I’d like to reserve that for the time being. After I got home from work last night and read through the replies here, I spent four hours on Grimtools throwing something together that I thought covered several of the bases that I mentioned in the original post of this thread. Then this morning I read another thread that completely destroyed what I thought I had managed (it was a damage conversion build, but I was supporting the base damage type rather than the converted damage type, which threw it all out of whack, lol).
I need to dig into the game’s mechanics and further my understanding of just how things work beyond where it is now.
Yes it’s best to just focus on your dmg type, support it with rr.
A good way to go about it is to support it as much as possible offensively then slowly take out bits to keep certain defensive thresholds in check. Like you have 2.8K OA but is DA also 2.8K? if not work more on it. Resistances of course, a bit pf physical/CC resistance too. Then see what you are left with
Thanks, Superfluff. I’ll keep plugging away at it. Once I come up with something that I, with my sophomoric understanding, believe meets a minimum standard, I’ll put it up here and ask for guidance on what I overlooked.
I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to offer your advice. Every bit of it has helped to point me along a path. Now I just need to start trying to walk it and see where it takes me.
There are 2 questions you really need to sort out prior to building a character (in addition to whatever your chosen theme is to be)
What’s the damage type(s)? Generally best to stick to a single type if possible or have your target gear that supports the split already chosen. Keep in mind potential sources of conversion.
How are you going to shred enemy resists to said damage type? This is important because if you say…make a poison warder you’ll likely find some enemies uncomfortably resistant to you come ultimate or even elite (i recommend 2 stacking dependable resist reduction sources at a bare minimum, 3+ preferred)
Other things like how to recover health, how to get da/oa, and resists can usually be sorted regardless of class combo after the fact, and i find the best way to decide which works well in a specific case is in game trials.
There are many others defensive stats, that will ensure your survival even with low DA. You cant survive without capped resists, you cant have good DPS without decent OA, but still can be quite tanky if your DA is low. It’s NOT mandatory!
I ran AoM and Gladiator Crucible with ~2500 DA with my build, and felt tanky. Sure, DA can help to survive, but it shouldnt be a highest-priority defensive mechanics, because it’s better to rely upon stronger mechanics, often, such as resists.
I crushed Crucible with 2.5k OA 30-40 times with 0 deaths. Why would i need 3k DA?
At 2500 DA valdaran will have 10% to crit, just an example, sharz same and maiden/fabius even more. And if you have muttors like marked or brutal on you are screwed. At 2750 DA i’ve had miaden crit me at 17K. Not saying it’s impossible. I did it with the Belgothoan build I posted (whcih now has an extra 500DA not updated).
But it’s super unreliable to go in there like that. You keep insiting on capped resits. Who says one does not cap them? I like min 50% lighting overcap for example vs valdaran.
Case in point, if you are not a shield user 2500 DA is very dangerous. I’ve had Follistad at 10% crit even lol. That is not ok
I think I’ll kill myself if my DA is lower than 2.7k even after enemy OA shred. 2.7k effective DA is the minimum imo, I think Grava/Kuba have higher OA than base game end game bosses which is why the old OA/DA values don’t work well against them
I dont use a shield in my build (you can see the ling in my signature).
With my 65% physical resist and ~3k armour, i couldnt care less about Iron Maiden (that’s not counting Ghoul proc even!). I also have 84% all resist, and 89% elemental resist under Menhir’s Bastion (and Valdaran deals lightning damage). Also i have 89% pierce resist (hello, Fabius!). -42% damage taken from Chtonians under Menhir’s Bastion (Benjarr hits like a baby).
Do you really think that over 30-40 runs (with extra spawns, btw) i never encountered hard nemesises with hard mods? Like, Marked, Brutal, etc, 3x Valdaran or 2x Iron Maiden + Fabius, etc? I did, and survived through all that crap.
Capping resists isnt enough. You should overcap then by 30-40, so random resistance reduction wont suddenly make you take 3x damage.
Met them 2 or 3 times. Yes, it’s one of the toughest combos for my build, but i still crushed them with 2550 DA (i’m sure those 50 extra DA wont make any difference)! Menhir’s Bastion, and 89% elemental resist under it is doing wonders!
I dont have OA “shred” either.
Or you mean doing all that without HP buff? Sorry, but you’re talking about one of the hardest nemesis combo in 150 wave, and expect that it’s meant to be tankable without using that buff, even? Then you literally reduce everything into shield builds, or builds with 93-95% lightning resist (that will facetank 3x Valdaran combo, but not all possible combos).
Or you mean doing all that without HP buff? Sorry, but you’re talking about one of the hardest nemesis combo in 150 wave, and expect that it’s meant to be tankable without using that buff, even? Then you literally reduce everything into shield builds, or builds with 93-95% lightning resist (that will facetank 3x Valdaran combo, but not all possible combos).
Nah, spellbinders and any leechtanks don’t even feel 3 Valdran. Lightning resistance help a lot but as long as you can outsustain dmg output it dosent realy matter.
Valdaran is one of the most passive Nemeses in the game in my opinion. Seriously, there’s several times where he just walks around aimlessly, doing nothing.
You are talking about a very specific build that has gone crazy on resistances. The vast majority of builds will not get such resistances, at which point you need DA to prevent those crits.
