It’s time to talk about elephant in the room. Somehow among all the nerf talks and discussions Deathmarked set is never mentioned.
Here is a little demonstration, I have designed what I think is perfect or close to perfect Deathmarked Infiltrator and John Smith to record one of his best runs with it, result is 5:14 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 run with 3 blessings and 1 Vanguard banner. That is a sick Crucible result for a build with minimal aoe. You can add ~15-20 seconds for a spec with no green pants. Trickster in the same set would be a bit slower, Blademaster or Dervish with cold RF conduit even slower, but still incredibly fast.
This build can cruise into Shard 85 or deeper with minimal adjustments. Set is definitely overtuned and some adjustments have to be made.
Suggestions:
remove damage to Humans from chest. Nightblades already stack at least 25% from Anatomy of Murder on every spec. Extra damage makes this set melt human targets too fast
change set’s proc. Make it proc on attack and reduce cold RR to -10%.
reduce chance to avoid projectiles on set bonus to 10-15%. Infiltrators with Inquisitor Seal with transmuter can stack up to 85% chance to avoid projectiles without doing anything special (apart from spending 1 skill point on transmuter).
reduce cold resist reduction (don’t touch pierce) on Mythical Night’s Embrace amulet to -12%. Amulet is ridiculously strong at the moment and has no real competition for cold (or pierce) Nightblades.
I know that community won’t like this thread, but fair is fair. If we keep asking to buff weaker parts of the game, we can’t ignore stuff that is very obviously overtuned.
Community likes this thread. The more they talk about Deathmarked the more they forget to nerf Venomblade
Btw very nice setup. Revenant really empowers cold aa. One of the reasons N&O was so strong - didn’t have to take Elemental Storm. I’d get that Vigor to 6 and cut down on that cunning dump maybe. What just happened?!? Did I suggest Mad_Lee get more tankiness?
I wouldn’t say Venom is OP. You sacrifice some defence in order to fast farming Cruci or you sacrifice some damage in order to play SR safely. DM doesn’t sacrifice anything and can do both
My VB thread got a bit overshadowed by your SR90 version with 5,000 armor but after the last update it is probably the fastest dw build. 5:30 with SR75 on no-green (John or Mercy could probably do around 5:10) and sub 5 on green.
DM is smoother and sharper. But VB is pure green AoE+DoT power. Both are op af.
It’s long been the case that DM set has been a durability option. Whether or not such durability was necessary has varied over time. Cull/reduce the conversion on set completion and shoulders and it should continue to retain its durability while the damage output is toned down.
the addition of avg 25% acid -> cold and 30% pierce -> cold is providing roughly 72 global flat damage in the referenced build.
Reducing the RR on the 5p skill and turning it into a proc would be an overall buff as we’ve got months of evidence that hands free RR outperforms higher sources of RR that need to be manually cast.
Myth Night’s Embrace is a tangential discussion: options for cold builds overall. Its existence is not monumentally responsible for DM set’s outlier performance. Flip back to the previous patch and you’d be mentioning mageslayer protector while the rest of the items and general functionality would remain the same.
I would agree on two things :the damage against humans is redundant,since you are already Nightblade and have such bonus.Also avoid projectiles is spot on.Maybe RR cut to 10 is OK.But I don’t think much changes are needed elsewhere on the set.
Thanks was pretty easy to make. The idea of that kind of Deathmarked setup clicked in my head instantly. I just thought Revenant might yield similiar or better damage for this build, but devotion map for purpleless setup could be pretty sick for that buld. Pants are just obvious.
This is not a build it’s a demonstration. Intial calc had no cunning dump at all. I just wanted to see how stupid op this build is and pushed cunning further and further. Change “Tempest” For Thunderstruck, craft items for %armor, reduce cunning dump to have 2950 constant DA and you can cruise into shards 85+ with this and still do consistent sub-6 minutes Crucible runs I swear.
Try improving the spec I made, maybe you could come up with something that can better it. Probably a squishier setup with Elemental Storm but not sure.
First thing that comes to mind is ditching the pants for the legendary non heavy one which allows you to invest more into cunning. Maybe boots will need to be changed due to that, so just get one with arcane winds. Maybe do the old john smith trick that ditches seal in favor of maybe more anatomy of murder or WPS. Gonna be a lot more glass but who cares
No, itemization is just about perfect. Different affixes on the pants might be worth exploring for some better res overcaps.
I know it’s a nerf feedback thread and not a build showcase but I got this compulsion and… IMO, Ultos on Seal is ok but it’s best on autoattack. Rumor, well, I insist on advocating binding it to SS and paying extra two points for NJE and Nightfall, especially with this many +1 to nightblade.
Also, you can hardcap Execution and Whirling and almost hardcap AQC. I haven’t tested DM after the Revenant change but before that I would try to max the 100% cold wps, and it had best results in clear time (ofc this would be a strictly Crucible setup with 2.8da, less phys res, etc.
running some quick numbers on average rolls for linked build to illustrate just where damage comes from on the build. (edited after a typo was caught copying values to sheet)
Conversion contribution on shoulders will typically be lower assuming no kuba pants. However we’re going to see the same ranks of other skills regardless - keeping the contribution of the 5p conversion at the same value (8% of the overall flat damage!).
Granted, players are likely going to seek better rolls across the board so there will be a diminished effect - to an extent. But it’s not unreasonable to say that the conversion alone is accounting for 6%+ of the build’s damage.
Dropping Seal completely for Night’s Chill, 11/12 Anatomy of Murder and WPS points dump could work. Or it couldn’t. It’s very hard to tell when build is this fast what’s slowing it down: unlucky mutators/monster spawns/piloting mistakes or Having to place Seal.
Also Ultos proc is meh - whatever at this point, it’s more important to have Murmur up asap. It’s been tested many times by John and me, having RR on auto-attack/spam spell is the way to go for speed runs. For Shards it can be different.
IMO, Ultos on Seal is ok but it’s best on autoattack. Rumor, well, I insist on advocating binding it to SS and paying extra two points for NJE and Nightfall, especially with this many +1 to nightblade.