Cipher builds and advice

[overnuke]

I'm still thinking if to go melee or ranger style. What do you guys suggest, what should my build look like? Preferably melee, maybe. What build do you use? It's been a week since game launch and I'd like to hear what you've learned so far. Thanks

[DIXI]

So far as I understand it is, if you go melee as a cipher you will sacrifice a lot of potential spell-wise (not enough damage or short AoE, low duration spells, etc).

[Lasci]

There's a week's work of quality build information if you actually tried to searched through the forum.

 

Ciphers don't have a lot of endurance, so you want to be ranged. You want maxed out might, along with good intelligence and dexterity. You want to start every fight off with a blunderbuss shot to gain focus before taking out a bow and keeping to the back while casting spells. Biting whip is very good.

[Katarack21]

There's a week's work of quality build information if you actually tried to searched through the forum.

 

Ciphers don't have a lot of endurance, so you want to be ranged. You want maxed out might, along with good intelligence and dexterity. You want to start every fight off with a blunderbuss shot to gain focus before taking out a bow and keeping to the back while casting spells. Biting whip is very good.

I start with Mind Blades, because I have full focus at the start of every fight--I only have to gain focus after I've spent some.

 

Is this not normal?

[Lasci]

 

There's a week's work of quality build information if you actually tried to searched through the forum.

 

Ciphers don't have a lot of endurance, so you want to be ranged. You want maxed out might, along with good intelligence and dexterity. You want to start every fight off with a blunderbuss shot to gain focus before taking out a bow and keeping to the back while casting spells. Biting whip is very good.

I start with Mind Blades, because I have full focus at the start of every fight--I only have to gain focus after I've spent some.

 

Is this not normal?

 

 

My level 9 Grieving Mother starts at 55 Focus and I've seen her get as high as 110.

 

To be fair, she has Greater Focus, but unless the tooltip is insanely wrong, that should only add +10 to the maximum.

[Rawrsong]

 

There's a week's work of quality build information if you actually tried to searched through the forum.

 

Ciphers don't have a lot of endurance, so you want to be ranged. You want maxed out might, along with good intelligence and dexterity. You want to start every fight off with a blunderbuss shot to gain focus before taking out a bow and keeping to the back while casting spells. Biting whip is very good.

I start with Mind Blades, because I have full focus at the start of every fight--I only have to gain focus after I've spent some.

 

Is this not normal?

 

 

Starting a fight with full focus is not normal.  At the very beginning of a new combat, Ciphers should only have half their maximum focus pool.

[Siegdarth]

Nah. I have a Melee Cipher and works GREAT. Cipher is not about endurance, is about Deflection.  

 

If you get an Medium Armor (like scale mail) and with a 2 handed sword or even dual wield (2 attacks) you will able to generate a good amount of focus. Also you wont lose "spell power", you should use Fast and Average spells for Raw damage vs enemies with high DR or to deal AOE damage.

 

The maximum focus you can have is a fixed value based  your "Caster Level".

 

But think this way. Melee you will need fast or average powers that have nice damage and some  CCS. While ranged you can use more slow powers with more powerful CCS. 
Anyway 2 weapons will make you able to cast spells very often since you do 2 attacks per turn and have plus 20% attack speed, meaning a lot of focus to spend. Bows and Guns lacks the speed necessary to keep the inflow of focus.  

[overnuke]

Nah. I have a Melee Cipher and works GREAT. Cipher is not about endurance, is about Deflection.  

 

If you get an Medium Armor (like scale mail) and with a 2 handed sword or even dual wield (2 attacks) you will able to generate a good amount of focus. Also you wont lose "spell power", you should use Fast and Average spells for Raw damage vs enemies with high DR or to deal AOE damage.

 

The maximum focus you can have is a fixed value based  your "Caster Level".

 

But think this way. Melee you will need fast or average powers that have nice damage and some  CCS. While ranged you can use more slow powers with more powerful CCS. 

Anyway 2 weapons will make you able to cast spells very often since you do 2 attacks per turn and have plus 20% attack speed, meaning a lot of focus to spend. Bows and Guns lacks the speed necessary to keep the inflow of focus.  

 

What about aggro from enemies, how much of a problem is that for you?. Because I don't think ciphers have an escape/vanish ability like rogues. (I do plan to use Eder and Pallegina in party though). Also, wouldn't 2 handed weapon be better than dual wield for gaining focus because of high DR that some enemies have?

 

Anyone else playing melee? I'd be gratefull for more informations.

[Haplok]

Melee Cipher is great, but on hard difficulty and above is also quite squishy. So requires quite a bit of micro-management and carefull positioning. You don't need to sacrifice anything. Well maybe a bit of recovery speed, as you should wear the heaviest armor you can get, IMVHO. This should allow you to survive a hit or 2. When **** hits the fan, you've got a fast Paralyse power, which is very effective versus most enemies. And you can debuff the enemy accuracy to hell and back.

Actually you sacrifice quite a bit by hanging in the back, as some of the more potent powers work best when highly mobile. Like these telepathic links that do 40-50 damage per tick to each enemy between you and your chosen ally. It makes short work of any enemy and if you position your Cipher (or the ally) well, you can keep whipping several enemies with that. Just make sure you are aware of your positioning and avoid enemy zones of control. Or paralyze/dominate/debuff the enemies you need to pass and the ones trying to engage you.

 

Dual wielding  is the superior choice in my opinion. Draining Blast has great synergy with that (+2 Focus per each quick strike). As does Blunderbuss, which will be usefull as an opener, to attack squishy targets hanging back, when you can't reach them or when you can't quite handle the heat. You should wait for the enemy chargers to engage your tank anyway. Though it is not a bad idea to charm/dominate/debuff them before going into the fray.

Still take Biting Blast for extra damage + Focus as well. A pair of Stilletos works great, they are fast, have innate DR penetration, you can get two awesome ones very early... and both Stilletos and Blunderbass share the same Weapon Focus: Ruffian.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Haplok

[Killyox]

Blunderbuss/Gunner cipher +2 focus on hit skill. Makes him do a lot of single target dmg + gives a lot of focus to use on spells.

 

Most important spells are eyestrike, mental binding, amplified wave and so on. I generally go for fast/medium casts. Almost never for slow.