[Class Build] Blunderbuss Cipher: Hard/PotD difficulty

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

EDIT EDIT EDIT:

 

If google sent you to this guide because you were looking for a cipher build, this post is badly outdated. Go to my updated version later in this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78109-class-build-blunderbuss-cipher-hardpotd-difficulty/?p=1890840  

 

 

Alternatively, check out the finalized version over on Steam here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871584933

 

 

 

I see lots of people talking about how powerful Ciphers can be and they're generally correct. I realize most people will be aware of most of this and it's just general basic knowledge for vet players but I didn't see a writeup on this forum and i did see some bad advice getting tossed around like it was gospel (i.e., people advising two handed style). 

 

This is a standard Cipher build that will work on Hard or PotD. It's designed to be back-line ranged crowd control and damage, not to mix it up in melee. It's based on a couple of hundred hours of gameplay, about half of which was in the backer beta.

 

Race: really any choice is good here but you want a race with bonuses to Dexterity, Intelligence, and Might. Wood Elf probably has the best racial bonus since you'll be at range a lot of the time, and the Wood Elf racial bonus helps your accuracy, which is very important for this build since you're using guns which have an inherent accuracy penalty. Aumau is a good choice also just to max Might out. Human's a decent choice also but not optimal. You probably want Old Vailian background for the Intelligence bonus, but again Might and Dex are good choices too.

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat). 

 

Talents: Start with Biting Whip to boost your damage at level 2. At level 4 get Ruffian skill set, as at this point the accuracy boost will do more for your focus gain than anything else will (by then you should be able to get a pistol or even blunderbuss if you rush Act II; use stilettos for your melee option). At level 6 get Draining Whip and by then make sure you're using a blunderbuss (Draining Whip will give you focus for each pellet). At level 8, get Penetrating Shot, but only switch it on vs. opponents with high DR. Level 10 and 12 are more flexible: your best choices are probably Gunner and Marksman.

 

Points of contention: Some reports are that some high-level spells & powers benefit from Marksman but I haven't been able to confirm either way; either way it does help with the blunderbuss and that's critical, but perhaps less critical than the refire speed boost from Gunner.

Some guides recommend two-handed style but that doesn't help your blunderbuss (it's just for melee weapons).

 

Skills: Probably want to take lore to at least 10 to use scrolls and for dialogue checks, but going Mechanics instead is a viable choice. 

 

Items:

You can get an effective pistol very early on by putting a basic quality enchantment (accuracy or damage) onto The Disappointer, which you can find in the very first map (hidden secret by the southern tents). The basic enchant wipes its Terrible enchant and thus makes it useable. Once you're out of Act I, you can get the Forgiveness pistol by doing Pallegina's quest at the Old Valian Trading Company in Ondra's Gift. Ondra's Gift also has good armor, padded, from the lighthouse quest. ultimately though you want to rush the pig farmer's quest in Dyrford for LeadSpitter which will probably be your endgame weapon.

 

You can wear "heavier" armors like leather or even breastplate/chain in the early game but ideally you want to keep your armor as light as possible, padded at the most, to take advantage of your fast casting speed. 

 

Hat: wear a duelist's hat, it looks coolest.

 

Tactics: The idea with this build is that you're pumping and dumping your focus as fast as possible. The pistol and blunderbuss are to get lots of focus fast, then you cast as many things as you can and dump your focus out, then attack again (possibly switching to melee).  Most fights you'll want to open with Mental Binding, unless you think you can one-shot an enemy, in which case go ahead and open with the blunderbuss. Generally though it's better to open with Mental Binding because the paralyze will lower  your targets' Deflection, making them easier to hit/crit against, and casting your powers first will make you less likely to top out your Focus meter.

 

Avoid getting into melee combat if possible because you'll drop like a rock if engaged, but that's what Mental Binding is for. If you can't get out of melee, don't be afraid to switch away from the blunderbuss to dual stilettos, you will gain a lot of focus that way and do a lot of damage but you can't tank at all so don't try unless you have no other choice.

 

Powers:

 

Generally speaking you want powers that cast fast so you can take advantage of your high Dexterity, powers with big AoE's to take advantage of your Int, and powers with damage to use your Might. Crowd control and debuff powers are going to benefit especially from your high Int.

 

Level 1: There are four good level one powers. Soul Shock, Mind Wave, Eyestrike, and Whisper of Treason. Pick 3. Mind Wave seems a little bugged sometimes and the prone effect doesn't always last as long as it should, but when it works it's great, especially because it casts fast. Soul Shock is likely going to be your bread and butter for DPS throughout the game. Eyestrike is good vs. single targets where you need a debuff. Whisper of Treason is effective BUT less useful as a charm compared to later options, takes a long time to cast, and is competing against the other three really good level 1 powers. 

 

level 2: Mental Binding is the must-pick and is what you're going to open most fights with. Past that, Mental Blades is still a decent choice even post-nerf, but is more situational now; use it vs. enemies weak to slashing or when you need to hit around corners. 

 

Third pick is a tougher call. Phantom Foes is probably the worst single debuff in the entire power library (total effect is just -10 deflection) but it does seem to stack better than other powers do, and is great if you have a rogue on the team. Amplified Thrust is theoretically useful but it's single target piercing damage and your gun does that better. Psychovampiric Shield is theoretically useful but takes too long to cast imho to be really useful. Recall Agony might be theoretically useful against single big targets but you don't fight many of those and if you did you'd be using Mental Binding instead anyway. ultimately you may want to go back and pick whichever one of the four level 1 powers that you didn't get previously.

 

Level 3: Puppet Master is the better choice over Whisper of Treason, if only because if you do want to charm someone, you want them to be combat-effective, and because there's nothing else worth picking at this level anyway apart from Ectopsychic Echo. Ectopsychic Echo is actually really effective if you position yourself carefully, but harder to use with this build than with a melee cipher. The other choices are ehh but Secret Horrors isn't a bad pick overall.

 

Level 4: Body Attunement, Pain Block, and Mind Lance are all effective choices. Silent Scream isn't bad either.

 

Level 5: Detonate, Tactical Meld, Ringleader. Ringleader is crazy good but you tend to get into situations where the whole enemy team is charmed and then the combat ends and what do you? Tactical Meld is useful and you need accuracy with this build (especially on potd). Detonate is nice single target damage if your gun isn't enough. 

 

Level 6: Amplified Wave is lolgood and will literally take up the entire screen with maxed Int. The other two are also decent but why use them when Amplified Wave exists?

 

Bugs to be aware of:

 

Currently (unless they fixed this in the last patch?) there's a bug that will make the int bonus to radius for Cipher powers go away and not show up. Fortunately there's an easy workaround -- right click the power first to bring up its description. You'll need to do that every time you reload the game; you can tell if you have the bug because if you do the added bonus radius won't show. 

 

Envenomed Strike *looks* like it procs on every separate Blunderbuss projectile, but according to developer comments in beta the DoT effect is not *supposed* to stack with itself, and in fact shouldn't be doing so; if it is, it's a bug.

 

Also from developer comments the very high radius your powers get from your Int bonus may be a bug /design flaw; since Int adds 3% to the radius of your power's AoE, not 3% area, you're in effect getting, what is it, pi * r ^ 2 additional area for your powers for every point of int? So if they fix that stacking Int will be less attractive (though still probably a good choice).

Edited March 2, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[KDubya]

Nice write up.

 

Regarding the level two Phantom Foes it lasts a really long time, base 20 seconds, with a large radius of 5 meters. The -10 deflection will help all of your physical damage dealers and every attack by your rogue will be a sneak attack. At higher levels deathblows needs two debuffs to fire off and a huge AoE, long lasting Phantom Foes gets you one of them.

[gkathellar]

Soul Ignition isn't bad, as level 3 powers go - at least for bigger, heavier targets, it can deal a decent amount of damage.

[CriticalFailure]

Nice guide, I agree with most of the points.

 

I think Antipathetic Field deserves a mention as well. It's tricky to use and maybe somewhat redundant if you're taking Ectopsychic Echo, but it's available much earlier and it can be pretty devastating with proper positioning. Maybe not a must-have, but certainly a good option.

Edited April 20, 2015 by CriticalFailure

[temek]

Envenomed Strike *looks* like it procs on every separate Blunderbuss projectile, but according to developer comments in beta the DoT effect is not *supposed* to stack with itself, and in fact shouldn't be doing so; if it is, it's a bug.

 

 

Envenomed Strike doesn't stack at all even if you hit 6 times with Blunderbuss and works pretty much as it's supposed to. Did some tests with blunderbuss and only the highest duration (and so highest damage) counts. Combat log will show multiple procs, but the actual damage won't stack and only the highest duration effect will be active. Blunderbuss is probably the best weapon to use for Envenomed Strike though as you have 6 chances to proc it so you are pretty much guaranteed a hit and might have a fairly good chance of crit depending on your accuracy. On other weapons you only get 1 chance to proc and could easily miss/graze.

[MadDemiurg]

Whisper of treason is pretty terrible imo. Probably the only bad level 1 power. Main problem is huge casting time, but not being able to initiate with it and mediocre range do not help either.

 

In contrast, Tenuous grasp can be used out of combat, is twice as fast to cast (has less duration, but you'll probably generate focus for the next spell in saved casting time) and has better range. The effect is pretty much the same - allies will chop up the confused/charmed victim.

 

Antipathetic field is another great lvl 1 power, which is not redundant with Ectopsychic echo. To the contrary, it synergises with  since it gives you +20% beam damage buff For a long time.

 

Borrowed instinct is a great buff/debuff.

 

I find that going for draining whip first and using a hunting bow is a better earlygame strategy since pistol is terrible for focus generation (and prone to misses which leaves you with no focus for its long reload time). For backup weapon I prefer small shield + hatchet, with body attunement it actually allows you to hold in melee for enough to deal with the issue even with glasscanon build.

Edited April 20, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[gkathellar]

Antipathetic field is another great lvl 1 power, which is not redundant with Ectopsychic echo. To the contrary, it synergises with  since it gives you +20% beam damage buff For a long time.

 

Yeah, this is definitely true. Antipathetic Field gets bad press because it's hard to use with a back-line Cipher, but I've recently been using it with a front-line/solo Cipher, and ... whoa. Especially at chokepoints, it's like the Cipher's version of Carnage.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Whisper of treason is pretty terrible imo. Probably the only bad level 1 power. Main problem is huge casting time, but not being able to initiate with it and mediocre range do not help either.

 

In contrast, Tenuous grasp can be used out of combat, is twice as fast to cast (has less duration, but you'll probably generate focus for the next spell in saved casting time) and has better range. The effect is pretty much the same - allies will chop up the confused/charmed victim.

 

Antipathetic field is another great lvl 1 power, which is not redundant with Ectopsychic echo. To the contrary, it synergises with  since it gives you +20% beam damage buff For a long time.

 

Borrowed instinct is a great buff/debuff.

 

I find that going for draining whip first and using a hunting bow is a better earlygame strategy since pistol is terrible for focus generation (and prone to misses which leaves you with no focus for its long reload time). For backup weapon I prefer small shield + hatchet, with body attunement it actually allows you to hold in melee for enough to deal with the issue even with glasscanon build.

 

 

Yeah, Tenuous Grasp is potentially useful but it's competing against so many other good powers; really just about everything at level 1 is useful. The reason I recommend the three I do is more for tactical versatility -- it's not that the other powers are bad choices, it's more that you can get versions of them at other levels where there's less competition for your slots.

 

On the other hand, Mental Wave and Eyestrike are both AoE's with duration effects, so really take advantage of your high Int, while Soul Shock does solid damage, casts fast, and is really really effective support for your frontline tanks. Plus, all three of those effects are pretty unique -- you don't get anything else that replicates them at higher levels, so picking those three gives you the most tactical versatility. 

 

I agree that Borrowed Instinct is a good power but you have to *hit* with it, whereas you don't with Tactical Meld, so for late game fights and bosses (where you really need the accuracy bonus) Meld seems the better choice. For a melee cipher that needs the Deflection bonus Borrowed is probably the better choice.

 

You can go with Draining Whip as an early game pick sure but I've personally found that I prefer Biting Whip. Partly because the damage boost makes a big difference early on (esp. since you do gain some additional focus from the extra damage), partly because if I take Draining Whip first, I tend to spend a lot of time attacking and not casting (whether with bow or melee) and I also tend to top out my focus meter (which is bad, because it's inefficient). If you were going to go the hunting bow route initially, I'd suggest taking biting whip at 2nd, draining whip at 4th, and *then* picking up Ruffian skill set at 6th level and switching to blunderbuss.  But level six is actually a fair ways into the game and that's a lot of levels to spend not blowing things away with a gun. =(

 

I guess from what you're saying you could just not use the blunderbuss at all and go hunting bow / hatchet with Peasant specialization, and that might be a good build but I haven't playtested it. 

 

 

Soul Ignition isn't bad, as level 3 powers go - at least for bigger, heavier targets, it can deal a decent amount of damage.

 

On paper it's decent but I've found I never actually use it because in any situation where I would want to use it, spending that focus to just keep dropping more Mental Bindings instead seems the better choice. Plus, I've never 100% figured out how DoTs work with bonus duration from Int and bonus damage from Might; it seemed like it might not be getting the full bonus to damage from Might and that's a big part of this build. 

 

 

Nice guide, I agree with most of the points.

 

I think Antipathetic Field deserves a mention as well. It's tricky to use and maybe somewhat redundant if you're taking Ectopsychic Echo, but it's available much earlier and it can be pretty devastating with proper positioning. Maybe not a must-have, but certainly a good option.

 

 

Yeah, it's a good choice but personally I'd recommend it more for a melee build. 

Edited April 20, 2015 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[b0rsuk]

I won't be surprised if patch 1.05 comes making Blunderbuss apply Envenomed Strike, cipher's whip etc only once per attack. The way it works now looks like an oversight. Your builds may soon become obsolete.

[MadDemiurg]

 

Whisper of treason is pretty terrible imo. Probably the only bad level 1 power. Main problem is huge casting time, but not being able to initiate with it and mediocre range do not help either.

 

In contrast, Tenuous grasp can be used out of combat, is twice as fast to cast (has less duration, but you'll probably generate focus for the next spell in saved casting time) and has better range. The effect is pretty much the same - allies will chop up the confused/charmed victim.

 

Antipathetic field is another great lvl 1 power, which is not redundant with Ectopsychic echo. To the contrary, it synergises with  since it gives you +20% beam damage buff For a long time.

 

Borrowed instinct is a great buff/debuff.

 

I find that going for draining whip first and using a hunting bow is a better earlygame strategy since pistol is terrible for focus generation (and prone to misses which leaves you with no focus for its long reload time). For backup weapon I prefer small shield + hatchet, with body attunement it actually allows you to hold in melee for enough to deal with the issue even with glasscanon build.

 

 

Yeah, Tenuous Grasp is potentially useful but it's competing against so many other good powers; really just about everything at level 1 is useful. The reason I recommend the three I do is more for tactical versatility -- it's not that the other powers are bad choices, it's more that you can get versions of them at other levels where there's less competition for your slots.

 

I agree that Borrowed Instinct is a good power but you have to *hit* with it, whereas you don't with Tactical Meld, so for late game fights and bosses (where you really need the accuracy bonus) Meld seems the better choice. For a melee cipher that needs the Deflection bonus Borrowed is probably the better choice.

 

You can go with Draining Whip as an early game pick sure but I've personally found that I prefer Biting Whip. Partly because the damage boost makes a big difference early on (esp. since you do gain some additional focus from the extra damage), partly because if I take Draining Whip first, I tend to spend a lot of time attacking and not casting (whether with bow or melee) and I also tend to top out my focus meter (which is bad, because it's inefficient). If you were going to go the hunting bow route initially, I'd suggest taking biting whip at 2nd, draining whip at 4th, and *then* picking up Ruffian skill set at 6th level and switching to blunderbuss.  But level six is actually a fair ways into the game and that's a lot of levels to spend not blowing things away with a gun. =(

 

I guess from what you're saying you could just not use the blunderbuss at all and go hunting bow / hatchet with Peasant specialization, and that might be a good build but I haven't playtested it. 

 

Well, as for level 1 powers I agree that most are good, but you are suggesting Whisper of Treason as 1 of the picks, which is probably the worst level 1 power in my book and inferior to grasp.

 

I do go blunderbuss at level 6-8, which I am usually able to find a decent blunderbuss like lead splitter on. If you use blunderbuss without draining whip your focus generation is very low anyway and you need both penetrating shot and draining to make it work (ruffian is less of an issue tbh since you ravage enemy deflection with binding anyway).

 

As for draining vs biting whip, most of your damage comes from spells anyway and biting in no way competes with draining in terms of focus gain, esp with fast weapons (you need to deal like 8 more damage for 2 focus, which means that theoretically you need a 40 average base damage weapon for that 20% boost to make it even, which is too much even for slow weapons, let alone fast).

 

For level 5 I go BOTH Tactical meld and Borrowed instinct, they stack and +40 accuracy is hard to pass by (esp since you land borrowed instinct reliably after meld and it destroys enemy will save). I usually pass detonate since I don't find it all that great, but you can skip ring leader too I think as mind plague you get a bit later is overall more effective.

 

 

I won't be surprised if patch 1.05 comes making Blunderbuss apply Envenomed Strike, cipher's whip etc only once per attack. The way it works now looks like an oversight. Your builds may soon become obsolete.

 

It's not like blunderbuss is even the best weapon for building up focus, it just gives the best burst. Bow is very effective too. And I don't think env strike works at all.

Edited April 20, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I won't be surprised if patch 1.05 comes making Blunderbuss apply Envenomed Strike, cipher's whip etc only once per attack. The way it works now looks like an oversight. Your builds may soon become obsolete.

 

It'd be strange if they changed the Whip talents like that because they're a weapon lash effect and that's the point of lash effects?  They've already significantly nerfed the blunderbuss for this build (in Beta, it had eight projectiles, not six, and the projectiles also did more damage each) so I think it unlikely that they'll change it further. Like I said, this build isn't new, it's been the standard ranged cipher build through most of beta (partly because Leadspitter existed in the beta). If anything it's already been nerfed significantly. I think overall it's in a good place right now, it's a fun build with a lot of oomph but one with definite limitations. 

 

I think a more likely "nerf" would be improvements to Constitution and Perception for ranged characters -- if either of those happen it'll be a lot harder to justify stacking Int/Dex/Might so high.

 

As to Envenomed Strike if you'll read my post closely I recommend against taking it.  It's not supposed to stack, the testing I've done says it doesn't stack (you can tell by mousing over the target, even if combat log says otherwise). Some people maintain adamantly that the damage does stack but if they're right, it's a bug, and it shouldn't, so yeah, I would not recommend taking it.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

 

For level 5 I go BOTH Tactical meld and Borrowed instinct, they stack and +40 accuracy is hard to pass by (esp since you land borrowed instinct reliably after meld and it destroys enemy will save). I usually pass detonate since I don't find it all that great, but you can skip ring leader too I think as mind plague you get a bit later is overall more effective.

 

 

 

It's not like blunderbuss is even the best weapon for building up focus, it just gives the best burst. Bow is very effective too. And I don't think env strike works at all.

 

 

 

Yeah, exactly -- the "concept" of this build is just alpha strike with blunderbuss then cast a lot, repeat, the idea being to maximize casting time.

 

I did take both tactical meld and borrowed instinct on one run and yeah it's a great combo but that left me having to choose between ringleader and detonate for the third power. Ringleader is so effective it almost feels like cheating / broken, so I don't use it, but in a guide, I didn't want to recommend against taking it

I've also seen some graphs arguing that there are diminishing returns on damage for increasing accuracy much past +15 over target's deflection, but there are some bosses with very very high deflection, so perhaps situationally useful.  The other counterargument would be the same one against self-buffs generally -- if you're spending your initial few combat moves casting self-buffs that's time you aren't being offensive and thus you're giving the enemy free attacks. You're right though that meld + instinct can be a really powerful combination. 

Edited April 20, 2015 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Fessels]

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat). 

 

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

[gkathellar]

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat). 

 

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

 

Maximize them. 18s.

[Fessels]

 

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat). 

 

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

 

Maximize them. 18s.

 

 

Okay thanks.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat).

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

I generally go human for rp reasons and that isn't optimal, but for human it would be 19 might, 18 Dex, 19 int, including the culture bonus. Another option would be to pick aumau and go 20/might, 18 Dex, 19 int. The idea is that this is a classic "glass cannon" style build. Con drops to 3. You can drop all remaining points into either per or res but red is probably the better choice mechanically.

[Ineth]

Blunderbuss Cipher

 

You called?

 

[cavemandiary]

Pretty much identical to how I build my cipher, who I cleared POTD, including the Adra Dragon with (with a team, not solo).

 

It´s strange how many of the lower level cipher powers are vastly superior to higher level ones(even without accounting for the reduced focus cost, as in the case of mental binding which could easily be a level 4-5 spell)

[gkathellar]

 

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat).

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

I generally go human for rp reasons and that isn't optimal, but for human it would be 19 might, 18 Dex, 19 int, including the culture bonus. Another option would be to pick aumau and go 20/might, 18 Dex, 19 int. The idea is that this is a classic "glass cannon" style build. Con drops to 3. You can drop all remaining points into either per or res but red is probably the better choice mechanically.

 

 

Wooooood ellllllllllf

[Ineth]

Wooooood ellllllllllf

 

But the elf avatars in PoE are ugly.

[MadDemiurg]

 

 

 

For level 5 I go BOTH Tactical meld and Borrowed instinct, they stack and +40 accuracy is hard to pass by (esp since you land borrowed instinct reliably after meld and it destroys enemy will save). I usually pass detonate since I don't find it all that great, but you can skip ring leader too I think as mind plague you get a bit later is overall more effective.

 

 

 

It's not like blunderbuss is even the best weapon for building up focus, it just gives the best burst. Bow is very effective too. And I don't think env strike works at all.

 

 

 

Yeah, exactly -- the "concept" of this build is just alpha strike with blunderbuss then cast a lot, repeat, the idea being to maximize casting time.

 

I did take both tactical meld and borrowed instinct on one run and yeah it's a great combo but that left me having to choose between ringleader and detonate for the third power. Ringleader is so effective it almost feels like cheating / broken, so I don't use it, but in a guide, I didn't want to recommend against taking it

I've also seen some graphs arguing that there are diminishing returns on damage for increasing accuracy much past +15 over target's deflection, but there are some bosses with very very high deflection, so perhaps situationally useful.  The other counterargument would be the same one against self-buffs generally -- if you're spending your initial few combat moves casting self-buffs that's time you aren't being offensive and thus you're giving the enemy free attacks. You're right though that meld + instinct can be a really powerful combination. 

 

As I said, I usually skip Detonate - I find mind lance, ectopsychic echo and whatever level 1 damage powers you've picked sufficient in terms of damage, plus they get outclasses by amplified wave anyway in most situations. Tactical meld can be cast out of combat as of now, which probably will be fixed seeing how prebuffing is removed in any form, but anyway it has fast cast speed and borrowed instinct is not only a buff, but also a great debuff, so targeting some boss with it is not a bad idea at all.

[gkathellar]

 

 

 

 

For level 5 I go BOTH Tactical meld and Borrowed instinct, they stack and +40 accuracy is hard to pass by (esp since you land borrowed instinct reliably after meld and it destroys enemy will save). I usually pass detonate since I don't find it all that great, but you can skip ring leader too I think as mind plague you get a bit later is overall more effective.

 

 

 

It's not like blunderbuss is even the best weapon for building up focus, it just gives the best burst. Bow is very effective too. And I don't think env strike works at all.

 

 

 

Yeah, exactly -- the "concept" of this build is just alpha strike with blunderbuss then cast a lot, repeat, the idea being to maximize casting time.

 

I did take both tactical meld and borrowed instinct on one run and yeah it's a great combo but that left me having to choose between ringleader and detonate for the third power. Ringleader is so effective it almost feels like cheating / broken, so I don't use it, but in a guide, I didn't want to recommend against taking it

I've also seen some graphs arguing that there are diminishing returns on damage for increasing accuracy much past +15 over target's deflection, but there are some bosses with very very high deflection, so perhaps situationally useful.  The other counterargument would be the same one against self-buffs generally -- if you're spending your initial few combat moves casting self-buffs that's time you aren't being offensive and thus you're giving the enemy free attacks. You're right though that meld + instinct can be a really powerful combination. 

 

As I said, I usually skip Detonate - I find mind lance, ectopsychic echo and whatever level 1 damage powers you've picked sufficient in terms of damage, plus they get outclasses by amplified wave anyway in most situations. Tactical meld can be cast out of combat as of now, which probably will be fixed seeing how prebuffing is removed in any form, but anyway it has fast cast speed and borrowed instinct is not only a buff, but also a great debuff, so targeting some boss with it is not a bad idea at all.

 

 

Yeah, this mirrors my own experience. Every time I used Detonate, I wondered if I wasn't just using it for the sake of using it, and I wouldn't have been better off with a Mind Lance or Silent Scream or Mind Blades or Soul Shock or ...

[Kaigen42]

I find Whispers of Treason to be a very useful power early on. Yes, it has a long casting time, but it takes at least one enemy out of the fight, and often distracts more as other enemies will turn to attack the charmed target. Who has debuffed defenses. It takes the damage output of multiple enemies and turns it against themselves, as opposed to just stopping one from doing anything.

[b0rsuk]

Do you prefer Ectopsychic Echo, or Antipathetic Field ? They're not the same level, but Echo is fortitude, while Field is reflex. Most of the big and dangerous have lower Reflex than Fortitude.

[Fessels]

 

 

Stats: Maximize Might, Intelligence, and Dexterity, in that order. Minimize out Constitution and Perception. Put the remaining points into Resolve (mostly for dialogue checks, but also for casting in combat).

The order is clear but could you show how much points you personally placed in all attributes?

I generally go human for rp reasons and that isn't optimal, but for human it would be 19 might, 18 Dex, 19 int, including the culture bonus. Another option would be to pick aumau and go 20/might, 18 Dex, 19 int. The idea is that this is a classic "glass cannon" style build. Con drops to 3. You can drop all remaining points into either per or res but red is probably the better choice mechanically.

 

 

Thanks but I already went for a Wood Elf with these stats.

 

Mig 18

Con 3

Dex 18

Per 4

Int 19 ( Old Vailia )

Res 16

 

At first I wanted to go with a Hunting Bow until I found a good pistol, but with my Wood Elf The Disappointer gave a better total accuracy then the hunting bow, go figure. Still once I could add a enchantment to The Disappointer ( Accuracy, because that was what I could do at that moment. ) The difference was there, even more so due to that Fire arms mod I found on the Nexus.

 

And a glass cannon he is, my Wood Elf has less endurance then Aloth.