Hullo everyone! I’m back with another build guide, woo!! As always, I’ve done a full video guide which covers everything in depth, click this link thingyto check it out!
Oh, and here’s the Grimcalc link!
This is a decidedly more “straight up” build than the last few I’ve posted about. The majority of the time spent here involves pointing dual pistols at enemies and shooting them a lot. Other than that, a few demolitionist skills are leveraged as stun/debuff and Arcanist comes in for survivability and some tasty damage boost!
What I find particularly cool is that you can almost get in the realm of stuck-lock with this build in some cases, due to the combination of active skills and devotion choices. So, without further ado…
Skill Selection
Flame Touched + Temper
Really nice damage boost and a really handy amount of OA on offer. Focusing on maxing Flame Touched is definitely worth it, Temper shouldn’t require more than one point in it.
Blast Shield
Uber defensive skill once you’ve invested a decent amount of points in it. Get it!
Fire Strike Line
The “main” attack, as it were. Maxing Fire Strike and Explosive Strike is definitely important, with Brimstone not far behind. Static Strike probably doesn’t need more than a few points in it.
Canister Bomb + Concussive Bomb
Just a one-pointer with Concussive Bomb maxed out. Used purely for crowd-control thanks to it’s delicious stun.
Flashbang + Searing Strike
The spammy version of our crowd-control, plus a nice little debuff.
Vindictive Flame + Ulzuin’s Wrath
Vindictive Flame is worth getting close to max. Really nice all-around skill, particularly the %total speed. Ulzuin’s Wrath is only worth one point, IMO.
Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange Line
Used mostly to get Elemental Balance - dat crit damage!
Mirror of Ereoctes
The good ol’ panic button if you’re in a real pinch.
Maiven’s Sphere + Conversion
As we all know, a really awesome defensive skill. It really helps to offset the inherent squishiness of this build.
Inner Focus
Dat offsensive ability!
Arcane Will
A nice little buff that triggers a decent amount. Worth a point.
Nullification
A nice little debuff. Also worth a point.
Demon’s Breath (from Devil-touched ammo component)
This deals quite solid damage, has attack damage converted to health and is also nice to have because it carries one of our devotion skills!
Devotions
Alrighty! So, there’s three “core” constellations used for their active skills in this build:
Elemental Storm - Bound to Flashbang
This comes from the Rhowan’s Crown constellation. It works in a decent radius, does decent damage, but moreover has a very solid debuff going on! Bound to Flashbang you should see this going off quite often, keeping the battlefield nicely nerfed and taking extra damage. I actually had this bound to Fire Strike for quite a long time, until I unlocked Elemental Seeker (see below).
Elemental Seeker - Bound to Fire Strike
This comes from the Blind Sage constellation. I haven’t seen many other builds out there that use this, I think this is a really fun option! These little blue orbs offer quite a nice amount of elemental damage in an AOE around them that scales with player damage - NICE! Also, on death they offer a 2 second stun (nice synergy with Canister Bomb) and also actively harass and distract enemies. You could argue that other options might be better, but I find this to be really fun and effective!
Fissure - Bound to Demon’s Breath
This comes from the Magi constellation. This is chosen basically for the nice fire/burn damage on offer, but also because it has a chance to stun enemies. Between this, Elemental Seeker and Canister Bomb we can potentially stun lock the entire battlefield at once
The other devotion points are invested as follows, as a combination of being relevant to our damage output, but in part purely to get enough affinity for Blind Sage:
- Chaos, Eldritch and Ascendant at the crossroads
- Hawk
- Owl
- Scholar’s Light
- Raven
- Hydra
- Empty Throne
Gear
As far as compulsory equipment goes there is one key piece; something that will let you dual-wield pistols! For me, the easiest way to achieve this is via Relics. As you level up, the Gunslinger’s/Marauder’s/Plunderer’s Talisman are very nice, align to the build well and of course give you that sweet dual-wielding skill!
Other than that, I don’t really have much set in stone for the gear here! The good news is that I’ve able to run this build without much trouble using average, mostly self-found gear and minimal farming. If you click this thingy, it’ll take you straight to the point in the video where I describe the exact gear I’ve used to-date.
On the offensive end, you’re mostly looking for:
- Fire/burn damage stuff
- %OA buffs and %crit damage boosts
- %Attack speed boosts
- %Elemental damage and %Chaos damage boosts are quite handy too
The defensive end is the same as always: resistances, DA and armor as high as you can without completely nerfing your DPS output. Also worth noting is that you’ll want to try boost your health where you can. There isn’t a heap naturally on offer from Demo/Arcanist, so if you can you’ll want to try and help this along. That said, I’ve only got 6.1k health on mine and she rarely gets in much trouble.
And that’s about it! While somewhat simplistic in it’s gameplay style, this build is super fun. A lot of DPS output backed up by a nice amount of debuffing, stun and crowd-control.
Weeeeeeee!