Help me build a "mage"-style Pyro-Psyker

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Hi there,

I'm really not good with builds and since Owlcat tends to complicate things build-wise with all the options available... well, truth be told I'm bad at *all* virtual DnD adaptions, so whatever xD

Anyways I'd like to build a mage-style Pyro-Psyker and got my first talent yesterday (Took molten armor) and I picked Soldier as first Archetype because apparently (and according to my probably "bad" search skills) it's one of the better options since there don't seem to be... mage archetypes. I could use some advice on picking talents and maybe even some kind of subclass suggestion or something like that. (For my first playthrough I want to be heretical, if that matters)

I'm playing on normal difficulty, maybe on daring some day but not on any of the really hard difficulties.

Help would be appreciated x)

[Psycohitman]

just take everything that has % in it and u have to understand there are no builds on their own because this is a buff and debuffgame. we could connect via discord because u didnt give much info if u want to go melee or ranged, set up of the grpup etc

[Revan619]

As someone that extensively played pyromancer for pvp in souls games, I really wanted to bring that feel over to rogue trader. So I created a melee front line caster which literally turned out to be one of the highest possible damage builds in the game. It can melee, it can cast, it can aoe, it can beam and outpaces just about everyone in damage as it can clear the battlefield in a single turn on unfair.

What I learned playing on higher difficulties it becomes more important to guarentee your hit and your dodge than it is to do 1 or 2 more damage on a single hit. So it is better not to invest heavily into strength or willpower. There are ways to use your weapon score and ballistic score on your psyker powers and buffs only scale with psy rating so you can buff your physical and mental stats to massively up your damage that way.

Originally posted by Psycohitman:

just take everything that has % in it and u have to understand there are no builds on their own because this is a buff and debuffgame. we could connect via discord because u didnt give much info if u want to go melee or ranged, set up of the grpup etc

This is a great point so having the right party member builds to support is very useful as well to cover skill checks so keep that in mind as you make your compositions.

For a detailed guide on pyromancer I wrote this up https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3308327575

I havnt done a pure range variant yet as you would end up competing for gear with other members that are very gear reliant and I wanted them in my party, but ill probably get around to it eventually.

[Occultist]

I've completed my Unfair run like a month ago and I kind of enjoyed pyro mage. The only problem for me is that it was sort of a one trick pony especially mid-to-lategame.

Basically all you have to do is to pick everything that effectively increases Molten Beam damage. Psy rating, Willpower, Bonuses to Psy powers, Biomancy (lategame for that one certain staff) etc. Also psy powers can't crit generally.
I played soldier into arch-militant.

On normal difficulty, you can play with everything you want regarding pyromancy (pyrostaff is bugged tho). Also keep in mind that you have 3 free respec for each companion and your character of course.

One thing I can recommend to new players especially, is to have one or even two dedicated 'tanks' with taunting scream (warrior's ability). It will not 'break' the game, but will make your experience a lot smoother.

[Revan619]

Psy powers can infact crit and I cant stress enough that tanks genuinely hurt you in the long run as it forces rounds on unfair to go past turn 1 giving the AI time to stack ridiculous buffs that will one shot characters with the game not having effective taunting methods. Even though there is a cape to guarentee taunting scream which will otherwise fail, the malpain shroud demands that slot, without it the class is not playable on unfair.

Act 1 and Act 2 you do want to Toughness focused warriors such as Abelard, your RT or Heinrix to get through the act 1 boss but by mid Act 2 that play style will actually cause you to stack up injuries and traumas causing you to have to sit through multiple loading screens to return to the ship to recover as all your companions will be getting pummeled.

Build your warriors into Arch-Militant then you get cautious approach if you are really worried about giving the enemy turns which is better tanking than vanguard can offer as it adds dodge and hp gating. High dodge is more imporant as armour is very easy to gain via tactical knowledge on operators.

You want to win encounters not drag them out. My advice is regarding 1.2 version of the game on unfair and unfair+ sliders mod.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Thanks for your answers, I'll definitely consider them ^^ As I first play through on normal I think I can do with less optimization, later on if the game becomes too easy I guess I can just up the difficulty a bit :D Higher than daring I keep for a second playthrough.

Do you all consider your alignment when creating builds? I don't know if you actually gain anything with having high alignmant ranks (Would be cool though). Oh and I forgot to mention I want to be mostly ranged :D

[Revan619]

There are some items that really benefit from certain alignments. a helm that adds +dogmatic to psy rating. There is a cape and helm for iconclast that highly benefit vanguards.

Ive not really spotted much benefit to the heretic path yet but ive only been playing a month :D