Introduction
Introducing Specimen 4! A crazy, face-melting, body-smashing, Witch Hunter!
Solo Self Found Journey, take 2.
Greetings Everyone and welcome!
So I decided to give 2H Acid Witch Hunter a try, using Balegor’s Crusher as my main leveling weapon. Sadly, not many 2H Melee items are available till you can safely farm Balegor at 30~ so I had planned on leveling our Nightblade using DW weapons till then, but I actually lucked out and scored a Slithbane at 17. If you find yourself not so lucky, use what is available. I’ll link a few options down below in the leveling section.
As with my previous leveling journal, this is not an end-game guide or gear showcase. This is a, how Brewshock84 leveled a Witchblade in a certain way, guide. Follow along, take your own liberties if you wish, and have fun 2H smashing and melting faces.
*Note on the solo-self-found The only thing I am doing differently this time is using Mandates from my previous playthrough with my Acid Sentinel to assist with the reputations. If you do not have access to mandates from previous play-throughs, a bit of grinding early on goes a long way.
*No Merits from FG, no XP potions from AoM - Not that i think there is anything wrong with these things, I just choose not to use them for my SSF journey.
Lets get to it.
This is a work in progress, currently at Lvl 51 and you are free to follow along and provide feedback! I will continually update GT at the end of each leveling branch. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you, and let’s have some fun!
(Borrowed @Stupid_Dragon formatting from his beginner build guides)
How the build works
Keep up Blood of Dreeg, Shadow Strike into a mob, use Ring of Steel, and let Amarasta’s Blade Burst clean up the rest. It’s actually pretty fun seeing groups deleted from RoS.
I leveled from 1-50 with both Nightblade and Occultist. NB is our main with Occ being our support for plus Acid damage and reducing enemy resistances.
Devotions
This is the path I took. It may not be the most optimized, but it worked and I had no issues. Once the endgame is reached, modify to whatever build you are aiming for:
- Crossroads (green)
- Akeron's Scorpion (bind to ABB)
- Crossroads (Red)
- Ghoul (bind to Veil of Shadow)
- Remove Crossroads (Green & Red)
- Crossroads (Blue)
- Eel
- Remove Crossroads (Blue)
- Kraken
- Crossroads (Green)
- Murmur (Bind to Shadow Strike)
- Wretch
Monster Infrequents
There are a few Monster Infrequents (MIs) that we want to target. Most of them will be on your way through the leveling process and shouldn’t be too difficult to get. When you are leveling, you are not looking for god roll’s. We only want the MI’s skill modifier, specifically to things like Ring of Steel, Blood of Dreeg, or other supporting abilities. I point these out in the Leveling guide below, but I will list them out here for quick references.
Balegor’s Crusher Our main MI. Once you are around 30 you can safely farm him. I tried at 33 and had no issue with a little kiting. Can be found on Balegor in East Marsh.
Bloodbriar’s Thorn This will reduce our Ring of Steel cooldown from 3 to 2 seconds. The pierce damage on the neck will convert to Acid for Ring of Steel because of the conversion on our MI weapon. Can be found on Ol’ Bloodbriar in a cavern in the Pine Barrens.
Basilisk Mark This will add more acid dmg to Ring of Steel and it add duration and OA/DA to Blood of Dreeg. Can be found on any Basilisk in Ugdenbog.
Honorable Mention: Gargoyle Gaze Not a bad helm for a boost to ABB
Honorable Mention: Gargoyle Waistguard +1 Nightblade belt. Dont recommend it unless you get a roll with decent def stats and resistances.
Honorable Mention: Creeping Ring Inherent Acid dmg, adds to Aspect of the Guardian for a boost to Blood of Dreeg.
Honorable Mention: Viloth Ring Inherent Acid dmg and +3 to ABB. They also come with OA which is nice.
Leveling
Levels 1-25
I personally leveled on Normal without Veteran Modifier. I honestly do not think the extra difficulty is worth it for the first 50 levels or so. If you like the extra challenge, feel free to go Veteran but keep in mind things will take longer to kill, particularly things that are Acid resistant like Ronaprax.
Level 2: 1 Nightblade, 2 Amarasta’s Blade Burst
Level 3 to 9: 2 Nightblade, 1 ABB
Kasparov: 1 Phantasmal Armor
Level 10 to 13: 3 Lethal Assault
For ABB 9 is a good place to stop as you wont have the energy for more. We will also be reducing this from 9 later on.
For 1H Acid weapons, you can try for a Pusquil’s Tail in the Putrid Den or Rift Scourge Slicer which can drop from any Rift Scourge mob, I found one or two in Wardens Cellar.
Level 14: 2 Nightblade, 1 Pneumatic Burst
Level 15: 3 Nightblade
Level 16: 2 Nightblade, 1 Shadow Strike
Level 17: 3 Nightblade
Level 18: 1 Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends, 1 Ring of Steel, 1 Ring of Frost
Level 19: 3 NJE
Level 20: 3 NJE
Level 21: 3 NJE
Level 22: 2 NJE, 1 Pneumatic Burst
Level 23: 2 Night’s Chill, Nightblade
Level 24-25: 3 Nightblade
GT Lvl 25 Snapshot
Levels 26-36
Lvl 26: 3 Merciless Repertoire
Lvl 27-28: 3 Nightblade
Lvl 29: 2 Nightblade, Circle of Slaughter
Lvl 30: 2 Occultist, 1 Curse of Frailty
Lvl 31-32: 3 Occultist
Lvl 33: 2 Occultist, 1 Vulnerability
Lvl 34: 3 Occultist
Lvl 35: 2 Occultist, 1 Blood of Dreeg
I started to farm for Balegor’s Crusher at 33 after I opened up Blood Grove. I got a fairly decent one, I think, after about 8 or 9 kills. Tbh I didn’t NEED the upgrade. Slithbane was still working fairly well for me, but Balegor’s Crusher just made this play style ridiculous.
I yanked all but one point out of ABB and dumped them into BoS, and pulled the point from Ring of Frost and put it in BoS as well. Seriously fun! SS into a group of mobs, BoS and everything is dead.
Levels 36-50
At this point, we are going to Max Ring of Steel, Occultist, and make our way to possession.
Lvl 36-40: Occultist
Lvl 41: 2 Occultist, 1 Aspect of the Guardian
Lvl 42-43: 3 Ring of Steel (Should be maxed now)
Lvl 44-45: 3 Occultist
It was around this time when I finished the main campaign, went to Pine Barrens and grabbed the amulet, opened up AoM and found the medal.
GT Lvl 45 Snapshot
Lvl 46-49: 3 Occultist
Lvl 50: 2 Possession
Hidden Path: 1 Nights Chill
At this point, I have finished AoM and am going to move to Elite. This time I will hop over to Forgotten Gods after killing the Warden so that I can start the rep grind for the Cult of Dreeg.
If you have not done the Hidden Path or the Shrine of Modrogon (Must be honored with Rovers) I recommend completing them before moving to Elite.
Levels 51-65
Lvl 51-53: 2 Possession
Kasparov: 1 Possession
Lvl 54: 2 Possession
although Bloodbriar’s Thorn makes such investment more profitable