This is a build I’d been planning for a while, it’s a variation on my alternative Blademaster DW Cadence build.
I saw some negativity about Pierce BMs in another thread, but honestly I don’t think the changes were that bad. The Commandos got hit a lot worse, if anything.
Anyway, this build’s pretty good. Even with limited res reduction it hits like a truck, just need to be careful because it’s pretty squishy like most chars that don’t use a shield.
I think a Pierce build would be comparable or even better, since you get Assassin’s Mark which Cold builds don’t use.
Grimcalc: http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-dJ1nDQ
Grimcalc w/o items: http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-hCX2pI
Note: if you want a bit more offense, you can take a few points out of Military Conditioning, Scars of Battle and/or Veil of Shadow and put them in Field Command or Squad Tactics instead.
Update: new video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p-fPV0zpBM Crucible Gladiator 100-150 with extra spawns.
Update 2: newer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh3I8c7UDVI Gladiator with 2 repeats
Update 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7almt1zJQk4 Battle against Avatar of Mogdrogen
Current equipment:
Warborn Visor - Sanctified Bone
Warborn Pauldrons - Silk Swatch
Divinesteel Hauberk - Chains of Oleron
Iceskorn Talons - Consecrated Wrappings
Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind - Rigid Shell
Spellbreaker Waistguard - Antivenom Salve
Peerless Eye of Beronath - Dread Skull
Alkamos’ Touch of Anguish + Dread - Corpse Dust
Mark of Divinity - Dread Skull
Nemesis
Stonehide Exalted Treads - Mark of Mogdrogen
Nex - Haunted Steel
Nex - Coldstone
Augments: this build mostly lacks Aether res, so most augments will use 10% Aether or 7/7% Aether/Chaos augments.
I also have 2 poison resist augments to cap that res.
Weapons have 35% Elemental damage, 200 life, 22 OA ones.
Thinking about it, I went Kymon’s but had I chosen Death’s Vigil I could get the 10% Lightning / 7% Aether res augments, which would let me replace the Rigid Shell with an Antivenom Salve. This would open up a jewelry augment for an extra 20% dmg and 2% OA/DA one for example.
You can farm some better stuff but this is what I have now. You can also put a second Haunted Steel instead of Coldstone in the other weapon. This gives you more leech and a second use of the active skill, I don’t feel it’s necessary though.
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I don’t usually play on Gladiator to farm since only the most broken builds can farm that without taking much effort or time, and this isn’t one of those builds.
I used like 70 Tribute worth of buffs to feel safe, probably wouldn’t play it with any less on HC.
As a tip, Challenger is more than adequate for drops (you usually get 3-5 purples instead of Glad’s 5-7) and requires far fewer Tribute buffs to do safely (and thus successfully), so it’s much more efficient for most builds.
Glad is mostly a test to show if your build is broken or has enough damage and defense to defeat it, but honestly I don’t think it’s that fun because it pidgeonholes you into using most of the defensive Devotions.
You typically need a lot of dodge or fumble chance, this is why a ton of the builds who solo Glad are often Demos: Flashbang w/ Searing Light, and their Blast Shield helps too.
A shield makes it a lot easier to handle as well.
Which is why I think people shouldn’t judge or outright discard builds that can’t solo Glad, because in fact, very few builds can actually do that.
It can be an indicator of an extremely strong build, but many builds are perfectly fun, innovative and very strong even if they can’t do Glad.
Many of the builds you see posted have hundreds of hours of farming and have stuff like Incorruptible MI of Attack which you can’t realistically attain in regular playtimes (say 50 hours, which is still a lot), so it’s not a good idea to measure your own performance against that.
Anyway, I wanted a DW build that can beat Glad, and surprisingly this guy is pretty good at it.
The linked run went fairly well, I think Mark of Divinity only went off twice (once in 149 which wrecked me with a really bad boss combo) and just before the end against Zant, sneaky guy.
I made some changes again, specced out of Leviathan because it just doesn’t offer enough defense for Glad, picked up Tree of Life and the lower 3 nodes in Obelisk, and Solemn Watcher.
This boosted my DA over 2500 (up from 2100) and lowered my overall damage by 30-40%, all in all this makes Glad much more feasible.
It still does decent damage with buffs on but the clear speed isn’t great since AoE is limited.
I also took off the DM set since it’s just too squishy for this, now I’m using a mix of purples (2 piece Warborn, Divinesteel armor) and double Nex for weapons.
If you forgot what Nex does:
Legendary One-Handed Sword
66-112 Physical Damage
28% Armor Piercing
1.2 Attacks per Second
16-25 Cold Damage
+91% Cold Damage
+91% Frostburn Damage
15% Physical Damage converted to Cold Damage
+115 Health
+16% Attack Speed
18% Cold Resistance
+3 to Fire Strike
+3 to Amarasta’s Quick Cut
Granted Skills
Shadowbolt (15% Chance on Attack)
You unleash a bolt of pure darkness at your foe.
0.5 Second Skill Recharge
1.5 Meter Radius
15% Weapon Damage
280 Cold Damage
148 Vitality Damage
20% of Attack Damage converted to Health
60 Reduced target’s Offensive Ability for 3 Seconds
In short: it’s a fast sword with a high AS affix and has some Cold damage and conversion, and its proc is decent and adds to your survivability.
This build can still be a lot better. I’m just using some Stonehide boots without a good suffix, and the new Alkamos ring set. You could probably farm green rings that outperforms that, it’s not a bad set though.
My pants (Tranquil Mind or whatever) aren’t the greatest either, picked them up to fill some resist gaps and for the Spirit. Again, an MI could easily beat that and open up augment and other slots for better performance.
Older video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw00RBNSbSU
This video doesn’t show anything extraordinary, just a short farming route that demonstrates how this build performs.
Might post a guide sometime, but not right now. Still fine-tuning some parts and need to test some stuff.
