[1.2.0.2] Return of the Rogue: CR 4.10 / SR 90 / <1min Ravager tanky DW Melee Saboteur by mad_lee

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*Forgotten class no longer! Sabouter has few very exciting builds at the top end nowadays, including this one!

Foreword

She tried to open her eyes. Her ears were still buzzing from the last altercation with Emperor’s Inquisition. “Wait”, she thought to herself, “That Inquisitor girl with scars on her face… Harra… She… killed me”. She tried to touch the part of the neck where the cold blade of the Inquisitor pierced her. Suddenly dizziness came rushing back and her head rang like a thousand church bells. Olexra faded. In her fevered dream she was looking at her body from a bird’s eye view. Three figures were leaning over it. She thought she recognized them although she had never seen them before. Suddenly they looked up with their burning eyes piercing through her astral self. “Witch Gods” - thought just apperead in her head seemingly out of nowhere.
Olexra finally opened her eyes. She saw an old man looking at her curiously. “My name is Izel and you must be Olexra”. She opened her mouth but couldn’t speak. “Don’t worry, you have died. Well, the arcane part of you did. Yet here you are”. “What…Where am I”, she muttered. “Oh, I don’t know. One of the myriads of realms. Seems like the Witch Gods still want something from you. They need you back in Cairn.” Old man made a subtle pass with his hand. “Here, you might need those back”.

The Build

The idea to use Shattered Realm set on a Sabouter isn’t new. However, I wanted to make a truly competive spec out of a semi-dead meme-class. And here is what I made.

<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*

*Craft for Stun resistance and armor
**Be sure to farm that Overseer’s prefix on helm.
***Cunning dump is mandatory, be sure to reach similiar OA numbers for best performance.

1.2.0.2 Update

Change devotions and belt for a bit more well rounded spec.

1.1.9.8 Update

The Rogue is back and this time it’s one of the spiciest melee builds in the game (and overall a build that could definitely knock on the door of top20 ranking. Custom items and new devotions in this overall affordable setup grant us high physical resist, respectable hp, great wps pool and both Turtle and Blast Shield to fall back on if things go wrong. Great aoe and crowd control and punchy single target with some of the prettiest fireworks in the game.

1.1.6.2 Update

With the nerfs to Dying God, Revenant and Barbaros pants it was time to revisit this melee warrior of mine. Reinvented the spec a bit, new Deathwhisper pants are actually good now. Added quite a few videos of updated build’s performance.

1.1.5.2 Update

Decided to visit this Rogue and revamp it a little. After few hours of testing I decided to change the medal. The real revelation was trying out overcapped Explosive Strike which was freshly buffed in 1.1.5.0. Build is now 15-20 seconds faster on average in Crucible and even more fun to play.

1.1.4.2 Update

I love playing with this character from time to time, it’s so strong and fun. Capped Explosive Strike for a bit more optimal damage output so changed Grimtools link and added a video of 6:16 run.

1.1.4.0 Update

Build was experiencing serious problems in 1.1.4.0. Consistency was gone out of the window with new monsters buffs across the board, but safer Nidalla’s spec wasn’t doing enough damage. After few hours of min-maxing and moving around skill points/relics and stats I figured out a super reliable and super powerful spec that answers to the challenge of the new patch. It can farm Crucible consistently in 6:30-7 minutes and farm Shards 75-76 as well. Added new video of a 6:28 Crucible run.

Gear

Shattered Realm set gives Sabouter unrivaled fortitude and massive amount of skill points. Nex and Ortus together with Elemental Harmony rings still offer great offense and great healing. All the other item choices are pretty standard.
Craft everything at Angrim and try to get %Physique bonus to take your DA above 2920 mark. Try to get maximum rolls on every SR set piece.

Overseer’s prefix is really mandatory for optimal performance. Try to get at least one Vitality suffix as well.

Skills and Devotions

I have tested quite a few devotion setups before choosing this one. Surprisingly it performs much better than a setup with Yugol despite having 1000 less flat Cold damage. I have also tested dual damage setup but it just doesn’t perform the way it used to on pre-nerf Nex and Ortus Spellbreaker or Infiltrator.

Leveling

I recommend searching this forum for leveling guides and following them. This is the endgame build and requires this exact gear/skills/devotions to work as advertised.

Gameplay

Build is extremely resilient. However, in Crucible you need to be aware of your positioning on boss waves, so do not forget to use teleport generously. Deploying Thermite mines in an optimal manner takes some time getting used to. In Shattered Realm past Shard 70 Grava is a very very dangerous fight in a boss room. Always isolate him to fight 1on1 and teleport away as soon as he raises his hands to cast Nullification. Avoid his Nullification projectile at all costs.

Stats

General

Fire Strike damage with Lethal Assault

Defense


Videos


1.2.0.2 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. Ravager 58 seconds kill

1.2.0.2 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. SR 75-76 4:28 run

1.1.9.7 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. Ravager 1:12 kill (no pharma/no clusters)

1.1.9.7 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. Ravager 56 seconds kill

1.1.9.7 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. SR 75-76 (5:58 run)

1.1.9.8 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. Ravager of Souls 2:11 kill (toughest Ravager for a melee build)

1.1.9.7 Nex & Ortus Sabouter vs. SR 75-76 4:25 run (fixed map layout + no gi pickup, tough bosses)

1.1.6.2 banana_peel’s Crucible 150-170 5:24 run

1.1.6.2 DMT’s Shards 80-81 masterclass

1.1.6.2 Crucible 6:03 run

1.1.6.2. SR spec Shards 75-76 8:52 run

1.1.6.2 Crucible spec Shards 75-76 11:39 run

1.1.6.2 Crucible spec 5.9 seconds Mad Queen kill

Crucible 150-170 5:54 run

Plasmodermic’s 1.1.5.2 Crucible 150-170 5:40 run

3:42 Mogdrogen kill

SR 75-76 10:18 run

1.1.5.2 spec 6 seconds Mad Queen kill

1.1.5.2 spec Crucible 150-170 lucky 5:50 run

1.1.4.2 updated spec 6:16 run

1.1.4.2 spec test - 6:48 Crucible run

Shattered Realm 75-76 run with 5 deaths to Grava

6:18 Crucible run by me

1.1.4.0 spec 6:28 run by me

Mercymaker’s 6:24 run

//youtu.be/4zkTfDRFpHU

7s Mad Queen kill

//youtu.be/5tCsonc85WY

7:09 Crucible run (average run is 7:30 on my PC, should be ~7 minute on a good PC)

//youtu.be/DBbYg55GxXc

Shard 75 run

//youtu.be/-eaOw6tN0WU

Shard 76 run (I die like 15 times to f…ng Grava’Thull there)

//youtu.be/xnCREg9uTQk

Shard 77 run

//youtu.be/DkCr1u9vhZo

In Conclusion

Olexra found out that despite getting back in Cairn she was not exactly herself anymore. Her new body felt differently, like some important part of her was gone forever. Her new set armor wasn’t made in this world but fit her like a glove and her old swords radiated with the familiar power. Olexra found herself muttering two names as she entered the rebuilt city of Malmouth hthrough the Candle District under the cover of night: “Malakor. Harra.”

19 Likes

Reserved just in case

Damn, I have been reading a lot of your builds lately and I never thought I’d stumble upon a new one this soon! Awesome build, and welcome back! :wink:

Serious hype for this.

After so many builds for that which WilL not be named, I still didn’t expect one of my personal favorite but seemingly “bottom five” combos to get any treatment soon, much less good treatment.

Well done pushing Sabo to 75!I saw earlier Valinov version with SR set and he said is possibility,but now is reality:p

Nicely done. This set is real good.

How do you feel about this here setup?

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlPYm7V

You peak dmg is much higher on paper. But more Execution, more racial, pinch more rr and Nidalla proc might do the trick. However, I know how you hate sub 100% armor absorption… :wink:

Thanks!

Yep, and build is really solid, like “you won’t expect this from the Sabo” level of solid, you should try it! It’s also dirt cheap to set up.

Thanks, Nery!

Sup, ya!

About Sanctified Bone, I have actually tested it. I didn’t like it, armor loss is feasible since we can get around ~2900 armor with Golemborn proc and 8% hole means almost 240 armor loss. I haven’t really noticed the damage from the bone, but did notice slight decrease in tankiness. Plus 30 OA from Living Armor scales REALLY nicely with this build (we have like 3 big procs that activate on crit and up to ~70% crit damage Iskandra’s proc and Dying god) and additional elemental RR takes our Fire overcap to a nice 30% (more with good rolls).

Iskandra’s relic is just a monster for an elemental autoattacker, damage buff it gives is huge. I have even tested it on melee Fire Dervish (something I won’t be posting since it turned out to be a bit too weak for my standards) and it outperformed Honor there. Plus, reduced cast cost lets us forget about mana potions even without Arcane Spark.

All in all, all gear/skill/devotion choices were made after quite a bit of testing, initial GT draft was very different.

Last Sabo I was trying to “make good” / update was something based on this… but this…

No greens! Oh hell yeah. This is #1 on my list to check out.

Now if someone does a defiler based on grenado, BWC, TM, RE, etc. I’d be ecstatic…
Edit: better than my amateur efforts (not sure it’s possible, either :frowning: )

Looks good!

Look forward to the next chapter of your novel. :rolleyes:

Genuine question: would this medal be useful in your build ?
https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/12122

The Bone is a minor change. I was mostly talking about taking Jackal and then about Nidalla vs. Iskandra.

BTW what your Firestrike tooltip? How much fire do you actually deal? Because you do have half the acid (by the by why no NHH?) converted to fire that is not converted back to cold, your gear is multi dmg and 2/3 of your rr is elemental… If it’s not negligible then Iskandra is in fact a no-brainer.

But I have a bias towards Nidalla. I like the free proc. And 2 ranks to Lethal Assault, maxed Execution, racial and some more oa through cunning from 9th rank in Anatomy…

Another “good job” from me on making Sabo work in some capacity - though it is a shame that he has to rely on such crutches like the SR set to not die in a second.

Thoughts on 2 Ring of Fire and Ice? The healing proc should be offering better sustain?

Also i was hoping Sabo shines with DW Fire build - that belt should have been converting Cold to Fire instead (To keep it with the theme of the class).

Good job pushing this idea I’m sure a lot of people (me included) had to reality! The result looks amazing! :smiley:

The moment you see 7m Sabo build

I like your GT a lot aswell. But why not use revenant last revenant node, retake blue and res crossroads and put remaining point into last ultos node though?

its still beyond me how people solo S75 without dying. I am literally instantly 1 shotted on S75 on my death knight lol

I will post Fire Strike tooltip a bit later. I used to have NHH in first iteration and then must’ve removed it, I think the effects of it were pretty negligible. Nidalla relic is bis for most Deathmarked setups because they lack AOE to clear trash in Crucible, this build doesn’t.

With this build it’s not hard unless you roll Grava in the boss chunk then you will have focus really well but it’s still very doable. It’s really a very tanky melee dual wielder.

Looks really good!

This might be my next char from scratch. I have always found the nb + demo combo intriguing.

Excellent build as usual mad_lee. The Sabo is back! :cool:

Nice build lee, glad to see a saboteur doing well. Took it out for a few spins in crucible. Results were as such

Don’t really play all that much nowadays so i’m glad i was able to push the build for that under 6:30mins run. Biggest pain in the ass is Kupa and wave 163 (i seriously hate the FG healers on that wave, feels like overkill when you get them and the sliths that heal on death in addition to the 3 stooges that lower your damage by almost half, really extends runs)
Run 3 death was a facetank attempt against 2x aleksanders meteors ft. Theodin. The meteors hit my simultaneously :rolleyes:

6:23min run: