Problematic GS Pasqal - cannot find a proper role

[mudakonn]

1) he gets killed very easily because his low dodge and toughness
2) as GS he can do zones but cannot hit anything in ACT 2
3) at the same time he has high INT for skills so I really cannot bench him for Yrilet

So I ended up benching Idira for Yrilet mission and was not happy at all wo Idira

Is there a spot for him as a Melta weapon close combat expert? (but again he ends up dead very easily even behind cover) In ACT 2 he is no sniper material for sure.

An why Yrilet has such low INT - she is yet another operative with higher INT and proper skills she could have decent alternative for Pasqal.

[GenericName1]

I dumped him for Jae, her Int skills scale with FEL due to origin perk. Bump up her FEL and you get an Officer/Tactican which is an OP class in itself even if you already playing as one, who is also a skill monkey.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Mack:

He's pretty easy to build as a Plasma Sniper and can still do some decent work in melee if required.

The key item you want is the Overcharge Gloves, that ignore enemy deflection and do additional damage (usually something like 20 to 40 extra). The rest you can use on mostly tech-use buffs.

Use whatever the best plasma gun you have, but the end-game one is imo, the 'Overcharged Plasma Gun' which can only do overcharges, but it's damage is increased by a likely 25% bonus.

You want to start a turn doing:
* Use your Prey charges
* Perfect Spot (if you aren't going to move)
* Machine Spirit Communion
* Tactical Knowledge
* Cull The Bold
* Analyse Enemies (pick an enemy you're about to shoot)
* Shoot an overcharged plasma shot, obviously you need to save enough AP to actually fire the gun so you .

You want Hunt Down the Prey, Claim the Bounty, Hunter's Ambush (shoot anything immobilised or stunned), Cull The Bold, Passive Learning, Tide of Excellence, Perfect Spot, Plasma Weapon Expert, Pinnacle of Weaponry, Aiming Protocols, Overcharge Protocols, Assisted Analysis, Fresh Target, Uncanny Sight, Comprehensive Analysis, Dual Weapon Combat

Exemplar talents I used Deathdealer (free attack after killing an enemy), Flesh Wounds + Tough As Steel (make it easier to survive).

Hunter's Ambush, my god, I miss that skill, perfect fit synergy for Pascal and Cassia & Argenta (with Devastating attack).

[Seswatha]

GS is about enemies not getting turns at all or at least always having bad turns since you control the flow of the battle.

So if you make Pascal GS you can for example put an area and then make everyone in that area lowest priority target so that enemies are forced to attack your tank. You can also hevily debuff damage on the heaviest damage dealer. More importantly though you can give everyone more damage with things like Combat Locus & Frontline/Rear areas, Joint Analysis and teleport your team around with Blitz Stratagem making sure they can reach and eliminate all and any threats. So tbh if you build the rest of your comp right the defensive aspects are not necessary since you kill everything before it has a chance to attack. But if for some reson your team can't, GS offers plenty of solid defensive tools too that most importantly can be set up before any enemy can act, not after like some bad classes like Vanguard do.

There's a cloak in Act 3 that makes Combat Locus quadruple the effect instead of double, look out for that as well as items like Warlord Amulet (I believe Act 3 as well).

He makes an ok BH/Assassin too, though since his plasma damage stacking talent is bugged I wouldn't make him your main dps until that's fixed, at least.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Seswatha:

GS is about enemies not getting turns at all or at least always having bad turns since you control the flow of the battle.

So if you make Pascal GS you can for example put an area and then make everyone in that area lowest priority target so that enemies are forced to attack your tank. You can also hevily debuff damage on the heaviest damage dealer. More importantly though you can give everyone more damage with things like Combat Locus & Frontline/Rear areas, Joint Analysis and teleport your team around with Blitz Stratagem making sure they can reach and eliminate all and any threats. So tbh if you build the rest of your comp right the defensive aspects are not necessary since you kill everything before it has a chance to attack. But if for some reson your team can't, GS offers plenty of solid defensive tools too that most importantly can be set up before any enemy can act, not after like some bad classes like Vanguard do.

There's a cloak in Act 3 that makes Combat Locus quadruple the effect instead of double, look out for that as well as items like Warlord Amulet (I believe Act 3 as well).

He makes an ok BH/Assassin too, though since his plasma damage stacking talent is bugged I wouldn't make him your main dps until that's fixed, at least.

Due to his bad fellowship, it's actually NOT that good for Pascal to be a GS.
He does well as a Bounty hunter as a debuffer and continous attack due to free attacks, me think.

[Kayin]

1. Gives Pasqal a Plasma weapon.
2. Get All his Plasma Talents, especially the one that gives him +1AP per Plasma Attack.
3. Use Officer Heroic Act on him.
4. Make him attacks 11 times during his turn.
5. Repeat

[Seswatha]

Originally posted by REhorror:

Originally posted by Seswatha:

GS is about enemies not getting turns at all or at least always having bad turns since you control the flow of the battle.

So if you make Pascal GS you can for example put an area and then make everyone in that area lowest priority target so that enemies are forced to attack your tank. You can also hevily debuff damage on the heaviest damage dealer. More importantly though you can give everyone more damage with things like Combat Locus & Frontline/Rear areas, Joint Analysis and teleport your team around with Blitz Stratagem making sure they can reach and eliminate all and any threats. So tbh if you build the rest of your comp right the defensive aspects are not necessary since you kill everything before it has a chance to attack. But if for some reson your team can't, GS offers plenty of solid defensive tools too that most importantly can be set up before any enemy can act, not after like some bad classes like Vanguard do.

There's a cloak in Act 3 that makes Combat Locus quadruple the effect instead of double, look out for that as well as items like Warlord Amulet (I believe Act 3 as well).

He makes an ok BH/Assassin too, though since his plasma damage stacking talent is bugged I wouldn't make him your main dps until that's fixed, at least.

Due to his bad fellowship, it's actually NOT that good for Pascal to be a GS.
He does well as a Bounty hunter as a debuffer and continous attack due to free attacks, me think.

GS uses both INT and FEL, there are not many characters with great scores in both (a MC Voidborn GS can just go INT). However if you have multiple GS you'll use the best of their scores for each, so ideally you want two, one with high INT (Pascal) and one with high FEL, unless you make a Voidborn GS MC. In any case, combat zone bonuses are not even the main thing he provides. the main thing GS allows is to go first and apply your buffs and debuffs when they are still relevant, not after everyone already had a turn.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Seswatha:

Originally posted by REhorror:

Due to his bad fellowship, it's actually NOT that good for Pascal to be a GS.
He does well as a Bounty hunter as a debuffer and continous attack due to free attacks, me think.

GS uses both INT and FEL, there are not many characters with great scores in both (a MC Voidborn GS can just go INT). However if you have multiple GS you'll use the best of their scores for each, so ideally you want two, one with high INT (Pascal) and one with high FEL, unless you make a Voidborn GS MC. In any case, combat zone bonuses are not even the main thing he provides. the main thing GS allows is to go first and apply your buffs and debuffs when they are still relevant, not after everyone already had a turn.

I ironically have a Forgeworld noble officer GS where I can buff my own fellowship and intelligence and he's very good.

But yes, I think your best GS is something you build yourself.

[treahnurb]

Pasqal with Plasma Weapon and the feat where he regains AP when shooting a Plasma Weapon as Headhunter and Your Finest Hour! is an unstoppable force that can solo every encounter. Plus keep him close for the Logic/Tech rolls. Also if you encounter other Tech Priests, it's always good to have him there, trust me. He can do and help a lot with non-battle encounters, too.

[watcherzero]

I use him as a stat stick midfielder whose equally at home shooting or smashing face in close combat with his axe, start him off with sniper rifle and eventually transition him to Plasma.

Hes not a glass cannon and people who put all his stats into damage and expect him to be so are missing out on him being the most well rounded character in the game.

[alexschulzweil]

dont get fooled by the WS (whar mostly comes from his axe). Pascal is a shooty (Plasma/Melter) kind of guy. pump strength to 45, get him heavy armour and the additional Forge world trait that deflects more damage. Make him bountyhunter/debuffer. not very efficent in killing mobs (only 1-2 per round) but nice skillmonkey an helpful in Boss battles.

Neoseeker had a decent build for him:
https://www.neoseeker.com/warhammer-40000-rogue-trader/builds/Pascal

[REhorror]

Originally posted by alexschulzweil:

dont get fooled by the WS (whar mostly comes from his axe). Pascal is a shooty (Plasma/Melter) kind of guy. pump strength to 45, get him heavy armour and the additional Forge world trait that deflects more damage. Make him bountyhunter/debuffer. not very efficent in killing mobs (only 1-2 per round) but nice skillmonkey an helpful in Boss battles.

Neoseeker had a decent build for him:
https://www.neoseeker.com/warhammer-40000-rogue-trader/builds/Pascal

He's actually closest to my build, 'eavy armor tech guy, but I'm an officer.

[Balekai]

GS doesn't really need both INT and FELL on one character. It helps that a character starts with both of those stats high (like a PC starting with max INT/FELL at character creation), but in reality a GS really only needs to increase one or the other since most GS ability mechanics are an average of the two stats, divided or multiplied by something.

As other have suggested, it does indeed help to have both an INT based GS and a FELL based GS in your team, but only for combat areas (Frontline, Backline and Rear abilities) that will use the highest INT and FELL of each individual GS in the party. Think of it as having different commanders cancelling out eachother's strategical weaknesses by working together to come up with the perfect plans.

Originally posted by treahnurb:

Pasqal with Plasma Weapon and the feat where he regains AP when shooting a Plasma Weapon as Headhunter and Your Finest Hour! is an unstoppable force that can solo every encounter. Plus keep him close for the Logic/Tech rolls. Also if you encounter other Tech Priests, it's always good to have him there, trust me. He can do and help a lot with non-battle encounters, too.

Basically this as others have stated as well.

I made my Plasma Pascal an INT based GS in addition to my GS Cassia, who takes no GS talents/abilities and instead full Navigator. I also have my Sanctic Psyker Officer/GS Main (that only so far has taken Stronghold Stratagem + Diversion Zone for the priority target cheese. Instead my main focuses on Sanctic powers and spamming those instead of GS.

Pascal has done the same with Trenchline + diversion Zone, but I plan to make him an actual true GS using GS abilities and focusing on Plasma spam. I put him in Heavy Armour on him and position him to protect the toons in the diversion zoned Rear combat area.

He gets the ranged bonuses from being there and his Axe is a great way to deal with enemies who do try to melee my ranged in Rear combat area (happens). His deflection from heavy armour makes him a great backline tank when I stack tons of deflection from Shield of the Emperor etc. Not that my party isn't already taking 0-10 damage when they should be taking around 15-50 without buffs on Unfair. :p

Having an axe wielding Pascal ready to cleave down diversion zone ignoring enemies is good. Him debuffing, buffing, and skill monkeying is good too. But having Pascal shoot 11 Plasma shots in one turn is what he's really about combat wise. :D

[treahnurb]

Originally posted by Balekai:

But having Pascal shoot 11 Plasma shots in one turn is what he's really about combat wise. :D

Essentially, it comes down to this, indeed. The first time I witnessed it I honestly thought it's a bug. I was like "no way, this is overpowered, this is cheesing your way out of a fight, I mean what..." but no. It's just Pasqal being a lovely, beeping murder machine. <3
(now on level 39 I do similar things with Marazhai, but melee.)

[tank16365]

Weird, he's my Tech/Medicae/Demo/and practically everything else that requires some kind of random skill check. He just.....has everything in like the 60's and 70's to start with, and if you're like me you have a stash of all the different accessories for the odd stat boost. The axe was lame, but I found a thunderhammer pretty quickly and a melta gun from some random planet scan and thats waaay better.
He already can't seem to dodge for crap so I gave him heavy armor+skill that makes him unable to knock down in heavy armor.

[Jalmari H.]

Pasqal is skill monkey/debuff.

I wonder if he could do better in heavy armor/melee though.