I’ve recently tried to come up with my own hybrid build to conquer Ultimate Hardcore. Due to a busy schedule, I’ve decided that it might be better to gather some input regarding my Spellbreaker build, since the last one turned out rather poorly (It was a Devastation/Cold Spellbreaker if anyone was wondering and Moosilauke sent him to an early grave during an Ultimate Hardcore session). His untimely death still weighs quite heavily upon me.
So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:
h ttps://grimcalc.com/build/sc3P0HO (Please delete the gap between ‘h’ and ‘t’ when trying to view the link. I don’t have enough posts to use links.)
Here are a few interesting things about my build:
The Turtle constellation is pretty much cast in stone; I swear by its usefulness even in Ultimate despite what many in the forums may say.
Each weapon I dual wield will always contain a Hallowed Fang/Haunted Steel component ( For double Blooddrinker/Bloodthirster since the lifesteal works exceptionally well with Ring of Steel or Shadow Strike…that and for about a minute of crazy lifesteal.) My character is primarily sustainable because of this.
I actually do use a crossbow/rifle as my 2nd weapon set, so I can really kite if heroes decide to gang bang me.
Any suggestions or advice is very welcome and feel free to mess around with my build some more if needed
Have a look at my build, it might give you some ideas. Havent tested it yet on Ultimate but this is what im currently aiming at with my dual wield cold Spellbreaker:
Mine plays more like an assassin since I obviously didn’t spec so deeply into the Dual-Wield line (Execution is pretty much what I need). Basically hit and run.
I’m actually curious about Elemental Balance since Nightfall happens to be a favorite skill of mine. The life leech is really something when coupled with life steal and clears out trash mobs pretty efficiently while giving me really good healing. So I’m wondering if the increase in Frostburn damage only applies to IEE exclusively or both IEE & Nightfall?
Sorry for late reply - wasnt online for a few days. % frostburn damage from Elemental Balance applies to all sources of frostburn damage, including Nightfall - there is related thread in the forum somewhere. Im afraid frostburn damage is not so great, so investment in Elemental Balance will probably not pay off.
I have made a small update of this build - now includes Falcon constellation:
The devastation/ tss/off spellbreaker is very viable in hardcore just need to avoid most nemisis solo and be wary of lox mere in the PoS or a few other weird heroes. Actually a lot of fun to play Multiplayer especially with a melee as you can rain destruction down on all with a lot less worry. And doing moose with him not a great idea as most of your damage is cold. I have done it but not efficiently in hardcore ultimate. Crowley nemisis I run as fast as I can as I last 20s or so before all my circuit breakers are on cooldown.
But you have to stack some defense/armor and max resists so you don’t die to random mobs if you get surrounded or stuck. HC mode you cannot just go balls to the wall offense always defense/resists till you are certain of character ability to survive. Slows down farming but will save your arse.
Noted. I guess I could probably re-distribute more points from Elemental Balance into Maiven’s, NJE (For the Cooldown), IEE, or even Star Pact since the more elemental/cold damage I do, the better. And it never helps to fire off shadow strike more often since that’s the core skill of this build.
Also, thanks for your eventual reply. I appreciate it
Any thoughts about my devotion points distribution? I was going for a balance of offense/defense. I’m not fond of grabbing all the defensive/healing constellations as I really wanted something different.
It was kind of tough, but I literally had to choose between tree of life, behemoth and Dryad- I went with Dryad because I do my best not to get hit… ToL and Behemoth encourages me to be hit. Between Pneumatic Burst, my lifesteals, Dryad Turtle Shell, and around 8,000 - 10,000 HP, Maiven’s and Mirror…I really feel that is a ton of survivability for an assassin-like combatant.
Agreed. I was doing so well in Ultimate Hardcore till I decided to even take on the Undead Nemesis.
I’m pretty much guessing most build go Nemesis hunting in Elite for this reason alone. Specific builds (or BIS items) are required for ultimate nemesis killing…so best not overextend myself foolishly.
For my new character, I’m grinding a lot less (Ultimate enemies outlevel you anyways when you reach a certain point) so I don’t reach nemesis status pre-maturely.
And when I do reach Nemesis status, I guess I’ll consider running away on Ultimate; I get legendaries from mobs anyways which I can trade with others for my BIS gear.
Yeah I know, but the lifesteal isn’t for the boss- It’s for sustaining vs. their minions.
I literally have the patience to shadow strike bosses to death repeatedly, and very often…this build has more problems with mobs compared to the actual boss himself/herself/itself.
I won’t trust this build to face-tank act bosses because the build obviously doesn’t allow for it
Try to find as many items with “%physical damage converted to cold” as you can - they will push your DPS to the sky :). Star Pact provides already 15 % conversion to cold damage.
Yeah, that’s what I’m aiming for- I’m hoping that will compensate for my lack of investment in defensive devotions; If I can hit harder then things die faster:p
I have a list of potential items which I am considering, but even I’m still changing items here and there.
Funny thing is that I actually use my rifle most of the time during early game levels- I like shadow striking for re-positioning and taking out big targets, ring of steel for AoE damage while kiting and just taking potshots whenever I can.
I only ever bother to use melee weapons when fighting undead mobs or briathorns/bees.
Is Legendary gear mandatory for Ultimate Hardcore? Or can epic (maybe even lower quality) gear still be viable?
Just trying to decide on what to keep in my stash so I can trade and am currently trying to consider other items since I know that I can’t necessarily find all the Legendaries needed.
Did a bit of an overhaul on my Spellbreaker to increase survivability and damage on Ultimate Hardcore. Would appreciate a character appraisal
Build (Without gear/ultimate levels. Will most likely ‘overlevel’ shadow strike, Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends and night’s chill in that order.): http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-F3VY7z
Notable Materia used:
Leathery Hide (For the stun resists)
Haunted Steel on weapon 1 (For lifesteal and sustain)
Coldstone on weapon 2 (For Chill Aura)
Notable augments (As many as I am able to apply):
Outcast’s frostbite
Winter’s chill
Modrogen’s Sanctity
‘Budget’ Ultimate Hardcore gear loadout (Most likely be using these Epics since legendaries are a pain to acquire and I can’t game all day with a job.):
Head- Empowered Herald’s Mask
Shoulders- Deatchill Mantle
Chest- Empowered Nighthunters Chestguard
Hands- Dreadchill Grasp
Legs- Shadeleather Leggings
Feet- Empowered Wildborn Greaves
Axes- Empowered Reaper’s Touch
Swords- Chillblaze
Amulets- Icetrap
Ring 1- Empowered Chillsurge Ring
Ring 2- Oblitorix
Waist- Dreadweave Girdle
Relic- Scourge (Mythical Relic)
‘Optimal’ Ultimate Hardcore gear loadout:
Head- Deathmarked Hood
Shoulders- Deathmarked Shoulders
Chest- Deathmarked Jacket
Hands- Dreadchill Grasp (Epic item)
Legs- Shadeleather Leggings (Epic item)
Feet- Empowered Wildborn Greaves
Axes- Deathmarked Decapitator
Swords- Deathmarked Claw
Amulets- Avatar of Mercy
Ring 1- Band of the Eternal Haunt
Ring 2- Lifegiver Signet
Waist- Spellbreaker Waistguard
Relic- Scourge
For spellbreaker, Ring of steel line is better than OFF in all aspect. You can even skip OFF.
This is my advice for the build
Arcanist Tree
[ul] +Conversion : This help you a lot in late game. It reduce your disable time, worthy take 10 points at end game if you don’t wear Avatar of Mercy.
[li] Star Pact at lv11 and 12 have a small different, If you’re insufficient skill point you may drop 1 from it [/li]
[li] IEE is only option and not the main thing for increasing dmg. It is ok to have it at sometimes, but after get deathmarked it is not necessary anymore. You can consider it last. [/li]
[/ul]
Nightblade Tree
[ul] +1 Ring of the Steel, +1 Ring of Frost, +max Circle of slaughter : This is far better than OFF with less CD, 3 secs of freeze and apply a huge fumble chance to enemies.
[/ul]
About the items
Just keep 80% of any resistance as much as you can. The main problem is spellbreaker lacking of most resistance support. Fixing elemental and pierce with nightblade tree is fine. But keep legendary/epic pants, shoes, amulet, rings and medals for other resistance. Especially acid&poison, bleeding, vitality.
I recommend to keep some Solael’s Sect Legguards(green) or Swampdweller’s Legguards(epic) as a pants.
Green Boots can be craft as an exalted thread via blacksmith(2 Scraps, but it’s like a lotto). If you get good prefix and suffix it is more valuable than legendary or epic.
Before this, I died since I felt that I was too offensive without any AoE control like OFF. Went full Ring of Steel + NJE even and was having shadow strike on really short cooldowns.
Yet I suffered a very frustrating death after hours spent on ultimate hardcore. So I really think I should take OFF since a lot of people say that it’s good for CC at least.
Also, IEE is there to keep my energy up since I’ll be shadow striking very often + to make use of the elemental damage bonuses I get from devotions.
I’m really thinking that getting a deathmarked set on hardcore ultimate would be a major pain, so I’m really hoping that even mostly epics can get me through.
And Avatar of Mercy is actually a must have item for me, since I can’t justify 10 points into conversion. I really really need those 10 points elsewhere.
OFF is good for CC, especially combine arcanist with other class, I got the point. I’d say Ring of Steel with cold transmute work the same way. Having OFF 10+m radius for 2nd CC is ok, but if enemies can’t be freeze. It’s useless. Unlike RoS with CoF, if they can’t be freeze it may land attack miss. IMO high lv RoS is wasting points, put those in CoF better. Fumble chance from CoF work the same as Searing light in Flashbang tree, best CC of all kind.
When you enter Asterkan area or encounter flesh hulks OFF is nearly useless while RoS with CoF high fumble chance is also good for enemies those unstoppable.
Increase energy regen by IEE is reasonable. Did you try using Ectoplasm too? The rings don’t have many choices for component tho. Mostly use Ecto to fix energy or corpse dust to fix max HP.
I’ll be sure try CoS then.Will pull all points from off and spec them into CoS.
Also, I only put +health socketables since my health is as low as it is.
My problem is surviving until I actually manage to grind out some legendaries for trade.
Think I’ll do only swarming hive, pine barrens and royal hive for legendaries. Cronley’s hideouts have heroes that are pretty risky to take on especially on ultimate hardcore and that’s what killed me.
Or should I just go back to elite for farming legendaries?
Playing melee may have more risk than being a caster. If you don’t have high-end gear yet, caster is recommend for safety farm. Just don’t fight with nemesis and everything will be fine. If you don’t want to change play style, it require more cautious and limit your farming capability. Anyway it’s RNG for farming campaign.
I think if you have crucible DLC, you should find a party and farming there in Aspirant or Challenger. It is guarantee drop legends and many MIs.
Actually my character could do elite very safely, but can get killed in around 5 hits or less in ultimate.
So I guess if I am doing farming for spellbreaker characters then Elite might be better.
Or if I want to do ultimate legendaries farming, then maybe I’ll only stick to swarming/royal hives and pine barrens area. For other areas, elite is safer since I actually am feeling tired when farming after work; might lose focus and get my character killed.
