Cipher build for SOLO in POTD with the new patch

[davoker]

Now that the Cipher no longer has that "trick" with Psychic/Brutal Backlash that caused dragons and many enemies to be permanently stunned (which was obviously a bug, yes, I'm the one who put effort into reporting this so it would get fixed, thanks to the beta patch, and luckily I was heard xD), it's time to talk about builds.

When discussing a SOLO run in POTD (without Triple Crown, I like being able to reload if I die xD), without that talent, what viable alternatives do we have? How important are attributes depending on the style you choose?

For example, I was thinking of something like this:

• MIG – 10
• CON – 8
• DEX – 18 (17+1 for Elf (Pale) race)
• PER – 16 (15+1 for Elf (Pale) race)
• INT – 18 (17+1 for Old Vailia)
• RES – 8

But I think it might be viable to lower DEX to 10 (no less) and increase MIG, or even leave CON and RES at 10 and put MIG at 14, or CON at 10 and MIG at 16. I'm also considering lowering PER to 14 and increasing the other attributes even more (DEX stays at 10).

All this with the idea of playing a tank Cipher, using plate armor, a shield, and a one-handed weapon. The goal is to have good survivability, and with a small shield, even with DEX at 10 and self-buffs, I think it should be possible to generate enough Concentration.

What do you think?

PS: Alternative:

• MIG – 18
• CON – 10
• DEX – 10
• PER – 15
• INT – 19
• RES – 6

6 RES is the absolute minimum I want so I can fully upgrade the Company Captain's Cap, which requires 20 RES. I can reach this in combat using a skill from the ring you get for killing the fool in the Battle of Yenwood, combined with various bonuses (food, resting, etc.) and RES-boosting gear. Reaching 20 RES with 6 base isn't difficult.

Besides, I'm playing a tank, so dropping RES to 6 already feels painful enough.

Edited Wednesday at 11:34 PM by davoker

[Chaospread]

On 2/20/2025 at 12:05 AM, davoker said:

All this with the idea of playing a tank Cipher, using plate armor, a shield, and a one-handed weapon. The goal is to have good survivability, and with a small shield, even with DEX at 10 and self-buffs, I think it should be possible to generate enough Concentration.

You mean Focus, I guess.

Anyway, alternative stats is better imho. I'd prefer skip DEX with PER, PER 10 is viable and I like high DEX characters. Best should be  dump RES and CON and MAX INT, DEX before and then MIG and PER as you wish. If you must have RES 6 (good reason that you explained), I'd dump CON and raise DEX, but if you prefer, you can keep CON mid (maybe 8 or 7 to gain 2 points for others stat, it can be raise to 9 or 10 with bonus and eq easily) and then tend to have high DEX and PER instead of MIG... let me tray:

MIG - 14
CON - 7
DEX - 18
PER - 14
INT - 19
RES - 6
So you max DEX and INT, PER and MIG with bonus can go high enough, if you prefer MAX PER or MIG, distribution like 12 and 16 have little sense, maybe the theory should be MAX PER but also in TCS PER 14 is absolutely viable , Chiper can increase it easily and MIG 14 is a good compromise.

If you MAX PER, you can drop shield with weapons style, best style for a Cipher is two weapons and with high PER you can get "defense" through afflictions of weapons and abilities. Plate armor can be good early game, later even naked is better.

IIRC in PoE1 you can respec full stats and abilities/talent, so you can start with plate, shield, more CON and high PER and then respec with more MIG, light armor and two weapons.

[davoker]

Sorry, double post :S

Edited 4 hours ago by davoker

[davoker]

4 hours ago, Chaospread said:

You mean Focus, I guess.

Anyway, alternative stats is better imho. I'd prefer skip DEX with PER, PER 10 is viable and I like high DEX characters. Best should be  dump RES and CON and MAX INT, DEX before and then MIG and PER as you wish. If you must have RES 6 (good reason that you explained), I'd dump CON and raise DEX, but if you prefer, you can keep CON mid (maybe 8 or 7 to gain 2 points for others stat, it can be raise to 9 or 10 with bonus and eq easily) and then tend to have high DEX and PER instead of MIG... let me tray:

MIG - 14
CON - 7
DEX - 18
PER - 14
INT - 19
RES - 6
So you max DEX and INT, PER and MIG with bonus can go high enough, if you prefer MAX PER or MIG, distribution like 12 and 16 have little sense, maybe the theory should be MAX PER but also in TCS PER 14 is absolutely viable , Chiper can increase it easily and MIG 14 is a good compromise.

If you MAX PER, you can drop shield with weapons style, best style for a Cipher is two weapons and with high PER you can get "defense" through afflictions of weapons and abilities. Plate armor can be good early game, later even naked is better.

IIRC in PoE1 you can respec full stats and abilities/talent, so you can start with plate, shield, more CON and high PER and then respec with more MIG, light armor and two weapons.

I ended up going with the alternative stats in the end. The idea was to use a weapon and shield, but I'm almost level 6 and haven't used the shield yet. I'm using two one-handed weapons because I feel more comfortable with them for now. I generate focus (which in my language is "concentration" xD) decently. The plan is to use Angio's Gambeson and Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, so having DEX at 10 doesn't worry me. Alacrity potions and Angio's Gambeson help with casting speed.

I raise PER from 15 to 18 early on with Lilith's Shawl, and with some bonuses, I can increase it a bit more. I don’t remember if Cipher has anything to boost it further, it's been years since I last played one.

I can stick with the idea of using Angio's Gambeson, or I could just rely on Alacrity potions and keep using plate armor. But I’m certain I want to use dual weapons. That wasn’t my initial plan, I wanted to be more of a tank. In fact, I still think that for some fights, equipping a small shield wouldn't be a bad idea.

Lowering CON worries me. I'm thinking about those swamp dragons and a few other fights where high CON is really beneficial, so I don’t really consider dropping it below 10. I want anything that adds CON to be a pure benefit, not just recovering and then benefiting. I'm not a fan of min/maxing, but I do use it sometimes. For example, why would I want DEX on a Chanter? DEX out 

PS: I don't remember if the Cipher has any AoE spells, so far I'm missing that, although "Antipathetic Field" is extremely useful for it. There are some AoE spells at this level, but nothing surpasses Antipathetic. Later on, I think there are two or three spells, at least one or two are marked as AoE, and another one isn't AoE but pierces through multiple enemies, if I remember correctly, a spear or something like that.

I'm very used to the Chanter, Wizard, Druid, and Priest (omg... leveling a Priest to level 5 in SOLO POTD feels like living in hell), even though I've played Cipher a lot in the past, I never actually finished a run with it, so I don't remember much, we'll see how it goes.

Edited 4 hours ago by davoker

[Chaospread]

Angio's is very good, potions of DAoM is ok but you need a lot of resources and in some fights you need those slots for other consumables I think. MIN MAX is not necessary, it is only optimization and ok, DEX is more important in Deadfire, in PoE1 you can reach 0 recovery and there is durgan steel etc. so it is ok. I keep my idea, 8 or 10 CON is not an great difference.
Dual weapons is almost always a must. Plate armor in solo is very hard to wear late game... you'll tell to me
Cipher has AoE spells, but in SOLO in PoE1 in some battles you can also use (or have to use) scrolls of paralysis, confusion ecc
I think a Chiper can also raise PER, but I mean ACC for sure