The strongest beta build

[MadDemiurg]

Depends if you want to run dragon trashed for damage. If yes, don't dump might. If no, might can be dumped although you still might want it for heals.

 

Dex is mostly a dump stat.

 

Always max Resolve and int.

 

Perception is also a dump stat if you don't plan on using any offensive chants or invocations, but you'd want at least average perception otherwise.

 

Constitution is of limited use, you survive with your high def and healing. I wouldn't dump it, but I wouldn't max it either, although if you dump offensive stats you have the points to max it anyway.

 

Personally I prefer to be able to do some damage, so max Int/Res/Might, min Dex, avg Per, Con.

 

For pure summoner maybe max Int/Res/Con, min Dex/Per, rest Might.

 

Use shield style + dagger and med shield modals for max tanking. In a party might make sense to use a higher damage weapon for disengagement attacks,

Edited April 2, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[Boeroer]

DEX is not really a dump stat as Beckoner because you can't keep up summons all the time if your casting time and recovery get prolonged too much (durations of summons is reduced for Beckoners).

[MadDemiurg]

With max Int you still can keep them up all the time in my experience (In fact, you can resummon them before they expire). Plus, extra cast time is fairly negligible for something you do only once in a while and you don't care about recovery at all (they are already summoned).

Edited April 2, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[Boeroer]

Invocation recovery pauses chanting at least till now - haven't tested in beta 4). Without chanting you get no phrases on your counter. Without phrases no new summons.

 

Since when does INT prolong summons' duration? Is that new?

[MadDemiurg]

Idk if it's new or not, I didn't play beta much before.

 

You can check it out on tooltips, base summon duration is improved by int. Even if recovery stops phrases, considering you summon once in like 20 sec or so the impact is still very much negligible (You probably lose like 1.5 sec with dumped Dex).

Edited April 2, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[Boeroer]

Yes, you are right. I checked ingame and it "secretly" prolongs summoning duration. Secretly because you can't hover over the duration for a tooltip that explains the composition - but once you set INT to 30 or 40 via console you can see that the duration clearly raises.

 

It also gets influenced by something else, because I get a duration of 8.8 instead of 8 with 10 INT. With 30 INT I get 17.6 (8.8 * 2). That's kind of weird.

[MaxQuest]

^ Than it's same as in PoE1. Tooltip wasn't saying that summon duration is affected by INT, but it was.

 

P.S. In Deadfire it could also be affected by power level. 8.8s instead of 8s, would mean +10% (so that's likely comes from +2 accounted power levels)

Edited April 2, 2018 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

But then it would be additive and not multiplicative...?

 

It would be 8 + 0.8 from Power Level and +8 from INT (16.8 ).

 

Not 8+ 0.8 from Power Level and then 8.8 * 2 from INT (17.6). Or is the bonus of Power Level multiplicative with other duration boosts?

Edited April 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[MaxQuest]

^ Am a bit confused.

 

But yes, the [duration bonus from power level] is multiplicative with the [duration bonus from INT].

So if at 10 INT you had 8.8s instead of 8s. (8.8 = 8 * 1.1)

At 30 INT you would have 17.6s instead of 16s. (17.6 = 8 * 1.1 * 2)

And that x1.1 is likely coming from power level bonus

[Boeroer]

Yes, if duration bonus from power level is multiplicative with duration from INT then it all fits.

[M4xw0lf]

Marauder with sabre + shield (required against squishiness for frontline use) seems pretty nice as well. Could solo skulking-terror at level 7 as well as that mountain pass with the boar ambush at level 6 (not PotD though ).

Went with death godlike + Streetfighter/Barbarian(no subclass), in order to make use of all the low health boni from racial and class passives.

Edited April 2, 2018 by M4xw0lf

[dunehunter]

Wounding is nerfed this beta, last beta the wounding damage is based on your total damage, which includes Might multiplier, Lash multiplier, now it seems the raw DoT is much lower and seems like it doesn't count these two multipliers.

[dunehunter]

Tried a Nature Godlike Stalker/Ascendant and it feels pretty good now!

 

Now it's ridiculously easy to reach max focus with draining whip, I'm able to reach max focus with two attacks. Then use evasive roll to trigger Well of spring and u got +5 PL, then cast Estopsycho Echo between you and your pet Even better with flail modal activated. DoT is like 30-40 and then u can follow up with Mind blades to finish enemies.

[MadDemiurg]

Well, you're 1 PL behind due to multiclassing, so in a party pure ascendant is most likely better, with earlier high level power access and still getting +2PL from party buffs.

 

For solo ascendant/stalker seems alright at least on paper tho. Survivability might be an issue.

 

Ascendant/wizard might be fun if you burn all wizard spells on instant self buffs and you'll eventually get essential phantom to use your ectopsychic echo on.

Edited April 3, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[Boeroer]

Can cipher powers like echos be cast on summons now? The animal companion obviously works (like it did in PoE), but stuff like wizards' phantoms, too?

[M4xw0lf]

Devoted+Barb is But I guess Devoted rocks in nearly every combination.

With the devoted's weapon specialization even the Greatsword modal with its horrible -15 acc is a viable option (surely it's not such a big deal later on, but initially that's something like -30% accuracy). Add tactical barrage on top, and he dishes out 40-60 single target damage plus lots of carnage on auto attack.

Could solo an encounter with 2 Lagufaeth mages and one sidewinder at level 6 (classic).

Edited April 3, 2018 by M4xw0lf

[morhilane]

Can cipher powers like echos be cast on summons now? The animal companion obviously works (like it did in PoE), but stuff like wizards' phantoms, too?

 

Cipher's power require a soul as target, why would they work on summons?

[JerekKruger]

 

Can cipher powers like echos be cast on summons now? The animal companion obviously works (like it did in PoE), but stuff like wizards' phantoms, too?

Cipher's power require a soul as target, why would they work on summons?

Josh revealed in yesterday's stream that Wizards and Chanters powers are powered by a sort of "soul plankton" i.e. tiny bits of did broken off when people die that are everywhere. Given this, arguably Wizard and Chanter summons are souls.

[MadDemiurg]

Can cipher powers like echos be cast on summons now? The animal companion obviously works (like it did in PoE), but stuff like wizards' phantoms, too?

 

Haven't tested so no idea. They worked on figurines PoE1 tho so I don't see why not.

[Boeroer]

Ah - never mind. I confused charmed/dominated enemies with summons. In PoE you couldn't cast "ally" powers on charmed/dominated enemies but on summons. I have no reason to believe that Deadfire is different.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Boeroer

[snphillips0@gmail.com]

I definitely cast echo on a chanter's skeleton just earlier today, so that seems to be the case.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Ah - never mind. I confused charmed/dominated enemies with summons. In PoE you couldn't cast "ally" powers on charmed/dominated enemies but on summons. I have no reason to belev that Deadfire is different.

 

 

I *think* I've been able to dominate / echo enemies before now in Deadfire, not 1000% certain though.

[MadDemiurg]

I've had some fun with shifter builds lately. I don't think they are the "strongest" beta build but they're quite nice. They will probably get screwed by availability of better gear at higher levels as usual, but currently:

 

-Shifter hide is the same 10 armor as plate armor but 0% recovery penalty. This is huge. Bear has 12.

-Claws are 13-19 base damage, same as sabers and spears and scale in quality, but have +1 pen

-Cat claws have lower recovery than sabers or spears which results in ridiculously fast attacks combined with your 0% recovery penalty

-You can heal like 1.5 your hp (in total) by switching between all forms. If running low on health, just jump to the next form and instantly heal a big chunk of HP.

 

Even though you'll currently be 1 lvl short of wildstrike 2 it's beneficial to multiclass as other classes give you more than just +20% lash.

 

The best ones are imo paladin (surprise!) and rogue.

 

Both give you full attacks (which look ridiculously fast in cat form and burst down anything in seconds) and pala gives you better survivability as well as FoD being >>> crippling strike, but rogue has sneak attack and crippling strike is still a full attack.

 

Overall it's definitely a pretty strong dps build with decent survivability and some backup casting if needed.

 

The downside is that you can't really dump int, but even with 10 dex your attacks are faster than most other builds.

Edited April 4, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[JerekKruger]

No idea how powerful it is, but currently the Soul Blade subclass is getting a -5 Focus discount on all Cipher powers, not just Shred ones.

[MadDemiurg]

Well:

a) it's a bug and it will be fixed

b) why bother with powers when you have soul anihilation **hits for 170 damage**.