I finished the game with a CT-agrivix sorcerer and am looking to take up a new character. I had a poison witch hunter prior to the sorc and found the gameplay to be too fiddly for my liking (had to rotate like 5-6 skills to clear a pack b/c too undergeared) so that is out.
After farming for a while with the sorc, I have items for a blademaster (full DM set minus shoulders) or perhaps the SB variant (have Chillmane). Have two Stormhearts so the sabo should be doable. Also found a couple Butchers of Burrwitch + a Bloodsong so maybe a bleeding Trickster (tho I don’t have the Vileblood mantle, not sure how critical that is). I understand that bleeding builds are somewhat limited by both SoT and BoC mobs high bleeding resistance, so I imagine that would limit non-aggravating endgame farming to Fabius and a few other Nemesis bosses, but perhaps that is overstated.
So taking into account the above, what would folks who have experience with these builds recommend in terms of fun factor, farming efficiency (heroes and bosses/Nemesis, the CT sorc destroys trash in an instant) or perhaps other factors I am not taking into account in terms of an effective and enjoyable Nightblade variant?
Blademaster > sabo > bleed trickster imo. BM has best kill speeds for sure and you can have double dash if you really wanna go speed demon farmer mode. Sabo looks cooler though I think bleed trickster (granted I haven’t played it in quite awhile but dont think much has changed) is just worse all around, not that it’s an awful build or anything. BM you just gets silly amounts of OA, tons of resist reduction with ideal setup, and can go fully offensive devotions since pburst+belgothian’s carnage is endless fat heals. I don’t find it necessary but you can throw dryad into the mix as well fits in easily to the devo setup without really giving up anything important, truly unkillable if you have dryad.
I suggest you to wait a little bit and see how things go with the new patch.
From the patch note I can see serious blows to all the popular OP builds before, especially with the nerf to -resist stack and Belgo relics cooldown, probably some small cd to Deathmarked weapons proc too.
Thanks for your feedback! Would you recommend BM over spellbreaker using chillmane and whirlpool instead of oleron devo (the jajaja “BM” variant, I guess), keeping in mind that I do not have the DM shoulders.
As an aside, will definitely miss OP blast shield and flashbang, demo is such a versatile choice with superb defensive and offensive options abounding.
I think BM > breaker, but honestly they play pretty similar and both really fun same for Sabo really. Try em all and see what ya like the most! I would not use that relic that gives you Chillmane though, he scales with pet bonuses not player bonuses so he is not gonna do much I’m like 99% sure on this I may be wrong though. You will get way more offense and/or defense out of other amulets. Side note that you can totally run whirpool on a blademaster, I don’t think it is quite as good but honestly the difference is very minimal. Scorpion/leviathan procs also look much cooler than oleron’s blind fury
Nerfs in patch:
Belgo’s Carnage went 3sec -> 4.5 sec
Deathmarked weapons procs are down to 40% weapon damage from 75% and have a 1.5 sec cooldown added. The flat pierce/cold damage got buffed a nice chunk I think honestly never look at the proc damage not in a long time
Beronath’s Fury down to 122% weapon damage from 135%
Deathmark proc nerf is very noticeable and I lost like 9% of my sheet dps or something like that. Haven’t squared off against sharzul or nemesis yet, but I am certain the proc nerf will slow down those kills significantly, but we can now leech more off them which helps counteract lesser pburst/belgo healing. That being said I still feel really strong and I’m sure it’s still a top build
Thanks for the instant update on the post-patch performance, leaning BM if the build still functions reasonably enough. Arcanist is not one of my favorite support classes and if I have the option to play around with whirlpool on a BM sounds like a good path to try to me.
I though about doing a sabo but with much more offensive devotions than the meta build, taking elemental seeker and either unknown soldier (player stat scaling “pet” build) or whirlpool for fun procs everywhere, will have to digest the patch notes further before making a final call (saw stormheart caught a nerf too).
Yeah this isn’t even close to being able to kill the build. I just did the entire Hidden Path thing and felt pretty strong. The DM proc nerf is the biggest thing for sure, that combined with less double shadow strike from Belgo’s proc will hurt boss times. I am about to run Sharzul, Fabius, and Moosi. Will report back with kill times
Update! Just killed these 3 once each so nothing scientific here but we got Sharzul 14 seconds, Fabius 17 seconds , Moosi 28 seconds not including Fabius/Moosi delaying the inevitable with blade barrier/revive. Sharzul and Fab were previously 8-10 second kills (6-7 if lucky), forgot what my Moosi times on avg but I found a 1.0.0.3 vid with same setup where I killed him 25 seconds so maybe I got lucky with procs on this run dunno
Kill times are still quite solid. Full face tanking of of all the above w/o a blade barrier is still totally doable. Definitely noticed p burst not being available as often vs these guys, but didn’t really pose a problem as we still have insane DA/dodge/phys resist and I actually seemed to be leeching health back vs them
Excellent, thanks for the report. So, the nerfs definitely hurt but killspeed is still more than respectable.
What is the best way to level a BM? Never used Soldier at all and never used NB primarily to level. Blade Arc/Kraken/Falcon Swoop (even post nerf)? Other?
Blade Arc is definitely the fastest leveling route (safest too esp if you play HC as you can have menhirs+pburst as well as use a shield if you’re a wussy :D), but you will be stuck with it for quite awhile as if you make an early switch back to a NB focused build you won’t have a ton of points to level up the mastery bar and level skills to sufficient level. I just leveled as dual wield from the start in HC and granted I took it slower than I should have, but it is definitely slow goings in the beginning and lacking in aoe. Early on blade burst will provide some decent aoe as well as ring of steel when you get there. My very 1st character was actually some sort of atrocious melee/caster hybrid blademaster. That was a long time ago, but I imagine pblades is still pretty decent leveling skill in vet even w/o any sort of caster secondary especially now with the total damage modifier not shitting on the abilities lifesteal.
If you level as dual wield be sure to do a few royal hive runs on each difficulty. A well rolled dermapteran slicer/claw is really nice (superior/puncturing of alacrity/rifthound, there’s a few decent prefixes) for deeps and you get 100% conversion to pierce with blades of nadaan to make full use of pierce bonuses/debuffs. Haven’t seen a duelist sabre in a long time, but a good dermapteran weapon probably outdoes one by a small margin!
If you want my personal NB variant, the CDR capping Spellbreaker is a ton of fun as well. You cap out the CD on SS to 85% with perfect equipment rolls on all the gear, and you are just a monster. http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38367
The thread for it, I’ve full cleared 100% of ultimate content with it, 100% self-found at that, as that was my first Ultimate character.
Thanks for the tips! I just checked and I have a duelist sabre on one of my mules, think I’ll go blade arc until early 30s when I can equip it and a derp slicer (or two, if I find two good ones). Don’t have to go that far into soldier to get BA so shouldn’t hold me up too much. Plus I can then grab the NB’s WPS and be covered on AOE.
Good news is that I never used my DM weapons before the nerf so hopefully I won’t notice it as much
It looks really fun! Don’t have most of the BIS gear and was looking more for a dual wielder but I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
I think bleed trickster (granted I haven’t played it in quite awhile but dont think much has changed) is just worse all around, not that it’s an awful build or anything. BM you just gets silly amounts of OA, tons of resist reduction with ideal setup, and can go fully offensive devotions since pburst+belgothian’s carnage is endless fat heals. I don’t find it necessary but you can throw dryad into the mix as well fits in easily to the devo setup without really giving up anything important, truly unkillable if you have dryad.