Review - MC as a Streetfighter/Helwalker Shadowdancer

[crdvis16]

This was a fun build.  The Streetfighter recovery bonus when bloodied or flanked is so tempting to go for but BPM makes it much harder to achieve with the change to the blunderbuss modal.  Other means of getting flanked are sometimes unreliable (sparkcrackers, etc) or dangerous (purposefully getting physically flanked).

However, Monks have Mortification of the Soul in order to get themselves to bloodied in a controlled manner while also getting some wounds for their trouble.  You basically just spend the beginning of the fight Mortifying yourself until you're bloodied in order to spend the rest of the fight shooting like a machine gun at range.  I recommend a script to make it less tedious.

You want to be at range because, well, you've bloodied yourself and because you're particularly vulnerable when bloodied with your very low constitution.  In order to get to bloodied quickly you want your constitution low so that the mortifications take out bigger chunks.  I went with 6 constitution and it seemed to be a good balance.  

Another way to get to bloodied faster is to start the fight with Duality of Mortal Presence - Body activated.  The initial wounds you immediately gain at the start of the fight will boost your constitution but only boost your max HP, not current HP, which means you'll start the fight off closer to 50% HP.  You can immediately switch to DoMP - Mind which will lower your max and current HP and preserve that % of HP missing.  You now have a head start on mortifying your way to 50% HP.  Once I got below 50% HP I would then switch back to DoMP - Body so that my 50% HP was a larger overall amount (setting up scripts that say "If >50% HP use DoMP - Mind" and "if <50% HP use DoMP - Body" automates this process).

Being a machine gun at range can be particularly nice when using Arbalest or Crossbow modals.  You can basically lock down a target and not let them do much of anything.  This can be especially useful in certain boss fights.  I actually spent most of my time using the Saint Omaku's Mercy warbow, though.  It has an action speed bonus when low on health that fits this build thematically too well to pass up on and has slash/pierce damage types for the many pierce immune foes.

Aside from Mortification, the Monk side also brings Lightning Strikes and Thunderous Blows.  The Rogue side provides some good attack abilities, very important escape abilities considering you're a glass machine gun, as well as Slippery Mind (Immune to mind afflictions when bloodied) which also fits the build very well.

I imagine there could be a similar build using Bloodmage or Berserker for the self damage.  Berserker would presumably be more difficult since the self damage is constant and not controllable.  Bloodmage might get you to <50% faster since their subclass trait scales with Might I believe?

[Elric Galad]

Just a little word to say that it is always nice to get some feedback from BPM users.

Especially about this change which aimed to make Streetfighter more interesting to play (sometimes, more difficult means more fun...).

[crdvis16]

Yep- the Streetfighter bonus is pretty massive so it really should be difficult/risky to take advantage of.  The risk vs reward here felt about right I think.