Part ten of my controller friendly build series: Piercing DW Oathbearer Paladin
Grimtools link. The prefix and suffix on Garbagol’s Ring are the best I have, not necessarily optimal. Although they are actually amazingly lucky.
Screenshot with Consecration and Word of Renewal, and without Deadly Aim (although I don’t think the dps takes into account the 16% attack speed to Righteous Fervor from the two Oathbearers):
Introduction
After my disappointment that my Valdun’s Piercing Tactician played so similar to my Rah’Zin’s/Harbinger Witchblade, I looked for a one handed ranged weapon that I liked, and could be in a build that wasn’t done. I had tried Oathbearer Paladin in 1.1.7.2, and wasn’t thrilled with its performance. That was a while ago, and they changed penetration and WPS since then, so I returned to the nearly completed level 94 Paladin, and made some changes. They worked, and I cleared SR80, so I’m calling this build a success. (This build is definitely stronger than my Valduin’s, but overall not as strong as the Witchblade, although the playstyles are different).
The playstyle is: stand in Inquisitor Seal, keep Word of Renewal up, cast Rune of Hagarrad, cast Word of Pain, cast Righteous Fervor, repeat Rune of Hagarrad. Use Ascension when you want a little boost, and Murmur’s Kiss and Vire’s Might when you need a little escape.
Video proof of clear
Fight tips
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Offense: Rune of Hagarrad is a little tricky with a controller, so you have to learn how to be clever with its behavior. It’s important that you keep its debuffs on bosses, both for the 330 DA reduction and the 40% attack speed reduction.
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Defense: Inquisitor Seal provides a big 290 damage absorption, so standing in it is great. Some enemies are strong enough to force you to kite away, and don’t be afraid to do just that.
Keep in mind the AS debuff from Rune of Hagarrad.
Gear
As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR.
Essential Gear:
- Oathbearer x2: This is just a great weapon. It’s what makes the build work.
Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:
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Bladetwister Signet: the conversion and attack speed are nice, but the passive pierce resist reduction is the main draw.
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Arcane Harmony Leggings: I know I’m probably the biggest fan of these, but I believe a build is only as strong as its weakest link, and without disruption protection you will really struggle against certain enemies. +84/126 spirit goes towards the spirit requirements of your gear, and +84/126 DA is awesome as well. The resistances are good too. I don’t know why other people don’t use this as much as I do.
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Rimetongue Pendant: lots of pierce damage, pierce resist reduction, and +1 to all skills in Inquisitor. The Horn of Gandarr stuff is alright, except I don’t have enough buttons on my controller for Horn of Gandarr. (More on that in the “skills” section).
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Gunslinger’s Jacket: this gives a HUGE bonus to OA, plus 20 physical->pierce damage, and total speed. Great synergy here.
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Gargabol’s Ring: I happened to get one with amazing bonuses. Without it, this build might be a lot weaker. I wanted at least +2 to Righteous Fervor, and that drew me to Gargabol’s Ring. It comes with OA and bleed resist by default, but isn’t easy to farm. If you don’t have a decent one, Signet of the Damned and Ring of the Black Matriarch can max Righteous Fervor and give some moderately useful bonuses.
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Serenity: there isn’t a strong piercing damage relic for this build, so it defaults to Serenity. With +1 to all skills and useful resists, it’s a solid option.
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Shadow’s Grasp: a bonus to Deadly Aim, AS, cunning, and good piercing damage make this a solid choice.
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Callagadra’s Visage: flat damage, +1 to all skills, a big chunk of health, and useful resists. It’s not necessarily easy to get. (I used my Rah’Zin’s/Harbinger Witchblade). If you don’t have Callagadra’s Visage, Ravager’s Gaze or Dreadgaze would probably be second best, and Okaloth’s Visage should be strong as well.
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Chilldread Mantle: there were a couple of other good options here, which I debated, but I liked the stats from Chilldread Mantle. Stun and freeze resist, big OA, huge health, and flat cold damage which is 100% converted to piercing. The passive is probably more harmful than useful, since it looks very similar to Rune of Hagarrad. It can lead you to falsely believe that a Rune of Hagarrad has debuffed a clump of enemies, and so it causes you (or me, at least) to dedicate some attention to keep track of which icy explosion it is.
Other stuff:
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Pack of Treacherous Means: without much acid damage to convert (only on the Manticore devotion), and with 100% armor penetration on the weapon, I’m not sure this is the best option. I’m starting to think that +1 to all skills in Inquisitor from Cord of Deception (with its huge DA boost) will make it stronger than Pack of Treacherous Means. The Pack gives great raw damage, but I’m far from convinced that it’s the best option. The Pack of Deadly Means is another option, which would give more OA than Cord of Deception, but it lacks pierce bonuses, and its +1 to Oathkeeper skills is less important than Cord’s +1 to Inquisitor skills, in this build.
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Pyroclasm Mark: helps max Righteous Fervor, and the flat fire has 100% conversion to pierce, but Blazing Fury isn’t the strongest WPS. If you run Cord of Deception, you don’t need the +2 to Righteous Fervor, so there may be a better option. None springs to mind. If you do replace Pyroclasm Mark, a couple points in Storm Spread will become useful. (make sure it has all 4 projectiles).
I tried Cord of Deception + Direwolf Crest, and found it less powerful. The OA bonus isn’t enough to offset the loss of raw DPS, and the DA bonus is not a compelling replacement for the points you’d need to take out of defensive abilities to max RF and Ranged Expertise. I’d call it a viable alternative, but not a stronger variant.
- Magelord’s Greaves: they give slow resist, and some health and OA and a bit of damage. Not super convincing.
Devotions
Core
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Assassin’s Blade: pierce RR, so it goes on the main skill.
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Manticore or Scales of Ulcama: this build doesn’t have a source of flat resist reduction, and these two provide the best ways of getting that for this build. I went with both.
Not core
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Manticore: has some health and OA, but is mostly there to disperse 28 flat resist reduction. Combined with Word of Pain, it has good uptime against clumps of enemies.
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Scales of Ulcama: provides healing and ensures energy is never an issue. I think the resist reduction is single target, so it’s only useful against lone enemies. Since Manticore has a 15% chance on each hit, it doesn’t have the best uptime against lone enemies, such as bosses, so Scales helps fill that gap.
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Azrakaa, the Eternal Sands: good bonuses to your damage, has good OA reduction and gives impaired aim. It’s 0.5s cd makes it a natural fit for Guardian of Empyrion.
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Ulo, Keeper of the Waters: the active skill doesn’t appear to make a big difference, but the resists on the rest of the constellation are terrific. It gives useful affinities, 5 points for 5 points, so I like it here.
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Hydra: attack speed and lifesteal, OA and convertable physical damage.
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Harpy and Mantis: flat piercing damage, and some other stuff.
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Hawk: crit damage and 3% OA
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Solemn Watcher and Sailor’s Guide: defenses.
Skill choices
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Righteous Fervor: damage! Do note that the AS from Consecration is only factored in to your DPS when you have at least one stack of Righteous Fervor, and the attack speed bonus from your Oathkeepers isn’t factored into your DPS at all. So if your char summary says 184% attack speed with Consecration, or 171% when its inactive, you have max attack speed.
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do note that WPS are extra important in a dual wielding build, since they always attack with both weapons. Auto attacks without WPS do 50% both, 25% left hand, and 25% right hand, which averages to 75%. A WPS with 100% weapon damage is a substantial increase in damage.
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Word of Pain: Death sentence gives a big resist reduction.
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Ranged Expertise: huge damage from this skill.
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Bursting Round: explodes, so it deals AOE damage. The other WPS give straight line penetration damage, so Bursting Round is great for when your opponents aren’t in a line pointing away from you.
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Chilling Rounds: this fires twice when dual wielding. Each round applies the damage listed, and it penetrates, so this is 176% weapon damage in a line. And that’s multiplied by the 218.5% weapon damage in fully powered Righteous Fervor.
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Smite: it penetrates, so it’s like a weaker version of Chilling Rounds. Except against Chthonics and Undead, where it does a little more.
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(Storm Spread): I like it in theory, but it just doesn’t do enough damage to justify putting points into it. Since you can get 91% WPS without it, it really doesn’t make sense (see math in the comment), as it will cost points and reduce the activation chances of your other, better, WPS. If you were to replace Pyroclasm Mark then, with 4 projectiles, Storm Spread should be good.
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Rune of Hagarrad: I don’t really like this, especially with a controller, but with 20 points in Biting Cold it slows enemy attacks by 40% and reduces their DA by 330, so this crit reliant build can crit like mad.
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Word of Renewal: This is a great skill. Make sure you keep it up 100% of the time.
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Inquisitor Seal: I normally avoid this in ranged builds, because you may have to kite out of it. But it seems to work really well with this build, giving you the strength to just sit in it most of the time. When you need to run away, you should run away.
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Aura of Conviction: a great passive for piercing builds.
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(Horn of Gandarr): I would put a few points in this, but I only had buttons available on my controller for the essential skills, plus 2 of 3 of: Vire’s Might, Ascension, and Horn of Gandarr. The last button is D-pad right, which I don’t find easy to spam, so I went with the nonspammable Ascension. Vire’s Might is great for mobility, and is very useful in a number of scenarios. It’s great for running away, but it also means you can spam Murmur’s Kiss for its debuffs while keeping Vire’s Might available in case you need to run away. It’s also just a fun skill to use to dash about.
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Summon Guardian of Empyrion: it’s just here to apply Shifting Sands.
Leveling tips would go here, but I levelled this in 1.1.7.2, which was more than 2 years ago, so I have no memory of it
Try to get Azrakaa as soon as possible because it takes so much experience to max out.
