Clairvoyant 20

[Talon Rose]

Hulloh.

So I may be wrong here but I've been trying to get D20 with the Clairvoyant for one of the last 4 in-game achievement things and uh.
Clairvoyant solo seems mad weak.
With all the difficulty modifiers - and yes, "it's supposed to be hard", I know - it seems like it doesn't have much of any option like any other class would.

Obelisk i can turtle up, generate shield reliably with a basic attack, Magma miner has leap for mobility , good against groups, all that.

Clairvoyant though? Eh 1 moves the weak orb. Weak useless "attack" (Also physical, which I both...do and don't get...)
2 : Okay, little magical fart in a small aoe, gives 1 charge.
3 : Costly aoe nuke with bigger range but largely useless without 3 Clairvoyant charges

You're reliant on so much during my D20 runs. I basically feel like I NEED to keep lucking into the Shadow set for a good flat Omni Damage bonus so things don't hit me too much and deal more damage than Shadow self-harm would. But you also need *some* self healing (Restoration isn't all that adequate unless you get the quest that forces an ascension, it targets that and gives you either Regen or the 8 base heal one).

You can either work on your survivability and eat it when the boss outlasts you against the gunk pool, or you can work on your DPS and actually get through fights but take self-damage or unavoidable boss damage - when they target you directly or do full-arena AoEs. At this difficulty, those attacks to 8-22 damage depending on what you face and when. Per turn.

For the record, Magma Miner took 2 attempts, Naruto (Mosscloak lol) 1, Obelisk 2, Star Captain 3. Clairvoant, I'm on attempt 17 and the closest I got was Book 2 Boss, but I had no max hp up so half of my missing health only put me up to 21. As you can imagine, that's not great with Shadow 3 or 5 nevermind the other incoming damage X_X

And as we know,status effect spamming isn't super viable at this high a difficulty because anything that isn't frostbite only ticks *after*the enemy hits you, meaning you are guaranteed to take damage unless you luck into an insane high damage stack build AND Shield Wall AND its "Take all will \ movement" options and immediately just use that....X_X

I also tried leaning into Smite spamming given that it rolls off magic damage just the same, but guess what, didn't work too well haha X_X.

Edit 2 : I use Chart Of Stars for the simple reason that even if I pick a no kwilling start modifier on a book, on reaching Sea Breach I should get 100 kwillings and pick the "-100 kwillings now but like 50 \fight" story thing. That Sea Breach seems to NOT work when doing this exact thing is not helping >.>;. None of the other trinkets look super useful to the Clairvoyant, but I'm open to suggestions!

Edit : Derp. I feel like this particular class needs some kind of buff. Sure it works fine at quick dives or lower difficulties, but. So does every other class already. This particular class feels \ is way too restrictive.

Edit 3 : Example of my problem. First book is Proving Grounds, so I have Janus. Okay. 7800 HP. okay. With a 90 in Magic Boost from items, the game says my Spirit Bomb will do 191 damage (Twice that for full charge) which is...382. Are you seeing the problem? Pulse is 124, and sure I can do it twice a turn (I even should) but uhhh this is still like a good ten turns of taking damage, dealing piddly damage and letting the gunk creep up. Doesn't feel right. If you start a D20 with Clairvoyant and don't get *either* the Psychis Pulse range up *or* the Spirit Bomb gives 1 charge per enemy killed refund, you're not gonna have a good time, basically. But even with that 2nd one, you actually have to kill enemies, and certain things don't like to die from full health with it even with some nice magic boosts soooo X_X

Edit 4 : Another promising run ruined by Clairvoyant. I got the "2 cost decrease for first binding each turn" trinket really early, which let me get something for free - some times a full spirit bomb. Neat!
Except using 1 to reposition the orb to hit anything voids it :-\.
One of the buffs that I'd consider for the Clairvoyant is a built-in 1\turn *FREE* use of the #1 skill at the very least. At the very *least*.

[Leto]

While I don't disagree that Clairvoyant could probably use a little buff, I have to say I never really struggle that much when playing Clairvoyant in solo t20. Once you get the common augment that gives you a charge at the start of every turn (available both on spirit bomb and telekinesis) and maybe the common augment that grants charges when killing something with spirit bomb, your damage output per turn skyrockets.

I haven't made a gameplay video in a long time, but I'll do a t20 solo playthrough this afternoon and record it and then share it when I figure out the best way to do that

[Talon Rose]

Originally posted by Leto:

While I don't disagree that Clairvoyant could probably use a little buff, I have to say I never really struggle that much when playing Clairvoyant in solo t20. Once you get the common augment that gives you a charge at the start of every turn (available both on spirit bomb and telekinesis) and maybe the common augment that grants charges when killing something with spirit bomb, your damage output per turn skyrockets.

I haven't made a gameplay video in a long time, but I'll do a t20 solo playthrough this afternoon and record it and then share it when I figure out the best way to do that :p03:

Heya. IDK about "skyrockets" :-P As I said, even with what was a 90% magic damage increase, I had very low numbers.
I ended up beating it FINALLY, had to swap to Clip of Extraction to get some orb juggling going. Funnily enough it was some poison nonsense and dodging that helped me win -_- not a great look lol.

[Leto]

Originally posted by Talon Rose:

Heya. IDK about "skyrockets" :-P As I said, even with what was a 90% magic damage increase, I had very low numbers.
I ended up beating it FINALLY, had to swap to Clip of Extraction to get some orb juggling going. Funnily enough it was some poison nonsense and dodging that helped me win -_- not a great look lol.

Glad you managed to beat it
Still, here's the vid of the run I did this afternoon, although it might not be the best representation since I got really strong vestiges very early, but still might be useful for people to see some tricks you can employ when playing Clairvoyant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSYvGD1Ab7I

[Limdood]

Note that it is possible to shield just as much with Clairvoyant (unaugmented) as with Obelisk (unaugmented).

You can waggle the orb through yourself (and some enemies) to give 1 shield per will, and a bit of enemy damage, just the same as the obelisk generates 1 shield per will and a bit of enemy damage.

Yes, the Clairvoyant does have some serious limitations, but it isn't as 1 dimensional as people make it out to be. A smite-vestige-build clairvoyant who uses pulsar belt to turtle up and smite everything is totally viable. A clairvoyant who ascends into spirit well and pulls everything in to poison/burn things works (though will is tight...)

You don't HAVE to build the "my sole purpose is to build 3 charges and nuke" clairvoyant. The clairvoyant's defensive abilities are adequate....not QUITE at the level of obelisk, but it can generate shield in a pinch, and it can generate a LOT of shield with certain ascensions/augments. It makes decent use of afterimage and invigorate (unlike say, weaver, who focuses more on repeated, consistent hits). It usually doesn't have to spend a binding on blink since as long as you don't reduce your movement, you can usually move out of things.



I noticed you said even with 90 magic power, you were still low on damage? well, yeah....the second boss has like 15k health, and almost ALL classes only do about 200 with their big nuke ability. 90 magic/physical power is only 380 damage....you need more than that....a LOT more, on any class....or you need to be pushing something else (20 poison damage, 90 magic power, and the ability to apply a ton of poison? no problem!.....90 magic power, 25% crit chance and 125% crit damage? that won't cut it (still only about 800 damage on a crit)).