So far, this build is good. An overcapped Brimstone (and the Fire Strike tree in general) is what make the difference. Also the proc from Abomination is something to behold.
However speedy hard-hitters (like that fucking Fabius) can be a challenge, as you have to always kite them, and I hate kiting. Also those lazy mines are a pain to use when you cannot keep the target in place. In these instances I miss Mirror so much, that i’m thinking to equip something like a Mark of Divinity (BB is just a panic button).
Flashbang, IMO, is a must have, and not only for damage-mitigation purposes.
Well, i hate to recast Flashbang every 4 seconds (in practice, it’s rather every 3 seconds). If duration was longer…
I prefer to use consumable for 75% miss for 10 sec, or even switch to Mark of Apostate for 50% miss (gladly, i have one).
And what else is Flashbang for? Constellation procs?
There is a fancy relic for “panic button” - Menhir’s Bastion. With a bit of physical resistance stacked (12% from BoD, 7% from Golemborn Greaves, 6% from Empowered Legplates of Valor, 5% from Menhir Bastion itself), you can receive 80% physical damage reduction and 25% damage absorb extra. And physical damage is the only one you care about when your resists are maxed.
And all that has 12 seconds duration, not mere 3 seconds like Mirror. Cooldown is also higher (40 sec), though.
And i agree, speedy hard-hitters are a problem, since “gunslinger” build isnt supposed to facetank everything.
Brimstone’s flechette (fragments) damage is independent of your main weapons damage excluding global fire and chaos damage bonuses provided by either. Thus, with the appropriate set up, those fragments can do a lot of AOE damage in addition a nice single target bonus.
Keep in mind that faster weapons with lower base damage are more impacted by additions of flat damage. Thats where the paper dps scaling will come from alongside attack speed bonuses.
Combining curse of frailty with flashbang is a great crowd control strategy.
Also worth noting is that flashbang is a great proc generator for no-cooldown procs that can affect multiple enemies at the same time such as rend. I need to confirm this, though, but allowing flashbang to have offensive proc capabilities is cool yet seemingly out of place.
There is a lot of synergy in between demo and occultist and devotions as well as variety. I’m running an elemental pierce bleeding pyro and its going quite well. Lets see how many ether crystals it will take for me to respec once in ultimate…
Explosive strike has a weapon damage component (the AoE portion), would that apply damage from the hands at the given percentage? IE if you 1000 bleed for 5 seconds at 10%, it will apply a 100 bleed for 5 sec for all affected targets?
Sure, Explosive Strike deals 30% of weapon damage in AoE (except primary target), so if you have weapon bleed damage (let’s say, added by your weapon or ring, etc), it will be applied at 30% effect. However, non-weapon bleed (such as Feral Hunger proc, which is a skill damage too) wont be applied, i think.
Bonus damage from explosive strike itself (burn and physical) applied in its AoE at 100% value, cause it isnt weapon damage at all.
Also worth noting is that flashbang is a great proc generator for no-cooldown procs that can affect multiple enemies at the same time such as rend. I need to confirm this, though, but allowing flashbang to have offensive proc capabilities is cool yet seemingly out of place.
A this point I do not even know what’s happening, but a single flashbang often kill a pack of white trash mobs before I even have to use guns.
The latter could be said about a LOT of other defensive skills. I have a HC WH who uses Night’s Chill + CoF to triggers items with -of blight suffix. That is, she simply run around doing nothing, and everything dies around her. Where talking about a PASSIVE AURA here, while Flashbang is at least an active skill.
Duel weilding pistols will out shine pistol/shield any day. Shield builds don’t work in this game they are slow and won’t prevent being one shotted by any strech.
I’ve got 2 very powerful legendary revolvers in my stash, which I can’t use, because one character is caster and another is melee. So sorry I didn’t go for gunslinger pyro char…