Is it viable to build battlemage using offhand as a caster - AAR, Devastation etc while counting on the soldier tree for the passives and survival ability? And if so is it worth building up to war cry and squad tactics.
Yes you can do that.
Sure you can do it, but would this build effective - is totally different question
well ofc you can do, nothing limits you in GD most likely…
and from my experiences battlemages gonna be one of best&strongest chars after new 1.08 patch
What makes you say that? I’m still pretty new and the changes are a bit difficult to take in. The biggest change I noticed for a battlemage is discord. I’ve thought a cadence discord battlemage would be a lot of fun and played one for a bit, but it didn’t work too well. Do you think it will be better in 1.0.0.8 or are there other changes you’re thinking of?
maiven sphere has no physical damage penalty after 1.08 patch. for physical builds its awesome, esp 2 handers
with new discord, you can pretty much go full elemental build easily
arcanist alone is prolly strongest class in game in right hands, mirror + nullification some CDR tricks
with minor DA buffs on devotion tree and items, medicore geared battle mage can hit 2.5k OA min, 2.2k DA easily…
these class combination just lacks RR for ele build, which can be solved by gearing and devotions.
dont know maybe just me but i expect battlemages to have their spot in top tier builds next patch.
-Maiven + Bulwark is redundant, if i recall things correctly damage absorption isn’t additive
For 2 handers i agree, but warder has more physical support with 2h-physical
A physical BM would never beat Temper or Curse.
It was never a bad move to go physical BM, it’s just not optimal
-Right hands?
-While i do agree OA support is nice for arcanist, i think any build can reach high OA and DA values.
I think you forget Elemental Balance is whats truly awesome. 30% crit damage is awesome. (Was it 30 or less?)
-Elemental as a whole is hard to work with, no amount of gear would help Discord Cadence battlemage in the RR department.
Witchblade is more optimal for Discord
Or for Commando 
-The only reason Battlemage is rising is because they’re just cheap-shotting some good class combinations like Blademasters which simply refuse to die
I don’t hate Battlemage, i just don’t consider them top-tier (except the Aether BMs) w/o pulling off some gimmick.
Imo, they deserve more exclusive items.
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i dont remember i mentioned bullwark + maiven combo together… cause i didnt. the reason is same with you i dont know how absorb mechanics work in GD, if they stack we gonna see new bmage meta coming in 1.08 patch
this part was basically for 2handers -
no i didnt forgot elemental balance, but i didnt point out it for simple reason, it will be hard to scale 2ndary dmg types like electrocute fburn etc as bmage cause you wont have enough flat amount to work on them imo…* i might be wrong you can get them from devotions and some items*
but ofc +crit is always juicy for a class which will have high OA. -
ya both commando and wblade can be better, imo wblade is superior, but scaling pure elemental damage is kinda one of easiest dmg types in game due to tons of good rare items whatever the reason comes with %elemental damage easily… and ya its gonna be cheap as fuck char.
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na not fan of aether dmg and wont be since next class comes out and mindwarp is meh weapon even if you go aether build. but sure they need more items to be top tier,. but i agree with you here they need weird itemization and more work compare to other classes.
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you forgot spirit buff from, inner focus which will buff whole elemental damage aswell, and being arcanist in GD is kinda super awesome thing due to mirror + nullification aswell.
-Ah, i wish it were additive :rolleyes:
-Hmm, interesting opinion. I personally don’t care for the DoT bonus and just take that crit damage
-I love aether visually, but it’s a pain to work with due to lack of itemization
Aether Lightning- Go Ultos, WTF?
Aether Cadence- Go Warborn or Iskandra, WHY?
Aether VoS Ranged- Ulzuin, Iskandra, Whacky mixed setup, Please STOP
I am sick of using idiotic gear combos and Decree of Aldritch to make things work.
-I am glad someone shares my opinion of Mindwarp, i am frankly tired of seeing that weapon. It looks and sounds cool. But it’s BiS and has no equals, and that pisses me off. I want some contenders for it
-Spirit buff is cute 
-Elemental support in arcanist is nice, but w/o good RR you’re gimping Discord’s true potential
-You overestimate Mirror+Nullify
Tankiness doesn’t matter when my enemy is dead before being able to land a hit. Some class combos do exactly this
Those Blademasters never use any CB and were ear-fucking the entire content. But this did indeed bite them in the crucible
well aether is in bad spot in game imo and vitality aswellnot bad ass aether,
the main reason is all those weird aether devotions are not alone, they come with fire and lightning for whatever the reason…
there is only reckless power and fabric of reality for flat aether dmg in game, and i doubt even they are usefull or enough to go any aether buildsesp attack ones.
let be honest, we are trying to make most aether builds just because we want to and those juicy aether&lightning constelllation exist, soth and widow…
if those constellations are not that powerfullarcane bomb yuk trash, we would never try to make aether attack builds. simply,
cause there is no good itemization that supoorts aether aswell lol… or lets say not enough… so what we have in our hands
- not optimized items , sure
- not optimized dmg scalement, sure
- not %100 optimized devotions, sure, i guess there is only 1 flat aether dmg on constellations in game %99 of players barely remember which one is aswell.
you forgot aetherstorm amulet convertion, which is strongest synergy for viablity of aether builds in game imo, considering all those nonsense aether light dmg constellations.
and dont know i am not huge fan of mirrorcuz its op but after you get used to nullify things and yourself, its 2nd skill i miss alot while playing other chars. number is 1 pburst
Ah i have skills like that as well
Never understood why you don’t like Arcane Bomb, is it cause it needs to rearm itself? Or because it supports to oddly paired damage types?
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1 sec rearm has no place in 2017 arpg games… before 2-3 arcane bomb proc, %90 of my other builds clean 1.5 2 screen away… in current state of aether dmg in GD imo that skill should have no timer to activate… 1 sec seems not much but its realllllyyyy soooooo muchhhh to me, not exeggrating seriously. its painfully slow.
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ya dont know what other thinks about it , but i find all those aether + X dmg type constellations pretty irritating factors to me.
Totally agree about the bomb, that arming time completely relegates the skill to the back burner for me. By the time it arms, let alone detonates, I’ve already killed everything that it would help with. The only place it helps is with RR on bosses.