Items... any goods? What's worth enchanting?

[Von]

Hey guys,

 

So I am playing a Cipher glass canon mode with pistol.... I have yet to find the blunderbuss weapon lol. 

 

I am currently lv10.... 

 

My question is..... What goods items, what goods enchantment too put.... Basically I have changed weapons or items for ALL my characters only 2 times.

 

Other than Durance getting knockout every battle.... my party basically just steam rolling. 

 

Q: What's the points of buying or switching items?

 

Q2: What would be a optimal Cypher item built

 

Q3: How would you built Durance items... so he stops dying

 

 

[anameforobsidian]

Blunderbuss are available at stores.

 

Stores have some items nowhere else has available.  This is especially valuable for figurines.

 

Raise the difficulty if it's easy.  PotD is not.

 

Switching weapons is valuable because different monsters have different resistances.  This is more noticeable the higher the difficulty goes.  Lots of monsters are immune or close to crushing, so then it makes sense to switch sets.  Also, there's a very effective build that relies on starting off battles with three quick arquebus shots; if you quick switch you can shoot without reloading.  This makes for a devastating opening.

[Ohmega]

3. Durance builds:

Hand and Key Medium Armour or Raiment of Wael's Eyes Robe (WM)
Seal of Faith and Orlan's Bramble Ring.
Boots of Stability.

Gwisk Glas Robe or Saint's War Armour Medium Armour.
Seal of Faith and Orlan's Bramble Ring.
​Boots of Stability.

Wayfarer's Hide Armour
Seal of Faith and The Ring of Wonder.
Boots of Stability.

Basically depends on what you have. Preventing as much control as possible seems to be best for a priest. It's a good idea to give your priest a second life with Gwisk Glas/Saint's War Armour/The Ring of Wonder. But if you have a Paladin with Reviving Exhortation then you can probably skip it and go with the first build on that list. You probably want lighter armour over medium armour for faster spell casting BUT if you have another caster that can double with utility/healing spells then you might want the medium armour for the damage reduction.

Enchant armour with piercing reduction and as high quality as you can.

You should be casting Consecrated Ground in tough fights - meaning your priest pulses with endurance for quite a long time, he's always in the AoE so he shouldn't be going down very often. Also, I start all my fights with Armour of Faith for the AoE damage reduction. If I need Consecrated Ground then I usually cast that second. Or you can Woodskin/Form of the Delemgan + Consecrated Ground if you have a druid and priest but you usually have time to spare before Consecrated Ground needs to start working.

Just my recommendations. You shouldn't have your priest in melee combat hitting people (and getting hit). Position him in the middle of the group (usually). You might be misplaying the priest or not positioning your party correctly could be the other reason he's getting knocked out.

I just gave him a pistol but any solid ranged weapon should be fine. Just so he has something to do in trash fights when you don't need to cast spells.

[Loren Tyr]

Personally I try to keep recovery times a bit lower on Durance, he isn't the most dexterous of characters to begin with and I like being able to cast buffs and debuffs quickly as the need arises. In my current playthrough (hard, just a bit into act 2) I have him in fine robes (with a hood on it looks quite nice on him, actually) and with a war bow. I also keep him far enough away from the fray that he tends not to get targetted much to begin with, and I generally have Pallegina around gunning it up who can step in to mop up the odd straggler breaking through the front line. My main tank barbarian is virtually unkillable so far (though they'll just keep on trying, must be the atrocious Deflection he's sporting) so stuff like Consecrated Ground isn't that necessary anyway. So it will also depend on how you want to play him in that sense, more focus on spells like Consecrated Ground and other aura-like spells / centered on caster spells requires much closer proximity to the frontline, which calls for a sturdier built like Ohmega describes. In that case you could also consider a Pike or Quarterstaff as main weapon.

 

More generally, I agree with the points made above: if it's too easy so far, raise the difficulty. And if Durance keeps getting knocked out it's probably more to do with how you play him than specific equipment choices. You can certainly make a frontline(-ish) melee Priest is you really want to but Durance isn't ideal for that; and regardless, you'd still need to manage him a bit so he doesn't get the brunt of the enemy assault.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[Kingsman]

If you want to play a firearm cipher get ryonas vembraces. They give you -3 dr, plus the blunder buss will have -4, lead splitter -3, penetrating shot -5

 

So that's - 15 dr fired on every shot. I was doing this on a quick switching cipher (amua) and it was insanely fun, hitting for around 100 damage every time even against targets with high DR.

 

I think this is the best cipher build. There is an argument that warbows provide more dps over time but you won't need to with that long if you unload 3 shots of a blunder then switch to melee.

[indika_tates]

I think this is the best cipher build. There is an argument that warbows provide more dps over time but you won't need to with that long if you unload 3 shots of a blunder then switch to melee.

 

Quick switch cipher is very powerful indeed. But irritating as hell having to micromanage it every combat. This is the reason I avoid it on every char.

[Loren Tyr]

I've recently rather come to like the quick switch Blunderbuss rogue, myself. Blunderbuss plus strike abilities is a good combo to begin with, because you have an enormously increased chance of applying the status effect and even if there was no sneak attack-enabling status effect on the target the first pellet that even grazes with one will enable the pellets after it (add Vambraces and/or Penetrating Shot, and you're shredding enemies left and right even if they do have high DR). Moreover, if you have the auto-pause option enabled that triggers when a character finishes an ability, when you're using a Strike the game is automatically paused at the point you'll need to switch so the micromanaging isn't as much of an issue (and yes, I know you can avoid recovery by switching earlier; that's just cheating though). 

[Prince of Lies]

Q: What's the points of buying or switching items?

 

Because some items are clearly better than others, or some are better for optimizing what you are using that particular character for. For instance, if you want Aloth to cast spells quicker, throw on some robes instead of his leather armor and keep him out of reach.

 

Q2: What would be a optimal Cypher item built

 

That depends on whether you want your Cipher to be ranged or melee. Ranged wise- light armor and weapon of your choice. Weapons are mostly personal preference, I hear that Blunderbuss is pretty rocking. The main thing to remember is that the more damage you deal, the more focus you generate for spells.

 

Melee wise (which is again, more personal preference) dual stilettos and an estoc for higher DR enemies is what I typically use, with light armor. You can use medium or heavy armor for survivability, but it will hinder you because you will attack slower (less damage, less focus). Typically, if you use melee with a cipher, you need to micromanage pretty well.

 

Q3: How would you built Durance items... so he stops dying

 

That depends on how you use Durance. If you want him purely for spellcasting, throw some robes on him, a ranged weapon, and keep him out of reach. If you want him a little more durable, throw on some medium or heavy armor. Using a reach weapon (like his staff) will allow you to stay behind your front-line fighters and stay mostly unscathed. You can also pull that off with wearing light armor or robes, but requires closer attention to micromanagement.

 

Hope this helps.