The Ranger of Beronath - Dual Wield Melee/Ranged Hybrid
Flavor
Legends tell of the great beast Beronath, who wielded the power of many elements and could strike with devastating attacks at foes both near and afar. The Rangers of Beronath channel the great beast in their combat prowess, able to wield both swords and guns with equal effectiveness, and can attack their enemies with an unstoppable repertoire of damage types.
Concept
This is a Blademaster build that can dual-wield both melee weapons and ranged weapons and actually performs well at both. The build can take down groups of enemies at range with its dual pistols, and then switch to these bad boys and go toe to toe with enemies up close. This build has a highly dynamic playstyle, able to switch at a moment’s notice from ranged to melee and back to tactically take advantage of distance, positioning, and enemy characteristics.
Mechanics and Gameplay
This build started with a question: can we stack flat damage of a variety of types, rather than focusing on a single or few types, and boost with bonuses to All Damage, and end up with an effective build? There are a few reasons for doing this. First, by stacking damage of many types, we are far less vulnerable to high enemy resistances than if we focused on a damage type, and are far less reliant on resistance reduction to deal effective damage. In essence, we can sidestep tough resistances by ensuring that at least some portion of our damage gets through.
The second reason for stacking different damage types is that it lets us choose the most efficient sources of flat damage. The most powerful skills for stacking flat damage in the game are Deadly Momentum and Lethal Assault. Both give more than twice or even three times the amount of flat damage of other comparable skills, such as Flame Touched, Solael’s Witchfire, or Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange. In this build, we try to overlevel both of these skills and keep both buffs active, while using Cadence for a large weapon damage multiplier of our flat damage.
Using this variety of damage types does come with a price, as there are much bigger damage bonuses available for specific damage types than All Damage. We try to get as much +% All Damage from gear and devotions as we can, and while we don’t get close to the values that a dedicated damage-type build can achieve, it is compensated by our large flat damage and our enemy resistance avoidance.
In gearing for this build, two weapons caught my eye: Havoc pistols, for +3 to Deadly Momentum, and Beronath Reforged, for its high flat damage, damage variety, and large bonuses to All damage (plus it looks awesome and I’ve been meaning to make a build for them). The skills used in this build, including Cadence and Amarasta’s Blade Burst, work well for both melee and ranged weapons, and the concept of damage variety complements the mixing of ranged and melee because Piercing conversion is no longer a drawback and using weapons with different damage types can be just as effective. Thus this build was born.
The combination of ranged and melee work surprising well. Cadence with ranged weapons has 100% to pierce enemies, so you can tactically position or kite to create long lines of enemies for glorious piercing hits, while the melee weapons let us fight just as effectively in close quarters and gives us higher single target damage for bosses. Overall, the build is fun to play in either mode, and being able to switch between ranged or melee adds another element of tactics that is very enjoyable.
Skills, Devotions and Attributes
Full build without +skills
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-DpOljB
Full build with +skills, Melee loadout
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-zLCbjt
Full build with +skills, Ranged loadout
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-di2A96
Commentary:
We want to overlevel Deadly Momentum and Lethal Assault as much as possible for huge flat damage bonuses to Physical, Acid, and Cold damage. Cadence is our main attack skill and gives us a large weapon damage multiplier for our flat damage and also gives us 100% Piercing for our ranged attacks with Fighting Form maxed, as well as a 3-target hit for melee. We pick up Field Command and Squad Tactics for great stats on OA, DA, armor, attack speed, and All Damage, Pnuematic Burst for heal and total speed with Shadow Dance for avoidance and DA, and Veil of Shadow and Night’s Chill for some resistance reduction. Fighting Spirit is also a great boost to our damage while active. Picking up a point in Shadow Strike or Blitz is also great for mobility, but keep in mind it will only work with melee weapons equipped.
It is also entirely reasonable to stop the Nightblade mastery points at 20 to have more free skill points. In that case, more skill points in Pneumatic Burst to 12, WPS like Belgothian Shears or Amarasta’s Quick Cut or Veil of Shadow are all good choices.
Skills to overlevel:
Cadence
Deadly Momentum
Lethal Assault
Skills to max:
Oleron’s Rage - 12 points
Fighting Form - 12 points
Field Command and Squad Tactics - 12 points
Military Conditioning - 11 points
Pneumatic Burst - 10 points
Shadow Dance - 12 points
Scars of Battle - 8 points
Phantasmal Armor - to cap pierce resist
Low-investment Skills
WPS skills - Markovian, Zolhan’s, Belgothians
Soldier passives - Decorated Soldier, Fighting Spirit
ABB
Dual Blades
Elemental Awakening
Veil of Shadow
Nightblade passives - Anatomy of Murder, Merciless Repertoire
Devotions
Devotions are a good source of +% All Damage, and we aim to get as much as we can here by taking Jackal, Raven, Lion, Panther, and Scales. Manticore gives us Acid Spray, a great source of resistance reduction for all damage types, and boosts Acid damage, one of our highest damage types. The rest of the devotions give us plenty of resists, armor, health, and survivability. I chose to pick up Light of Empyrion to fill gaps in resistances, but if you have gear that lets you cap resistances, Tree of Life provides more survivability.
Attributes
Put most points into physique, with some in Spirit to equip gear. I have 9 in Spirit.
Here’s the stats on the build for the melee and ranged versions. Pictures are with Lethal Assault and Deadly Momentum up:
Stats with all buffs up:
Equipment
Weapons (Melee): Beronath Reforged - Haunted Steel / Shard of Beronath + Essence of Ch’thon / Oleron’s Fervor
Weapons (Ranged): Havoc - Haunted Steel / Oleron’s Blood + Essence of Ch’thon / Oleron’s Fervor
Head: Warborn Visor - Sanctified Bone + 10%A
Chest: Warborn Chestguard - Kilrian’s Shattered Soul + 7%A/7A%C
Pants: Deathwhisper Leggings - Ancient Armor Plate + 7%A/7A%C
Shoulders: Purging Zantarin’s Shoulderguards of Kings - Scaled Hide + 10%A
Gloves: Iceskorn Talons - Consecrated Wrapping + 7%A/7A%C
Boots: Elite Harvest Footpads - Mark of Mogdrogen + 7%A/7A%C
Belt: Blade Breaker Sash - Antivenom Salve + 15%P&A
Amulet: Peerless Eye of Beronath - Dread Skull + Survivor’s Perseverance
Ring 1: Closed Fist of Vengeance - Corpse Dust + Survivor’s Ingenuity
Ring 2: Open Hand of Mercy - Corpse Dust + Survivor’s Ingenuity
Medal - Badge of Mastery +5 Cadence - Dread Skull
Relic - Plunderer’s Talisman
Commentary:
The core of the build are the weapons. Beronath Reforged has high damage but over a variety of damage types, which is perfect for this build. It also has a high bonus to aAll damage along with a proc that gives more All damage, which is perfect for this build. The downside is no innate attack speed, so we have to stack attack speed elsewhere to make up for that.
Havoc pistols are sort of the opposite case. They have great attack speed bonuses, but no bonuses to All damage. They do have +3 to Deadly Momentum on each, which is great for boosting physical flat damage. Overall, the DPS with both weapons ends up coming out similarly.
We use Iceskorn Talons, Zantarin’s Shoulderguards and Deathwhisper Leggings to boost Lethal Assault, and Warborn gear to boost Soldier skills and Deadly Momentum. The rest of the gear gives us useful resists, skills, and stats. Plunderer’s Talisman is necessary to dual-wield guns, and in this build is actually a good fit, with flat damage, +% All damage, and + Total speed. We also use the Judicator’s rings for a source of x% Reduced Resistances, which applies across all damage types and is very useful to us.
Suggestions for other gear are welcome.
Closing remarks
Happy to get feedback and suggestions! Typically, trying for a hybrid melee/ranged build results in gimping both and one being stronger than the other. This build naturally fits both modes in, and neither feels weaker than the other. They offer different strengths and tactical options, and switching between melee and ranged is a fun and engaging part of the build.
