Let me preface this by saying this will be only my second serious build.
I do not have access to crazy good equipment, I will mostly be using what I pick up during gameplay.
that said, I want a build that can handle ultimate without me wanting to pull my hair out.
the idea of this build will be a run-and-gun 2handed commando that is relatively uncomplicated, not a lot of clicky clicky to do it’s job so I can maintain the run-and-gun playstyle.
I am not interested with being able to facetank bosses and mobs, this is not a speed clearing build, I do not plan on breaking time clearing records in the crucible. just a simple, not uber-gear dependent build to take me through ultimate.
Simple concept:
activate flame touched, vindictive flame, and field command.
use thermite mines on hard to kill enemies.
use fire strike and shoot enemies in the face.
blast shield, soldier passives, giants blood, and wayward soul with life leech rings to keep me alive in addition to the usually kiting.
since neither fire strike nor flame touched nor any of their evolutions state conversion to fire, I am assuming most of my damage will be physical.
on this assumption, I picked assassin’s blade and put assassin’s mark on fire strike for physical resist reduction.
my first stumbling block is on setting eldritch fire on markovian advantage. I want to know if eldritch fire will proc on all auto attacks, or will it only have a proc chance on the actual proc of markovian advantage?
I do not see manticore taken very often for the builds on this forum, it has a useful resist reduction from what I can see, am I missing something? or is it just not able to be fit into most of the defense constellation set ups I see? I set acid spray to thermite mine.
how does the resist reduction from viper work? is it a guaranteed proc on hit?
are any of the resist reduction I have chosen conflict with each other? are there more efficient resist reduction choices I can go for that doesnt sacrifice the run-and-gun playstyle of the build?
any other general advice that doesnt involve BiS gear I dont have and wont cheat to acquire?
Commando’s a good pick for what you want. Very straightforward to build with great devotion and gear support, and any build issues can generally be made up for by simply kiting and shooting. Bind Move To to right click if you haven’t already, it’s makes these sorts of builds much easier to play in my opinion.
Ideally on a fire strike build you’ll want a weapon that converts a large amount of physical damage to fire, as well as large amounts of flat fire damage. You can also achieve some extra conversion through your weapon’s component. Since Flame Touched and Fire Strike both give you flat fire damage, you’re likely doing a lot more fire damage than you might think already - you can check the damage type breakdown from your character screen. Assassin’s Mark will generally become less useful as you get better gear and move onto stacking more sources of flat fire damage - if you were to go physical you could try cadence instead of fire strike but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Eldtritch Fire will only proc off of the Markovian’s Advantage proc itself. Using your current point investment, this means that MA has an 8% chance to proc off of your Fire Strike attacks, which will then have a 15% chance to proc Eldtritch Fire. Bad idea. On that note Markovian’s advantage probably isn’t a worthwhile investment for you anyway - with more points you can bump the activation rate up to 25%, but the damage increase isn’t worth the points without heavy +skills on gear, and the defensive ability shred component of it is done much more effectively by Flashbang - a skill I’d just about consider mandatory for any build with Demo in it. Consider getting Flashbang to 10-12 and a few points in Searing Light. It’s one of the best CC skills available, fantastic for proccing devotions and the Defensive Ability reduction at higher ranks is absolutely huge.
Manticore is actually taken fairly frequently, or at least used to be. It received a nerf in a recent patch making it less generally desirable. In your case I wouldn’t bother with it - Fire is already one of the easiest damage types to reduce resistance for, and you actually have two better sources of flat resistance reduction available to you. The first is Blackwater Cocktail’s Agonizing Flames, the second is Elemental Storm (Rhowan’s Crown devotion). I’d recommend one of them instead, but keep in mind only the highest source of flat resistance reduction is used so you can’t use both.
I believe it needs a %weapon damage component, which Fire Strike covers. You should effectively always have it taken into account on anything you attack.
There should be a big resistance reduction thread stickied somewhere on the forum that’s worth reading, but essentially there’s three types of resistance reduction. %Reduced (Viper), which you only get the highest source of. Flat reduced Resistances (Acid Spray, Elemental Storm, Agonizing Flames) which you also only get the highest source of. And finally -% Resistance (Thermite Mines, Eldtritch Fire) which lets you stack all separate sources of.
Don’t stress too much about BiS gear - it’s really not that important. Focus on getting your resistances up as much as possible - you want them all close to 80% if you can manage it. As far as gearing for damage goes you want as much attack speed as possible, as much flat fire damage as you can get and a healthy amount of Offensive Ability. Luckily for you, Commando is one of the best classes for stacking OA between Squad tactics, Oleron’s Rage, Flame Touched and the effective OA you gain from reducing enemy DA with Flashbang. %Fire Damage is nice where you can find it, but ultimately much less important than you might think it is. Focus on the things I mentioned instead.
As far as your skill point allocation goes, Menhir’s Will doesn’t work with a gun, so take the point out. I already covered Markovian’s Advantage - I don’t think it’s worth investment in this build either. The single points in Veterancy and Decorated Soldier aren’t that useful either without a lot of +skills from gear. I already mentioned Flashbang a couple times, but I’d definitely pick it up and start learning to spam the everloving fuck out of it. War Cry is also a very effective way of reducing enemy damage if you can spare the points for it. Thermite Mines is probably worth bringing to 16/16 for the extra resistance reduction. Any other questions, feel free to ask. Good luck
the menhirs will was a force of habit brain fart, good catch.
switched to rhowan’s crown and set elemental storm to flashbang.
switched out of assassins mark and went to ulzuins torch like I had in a previous build. put meteor shower on thermite.
is there a set or socketable that has fire resist reduction? speccing into a 3rd active ability is too much for a run-and-gun build, 2 is already pushing it.
I might have went resist reduction crazy because of my first build also being a commando gunner. went balls to the wall fire and physical damage on constellations and stomped veteran and elite ezpz, but hit a roadblock on ultimate because of very little resist reduction. came to this forum to straighten myself out, and perused the build section and the consensus was resist reduction being a damage dealing priority.
is there a set or socketable that has fire resist reduction? speccing into a 3rd active ability is too much for a run-and-gun build, 2 is already pushing it.
Ulzuin’s Helm would be the one to go for, if you can get your hands on the recipe. It’s got a proc that lowers fire, lightning and physical resistance. Ulzuin’s Set in general is pretty much crafted for Fire Strike builds, so it’d be the one to aim for.
Build is looking solid enough though. Keep experimenting as you go and see what works for you. I’d still pick up flashbangs, maybe drop the majority of points from Static Strike if you don’t have enough gear also supporting lightning damage yet. It’s your only real source of lightning damage right now anyway so it’s not too crucial for you.
I second the suggestion to decrease static strike, your lightning is not as good as your fire and static strike doesn’t do a lot for you unless you gear into the full ulzuin set or a lot of ‘of destruction’ suffixes for the lightning boosts. More flashbang would be a good place to put those extra points, and maybe a few can find their way into thermite mines.
to simplify here’s my 2h commando which they buffed in this 1.0.1.0 now a killing machine but don’t go HC if you don’t want this to look weak http://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GXb5Vd. Very easy to build and a tank too Gamble it in secret blacksmith the ulzuin legendaries
