Spellscourge now is a mediocre set - not great but at least working - but still has some issues:
Low 1h BA damage and low ADctH - this is because how 1h phys damage interacts with armor (mostly), so survivability is not super-good despite high armor, decent phys res and high cc-resists.
Skill point starvation - this is mostly about Arcanist’s side as it’s only possible to 1-point some useful skills and passives.
Shield - replace vitality resist with sth like 6-10% of phys resist, or just add it. High armor is fine but it matters little w/o phys res. Also, shields should make you more tanky, so it’s a kind of thematic. If possible, replace -%manacost to BA with sth like “shield damage added to BA” or just “10% damage converted to health to BA”. Also, some skill bonuses to any passive would be nice.
Helmet - add +1 to Soldier (or add it to shield instead of skill bonuses). Also, stun resist can be replaced with ele/aether resist.
What bugs me the most about spellscorge or rather spam blade arc in general is the knockdown. I think it fits perfectly for transmuted CD version, but I don’t wanna keep chasing the enemy I knock down/back with every attack all the time. I’m guessing this also slows down crucible speeds. Imo the knockdown should be moved to the transmuter.
The pipe dream would be replacing all the BA bonuses with physical AAR and letting the shield count as an offhand for that purpose too. It fits perfectly as a spam attack between devastations and most conversions on spellscourge apply to it just as well.
Then the set would become Arcanist-focused with Soldier giving only some extra defence part (and we already have an off-hand for phys AAR). I’d like to see some more impact from BA, tho.
Spellscourge have the great idea of physical Devastation but it needs slight boost to function well. I don’t think that is should support physical AAR, since the only item that support that play style is off-hand, which will be blocked by the set’s shield.
Also it will be interesting idea for the set to support Oathkeeper, although it will be used as Warlord will be boring. Still physical Devastation Templar+Guardians sounds lot better than 1H Blade Arc. And mind 1H BA have Targo set doing almost the same.
At least blitz has a built in gap closer, blade arc does not. Also it doesn’t have 0 cd and is not spammable. As I said earlier I don’t mind the knockdown on transmuted blade arc, I think it’s fine there.
We already have an off-hand for physical AAR. I’d say the pipe dream would be golden coloured Callidor’s Tempest - fully converted to physical damage. This was suggested 1000 times but Z. just forced that whole 1H BA thing (that actually did really good for 2H BA builds).
For me instead of adding another support to Oathkeeper on sets with bonus to Soldier, the added bonus is better for Demolitionist. Either making Mortar Trap into full physical, or buffing melee fire strike using it Searing Strike transmuter by adding similar fire strike bonus from Barthollem’s Warmaul as the 4 set bonus
1h blade arc is indeed trash. I think it makes much more sense to use transmuted BA with Spellscourge, high crit%, easier to overcome enemy armour and the IT is boosted very high.
I’m planning on trying a hybrid like this (when I finally get around to it…): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlGXEl2
Skimped on defence but I’d imagine blitz + stormtitan with transmuted BA is better.
sadly, almost all heavy sets terribly lack phys resist, and Spellscourge is no exception. it’s often possible to stack a high amount of armor but it matters little w/o phys res.
I don’t know about Targo. I was just talking about Spellscourge, it is very hard to stack flat phys to scale with the %WD and shield damage isn’t used. Deadly momentum interferes with spam BA and Arcanist offers no flat damage either (IEE is hardly significant enough).
