Author Topic: Question about the usefulness of the "ripper" feat  (Read 3275 times)

spleen.ii

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Question about the usefulness of the "ripper" feat
« on: December 02, 2020, 09:43:33 am »
Hello,

I'm playing a sword build, and I'm not sure about the path I should take. Here are 2 ways possible to allocate my points, depending of the "ripper" feat. Which one should I chose ?
I play the game in normal. I will use dodge/evasion/stealth, and probably survival instincts.

If I'm not mistaken, I need 6 intelligence for Red Dragon.

S 5
D 11
A 8
C 10
P 3
W 5
I 6

With this stats allocation, I could take the "ripper" feat.

S 5
D 13
A 8
C 10
P 3
W 3
I 6

With this stats allocation, no "ripper", but a bit more dex (so, more dmg and critical hit chance).

I suppose it only comes to this question: Is 11 dex enough to hit reliability ? Or does the 2 more dex points could compensate for the "ripper" feat ?

I'm also wondering if I should take temporal manipulation. Limited Temporal Increment and Psycho-temporal Contraction could be useful, but the nerf to Psycho-temporal Contraction feels it might not be worth it anymore.

Any though ?

Thank you.

destroyor

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Re: Question about the usefulness of the "ripper" feat
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2020, 03:32:04 am »
Flurry
Grants you an ability to launch 3 consecutive attacks with a sword. Each attack reduces the action point cost of further Flurry activations by 4 action points (this stacks 5 times) until the end of next turn.

If any of the attacks misses or deals no damage, the flurry will stop(!) and be put on cooldown for 3 turns and the cost reduction will be removed.

Requirements: Dexterity 6, Melee 30

Flurry is the bread and butter for a sword build, and because of that you want your hit chance (translation: effective melee skill) to be as high as possible, thus 18 DEX or 18 STR. I would consider Survival Instinct to be a bad fit for a sword user:

This is the absolute minimum STAT allocation for a sword user
5 STR to wield swords
6 DEX for Flurry
6 AGI for mobility, you are a melee build after all
5 WIL for Ripper (more on this later)
6 INT for Red Dragon

Personally I would opt for 18 DEX (get veteran feat increase DEX) instead of 18 STR because DEX feats > STR feats, max throwing, get fatal throw AP refund + grenadier + three pointer plus enjoy increased melee crit chance, this would means:
5 STR 18 DEX 5 WIL 6 INT = 2 STAT points remaining, which in your case goes to AGI for uncanny dodge.

Some numbers at level 30, max melee for comparsion:
18 DEX = 350 effective melee, weapon damage = 345% <- got this number from mouse over melee in Underrail.info builder
13 DEX = 282 effective melee, weapon damage = 297%
11 DEX = 255 effective melee, weapon damage = 279%
I don't think an increase crit chance of 30% is worth losing roughly 19.4 ~ 27.1% accuracy (especially with Flurry on the line) and 13.9 ~ 19.1% weapon damage.

Now on to Ripper - for me it's a must have because Fatal throw throwing knives always crit and Ripper will vastly increase its damage. @19 DEX (eel sandwich), wielding red dragon, used focus stim = 31% melee crit chance. Considering the number of sword hits per turn using Flurry I think it's justify to get Ripper for the vastly increased critical damage. On the other hand for some 18 STR (sword: Damage increased by 7% for every point in strength above 6 =  84% damage increase or 91% when using rathound BBQ) sword build Ripper might not be worth it, in that case just keep WIL at 3 freeing up 2 STAT points.

Now if you are playing easy/normal, 11 DEX with max melee is absolutely viable. However with Flurry on the line why take more sword misses just for an increase crit chance of 30%?