[1.0.7.1] Bass Unit - 2H Leviathan Cadence Blademaster, Gladiator farmer (8 minutes w. banner)

Hello, wonderful people!
After the patch Leviathan seems more attractive than ever with fresh 50% cold to physical conversion.
And after all it’s a Blademaster weapon, so I decided to make use of it with Blademaster.

Meet the Bass Unit.

Clears Crucible in 8 minutes under Vanguard banner.
This build shares the thread with Tactician, Commando, Death Knight and Witchblade subvariations.

>> Grimtools << default setup

Subvariations

[spoiler]I made appropriate tests and the list of optimal combinations for this build is ready.

Death Knight, Blademaster, Commando, Witchblade and Tactician were tested, I made 1-2 runs with each, estimated chances to die and clear times.
Tests were performed with 3 buffs and Vanguard banner.

Swapped only second mastery and Gladiator’s Belt for Death Knight.

Clear times, ascending:

  1. Witchblade: 7-8 minutes, fastest one;
  2. Blademaster, Death Knight, Commando: ~8 minutes;
  3. Tactician: ~9 minutes.

Survivability, ascending:

  1. Witchblade: glassiest one, needs careful playstyle;
  2. Death Knight;
  3. Commando;
  4. Blademaster;
  5. Tactician: most unkillable one.

[/spoiler]

Core of the build

  • Build is self-explanatory: Leviathan, Cadence, Warborn, Peerless Eye of Beronath. Straight and simple.
  • Skill tree includes Blitz, transmuted Blade Arc and Ring of Steel as easy AOE nukes.
  • I went Empyrion devotion route because damage-wise it’s same as Oleron’s, but the safety is much better. Also Harp solves all common problems of such energy hungry builds.
  • Build’s defenses include nice amount of health and DA, 3900 Armor and 29% permanent phys resistance, 27% permanent dodge raising to 87% when boots proc is active, RoS for fumble, Will of Menhir, Ghoul and Prismatic Diamond. It’s really hard to kill.
  • This build includes craftable items with armor bonus (Warborn Visor, Mark of Kalastor and Windshear Greaves). Always try to craft items with armor.

Devotion route

  • Bull, Assassin’s Blade, Eel, Toad, Hawk, Kraken
  • Harp, Solemn Watcher, Sailor’s Guide, Empyrion
  • Ghoul, Obelisk of Menhir.
    After completing Bull you must remove the Primordial node from crossroads at the spirit guide.
    Also you can take Ghoul earlier if you feel unsafe; in this case don’t forget to remove the Chaos node from crossroads once Kraken is completed.

After completing Bull you must remove the Primordial node from crossroads at the spirit guide.

Gameplay

  • Aggressive melee combat.
  • Aleksander, Theodin and Anasteria are easily facerolled with Aetherward Oil. I think I’ll include this advice in every build. Aetherward Oil is just so good in dealing with hard aetherial hitters fast.

Max crit landed in Crucible (solo, Crucible buffs, Vanguard banner)

Stats pane (permanent auras, Pneumatic Burst, Deadly Momentum, Lethal Assault up)

Videos

//youtu.be/18E23LnexYs

This setup is so versatile, it can be used with any mastery instead of Nightblade. I think Commando is near perfect choice too. But today I’ll try it with Death Knight.

Funny because Grimtools is down now. :stuck_out_tongue:

I made GT link yesterday :rolleyes:

WB was already known to do 7 min runs on the previous patch. I’m sure DK would do so well too.

Indeed.
This particular build is kinda special: it is well rounded to not need any additional support or resistances from other classes, so anyone using this build can take WB, Commando, DK, even battlemage and play with comfort.
Taking WB or DK will make it perform even faster.

Great build, added to my thread. :wink:

Hi vere, very interesting build: how would a DK version of this look like in your opinion?

DK should get Spectral Binding + Spectral Wrath maxed, Mark of Torment, Soul Harvest and maybe Reaping Strike. That’s it, DK needs no more.
Grimtools is offline for a while, so I can’t provide gt link for DK right now

I made appropriate tests yesterday and now the list of optimal combinations for this build is ready.

Death Knight, Blademaster, Commando, Witchblade and Tactician were tested, I made 1-2 runs with each, estimated chances to die and clear times.
Tests were performed with 3 buffs and Vanguard banner.

Swapped only second mastery and Gladiator’s Belt for Death Knight.

Clear times, ascending:

  1. Witchblade: 7-8 minutes, fastest one;
  2. Blademaster, Death Knight, Commando: ~8 minutes;
  3. Tactician: ~9 minutes.

Survivability, ascending:

  1. Witchblade: glassiest one, needs careful playstyle;
  2. Death Knight;
  3. Commando;
  4. Blademaster;
  5. Tactician: most unkillable one.

Hi, how is this build compared to Avenger set?

Avenger is clearly superior.

As you invested in cunning, I would dump more points on Anatomy of murder for more dmg, OA and faster killing against bunch of human heroes/bosses. From 2 to 6/12, its 15% more bonus dmg against humans and 60 more cunning.

This build is somewhat tight on skillpoints

Wew, I would lower points on lethal assault or circle of slaughter;)

Flat damage, OA and chance to fumble? Not worth it

I tried the build without circle of slaughter and FYI it works just fine (with the additional benefit of having less keys to press) :smiley: Managed to get a 7:15 run in without crappy mutators (no toughened/armored/shattered). The other runs were 7:40-8mins+ (cause of said crappy mutators).

Yes, it may be fine btw. When I went killing Ravager with different builds, Nightblade based ones live best namely because Circle of Slaughter.
0%, 30% and 40% chance to fumble are different levels of survivability.
I won’t drop CoS because I clearly know how good it is :wink:

For ravager yes, otherwise it’s redundant

Redundant for pilot like you. Otherwise it’s more safe. Depending on luck it can completely disable 1 of 4 nemeses in melee combat with guarantee. Safer gameplay for relatively low price