Hi all. I’ve recently discovered that my graphics card actually has a fairly good gameplay recorder, so I decided to post some of the builds I found to work realy well. I will focus more on the main principles that make the builds work and these should not be considered rigid step-by-step instructions on how to build/play since the game allows for some variation in every class/archetype. I do not claim to be an authority and definitely invite discussion and criticism. That said, I do have a lot of experience with the game:
Two more things: First, I will only include Epic/Legendary/Reputation items even though they may not be optimal. Listing very specific rares is not productive. Secondly, at the end of the build description, I will answer some questions I see often posed on the forum, as well as address misconceptions I see perpetuated.
If you want a save file, PM me. Keep in mind that it will ruin your experience of the game if you just started.
Before we begin, here’s a guide to levelling every character ever which works until act 2 Ultimate or so:
1. Complete Falcon at the Burrwich estates Shrine.
2. Max Primal Strike, Blade Arc or Brimstone with 10 levels in Fire strike early (in that order of priority) if your character has access to those skills. Get Mistborn Talisman if not.
3. Pick up the fastest 2-hander you can find (some yellow of Alacrity will do, there is also a lvl 17 blue axe which works).
4. Whack things.
5. By the time you reach Homestead, you should have Hawk, Lizard and Kraken (in that order). Start working up to the Behemoth proc (3 points).
6. Once you have completed this constellation setup, pick up all the procs you want to use later so you start levelling them. They level much faster once you hit Ultimate, so don’t worry if you can’t take them all right away.
7. At lvl 35, buy Solar Sledge, Rover gloves (pick the ones with the highest attack speed, reload the game a few times until you hit at least 16%) and greaves. Fill your other slots with relevant Faction gear, Kymon and Crossing shops have good things for most characters. Check out the rings and medals at lvl 40, don’t remember which are good.
8. Pick up Shadow Strike or Blitz (in that order of priority) if you can. If not, use Riftstone as soon as you can. Makes things go much faster.
9. Ectoplasms everywhere to solve mana issues. Scaled Hide in both shoulders and pants. Chains of Oleron in your torso armor.
10. Whack more things.
11. Invest in skills that give attack speed and Offensive ability, damage bonuses and active skills are not that important.
12. Don’t neglect mastery points, you want at least 5000 health before fighting Yetis and those large Aetherials.
13. At level 50, equip Avarice of Androneus and the full Praetorian set. If you don’t have the Praetorian, use armor/helm from the Legion shop.
14. Stonefist is a great replacement for Solar Sledge. If you don’t have it, check the shops for a lvl 55 2-hander of Alacrity/Rifthound with a decent bonus. Grasp of Unchained Might and Golemborn Greaves are lvl 50 requirement as well, so use those if you have them.
15.a) Keep whacking things with your 2-hander until you reach lvl 65/68/75 for your endgame gear. Respec into whatever build you want your character to be.
15.b) If you don’t have your endgame gear, get to Pine Barrens in Elite, then craft legendaries unit you have what you need. Farm components in the Hallowed Hill.
Unless stated otherwise, this is how you level the builds I’m proposing.
In the first installment, i will present the weapon attack melee classes I use. These builds use high weapon damage, flat damage bonuses and procs to deal damage in melee using skills that provide a lot of % weapon damage. Without further ado…
1. Dual-wield Blademaster
a) Intro
There has been a lot of BlaM discussion on the forums lately, though the most popular builds appear to be Shadow Strike spammers, while the proc-based builds have not gotten much love since Uberjaeger stopped updating his thread. Credit where credit due: that thread, especially the discussion in the last few pages, inspired a lot of ideas I use in my BlaM. The point of this build is to invest fully into buffing our LMB attack, getting as many procs and flat damage (preferably piercing and other cunning-based types) as we can, along with maxing attack speed. We then pump Cunning as far as possible without becoming 1-shottable and stack as much resistance reduction as we possibly can. The result is probably the fastest build in the game. However, while this build is extremely fast and efficient, it also requires your full attention when playing since it relies on proper Pneumatic burst and Shadow strike timings for survival.
b) Highlight reel
See the monster in action!
[spoiler]If this build doesn’t give you a hard-on while playing, you have no soul and/or dick. You can also see the specific skill/item choices I made.
I left some misplays in there on purpose (like that Unraveler fight clusterfuck) just to show you how easily things can go downhill if you get too cocky and also how to use SS and Barrier to avoid death.[/spoiler]
c) Skills/Constellations
GrimCalc (not counting item bonuses, assuming +1 Soldier, +5 NB)
[spoiler]Pretty straight-forward. In the NB tree, max Dual blades because they are our main source of dps, max Night’s Chill because resistance reduction is imba. Pick up all the one-point wonders. Get Anatomy to 11/12 because 2% Cunning is worth a skill point, but 1% isn’t. For soldier skills, get the defensive passives, as well as Oleron’s Rage and Squad Tactics to max level. They don’t scale well after max. One point in Fighting Spirit because you can and one point in Counter Strike because it triggers procs. Last points can be spent on:
- Ring of Steel + Circle of Slaughter: it procs stuff, but more importantly, fumble increses our survivability. 1 point each is usually enough, but feel free to pump Circle further for more fumble.
- Shadow Strike - Only if 1-shotting bosses is your thing.
- Fighting Spirit - Useful for more physique-heavy builds that lack OA, doesn’t work with Belgotian’s Carnage as well as you would assume.
- Phantasmal Armor - Surprisingly effective way of solving your mana issues as well as getting more armor if you lack some high level items.
As far as devotion goes, we go all the way up to Oleron and Unknown Soldier, picking up as many on-attack procs and nodes that give flat damage as we can. This leaves us a single point to put into the first node of Scales because flat 250 health is awesome. Blind Fury on the main attack (Beronath’s Fury) because we want this to trigger as much as posisble, Blades of Wrath on Whirling Death because we want this to trigger when surrounded by mobs, Bull Rush on AQC because we don’t have a better choice and this procs it often enough. We are left with Shadow strike and Belgothian’s Sheares, split Assassin’s mark and Living Shadow between them.[/spoiler]
d) Attributes
I recommend between 20 and 50 in Physique, rest Cunning.
[spoiler]More physique lowers your damage and, more importantly, OA too much. Less and you drop too far below 10000 health and become crittable by trash mobs (bad combination). Some prefer (almost) full physique, but those usually end up relying heavily on SS for damage and would be better off making a Witch Hunter like the other girls.
There is an argument to be made for pumping spirit by 10-ish in order to reach ring/ammy requirements. I have not tested this yet, but I’m leveling my 4th BlaM as we speak.[/spoiler]
e) Items
[spoiler]Relic is Belgothian’s carnage because it’s insane. No other relic really works. Bonuses are Night’s Chill and NJE, and this combination is far better than any other since we try to get Night’s chill as high as possible over max and NJE is something we would like to max if we had extra skill points (if the cap was 100 or sth).
Full Deathmarked set is required. Other items except rings and pants are highly recommended since no good altenatives exist.
Any pants with spirit bonus will work. I prefer Pretty Great Pants for the cunning bonus and some deflect. Alternatives are Arcane Harmony Leggings if you prefer to not be silenced (useful in some places like BoC) or need resistances and Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind if you need poison resistance badly.
I find the Amarastan Sigil + Belgothian’s Sigil ring combination to give me all the stats I’m missing (OA, attack speed to reach max, skill bonuses etc.) while still giving massive flat piercing bonuses. Alternatives are Right Hand of Carnage (if you don’t have a better one), Lifegiver Signet (if survivability is a problem) and a Cutthroat’s rare with an attack or lifesteal suffix.
Important augments/components: Shard of Beronath gives us our main attack, Haunted Steel on our main weapon gives us lifesteal trough procs, Kymon’s will is a free War Cry, Essence of Chthon reduces lifesteal resistance among other things, Scaled Hide and Ancient Armor Plate give us enough armor and absorption to be immune to mobs, Arcane Spark makes sure we don’t become addicted to mana potions.[/spoiler]
f) FAQ
[spoiler]Q: Which faction do i chose?
A: Kymon. Always Kymon. The augment is too good.
Q: Why not replace [Deathmarked set item] with [non-Deathmarked alternative]?
A: DO NOT TOUCH THE WEAPONS! On crit procs with 0 cd which use 75% of BOTH weapons are better than anything Derp Slicers or Reaver’s Claw can offer. The hat is best in slot by far. There are better alternatives for chest and shoulders when compared head-to-head, but none of those give 10% physical resistance and resistance reduction from the set bonus. Also, dodge is better than you think.
Q: Why not Judicator’s Signets?
A: Because they give us nothing we need other than DA. More importantly, they don’t give us things we want from rings, most notably flat piercing damage.
Q: How does this build compare to [insert any other build here]?
A: It’s faster and more fun. Also manlier.
Q: I die too much playing this, the build is too squishy.
A: It’s not, compare the stats to other top-tier builds. The “problem” is that this build moves and kills so quickly that you have become reckless. Slow down.
Q: I don’t have all of the required items, will the build still work?
A: In the current form, no. Pick up more defensive constellations/items like Dryad and (Empowered) Legplates of Valor. This build kills extremely quickly, but it doesn’t regenerate 1000 health/second like most top-tier builds do. If you can’t kill everything in the room in 2 seconds, you will start hurting, so tank up.[/spoiler]
Q: Can I use this build to farm Anasteria?
A: Most certaintly! She melts in 12-15 sec depending on crit luck (on Ultimate Nemesis ofc), but is a really dangerous enemy because of her resistance reduction and constant stuns. Using Leatery hide in your hat is a must! Also, make friends with her on Normal/Elite so you can use her aether resist augments, then farm he on Ultimate. You can kill her quickly with any setup, but you can only facetank her with more than 2000 DA and 10k health. Use hit-and-run tactics if you have a more offensively built char, she dies after 4-5 Shadow strikes. Here is a video of a typical Anasteria run with my high physique BlaM.
2. 2-hander Warder
Works in 1.0.0.4!
It’s actually even more of a beast. No changes to the core build.
a) Intro
The other character i want to show you here is a 2-hander using, lightning damage Warder, something that is barely being discussed at all despite being very straight-forward and extremely powerful. Since it uses a 2-hander, it doesn’t need flat damage bonuses like dual wield or sword & board builds. What it needs is attack speed, offensive ability and procs. Because of this, we use Savagery rather than Primal strike which is generally considered better by consensus (and I would agree if you asked me two weeks ago, but I changed my mind after extensive testing). Soldier is a natural support class for a character like this, providing another on-attack proc, as well as the best defensive passives in the game which allow gear and devotion to be fully offensive. So how does it work? While the BlaM’s motto could easily be “fast and loose”, Warder’s would be “slow and steady”. This build is about 3 times slower than the BlaM, but it can’t die. As such, it is perfect for playing after a long day at work, since it requires very little input from the player. It just steamrolls the content rather than jumping around from boss to boss like an ADD kid overdosed on amphetamines. You can easily farm some items while jerking off to hentai on the other monitor with the other hand. And that’s not even the best thing: the build deals almost entirely lightning damage and has 91% lighting resistance which means you can COMPLETELY IGNORE REFLECTION!!! This is probably the simplest, laziest build in the game.
b) Highlight reel
If you like to watch things getting whacked by a big stick while sparks fly around, this is the video for you.
[spoiler]As you can see, very straight-forward playstyle. There are very few situations when i needed to mind my positioning or do anything other than wendigo + whack. I don’t spam Blitz as much in BoC because i save it for the poison bosses which are annoying due to low resistance. I could shave a minute off the run time if i did, but it’s not worth the risk.
The Avatar fight lasted around 15 minutes total on Elite, still haven’t tried it on ultimate, though it should be doable after respec into Wind Devil (the Black Star proc is unreliable) and switching rings to something with more flat OA.[/spoiler]
c) Skills/Constellations
GrimClalc (assuming +4 Shaman, +3 Storm touched, +2 Scars of Battle, +1 to Feral Hunger and Heart of the Wild)
[spoiler]Simple. We max savagery, get Wendigo Totem to the highest multiple of 3 and pick up all the useful passives we can get our hand on. We focus on Attack speed, health, armor and offensive ability. We also get Feral Hunger and Zolhan’s Technique to 25% chance to activate because they are our main sources of aoe.
The rest of the points can be spent according to preference and depending on available items. Menhir’s Will helps with survivability, Brute force makes you do more damage. Higher levels of Tenacity of the Boar for OA and Storm Touched for attack speed are also an option.
Whatever you do, don’t get Upheava! It actually reduces your damage output because it overrides Feral Hunger and Zolhan’s Technique which are both much better. Yes, it’s the Shaman version of Cadence.
Last devotion point is flexible, with good choices being Empty Throne (stun resistance), Revenant (3% lifesteal) and Aeon’s Hourglass (stats).[/spoiler]
d) Attributes
Everything into Physique.
No alternative. We can equip all of our jewlery and the weapons we want don’t require Cunning.
e) Items
[spoiler]Relic is Eye of the Storm, with Storm Touched and Heart of the Wild bonuses. These don’t do much except acting as a free level, since we can’t get Savagery or Stormcaller’s pact as bonuses, which are the only skills we take as far as possible. If you have multiple (and you probably do because they are used in crafting Agrivix’s Malice) take the highest attack speed one over the one with the useful skills.
Ultos’ set is, obviusly, amazing. So is the Judicator’s Signets set. Since we don’t use primal strike, we don’t need the Ultos’ hat, so we pick up Ulzuin’s for -15 lightning resistance and some armor reduction. I find it more effective than the lightning storm proc and some more base damage, but the full set is far form a bad choice.
For legs, we have Empowered Legplates of Valor and Stormcage Legguards. Stormcage gives flat OA which we need and an awesome proc, but Valor pants give bleeding and physical resistance, as well as a massive ~1200 health boost after bonuses. Having both in your inventory allows some flexibility depending on what you are farming atm.
Black Star of Deceit is the best medal imo, but a Badge of Mastery with bonuses to Savagery and/or Wendigo Totem is a decent alternative. If you chose to use BoM, invest into Raging Tempest (1 level WD) for resistance reduction.
Important augments/components: Kymon’s will again, Amber for conversion (Haunted Steel is an alternative if you feel squishy), Scaled Hide for absorption and 2x Dread Skull because attack speed is king.[/spoiler]
f) FAQ
[spoiler]Q: Why Savagery when Primal Strike is better?
A: I’m not convinced it is, especially on Warder. Savagery does more damage/hit, hits faster, lifesteals more effectively and gives more OA (and a nice boost to regen which affects Menhir’s Will). It also allows you to bind both Arcane Bomb and Falcon, not having to dick around with Vines/Swarm). Primal Strike is better at proccing Falcon, and does slightly more aoe (though Zolhan’s and Feral help a lot!). After playing a lot with this character, I can tell you that I clear content faster and more safely with Savagery. It could be my playstyle though.
Q: Ulzuin’s hat looks stupid.
A: So does Ultos’. Also, that’s not a question, fuck off. Seriously, though, when not using Primal strike there is no reason to use the full set instead of Ulzuin’s hat, the completion bonus is meh and resistance reduction is amazing.
Q: How does this compare to other 2-hander builds?
A: The only other build that comes close to this one is the physical damage Blade Arc Witchblade. That build kills slightly faster (the difference comes from the fact that there are a lot of lighting resistant bosses and mobs, but it is small), but also dies more easily and is generally wonkier to play. I prefer this build, but it could be that I have invested more time tweaking it and getting used to it.
Q: I don’t have all of the required items, will the build still work?
A: Yes. This is another advantage of Savagery over PS, it works well even without the +10 to skills nonsense. Find a Hevill’s Greatsword with an attack speed bonus (of Alacrity/Rifthound…) in act 1 if you need a weapon, equip any items that give attack speed and OA (Rover gloves and greaves) and start whacking things.[/spoiler]
and the attack speed is in large part wasted unless your rolls are no bueno plus the ele res sure wouldn’t hurt ya 
