This is a physical Octavius Caster Paladin. It’s not a new idea as @omnitrio has made a similar build, but I wanted to push the damage and conversion further. Bone Lance seems kind of odd, but the build needs a filler spell that doesn’t convert our physical damage away so it’s the best option. It has similar damage to Chain Lightning so it does its job.
Try to get as much conversion as possible on the shoulders. Affixes aren’t super important, just try to get some needed resists. If you want to go greenless you can use Octavius shoulders. The build will still function but the damage will be noticably lower without the extra conversion.
Character sheet with permanent buffs and Word of Renewal.
Performance
A fairly lucky 6:11 run. Average times are between 6:25 and 6:45. A bad run might be over 7 minutes.
Video of SR82. It can probably go further but I don’t have that sort of patience.
Feedback
I think Bone Lance could use some sort of buff, even jumping through all the hoops I can to make it work it doesn’t perform much better than Chain Lightning. I know @Zantai will be reluctant to buff a build that does sub 7 minutes but I think the ability could use some love. The pierce damage makes sense thematically, but it’s kind of useless. It would be nice to convert it to physical or aether. For something more fitting, some adcth or maybe having the projectile explode into fragments on contact would be good.
Nice build, mate! Paladin is great and sturdy class, which usually don’t excels in Crucible. So what’s the conclusion? Buff Octavius and nerf Plasmodermic
Build is fascinating. Full ele to phys without Beronath Sword. Physical Box and Imp. Gladiator belt for Bat (most people would pick Avenger and not give it another thought). Just two physical devotions. Using the procs to the max. Making up of inquisotor’s no phys rr. All in all, build is way stronger and tankier (due to sustain) than classic Octavius that was deconstructed by million nerfs.
Two questions. Reprisal isn’t worth it? What’s with Assassin’s Mark on the Seal? Shouldn’t it be a priority?
There just aren’t enough points for Reprisal. I was already kind of sad that I couldn’t get more points in ascension. Maybe the points could be optimised a bit, I’m not really sure where some of the last points should be going.
The devotion bindings are also something I wasn’t sure of and probably should’ve tested more. Storm box on imp is obvious but the rest could be changed. Maybe assassin’s mark should be on bone lance and bat on seal or guardians. I’m not sure.
Edit: I don’t have as much power in aegis as other builds so the points in Reprisal also aren’t as good here as elsewhere.
What do I use when spells are on cooldown then? I wanted something to spam inbetween spells. Chain Lightning and Stormfire convert physical damage, and I don’t think Righteous Fury would be that powerful even if I had the points for it.
I think those shoulders are spot on. 4pc Octavius is good on warlords with Forcewave. Warlords have no proccers to play around with Imps and Bats so they need to max their mains.
Since he has full ele to phys he doesn’t need the fire to phys to Kalastor. 30 phys to Kalastor is nothing. And the +300% trauma to Aegis is also kinda worthless as he has neither much global flat trauma without trauma devotions nor has he much trauma on Aegis itself without Reprisal.
Besides, Octavius shoulders are one of the shittiest shoulders in the game.
Imho half this issue is the crazy strength of Storm Box in both proccing 2-pt wonder and potential scaling damage…which is not unique to this build (in fact it’s part of many inquis build of recent memory). Idk what to suggest for a nerf tweak, tho.
I think if SB was tweaked and Decree got 50%aether->physical, this would balance out for this particular build.
I must say it is nice to see a variation on devotion thinking and the use of the Decree instead of Beronath.
