[1.1.5.1] HAMMERTIME - Witchblade ARC 420k Sheet DPS [c+]

Update for 1.1.5.1

Changes to this build from patches 1.1.5.0/1.1.5.1

  • Changed Ring -> Exchanged Gargabol’s Ring for Cronley’s Signet
Update for 1.1.4.2

Changes to this build from patches 1.1.4.2/1.1.4.1/1.1.4.0/1.1.3.1/1.1.3.0/1.1.2.X/1.1.1.X

  • Changed Gear -> Gutsmasher amongst other things
  • Forgotten Gods -> Devotion/Auguments
  • Changed Titel. Original was:
    [1.0.4.1] Witchblade ARC - HAMMERTIME Big Numbers/Strong Defence/Loveley AoE - CruGlaReady
Update for 1.1.1.0

Changes to this build from patches 1.1.1.0/1.1.0.1/1.1.0.0/1.0.7.1/1.0.7.0

  • Reduced duration of Ghoulish Hunger to 5s
  • Increased weapon damage to 190% (+30% from Grasps)
  • Increased physical damage/reduced critical damage from Laceration
  • Reduced physical damage from Ligth of Empyrion to 6-8
  • Increased OA of augument Wrath Scream to 75
  • Slightly reduction of energy cost for Blade Arc
  • Slightly buff Bloodrager Set
    In total a buff for this build.
Update for 1.0.6.1

This build has not experienced any relevant changes from the patches 1.0.6.1/1.0.6.0/1.0.5.0/1.0.5.0. Minor changes are:

  • Little DA-nerf through Runebound Topaz and Rylok Crest (going frim 3985 to 3879)
  • A bit more vitality damage (100% conversion to physical) through Tip the Scales


“An arched swing that slices through multiple enemies around you”

Salute!
It’s HAMMERTIME. If you like big numbers, monstrous AOE-Attacks and strong defence … here is your build.

GRIMTOOLS

=[ CONCEPT ]===============
Take a big bad two-hander, max Blade Arc and do 13 in one go with 245% weapon damage / every single hit and 3,57 attacks per second. No charging. No waiting for WPS-procs. Simple hammering.

screenshot21
With all Procs/Passives/Actives

screenshot18

=[ OFFENCE ]===============

  • Up to 3.693 OA
  • Crit Damage +107%
  • Great AoE
  • 106 RR -> 32 Assassin’s Mark + 29 CoF + 35 Break Moral + 10 Venom of the Black Matriarch
  • Capped IAS (185% + 25% Bloodrager + 20% 2x Battle Cry)

=[ DEFENCE ]===============

  • Up to 3.128 DA
  • Up to 3.960 Armor with 100% Absorption
  • 45% Physical Resistance
  • Resistances are at least overcapped by 25%
  • Ghouhlish Hunger
  • Menhir’s Will
  • Inspiration

=[ GEAR EXPLANATION ]===============
Mandatory:

  • Head, Neck, Shoulder, Chest: Bloodrager’s Endless Frenzy
    Very strong set. Great support for this build concept.

  • Hand: Mythical Grasp of Unchained Might
    Glamorous item. Has all we need and more. Flat damage for our main damage source, damage bonus to all of our damage types, IAS, resistance bonus, nice bonus to secondary resistance, precious skillpoint bonus, awesome skill modifier.

  • Weapon: Gutsmasher
    This Weapon fits perfect since the last patch. I started with Mythical Leviathan switched to Relentless Gutcrush of Fervor but Gutsmasher is by far the best, now.

  • Leg: Mythical Chausses of Barbaros
    Awesome chausses, in this build awesome².

  • Belt: Mythical Gladiator’s Distinction
    Passive bonus for two-handers, vitality to physical damage conversion, bonus to all of our damage types -> nothing more to say.

  • Ring 1: Mythical Ring of the black Matriarch
    Maybe it is too much of the good to expect the ring is in a row with the above mentioned items. We need RR and this one fits better than Bladetwister Signet.

  • Ring 2: I choose Cronley’s Signet for hardcapping Laceration and the opportunity to fix problems with prefix/suffix. ADCTH is one of the problems. To avoid Seal of Blades in favor of the better fitting Seal of Might i choose “Dread Lord’s” prefix with flat damage and chaos res on top. Other intresting prefixes are “Soldiers” with bonus to Laceration/Oleron’s Rage. Suffix can be either “of the Dranghoul” or “of Supremacy”. Non MI-variants are Bladetwister Signet / Mythical Cursebearer or Mythical Menhiran.

  • Relic: Oleron’s Wrath
    Thx to mad_lee, this one fits better than Doom. Strongest boost all in all. We need “+1 to all Skills in Soldier” in this slot. Go for +1 Squad Tactics/+1 Break Morale.

Free:

  • Medal: My choice is Rylok Crest. Base stats support the build and prefix/suffix enable fine tuning. My plan to cap stun resistance is Scars of Battle + “of Kings” suffix with boots + “Stonefaced” prefix with medal and bonus damage/DA/armor on top. Prefix “of the Dranghoul” is in my opinion ideal. There are a lot of other strong prefixes/suffixes, combine them as you need it. Non MI-alternative is Mark of Consumtion (craftable).

  • Boots -> I choose Stoneplate Greaves (craftable). As mentioned above we need to cap stun resistance with “of Kings” suffix. For better physical resistance i recommend “Formidable” prefix, damage/physique bonus and elemental resistance on top.

Use prefix/suffix to finte tune your build. The mentioned ones are mostly interchangeable.

=[ DEVOTION ]===============


Mandatory:

  • Assassin’s Blade -> bind Assassin’s Mark to BladeArc
  • Azrakaa, the Eternal Sands -> bind Shifting Sands to CoF
  • Ulzaad, Herald of Korvak -> bind Ulzzad’s Decree to War Cry
  • Kraken
  • Ghoul -> bind Ghoulish Hunger to Oleron’ Rage/Solael’s Witchfire/Field Command or Presence of Might

Recommended:

  • Bard’s Harp -> bind Inspiration to something not used for Ghoulish Hunger
    Helps a lot to get mana consumption under control. DA/OA bonus is nice. Slow/Trap resistance also.

Free:

  • Hammer
    Efficient helper.
  • Hawk
    Permanent guest in devotion setups.
  • Solemn Watcher
    Efficient devotion.
  • Wraith
    Enabler. After all some tiny stats.
  • Stag
    Fits + efficient.
  • Obelisk of Menhir
    These three points are mighty.

Offensive variant (Bull is for the -10% physique requirement to push cunning even more):

=[ CRUCIBLE / SHATTERED REALM ]===============
Farming Crucible is very comfortable with this build (3 Buffs / 1 Banner). Tank 4 Nemeses with ease. I played shard 50 for the skill-point-quest with no problem so far.

=[ LEVELING ]===============
Use Blade Arc.

=[ PLAYSTYLE ]===============
Blitz in and Balde Arc. Tougher enemies or groups get War Cry, CoF and Rylok Wings. Keep Blood of Dreeg up. Use Doomforce in big packs as aoe attack or for pushing internal trauma ticks vs single targets.
Easy to play (“q u a l i t y O F l i f e” by jajaja).

LMB: Blade Arc
RMB: Blitz
M4: Healpod
M5: Blood of Dreeg
1: War Cry
2: CoF
3: Doomforce
^: Rylok Wings

=[ VIDEOS ]===============
[1.0.4.1] Mad Queen (easy facetankable) old
[1.0.4.1] Grava’Thul (beware of his nullification) old
[1.1.1.0] Crucible Gladiator 131-150 in 7:26min with 3 Buffs/1 Banner old
[1.1.4.2] Crucible Gladiator 151-170 in 7:02min wit 3 Buffs/1 Banner a good pilot is certainly 30 seconds faster
[1.1.4.2] Mad Queen in 9s

2 Likes

When I saw Blade arc I thought it’s bleed and 400k is low for bleed. I was wrong. Nice build.

One question. Why use Blade arc over Cadence if you don’t focus on dots? Unless you’re tired of using the same skill again and again then I understand :smiley:

Edit. I just noticed blade arc is not transmuted. It makes sense now as blade arc hits more people compared to cadence. Good job in making this build.

Thank you :slight_smile:
Damage is mainly physical. Single target damage is a little lower but you get the aoe-effect and 57% crit-damage.

Added a new video (easy hammering the mad queen).

Add another 10% from ring.

It doesn’t quite work like that, break Morale is a flat resistance reduction whereas cof, assassins blade and ring of the black matriarch are -%rr
Here’s the sheet on how they interact with one another
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vw7I9fTSqtx9s3a4WVvkgiOGZ7leM81n1H1RrwrOzLc/edit#gid=0

Props on the build. It’s very refreshing seeing a physical based soldier build that’s not cadence or forcewave focused. So good job on that

According to the spread sheet his math on RR is correct. He has two sources from category B (Curse of Frailty and Assassin’s Mark) as well as flat reduction from Break Morale which is category A. So adding category A plus sum of category B would be flat 30 reduction from Break Moral, -25% from CoF, -32% from Mark. 30+25+32=87 reduction. And yes, there is another -10% reduction from ring of black matriarch that would also stack additively. At least this is how it should work according to the spread sheet.

Thanks for pointing out the forgotten resistance reduction! I’ve corrected the mistake. Adding -% reduced resistances and highest value of n reduced resistances is exactly what i’ve done consistent with your linked spread sheet. Thank you for your refreshing words to the build!

I changed the skillpoint allocation a bit, peak sheet DPS dropped from 199k to 197k but DA rises to 3806 (3695) and Armor to 3523 (3370).

Since you have 0% CDR it might be better to get Light of Empyrion instead of NG, which only has 30% uptime at best for this build. You could also drop 2 order by doing this.

Oh you’re right. My bad, disregard my stupidity, not sure what i was looking or thinking when i posted

Build gets -10/10 for not using this song in the videos

Good build :smiley:

Nice build…
I really question myself: What does more single target damage - bladearc witchblade or forcewave witchblade???

I prefer natures guardian primarily because of its values (900 HP, 300 Energy, 3% Spirit, 3% DA, 4% Total Speed, 25% Poiso Res, 30% Slow Res, 20% Bleeding Res). The proc will give you time to breathe while facetanking really hard guys, the rest can’t hit you^^
Light of Empyrion is nice with conversion to one damage type.

My bad. I did it right with the Grava’Thul video! Thank you :slight_smile:

Blade Arc’s weapon damage is higher at max ultimate rank (with Grasp of Unchained Might). Flat damage of Force Wave is higher it is also a cast.
Maybe someone of the theorycraft experts in this forum can answer this?

Thx for the build! I may just give this a go seeing as most of the builds being posted for WB are S&B. My deathknight does that so well that I don’t need another of the same.

What would you change for making this build up to date?

salve guys!
2 days ago I started to play grim dawn again :slight_smile:
first page is now up to date. there have been only small changes due to the patches 1.0.5.0 - 1.0.6.1.

salve guys!

  • updated build for 1.1.1.0
  • added crucible gladiator 151-170 run in 9:00min (farmer)
  • changed devotion setup a bit
  • changed skill allocation (mainly dropped some ocultist mastery points)
  • changed gear (replaced myth. leviathan for relentless gutcrush warmaul of fervor!, nice damage push)

have a look!

salve guys!

  • Build is updated for 1.1.4.2.
  • Added Crucible Gladiator Video 151-170

:slight_smile:

Salute!

  • Exchanged Bladetwisted Signet with Dread Lord’s Gragabol Ring of Supremacy and could therfore exchange weapon component to Seal of Might

  • Optimized devotion setup

  • Searched my pockets for better rolls on equipment -> 417k Sheet DPS

  • Complete revision of the guide

All in all this build is pushed to the limit for now! I can not imagine that someone can squeeze out anything significant more…

1 Like

417k sheetDPS :sweat_smile:

Welcome to Spin2Win territory!

Nice build. IMO, you should probably stack up on X% reduced reflected damage.

Right now, you only have 20% from solemn watcher. Would recommend owl &/or titan plating.