Tank build idea - Witchblade DOT tank

Do you think that this could possibly work?

Grimcalc with
http://grimcalc.com/build/BIWHdf

The idea is to stack as much Bleed&Internal trauma as possible, while tanking like a boss with your shield and whacking the mobs with low-to-average physical hits.

Main mastery is soldier for the massive defensiveness and DoT potential. It may not look like it, but check this out:

Blade Arc with transmuter actually offers amazing DoT capabilities on its own. 819 base dot damage per second with 99% crit damage when we factor in +3 to Soldier!

Counter strike - around 100/sec

Zolhan - 43 sec

Cadence’s Fighting form also offers amazing damage, but no points to spare… :frowning: Can I cut something out?

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Secondary mastery is Occult for the double resist reduction (Bleed&Physical), active heal, health regen and free physical/poison resist.

Solael’s Witchfire gets only a few points - 4 points for the cheap attack speed buff.
Blood of Dreeg and Aspect of the Guardian are maxed out, because the are amazing tools for a tank. The flat OA is gonna help with damage output from crits. AotG is maxed for the physical&poison resist.

Weapons of choice:
Empowered Touch of Malice OR Agony OR Empowered Bonesnap Gavel. All solid choices. Аxe/Sword have some good choices, but we need Rhowan’s Scepter to fullfill devotion requrements.

Rest - no idea. Possibly Markovian Fortress set for mega tankiness and quick spam of Blade Arc to ensure it will crit quicky and turn on the pain.
Relic - Slaughter/Oleron’s Wrath

Problems:
Very high base health regeneration, but no %increased health regeneration devotion access
Only one active healing ability on long CD
3 Devotions that have to proc on attack - what setup?
Other problems?

For a DOT tank (especially an internal trauma damage build), I would go Forcewave with Assassin’s mark (at max lvl, it’s 15sec duration for 39% physical resistance reduction ; especially good for internal trauma) + Cadence with Blind Fury + Blitz with Bull Rush :
grimcalc[dot]com/build/JMIF41
With this, you should get easily 100% shield recovery time & 150% increased health regen with Overguard ; and Menhir’s will when low life.
I would take Oleron’s rage instead of Menhir’s Bulwark just for one thing : the +12% OA @ lvl 12 ; you’ll need it for Assassin’s Mark.

I’m still not sure about Aspect of the Guardian. You’ll have to spend a lot of points to max it.

I made a char a couple of weeks back cause i think this might be a fun idea - sword and board chaos based tank.

Might use this for a template

Thanks

Forcewave and Internal Trauma pale before the might of Blade Arc.

Even without a crit you have around three times the DoT damage, because Clean Sweep transmuter is x2,75 multiplier. And when you crit worlds collide and bosses die due to +100% crit multiplier.

I’ll see how it goes between Olreon’s Rage and Menhir’s Bulwark. Olreon’s OA bonus is really nice, but Menhir offers amazing damage absorption, flat damage and health regen.

Assassin’s Mark looks like a great pick indeed. I overlooked it due to the pierce component. The problem is that I have to cut something out. Parts of Targo the Builder maybe? The armor increase, DA and life are so appealing though… :slight_smile:

By removing completely Bull Rush, you can have access to 2 “5% health” nodes and 1 “5% armor increase” node of Targo the Build constellation + 1 “5% health” node :
grimcalc[dot]com/build/rcMNab
I would use Blind Fury on Cadence & Assassin’s Mark on Blitz (just because the skill recharge duration is shorter than Blade Arc with Clean Sweep mod).

I’ve got a similar char at level 82 currently. Trauma damage and shield procs are what i am focused on. Pretty much using all level 50ish epics still because i haven’t found anything better. Half way thru act 3 ultimate and i can still just spam a few fevered rages and watch shit blow up. Build will be super fun/strong with decent great. If i happen to get 85 and farm some gear before modding tools come out maybe I’ll post a write-up.

Yeah, that looks like the best setup. What is the pathing route on Tango the Builder? I think 300 life +20 DA is worth more than the 5% armor node if that one can be skipped.

You’ve missed to allocate 1 point in Autumn Boar. Admittedly it’s crap bleed retaliation, but that single point can give 3 purple affinity. I will see if I can switch the purple affinity constellations a bit thanks to the 3 affinity from Boar.

Edit: Thanks for the feedback Paavo, I was sure there was merit to building this. How are you dealing with single target damage vs bosses?

Obviously would be quicker overall with better gear but it’s not terrible. You can block everything so even ranged mobs will proc block devotions. Melee enemies die real fast though.

Forgive the noob question, but why Blade Arc and Cadence?

I assume there will be some fancy button pressing? How does that go?

TIA

Blade Arc has a transmuter ability called Clean Sweep. It gives it a 5 sec cooldown, but gives you a massive x2.75 damage multiplier that applies both to the physical damage AND to the DoTs. It also gives a 50% crit chance bonus on top of what you get from Laceration.

Blade Arc + Clean Sweep = highest one-hit damage ability in the game.