Hi. I am playing this build last two weeks… It’s aether battlemage equipped in Krieg’s set, BUT with 2h - Fleshwarped Core. I am tired of S&B conception and It was my dream to create powerful 2h melee builds. At the beginning, I used Temporal Arcblade, and build works OK, but one day I have seen the Aetherfire Fleshwarped core of Shattered Reality. I was really impressed that this green weapon just FAR better then Arcblade for Battlemage. Gigantic flat aether damage bonus, around 50% phys to aether conversion to help your soldier damage abilities work better and other nice bonuses…
This is GT link of concept, that can do 170 cruci in theory:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDDJRBZ
My current char is not so perfect and far more offensive oriented (more than 350k crit with callidor tempest, blitz and cadence! my max was 460k on dummy) with not maxed resistances, but I finished 150 wave (some bosses was just obliterated in few seconds by big aether crits, but I was close to fail).
What do you think?
Temporal Arcblade + TD+ Mirror = 170 crucible (with a few hiccups)
“TD” - what do you mean?
Arcblade is really good, but i think it need some buff (add %weapon to proc or something else). In my hours of test top fleshwarped core outperforms arcblade 
Time Dilation from Aeon Hourglass devotion
More like TD + Mirror + Decent defense = 170 crucible.
True but you have a better shot at it with Temporal Arcblade when it comes down to 2h builds as it has the highest CDR
Arcblade doesn’t need any more buffs, it’s in a great spot.
Ok, I’ll try it. Though I’m not sure if I want to add multiple versions of elemental forcewave tactician. Maybe I’ll pick the best, I’ll see.
Hey! I think that the only reliable way to play a melee two-hander in crucible 150-170 is to stack lots of DA. This is the best defensive mechanic in the game. After playing crucible a lot with multiple builds I’m now pretty sure that devs just intend it to work like this, there is literally no other way for most builds.
Here, I changed your build a bit: another devotions and gear, focusing on stacking DA. Aeon Hourglass will also help with more Mirrors.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25KyOGZ
Sure, but asides from the damage types used (pure fire vs. elemental) the builds are very similar. We take slightly different approaches to skills, and your build is really OA-starved (not sure why you didn’t max blindside given the terrible OA you have), but asides from that they operate on a similar idea. Both builds use the Justicar Guard set, a two handed weapon, elemental damage conversion, and high DA.
Every point of DA gives good returns in how it reduces damage taken. Many of the best/safest builds in the OP have 5k-6k DA. Don’t get me wrong, I do think that stacking a ton of DA is a non-standard build strategy, but it delivers real results.
Also, regarding “twisted”, my DA-love tactician wasn’t twisted at all. All resists are maxed/overmaxed, OA is more than sufficient, seal is overmaxed, life steal is at 11% (6% from devotions, 5% from weapon component). To make it a “DA-love” build I just changed weapon augment, added an extra RBT on medal, and added green MI rings and medal. Skills were also very slightly tweaked, but it wasn’t “twisted” at all.
Fighting Spirit is a proc that has <50% uptime. I don’t know why you would put more than 1 point in it without massive CDR or hourglass. You’re much better off investing in Blindside which reduces enemy DA. You can keep the DA reduction active 100% of the time on a small group of enemies if you use Blitz off CD, though the real purpose of having it is to get an initial trigger of Deadly Aim. Overall though, I don’t see how your build would work in Gladiator Crucible unless you use that banner that improves OA. 2335OA before procs isn’t enough to trigger Deadly Aim reliably unless you have >500DA reduction.
I don’t need that MUCH OA, as my build is centered around multiple procs going at once. Remember, I said that this is the concept of Fire Auramancer, not just Elemental Forcewave, and they are my main damage source.
Except, the approach to building is completely different. You lost quite a bit of damage and the healing aspect in order to get as much DA as possible. While I usually try to balance everything out. I also have way more resistance reductions.
The only thing I can do is take BoM instead of Sigil, that will crank up my OA further up, and Fighting Spirit will proc Deadly Aim reliably. Which will indeed allow me to take more points in Blindside, without reducing DA too much too.
Like this - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BG3jkV
It does, but you also sacrifice something in order to gain it. I’m the fan of pure builds, if you know what I mean.
Your Tactician could have had double the damage he has to back up that OA, but he doesn’t.
I’m not arguing against the usefulness of the build, though.
As I said, my main damage source are multiple procs, not just Forcewave, along with many resistance reductions. Keep in mind, that this is a Crucible version, my campaign version has even more of them, simply drowning the whole screen in fire.
Yes, I took your advice and increased that OA, thanks.
It worked absolutely magnificent in 100-150 even without banners, though. With 170 I MAY use the OA banner, yes, to increase it even further, but that what banners are for, I feel no regret or remorse in using one. It’s intented.
I mean, if you end up with any chance to miss it’ll hurt your DPS a lot. Also, you can’t really capitalize on the +% crit damage if you don’t have enough OA. Maybe you have enough procs for it to not matter, but it’s hard to say without seeing the build in action.
How did I lose damage? I didn’t focus on health regen in my devotions/skills because it’s not necessary when you have 4K+ DA and 11% life steal with forcewave. (you only have 4% life steal, except when Ghoul is procced)
You have less resist reduction, unless I missed something. You have:
- -36% elemental resist from Aura of Censure
- 32 reduced target’s elemental resistances from Elemental Storm
- -23% fire resistance from Eldritch Fire
- 10% reduced target’s resistances for 2 seconds from Mythical Open Hand of Mercy
(101 total RR)
My build has:
- -38% elemental resist from Aura of Censure
- 32 reduced target’s elemental resistances from Elemental Storm
- 25% reduced target’s elemental resistances from Hand of Ultos (or 20% reduced from Viper)
- -10% elemental resistance from Ignaffar’s Combustion
- -10% elemental resistance to Inquisitor Seal from Mythical Arcanor
(115 total RR)
That’s 14 more resist reduction than your build
That’s definitely an improvement, though you are using two MIs now as well. Why do you max internal trauma? Is it for the burn damage conversion? Is that actually large enough a source of damage to be worth investing in?
From procs? It has a decent amount of procs. Your original build has these damaging procs which mine doesn’t have:
- Burning Justice (10% chance, 6 second recharge)
- Bear Claw (15% chance, 2 second recharge)
- Flame Torrent (Bound to Blitz, 25% chance)
- Meteor Shower (Bound to Forcewave, 30% chance, 3.5 second recharge)
My build has these procs your build doesn’t have:
- Stormtitan (25% chance when hit, 3 second recharge)
- Ignaffar’s Combustion (15% chance on attack, 3 second recharge)
- Hand of Ultos (Bound to Forcewave, 100% chance on critical attack, 1.5 second recharge)
If you end up removing sigil in favor of having reasonable OA we have the same number of procs (though your procs are probably a bit better, particularly meteor). That said, my build does have Arcane Devastation which is a large and fairly reliable source of damage. I’m not sure how it compares to Shar’Zul’s wrath because I’ve never used Shar’Zul’s wrath before.
I’m not really capitalizing on it, it just that I can have it along the way.
Yes, procs are amazing. Unfortunately, I can’t release gameplay videos yet, but the original build, for example, absolutely drowns the whole screen in fireworks. That’s the whole shtick I was going for - Fire Auramancer, not just elemental.
You lost pure DPS, by capitalizing on DA and OA gaining. I have less DA and OA than you, but I definitely have more raw damage, which really helps. As I said before, I personally consider around 4k DA to be enough for Crucible.
I also have Aegis healing and Giant’s Blood, so in this case, we are more or less even, I suppose.
When expansion hits, I will make some improvements to cover the weaknesses further.
Yeah, my bad, got wrong here. You took Ultos and Viper, which gave you more RR options. Going for pure Fire\Burn thematic, I have less, though, I think, the difference is not much really, especially since Crown doesn’t stack it’s RR with others.
Yes! Yes it is! Burn ticking is absolutely amazing and IS the main reason I took so many specific devotions and adorned the build in this way.
But my original build does have Combustion. It also has Fireball, Entropy, Wave of Fire, Stormfire and Shar’Zul Wrath to complete the theme. It’s a neverending cycle of spells and procs activating and chaining each other from one another. It’s really good.
Yep, I think we again are more or less even here. I tried to stay true to the theme of Fire Auramancer and have enough of DA and OA in the process.
Want a secret? I haven’t used it too… yet. So yeah, I also wanted to test it out. I used Brimstone in earlier version of the build, it’s GREAT for accumulating Burn damage.
EDIT: Actually, I HAVE EVEN BETTER IDEA (Diabolical Laughter)
Check this out - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVA8Yx42
The lack of slow resist is what seriously gimps your builds imo. I have 70% on my elemental tactician and it still hurts in 150-170. Loosing so much cast speed drastically reduces your dps and heal. I don’t care what other procs there are, forcewave is the main damage dealer in a build like this. When fw crits for 150k everything else is irrelevant imo. So freeze and slow resists need to be maxed and you need at least decent OA to sustain that huge crit damage.
Can’t speak for Mator, but for me personally…
Not really. With that much DA, healing from Aegis and Behemoth, Ghoul in dicey situations and Seal active, I have enough possibilities to sustain myself from pain.
Excuse me, but how is 180% cast speed too low for you?
Yes, and my OA is 3400+ with the latest Crucible build. It’s absolutely fine, so FW can be dished out with frequent crits. Besides, I’m telling you again, that the concept of this build is pure Fire Auramancer, so FW is ONE OF MANY ways to employ damage. I don’t rely on FW solely, because I have a bunch of powerful procs to compensate for it. Not to mention, my crit damage is only +70%, not that much.
So yes, you SHOULD care about procs and you SHOULD include them if you measure the build.
EDIT: If we are talking about Elemental, not pure Fire, then here’s mine - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDDJYaZ
I don’t know your latest crucible build, but the ones you linked Zhuugus have 2300 OA. That’s way too low even with Judicator’s. FS and DA are up only half the time, so you can’t actually rely on them. And where did i say your cast speed is too low? I’m talking about slow from enemies. Your slow resist is 20% which is, again, way too low for a build that relies on casting speed.
We can swap Shoulderguards of Justice for Titan Pauldrons on my non-MI elemental forcewave tactician build for 30% extra slow resistance:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RVvkOEEZ
It sacrifices a little bit of damage output (+200% fire/burn damage), but is otherwise pretty much the same. Swapping a few skill points around we can max decorated soldier for 10% more, putting us at 50% slow resist.
I found when I was testing the 5K DA tactician build in gladiator crucible 150-170 that slows didn’t really bother me. I didn’t even notice them. My clear time was 14 minutes with 2 buff no banner. Maybe I just killed things fast enough, or I didn’t get bad mutators? I don’t know. With 4K DA it may be more noticeable.
Well, well, well, what do we have here?
A pretty hot discussion I must say!
So it’s fire forcewave tactician vs elemental forcewave tactician.
Definitely gonna test them both.
You should have read the thread, man, really.
This is the latest version of the build - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVA8Yx42
Eh, I didn’t notice it at all during 150 Gladiator. With 170 it MAY be more noticebale, but as I said, I have enough sustaining mechanisms to counter it. Mator also suggested using Titan’s Pauldrons, and I agree with him.
Thanks, Zhuugus. In case you missed it with all these posts, my Fire Shar’Zul Tactician latest build is directly above and here’s my concept on Elemental - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDDJYaZ
I agree, it is less obvious when you are avoiding most of the damage. Still it doesn’t change the fact that you’re losing a lot of dps that would improve your clear times.
It is less noticeable with healing when stacking DA, but the dps loss is real. Off the top of head Kuba has an AOE that slows enemies and also Reaper has an attack with 50% slow or something like that. Imagine having both in one wave (which is often the case in 160 and 170). I’m sure there are more bosses and heroes with slowing attacks that i don’t know about. If you keep and eye on it (and if your fps isn’t fluctuating) it’s very noticeable.
But hey if you think it doesn’t affect your build, then by all means keep it at 12%. It was just a suggestion based on my own experience and by analyzing the builds posted in this thread.
Hi zhuugus,
I made trozan druid with honey badger devotion idea, adding cataclysm set, add more procs and improve OA.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=619164#post619164
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqaJ8MZ
Really cool visual, looks like the end of the world. The amount of procs in items are amazing, killing nemesis so easy while kiting because the procs just keep proccing:
I appreciate if you can try it and maybe gives some modification to improve it.
Hi.
I am sure this trozan druid works great and can farm 150-170.
But it is very similar to HoneyBadger’s, basically your only big difference is Cataclysm set (which works great in caster elemental builds).
Yes, this is a working concept, but it is the same class, nearly same devotions, absolutely the same playstyle as HoneyBadger’s.
I already have 2 trozan druids in the compilation and they at least have different approach. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to add a third trozan druid, especially considering that it is that much alike.
Maybe I’ll find time for it in the future, but now I’m testing various builds people send me. I try to be diverse here.