I am not using Grenado, I only mentioned it as an alternative damage source which you can get even on an AAR build.
The AoE of Doombolt is usually enough to hit a few enemies and one shot them which is a clear plus in terms of killing speed.
“Make their builds look better”, too bad I have yet to see a shred of proof outside of “cuz I said so”.
As to the last part, so far everyone has based their top 10 on personal anecdotes so please spare me your patronizing tone when everyone is doing the same thing I do.
Also 300 hours is more than enough in any single player game. Stop trying to pretend that this game is something so amazingly complex that I have to study at an university. YT is out there for a reason and there are quite a few of the builds mentioned here present. Suffice to say, fun to watch, but outside of maybe 2-3 I saw nothing AAR could not accomplish itself.
And yes, the energy problem is overblown out of proportion.
I have tested many different version of AAR builds in many different environments and they don’t even come close to being in top 10 best builds, although I too do like them, they come nowhere near the performance of top builds. My cadence pierce BM after nerfs can do anything twice as fast as my best AAR build.
And yes, 300 hrs isn’t nearly enough time to obtain insight into what’s being talked about here. Nothing personal, but everyone here can see from what you’re writing that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
He says it is top 3 strongest… they didn’t seem that strong to me when i looked at them… could you point out which one should be insanely strong as stated before?
so decent you just lay ritual circle, spam AAR watch most thing got burst and dead in 1 digit second, even MQ, except ch’thonic family and ofc boss ben
If you are soooo sure AAR is this good, post some dummy kill time and crucible runs.
This isn’t about not using experience/anecdotes; this is about you being nowhere near knowledgeable enough to use said experiences. Your 300 hours is nothing because of all the progression and farming necessary (for example, you don’t even have tome of arcane wastes for obliteration). And how many characters do you have? Most of us talking have thousands of hours in our belts with 20 or 30+ max geared characters and variations (and no, there isn’t half a dozen to a dozen good builds for every single class combination. Viable builds, maybe, but it takes an extremely unimpressive build to be completely not viable in this game) and we speak with a very broad overview of game instead of being satisfied with our knowledge with only 300 hours.
Whatever videos on YouTube you have watched that makes you think AAR is good are obviously very outdated or posted by near new players, and while there is nothing wrong with doing that, it’s a whole different set of standards than when it comes to the absolute top 10 builds.
You want proof? Post your dummy kill times and crucible clear times and compare that to other builds. I have 3 AAR characters, a Blackflame Warlock and two Clairvoyant Sorcs, and from that alone I can tell you while AAR may be fun to play at times, it for sure doesn’t live up to the standard of being top 10 in comparison to my other characters (such as my Cold DW spellbreaker or Tri Ele Sabo who can kill dummy in around 28/27 seconds, or Venomblademaster (not top 10 but still better~) who can solo crucible gladiator, or DEE WH who is superior to AAR builds in almost every way, etc etc.)
It’s also worth mentioning that you are not building your character to an AAR build; are you even maxing AAR? have 26/16 base skill and 18+/12 disintegration? From what I’ve seen, you are building your character as a hybrid caster and not taking full use of AAR. No wonder you have no energy problems!
I don’t have enough Ultimate experience to be highly assertive about what “absolute top 10 builds” might be. I do have a sense of what builds are particularly fun to play.
I like a conjurer bleed build that relies on devouring swarm, vines, pox, primal bond, and CoF, as well as rend, falcon’s swoop, acid spray, and wendigo’s mark for celestials (plus other devotions, of course). It’s not quick for killing bosses, which need to be kited. But, trash rapidly dies. The CC on pox has been improved greatly in 1.0.0.8 and provides good protection against large crowds.
I have a DW blademaster physical / pierce build that is tearing through elite at a pace I’ve not been able to follow before on any other build. With healing rain, 150 armor from Obelisk of Memnir (3 points invested), over 40% increased armor absorption, and good resists, he can soak up damage well and keep swinging. Blindside and ring of steel provide decent CC. Heavy investments in field command and fighting spirit lead to lots of crits, which will work well with the assassin and assassin’s blade celestials. All available WPS skills have a point in them and will end up getting a fair amount of investment later, as well.
I have an AAR chaos warlock build that is also doing well, but is currently still in elite and will probably remain there for a while because of gearing issues. I have a conjurer summoner that went tree of life as the primary T3 celestial and that doesn’t hit like some summoners, but with 13K life can sometimes tank for her summons in late ultimate (lvl 81 at present, a bit short of Ultimate Necropolis at the moment).
I only play solo self found hardcore, so my perspective on what makes a “top ten” build may (or may not) be the same as others. I like survivable builds that require alertness to play well and I’m not that concerned with clear speed.
That’s because dw in general already has much higher actual dps than what it states in the character sheet. Add to that the massive damage from the weapon attack skills which you will get constantly with 2 weapons that both attack at 2+ attacks per second and spamming 3 or 4 offensive skills on cooldown. Also there is the -pierce resistance aura + devotion which will make any enemy massively vulnerable to your attacks even before item proccs.
It’s kind of cute when people here list all these boring mixed damage builds because they have never realized that single damage that scales with cunning (so either phys. or pierce) dw is the highest possible damage source in the game. Spirit is basically just trash because it doesn’t give you OA and most elemental damage builds usually come with mixed damage. Also pierce is about the only damage type where you can get pretty much 100% pierce damage only.
The only reason dw pierce bm isn’t the best possible build is the lack of lvl 75 pierce damage items and the item design forcing the player to either use gay ass cold damage or wear green stuff.
Sry I cant you will need to address to people that made those builds, but its pretty straight forward and not that hard if you put your mind to it
Yes its decent, ok, playable, viable, etc but just its not in top 10 imho
Im well aware of DW mechanic, but you are wrong about pierce or phys being highest dmg source, tho pierce was until recently, and believe it or not pierce has nice itemization, if you are ready to farm as a mad man for it
Piercemasters have been successively and excessively nerfed especially in 1.0.0.8, which is why no way is pierce/physical dw the highest damage source anymore. It’s an outdated concept that greens shouldn’t be used; it used to be fine, but nowadays almost all builds require some green item/s since you can’t neglect resistances like aether anymore with the introduction of more challenging content.
There is nothing in the item design that forces you to use cold items. The Deathmarked set have long been outdated for phys/pierce blademasters. There are plenty of pierce gear, such as Valdun’s Jacket, Fabius’ Pauldrons, Cronley’s Signet, Reaver’s Claw, and even Cowl of the Venomblade (not to mention a myriad of affixes). While they may not all be lvl 75, you do not need to be level 75 to be good (people are still using lvl 50 Ls). Just have to farm for it now that the best set for pierce blademasters is no set at all.
Your farming dedication is very impressive…I remember tomodak showing me some of the leftover rings you gave him.
Guess you guys are right about pierce these days… I am kind of out of the loop since I stopped playing a couple patches ago and only restarted to play valbury.
Pierce BMs will get many nice buffs in the upcoming hotfix (assuming the leaked patch notes are accurate). With any luck pierce BM will return to its glory before 1.0.0.8
