If we want to be a lightning bruiser we simply need to not take Stranglethorn - that's not what it is.
We can barely survive here, so thinking about solving puzzles at this point is weird. What we need is a strong offensive ability so that we can kill more shit for shinies and so that we can actually reach any puzzle shit.
Are you interested in vote trading? If you take undying vanguard this vote, I'll vote for whatever you want for the next three votes as long as it doesn't cut Gisena from the quest.
with the power of Ruin and our fell-handed stroke, increasing our endurance does increase our offensive ability; attrition is a viable strategy for us
Shitty agility is too big an price for me. Perhaps, if we were really lacking in option I would vote for it. But we have an chance to get Thousand Cut and + 0.2 Rank which doesn't require sacrificing our agility and being forced to have an weakness that Apocryphal curse can take advantage of.
Technically we could take both at once. Stranglethorn is 4 picks and Thousand Cuts is 0 Picks & 7 Arete.
Has better synergy with our Intelligence too. Not much place for clever improvisation in an alpha-strike build.
Stranglethorn requires we take 'No' which costs 2 Arete, so we can't afford that build
Shitty agility is an exaggeration. We lose 1.6 agility for the price of an extra 5 str and 8 con which is like taking Valour and Dreadnought at the same time. It also increases our rank gain by the same amount it nerfs our agility and rank is much much more valuable.
Insufficient hubris detected.
20% less is not "shitty agility". Especially now since it's not lagging behind our other stats currently. What, right now it would be -Agility, +++++Strength and ++++++++Constitution? That is completely worth it in the face of it. Not to mention that if you think Rank is so amazing; Stranglethorn would give us far more than a 0.2 boost over time. If you are worried about having weaknesses Apocryphal can exploit; you are too late on that by far. Apocryphal's already dangling anything remotely Tyrant-like it can find at us. No build will be without weakness, that's impossible. But the benefits of Strangle thorn far outweigh its deficiencies.
If we get 9 Arete, yeah; that'd be great. Likely better than taking Vanguard. But if we don't take it now we will have to wait until we kill something again; while using Vanguard to bring Gisena here can benefit us immediately. Hard to say.
Also this. Yes is winning so hard that stranglethorn is unviable and unlikely to be in an hypothetical consolidation as well for that reason. It's literally the equivalent of wasting your vote at this point.
