Review - Xoti as a Shattered Pillar Monk (Scordeo's Edge/Trophy)

[crdvis16]

This was probably the strongest build in this playthrough.  I tend to avoid builds that feel like balance/mechanics oversights by the devs and the fact that Whispers of the Wind does full attacks with an off-hand pistol felt right on the line for me.  One thing that helped me not feel guilty is that I played using BPM which had just recently bumped up the wound cost for WotW to 9.

In any case, the idea is to use WotW to more easily access the normally difficult to use Scordeo's Trophy enchantment bonus from Strategic Blitz (stacking -10% recovery to melee weapons) which in turn helps you stack Scordeo's Edge enchantment bonuses from Adaptive (stacking +2 accuracy with all weapon attacks) and Blade Cascade (chance on hit to ignore recovery for 5.0s).  You end up with high accuracy and low recovery (sometimes no recovery) with your Scordeo's Edge auto attacks.  Those fast auto attacks mean you build wounds really fast via Shattered Pillar's subclass trait which leads to more WotW casts and then, eventually, devastating Resonant Touch casts.

Xoti just destroyed things with this build.  I would usually start a fight with a shot from Trophy then Flagellant Path my way to an enemy to start hitting with Edge.  I'd typically get to 9 wounds really fast for my first WotW and would often come out of it with Blade Cascade and just start hammering on whatever poor enemy I ended up next to.  Blade Cascade or even just the fast recovery attacks from Strategic Blitz would have me back to 9 wounds quickly for another WotW or if enough Resonant Touch stacks were available I could use them to finish off enemies.

The biggest drawback to this build is that it takes some time to get Scordeo's Trophy and Edge as well as WotW/Resonant Touch.  You don't get Edge until you side with Aldys in 'Honor Among Thieves' which happens pretty late in the game typically and the abilities are locked behind high character levels.  Prior to getting those synergies in place I just played her as a more normal Monk which was fine.

I believe there are variants to this build that make use of a Blunderbuss in the off-hand so that you more quickly stack up Resonant Touch during WotW (blunders hit 4x on each target).  You'd miss out on Strategic Blitz from Trophy so your main hand weapon would be slower but those Resonant Touch stacks would be bigger.