[1.0.0.9]Markovian Madness - Tank Bleed Witchblade - The Crucible Butcher


Following a great deception with regards to it’s own melee battle prowess and having fits of identity once a less known warrior named simply “Warborn” appeared into Cairn, the once noble general Markovian fell into madness, threw away his trusty mace and grabbed a Butcher’s axe. He was last seen running around Cairn and The Crucible, slaughtering both friend and foe and calling them “Friend” for some ungodly reason.

The most frightening thing is how well it works. This is one of the fastest and truly tankiest builds I’ve ever played, a rare combination. able to clear Crucible 140-150 in just 5:30 min and with buying buffs only once for 100-150.

Video: Gladiator 140-150(5:30 min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hJNV6bQKM

Could have been a bit faster but got low crits at last wave. Also at 149 Sentinel jumps me very quickly. Regardless, it’s a good strategy to cheese Sharz right from the start.

Grimtool:http://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVAYXlVD

Devotion Binding:
Blade Arc: Falcon Swoop
Rend: Curse Of Fraily
Howl of Modgdrogen: War Cry


Pic with judicator rings buff on

Make no mistake, if you want to see the highest crit numbers then Bloodrager is the way to go. But if that is the case then how can Markovian with crits up to 380k be as fast if not faster then Bloodrager with crits up to 520K?

The answers are simple:

1. Superb AOE bleed damage from 23/16 Counter strike and the Helm proc " MArkovian’s wall".

Counter Strike (with crucible buffs):

Markovian"s Wall (with crucible buffs):

2. Flexibility in using all your skills - defense, offense and mobility, due to the set proc. Same for devotions. You will be able to have Howl of Mogdrogen up 90% of the time.

3. Excellent taking, allowing you to just aggro and melt the toughest mobs there are in crucible with the skills from point nr 1.

The advantages of playing Witch Blade for Bleed build:

1.More compact healing. Meaning better regen and Portable heal from BoD. Exctly what a Tanky DoT build needs.

2. CoF is not mana intensive, you cast it a single time in a large area and kills lesser mobs via rend too. It also has very consistent Resist Reduction, a solid -50% to bleed.

3. Easier with resists due to Bod line, even easier with MArkovian set that is very resist friendly.

In closing:

A special thank you to Drizzto as this build was inspired from a conversation attempting to redeem Markovian with a physical/bleed hybrid. In the end it seems that pure bleed does better damage. It’s probably the last straw that drove Markovian to insanity.

Thank you to the nice person who provided me with a +5 BA Badge when I had only +2, allowing me to show this build at it’s best.

reserved. Might fully finish tomorrow.

Attachment: mark bleed soldier.jpg
Attachment: mark bleed occult.jpg
Attachment: devo1.jpg
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Don’t even need to play to love this build. <3

Thanks. Markovian loves you too:D

Ugh. Was taking a break until the expansion hit. Break might be over. And it might be time for ANOTHER Witchblade. Never thought I’d say that again.

Build looks awesome.

A Markovian Bleeder? 11/10 for Innovation

Grats on latest build

having tried a lot of bleed builds, (Drizzto’s warder, Chthon’s druid, my own farmstead 2hnd build), can’t wait to try this one, should melt vanilla as well :rolleyes:

I sincerely hope we get some Bleed “spell” though. I’ve been wanting to try my hands on Bleed casters. Either that or I want a Poison Caster who doesn’t have name “Dreeg” pasted to it. I mean I am devout follower of Dreeg and all but even I want to engage in some blasphemy every once in a while :rolleyes:

Nice one :slight_smile:

Idk have you tried and I know it would demand some devotion changes, but maybe Blodsong could provide even more bleed AOE?

I really wanted to, because of thaat proc, But then you lose Berserk devotion. Edit: maybe replace it with fox

Idk if it’s best trade off. You do get that Laceration bonus from bloodsong. I’ll try it and it’s god variation for anyone who wants something diverse.

Markovian rebirth <3, glad you posted it. :slight_smile:

Obviously i respeced my Witch Blade the minute i saw Superfluffs latest build. And yet again its really fun to play. Thanks!

Hmm, maybe I can try this with Bloodsong, never had any success with bleed warder build due to mana consumption

Sure just use this devotion pattern for Bloodsong http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-e4glhG

I will play around with it today. Damage is kind of the same overall. What you will miss from Buther axe is that heal from the proc. That will save your ass in the last 2 waves sometimes.

great then I will probably go for the blood song then:p

am currently doing this toon for vanilla, I might instead go for a PITAmaster axe to cap blade arc then CS Go for a counterstrike badge of mastery to cap CS… :rolleyes:

Ah, you can just use oleron gloves to cap BA. Colossal grasp is too good to pass in crucible. It allso gives + 3k trauma damage to laceration so it kinda compensates for the first 3 seconds of dmg.

As for Pit axe, a bloodthirsty of cruelty/of the slayer would be great. Almost impossible to find, but great.

There goes the myth of Counter Strike being garbage. :smiley:

So is the gameplay style very passive since the main AOE is from counter strike and the proc from block chance?

Pretty much, your attack speed will be very slow, so all the time you will just wait for the bleed to tick (luckily it ticks hard)

If you look at the video i’m hardly being passive.:stuck_out_tongue:

I’m working it just as much as any other witch blade:D

The AOE stuff is passive yes (except BA ofc), but that is all. Those help get a better time, melt mobs faster. That is all.

Hello All,

I cannot currently view grimtool links, i am very interested in this build since i have most all of the components lying around.

Any chance someone could post a screen capture of the skills/devo setup? i would be very much grateful, please and thank you!