[CLASS BUILD] Vorpal, The Quiet Executioner – Assassin Devoted with Amra 2H Axe - Solo PotD

[Boeroer]

INTdeed

[dgray62]

Not So Clever Hound, I have been thinking about solo assassin melee builds, inspired by this build of yours, which I can confirm from experience is very fun to play. I know that you have thought a lot about this too, so I wanted to ask your thoughts about this. My idea is a solo assassin/soulblade mindstalker wielding Amra, as in this build. While you'd lose Clear Out () and the intuitive inspiration from fighter and the devoted's melee bonii, you'd gain some great stuff from the cipher side, including the 20% rash lash (with biting whip and Community patch), a great bonus to accuracy and defenses via Borrowed Instinct, as well as Disintegration, which would make Hauani o Whe much easier to handle, as well as many little perks from the cipher side to make the game a bit easier, such as Whispers of Treason and the multiple stacks of concentration a soulblade gets, which frees you up to use a different belt. I haven't tried this yet, but I was thinking of doing so after installing one of the mods that makes the cipher's inspirational powers (valorous echoes, pain block and ancestor's memory) self-casts, since otherwise they'd be useless playing solo. Being able to cast pain block on yourself would make you sturdier, and partly make up for the loss of rapid recovery and unbending trunk. There's no need to mention how useful self-casts of ancestor's memory would be for an assassin. It's clear that Amra with wanton gore would give you tons of focus, which you could use to cast spells or unleash as soul annihilation. And tempered fury would give you a much needed boost to action speed. Do you think that this would work?

[Raven Darkholme]

32 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

There's no need to mention how useful self-casts of ancestor's memory would be for an assassin. 

You can't self cast Ancestor's memory.

[dgray62]

7 minutes ago, Raven Darkholme said:

You can't self cast Ancestor's memory.

I know, Raven Darkholme. I was considering modding my game to make this possible.

[Not So Clever Hound]

7 hours ago, Raven Darkholme said:

You can't self cast Ancestor's memory

I remember going all the way up to lvl 19 on a solo Priest/Ascendant to discover this because I hadn't researched the build properly .

Edited April 14, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Not So Clever Hound]

7 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Do you think that this would work?

Hi @dgray62 thanks for sharing, I love it and I do think it's very viable especially with the mod to tweak cipher buffing powers. For the record I had strongly considered it and the only reason I hadn't followed through was because I couldn't self buff with cipher powers. Strong thematic fit and synergies between the 2 classes. You can potentially do really fun things like several high-DMG stealth attacks on squishies + wanton gore to supercharge your Soul Annihilation for a tough enemy. I think in terms of Focus management you will end up using Soul Annihilation with Assassin bonuses a lot more than casting buffs/debuffs but it will still give you a lot of versatility.

Two things that I'd pay attention to:

Investigate focus generation with Rogue attacks (to charge powers and Soul Annihilation). As you remember, this was an interesting quirk of the ranged Mindstalker: a lot of rogue alpha strikes weren't consistently generating focus, so you could basically have Biting Whip always on, which was great in that case. With this particular build you DO want to generate focus, so I'd make sure it doesn't become an issue here.

Have the right tempo to attack/restealth/attack/cast/etc. without ending combat prematurely (which would reset your focus, end your "borrowed" types of buff etc). This is always a thing with Solo Assassin but especially with a Focus-user that is going to cast the occasional spell from stealth. You may consider attacking one enemy with Gouging Strike at the beginning of the fight, then it will not end until this enemy is dead. Problem solved. You could also activate Berath's challenge but I'm not 100% sure about the ease of doing certain fights before you can get Brilliant self-cast at lvl 19. I think it is feasible though - after all you have Whispers of Treason . 
 

7 hours ago, dgray62 said:

the 20% rash lash

I love the rash lash  you could call your toon The Plague Carrier   

Edited April 14, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[dgray62]

Thanks for the response, Not So Clever Hound. I have been testing this, and just finished Port Maje. For some reason it seems that melee attacks from stealth DO generate focus, while ranged attacks do not. If anything, this is a point in favor of the melee-focused assassin mindstalker. So far, focus generation is no problem; the only problem is forgetting to discharge focus when full, and thus losing the raw lash. Have to remember to frequently use Soul Annihilation. I'll report back once I get Amra. I expect it will also be OP for the melee Mindstalker, but we'll see....

[Not So Clever Hound]

40 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

melee attacks from stealth DO generate focus

Awesome! I'm eager to hear how things come together for you with Amra and a couple more abilities to play with. Thanks again for sharing!

[Raven Darkholme]

19 hours ago, dgray62 said:

I know, Raven Darkholme. I was considering modding my game to make this possible.

You don't really need to mod for Brilliant, just use strand of favour cheese xd.

[dgray62]

59 minutes ago, Raven Darkholme said:

You don't really need to mod for Brilliant, just use strand of favour cheese xd.

Very true! There are multiple ways to deal with this issue, to be sure.