And now part 27 of my controller friendly build series: [Deathdealer’s Death Knight]
I wanted to see if Deathdealer’s Sidearm can be used in a decent build. I guess the answer is yes; SR80 was easy on the first try.
grimtools link. The MI prefix and affix are just the best I had, not what is theoretically optimal.
Playstyle: shoot stuff, dropping War Cry and Siphon Souls on cooldown. Theoretically, it can kite moderately well.
The DPS listed is certainly wrong – it says 134511, even though Cadence does 166375-198081 per hit, and it has more than one hit per second. By my calculations, the sheet DPS should be 274865 – more than double what the game listed, so I edited the picture (and intentionally left it obvious that it isn’t an accurate screenshot)
Video proof of clear
Fight tips
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Offense: War Cry applies Maul in a 4.5m radius centered on the character, so use War Cry when they’re in range of Maul. Drink energy potions regularly and you won’t run out of energy.
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Defense: War Cry is obviously important to maintain. I have 3 points in Siphon Souls, so it has pitiful range – 0.1m more than Maul; if you can use Maul, Siphon Souls is in range. Mark of Torment doesn’t have enough points to make you invincible, but it’s very good when active. Ulzaad’s Decree is bound to Doomforce so you can (87% of the time) activate it when you need the extra boost to your damage and healing, and your armor.
Gear
As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR.
Essential Gear:
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Deathdealer’s Sidearm: honestly, it’s far from the best ranged weapon in the game, but it isn’t this build without it. It does have lifesteal, attack speed, and a decent WPS.
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Warborn Visor: necessary to keep War Cry active, and give +1 to all skills and good passive bonuses; it’s clearly better than Fleshwarped Casque.
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Gunslinger’s Jacket: can’t dual wield without it, and gives important crit damage and OA. Korvaak’s Brand, Pyroclasm Mark, Plunderer’s Talisman, and Pack of Deadly Means all have little synergy with this build, and would detract from the proc percentage of better WPS, although they would allow Warborn Chestguard to be equipped.
Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:
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Ring of the Black Matriarch and Combustion Band: my default for physical builds, it’s hard to beat resist reduction, especially when they offer other stuff as well.
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Spellscourge Deflector: +1 to soldier, OA, and a huge flat physical bonus. There were other options, but this seemed strongest.
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Flesharped Pauldrons: +3 to Cadence and Spectral Wrath, aether to physical conversion (for Mark of the Dreadblade AND Spectral Binding), and the potential to fill important holes in defense, and this is a clear choice.
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Arcane Harmony Leggings: “I know I’m probably the biggest fan of these, but I believe a build is only as strong as its weakest link, and without disruption protection you will really struggle against certain enemies. +84/126 spirit is great, allowing the use of rings and amulet, and giving vital energy regen, and +84/126 DA is awesome as well. The resistances are good too. I don’t know why other people don’t use this as much as I do.” – me, on like 80% of my builds.
FlamingX21 pointed out that Kubacabra’s Chausses could, in theory, be stronger. They would need an excellent prefix and suffix to be able to offset the loss of spirit, DA, elemental res, trap res, and aether res, and even with an arcane spark or two you would still be more vulnerable to disruption. -
Windshear Greaves: DA, and fital poison resist and trap reduction.
Other stuff:
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The Crimson Claws: I’m not sure if the 2 target maximum to Cadence works with ranged weapons – the 60 degree attack arc certainly does not. I don’t think I needed the lifesteal, the build doesn’t have piercing damage to convert, so I think I might have been better with Grasp of Unchained Might. It would mean less defense though.
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Doom: actually, Serenity would work, but would sacrifice some damage. Maybe Serenity + Grasp of Unchained Might would be good. It would, however, force you to put Ulzaad’s decree on something else.
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Reforged Chains of Oleron: give a ton of damage – flat physical and crit – but I think a good Ugdenbog Girdle (which I don’t have) could end up being stronger.
Devotions
There’s room for more damage, but I didn’t think it would be worth it. At SR80, the damage from Azrakaa or Oleron wouldn’t offset the loss of defense they would require.
Core:
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Assassin’s Blade: resist reduction
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Dire Bear: the armor shred matters, but the explanation for why is very long.
Not Core
- everything else.
Everything else should be pretty self explanatory.
Skill Choices
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Cadence: the point
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Markovian’s Advantage: this is the only WPS with more than 1 point, entirely because it has this build’s DA reduction. It doesn’t hit multiple targets, but Cadence does, so that’s alright.
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Zolhan’s Technique: the attack sped debuff is only 6 points higher than Spectral Wrath, and enemies all have high slow resist anyway.
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Reaping Strike: it’s buffed by Deathdealer’s Sidearm, so I chose it.
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War Cry: huge damage reduction, and huge resist reduction.
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Siphon Souls: -174 OA is nothing to scoff at
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Mark of Torment: more points would be nice, but with 25% damage absorption it makes the build very unlikely to die while it’s active in any situation where the build can survive when MoT is inactive.
Leveling
Like most Soldier builds, levelling was pretty straightforward and easy. When choosing items, remember to distrust the DPS shown, and also to look at DPS with Deadly Momentum active.