[Class Build] The Machine Gunner. Helwalker/Ascendant.

[Marigoldran]

 

 

This class is fun and effective from beginning to end and at every level it does RIDICULOUS amounts of damage (that becomes even more ridiculous at level 16 when it gets Disnitegrate).  

 

Key features of the build:

 

Primary weapon: Essence Interruptor.  Unlike other Hunting Bows, the Essence interrupter has both Pierce and Shock meaning that it's effective even against heavily armored enemies like Ironclads.  You can get this weapon immediately at the start at Port Maje with Berath's Blessings.  

 

Why Essence Interruptor? Because of the modal (-50% recovery time, -15 accuracy).  With this modal and light armor and Swift Flurry and Cosmo's Cat, and a herald providing faster reload/recovery times for ranged shots, you're literally shooting once every 1.5 seconds.  This means you get 3 attacks when everyone else gets 1. 

 

Now, 3 attacks without penetration aren't that useful, BUT because of the Essence Interruptor's shock damage type, and the Cipher's and Monk's bonuses to weapon penetration, it means you can consistently penetrate even against heavily armored targets DESPITE using a hunting bow.  

 

The -15 accuracy is countered by the Monk's Enduring Dance, which provides an accuracy buff.  Enduring Dance also provides wounds, and as a helwalker each wound provides an extra might.  

 

With the Helwalker (+10) Might bonus, and Turning Wheel (+10 int), and the smart inspiration from Clarity of Mind (another +5 int), you'll spend most of combat with 30 might and 35 int assuming you prioritized those traits during character creation.  Dump Res.  

 

With your hunting bow of DEATH, you build focus like crazy, which means that you can ascend quickly. 

 

Once you ascend that 35 int means that you can ascend for 75 seconds. (even longer with +duration of beneficial effects items like Strand of Favor or Mantle of Authority).  That's an eternity.  

 

At which point you can annihilate everything with 30 Might, 35 Intellect mind blades and echoplastic echoes in the early and mid game, and Disintegrates and Amplified Waves in the late game.  

 

The only downside to this build is that it's best with a Heath Orlan but THERE ARE NO SEXY PORTRAITS OF HEATH ORLANS, which is why is I selected "Elf."  

Edited January 23, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Razorchain]

Don't forget Thunderous Blows for +5 might and +2 penetration and putting some points in Dex gives you even more speed.

 

 

For the sexy Orlan Girls just google Kitsune girls and make a portrait request for some water colors :D

[astrolulz]

With the patch today, turning wheel damage is only for melee.

Edited January 24, 2019 by astrolulz

[Franknstein]

Turning Wheel (+10 int), and the smart inspiration from Clarity of Mind didn't stack the last time I checked. Did it change again?

[Boeroer]

No, they don't stack. So no 35 INT for your Monk. At least not because of Turning Wheel + Clarity of Mind. But it's possible to reach 34 rel. easily with items (headger +2 INT + amulet +2 INT) and Turning Wheel.

 

I don't think OP really played this character but mostly theorycrafted it. Which is fine.

 

But some minor flaws in your build idea only become visible when you actually play a build (a bit longer).

 

So they don't stack BUT: Clarity of Mind will always give you +5 INT even if your wound count drops below 5. Kind of a backup. So Turning Wheel and Clarity of Mind are not completely redundant.

 

The change from Turning Wheel to melee only is stupid. I understand that they wanted to remove it from spells etc. But why are ranged weaons now excluded? Long Pain is a monk ability which can't profit from Turning Wheel now... 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Boeroer

[Purudaya]

I went ahead and gave this build a shot – the fundamentals work well (I don't bother with clarity of mind, however), but I found the bow damage/focus gen a touch underwhelming when compared to the always awesome dual mortar option.

 

It's too bad that turning wheel got the nerf, but the build is still very good with that +10 INT. That said, a streetfighter/ascendant with powder burns gets to max focus much faster and the extra seconds for ascended can be made up for by the halved recovery from heating up and a cast or two of salvation of time.

 

I never realized what a great combo disintegrate + stasis shell was before. Ended several battles just watching 2-4 of the toughest enemies melt within their little mind cocoons

Edited January 25, 2019 by Purudaya

[Squilla]

I never realized what a great combo disintegrate + stasis shell was before. Ended several battles just watching 2-4 of the toughest enemies melt within their little mind cocoons

 

That's a really great combo - I didn't think a pre-applied DOT would function while in Stasis Shell - especially one that's as nasty as disintegrate 

[Marigoldran]

No, I played this to the end.  It's one of the few builds that's survived restartitis (because it's effective from beginning to end).  

 

35 Int is from 21 +10 +4.  21 from attributes, 10 from Turning Wheel, 4 from items (strand of favor, +2 intellect helm, some other intellect giving item).  

 

+2 or +3 might from pork or whale meat.  I haven't even been using Clarity of Mind.  The final might number is 32 (16 + 10 + 4 + 2) once tenacious and food is factored in.  With a bit more min/max I could have might of 35, but whatever.  

 

The numbers add up.  Try it.  You'll like it especially since with the Hunting Bow modal you shoot once ever 1.5- 1.7 seconds.  

 

Turning wheel's fire bonus doesn't even matter.  What really matters is might and int stacking with Ascension.  

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Haplok]

I went ahead and gave this build a shot – the fundamentals work well (I don't bother with clarity of mind, however), but I found the bow damage/focus gen a touch underwhelming when compared to the always awesome dual mortar option.

 

It's too bad that turning wheel got the nerf, but the build is still very good with that +10 INT. That said, a streetfighter/ascendant with powder burns gets to max focus much faster and the extra seconds for ascended can be made up for by the halved recovery from heating up and a cast or two of salvation of time.

 

Streetfighter with Powder Burns debuffs Accuracy. A monk variant can buff Accuracy with Enduring Dance (as well as Might, Int, obviously). I prefer the latter.

 

But I do agree there are better ways to Ascend then using a Hunting Bow.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Haplok

[Marigoldran]

I can never get enough penetration in the tough fights to ascend quickly with the stupid blunderbusses.  Besides, the blunderbuss unique abilities only work once/encounter.  After that you may as well switch to Essence Interrupter.   

 

The essence interrupter is not just any hunting bow.  It's a hunting bow that has shock damage type, which many many enemies are vulnerable too AND summons stuff and does extra damage with more Metaphysics.  

 

[Also, Monk/Ascendant gets more penetration than Rogue/Ascendant.  That's a big deal for ascending].  

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

If you didn't use Clarity and your 35 INT comes from items instead, why did you write

With the Helwalker (+10) Might bonus, and Turning Wheel (+10 int), and the smart inspiration from Clarity of Mind (another +5 int), you'll spend most of combat with 30 might and 35 int

?

 

However - I still think with +10 INT you will be better off using mortars most of the time (also because you can skip reloading and start casting powers immediately once ascended): The AoE grows exceptionally big and makes you hit a lot of enemies. Even with low PEN you will generate focus faster than with Essence Interrupter (by the way: mortar and hunting bow have the same base PEN). Against single foes the bow is the better pick of course because dual damage and higher base. But then you wouldn't want to trigger the modal.

 

Edit: removed brainfart about Crippling Strike.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Boeroer

[Marigoldran]

Yes, but Essence has SHOCK damage type making its pen significantly better than Mortars penetration-wise.

 

I guarantee the Essence hits reliably thanks to Dance of Death. I've been using it the entire game (now past Nemnok).  Dance of Death completely cancels the accuracy debuff.  

 

Most enemies that have good pierce armor also have stinky shock armor making the damage types of Essence Interrupter perfect.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

Mortars' damage type (for the AoE) is pierce/slash. On average that's as useful as having pierce/shock.

 

Enduring Dance gives you +12 ACC. Hunting Bow Modal substracts 15. You end up at -3. Add the inherent +5 for all Hunting Bows and you have +2. But if you'd just turn off the modal against high defense enemies you'd have +17 ACC. And that will most certainly lead to more damage against a foe with high defenses. Against normal enemies the modal is nice - but here I argue that dual mortars would lead to a much faster ascension (usually one Full Attack from my tests from stealth). Remember that one of the mortars has a build-in jump that nearly doubles the damage per shot if the enemies stand near each other.

 

Doesn't matter though. If you like to stick to the bow (which is indeed nice) that's totally fine. Mortar everything is kind of boring. But they are so damn effective...

Edited January 25, 2019 by Boeroer

[Marigoldran]

You target the priest in the back with the Essence Interrupter.  It has longer range than the mortar meaning that you can build focus earlier (and keeps you safer).  By the time you can shoot the mortar against a clump of enemies, you've already gotten 2 shots off with the Essence Interrupter (it takes only 3-3.4 seconds to get off 2 shots with this amazing bow).  If you got lucky with a crit you've already killed a target by the time you've ascended AND summoned a creature (average ascension time is 5-7 shots of battle start)

 

If there are no priests in the back then it's not a tough fight. Against megabosses, neither mortar nor Essence will work well.  

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

??? You simply sneak to a group of enemies and do a Stunning Surge or Flagellant's Path with mortars and you are ascended. Skip reloading and immediately start an ascended Amplified Wave or something.

 

Besides that dual mortars are not that much slower compared to a Hunting Bow with modal - due to 30% from dual wielding and 15% from two weapon style. It's not 50% recovery time, but it's not very slow either. Plus you can skip reload and immediately do a Flagellant's Path again. It's like skipping recovery entirely between Stunning Surge and Flagellant's Path. Tons and tons of focus and often all enemies in range are already dead. You can't build focus faster than that with a Helwalker/Ascended (if there are several enemies).

 

If you want to take out casters in he back line - that's fine. But it is neither the fastest way to build focus nor is it the best way to shut down casters. If you want to do both with one character then it's fine of course.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Boeroer

[Franknstein]

BTW can you experienced people please explain to me a thing about Disintegration – doesn't it annihilate the precious loot of the "destroyed" target? What are all the consequences of this "destroyed" condition?

[Purudaya]

 

I went ahead and gave this build a shot – the fundamentals work well (I don't bother with clarity of mind, however), but I found the bow damage/focus gen a touch underwhelming when compared to the always awesome dual mortar option.

 

It's too bad that turning wheel got the nerf, but the build is still very good with that +10 INT. That said, a streetfighter/ascendant with powder burns gets to max focus much faster and the extra seconds for ascended can be made up for by the halved recovery from heating up and a cast or two of salvation of time.

 

Streetfighter with Powder Burns debuffs Accuracy. A monk variant can buff Accuracy with Enduring Dance (as well as Might, Int, obviously). I prefer the latter.

 

But I do agree there are better ways to Ascend then using a Hunting Bow.

 

 

Yeah, but rogues have a fair amount of hit to crit conversion and the gauntlets of greater reliability will take care of a lot of miss to graze. The rest gets partially made up for by the innate damage bonuses and those from Heating Up, and remember that the main thinking behind the build is that Heating Up speeds casting recovery while ascended.

 

Tried both and I agree with you, a monk with dual mortars probably eeks it out in terms of getting to ascended fastest (especially with flagellant's path's reload skipping, forgot about that). I just like having the utility of spreading gouging and toxic strike AoEs all over the battlefield before getting down to shredding stuff

Edited January 25, 2019 by Purudaya

[Boeroer]

BTW can you experienced people please explain to me a thing about Disintegration – doesn't it annihilate the precious loot of the "destroyed" target? What are all the consequences of this "destroyed" condition?

Loot will still drop even if there's no body. "Destroy" usually just means that a target dies no matter the health it has(see Red Hand on vessels or Death Ring or Finger of Death on "Near Death" enemies).

[Franknstein]

Great! Thank you!

[baldurs_gate_2]

Seems amplified wave does not work with summons or charmed / dominated enemies. Really disappointing.

[Boeroer]

Afaik it never did, even in PoE.