I need to boot up the game and change a bunch of things, that is apparently out of date. I dropped assasin’s mark devo for the reason you mentioned, although originally I got pretty consistent crits about 50% of the time between Markovian Adv/Fighting Spirit and Deadly Aim at max ranks. I took points out of FS and DA to pump up Military Conditioning and Vigor to have enough health to not get instagibbed by Ana. …and she was literally the only enemy (in crucible, anyway. I’ve been trying to get a stable crucible build before I start trying the super bosses) I needed it for. And it still wasn’t always enough. With the exception of certain enemies like the heralds or reanimators/dominators the majority of damage comes from retribution procs/targas hammer/trample. At this point cadence probably is better than MA though, and I can switch those points over too. I just really kind of liked the DA reduction, and since most of the damage is procs having them hit more consistently is kind of break even with better cadence.
I have zero need of physical resist however, and both myrmidon and changing rings would significantly unbalance the build. I have 100/100 block chance/block reduction, with 100% uptime on overguard thanks to neck and shield CDR (plus 12% armor from the 2 piece, not terribly critical but it amused me) giving me 5k armor and 11k shield damage block (not counting 80% or so uptime on Shield Wall). 5 piece Markovian can sort of sometimes get 100% uptime on overguard as well, but Markovian’s Bulwark is a terrible shield to try to build around. 990 damage blocked ptuii. Between Overguard, Menhir’s Bastion, and Seal (Stone Form is almost entirely just because I was already there for the block chance) most AOEs can barely wiggle my health bar, either. Ana is almost literally the only problem.
I have been reconsidering 100% block chance but…eh. Anything that takes block chance below 100 tends to start it cascading down to like 70%, like I drop the rings or whatever, I lose a few percent of block chance and block time reduction, switch myrmidons to cover the block time and it’s already down to like 80%. That sounds like plenty, but it means a 1 in 5 chance of RNG going PLLLPHT at some point when getting pounded on by a screen full of champion mobs and nemesiseseses. It’s also a 20% reduction in my main damage, which is the block procs. Y’know? Eh.
I was, however, under the impression that overcapping didn’t affect Ana’s RR, and it cut your shown resist in half regardless, so 80% becomes 40% regardless of overcap. Not sure why I thought that, but if it’s not true I can try that.
Also, I need to find, or check my stash, for a non-mythical Markovian’s Stratagem. another Retribution proc>35% weapon damage on MA.
Long story short, I like the IDEA of retaliation builds, but not how retaliation works in this game, and this is kind of the less-effective but more interesting (to me) version. Has the bonus of, since shields block projectiles as well, working on 95% of the mobs in the game instead of retaliations 80% or so. Also it really is super hilarious to have Zan shotgun you and soak it all proccing like 7 Targa’s Hammers.
