I love DW melee and decided to check how vitality stands currently. To my surprise DK is looking much more adequate compared to Ritualist despite the lack of vitality RR. I think the main reason is Solider tankiness, but also the QoL, as melee Savagery you waste too much time with Swarm and totems to utilize blood pact. Also Markovian is nice WPS with DA shred. This concept have been done multiple times in the past, credit to all guys for doing builds!
For weapons shamefully nothing converts fully Cadence physical damage to vitality. So these weapons are bad, no flat damage, but skill modes are decent.
Medal allows me to wear two weapons.
Belt is flexible. Decide to use very fine MI one with very attainable affixes.
Pants are freshly buffed Wedingo, OA on top of physical res and vitality boost.
Boots are really good, OA and slow. Physical res also helps
Rings, Fallen is must for every vitality build. Other is Lifegiver- DA, health, but more importanly overcap to vitality res+ 3% max and skill bonuses. Only thing that was lacking is attack speed. Use it to show it in build to @adoomgod
Relic is Serenity, excellent all around, vitality relics are just bleak.
Gloves maybe are controversial. Dark One have high OA and elemental resistance. Only thing it’s lacking is the attack speed. One can use gloves with speed or Cadence one. With good rolls the AS will not matter at all.
NOTE: For Crucible you may want to change the second weapon augment to Haunted steal.
Skills&Devotions:
Some interesting ideas, decided to hardcap Reaping strike for the huge sustain. Also softcap the Fighting form for extra AoE.
Devotions are very ordinary-Ratosh+DG. Take for affinity Lotus. It helps you never run dry and physical resistance on top.
Performance
In Crucible time is around 8 minutes on average. With good piloting can do 3x runs in same buffs duration. Build is not for people with weak nerves-health is constantly jumping around. I haven’'t record video form Cruci, overheating and am waiting for upcoming changes, so MQ video for now .
hmmmm well done i had an idea like that i always wanted to make a DK based reaping strike & life leeching that’s rly nice but u haave 50% to chaos that doesnt effect ur damage alot ?
I did’t use chaos component on weapon, because I need physical to vitality conversion on Cadence. You can use the last node of Dying God for slight chaos damage, but basically this build can’t use this excellent conversion. I like the resistance, + Necro on the belt though.
Cheap gear, you mean without the set? Ritualist is more suited there, cause you have Dark One set+Bloodrender for lightning to vitality conversion. Also Ritualist use 2x chaos components and extra conversion will help. Biggest winner from it will be Cabalist to convert the chaos damage from Solael Witchblade. Anyway belt is worth it. But if you want to use legendary one, Oleron is a candidate- +1 to Soldier and flat physical, which will be converted mostly.
Can you try that blue ring instead of lifegiver instead? Or just other ring options in general. I want to see if they’re notably far apart or if lifegiver doesn’t feel so easily replaceable.
8 minutes is far from great these days but maybe someone pushes it further.
I tried Cursebearer. Performance offensively is similar, but Lifegiver gives better sustain and DA. About time-for vitality melee 8 minutes isn’t that bad. With good playing it will be less with some ups and downs, but personally in the ring slot, other than attack speed nothing could/should be added. Weapons are more concerning, no flat damage on a melee weapon, no Cadence conversion and no RR, yup.
Maybe edge of death just needs some flat vitality damage and the set shoulders or torso could use like 25% phys to vit? You might want to put this in ideas and feedback.
Honestly though Zantai could just go crazy on the WPS mods. If they chunk even harder times would technically go up but I don’t think he’d want to put super extreme numbers on them.
I think WPS are fine. Reaping strike makes difference for healing, Markovian is DPS gain and also DA shred, Necrotic edge have AoE, it’s hard to complain. DW vitality melee don’t work properly for some reason, though. Sustain of vitality casters makes them very versatile, as melee you just need to kill stuff and tank everything. Serenity is helping to avoid meaningless deaths. Otherwise build is risky and the health is dropping constantly and Ghoul is triggered even against some ‘‘trash’’ waves.
Hi I’m a bit of a newer player. I’d like to achieve this build when I have the appropriate gear but would you be able to give me some pointers on some gear I should build leading up to this point?
Death Knight is usually one of the recommended classes for beginners. It’s sturdy class and have different viable damage types. But the build you see more or less requires the Blood Knight set. As whole unlike Ritualist or Cabalist for example Death Knight isn’t native at dealing vitality damage so have less possibilities. You can replace set with Dark One, but Idk how good will be. Also weapons provide valuable mods but they are replaceable. So does rings.
But if you don’t have Blood Knight set, I suggest looking the aether version with Krieg set. Krieg set and Dark One are the only sets in the game that are target farmable and so it’s easy to gear your DK. Then you have Theodin green scepter-also easy drop. Generally is much easier to make aether version.
Finally you can go physical, since Soldier have lots of physical damage and Necro have resistance reduction.
My advise is too play the game and build whatever gear you find. Hope this is helpful.
Question: If I don’t want to use Hungering Void, do you think that it would be better to put the points from Dying God into Wendigo or Behemoth, or ditch the point in Staff of Rattosh and drop Sailor’s Guide in order to get Ulo (or maybe Dryad or Crane) and Scales of Ulcama?
I think Dying God is the best devotion for any vitality base build. It gives massive %vitality on top of critical damage and speed. Plus nodes are very good. Lost of health will be offset by life steal.
If you don’t want to use it maybe try to fit Ulcana+Wendigo or maybe Abomination. Idk, but you lose damage going elsewhere.
I haven’t test it recently but have some ideas, so I will test it tomorrow, I would put more points in Bone Harvest line, since set boost the skill very well. But build should still be good, with some correction even better.
