My Goal
I want to make an Ultimate viable, tanky Witchblade build.
I haven’t made it to Ultimate yet, I have a 60 Pistols Sorcerer & a 71 Vitality Conjurer, but I got a bit annoyed with their playstyles and/or I don’t think they’re Ultimate viable. (I know Vitality Conjurer is a great build, just don’t like the playstyle)
Possible Concerns
Worried about damage late game
Mastery point distribution
Is it worth sinking an extra 7 points into Occult Mastery bar to get 5 points in Aspect of the Guardian? Should I reclaim those 12 points and put them elsewhere? (Maybe Solael’s Witchfire or SoC)
What i know works is a 2-hander Blade arc Witchblade. I know because I’m running around ultimate with Stonefist and shitty lvl 50 items at lvl 67 destroying everything, even though I’m severely underleveled and undergeared.
Eventually I will switch to sword and board with full Markovian set and see if it works. I hope it does because I’ve been trying to do a good block build for a while now, but if not I can always go back to Blade arc.
Same I have a 2h witchblade lvl 82 but I only took CoF and heavily invested in Soldier, maxed blade Arc and Cadence and all the useful things.
I too have stonefist but most of my other gear is either green blue and a couple of pruples but not ideal for my build.
Still my highest dmg dealt is 130k. OK so my HP is only just shy of 11k and I have had to stop progression cuz my Aether resist is only 13%. But up until steps of torment is had no issues.
Now I am just farming rep and gear to buff my resists before continuing.
Your build is weird, its all over the place. What you need to do is either focus on retaliation and build max tank OR play a sword/board DPS. It’s up to you but either way you will need at least one point in the following skills: MA,ZT , Warcry+ BM , Blizt + blindside for mobility, CT, MW, OG, ST, SoB. If it’s a physical build max CoF instead of Vulnerability. AotG for the resist. Squad Tactic over Field Command.
As u geared better, one point invest in a skill will pump it up to higher skill thus give u more value.
Only go to 50 Mastery in Soldier if u plan to play retaliation build, otherwise keep it at 40.
The only skill worth overmax is fighting spirit. Res can leave it X/X after gear bonus.
Anyway since it’s a witch blade, going full physical is the way. Warcry + Break Morale + CoF is heavy - %Physical Resistance.
2H blade arc witchblade is definitely pretty strong.
S&B physical witchblade is pretty bad.
First, you’d better get rid of cadence, it’s plain terrible now.
If going for 2H, max blade arc. If wanna try s&b anyway, zolhan’s and MA together work better than cadence, mostly because you can attach AoE procs to both, the recent rework of devotion % trigger chance supports it. Blitz also makes life easier, besides the high damage it provides additional AoE. Invest in it. If 2H, just a single point as a movement skill, as you have the AoE and the damage anyway.
A S&B Witchblade based on cadence and retaliation/procs is most likely much better than you think. Unfortunatly I do not have one myself since the lvl cap was 50, but I’ve seen the one of Nine and it still works wonder with the current lvl cap!
I still have the guide that I made on youtube about this build when the lvl cap was 50! But you wouldn’t take skills like Oleron’s Rage with Menhir Bulwark (for exemple) like a did since they are now exclusive skills.-
If you go with such a build you need to use Fevered Rage transmuter from Bloody POx.
Which means you need a very high DA but do not need an high OA.
Mechanically you use 3 skills to engage packs of monsters : Bloody Pox, War Cry and Blitz. For tougher monsters you also use the curse of frailty and overguard.
The ‘‘weak’’ spot of this build is ranged monsters because they won’t rush at you. In the other hand, you could rush the ranged monsters and melee ones will kill themselves from hitting you. Hopefully I will make this build in the future again.
I have an 85 s&b phys witchblade and have tested various combinations, the cadence one is truly under performing. It’s because of the skill itself - its nature and the fact it got turned into crap, in addition.
Other versions of the concept work relatively fine (finally stopped at maxed MA/zolhan’s with oleron’s wrath/bear attached to, maxed blitz), but got nothing to do with the clear speed and damage potential many other melee builds can provide.
AoE is poor which reflects in slow clear speed not on par with the current meta, damage is so-so, nothing impressive. In other words - slow and clunky.
Not that it’s not viable, just not on par with the meta/power creep.
Playing with the markovian set, the rest of the gear has % phys on it, though char hardly breaks +1K phys increase. But it’s another game problem.
Are you really comparing clear speed of Markovian’s Soldier, second most tanky build there is, with other classes that are built for offense?
There is no such a thing as META. If you think that every character that can’t kill Fabius under 20 seconds and clear BoC under 7 minutes is weak and subpar, it’s just your opinion. The point of this game is not to kill everything as fast as possible.
Blade Arc is good for 2H builds because 2H weapons have high damage per hit and low attack speed. For board & sword it’s not even close as good as cadence. To make it viable you must take Clean Sweep which puts it on CD and even then it’s good only against packs of normal mobs but against bosses it’s still worse. With full build it loses it’s potential completely because: a) you don’t need to kill all the trash mobs b) you kill all the trash mobs anyway with reflect and retaliation damage + procs from “on block” skills like Targo’s Hammer and Trample and you end up fighting only a few strongest enemies which you can kill faster with cadence.
I have >1300 physical damage bonus on my Markovian’s soldier, i don’t know where did you get that you can get hardly 1k.
I doubt you know what a tanky build is, if you call every markovian set based build “tanky”. You think it is, because in a build you wave around you’ve been using maiven’s and its interaction with menhir’s. Drop maiven’s and test it, you may find it not funny at all. With your 13K HP with markovian’s set…
Also, read the title. It says “witchblade”, isn’t it? It’s like something completely different.
Yes, there is. One may not take it into account, but it’s present and it’s a factor.
Sure, but can’t get it why are you up on it. Do you see anyone in this thread praising 1H blade arc? If not, then what it is about?
You surely do, as you play SC and you are able to squeeze it. Balanced builds can’t afford it. The access to sources of high enough % phys damage is very problematic in comparison to other sources of damage. Not only, but currently phys builds are completely reliant on resistance/armor reduction, in reliance with the poor % increase and the high armor/physical resistance of the mobs on ultimate. Physical is sucky atm.
The point was, if you didn’t get it, that OP is concerned about the late game, for a reason. And that if he doesn’t pick 2H, preferably blade arc, he’s gimping himself on purpose.
On a side note, just FYI, fully supported cadence currently sucks the balls even of a non-transmuted blade arc if built properly, no matter 1H or 2H. The problem with 1H is the low weapon range and the reason it binds you, which makes 1H blade arc ridiculously clunky and unplayable. Transmuted blade arc deals at least 2 X the damage of cadence with high OA. To bosses, trash isn’t counted in.
Every Markovian’s soldier is tanky unless you fuck up the build on purpose. That’s the point of using the Markovian’s Fortress set…to be tanky.
Why should be OP worried about late game for a reason? If i can kill any Nemesis in one minute with Maiven’s that lowers my damage, he can do it much faster, especially with debuff from CoF. But again, i guess it’s too slow and weak for you.
I don’t understand what are you trying to say…basically everybody who is going sword and board soldier is gimping himself on purpose because focusing on defense is stupid and all that matters is damage?
Cadence maybe “sucks balls” but it’s the best S&B soldier has. Ofc 2H Blade Arc would deal the most damage but you are trading survivability for damage. And some people value survivability more than damage output. Shocking, right?
META makes sense in competitive multiplayer games, not in singleplayer. There is not the most effective way of playing. You would have to define “the most effective” first.
Maxing zolan or markovian isn’t the way to go.
At least not the build i’m describing to you.
Futhermore, Cadence isn’t meant to be the only thing that kills, but mostly retaliation/procs/reflect. To speed it up in clear speed you absolutly need FeveredRage trasmuter.
Aoe damage = retaliation/reflect/procs
Combo = Fevered Rage + war Cry
As I said the only problem if any will be ranged and bosses that do not hit you in melee range, so trying to scale reflect and damage done by cadence (attack speed, %damage… ect) is the best way against those.
