Strongest build by a massive margin is stealth and increasing amounts of attack. Even if you get spotted the really high movement speed granted by SCU will make escaping hilariously easy and at around 20 SCU enemies are no longer able to spot you unless they're standing right in front of you looking in your direction. From there taking out enemies is as simple as smack them in the back of the head, place a bomb right next to them purchased from Lisa(if you need the extra damage), and shoot them with charged shot from the bow(also hitting the bomb). Against groups it's even easier then that by just staying forever stealthed charge shooting with the bow until they all die. As an added perk SCU makes items take longer to disappear so you're pretty likely to get most or all of the loot too. If that STILL wasn't enough for you, SCU also makes sight in underground areas not really require light unless you really think you need it. Stealth is just hands down easy mode for the entire game and the increased movement speed for having stealth also makes it the fastest way to play the game.
I tried the steath mode and I felt it working pretty decently mid-game, but later on the threat of getting smacked in the face ones and stun-locked felt too scary. Especially in quests where you need to defend people like cocona, its nice to be just an invincible tank who can purposefully take on the aggro. that 43 attack is plenty to just rush in, smack everything, and get out. I completed the seedbed liar' while taking like 8 damage, just running through smacking the biggest baddies a few times in the face before overkilling and restoring my stamina. The bow late game just takes too long to charge & uses too much stamina.
How could you betray Cecily? You need to encounter some more enemies if 1 HP 1 STA is all you lose, even at 19 DEF.
Edit: I had to load your save to see if Cecily was in prison since I have never betrayed her.. And she is. There is also a bug with Cecily in the prison. She can crawl through any wall or door. I made her switch cells to the opposite side and get raped there as well.
How do you know what the reward is and what armor do you suspect it is?
How could I betray cecily??
Cause theres people still fighting in her home town, and what is she doing? as a person with wealth and power? galavating around in noer instead of helping with her resources on the front lines. Or instead, she could actually be helping the refugees .. she could set up shelters .. shes paying MERCENARIES with gold coins for crying out loud .. she sure could afford to provide food to the starving needy.
But no, what does she do? start a semi civil war to the one guy actually organizing some state of resistance against the horrors out there. Sure hes not a great guy o.o and hes lining his own pockets along the way, but she didn't offer any sort of alternative.
Fuck all the royalty in this story. I've been making sure to save the soldiers and refugees wherever I could from death. At least those in a position where they were fighting back against evil. I saved cecily the first time I played this game, saw the responds of the refugees, then started doing the guests in syballis, and realized how cecily is part of the problem. People diverting resources from the fight for their own politics. If both outcomes gave the same reward, it'd still chose this path now.
A daily headpat on cocona keeps the cecily demon away.