Hey everyone, just started a new playthrough, this time as a cipher. Just a few questions:

 

Soul whip/biting whip: does this stack with apprentice sneak attack? Also the particle effects for weapons stopped working, so is the damage bonus not working anymore also?

 

Greater focus/ draining whip: are these talents worth investing in? Currently running with dual wield melee weapons for fun, but these may help focus gain.

 

Powers: should I focus more on CC/survivability or CC/damage abilities?

 

Armor: I'd like to stay with melee, so I'm currently wearing osric, is there anything more efficient to wear?

 

Oh, almost forgot, running with a full party so I've got plenty of support!

I'm doing a Cypher with Greater Focus now, and it's actually been very useful. Especially at low levels, it's great to have the option to open a fight with Paralyze (instead of always opening with Blind or Prone-Cone).

 

If you Paralyze a jerk right in front of your dual-melee character, I bet you can get your Focus up very swiftly.

 

Can't speak for the late-game, but I'd guess that Greater Focus is about as valuable as you can make your alpha-strike power(s). If your party has long, protracted fights, then Greater Focus loses value.

Soul Whip & Biting Whip stack with Apprentice's Sneak and also with Savage Attack and Two Handed Style.

 

I find Draining Whip more useful than Greater Focus, but as was already said GF is ok in earlier levels because it lets you start an encounter with a power from a higher tier or lets you use two Whisper of Treasons instead of one before you have to regain focus.

 

Particle effects are buggy but do not affect the damage you deal. It's just a graphics glitch.

Edited April 16, 20178 yr by Boeroer

A melee cipher will benefit from the heaviest armor you can find, and should focus on CC abilities IMO. You really don't need damage abilities, as you'll be able to dish out a great of damage to foes once you've paralyzed them, knocked them prone, etc. It would probably be a good idea to have companions who could also dish out some CC, such as a wizard, a storm druid, stormcaller ranger, or a second cipher. In my experience, as Boeroer stated, Greater Focus is useful early on but ultimately unnecessary; once you hit level 7 or so you'll have more focus than you need. If you do invest in GF, you'll probably eventually want to respec the character to get another talent. Ciphers, after all, only really get 6 talent points overall, since biting whip and draining whip are pretty much your essential level 2 and 4 picks.

Thanks for the advice everyone! It really sucks that the purple flame effect disappears after you reload

For me, that' a feature.

On the same vein, does Reaping Knives have a graphical representation or is it supposed to be just fists?

They should have a 3d-model.