So, speaking of planning characters (
Sensuki and similar), how does the cipher work mechanically?
I understand you need to do melee/ranged attacks to get focus and that these attacks do extra damage but my question is how. Is it a fixed damage increase or a scaling increase and how does it relate to grazing hits? And how does the damage done relate to focus gained(if at all)?
Should I be dual wielding daggers or swing a massive warhammer for optimal results?
Can only tell you how I think it works in BBv480 (may be subject of change in the final game):
Extra damage from class ability Soul Whip is +20% additive modifier, and it works from begining of combat till you reach max Focus. Combat log informs you when Soul Whip is activated, and also informs when it's deactivated as you reach this maximum (the number at the start of combat is half of the maximum).
There is a talent you can take on a lvl up - Biting Whip, which further adds another +20% multiplier into this mechanics...
Focus gained is related to the amount of weapon damage dealt. In the background, game gradually sums up this (after dam. multipliers and reductions are applied in the damage formula) -- and after every 4 whole points of damage it adds +1 to the Focus (so it looks like 1/4 rounded down). Logically there is no Focus gained on misses.
Now, perhaps damage multipliers (+20% or +40% here) may situationally add more to weapons with higher base damage, because how damage formula and reductions work. But it also depends on many other factors (accuracy, speed etc.). From the Focus gathering point of view, if your dual wielding daggers do the same amount of damage as massive warhammer over the same amount of time, you will gain the same amount of Focus...
Another interesting talent you may consider is Draining Whip, which adds also +2 Focus on every hit, regardless the damage. This may favour fast hitting weapons, two-weapon style or Blunderbusses...
Athelas and others are giving really good advices. However, now I fear almost everybody will play Cipher class the same way
Edit: Blunderbuss is two-handed weapon. I think, according to Sensuki's guides all ranged weapons should be two-handed?
Some related threads on Obsidian forum:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71274-the-cipher-the-soul-whip/
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71337-cipher-powers-need-to-be-tweaked-for-release/