Highest damage 2H builds? (October)

[Prince of Lies]

 

It's not only the Sneak Attack + Whip or the low recovery that make Streetfighter/Soulblade with WotEP a top notch dps build, it's also the fact  that Soul Annihilation dumps its raw damage in an AoE with the WotEP. 

 

So it only becomes top-tier DPS melee with an AoE weapon?

 

Hmm, so I guess Ranger/Rogue is still king of ranged DPS then?

 

 

Not at all. They still do great single-target DPS. It's just that Soul Annihilation's scaling raw damage (with higher focus) can be applied with melee AOE weapons. You can get in some situations where you just melt through mobs. 

[Boeroer]

Soul Annihilation also profits from Sneak Attack and Deathblows.

[Dr <3]

Monk + fighter with a 2 hander, max per, max hit to crit is still better imho. you can chain crit all day long + free attacks when you kill someone.

[Prince of Lies]

Soul Annihilation also profits from Sneak Attack and Deathblows.

 

And assassinate! (If you want to be non-conformist and not be a streetfighter)  

[Haplok]

It's not only the Sneak Attack + Whip or the low recovery that make Streetfighter/Soulblade with WotEP a top notch dps build, it's also the fact  that Soul Annihilation dumps its raw damage in an AoE with the WotEP. 

 

Of course the SA damage on secondary targets is much lower. And what is the plan to trigger Streetfighters specials on such a build? I don't think it wants to be surrounded - has neither the durability nor does the WotEP cone work best against enemies around you. Get blooded and cast Barring the Death's Door? Or debuff Perception?

[Boeroer]

It is lower, but it's still 30+ raw dmg per AoE-hit which is way more than an additive +100% dmg boost in addition to Sneak Attack + Deathblows on the primary physical dmg. It's very easy for a Soulblade to trigger Deathblows with Secret Horrors - which also reduces the offensive capabilites of foes immensely. 

 

Soul annihilation with WotEP generates its own focus. The AoE targets will "only" get around 30 raw dmg, but they will regenerate focus. For example when I'm attacking 6 dummies with SA and 200 focus I will still have 200 focus after SA ALTHOUGH I damaged the initial target immensely (most likely killed it) and did serious physical and raw dmg to the rest. You can spam SA as long as there is more than one enemy. I personally use Draining Whip and NOT Biting Whip because of that.

 

You don't need to get surrounded, just flanked in order to be fast. You don't need to get blooded for the +crit dmg in order to deal very high dmg per swing. What counts is the recovery reduction. Barring Death's Door is an option as well. Or just put on a thick armor and use Body Attunement to be comfortable with getting sourrounded - so you can get flanked by frightened enemies without getting harmed too much. 

 

You can also use another rogue subclass if Streetfighter is not your thing. Run Through (from WotEP) + Backstab + Assassinate for example is very potent. Trickster can give you more flexibility and deflection and you can lure enemies to a spot with Dazzling Lights an then do an AoE Strike from stealth. 

 

Key synergy is that Sneak + Deathblows boost SA and SA with WotEP is applying raw AoE damage while regaining focus at the same time.

 

Another very potent two handed dps build is a Sage with Spirit Lance and Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and Torment's Reach. The AoE of the Lance and the AoE of TR inteact weirdly and deal a lot of damage. Same with Battlemage with Lance + Clear Out.

 

But those all bloom rather late while Rogue/Soulblade with WotEP works right fom the start with Sneak, SA and WotEP. Thus - over the course of a whole playthrough, it's the superior option. Only thing is you need high INT (which isn't a problem for Ciphers per se).

 

Edit: made a quick animated gif which shows focus generation with WotEP + Soul Annihilation when having Sneak + Deathblows:

 

Focus jumps up from 20 to 200 while at the same time all targets get hit by physical and raw dmg (look at the floating numbers). The higher the starting focus the higher the dmg to the initial target. AoE raw dmg stays the same (usually 30 raw in addition to the physical slash/pierce + 15% crushing lash + Deep Wounds). Hylea's Gloves which add more slashing lash also generate focus by the way.

 

Edit2: Actually I forgot to add Sneak Attack and Deathblows. Above vid is even without them.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Boeroer

[Haplok]

Ok, that is nice. But personally in practice I struggle to get even 3 enemies in the WotEP cone, not to mention 6 of them...

[Kaylon]

Ok, that is nice. But personally in practice I struggle to get even 3 enemies in the WotEP cone, not to mention 6 of them...

It's not very difficult - once you aggro all the melee enemies you place yourself into a corner/bottleneck where you can keep them nicely in front of you.

[Haplok]

Are you speaking about solo?

[Boeroer]

Ok, that is nice. But personally in practice I struggle to get even 3 enemies in the WotEP cone, not to mention 6 of them...

Even with 3 it's nice. You won't refill completely but still better to regain some than to be at 0 when using a single target weapon. Besides that you can always use another weapon in the second weapon slot. For example I like to switch to single handed rapier with modal (+37 ACC) for a guaranteed hit with Soul Annihilation. But you could also use something like Chromoprismatic Staff for single targets and WotEP once you are able to hit more than one enemy.

[lorddarkflare]

It is lower, but it's still 30+ raw dmg per AoE-hit which is way more than an additive +100% dmg boost in addition to Sneak Attack + Deathblows on the primary physical dmg. It's very easy for a Soulblade to trigger Deathblows with Secret Horrors - which also reduces the offensive capabilites of foes immensely. 

 

Soul annihilation with WotEP generates its own focus. The AoE targets will "only" get around 30 raw dmg, but they will regenerate focus. For example when I'm attacking 6 dummies with SA and 200 focus I will still have 200 focus after SA ALTHOUGH I damaged the initial target immensely (most likely killed it) and did serious physical and raw dmg to the rest. You can spam SA as long as there is more than one enemy. I personally use Draining Whip and NOT Biting Whip because of that.

 

You don't need to get surrounded, just flanked in order to be fast. You don't need to get blooded for the +crit dmg in order to deal very high dmg per swing. What counts is the recovery reduction. Barring Death's Door is an option as well. Or just put on a thick armor and use Body Attunement to be comfortable with getting sourrounded - so you can get flanked by frightened enemies without getting harmed too much. 

 

You can also use another rogue subclass if Streetfighter is not your thing. Run Through (from WotEP) + Backstab + Assassinate for example is very potent. Trickster can give you more flexibility and deflection and you can lure enemies to a spot with Dazzling Lights an then do an AoE Strike from stealth. 

 

Key synergy is that Sneak + Deathblows boost SA and SA with WotEP is applying raw AoE damage while regaining focus at the same time.

 

Another very potent two handed dps build is a Sage with Spirit Lance and Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and Torment's Reach. The AoE of the Lance and the AoE of TR inteact weirdly and deal a lot of damage. Same with Battlemage with Lance + Clear Out.

 

But those all bloom rather late while Rogue/Soulblade with WotEP works right fom the start with Sneak, SA and WotEP. Thus - over the course of a whole playthrough, it's the superior option. Only thing is you need high INT (which isn't a problem for Ciphers per se).

 

Edit: made a quick animated gif which shows focus generation with WotEP + Soul Annihilation when having Sneak + Deathblows:

 

Focus jumps up from 20 to 200 while at the same time all targets get hit by physical and raw dmg (look at the floating numbers). The higher the starting focus the higher the dmg to the initial target. AoE raw dmg stays the same (usually 30 raw in addition to the physical slash/pierce + 15% crushing lash + Deep Wounds). Hylea's Gloves which add more slashing lash also generate focus by the way.

 

Edit2: Actually I forgot to add Sneak Attack and Deathblows. Above vid is even without them.

 

This looks like it might be fun to play. Been meaning to try out both Trickster and a Cipher.

 

Thoughts on stat distribution?

 

Thinking:

 

Race: Aumaua

 

MIG:  10

CON: 10

DEX: 19

PER: 18

INT:   18

RES: 3

 

Thoughts?

[Boeroer]

High INT is good with WotEP since you want a big cone - and every millimeter helps to maybe barely scrath that one additional selection cirlce of an enemy (still counts).

 

The rest seems ok as well. As rogue you don't need a lot of MIG and high PER and helps to land an initial debuff (like Secret Horrors - it's so good).

 

One could argue that with a Trickster you might want to raise RES (and maybe take some points from INT/DEX/PER, even CON if you have a fitting party composition): WotEP, enchanted with Offensive Parry + Riposte + high RES + Mirrored Images (and some +deflcetion items) are really nice. The (potentially) double Riposte also generates Focus. Since you are not a shield user and don't have high starting deflection you won't let them miss a lot, but it's still a good way to increase your dps passively, especially when wearing thick armor. Just note that Offensive Parry doesn't do an AoE attack but is a single target attack. Still nice. Also makes the game less of a hassle sice you don't get hit that often.

 

If you don't want to do that it's ok to drop RES I think.

[Archaven]

It's not only the Sneak Attack + Whip or the low recovery that make Streetfighter/Soulblade with WotEP a top notch dps build, it's also the fact that Soul Annihilation dumps its raw damage in an AoE with the WotEP.

.. I don't want to roll another cipher. Any other alternative?

[AndreaColombo]

Devoted/Helwalker

[Archaven]

Devoted/Helwalker

Don't feel like going devoted seeing so many monster immune. Btw, does street fighter +50%damage applies to spell damage?

[Haplok]

Nope. But it does apply to spell Recovery. Nice for many Cipher spells with 0.5 second cast, 3 second recovery.

[dudex]

helwaker/streetfighter

 

 

activate streetfighter bonus by having a teamate blast u or use mortification activate hunting bow modal and spam that 1 second attack from a mile away.  easy snooze mode.

Edited October 31, 2018 by dudex

[Archaven]

helwaker/streetfighter

 

 

activate streetfighter bonus by having a teamate blast u or use mortification activate hunting bow modal and spam that 1 second attack from a mile away. easy snooze mode.

How do you flank yourself?

[Waski]

Blunderbus modal gives distracted.

[Archaven]

Blunderbus modal gives distracted.

 

thanks! that's abit of tedium as you need to blundebuss before swapping to melee.

[dudex]

u dont need to be flanked. u take the first couple seconds to get ur hp to 50% activating both streetfighter and human bonuses. (can do it really fast with 3 con)

 

 

i dont recommend doing a melee build with it since its very dangerous going around with sub 50% hp

but with a bow build its quite safe sitting at max range.

Edited October 31, 2018 by dudex

[Archaven]

u dont need to be flanked. u take the first couple seconds to get ur hp to 50% activating both streetfighter and human bonuses. (can do it really fast with 3 con)

 

 

i dont recommend doing a melee build with it since its very dangerous going around with sub 50% hp

but with a bow build its quite safe sitting at max range.

Had enough of range. Melee need women love. Also, is swift flurry crap now? Xoti with SF and heartbeat drumming seems meh performance for me

[Boeroer]

You need to crit a lot. So stuff like Dance of Death/Enduring Dance is kind of mandatory. Also Razor's Edge for Monk or Devotions + (Dire)Blessing for Contemplative. Then it's not bad. 33% and 25% is an overall chance of ~52% to repeat an attack after you crit. If you crit half of the time it's like a 25% multiplicative dmg boost (comparable with a 25% lash - kind of). If you crit 30% of times it's only 15% and so on.

 

Generally speaking: if you often face low defenses and/or have high ACC then Flurry + Drumming is better. This might be the case if you use a lot of CC and debuffs like Miasma + Shaken and Blind and such and also ACC buffs.

It's also great if you are a Sage with Citzal's Spirit Lance.

 

If not then Lightning Strikes is better (unless shock AR is high). It's also a lot more predictable.

 

I think against most bosses Lighting Strikes is the better pick.

[Archaven]

You need to crit a lot. So stuff like Dance of Death/Enduring Dance is kind of mandatory. Also Razor's Edge for Monk or Devotions + (Dire)Blessing for Contemplative. Then it's not bad. 33% and 25% is an overall chance of ~52% to repeat an attack after you crit. If you crit half of the time it's like a 25% multiplicative dmg boost (comparable with a 25% lash - kind of). If you crit 30% of times it's only 15% and so on.

 

Generally speaking: if you often face low defenses and/or have high ACC then Flurry + Drumming is better. This might be the case if you use a lot of CC and debuffs like Miasma + Shaken and Blind and such and also ACC buffs.

It's also great if you are a Sage with Citzal's Spirit Lance.

 

If not then Lightning Strikes is better (unless shock AR is high). It's also a lot more predictable.

 

I think against most bosses Lighting Strikes is the better pick.

Don't recall seeing razor edge for xoti. Thanks for the tips boroer!

 

In terms of DPS which is higher? Helwalker/Fury or Helwalker/Streetfighter?

 

I'm kinda spoilt by transcendent at the moment :D

Edited November 1, 2018 by Archaven

[Boeroer]

Helwalker/Streetfighter is quite godly with mortars and stuff like Toxic Strike.

 

Hekwalker/Fury may be good (didn't play that), but usually I think a SC Fury is better for dps due to higher Power Level.

Shifted it's not comparable to Helwalker/Streetfighter.

 

Those are not two handed though.