In particular, looking for advice on how to respec my devotions.
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-xXJ98j
I originally wanted a Bleed and Lightning heavy 2H Warder, but I picked up some Internal Trauma along the way.
It’s hard to give useful advice on this one, because:
A) You give no indication as to what’s wrong with your build, from your perspective.
B) You give no indication as to where you wanna go with that build, how you wanna play it.
Do you wanna concentrate on bleeding damage? On lightning damage? On internal trauma damage? Do a mix of those? Which one to prefer, in that case?
Do you wanna be able to use all weapons equally well or specialize in using maces (usually associated with internal trauma damage) or in using axes (usually associated with bleeding damage)?
Without any further information we can only guess.
Some general observations I can offer:
- As you got loads of Primordial and Eldritch and lots of Ascendant but no constellation that even needs that amount, you could take points off of some constellations without problems and re-distribute them to other constellations.
- You got five offensive devotion powers and barely enough skills to assign them to. As such I feel that you really don’t need the Tsunami constellation; and you could even think about letting go of either the Bull or Dire Bear constellation (or even both).
- You could also think about letting go of the Wraith constellation.
- You could then think about re-investing those points in defensive constellations like the Tortoise for added survivability or specialized offensive constellations like the Beserker or Rhowan’s Scepter respectively.
[li]If you wanna concentrate on lightning damage, the Widow constellation would provide you with a lightning resistance debuff while the Viper constellation would provide you with a general elemental resistance debuff.[/li]If you wanna concentrate on bleeding damage though, the Huntress constellation would offer a bleeding resistance debuff.
If I recall correctly, each of those also offers Offensive Ability, which is especially useful when going for lightning damage.
Right, sorry. I feel there aren’t enough defensive devotion bonuses in general, stuff like resists mostly. I am concerned that I’m spreading devotion points all over the place to boost too many different types of damage, as well. I want to play it as a more mobile melee character, so I really don’t particularly think Totems are a good choice, but beyond that I’m pretty much not concrete on anything except Savagery and 2H weaponry. Weapon choice is probably going to be axe because of Ultos’ set (if I ever get it), but I’m more than happy to use swords, maces, or axes in the meantime if they give relevant bonuses.
I keep hearing bleed is really good because few enemies resist it, but a mix (if it could work) would be nice just to hedge my bets against a variety of resistances.
I like the bonuses Huntress offers, moreso than Widow (Widow’s Aether damage bonuses feel completely wasted here). Considering that. Viper perhaps as well, simply because it’s very cheap to invest into. I have heard that Tortoise is not all it’s cracked up to be, mostly due to the proc not really being that great. I was thinking about speccing to Mogdrogen the Wolf but there’s so much stuff in Ascendant that doesn’t really fit the build (Wolverine seems mostly pet/retaliation-centric, Empty Throne is a maybe). Been thinking about speccing out of the Tsunami constellation for a while now, I’m really unimpressed with the offensive proc at the end.
Wendigo totem and Heart of the Wild are the two most universally useful skills in the entire shaman tree. I wouldn’t make a warder without including both of those skills regardless of the offensive focus of the build. I also think it’s really important to focus on one damage type, just pick one and run with it. Lightning, Physical, and Bleed are all legit warder builds, but they will be optimized differently. IMO bleed builds are better suited with savagery/blade arc, and physical builds better suited for cadence. Savagery is also utilized as the go-to auto attack replacement for lightning builds.
i would lean toward offensive and resist reduction devotions. Wardens have the best defensive skills in the game already.
So after tooling around in GrimCalc some, I came up with a new Devotions spread. (Don’t pay too much attention to the skills, I know I’ve got way too much sunk into some of them - it’s temporary until I get some more +skills gear)
I was trying to decide whether to throw my last devotion point into Dryad, Hammer or something else entirely. Think Dryad is going to be the winner, but I’m definitely open to suggestions. (also, if there’s a skill you think I’m missing that I definitely need, let me know, because I WILL be pulling points out of various skills after I get better gear and I am eyeballing stuff like Blitz for mobility or Blade Arc for more bleeding)
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-AsLUzK
I know I have a lot of Devotion procs, but I kind of like it that way. I’ve grown very fond of Bull Rush’s 360 degree smackdownery and Falcon Swoop’s fantastic corridor-clearing utility, Maul is growing on me as CC, and Rend is absolutely fantastic. Reckless Tempest is just fun/funny as hell, though I might be able to part with it if there’s something really compelling.
Alright, probably the last version of this build, I think I’ve got most of what I want. http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-N2m9HE
Will probably use the Wildblood set and whatever else I can find. Finally considering getting rid of Bull and substituting something else in its stead. This would mean giving up the point in Dryad, but that’s not so bad. Might also get rid of Viper, since I’ve drifted pretty far from Lightning at this point. Then that opens the door to getting rid of Tempest as well…
I discovered that Devouring Swarm and Rend both stack their bleed debuffs, which is very nice. So DS makes it onto the build (would actually have been a good skill to have earlier in the character’s development, but even in late levels that resist debuff is immense.)
A word of warning, aiming to use the wildblood set is kinda like aiming to shoot yourself in the foot. A bleed build would be better served with a Empowered Bloodbath Links (this one item is seriously better than the entire set) and any of the many bleed procing weapons avaliable.
This build is still quite problematic. Brute Force is getting you almost nothing, without support adding lightning damage is worthless and the %phys is too low to matter…not to mention you don’t seem to be focusing physical. You have two weapon pool skills - Feral Hunger and Markovian’s both of which will prevent Upheaval from triggering. Get rid of Markovian’s. Feral Hunger can stay, Feral Hunger works well with bleed and heals you.
Making use of Upheaval and a transmuted Blade Arc for bleed without bothering to max either is foolish - especially the Blade Arc. Either 16/16 the base skill or get rid of it completely, btw points into the base skill are >>>>> than points in the 2nd node of Blade Arc if you are bleed focused. Crit damage can be nice for getting a big photo-op style crit but flat damage always works.
Veterancy and Scars of Battle (and Decorated Soldier too for that matter…) These skills are between decent but not worth 8 points (Scars of Battle) and omfg why did you waste these points (Veterancy). Scars of battle is generally a place to pop one point if you have some +soldier skills or +scars of battle on your gear. Decorated Soldier you might aim to have 8 points after +skills if you want the armor absorb but 8 hard points is overkill.
Wendigo totem, Field Command/Squad tactics, and Heart of the Wild. Why no points in these skills? Wendigo totem is some of the best healing in the game, Field Command/Squad tactics are better buffs than many you did take…same with Heart of the Wild.
That’s a decent belt, but I don’t see how it obsoletes Wildblood set. I’m seeing some crazy good Bleed % bonuses on the Wildblood ability, not to mention the weapon itself is absolutely amazing statwise (+attack speed, bleed%, ADCTH, +to Feral Hunger and Devouring Swarm). The skill bonuses on the other set pieces are wasted, but they still offer resists, damage and yet more bleed %. Leaves a number of other slots open, as well.
I’d seriously drop Upheaval in its entirety before I’d get rid of Markovian’s and its damage/DA reduction, and Feral is going nowhere. Brute Force is a wash, I was hoping +shaman skills would make it into something worth keeping, but I can get rid of it. I never wanted to be PURE bleed, mind you.
I might as well just use Behead then, because I doubt I’ll have enough to fully invest in Blade Arc and have all the other goodies I need.
I was under the impression that Scars was absolutely godly for a passive at higher difficulties for the armor absorption, and it scales well with points past the hard 8. Decorated Soldier does well with more than hard 8 as well, and the resists (for higher difficulties especially, allows me to focus more on other resists like Vit with my gear) and phys damage are very nice to have (because I still like having that physical damage behind the bleed). Veterancy, again, a wash, I can cut it out but I liked having that little bit of regen to reap % regen bonuses with.
WT makes you sit like a bump on a log and lure enemies to its 5m radius area of effect. If it were something like, say, a D2LoD Druid’s spirit and it followed you around with an “aura”, I might go for it. Field Command/Squad Tactics are nice (though it takes gobs of reserved energy), but I’m pretty sure there’s no way I can get both that and what I need for Heart of the Wild on this build. It’s going to be one or the other, because I don’t think I can really half-ass either on points.
FYI dot ticks don’t proc ADCTH. So if you are going bleed you would be better served focusing on regen, and healing devotion procs if you still refuse to use the shaman’s built in healing totem (which scales with max hp - re: heart of the wild).
Well, I could take Mog’s Pact and Heart of the Wild but I’d have to drop Field Command and Squad Tactics. Also, was not aware bleed ticks don’t proc ADCTH. That said, I do have some physical damage behind the bleeding, and I never wanted to go “pure” one thing or another. I already have Giant’s Blood from Behemoth.
EDIT: OK, I’ll bite, Crate. Why did you make DoT ticks not trigger ADCTH?
You can control WD with pet attack and make sure it sticks on a hero/boss in mobs
Focus hard on lightning or bleed and get resist reduction.
Widow is god tier, having aether bonuses doesn’t make it bad
The proc on the belt, not to mention the 5% chance of a large flat bleed both allow stacking large amounts of flat bleed. These amounts of flat bleed are high enough that I’d take them any day of the week over 400% bleed*, even if that 400% bleed had 100% uptime, which the wildblood set doesn’t. Also you lose your weapon slot to the set which means no Bloodsong, no Brutallax, no Guillotine (although I never really liked the Guillotine anyways…).
*it is easy enough to already be well over 1000% bleeding bonus without this proc, over 1200 once cunning is accounted for. So we’re talking about a ~30% increase in damage that is only up 50% of the time or less. Or in other words a 10-15% damage increase for the set 4 piece.
Most times in this game, if we’re talking about level 85 builds anyways, damage is either you go all in or you get the hell out and focus on a different type. Anything else just gimps you as it can get hard to stack all the differing types of % damages you need. Some combos allow stacking two types of damage at once such as Aether/fire, chaos/vitality, light/fire or light/cold without gimping you too much. Some combos try to work that way and don’t quite make it - such a pierce/cold, vitality/bleed, vitality/acid - and others you’ll pay a heavy price if you try to hybridize beyond “incidential” damage. For a warder you can reliably spec physical, or you can reliably spec bleed. You can even do physical with a side of bleed but you’ll still be looking at 10k/sec bleeding when you are bashing enemies for 30k+ a sec with your mace. Barely even qualifies as hybridizing your damages at that point.
You are correct about Scars of Battle, I mixed up Scars of Battle/Decorated Soldier. Scars = 8 points after +skills, Soldier = 1-2 points only, and if it is boosted from other sources then great.
Alright, so after some tinkering in Grim Calc and input from some more people, I decided to go mostly Physical rather than all Bleed, and hammered this out.
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-AOeSoD
Still deciding on devotions. Wondering if it’s worth going Oleron, and if it’s actually possible to get both Oleron and Kraken (Kraken is an absolute must).
The WPS skills are high because apparently a full investment in Savagery alone simply will not get me the DPS I need. If you think I can do with lower investments in WPS skills, let me know, because I would honestly just as soon lower ZT and MA to 9 points invested and find homes for the extra 6 points elsewhere.
EDIT: Changed Decorated Soldier to 1 point invested, used points freed to max Feral Hunger. http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-tp0G6X
EDIT 2: Still contemplating cutting out Upheaval altogether, and dropping that point into something like Menhir’s Will, Brute Force, or Tenacity of the Boar.
Doesn’t Upheaval block wps skills? If so (I’m not sure) you should really remove that point since you have tons of points in wps skills.
If you are going Physical damage then I would suggest you go Cadence instead. If you want to use Savagery then choose Stormcaller’s Pact. The bonuses from Oleron’s doesn’t really benefit Savagery as much as Stormcaller Pact.
After some talk in the GD Discord with Ceno (and a bit of initial confusion on my part) it’s apparently WPS skills that interfere with Upheaval.
Contemplated Cadence, but it doesn’t play as nice with Feral Hunger as Savagery. Feral Hunger is actually pretty important because of the ADCTH. I also considered pulling out of Oleron’s Rage and using Defiler to roll back my Soldier mastery a bit so I could afford Stormcaller’s, but there isn’t really that much lightning on this build so I don’t know how justifiable an investment in Stormcaller’s would be. Also, the %OA in Oleron’s Rage is really nice, compensates for the relatively low Cunning investment.
EDIT: Toyed around with the devotion screen for a while, managed to come up with a Devotion spread that lets me get Blind Fury from Oleron (but not complete the constellation), plus Kraken and Behemoth, and doesn’t force me to commit to a single weapon type by choosing something like Rhowan’s Scepter. The downside? I have to take Wolverine to make it work, and all Wolverine really has to offer me is some DA. http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-iSuvV2 (devotions only) Long and convoluted process to get it to work. Involves initially taking Fox after Falcon to grab Kraken since Falcon doesn’t give enough Eldritch affinity by itself, taking Crossroads Chaos to snag Behemoth and Crossroads Primordial for Bull, and then later on dropping Fox and CR: C and P entirely. Debating switching to Panther instead of Bull, and dropping the extra devotion point into Oleron for more goodies.