I’ve been a working little bee and somehow achieved the “vendor version” featured in this build : http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52683. I only lack some special augments (no recipe) that I have replaced to boost resists and HP, and I went with Oleron relic because I already had it and Menhir’s bastion will cost me an arm and a leg. Also I’m lvl98 at the moment of writing.
I am very satisfied with the damage (60k dps top during fights) but i’m not half as tanky as I expected to be… I wonder what I did wrong, or if my expectations were too high for the “vendor version”.
If anyone is willing to take a look at it and tell me why I cry tears of blood when trying to facetank ultimate loghorrean or why even some types of mobs manage to shred me, I would be most grateful! I think I may need to tankify the setup…
I trust the good version of this build to facetank most of the game but my version is far from relaxing to play which is a personal failure because that’s what I’m aiming at (really, a pack of ugdenbog crabs can half-life me).
Edit: note that I’ve put more emphasis on life leech than regeneration. And maybe that’s not something you were interested in, as I saw you had a fair bit of regen originally.
You could improve and tweak components/augments a bit, but I just left the majority as is - as I don’t know what you have found.
Since you have less skill boosts than the build you are following, so you’ll need to have different skill investments than the guide.
DA eventual goal is maybe 2800ish+ (more is better).
Your biggest problem is likely the low OA. Since Assassin’s Mark requires a crit to activate, you may not see a consistent application of this. Some components and augments can provide OA -->eventual goal is ~3k OA. It’s possible to pull some attribute points from Physique and move into Cunning. You could invest more in Deadly aim, as well (but deadly aim takes a crit to get it going…). And of course, item tweaks. Energy may possibly be an issue and require some helpful components or a slight change in devotions.
Hey ! thank you so much guys for your ideas.
Sorry for the late reply, I wanted to thoroughly test my new setup to make myself an opinion.
So, It’s evident to me that I lack a ton of +Skill when I look at the premium setup, and the fact I still haven’t managed to find the Seal of Blades recipe is very hindering (it just looks too good), but I’ve dropped 6 or 7 seals so far so it’s just a matter of time. (Didn’t play between just before AoM and 2 weeks ago so I miss a lot of recipes)
With your tweaks, I must say that it is much, much better.
New FG devotions are impressive, especially Azrakaa (and the sand everywhere is just too cool). Ghoul of course also helps a lot.
Maxing Seal of Inqui really makes a difference tankiness wise.
What’s interesting is that I’m tankier and my tooltip dps went from 59k top to 69k top, so my clear speed is even faster.
I almost cleared the whole act 5 with this new setup and I could take on some very nasty packs (in the ancient grove for example), but I still cannot facetank everything. 3 crab boss + 2 tree boss on a shrine got me running and funnelling (seriously, what is going on with these crabs, they just shred).
A few backstabbing wraiths hit me hard, and Kra’Vall basically destroyed me.
Then again, this act is the one I feel is always the hardest (I mostly play tanks), so I’m not sure if the fact it is still very dangerous to my build means that I’m not tank enough. I can’t imagine the nightmare it has to be for a non-tank that isn’t top-geared.
I passed everything except Kra’Vall (didn’t try the rogue-like), but it was far from relaxed, I was constantly on edge. I would like it to be much tankier even if it cost me dps, because my clear speed exceeds my expectations a lot. My devotion actives are still not max level (maybe halfway), I don’t have menhir’s bastion yet (is it worth it really? I see all high tier tank builds going with Doom). But I feel like it’s going to take some heavy modifications or top loots (I unfortunately only drop legendary gear for my vita/pet friend).
I don’t expect this cheap build version to tank celestials, but I want to facetank Kra’Vall dammit
yeah seal of blades is very good. But one day you will drop it
Menhirs bastion is good, its like the saftey option since it gives you one more skill to use between overguards.
I was thinking about making a guide about a Blademaster dual wield cadance inspired by Chthons thread. Perhaps I should also include this S&B Tactician? What do you think about that?
I think it’s always a good idea to give options if you have the time to handle the extra effort I would certainly be interested in a post-FG version of Snb pierce tactician even if it only features good gear (I’ll get them warborn/marko/barbaross/octa/etc. sooner or later!). And i’m always interested in SnB builds.
Oh by the way, I made a little tweak to hammyhamster1’s devotion setup suggestion by assigning Living Shadows to Markovian advantage. Assigning it to Shield Slam makes the build pretty piano-ty by my standard : overguard, inq seal, word of renewal, war cry,blitz, potions and spamming both word of pain and shield slam… that’s a lot of actives… Binding it to Mark. Adv. is way more relaxing.
I noticed that either way Living Shadows was not going off that often, more like a “hey look who came by to say hi” situation, but I wager this is due to my low OA, and having more +Skills will definitely benefit a Living Shadow proc on Markovian Advantage (I can’t spare any point to boost it).
Hey, just chiming in again after getting Seal of Blades recipe. It added little tooltip dps but the aoe clear is definitely better, also the AdctH buff helps.
I tried Kra’vall again and i’m still not facetanking it at all, I could probably kill it if I were extra careful but it’s not worth the trip.
The good news is that i’m able to tank ultimate Fabius quite easily, while killing him in a decent amount of time. I think i’ll farm him to get my hands on the mythical warborn set (or markov) and a mythical reaver claw.
I’ve never facetanked Kravall for the entire fight, but iirc, he has a big Life Leech (LL) attack and some resistance to LL(LLR) would be handy for that attack.
He is
-mostly cold/physical/acid/posion and reduces DA by a lot. I don’t think he has any resist reduction.
-one or 2 reduction to life attacks, of which one is maybe ~50%?
-90%LLR and some fumble from the tentacles, so your adcth is not going to see much return . This is where the original build regen would have the big impact for healing. Even with Ghoul active you’ll only see ~10%adcth for 5s?
One way to get around this is to leech off the extra mobs he summons (not including the tentacles), as they have ~50% LLR…and it could take some rationing of these extra mobs so LL lasts between spawns.
TLDR, until you achieve the guide’s regeneration and a little more DA, you’ll likely have to move around in this fight.
*Edit: It occurred to me that you could have a weapon swap with 1 or 2 Haunted Steel components. You’d lose some dps but the Bloodthirster active might get you through between Ghoul procs in a straight face-tank.
My cold resists sits at 84 + 43, my acid 84 + 13, 2744DA without procs (2934 under word of renewal), 2410 armor rating, 93% armor absorb, 12k4->13k hp with WoR, 68% block chance, 19% phys res.
@Malawiglenn: No I don’t have those boots, I have barely more than 2 stash slots worth of 84/94 legendaries.
