Psy Blade Tank

[KungFUHustler]

Would like some help building a near immortal tank build with a Fighter/Cipher, potentially even going solo a bit later on in the game.

The idea is to buff yourself with Brilliant by using the Squid's Grasp and Phantom Foes, then spam CC and buffs on the whole party. Prior to reaching the sword, I will be going ranged so I can avoid being flanked, however.

I'm not generally someone who's huge on the DPS monster types of characters, so I am leaning towards Ascendent over Soul Blade. 

A creator named "aestus rpg" on YouTube told me that Unbending scaled off Intellect, not Might (not sure why this might be the case), if that's the case, I could dump stat Might. Should my Resolve be super high? I will be tanking after all. 

What should my stat spread look like? mac Int and Perception is kind of a given, what else?

[Chaospread]

Hi, I think it's always wrong dumping MIG anytime: you have to damage and heal (drink potions and so on) so never never low MIG. And I believe Ascendant ability gain so much from MIG.

RES can stay mid/low, but in a party you can raise it, if you want go "heavy" as a tank.

PER always HIGH/MAX in solo, in a party you can stay HIGH, no way below 13/14, game become less fun otherwise imho.

So i'd make somenthing like:
MIG  mid/hig
CON mid
DEX mid + remaining from the rest if you have
PER high
INT max
RES low/mid.

[Boeroer]

Sounds like Tactician/Cipher. If you plan to cast a lot of Deception spells as CC I would recommend a Beguiler instead of Ascendant or Soulblade. Since you plan to become Brilliant anyway you don't really need Ascension. Soulblade is nice in combo with Tactician (can spam Soul Annihilation), but not so nice if you want low Might and want to cast CC and buffs.

Beguiler gets focus from casting Deception spells. If the spell is cheap and can hit several enemies at once (Phantom Foes, Secret Horrors) you can gain (a lot) more focus than you spend. And sicne you want to cast Phantom Foes a lot anyways...
You don't have to afflict the enemies before: the Phantom Foe spell itself already unlocks the focus gain: first the flanked affliction is added and THEN the game checks if the enemies are afflicted and you should get the focus refund. Little weird, but good for the Beguiler. 

But Ascendant would also be okay. 

You can check out the mechanics of Unbending in this post:
 

It doesn't scale with MIG because the height of the healing tick is directly derived from the damage you received. It's the same with draining weapons, where the amount of healing is based on the damage you do and also not influenced by MIG.

Keeping MIG at 10 is okay, but dumping it (below 10) is a rel. bad idea because this would mean a multiplicative malus for both damage dealt and healing done (see Constant Recovery, Second Wind/Athletics, Pain Block etc.). In general you want to avoid damage and healing maluses, because their impact is too big for the few points you spare. But as I said: 10 (no bonus, no malus) is okay. Unfortunately going from 3% to 0% bonus isn't that same degration as going from 0% to -3%. 

Your Resolve should only be super high if you want very high deflection and will defenses - and if you want to shorten hostile effects' duration (on you). That's most often the case if you are a tank. If you don't plan to tank a lot you don't need a lot of Resolve. If you do it's a good idea to raise it (and also use deflection gear such as a shield, bracers/cloak/ring/armor with deflection bonuses etc.). On the other hand: if you plan to become basically immortal from Unbending you don't need high deflection anymore. I guess I'd go mediocre so that it's not too bad before Unbending but also isn't "wasted" too much after Unbending becomes accessible. 

A caster in general profits a lot from high DEX. Good ection economy and reactivity is important for a "smooth" feeling when casting spells. The longer your casts need the higher the chance that you'll get interrupted, especially when going solo.

Fighter/Cipher can achieve nice accuracy via abilities, so maxing PER isn't necessary. I would still keep it at >15, esp. solo. Else it could be annoying to not be able to find all traps and secrets. Discovery of those is governed by your final PER value. 

Instead of Squid's Grap you can also use Kapana Taga (club) or Gipon Prudensco (padded armor). 

 

 

[Boeroer]

ROFL I wrote "ection economy"

[KungFUHustler]

5 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Instead of Squid's Grap you can also use Kapana Taga (club) or Gipon Prudensco (padded armor). 

IIRC these show up far later into the game, but I think the idea was to eventually get to the Club, yes.
 

 

16 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Keeping MIG at 10 is okay, but dumping it (below 10) is a rel. bad idea because this would mean a multiplicative malus for both damage dealt and healing done (see Constant Recovery, Second Wind/Athletics, Pain Block etc.). In general you want to avoid damage and healing maluses, because their impact is too big for the few points you spare. But as I said: 10 (no bonus, no malus) is okay. Unfortunately going from 3% to 0% bonus isn't that same degration as going from 0% to -3%. 

So, I'll go Might 8 with the Berath's that gives +2

Max Intellect

Perception 13 (15)

Dexterity Max?

8 Constitution?

Rest Res?

Sounds smart? Beguiler sounds like it will work well, true. But what about the Brilliant buff? Won't that suck up all my Focus?

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, KungFUHustler said:

Beguiler sounds like it will work well, true. But what about the Brilliant buff? Won't that suck up all my Focus?

You mean Ancestor's Memory? It will cost focus to cast it on party members, sure - but you can always get new focus from stuff like Phantom Foes and being Brilliant (Tactician) yourself. As long as there are several enemies Phantom Foes (and also Secret Horrors) is a great way to flank/afflict enemies and generate quite a nice amount of focus (if there are enough enemies left). And on top you can gain a good amount of focus with Clear Out, Kitchen Stove's Thunderous Report and all other sorts of weapon attacks, too.

The good thing of the Beguiler's way to get additional focus is that it's not dependent on weapon damage at all - with lowish MIG that's an advantage imo.  

 

[KungFUHustler]

I decided on 

Might 10

Con 10

Dex 12

Per 12

Int 20

Res 22 (this way I can hit 32 with Resolve and get the ring so that I'm immune to hostile effects and I can try to hit the 184 deflection break point). 

Let me know what you think! Thanks so much for your help thus far.

[Chaospread]

At this point, 12 DEX doesn't make so much difference, I'd put PER 14 (+2 PER is always good) and 10 DEX. The rest is ok if you wanna MAX RES.