1) Spam BWC is really hard to sustain energywise. At the moment of testing build had 150 energy regeneration, 45% energy absorb, 19% (!) cast cost reduction from Seal of Annihilation and Word of Solael off-hand and 4000 energy pool and I was still running out of energy.
2) Damage of transmuted version was on par or higher (plus increased radius and physical damage shred)
3) It’s hard to to sustain this kind of gameplay healthwise. You are forced to stand in one place most of the time and your means of sustain have to come from elsewhere.
Here is some feedback from another builder who has experience in making and playing spam BWC builds:
After a bit of thinking I thought that simple solution would be
adding 30-40% weapon damage mods to relevant items like IK set and Mark of Burning Shadows.
It won’t make BWC damage op since 30-40% weapon damage usually translates into 20-30 flat damage with caster weapons and if it does boost BWC damage too much, it can always be balanced by reducing flat damage bonuses on related items. However, thru 30-40% weapon damage we can have:
- adtch
- energy leech (really potent after recent changes even with low weapon damage)
If you don’t agree with my solution but still agree that Energy and Health sustain is a problem on spam bwc builds, please propose your solution.
BWC transmuter has 65% total damage modified and that will greatly amplify whatever flat damage passed through weapon damage. This will make transmuted BWC broken as shit. Specially if you attach that mod to Infernal Champion of all things.
The only way I could sustain chaos BWC spam on a sorc with 10/10 mental alacrity, and seal of annihilation was to use dying god’s + Blood orb’s HP drain to keep me below 75% HP for as long as possible for energy sustain.
edit: to clarify, i was trying to keep arcane will up for as long as possible
I can’t imagine any other class using BWC spam without ulzuin’s buff.
Perhaps on vit bwc with all the DoT mods you get to stack on it, but probably not for other BWC damage types
It would make it OP imo because you can easily stack 6-8 pools and ADCTH the life out of everything harder than a thankless job + failing marriage
I agree with enormous energy issues. played IK, spamming bwc consumes some unbelivable amount of energy so it’s hard to sustain even with Ulzuin.
Also, IK is very glassy set.
I suggest both giving it some more HP or phys res and probably 4% ADctH to BWC, as the sustain is really poor.
+1 to spammable BWC taking too much energy. Having levelled a build with it recently, I found myself taking energy potions frequently, I ended up swapping to using it transmuted and never looked back.
12/12/12 in the BWC skill line uses 88 energy per cast and 22/22/22 uses 156, it’s not like Demo gets a skill to help with energy either like some of the others. Compare this to a couple other mastery caster skills:
12/12/12/12 DEE uses 73 energy per cast and 22/22/22/22 uses 134. More skill modifiers, less total energy.
16/12/12 Frenetic Throw Phantasmal Blades uses 80.5 energy per cast and 26/22/22 uses 131. Same number of skill modifiers, less total energy. Can also leech energy naturally and gets energy absorption via Phantasmal Armour.
16/12/12/12 PRM uses 88 per cast and 26/22/22/22 uses 158. More skill modifiers, same energy per cast. Arcanist has Mental Alacrity/IEE to make managing this easier.
-1 here however. I’m not a fan of the solution that people jump on of “give x caster skill weapon damage”. There are other ways of getting weapon damage on a BWC build should you want it, for example, several T1 devotion procs like Flame Torrent have it.
What do you think about HP sustain problem? Rare BWC spam builds have to resolve to usual caster’s cheese like Bat and it’s honestly becoming annoying to use Bat everywhere. ADTCH mod is going to be too much?
sustain or lack of it. Your main attack will not have WD or in-built life steal. Furthermore Shieldbreaker isn’t groundbreaking defensive class and Infernal Champion set is little glassy and that’s probably the best BWC build.
I think defensive heavy combo like Commando or Purifier can stack enough defense to stay alive. That brings me to the second part:
energy consumption. Tough to cast BWC constantly. It’s too expensive to afford, unlike you’re Arcanist.
I can totally see the energy struggle of Purifier. Probably Harp, 3x energy augments, 2x Creed cunnings and stuff like that can help but then it’s a question can you gather enough DA/OA/resistances?
OK have Presence of Virtue for better energy regeneration but Inquisitor offers the better defenses here - Seal, Censure, heal.
THAT is a possible solution for sure. have you done any testing with this? I know the chinese players love their ToL, but we are a bit more DPS orientated here in the forum.
the another thing is that BWC-dedicated items have little support of Inquisitor, so I can’t sit safely in 22/12 Seal, e.g., and spam BWC, like I do with Stun jacks.
