[Class Build] Blunderbuss Cipher: Hard/PotD difficulty

[Koth]

 

There is already a great Cipher 3.0 / WM2 guide on youtube here:

 

Here is a brief run down / summarisation of the video:

 

Race

 

Wood-elf (or any other, doesn't really matter too much)

 

Attributes

 

MIG: Max

CON: 10

DEX: 10

PER: Max

INT: Max

RES: 3

 

Background

 

Cultural (+might)

 

DEX isn't as useful on ciphers as the majority of their most useful powers are fast cast anyway. Consequently you can leave DEX at 10 or possibly take some out of CON to put into DEX.

 

Powers

 

Level 1: Whispers of Treason, Antipathetic Field, Soul Shock (The Former two of these are your bread and butter)

Level 2: Amplified Thrust (Currently insane due to the fact that it returns more focus than it costs to cast, possibly bugged), Mental Binding, Psychovampiric Shield, Recall Agony, Mind Blades

Level 3: Echtopsychic Echo, Puppet Master (More reliable but 3 times less efficient than Whispers of Treason)

Level 4: Nothing here matters, as everything is too inefficient for the cost get whatever you want

Level 5: See level 4 powers

Level 6: Amplified Wave, Disintegration (Note, do not deal the killing blow with disintegration as you will lose all loot from the body)

Level 7: Time Parasite

Level 8: Reaping Knives (Cast on a DW rogue / barbarian & never run out of focus again), Defensive Mindweb (When you get this power you have just won the game as it trivialises all content from this point on)

 

Basically Hotkey: Whispers of Treason, Antipathetic Field, Amplified Thrust, Time Parasite, Reaping Knives and Defensive Mindweb.

These spells will be used 99.999% of the game.

 

Talents

 

Level 2: Biting Whip

Level 4: Penetrating Shot

Level 6: Draining Whip

Level 8: Marksman

Level 10*: Weapon Focus: Ruffian / Adventurer

Level 12: Apprentice's Sneak Attack

Level 14: Greater Focus

Level 16: Outlander's Frenzy

 

* At level 13 when you pick up the level 7 power time parasite, respec from the blunderbus to bows (Weapon Focus: Ruffian, to Weapon Focus: Adventurer) as the bonus from time parasite will max out attack speed bonus and you will shoot 3 times as fast.

 

Hope this helps, Cheers,

 

Koth.

Only change is that instead of one of weapon focus or marksman and greater focus I would pick quickswitch on island aumaua and arms bearer and quickswitch on other races - you want those early gunshots to do something devastating like cast two 7+ level powers at the beginning of the fight. Imagine a defensive mind Web and reaping knives to open a fight.

 

Outlander is still useful though as it basically makes you not need to use focus on time parasite. But even that can be interchanged with something else once you get time parasite.

 

Yup fair call, but I guess alot of people might use the new WM belt (Coil of Resourcefulness) instead of spending a talent point on quickswitch. Apparently there used to be a bug where these two would somehow stack, but they fixed it in 3.0 apparently. You could always pick up Quickswitch until you acquired the belt then respec out of it again. Also, I'm not sure if the +1 Might from going Aumaua would benefit more than the ranged damaged bonus of a wood-elf but at this stage I think we're splitting hairs. Good points all the same.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Koth

[Wolken3156]

I would actually drop Greater Focus. The Might bonus from Outlander's is good for augmenting the amount of Focus you gain from your opening shots, which brings much better overall benefit than Greater Focus does. Greater Focus should mainly be used during the early stages of the game.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Wolken3156

[ottffsse]

 

Yup fair call, but I guess alot of people might use the new WM belt (Coil of Resourcefulness) instead of spending a talent point on quickswitch. Apparently there used to be a bug where these two would somehow stack, but they fixed it in 3.0 apparently. You could always pick up Quickswitch until you acquired the belt then respec out of it again. Also, I'm not sure if the +1 Might from going Aumaua would benefit more than the ranged damaged bonus of a wood-elf but at this stage I think we're splitting hairs. Good points all the same.

I find the belt good but a bit lacking (that one second weapon switch recover reduction is good but still slow compared to the talent which reduces it 2x more than the belt - almost completely to .5 seconds and switching guns instantaneously is a big part of burst generating focus with them. Plus there are other nice belts in the game. The one instance where I might forgo quickswitch or sacrifice yet another talent from that list on a death godlike cipher where I want to power up death's usher with bloody slaughter to get more oomph from your aoe damage spells - but that is on a damage oriented cipher.

 

And I agree greater focus is somewhat lackluster still especially if you use guns at the beginning of the fight to build up focus.

[Boeroer]

I really hate Antipathetic Field. Why does everybody else love it? Every time I use this on an enemy said enemy runs somewhere where the beam is not hitting anything.

[falchen]

Why not go with pistols now? There's even one with a speed mod you can get pretty early, I actually wonder if that would stack with the Durgan's steel speed mod on top of it.

[AndreaColombo]

Why not go with pistols now? There's even one with a speed mod you can get pretty early, I actually wonder if that would stack with the Durgan's steel speed mod on top of it.

It would, but the benefits would be moot. Recovery isn't what makes firearms slow.

[Wolken3156]

Why not go with pistols now? There's even one with a speed mod you can get pretty early, I actually wonder if that would stack with the Durgan's steel speed mod on top of it.

There's a distinct difference between Attack Speed and Reload Speed. The Speed mod only affects the former but does nothing whatsoever for the latter. The Dulcanale and Fellstroke are much better pistols.

 

For a majority of enemies though the Blunderbuss will vastly out damage a Pistol, which also results in a higher overall Focus gain. Against enemies with high DR values though like Animats, pisols fare much better.

[Boeroer]

If I build a cipher around Blunderbusses I always make sure I have a wizard (Expose Vulnerabilities) or a ranger with the Golden Gaze by my side (hey - it's not as bad as it sounds. Vicious Aim and Dangerous Implement work quite well with this. Expose Vulnarabilities and tons of crits... ) 

 

edit: Well... not really always. 

Edited February 23, 2016 by Boeroer

[Ichthyic]

People are totally ignoring amplified thrust.

why?

I think people miss that this actually *generates* focus.  yes, that's right, the damage from the amplified thrust generates the same kind of focus you would expect from any other damage attack.

in total, it generates whatever focus you would get from doing around 50-60 damage, minus the 20 you used to cast it.

but, you say, that's worse than a blunderbus?

sure it is, but the difference is it's a FAST cast!

name another weapon you can use at level 3 that has a fast attack that generates around 20 focus per use, AND causes 50-60 damage.

it's basically extremely useful as a primary attack, ASIDE from the fact that it knocks enemies off of squishy casters and whatnot.

try it.

the only problem with it that I can see, is that it is entirely useless if you are playing solo.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Ichthyic

[Boeroer]

Most people here know that I think. At least the ones that visit this forum more frequently. Detonation also generates focus by the way. It's a known bug and will likely be fixed. Lots of folks don't want to use it because it feels cheesy. I can understand that. It's one thing to discover a game breaking strategy by testing an playing - there's some merit in that. But just use a bugged, obviously overpowered ability can feel... don't know... lame? First it's a lot of fun but it gets boring after some time.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Boeroer

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Yeah, I've mentioned it in a few post but overall it just feels too close to a bug for me to be comfortable recommending it or recommending a build based on it.

[Von]

This post is still relevant for June 2016... POE and White March.

 

Except i mostly used pistol

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Oh wow, they changed the forum rules so I can edit the initial post!

 

Ok, watch this space for an update of this build & recommendations for the final patch and WM 1&2. 

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Updated 2/10/2017
 
This build was originally written during the late public beta. It seemed to be pretty popular (and may even have inspired a few balance changes!) but the game has changed a *lot*, so this is pretty much a top-to-bottom rewrite now that the game's final patch is out.
 
 
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 guide is designed to help you put together an effective ranged support cipher for crowd control and damage. The advice herein is based on too-many-hundreds of hours of gameplay, from the backer beta on, along with a fair bit of reading and forums research.

 

The single lesson to learn is that Ciphers are a "tempo" class -- first you build focus, then you spend it, then you build it again. More than any other class, with a cipher it pays to think about what you're doing and, very importantly, when you're doing it. 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Race: really any choice is good here but you want a race with bonuses to Perception, Intelligence, Might, and/or Dexterity. Wood Elf 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. Island Aumaua  is a good choice also if you take Quick Switch talent and carry several guns at once. Human's a decent choice also but not optimal. 
 
 
Stats: This is the first big character choice you make. Overall:

 

For an inexperienced player attempting PotD for the first time, I would recommend something like :

16 Might /8 Con /12 Dex /19 Per /19 Int /4 Resolve.

For a more experienced player, I'd shave it down to 16/6/15/19/19/3.

 

For someone playing on Hard or lower difficulty, I'd go 16/7/16/17/19/3 ; this is also a good layout if you want to make sure you can meet as many stat checks as possible, as with items you'll be able to meet every Might, Dex, Per, and Int dialogue check in the game.

 

(You might need to skip a screen ahead to "background" and set your character to "Old Vailian" in order to reach that 19 intelligence).

 

Here's my reasoning, in approximate order of priority for each stat:

 
Perception:  Because you rely on 1st doing damage, then casting powers, you're effectively rolling two to-hit rolls for every Power you use; first to build the focus, and then again to hit with the spell. If you miss at either stage, you fall behind, and have effectively "lost a turn". Accuracy therefore really matters for the Cipher, more than for any other class. This is especially true on PotD difficulty, where all monsters get defensive bonuses that mean you are quite likely to miss frequently unless you stack buffs. For a PotD build, therefore, this is probably your most important stat. On lower difficulties, it's still important, but probably takes second place to Intelligence and isn't worth sacrificing your Dex to the same extent.
 
Intelligence: This extends your power durations and power Area of Effect. Almost all Cipher powers have either durations or areas of effect or both, so this is a big deal no matter your approach. The longer your durations, the greater your ability to keep enemies stun-locked or charm-locked, and many of your powers have big areas of effect that benefit hugely from increased intelligence. (The benefit to AoE is especially powerful because the percentage boost applies to power *radius*, not power *area*).  With a very high dex you could use fast re-casting to get away with shaving a few points off of Intelligence, but the more points you have in intelligence, the easier that work will be. 
 
Might: This is your damage with your weapon and with your powers. Ciphers benefit slightly less from this than other classes do because Might doesn't efficiently boost weapon lash damage (i.e., Soul Whip), but you do get *a* bonus, and that bonus is critical, especially against heavily armored opponents where you have to do a lot of damage with each hit to punch through their resistance. The damage boost from Might is also *front-loaded*; you see it right with your first attack at the start of combat. A high Might score lets you hit hard first, and that matters -- with a Might of 17 or 18, you can often kill soft enemy targets with a single attack, and gibbing is the ultimate crowd control.
 
Dexterity: Point for point, the attack speed bonus from dexterity gives you the most overall damage increase of any of the stats -- more than a point of Might, over time. It also helps you cast your powers faster, and importantly, cast them first, before the enemy casters have a chance to act. The cipher is a tempo class, and the higher your Dex, the faster your tempo. There are two problems with relying on Dex over Might, though: 1) against high-armor targets, you're effectively multiplying enemy armor, and 2) the damage boost from dex  comes over time, and the outcome of battles in PoE is often determined in the first few moments; damage later is less tactically valuable than damage first.
 
Constitution: As a ranged character you want to be in the back, avoiding damage, so you really shouldn't need that much Con. Still, you want enough health to make sure you don't get one-shotted, or to survive long enough to get away if something nasty engages you. So you can shave some points off this, but not too many. 
 
Resolve: This is the least important stat for you. If you need this stat, you've probably made a mistake. That said, mistakes happen sometimes, and the AI is smart enough to seek out very vulnerable characters, so it isn't entirely crazy to leave a point or two here instead of taking it all the way to minimum (but I take it all the way to minimum personally). 
 
Region of Origin: 
 
You probably want Old Vailian background for the Intelligence bonus, but you might want to consider White that Wends for Perception, or Living Lands or Deadfire for Might or Dex.
 
Talents: Older guides will tell you not to take Greater Focus, but changes in the last few patches (primarily, the higher cost of Cipher powers and lower base focus) mean that the extra ten focus this gives you is a huge deal, and a bigger deal the earlier you take it, proportionally. Grab this at level 2. After that, you want to get Draining Whip and then Biting Whip, and then probably Apprentice's Sneak Attack (so many of your powers will be disabling that it's functionally a flat damage bonus). 
 
Past that it depends on your weapon choice, which should depend in turn on your stats, so I 'll cover later talent choices in the Weapons section.
 
 
Skills: Since this is your PC, the biggest consideration is conversation checks; Lore will help the most there, followed by Survival. Otherwise, none of these make a particularly big difference in gameplay apart from Mechanics and Lore. The top scroll in the game requires Lore 12; it's generally better to put Mechanics on a companion, but you can take it up on your PC cipher if you want.   It's worth having a point or two in Athletics for an instant heal,  and it's worth having either 4 or 7 points in Survival for the rest bonuses at those tiers. 
 
With this build you'll be able to have the following base point totals at level 16, not counting class/background/items/etc.:
 
Stealth: 1 Athletics: 1 Lore: 12 Mechanics: 0 Survival: 4
 
Items: 
 
The following section contains game spoilers for specific item recommendations, including where to find them. Broadly speaking, I recommend the highest-damage ranged weapon you can find, and relatively light armor.
 

Initial trick:
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. Instead, however, I would recommend rushing the pig farmer's quest in Dyrford for LeadSpitter which can be your weapon for most of the game, possibly through to endgame. 
 
Weapon Choice:
 
You can go bows, crossbows, or guns. Guns and crossbows make more sense for high-Might builds, and bows make a little more sense for high Dex builds, but you can use either with either and it's mostly a matter of taste and the particular bonuses from each weapon. 
 
For most of the game, I tend to prefer the blunderbuss, because it has a very high "alpha strike" damage at the start of combat and also does reliable damage as each projectile rolls separately to hit. A blunderbuss is thus a good choice for a cipher because you can reliably count on being able to cast *something* after each attack with it (presuming your target is not immune to piercing). 
 
Late game though, once you start stacking speed buffs like Gauntlets of Swift Action and Time Parasite, guns and crossbows start being less effective, because the "reload" animation time is not reduced by most of those speed buffs (apart from a few specialized ones like Sure-Handed Ila). So, proportionally, if you're using attack speed bonuses, you're better off using a bow, since bows have no reload.
 
Some good choices:
 
Leadspitter Blunderbuss
 
You can get this at level 5 or so in Dyrford by running the Farmer's Plight quest. It's a blunderbuss with "rending" which increases the armor penetration of each projectile. If you keep this weapon upgraded with new enchantments and a damage lash (I recommend either "corrosive" or "fire") it can carry you the entire game; the "rending" effect lets it punch through even endgame armor, and you'll find each blast of this generating significant focus even in endgame.
 
There are two other enchanted blunderbusses in the game -- Scon Mica's Roar in Twin Elms, and Silver Flash from the White March -- but Scon Mica's debuff effect is minimal and Silver Flash can accidentally cast its Blind effect on your own party members, so neither really compares to Leadspitter's simple punch.
 
If you choose a Blunderbuss, you will want to get the Ruffian weapon group at level 10, then the Penetrating Shot talent by level 12 or so, but only turn it on when facing enemies with high damage resistance; it's necessary in some fights but will slow you down if used when not needed. I'd then suggest Gunner and Marksman talents at 14 and 16. 
 
Twin Sting Soulbound Crossbow
 
You can purchase this from a vendor at the start of WM 2. Since it's soulbound, you won't need to respec if you don't have crossbow talent. This has two things going for it: you don't have to spend as much time reloading it, and it's gives you Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, which is probably the most useful single target buff in the whole game. This is great for single-shot big hits, but because there's only one projectile you'll sometimes miss completely, which will throw off your pacing. 
 
Stormcaller Hunting Bow
 
Also soulbound, but available at the start of White March 1. It's a hunting bow, so this is fast, small hits; you might miss sometimes but overall you'll get a steady stream of focus. The big advantage of this weapon is it does both Pierce and Shock damage, so it has a good punch against Plate-wearing enemies and lets you remain effective even against Pierce-immune creatures without having to go into melee with your backup weapon set. The shock-resistance debuff is a nice way to boost the damage of your Soul Shock power, and has a nice synergy with druids in the party or with anyone using lightning-lash weapons. 
 
Cloudpiercer
 
One of the better bows in the base game, this has the same "rending" buff that the Leadspitter does, and if upgraded is a decent endgame choice if you don't have the WM expansions. Not as good as it was in earlier patches (because the Spell Striking effect is now limited to 1/encounter), but it's still pretty dandy. Downside is it's only available if you side with the Dozens, and will require upgrading.
 
Rain of Godagh Field
 
Your other base-game endgame bow choice, this has a +20% inherent speed boost, so can put out an immense amount of damage against soft targets, especially with a high-dex character that stacks other speed bonuses. 
 
Armor
 
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 maximize your casting speed. 
 
With that in mind, there are a few decent choices. My first recommendation is Angio's Gambeson from the Dyrford shop, because of the Deleterious Alacrity of Motion buff; you will need to upgrade it however, as its base armor enchant is fairly low.
 
Alternative good choices include the Jack of Wide Waters padded armor from the Lighthouse in Ondra's Gift, or Elryn's Jacket from White March 2 (Eyestrikes any opponent that hits you, good for getting out of danger). Jack and Elyrn's lack Deleterious Alacrity though, so I'd only recommend them if you went with Twin Sting for your primary weapon and thus have an alternate source of the buff.
 
I would also recommend wearing at least one item that gives a bonus to disengagement, as you'll often be trying to escape melee range; that means either the Cape of Withdrawal (random loot) or the Echoing Misery boots from Galvino's Workshop in WM1.
 
Otherwise, wear whatever other accessories you have that give you the best stat increases. Your second weapon set should generally be a melee weapon and a shield, and pick a melee weapon that uses a damage type  other than piercing, in case you run into something your ranged weapon won't work on.
 

 
Tactics: The idea with this build is that you're pumping and dumping your focus as fast as possible. Hit hard with a physical attack, then cast, alternating powers with physical attacks depending on what's needed and what's available. 
 
Shoot at the enemy's softest target first (usually a caster) as that will help you build focus fastest. If there are no soft enemy targets, and especially on PotD, you and the rest of your party may need to open with debuffs and status effects (knockdown, paralyze, etc.) in order to make it easier to land your attacks. Mental Binding is especially useful for this, as the Paralyze effect will will lower  your targets' Deflection, giving you a nice soft target to hit/crit against.
 
Avoid getting into melee combat if possible because you'll drop like a rock if engaged, but that's what Mental Binding and Whisper of Treason are for. If you can't get out of melee, don't be afraid to switch away from the blunderbuss to your melee set, 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:
 
With this build you want a mix of damage powers and crowd control; damage powers will benefit from your high Might, and you'll need crowd control to keep enemies at range, where they're safe. For each level, I'll put my preferred powers in bold, and list others worth thinking about; if I don't mention it, I probably don't think it's worth mentioning. 
 
Level 1: There are five good level one powers. Soul Shock, Mind Wave, Eyestrike, Antipathetic Field, and Whisper of Treason. Pick 3. Whisper of Treason is effective, costs minimal focus, and casts fast, making it a great tool to get melee hostiles to go away and leave you alone. Antipathetic Field takes a little positioning but can do a surprisingly large amount of damage (especially with high Might) and remains useful over the whole course of the game. Mind Wave casts fast and is a great opener for seizing control over the first few moments of a battle. Soul Shock can be your bread and butter for DPS for the first half of the game, and remains useful throughout. Eyestrike is a powerful AoE debuff. 
 
level 2: Mental Binding is the must-pick and your Old Reliable; good-duration crowd control with a strong debuff element.  Psychovampiric Shield is very useful, especially against high-deflection targets; Recall Agony is good against bosses. 

 

Past that, Mental Blades is a decent choice for slashing damage but situational (as most enemies have good armor vs. slashing). Phantom Foes can be good if you have a rogue in the party or if your party members have Apprentice's Sneak Attack.
 
Level 3: Ectopsychic Echo is a powerful damage spell and very useful once you learn how to optimize your positioning. Pain Link is great to cast on your tank (especially if they have an effect like Spelltongue that lengthens buff durations). Puppet Master is a strong alternative to Whisper of Treason with a longer duration but a correspondingly higher cost. 
 
Secret Horrors and Fractured Volition are in the "only wortwhile if you have a rogue in your party" category; Soul Ignition is a decent cast on boss enemies but you're better off spending that focus on Mental Binding against most targets. 
 
Level 4: Pain Block is probably your first choice here, as it's the Cipher's only real healing power, and can be a lifesaver for your primary tank. Silent Scream is a good AoE damage power with a decent debuff. Body Attunement can serve two useful roles: as a boss enemy debuff and as a self-buff if you find yourself in melee against something you can't paralyze or charm.
 
Mind Lance can be situationally powerful but can damage your own party if you aren't careful with it. Wild Leech is too random to really be useful. Going Between is a good buff in the right circumstances but those circumstances are very specific.
  
Level 5: Most of these are underwhelming.  Overall, I like Borrowed Instinct and Tactical Meld the most at this level, mostly because they're useful against boss fights or high-deflection enemies where you need to buff up to have a decent chance to hit. 
Detonate is very powerful damage if your gun isn't enough, but if your gun isn't enough, you probably won't have the focus to cast this anyway! Detonate is still preferable to Ringleader though, if only because the final version has a very small Area of Effect and just isn't worth the focus.
 
Level 6: Amplified Wave is the capstone power for the class and will be your bread-and-butter offense in endgame. It has a great area of effect, combines damage and crowd control, and is the closest thing this class has to a win button. Disintegration, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful single-target damage effects in the game, so very much also worth grabbing. Mind Plague is situationally useful but generally isn't worth the focus cost (in effect, it's basically just a Confusion spell implemented weirdly). 
 
Level 7: Defensive Mindweb and Reaping Knives are both extremely effective, but each of them requires a little party setup; the conundrum is always which to cast first, as Reaping Knives will generate an immense amount of focus, but Defensive Mindweb will keep everyone alive long enough to get things done.
 
 For Defensive Mindweb, you want to optimize your party so that each member is really, really good at one specific defense -- i.e., Eder has high Deflection, Durance has high Will, Zahua has high Fortitude, etc., so that when the mindweb kicks in, everyone gets the maximum results. 
For Reaping Knives, you want at least one party member specialized in fast two-weapon attacking -- Zahua is great for this as fists count as dual weapons, but a rogue or barbarian can be similarly effective.

 

 

That should be enough to get you started. This is not the "best" way to play the Cipher, it's just one way that works reasonably well even on high difficulties, and that I've found fun and satisfying.

Edited February 25, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[lucarov]

Hi, how can you obtain this stats?

 

[Stats: This is the first big character choice you make. Overall, for an inexperienced player, I would recommend something like :

16 Might /8 Con /12 Dex /19 Per /19 Int /4 Resolve;for a more experienced player, I'd shave it down to 16/6/15/19/19/3.]

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Hi, how can you obtain this stats?

 

[Stats: This is the first big character choice you make. Overall, for an inexperienced player, I would recommend something like :

16 Might /8 Con /12 Dex /19 Per /19 Int /4 Resolve;for a more experienced player, I'd shave it down to 16/6/15/19/19/3.]

 

 

To get those stats precisely, you'll need to set race to Elf (or possibly Orlan, though Wood Elf has the best racial bonus for this build) and Background to Old Vailian (you might need to skip a screen forward to do that, then come back to the stats page). Those are just thumbnail targets though more than strict "this is best" rules.

 

And I should probably emphasize that a maxed out Perception is really only needed on Path of the Damned difficulty. On lower difficulties, I'd shave some of those points off and put them into Might and/or Dex.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[indika_tates]

A cipher with Stormcaller or an Engwithan scepter is going to outdamage a blunderbuss one (expose vulnerabilities spam). Another reason to take a fast weapon is that recovery affects your character powers delay after firing (recovery DPS loss). If I were going for a firearms one I would choose an aumaua quick-switch. Often in encounters there are a mix of mobs with high DR and low DR. Just shoot the mobs with the lower DR and use your powers on the sturdy ones.

 

The classical Stormcaller cipher with Hearth of the storm & Apprentice sneak sttack inflicts massive amounts of damage quickly lowering mobs DR for free (Soul shock is affected by hearth of the storm and is not too rare to inflict 200+dmg/power when there 6-7 mobs in range). And you can get this bow on level 5 if you rush it (If I recall correctly you can avoid fighting with stealth). I've tried many cipher builds, but the Stormcaller wins. Fast shoot, fast reloading, insane damage and shock/pierce as damage type which is rarely resisted.

 

The builds I use is (Wood elf - Deadfire + Caroc to the pit for 1DR bypass)

15 Mig

3 Con

Max Dex

Max Per

Max Int

3 Res

 

Expect a lot of crits with this build. For talents, any focus, apprentice sneak attack, marksman, penetrating shot & interrupting blows. It's extremely frail, but that's the rest of your party job. Keeping him/her alive. Late game important equipment is Ryona vambraces & Maegfolk Skull (For a total of 9DR bypass, 14DR bypass with E.V. and 20DR bypass from Stormcaller but I'm not sure if all the DR debuffs stack)

Edited February 25, 2017 by indika_tates

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

A cipher with Stormcaller or an Engwithan scepter is going to outdamage a blunderbuss one (expose vulnerabilities spam). Another reason to take a fast weapon is that recovery affects your character powers delay after firing (recovery DPS loss). If I were going for a firearms one I would choose an aumaua quick-switch. Often in encounters there are a mix of mobs with high DR and low DR. Just shoot the mobs with the lower DR and use your powers on the sturdy ones.

 

The classical Stormcaller cipher with Hearth of the storm & Apprentice sneak sttack inflicts massive amounts of damage quickly lowering mobs DR for free (Soul shock is affected by hearth of the storm and is not too rare to inflict 200+dmg/power when there 6-7 mobs in range). And you can get this bow on level 5 if you rush it (If I recall correctly you can avoid fighting with stealth). I've tried many cipher builds, but the Stormcaller wins. Fast shoot, fast reloading, insane damage and shock/pierce as damage type which is rarely resisted.

 

The builds I use is (Wood elf - Deadfire + Caroc to the pit for 1DR bypass)

15 Mig

3 Con

Max Dex

Max Per

Max Int

3 Res

 

Expect a lot of crits with this build. For talents, any focus, apprentice sneak attack, marksman, penetrating shot & interrupting blows. It's extremely frail, but that's the rest of your party job. Keeping him/her alive. Late game important equipment is Ryona vambraces & Maegfolk Skull (For a total of 9DR bypass, 14DR bypass with E.V. and 20DR bypass from Stormcaller but I'm not sure if all the DR debuffs stack)

 

 

Thanks for the tip re: heart of the storm. I agree that Stormcaller is probably the best endgame choice overall. The only real issue is that Stormcaller is even better given to Sagani. And there's something to be said for the heavy alpha strike KABOOM of the blunderbuss.

 

When this was first written and the thread first titled,  Blunderbuss was by far the preferential option, for a few reasons that got changed later ( they lowered the number of projectiles and WM wasn't out yet, among other things).

 

 

 

Anyway, FINAL EDIT:

 

I've ported this guide over to Steam here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871584933

 

Future updates & edits if any will be to that version.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Kadish]

Hi, is a blunderbuss/arquebus cipher still viable on potd without the weapon switching? I want to have a decent, not necessarily OP character (human 17/9/12/13/18/9 or 17/9/11/14/18/9). The rifle is a requirement. I could eventually switch to warbow/hunting bow but only as a last resort.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Hi, is a blunderbuss/arquebus cipher still viable on potd without the weapon switching? I want to have a decent, not necessarily OP character (human 17/9/12/13/18/9 or 17/9/11/14/18/9). The rifle is a requirement. I could eventually switch to warbow/hunting bow but only as a last resort.

It's perfectly workable but not optimal -- bows are better at endgame, but with smart tactics you can finish the game with almost any build. The most current update of this build is the steam version, but even it isn't updated for the "deadfire pack" items which are still a bit buggy.

[Boeroer]

Does it need to be a blunderbuss? Because you are more independent in the choice of your targets if you use an arquebus. And you can get one very early from Kana Rua.

 

With a blunderbuss you can only deal decent damage to soft targets while an arquebus rips through almost any armor and generates focus. You also don't need Penetrating Shot which is a must when using a blunderbuss.

 

The cooler uniques are with the blunderbusses though.

[Kadish]

Thanks for your opinions. I used the console to create that kind of cipher and sent it to

Old Nua (ogres, drakes, vampires)

with a party. Unfortunately, playing with that character isn't convenient (even with more dex). It would be great if the focus gain after one shoot was higher (as it used to be?) or something like ranger's swift aim was available for cipher.

[Boeroer]

That's why most gun ciphers use Island Aumaua + Arms Bearer + Quick Switch nowadays.