Me too.
I can’t believe Gildor’s pulverizer can’t be used to pull that off…
gildor might be better, atleast i don’t think this is the way Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator 
edit. unsure if i’ve totally lost the plot, but lets see where this leads Sentinel, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator 
Merciless Repertoire gives you electrocute damage. The conduit converts acid → lightning on Blade Burst.
At first I thought you were talking about Anatomy of Murder, which was to boost cunning enough to hold the pistols. In the latest revision of the character, I actually do have too many points there, since the latest revision of the devotions incidentally gave me a +40 to cunning.
Beronath’s Shard might be a boost to single target damage. It would cost some AOE and it would require you to press more buttons, and to keep in mind at all times how much time you have left on Lethal Assault. If you let Lethal Assault drop, it’s a clear damage loss overall.
You’d have to replace a Seal of the Void, which gives 16% chance of a circular AOE. WPS total 103%, so we’re losing about a 15% chance to get a circular AOE as well as having a 15% chance of a plain default attack. The Shard boosts all damage enough that it’s probably worth it for single target, although you’d have to take into account the delay to blade burst and the possibility of losing lethal assault even for single target.
For AOE, it would be a damage loss. Fewer Seal procs and longer delays between Blade Bursts.
It’s an option, and it definitely would work. Single target would probably go up, and AOE and ease of use would definitely go down. It’s not my playstyle, so I didn’t do that.
you never lose Lethal Assault… it’s unheard of - you’re pressing 2 buttons, or rather holding down 1 button (AA) then using ABB whenever it’s off cooldown
as for Aoe, sure you lose a wps, but you boost all your other wps dmg which is then an increse to their aoe effects, and also your abb dmg, which is more aoe boost - so not a big aoe loss
and there would not be more delays between ABB hits, unless you’re slow at clicking it ofc
as for the Merciless converted electrocute, as mentioned, it doesn’t stack, so it’s a 1x effect, which is kinda… low for 10pts with a low wd source (imo, ofc)
Sentinel, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator pierce sentinel
did a quick save edit creation, so no craft bonus, didn’t bother with checking rolls etc
cleared SR75-76 with 2 deaths, 1 on 75 and another on 76, both to stupid stuff in usual Gnuffi fashion - guessing it’s going to be right comfy at 65-66 at minimum
i think with a bit of petrify res it could actually be ok in general, eor dmg actually not that horrible 
edit, Lokar and Korvaak down, heading to Morgo
edit… and Morgo down
edit… and SR 75-76 clear deathless this time 
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Not terribly imaginative, but pierce oppressor could work with Retaliation DE.
Pierce Retaliation DE oppressor
Funny enough, there seems to be no shortage of skill points. I put the extra in Resilience and Safeguard.
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The only way a human, no matter how talented or how refined his sense of timing, could avoid a delay between blade bursts is to press the button early and hold it long enough to be sure it’s gone off.
If you press the button early, it’s a single target DPS loss, because you’re shooting default attacks while the button is held down. If you hold the button late, it’s again a DPS loss.
You can avoid the default attacks by pressing the blade burst button after it’s come off cooldown, briefly. But then you have to be certain of pressing it at exactly the right time, or it’s a DPS loss.
By default, the blade burst cooldown is 1.8 seconds. If you delay by 0.2 seconds, that’s a 10% increase in the delay. Is your timing so good that you can cut your delay down to less than 0.2 seconds?
If you try to time it absolutely perfectly, what happens when you’re just a tiny bit off in the early direction? You press and release the button before it’s off cooldown, maybe getting off a default attack, but regardless not getting a blade burst. How long until you realize your timing is off? Is your reaction time down to half a second? How long does it take to press the button after you realize what happened? A tenth of a second? Then a tiny miss in timing could cost you 0.6 seconds, which is a third of a blade burst cooldown.
That’s not true. And most players wouldn’t try to get the timing shaved down in the way you’re claiming either.
I read a thread on this forum where someone was complaining that lethal assault was only up for 4 seconds, and they wanted it to be longer, so they could press the blade burst button less frequently. Most players are going to do something like that, rather than try to shave the timing down exactly.
Losing lethal assault can happen if the delays are too long, or if the blade burst shot misses, or if the player gets distracted. This is not the case if blade burst is the normal attack. A good player can avoid losing lethal assault, but this is not automatic.
Maybe you’re an incredibly good player, and you can avoid losing lethal assault, and you can shave things down to where the losses to delays on blade burst aren’t that large. But you can’t avoid them completely.
And you can’t avoid by even perfect play the loss of Seal procs.
Dropping half of your Seal procs loses you 27.5% of your WPS AOE shots. In addition, you increase the risk of relatively long streaks of no WPS AOE at all.
Shard of Beronath is a default attack replacer, and Blade Burst is a cooldown attack. You can’t combine them into one attack. It doesn’t work like that.
It does DoT damage, which is more effective as AOE than as single target. Electrocute doesn’t help you take down the boss (though it does a little), it helps you take down an area full of the minions of the boss.
DoT damage is highly effective in AOE clear situations. And Blade Burst is highly effective at applying said DoT damage over a wide area.
If you do want to play my build, but do it in a more single-target heavy way, Shard of Beronath isn’t the way to do it. Dump Stormserpent. Replace it with armor that’s strong enough without extra help from defensive devotions, and shift those points away to Tip the Scales and whatever flat damage you can get from Tempest and/or Ultos. Grab vitality → lightning conversion with Chains of Brandis. Put points in Soul Harvest. This will give you another button to press, but only every 5 seconds, not every 1.8 with little tolerance for delay and an AOE loss if you press it at the wrong time. Swap out Ilgorr’s Eternal Curse for Mark of Plagius. Swap out Eye of the Storm for Deathchill. Even with a lack of 100% vitality → lightning conversion, Deathchill on average adds more per hit.
i’m not gonna bother going over all of the points, suffice it to say you’re wrong on most count
and some of it is even pretty basic stuff too, again like the dot from merciless you seem to misunderstand fundamental dot interactions
one thing that i will reiterate you don’t lose lethal assault, it’s unheard of for ABB builds; because you’re using ABB constantly/well before the cooldown of lethal assault is up (2sec cd vs 4sec buff, that sht is basic stuff) - you also don’t miss, because you have 100% hitrating, and lethal assault will trigger even on boxes or breakables, and unless you miss 2 hits in a row by some miracle you can’t lose LA it doesn’t happen
being 0.2sec late on ABB is also not a dps loss; because you outweighing your regular shots dmg a lot
and yes Beroshard does apply dmg to ABB because it confer a global buff, just like sav does, just like RF does, just like all the cahrge based AAs - it might not be much but it does boost your ABB too by regular 120% bonus (and the base flat on the comp i suppose we could include too)
edit. it’s fine if you don’t like/agree with my comment as per your specific setup+playstyle, but atleast don’t make stuff up that is so far out of proportions either to said comment or basic game mechanics that’s not questionable
*also just realized that i’m talking with the person that wanted to argue Cadence levelling detrimentally suffered post patch 9.8, so i think i’m out of this before this just devolves into the same futile forth and back 
I have not misunderstood the basics of DoT effects.
If you wait more than is absolutely necessary, even in fractions of a second, you’re losing AOE damage from blade burst by having fewer of them in the same time period.
Normally for a blade burst character, getting even a small amount of cooldown reduction is very nice, because it gives them more AOE, because it gives them more frequent blade bursts.
For example, 4% cooldown reduction is about a 4% boost to AOE hit damage. If you’re just trying to catch it before it falls off again, that’s a lot of extra time waiting. A 4% cooldown reduction works out to a 1.728 second delay before the next blade burst, and the difference between 1.728 seconds and 1.8 is about 4% of blade burst hit AOE. If you just try to catch it before it falls off, an obstacle between you and the target or a miss (if you aim at the wrong spot, all the OA in the world won’t help you) will make lethal assault fall off, and even if it never does fall off, you’re getting half as many blade bursts.
Half as many blade bursts, and half as many seal procs. That doesn’t quite cut your AOE in half, because of DoT damage and Necrotic Edge, but it does a number on it. You can pull the blade burst numbers up a bit, but not all the way to 100%, because the timing required is too precise.
I tested this ingame. The only bonus Beronath gives you globally is +60% to all damage and +60% to elemental damage. Those are small additive bonuses that have no significant practical effect.
If you want to discuss small effects, the +4% attack speed from Seal of the Void is a bigger small effect.
I know blade burst gunslingers well, I’ve played many of them, continually over the past 7 years. I’m not making basic mistakes. I’m not making things up.
If you have further questions about my build, or objections to it, start a new thread.
and another lightning reaper - spam ABB. Korvaak and SR 65/66 was possible (both not deathless) - crowd damage is ok, single target damage is … well acceptable for a lightning reaper. Build also feels rather squisy (so attracting large groups to use the AoE of ABB can backfire in SR).
[lightning drain essence reaper ended rather was - well - rather unfunny …]
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Pierce oppressor theory
Pierce sentinel theory
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Woots !
Pierce Sentinel: 
Sentinel:
And Occultist:
only one build left!!! 
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Another potential Pierce Oppressor:
Pierce Ravenous Earth with Biting Blades
No affixes selected on the MIs and Necrosis but some shortcomings need affix attention: couple of resists and could use more DA and perhaps OA. Ring would be best with cast speed affix.
Acid purge might work as well, as energy should not be an issue.
Also could easily swap Scales for Manticore for an extra 8 RR overall. Bard should handle the BB energy fine. But scales and all the other leech might add up to some nice durability, as long as DA is increased to no-crit range.
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I think this is incredibly imaginative! Pierce retal was removed from the game at least a year ago. Does this actually work, or is it just theory craft? I’m thinking of trying it on a better class combo because I’m a sucker for pierce damage going back to the AoM days.
Only a Theory craft. I think the biggest downside might be lack of RR (only has the standard devotion RRs and ring here). It certainly looks durable enough.
Pierce is kinda in the middle for enemy resistance and while most bosses don’t go above ~60 and a majority(?) of mobs are below 30… it might be slow going in particular spots. Kaisan has 97% and Ravager 90%, for example.
You could browse the GD mob database for more info on particulars.
There is no reason that it wouldn’t work, though. Each retal element is just total converted flat x %-ret-damage for that category.
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another concept for a pierce oppressor (not good enough for my taste for the last build) - in general sturdy and AoE damage is good, but single target damage (against high resist guys) is a bit lacking
SR 65 Kaisan under armored 
[edit: without armored - SR 75/76 seems deathless possible - in a lucky run]
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I tend to avoid AoM because imho it’s rather over-used as Retal options are limited (personal bias ofc)…but this is a really nice application.
Nice.
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And another idea - had hoped for more - but because sustain is in certain case too low, imho weaker than the AoM concept
(The first version used Bone Harvest - but now Siphon Souls is used for slightly more sustain - even if only a tiny part of its vitality damage is converted - it helps somehow (or at least I imagine it). But it is still not enough. Not sure if Dryad would be better than Ghoul here. Well, technical, like the AoM build, this one also is strong enough to finish the list - but the list ending build should be something special, not just a “its good enough” build)
the way eor works you don’t need an actual pierce weapon in your offhand (aside from the bonus %pierce dmg), so if sustain is an issue you can use the lifesetal eor axe, and its flat phys will be still converted to pierce = to AP ratio of mh weap
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