I have never made a DoT build before and would like to try something new.
I also really love playing with Vire’s might. (and you can’t get more pure DoT than a bleed build, so this should be a great intro for me) so I would like to build around the Goredrinker set since I don’t see a lot of them around.
I realise though that it’s a different beast altogether, and I will need help
No conversion, no weapon with bleed as a base damage and a very limited choice of gear, skills and well…classes… The very slim notions I have of character building are not cutting it.
Should I go Dervish, Paladin or Archon ?
Which offers me the best support ?
Which is easiest to build ?
What should I concentrate on ? %weapon damage ? The added bleed damage ?
Is the Goredrinker set any good ? or should I look elsewhere ?
I’ve seen a few skater builds, but they are mostly geared to cut the cooldown on Vire’s might, which might not be as valuable on a bleed build, correct me if i’m wrong… so while they are inspiring, they aren’t much help for what I want to do…
Right now I have a Dervish that alternates between RoS and Vire’s Might to deal damage, with 4 pseudo-pets… and it’s doing just ok in Campaign… Using gutripper right now, tried Butcher of burwitch and bloodborer and will try dual bloodborer with Paladin later. (do they stack?)
Is the -res from WoP from the set enough to justify Inquisitor as my second mastery ?
I’m far from a specialist but i have been mostly playing with bleed builds based around Pets. I can tell you that Shaman has the best support for bleed damage. It has built-in RR in Devouring Swarm, a big bleed AoE in Grasping Vines (which is also one of the best skills for the RR devotion skill Rend), Savagery as an AA replacement with synergy for bleed alongside 2 WPS that also deals bleed damage and a very good lightning + bleed skill in Primal Strike. Also, it has the best exclusive skill for bleed builds in Primal Bond. Shaman is just good all around for bleed support. You can go Archon but i believe Trickster (Shaman + Nightblade) or Warder (Shaman + Soldier) are better choices for builds based around bleed damage.
I would go Warder, cause dot builds tend to need more tankiness and survivability. Blade arc is a wicked source of bleed damage, though Soldier has no RR.
Here is a bleeding Warlord, have no problem in main campaign but sustain is bad for end-game. You might need hit&run againts Roguelike bosses. Probably can kill Ravager with a very long kiting.
For Goredrinker, You should go for Paladin. Didn’t try but this is a sketch; https://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2gP0rWV never tested so can’t say anything about it. Get slow resist while crafting medal and boots and you can also use Inquisitor Seal but this is definitely not a facetanker, RF is just for filling the gap and getting the bonus.
Well, actually very good idea but I suggest you keep the shield for tankiness, range RF is better than melee. Problem is build have no CDR and Bloodborer adds 1 sec to VM and since I don’t play range and never used a range with a shield, not sure how that mechanic works. But definitely not suggesting DW melee or range if you want to focus on Vire’s Might.
Paladin, as much as I dislike this class, could be an interesting choice here for Goredrinker set. I’m just not certain if Vire’s Might alone can do the heavy lifting while Bleed WoP and Horn of Gandarr are tickling enemies. But if you’re going that route, ignore RF and wps and focus only on VM with something like Gutripper.
Nightblade is probably the more offensive ( better?) option since it has 2 strong bleeding skills in the form of Ring of Steel and Blade Spirits. Also Anatomy of Murder has good bleeding and cunning bonuses which makes cunning dump even more potent ( though Goredrinker is heavy armor so huge cunning dump is not possible here).
First thing to know about bleed is that it’s maybe the hardest dmg type to build around. Reason is you don’t leech health from DoTs, and bleed doesn’t have a direct dmg counterpart. So you need a secondary direct dmg type to make up for it. Usually phys or vit, sometimes pierce. For this reason it’s better to go for poison, burn, frostburn, etc which scale together with their direct dmg counterparts.
Second thing about bleed is that you got Bloodrager set and then long time nothing. As far as I hear from the more up to date GD friends, Goredrinker kinda sucks. My fave is the trickster for the classic melee but “leave them at half health” approach. Vitality hybrids on Demonslayer set are also kinda good, I hear.
Just to be sure I understand how this works. I know I’ve been advised against using dual Bloodborers, but for the sake of argument:
Would I get to apply the modifier to Vire’s might twice ? (and would I add 2 extra seconds to the cooldown too?)
Would both flat bleed damage contribute to the % weapon damage to Vire’s might ?
Would both flat bleed damage stack when using other attacks, or it always just depends on “main hand” damage ?
Would the extra damage from the modifier be triggered from enemies stepping on volcanic stride’s trail too ?
Any flat bleed on any item affect your weapon damage and skills that use weapon damage. If it’s below %100 then it scales accordingly. (example; 50/73 Bleeding damage over 3 sec on Bloodborer)
On the other hand, modifiers on items affect only the stated skill.(720 Bleeding damage over 3 sec on Bloodborer) Ofc since VM has weapon damage on it, all other bleeding damage you have will be added to skill’s bleeding damage and will be combined.
I’m not sure on this matter, never made a build focuses on VM before; it’s better to let someone else answer this.
If I dual-wield 2 Butcher of Burwitch, could I trigger its ability twice as often or is the cooldown applicable to both ? Are they considered separate sources ?
If i’m painting the whole screen in WoP and volcanic strides trails, could I theoretically get 2 triggers every 0.5 seconds ? Would they stack on the same target ?
They should stack. I’ve made a meme build in the past stacking as many Doom Bolt procs as possible, so these two procs should stack as well.
Edit: looking at the proc itself, the stacking isn’t really a huge benefit because the bleeding damage will just refresh and 25% weapon damage on a bleeding build won’t be very impactful to apply over and over, but it technically works
and It’s 2 sources of DoT that require zero button press