Cipher Build Crafting - Input Welcome!

[hansvedic]

Greetings Forum-mates,

 

I am looking to make a human cipher with very, very high accuracy and DPS with Steadfast & Stormcaller. I'm going human for the versatile, but temporary, buff to accuracy and damage.

Right now, I'm thinking of the following stat spread:

MIG:  20

CON: 10

DEX:  16

PER:  18

INT:    10

RES:  04

Given the low will score, Steadfast & the Company Captain's Hat will be used to alleviate the effects of will-targeting attacks.

 

The accuracy bonuses of Borrowed Instinct & Tactical Meld will be used, along with the Perception buff of Champion's Boon from Steadfast (and potentially Wild Leech before getting Steadfast).

Right now, I am trying to determine whether to go dual wield or sword and shield for the melee component. This will be a flanker, not a tanker, so constitution isn't as valuable here. Still, a shield would help with survivability in melee. On the other hand, proper support from tanks would allow a dual-wield version of this idea to wreak some havoc.

I have checked the speed calculator, and it seems that even with Time Parasite, the Gauntlets of Swift Action, a durganized shield, and durganized robes, I can't get to 0 recovery. Still, it does get pretty darn low, and having a shield (small) would ensure that all melee kills are done by Steadfast, allowing it to potentially proc Champion's Boon.

What are your thoughts? Sword and Board or Dual Wield?

[Slack83er]

I'll follow this topic, I always liked ciphers, it has a fantastic lore in the story, if you come out with a nice build, I'll be grateful!

[T2av]

I'm currently running a pale elf solo, hard( as I'm quite new, no potd until I beat it at least once lol).

 

I started off at:

 

10 might

10 constitution

18 dex +1elf (19 total)

16 perception +1elf +1 the white that wends (18 total)

18 intellect

3 resolve.

 

Dual wielding sabres. I'm currently level 10, not too bad so far. You gain quite a bit of focus from dw, and it looks way better. Fashion > powergaming

[MaxQuest]

Right now, I am trying to determine whether to go dual wield or sword and shield for the melee component. This will be a flanker, not a tanker, so constitution isn't as valuable here. Still, a shield would help with survivability in melee. On the other hand, proper support from tanks would allow a dual-wield version of this idea to wreak some havoc.

[...]

What are your thoughts? Sword and Board or Dual Wield?

It depends on your party composition, and the amount of cc you have at your disposal.

But if you want to make your cipher really shine you have to max his focus generation, and this is done via:

- dual-wielding sabres (e.g. Purgatory or Bittercut with Spirit of Decay)

- dual-wielding rapiers (e.g. Sword of Daenysis)

- taking a good 2H with speed, specifically Blade of the Endless Paths

or if you are ranged:

- use rain of goddah field or cloudpiercer warbows

 

Also you can use Tidefall before lvl 12, Stormcaller before lvl 8, and Persistence before lvl 8 (sometimes even before 12).

And additionally if you want a little focus spike at the start of combat, you can start with 1 Lead Spitter shot, and after that switch to your main weapon set.

 

Of course the proposed dw/2h are more squishy than 1h+shield setup, but you will easily compensate for it with extra cc from another party member. A second cipher works best for this. So if an enemy jumps on cipher1; cipher2 quickly charms or paralyzes him.

 

You might find following threads useful/related to your question:

- cipher focus generation

- best ranged weapon for focus generation

- different ways to build a cipher

- early-game survival for melee cipher

- good skills for cipher:

 

For cipher I usually opt for:

 

- 10 in survival for bonus accuracy vs x creatures

- 6/8 in lore for scrolls of paralysis and confusion

- 1 in athletics - is a great heal early on. you can rise up to 5 if you want to pass all of scripted interactions without getting an injury (but it's not super important, as you can rest anyway)

- suiting backgrounds: colonist (best), explorer

 

Or a cipher (usually hireling) could be your mechanics guy. In this case you max mech, and put:

- 1 in athletics

- 4 in survival (or 5 if it's your main, and you want to pass the check with March Steel Dagger boy)

- suiting backgrounds: scientist and merchant

 

 

 

P.S. Regarding your spread and powers of choice. You seem to be building an auto-attacker focused on self-buffing. It gonna be decent, but generally I'd say ciphers are capable of awesome damage dealing via their aoe and beam damaging powers. In my case spell-damage usually outpaces auto-attacking damage in a 2:1 proportion. Other way is to build a cipher purely focused on cc; in that case you want a good enough focus generation, but you don't really care of what damage he deals, since he keeps enemies chain-disabled while other team members shred them to pieces. You can check the v1-v6 variants described here.

Edited March 28, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Arctur]

Thanks @MaxQuest for those enlightening links -- next playthrough GM will be on bord.