Good builds for the current patch.

[ckrownz]

I started playing deadfire 3 days ago and I picked some old patch builds for my MC and companions, and I realize that a lot of things dont match up, like nerfs or changes on skills tree, so I want to know good builds on the current patch, or a place where there's good current patch builds.

[3x0du5]

Look for builds that are updated for version 4.x and above , fextralife on yt has quite a few ( however some of those builds only starts working when you are closer to max level and are really boring otherwise for example sage ) 

[Boeroer]

Would help to narrow it down a bit. Like what are your preferred classes or roles (supporter, dmg dealer, healer, tank etc.) or melee or ranged or caster and so on. Just out of the blue with no requirements one could name hundreds of basic builds that are good. 

[ckrownz]

4 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Would help to narrow it down a bit. Like what are your preferred classes or roles (supporter, dmg dealer, healer, tank etc.) or melee or ranged or caster and so on. Just out of the blue with no requirements one could name hundreds of basic builds that are good. 

Sure, I would like to know builds for companions and builds of dmg dealer for the MC.

[3x0du5]

MC Holy Slayer Rogue/Paladin either Assassin/Bleak Walker or Streetfighter/Steel Garrote depends if you want squishy character who can delete others from invisibility or if you want tanky character who can tank multiple enemies and just get stronger as his health decreases and still deals decent amounts of damage. You can go both melee or ranged for the assassin, ranged character will have to get close to backstab but that is not complicated while you are invisible

[ckrownz]

6 minutes ago, 3x0du5 said:

MC Holy Slayer Rogue/Paladin either Assassin/Bleak Walker or Streetfighter/Steel Garrote depends if you want squishy character who can delete others from invisibility or if you want tanky character who can tank multiple enemies and just get stronger as his health decreases and still deals decent amounts of damage. You can go both melee or ranged for the assassin, ranged character will have to get close to backstab but that is not complicated while you are invisible

Do you have a guide for these two? Also, assassin/bleak walker would be solo?

[3x0du5]

StreetFighter/Steel Garrote build(if you want to try solo use this one, i personally dont play solo) you can check this one its pretty decent https://fextralife.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-holy-slayer-build-guide-righteous-rejuvenator/ 

Assassin/Bleakwalker is not a solo build and there are plenty different ways to build it depending what weapon u want to use, in general on Assassin side you dont want to take many active skills as they all will use precious Guile which you need to turn invisible so take Crippling Strike and its upgrade and then either Smoke Veil or Escape+Shadowing beyond - you dont need both. Dont take Blinding Strike because it uses 2 guile and crippling strike is better, you can take Finnishing Blows at later levels when u got spare points but you wont be using it much once again because it costs Guile and u need it for Invisibility. From Paladin side get Sworn Enemy and its upgrade Sworn Rival , Flames of Devotion + upgrade that adds +10% fire damage, Shining Beacon + upgrade that increases damage recieved of enemies effected by beacon. 

Rest of talent points put into paasive abilities that gives you more damage.

You probably want to stay away from abilities that add DoT effects to enemies because dots can break your invisibility.

Interesting gear for Assassin build is :

Devil of Caroc breastplate adds you 2 Guile

Marux Amanth dagger - keep it in second weapon set and use on near death enemies to restore 2 Guile (When soul binding this dagger bind it to rogue so it restores rogue resources 

Rusts Poignard - also keep it in second weapon set and use it only for Shadowing Beyond once you rant out of Guile

There is also Scordeos trophy pistol which can be used early in the game to start the fights behind your tank make couple of shots to get stacking melee recovery buff before you switch to melee weapons and go for backstabs 

Ajmuuts Stalking Cloak - cape that is perfect for this build gives you more damage and stun out of invisibility

Slippers of the Assassin - makes you invisibile after killing enemy once per encounter but has huge drawback which basically requires you to have cipher in your group if you dont got cipher to use Phantom Foes all the tkme just skip this item

Potion of Invisibility - self explanatory find out in wiki where you can buy ingredients for this potion and keep revisiting those vendors every chance u get 

Main weapon set depends on what kind of assassin u wanna play you can go 2hander meelee  , dual-wield melee , arquebus or double pistols/blunderbuss - arquebus will deal most damage from backstab but after you use backstab witth arquebus you will end up in meelee range out of invisibility with ranged weapon that needs to be reloaded which is not that good, but managable.

Attributes you want to max Perception Might and Dexterity you can dump Resolve for sure, Int is probably best left at 10 

Race - Death God Like for increased damage on low health targets , Human if you want get buffed when you drop below 50% hp or Orlan for hit to crit conversion

Edited September 8, 2019 by 3x0du5

[ckrownz]

@3x0du5

Thanks for the build, looks awesome, can you tell me if this one is good as well?

[3x0du5]

1 hour ago, ckrownz said:

@3x0du5

Thanks for the build, looks awesome, can you tell me if this one is good as well?

yes it will work very well if you stack all the PL gear and bonuses 

[ckrownz]

6 hours ago, 3x0du5 said:

yes it will work very well if you stack all the PL gear and bonuses 

Sorry for asking more but do you know good companions builds too?

[Boeroer]

Most are pretty straightforward.

Edér:

• Fighter/Rogue distraction tank with Cadhu Scalth (+modal), Kapana Taga, Reckless Brigandine, Hold the Line, Helm of the Champion, Entonia Signet, +Protection and +Deflection gear, Persistent Distraction, Armored Grace, Adept Evasion, Riposte, Mob Stance, Refreshing Defense, Deathblows, Unbending (and so on). Basically like an Unbroken/Trickster but without the goodies of both classes. Still works very well. Goal is to have a sticky tank with 5 engagement slots without using Defender Stance. The items help a lot in that regard. Also works with Defender Stance if you want other gear and more defensive capabilities. Anyway you only need enough staying power to bind lots of enemies to you at the start of combat. You distract all of them automatically (very nice passive auto-debuff with no "saving throw"). You will still deliver decent melee dmg but at the same time be nearly impervious to ranged and AoE dmg (shield modal + Adept Evasion). Because of that you can get hit by your teammates' AoE spells (e.g. your Wizard's) and don't care much. Usually your bound enemies do care though and die.

Tekēhu:

• SC Watershaper with Deltro's Cage + Lord Darryn's Voulge as "stat stick". Or same with him as Watershaper/Stormspeaker.

Pallegina:

• Herald tank. High defenses and passive healing. Fat armor, Lethandria's Devotion, Sasha's Singing Scimitar (Shopcking Prelude + Refreshing Finale: use empowered White Worms and later empwered Eld Nary), Blackened Plate Armor with "Life in Death", Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory and so on. Keep near your allies.

Maia Rua:

• Scout with focus on arquebus. All the stuff that increases arquebus dps: Gunner, Marksman, Driving Flight, Stalker's Link, Marked for the Hunt, Deathblows, Accurate Wounding Shot, Arterial Strike, Blinding Strike, maybe Pierce the Bell against the really high AR foes (it has +5 PEN). And so on. Maybe not Toxic Strike since her INT is pretty low. Use the Red Hand or Dragon's Dowry. Dragon's Dowry is one of the best weapon for backstabbing: sneak up to a target, use Arterial Strike to "backstab" and immediately retreat with either Escape or Evasive Roll (usually Evasive Roll is better since you need more Guile than Bond in an encounter). If you use Escape and enchanted her armor with "Return Fire" and also pick Superior Camouflage it's not uncommon to trigger Return Fire's crit conversion often. If you don't want to backstab then just stick to the Red Hand and fire away.

Aloth:

• SC Wizard - nothing special. Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry, Rekvu's Fractured Casque. Injure yourself with Necrotic Lance in between fights so you always carry an Acute Rash injury (it's a very minor debuff but you gain immunity to interrupts and +1 spall casts per spell tier). Either go for Chromprismatic Staff as stat stick (Power Level bonuses) or Blightheart (+10% corrosive lash for spells is great) or Griffin's Blade + a small shield for more staying power and a bit increased spell dmg. Or use Magran's Favor + Sun & Moon for your fire spells.
• SC Wizard "The Terror": use Effigy's Husk + Whitewhitch Mask + Eye of Wael (=+3 PL to illusions) and aim for Illusion spells like Miasma + Curse of Blackend Sight, Repulsive Visage and Enervating Terror, Gaze of the Adragan, Wall of Many Colors, Kalakoth's Freezing Rake. You can use a club + modal to lower Will by 25 on a single target if you wish. Best in this case might be Shattered Vengeance with "Coordinated Escape". Very strong debuffer (lower Will to the ground with Misama and then terrify the heck out of everybody) but also later a strong damage dealer with Freezing Rake. Use Concelhaut's Draining Touch + Essential Phantom for this trick: the Draining TOuch will not go away on a Phantom after a succesful hit, so it can keep hitting the enemy with it, It does very high corrode damge. Especially since it targets will and not deflection. You are a strong strong will debuffer: see the synergy? The Phantom will hit enemies like a truck because it frequently crits with Draining Touch. It will heal itself in the process (draining) and apply weakened to the target. If it drops below 50% health it will also cast Repulsive Visage because of the mask. If it dies it will trigger the Husk's raw AoE attack on death. If you use Shroud of the Phantasm you can do all that times 6 (six Phantoms) - but of course only 1/rest. If you use Arkemy'r Grimoire there's an Illusion spell names "Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure" which makes you invisible and doesn't break if you only cast CC on enemies (no damage though). That means that you can cast for example a Miasma on a crowd without becoming visible. It's like CC god mode a bit. Also Wall spells (Wall of Many Colors but also Wall of Flames) will not end the invisibility because they are hazards (their own game character entity) which will not be connected to you dealing damage. 

Xoti:

• SC Priest- Very straightforward - just works. Use her lantern - it's great for that. User her as main support/secondary healer and kind of offtank.
• SC Monk. As melee Monk use her fists mostly and aim for Whispers of the Wind + Resonant Touch and make her the main damage dealer in order to get something out of her subclass.
• As mid-ranged SC Monk: use Serafen's two Hand Mortars and go gunmonk. This is very strong with Stunning Surge, Flagellanth's Path and Whispers of the Wind/Resonant Touch. Use Lightning Strikes, Duality of mortal Presence (INT) - no need to pick Turning Wheel since it's melee only. Pick everything that gives you ACC, PEN and INT (AoE size): Enduring Dance, Thunderous Blows, Razor's Edge, Ring of Overseeing, Ring of the Marksman, Aloth's Armor, Heaven's Cacophony and so on. Start fights with Enduring Dance and then fire away with Stunning Surge. Use wounds for Thunderous Blows in between, later for Whispers of the Wind and Resonant Touch as well. Stunning Surge will ost nothing if it crits only once in the AoE and you will even get back Mortification from her class passive if you kill (which happens a lot if she's the main AoE damage dealer). She works great with a single-target-focused Maia Rua: Maia picks off the dangerous single targets, Xoti wrecks the mobs. This woirks very well with a stiyk tank Edér and Aloth using Pull of Eora to cramp as many mobs a possible into a tight space. Also Aloth can use Dazzling Lights to lure enemies from stealth into a tight spot where Edér then egages and Aloth casts Pull of Eora. If you use Pull of Eora much gie Edér an item that makes him immune to push/pull effects (like the Horns of the Aurochs or the Upright Captain' Belt - very good in this case).
• In all monk cases go for Precognition as amulet and Stalking Cloak for the back. Whispers of the Wind makes you invisible so you will stun every enemiy you hit with it. 

Serafen (I like him if that isn't obvious):

• Witch with Willbreaker and White Witch Mask, use Blooded - works very well with the Mask. Use Spirit Frenzy/Tornado to apply Staggered (-10 Fortitude) and Secret Horrors to apply SIckened (another -10 Fortitude). Cast Borrowed Instincts a lot (+20 ACC besides other stuff) and hit enemies with the modal "Body Blows" on (-25 Fortitude) - then using Soul Ignition/Disintegrate and other fortitude based stuff on them. Your accuracy will virtually be +65(!). Use Brute Force to target fortitude instead of deflection if it's lower (often is with the Morning Star + Sprit Frenzy + Secret Horrors). The Morning Star also lowers Will (-3 per hit) which is great for most other cipher powers that don't target fortitude. Also use Psychovampiric Shield to lower enemies Will by -20 and Deflection by 10. Use Whisper of Treason and/or Puppet Master, too. Although you are a melee guy you should use these because they are very strong. Don't hit your charmed enemies - else they flip back. Let them fight for you instead. Skill your Will into the sky (Iron Will +15 & Bull's Will +10) and use the highest shock AR gear you can find (so.. NOT plate armor). When casting, don't be too near to your allies in case you miscast (can wipe your friends). Use Deltro's Cage Helmet to profit from the miscast (if you survive).
• Witch with Lord Darryn's Voulge, Deltro's Cage - mostly applying Static Charges with Carnage and using Soul Shock on your tank. 
• SC Barb, aiming for Driving Roar with Blood Thirst, Bloodlust, Spirit Frenzy,  Acina's Tricorn, Lance of the Midwood Stag (Lord of the Forest). Let a fellow druid cast Woodskin or Form of the Delemgan on you right at the start of battle. Or count on the weapon's enchant,ment to give you Woodskin at some point. In this case it can be good to also wear Nature's Embrace. Gain +2 PL and attack from second row with Spirit Frenzy + Carnage and use the yell/roar to deliver dmg and apply Shaken, Daze and Staggered as AoE CC until you get Driving Roar. At that point just be your party's best ranged damage dealer with incredible dmg output for just 1 Rage per cast. Also pick Improved Critical etc. Against crush-immune or resistant enemies either use your Lance or pick Instrument of Boundless Rage. Use two Necklaces of Fireballs: one in the stach and one on your neck. Before getting Driving Roar cast up tp 8 Fireballs per encounter (trigger Staggered with Spirit Frenzy, Blooded also works and so do Frenzy and Bloodlust/Blood Thirst for casting speed) after encounter stack the empty necklace with the full one in the stash - tada: both have 8 charges again.
• If you like fire attacks a lot you can also go Magran's Favor (+ Bleeding Cuts) + Sun & Moon + Instruments of Boundless Rage + Necklace of Fireballs + Spirit Tornado + Dragon Leap + Barbaric Shout + Barbaric Retaliation + Blunting Belt + Patinated Plate (Bronze Juggernaut + Constant Reboud) + Death's Maw + Stalwart Defiance + Thick Skinned + Blooded + One Stands Alone + Heart of Fury + Barbaric Smash + Blood Surge + Blood Thirst + Bloodlust (hope that all fits into one char  Can't remember the exact portfolio). Maybe also use Three Trolls Stiched or Nemnok's Cloak. Ragged Cloak for more retaliation damage. Jump into the midst of the enemy and let them hit you. With dazing and such high AR they won't do much damage but crit you a lot, triggering Barbaric Retaliation with Bleeding Cuts and self heal from Sun & Moon. If you're too low on hralth use Stalwart Defiance. All the while cast Fireballs from the Necklace or use Instrument of Boundless Rage or simply Barbaric Smash. All your fire based attacks will have +4 Power Level during daytime.
• Suicide Bomb - SC Barb: use Effigy's Husk, Effort, Shroud of the Phantasm in hard fights, else Mantle of the Seven Bolts, Vengeful Defeat, Heart of Fury, Pather's Leap, Blooded, Accurate Carnage, Blood Storm and so on. Jump into enemies and start hacking away. You want to be very fast but not too fragile. Should you go down: Deal tremendous AoE damage from Effort (Full AoE Attack), Husk (Raw AoE attack), Vengeful Defeat (Full AoE attack) and Mantle (Shock AoE attack) to everything around you. Get revived by a Paladin, Priest, Druid or Chanter and try again. Very good on itself but not if you don't like resting.  In tight encounters use the Shroud to summon 6 copies of you which have low health and do the same on death as you: EXPLODE! . Nothing except fat bosses might survive this if your timing/position is good... If you want you can copy the Ring of Reset from the Deck of Many Things. You can do that without the console if you export a custom character with the ring (use a lvl-1-adventurerer with only the ring - to avoid hich recruitment costs). Hire him then in the other game in a tavern and take the Ring. Now you have two. They can form a stack in the stash. If one is emoty stack it with the other one and it will be recharged. This way you can go down 3 times in an encounter (trigger AoW dmg) and get back up right again without taking an injury. It's cheesy - but if you like that build idea but hate resting this might be your thing. It's a lot of fun. By the way: Ring of Reset doesn't work on Phantoms...  (see Aloth).  

Well... some might not be that straightforward now that I read all this again...

Edited September 9, 2019 by Boeroer

[Powerotti]

I saw once pallegina-crusader build, where you stack defence when disengaging and run like crazy between enemies. Provoke as many disengagment attacks, as you can - they always misses you and WotEP has upgrade that riposte on every miss. Quite efficient but micromenaging hell.

Aloth - wizard/fighter or wizard/rogue with spirit lance. Maximize lance AoE and - as a fighter - spam clear out, as rogue - pump deflection with magic and use riposte.

Xoti - monk/priest - one of the most powerfull classes with brilliant/SoT/BDD trick, enduring dance and dichotomus soul.

 

Barbaric retaliation works with hand mortars which is overkill with avenging storm scroll. Like every build with mortars.

[3x0du5]

My advice on companions would be use Tekehu because of how unique he is compared to others he has 2 hidden subclasses on him and he turns into a shark for style points

 Eder is decent as main tank and xoti single class priest as healer support 

If you decide to play Serafen go either Witch or Barbarian he is horrible as single class cipher in my opinion wild mind is just sh1t 

 

p.s. since we are talking about companions here is there any mod that allows you to change their stats and classes or you have to console it ? How reliable is consoling new subclasses into them can it break the game ? Would be fun to play subclasses i want on story companions who have their own quests and barter

Edited September 9, 2019 by 3x0du5

[Boeroer]

Wild Mind def. has more upsides than downsides. Given that subclasses are designed so that they are kind of balanced when it comes to pros and cons I'd say Wild Mind is on the "better than balanced" side. It's just so that most players hate random effects. A reason why pets like Nebula or items that grant a random effect or ven spells who do that are not popular even if they are more powerful than other stuff on average. 

And one Miscast of Wild Mind burns itself into the brains of every player who didn't see that coming while all the good stuff will be forgotten soon. You can get:

•  +5 PL for that cast (awesome)
• cast a power twice for free (like Evoker passive, awesome)
• get full focus (awesome)
• apply Blinded, Dominated, Enfeebled, Paralyzed, Stunned or Terrified on the target (good, those are all tier 3)
• gain an Empower Point (ok, nothing to write home about though)
• -3 PL for that cast (meh, not too bad)
• set enemy invisible for 15 seconds (this can range from "Eh I don't care" to "Oh my goodness why is Neriscyrlas invisible?")
• Push everything away from target (doesn't matter most of times)
• apply Brilliant, Courageous, Energized, Intuitive, Robust or Swift to enemy (not nice but no big problem most of times if it's not a mean boss)
• remove Empower Point (meh, I don't care much)

And then the Miscast which is a self-centered shock AOE that does 3x current dmg and targets Will. This is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. Since it's friendly fire it can hit allies and foes. You can play it so that you will wipe the enemy and not your party. Or just put him a little bit to the side (radius is 2.5) and nothing happens (except Serafen may damage himself). And if you take this into account the subclass can actually be quite fun to play. Just note that a miscast happens very rarely and nearly always when you have less than full focus (if current focu is low then it's no big deal at all). Use Deltro's Cage Helmet as I said, strengthen your will defense and get some more shock AR. Funnily enough it's more easy to raise your Will defense as a Witch than as a SC Cipher.

If you hate the randomness in the first place then of course you will not be happy with this subclass.

[3x0du5]

Problem with wild mind is that you can actually play ascendant/x cipher with kitchen stove + thunderous report instead of serafen with wild mind  and then its not even worth comparing them 

P.S. Nebula is actually really good ? I buy it as soon as I get to serpents crown , saved my watcher plenty of times(kinda helps that he is street fighter to increase value of nebulas 5% proc rate) and inspiration on ally will always give more benefit than inspiration on enemy would cause harm , also one of the better looking pets in the game 

Edited September 9, 2019 by 3x0du5

[ckrownz]

@Boeroer

Can Tekēhu replace Xoti as the main healer?

[Boeroer]

Sure - a self-build ascandant will be better than Serafen as SC Cipher. But that's the case with other companions as well. Most paladin orders seem to be better than Brotherhood of the Five Suns, especially for a Herald build. Then you'd also take Troubadour instead of Pallegina's vanilla Chanter option. Unbroken/Trickster or /Streetfighter would be so much better for Edér and so on. But that's not the point in this case.

The relevant question (with ragard to companion builds) is if Serafen can be played as Wild Mind Cipher and if it's any good. And sure he can and yes it's good enough if you know what his subclass is about and how you can circumvent the shortcomings. It's not useless nor is it particularly bad for a companio build if you look at it objectively. It is just not very likable for most players because of the randomness. You cannot minmax randomness as effectively as you can minmax deterministic stuff.

[Boeroer]

3 minutes ago, ckrownz said:

@Boeroer

Can Tekēhu replace Xoti as the main healer?

Yes. Usually a Druid is a better healer than a Priest anyway. Except Furies of course.

But maybe you shouldn't restrict Tekēhu to healing. As a Watershaper he has amazing foe-only water/frost spells like foe-only Chillfog and so on. That's what makes his subclass so good. But yes - he can also heal pretty well.  

[ckrownz]

@Boeroer

How different is a ydwin build compare to a serafen witch build?

[Boeroer]

Do you mean an Ydwin Cipher build compared to a Serafen Cipher build? Because else they have different (multi)classes and you can't really compare them.

Besides the Wild Mind passive they can be build pretty similar as SC Cipher. But Serafen talks a lot more and has his own quest. Ydwin is only equally "entertaining" in the BoW DLC.

Note that all kills (also from DoTs like Disintegrate) do trigger Blood Thirst. 

 

[ckrownz]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Do you mean an Ydwin Cipher build compared to a Serafen Cipher build? Because else they have different (multi)classes and you can't really compare them.

Besides the Wild Mind passive they can be build pretty similar as SC Cipher. But Serafen talks a lot more and has his own quest. Ydwin is only equally "entertaining" in the BoW DLC.

It's because she looks so cool that I want to build her to at least play BoW with her on the party, any tips?

[Boeroer]

Mindstalker is a good combo in general. Plenty of CC at hand (Phantom Foes, Secret Horrors etc.), great focus generation due to very high weapon dps (Sneak Attack + Sopul Whip and so on - always pick Draining Whip, Biting Whip is sh!te without Community Patch). Squishyness can be countered by Psychovampiric Shield and later Borrowed Instincts and so on.

[Jayd]

Mindstalker Ydwin is way better than SC Cipher in my experience. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but Time Parasite and so on just can't replace the massive effectiveness she gets from Sneak Attack and Rogue abilities (without needing to set up first). I usually run her with Frostseeker.

[Boeroer]

You have to cast Time Parasite on a tight group so it can jump to several enemies. It doesn't stack on one and the same enemy - but if you can for example affect 5 enemies with it (you can cast several times) it stacks on you 5 times, giving you insane speed. I usually use it in tandem with a Wizard who first lures enemies with Dazzling Lights so that they are standing together and then uses Pull of Eora. If you then cast a Time Parasite into their midst you can become so fast it's ridiculous. At that point SC Cipher makes a lot of sense. What also makes a lot of sense (with AoE weapons) is Shared Nightmare. Especially if you gave Reaping Knives to some of your buddies...

Mindstalker starts off very strong though due to the combined Sneak + Soul Whip. SC Cipher needs some time to ctach up. But I'm playing a SC SOulblade atm and really enjoy Time Parasite and Shared Nightmare with my Whispers of the Endless Paths (' gigantic cone).

Edited September 11, 2019 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

I never realized Shared Nightmare wasn't limited to Cipher Powers...