Advice on first build

Beginner here

Build – https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbGXmEZ

This is the first build ive played seriously and wanted some advice on how to improve this further, like how to increase resistances and get better loot.

For further info - I plan to play this warlord according to the budget build guide i found on the forum by @The_Coyote and want to later respec into this [1.1.6.0] Physical Forcewave Warlord sr100/75-76 easy farm/celestials FW warlord.

Any advice is helpful

PS- Though im only in act 4 in this char ive played halfway through AOM and started FG on another warlord(very casually) but dropped it a few months back

For resistances you’re doing good just need to it even better

  • keep multiple options for every slot so that you have freedom with adjusting resistances

  • use components more

  • Elemental Res is easy to get on gear as you see

  • Acid/Poison too and you can bump it by using 1/2 Antivenom Salve if needed

  • Pierce / Bleed I fix with 1-2 Silk Swatch

    • or use it so that I can equip different gear with rather Aether / Chaos res that are harder to come by
  • Vitality Res - usually 2 Soul Shard in rings for me fixes the problem / allow me not to have as much of it on gear

  • Aether Res - mostly from gear but also Runestone / Aether Soul / Purified Salt

  • Chaos is similar to Aether in this regard, components, gear, augments later

Here’s some of my 37 lev character as an example with resistances from random gear and components
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZwo8bXZ
All my leveling characters look more or less the same

Honesty too much to write for me, I recommend you to check those guides for which MIs / Faction / Guaranteed items / blueprirnts you need to hunt:

Btw Alkamos newer build is this

Thanks a lot for the advice.
I tried some of the components you recommended and its looking great,I guess i was being an idiot for not looking for recipes in faction vendors.

also about- keep multiple options for every slot so that you have freedom with adjusting resistances i didnt quite get this, do you mean to keep multiple items so i can see what fits the best?
other than that thanks a lot for this again

I just meant to keep some spare i.e. chest pieces in your stash with different sets of resistances so that when you i.e. swap to a different amulet with different resists you have the option to wear this different spare chest for more balances general resists.

And consider play this Death Knight because it’s more up-to-date :thinking:

@Centrix Although it looks like it has more skills to cast and you may not like that.
I also like Oathkeeper for Vire’s Might skill so I have 2 charges (the one from augment too) to use when there are no monsters around

oh ok ,thanks again
also about death knight , i was really interested to try out forcewave endgame and since its my first build i wanted one with less buttons to push(since im a noob) thats why i thought of building @AlkamosHater 's build as soon as i saw it.
I might try out the other builds once i get all the speed levelling gear

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Another way for boosting Res I didn’t mention is to have low level jewellery augment with resists, for example Devil’s Crossing have them for 40 level character with Vit / Aether / Poison / Bleeding resistances:
https://www.grimtools.com/db/faction/devil’s-crossing/items

Other factions have those too. They don’t require that much rep as higher level armor augments

You can use either of alkamos’ forcewave builds. The DK is definitely stronger, but it doesn’t exactly matter, because the WL is easily strong enough to do all the content in the game. I went with it as my endgame option of choice in my guide because of how easy the set is to farm (basically, you buy it.) for most of the gameplay, you won’t even need to use all the item skills and such on your bar. For regular gameplay, I just use 2 movement skills and FW. It’s borderline brainless to play and very tanky

Imho, looks good for a level 39 forcewave warlord. If you want to look for gear (also check the vendors - some of the stuff I used at this level was not found but bought), try to get stuff which increases your casting speed - so mainly try to get a 2h weapon with casting speed and gloves with casting speed (with restless remains), than also invest in the respective skill (Squad Tactics), you should now also slowly reach areas where you can try to farm a Obsidian War Cleavers - get one. And try to farm a nice Mogara’s Fangs (from https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/bosses/11289) to replace the amulett (as your amulett is not bad, you will likely need some tries to get a nice enough one - but with a bit of luck, you will get one with of Supremacy - investing here a bit of time imho does not harm as amuletts and rings will not become outdated that quickly - compared to other stuff). Just don’t overinvest in general in farming now, the gear you get now will become outdated rather soon (especially: weapons and armor) and you will need to get a higher level versions.

Regarding resistances - while I am surely on the lower end with my resistances (your character has much better resistances than my one had at this level), at this level it is imho not necessary to overinvest (means: making to much other comprises just to get all values up to 80), but it will become more important later. And like @tqFan wrote - having some alternatives in the stash, will make it later easier to adjust to found/bought gear options (just remember to sell the outdated (lower level) stuff from time to time).

And instead of Ectoplasm, I prefer Mark of Illusions for rings if I need more energy at this level - because of the other boni provides. Warlord has also the advantage that Presence of Virtue will help a lot with energy regen later.

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He has Scales so there shouldn’t be any problems with Energy :slight_smile:

if he allows the enemies to hit him - something which can be still avoided at level 39 :slight_smile:

But even more a reason to change Ectoplasm to something else more useful

If enemies don’t hit you on a Forcewave build it means that you kill them so quickly that you don’t need Energy in the first place, because it depletes only if you have to spam / channel for a prolonged amount of time. I imagine this could be sometimes a major difficulty of Veteran vs Normal - Energy usage due to monsters higher Health values.

It’s not. They get smoked on veteran too

Perhaps I wasn’t clear but I meant a general scenario not Forcewave in particular. I know this one is good from the start.

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