MC Blackjacket/Ascendant build

[Oddsboy]

Hey gang, infrequent Deadfire player who has been trawling the forum for build ideas. I gather that Black Jacket is an oft passed over class. However, I had some specific scratches to itch which I thought it might help out with. What I'm looking for is:

• Pistols, either single or dual. While Seraphims bombards are sick as hell, they just don't groove with my asthetic.
• Less important is something relatively straight forward, with most abilities being per combat

I came across the idea of a Blackjacket/Ascendant who uses 3 weapon slots of pistols to build focus, and then unleashes stuff while Ascended and then rinse and repeat. I was also thinking Soulblade, but I was hoping to keep it 3/4 ranged (though I'm not against having this build wade in if need be), and Soulblade seems to need a lot of melee synergy (and thus lose my nifty cool pistols). I dont' mind suggestions for broader MC pistol wielding builds, but my specific interest was how viable the above combo is. NB, thinking of using the 4th weapon slot for something that can handle pierce immune foes, and eventually getting the, I can't remember the name, but the pistol that does either raw damage or something that isn't piercing.

[Boeroer]

That's Eccea's Arcane Blaster. It's a great pistol and worth using it all the time imo, not only as backup weapon.

[thelee]

4 hours ago, Oddsboy said:

unleashes stuff while Ascended and then rinse and repeat.

only trouble is that "rinse and repeat" isn't terribly effective because you still need to reload those firearms, so you lose the efficiency of just having to switch weapon slots. (though eventually you'll be able to power out things like disintegrate or death by 1000 cuts, so maybe you won't need to do much rinse and repeating)

early on, you may be better off with arquebus. the modal gives you extreme accuracy, and you won't get the downside (at first) because you'll just switch away. you probably want a staff or something as your final weapon slot, as a non-pierce, melee option to keep your focus up for the rest of the fight. i'd also be a bit concerned about whether or not you could actually power enough damage out with weapon-switching firearms to hit ascended.

 

though i highly highly recommend at least using kitchen stove w/ the thunderous report enchantment as one of your weapon slots. the cone aoe will pretty much instantly fill up your focus, it's per encounter, and will help with that "rinse and repeat"

[Oddsboy]

I guess I'm misunderstanding what feeds Ascension, or possibly the mechanics of turn based pistol use. The theory I'd heard was that if you fired your first set in slot 1, you could then switch to slot 2 and fire those next turn, then switch to the set in slot 3 and fire those the turn after that, and then switch to a melee set in slot 4 and start bopping people until you had disintigrate or some such charged up.

[thelee]

57 minutes ago, Oddsboy said:

I guess I'm misunderstanding what feeds Ascension, or possibly the mechanics of turn based pistol use. The theory I'd heard was that if you fired your first set in slot 1, you could then switch to slot 2 and fire those next turn, then switch to the set in slot 3 and fire those the turn after that, and then switch to a melee set in slot 4 and start bopping people until you had disintigrate or some such charged up.

if that's what you're planning on doing, i don't think you're getting a full benefit from blackjacket.

in RTwP, one neat trick a blackjacket can do is repeatedly fire from free weapon switching. so you can fire, switch instantly, fire, switch instantly, etc until you run out of weapon slots. you basically cut time between fire by an order of magnitude since you remove all reload time and are just down to attack time. in TB-mode, i don't think this works nearly as well, because while weapon switching can become a free action, you are still only limited to one attack/turn which is a really strong constraint on your action economy vs. in RTwP (e.g. it's not nearly as huge of an action economy boost as in RTwP).

 

even in the RTwP case, the amount of damage you could burst is probably not going to be enough to power up a high-level ascension, since the amount of focus you need to generate to hit max focus goes up and up while you never get more than 4 weapon slots.

Edited June 28, 2022 by thelee

[Oddsboy]

Oh I seeeeeee. Probably the person was planning on real time play. Well back to the drawing board, lol.

[Boeroer]

The beauty of Black Jacket in TB mode is that you can use an offensive weapon setup for offensive actions and then, with the free action, switch to a defensive setup before your turn ends. 

[Oddsboy]

Oh I see! So you could attack with some sort of ranged stuff and then swap to a Tower shield for maximum retaliation avoidance.

[thelee]

14 hours ago, Oddsboy said:

Oh I see! So you could attack with some sort of ranged stuff and then swap to a Tower shield for maximum retaliation avoidance.

yeah. technically you could also do this with RTwP, but turn-based mode makes this much easier/less tedious to do.