Endurance from CON vs DR from armor - why should I ever have CON on a cipher?

[Nobear]

Thats true, and because of that CON is better than Res for a ranged character now.

 

 

I would agree with Raven on this. With the caveat that, though I've beaten and fairly extensively played the game, I have not yet played 2.0 due to real life demands (aka school), it really seems to me that Con would be the more important if you feel a need for any increased survivability on your ranged cipher.

 

TBH, when I come back to the game with 2.0, I would probably start by no longer dumping Con on any characters due to its increased effect, and fine-tune (if I discover the need) with the respec option. The main rationale I'd use to justify this for a ranged character is that the bulk of the damage they'll take will probably be in the form of AoE (that usually targets Reflex, and only rarely targets Deflection or Will).

 

All this said and done, I still point out that I found the game quite beatable on a completionist run pre-2.0 with all companion characters aside from my main (who all had sub-optimal stats), and that Suppress Affliction will probably save your butt a lot more often than a few extra points of Con on your back row will.

[Tomice]

For my current playthrough I dropped CON and PER booth to 6, only semi-dumping them. RES isn't lower because I feel bad lowering my concentration too much.

 

I'll try to maintain survivability by using some of the new crossclass talents. The skeleton summon seems like a good emergy meatshield boneshield.

Plus everyone can learn to charm once per encounter now! What a great way to disable foes who pass your frontline tanks! Wonder when they'll nerf this.

[Ymarsakar]

I always get the phantom because of stun on hit. OP beyond belief if it can hit.

 

Rereading that, for multi class apprentice sneak attack is pretty good and so is charm with will debuffs. But generally that should be after you take cautious attack and superior deflection if you want to get tankier characters.

 

Concerning the main topic here, dropping con and resolve is less risky for the rangers and the wizards, who fire from way back in the 3rd line. Ciphers have a lot of abilities and spell powers, but they tend to be either in the second line or the first line, because they are range limited. Which means that it's more likely some enemy sees them and aggroes them.

 

So constitution makes it easier for them to survive because it gives the tanks and healers and other people, time to do something about it and save them. Also the more hits a cipher can take, the more damage they can deal out, until they can cast paralysis and then disengage while dog piling the target with party focus dps.

Edited September 3, 2015 by Ymarsakar