Recently I looted some gear which adds up to +10 PB. I thought about making a PB character but it seems like PB is not a very strong skill…
This is the skill tree that I came up with. Would love to hear your thoughts on it:
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-YJQ3cS
Anyway, does anyone have experiences with using PB in high level crucibles? How fast is the clear?
PB is just as fast as CT or PRM casters, but much tankier. This means Crucible is doable, but not on autopilot like with a Soldier build.
Your setup looks very weak though, go for aether conversion build (Spell Breaker with Clairvoyant, Agrivix relic, and Devastation for killing bosses).
It’s one of the few caster builds that can lifesteal properly so it’s pretty strong in crucible as long as you don’t get chain CC’d or bursted. Overall it’s not quite as good as the top crucible caster builds like CT sorc or stun jack ele, but it’s up there. The ideal way to play the build is on spellbreaker with 100% chaos to aether conversion though. The bleed portion of the skill is actually pretty weak without other sources to support it plus you’ll have a much easier time with energy by running arcanist.
Phantasmal Blades is a lot of fun, and very viable. I’m working on a Witch Hunter build using Blood Orb of Ch’Thon so it’s primarily a Vitality/Chaos build. Don’t have the exact Grim Calc saved, but it’s PB, Doom Bolt, Sigil, Curse, Solael’s, etc. One of the problems is legendary optimization is very poor, so you’ll need to find a lot of greens to fill the gaps in energy, hp, OA, etc. But that’s all optimization. It’s very viable and fun with more standard legendaries and gear.
Here’s a few videos from my first kills of Mad Queen and Steps of Torment final boss in Ultimate. Mad Queen will eat you alive if you facetank, so it’s basically Doom Bolt kiting. Could probably kill her faster, but I was being cautious - first kill and all. Alkamos could probably have face tanked. I did run out of energy at the very end, but hadn’t even used a pot yet. Overall he’s a joke. Never even came close to dying. Don’t have any other videos yet.
But you can see it’s not hard for each individual blade to have 10k+ crits with Hungering Void up. This build has a little over 2.8k OA before BoM and Judicator Signet procs. On bosses like this without adds though, I usually switch to Signet of the Fallen and a Harmonious Obsidian Band of Spellweaving (tons of health/energy and energy regen) with Vit/Chaos damage.
Alkamos: https://youtu.be/wh4R4f4Hw_0
Mad Queen: https://youtu.be/pNdT_KHGK34
Fun fact- The first build to kill Mogdrogen was a PB Build
I think it was either Nine or the Chinese player who got the first kill.
That was when phantasmal blades skill was OP before the nerf.
RIP Phantasmal Blades
There is noting that CT or PRM sorcer can do and PB spelbreaker cant, so its far from RIP.