I have too many tabs of builds open that I’m never going to get to, meaning I’m never going to be able to make an actual build post for them. So I figure I can do the next best thing: dump them all in a thread, explain the ‘theory’ behind them, and let people run off with them as their own.
So, if you see something you like, feel free to use it, though I don’t have much guidance to offer if you do. Alternatively, if you’re also hoarding tons of builds that you think you’ll never get to, feel free to dump them here.
Here we go.
Vitality Decay Somethingorother: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlqYPjZ
[spoiler]Vitality Decay has always been a DoT that has been behind all the others in terms of usability and gear support. With the release of the Necromancer, I was hoping that could change but I don’t really feel as though Necro was the best way to go. Its Vitality Resist Reduction is too finicky. So, instead, I looked to a new (old) item: Mythical Blood Orb of Ch’thon. The Mythical version of this item converts Acid Damage to Vitality Damage, including Poison -> Vitality Decay. That in mind…
The build takes existing sources of Vitality Decay in Occultist (namely, the metric shitton of it on Second Rite) and combines it with all of the Poison Damage of your traditional Poison Witch Hunter, and then buffs them up with excellent Devotion and Gear support, ultimately feeding a ton of Vitality Decay through a BoM-powered Shadow Strike…alongside Vitality Decay on Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends. I have no idea how powerful this would actually be, but it’s probably on the upper end of what you can accomplish with Vitality Decay at this time.[/spoiler]
The ‘Passive’ Cabalist: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26Mw0pN
[spoiler]I’m no DaShiv. It’s clear that he’s more or less the master of designing pet builds. While reapersgaze already has a ‘Skelemancer’ Cabalist build posted, I don’t think it’s as optimized as what I’ve been sitting on, and I don’t think what I’ve been sitting on is as optimized as what DaShiv will come up with…though I have consulted the latter a bit. Here’s why I dislike reapersgaze’s build:
26/16 Summon Skeles is a bad idea. To maximize overall dps, you want to minimize the chance of spawning Mages, and Mages only have their spawn weight increase as you level it. Therefore, I believe that the optimal level to have Summon Skeles is at either 15, 16, or 17. Without doing any testing, I’ve arbitrarily settled on that middle.
Player survivability is most important. After that, pet offensiveness, and then pet defensiveness. My build has about 200 more DA than reapersgaze’s, as well as much better stun resist and better armor. That said, he has significantly better offensive potential due to the overleveled Hellfire Aura. His is probably better for SC, mine for HC. Either way, as it stands, it seems as though the Shepherd of Lost Souls fundamentally and definitively beats out the Mythical Beast Caller’s set.
No one is surprised.[/spoiler]
Wannabe-Devastation Trozan’s Sky Shards: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2ByOpzN
[spoiler]Memes.
Trozan’s Sky Shard ordinarily drops 3 projectiles onto a target. Why settle for that when you can drop 6? That would double your chances[sic] of getting a crit to use that juicy crit damage on Shattered Star, as well as the bonus Lightning Damage on the same skill. It would also just generally double your overall area dps, though the DoTs wouldn’t stack. The new Raging Tempest should improve the build significantly as well.
No Blizzard, though, as we move for a more defensive/utility devotion setup. For the ultimate meme, you would probably want Blizzard.[/spoiler]
Octavius.png: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2d15Y8V
[spoiler]Octavius is a set that just seems very easy to build around. You’ve probably seen a lot of these already. That said, there’s a bunch of subtle intricacies at play here.
My good friend Klobberfr0g convinced me that the Conduit of Warring Whispers was definitely the right choice for an Octavius build. Octavius converts 60% (average) of Elemental Damage into Physical Damage, including relevant DoTs. The Conduit of Warring Whispers has a prefix to add 210 Burn Damage to Forcewave, the primary skill of the Octavius set. This Burn Damage is essentially a bonus 126 Internal Trauma Damage which the set can scale immensely well.
Other than that, we just build up as defensively as we can with an IT focus, eventually sporting a whopping 61% Physical Resist. I imagine Reflected Damage would not be a major concern for this build.[/spoiler]
The Markovian of Old: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNY09BZ6
A hybrid mish-mash Markovian build of my own preferences combined with advice from Superfluff. Standard tank&spank sort of build. I’m not especially satisfied with it on paper, but it seems as though it could be more or less immortal.
Warborn Commando > Markovian…still: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZeLxpV8
Basically the above build but with full Warborn set instead of full Markovian. That said, we do utilize two pieces of the Markovian set for some good resists and to buff up Markovian’s Advantage as a mini-Cadence. I like the idea of using Mark of the Dreadblade, because part of the Aether Damage involved will be converted to Physical Damage due to Seal of Blades. It also offers good general stats and a good proc.
Chaos Support Doesn’t Exist - The Build: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkrAQZJ
[spoiler]Well, yeah. There’s basically no Chaos Support for a melee character in the expac. Look at all those greens! It’s like a country field up in here.
That aside, if you actually can put this beast together after 10,000 hours, you’ll probably be more or less a god. Fantastic attack speed, capped resists, capped Cadence, immense flat damage, great Armor, OA, and DA, 15% ADCTH and capped movement speed…this build quite literally has it all.
Too bad it’s virtually impossible to put together legitimately. :rolleyes:[/spoiler]
The Suppressor - 200% Crit Damage Primal Strike: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDxYQZ7
[spoiler]Once every three seconds, make someone disappear. In between that time, enjoy 200% Cast Speed chain lightning from the Seal of Skies component.
Ever since the nerf to Vortex of Souls I’ve felt as though Ranged Thunderous Strike hasn’t been the way to go. The penalties of the transmuter and the immense attack speed multiplier reduction of 2H ranged just make everything infeasible in the long run. Before the expac, I was using untransmuted Primal Strike with the Raka’jax. Sadly, the Mythical Raka’jax is fairly lackluster, but thankfully there’s an amazing MI waiting to blow gods away.
My gut is telling me that this build should be able to disintegrate mobpacks and bosses alike, but, being a Druid, I’m worried for the build’s long-term performance. Druids still suck due to low DA/Armor, in general.[/spoiler]
You Can’t Hit Me! - Cabalist: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2mQXo2j
[spoiler]When most people think of OA and DA, they think about buffing up their crit chance/damage. When this build thinks about OA and DA, it thinks about never ever being crit, and having obscenely low chances to even be hit.
Blood Boil reduces enemy OA by 245 (stacking).
Wasting reduces enemy OA by 350 (stacking).
Seal of Annihilation’s Proc reduces enemy OA by 70 (stacking).
In total, that’s a whopping 665 OA reduction to enemies…on a build that already has 2900 DA. And for those that don’t know, if something has less than 70% chance to hit something, it will not only be hitting very infrequently, but when it hits, it will do less damage. From the game guide, damage reduction in this manner is as follows:
Resultant Damage = Chance_to_Hit/70.
So if something has a 60% chance to hit you, it will only do 85% of its regular damage whenever it does manage to strike you. This is very significant.
Combine that damage reduction with all the regen offered by Sigil of Consumption and Blood Siphon, and you have yourself a god build…albeit with fairly low damage potential of its own.
That said, it takes Fevered Rage, and Fevered Rage’s OA buff will only take effect after the OA debuffs the build has, so it won’t be as significant as usual.
This is one of my favorite build concepts and I do hope I can get around to making it at some point in the near future.[/spoiler]
Valdun’s Slaughterer - Tactician: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoXDbBN
[spoiler]The build responsible for the Valdun’s “nerfs” in 1.0.2.1. Sporting about 600k (applied) dps and a highest-damage-done of 1.2 million in Crucible, this build is a glass cannon the likes of which GD has possibly never seen before.
Following the nerfs, I haven’t quite fingered on a definitive way to use the character sensibly. It was always blowing itself up on reflect and at some point one needs to focus on one’s defenses. As of late, that’s been my goal. The linked build above has sacrificed a great deal of its damage potential to try to beef up to take a hit.
The big worry from Reflect was Internal Trauma on a 22/12 Deadly Momentum. I’ve taken DM down to one point, and suffered the resultant self-nerf. I’ve done a few other things to reduce the build’s damage as well. That said, I’m still easily pushing out upwards of 400k crits in Crucible. The build now also features the Inquisitor Seal for some Damage Absorption, making it somewhat better at facetanking. That’s important, as we’re not making use of the Tacticians insane damage output if we’re kiting around.[/spoiler]
