So I am playing a Cipher/Monk, and at level 9 I feel useless.

Dual Wielding weapons, even two legendary ones do 3-5 damage against most enemies due to high armor, the character itself goes down like a ton of bricks with more than one enemy on it at a time.

Am I missing something? a way to stack armor penetration? stats: Might 16, 12 Con, 17 dex, 17 perception, 11 int, 10 resolve. (With items).

Which weapons?

 

No Thunderous Blows? No Hammering Thoughts? Body Attunement? Not critting?

 

I don't know how a Cipher/Monk can have problems with PEN - the combo has all the necessary tools.

Which weapons?

 

No Thunderous Blows? No Hammering Thoughts? Body Attunement? Not critting?

 

I don't know how a Cipher/Monk can have problems with PEN - the combo has all the necessary tools.

Min's Fortune, and Whispers of Yennwood, with Hammering Toughts.

 

Literally 2-4 damage a swing against anything with 10 armor or more (nevermind the golems with 14+). 

I have a 12 Lv Monk/Fighter... and even without devoted bonus most of the time i am OVERPEN everything... like 40+ damage on every attack against the living statue... i am playing solo.

I've not found any character with more then 11 or 12 armor, and when i do, thunderous blows are enough to do full damage and sometimes crits overpen.

Are you sure you're not simply Grazing the enemy? Perhaps your accuracy is too low?

It doesn't say graze in the combat chat... what is a good goal for accuracy? I assumed at 18 perception it would be generally fine. 

 

Which weapons?

 

No Thunderous Blows? No Hammering Thoughts? Body Attunement? Not critting?

 

I don't know how a Cipher/Monk can have problems with PEN - the combo has all the necessary tools.

Min's Fortune, and Whispers of Yennwood, with Hammering Toughts.

 

Literally 2-4 damage a swing against anything with 10 armor or more (nevermind the golems with 14+). 

 

You might just be going up against a lot of enemies with high slash resistance. If you're having trouble with an enemy, try switching to a blunt weapon and see if it increases your damage.

 

I don't suppose you have any major debuffs from injuries? Also, did you take draining or biting whip?

 

I'm playing a shattered pillar/assassin with similar stats and it hits consistently hard. 

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by Purudaya

It might be that he is using weapons. Transcendent Suffering boosts your Pen pretty sky high, but only applies to Unarmed Strikes. If our OC is using scimitars, then he is only benefiting from other, non scaling, passives.

 

Note: in Extremis, use the scimitar modal? It boosts Pen.

You've got a good Might score. So something isn't adding up. A legendary weapon increases your weapons base penetration. Dealing 3-5 sounds like you're facing high slash resist enemies.

 

Because a Legendary weapon also bumps the base weapon damage by like 60%, as well as bumps Accuracy.

 

So you should be doing a lot more than 3-5 damage per hit.

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by KentDA

It might be that he is using weapons. Transcendent Suffering boosts your Pen pretty sky high, but only applies to Unarmed Strikes. If our OC is using scimitars, then he is only benefiting from other, non scaling, passives.

 

Note: in Extremis, use the scimitar modal? It boosts Pen.

 

I'm using dual sabres with my monk multiclass and the DMG is nowhere near what OP is experiencing. Something must be way off with the build - it would help if OP could post a screenshot of the character sheet/combat log.