Local retired Commando watching all the cool kids get more resist reduction
Poor guy, I feel your pain. But don’t cash all those pension checks just yet!
I’ve said before that Retaliation was my least played character type in the game. I just never got into it, even during the heyday when it had to be nerfed over and over. So while enduring the long wait for the new patch, I spent some time attempting to make a good Shattering Blast Commando. I had a ton of copies of unused retal gear so why not. Initially I was focused more on Lightning but the Kraken buff to retal prompted another look at fire so I converted another character to accomodate both elements.
Meet: Biggs and Wedge, two cranky old vets who bicker over who’s got the best grenado swag. (also they may or may not have inadvertently wandered into Cairn from another familiar reality?)
Biggs
Skyfire Lightning Grenado + Full Dawnbreaker Set
Biggs utilizes the awesome power of the Dawnbreaker set combined with the Mask of Infernal Truth for a powerful offensive retal combo of Grenado, Canister Bomb and Flame Breath. On the defensive side, Biggs has a static health regen of 2,800+ which can spike to 5k with Giant’s Blood and Dryad procs. Other circuit breakers include Menhir’s Will and the Serenity relic proc.
*I crafted the helm for slow resist. Serenity relic optimal bonus is stun resist.
Videos
Wedge
2-Hand Fire Grenado with the Infernal Brimstone
Like the Lightning version, Wedge also uses the Infernal Mask and the same attack rotation to subdue enemies. The usage of a Vilgazor Amulet also gives Wedge a slightly shorter Grenado cooldown. Also like his comrade, Wedge has the same high health regen and defensive procs to keep him healed up, although he needs to be careful with positioning as he naturally has less overall defenses from being a two-hander.
*I shared the helm with the other build so it’s the same slow resist craft. For the relic, aim for stun or needed resist.
Videos
vs Ravager
*swapped frozen heart to soul shard on ring
Build Mechanics & Gear
Resist Reduction
- On both builds, I’ve taken the Viper devotion and also use Hexxer’s Kiss augments. Normally on non-weapon damage builds this would be useless but we can activate both by using basic attacks. In order to do this, put grenado on left click and when it’s on cooldown, the character will default to the basic attack which applies a standard 100% WD. Also, Flame Breath has weapon damage (at 50% value). This isn’t a perfect solution of course but as I joke about in the opening, Commandos have to get creative to try and compete with the big RR folks.
Why the full Dawnbreaker Set?
- On the Lightning build, I tried a couple different variations:
-Scion of Burning Vengeance gun with 3 piece Dawnbreaker
-Vilgazor amulet with 3 piece Dawnbreaker
The Scion gun is a bit of a trap, unfortunately. The tooltip looks impressive but in practice it plays slower. Plus you can’t use Blitz with a gun. The full Dawnbreaker just kicks ass, plain and simple.
On the Fire side, every 1H + Shield combo I tried couldn’t compare to the Brimstone’s huge bonuses to retaliation.
Why the Serenity Relic?
- Neither build has +Soldier skills and they really need that boost. Like most bomber builds with Ulzuin’s Chosen, skill points are stretched thin.
Which prefixes/suffixes are best on the jewelry?
- You want to primarily look for OA and cover the lowest resists. Kymon’s Badge, Gollus Rings and Vilgazor’s all fortunately have a pretty good bias towards the “Aggressive” prefix. Gollus rings also have a good chance of rolling “Consecrated” prefix which will help with slow resistance (and undead damage boost).
Final Thoughts
The burning question… which one is better? It’s closer than you think but Lightning edges it out. Biggs has consistently better SR clear times and can take more punishment in general. Against celestials they were about the same. Both builds struggled some against Ravager mainly due to energy sustain. I’m not a big crucible fan but either one will do fine in that mode.
So I guess it comes down to which one you want to play, or both!
Also stay tuned for a leveling section + budget retal grenado build.