PotD Party to go

[Dyxx]

Good morning guys,

like the title mentions it, I'm looking for a PotD Party for a full playthrough including all megabosses.

I have something in my mind, but I'm look for something more special.

Atm my party consist of:

Trickster/Unbroken:

This is the tank of the team, good survivability and I guess even capable of doing some dmg. Debuffing via "persistent distraction". Feels on paper more useful than a Herald.

 

Priest of Magran/Lifegiver: 

The teams good soul, buffing/healing (if needed), burning enemies and stuff like that.

Feels pretty boring on paper... maybe someone got a good idea for a heal/supp ?

 

Tactician/Beguiler:

Wields the Willbreaker and is for CC/debuffing and single target lockdown via mulekick. Should deal good dmg to single targets.

 

Wizard:

Dmg, CC, etc. Nothing more to say.

 

Helwalker/Troubadour or Trickster/Troubadour:

This guy would be the main DD and will support the whole team via chants.

Can even offer good cc options or summons.

 

The more I think about the whole setup, the more I find it boring...

Maybe someone of you can get some freshness in or open my eyes for some other options ? Maybe something like a priest/rogue or anything special.

No cheese pls. 

Thank you guys and good sunday

[Boeroer]

Anything melee or ranged + Beguiler is a bit of a waste in my opinion. Beguiler doesn't need weapon damage at all to gain focus and doesn't need weapons to deal damage. 

Since you can either attack with weapon or cast a power (not both at the same time) - and usually ciphers mainly only deal weapon damage to fill up focus... you get the idea.

Of course Tactician/Cipher in general is tempting because Phantom Foes/Brilliant Tactician. But I would maybe either go with Ascendant (picking Tactical Barrage) or Soulblade. First one plays more like "phase a: melee, phase b: spam casts" while Soul Blade would just emphasize on the single target damage when needed. Beguiler can be played like "phase b: spam casts" nonstop due to his very powerful focus gain via low level deception spells (you get back a lot! more focus than you spend).

I don't think that Unbroken/Trickster is more useful than a Herald (which is capable of doing the tanking and deliver all the needed healing passively and actively) but it is a nice build nonetheless. Check out Large Shield modal + Adept Evasion if you like to cast AoE spells onto your tank (who's surrounded by enemies). He will seldomly get even a scratch from your spells while the enemies will suffer.

Instead of Priest of Magran/Lifegiver you could try a dual wielding Priest/Kind Wayfarer if it's damage+healing you are after. You'll lose some AoE capability though. 

How is Helwalker/Troubadour supposed to be played? Or in other words: what's the plan that turns him into your main damage dealer? 

[Dyxx]

23 hours ago, Boeroer said:

How is Helwalker/Troubadour supposed to be played? Or in other words: what's the plan that turns him into your main damage dealer? 

+10 Might from Helwalker, lightning lash , firelash from turning wheel and myth fyr lash for the whole team. Should be enough dmg. It lacks a bit of AoE dmg but it still got the Invications and I have a Wizard for that. 

Your thoughts on that ?

 

I'll get your point on the Beguiler. The synergy sounds nice but in the end attacking as a Beguiler is not needed.

So do you think it's worth playing as a sc Beguiler and focus on debuffing/cc ?

Or is it better to go sc Ascendant and start spamming dmg spells after the debuffing ? Fact is I want a Cipher in my team.

And Soulblade is not what I'm after...

 

Priest/Pala sounds interesting and would give the team an aura, nice. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Dyxx

[Wotcha]

The one weakness of Beguiler from a focus-through-casting perspective is that they are dependent on multiple enemies to rapidly generate focus.  They can fill up super-fast while the board is full, but against big solo or small groups, they have to earn their focus the hard way.  Additionally, when doing that they have a lower focus multiplier than other ciphers.  They only get a base 25% focus gen from attacks.  If the target is afflicted, it goes up another 25% (to bring it back to par with base cipher's 50%).  But Draining Whip only doubles the BASE focus gen, giving them a total focus generation of only 50%/75%-with-affliction, compared to 100% for a normal cipher, or 150% for an Ascendant, both of whom additionally don't need to worry about getting an affliction on before attacking..

Oh, and other ciphers can fill up extra-fast against multiple enemies as long as they're clustered, via rods or mortars.  Not that Beguilers can't do that too, mind you, but a Beguiler is probably just going to spam Deception spells in that case.

Also, if your point is to synergize Helwalker, the big multi-target Deception attacks that are so sweet for focus generation with Beguilers do NO DAMAGE, so the might bonus is wasted on those. For a build like this, Ascendant has more to offer.  Incidentally, people often mis-play Ascendants feeling like they have to wait till they Ascend to start casting spells.  But in many cases you're better off thinking of it as a trade for faster focus generation against very slightly nerfed (-1 PL) spell effectiveness.  For big long fights against few enemies (the bane of Beguilers), you additionally have the prospect of ascending to drop a few big spells, but don't feel like you have to.  Sometimes ascending even feels like a mistake, because it means that (unless you're cheesing SoT/Brilliant) you will eventually DE-ascend, and that means at least one turn of weapon attacking even if you want to cast a spell just then.  Additionally keep in mind that unlike normal ciphers, you still get Soul Whip damage bonus when full of focus as an Ascendant, and additionally your damage bonus goes from 10% to 30% while ascended.  You're probably still better off casting spells, but attacking shouldn't feel like a complete waste.