Im dabbling with the idea of making a commando, focused on physical damage and internal trauma, but i cannot settle on whether i want it to be a 1h/shield build, or a 2 hander. Is there a general consensus as to which path to take is ultimately better? I assume that going 1h/shield will offer better sustainability in terms of DA and going 2h will yield a better OA and i assume higher dps? If the better overall option is 1h/shield, is cadence the best route to take? And if it happens to be a 2h, which skill would be best to utilize with it?
Please correct me if im wrong. I know its all personal preference, but im just curious, does one set ups pros and cons out weighs the other?
This build would be for softcore and primarily campaign orientated.
Thanks for any insight you guys have to offer!
Edit: also, i just assumed taking demo as a secondary is the best option for capitalizing on physical/trauma, but if im wrong and taking shaman as a secondary class would be better, just post your opinions on that!
I would recommend 1h+shield for the survivability aspect, but I do agree that shield cadence feels relatively dull compared to flashier casting based builds or even 2hander builds. Up to you really how you want to play it. 2hander commando and 1hander commando would both work great.
As for build type, my recommendation would be to make a soldier heavy blademaster for the advantages offered by pneumatic burst and veil of shadow. All of the soldier builds can be considered roughly comparable if you build them right. Blademaster has best heals, but Witchblade has almost as good heal and a better debuff. Commando gets flashbang, canister bomb, and some good passives. Warder gets more health and better bleed support. Battlemage gets more damage absorption from MS, plus a big OA boost that stacks well with Oleron’s Rage.
If you really wanna go into internal trauma damage then i really recommend using a shield with high physical resist (and stacking phys. res. like mad) cuz othervise reflection would hurt a LOT.
I currently have a dual wield pistol commando in the works (mainly because I found X2 death dealers). So far its been pretty fun, I could also see a 2 hander working as I believe I found some gun that adds to soldier and demo skills.
I’ve focused more on bleeding/physical/with some internal trauma. Sadly I’m only lvl 52 and the alt has been sidelined for my very fun 80 cold spellbreaker.
Sheild vs 2/DW, obviously shield will be more tanky but you could focus on block procs for trash whereas a 2 hander/DW will hit harder but more squishy. I guess pending on your flavour, I haven’t done enough shield builds to give a good assessment on it.
Okay, so there are two routes that you can go for trauma (that I can think of anyway).
On-hit trauma damage. This is more of things like Deadly Momentum and Oleron’s Rage, that give you on-hit trauma damage. And you use Cadence to apply that damage x4.2. Blitz is pretty much the only spell you’ll use that gives additional trauma damage.
This supports Anvil pretty well, and Autumn Boar would be a good pickup too, both of which use a 1-hander and a shield.
This only requires Soldier, so you can combine it with any class.
Full trauma caster. This focuses on flat trauma damage as opposed to on-hit trauma damage. You’ll want to stack (nearly) every trauma damage skill you can, going with a 2-hander weapon.
This requires being a Commando (which you wanted anyway).
It would look something like this: http://grimcalc.com/build/1008-QgmuHK
Of course, you don’t have to use every skill if you want more skill points for passive/defensive skills. If you get rid of a spell, get rid of one from Soldier because they all have less flat trauma damage. Also, I forgot to put a point in Clean Sweep (the Blade Arc modifier) which makes the trauma damage significantly stronger.
Also I would recommend not using Tremor (on Forcewave) because you’ll be casting spells while it’s on cooldown anyway. Plus, you’d only be refreshing the trauma damage, and it would be weaker if you used Tremor.
You could go for a mix between the two, but I find going one or the other is better.
This is phsysical damage commando (to be updated). Has good trauma DoT too at 35K and if you specialize on DoT (max oleron rage instead of bulwark and blindside+siegebreaker ability) you can get 80K-100K trauma dot. PRoblem is sutaining it as there are very few %increase trauma duration
As in superfluff build (probablt the pre-1.0.0.8 top tier build just so you know ) don’t forget to max Break Morale for - phys res. any source of -% physical resistance on gear is good too.
One last question for you guys, which is the best default attack skill in the soldier class to use, to capitalize the most off of by using a 2 hander and focusing on physical/internal trauma? Would it be the cadence skill tree?
MAxed Cadence (%weapon damage increases dot damage from dot that comes from your weapon so>>>) max deadly momentum for internal trauma that applies on weapon, also max Oleron rage and Blitz(%weapon damage again)+blidside if shield or blade arc transmuted+ Lasceration if 2h. Bull devotion second node and Oleron all nodes.
Shield aslo has siegebreaker ability with up to 16K internal trauma damage end game and i maneged 100K DOT with my shield commando. Use colossal grasp hand amor if shield or unchained might if 2h.
Commando isnt so good for 2-hander. If you want to use soldier’s 2-handed skill, why dont do Witchblade instead? OR Warder, if you want to use Savagery + WPS.
) don’t forget to max Break Morale for - phys res. any source of -% physical resistance on gear is good too.