Solo Psion/Troubadour questions

[Mar]

Hi! After several failed attempts to come up with a viable solo build for PotD upscaled, I gave up and copied Not So Clever Hound's bloodmage build, and it was incredible. There's something about the versatility, power and sheer amount of resources that just makes it so much fun compared to my failed attempts with more straightforward martial combinations.

Which brings me to: for my next playthrough, I'm looking at builds that offer a similar package -namely the variety of approaches to fights, and the renewable resource pool. Psion+Troubadour seems like a perfect combination for this, but all the mentions I've seen of it seem to imply that it's a build best played by doing some weird stealth trick to stay hidden during combat - which is just not something I'm interested in. It's possible I misunderstood the posts talking about this.

So I'm wondering, is a more direct approach viable with this combo? I don't mind hiding behind walls of summons while I cast -in fact, that sounds quite fun-, I just don't want to base my playthrough on being artificially untargetable through stealth. Also, if anyone has a build they could share (stats, best abilities, general tips) that'd be most welcome. Many thanks in advance!

[Constentin Lévine]

I dont think Psion is a good option when soloing the game, beguiler in other side have a great Focus-generating-system that can provide a very good sensation. 

Psion take the risk to constantly interrupt his focus generating because of incoming crits (or even hits on unmodded game).

1 hour ago, Mar said:

some weird stealth trick to stay hidden during combat - which is just not something I'm interested in. It's possible I misunderstood the posts talking about this.

Haha I remember of this post, the fact was about Seals, Walls and Summons that are not really directely atached to the caster but independant; to cast many of them doesnt break the invisibility (excepted the Wall of Draining that hit the caster when summoned).

[dgray62]

@abotcompleted the Ultimate I believe with a Psion/troubadour, so it's definitely doable. It would be easier with community patch however, since that changed focus generation interruption from on hit to on crit.

[Mar]

I am indeed playing with Community Patch, otherwise I wouldn't really consider Psion. Beguiler seems interesting too, since it's also (theoretically) self sustaining for spellcasting without needing to attack much. A bit more limited in scope, but also less fragile. My idea for Psion was that stacking some deflection (borrowed instinct would help) + having summons on the way from Troubadour would significantly reduce the amount of times we get crit. The appeal really is to have infinite spellcasting that draws on self-replenishing pools- something Beguiler could also provide (and with constant uptime / action economy due to having two different pools to draw from). I just don't know how good it'll be in practice.

Also, I watched some clips from that Ultimate run. They used the stealth trick to remain untargetable, and sent out summons with pain link to do the killing. Definitely a neat idea, and reliable for Ultimate stuff, but not the playstyle I'm looking for in a regular solo run.

[Boeroer]

Imo Psion is the best Cipher subclass for solo as long as you have something to occupy the enemies. So summons (Psion/Chanter), mind-control (Cipher itself), invisibility (Wizard, Rogue, Skaen) and hard CC are your friends. I also had very good results with a single class Psion with a very defensive setup with a small shield (no acc loss but higher deflection and reflex) because it shifts focus away from you towards squishier targets (weak charmed/dominated enemies mostly). 

It is so good to be able to just generate focus all the time while hiding, recovering, kiting and so on. No other cipher can do it. They all have to hit something with weapon or spell which not only is bad for action economy but also is bad against single tough/high defense foes.

Also played Psion/Troubadour and the constant stream of resources is so good - you will never run out of things to do, you have summons, mind control, hard-CC, single-target- and AoE damage and defenses/resistances.

 

[abot]

I just finished another ultimate run, I wanted to see if it was possible to get the amaliorra scepter & engoliero estoc & use the upgraded watcher ship to reach Ukaizo instead of the ghost ship, it is, I even spared 5 days, sasha scimitar + grave calling + engoliero + skeletons is real fun ( oh also effort is fun with mind blades especially)

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by abot

[thelee]

another ultimate run! wow, incredible dedication

[Constentin Lévine]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

It is so good to be able to just generate focus all the time while hiding, recovering, kiting and so on. No other cipher can do it.

Actually it is possible, for every SC ciphers, but not in solo. I will make a topic tomorrow!

[Fab3686]

I started a new run with this MC for my watcher, and it is very fun and intensive to play, need a lot of micro. However, for the moment, he is quite fragile and I prefer to use him with a ranged weapon (Essence Interruptor) but it is quite counterproductive with the invocations "Her Revenge" and "The Thuder rolled". Is it preferable to chose summons and reroll then when you are able to get close to th melee?

Edited August 30, 2022 by Fab3686

[Boeroer]

15 minutes ago, Fab3686 said:

I started a new run with this MC for my watcher, and it is very fun and intensive to play, need a lot of micro. However, for the moment, he is quite fragile and I prefer to use him with a ranged weapon (Essence Interruptor) but it is quite counterproductive with the invocations "Her Revenge" and "The Thuder rolled".

As a Psion you might not want to go into melee at all. Instead pick long-range cones like Killers Froze Stiff and deal damage with Soul Shock, Antipathetic Field or Mind Blades at the lower levels.

You can make Her Revenge and The Thunder Rolled work (I would pick one of those, not both - bit of a waste of ability points imo) if you pick a small shield and invest in weapon & shield style. This will make you more sturdy and also a less attractive target for enemies while it doesn't hinder your casting at all.

The weapon of a Psion/Troubadour doesn't matter much because he shouldn't be auto-attacking a lot. Instead he should be using Brisk Recitation and then invocation & cipher spells all the time.
The weapon can be some sort of stat stick then (like Dagger + modal for added melee deflection or something like the Lance of the Midwood Stag for added Powerlevels or so). 

16 minutes ago, Fab3686 said:

Is it preferable to chose summons and reroll then when you are able to get close to th melee?

Honestly: using summons & charm/dominate is almost always preferable when we speak about the impact on the encounter (not the fun while playing). 

Psion is not the right pick when you want to use melee weapons and prefer to stay in the front line. In that case a Soulblade would be a good cipher subclass. And maybe even Skald for the chnter side instead of Troubadour. Skald only pays 2 phrases for Her Revenge and the Thunder Rolled (and other offensive low level invocations).

[Fab3686]

My plan is to use Weyc stuff + Shasha Scimitar + Unstable coil in late game. So "Her revenge.." invocation will be here to trigger it, I don't want to use melee weapons, spamming spells is very fun and intensive  Essence Interruptor is just here for the fluff and the potential summon.

[abot]

Melee is mostly useful for 1 hit weapon modals to lower enemy defenses (primary flail to lower reflex before soul shock/her revenge/thunder rolled, club if you need to lower enemy resolve but Psychovampiric Shield (+ Borrowed Instinct when available) is usually enough to do it safely from distance. Same with morningstar modal, often secret horrors is enough. Pike modal can be useful with high deflection enemies when Psychovampiric Shield is not enough. Sabre modal is good when you have GraveCalling to more easily 1 hit-kill for chillfog your chanted skeletons.
Not using melee much is good for Abydon challenge too.
Thick grew their tongues chant + crossbow modal is not bad until you can get effort hemorragic to use with e.g. mind blades
Most damage (apart special weapon power attacks like e.g. the kitchen stove one) should come from summons + echo spells targeted on them (e.g. nearly all-game-good cheap soul shock), Her revenge is mostly useful as finisher attack/to trigger specials like least unstable coil, monastic unarmed training fists can be of use but for most of the game the most important thing is to keep your summons always up and stay safe spamming spells while you get focus/chants in the backline.
Later you can use amplified wave on summons/screaming souls on skeletons, thick grew their tongues chant  + mind blades + secret horrors + effort hemorragic for interrupt feast
For tough nuts, especially at low level,  use pain link on summons, get disengage attacks on them if possible (always disable AI and fine control your summons to get the most from them), summons are your never ending primary resource/battlefield control tool so you can use them even as kamikaze on bosses. When summons are not enough to block enemies, The Thunder Rolled (stun) + Mental binding (paralyze) should be your fast/cheap always ready control tools.
Not to mention Puppet Master, fast, long range, can bypass 1 level resistance, can turn relatively tough enemies (e.g. fire naga warriors) into allies...
[EDIT] also engoliero on chanted skeletons is nearly as fun as grave calling if you manage to get it

Edited August 30, 2022 by abot

[Fab3686]

Thank very much @abotand @Boeroer, I used this topic to get some tips but I didn't precise I use this build in 5 men party. I didn't use summons for the moment, maybe "Instruments of death" and "Many Lives" in late game for combos.