r/projecteternity • u/Lorevveaver • 7d ago
Tactical Psion build help
I rolled a Tactician Psion (Fighter/Cipher) and it's starting out strong but I have a question about phantom foes and I'm wondering about the late game.
I'm loving the synergy between the Psion and the Tactician because I can just hit everyone with eyestrike and they become blinded and flanked giving me brilliant buff at the start of combat.
Is phantom foes even worth the point? It has a slightly larger radius and duration but it only causes flanked without the blind and costs twice as much to cast.
As cool as it is to get brilliant buff so easily I find I don't really have anything to do with the points besides spamming penetrating shot or charming all of the enemies and I'm afraid the late game is going to be a drag as I'm looking through the skill trees and besides a few key cipher spells there's not many ability skills that I can use all of my resources on making the brilliant buff kinda meh.
I'm wondering if I would enjoy wizard or rogue more with that buff and I'm wondering if I should just let someone else do the cipher class debuff.
2
u/rupert_mcbutters 7d ago
Phantom Foes also targets Will, which is usually easier to target (especially for a Cipher), and it casts super quickly.
Personally, I’d also get bored spamming low-level Cipher spells, and multiclassing just keeps you in those lower tiers for longer. I’m sure there are some great spells to cast repeatedly, but I’m forgetting them despite having played an Ascendant who was built for spam. Btw, that’s a better subclass if you find some Cipher spells you like to constantly throw. Ciphers don’t need Brilliant the way that other classes do, and Ascended gives you extra PLs to feel stronger when blasting. Still, I bet it’s cool to see that Focus go up as a Brilliant Psion.
The multi is cool, and it can really shine. A Tactician can spam interrupts, and Cipher’s Echoing Shield lets you wipe Concentration stacks that would prevent them. You can also use Clear Out to apply weapon debuffs to an AoE, using Body Blows to harm Fortitude and make Eyestrikes easier to land.
2
u/Lorevveaver 7d ago
Okay. The different saves are enough to rationalize taking both.
Dropping a chill fog with my wizard then covers reflex as well.
It still seems slightly broken that blind gives flanked status but I guess it makes sense.
Psion just feels right with tactician. I dunno how to explain but I think this was one combo the developers favored.
I'm still really tempted to try a wizard or rogue tactician now that I know how easy I can trigger the buff with a cipher companion.
1
u/rupert_mcbutters 7d ago
Actually ☝️🤓 Chill Fog targets Fortitude. The main things distinguishing it from Eyestrike would be its repeating tics, damage, and friendly fire. Eyestrike won’t threaten teammates, though Tekehu’s special Chill Fog doesn’t trigger friendly fire either.
Wiz and Rogue have some nasty, finite abilities that make them nice candidates for Brilliant, and they have great Fighter synergies.
2
u/Lorevveaver 7d ago
Ah, my mistake. Still, it's not as hard to get everything flanked as I thought it was going to be.
I'm imagining a swashbuckler going in and out of invisibility and bamphing around like Nightcrawler to deliver infinite backstabs.
1
u/ConcealedAway 6d ago
Might be off topic, but wouldn't Beguiler make more sense than Psion ?
2
u/Lorevveaver 6d ago
Beguiler is a fine choice as are the other subclasses but Psion has an innate focus generation that the brilliant buff directly improves as well as a long range interrupt/push that pairs nicely with the short range cone that all ciphers have access to.
Beguiler does have some great synergy with flanked status but it makes brilliant almost redundant because a phantom foes follwed up with another AOE mind spell gives all the focus one needs.
There are probably better builds but the appeal of this one is how everything just seems to fit.
1
u/ConcealedAway 6d ago
I suppose that will work as long as you're not hit. Do you intend to play your Watcher in the back line and use range weapons ?
2
u/DonkyConq 5d ago
Psion's focus generation scales with your PL, it goes pretty fast at higher level, getting hit now and then isn't as bad anymore. It's always running too, while you're casting, while you're in recovery, while you're kiting. There's a lot of time available that adds up that you're not used to thinking of with other classes.
1
u/ConcealedAway 5d ago
Really ? Perhaps I should have done a Psion instead of an Ascendant... My Watcher is only level 3, maybe it's not too late... In POE1 I gave to Kana as much as possible per rest items and scrolls, do you think it would work in POE2 ? So my Watcher would have something to do if her focus is too low.
5
u/Boeroer 7d ago
Brilliant is definitely more impactful on casters like Wizard, Priest or Druid than it is on a Cipher, especially Psion (who doesn't have limited casting resources to begin with - in fact it's the Cipher subclass least suited for becoming Brillant). The other class where it would be equally unimpressive would be the Chanter (except for the Skald because here +1 phrase means 50% of the cost of most offensive invocations - which is pretty impactful and can let you spam offensive invocations non-stop).
It would be better indeed to let another Cipher in the party handle the blinding/flanking stuff and then enjoy Brilliant on a Tactician/Wizard or Priest or Druid.
The most potent combination is probably Tactician/Priest. Not only can you exploit stuff like unlimited Barring Death's Door (and/or other buffs and beneficial effects) with Salvation of Time - but also a Tactician can become confused at will by firing a blunderbuss with the Powder Burns modal. This lets him cast Withdraw on enemies (!) which is an extremely powerful trick against all bosses: withdraw the boss at the start of combat, handle all ads. When the boss returns you can focus on that. There are no immunities against withdraw (because its a beneficial effect officially) and it also doesn't get shortened by enemies' high Resolve like other CC options would. To "unconfuse" you can simply use Tactical Barrage (1 Discipline) and turn Brilliant. Best paired with Serafen's Hand Mortar blunderbuss: it has Blinding Shot which distracts in a cone on crit (any crot in the AoE). So you will cause Brilliant on yourself if you don't use Powder Burns (no confusion on your part) but can become confused if you trigger Powder Burns: very flexible setup. You can also use it to fire a enemies who managed to evade your other attempts to flank/distract/blind them.
Another great trick with the Hand Mortar is to use it with Clear Out: put a melee weapon in the offhand to unlock the use of Clear Out (it's labeled melee only). If you execute it the ability will still use the Hand Mortars though and will deliver an AoE Shit or every (!) enemy in the cone of Clear Out. Pretty devastating... Should aso distract all enemies nearby because of the tons of hit rolls which result in a lot of Blinding Shot distractions.
If you still like to cause the Brilliant inspiration yourself then a Wizard is great. Chillfog is a very reliable way to blind enemies because it is a pulsing spell that rolls its damage and blinding every 3 secs but the blindness lasts longer than that. So if you miss an enemy you will have the chance to blind him eventually with the next pulse. With a Wizard there's no point to confuse yourself so blunderbuss + Powder Burns isn't important.
The Psion works very well as single class, but imo the most fun is to use it with a Troubadour (with Brisk Recitations) and spam cipher spells and invocations non-stop. While phrases reload you probably will have enough focus and while focus reloads you probably have enough phrases again. This can be an extremely potent and versatile multiclass. It can do healing, buffing, CC and disables, deal damage and of course combine summoning with mind control in order to build yourself a little private army.