And next, part 24 of my controller friendly build series: [DW Sandspitter Warlord]
I have seen another end game Sandspitter Warlord, by Mad_Lee. Since it’s quite different, and not on the compendium, I’m publishing this build. I’ll also shoutout Nery’s budget build, which looks good too.
This can clear SR85 with good greens, and maybe higher with perfect ones. I noticed that I cleared SR85 with Ulzaad’s Decree bound to a spell that I didn’t have bound to a button; this build is stronger than it was for me in the video.
grimtools link. The MI prefixes and affixes are just the best I had, not what is theoretically optimal. However, I think they’re pretty good, unless you want to farm for hours and hours.
Playstyle: this is a max mobility ranged build, with no static abilities (Inquisitor Seal or Thermite Mine) to keep you dependent on any location. It has good damage, healing, and defense, so it’s very versatile. Basically, you run around and shoot stuff, using War Cry on cooldown.
This build’s damage comes from powerful WPS which multiply with Righetous Fervor’s (henceforth referred to as RF) boosted weapon percentage. (204% I believe, at max stacks). For example, Zolhan’s Technique, with 260%, does a total of 531% weapon damage.
Shown with permanent buffs (including consecration), but nothing else.
Video proof of clear
Ravager Kill
Basically, you can outrun it.
Fight tips
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Offense: War Cry triggers Maul in a 4.5m ring around the caster. For maximum damage, you want to use War Cry when your target is in that ring. You also want to keep your Guardians of Empyrion in attacking range, and their range is shorter than that of your guns.
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Defense: For defense, it’s important to use War Cry nearly on cooldown, so you have to balance that with Maul. This build is capable of facetanking a lot of enemies, and in some cases that’s the strongest way to fight. In others, running away and staying out of their melee range is optimal. You have to figure out which to do. And remember that War Cry can pull bosses from farther away than (almost?) any other skill. This is responsible for some deaths for me.
Gear
As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR.
Essential Gear:
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Viper Sandspitter: makes this work. Gives 10% weapon damage to RF, and converts all your elemental damage (if you have good rolls there). Remember, not all DPS is equal; weapon damage gets multiplied by WPS, while flat damage does not. Sandspitters give weapon damage to RF, so they outperform their DPS.
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Pyroclasm Mark: you can’t dual wield Sandspitters without an item, and Pyroclasm Mark is excellent; +2 to RF, attack speed, and flat damage. It also gets WPS to exactly 100% (with the skillpoint distribution I used.)
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Warborn Visor: lets you maintain War Cry/Break Morale at 100% uptime, which is vital for defense. Fleshwarped Casque does as well, but lack +1 to all skills in Soldier.
Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:
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Combustion Band: The fire damge is converted, the attack speed is huge, the physical resist reduction is great, and the elemental res is important. Great for pretty much all physical builds.
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Ring of the Black Matriarch: +2 to RF, physical RR, and attack speed. Great for pretty much all physical builds.
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Warborn Chestguard and Pauldrons: their skill bonuses are poor for this build, but their set bonus is tremendous. I considered Gunslinger Jacket and Markovian’s Vanguard, but believe Warborn x3 is superior.
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Spellscourge Deflector: +1 to Soldier, flat physical damage, vital resists, OA, 8%(!) max chaos resist. Perhaps a perfect Kaisan’s Burning Eye would be slightly better, but Spellscourge is a much more reasonable item to obtain.
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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, and necessary to equip rings and to not run out of energy. +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. Plus, Darius Cronley is now a SR boss.
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Doom: I think this is best. Menhir’s Bastion and serenity offer more defense, but the damage from Doom is important for fun and lifestealing.
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Windshear Greaves: the best option to get trap resist.
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Chains of Oleron: not great for defense, but provide a ton of damage.
Other stuff:
- Gauntlets of Ignaffar: They give an important +2 to finish RF, making htem the maximum damage option. If you have a Sandspitter of Fervor, Gauntlets of Turin are going to be better, but you’d have to find a replacement for the chaos resist from the Gauntlets. Serenity?
Devotions
The way I do devotions is to start with full offense, then redistribute points into defense until I stop dying at my target SR.
Core:
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Assassin’s Blade: resist reduction
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Dire Bear: the armor shred is very important, but the calculations do demonstrate it are a major pain.
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Chariot of the Dead: great OA, and other stuff.
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Ulzaad’s Decree: attached to Doomforce, it’s a controllable buff to get through the tough parts of fights. Amazingly, I forgot to have the spell bound to a button when I cleared SR85. So this build is stronger than in the video.
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Hydra: bunch of great stuff
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Azrakaa: high uptime with Guardian of Empyrion, and provides OA reduction and impaired aim which this build lacks.
Not Core
- everything else is for defense
Skill Choices
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Righteous Fervor: the point
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Guardian of Empyrion: physical RR, and procs Azrakaa
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Divine Mandate: Oleron’s Rage would be a little stronger, but I needed those 10 points to flesh out the defense. The slow resist is important, and the crit damage is really big, so I’m pretty sure Divine Mandate is the best choice.
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Vire’s Might: 1 point gives an additional mobility skill, which is good.
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Presence of Virtue: a bunch of points here are important for defense and OA.
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Ascension: only 2 points, but it provides a significant boost to your strength while it’s active. It’s useful for surviving the dangerous times.
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Zolhan’s Technique: 531% weapon damage, enemy penetration, and 40% slower enemy attack.
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Markovian’s Advantage: doesn’t penetrate, but bosses are single enemies most of the time. It provides damage and DA reduction. Judgment would provide more DA reduction, but would take a bunch of points.
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War Cry: 29% damage reduction. Do note that it can pull bosses from far away.
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Break Morale: you would have higher damage with another 7 points here, but I didn’t see a way to get them without greatly compromising the WPS or the defense.
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Smite: least useful WPS here, used to get to exactly 100%. I’ve had arguments about Smite, but here, since it does get any bonuses from items, I’m pretty confident it’s the worst of the three.
Leveling
Like many Soldier builds, this levels really well. Make sure to get Azrakaa’s devotion early because it takes the most XP to max.