Help with Building a Melee Mystic

[grasida]

I’ve gotten the idea that I want to play a mystic, probably a cipher/priest of wael focusing on melee attacks, possibly built around the soulbound rapier from SSS with the poison DoT on crit once I can eventually get it. I’m not looking to min max, just to make a fairly strong character on PotD.

 

A mystic of wael should be able to maintain pretty solid defenses between borrowed instinct and arcane veil as well as tear down enemy deflection very well with divine mark and shining beacon to enable crits with the rapier. Against enemies with lots of hp, the rapier’s combined DoTs, shining beacon, maybe a disintegrate, topped off with cleansing flame should do massive damage. But I’m not sure what subclass to go for.

 

Soul blade is obvious for melee and is one of my favorite classes, but doesn’t synergize with the rapier very well, since damage per tick from its DoT scales based on current focus and soul blades typically hover around zero focus.

 

Ascendant seems the most synergistic since, for one, ascension can be prolonged with salvation of time, and for another, the higher max focus and the ability to stay there for extended periods means you leverage the on-crit DoT very well. The rapier has a nice per encounter that can apply 3 stacks of the on-hit DoT as well as the on-crit DoT in an AoE while building lots of focus. But once you’re ascended, casting cipher spells looks more appealing that jabbing with the rapier, however vicious your DoT.

 

Beguiler seems like another interesting choice, but, again it looks more focused on casting than melee, since the point of the subclass seems to be to avoid using your weapon and focusing on spamming cipher spells.

 

Any thoughts on what subclass looks good and how else to build the character? Any other creative ideas for a melee mystic or for interesting things to do with the soulbound rapier?

[Boeroer]

Yes, Beguiler usually is all about casting these days. No need for lots of weapon attacks.

 

Melee with Soulblade + Sun and Moon is quite nice. Apply raw damage and regain some focus with the second flail head. Rapier can be nice early on to make sure your SA does connect. +37 ACC in the early game (+12 single handed use, +5 rapier, +20 modal) is golden! Also against hard to hit enemies. But all in all I would prefer the dual-headed flail I thinkand use a rapier as backup option. 

 

By the way: Ring of Focused Flames improves the auto-attacks of the Eothas-head of Sun and Moon. So it's rel. easy to connect with the firt attack roll (+10 ACC) and then potentially regain some focus right away with the second Ondra-head (which iesn't get the +10 ACC). 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Boeroer

[grasida]

I’ve played a soul blade with sun and moon before (for a while, I restarted without finishing the run) and I agree it’s really good. I’d prefer a different aesthetic this time, though. Something with a kind of magic swashbuckler feel. Also, I think a soul blade mystic with sun and moon is just a weaker soulblade with some priest tricks, which is good, but doesn’t feel all that stylish to me. Soul blade seems to make a lot more sense paired with street fighter or trickster. I was thinking ascendant already has great synergy with priest, then Seeker’s Fang can build up to higher than Disintegration level DoT after a few jabs, which then combos extremely well with cleansing flame.

 

I’m still tempted by beguiler, though, since ascendant would probably do better just spamming damage powers, while beguiler could lay down AoE soft control without losing focus, then just attack with the rapier freely for single target damage. Beguiler/Priest of Wael has great flavor, too.