Seraphen the Misunderstood

[Constentin Lévine]

The Wild Mind subclass is hard to play because of the lack of control Seraphen have with their effects.

But some effects, like 100% chance to echo (cipher's spells only), or +5 cipher PL, are really advantageous, and they are listed as beneficial effects (3s base for each).

Out of fight, they also trigger (with Ectopsychic Echo repeatedly for example) and can be extented with SoF. In fight, with SoT, but carrefuly because the the Invisibilty on hit is also a beneficial effect. 

In this screenshot below, my Wild Mind (not Seraphen) Cipher have some effects prolonged with a priest during a fight.

 

Other possibility with Seraphen is to confuse him out of fight (Fugue Spore with Calmo Curse is the technic I use) then cast with him some hostile spells on allies, to trigger on them all the tiers-3 inspirations and extend them with SoF.  That is also possible without confused with Psychovampiric Shield on ally or self. That can take a bit of time, but it is a good and cheesy use of Seraphen .

Edited September 20, 2022 by Constentin Lévine

[dgray62]

Creative use of the wild mind effects! Thanks for sharing this.

[masterty66]

People complain a lot about Wild Mind but I've used Serafen as a Cipher quite a bit and I feel like I haven't often noticed it and thought man this is screwing me over right now. I know it procs regularly and sometimes negatively but it's only rarely lost me fights. 

Edited September 19, 2022 by masterty66

[thelee]

30 minutes ago, masterty66 said:

People complain a lot about Wild Mind but I've used Serafen as a Cipher quite a bit and I feel like I haven't often noticed it and thought man this is screwing me over right now. I know it procs regularly and sometimes negatively but it's only rarely lost me fights. 

it used to be a lot worse in earlier patches. the shock damage one could wipe entire parties out.

the big problem is that you don't get anything out of wild mind (aside from the cheese constentin just discovered). all the wild-mage-style classes i can think of it in my experience have other benefits, and the variability is considered the drawback, not the defining feature. and the effect is a symmetry that's very hard to break to your advantage (again, aside from the cheese just discovered).

even with the shock damage nerf, as an example i think "target becomes invisible" effect can be extremely bad for a fight, especially if it triggers on an aoe. that means casters you can't interrupt, free sneak attack or other attacks from enemies, it could foul up spells/effects you have cast that are already in motion. even if it happens to you, an unexpected invisibility can be bad, since this invisibility also means untargetability. i've literally gotten a KO because the invisibility hit an ally and it made a support spell whiff (i forget if it was a heal or a suppress affliction, but it was a DoT that i missed the window to counteract)

[masterty66]

7 minutes ago, thelee said:

it used to be a lot worse in earlier patches. the shock damage one could wipe entire parties out.

the big problem is that you don't get anything out of wild mind (aside from the cheese constentin just discovered). all the wild-mage-style classes i can think of it in my experience have other benefits, and the variability is considered the drawback, not the defining feature. and the effect is a symmetry that's very hard to break to your advantage (again, aside from the cheese just discovered).

even with the shock damage nerf, as an example i think "target becomes invisible" effect can be extremely bad for a fight, especially if it triggers on an aoe. that means casters you can't interrupt, free sneak attack or other attacks from enemies, it could foul up spells/effects you have cast that are already in motion. even if it happens to you, an unexpected invisibility can be bad, since this invisibility also means untargetability. i've literally gotten a KO because the invisibility hit an ally and it made a support spell whiff (i forget if it was a heal or a suppress affliction, but it was a DoT that i missed the window to counteract)

I agree, I don't think on balance it's a good subclass or anything. I've just seen a lot of people act like his subclass is unplayable and I've never personally felt that way. He is perhaps best suited as a pure Barbarian but he's fine as a Cipher or a Witch. 

But I guess it depends on what one's tolerance for variance is. He can definitely lose you fights, and for many that can be enough to never make him a Cipher or Witch.