This is one of the best threads I’ve read, though I am fairly new here. I’m also looking at a Nightblade-based class for a dynamic playstyle.
One thing I really like about the Nightblade class is how well it seems to synergize with other classes, without either dominating or being relegated to support only. For instance, the Arcanist class seems to push toward being taken as a support class with just a few skills such as Mirror, Maiven’s, Iskandra’s etc, or you have to fully invest in it and the other class is left as a support. You can’t go halfway into Panetti’s, or Trozan’s, for instance. Nightblade seems like it would support a wider range of investment levels. That’s not to say Arcanist is bad, my first character is a PRM Sorcerer and it’s loads of fun.
Anyway, but I’m looking at a Nightblade class now, perhaps to go to the complete opposite playstyle of the PRM sorc. Like the OP, to not have an easy push-to-kill nuke like OFF early on or Devastation later, but rather to tactically run in and out and play highly dynamically.
I also am looking for a build with deep synergies, where all the skills sort of slowly build on, multiply, and improve each other until the character becomes a finely honed killing machine. Not to simply reach skill X which you blindly max because it is the best by itself.
I am exploring such a build focused around dual-wielding. I am thinking I’ll max all or most of the dual-wield WPS on the top row, and perhaps pick up more WPS elsewhere too, such that the character is always performing a special attack. In this case, I think it makes a lot of sense to pick a second class that has a weapon replacement skill to obtain deep synergy, as from what I understand the WPS will proc with that skill usage and will have all its bonuses too. My understanding is that ABB is not a weapon replacement skill, so when it is used, you are missing out on the WPS. It’s a fun skill, but somewhat anti-synergistic.
That gives Demo for Fire Strike, Shaman for Savagery, and Cadence for Soldier. Here are my thoughts on these:
Demo - This class is my frontrunner right now and seems to have the most deep synergy. I would build this class as a Physical/Pierce/Fire melee dual-wielder who can also pistol if needed. Fire Strike gives base fire damage and boosts physical, Flame Touched gives more fire damage, OA and +% Fire, Temper gives physical base damage, +% Phys and +% Pierce. These all seem to build on each other to add up to devastating attacks and WPS procs. My understanding is that the base damage from all of these would get incorporated into the attack replacer and the WPS procs (do they get multiplied by both Fire Strike % weapon damage and the WPS % weapon damage?) I also really like the Total Speed from Vindictive Flame, which when added to Pneumatic Burst build a fast-moving, fast-hitting character.
I might also pick up Flashbang for CC and Canister Bomb for the damage type synergy. Not sure if I want to stop at 20 mastery points to max out more dual-wielding skills or if I want Blast Shield or Improved Casing. I think the add-ons to Fire Strike are probably underwhelming if I’m not primarily using a ranged weapon for AOE, and probably too much of a point sink.
The only downside of this is no synergy at all with the cold, poison and acid aspects of Nightblade. It seems such a pity to not take Nidalia’s Hidden Hand if I plan to invest heavily in the other WPS. Also, I haven’t fully explored the devotion synergy of physical/pierce/fire and whether that is plausible.
Soldier - This would be a heavily physical/pierce/bleeding/trauma build. Cadence as the attack replacer seems highly anti-synergistic. My understanding is the bonus physical damage is only added on the Cadence hit itself and not to base damage. Also the Cadence hit cannot trigger WPS, so that’s basically cutting your WPS investment to 2/3. And the high % weapon damage seems better for slower, harder hitting weapons, not fast dual wielders.
I do like the presence of another gap-closer skill in Blitz, which would let me dash around all the time by alternating with Shadow Strike. The Shield skills would be entirely wasted, though, and I would have to invest in both Squad Tactics and Oleron’s Rage to get the same speed benefit from Vindictive Flame from the Demo, not to mention 50 point mastery investment. I do like that this build would not be lacking for OA and DA, for lots of crits and natural tankiness, and the two WPS skills would let me max to 100% WPS chance easily. Overall though, probably not the class for this character.
Shaman - This would be a pierce/bleeding/lightning build. Savagery seems pretty good, with fast charge building due to fast weapons. The health from Shaman, Tenacity of the Boar, and Mogdrogen’s Pact combined with Pneumatic Burst seem like they would provide ridiculous regen tankiness. I would use Devouring Swarm for amazing bleeding damage. But there’s little in the way of speed and I have to max Storm Touched for +10% attack speed. Seems like a slower, tougher, (dumber?) build. Savagery also doesn’t seem to synergize as well as Fire Strike. Please correct me if I’m wrong, as the mechanics are a bit confusing from the in-game description. Not sure this is the right choice for my second class though.
Occultist - even though this class doesn’t have a attack replacer, the synergy from Nidalia’s Hidden Hand really tempts me to go Physical/Cold/Bleeding/Acid/Poison with Occultist. I know that’s a lot of elements, but CoF + Vulnerability boosts all of that. Blood of Dreeg + Aspect of the Guardian also would be amazing and give a huge bonus to base Acid damage and regen.
I really want the attack speed from Solael’s Witchfire, but that goes in a completely different direction in damage types, with no support from Nightblade and I don’t think that’s feasible. That leaves no attack speed or movement speed boost, so the character is slower and maybe less tanky than the Trickster version. Also, the devotions would probably be a hot mess with all those damage types. Perhaps poison/acid as the best supported element, but devotions may have to go towards +% all damage or other boosts for attack speed or movement speed.
What might make me choose Occultist is if there are attack replacer’s from components or items that are strong enough and synergize with all the auto-attacking I would be doing. Would love to get feedback on that. Also, are there good WPS from items that would let me achieve 100% or near 100% proc?
Okay, I’ve written too much probably, but I would love to get feedback on this. Thanks!