[CLASS BUILD] The Backlash Beldam (melee multiretaliation cipher tank)

[Boeroer]

An Island Aumaua, Kind Wayfarer DPS Paladin with Arms Bearer, Quick Switch, stacked on-kill-effects (Strange Mercy, Inspiring Triumph), tTe Sword & the Sheperd and weapon focus soldier is quite fun to play. Literally explodes at lvl 13 because of Sacred Immolation & all the kills that follow. But also when you need some endurance and want to shoot somebody really badly in the face at the same time that build is for you!

[Stargazer55]

Would this build still work in 3.0 /WMII ?

[MaxQuest]

• Antipathic Field minimum damage increased from 10 to 13.
• Psychovampiric Shield Deflection bonus from 10 to 25.
• Amplified Wave Prone duration to 8s base.
• Borrowed Instinct from 15s to 25s base duration.
• Time Parasite from 5s base duration to 12s base duration.

Source: http://forums.obsidian.net/blog/7/entry-190-update-notes-300-beta/

 

So, probably it would Edited February 14, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

Focus generation was never a problem of this build. Retaliation is an autohit and you don't need to attack to gain focus but can simply cast away all the time as long as you get grazed. So I think it still works. Psychovampiric Shield is really good now and all the cross class talents are 1/encounter. Survival can give you +2 DR now. Looks good. I will do a playthrough for WMII with an all-official companion party with the following cast:

 

- MC (maybe Barb - have to think about a new build idea - Ghost Hunter as a boreal dwarf with dual Whispers of Yenwood could be great. CON 30 here I come! That would be Endurance and Health * 2 )

- Grieving Mother as the Backlash Beldam (Garodh's Chorus & Sura's Supper Plate)

- Durance as Support Priest (Shame & Glory & Little Saviour)

- Edér as the Lady Lord of Pain

- Zahua as the Juggernaut

- The Devil of Caroc as Bad Greta (with Badgradr's Barricade. Weapon I don't know. Cape of the Master Mystic, Shadowing Beyond, Backstab and a gun.  )

 

I will report afterwards if this build is still awesome. Could as well make an Island Aumaua Quickswitcher cipher with arquebuses as MC in order to compare it to this build.

 

edit:

In case you wonder why everybody is melee: I just did a PotD playthrough with:

- MC as Drake's Ambassador

- Kana as the Ambassador's Apprentice

- Hiravias as Batsh!t Crazy (despite so simple, one of the best builds so far. Even from the beginning)

- Pallegina as The Engineer (Wrath of the Five Suns, Prestidigitator's Missiles, Cloak of Minor Missiles, Ryona's Vembraces and Lead Spitter rock!)

- Aloth as Hurtstacker (no problems with being rushed because large shield + hatchet in second slot)

- Sagani as The Stormcaller's Bride (well - just too good to not take it)

 

And is was way too easy. Seriously - two chanters, a druid and Combusting Wounds is just overkill. 

Edited February 14, 2016 by Boeroer

[Stargazer55]

- The Devil of Caroc as Bad Greta (with Badgradr's Barricade. Weapon I don't know. Cape of the Master Mystic, Shadowing Beyond, Backstab and a gun.  )

 

This sounds exciting. Please let me know how it goes.

[Boeroer]

I will. I tested this build with the console some while ago - when it was at lvl 14 and fully equipped. It was good. The unlimited spell strikings of the shield do quite some damage with every crit. But I didn't have the time to play that build from the start. We'll see how it goes. Would be better to have a Darcozzi Commendatore around to raise the crit chance a lot. Maybe that should be my main character.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Boeroer

[VahnXIII]

Excellent post. Any chance you've had success building a dual-wielding DPS type of Cipher? 

 

If so, please share!

[Boeroer]

Sure thing. Why not? Grab two weapons, use Vulnerable Attack and take Two Weapon Style. Your dps will be a bit higher and your deflection & reflex a lot lower.

 

It gets really good if you can reach 0 recovery with abilities * weapon enchantments * item enchantments + two weapon style.

E.g. Time Parasite (1.5) * 2 Durgan Refined Weapons (1.15 * 1.15) * Gauntlets of Swift Action (1.15) + Two Weapon Style = 2.48.

You could now take Vulnerable Attack (-0.2) and wear any armor that causes 0.3  recovery penalty (e.g. durgan reinforced mail armor) and still have no recovery. If you even get speedy weapons you can skip the gauntles and wear a plate with 0 recovery Best thing is: high DEX doesn't matter then - it will have no influence on your recovery because whatever +% or -% of zero is still zero. You could retrain an leave DEX at 10 with no visible slowdown - well maybe a bit while casting. DEX does more for guys that use two handers and have long recovery times. 

 

But you will be squishier without shield. If you're KO you don't do damage, so you should play more like a rogue.  

[stratigo]

what's the secret to this build at the very start of the game. I'm running into the bandits for the blacksmith mission and just getting destroyed constantly. Like an hour of dying in all sorts of combinations, while my monk didn't have near the issues I am now

[Boeroer]

At the beginning of the game there are no retaliation items - you have to play more like a rogue until you get spells like Psychovampiric Shield that help you to withstand heavy beating and retaliation items that give you focus when you get hit. So at the beginning of the game you need somebody sturdy as a frontliner - like Edér for example. Then you can go and flank like a rgoue would do. Maybe you can skip the shield until you find a really nice small one and go one handed in order to hit/crit a lot - you will need that focus. I would also recommend to get Kana first (just pick him up and then leave Caed Nua) and give him a big shield and fat armor. Aloth should cast Chill Fog right in front of your frontline and then let the bandits come to you.

For later, when you aquired retaliation gear - your goal is to have as much DR as you can. That includes Blunting Belt, Paladin's Zealous Endurance, Priest's Armor of Faith and so on. You want to get grazes in order to retaliate, but you don't want to get damaged a lot. 

 

The bandits are pretty badass if your level is too low by the way. Just one level more makes them easy. Just try to use Tenious Grasp on one of them at the start of the fight. And start the fight with a gunshot (enchanted Disappointer) instead of running towards the enemy - that will give you a lot of focus that you can use to CC - then go into melee fight.

 

Monks are way easier at the beginning of the game because all their stats are very good right from the start (deflection, ACC, endurance, health). I think they are the class with the highest stat bonuses alltogether. Cipher's stat are quite meh.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[ottffsse]

Does drawn in spring work well with the retaliation effect? Why bittercut / sabres if you can use drawn in spring. Or does it not work with retaliation?

[ottffsse]

A whip would be so nice. Why don't we get whips in PoE? Could be handled as flails. I want a whip for my soul whip! With a shocking lash! But not a whimpy one! A whopping soul whippin whip with a withering lash - sounds fair. New build coming: Whiplash! Of course. And meet his enemy Iron Man (basically a monk with Iron Wheel in plate and with Iron Skin Potions). And then comes the priest who casts Ironic Projection...

No whips but Ravenwing does look good weilded by grieving mother. Probably the next best thing to a whip. Looks good matched with palleginas plate, sura superplate and woedica hood but I will probably replace the armor and helm for more retaliation items later.

Edited February 22, 2016 by ottffsse

[Boeroer]

Does drawn in spring work well with the retaliation effect? Why bittercut / sabres if you can use drawn in spring. Or does it not work with retaliation?

What do you mean? Retaliation has nothing to do with your weapon. It's alsways the same base 6-10 base melee pierce damage autohit (no grazes, misses or crits). You don't retaliate with your weapon. So any one handed weapon will work. Drawn in Spring is very nice - but it comes quite late and only does slash damage. Bittercut does slash or corrode - so I almost never have to switch to another weapon set if I meet foes that are very resistant or immune to slash damage. I don't want to switch because then I wouldn't have the Supper Plate.

[ottffsse]

No that was my question so no drawn in spring would not wound on retaliate unfortunately.

[Boeroer]

No, it will not. But still a great weapon.  

[Hell_Padre]

was looking arond for a solo run , i really like that build , gonna try it ty a lot

[100kg]

Does Valiant weapon-bonus apply to retaliation? Also, does monks resonant touch work with retaliation?

Edited February 25, 2016 by 100kg

[Boeroer]

Valiant Weapons: no, because retaliation does not use your weapons, it's an autohit pierce attack. 

 

Resonant Touch: I hope so. I'm just evolving a build around that. But I couldn't try it out yet. But it will be very difficult to reach that 10 damage with it that triggers resonant touch.

What works: MIG, Vulnerable Attack, Ryona's Vambraces, Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and all other melee damage mods like sneak attack and so on. It also triggers Deep Wounds which is kind of awesome. 

[100kg]

I thought that Deep Wounds is pretty meh... Because damage do not stack and each new strike just reset the timer. Am I wrong?

[stratigo]

is there a sure place to get ryona's vambraces? Or do I just have to get a lucky drop?

[Sifjar]

is there a sure place to get ryona's vambraces? Or do I just have to get a lucky drop?

Aren't those from Ogres Mom chest?

[Boeroer]

No, you can get them if you heal the Alpine Dragon's soul. It's a dialogue option and you need at least 17 RES for that option to unlock. If you can't stack that much RES on your main character then I'm afraid you will have to kill the dragon in order to get those vambraces.

 

Deep Wounds works with every form of crush/perce/slash damage you deal. That includes scrolls and spells from items with Spell Binding. So if you hit the enemy with a spell that has a big AoE and deals one of that damage types they will all get Deep Wounds (like Concussive Missiles or Twin Stones from scrolls or Vile Thorns from Bittercut, Overwhelming Wave from the White Crest and maybe some other items that I can't remember now). If you have high MIG and INT that means +20 raw damage. You can build a really nice rogue/wizard-apprentice that way. You just have to pile up scrolls and items with spells that do either crush or perce or slash damage.

If you apply Deep Wounds more than once ona target the duration just adds. So it's clever to hit one foe after another and don't focus on one enemy. That's easy with a bow or something.  It's also good if you are a superslow hitting rogue - like a tanky kind of rogue. 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Boeroer

[Sifjar]

No, you can get them if you heal the Alpine Dragon's soul. It's a dialogue option and you need at least 17 RES for that option to unlock

Right. Messed up. Played WM only once and quite fast, so do not remember droplist 100%  

Btw that option. I remember some lets plays and there ppl were fighting only dragon and his adds. Even if they stand at entrance.

When i was killing that crazy dragon once i start fighting those spirits were spawning right away which made fight quite challenging. 

[Boeroer]

That is if you hit the dragon - he then spawns all the ghosts. At least on PoTD - don't know about other difficulty settings.

[Sifjar]

That is if you hit the dragon - he then spawns all the ghosts. At least on PoTD - don't know about other difficulty settings.

I don't know either, because for me there is only 1 difficulty - PoTD

Anyway. I saw videos when players were engaging dragon on PoTD and he didn't spawn any ghosts right away, only after he was dead. So i was wondering if it's because of that dialog option i took before to help him out.

Sorry for offtopic