Scout build idea

[Tomucci]

So was thinking of a basic idea for a scout, and wanted to see what you guys thought.

Basically it's a trickster / ghost heart that dual wields eye of wael scepter and stalkers patience (with fire in the hole and the other aoe shotty in the second slot for gouging strike). 

Trickster: back stab, sneak attack, deathblows, gouging strike, passive that adds raw dmg lash to weapon attacks, mirror image and other illusion spells.

Ghost heart: pet, acc bonuses, driving flight, takedown combo.

Eye of wael: invisibility procs on crit, chance for illusion spells on hit, bonus power level to illusion spells.

Stalkers patience: bonus dmg from stealth skill, raw dmg lash, bonus dmg vs flanked that can be set up with pet.

Synergy: rangers acc bonus and driving flight makes eye of wael crit regularly, which procs invisibility, which you can use for stalkers patience backstabs that can be combined with takedown combo and deathblows. This is in addition to scouts regular synergy which ive found really strong for ranged dps in general. Also pet should be doing some decent dmg because everyone will have gouging strike applied.

I know it'd be better offensively with assassin but the idea is for the character to be a hybrid ranged melee and I like the extra survivability from mirror image, as well as other illusion spells combined with eye of wael bonuses. Also thematically I really like the trickster ghost heart combo.

Other ideas I was thinking of were assassin / soul blade and assassin / blood mage which would be using the invisibility procs to set up spells or other big hits from stealth. The ranger adds driving flight and acc bonuses to proc it a lot more often I think, but obv the single hit back stab isn't as great as a payoff as a fat AOE spell.

I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting here as well, just typing it up off the top of my head at work, but yeah interested to hear people's ideas.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Tomucci

[Shai Hulud]

3 hours ago, Tomucci said:

So was thinking of a basic idea for a scout, and wanted to see what you guys thought.

Basically it's a trickster / ghost heart that dual wields eye of wael scepter and stalkers patience (with fire in the hole and the other aoe shotty in the second slot for gouging strike). 

Trickster: back stab, sneak attack, deathblows, gouging strike, passive that adds raw dmg lash to weapon attacks, mirror image and other illusion spells.

Ghost heart: pet, acc bonuses, driving flight, takedown combo.

Eye of wael: invisibility procs on crit, chance for illusion spells on hit, bonus power level to illusion spells.

Stalkers patience: bonus dmg from stealth skill, raw dmg lash, bonus dmg vs flanked that can be set up with pet.

Synergy: rangers acc bonus and driving flight makes eye of wael crit regularly, which procs invisibility, which you can use for stalkers patience backstabs that can be combined with takedown combo and deathblows. This is in addition to scouts regular synergy which ive found really strong for ranged dps in general. Also pet should be doing some decent dmg because everyone will have gouging strike applied.

I know it'd be better offensively with assassin but the idea is for the character to be a hybrid ranged melee and I like the extra survivability from mirror image, as well as other illusion spells combined with eye of wael bonuses. Also thematically I really like the trickster ghost heart combo.

Other ideas I was thinking of were assassin / soul blade and assassin / blood mage which would be using the invisibility procs to set up spells or other big hits from stealth. The ranger adds driving flight and acc bonuses to proc it a lot more often I think, but obv the single hit back stab isn't as great as a payoff as a fat AOE spell.

I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting here as well, just typing it up off the top of my head at work, but yeah interested to hear people's ideas.

Should work, though dual-wielding ranged + melee is tricky, you could just switch weapons. Just take arms bearer or wear fleshmender and/or giftbearer's cloth to get 3+ slots.  This way you can also have a shield and be less squishy, or else crit a ton one-handing. 

I've experimented with one-handing stalker's patience with a ghost heart and it is incredibly effective mostly because of mercy strike, which the description says procs 20% but it is actually 33% (meaning it procs on crits at least a double strike about half the time).  I am a big fan of ghost hearts since you can easily apply flanked to everything, which also procs ambushing, plus all the regular ranger accuracy bonuses. I've played it mostly as a pure melee, ghost heart / barbarian and ghost heart / black jacket mainly. Ghost heart / devoted with spear would also be pretty cool. 

Have also played assassin / blood mage and it is incredibly powerful. Haven't tried assassin / soul blade. I am a big fan of soul blades but you'd have no way to proc invisibility aside from the wand. I guess the idea there is you attack ranged to build focus and then when you proc invis you move in for a soul annihilation from melee? This build might be a bit too squishy with no way to run off, but could be fine if a party has sufficient healing.

Ghost heart / monk is also very good, particularly ghost heart / forbidden fist. 

I think you could do any of these but I really like the rogue / ghost heart idea. Easy to zip around with escape + evasive roll, both of which are near instant casts with no recovery.  Unsure if the upgrade evasive fire will proc invis from wael, if it does that would be really cool.

Personally I think assassin / ghost heart would be more effective though. From invis you'd proc mercy strike on stalker's patience a lot, so frequently you'd be hitting 2+ times with your sneak attacks + deathblows + ambushing. You can use escape, evasive roll, shadowing beyond, etc., to get out of danger and go back to ranged attacks. Trickster is less squishy, though it also means you can't use as many rogue abilities, since stacking e.g. mirrored images and llengrath's displaced image is 3 guile. It's a good idea though, I think either would be effective, you're just trading some tankiness I don't think you really need on trickster for more damage on assassin / ghost heart. The pet can take a lot of the pressure off you so you aren't super squishy, and the various movement and invisibility options help the assassin survive. Also keep in mind while the assassin is squishier, you do significantly more damage from stealth meaning encounters will be over faster, meaning you're hit fewer times over the duration.

Another idea is streetfighter / ghost heart. Since you're using blunderbusses anyway you could possibly dual wield or switch weapons occasionally to proc flanked from powder burns. You gain a lot of attack speed when flanked, do higher sneak attack damage, and when flanked + bloodied you do massive crit damage, like +165%. Would be hard to keep this build bloodied without dying so you'd mostly just get the flanked bonus.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Tomucci]

20 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Should work, though dual-wielding ranged + melee is tricky, you could just switch weapons.

My understanding is that duel wielding ranged and melee still gives you the duel wield weapon recovery and my plan is to be attacking quickly and proccing as many crits as I can, but also that when I do I'm able to run up and do my backstab combo without having to switch and cop the extra recovery time. It's def worth testing though because the extra one handed crits would be conductive to what I'm trying to aconplish and being invisible gives me time to swap weapons. Another thing to consider though is I need an extra slot for fire in the hole to apply gouging strike for my pet to combo with predator sense, so it might come down to how many ability points I have spare.

27 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

I've experimented with one-handing stalker's patience with a ghost heart and it is incredibly effective mostly because of mercy strike, which the description says procs 20% but it is actually 33% (meaning it procs on crits at least a double strike about half the time).

Good to know, I'll have flanked, marked enemy and other acc bonuses in my favor so I should crit fairly often with that too.

32 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Haven't tried assassin / soul blade. I am a big fan of soul blades but you'd have no way to proc invisibility aside from the wand. I guess the idea there is you attack ranged to build focus and then when you proc invis you move in for a soul annihilation from melee? This build might be a bit too squishy with no way to run off, but could be fine if a party has sufficient healing

The idea was to have soul annihilation as an option yeah, but mostly to play ranged and throw out big spells from stealth to capitalise on the assassin bonus, and soul blade doesn't seem particularly inferior to other subclasses in the context of attacking to generate focus and sporadically being able to throw out big crit spells, another reason I like cipher is the acc bonus from borrowed memory to boost crit chance with the eye of wael. As for squishiness you still have escape or that rogue invisibility spell.

41 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Personally I think assassin / ghost heart would be more effective though. From invis you'd proc mercy strike on stalker's patience a lot, so frequently you'd be hitting 2+ times with your sneak attacks + deathblows + ambushing. You can use escape, evasive roll, shadowing beyond, etc., to get out of danger and go back to ranged attacks. Trickster is less squishy, though it also means you can't use as many rogue abilities, since stacking e.g. mirrored images and llengrath's displaced image is 3 guile. It's a good idea though, I think either would be effective, you're just trading some tankiness I don't think you really need on trickster for more damage on assassin / ghost heart

Yeah I think offensively the assassin is definitely better but aside from tankiness from mirror image I also like repulsive visage and some of the other spells, for example I could hit with my backstab combo then cast repulsive visage and between spear modal and persistent distraction I'll have at least two potential engagements for disengagement attacks which could also proc crits with the extra acc they get. Also I like the trickster more thematically, especially with this build conceptually, and I kinda feel like assassins make most builds one trick pony's.

[Shai Hulud]

4 hours ago, Tomucci said:

My understanding is that duel wielding ranged and melee still gives you the duel wield weapon recovery and my plan is to be attacking quickly and proccing as many crits as I can, but also that when I do I'm able to run up and do my backstab combo without having to switch and cop the extra recovery time. It's def worth testing though because the extra one handed crits would be conductive to what I'm trying to aconplish and being invisible gives me time to swap weapons. Another thing to consider though is I need an extra slot for fire in the hole to apply gouging strike for my pet to combo with predator sense, so it might come down to how many ability points I have spare.

That is a good point about dual wielding reducing the recovery time. I just like one-handing stalker's patience because you get so many crits and proc mercy strike so much. 

I tested an assassin/ghost heart a bit. It was a solo run and I tried trial of the naga, so I got absolutely murdered and had to turn on god mode, but I was just seeing how often effects would proc and the kind of damage I'd do. Crits from the eye of wael didn't seem to proc obfuscation as much as they should. I was critting nearly every hit so that's about 20% per attack but it seemed less than that. Part of the problem was I kept getting swarmed though. With some proper tanks I think it would be fine. Stalker's Patience attacks from invisibility are extremely strong, especially comboed with Ajamuut's Stalking cloak. Very frequently I got double and triple strikes for a lot of damage and stunning things. Also tested gouging strike with dual wielding fire in the hole and hand mortar and I'd hit a lot of enemies, this would be very good as an opener because you can potentially stun all those enemies, if they're grouped close enough. So you could start combat stealthed and have other party members group enemies, then hit them with the gouging strike mortar attacks to mass stun / blind / DOT. 

[EDIT - these conclusions about form phantasmic are mostly wrong, aside from the stacking, but I'll leave the original post, see my next post for correction]

Another interesting thing I noticed was form phantasmic from eye of wael, the illusive spells incorrectly *stack* with active sources of +deflection like escape and shadowing beyond. So even though I dumped resolve and had no shield I often had like 190 deflection. So trickster/ghost heart is probably better than I thought, I didn't test that build specifically but I believe the rogue illusion spells like mirrored images and llengrath's displaced image will stack with form phantasmic illusion spells. Also, if you proc mirrored images or wizard's double from form phantasmic, the +30/40 deflection *stays when hit*. AND although form phantasmic is listed as 1/encounter, it is actually *unlimited*. It will proc every time you go from hurt to bloodied, so as long as you have some source of healing, whether healing potions or party healing, you can proc form phantasmic very easily, and with decent INT the duration is often quite long (over a minute).

So although obfuscation procced less than I expected, form phantasmic was so good it sold me on the weapon because even without invisibility you won't be getting hit that much provided you try to maintain the form phantasmic buffs. All you'd need to do is stay near the hurt/bloodied border. I kept proccing it because I had devil of caroc's breastplate which provided near constant minor healing. Wizard's double is the best proc from form phantasmic because it has no duration and doesn't go away when hit, so if you proc that (will be listed as +40 deflection) it is basicallly permanent, at least until the next time you proc form phantasmic. 

So I'd definitely take form phantasmic over hundred visions. 

I'm now wondering about some tanky builds for other classes centered around this weapon, because you could deliberately proc wizards double then switch weapons and maintain the +40 deflection indefinitely...

Also I had enough ability points by level 20 to take everything I needed plus arms bearer. On the rogue side only actives I took were escape, shadowing beyond, blinding strike and gouging strike but I took all the passives like dirty fighting, deathblows, slippery mind, persistent distraction etc., I also had room to give the animal companion vicious, merciless, and resilient companion, as well as protective companion / stalker's link, and for actives on ranger side took marked prey, marked for the hunt, evasive roll, and evasive fire. In retrospect I wouldn't take evasive fire if I had a better choice because it doesn't actually fire your weapon, it just does some piercing damage. But not a lot, like it doesn't benefit from your weapon's enchantment or anything, so not really worth it. I'd rather take something like concussive tranquilizer. Also took all the good ranger passives like survival of the fittest, superior camouflage, marksman, etc. Also took one-handed.

Still you don't necessarily need arms bearer, it could be worth the dual-wielding bonus to forgoe the +12 accuracy and 20% hit to crit because your accuracy is quite good anyway, as long as you're attacking marked things your animal companion is attacking your ranged accuracy bonus is +10 (marked) +10 (flanked) + 10 (stalker's link) + 10 (survival of the fittest) + 5 (marksman) for average of +40 ranged. Assassinate gives an extra +25 when invis. Also equipped +accuracy items like cap of the laughingstock, gauntlets of accuracy, and retina. Crit like 90% of the time. 

4 hours ago, Tomucci said:

Good to know, I'll have flanked, marked enemy and other acc bonuses in my favor so I should crit fairly often with that too.

The idea was to have soul annihilation as an option yeah, but mostly to play ranged and throw out big spells from stealth to capitalise on the assassin bonus, and soul blade doesn't seem particularly inferior to other subclasses in the context of attacking to generate focus and sporadically being able to throw out big crit spells, another reason I like cipher is the acc bonus from borrowed memory to boost crit chance with the eye of wael. As for squishiness you still have escape or that rogue invisibility spell.

I think if your focus is on spellcasting ascendant might be preferable. I love soul blades but they have lower max focus and soul annihilation is the big draw, which I don't think benefits from deathblows or assassinate since it does raw damage. I mean the base weapon attack would, but the soul annihilation raw bonus I don't think would. Yeah ciphers can maintain accuracy rivaling rangers, you get +20 from borrowed instincts, +10 from phantom foes (flanked), +10 from psychovampiric shield (debuffs enemy resolve by 10), +5 from tactical meld and aware, so overall about the same as ranger but requires some setup. Ciphers also get +1 PEN from hammering thoughts and +20% damage from soul whip, plus can steal armor. Seers are extremely good too by the way.

4 hours ago, Tomucci said:

Yeah I think offensively the assassin is definitely better but aside from tankiness from mirror image I also like repulsive visage and some of the other spells, for example I could hit with my backstab combo then cast repulsive visage and between spear modal and persistent distraction I'll have at least two potential engagements for disengagement attacks which could also proc crits with the extra acc they get. Also I like the trickster more thematically, especially with this build conceptually, and I kinda feel like assassins make most builds one trick pony's.

I may test a trickster / ghost heart later, like I said above I think it may be better than I thought initially mostly because I believe the defensive spells will stack with form phantasmic. Also I wasn't proccing invisibility as much as I expected so the assassinate bonus wasn't active as often as I liked. If you had a cipher in your party who could cast ancestor's memory on you that would help a lot, could use shadowing beyond more to go invisilble. 

That's a good point with repulsive visage + disengagement attacks. That could work especially well with trickster / cipher since tactical meld gives +3 engagement, or even better if you have a cipher in your party they could cast it on you and your pet. Unsure if disengagements can proc mercy strike, but I don't see why not. And take mortal wounds for other upgrade, it stacks with itself to do a LOT of DOT and is much better than 10% hobble proc IMO, will also ensure predator's sense works on the pet if you haven't landed gouging strikes on everyone.

Yeah overall I like the idea of trickster / ghost heart

Edited May 1, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Tomucci]

8 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Crits from the eye of wael didn't seem to proc obfuscation as much as they should. I was critting nearly every hit so that's about 20% per attack but it seemed less than that

I think the invisibility proc is only 10% from memory, so yeah it won't proc super often but any proc I do get saves me 2 guile, and as a scout I should be doing pretty decent damage in the meantime anyway.

 

12 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Also tested gouging strike with dual wielding fire in the hole and hand mortar and I'd hit a lot of enemies, this would be very good as an opener because you can potentially stun all those enemies, if they're grouped close enough. So you could start combat stealthed and have other party members group enemies, then hit them with the gouging strike mortar attacks to mass stun / blind / DOT. 

Good to know, this was my plan so thanks for testing it for me.

15 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Another interesting thing I noticed was form phantasmic from eye of wael, the illusive spells incorrectly *stack* with active sources of +deflection like escape and shadowing beyond. So even though I dumped resolve and had no shield I often had like 190 deflection. So trickster/ghost heart is probably better than I thought, I didn't test that build specifically but I believe the rogue illusion spells like mirrored images and llengrath's displaced image will stack with form phantasmic illusion spells. Also, if you proc mirrored images or wizard's double from form phantasmic, the +30/40 deflection *stays when hit*. AND although form phantasmic is listed as 1/encounter, it is actually *unlimited*. It will proc every time you go from hurt to bloodied, so as long as you have some source of healing, whether healing potions or party healing, you can proc form phantasmic very easily, and with decent INT the duration is often quite long (over a minute).

Thats actually crazy, good find, I'll keep an eye on that, my build might unintentionally become kinda cheesy

17 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

I'm now wondering about some tanky builds for other classes centered around this weapon, because you could deliberately proc wizards double then switch weapons and maintain the +40 deflection indefinitely...

Yeah prob has heaps of applications, something that comes to mind is offensive parry builds that use wotep to build resources like focus

19 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Also I had enough ability points by level 20 to take everything I needed plus arms bearer. On the rogue side only actives I took were escape, shadowing beyond, blinding strike and gouging strike but I took all the passives like dirty fighting, deathblows, slippery mind, persistent distraction etc

Yeah tbh I think I have a bit of a false perspective on how many ability points I'll have spare because I think the build is very front loaded with abilities, ranger for instance doesn't have many around half way through its power levels, and I dont need to take many actives on rogue because I'll want to be spending my guile on invisibility and trickster spells.

23 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Yeah ciphers can maintain accuracy rivaling rangers, you get +20 from borrowed instincts, +10 from phantom foes (flanked), +10 from psychovampiric shield (debuffs enemy resolve by 10), +5 from tactical meld and aware, so overall about the same as ranger but requires some setup. Ciphers also get +1 PEN from hammering thoughts and +20% damage from soul whip, plus can steal armor. Seers are extremely good too by the way

Yeah their accuracy is great, only thing is that rangers double their crit chance because of driving flight so I think for my purposes the scout is better, because like you said before the invisibility doesn't trigger *that* much, and as a cipher I'll also be using weapon attacks less. Assassin cipher would still be great though, same with seer, love both of those multiclasses.

[Shai Hulud]

So I totally rushed my conclusions earlier regarding form phantasmic...

It actually is 1 per encounter as stated, I forgot that I had used toggleresourcelimit for testing, which I also didn't know applied to items (apparently it does). 

Also mirrored images and wizard's double do go away when hit. Forgot I had on god mode, which although the log states you are hit, doesn't seem to apply any effects of the hit. I did manage to stack my deflection to 230 though with wizard's double + mirrored images, which in the tactical ogres fight was enough that nothing could hit me. So in some situations it is basically permanent. Could get it to 250 with escape or shadowing beyond, though you'd need a source of brilliant to maintain that in this build. Could be interesting for like a tactician / rogue though, if you managed to get wizard's double you could stack deflection with conqueror's stance to around 263, maybe even higher. Wizard's double is still the best proc because it has no time limit, and it is fairly easy to stack deflection so high nothing can hit you, making it relatively permanent. Spellblade or rogue/priest could also extend effects like arcane veil. 

Anyway, the only thing I'm sure about now is that form phantasmic does incorrectly stack deflection with abilities, though not with itself, e.g. mirrored images from form phantasmic doesn't seem to stack with mirrored images from trickster, nor llengrath's displaced image with llengrath's displaced image. 

But...trickster mirrored images, llengrath's displaced image, escape, and shadowing beyond stack with everything from form phantasmic (as long as it isn't the same spell). So you can get absurdly high deflection while it lasts, though the per encounter thing is kind of a bummer. Still very good though. 

I was able to solo the tactical ogres encounter. When you get a "gaze of the adragan" proc that is really nice. Also the "shrouded strike" upgrade procs a lot, I got some charms from it and also paralyze, apparently it can do tier 3s. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Tomucci]

5 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

I was able to solo the tactical ogres encounter. When you get a "gaze of the adragan" proc that is really nice. Also the "shrouded strike" upgrade procs a lot, I got some charms from it and also paralyze, apparently it can do tier 3s. 

Unfamiliar with this encounter but you were using the scout right, not one of the other multiclass variations you mentioned? Also is shrouded strike the other eye of wael bonus that procs on 10% of crits? I was looking at that and considering the amount of crits I aim to do with the build it looks really solid, and a good way to make up for how infrequent the invisibility proc is.

 

5 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

So I totally rushed my conclusions earlier regarding form phantasmic...

It actually is 1 per encounter as stated, I forgot that I had used toggleresourcelimit for testing, which I also didn't know applied to items (apparently it does). 

Also mirrored images and wizard's double do go away when hit. Forgot I had on god mode, which although the log states you are hit, doesn't seem to apply any effects of the hit. I did manage to stack my deflection to 230 though with wizard's double + mirrored images, which in the tactical ogres fight was enough that nothing could hit me

Haha thats alright, makes sense that it works as described otherwise I think we'd be hearing a lot more people talk about the weapon being absolutely broken and itd be the centrepiece of any tank build. Still though, sounds like very good deflection and the build is primarily ranged anyway, cool to have that available at points during the fight for switching to melee. My int sits over 20 as well so any buffs I get should last a while.

[Shai Hulud]

2 hours ago, Tomucci said:

Unfamiliar with this encounter but you were using the scout right, not one of the other multiclass variations you mentioned? Also is shrouded strike the other eye of wael bonus that procs on 10% of crits? I was looking at that and considering the amount of crits I aim to do with the build it looks really solid, and a good way to make up for how infrequent the invisibility proc is.

 

Haha thats alright, makes sense that it works as described otherwise I think we'd be hearing a lot more people talk about the weapon being absolutely broken and itd be the centrepiece of any tank build. Still though, sounds like very good deflection and the build is primarily ranged anyway, cool to have that available at points during the fight for switching to melee. My int sits over 20 as well so any buffs I get should last a while.

Yes with a trickster / ghost heart. I maxed resolve (also PER and INT) and dumped CON so it was kind of weird stat spread but it works in that fight since they mostly target deflection.

It's a fight in SSS, one of the bonus fights where you have to fetch something to unlock it and you are rewarded with the changeling mantle armor. You have to do slayers path then find the item and give it to that guy who says "watcher I have a thing you may find interesting"

Tactical ogres is a pretty difficult fight on upscaled POTD with like 12 level 22 ogres I think, but it is easier than soloing trial of the naga, that one I couldn't do with assassin / ghost heart. I don't think I could solo it with the trickster / ghost heart either though I used different stat spreads. Trial of the Naga has too many diverse attacks targeting different defenses so it is very hard to solo, near megaboss difficulty.

From my brief testing I think trickster / ghost heart would do fine in a party (probably both would) and can tank a little if you build for deflection, but can't be a main tank.

Also yes shrouded strike is the other enchant for eye of wael (its other choice is lidless gaze which is a 1 per rest attack) and it is 10% to proc a random affliction. The duration lasts pretty long with high INT, can get paralyze or charm for like 15+ s)

So eye of wael overall has

Obfuscation- 10% invis on crit

Shrouded strike - 10% random affliction on crit

Illusive spell - 5% random illusion spell on hit

You should mostly crit with the right gear and tactics, and get a lot of double crits with crowds from driving flight, between the three effects you proc one of them quite often, maybe around 40% of attacks. 

Stalkers Link is also really good, with high accuracy you proc mercy strike about 49% of the time (including triple quadruple etc strikes) and can get really good damage from that plus wounding / mortal wounds raw DOT)

Could build around either weapon, the combo should be interesting 

 

[Tomucci]

48 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Yes with a trickster / ghost heart. I maxed resolve (also PER and INT) and dumped CON so it was kind of weird stat spread but it works in that fight since they mostly target deflection.

My stat spread is similar, from memory (with berath bonuses) it's 10 mig / 7 con / 22 dex / 20 per / 20 int / 10 res

When I originally made it I hadn't really factored in off tanking as a function of the build, that being said I don't think I'd want to sacrifice anything else for it anyway.

54 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

You should mostly crit with the right gear and tactics, and get a lot of double crits with crowds from driving flight, between the three effects you proc one of them quite often, maybe around 40% of attacks. 

Stalkers Link is also really good, with high accuracy you proc mercy strike about 49% of the time (including triple quadruple etc strikes) and can get really good damage from that plus wounding / mortal wounds raw DOT)

Could build around either weapon, the combo should be interesting 

Yeah I think both weapons are really good on this build for their crit effects, just gotten my character to lvl 13 for driving flight and got my weapons and armor so I can start playing around with how the build is meant to function

[Shai Hulud]

7 hours ago, Tomucci said:

My stat spread is similar, from memory (with berath bonuses) it's 10 mig / 7 con / 22 dex / 20 per / 20 int / 10 res

When I originally made it I hadn't really factored in off tanking as a function of the build, that being said I don't think I'd want to sacrifice anything else for it anyway.

Yeah I think both weapons are really good on this build for their crit effects, just gotten my character to lvl 13 for driving flight and got my weapons and armor so I can start playing around with how the build is meant to function

Think I did 8/3/11/18/18/19, with berath 10/5/13/20/20/21. Also tried dumping resolve and putting more in mig / dex / con but the high resolve build works better soloing. Was surprisingly tanky for a guy that has 3 CON, no healing, and no class armor bonuses. I mean, not tanky compared to actual tanks like arcane knights or votaries, but in the right circumstances can be pretty untouchable vs normal enemies. The form phantasmic effects stacking can give you absurdly high deflection for a while. If you have a priest with salvation of time they could extend your form phantasmic procs as well as trickster buffs. 

Seems like a lot of builds come together around L13, which is conveniently about the level I am when I leave Neketaka and have to start fighting things. Have fun

EDIT: Did you know least unstable coil procs multiple times for blunderbuss shots with empowered abilities like gouging strike? Presumably also weyc items but I just tried the coil, I opened combat firing the hand mortars gouging strike and procced all 6 tier 3s. They last about 20s without extension which is still pretty good. Combine with ajamuut's stalking cloak and you can have quite an opening attack.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Shai Hulud

[Tomucci]

14 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

Think I did 8/3/11/18/18/19, with berath 10/5/13/20/20/21. Also tried dumping resolve and putting more in mig / dex / con but the high resolve build works better soloing.

Reckon solo is possible with this build?

14 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

EDIT: Did you know least unstable coil procs multiple times for blunderbuss shots with empowered abilities like gouging strike? Presumably also weyc items but I just tried the coil, I opened combat firing the hand mortars gouging strike and procced all 6 tier 3s. They last about 20s without extension which is still pretty good. Combine with ajamuut's stalking cloak and you can have quite an opening attack.

Nope never used any of these before

[Shai Hulud]

3 hours ago, Tomucci said:

Reckon solo is possible with this build?

Nope never used any of these before

Hmm. I expect it depends on the difficulty settings. On POTD upscaled? Probably impossible to do all the content. Hauani O Whe and Dorudugan will be rather difficult not just due to their massive damage and armor but because of the length of the fights you'll run out of resources. If you skip the megabosses then...maybe. You'd have to do a lot of kiting though for large groups of enemies. Use traps to draw them out in smaller amounts. If you play on a lower setting it is probably doable though I'm not sure which one, POTD or Veteran, I've always just played POTD upscaled and there aren't many builds that can solo everything.

On the other hand if you're willing to use cheese like strand of favor to extend item procs (like scordeo's edge blade cascade, deltro's cage helm conduit, brilliant from mind over matter or least unstable coil, retreat from rannig's wrath, damage reduction and healing from darkest before dawn, etc.) then you could definitely do it.