Penetrating shot + Lead Spitter

[termokanden]

Anyone tried this combo? It's pretty crazy.

 

I use it with Biting Whip for that 1.2^2 damage multiplier. I almost want to respec to something less insanely overpowered, but it's too late for that

[Larsenex]

So i am running a Cypher and I am currently using a War Bow. i was going to get a gun and did not know what to use, nor am I high enough to get Bitting Whip. I took the +10 focus instead..... Should I go back and get 'biting whip'?

[ErlKing]

Biting Whip is much better choice.

[Larsenex]

I may end up restarting the game and doing things a bit differently. Ill either go with a Ranged Cypher or Barbarian...Thanks!

[termokanden]

Biting Whip and Draining Whip are both good. The max focus thing seems entirely unnecessary though.

[Lasci]

So i am running a Cypher and I am currently using a War Bow. i was going to get a gun and did not know what to use, nor am I high enough to get Bitting Whip. I took the +10 focus instead..... Should I go back and get 'biting whip'?

 

If you're doing a ranged Cypher (which you should), then you want a bow for the fast attacks so that you can build Focus. Using a gun on a Cypher is generally a bad idea, because you want to be attacking quickly and often.

[gkathellar]

 

So i am running a Cypher and I am currently using a War Bow. i was going to get a gun and did not know what to use, nor am I high enough to get Bitting Whip. I took the +10 focus instead..... Should I go back and get 'biting whip'?

 

If you're doing a ranged Cypher (which you should), then you want a bow for the fast attacks so that you can build Focus. Using a gun on a Cypher is generally a bad idea, because you want to be attacking quickly and often.

 

 

Uh.

 

Focus gained is related to damage done, so the high burst damage from a gun grants you focus significantly faster than a bow would. Draining Whip also procs multiple times from a single blunderbuss shot, so there's that. And then you have the gigantic Biting Whip damage multiplier on top of a gigantic blunderbuss damage roll.

[Lasci]

Yes, and you should start every fight with a blunderbuss shot before switching to a bow. But in my experience, the time it takes to reload simply isn't worth the extra damage when you could just as easily be firing off several bow shots whenever you need a bit extra focus for your spells. God forbid you get a wealth of misses and grazes from your blunderbuss; that's a devastating loss in efficacy.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Lasci

[Cragnous]

Yes, and you should start every fight with a blunderbuss shot before switching to a bow. But in my experience, the time it takes to reload simply isn't worth the extra damage when you could just as easily be firing off several bow shots whenever you need a bit extra focus for your spells. God forbid you get a wealth of misses and grazes from your blunderbuss; that's a devastating loss in efficacy.

 

Won't later foes that have high DR just not take as much damage from bows as opposed to other weapons? The more the foe has DR, the worst a bow gets. Unless all you want is to gather quick Focus to unless spells.

[Lasci]

 

Yes, and you should start every fight with a blunderbuss shot before switching to a bow. But in my experience, the time it takes to reload simply isn't worth the extra damage when you could just as easily be firing off several bow shots whenever you need a bit extra focus for your spells. God forbid you get a wealth of misses and grazes from your blunderbuss; that's a devastating loss in efficacy.

 

Won't later foes that have high DR just not take as much damage from bows as opposed to other weapons? The more the foe has DR, the worst a bow gets. Unless all you want is to gather quick Focus to unless spells.

 

 

A Cipher's job isn't to shoot arrows. The arrows just build focus and happen to do good damage because of Soul Whip's passive damage buff. You want to be casting spells as a Cipher. Mind Blades is insanely good, incredibly precise AoE damage. 

[Starthief]

Won't later foes that have high DR just not take as much damage from bows as opposed to other weapons? The more the foe has DR, the worst a bow gets. Unless all you want is to gather quick Focus to unless spells.

 

Yes, bows are pretty inferior unless you're using them specifically for interruption.   http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/30rso5/ranged_weapon_dps_some_rough_numbers/

 

I have a pistol on my Cipher and my Rogue and an arbalest on my chanter (who uses the reload phrase), and it's working out pretty well.  If I find a decent blunderbuss, I'll probably give it to my cipher and just not worry about weapon switching.  (My cipher does also have an arquebus but I've stopped bothering to use it.)

 

[termokanden]

A Cipher's job isn't to shoot arrows. The arrows just build focus and happen to do good damage because of Soul Whip's passive damage buff. You want to be casting spells as a Cipher. Mind Blades is insanely good, incredibly precise AoE damage. 

 

Try to consider what this thread was originally about. Lead Spitter generates bonus focus from Draining Whip x 6, and additionally it deals a ton of damage. Basically, I'm getting crazy amounts of focus. Doubt a bow can even get close.

 

In my experience, if you have the ranged buff chant (Sure-Handed Ila Knocked Her Arrows with Speed or whatever), guns and arbalests in general are overpowered, but even without that, a blunderbuss is pretty much ideal as a focus-generator. Yes, it's slow to reload, but the 6 x bonus focus makes up for it. Now, my chanter is a wood elf with Weapon Focus: Ruffian, so I don't miss much, and on top of that, Mental Binding and other debuffs decrease deflection. I don't really remember the last time I was out of focus because I missed.

[Ichthyic]

blunderbuss generates TREMENDOUS burst focus, on anything that basically isn't highly resistant to pierce damage.  as of 3.0, you can easily get 15 damage reduction bypass (7 from lead spitter, 5 from pen shot, and 3 from bracers you can get from the Alpine dragon), which means each of your pellets is usually doing full damage, plus bonus from biting whip, plus whatever else you have on top.

I usually average 90 focus per shot above level 11.  what's more, the speed is meaningless.  give yourself quickswitch, and ANOTHER blunderbuss, like scions roar, and now you can generate as much focus as you need for any fight.  need more?  arms bearer and swap to another blunderbuss!

then, add envenomed strike on top of that, and now you're generating around 120 focus on average.

the only thing this is a limit to is really pierce resistant foes, so if you run into those, swap to a club or sabre dual wield set up, and wait until you paralyze something first then attack.

if the idea is to actually have your cipher... using cipher spells, then burst is the way to go IMO.

if you are building a ranged weapon cipher (less casty, more shooty),  you will probably want to use a warbow instead, as those will give you more dps, but not nearly as good single burst focus.

melee ciphers work well too...  treat them pretty much like rogues though, as they are a bit squishy.

but yeah, for me.. I like using my cipher to control the battlefield AND generate damage, so a good casting to start off, then a blunderbuss shot, then I usually have enough focus to control the fight from there just using spells.  ciphers have some really good fast cast spells.



 

[Blunderboss]

On 3.02 Ciphers are amazing imo ,

Whispers of Treason is now main spell for early game , Quickswitching Pistols can get you up to 50-60 focus at early levels , which then is enough  to keep at least 2 targets charmed for the duration of the fight , in act 1 u can get up to 3 pistols , but one of them is in Raedrics Hold so i just use 2 Pistols and Arquebuss , cast one whispers of treason at the start of battle , followed by 3 gunshots and u once again have 40-50 focus to spam whispers of treason .

I Enchant my pistols with Accurate 1 early , and keep them until i can get my hands on Unique / Exceptional Blunderbusses , also Accuracy bonus VS creature type from Survival is amazing for early game , i only pick Crowd Control and Debuff powers early game because i find those most useful 

 

I failed dialogue with Ogre in Dyrford Cave with my lvl 5 mostly melee party on PoTD ( i havent been in defiance bay yet so my gear is all act 1 ) , i was sure i will have to reload , but then i sent my fighter(4 Engagement Slots ) in front while cipher charmed one bear ,  followed by 3 gunshots into other bears who are decent targets for focus building with Pistol , and i noticed that i have 50 focus , all i did for the rest of the fight with cipher was chain Charm bears meanwhile my party is dealing with the ogre , and surprisingly i finished the fight with only 2 knockdowns one of them being hunters pet , ogre killed all the bears himself and died right after.

Basically any fight where enemies outnumber u greatly can be "cheesed" with whispers of treason spam ( i say cheesed because , damn this spell is so strong now , really very strong )

My favorite targets to charm by far are priests , starting from Xaurips u can usually charm a priest before he finished casting first spell , and then he will buff your party like a boss , same goes to any Kith groups , charm a priest and u won 

Edited March 25, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

On of my favourite build is an Island Aumaua with Quichswitch and Arms Bearer, wearing Ryona's Vembraces and using Lead Spitter any three other enchanted exceptional blunderbusses and also the Talisman of the Uncounquerable. Walk into a fight, pick the enemies with the lowest DR (or cast Body Attunement on the highest DR foe), kill one of them with a single shot. You can do all four shots at the start of the fight - but chances are very high you will overflow with focus. I prefer to just let him shoot once, then start casting. And every time I want to cast somthing else and don't have enough focus I just switch, shoot, cast. It's very rare that I need more than four shots. Also, Runner's Wounding Shot is quite nice with this. It doesn't generate focus but does great DoT damage with this setup.

 

The mciro is not so bad because you will want to micro your cipher anyway when you want him to cast a special spell. On a paladin quickswitching feels much more micro-intense.

 

If you have a Blast Wizard with Golden Gaze or just Exposing Vuln. it gets even better. Even bosses' DR is no problem then. The max DR bypass is 4+3+3+5+5+7 = 27 (24 without Lead Spitter) - enough for nearly every foe. So the blunderbusses will nearly always do their best.

 

But you can also go for arquebuses. It's not that much of a difference since Carow Golan gives no flat +2 focus per hit anymore.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Boeroer

[MaxQuest]

[...]I usually average 90 focus per shot above level 11. 

[...]then, add envenomed strike on top of that, and now you're generating around 120 focus on average.

That raw dot from Envenomed Strike started to generate focus?

 

P.S. Strange that no one have mentioned here about blunderbuss on a rogue. It benefits tremendously from Deathblows. Also each pellet seems to proc Deep Wounds.

[Blunderboss]

Island Aumaua Quick Switch Cipher = Blunderboss :D 

 

Every single party i ever made has that Island Aumaua Quick Switcher who uses blunderbuss be it Cipher , Ranger , Paladin Rogue , or even Priest of Magran swapping them arquebuss'es 

Edited March 25, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Boeroer]

Yeah, but Deep Wounds multiple times only refreshes the timer - it's not that powerful. 

 

I don't know how it works now, but in 2.03 Envenomed Stike would not generate any additional focus.

[Boeroer]

Island Aumaua Quick Switch Cipher = Blunderboss :D 

That pretty much sums it up.

[MaxQuest]

Yeah, but Deep Wounds multiple times only refreshes the timer - it's not that powerful.

Damn. Stacking is so... inconsistent. Was expecting dragon-thrashed like behavior.

Btw, what about the dot from wounding?

 

I don't know how it works now, but in 2.03 Envenomed Stike would not generate any additional focus.

Yeap. I was testing this specifically. It wasn't generating focus in 2.0, 2.03 and 3.0 for sure.

[Boeroer]

Wounding stacks.