Cipher build in POE2

[swarkzero]

Hello,so i just finished POE1 and i'll be starting POE2 in the near future,but i'm really not sure how i want to build my Cipher MC.

In POE1,i mostly used Mental Binding,Puppet Master(def my favourite),Silent Scream,Body Attunement,Amplified Wave and Disentigration.I also used him alongside Greaving Mother in a dual cipher line up to basically get most enemies on our side and it was a lot of fun,but my favourite thing was that he was a jack of all trades,he could do great damage as well.I mostly used blunderbuss and stormcaller bow.

Now,from what i've seen from POE2,there's a lot of options with playing singleclass/multiclass,but i'm not sure how to build him again in the sense of being pretty good at both DPS/CC.I feel like Ascendant would be a bit annoying with having to aim to get to max focus,i've seen a Beguiler/Trickster build that seems interesting,but to me it kinda goes way too much into specialisation as CC.

Soul Blade seems intersting as a melee option,though i would prefer to keep my cipher ranged,but i'm not totally oposed to a melee build(in WM1 i took that 2 handed sword where you couldn't swap to other weapons until you solved the 3 riddles so i played like 15 hours with it).

Is a jack of all trades/master of none cipher just a basic one without a subclass?Please let me know.

[Okkes]

Single class beguiler and ascendant very very powerful. If you want to play Soul Blade you should go multiclass, for example trickster/soul blade has incredable defences and damage potential.

[masterty66]

Arcane Archer/Ascendant is very powerful. Use the Frostseeker bow and you'll generate enough focus to get ascended very quickly. From there you can spam powers or continue to ranged dps as desired. With the high Ranger accuracy you'll crit often and your spells will land well and spells like Borrowed Instinct will make you even more accurate.

If you don't want to deal much with a pet you could do Ghost Heart/Ascendant which would also be quite good.

Another weapon which pairs well with ranged Ciphers of any variety is Kitchen Stove with the Thunderous Report upgrade. That is a 1/encounter ability which will do a ton of damage and get you to max focus (or very close) quite quickly. So that one goes well with Ascendants.

Essence Interrupter is a good ranged weapon as well.

You said you're not totally opposed to melee builds. I recently played a Stalker/Soulblade using Sun & Moon + Tuotilo's palm (and then later Seeker's Fang + Grave Calling). The way the Soul Annihilation ability works is it does a primary attack, so the off hand is ignored. Sun & Moon strikes twice (once with Soul Annihilation, and then once by itself) so the way that works is you dump your focus with the first attack and then instantly regenerate focus with the second attack from Sun & Moon. In essence that means you can spam Soul Annihilation all day. With this character I would usually throw on a buff or two (Borrowed Instinct and/or Psychovampiric Shield) and then go to town spamming SA. It was quite effective. You can use powers as well when you want to. A good charm spell or debuff can sometimes be more effective than spamming SA, so don't totally neglect your powers.

Just a few ideas. Hope this helps.

[Boeroer]

For the late game a Bloodmage/Ascendant is one of the most "straightforward" powerful Cipher combinations you can have (without exploiting unintended behavior of certain items and other very cheesy apporaches). 

The main reason is that the Bloodmage can have unlimited casts of Wall of Draining which can be used to prolong the ascended state endlessly. That's endless casting of Cipher spells for free, including Ancestor's Memory for your whole party (think of your party's Priest who can then use Salvation of Time to keep the whole party brilliant for the entire fight). On top of that you can of course prolong all other sorts of buffs (accuracy, defenses, inspirations - you name it) and healing over time (Minor Lay on Hands from gloves and/or Blightheart's healing pulse for example). 

Another very strong combo with Ascendant is Ranger/Ascendant with the Frostseeker warbow. Some prefer Ghost Heart, I would prefer Arcane Archer. It has one of the highest and at the same time "easy to get" accuracy ceilings of all class combos which is important for the bow (it relies on crits) and it does great single tarter as well as AoE damage (from the bow's AoE itself as well as the imbue shots of the Arcane Archer) and has very good focus generation so you can ascend all the time. Then you can decide if you just want to keep shooting while ascended (while ascended the Soul Whip damage bonus doesn't turn off like with other ciphers but instead does MORE weapon damage) or cast cipher spells for free with absurd accuracy (for example crit-dominate half of the enemy group or whatever). This takes off much sooner than the Bloodmage/Ascendant variant - and while it doesn't have the gamebreaking potential the Bloodmage/Ascendant has, it's still an extremely efficient combo for a party until the end of the game.   

Besides that, my personal absolute favorite Cipher subclass is the Psion - either single class or obviously paired with some other caster like Wizard, Priest, Druid or - yet again my favorite combo: Chanter (more spec. Troubadour). Psion/Troubadour, while being very useful in any party, is also one of the best solo class combos. Just a all around fun, versatile and strong combination in my opinion. It was one of the most enjoyable characters I played during my active playing time with Deadfire - and usually I'm a fan of Monks and Barbarians in this game, so that's extra special.  

Another very fun combo for me personally was Beguiler/Furyshaper with the Willbreaker as main weapon. A very good debuffer and crowd controlleer if you have good acc buffs in the party (usually a priest) and later in the game also a great damage dealer with the weapon. Also thematically very nice for an MC imo because the main theme of both classes fit nicely imo. 

I personally am not a big fan of the Soulblade although Soul Annihilation is obviously a great and powerful ability. But it also leads to very one-dimendional builds imo and you really have to work to get away from that. If that's not a problem then any martial/Soulblade combo is great. Trickster/Soulblade with Sun & Moon+Tuotilo's Palm (or any other bashing shield) is very good and so is Streetfigher/Soulblade with Sun & Moon+blunderbuss. Also Bloodmage/Soulblade is very, very good - mainly because of the combination of Citzal's Spirit Lance and Soul Annihilation as well as the fact that Wall of Draining can prolong the Soul Blade's bonuses he gets on kill (+max focus for example). 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Boeroer

[masterty66]

16 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I personally am not a big fan of the Soulblade although Soul Annihilation is obviously a great and powerful ability. But it also leads to very one-dimendional builds imo and you really have to work to get away from that. If that's not a problem then any martial/Soulblade combo is great. Trickster/Soulblade with Sun & Moon+Tuotilo's Palm (or any other bashing shield) is very good and so is Streetfigher/Soulblade with Sun & Moon+blunderbuss. Also Bloodmage/Soulblade is very, very good - mainly because of the combination of Citzal's Spirit Lance and Soul Annihilation as well as the fact that Wall of Draining can prolong the Soul Blade's bonuses he gets on kill (+max focus for example). 

I think they key with Soulblades is to realize that sometimes a well placed power is more effective than just dumping your focus for another SA attack. If you're playing it well you should always be doing that calculus of should you use a power or should you dump the focus. Most of the time just dumping the focus is an easy answer but a charm spell at the right time or a secret horrors etc can turn the tide too. So that's why I think it's important to be present when playing that class and don't just be lazy and spam SA all the time. Sometimes a power really is the better choice.

But it's easy to get into a habit of just spamming SA 24/7 because frankly that is very effective more often than not lol. 

[dgray62]

Another thing to keep in mind is Soulblades periodically have to use either a power or SA, since when you hit max focus you lose the soul whip bonus(es), which gimps your attack. So you need to keep an eye on your focus and either spam SA or cast a power when it's full. Usually, for SBs it makes sense to focus on debuff powers to disable foes and make them easier to hit. But once they're rebuffed you can speed up their demise with SA. SB is probably best as a MC and for those who enjoy micromanagement.