[1.0.0.6] The Basilisk, Nidalla's Venomblade

[edisonian]

The Basilisk, Nidalla’s Venomblade

Updated for 1.0.0.7. This patch has given this build a ton more AOE, now that Explosive Strike AOE works for melee hits. Merciless Repertoire also now has flat Acid damage. The change to Nidalla’s Hidden Hand also means that we fully convert pierce damage to Acid damage on three of our WPS. I have also improved gear, skills, and devotions.

Flavor

The Basilisk is the whispered name of one of Nidalla’s most feared assassins. Skilled with the application of acid and poisons, he is capable of both quickly killing the condemned as well as disabling those who get in the way.

Concept

This is a dual-wielding Acid and Poison Saboteur build with an active playstyle that has both high damage output and an amazing amount of crowd control. It combines Dual-Wielding skills from the Nightblade class with weapon enhancements and crowd control from the Demolitionist class. The build seeks to maximize the effectiveness of dual-wielding mechanics and Weapon-Pool Skills.

It is capable of fast kills on tough bosses and can take on large groups of enemies with ease with CC, DoTs, and quick takedowns of priority targets. It remains decently tanky, with decent health, maxed (overcapped) resists and good sustain, but is probably has to kite sometimes on the toughest bosses. It is a very dynamic build to play, requiring quick-thinking and knowing when to engage and disengage, and can also go to town and quickly destroy tough enemies when the time is right.

Skills, Devotions and Attributes

GrimCalc full build, with +skills
http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-6caekp

GrimCalc baseline, without +skills
-This is not just the above with +skills removed. Rather it is the baseline build to aim for, should you not have any +skills. It is the starting point for a functional build without endgame gear. As you get more +skills, move points around according the the guide below.
http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-zKZC2l

Here are photos of the skill tree of the completed build:

Commentary:

The build employs skills that all complement and build on each other to turn the character into a devastating dual-wielder. We add a lot of flat Acid damage with Lethal Assault, use Weapon-Pool Skills (WPS) to upgrade our dual-wielding with AOE and powerful single-target damage, add Nidalla’s Hidden Hand to boost three of the WPS with our favored damage type and add a debuff, and add in Fire Strike as a huge independent multiplier to all dual-wielding and WPS.

Veil of Shadow with Night’s Chill reduces enemy resistances along with Acid Spray in the Manticore devotion. Flashbang is an amazing CC that helps both offensively and defensively by reducing DA and confusing enemies. Ring of Steel freezes enemies for just two skill points. Pneumatic Burst with Shadow Dance help provide defense, sustain, and total speed, the last of which is also provided by Vindictive Flame.

Skills to overlevel:

Lethal Assault
Nidalla’s Hidden Hand
Night’s Chill

Skills to invest in:

All WPS: at least 5 for 20% chance on each, and add more points to the skills with lower weapon damage percent (Quick Cut and Whirling Death). Execution is also a good place to add extra skill points.
Pneumatic Burst and Vindictive Flame - 10 and 11 respectively for best rate of return on total speed.
Shadow Dance - 12 points, don’t really need it until Ultimate
Fire Strike - 12 for Fire Strike and 12 for Explosive Strike;
Flashbang - 12 for best rate of return on DA reduction
Blast Shield - 12
Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends - 8 points matches up its cooldown exactly with Tainted Eruption from Abomination

One-point Skills

Dual Blades
ABB
Ring of Steel line
Shadow Strike and Nightfall
Blade Barrier
Nightblade passives (bottom row)
Searing Light
Ulzuin’s Wrath

Devotions

This is fairly self-explanatory. Manticore is key for resist reduction. Abomination provides a massive CC and DoT. Behemoth and Chariot of the Dead for sustain. Oklaine’s Lantern is great since we have a dagger. We want crit damage, OA, attack speed, and health.

Devotion Bindings:
Acid Spray (Manticore) - Fire Strike
Tainted Eruption (Abomination) - Shadow Strike
Giant’s Blood - Any passive
Wayward Soul - Any passive

Attributes

You can put everything into Physique. You need about 426 Spirit to equip the Basilisk Claws, so a few in Spirit for that purpose is fine. But they actually provide enough Spirit to keep themselves equipped, so you can just keep some +Spirit gear lying around for when you want to equip them and not put anything into Spirit.

Character Sheet

The stats on the build are shown below, with Lethal Assault and toggled passives active but no other buffs. Our actual damage output is much higher than shown, for the following reasons:
-Explosive Strike is not shown on the character sheet. That’s an additional 30% AOE weapon damage on top of Fire Strike’s 120%, so sheet damage should be 25% higher than shown even for single target.
-Almost all of our hits are WPS with weapon damage multipliers and additional flat damage, which is also converted to Acid damage.
-Three of our WPS trigger Nidalla’s Hidden Hand, which at ultimate levels provides huge flat bonuses to Acid and Poison damage.

Gameplay

Throw a Flashbang from a distance at a mob, then Shadow Strike in, aiming for high priority targets. This activates three forms of CC - Nightfall from Shadow Strike can put crowds to sleep, Flashbang will confuse and heavily debuff their DA to open up attacks, and Tainted Eruption will confuse and apply a DoT to a huge AOE. This will already render most mobs ineffective. If necessary, use Ring of Steel to further freeze any enemies near you, and use Gaze of Beronath to debuff and petrify in an AoE around you. Then hit a target with Amarasta’s Blade Burst to proc Lethal Assault with a chance to freeze more enemies, and go to town and destroy any bosses or high-priority targets under a flurry of dual-wield hits and procs. Then just clean up afterwards.

Keep Pneumatic Burst up at all times, and use it to regain HP. Both Giant’s Blood and Wayward Soul offer incredible sustain when they are up. Use the Bloodthirster skill from Haunted Steel to add more lifesteal if necessary, and use Blade Barrier as a last resort to recoup. Basilisk Claw’s also have a chance to petrify any enemies that attack you, even from a distance. Use Shadow Strike to disengage if needed.

Endgame Equipment

Main Hand: Basilisk Claw - Haunted Steel + Outcast’s Venom
Off Hand: Venomfang Rift Scourge Slicer of Alacrity/Fury/Voracity - Vitriolic Gallstone + Outcast’s Venom
Head: Cowl of the Venomblade - Leathery Hide/Sanctified Bone + 7%A/7%C
Chest: Stealth Jacket of the Venomblade - Chains of Oleron + 7%A/7%C
Pants: Nidalla’s Legwraps - Silk Swatch + 10%F/10%L
Shoulders: Prismatic Zantarin’s Shoulderguard of Vitality - Scaled Hide + 10%L/7%A
Gloves: Iceskorn Talons - Consecrated Wrappings + 7%A/7%C
Boots: Elite Harvest Footpads - Mark of Mogdrogen + 7%A/7%C
Belt: Blade Breaker Sash - 10%L/7%A
Amulet: Peerless Eye of Beronath - Focusing Prism + Breath of Life
Ring 1: Corrosive Viloth’s Ring of Alacrity/Rifthound/Attack/Readiness/Dranghoul - Corpse Dust + Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Ring 2: Incorruptible Gollus’ Ring of Alacrity/Rifthound/Attack/Readiness/Dranghoul - Corpse Dust + Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Medal - Mark of Fierce Resolve - Arcane Spark
Relic - Malediction

Commentary:
The goal of the gear is to boost flat acid damage directly and with bonuses to Lethal Assault, which scales extremely well on ultimate levels. The keystone of any dual-wield build are the weapons, and this is no different. Basilisk Claws are amazing weapons that deal full acid damage, have huge bonuses to Acid damage, Crit damage, Offensive Ability, and Lethal Assault, with a good CC proc. They are also craftable, so we can get good rolls on them. The only downside is no attack speed boost, but they are fast weapons by default. Therefore, we try to boost attack speed as much as possible on gear and elsewhere, with Gloves, Rings, and components being key sources. Best-in-slot weapon loadout is to pair a Basilisk Claw with a fast Rift Scourge Slicer, which are farmable in Hargate’s Lab or the Warden’s Cellar. The best prefix is probably Venomfang, or a Nightblade’s prefix that gives a good skill bonus. The best suffixes are Alacrity, Fury, and Voracity, which let’s us nearly reach the attack speed cap.

Using two Basilisk Claws is definitely viable and how I started with this build. A craftable Acid dagger is also easily a great weapon. For craftable daggers, look of Corrosive/Venomfang/Plaguebearer’s/Tyrant’s prefixes, and Alacrity/Fury/Voracity suffixes.

The Cowl of the Venomblade is a key piece of gear that converts the cold damage found all over Nightblade skills into Acid to further supplement the build. The Stealth Jacket of the Venomblade also lets us convert Pierce damage to Acid. Bonuses to All Skills in Nightblade skills are extremely useful since this build is skill point hungry and we can always make use of more skills. Capping resists including entrapment and stun resistance, and boosting health are also goals for gear. This build is able to overcap key resistances as well. In the loadout described above, I have the actual resistances on Ultimate as follows (varies depends on your gear rolls):

Fire - 83%, Cold - 94%, Lightning 103%, Poison&Acid - 112%, Pierce - 102%
Bleeding - 82%, Vitality - 89%, Aether - 83%, Chaos - 91%

Pre-endgame Equipment

This is alternative set of gear that is easily craftable or attainable before all end-game items are found. Use the same components as above and use augments to cap resists.

Weapons: Slithtongue / Rift Scouge Slicer / Exalted Dagger (craftable) - Affixes: Tyrant’s/Plaguebearer’s/Corrosive of Alacrity/Riftfound/Fury/Fervor
Head: Shadowspark Hood / Empowered Faceguard of Perdition / Crafted
Chest: Empowered Chestguard of Perdition / Empowered Fused Carapace Armor / Crafted
Pants: Swampdweller’s / Hermits / Slithscale- Anything is fine here, look for survivability and resists
Shoulders: Elite Outcast’s Chilled Pauldrons / Amarastan Pauldrons / Empowered Shoulderguards of Perdition / Crafted
Gloves: Empowered Handguards of Perdition / Crafted - look for attack speed
Boots: Serpentine Wraps / Elite Harvest Footpads / Crafted
Belt: Empowered Alchemist’s Belt / anything for survivability
Amulet: Rhowari Rancor / Empowered Warpshard / Crafted - look for ADCtH
Ring 1: Amarastan Sigil / Crafted rings with same affixes as above
Ring 2: Amarastan Sigil / Crafted rings with same affixes as above
Medal - Devil’s Badge of Venom
Relic - Corruption / Ruination

Commentary:

The build is very viable with crafted gear. We don’t rely on any particular Legendary item effects; the core of our damage comes from our skills. Boosting Lethal Assault gives us all the flat damage we need, and that is easily achievable with faction gear and crafted items. For instance, Outcast’s Chilled Pauldrons gives us +2 to Lethal Assault, and we can craft Daggers, Headgear, Amulets with the Assassin’s prefix to give +2 each. Rings, medal’s and chest armor also have the Nightblade’s prefix which can give us +1 to Lethal Assault.

The weapons are the most important part of the build, and crafted Acid daggers are very viable. They are listed as Enchanted Acid Implement by the blacksmith, and the item itself is an Exalted Dagger. Look for the following affixes: Assassin’s (with +2 Lethal Assault), Corrosive, Venomfang Plaguebearer’s, or Tyrant’s. Suffixes: Alacrity, Voracity, Fury. Mix and match affixes and suffixes. For example, a good pairing would be Plaguebearer’s Exalted Dagger of Alacrity and a Corrosive Exalted Dagger of Voracity.

Video

Here’s a video of Bastion of Chaos:

This is actually the first time through BoC for this character at all actually, I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So this is not a selective video, it’s a single try. I even get the achievement at the end. I’m no “leet” player by any means, but the build handles everything there quite easily.

Mad Queen on Ultimate:

I realize my computer may not be good enough to record super smoothly. Hopefully this one is better.

Closing remarks

Happy to take any suggestions! I will also gladly answer any questions about the build.

[edisonian]

Build Mechanics and Theory

This section is meant to explain the game mechanics and choices that make the build work. It’s intended to help newer players get a better understanding of how this build was constructed. I found the process of designing, testing, and tweaking the build extremely helpful in understanding the game, and hope to write out what I’ve learned to help others. There will also be a leveling guide at the end.

Theory of Damage Optimization

Generally speaking, the damage output of a build is dependent on these factors:

[DPS] = [Base damage] X [Damage-Type Multiplier] X [Skill Multiplier] X [Crit Multiplier] x [Attack/Casting Speed] x [Enemy Mitigation]

This equation applies independently for every damage type. Here’s an explanation of what each category means:

Base Damage - This is your weapon damage plus all flat damage bonuses; for example, a gear affix or Devotion node that says “+5 Physical Damage” would boost your base physical damage.
Damage-Type Multiplier - These are your percentage bonuses to that damage type from gear, Devotions, skills, or from Cunning or Spirit, whichever one applies; for example, something that says "+40% Physical damage would boost your physical damage.
Skill Multiplier - At its most basic, this is the % Weapon Damage stat on the skill itself. For instance, when Fire Strike says it deals “120% Weapon Damage”, that multiples your damage by 1.2. This piece also needs to factor in the AOE effects of skills too, as a skill which deals AoE is more effective than one that doesn’t, even with the same % Weapon Damage numbers.
Crit Multiplier - This is your chance to crit multiplied by crit damage. Chance to crit is provided by having high Offensive Ability. Crit Damage is found on gear, devotions, and skills and says something like “+8% Crit Damage”.
Attack speed/Casting speed - This is how fast you attack or use spells. Attack speed applies to weapon-based attacks, while casting speed is for spells. The higher this is, the more often you deal your damage calculated from the other categories. Attack speed or casting speed modifiers can be found on gear, devotions, or skills.
Enemy mitigation - This is how well the enemy reduces your damage. It is a combination of their armor, resistance, or avoidance. This isn’t directly a part of your character stats, but you can reduce enemy mitigation. If you are focusing on a single type of damage, such as in this build, it is very important to be able to reduce enemy resistance to that damage type, or you may find yourself dealing very little damage to certain enemies. To do this, you need to find skills, gear, or devotions that reduce enemy resistances.

The key thing to note is that if you can improve one category by +600%, you get 7x the damage output; but if you improve every category by +100%, you get 64x the damage output. In other words, the benefit you get from a bonus in each category is also multiplied by all the other categories. Some categories are easier to improve than others per gear affix slot, per skill point, or per devotion node, so some categories will naturally have higher bonuses.

So how does this apply to a dual-wielding melee build? For base damage, we add flat damage; for Damage Multipliers, we add +% of our favored damage type(s) or Cunning or Spirit; for Skill Multiplier, we pick complementary skills; for Crit Multiplier, we boost Offensive Ability (OA) and +% crit damage; attack speed is self-explanatory; and to reduce enemy mitigation, we have to lower enemy resistances.

Most of these categories are improved in the same way for every build. Obtaining bonuses to a damage type, OA/crit chance, and attack/casting speed, for instance, are basically universal across builds. I will skip those and highlight particular choices in this build for base damage, skill multipliers, and resistance reduction.

Base Damage

Base damage is your weapon damage plus any bonuses from gear, buffs, or devotions, all of which are added up and treated equivalently to damage on your weapon itself. Base damage can be of any damage type, and we have to calculate conversions to other damage types to arrive at the final mix of base damage.

As mentioned earlier, the benefit of each category is improved with our bonuses in other categories. Base damage is improved greatly with attack speed and faster weapons, for instance, which lets us hit with these bonuses more often. It is also multiplied by % Weapon Damage on skills. And focusing on an element allows us to take advantage of large multipliers for that damage-type.

In this build, we focus on Acid damage and obtain bonuses through gear, devotions, and skills. The biggest boost to base damage comes from Lethal Assault, procced from Amarasta’s Blade Burst. Lethal Assault is a buff that adds a massive amount of acid damage. Furthermore, our helm, the Cowl of the Venomblade, converts the cold damage bonus into more acid damage, further boosting our favored damage type.

With Lethal Assault active, we basically double our base damage and therefore our overall DPS. That is a huge boost and key to this build. Lethal Assault also scales extremely well in ultimate levels - each point only gets better than the previous. So we make sure to max out this skill with bonuses on gear.

Dual-wielding Skills

Dual-wielding is an excellent setup for high damage output. This is because there is an inherent chance to hit with both weapons on a default attack, because many skills allow us to hit with both weapons at once, and because weapons as gear have good bonuses for damage.

In addition, the Nightblade class has a set of Weapon-Pool Skills that greatly boost dual-wielding performance. These are skills with a chance to activate with every default attack, and represent great Skill Multipliers in the form of hits with both weapons (all of them), AOE (Belgothian’s Shears and Whirling Death), additional flat damage (all of them), multiple hits (Amarasta’s Quick Cut), and huge % Weapon damage multipliers (Execution). Nidalla’s Hidden Hand also adds a large amount of Acid damage to the first three WPS, which is perfect for a build focused on boosting Acid damage. With the WPS from Nightblade, dual-wielding becomes extremely powerful even with default weapon attacks.

Note that WPS only work with default weapon attacks, not most skills. This is where Fire Strike comes in. Fire Strike is a default attack replacer, which means it actually takes the place of our default attack and is used instead of it for any WPS. This means that every single hit with a WPS becomes a Fire Strike hit instead. With maxed Fire Strike, Explosive Strike, and Searing Strike, we get a large weapon damage multiplier and AOE from explosive strike for all our dual-wielding WPS hits. Amarasta’s Quick Cut becomes three Fire Strike hits each with Explosive Strike AOE, Whirling Death hits six targets with Fire Strike and Explosive Strike. And Execution, is also multiplied by Fire Strike weapon damage for an even larger % weapon damage multiplier.

This is a huge damage boost that is key to the build. A dual-wield WPS build is already decent, adding another 168% full modifier is amazing and a rare thing to find in end-game. This is why Fire Strike is a very synergistic skill with dual-wielding and WPS.

There are other default attack replacers. Cadence from the Soldier class unfortunately only works with WPS on the two normal attacks that build charge, but with no boost at all to weapon damage on those hits. The Cadence hit itself meanwhile is not a default attack, and cannot trigger WPS. Therefore it is largely anti-synergistic. The Shaman class has Savagery, but that takes several charges to approach the effectiveness of Fire Strike, while Fire Strike is powerful from beginning to end. Shaman passives also are geared toward two-handed weapons, which does nothing for us. Fire Strike is ultimately the most complementary skill.

Resistance reduction

Every good build has to have a strategy for reducing enemy resistances, especially a build centered around a single element such as this one. Otherwise, bosses and tough monsters with high resistances will drive our damage into the ground by leaving us with a tiny damage multiplier in the Enemy Mitigation category (such as x20% if they have 80% resistance).

In this build, we use Night’s Chill attached to Veil of Shadow to passively reduce Acid resistance of our enemies. It always works and applies immediately to anything within melee range, which is just what we need as a melee character. In addition, Acid Spray from the Manticore class provides an additional large reduction to resistances. Care must be taken with Acid Spray, as it does not stack with a large number of other sources of resistance reduction, while Night’s Chill stacks with everything. I like to refer to this chart for resistance reduction:

Nidalla’s Legwraps also provide another source of resistance reduction when we are hit, which is helpful enough for our toughest enemies, the ones where we really need it anyway. It also stacks with other sources.

Leveling Guide

I prefer to level characters in a way that matches with the end-game build, rather than other potentially easier but completely unrelated leveling builds. This lets the player learn and see how the build comes together step by step, and gain some practice in the particular mechanics of the build. As such, here is my leveling guide:

Level 2: Open up with Nightblade class. Add 1 point to Dual Blades to enable dual-wielding, and add 1 point to Amarasta’s Blade Burst. ABB is an excellent skill at lower level and gives us some AOE potential, which is very helpful for a melee build. Put ABB on the left mouse button and use it as your main attack.
Level 3-10: Level up ABB to 6 points to get 100% weapon damage from it. Then add to the Nightblade mastery until you get Lethal Assault. This gives us a huge flat damage bonus that will remain active throughout all combat. It doesn’t matter at these levels that we have multiple damage types. Also, pick up one point in Shadow Strike along the way for mobility.
Level 10:
http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-onEg4e

Level 10-20:
Max Lethal Assault. This is pretty much all the flat damage we need for now. Then add to Pneumatic Burst until rank 10. This gives us a great heal tool and total speed, which will improve both our movement speed and attack speed and help a lot with clear times. Start leveling Demolitionist to 10 and pick up 1 point in Fire Strike and start leveling up Explosive Strike, which adds AOE and a big weapon damage multiplier to our dual-wielding.

This warrants a shift in play style. No longer do we keep ABB as the main attack. Rather, we use it just to proc Lethal Assault and then attack with Fire Strike. Bind Fire Strike to the left mouse button now and put ABB elsewhere. This will take some practice, but you will start to get a sense of when to reapply ABB and get a feel for the rhythm of the build.
Level 20: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-6KhkvA

Level 20-30:
Max Explosive Strike. You should be able to do so by the early 20s. Add a Vitriolic Gallstone to one of your weapons and make sure to turn on the buff. Next, pick up 11 points in Vindictive Flame for an excellent boost to attack speed, move speed, and health regeneration. This should help with both clear speed and sustain. At level 24, make sure to add a Haunted Steel to one of your weapons for lifesteal, which will greatly improve your sustain. You can max Fire Strike after that, or earlier if you are feeling tanky enough and want to improve DPS. The core of the build is now complete, and you should be melting through enemies and bosses easily.

Note on Gearing: Enemies will start hitting harder at this point. Try to prioritize gear that has high armor ratings, even if they show fewer affixes. Most damage is physical and armor is the best way to mitigate that. Also, if this is not your first character, add components such as Scaled Hide and Ancient Armor Plate to greatly boost your armor. Also prioritize Defensive Ability, Health, and +% Health Regen for survivability. Definitely try to get lifesteal through some means, either with Haunted Steel in a weapon or a weapon that has a lifesteal affix.

Note on Gameplay: At this point in our build, all of our skills work equally well with ranged and melee weapons. ABB and Fire Strike both work with ranged attacks. Pick up a two-handed ranged weapon, preferably with attack speed or bonuses to Acid or Poison damage, and you can play as a ranged/melee hybrid with equal effectiveness. Gameplay is the same: hit with ABB to proc Lethal Assault and then shoot primarily with Fire Strike. This will also help with survivability as you can hit enemies first from afar.
Level 30: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-Gp8kBb

Level 30-50:
Start getting points in Veil of Shadow and Night’s Chill to debuff enemy resistances. Then start working on WPS. 5 points in Belgothian Shears is a good start. Keep in mind that Amarasta’s Quick Cut and Whirling Death will lower your single target DPS at low levels until you get more points on them, so first save up about 5 points and then add 5 to the skill all at once.

Then get more Nightblade Mastery, picking up Amarasta’s Quick Cut and Whirling Death by putting 8 points in at once as described. Pick up single points in Ring of Steel and the Ring of Frost transmuter for CC, and Blade Barrier. I also recommended leveling Demolitionist to get 3 points in Searing Strike.

Level 50: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-d2LqSw

Level 50-70:
We max out Nightblade mastery, pick up 5 points in Execution, and then bring Demolitionist up to 32 and get Blast Shield. I actually would temporarily remove points from the first three WPS to get to Execution and Blast Shield faster. We will reinvest later in them, and for now Explosive Strike is enough AOE.
Level 70: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-dWaCF2

Level 70-85:
Now we just finish up with Flashbang and Searing Light… Get Flashbang to 12 for a huge CC and boost to our effective OA. Then round out the rest with points in Veil of Shadow, get all the WPS and Nidalla’s Hidden Hand, and get the Nightblade passives along the bottom. The final build will look like this assuming we don’t have any +skills:
http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-zKZC2l

Devotion guide:
Our overall goal with devotions is to first rush for Manticore, then Behemoth, then finish with Abomination. Certain devotions provide more value early game, and others late game. For the purposes of leveling, we will pick up early game devotions first then respec out of them later. This guide reflects how you would get devotions for easy leveling, it is not the shortest path to getting the complete set of devotions.

Steps:
Get 1 Red
Complete Jackal
Complete Rat
Complete Scorpion, bind Scorpion Sting to Fire Strike
Start on Manticore
Once you have 15 devotion points, we will respec to go deeper into Manticore:
-remove Manticore points
-Add Red and Green Crossroads
-Remove all points from Rat
-Add 5 points to Manticore until we get to Acid Spray at the tail. Bind Acid Spray to Fire Strike and Scorpion Sting to ABB or Shadow Strike
Get 1 Blue
Complete Eel
Remove Blue Crossroads
Complete Behemoth
Remove Green Crossroads
Complete Hawk
Complete Oklaine’s Lantern
Finish Manticore by adding 1 point to the right leg, which we left off before
Complete Empty Throne
Remove right leg of Manticore
Complete Chariot of the Dead
Remove all points from Scorpion
Complete Spider
Get middle column and left side of Abomination
Get first two nodes in Ulzuin’s Torch

[Isdrydge]

First of all, great post, really clear.

I never think about a Saboteur to use the venom set, i am thinking more on witch hunter so i’m really surprised.

Have to read more precisely but again thanks for sharing your build

[Gutz]

Very nice build.

What kind of rare shoulder/foot should I look for this build?

[edisonian]

Very nice build.

What kind of rare shoulder/foot should I look for this build?

The best Monster-Infrequent shoulder is the Zantarin’s Shoulderpad, which gives +3 to Lethal Assault. But it also needs good affixes to be good. Actually, the Elite Outcast’s Chilled Pauldrons is quite good and gives +2 to Lethal Assault and is just purchasable. But any rare shoulderpad, even crafted, is fine. The best affixes to look for are resists, health, and OA/DA.

For boots, I ended up using Elite Harvest Footpads to cover a bunch of key resistances, but that depends on what other gear you have. I think any boots with good resists, health, OA/DA are good. Boots are a survivability slot for this build. Movespeed is not even needed, with Pneumatic Burst, Vindictive Flame and a component we cap movespeed anyway.

[Chthon]

Lol, glad to see someone else tried to go poison on Saboteur. Nice build

I would like to know your poison damage and modifier though. I’m having troubles in that department

[tryhard_pants]

You should consider taking Rat instead of Oklaine’s Lantern

I have a witch hunter using 3/4 venomblade but still missing the chestpiece. Does it have cold->acid conversion on it? Anyway after seeing your build I realized how weak ABB was and put those points into the WPS skills. Thanks for sharing!

[Evange]

Isn’t the base damage of daggers very low? Both ABB and Fire strike (also all dual wield line of skills) scale with weapon damage. Not to mention lifesteal too. You should consider getting the 3pc Venomblade set bonus; CD reduction is not readily available for non casters.

Lastly why take both Searing Light and Circle of Slaughter? I don’t think the fumble chance stacks…

[edisonian]

You should consider taking Rat instead of Oklaine’s Lantern

I have a witch hunter using 3/4 venomblade but still missing the chestpiece. Does it have cold->acid conversion on it? Anyway after seeing your build I realized how weak ABB was and put those points into the WPS skills. Thanks for sharing!

I actually had Rat before, but that gives us more poison damage but loses Attack Speed, Crit Damage, OA, +% All Damage, and energy regen. Not sure, but I may need another Ectoplasm to make up for the energy. I do feel energy starved on my other Saboteur that doesn’t have Lantern with one Ectoplasm. I’m not sure it’s worth it. Oklaine’s Lantern is an amazing devotion if you are using daggers.

ABB is weak by itself, but Lethal Assault is a huge boost to flat damage.

Isn’t the base damage of daggers very low? Both ABB and Fire strike (also all dual wield line of skills) scale with weapon damage. Not to mention lifesteal too. You should consider getting the 3pc Venomblade set bonus; CD reduction is not readily available for non casters.

Lastly why take both Searing Light and Circle of Slaughter? I don’t think the fumble chance stacks…

The damage of your weapon is only a small part of your total flat damage in end-game. Yes, daggers have slightly lower base damage, but that is much smaller than damage bonuses elsewhere. They have faster attack speed though, and that lets us apply those other damage bonuses more often. I would take a weapon with zero damage on its own if it let us attack twice as often, for instance. Also, worth mentioning that daggers are one of the few weapon types that can have Acid damage as a base, rather than physical damage, which is basically unhelpful because we have no bonuses for it. So because of that, the dagger actually contributes more damage than any weapon out there with base physical damage.

ABB, Fire Strike, lifesteal - these all work with the additive flat bonuses we get besides the weapon itself, so same calculation there. And they also scale with the faster attack of a dagger too!

Regarding the Venomblade set: we don’t really need cooldown reduction in this build. Basically every cooldown skill already has a shorter cooldown than the duration of the effect. Flashbang, Pneumatic Burst, ABB all can have 100% uptime of the desired effect. Ring of Steel is only a few tenths of a second longer in cooldown. The only real beneficiary is Shadow Strike. This is very different from a caster build, say a Devastation Sorcerer, where cooldown matters. It just doesn’t help us all that much.

The Mace from Venomblade is definitely worse. The Sword is worth considering, but you lose about 40 points of flat acid damage because the base type is physical with a small conversion to acid, you lose about 10% crit damage, you lose about +100% Acid damage, and you gain some attack speed. Not sure it’s worth it.

Regarding Searing Light and Circle of Slaughter, that’s a good point. Having both gives a bit more consistency, and Searing Light also gives Slow and Impaired Aim. You could certainly remove either, but really they are just one skill point each and low investment.

[Syphin]

Can we get a video of this in action plssss

Great build and guide btw!

[edisonian]

Can we get a video of this in action plssss

Great build and guide btw!

Thanks! I will upload a video shortly. Never actually recorded before!

Edit: Uploaded in main post!

[edisonian]

Lol, glad to see someone else tried to go poison on Saboteur. Nice build

I would like to know your poison damage and modifier though. I’m having troubles in that department

Thanks!

The build is not actually that great on poison damage (separate from acid damage) on the character in particular. I used to take the Rat constellation, which boosted that a lot, but have since dropped it. My character sheet reads 940 average poison damage, with a modifier of +1638% and +72% duration. Most of our poison damage actually comes from devotions. Scorpion, Manticore, and Abomination procs all have huge poison damage, and our bonuses boost those. There just isn’t a lot on the character sheet itself.

[Chthon]

Thanks!

The build is not actually that great on poison damage (separate from acid damage) on the character in particular. I used to take the Rat constellation, which boosted that a lot, but have since dropped it. My character sheet reads 940 average poison damage, with a modifier of +1638% and +72% duration. Most of our poison damage actually comes from devotions. Scorpion, Manticore, and Abomination procs all have huge poison damage, and our bonuses boost those. There just isn’t a lot on the character sheet itself.

Ah alright, unlike you i focused on poison which is why it never hit completion. Maybe i shouldn’t underestimate acid itself.

Also, you going for Wayward soul for sustain is also a place where we differ. I got a little greedy and invested in the offensive ability node of Ulzuin’s Torch. Defense was a major concern for me, chariot looks good so would go for it

[edisonian]

Ah alright, unlike you i focused on poison which is why it never hit completion. Maybe i shouldn’t underestimate acid itself.

Also, you going for Wayward soul for sustain is also a place where we differ. I got a little greedy and invested in the offensive ability node of Ulzuin’s Torch. Defense was a major concern for me, chariot looks good so would go for it

Acid is nice in that it is instantaneous. Also, Poison as a DoT means repeatedly hitting a target doesn’t build up more (if I understand it correctly).

Chariot also has a nice OA node at the end.

[Chthon]

Acid is nice in that it is instantaneous. Also, Poison as a DoT means repeatedly hitting a target doesn’t build up more (if I understand it correctly).

Chariot also has a nice OA node at the end.

I know about Chariot being good for OA, but always went with Ulzuin’s torch’s offensive node and got my raw OA from other sources. This worked for my other profiles but it reduced sustainability on this one. I never used Wayward souls because i thought it was triggered by crits. But seeing it used here i remembered it was changed

[JoV]

Ok first I dont have much experience in saboteur class, but this build looks solid

Looking it a bit I cant resist feeling that Venomlash would be better weapon.

Also I would find a way to put few points in flame touched and temper (to up OA and to get some flat phys dmg) Also one point to BWC and its transmuter High potency could save your life from hard hitters ie fabius, mos,…

Some of your pierce dmg is converted to acid (venomblade chest) so think about upping dual blades.

Changing medal and pants, could work out nicely, some good rolled dreg sect with abundance of +% resistances and mark of divinity would be perfect imo. (your HP and OA would go up and you would gain marks proc that is uber in terms of saving life)

I can see you probably have energy problems due to having ectoplasm in one ring, put arcane spark in medal to leach energy and your problems will be solved (With venomlashs+12/12 PB you will probably have max atc sped without using dread skull)

If you find yourself in shortage of skill points take some other relic with +1 to NB skills (Nemesis maybe), you will lose some dmg but it will be compensated with + to skills, its worth trying.

Hope that this will be of some help

[system]

Hi, can u please explain on the + 7%A/7%C and where are Affixes: Tyrant’s/Plaguebearer’s/Corrosive of Alacrity/Riftfound/Fury/Fervor??? How to get them???
I am relatively new in Grim Dawn world. Hence, I seek your assistance please. Thank you.

Main Hand: Basilisk Claw - Vitriolic Gallstone + Outcast’s Venom
Off Hand: Basilisk Claw - Haunted Steel + Outcast’s Venom
Head: Cowl of the Venomblade - Leathery Hide/Sanctified Bone + 7%A/7%C
Chest: Stealth Jacket of the Venomblade - Chains of Oleron + 7%A/7%C
Pants: Nidalla’s Legwraps - Silk Swatch + 7%A/7%C
Shoulders: Prismatic Zantarin’s Shoulderguard of Vitality - Scaled Hide + 7%A/7%C
Gloves: Grasp of Unchained Might - Consecrated Wrappings + 7%A/7%C
Boots: Elite Harvest Footpads - Mark of Mogdrogen + 7%A/7%C
Belt: Blade Breaker Sash - Anything to cap resists
Amulet: Peerless Eye of Beronath - Focusing Prism + Mogdrogen’s Sanctity / Survivor’s Ingenuity
Ring 1: Corrosive Viloth’s Ring of Alacrity/Rifthound/Attack/Readiness/Dranghoul - Corpse Dust + Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Ring 2: Incorruptible Gollus’ Ring of Alacrity/Rifthound/Attack/Readiness/Dranghoul - Ectoplasm + Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Medal - Mark of Fierce Resolve - Dread Skull
Relic - Malediction

Weapons: Slithtongue / Rift Scouge Slicer / Exalted Dagger (craftable) - Affixes: Tyrant’s/Plaguebearer’s/Corrosive of Alacrity/Riftfound/Fury/Fervor
Head: Shadowspark Hood / Empowered Faceguard of Perdition / Crafted
Chest: Empowered Chestguard of Perdition / Empowered Fused Carapace Armor / Crafted
Pants: Swampdweller’s / Hermits / Slithscale - Anything is fine here, look for survivability and resists
Shoulders: Elite Outcast’s Chilled Pauldrons / Amarastan Pauldrons / Empowered Shoulderguards of Perdition / Crafted
Gloves: Iceskorn Talons / Empowered Handguards of Perdition / Crafted - look for attack speed
Boots: Serpentine Wraps / Elite Harvest Footpads / Crafted
Belt: Empowered Alchemist’s Belt / anything for survivability
Amulet: Rhowari Rancor / Empowered Warpshard / Crafted - look for ADCtH
Ring 1: Amarastan Sigil / Crafted rings with same affixes as above
Ring 2: Amarastan Sigil / Crafted rings with same affixes as above
Medal - Devil’s Badge of Venom
Relic - Corruption/Ruination

[edisonian]

Ok first I dont have much experience in saboteur class, but this build looks solid

Thanks!

Looking it a bit I cant resist feeling that Venomlash would be better weapon.

I’ve been looking at weapon alternatives. That looks promising. I would probably only replace one Basilisk Claw though, the stats on that are just too good: +10-12% crit damage, +80 OA, up to +200% Acid damage. And I need at least one to max Lethal Assault, which is critical. The last two ranks give me +32 flat Acid damage.

Also I would find a way to put few points in flame touched and temper (to up OA and to get some flat phys dmg) Also one point to BWC and its transmuter High potency could save your life from hard hitters ie fabius, mos,…

Some of your pierce dmg is converted to acid (venomblade chest) so think about upping dual blades.

The chest conversion I have is 36%, which doesn’t give the best rate of return on those skills. Dual Blades is only adding 3 points per rank, so like 1 Acid damage per rank. Temper only gives 1-2 avg Phys damage per rank, and we have no support for +% Physical damage. I considered Flame Touched for the OA, but don’t know where to pull the points from. Overall, the build is very hungry for skill points. I will definitely try BWC though, I like that.

Changing medal and pants, could work out nicely, some good rolled dreg sect with abundance of +% resistances and mark of divinity would be perfect imo. (your HP and OA would go up and you would gain marks proc that is uber in terms of saving life)

Still looking for good pants. Would lose the Resistance reduction on the Nidalla’s pants though. I will look into Mark of Divinity though, that could be great.

I can see you probably have energy problems due to having ectoplasm in one ring, put arcane spark in medal to leach energy and your problems will be solved (With venomlashs+12/12 PB you will probably have max atc sped without using dread skull)

To be honest, I’m not too energy starved. The bar pretty much stays full. Will try without the Ectoplasm.

If you find yourself in shortage of skill points take some other relic with +1 to NB skills (Nemesis maybe), you will lose some dmg but it will be compensated with + to skills, its worth trying.

Hope that this will be of some help

This build definitely would love more +1 NB skills, there’s a lot of skills which could use more ranks.

Thanks a lot for your help! Will try out some of your suggestions.

[edisonian]

Hi, can u please explain on the + 7%A/7%C and where are Affixes: Tyrant’s/Plaguebearer’s/Corrosive of Alacrity/Riftfound/Fury/Fervor??? How to get them???
I am relatively new in Grim Dawn world. Hence, I seek your assistance please. Thank you.

Welcome to Grim Dawn! To be honest, don’t worry about all that if you are just starting out. At lower levels, just look for items with +x% Acid Damage or +x% Poison Damage. Just follow the leveling guide I laid out in the second post.

Once you are at high levels, you can craft or farm for those items. Crafting is easier, but uses a lot of Scrap. You can just craft at the Blacksmith until you get items with those affixes. THe 7%A/7%C, which stands for +7% Aether Resistance and +7% Chaos Resistance, is an Augment from the Black Legion that won’t be available until near the end of the game anyway. You don’t have to worry about those Resistances until late in the game.

[edisonian]

This build has been updated for 1.0.0.7. Notably, the build got a huge AoE buff because Explosive Strike AoE now works for melee attacks. The build is much improved as a result.

Also, flat poison damage has been added to Merciless Repertoire, and Nidalla’s Hidden Hand now converts more piercing damage to Acid damage, giving us about 100% conversion on three of our WPS hits.

I have also improved the skill allocation, gear selection, and devotions. Notably, pairing a fast acid dagger with a Basilisk Claw lets us just about reach the attack speed cap. Even though Grimcalc is messed up, it still shows the correct Nightblade skills and devotions. I have also posted image of the skill sheet to remedy this.

Edit: Also updated guide for pre-endgame craftable gear.