot enemies which have lowish fortitude to start with. THen you will also gain a ton of focus because the additional attacks from Swift Flurry etc. do generate focus. Against touch ones is nice to bring down their Fortitude immensely in order to apply:
• Disintegrate. It targets Fortitude which usually makes it hard to use it on the big ones since those tned to have lots of it. Not if you brought it down by 45 first... If you want to specialize on Disintegrate it can make sense to use a Helwalker instead since the higher MIG works well with the DoT ticks. But of course this is more squishy. You also might want to cast Psychovampiric Shield first because its RES debuff will make the Disintegrate last a lot longer (RES influences the duration of hostile effects)
• To help with the Swift Flurry multiprocs you can also utilize Mental Binding. With Lingering Echoes + Monk INT bonus (eithr from Enlightened Agony or Turning Wheel) it will paralyze for a really long time and give you a 25% crit conversion against that enemy. 
• Play this like a flanker since it's not too sturdy. You don't want to rush in first but come from the sides when the tank already engaged. 

Another one (very sturdy)

• Forbidden Fist/Beguiler
• max RES, high MIG and INT, generally stack all stuff that has bonus RES and -% fo hostile effects to shorten Forbidden Curse as much as possible - use Enlighened Agony (-50% duration hostile effects, -5 sec hostile effects, +5 INT).
• stack deflection with stuff like weapon & shield style, cape an whatnot.
• use a thickish armor - Devil of Caroc is sufficient though. Other nice ones are Casita Samelia's with high Intimidate skill. Aim for the Kāhako Nihi in SSS.
• use Iron Wheel
• Tuotilo's Palm + fist.
• Hylea's Talons. Will give you a wound once it expires on you (very short duration because of your high RES and Enlightened Agony), will put a lash on your melee attacks which increases focus gain.
• Lingering Echoes
• use Forbidden Fist ability: target is enfeebled --> -10 Fortitude and +50% duration of all hostile effects on the tartget. Stacks multiplicatively with Lingerung Echoes and high INT in the Transcendant
• use Stunning Surge: --> now -20 Fortitude, stun lasts a really long time because of high INT, enfeebled and Lingering Echoes
• use Psychovampiric Shield if the target probably has high RES (if you are a Beguiler it costs only 5 focus if you hit). This will prolong hostile effects on the nemy even further.
• cast Disintegrate: if you hit the Disintegrate will have a very long duration due to enfeeblement and Lingering Echoes, INT and eventually -10 RES. Go to another victm because this one will most likely die...
• Forbidden Fist does not generate focus in the unmodded game. Hence Beguiler. If you use the Community Patch mod it will generate focus.
• Forbidden Fist's Enfeeblement is a very strong tool for Transcendants because of the synergy of Lingering Echoes with high INT and the +50% duration effect. All afflictions will last a crazy long time. Like Mental Binding, Stunning Surge, Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master - you name it.
• You can also first charm or dominate the enemy and then cast Disintegrate. In both cases the mind control will last a very long time and DoTs don't make chamed enemies flip back alliance. So you can turn them against your foes while they are dying from the DoT. It's very effective.
• You can play this a bit less sturdy and reactive with a Morning Star. Fortitude debuffing will me much better but attack speed and survivability will be lower.  

 

@Boeroer for your shattered pillar soul blade is casita or gipon armor better?

[Boeroer]

If you are planning to use the break-disengagment-and-reflect mechanic then def. Gipon Prudensco because of the +25 to defense against disengagment attacks (stacks with Tumbling+Graceful Retreat+Fast Runner+Boots of Speed). I would say it's better anyway. You'll be immune to flanked (so no -10 deflection) and you'll get up to +10 deflection. Lower AR might be a factor though.

However - usually you can get Casita Samalia's Legacy earlier. So I would use both: first the Breastplate and later the Padded Armor. 

I even use Nomad's Brigandine when I think my AR is not high enough in certain encounters. It can also give you +10 deflection and also helps with the disengagement while having a lot higher AR.