All hello. I`m just newbie. Help me, please.
Here my 1st character - DK (but I have a few more), i wish to main him.
I like his surv. and dmg from Cadence, and only from Cadence (max crit hit on 55lvl was 41k).
But i found that my Warlord-EoR rebuilded from phys to fire dmg deal more DPS (more than with phys dmg). Plus when i respec Warlord from Soldier to Arcanist (Templar), he start deal aether dmg too and DPS up again. Plus good self-defs and absorb.
Can i rebuild DK from phys to vitality + decay dmg? What should i do?
My ideas:
repoint from Cunning to Spirit
ofc items with that dmg type, like helmet on my char
change exclusive from Oleron to Harbinger
change Devotions to Bat and Wendigo
I know, that with “vitality dmg path” Cadence will not deal this good damage, but debuff from Bone harvest increase only vitality dmg + debuff from Spectral Wrath. I mean Soldier dont have any good phys.resist reductions. Most part of enemies have more phys.def than other types…i think…after test Warlord with phys and fire + aether dmg versions.
Thanks for the attention and answers.
Death Knight isnt the best for vitality damage due to lack of vitality RR in Soldier mastery, and enemies tend to be pretty resistant to vitality damage. Same for Warlord. Sure, you can still do it, but Archon, Oppressor and Sentinel are significantly better.
If you found your EoR warlord being so good, then you hadnt seen vitality EoR Oppressor, Archon or Sentinel in action (using Mythical Death’s Reach)… Believe me, those are absolutely godlike.
Overall, i believe EoR is the best melee in the game, if built properly. Much better than Cadence, Blade Arc and the like…
U dont understand. I dont need THE BEST of vit-dmger, i know that casters will be best. They are best in every game, especially in hack-n-slashes. I have a spam-machine Sentinel via Eye too, based on venom dmg. And it is machinegun even without good items, any yr skill and 0 rotation. But i dont like this “brain-off” gameplay. I play just for fun. And for achieves too. Not for “dick-compares”.
Soldier dont have good phys RR too. Break Morale with -35 phys def, rly? Even not %? Is it a joke? Taunt or spit in face? How many phys.def from monsters? 1500 for example? And -35 = 1465…wow, feels good.
The same with EoR, i am so tired from Whirlwind via years in D2, D3, PoE, others. Need something extraordinary. Spam-machines ppl love more. And auto-attacking 2-h melee is uncommon in our time. (Yes, i know that its copypaste from TQ Warfare spec, but in TQ it was like Nightblade with duals and aa-procs, “fast and furious”)))
I am just asking, will be more profit if i rebuild DK to vitality-dmg than phys-DK? Cus its works with rebuild EoR from phys to fire. My phys Warlord had a big problems with heroes and bosses, cus low single-target dmg. After rebuild to fire dmg problems was solved. As i say, i think that phys-def enemies there`re dramastically more than element-immunes (fire, ice, etc.).
Ok, what wrong with this phys-DK? It`s from some build from this forum. Can u ask me his problems? Or he is ok?
I dont think so.
Yes, i also thought that casters are always better in this game, but my current build is the strongest i’ve ever played, and it’s a melee one. Yes, casters are strong, but certain melee builds arent pushovers either.
And no, i dont talk about damage only. For me, tankiness and convenience are more important.
What monster have 1500 phys res? Maybe you meant armor instead? Physical resistance and armor are completely different mechanics - armor is flat damage reduction, while resistance is a percentage one. And yes, “35 reduced physical resistance” actually means enemy resistance percentage will be reduced by 35 points, and that’s a massive damage boost (unless your damage is too low to penetrate enemy armor anyways).
Break Morale would be good as a RR, if not for several factors…
It would be good if it didnt have a 7.5 sec CD with only 5 sec duration. So you have to add a very significant 33% CDR to get a 100% uptime on it. And even then, its AoE might not affect all your enemies, and you cant re-apply it whenever you want, unlike spammable RR skills like Curse of Frailty or Devouring Swarm.
It would be good, if it stacked with other similar effects from devotions, like Revenant or Scales of Ulcama, making it actual 35 RR, not 15, 11, or even 7.
Sadly, it DOES have all those frustrating features, that severely cripple its effectiveness, so unless you have a special build that covers its weaknesses, Break Morale doesnt count as a valid RR for me.
Whirlwind in D2 and Cyclone in PoE are different, they’re very clunky and frustrating to use (at least, they were at the time i stopped playing those games). The one in D3 was OK, but the game itself was pretty frustrating at the time i quit playing it.
And what’s the problem with having some similar skills in some games? Albrecht’s Aether Ray in GD feels very similar to Disintigrate in D3. There are also similarity between Savagery and Frenzy, Forcewave and Seismic Slam, and so on, and so on…
Obviously there IS problem with your DK. Your main skill is Cadence, right? Then why in the world you dont put skillpoints into its modifiers - Fighting Form & Deadly Momentum? Fighting Form makes its AoE wider, while Deadly Momentum drastically increases damage. Yes, having bonuses from MI weapon is nice, but wider attack arc with more targets hit = better.
You also dont max your RR skills.
In this game, there are 2 core things you should follow to reach decent DPS (and a viable build, therefore).
First, if your main skills deal several damage types, you should convert them all into a single one. Almost every good endgame build relies on a single damage types, all others are converted into that one, or ignored, if former isnt possible.
Second, you should get as much resitance reduction to your main damage type as you can. Otherwise your DPS will suck and you might even face an enemy immune to your damage even on Normal. That’s why Death Knight isnt optimal for vitality builds. I prefer vitality builds with Shaman mastery, because it has really massive RR for it, 2x more than any other.
As for what you should change - it depends on the build you’re changing into. Having some extra cunning instead of spirit or physique wont kill your build as long as you can still wield your items. You can always change your attributes later with tonics. And change your devotions too (BTW, many vitality builds dont take Wendigo, but Fallen God or Abomination is a must).
As for items - yes, you obviously need to get those, from shops, certain monsters, etc. You cant do well with vitality build in physical gear. To get a base vitality damage, you need a vitality weapon first, Something like Korvan Reaping Halberd, Without a proper gear support any build is useless.
I mean cyclone-type skills is boring for me now, after so many years. want to try something other. Different (little bit) but with the same mechanic of dealing dmg
Fallen god? U mean dying god? Dont understand this constellation ability. Just with massive HP-leech? The same with Abomination`s abilities - i dont understand yet))
Ofc, who disagree? My items just a green scrap, even body for other classes. See 2nd point in topic-start message. Yes, this club is just for 35lvl but still relevant in comparison with current drop. And it is sux, yes. When u complete main compaign with middle-game/earlier weapon)))
Why r u writing about -35 phys def like it “decrease defence on 90%”? Whats wrong with this mechanic? 35 - it is percents? Even common mob 100lvl have armor rating ~500. -35 - it even not -10%. But -35 - from max level of Break Morale. I dont understand too, and no info in mechanic guides.
Another questions: Siphon souls work like Spectral Wrath - aura damaged nearby enemies?
Internal trauma? It`s a DoT without resist?
If want to level up fast, you should use Forcewave skill with its no-CD transmuter. It’s a spell, yes, but is has great range & AoE, and good early damage too.
Oh, yes, i meant Dying God. For ANY vitality build, either Dying God or Abomination is a must. Rattosh the veilwarden is a must-have too. Both Dying God and Abomination provide massive damage boost when they proc (+370% and +310% respectively at max level). Dont say you dont need it. However, they have some drawbacks you should counter with your build.
Dying God drains your HP (yes, drains, not heals), so you should counter it with life leech and/or HP regen. Gladly, vitality builds have a lot of life leech, so it isnt a problem.
Abomination converts 50% of your physical damage into chaos damage you dont need (as vitality build). Therefore, you either shouldnt rely on converting your physical damage into vitality at all, or use a skill-specific convertion, that takes priority (for example, Mythical Death’s Reach for Eye of Reckoning. Of course, since Abomination also adds a lot of flat chaos damage, in best-case scenario you should get a chaos->vitality convertion too.
Spectral Wrath isnt an aura. It’s a on-hit proc with cooldown. When an enemy hits you, a skill automatically casts an AoE with certain effects on that enemy (if it’s not on CD ATM).
Siphon Souls is just a DoT. All enemies around you will be affected by DoT at the moment you cast the spell. And it doesnt stack from several casts.
I already tried to play via Force Wave, and dont like this ability, it very bugged in game. Sometimes u saw, how it pass through enemy but damage not dealt. Plus it doesnt work when minimal landscape changes. Bone harvest works good.
For ALL 2-h builds, actually (except for summoners, maybe). It’s just too good.
Havent noticed that, but suit yourself. Anyways Forcewave is a spell (despite being in Soldier mastery tree), and using it essentially makes you a caster. Same for Bone Harvest, BTW.
legit didn’t bother read the thread conversation, since it dragged on for 3 pages i’m assuming a simple answer wasn’t given
yes, there is even a set that supports this
as for devos, RR is more obvious, so getting Rattosh has bigger priority than getting wendigo,
you will likely want Abomination over Dying god, but it’s not a devo set in stone, it’s merely because as necro it’s possible to get a +1 necro belt with chaos to vit conversion so you can convert the flat chaos dmg on abom proc, but dying god is a good alternative too
you can find several vit build devo approaches on the forum in vit builds
obvious easy solution is simply to look at some of the forum vitality death knights, and get inspired from that
blood knight set lets you go 2h or 1h just fine, lets you go cadence just fine or something else even, despite its native focus ofc leaning a lot towards boneharvest
there is MI vitality 2h bonk sticks available in the game so you can get some while levelling, or if you insist on 2h cadence you could farm Voldrak with neutral all dmg affix or refarm until getting vitality dmg affix, really up to you,
the items are there, the devos are there, the build support is there
Thnx for answers. I think i can stay in phys dmg. If phys would so bad, then there would be no phys-builds, yes?
Another question. When is the best time to improve reputations? On which difficulty?
phys death knight is totally fine
depends what you mean about reputation
if you mean bounties you dont’ wanna do any on Normal, bounties give more rep on Elite, and most on Ultimate
imo the way to handle rep is to zoom through the game on Normal/Elite, just accepting what rep you get from regular quests and kills; if you’re close to a reputation threshold and can use the items it unlocks, then stick around and get that last tiny bit of rep (key being “close”)
otherwise just wait until Ultimate and finish up rep there while farming, or doing bounties
It is about achievements like “Friends in the Apocalypse” and “Paragon of Cairn”.
Quests from Bounty table feels like vomiting after 2 evenings of farm. It is not MMO, but they turn it in.
I thought that can exping/looting during this quests. “I have never been so wrong in all my life.”(с)
I prefer to unlock all AoM factions in veteran, because killing “vanilla” beasts or chtonians also count toward their reputation.
The main reason to improve your reputation with factions is their weapon/armor/jewelry augments. Vanilla factions provide augments with lower requirements (50 for weapon & jewelry, and 70 for armor), so you better get Revered with ones providing those for you at appropriate levels (usually, lvl 50 for Rovers and Black Legion, and lvl 70 for other vanilla ones). Capping your resistances without augment on Ultimate might be pretty hard, especially for your first character.
As for faction gear - it might be useful sometimes for certain builds, but most of the time, the gear you find is better.
Most of those quests are just a waste of your time and should be ignored. Some are quite useful as they allow you to grind rep without fighting (like trade Calamity relic for Blood of Chton, which can be traded into main ingredient for Calamity relic again), or even grind valuable ingredients (trade a relic crafted from useless Troll Bonecrusher for useful Blood of Chton - a great deal indeed), or just get extra rep/math while grinding (like kill Kilrian / 3 oligarchs when you have to grind him anyways for Kilrian’s Shattered Soul).
If you have even a little bit of doubt about your ability to complete the bounty quickly, DONT take it ever. It’s not worth it. You can “grind” rep much faster just by clearing monster totems, than turning every stone to find some champion mob, that has 10+ spawn points all around the map.
Would strongly disagree here - especially for physical cadence there is quite some good faction gear available. Faction gear also has the advantage that it is standardized - so you can plan you character (to have capped resistance etc) while not depending on RNG (means farming) that much. And of course you can powershop for maximum roled faction gear.
Of course there are often (also better) alternatives - but faction is a great baseline - especially for the first character. E.g. using faction gear it is rather easy to max all resistance for the 2h Cadence Death Knight only using components and augments (all MI don’t have any affixes) - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV715eON
Again, it all depends on the build you’re playing with. I’ve levelled my first char with cold Drain Essence, and factions have literally no gear support for it, while even normal rares with “of insight” mod are already incredible. Physical Cadence is very “oldschool” build and dont need any damage convertion to work, so it has pretty good faction support, while many other great levelling builds dont, like cold DE or lightning AAR.
BTW, if i wanted to level up a physical Cadence build, i’d do it with a Forcewave - it has better AoE and clearspeed in main campain.
Yes, faction gear is standartized, but MI rares arent that random either - they have a very high chance to get mods matching damage types they support. Even with average mods they often trump any faction gear (especially MI’s from AoM and FG content).
It isnt hard to get +10 Drain Essence even without that chest, and without skill bonus, it’s just a mediocre chest that can be easily outshined by MI one.
I used Korvan Plating. Decomposition bonus is much harder to obtain, and it adds no less DPS than DE bonus (damage conversion is obtained with MI’s too). Not to mention Hungering Reach bonus as well. And even with half-decent mods Korvan Plating has similar stats and can be used from level 40. The greatest boon of Bysmiel’s chest is actually Inquisitor Seal bonus, but sadly, my cold DE build doesnt have an inquisitor class.
