[WIP] [Concept] Infinity Monk (Updated)

[DragonDrop]

I'm working on a build concept that is based around Powder Burns (PB) from Blunderbuss weapons. The weapons of choice for this build are the Hand Cannons from Serafen's quest line. This build is called the Infinity Monk because it can support infinitely casting both Mortification and Wound abilities. Multiclass for this build are Monk (Forbidden Fist) with Rogue (Streetfighter).

 

Ffiring a Blunderbuss with the PB modal active flanks the player. This activates the "Looking for a Fight" ability of the Streetfighter, providing -50% recovery time and +50% damage vs afflicted targets. Because PB counts as a hostile effect, when it expires, the Forbidden Fist aspect of the build grants you +1 Wounds and some decent healing. Since PB lasts 10 seconds, you want to stack RES to make it expire before your next attack. In testing I found that PB is applied right before your attack is fired, which means that you'll still get the +50% damage bonus on that attack, even though you weren't flanked at the time. It seems that reload time is determined at the start of a reload, and isn't updated if anything changes mid-process. That means that as long as PB hasn't expired before you start reloading, you benefit from the Streetfighter recovery time.

 

Further bonuses of the build revolve around applying afflictions in an AoE around your attack target with the Hand Cannon weapon(s). You can infinitely cast Monk's Stunning Surge with enough enemy density since you're bound to crit at least once. Rogue's Cripping/Blinding/Withering Strike abilities are also excellent to apply in AoE.

 

This build greatly benefits from high INT so as to increase the radius of your attacks and the duration of afflictions and bonuses to yourself. You can easily achieve high INT with this build as you can get 10 INT from from Turning Wheel with 10 Wounds. Clarity of Agony is crucial to the build as it reduces hostile effects, which applies to PB. The lower you reduce PB's duration, the faster your character is able to attack (you need to make sure PB expires before your attack goes off). Further, you have access to Thunderous Blows at the cost of Wounds, which basically makes it a permanent +5 MIG and +2 PEN.

 

As good as all this sounds, there is a major drawback in that you must carefully moderate your stats at any given moment. To support high DEX, you must have a lot of RES to make sure PB expires before your next attack. If you increase your INT, you will also inadvertently increase the duration of PB which is counter-productive, although still worth it. So the idea is to find the maximum amount of RES and hostile effect reduction possible and then regulate your attack rate accordingly.

 

Here are all the items and abilities I was able to come up with that would reduce PB duration:

• Maxing RES in character creation (points/race/culture): 21 RES with Orlan race + Ixamitl Plains culture.
• Ring of the Solitary Wanderer: +1 RES, and -35% hostile duration if no allies nearby (only for solo play).
• Eviee pet: +2 RES.
• Clarity of Agony: -50% hostile duration.
• Cabalist's Gambeson enchant: -10% hostile duration.
• Reducing your INT would also work, but that's counterproductive to the build so I want to avoid this.
• Svef: Invalidates the build as it makes you resistant to PER afflictions, which PB is.

Ideally avoid any temporary bonuses like food, drugs, resting bonuses, etc. It's personal preference, but for me it's super annoying to micromanage. Also if possible, it's kinda pointless to rely on items that you can only get late-game. For best experience, this build should be fully online early on in the game.

 

NOTE: 

• There's a strange issue with the way hostile effect reduction works. The actual duration of PB is usually higher than expected, when taking expected hostile reduction multiplicative formula into account.
• With 10 INT (10 sec PB duration), 25 RES (-45%), Clarity of Agony (-50%), Solitary Wanderer's (-35%), and Cabalist's Gambeson (-10%), the math makes it ~84% reduction. (1 - 0.84) * 10 second PB duration = 1.6 seconds. Actual in-game values were ~2.8 seconds. No idea why this is.

Edited January 17, 2019 by DragonDrop

[TheMetaphysician]

If PB expires before the next attack, won't that mean the attack won't get the +50% damage buff from Streetfighter? Doesn't that really defeat the Streetfighter/PB synergy? (I suppose you'll still get the +50% reload speed, at least for as long as PB is up.) 

[DragonDrop]

If PB expires before the next attack, won't that mean the attack won't get the +50% damage buff from Streetfighter? Doesn't that really defeat the Streetfighter/PB synergy? (I suppose you'll still get the +50% reload speed, at least for as long as PB is up.) 

Oh man I totally missed that. I was so focused on the synergy I forgot about the other synergy! Well maybe someone can still make use of this concept.

 

EDIT: Actually after some testing I can confirm that the Powder Burns effect applies to your character BEFORE the attack is fired. This means you do not need to have PB active when you fire the attack and this build is still viable!

 

EDIT EDIT: Updated OP to be more concise and have better explanation.

Edited January 16, 2019 by DragonDrop

[TheMetaphysician]

I'm glad that the testing shows the idea still works.

 

There's a necklace that has -10% hostile effect duration that would go well -- the Strand of Favor, you get it from Sugaan the chief naga in Hasongo.

[Purudaya]

Small correction: "Looking for a Fight" is the Streetfighter's default state. Powder burns/flanked activates "Heating Up."

[Nssheepster]

This definitely seems interesting, but it also seems like any RES or INT afflictions will immediatly hamper the build's effectiveness. It's definitely interesting if you can manage to hit the perfect stat sweet spot to get it to work, but... Very vulnerable.

[TheWeaver]

There are items that can mitigate against that.  Horns of the Bleak Mother grants RES resistance IIRC and the list of INT resist items is well known to any Beserker fan.  Alternatively Slippery Mind gives immunity to both once Blooded (which synergies well with SF for those who like to live dangerously).

 

BTW -- there is also a good discussion of RES boosting/affliction reducing items etc.. in the Darcozzi Purifier thread that was active a while back (that was a max RES Darcozzi/Helwalker build that leveraged gaining and immediately removing afflictions).

[Nssheepster]

I am a Berserker fan but TBH I don't know that list... I run them solo, so I really don't care about being Confused. Though it does make for amusing shipboard fights.

[TheWeaver]

So I guess that's well known to *most* Beserker fans .  The top 2 are probably Modywr and the DoC breastplate.

[Nssheepster]

DoC is just good for so many things that it's at times insane. Don't know what armor? DoC, it's probably a good idea somehow. Shrug.