Looks really good too, you’ve gone the non-100% block route with absolution spam which frees up various items and gets you good oa and also went higher da to compensate, also trading in some regen but seems you have enough life leech is not a problem. I grab 5% life leech on my seal instead of that devotion. You also sacrificed a big chunk of health but if you don’t die i guess who cares about that.
At 3200 oa it is not a wasted devotion, gives you like 10-14% chance to crit vs even superbosses. Enough to keep it up, anything lesser its higher crit chance, and it’s like a 50% damage increase against super bosses - many have like 95% physical resistance. But then again you won’t have all those synergistic procs up all the time so how good your actual oa is depends a lot on that.
I did some estimations on vs normal bosses your oa increase is about a 3-4% damage increase, on super bosses it is almost 15%, this is for the part that’s coming from the autoattacks/procs only. That’s assuming we had all oa procs up all the time, which naturally we won’t come close to. You also got a fair amount higher retaliation damage because you don’t use some items to get 100% block.
Your build seems to be vs superbosses version, it’s not much damage difference vs rest of content where you lose a ton of defenses, and have high da making them more unlikely to kill themselves on you and trigger effects, but vs superbosses you are doing soemthing like 65%(Shame you don’t cap resist reduction skills) more damage because higher oa and assassin’s mark(if you can keep it up). Have you considered putting your physique points into cunning? that will give you a good chunk more oa to keep assassin mark stable on bosses. Crit damage should start becoming a big stat with that oa as well, currently only 5%. I think you can reach upwards 100% more super boss damage compared to my version if you adjust some thangs.
Thanks! Wasn’t sure about that OA. I might move some points to have more negative phys resistance to enemies. And also can have 100% block but it’s only every 6 secods (Absolution). Is it really worth? I have now 74% without it and 99% with absolution on.
Is it really worth it? Technically you don’t need block - you just need enough life leech and big enough health pool and you’re good like a pure vitality DK. I really wanted to try a 100% block build, so that’s why i build that character.
But in the end like all games with instant life leech - in the end it just boils down to who can dps the most is the most efficient because leech can keep you up. I guess for a build like this it has so many layers of strong defense i can just trololol around the game, but is it really needed? Hmm… Does it feel great to play? I love it. Ultimately as long as you can “do things”, any additional defense is waste of efficiency.
Btw, updated last post with more thoughts in case you didn’t see.
I think you don’t have enough DA. Bosses will crit you? And can you crit with 2665 OA? Assasin’s Mark won’t do any good on your build? Why don’t you take Ulzaad’s Decree devotion? I just try to do best of both worlds, be tanky and have a good damage/clear time.
I’m thinking a Plaguebearer’s Master’s Spellblade on swap would make an excellent addition to a retal build. 40 Reduced by swapping for one hit every 5 seconds should go a long way towards melting anybody with strong physical resist.
So with all that said… Currently i leveling a Warlord i guess (Soldier+Oath Keeper) and the way im building mine currently i have TONS of options for Retal but wouldn’t Retal still always be best used a a Supplement to an already functioning build? Wouldn’t that be the best use of Retal into a build? Or am i missing something?
For example Retal is a second thought in my setup if i can work it in great But, if theres something else first that gonna boost DA, OA, Sort Shortness on Resist, Damage for Main Skils, ect you take that FIRST with Retal being something we can work on later for supplemental damage source? Or do i also have the wrong idea here?
Ulzaad’s Decree is minor, it’s below average uptime and it comes at the cost of Tree of life which i am not willling at this time to give up.
Nah they won’t crit me. Super bosses can, ravager some 7% chance for 1.1x crit(0.7% avg dmg increase), lokarr some 10-11% of 1.4x crit(roughly +4.4% avg dmg). Vs my constant minimum DA. And even then can swap in runebound topaz on rings, but as you see i don’t because i want them to hit me, with 100% block chance stability and high health pool all is good is the way i see it.
Normal bosses/nemesis can’t crit me, 0% chance, maybe if some of them got some nice DA reduction ability.
OA offers measly damage scaling without good crit damage, and even with it’s not very impressive scaling despite what everyone says on forums it’s not supported by math and no ones got a clue the actual numbers they are firing off from feelings, the only thing it adds beyond the level i have mine is better uptime on crit procs for this build - and particularly the ability to have assassin’s mark on superbosses. For example going from 3500 oa to 3900 with 80% crit damage versus normal nemesis bosses is a… 4.4% damage increase per hit
I have an oa calculator i use to see resultant crit chances etc, and paired with grimtools monster info you can accurately craft builds in knowledge of “breakpoints”.
Assassin’s mark on nemesis/tough bosses for example my oa is enough to keep it up, think it was 9-11% crit chance(without any of my buffs/procs up). And let’s be real superbosses aren’t what i build builds against it’s such a tiny part of my playtime that i’m good to take a few min more on them, i can swap in some rings if i want to apply assassin mark to them. That’s why i am not so concerned not having it.
Anyway, unless a completely different build with different damage types for retaliation, sacrificing 100% block time like you are doing is the only way to push the power up a good chunk more that i am aware of. Maybe also sacrifice many of the defensive devotions, but suddenly we are approaching a dps focused build more than this block tank with super strong damage on side.
I have honestly no clue, i haven’t had time to play much myself i’m 93 right now so about to put on 1/3 of the items. Can’t imagine anything should be hard with this build, would be interested to see how that damage works for cleartimes though. Ironically, the easiest time i’ve had since lvl 30 of this build is ultimate just roll clean through it hardly a risk because i bothered to fix resists with augments.
Good points there! I think i need to lower my DA so enemies can hit me more often. I’m tanky enough to do all content and clear time is good, still i wanna try diffrent things. Thank you!
Aiming for a similar build, I did some slight changes whilst keeping with the 100% block meme.
I sacrificed the optional points from Tree, Obelisk and Assassin’s Blade which let me unlock Dryad. Whilst missing the Obelisk retaliation kind of sucks, this seems like it adds a lot of survivability.
As for skills I felt like RF is worth getting up to 16 for the 8 charges which should heavily impact the retaliation bonus from Retribution, maybe I’m wrong but I’m going to test it when I’m lvl 100 and have better gear (still lvl ~86 or so).
Because I want to also rely a bit on my right click it seemed like getting some Divine Mandate while lowering Menhir’s Bulwark a tad would increase my dps a good amount.
Lastly casual point in Vire’s might because mobility.
right now im running a sim build though i maxed field command cause the oa was just too low, using the open hand of mercy and vengence ring combo for more oa, and swapped out tree of life for vire stone matron and dropped turtle, it seems to be doing ok so far, the higher oa allows assasin mark to proc more and even some of the super bosses arent critting me as much and idk 600-700 hp regen seems ok, tree of life set it to like 1600 or so, didnt seem like it was helping much
After trying out this build some, the Retaliation damage added to attack is exactly what was needed. And considering how much of the build is devoted to retaliation damage and defense, the actual attack damage isn’t too bad.
Eh, pretty sure I’ll just stick with the original version. I like the 100% block chance and 60% block recovery before Overguard.
May have to change the build anyway since apparently Overguard is getting changed and many are calling for Retaliation to practically be what damage reflected was before it was removed.
This build seems like the best one to take advantage of the synergies between shield, Soldier, and Oathkeeper. I’m hoping the Overguard changes aren’t too harsh.
