Time to start playing again, also because the last patch messed so badly with my saves i had to delete all of them. I was dumb enough to not make backups before updating, but at least i still have all my items thanks to Mamba and his/her awesome tool.
Beside the massive nerfs and the unimpressive buffs, one thing catched my eyes: Aeon Hourglass.
-8 seconds of 100% cooldown reduction at lvl 10- This just open up so many option that i cannot focus precisely what to chose. At the moment I’m levelling a blademaster that will use a 2hander, Turtle Shell, Menhir Will, Time Dilation, Shadow Strike as a core for 8 seconds of devastation/immortality (you should be able to kill ANYTHING in those 8 sec). Not sure if the build will end up meeting my expectations, but this is the idea anyway.
So here my questions:
Never before i have had to ask if Shadow Strike is based on cast speed or attack speed.
What you think of this idea? Be rude as you want, but give me some explanations if you think this is a crappy concept.
Is this new devotions good as it seems?
If you have a better idea, feel free to expose it. I have an empty main screen after all…
CDR Reduction - to maximize the dps of SS you have to invest in Niddalla’s Justifiable Ends (for cooldown reduction + crit) or have items that decrease cooldown.
If by virtue of some miracle the Mad Queen would have dropped a 2-h “mega” dermapteran slicer with 50% armor piercing instead of a WH weapon I would pursue a 2h BM. Perhaps this can be addressed in 1.0.0.5, since the Sentinel drops 2 possible legendaries while the queen drops only one…
Problem with a 2h Blademaster is that there is weak support for that in the game in terms of items. More explicitly:
The only 2h legendaries with armor piercing that exist in the game (i.e. swords) are not BM weapons: one is a pet hybrid item nobody is really using and the other one is a massively powerful WH weapon. As such, due to how important resistance reduction is the pierce component of the VoS passive will be wasted if you go anything else than a sword.
The only sane option for a 2h BM right now would be the Leviathan. At least you can make use of the -% cold resistance of the VoS that way. However, in that case you would have to go something like 48/20/20 in terms of stat point distribution and also invest in War Cry. Why ? Because soldier has only +2 int/ mastery point and you will be spamming some abilities to maintain your damage in ultimate.
Dependes on what you want to achieve with it. As CDR becomes zero, your damage grows exponentially indeed. However, Time Dilation has some inherent problems: (i) you can use it reliably only for bosses, nemeses and unique monsters. And let me tell you something, after I farmed both the Mad Queen and Fabius > 50 times each - nemeses/boss farming is not worth it right now. You get more out of BoC/SoT. (ii) it is not reliable in HC since you have to take 50% HP damage for it to work and against some bosses (i.e. Mad Queen) that is very risky.
Time Dilatation is better for casters (i.e. Warlocks, Sorcerors, Spellbreakers) than for “assassin”-type characters.
It’s already been confirmed that Hourglass CDR triggers for Turtle and Dryad, and both help heavily negate a lot of the risk with Hourglass itself’s 50% hp requirement.
Yes, it is better for casters, mostly due to the insane 60% casting speed and the fact the CDR works wonders on the skills themselves. Why Shadow Strike someone 20 times near instantly when you can Doom Bolt them instead. Or abuse other synergies like OFF + Blizzard/Tsunami, or even go with using Hourglass as a Retaliation build’s release valve for power, being drop below X hp, and turn god mode for a 8 seconds to deal with anything that resist your standard retaliation damage (Hint, Hourglass proc makes SofH have 0 CD, and will enable Mhinir’s Will to proc every time you get low on hp, full healing you every time for the full 8 seconds. A 2H weapon can very safely be used during that time as a result. Use Primal Strike full damage version on 0 CD, then swap back to shield right as Hourglass ends to be safe than sorry, if they lived).
1- I will use SS only on bosses and occasionally on groups of difficult enemies. My main attack should be Beronath + Zoltan + Markovian… So CD is not a problem at all, but could still help to have some to reduce Time Dilation recovery time. I will think about it. Also NJE is already in my plans because the + critical damage.
2- That would be indeed a good weapon;) But since i have one Frostborn Akamos’Warsword of the Abyss since long time, and none of my chars has ever used it… Think about it, around 40% of physical-cold conversion, 22-44% piercing (with Nadaan), and another 10% physical-acid due to Mark of Dreeg. Also Night’s Chill debuff cold and acid more than piercing. My only concern is that this weapon lack IAS, but i’m almost sure to still get around 175% attack speed with it.
3- I have already all the items i need atm. This will not be a farming char. But i want something that annhilates any “named” monster in those 8 sec, without risking death. I think that Turtle Shell + Menhir’s Will + Giant Blood should cover me pretty well, since those skills also have no CD while the proc is active (TD activates on 50% health, Turtle on 40% and MW on 30%)
I’ve been putting numbers in a spreadsheet to determine which mastery skill does the most raw instant damage per cast. So far it’s looking to be 26/16 Phantasmal Blades with maxed modifiers. PB also happens to be based on cast speed so there’s another plus. It can hit 6 times per cast on a single enemy, which gives great chances to proc crit-based skills. When TD is offline PB has a 3 second cooldown which is not bad at all. And finally it can be used at a distance for those situations where you need to kite.
Its downsides are lack of circular AoE, no built-in crit damage bonus, and too many different damage types.
It’s already been confirmed that Hourglass CDR triggers for Turtle and Dryad, a
nd both help heavily negate a lot of the risk with Hourglass itself’s 50% hp requirement.
Why the CD on hourglass should be not be coded as all the other sources??
Anyway is good to hear that my assumption was indeed correct. Thanks.
Yes, it is better for casters, mostly due to the insane 60% casting speed and the fact the CDR works wonders on the skills themselves. Why Shadow Strike someone 20 times near instantly when you can Doom Bolt them instead. Or abuse other synergies like OFF + Blizzard/Tsunami, or even go with using Hourglass as a Retaliation build’s release valve for power, being drop below X hp, and turn god mode for a 8 seconds to deal with anything that resist your standard retaliation damage (Hint, Hourglass proc makes SofH have 0 CD, and will enable Mhinir’s Will to proc every time you get low on hp, full healing you every time for the full 8 seconds. A 2H weapon can very safely be used during that time as a result. Use Primal Strike full damage version on 0 CD, then swap back to shield right as Hourglass ends to be safe than sorry, if they lived).
I already considered almost all of what you’re saying here. Again, it is good to hear that I’m not merely daydreaming.
Also i chose the “2h blademaster” route because i wanted to have some automatic “panic button”, as the 50% health requirement is a bit too risky in the case i fail the timing of, as example, Mirror from Arcanist. This way i dont need to worry at all, mostly because i plain to end with an adeguate hp pool that should buffer all the highest damage sources while my build try to reach 50% health and turtle/MW activates…
>Dioarchet
These are all good info, and PB is a skill i overlooked because i solely use it with the transmuter. Yes, the damage is split into pierce, vitality, cold and chaos. Maybe a WH using Blood Rite, a Fang of Ch’thon/Exterminus/Plaguebear/of the Waster, Eldritch Fire and some other items i have in mind should be worth trying.
I’m kinda convinced it’s attack speed, since the animation starts instantly but doesn’t end until you perform the attack. 90% on this, but confirmation would be handy.
100% CDR + SS was the first instinct I had when I saw the changes, so I re-purposed an old Spellbreaker to try it out. It is definitely both hilarious and effective. Dunno how well it would work with a 2h BlaM, I’m willing to bet that a WH with Nightshade’s reach would be a better choice, though WHs already kill any boss in 10 sec trough poison stacking. Either way, Blademaster does broken things without having to cheese with SS and focusing on spamming a mana intensive skill will probably not improve your char. Also, no reason to go 2h since SS uses both weapons. And remember that the Blade Arc transmuter exists, it does more damage than SS if you use a 2hander.
Yes, it destroys bosses and being able to destroy a boss is what makes or breaks a char in GD. It is an amazing design choice, as it will make cooldown-based casters like Druids and Conjurers better without being the only choice for boss-killing out there (as LMB autoattackers remain unaffected).
If i had to speculate, I would say an Arcanist provides the best shell for it. This is pure theorycraft, as I’m not done fiddling with different choices, but:
A. You get a 10 second indestructibility trough Mirror. This will probably be the duration of the whole boss fight if AH activates and you start spamming.
B. Even though Devastation can not be spammed, almost no enemy can withstand two full durations of Devastation. And it’s a skill you want maxed regardless. And it shits Aetherfire (Imp constellation) everywhere with 100% chance to activate.
C. Ditto Outcast’s Secret.
D. Makes your mana mana-geable (I did a pun!).
E. Unfortunately, Agrivix keeps the cooldown (confirmation anyone?). However, being able to sit next to a boss with Mirror and triggering it constantly with all the Devastations will add up.
F. Aether Tendril (from the Aethersteel Bolts component) looks like a good candidate for the skill you start spamming once AH triggers. It does 10k base damage on my PRM caster and it’s pure Aether, which is awesome. When AH is down, it’s still a useful resistance reducing skill. Yes, Doom Bolt and Canister Bomb do much, much more damage, but they do awful damage types and require a lot of skill poitns.
There is another thing you should keep in mind: for all intents and purposes, this skill was just introduced. It is very powerful and potentially very “abusable”. Therefore, it is not wise to put all of your eggs in one basket, only to see your character become useless because the AH gets nerfed/changed in the next patch. It would be much wiser, imo, to build a character that is good on it’s own, preferably one that already uses SotH or Dying God (yea, yea, nobody uses Dying God…) and just moving some devotion points around to make room for AH as well as getting a skill which does a crapton of damage.
I’m kinda convinced it’s attack speed, since the animation starts instantly but doesn’t end until you perform the attack. 90% on this, but confirmation would be handy.
90% is better than nothing. But can someone just open those editing tools and confirm (i would already have done this, but these apps keep crashing on startup)
100% CDR + SS was the first instinct I had when I saw the changes, so I re-purposed an old Spellbreaker to try it out. It is definitely both hilarious and effective. Dunno how well it would work with a 2h BlaM, I’m willing to bet that a WH with Nightshade’s reach would be a better choice, though WHs already kill any boss in 10 sec trough poison stacking. Either way, Blademaster does broken things without having to cheese with SS and focusing on spamming a mana intensive skill will probably not improve your char. Also, no reason to go 2h since SS uses both weapons. And remember that the Blade Arc transmuter exists, it does more damage than SS if you use a 2hander.
I just wanted to try something different this time (i’ve already had 5 dw blademasters), but still effective (on the paper). Also, as i have stated, 2h purpose is Menhir’s Will and nothing else. Badge of Mastery should not work as item’s proc are unafected by cooldown. Good tips about Blade Arc, i will give it a look (in this case, maybe nightblade is not the best choice anymore).
Yes, it destroys bosses and being able to destroy a boss is what makes or breaks a char in GD. It is an amazing design choice, as it will make cooldown-based casters like Druids and Conjurers better without being the only choice for boss-killing out there (as LMB autoattackers remain unaffected).
This is also what i think. Interesting that you mentioned Arcanist, that was my initial choice.
E. Unfortunately, Agrivix keeps the cooldown (confirmation anyone?). However, being able to sit next to a boss with Mirror and triggering it constantly with all the Devastations will add up.
All i can say is that i never have had an item’s proc affected by CD. Never.
There is another thing you should keep in mind: for all intents and purposes, this skill was just introduced. It is very powerful and potentially very “abusable”. Therefore, it is not wise to put all of your eggs in one basket, only to see your character become useless because the AH gets nerfed/changed in the next patch. It would be much wiser, imo, to build a character that is good on it’s own, preferably one that already uses SotH or Dying God (yea, yea, nobody uses Dying God…) and just moving some devotion points around to make room for AH as well as getting a skill which does a crapton of damage.
After losing ALL my chars due to a tecnical issue, i dont care anymore. I have all my items stashed, and levelling untill late elite is a joke (but i’m also thinking to duplicate this char once she reach the end of elite, then somehow reset her skills points so that i can skip those difficulties for my future builds. Not a legit way to play, but a this point…)
