how to reach max focus effectively as ascendant?

[uuuhhii]

plan the try a ascendant play through

but not sure what weapon to use for single class ascendant to reach max focus efficiently

two hand motor maybe?

Edited December 16, 2018 by uuuhhii

[MaxQuest]

The easiest per-encounter way in my opinion is if you multi-class with street-fighter and:

- open up from stealth with Confounding Blind

- and follow up with Eliminating Blow

while dual-wielding a pistol and blunderbuss (with modal on), for example: Scordeo Trophy + Xefa's Empirical Explication

Basically you can perform these two full-attacks under 4s and get to max focus.

 

Ideally you would want to have:

- set #1: Scordeo Trophy + Xefa's Empirical Explication

- set #2: Thundercrack Pistol + Kitchen Stove

- set #3: Amira Wing

 

and while in stealth, decide which set to use.

- set #1: is best for steady dps

- set #2: is good for aoe; Additionally: the per rest Storm Rune Shot vs a pack of enemies can fill your focus before you will count to 3; Wild Barrage is great too.

- set #3: Wilting Wind deals massive damage... (for some reason benefits from weapon quality) and fills your focus.

 

 

There are additional things that do help such a cipher, like:

- ring of marksman

- acina tricorn

- cutthroat cosmo (reduced armor recovery, +5% damage with firearms)

- baubles of the fin (+3% dmg)

- xoti's lantern (thrashing aura)

- sash of judgement (+10% dmg vs enemies above 50%hp)

- sure-handed ila chant - which increases your ranged recovery speed by 25% and your reload speed by 25%

- aefyllath chant - which adds a 15% fire lash to your weapon attacks

- shared flames (fod upgrade) - which adds a 15% fire lash to all your attacks

 

So if you want to achieve max focus fast (i.e. under 6s)... in 98% of fights you can.

The question is what to do after that... I mean except for Mind Blades spam at 0.3s cast time + 1.5s or less recovery.

 

 

P.S. If you are looking for a melee two-handed though, you can try Whispers of the Endless Paths.

Cone Attack and (per encounter) Spinning Assault can fill your focus really fast. And Blade Form helps for steady dps.

Don't forget to have high enough stealth though. That -85% recovery time while stealthed is nice and allows you do two hits in a very quick succession.

 

Also you could take a look at Eager Blade. Haven't tested it yet, but technically you could attack a near-death party member (under the effect of Barring Deaths Door), and hit adjacent enemies due to Bounding Strikes enchant. Not to mention that while multi-hitting, your recovery could get waved quite often due to Enraptured Blade.

 

And if you don't want neither of these, there is Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff. Which just provides good steady dps.

Edited December 16, 2018 by MaxQuest

[Flucas]

Few options;

- make use of special weapon skills (i.e. storm rune shot, as mentioned above)

- multi with a class that has weapon skills (paladin FoD, rogue Ring the Bell, barbarian barbaric blow, etc)

- Switch around with multiple guns to ignore reload

 

I always feel like Amina's legacy + modal is one of the best ways. attackspeed is the only thing cipher lacks, and has lots of perception, so hunting bow modal is awesome. Combined with berserker, if you intend to multicass, I only needed 2-3 shots to get max focus.

[eternalsins]

Dragon's Dowry is pretty good. 

 

I use that on my devoted/ascendant. You get so much accuracy(even without the modal) and single-hit-damage that you can often get to full with just the first crit auto attack. 

Its also pretty awesome on PotD because your high precision and penetration means you can hit pretty much any mob(except skeletons) for full damage.

Dragon's Dowry also gives access to a 40% attack speed skill once per rest which lets you really go ham on your ascendancy.

Ofc guns in general are especially nice because you can just start cating after you have landed your shot without having to wait for the recovery.

You could go for multiplge guns and weaponswap as well but nobody wants to micromanage that.

Slap on Acinas Tricorn and Sharpshooters grab(you can get both really early) and you're good to go.

 

So the main problem with this build is that the gun does so much damage that i often don't even bother to cast anything.

Edited December 16, 2018 by eternalsins

[Boeroer]

I'd go single class.

You want to pick Draining Whip.

Let party members initiate the fight so that the enemies gather in one spot. A wizard with Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights
for luring and Pull of Eora is nice.

Then you might want to attack with Watershaper's Focus from stealth (with Blast) and fire into the tight group. Often that already means max focus because the projectile jumps (causing two AoE blasts) and Ondra's Wave generates focus, too.

Stealth bonus helps your first recovery to finish very quickly so you can cast ascended right away.

Another good approach is using a Streetfighter/Ascendent and pick up dual mortars with Powder Burns. Same strategy. Here your ascended casts will have much shorter recovery (and nastier crits I presume - too bad Sneak Attack doesn't work with Cipher powers). But you lose Power Levels and accuracy.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Boeroer

[Haplok]

Lots of good suggestions. But I can hardly believe that Kitchen Stove special, Thunderous Report, has not been mentioned yet. Its per encounter, deals huge damage in a large cone AND dazes enemies. On my Helwalker Transcendant it usually fills the focus in 1 shot (at least when there are a few enemies - and there usually are). With a monk multiclass the cone is really huge, like takes most of the screen and the daze has long duration (its a nasty debuff, which makes penetrating armor very difficult for enemies - but doesn't land on all enemies).

I almost always open with that on my Transcendant, once the enemies start their rush towards my group. And consequently start the combat Ascended.

[Boeroer]

But I can hardly believe that Kitchen Stove special, Thunderous Report, has not been mentioned yet.

Ideally you would want to have:

- set #1: Scordeo Trophy + Xefa's Empirical Explication

- set #2: Thundercrack Pistol + Kitchen Stove

- set #3: Amira Wing

I think MaxQuest was implying to use Thunderous Report. He spoke about that several times in the past.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Boeroer

[Haplok]

He did mention Will Barrage, which is mutually exclusive with Thunderous Report AFAIR. Wild Barrage is pretty great, but for rapid Focus generation purposes has nothing on Thunderous Report IMO (per encounter too!).

[MaxQuest]

Tbh I indeed forgot about Thunderous Report

[Boeroer]

Dammit MaxQuest!

 

[brasilgringo]

He did mention Will Barrage, which is mutually exclusive with Thunderous Report AFAIR. Wild Barrage is pretty great, but for rapid Focus generation purposes has nothing on Thunderous Report IMO (per encounter too!).

 

I was messing around with Wild Barrage on an arcane archer test build, with driving flight -- so theoretically each Imbue shot bounced 4 times (I think) -- but it didn't seem that impressive at the end of the day.  not sure why. the 30sec or so window to attack with Wild Barrage was nice, but the 2x/rest (I think) limitation was a drag (lots of resting).

 

Returning to the topic at hand, any good up-to-date solo POTD builds for ciphers?

Edited December 18, 2018 by brasilgringo

[TheMetaphysician]

MaxQuest, why do you recommend sets with a pistol and a blunderbuss together? Is there an interesting interaction with the pistol modal or something? Or is it just that the particular uniques you list work well together?

Edited January 10, 2019 by TheMetaphysician

[MaxQuest]

In the previous run:

- in the early game: I used blunderbuss in mainhand and pistol in offhand (both with modals on) because I could spam Full Attacks much faster; meanwhile Rapid Reload acc penalty was affecting only pistol.

- in the mid+ game: I switched them. Blunderbuss in offhand (with modal on) and pistol in mainhand (with modal off). I had already enough effects to reduce reload time (including Sure Handed Ila), so extra accuracy with pistol became more important. Additionally (!) full attacks with pistol/blunder would use pistol's range for both shots, so I could shoot from greater distance. This was already fixed though.

 

Also I just wanted to have 1-2 recovery time reduction instances from Scordeo Trophy, since it also affects the power casting spam once ascended.

P.S. But now (in v3.0+)... I would say there is no "rule" for pistol+blunder over blunder+blunder. It more comes to a personal preference in a specific situation.