This is the first 2H build I’ve done and it absolutely destroys packs of trash mobs and pretty much all elite’s even on Ultimate. Playing on Elite I didn’t have many issues with the nemesis mobs, Mad Queen or Sentinel but on Ultimate they are giving me fits. I’d appeciate any tips or suggestions you might have on how to maximize this character.
Update: Thanks to all the info I made some adjustments to my original build and Mad Queen easily farmable now.
footnote: this was not a new toon it was one I rolled up more than a year ago which already had fubar stat distribution but evolved into one of my fav toons
Too many points into Grasping Vines, is your crowd control that bad that you need it at all in a non-bleeding build?
2 points in BWC and High Potency give you the best Physical damage reduction in the game, (which is most of the time the damage type that gets you killed in Ultimate). Throw it at every Boss’s face, you’ll notice the difference.
With a somewhat lightning-based build, not having Widow is a sin.
Always max out Wendigo totem, shit’s ridiculous.
+1 all those points in vines are a huge wastew. BWC + high potency is fantastic and maxing wendigo totem will be a huge difference in survivability. You will notice these changes immediately Don’t over max vindictive flame gets you like nothing and I think you have more than 1 point in ulzuin wrath too just 1 point that. Max out flash bang. Btw swap your FS and sacred strike binds. You will get a lot more torrents going and dryad with sacred should be 100% proc on use so it never gets wasted
In devotion drop raven, 2 points in lion, and eel. Instead grab spider to fill out your green reqs, you lose the tiniestttt bit of damage for 20% AS retaliation. Grab 3 points in vulture + other 5% hp node in middle. Ideally don’t want any points in vulture, but for now 15% bleed/vit res is nice.
Your pierce res gives me aids. I would drop stormtitans for golemborn greaves if you have them. Stormtitan’s give % health on top of flat and the stun reduction is nice, but they the proc isn’t a ton of dps and you have plenty of lightning res I am sure Alternatively drop signet of the damned and craft an impenetrable ring for 60% pierce res or something, can try and find a nice cronley ring too!
edit: Put runestone on your heart of ulzuin for more bleed res, better than arcane lens imo. Fuck that worthless mark of illusions as well, put on frozen heart for more freeze reduction or corpse dust for health/vit res
Updated OP with suggestions. Too offset the little loss in DPS I took Brute Force to 11/12 instead of Flashbang. I can always swap those 3 points around to see how both configs work out.
edit: forgot to change screenshot of the ring but Mark of Illusions is gone now
Did some early morning crafting and got a 2nd ring that replaced Signet of the Damned. DPS back up to 42k, health dropped slightly but attack speed is up to 146% & pierce resist is more respectable now.
edit: oh yea 21% stun resist again from the new crafted ring
Thanks to your suggestions I can pretty much facetank Mad Queen now but The Sentinel I still need to figure out. He is still giving me issues on Ultimate.
For the Sentinel, you should just get away as soon as he summons one of those green crystals, never fight him in their aura as he gains huge OA, DA and HP regen.
Don’t worry so much about paper DPS. A lot of extra damage sources are not figured in that number, and the extra procs you may have can make up the loss of a few DPS on your main attack, especially if those points/devos can be used to strengthen your defensive makeup.
I made a vid of my 2-handed Elementalist in Temple of the Three.
It’s similar to yours but I focused on fire damage primarily and took primal bond instead of Stormcaller’s Pact. My DPS looks good on paper but it’s actually not that great because I only have 2 forms of resist reduction which happen sporadically.
Funny thing is. I know what I need to do to make my build stronger but I’m purposely avoiding taking things like BWC as I have enough BWC builds.
I like your build over-all, probably going to make a fire/lightning build using Ulzuin’s set but will probably go for a ranged caster instead.
Totem from Shaman takes care of some many problems where other classes need to fill in the gaps.
Also I think you need more OA. It seems a little low. If you have any incorruptible/purging of attack/readiness you would see a difference in killing speed.
You need better pants I think. I know those hellforged make you look fashonable with Ulzuin’s and also seems to make sense to wear it given the damage types you deal. But wearing only Items that increase damage will only get you so far. You need a bit of tradeoff. My advice for now is that you wear the good old Empowered Legplates of Valor. It gives physical resist (very important) %DA (also important <Your DA is Very low for a two handed build), huge pierce and bleed resist which can be hard to come by. Only dual wielding blademasters/witchhunters and maybe some casters cand get away with low DA because they kill everything so fast.
This would also allow you to wear Ulzuin’s Torment belt instead of Tinkerer’s which is a vast improvement in offense due to a lot of flat OA it gives and + 1 skills to demo which actually also improves Flashbang and Searing light so also defense and around 40 DA (which you badly need)…not to mention +%fire dmg that is just icing on the cake.
Also, and you probably won’t like this at first, you can replace stormcaller’s with Primal bond. Don’t worry so much about static strike damage and crits. You will get lots of absorb giving you staying power (less kiting=more damage) also the + %Phys damage will go across you main weapon phys damage part, Temper flat phys damage and explosive strike. Damage you lose from Stormcaller’s is mostly compensated and you get 15% absorb!!!. You will notice the difference immediately just try it and see how it goes.
It would be a vast improvement and you should be able to kill sentinel or queen without so much trouble.
Also: Agonizing Flames debuff and Blessed Steel debuff Don’t Stack! You can replace blessed steel with something so much better. You can put haunted steel for even more life steal, you can put (i would since you don’t use warcry) Oleron’s blood for 20% dmg reduced on demand on any target you want. Huge deal for boss fights. Also gives you some OA +2% total speed and some damage. Whatever you want just not blessed steel (not to mention that the % conversion to elemental is a decrease in damage since you primarily have +% fire damage and also lose out on +% phys damage you have from Brute Force and Kraken and cough Primal Bond cough).
So all of the above with the layers of defense you have :totem/searing light should make you character much better.
I agree with everything you said, except the belt swapping idea. Tinker’s provides 2 resistances that don’t come easy for flame/lightning builds and a nice life-saving proc to boot. If it was my build I would have to move a tonne of crap around and craft substantially to compensate the resist loss.
On the other hand, after 2450 hours played that’s still the only belt I don’t have. :undecided:
I get where you are coming from. I know the belt solves a lot of problems. But the Legplates of valor pretty much takes care of most of those problems. It also has %phys resists %DA, health. The proc it has is great but when you don’t kill fast enough, the proc ends, goes on cooldown, and then what? you run around like a nancy with a huge flaming two hander:p
Also Let’s not forget that he doesn’t use Warcry or Oleron’s blood or Kymon’s will augment. That alone would solve a lot of problems ( also primal bond). The advice I gave takes this into account as well. All of those taken together provide a smooth shift in defense and offense. If taken individually like just swap Tinkerer with Ulzuin’s and nothing else it would indeed not be a good ideea.
Hope you are not upset with my argument. This advice comes from a two handed commando I’ve done where there is no Totem or primal bond absorb to hold my hand otherwise I would not be writing all this.
Not at all upset. I’ve got vids of my 2-handed Commando vs The Mad Queen and the struggle is real. The belt is not a bad choice if you can compensate the loss.
Thanks for all the additional feedback! Will look it over later tonight as right now I think I have set fire to the chicken I have on the grill…
edit: chicken saved! I am not tied to those Legs it was just something I had on hand at the time I thought fit ok into the build. I like Tinker’s belt for the reasons mentioned above so not sure if I want to swap it out. I will surely change Blessed Steel to Oleron’s though. Took Blessed Steel because Sacred Strike has the reduce resistances on it.Will give Primal a try as well.
The reduced resists is nice and all but for you it’s a loss because of conversion and because you have agonizing flames. Oleron’s will make a big difference.
If you find that casting Oleron’s might is disrupting you combat flow somehow use Kymon’s will augment. It’s not as powerful but it’s passive so you don’t need to worry about it.
Just remember with Oleron’s might (if you go for it) that the debuff lasts 5 seconds while the skill itself has a 3.5 seconds cooldown so you don’t need to cast it as soon as you see it out of cooldown. Give it a couple of seconds, cast a flashbang or something meanwhile.
@Duck_King- I know what you mean. Mad queen forces you to rethink you character. If once you thought that killing Fabius and Shar’zul was easy enough and you have fine tuned you character, mad queen shows you differnt. By the way I’ve seen you sword and board videos using Ulzuin’s and they helped me out with a character I made. Ulzuin’s and Siegebraker look sexy too. Only problem is I am missing Ulziuin’s helm… and shoulders, and chest:D. I just use Mask of Infernal truth and other stuff for now.
That -25% resistance to life leech we have in ultimate when fighting Mad Queen is bad. Primal bond helps in that aspect by the way Falacer:p…hint hint hint
Success! Forgot to turn on Primal Bond the first go 'round … oops … however when I went back Mad Queen died pretty easily. Along with the few changes I noted above I changed the augment on my Amulet to Kymon’s Will.
I’d love to change the pants but doing so probably means losing Tinkers which I am not to keen on.
edit: OP updated with video of MQ kill, link at bottom
Don’t over max vindictive flame gets you like nothing and I think you have more than 1 point in ulzuin wrath too just 1 point that. Max out flash bang. Btw swap your FS and sacred strike binds. You will get a lot more torrents going and dryad with sacred should be 100% proc on use so it never gets wasted
Alternatively drop signet of the damned and craft an impenetrable ring for 60% pierce res or something, can try and find a nice cronley ring too!