I’m quite new to GD and this is my first post on the forum. I’m quite familiar with ARPG games, but I was really got into gaming with MMORPG (World of Warcraft to be more specific). I do have a few characters created but I still didn’t complete the game on any of them (so far, the builds that I liked more was a Lightning Warder by @malawiglenn and a DW Range Purifier by @omnitrio).
Since the beginning I always liked to play as a Tanker (I know that ARPG the focus is much more on DPS), so a build with S&B was my idea from the start, however, I’m not very good on creating builds and I would like to request some help with a nice and fun S&B build, the DPS doesn’t concern me that much, I rather prefer a sturdy and tanky build to complete the end-game content.
I am working on improving / making a guide for budget S&B warlord and also some kind of budget-krieg S&B build (like a next step after you have gotten Krieg set with Dragon’s guide)
I have this planned warlord S&B build, the gear and component are very2 cheap and you only need to farm for the pants and craft for the belt, the rest can be bought at faction vendor. Stat wise it should carry you in main story on Ultimate.
2H FW should be the quickest. But I have leveled a few oathkeepers to 60 with just vires might and guardian of empyrion. Boss fights can be slow but the rest is pretty easy. Drawback for you if you wanna go with that is that you need fire devotions for such leveling, wheras the final build you need the physical damage devotions. There was some discussion here about leveling warlords: Warlord - Blade Arc vs Judgement for S&B Levelling (no Forcewave no EoR) but if you have played around with FW you should try it, it is a classic skill
do you own experience potions and difficulty skip tokens?
What is your highest level char now? What difficulties can it access? What is its faction status with Malmouth resistance?
Using mandates, exp potions and difficulty skip tokens speeds things up immense
I was in a similar position to you - wanted a nice physical tank build, but didn’t want to rely more than necessary on reflective damage more than active damage.
Have levelled all through Veteran and Elite now using a S&B Warlord, and my standard rotation for both trash and bosses has been-
War Cry on cooldown with maxed Break Morale) to debuf ‘em hard and get their attention.
Judgement on cooldown (only point each in the first two) to disrupt ‘em, debuff ‘em further and, in the case of trash, yank them in (think Morta Kombat’s ‘COME HERE!’ but applied to 20 trash mobs at once)
Blade Arc on cooldown to rip ‘em open
Brutal Slam (bosses only, from component) on cooldown to bash ‘em
Fill the rest with a constant stream of Cadence (important - max out Deadly Momentum - it means that as long as you get a Cadence in every 4 seconds you have a huge damage buff for the whole fight)
May be some who argue the above is not the most efficient - but heck it’s fun, and it makes you feel like warrior not an armour wearing caster. I even go as far as using the illusionist to pick nice plain looking armour looks instead of glowy caster ones!
Devotions- heaps of good guides out there, but my faves for leveling are Ghoul (will save your bacon many times) and Targo’s Anvil (when you block there’s a good chance that you end up with this little circling hammer of whirling death surrounding you for a while and you get multiples - they assist greatly with disposing of 30-deep trash packs)
Here’s the item you need on your shield for Brutal Shield Slam which is a great extra ability for whacking bosses with. Don’t bother using it for trash.
Aha, I 'm also a new player .I used to play LOL. When I came across GD, I was surprised by the huge equipment system and the rich story. Just go with it ,man .You ll get your fun.
What do you have of the game - base only or the expansions as well. Makes a difference to the advice we can give you.
