I’m wondering if it’s even possible to make a PB caster which:
If anyone managed to do it, please share the build. I have every item I could imagine i would need (including a +5 PB BoM), and am willing to shop/farm for rares as much as needed.
I’m not sure if I understand your question…
I would assume (both points) :
I’m just wondering because I had planned to level a char like that and I could use some advice as well. I even considered going for Bleeding damage, with a Trickster instead of a Witch-hunter.
No, the build i have (and it’s an insanely strong build, don’t get me wrong) uses the Clairvoyant set and Albrecht’s duality ring to convert chaos damage into aether and mostly uses PB in melee to shotgun and trigger the Agrivix’s malice proc, along with 26/16 Devastation to give it an extra punch vs bosses and rooms full of mobs. Yes, I have almost all best in slots items, and yes, it’s fun and strong, but it’s not a true PB build, just another Devastation arcanist.
Frenetic Throw was really great around B24 before it was nerfed through the ground. Now, PB is fine, but it’s not a good spammable skill. I think it can fit into a build that uses several 3-second cooldown abilities as part of the rotation (SS, ROS, BT, OFF), but it can’t carry a build on its own anymore.
Nine has a strong phantasmal blades build, maybe it’s using the damage types General is trying to avoid but it plows through things. If you seen his stream you would know it’s still strong. You can find his build on his twitch page if curious.
Nine has a strong phantasmal blades build, maybe it’s using the damage types General is trying to avoid but it plows through things. If you seen his stream you would know it’s still strong. You can find his build on his twitch page if curious.
Afaik, he’s still using the inferior version of the aether PB build, because he maxed the nightblade mastery which means he can’t afford to max Devastation (that build was optimal when Blade spirit when he made it because Blade spirit was stronger than Devastation). Unless he made a new char for v1.0, in which case he’s probably using the Agrivix/Devastation build I’m talking about. I don’t play hardcore, maybe extra stats and health are that important for HC, but i can’t imagine 300 health being more valuable than 26/16 Devastation.
Didn’t Nine die against Bourbon the first time?
No? Where did you get that idea 
I actually can max out devastation if I wanted to just by shifting a few points around, but I found it surprisingly underwhelming for how I play the character. At the moment I use 1 point in blade spirit to act as a debuff trigger.
Probably you complaining in the original thread about the encounter being unbalanced which it was. Doesn’t necessarily mean you died, though.
Of course it’s a matter of play style, just saying that getting 26/16 Devastation is “objectively” better than getting extra stats from the night blade mastery and a lvl 1 BS.
No idea why you find it underwhelming, you should have around 1400% Aether damage and +10 to devastation naturally with the Clairvoyant setup. You can also easily get around 80 aether res reduction without sacrificing much. It’s one of the strongest skills in the game right now and fits the shell perfectly.
Anyway, I’m guessing it’s not possible to make a good PB build that maxes the actual PB tree?
I tried getting 26-22-22 in the skills and use more vitality/cold-oriented items, still with max cast speed and all that… Pales in comparison to the aether variant.
Think so? Using Blade spirit to debuff enemies felt generally stronger to me. The only times I felt like Devastation made a difference was very large durable targets, but that difference amounted to a few seconds which doesn’t seem that meaningful to me. If more skill points were available then I probably would take it since there isn’t much else I could get at this point, but I’m not convinced that it is “objectively” better.
i found this Spellbreaker build : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYyqlElXU9A
I made a PB Nightblade/Occultist that was fine in Veteran but was a little squishy in Elite and so I couldn’t be bothered to level him to max. Surely using Chaos + Vitality is the way forward, they synergise quite nicely on gear and devotions and Vitality is the largest damage component on a Frentic Throw build, and chaos is up there too. Also, Blood of Dreeg is just a nice ability to have :P, although I am intrigued by this Aether conversion build, it sounds cool but I’ve never tried it…
That is just horribly undergeared.
Tried it, doesn’t work because of the insane mana cost of PB at high levels, and because it lacks defence (as you noticed). This is the main problem with PB, the mana cost basically requires you to go Arcanist for Mental alacrity, but Arcanist doesn’t provide any offence outside of aether damage. Occultist provides amazing offence, but can’t sustain the mana cost and gives no cast speed (for some reason, it’s stupid how Nightblade gives more cast speed than a supposedly caster class like Occultist). Occultist also doesn’t have naturally enough spirit to equip high level books, which translates into even less survivability.
Hoping someone proves me wrong.
I have a Saboteur Phantasmal Blades build, but since Clairvoyant set is best in slot for PB it has chaos converted to aether. But as GeneralCash pointed out the cost of 26/16 PB is alot, so it makes Clairvoyant set even more important for the Skill Clairvoyance. Even if you were to make a Witch Hunter I still think you need to use Clairvoyant Set as it is just to strong not to.
Anyways here is what I have for my Saboteur at 83 about to kill Loghorrean
http://grimcalc.com/build/LpyCAU
Have +6 Nightblade Skills, +4 Demo Skills, +5 Phantasmal Blades, +1 Night’s Chill & Nether’s Edge
I have Falcon Swoop attached to Phantasmal Blades
Eldritch Fire attached to BWC
Elemental Storm attached to Nemesis (will Switch this to Flashbang against Log as I will not use Nemesis in the fight)
This sounds extremely interesting! I agree that Clairvoyant is probably best in slot, no problem with chaos->aether conversion, i just find it annoying that most of my damage comes from Agrivix and Devastation and not the blades themselves. I basically have a ranged version of Calidor’s.
I would definitely use Flashbang to proc things if I were you, the nemesis is awful.
Couple of questions:
Why falcon and not Eye of the guardian, PB procs 10 of them easily at all times? Is your base damage high enough to justify Hawk? Mine is around 2000, which seems too low for it.
Elemental storm res reduction doesn’t stack with BWC, wouldn’t it be better to re-allocate those points into 3 points in Ulzuin’s torch for the massive OA and crit bonus?
How is your survivability with such low armor and no physical res?
What are those rings? I’m assuming some kind of “of attack” rares, your OA is huge.
Have you considered Solalel’s mark for further lifesteal resistance reduction or is it too many things to click?
I count only +4 Demo skills, what am I missing?
)Here’s the Video of 2nd Log fight (first run was just to make sure I could kill him, Hate accidentally recording deaths as I don’t want to re-live them)
the problem is that PB does shitty dmg even with 22/12 on the support…
its really that crappy
the good chest that would support it lacks the mandatory 7 energy regen and its among the highest energy cost spam builds to sustain in the entire game…
if the itemizations wasnt screwy it’d be doable.
try to boost ur heart seeking strike and nether edge to 22/12 , ignore piercing & physical dmg, focus on cold/vitality and resist reduction to those 2.
but its really terrible, the pure frost caster using Crown of Winter King 0skill is way better for almost the same AoE (jajaja’s Elsa builds)
Has anyone considered using https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8490-Temporal-Arcblade with PB’ed Falcon swoop?
With 26/16 PB you get 30% weapon damage per 6 blades plus 6x60% weapon damage proc from Falkon Swoop?
With this setup you avoid the massive attack speed penalty of the big 2-hander and instead inflict weapon damage based on your cast speed boosted by the blade’s 25% innate cast speed buff. All you damage is elemental/aether/chaos/vitality