[Roleplay Build] "The Agent of Enterprise" - Mindstalker (Trickster/Soul Blade) for PotD

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Description: "A full immersion roleplay build designed to offer respectable single-target damage and excellent defensive buffs and Afflictions."

 

Mood Music: TBD

 

In-Character Description: After a rather unremarkable childhood, this character rose to some small prominence in the Valian Republics as both a researcher and an information gatherer, putting his skills at subterfuge, sabotage, and soul reading toward reaping significant profits for those merchant-affiliates who hired him. Remaining a healthy emotional distance from most people, the only individual he doted on was his younger sister - who had undergone a violent Awakening in her early childhood and remained the focus for much of his research into Animancy.  Uplifted from poverty, with a good head for numbers and an excellent grasp of languages, his prospects were quite good. That is, until circumstances conspired to leave him the steward of a broken, cursed fortress in the Dyrwood. Deciding to make the most of it, he sent a missive back to the Republics, explaining that he was indisposed and proposing ways in which to turn the situation to the Republics' advantage. 

 

Things were going quite well, until the giant statue woke up, destroyed his keep, killed most of his employees, and ran off towards the Deadfire with a good portion of his soul. 

 

Out of Character description: Compared to my Brute, who's very much a "Ram them and rob 'em," type character, this character prefers to utilize subtlety whenever possible. That said, he's not against the occasional act of piracy, especially against those RDC dogs, but he operates with surgical precision and care, assassinating the enemy captain and mopping up the opposing crew before they've a chance to realize what's happened. 

 

The Build: 

 

Blessings: Bonus Attributes, Bonus Skills, 5000 starting gold, Unique Item Vendor

 

Race: Pale Elf (For armor) or Human - The stat spread assumes Pale Elf. 

 

Class: Mindstalker (Trickster/Soul Blade)

 

Culture: Old Vallia - Aristocrat

 

Skills: Stealth and Mechanics (With a splash of Arcana)/Insight and Diplomacy (With a splash of Metaphysics)

 

Attributes: 

 

17 Might (13 Base + 1 Gift of the Machine +2 Berath's Blessing +1 Permanent Stat Boost)

10 Con (8 Base +2 Berath's Blessing)
17 Dexterity (12 Base +1 Chameleon's Touch +1 Pale Elf +2 Berath's Blessing +1 Aegor's Swift Touch)
20 Perception (16 Base +1 Pale Elf +2 Berath's Blessing +1 Chameleon's Touch)
21 Intellect (18 Base +2 Berath's Blessing +1 Old Vallia)
10 Resolve (8 Base +2 Berath's Blessing)

 

This build works with any race, really. Just move the stats around to fit what you want to do. Might consider putting the permanent stat boost in Dexterity instead of Might. 

 

Abilities: 

 

Level 1: (a) Soul Annihilation/Escape/Whispers of Treason

Level 2: Crippling Strike

Level 3: Tenuous Grasp

Level 4: Two-Weapon Style/Draining Whip

Level 5: Dirty Fighting

Level 6: Recall Agony

Level 7: Secret Horrors/Riposte

Level 8: Finishing Blow

Level 9: Hammering Thoughts

Level 10: Persistent Distraction/Mental Binding

Level 11: Body Attunement

Level 12: Combat Focus

Level 13: Borrowed Instinct/Deep Wounds

Level 14: Devastating Blow

Level 15: Ringleader

Level 16: The Empty Soul/Slippery Mind

Level 17: Mind Plague

Level 18: Keen Mind

Level 19: Echoing Horror/Deathblows

Level 20: Ancestor's Memory

 

Thoughts: This build is centered around emphasizing the Soul Blade concept of Cipher combat - that is, building up powerful Soul Annihilations while using the remaining Focus to keep enemies locked down for Rogue Sneak Attacks. This might not be as entertaining to some, but it does more comfortably fit a melee focused playstyle; most of the spells I do use are fairly snappy in terms of action speed, so they can be more efficiently weaved in between attacks. 

 

Equipment:

 

Pet - Abraham (For reduced Recovery with armor as well as heal on kill. This character won't be getting as much mileage out of it as, say, a 2H AoE specced Barbarian would, but it's still something). 

 

Weapons - Melee Set: Grave Calling/Rust's Poignard for fast Full Attacks. Then upgrade to Scordeo's Edge/Rust's once you get further into the game. Ranged Set (For early-combat Focus generation): Kitchen Stove and Thundercrack Pistol, for their 1/encounter and 1/rest AoE damage skills. 

 

Armor - Devil of Caroc Breastplate for +2 Guile and further reduced Recovery. Also grants Intellect affliction resistance, so Charm immunity and Dominate being downgraded to Charmed (Which is good, because if it does hit I won't waste resources). Gipon Prudensco is another good option. While it doesn't have the DoC Breastplate's range of armor types, it can make you immune to Flanked/Engagement (Pick one) and offers Inspirations at the start of combat. Plus it wins out in terms of style points. It's one of the nicest looking pieces of armor in the game. 

 

Head - Fair Favor for extra hit-to-crit and crit damage with our melee weapons. This build hurts for ways to generate hit-to-crit since we won't be playing a Barbarian.

 

Neck - Claim and Refusal for 10% damage dealt and taken. Otherwise, consider the Torc of Intellect as sort of a "Stat Stick" amulet. 

 

Back - Cloak of Greater Deflection, because it synergizes with...

 

Hands - Bracers of Greater Deflection for +14 Deflection in total. Aegor's Swift Touch is another good choice here. It's effectively +8% Action Speed, which is ~3 extra Dexterity in that regard. Only with weapons though. 

 

Ring 1 - Chameleon's Touch: A very good ring for any multiclass character. +1/+1 to two different stats (Or, if you build right, +2 to one stat) and +1 to two different skills. 

 

Ring 2 - Ring of Prosperity's Fortune: Pricey, but once you build up a decent amount of personal capital (And this guy is all about profit), you get a pretty substantial hit-to-crit conversion from this beauty. Plus, I just like how the unique model looks. 

 

Note: Can someone confirm whether or not the tooltip for the ability is fixed as of the latest patch? It kept showing *Missing String* before. 

 

Waist - Upright Captain's Belt for +1 Con, Concentration, and immunity to Pull of Eora (For yet another means of CC). Alternatively, Gwyn's Bridal Garter for Dexterity affliction resistance. Afflictions are a big point of concern for this character. 

 

Boots - Boots of the Stone (+1 Dexterity/+1 Resolve, Might resistance) and then upgrade to Rakhan Field Boots (+3 Corrode Resistance, and miniature Charge) on progressing the Vailian faction quest. 

 

Whew! Here it is. If something's egregiously wrong, point it out in the comments and I'll edit it in the main post here. Also, if someone has any good mood music for this character (If I've done enough of a job of establishing the character's mood), please post links in the comments. I like having a playlist in mind when I roleplay. 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather

[Haplok]

I like it.

One other decent neck option is Claim and Refusal. +10% melee damage dealt (and taken) or reduced is not too bad. Might be better on a low-crit build with good defenses then Precognition.

[Haplok]

If you plan to actively use debuffs, Frostfall from BoW could be a nice (if late) offhand. With Dispersed Suffering you increase debuff durations on enemies around you. Kinda nice with Mental Binding, Secret Horrors, Ring Leader and Mind Plague. Almost tempts to get Toxic Strike also. Maybe on another party member though

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

If you plan to actively use debuffs, Frostfall from BoW could be a nice (if late) offhand. With Dispersed Suffering you increase debuff durations on enemies around you. Kinda nice with Mental Binding, Secret Horrors, Ring Leader and Mind Plague. Almost tempts to get Toxic Strike also. Maybe on another party member though

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll look into it. 

 

 

I like it.

One other decent neck option is Claim and Refusal. +10% melee damage dealt (and taken) or reduced is not too bad. Might be better on a low-crit build with good defenses then Precognition.

 

Is this build 'low-crit' though? It's got an accuracy boost from Borrowed Instinct, as well as three different potential sources of Hit-to-Crit (Albeit small ones). 

[Haplok]

Hm, that's like ~28% conversion? Not bad. But before you get the ring and over 200.000 GP that's closer to 19%. And that's pretty far off.

I tend to consider all non-fighter, non-berserker, non-ranger builds as low-crit. Perhaps wrongly.

 

Still for most of the game, 19% to do 25% more damage (for an undefined number of crits) is 4,75%  more damage on average. 28% to do 25% more damage on crits leads to 7% more damage on average. I think I'll take +10% melee damage always. Even though you also TAKE 10% more melee damage.. but I don't think this build is particularly squishy and it has got access to strong defensive powers (why I also don't care that much about the other Precognition effect, which takes the edge of undefined number of enemy crits). Plus if it gets hot you can switch to "Refusal" mode for -10% damage.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Haplok

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hm, that's like ~28% conversion? Not bad. But before you get the ring and over 200.000 GP that's closer to 19%. And that's pretty far off.

I tend to consider all non-fighter, non-berserker, non-ranger builds as low-crit. Perhaps wrongly.

 

Still for most of the game, 19% to do 25% more damage (for an undefined number of crits) is 4,75%  more damage on average. 28% to do 25% more damage on crits leads to 7% more damage on average. I think I'll take +10% melee damage always. Even though you also TAKE 10% more melee damage.. but I don't think this build is particularly squishy and it has got access to strong defensive powers (why I also don't care that much about the other Precognition effect, which takes the edge of undefined number of enemy crits). Plus if it gets hot you can switch to "Refusal" mode for -10% damage.

 

That's fair. Plus, I think it also fits the aesthetic of the build. Made the change. 

[Haplok]

Of course there are also normal crit rolls, without conversion. But they are not a given when facing challenging enemies.

Vs trash you crit a lot of course.

 

Plus with maxed ring that's more like 31% conversion I guess.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Haplok

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

These stats are so op... lol. I've never picked a single blessing on any of my characters. 

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

These stats are so op... lol. I've never picked a single blessing on any of my characters. 

 

Hey, I earned 'em. It could be a lot worse (Some of my other builds have four stats over 20, by dumping Resolve). 

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

 

These stats are so op... lol. I've never picked a single blessing on any of my characters. 

 

Hey, I earned 'em. It could be a lot worse (Some of my other builds have four stats over 20, by dumping Resolve). 

 

 

Hey, not judging, dude :D. 

 

Say... you want a bit more excitement in your game? Why not just go without blessings and solo it? Being a rogue would give you all the tools you need to adapt and you can just finish a bounty by killing the main target and then vanish. That's kind of within the boundaries of the build RP, no?

 

Add Abydon's because you wouldn't care for weapons' durability as you finish the job by dealing with only one target?

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

 

These stats are so op... lol. I've never picked a single blessing on any of my characters. 

 

Hey, I earned 'em. It could be a lot worse (Some of my other builds have four stats over 20, by dumping Resolve). 

 

 

Hey, not judging, dude :D. 

 

Say... you want a bit more excitement in your game? Why not just go without blessings and solo it? Being a rogue would give you all the tools you need to adapt and you can just finish a bounty by killing the main target and then vanish. That's kind of within the boundaries of the build RP, no?

 

Add Abydon's because you wouldn't care for weapons' durability as you finish the job by dealing with only one target?

 

 

I guess I could do that... But, this is also my first time tackling BoW so I kind of want to keep Vatnir and Ydwin for dialogue. Could take or leave the rest of them though. Going to have Fassina around for the Archmage DLC too, just in case. 

 

I could use a difficulty mod, I guess. If you think this character is really that OP. 

[mant2si]

Hey man play as you want I don't think that solo is really fun at all  especially with Rogue, I done game 2 - 3 time with different builds and I want to tell that Deadfire solo not that interested as PoE 1 you will find yourself abuse scrolls, potions and other consumables or play one of that Paladin/X class. So 2 time ask yourself if you want abuse consumables or just pick second character



 

Edited September 14, 2018 by mant2si

[Verde]

Ok so just started this build with Skaen and Abydon's challenges. I've been meaning to run this build for awhile now and it seems the like perfect time

 

Hearth Orlan -

 

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