Finished my run as a streetfighter/bloodmage: dual mortars > dual melee?

[mjo2138]

Hello everyone,

I just finished my POTD Upscaled (all) run as MC streetfighter/bloodmage - I really was able to 'discover' the power of dual wielding hand mortars, and I spend a lot of the game switching between melee and mortars, only to realize that dual mortars seems to be a better 'choice' for several reasons. Some reflections 

1. Pro: Aoe attacks means you can hit 2-3 enemies each time 

2. Pro: By using hand mortars, you do not have to micro switching between weapons all the time to to trigger 'heating up', Never found a consistent way to stay flanked or bloodied with this build without being in too much danger.

Perhaps a streetfighter/paladin or fighter would give me the 'tools'. Idk. 

3. Con: Using hand mortars you will affect allies with powder burns, which is annoying, forcing allies to eat Captians Banquet, therefore losing the +2 PEN for Hot Razor Skewers food (can be negated with abilities, but still)

I want to try a melee streetfighter again, and it seems like zealot would be the best choice. Still, there will be a lot of micro involved in order to stay flanked. By the way . Pale Hide Armor offers + DEF when flanked.... that gets me thinking!

The other option is making a zerker/cipher to constantly keep phantom foes up on me; however, this would affect all my party too... not sure if the trade off is worth it! (unless I counter it with 'immune to flanking' weapons for frontliners..... 

[Haplok]

I've had good fun with a Streetfighter Swashbuckler, Devoted to Estocs. Estocs have supreme Penetration, so coupled with Devoted bonus and Pen bonuses from Rogue abilities and solid Crit rate, they Overpenetrate often, doing great damage.

Needed to play carefully, a bit like an offtank initially. But once I had fighter Unbending, I could charge headfirst into enemy ranks, activate Unbending and leave a bloody pile of corpses around me due to Streetfighter sick bonuses.

 

[dgray62]

This sounds like fun. How did you integrate spell casting with the mortar fire? Would you open with a mortar volley to get Heating Up, and then cast some spells? As for the con, having companions eat Captain's Banquet doesn't sound too bad, since it will also make them immune to your chill fogs, particularly if they're Pale Elves.

[mjo2138]

On 9/20/2021 at 4:39 AM, Haplok said:

I've had good fun with a Streetfighter Swashbuckler, Devoted to Estocs. Estocs have supreme Penetration, so coupled with Devoted bonus and Pen bonuses from Rogue abilities and solid Crit rate, they Overpenetrate often, doing great damage.

Needed to play carefully, a bit like an offtank initially. But once I had fighter Unbending, I could charge headfirst into enemy ranks, activate Unbending and leave a bloody pile of corpses around me due to Streetfighter sick bonuses.

 

Nice ! I am actually trying the same class build in my first POTD solo run! 

4 hours ago, dgray62 said:

This sounds like fun. How did you integrate spell casting with the mortar fire? Would you open with a mortar volley to get Heating Up, and then cast some spells? As for the con, having companions eat Captain's Banquet doesn't sound too bad, since it will also make them immune to your chill fogs, particularly if they're Pale Elves.

Honestly, I just focused on buffing up with wizard spells, and then shooting everything. In harder fights, I would use terrify or shadowflame for CC, but I found that the most efficent way was to just blast everything. That being said, you bring up a great point - use Heating up to chain spell casts quickly together. On another note, I used high DEX for this playthrough, but I regret it, because with Heating up, high DEX is not as important. I don't understand how inversions work in this game LOL 

[dgray62]

Thanks for the advice. What stat spread did you use, and what would you recommend now, given your observation that high DEX isn't really necessary. Maybe high PER is what is really needed, since you'll be perpetually debuffed in this stat? Also, what wizard buffs did you actually use regularly? There are so many, and I usually just end up using a few of them, mainly the stat buffs, and then defensive buffs as needed.

Edited September 21, 2021 by dgray62
More information added

[mjo2138]

2 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Thanks for the advice. What stat spread did you use, and what would you recommend now, given your observation that high DEX isn't really necessary. Maybe high PER is what is really needed, since you'll be perpetually debuffed in this stat? Also, what wizard buffs did you actually use regularly? There are so many, and I usually just end up using a few of them, mainly the stat buffs, and then defensive buffs as needed.

Stats focused on INT PER and DEX, while CON and MIG were 8, and resolve dumped. In hindsight, I didn't need to use Bloodmage going the combat route, since most fights would finish in one 'round' of buffs. PER was not too bad, since I negated the debuff using Xoti's Dire blessing, or Aware from Witch Serafen. 

[dgray62]

Thanks, that was about what I expected. One question however: if you negate distracted with a perception inspiration, don't you also lose flanked (which is caused by distracted I believe) and hence the street fighter's Heated Up status?