There’s a lot more to share about this half a year journey to top20 we had. But as 1.3 PT is upon us, we’ll have to move on and keep the rest to the comment section. Below will be the list of 10 “almost top20” builds.
But I strongly advice to check out the spreadsheet that has a lot to offer past these top31. Many, many decent builds to choose from and try out the uploaded saves.
22. Lightning DW melee Archon
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SR30-31, x5 runs by banana
You had to scroll for a while to find the first dedicated DW build, unlike the previous top20. And it has nothing to do with Nightblade, or even Soldier. Pure melee suffers a lot this patch, and an extra 180 degree arc on your attacks is mitigating one of its downsides - monsters bumping in and out of your melee hitboxes. It’s a fast one button build but you certainly need to have a soft spot for pure melee to prefer it over some of the stronger builds in the list.
23. Aether DW melee Reaper
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SR30-31, x5 runs by nofikaCrucible, no buffs/banners, ex. spawn, 4:14 by nofika
An all around solid build that pretends to be your run of the mill melee Nightblade but is actually a melee/auradin hybrid. Can tank few bosses at once in SR 30-31. Checks all the boxes, kind of a jack of all trades.
24. Vitality SS Morgoneth Reaper
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SR30-31, 3:16 by banana Callagadra, 1:13 by banana
High OA pushed a lot of builds into the top. This is another OA-driven feature of Shadow Strike: the defensive weakness of the skill is padded by vitality’s perks and some passive leech magic, and everything else is stacked on the high inbuilt crit. Despite paper weaknesses, SS turned out to be the only competitive (in select very few cases) melee skill because of how unfriendly the SR is to prolonged stationary fights. SS’s self-navigation is a big upside in SR, and an even bigger one - in campaign.
25. Vitality DE Ritualist / Oppressor
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Ritualist SR36 by leeRitualist vs Callagadra, 1:03 by leeOppressor vs Ravager of Flesh, 1:04 by banana
Best dmg type and best QoL skill produce an expectedly good result. Vitality DE being a no set build is behind the stronger set options like Chillwhisper or Uroboruuk. It still offers an easy and enjoyable endgame experience and can be played with 4 double vitalty rr classes with their own upsides.
26. Chaos Shadow Strike Witch Hunter
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SR30-31, x10 runs by banana Callagadra, 1:06 sec by banana
The final SS feature turned out to be the most puzzling. This is a pure solo target hunter that relies on reset procs. Sometimes you can kill a SR30-31 nemesis in a literal second. AoE dmg is far behind with some splash from Doom Bolt and whatever flat is sitting inside of Nightfall. The build is capable of vey fast average 30-31 clear, 4:00-4:10, but it’s very dependent on the player’s habits of approaching combat. The big upside is that you don’t need to aggro multiple nemesis in the bossroom to go fast with it.
27. Chillwhisper Infiltrator
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SR30-31, x5 runs by nofika
A rotation caster with a high piloting tax. Strong frostburn-dots from high crit Rune of Hagarrad along with Blade Spirits dot-stacking makes quick work of enemies. Max rank Inquisitor’s Seal carries all of this Infiltrators defenses, while leech from Ghoul and Bloodthirster powered Tsunamis helps us sustain long enough to get our critted frostburn-dots up and rolling.
28. Chaos Doom Bolt Deceiver
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SR30-31, x5 runs by banana SR40 by banana
When you take ranged weapons to Shattered Realm you end up like this build, casts are always better. Semi-spam of Doom Bolt is supported with filler WPS attacks for sustain. Two high range rr casts allow you to dish out your full dps at a very long range. Hence the build conquers SR40 with relative ease.
29. Veilkeeper DW melee Spellbinder
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SR30-31 by banana Ravager of Flesh, 0:42 by banana
The second and the last pure melee feature in the top30. Yet again, no Nightblades and no Soldiers here. Spellbinder’s defense multiplied by the Veilkeeper’s raw stats and regen cushion give enough headway for you to dare equip yourself with melee weapons. The build has stellar tank (that you still need to manage), decent AoE and very good solo dmg. No extra movement skill probably drop it by 10 positions in the list, if not more. It is what it is.
30. Spellscourge Battlemage
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SR30-31, x5 runs by nofika Callagadra, 1:45 by banana
The only physical dmg build pulled up by the straps onto the last wagon of the departing train of this top. Avenger, Markovian, Warborn - everything else has fallen. But the unconditional tank of Scourge will always grant it a passage (even if at turtle’s pace) to the cruel world of Cairn that applies the most magical nerfs to the most non-magical dmg type, beyond the understanding of mortals.
31. Harbinger Conjurer
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Upheaval version vs Crate, 0:09 by roman Upheaval version vs Callagadra, 0:57 by roman
The one and only pew-pew build to have the “top” badge, saved by Doom Bolt buffs. Former AA focused build got refurbished with a nifty Aeon-DB combo to have that sweet burst against single targets. Bonus max res, Possession and cdr boosted Korvaak proc hold the defence part. Top20 testing afterparty discovered that it can be played with Upheaval instead of WPS. It allows you to drop all WPS-enabling subpar items to get massive OA and further boost Doom Bolt hits: more damage for the price of an expensive shoulder piece.