Devotions are mainly defensives, throne, scales, giant blood, etc.
Gear looks a bit like this:
Weapon: Obsidian Juggernaut
Armor: Divinesteel Hauberk
Helmet: Eye of the Beholder
Rings (2x): Rhowari Void Seal
Amulet: Thread of Mortality
Pants: Empowered Hermit Leggards
Belt: Sash of the Bloodlord
Relic: Terror
Medal: Mark of the False Gods
Boots: Voidwalker Footpads
Gloves: Voidsteel Gauntlets
Shoulders: Shadowflame Mantle
So the idea was to use Blade Arc as my main source of damage, whilst adding a ton of chaos damage to my attacks with the help of possession, obsidian juggernaut, % chaos modifiers, solael’s and what not.
Though, I’m just about to give up on this character I’ve spent most of my 500 hours playing on. I’ve been keeping up with the forums, trying to find the best augments, components for survivability and what not. Learning about the best defensive devotions and whatever.
Nothing works. This build simply does not work.
My damage is not bad what so ever, the issue is I CAN’T EVEN GET IN MELEE RANGE with bosses.
Now it’s getting even worst with nemesis spawning all over. I can’t kill a single one, nor even hurt them in the slightlest. (God forbid I actually can, but dying so damn much heals them back up to full hp)
I really need someone to point out what I’m doing wrong here, because I simply don’t get it.
Why make gear for a certain archetype when it is NOT viable what so ever.
Do I just have to go the full soldier or battlemage route to be able to (not even faceroll) but stand my ground in elite? What the fuck is this.
First put Menhrir’s Will at around level 8 or 9. Max both Military Conditioning and Scars of Battle. Remove a few points from Decorated Soldier and Fighting Spirit. Why did you put all 50 points in Soldier Mastery if you are not using Oleron’s Rage or Menhrir’s Bulwark? 10 points wasted right there.
Your gear choices are weird. I’m pretty sure some faction gear is actually better than some of that gear.
Log is pretty resistant to chaos, so you’ve got that working against you. Second, you have a shitload of +% skills but hardly anything in base damage; it doesn’t do any good to get +1800% chaos damage if your base is only 50. Generally it’s a better idea to max out a damaging skill, then add onto it with whatever’s left.
I hear great things about Witchblades all the time so I can pretty much guarantee it’s a viable duo; you just need to look around for a better spec.
I do get about 4k base from Solael’s + Possession alone though, without counting my gear and what not.
I’m aware Physical Witchblade is a thing, which is why I wanted to avoid going that route.
The extra 10 skills in Soldier is just a mishap, this character is beta old.
Gear choices are indeed weird, but this is the best I could farm for myself as of now.
I am not a build pro. This is what I came up with: (link)
More attack speed. Sigil for aoe damage and health. Menhir’s Will for when you get hit hard. I would recommend getting Solael’s Witchblade on Blade Arc for chaos debuff and maybe Wendigo Mark on Sigil for more healing.
Why are you using Blade Arc when you have access to Obsidian Tremor?
If doing a chaos build Obsidian Tremor seems the better skill by far - although you’ll need to redo some of your gear/devotions for better energy regen. Also you seem to have a grand total of zero resistance piercing?
On the defensive side you can make some BIG headway. Dump Shadowflame mantle - a ranged/firestrike item - for some defensive rare shoulders, bonus if you can get a useful nemesis MI. Same with the terror relic, consider using a nice defensive relic. Also you mention using ‘defensive’ devotions - but I see no mention of Tree of Life? I’m thinking a big part of this problem is a strange devotion setup.
Sigil and Doombolt at one point each is a waste. Either go all in or gtfo of those skills.
You have 8 points in decorated soldier, on a choas build, why? Switch those points to Scars of battle, Menhir’s Will, and Military Conditioning.
Veterancy is only worth a single point if you have lots of bonuses to Veterancy/all soldier skills - which you don’t.
One of the biggest issues I see is you invest so heavily in chaos damage but only ~30% of your weapon damage is converted to chaos. You add a bit of flat damage from your skills but it isn’t enough. Added to that is the the chaos resist reduction problem. Assuming you took Solael’s Witchblade, you have -20% chaos resistance reduction and that’s it. Coupled with the fact that Log resists chaos, no wonder you have trouble doing damage to him. If you stick with this build then you need Solael’s Witchblade and Acid Spray at a minimum. Switching to Obsidian Tremor would also help if you can manage the energy requirements. Make sure you have chaos, vitality, and poison resist maxed when facing log too. Also, you didn’t mention your augments/components so make sure you have a Potent Essense of Ch’thon/Haunted Steel in your weapon.
I know Tremor is most likely my better option, I just liked the CC from Blade Arc (the 55% knockback) and the one time I did build around Tremor it felt somewhat wonky. I guess it might be time to revisit the build surrounding the skill.
Sorry if I came off as upset in my original post, but this character I was playing during beta, using the Scythe build, and I never had so much trouble as I’m having right now. It’s quite frustrating as I really enjoy my chaos build.
You guys are bringing up a lot of valid points though, I am in no way knowledgable in this game, at least no where near as I was back in my Diablo II days. Devotions might indeed be my problem. I have tried a bunch of combinations, but often my DPS just goes down dramatically. I’m just not sure what to do with it anymore.
You seem to be trying to gear offensively and use defensive devotions, when you should be doing the opposite, especially when you play self found. I mean you have -12% pierce res, no wonder you take so much damage from bosses, since most bosses have some form of pierce damage. If you can manage to max your resistances with ointments and some defensive gear, here is an alternative devotion setup. I also dropped Second Rite and picked up Consecrated Blade, Scars of Battle, and put a few points in Military Conditioning.