[Suggestion] Goredrinker set and Soldier/Oathkeeper parts of it deserve some serious love

so, pretty much the title.
from the very release of the last 3 SR sets I’ve seen like 1 or 2 builds with Goredrinker and they were mediocre at best (and this fact itself should aware one of sth wrong). But nevertheless, I went to test it myself and see, how good or bad Goredrinker is. Actually, I can’t say the set is awful but could be buffed for better performance.

let’s begin.

  1. The set design seems a bit similar to Bloodrager’s one - a hybrid pierce-bleed set sthat supports both damage types well. And here’s the first problem - bleed damage on Goredrinker is almost non-existent to be at least a decent support. I’ll post some calcs later, but here’s the point. While Bloodrager has:
  • higher flat bleed values
  • two procs with huge % bleed values
  • supports skills with naturally high bleed numbers (BA and RoS),

Goredrinker

  • supports skills with naturally low bleed damage and classes that don’t have much bleed sources: Cadence hits rather hard so bleed doesn’t work well there, VM is the only bleed source for Paladin and WoP has no natural bleed at all.
  • has lower flat bleed values and no procs to increase % numbers
  • also set has almost no OA/DA bonuses and CC-resists.
  1. Let’s move to builds i’ve tested/have known data about.

the first one is the most obvious one is Tactician with 2x Reavers. GT: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYrdOX2

Despite mentioned issues with bleed damage, the build struggles from:

  • inability to hardcap Cadence itself. neither set nor weapons give + skills to it so it’s impossible to get 26/16.
  • awful cast speed. this is crucial as Tactician has and active RR that you need to cast 4 times per wave and lose some time. I also dropped WC as because of low CS you can sometimes miss a cast of it. Though in SR WC is necessary as in SR85+ you just get shredded w/o it.
  • low stun resist and not super-good phys resist.
  • poor AoE. even with reavers I was forced to take Azrakaa’s relic to get some more AoE and only then timing dropped below 5:30. Before they were like 5:46 and close to 6.

the best run of mine is 5:09, though the build is squishy and not very consistent.

@grey-maybe also tested a ranged variant of it: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWelOdN

don’t have a vid but according to grey, it was slightly below 5. very slightly.

  1. Bleeding Paladin.

not much to say about it. Paladin has 1 (one) natural bleed source and it’s VM, which is absolutely not enough as bleed relies mostly on number of sources. Bleed RR on WoP doesn’t help as 20% RR for 0 is still 0.

well …
what can be done to improve the set?

Defensive part:

  • add some DA bonus to set pieces, add some phys res (like 4% on shoulders and chest), add stun resist. HP is okay.

Offensive part:

  • add +skills to Cadence itself to Reavers or (better) to set pieces so players should be able to hardcap it.

  • add some flat/%OA bonuses as Tactician and Paladin are low on it even with high Cunning dump.

  • the most important part: considerably increase bleed damage on the set so it could be played as a naturally bi-damaging thing. Increase flat values, maybe add some damage-boosting proc on set or helm/ add flat/% bleed on some aura like Filed Command/Conviction.

  • for VM: add -cd mod … but still, as long as VM is the only source of bleed here, Goredrinker Paladin would remain a very meh build.

  • also it may be good to change the conversion on set to ele->pierce from just fire->pierce.

  • small addition: increase %armor piercing on Reavers to 50%, as current 45% value looks at least odd. this will help the damage a bit too.

Please write what you think about the set and builds around it and share your experience with it.

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I tried Cadence Pierce part of the set with two different setup on Tactician; >1.1.9.0< 2H+DW Pierce Cadence Goredrinker Tactician. SR 85 both are in this thread.

Didn’t try as bleed focused but this was one of my least favourite builds and just wanted to get rid of it, re-spec it. As my experience with those;

  1. Cadence skill points are definitely needed on the set.

  2. Since set fills the amulet spot of bleeding Warcry conduit mod; Horn of Gandar modifier for extra bleed source could be good for all possible builds.(beside from the Mark of Farseer mod)

  3. Some physical resist is needed. On Helmet or Shoulder preferably.

  4. Since with next ‘‘Patch of Treacherous Means’’ belt will lose it’s ele>pierce conversion for melee usage; the set can use ele>pierce instead fire here.

4 Likes

well, after some time I tried this spec https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25OlGyZ.

more bleeding damage and bleed RR with overall good Huntress proc. the damage output is indeed better, but the fact is that I couldn’t finish any of 7-8 runs.
the build consistently dies at wave 160 with no chances.

with classical pierce devos it’s a bit sturdy but actually, not even War Cry hepls much.

and another fun fact, Moosi just killed me at SR75 with no WC.

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