2h melee elemental Cadence uses in its basis the Scion of Arcane Force mace. Doing elemental Cadence Battlemage is one of the challenges of GD. You have to go for damage due to lack of RR, you have to go for AoE because Cadence lacks it and you have to also build it tough. The AoE part is easily solved by using The Crimson Claws gloves. With the weapon it gives us total of 9 targets in 310 degree arc to Cadence hits. There is also AoE from Zolhan’s Technique and in the devos I took - Hyrian, Blind Sage and Attack Seru. Builds previously made few mistakes in going for Reckless Power or -% RR in devos and neither is the optimal choice. I had several variants of this build that made these errors as well. It has to be build tanky for higher SR thus the choice of Menhir’s Bulwark instead of Reckless Tempest must be made. It gives us damage absorption, some flat phys that is nice and healing increase to support ADCtH. Build also uses damage absorption from Maiven’s Sphere. Both are necessary. I also tried Fleshwarped Casque for perma War Cry but Korvaak’s helm proved to be better due to its bonuses. And it suplements some of the lost time on damage reduction from War Cry together with Attuned Lodestone’s proc. Going for too much RR in devos will kneecap your build in other stats so I would not recommend it. Very few enemies are resistant to all three elemental damage types thus you don’t really need much RR. Raw damage is enough. I have only flat RR that the weapon gives to Cadence and some % RR from Korvaak’s helm proc. And the build is offensively very good. But racial damage is necessary for it. It compensates for lower RR. Thus you need to take Fabric of Reality and Sanctified Bones. Damage to humans would be welcomed tho on this build… It can be obtained as a weapon augment but at the cost of damage… Build has two circuit breakers - Menhir’s Will and Ghoul. You also have Mirror of Ereoctes and Nullification that you can use when needed. SR 90 is possible with this build and SR 80-81 is easy.
Playing Cadence with this build is fun. It has both good AoE and single target damage, is defensively solid and has few active skills. It is one one of my most favourite builds to play.
This build is just a template. Customize it to your own liking. Alternative to medal is Mark of the Dreadblade.
with Deadly Momentum only
SR
I finished SR 80-81 5 out of 5 times within the timer. It is easy. No boss is problematic. You can get away with playing recklessely.
In SR 85 I finished 5 out of 5 times within the timer. No deaths in all runs but you have to be careful. Build kills fast. You can get away with one death and stay within the timer comfortably. Only Iron Maiden is slower to kill. Time your skills well and she is fine. Build is defensively solid. Use mirror and nullification proactively. In the small boss room I unfortunately agroed Grava and Moosi together and killed them both and didn’t die but it was dangerous.
In SR 90 I finished 4 out of 5 times within the timer. If you die you will be on edge with the timer. Bosses are tough but doable if played safely. With Iron Maiden and Fabius you have to time everything well. Fabius is the most dangerous boss. Racial damage to humans would help greatly. It can be obtained as a weapon augment but at the cost of damage… Try avoiding ground damage, DoTs are dangerous.
In SR 95 I did just one run. First three shards are relatively OK if you avoid nemeses and ground damage. Boss rooms are difficult. You can perhaps sometimes finish it if you don’t mind dying a couple of times… But some boss rooms could be impossible to beat. DoTs deal a lot of damage to you. Build would need health regen or flat damage absorption. Damage seems to be fine but Iron Maiden and Fabius will be really tough…
i’ll just leave a note i did in a recent Cadang thread, for the uber farming inclined (because affix bias drops now makes it tough to obtain legitimately until FoA)
I saw it then and it isn’t worth it if you comapre it to the bonuses on Scion of Arcane Force. Especially the RR which allows you to not take it in devos but also the conversions… At best you could equal it but I doubt it… And don’t forget about AS and phys res ans slow res… For Battlemage or Witchblade it will be overall worse.
But maybe for elemental Cadence Warder/Tactician… Or lightning Cadence Warder…
So I tried it and the DPS is around 10 % better with the Voldrak’s Crusher. But it is still not worth losing the RR on the Scion and having to take it in devos instead of something else… And also the flat RR in devos is smaller and takes some time to apply.
But on Warder or Tactician it would be a different case… And on Warlord/Commando also.
But for Battlemage and Witchblade Scion wins overall.
Edit:
I have an elemental Cadence Tactician as well. Tried it there and the difference was around 15 %. The loss of RR still makes it worse IMO but it is definitely a possible choice…
And so will it be on Warder…
I will test it more on the Tactician someday and see what change in devos will bring to it… It might be better overall with Voldrak on it.
Huh interesting, so it turns out the -RR% devotions aren’t needed. Because my old Scion of Element’s BM build was updated to use Deadly Momentum, which in turn shaved 4 minutes+ off the SR75-76 run time (now 7 minutes) while still using all the -RR% devotions :3
Anyhow, shifted to going for Blind Sage + Attak Seru and it worked, but the tankiness felt off, so this is what I’ve adjusted it to at present:
Definite noticeable difference in survivability, but I see why _maverick went with high armour, because everything hurts lawl Though not taking Giant was a bad idea on their part, since it helps increase health regen significantly, synergising well with Menhir’s Bulwark.
Oh not having full attack speed is a very bad idea with Cadence. For it really, really relies on 200% attack speed for max damage. But getting to it with a 2-hander can be extremely annoying.
Also, Haunted Steel works better than Seal of Resonance sadly, since the damage trade off isn’t enough to outway HS’s utility vis sustain. And will be the case until we get an Elemental Cadence set that increases the damage output up to Avenger levels…
Giant would help in SR 90+ but you can’t have everything in a build… But I will look at it if the change from Hyrian to Giant would make a difference. But I am sceptical about that without two Gollus’ rings… And they are too costly here… For 2h melee attack speed is king but I have found out that 180 % is a point at which they work OK. I even have one 2h melee build that does SR 90 with 168 % attack speed (but it is a hybrid retal build)…
Haunted steel is always a good choice. I went here for the CC res though and physical to elemental conversion. You have mirror and nullification.
Stats are about balance. Not going too much into one thing and omitting the others…
Well, Giant still works if you don’t have Gollus rings, something I’ve learnt from my 20+ tester builds constantly trying (and usually succeeding) to run SR85-86 that I found helped stop DoT attacks from causing my builds to die easily. As it doesn’t take much health regen + Giant Blood proccing to keep the DoT’s from killing you.
Though poison mutator is a special case and unless rocking Pneumatic Burst etc a resist pot is a must have frankly. Because the incoming poison DoT is obscene compared to bleeding
As for CC stuff vs Seal of Resonance - I actually had enough to cover stun/freeze by over 60% even after dropping SoR, so I was able to change the amulet over to the one that increases damage and retaliation instead. I do not have enough to change the belt though for the Solider one sadly without changing the affixes.
And I get you on the balancing stuff front, because Deep SR requires a careful balance to get right and also clear it in sane time. Which is why two of my Howl of the Wendigo Blade Arc Warders are currently in severe need of work. Because they might now survive SR85-86 but the can’t output anywhere near enough DPS to do it quickly enough just relying on Blade Arc.
I did a few changes. Changed a component in boots for more life and took Markovian’s Advantage as a one pointer to use its DA shred because crit damage is good on this build. Non Cadence hits are thus better. The result is better SR 90. I managed SR 90 4 out of 5 times within the timer and SR 90-91 3 out of 5 times.
Giant is not good here because in order to get it you will loose some things… Also tried Eye of the Guardian but the same applies here too…
Damage to humans is the thing that would help the most and global phys conversion for non Cadence hits…
It’s the Menhir’s Bulwark and maxed out War Cry that do the difference not the armor.
High armour does actually help, ask mad lee about it and he’ll tell you why It’s also why Light’s Defender based builds are often fairly tanky. But yes, layering stuff works better
It’s also why Light’s Defender based builds are often fairly tanky. But yes, layering stuff works better