Solo Cipher Help?

[Taril]

So, recently started playing Pillars, made a few characters to various degrees of success (Monk, Paladin, Chanter etc) but have gotten to the point where I keep getting frustrated by party members (Either due to enemies teleporting past and/or outright ignoring all my tanky characters trying to lock them down and focusing the squishies on the back lines or just the annoyances of the extra micro it needs to keep everyone in attack range of things)

 

As such, I started to consider solo play.

 

I chose a Cipher for this, because well... I like the theme of debuffing opponents until they submit, the playstyle of Focus is also quite fun to work with.

 

But at the moment, on Normal I can't seem to progress at all - I get 2 shot by literally everything and essentially just get 1 or 2 attacks off before my CC fades and things continue to wail on me.

 

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, of if there's a certain level I need to get to with a party before it becomes possible to stand on my own.

 

My stats are 20 Mig, 11 Con, 14 Dex, 3 Per, 18 Int, 12 Res

 

Using the weapons Hunting Bow (Looking into getting the materials together to enchant the Dissapointer) and Stilleto+Dagger

 

Spells: Antipathetic Field (Has been crucial to take down groups of things), Eyestrike, Mind Wave (Again, crucial for groups - Knock things down so I have time to cast APF), Mental Binding (Crucial for taking down... Everything really) and Phantom Foes (Not really had the time to use this ever... Need to spam MB so much to not instantly die)

 

Talent: Draining Whip

 

So, anything the matter with my build or do I need to get some more levels first (Which I guess would mean picking up Eder and Kana to tank and support me)

[Raven Darkholme]

First off: I think your whole approach is wrong. You use a squishy class, to make up for the fact, that in a group your squishies got targeted by enemies. You should learn soloing with a more durable class and come back to the cipher later.

As to your build: your CO and RE are way too low, DE is not really important if you tank. Stiletto and dagger afe not good, in the becinning use hatchet and shield for more deflection. Phantom Foes is useless solo, as you attack only one foes deflection, except for mind blades which got nerfed hard. Draining Whip is not a good first talent you need deflection or damage.

I'd suggest a monk with dumped IN and DE and maxed RE and CO to “learn the ropes“.

[MadDemiurg]

Your build has awful deflection for solo and you really shouldn't melee with it. You can pull off stats like these if you pick fast runner as 1st talent and kite, but otherwise it's suicide. Likewise, going stiletto + dagger is asking for trouble, you should use shield + hatchet if you're forced to melee. As for 1st level spells, you're missing tenuous grasp which is the most crucial spell for earlygame cipher soloing - you should open any combat with it since it allows to easily eliminate enemies without fighting yourself.

 

But really, if you're struggling with a party, imo you shouldn't try to solo.