So I have this build, right? For better sustain and dealing with highly resistant enemies I decided to go for 100% pierce. This requires Nadaan constellation of course, but that’s not enough for Bloodsong. Without some extra % armor piercing from gear those 10% physical damage are literally lost, and the only reasonable way to get that is to use Blessed Whetstone. This, however, blocks the best bleeding component in the game - Bloody Whetstone - since I’m using Imbued Silver to cover some of my defences.
Though every bleeding build (at least Tricksters and Warders) posted on the forums use Seal(s) of Blades or Seal(s) of Might. And that’s understandable: not only they provide extra damage, but also extra defences.
Also, some weapons have AP at 50% without having a need for that (like Ravna’s Claw and Assassin’s Calling).
I’m also not asking to add AP to Bloody Whetstone for better distinction between them, but wouldn’t argue if it received it at 25% rate or so.
Did you try your build with seal of blades instead of blessed whetstone? My guess is that the increased flat pierce dmg from SoB will compensate the loss of armor piercing % on the main hand weapon (and also provide more adcth and armor)
I know this is not the truth, but can be indicative:
No I haven’t, but it most probably would make up for those 10%, yes, and be generally better. But this leaves both Whetstones at an awkward position - they should be a go-to components for bleed builds, because granted skills provide quite a lot of flat bleed AND high weapon damage, which I personally wanted to utilize. Instead, they seem to be more of a placeholder before you can get a Seal component. That’s not related to Bloodsong, of course. It just so happens I decided to go with Bloodrager on a character that was gathering dust for over a year.
And yeah, Brutallax has 50% AP, which is totally great… Hm, I wonder if adding armor piercing to Berserker constellation would make sense?
I think ranged builds are fine for AP now after the huge buff to Silver-core Bolts and some rebalancing for armour-piercing ratio on a few other piercing guns.
