Death Hammer
Note: Screenshot was made with permanent buffs
Build setup
Gear setup
You can use crafting bonusses on helm and medal to close the gap in stun resistance.
- Targo’s Craft pieces - grants us skill bonusses for BA, resistances and OA boost
- Gutsmasher - probably the best 2H legendary weapon for physical Blade Arc
- Mogara’s Fangs - grants us mode on flat physical BA damage and resistances. In patch 1.1.7.0 physical BA mode on Conduit of Warring Wishpers was replaced by cold mode.
- Mythical Ring of the Black Matriarch - grants us physical RR, resistances and % AS bonusses
- Mythical Menhirian - grants use useful resistances and arnor bonusses
- Mythical Grasp of Unchained Might - grants us BA skill bonus and boosts the it’s damage
- Mythical Chausses of Barbaros - grants us flat OA, chaos resistence and nice proc
- Mythical Gladiator’s Distinction - is used to get more sources of flat physical damage as well as resistances and OA bonusses.
- Balthazar’s Crest - grants us flat damage mode on BA and helps to max Laceration. Mark of Consumption can be used as alternative to max BA, OA and to get some ADctH bonus.
- Mythical Boneshatter Treads - grants us not only physical damage support, but also resistences (in particular slow and physical) and flat OA
- Oleron’s Wrath - grants us flat damage and flat OA bonusses and allowes to get +1 to Laceration
Devotions setup
Skills setup
Soldier mastery
Necromancer mastery
Damage: Physical
Active skills: Blade Arc, Bone Harvest, Eldritch Instability, Ill Omen, War Cry, Mark of Torment
Passive skills: Field Command, Spectral Binding
WPS : None
Build concept:
It’s an alternative build setup of DK on physical spam BA using Soul Harvest and Ulzaad’s Decree to boost BA damage.
I was looking for DK builds on blade arc and found interesting build from @grey-maybe. That build was focused on using Korvan Celestial Halberd with Bloodrager’s Endless Frenzy set and I thought what if we use Targo’s Craft pieces with Gutsmasher instead?
Credits to: @grey-maybe for the help with improving build setup, polishing the build and testing it in Shards.
Pros:
- Good DPS and damage
- No problems with main campaign content
- No green items in gear setup
- High armor
- Build close 75th Shard and should complete 170 wave as well
Cons:
- No skills disraption resistence
- Lack of crit damage - can be an issue for high Shards or for high waves in Crucible
- Low attack speed
- Low physical resistance - it’s partially compensated by high armor
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Didn’t test the build against super bosses - have no idea if the build can handle them or not
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–DESCLAIMER–BEGIN–
I use GD Stash to test build concepts and to reveal build true power or to discover potential build support issues. So please keep in mind that the next two builds are posted with gear rolls pretty close to the best.
Most of my builds are focused on main campaign content since build concepts not always allow to complete greater challenges.
–DESCLAIMER–END–
Brothers in Death - Death Keeper
Note: Screenshot was made with permanent buffs
Build setup
Gear setup
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The Blood Knight set - best choice for vitality Death Knight builds: boosts damage and grants RR.
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Mythical Wildblood Crusher - probably the best 2H weapon for vitality DK builds; Nightbringer could be interesting option but grants less flat damage and has no attack speed bonus.
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Mythical Blackwatch Seal rings - grant us skill bonus for Cadence, flat OA and resistences.
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Mythical Voidrend Talons - since the weapon doesn’t have physical damage and we have low (25% in total) physical to vitality damage conversion, the gloves will boost Cadence vitality damage due to % WD bonus modifier.
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Mythical Chausses of Barbaros - grants us flat OA, chaos resistence and nice proc.
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Mythical Girdle of Stolen Dreams - grants us OA and Bone Harvest skill bonus, as alternative you can use Mythical Dreadweave Girdle
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Mythical Mark of Kalastor - to close gap in resistences and to get some OA as bonus.
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Mythical Boneshatter Treads - grants us not only vitality damage support, but also resistences (in particular slow and physical) and flat OA.
Devotions setup
Skills setup
Soldier mastery
Necromancer mastery
Damage: Vitality & Decay
Active skills: Cadence, Bone Harvest, Dreeg’s Wounds, Ill Omen, War Cry, Bloodthrister, Mark of Torment
Passive skills: Field Command, Counter Strike, Spectral Binding, Harbinger of Souls, Soul of Nazarn
WPS: Zolhan’s Technique, Reaping Strike and Necrotic Edge
Build concept: Melee 2h vitality Death Knight using Cadence as main attack spam skill and boosting damage from Soul Harvest, Hungering Void and other sources
Credits to: @Archangel2245 for testing build in Shards and providing feedback, @SKS000 for skills adjustment proposal.
Pros:
- Good DPS and damage
- No problems with main campaign content
- No green items in gear setup
- High armor and life steal values
- Good physical resistence
- Build can complete 65th Shard, but it won’t be an easy walk
Cons:
- No skills disraption resistence
- Lack of AoE and crit damage - can be an issue for high Shards or for high waves in Crucible
- Killing speed isn’t so high as for some other builds like lightning Warder
- Chupacabra can cause some problems if you fight against the Nemesis with mutators on Health and Health regen boost active
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Energy regen could be sometimes an issue
- Didn’t test the build against super bosses - have no idea if the build can handle them or not
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Brothers in Death - Death Executioner
Note:
- Screenshot was made with permanent buffs
- The helm was crafted to get stun resistence bonus, so stun resistence with good rolls on gear should be 80-81%
Build setup
Gear setup
The setup is similar to previous build except the following items:
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Mythical Signet of the Fallen - grants us RR, attack speed and boost for vitality damage
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Mythical Cursebearer - RR source and resistances with boost for vitality damage
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Mythical Wendigomane Leggings - grants us OA bonus and boost for vitality damage as well as useful resistences
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Mythical String of Maggots - grants us damage boost and useful resistances as well as bonus for Necromancer mastery skills
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Mark of Plagius - to cover gap in resistances and to get to boost OA and damage
Devotions setup
Skills setup
Soldier mastery
Necromancer mastery
Damage: Vitality & Decay
Active skills: Reaping Arc, Bone Harvest, Dreeg’s Wounds, Ill Omen, War Cry, Bloodthrister, Mark of Torment
Passive skills: Field Command, Counter Strike, Spectral Binding, Harbinger of Souls, Soul of Nazarn
WPS: No
Build concept: Melee 2h vitality Death Knight using spam Reaper Arc as main attack spam skill and boosting damage from Soul Harvest, Hungering Void and other sources
Credits to: @Stupid_Dragon for constructive discussion and valuable advices for build improvement.
Pros:
- Good DPS and damage
- No problems with main campaign content
- Good armor and life steal values
- Good physical resistence
Cons:
- Low skills disraption resistence
- Lack of crit damage - can be an issue for high Shards or for high waves in Crucible
- Killing speed isn’t so high as for some other builds like lightning Warder
- Chupacabra can cause some problems if you fight against the Nemesis with mutators on Health and Health regen boost active
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Energy regen could be sometimes an issue
- Didn’t test the build against super bosses - have no idea if the build can handle them or not
=====================
–DESCLAIMER–BEGIN–
I use GD Stash to test build concepts and to find out how good it can be. So please keep in mind that the next build was posted with gear rolls pretty close to the best.
–DESCLAIMER–END–
Death Knight - Morgoneth’s Cold Fury
Note: Screenshot was made with permanent buffs
Note: Screenshot was made with permanent buffs and all temporal buffs
>> Grim Tools Calc with alternative devotions setup <<
Build setup
Gear setup
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Armor of the Eternal Night set - grants us not only cold damage support and resistances, but also 25% RR on skill mod for Ill Omen. The last one is important since both masteries by default don’t have cold RR.
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Mythical Executioner’s Judgment - we use it to boost Cadence cold damage and to get % AS bonus as well.
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Mythical Dreadweavers - these scepters are the core of the build. It grants us solid support for cold Bone Harvest and skills bonuses for Necromancer & Soldier masteries
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Mythical Band of the Eternal Haunt - grants us one more source of cold RR
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Alkamos’ Touch of Dread - to boost our OA and to also to get some cold flat damage and % AS. In alternative devotions setup with Leviathan we use Misery of Alkamos rings set to compensate the loss of OA.
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Mythical Chausses of Barbaros - mainly used for high OA bonus, it’s important due to low OA, % physical resistance and for proc boosting our damage that is low under permanent buffs.
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Mythical Boneshatter Treads - grants us OA bonus and nice resistances bonus as well
Spiritseeker Cord - grants us cold damage support and skills bonus for Necromancer mastery.
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Iskandra’s Balance - grants us not only % AS bonus, but more important the relic provides solid boost to our damage helping build to fight against strong mobs (Alkamos, Moosilauke and etc) with high cold resistance.
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Mythical Direwolf Crest - grants us ability to to dual wield melee weapons
Devotions setup
Alternative Devotions setup with Leviathan
Skills setup
Soldier mastery
Necromancer mastery
Damage: Cold
Active skills: Cadence, Bone Harvest, Ill Omen, War Cry, Bloodthrister, Mark of Torment, Amatok’s Breath
Passive skills: Field Command, Spectral Binding, Harbinger of Souls, Chilling Weapon
WPS: Reaping Strike and Necrotic Edge
Build concept: Melee dual cold Death Knight based on Mythical Dreadweaver scepters and Armor of the Eternal Night set. This is the rebirth of my AoM cold DK build for FG.
Cadence and BH are our main attack skills. We use Deadly Momentum and Soul Harvest to boost our damage and Necromancer’s WPS to improve the DPS. You can also try to reinvest few skill points into Zolhan’s Technique to increase WPS pool.
Credits to: @Stupid_Dragon for neat idea to use Morgoneth’s set to get more RR.
Pros:
- Good DPS and damage in campaign for this kind of builds
- Can complete main campaign content and dungeons
- No green items in gear setup
- High armor and life steal values
Cons:
- No skills disraption resistence
- Lack of RR for cold - lower damage and cleaning time compared to other class combinations like Reaper
- Low attack speed - the gloves don’t have % AS bonus
- Low physical resistance
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Energy regen is an issue - cold be fixed by using Royal Jelly Extract
AoM: Death Knight - Cold Fury
Note: Screenshot was made with permanent and temporal buffs
Damage: Cold
Active skills: Cadence, Bone Harvest, Blitz, Ill Omen, War Cry, Bloodthrister, Mark of Torment
Passive skills: Field Command, Spectral Binding, Harbinger of Souls, Chilling Weapon, Frostdread Presence
WPS : Reaping Strike and Necrotic Edge
Pros:
- Good DPS and damage
- No green items in gear setup
- High armor and life steal values
Cons:
- No skills disraption resistence
- Lack of RR for cold - lower damage and cleaning time compared to other class combinations like Reaper
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Energy regen could be sometimes an issue.
Gameplay (campaign)
So far there were no cold DK builds. So I decided to try to craft such build. Build concept is based on Mythical Dreadweavers usage - it give us flat cold damage for auto attack, sweet skill mod for BH and War Cry.
Cadence and BH are our main attack skills. We use Deadly Momentum and Soul Harvest to boost our damage. Gameplay is pretty nice and not tense. Cold DK ofcause is not such effective and deadly as other cold builds having more sources of RR and cold damage boost, but is good enough.
The build is tanky on the one hand and has good cleaning time (fighting) on the other hand. BH can be used to kill running away mobs under fear effect - I didn’t have any problems with it. Since some resistences are not overcapped (for example fire resist), you may need to use potion in fights against some strong enemies like Gargabol. Sometimes you could have issue with lack of mana.
Max damage dealt was 207K. Under buffs cadence damage can be boosted up to 75700 cold and 5000 frostburn; BH - up to 71400 cold and 11000 frostburn.
Credits to Archangel2245 for gameplay video from test runs; to John Smith and Safarel for help with polishing build concept!
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Reaper - Cold touch of Death
Damage: Cold
Active skills: Beronath’s Fury, Bone Harvest, Shadow Strike, PB, ABB, RoS, Mark of Torment, Bloodthrister
Passive skills: Veil of Shadow, Spectral Binding, Harbinger of Souls
Pros:
- Solid damage and good DPS
- No green items in gear setup
- Solid life steal
- High RR
Cons:
- No skills disraption resistence
- Glass build - “on the edge gameplay”
- Some resistences are not overcapped
- Energy regen could be an issue.
Gameplay (campaign)
To my knowledge there were no dual wield cold Reaper builds so far. So I decided to try such type of Reaper build. Build concept is based on boosting cold BH damage by using Mythical Dreadweavers, Mythical Dreadchill Mark and Mythical Iceskorn Talos.
Main source of damage is given by BH with ABB combination. We use Beronath’s Fury as auto attack to trigger WPS while waiting for BH CD. Gameplay is pretty cheerful on the one hand and edgy on the other. Build requires good reaction and piloting skills to unleash the potential. The damage outcome is pretty good. Max damage dealt I got was 334K. Under buffs BH damage can be boosted up to ~84K cold and ~15K frostburn.
Credits to Archangel2245 for gameplay video from test runs; to mad_lee for the build request and John Smith for help in build adjustment!