[1.1.7.0] [Blademaster] The Darkness Beckons

[Evil_Baka]

Sheet DPS is Blade Burst.

Stats and damage shown for both are with passives, Pneumatic Burst and Lethal Assault active.

Grimtools

Setup I use

My gear is crafted for Slow resistance.

Probably BiS Affixes Setup

Craft gear for % crit damage if you want more offense or % armour if you want more defense.

Introduction

In 1.1.5.0, Morgoneth released and a bunch of related items were added with him, many of which got random bonuses to Blitz and Blindside spread across them. As strange as it sounds, I was looking forward to seeing someone try Cold Blitz back then but I have yet to see it happen. Thus, I gave it a try myself and decided to post the result for community impressions and feedback.

With all that said, temper your expectations - it’s still S&B Blademaster.

Build Concept

• Blitz is our main cooldown nuke, effectively converted to pure Cold/Frostburn damage.
• In between Blitzes, we rotate around Amatok’s Breath and Blade Burst for ways to deal damage.
• All 3 skills are powered by Lethal Assault feeding flat damage into them.
• Defense comes from Fumble/Dodge/Deflect and OA shred from Nightblade, Overguard/Shield Training providing Shield boosts and Menhir’s Bulwark providing % Damage Absorption/Increased Healing and War Cry/Morgoneth’s ring providing enemy damage reduction in a wide area.
• Other notable defenses are Prismatic Diamond, Ghoulish Hunger, Menhir’s Will and Blade Barrier.

Abilities

Blitz (Whirlpool): One of our cooldown abilities for dealing damage.
Overguard: Increases our shield’s effectiveness and provides damage absorption for a time.
Amarasta’s Blade Burst (Elemental Storm): Provides some damage output when Blitz and Amatok are on cooldown and a damage and Offensive Ability buff through it’s modifier.
Ring of Steel (Blizzard): Provides Fumble in an area around us.
Pneumatic Burst: Provides Dodge/Deflect and Defensive Ability.
Blade Barrier: 3 seconds of invincibility. Use it to intentionally block a strong attack like Aleksander’s Meteor or as a safety net if you are about to die.
Amatok’s Breath (Rumor): One of our core damage abilities after Blitz and Blade Burst.

Field Command (Ghoulish Hunger): Provides increased armour and Offensive/Defensive Ability.
Menhir’s Bulwark: Provides a myriad of defensive bonuses and a nice chunk of flat Physical damage that is partially or fully converted by our attacks.
Veil of Shadow: Provides OA strip, speed reduction and resist reduction.
Chilling Weapons: Increases our Cold damage dealt. The conversion is also welcome in a few places.
Frostdread Presence: Increases our Cold damage dealt all around.

Resist Reduction

Night’s Chill: -40% Cold resistance passively to all enemies around your character.
Elemental Storm: 32 reduced Elemental resistance to enemies inside the vortex.
Rumor: -23% Cold resistance as a debuff that spreads like a contagion.
Mythical Band of the Eternal Haunt: -10% Cold resistance as a debuff that spreads like a contagion.
Viper: 20% reduced target’s Elemental resistance applied by any and all our weapon-based attacks.

In total, this leaves us at -73% Cold resistance, 20% reduced and 32 reduced Elemental resistance. Not great but we gotta make do.

Night’s Chill can be slightly more/less depending on gear affixes like “of Shattering” or “of the Winter Storm”.

Attributes

Split investment between Cunning and Physique to build up OA/DA. Feel free to change how much of either you want, I went with equal amounts pushing 2900+ in both.

Gear

• I highly recommend trying to get “of Amarasta’s Flurry” on one piece of your gear. The Chaos and Slow resistance fit us like a glove and it completes Lethal Assault at 22/12.
• Similarly, getting +1 to Lethal Assault for a completion bonus on your Nidalla’s Outbreak is advised.
• Look out for Elemental, Acid, Pierce, Chaos and Slow resistances on affixes when chasing after Infrequents.

Playstyle

Use Blade Burst, Ring of Steel, Blitz and Amatok’s Breath whenever they are off cooldown. Pneumatic Burst can be used off cooldown as well or can be kept and timed to heal off a glancing blow. Overguard if your health is dropping, Blade Barrier if your health drops too much or you can rely on Ghoulish Hunger.

Kills and Achievements

Iron Maiden

Lokarr

[mad_lee]

Hey, man, it would be nice if you include at least some screenshots (in case you can’t record a video) with build’s performance. Or at least write couple of sentences of what build can do. I have looked thru the guide 5 times and I have no idea what this build can and can’t do.

[Evil_Baka]

Done. If you or any of the other Crucible players want to try it at 150-170 to test how it does, I’d be happy to send the character file over .

[Crittrain]

I like it baka, When you have time send me file in discord buddy ill try her out

[Nery]

Nice idea, S&B builds are rare, Blitz even more. I think last build like this was updated early FG era and made back in AoM.

[RxJunkie]

I’d be happy to send the character file over

You can zip the character and attach it to your post for anybody to try.

[xOMOCHIx]

Interesting.
I am worried that the amount of RD is small, but it doesn’t seem that bad overall. Anyway, well done!

[Xervous]

Dare I wonder how this functions with a SS focus, thinking back to the cold S&B BM of 1.0.0.9?

[Evil_Baka]

Guide has been re-done for 1.1.7.0.

• Cadence is gone. In retrospect, I didn’t like how Cadence was bringing down the build by taking up so many gear slots and skill points away from Blitz, so the new version instead ditches it and goes all-in on Blitz and supporting cooldown skills.

• Defense has improved substantially - physical resistance has more than doubled (with a good Warden’s Fortress), we have War Cry for more target damage reduction with Morgoneth to fill in gaps in downtime, Menhir’s Bulwark gives us % damage absorption, increased healing done and life reduction resistance. The build is notably safer than before when I tested it against Maiden and Lokarr.

• Unfortunately, swapping in Milton’s Casque and Warden’s Fortress present 2 issues. The first is an additional 2 MIs to farm, thankfully both are close to rifts so are easy to repeat farm. The second issue is the loss of at least 20% Cold RR between Gravetouch and Crown of the Winter King (technically more as Gravetouch and Chilled Grips of Hagarrad allowed us to hardcap it before). Night’s Embrace and Viper help soften the blow a bit but it is worth noting.

Edit: Forgot augments on the BiS setup. Derp . Fixed now.

[Iyas]

sry for hijacking your thread.

What do you think about the new alkamos scythe?

[Evil_Baka]

What do you think about the new alkamos scythe?

Very strong, lots of damage potential with Lethal Assault + Menhir’s Bulwark and while you could go Blitz or Ring of Steel with it, i think Cadence or Blade Arc are going to be far stronger. Only RR is somewhat problematic.

I don’t plan on posting a build for it but I’d be surprised if no one else does in the coming weeks/months.