posting the link with just devotions hides the compromises you’re making that will leave the build with junk OA and thereby lackluster damage output.
Compared to your burger breaker devotion setup, the only constellations with OA that my setup is missing are Hawk and Chariot. That’s not a huge deal really especially when considering the dramatically higher defense TD + NG gives. Certainly it’s not going to necessarily result in “Junk” OA, whatever that exactly means.
EDIT:
My setup has Viper and Panther while yours doesn’t; so basically yours only has Chariot as an advantage. And, as stated before, my setup can use Manticore + Hawk instead of Rhowan’s Crown + Quill to further narrow the gap down to only 1% OA difference (with further slight differences in flat OA of course).
Let’s compare.I put in the hawk + manticore setup without changing anything else. Resistances are an augment to shuffle, little more.
2959 OA vs. 2962. Mostly identical
10774 hp vs. 10273, burger has slightly more it seems
2602 DA vs. 2500, Burger has ~100 more putting it comfortably in the uncrittable zone
14768-16093 cold vs. 12686-13729. burger has about 2k more cold weapon damage. Or shall we say 15% as an approximation
2267% total cold vs. 2041%, burger having about 10% high modifier when we look at base cold damage of abilities. This will diminish with better gearing (but at that point why do you need excess survivability for this build archetype when things die nigh instantly?)
whirlpool + ele storm vs. manticore for passive AoE on trash
hourglass cooldown: .89 * 16 = 14.24. Roughly 2.5 belgo carnage procs will occur during the cooldown giving it about a 11.75s cooldown. proc timing not always being optimal we can safely round to 12 for an approximation. One reset on 1.78s shadow strike every 12 seconds.
12 / 1.78 = 6.74 SS default. 2.5/1.78 = 1.40 SS from belgo, + 1 from hourglass.
So optimistically 8.14 SS default, 9.14 with hourglass. Both numbers will be lower in practice with hourglass being even closer to default due to cooldowns not lining up perfectly.
Nature’s guardians @ 17.8s cooldown. If you want to run simulations to see the precise uptime feel free to post your documentation. At a glance it looks like it will fit within the rotation. a 50-60% uptime if it procs on cooldown.
Mirror @ 16s, 30-35% uptime expected.
Numbers are up, the public gets a say.
Hey, thanks for posting numbers. One optimisation would be to only cast Mirror when NG is on cooldown. This increases the effective uptime of having either NG or Mirror up. This requires good micro though so it’s not ideal for more relaxed players.
Honestly my devotion setup originally wasn’t intended for DW but for Soulrend specifically. Still, it’s one option to explore for a DW build if enhanced tankiness is desired at the necessary cost of some offense.
Just wanted to post a quick thank you for taking the time to write this guide. It helps newer players out A LOT. Thank you!
One thing I don’t understand, is “default attacks”. I see there are many skills in the Dual Blades tree that only proc from a “default attack”. But I don’t see any skills, like Shadow Strike, or Blade Burst that describe themselves as as default attack.
So…what in this build is considered a “default attack”? Is it only using the plain Weapon Attack? Or is there something else? I’m very confused here.
Just a weapon attack that has an icon of a simple sword or a weapon attack that happens when you click on the mob with “move to” button. It’s also happens when you press on the mob with your attacking skill (like ABB or SS) while it’s on a cooldown.
There are skills that act as default attack, like savagery or fire strike. You could just google it or search these forums, plenty of info like that.
Right, I understand the skills that act as a default attack have that in the skills description. What I don’t get with this build: there’s a lot of points spent in skills that only proc on default attacks, but in Nightblade and Arcanist, there are no skills that are considered default attacks.
So then I’m supposed to be using the basic Weapon Attack quite a bit, between the cooldown skills?
I have already explained it, mate, you don’t have to use “Default Attack” button. Shadow Strike mashes two buttons - Amarasta’s Blade Burst (for self-buff) and Shadow Strike, mostly Shadow Strike, because it has very low cooldown if you have built your breaker correctly. Now when you press Shadow Strike and it’s on a cooldown, you attack with a default attack. Same with any attacking skill with cooldown, if you press it while it’s on cd, you swing your weapon with a default attack. Clear now?
Yes. If you try to use a cooldown skill like Shadow Strike or Blade Burst while on cooldown, it’ll default to your standard attack instead. Those WPSes are to make your attacks between cooldowns stronger.
Ok, so maybe I’m showing my ignorance here, but when I have either Shadow Strike or ABB on cooldown and try to use that as an attack, it doesn’t do anything but tell me “I can’t do that now” or something to that effect. I just went into the game and verified that. My character doesn’t attack, it just stands there.
I use a controller, but I also have buttons setup for KB and Mouse, and neither gives me a “default attack” when I try to use the skill on cool down. So it’s not a controller issue.
Also: you say “Shadow Strike mashes two buttons”. I don’t understand that either? Do you mean that I can somehow setup SS to also cast ABB at the same time?
The usual SS breaker setup is ABB on LMB and SS on RMB or vice versa. If you follow those bindings and press either of those skills on cooldown you get a default attack. If you bind them to any other key it won’t do the default attack. Now since you’re using a controller it might be a bit different and I’m not familiar with that part.
Note that you have to click a unit here cause of course, SS doesn’t do shit without a target.
What x1x2 said ^
Ahhh ok, this explains it then. I never used the mouse buttons for attacks of any kind, I always used them for buffs, and I used the keyboard for attacks. It’s just how I’ve always setup aRPG’s so I used the same config for this game also.
I assigned ABB and SS to the mouse buttons, and it works as people say, so all is fine, it’s just how I had it setup.
Now, the controller is different. The game assumes the LB and RB on the XB1 controller to be the same as the left and right mouse buttons. By default they assign health and energy to the bumpers, so it’ll need some changing the options. I did that and it works as well…ABB casts and then uses default attack when on cool down.
Thanks for the info, that really clears up a lot and I’m going to have to reconsider how I play the game.
Edit: I’m not quite correct on the controller. There is one button that can be assigned as the quickslot #1 button, and that button will act as a default attack if the skill in that slot is on cool down.
[QUOTE=Xervous;589952](Updated for 1.1.2.5)
Thus was born the Burger Breaker(grimtools link, updated 5/27/2019).
Faction Gear(grimtools link, updated 5/27/2019).
Hi Xervous, thanks for the updated grimtools. I found your guide extremely helpful, and my spellbreaker was my first level 100 and first serious farming toon. I was able to farm a lot of rogue dungeons and krieg sets for other characters which was very nice. I started playing in February, so its been a lot of fun the past few months.
I did go with a more defensive devotion setup(dropping DG for chariot/bemouth/Reaper) https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9kMpLN which I found helpful when I first dinged level 100. I also alternate between spectral longswords(better shadowstrike damage) and mythical crescent moon(better overall damage/defenses) based on what dungeons I am running or Nemesis I am fighting.
One question about your new devotion tree though. Is the shred on Korvaak really worth it for cold? I love blizzard, and would be sad to see it go, but if the shred helps that much I look forward to trying it out 
Thanks for the awesome guide!
A bit belated on the reply - working 3rd shift and the forumageddon got in the way.
There’s a lot of variations to go for in devotion setups such that you can build things to your preference.
-
Ultos is just raw damage in the form of OA, crit damage and % damage. The build cannot reliably proc ultos and lacks conversion to make the proc a noteworthy damage contribution. Thus you’re either going 4 points or probably ignoring it.
-
Hourglass as a 3 pointer solves slow resistance for crucible. I wouldn’t bother with it for campaign as nullification can address troublesome slows often enough.
-
Amatok is more or less interchangeable with Korvaak in the general sense, Amatok performing slightly better against trash and Korvaak performing better on single target. Korvaak is noteworthy for its petrify when your build isn’t at full peak performance.
-
Generally you shouldn’t need revenant and ghoul for campaign (just ghoul, not revenant), hand component adcth will be sufficient assuming you have enough damage. Revenant is advised for crucible (drop crown and quill) as the constant fighting ensures you’ll always have skeletons running around even if you bind it to whirling death (freeing up for more devotion procs that you’re going to take with the point savings of not having to stretch for crown).
-
dying god is amazing even at 4 point investment. OA is the lifeblood of a shadow strike breaker with your massive crit damage on shadow strike and just about any aggressive devotion proc you take (ultos, amatok, korvaak) being dependent on crits. The chaos resistance is also a godsend. Once you’ve reached a sufficient damage output DG proc is ignorable to sustain.
-
korvaak on its lonesome does a lot that amatok can’t. It gives TONS OF OA (and you’ll be hurting for high grade OA if you aren’t packing a badge of mastery). It provides chaos resistance that the build absolutely adores
What I’m seeing with your build is a lack of damage that has forced you to pick up a lot of adcth to achieve sustain. Crescent moon is an okay bandage option but any decent loxblade or chillstrife is going to obliterate the poor axe. The blanket bonuses to nightblade are helpful when point starved, but when you are well rounded the lack of +% damage begins to show. A lowly Chilled Ugdenbog Chillstrife of Frostbite clocks in with effectly ~5 less flat than a crescent moon (assuming double coldstone), but it boasts on average over +200% more cold damage (and the RR is AoE and stacks unlike crescent moon’s proc).
Silver sentinel is something of a trap on spellbreaker. It’s spectacular as filler, but you give up so much to get the 3p bonus. +1 helm is effectively mandatory with how skill starved the build is and frostdread cuirass is simply monstrous on its damage contribution. (Also noteworthy is that frostdread grants energy regen as you seem to have a setup aimed at high energy comfort). Serenity is fine as filler, but ideally you want belgo relic since everything you do is cooldown based, or Nidalla relic because it’s a bundle of useful bonuses. The point savings from netting +1 arcanist on the relic don’t make up for the opportunity cost here.
1 Like
i Wanna make a new SS build from scratch and im wondering which one to choose, this or stupid dragon infiltrator [DW Hybrid] Beginner's Phantom Infiltrator. Does anyone know the differences?
inquisitor is overtuned and as such doesn’t rely as much on gear to meet overcaps or DA thresholds. Until this changes my advice is for new players to lean infiltrator for comfort.
additionally: spellbreaker is possibly higher comfort/fun in campaign as you get more SS which translates to marginally more mobility if that’s something you care about.
1 Like
Hi,
The grimtools doesn’t show devotion bindings - could you please update it or comment on what’s bound to what?
Thanks!
Thank god that Spectral Longsword can be used in place of loxmere’s blades.
There’s little chance that my fledgling spellbreaker will survive that encounter on hardcore.