Post by gniht on Jan 11, 2017 2:16:35 GMT
this guide is intended for those of you who are either unfamiliar with puissant or are just wanting to check your current understanding of the widget. the format i have chosen is that of question/answer. read any topic questions that you think may apply to the type of build you're thinking about, then also read the peculiarities section at the bottom.
what is puissant?
puissant widget, (aka widget of puissant skill at arms) is an activatable with 3/day uses that adds ab and positive damage based on how many pairs of applicable feats you take when you build your character. most veteran players will tell you that puissant is *almost* mandatory for any build (besides barbarians) if the primary function of the character is to attack with weapons. so just build for it, i promise you won't regret it.
i don't want complication, give me the simple version?
ok! so you're already taking weapon feats like weapon focus, improved critical, weapon specialization, epic weapon focus, and epic specialization... well...
when you build for puissant you take all the same feats in a second weapon as well! it's just that simple. if you don't want to worry too much about the details, just do that and take the puissant widget as one of your 4 widgets and ta-da! you'll be alright!
if you don't have fighter levels and don't have access to specialization, don't worry! just take pairs of what you do have access to.
what's this about unfocused puissant?
unfocused puissant is a bit like a "power attack" version of the widget. you still take most of the same feats, but you take them in weapons you don't intend to use as your primary mode of offense in the end. the one exception is that one of your two improved critical feats needs to be in the weapon you intend to use later. that's all there is to it! this version doubles the ab/damage values of the puissant buff, up to a maximum of +4 ab/eb as compared to the standard "focused" variant which caps at +2 ab/eb, so as you can see if you're missing weapon focus and epic weapon focus, you're going to be at lower ab overall with unfocused, but higher damage. i do not generally recommend unfocused variants for builds that have access to epic specialization feats unless you're making a weaponmaster...
what's the deal with weaponmasters?
the weaponmaster's "weapon of choice" is one of the contributers to the puissant widget, and as such some of the best weaponmaster builds will contain two weapon of choice selections rather than just one as you might with a standard weaponmaster. doing so requires you to take a minimum of 13 weaponmaster levels, as the second weapon of choice is only available as a weaponmaster bonus feat. but that's not all there is to weaponmaster and puissant... there is the issue of unfocused puissant for weaponmasters. at first that sounds kind of impossible, but puissant was made with this option in mind... it's just a bit more complicated. the most important thing is that weaponmasters are allowed (in addition to the improved critical feat) to take weapon focus and weapon of choice on their "unfocused" weapon. in order for this feat to retain it's "unfocused" status, however, you must not take any other weapon feats for the unfocused weapon... at the end of the day this means a weaponmaster with an "unfocused" weapon of choice will have to spend one additional feat on the pre-epic weapon focus than a weaponmaster would have to spend who was going with a "focused" puissant. unfocused puissant is generally a good deal for weaponmaster builds... it does add additional feat costs to an already feat-starved build but since they get weapon focus, they break even on ab and will do a grip more damage, so i do think it's a good option for weaponmasters.
can you give us some numbers, g?
numbers?!
finally! something we can count on! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXPnH0C9UA
the values below are the focused/unfocused contribution the feats will give you assuming you have a pair of the feats in question.
weapon focus 1/2
improved critical 1/2
weapon specialization 2/4
epic weapon focus 2/4
epic weapon specialization 3/6
weapon of choice 3/6
overwhelming critical 3/6
to determine the ab/eb value you'll get, add up all the values for the pairs you'll take on a given build and divide by 4, rounding down. e.g. a pure ranger who takes pairs of weapon focus, imp crit, and epic weapon focus feats will get a 4 point value for a focused weapon which gives +1 ab/eb, or an 8 point value for unfocused for +2 ab/eb.
the maximum amount of ab/eb is +2 for focused and +4 for unfocused, and the maximum positive damage the widget will bestow is +20.
wtf g, you said i would get 9 damage but i only get 7?!
when puissant is applied to an enhancement weapon, it boosts the enhancement of said weapon, so +2 of the damage is in the form of eb, while the remaining 7 is positive damage for a total of 9, as promised.
you said something about peculiarities?
indeed, i did. there are several common pitfalls as well as a couple of buggy aspects of the widget that are good to know about.
Ranged: when the widget is used on ranged weapons, the damage ab portion of the buff is applied to the weapon, while the damage is applied to the ammo. for weapons that that share an ammo type, it is not possible to do "unfocused" puissant with them. this would be exploitable as you could swap in one weapon to buff the unfocused value and then swap in the weapon you were focused in for full base ab/dmg available. the most common thing people want to try doing with ranged is an "unfocused" arcane archer. such builds are not possible, so just build it as focused (taking longbow and shortbow as your two weapons also gives you more endgame bow options if you find a fancy drop-only bow!) also with ranged, be aware of how many shots are left in your ammo stack when you buff the puissant and try to have a full stack whenever possible, and keep an eye out in the combat log to insure that you're still getting your positive damage, because when your stack runs out you may need to rebuff on a fresh one.
other temporary weapon buffs: in general other weapon buffs need to be applied *before* you buff puissant. if the party wizard casts flame weapon on your greatsword after you buff puissant, it will remove the puissant effect and you'll first have to type V-X-C and then rebuff your puissant.
shifters: puissant on shifter functions differently because you don't fight with the same weapon after shifting that you have in your hand before shifting. as a result you can focus in the shifted form's attack mode but since puissant is buffed unshifted you will recieve the "unfocused" value on it, while maintaining the focused ab/dmg provided by any relevant feats after shifting. all you have to keep in mind is that the final weapon you equip cannot be the same as the weapon your shifted form of preference uses. if you're new to 3t or have taken a long break, i highly advise you to learn/relearn the nuances of building shifters in general before making one.
tridents/katanas: as of the time of writing this both these weapons are only able to be used as unfocused. and you know what? it's basically a non-issue unless you find some sweet t10 or t11 weapon, because neither of these is really that great as a base weapon anyhow... so currently i advise people to avoid making any trident or katana builds.
one common misconception: people commonly think that it's necessary to take the pairs all in the same weapons, this is only true if pre-reqs are involved. as such, you do not have to spend 3 feats on improved critical to get unfocused puissant, two improved critical feats will suffice.
another common misconception: is that fighter builds will get lots more dmg unfocused. in general, this isn't true. what you get is more of a damage conversion along with a small damage boost. this can actually result in better or worse performance depending on what you're attacking.
one peculiarity of unfocused damage cap is that eb weapons actually have a higher theoretical cap on the overall base damage provided by puissant. this is due to the fact that what is capped is strictly the positive damage, while the damage transferred to eb offsets this. so people using an eb weapon can, in theory, achieve higher overall base damage from the puissant buff than those who use ab weapons. not that this is much of an issue, as weaponmaster builds comprise the vast majority in this category of high puissant value builds, but it's one of the finer points that I though i'd mention for those interested.
a final note on unfocused puissant: when planning your build always be aware of the +20 ab cap. if you'll get access to blade thirst, warrior widget + fighter belt buff, bard song, or are taking shifter levels you may have issues running into a wall with your ab when going unfocused. i'm admittedly a bit of an ab fanatic, but i just want to stress that *sometimes* unfocused is great, other times... not so much. don't let yourself lose a grip of ab, it's very useful for landing more of those attacks and confirming those critical threats.
in concluding: as i stated initially, puissant is an extremely powerful and important widget and even if you're feeling skeptical about how many feats are required etc, i highly recommend setting those feelings of doubt aside and just building for it. once you see it in action, you'll come to realize just how awesome (and indespensible) puissant widget is.
i'm posting this without serious revision, so it's bound to have lots of spelling and grammatical errors, and i don't care. what i do care about is getting the basic info out there so new/returning players can have an opportunity to see it before they spend the time levelling up and it's too late to fit in the feats needed to get this amazing widget.
if you've got further questions, feel free to post them, however i will not answer questions i feel are already sufficiently covered in my post, so please read carefully before asking.
hopefully this helps,
gniht
