Currently I am playing a Mines & Sigil pyromancer, and apart from the fact that the devotions are giving me a headache, it is progressing nicely. So, I was looking to making my next character, and noticed there are not a lot of Druid builds out there, let alone melee Druid builds. Also, there don’t seem to be that many Savagery builds out there, certainly not 2H Savagery builds. naturally, builds combining all of the afore mentioned characteristics are even rarer.
However, after reading a comment about how Savagery can be used in combination with Primal Strike: building up Savagery and then hitting with Primal Strike for extra effect, I couldn’t help wondering whether it can be done, and came up with this basic setup.
If it’d work it’d be an interesting build for me to play with. My present build is a skill heavy kiting build, and this would be pretty much the opposite: a face tanking left-click build, with only Primal Strike under the RMB, and a one point Mirror of Ereoctes on 1., as a panic button.
Has anyone tried something like this yet, or has any experience otherwise why this might or might not work?
I don’t know about the fundamental of the build, that is, building up Savagery and then switching to Primal strike (although it seems like an interesting concept), but there are some things in your build which I think you shouldn’t miss:
Arcanist:
Inner Focus - This gives % OA and % Spirit. There should be some points here, for sure.
Maiven’s Sphere of Protection - 20% damage absorption (for a small adverse effect on your damage). This is optional, depending on preference, but it is a very good idea if you plan to face-tank.
Olexandra’s Flash Freeze - A screen-wide freeze at max rank, this is definitely optional (especially since it a) doesn’t really affect bosses, and b) the cold damage and -% fire damage resist won’t help you much), however, CC is nice to have.
12/12 in Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange is probably overkill - while it will increase your DPS, your points could be better spent elsewhere.
Shaman:
Mogdrogen’s Pact line is very good (more importantly, Heart of the Wild is INSANE and should be 10/10). Definitely do not miss out on this if you want to survive.
Wendigo Totem is a decent heal that should not be neglected (IMO) for a face-tank build involving Shaman.]
[EDIT]: Looking into the concept of Savagery/Primal Strike, I can’t really see the point - and let me elaborate as to why:
I don’t know if Savagery’s lightning bonus is applied to anything outside of the actual Savagery skill-line, but let us suppose it does for the purpose of this build. Then, you will be getting a 90% bonus to lightning (of course, this will be higher if you have max stacks of savagery). Nevertheless, this is a fraction of how much % lightning damage you will have at max build - most builds expect upwards of 1000%, so an extra 90-135% (or whatever it goes up to) won’t contribute that much.
Maxing both lines leaves far fewer skill points to be allocated elsewhere - if you plan to take this build to Ultimate, some points will need to be spent for survivability (see above).
Storm Touched (and I’m quite certain about this) will only apply to Savagery attacks, not other ones (i.e. primal strike), and so the points would be better spent in Storm Surge (last skill in Primal Strike line).
You would probably spend a lot of time making sure you have max stacks - not only is this time not using your main damage skill (which would be primal strike), but it also means you’d probably hurt your eyes staring at the Savagery buff all the time
I currently have two 2h trickster builds (one sc and one hc) that has savagery on left click and primal on right. These builds are a bit different as I need to focus more on defense and heath in hc. But both still works great. The savagery boosts primal really nicely. I would recommend you to try it out, it’s also a fun build to play.
That makes a lot of sense, but:[ul][]Where else would you take points from to invest in survivability, like Modrogen’s?[]Going ‘one line’ would be an option, but if I’d go for just Savagery here (enough PS builds out there), how would I be going to reliable tackle larger groups of mobs?[/ul]
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Some skills don’t scale too well past max, and so if you get + to skills, you can always take the appropriate number of points out and allocate them elsewhere.
Again, IMO, IEE should only have 1/12, as those 11 points could go elsewhere such as in Modrogen’s. Otherwise, it’s a matter if deciding if certain things are necessary to have maxed (tenacity of the boar, for example).
As for a pure savagery build, you could max the Brute Force line (Feral Hunger gives some limited AOE on your basic attack). Otherwise, on hit effects and devotions would be your best bet, unless you are willing to consider the possibility of adding Storm Totems to your rotation (and why not? You’ll have all your gear maxed for lightning damage, and you don’t need to max cast speed as you only need to summon once per 5 seconds).
To be honest, I’ve never built a 2H savagery build, nor tried the hybrid build like SisU303 has, so I’m mostly just guessing - you can always see what works and improvise
That does seem interesting. I only ever picked PS because I felt like I needed something next to Savagery, but a pure Savagery build would actually be even better.
Regarding IEE: would you drop Overload down to 1 (or 0) as well, and what about Elemental Balance? What about Oak Skin?
Finally, another easy way to free up points is to drop Shaman mastery down to say 32 points, since I’d not be picking up anything past Storm Touched. From my Titan Quest days though, I’m a bit wary about not completing masteries, as the stat and health boosts should generally not be ignored.
Overload could have any number of points really, whatever you have left over, as it does give some nice + % elemental damage but it’s up to you.
Elemental Balance’s best stat is the + 25% Crit damage - if you have high OA and are critting a lot, then I’d definitely consider leveling this up.
For Oak Skin, I would put it at the bottom of the pile for priorities - it gives a tiny amount of +% hp regen (compared with Tenacity of the Boar), some armour (which isn’t bad, I guess) and some pierce resist (which you’ll probably get from most character’s best in slot, the infamous Empowered Legplates of Valor - https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8220-Empowered-Legplates-of-Valor).
Now, that’s a valid point about not maxing Shaman, but I’d consider not maxing Arcanist instead and going for Stormcaller’s Pact. Here is why:
In terms of % lightning damage, it is very similar (135% for Star Pact, 0.33 * 350 = 115.5% average for Stormcaller’s).
Star pact converts physical to cold, whereas Stormcaller’s converts to Lightning, which is a more useful conversion as you will be stacking lightning damage.
Stormcaller’s pact gives a huge 50% Crit Damage at 12/12 - that’s insane, compared with 10% cooldown reduction which isn’t useful when using an attack damage modifier as your core for your build.
Crit damage is great - it’s like adding a ‘total damage modified by x %’ after all your damage is calculated, so if you decide to stack lots of OA to crit a lot, I’d definitely consider Stormcaller’s over Star pact.
Also, points in Shaman give more HP than points in Arcanist. 12/12 in Heart of the Wild will probably give you more HP than 18 extra points in Arcanist.
I’ve been giving this build some more thought, and decided I would like to max out both masteries, even if just for the heck of it. I’ve said it before in other thread: the inner completionist is strong with me. I then also favor Star Pact over Stormcaller’s, to avoid the build becoming overly Shaman-heavy. I can always switch that around later if it proves to be non-viable.
Based on what you said though, I am leaving IEE at one, skipping Overload, and only taking IEE for Elemental Balance really. That leaves plenty of points for me to grab multiple one point wonders in Arcanist: Olexra’s+Absolute Zero, Nullification, Mirror, and Callidor’s+Agrivix. That should give me defense, freeze+slow, negate condition, and 100% knockback.
Now, I was thinking of putting only two points in Primal+Thunderous Strike respectively, and bind that to my RMB. However, it really doesn’t seem to have a place next to Savagery. Instead, putting one point in Primal Strike, and twelve in Torrent, should provide me with an effective means of distributing AoE damage, and alternate better with Savagery. That should bring my build to:
Alternatively, since your suggestion to go with Stormcaller’s Pact would make the build Shaman-heavy, and with the minimal investment in IEE, I toyed with the idea of dropping Arcanist alltogether. I came up with the following build for a Warder, that basically just procs everything of Savagery as a defaut weapon attack:
