Been trying to build a Piercing dual pistol character. I tried Warrior Cadence and I am not impressed. First of all, I didn’t know the 3rd hit does not include Weapon Activation attacks so I was actually messing up with my 3rd Cadence big piercing damage. I got rid of those two passives and the gameplay is smoother now but it is still horrible.
Why horrible? It’s only the 3rd hit and the aoe coverage is horrible when the enemies run up to me so fast. My only way to get away is War Cry for now and it’s not enough when the boss is chasing me.
And if i want a long range aoe build, Nightblade’s throwing dagger is way superior. Reliable long range and does excellent damage (yes, spirit is a problem but it’s easy to fix).
I really wish they could re-design range Cadence. To me, the 3rd Cadence should be a Ricochet build that bounces 2-4 Targets depending on passive levels. This will make the gameplay much easier.
If we don’t want to mess with the long range piercing 3rd hit, then we should have at least a Unique/Relic that makes the regular bullets a chance to bounce off target.
We already have throwing dagger from Nightblade and Chain of Lightning type from Shamna. It would be fun that Cadence is a mix of both so gives people more reason to play.
This is a common problem for many ranged pierce builds, not enough AoE
Nightblade do not have throwing dagger, it has Phantasmal blades.
Btw did you max Fightning form and Zolhan’s technique?
Here is a nice guide though http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67346
(though the weapon he used does not longer work in the way they did when he did that guide)
Get pistols with armor piercing, attack speed and +%piercing damage
I took out Zolhan’s weapon proc passives because they don’t benefit from Cadence’s 3rd strike. I get a bit better aoe without those two passives. I really don’t like how weapon auto attack activation works in this game. It’s very strange.
Cadence’s 3rd hit is supposed to cause piercing but Zolhan doesn’t pierce with 3rd hit.
Cadence overrides both Markovians and Zolhans on the third strike, but you suffer a dps loss by not having them anyways. Both MA and ZT have better-than-default % Weapon Damage.
If you want Cadence to pierce on the third hit, max out Fighting Form.
So are MA and ZT dps loss or not? I saw a thread recently where people argue that they are in fact a damage loss. Or is it different for melee and ranged builds?
I suspect the animation speeds are very different for melee and ranged, with melee animations being slower and more elaborate. So you shouldn’t assume a dps for ranged also and if there is a loss it won’t necessarily be to the same degree.
My biggest problem is the lack of AoE and both Markovians and Zolhans don’t help me in that department. Even if I lose some dps against single target, I would still prefer to drop them for the piercing hit.
Again, I still think this is a bad design overall. The whole weapon activation procs is just weird.
I really wanted a dual pistol inquistor and I really like both Chilling and Storm rounds but they are only 20% chance. There are no ways to improve them. Not even through Uniques or Relic. That annoys me.
You dont need monumental AoE damage for the main campaign. This is why I suggest using rune of hagarrad or horn of gandar to supplement AoE damage. To bridge the gap until end game ranged pierce builds that have aoe options in the form of items such as Jaxon’s lucky bullet and high weapon damage + inqui wps.