After playing the expansion for a while I’ve come to a conclusion that the difference between shield builds and non shield builds is even greater than before. I have been trying a range of different types of builds with and without shield and I gotta say I’m pretty pissed off because the conclusion I have is simple - go soldier or go home.
Whilst no other class has any types of boosts towards shield wielding, the sad truth is that almost all legendary shields and other parts of gear supporting shield wielding are meant to be used with soldier. The new Devotions barely introduce anything that can match the sturdiness provided by the gear soldiers get in the new expansion. Im talking about medals/belts/sets that improve block chance (they all relate to soldier).
Some of you might say ‘Callon, this is because other classes do not symbolize shield wielding juggernaut taking the blows, they have other forms of damage mitigation.’ While I agree on this I want to add that any other form of damage mitigation is unreliable and only one such case per run ruins it all.
This brings me to my question to the developers, why is it that stun resistance and most of the other condition resistances heavily connect to shield wielding constellations? For a physical build, shield wielding build taking these constellations just seems like a natural choice. But why all the other condition resistances are there? If a class that relies on i frames provided by the abilities takes these constellations, it loses a lot of damage and gets swamped by mobs, but if it doesn’t take them it will surely get stuck in a situation where all abilities are on cool down and the lack of condition resistances just makes it impossible to survive.
FYI relaying on dodge chance is completely useless as soon as you get stunned or petrified or frozen you’re dead. Soldier with a shield on the other hand just tanks the whole thing like it was nothing. Recently I made another Deathgurd set Reaper build - 3k armor with 100% absorption, 37 % melee dodge and 28 ranged dodge - great stats for a non soldier right? well its definitely not enough and knowing that there is no ‘relevant to reaper’ gear piece that would guarantee me some freeze,stun,petrify,slow res I simply have to turn to Devotions and before I know it my damage is just as low as the tankiest soldier build (just without the amazing ability to block thousands of damage every second).
I guess what I am looking for is some form of balancing the gear bonuses and devotions so every class has a shot at soloing gladiator crucible. Not everyone likes to play a clunky soldier or a pet build. I understand that other classes might need to use shield for that too, but then don’t penalize them on gear choice, condition resistances and devotions just because they did not pick a soldier. The truth is simple - in cruicible and against some of the main game red bosses you just have to be tanky no matter how many i frames or dodge you have.
Ill just say that, up to this moment, I have 3 caster (with off hands) builds that can reliably solo gladiator crucible w/o buffs and banners.
So, sry but you just have to start thinking outside of a box or a shield in this case
Edit: Dodge and deflect wont help you much in many situations, dont base your build defenses on that.
Please go eyeball my crucible build and work your magic, JoV. I’ve been tinkering all day but can’t make 150 a consistent win without banners/buffs. My brain hurts and yours is better.
If you have in mind your pet build I cant help you much cuz my brain does not work with pets
Joke aside, after Diablo, I never touched pet build again in my life and that was like millennia ago. I would gladly help you but awful truth is idk how :undecided:
That’s actually… really accurate. I was eyeballing somebody’s dual pistol tactician the other night and it was solo gladiator. There’s a whole bunch of non-shield gladiator solo builds since xpac.
Crucible Viable : They’re not only non-shield, but most of them wear heavy armor. To be correct, most claimed crucible gladiator EZ are soldier-based.
About caster, If you have good AoE clearing and don’t rely on channeling spell too much you could solo crucible. Its necessary to know some foes and careful at some waves to not risk yourself. (ex 135 for me)
To OP : it’s not only reaper who wants those. And sorry to say that only way for now is good affixes green. (of King, Flesh Hulk, Thunderstuck, boots with of Featherstep etc.) or Change the build to have faster AoE clearing speed. Ravenous Earth and Siphon Souls could help if you have points to spend.(I knew you’re likely lack of points cuz I played it too :P)
TBH, necromancer benefits only Bone Harvest for melee(other skills+buff are worst than other classes). Its better if using necro as support for caster builds or pets.
PS. Not every builds viable for solo glad farmer. You may see many threads popping crucible glad farmer, but there’re a lot more didn’t discovered or really underwhelming performance. Anyway, you can enjoy party crucible as well.
I’ve managed to beat Gladiator Crucible with my 2-h Forcewave Witchblade several times (without deaths), though it wasnt an easy cakewalk - it was a hard battle and many times i was close to death. And i had to use several consumables to overcap my resistances properly. I also suffered a LOT from skill disruption, and i should’ve used leggings with 100% disruption resist there, imo.
Here is it: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2ELg9lN
I agree that you MUST be tanky to beat Gladiator crucible, but you also should have decent DPS as well. Also, you should have overcapped damage resistances, it’s VERY important, because enemies will reduce your resists, and if they arent overcapped, you will take excess damage.
But i dont agree, that using shield is the only option to be tanky enough. You can be tanky enough for Crucible even without shield.
IMO Necromaner was a waste of a mastery. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and other classes were already filling that niche just fine.
I think instead of necro they should have made another tank mastery, something comparable to soldier with shield useage and such. We already have other classes that use minions and vitality/death/cold types of attacks, but only one other class that really is meant to tank and uses shields.
Inquisitor is much better than Necro and fills a ranged archetype roll that I think was missing before as well as just being a very versatile mastery.
Kinda hurts when i see such posts because Necro has not been explored enough. Some people look at it and see pets…There are som many powerful, versatile and fun builds to do with necro that just cool:undecided:
