My gear kind of sucks, after noticing my ~1400% vitality damage, but regardless, the character is a great deal of fun to play. It has good defense, and DPS is somewhere around 150K, after you factor in the 6 blades per cast. I mostly copied my devotions from another build around here for a WitchHunter version. I did substitute out a couple minor things to grab shieldmaiden.
I’m not fully leveled up on Will of Rattosh yet, but it looks quite promising. It’s a great deal of fun to play. It handled Challenger no problem, and with a decent player (or even myself) it probably can do Gladiator, but I haven’t tested that yet.
My biggest issues, I think, are my lack of Vitality%, energy regen, and flat armor. The last bit is in part due to using caster gear to feed my energy regen. I also sacrificed stats on the shield for 31% physical resistance, and my amulet and medal for overcapped resistances.
I do not, or I would use them. I play self found, although I have traded 2 times now, but those items dropped for me that same day, so I figured it must have been a sign to keep going self found. That’s why I said my gear kind of sucks. I only own the gun in the set, and that takes away Blitz and SS.
Don’t think any Frenetic Throw build needs SS or Blitz. My opinion though.
I wonder why Blademaster though. I know you said you copied it from a Witch Hunter, but i think Reaper would have been a better alternative instead of Blademaster.
I wanted to play like a pure caster, but with a shield. I need Blitz, at the least, as a devotion proc. It is also very handy to get around. I even put a point in SS as a backup to get out of a sticky position. I also have a Witch Hunter version. This one is a lot more durable, and the DPS is only a little less.
And I might try a Reaper one day, but come on, this is a single player ARPG. Are you telling me you don’t try odd builds to see how they work? The truth is, of all the PB builds I’ve done, this is by far the more enjoyable. I may try Reaper at some point, but I didn’t have one nearly leveled up already to respec.
Blitz places me right in front of a target, applies acid spray, and let’s every blade spraying out of my hand to hit the target. It works well.
I do like trying odd builds (i just leveled a physical Primal Strike build), but replacing the mastery that is supporting the main mastery (Occultist supporting Nightblade for WH PB) with Soldier is what i like to call the “Soldierfying Syndrome”.
Two examples that come to mind is Poison WH with Poison Witchblade and BWC Sorcerer with BWC Commando.
I’m not against it and if you are having fun with it, great. And Blademaster is probably the better option for SF than WH or Reaper (i think both are fine for SF though).
What do you mean by SF? And what’s the deal with “Soldierfying Syndrome”? That sounds like a personal thing. I guess the idea of using a shield with a character is a negative thing? I personally think they should add shield enhancing abilities to more than one class. They missed an opportunity to untie shields from Soldier with the expansion.
You’ve probably noticed another pattern. People who like to use guns spec in Inquisitor. Those who like to DW melee, spec’ nightblade. Those who want to use a shield, spec soldier. They’ve kind of pigeonhole certain play styles to specific classes.
I’ve always wanted to try a caster with a shield. Unfortunately, there never has been a caster skill that worked with it. I tried this version a long time ago, and before I could finish, they nerfed PB to the ground, so I finally got back to it after a few buffs. Unfortunately, the only feedback I can get is to make a different character.
Anyways, I made a few tweaks to the build after my spirits were crushed in the crucible. As it turns out, 30% physical resistance is not enough to survive in there as a tank at least. Every once in a while, you just get stomped. I also found out that I needed more Vitality resistance. And the biggest change of all, is learning to play this character in the Crucible. While I have a shield, and can tank pretty well, it’s still best played at range. Blitz and SS were invaluable for getting out of the pack and keeping a little distance from the pack. It’s fine to tank a few at a time, but large hordes need to be picked off for safety.
So, I end up with about 28K x6 blades. Over capped resists, most at least 40+ over the cap with increased max resistances.
I’d be open to trying to improve this build more if you guys have ideas. I don’t plan make another character in her place. This one has real potential, but I could use some improved gear and perhaps another devotion plan.
Can’t say I see an issue with “soldierfying” things if that is how someone likes to play. Soldier brings unique options to a build. Not sure why you have an issue with poison witchblade? Seems like a good basis for a number of builds I can think of.
