Despite Beronath’s and retal DE nerfs, it is still strong and nice to play so I decided to make a build with it. Credits to @x1x1x1x2 as the first one who made retal DE build and to @kos9k for making this setup.
1.1.7.1 UPDATE: some minor tweaks but build has become considerably stronger.
Helmet - BiS for phys retal builds. Unless you have legendary version, you may use the epic one;
Armor - 3 pc of Dawnguard’s set for massive retal bonus and resists;
Weaponry - despite nerfs, I still consider Beronath very good option. As for shield, it is also BiS here; these affixes are best or nearly best but what you actually need is its mod to DE;
Boots - may be replaced with M. Stonetreaders but these ones have more flat retal damage;
Belt - huge amount of resists, flat retal;
Rings - very good here but may be replaced with well-rolled Creeping Rings or Opened Hand/Closed Fist;
Relic - yes, it’s Reckoning. Yes, I’ve tested Absolution and results were more than minute worse.
PROS AND CONS OF THE BUILD
PROS
Very simple and very tanky build, capable of doing the majority of game content (except some superbosses);
Very safe gameplay - you can just stand in the middle, hold RMB and watch everything die.
CONS
Some gear (helm and shield) is very hard to get.
VIDEO GALLERY
LOKARR
CRUCIBLE - fastest run of 5:23, probably can do even faster.
Without Beronath you need 1-2 well rolled green item (or Decree of the Circle of 5 and green shoulders) to convert ~90% of ele retal to phys.
I thought using Bero still was an acceptable sacrifice as far as the results are only a bit worse than Retal DE Oppressor’s ones.
On my oppressor where fire retal is around 30% of my total, beronath is basically 67% conversion. Hete in your build fire + lightning is around 44% of total retal, so after penalties it’s effectively 77% conversion. Beronath is much better in this setup compared to in mine.
I doesn’t proc often on bosses in deep SR but nevertheless the damage output is still good. In Crucible, if you watch attentively, you’ll see it proccing far more.
it’s better to start playing with 2H Forcewave of Blade Arc and play as a non-retal melee.
When you get the proper gear, you can respec into dedicated items.
Unfortunately, the build is poorly working w/o helm, amulet, shield and rings.
The weapon is also mandatory, since you wanna convert the lightning (and cold & fire) retal to physical. But luckily enough one can shop-farm the blueprint for the non-mythical version of the weapon in Ancient Grove.
The shields can be vendor farmed in SoT aswell, but will be much PITA to get both affix and suffix with retaliation damage.
The amulet is actually in the loot pool for quest rewards. I have gotten several of them by doing quests for the Malmouth faction.
Cheap helm substitute could be the set helm https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/9129 which via the 4piece set bonus will grant tons of lightning retal (which will be converted to physical via the sword)
But yeah, playing something else will be much easier to begin with, especially until one has the amulet, one version of the sword and a decent spectral war shield. I have a budget DK FW spam guide here with leveling etc ☄ Collection of malawiglenn's Beginner Friendly builds and also Stupid Dragon has the “pre-Krieg death knight” build guide
If you want help on FW DK, you can either look at my and/or stupid dragon’s guide, there is also a video guide on YouTube by a dude named Malagant that is pretty good (a bit old but still very relevant for someone in your position) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4jLMPm60Xo
