Don’t have what it takes to be a blademaster? Haven’t gotten and never will get [COLOR=“Purple”]Deathmarked Shoulderguard because everyone and their sister wants it in trade? Worry not, you can always be a poser like me.
[i] This is a DW shadowstrike build focusing on cold dmg and CDR while still making the most of the pierce component of the skill as possible. In addition, due to shadowstrike+DW line mostly being single target, we seek to maximize AOE dmg by using both deathmarked weapon’s no CD procs and AOE dmg over time abilities such as flash freeze+whirlpool to trigger them.
Belgothian’s Carnage relic will reduce active cooldowns by 2s when proc on a 3s CD, main ones this affects: shadowstrike, pneumatic burst, flash freeze, whirlpool, mirror. We have 11% CDR from starpact in addition, so we get a double shadowstrike every time relic procs and a 2s or so cooldown when relic proc is down.
The idea is that damage output is so high that a 3sec mirror and flash freeze CC is enough to loldps out of almost any situation like huge deathrooms or sharzul enrage. In the event mirror expires and u still drop low, use bladebarrier as the oh shit button when it ends shadowstrike/pneumatic burst will be up again.
Finally special thanks to the same tall handsome individual who gave me a Belgothian’s Carnage, as well as inspiration obtained from various blademaster threads as well as discussions with blademaster players.
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[v1.0.0.2]Video: 8min BoC run, with trash clear, killing nearly every white mob in the way
[v1.0.0.2]Video: 9sec fabius kill
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Without +skills. With devotions. Not essential to overcap max nidalla’s hidden hand, some points can be moved elsewhere as needed.
http://grimcalc.com/build/z956YN
Gameplay:
LMB: Beronath’s Fury (devotion ability Assassin’s Mark)
RMB: Shadowstrike (devotion ability whirlpool)
midmouse: health potion
mousewheel up: Pneumatic Burst
mousewheel down: Shadowstrike (devotion ability whirlpool)
keyboard 1 - Ring of steel
keyboard 2 - Olexra’s Flash Freeze
keyboard 3 - Mirror of ereoctes
keyboard 4 - blade barrier
hold left click and keep rolling ur mousewheel down, this will cast shadowstrike everytime its up, and double cast when relic refresh without interfering with ur beronath’s fury LMB. if you are lazy u can roll mousewheel up and down all the time to PB heal on CD since it has a very short cd with BC + starpact.
Use ring of steel on bosses for the fumble, use flash freeze +/- ring of steel on trash. try to get in the middle of everything for your aoes to hit+lifesteal.
devotion ability living shadow can be binded to amarasta’s quick cut of whirling death
Shar’zul Tips: zerg, when he starts to hit you hard, pop mirror and keep going, if mirror ends and he’s not dead, pop bladebarrier when he hits u again, he’ll do alot of reflect dmg to himself, by the time bladebarrier goes down ur shadowstrike+pneumatic burst is up again, and you should be able to finish him, if not feel free to kite a bit - shadowstrike when CD is up, run when its not. keep up ring of steel for fumble when tanking
Fabius tips: drop a tp incase u crit his bladebarrier with shadowstrike ^_^. i only left 1 point in maiven to max anatomy murder since i don’t really need it vs him.
Gearing:
I switch to shadowstalker’s belt vs fabius but its not required by anymeans. Ring #2 is flexible, there are lots of good yellows/greens, prioritize OA/flat cold or pierce dmg/+1 shadowstrike/hp/%hp. Or use amaratan sigil if your lazy to vendor run.
Head: Deathmarked Hood sancified bone or leatherhide + 15 psn resist augment
Shoulders: Chilldread Mantlemoltenskin+15 psn resist augment
Chest: Deathmarked Jacket chains of oleron + 15 psn resist augment
hand: Elite Harvest Grips unholy inscription + 15psn resist augment
Leg: Empowered Legplates of Valor silk swatch or scaled hide+ 15 psn resist augment.
Relic: Belgothian’s Carnage - ideally with +1 Night’s chill
Weapon #1Deathmarked Claw Shard of beronath+black legion 30% reduce enemy resist augment
Weapon #2Deathmarked Decapitator imbued silver or coldstone+black legion pierce/cold dmg augment
Ring #1: Lifegiver signet ectoplasm +sanctity of mogdrogen augment
Ring #2: flexible, see above corpse dust or +sanctity of mogdrogen augment
Neck: Peerless eye of Beronath arcane spark + Kymon’s reduce enemy dmg augment <- very important, since our spam is >100% weapon dmg, this enchant effectively a free warcry with no cooldown or casting animation.
Belt: Spellbreaker Waistguard antivenom salve + 15psn resist augment
Boots: Elite Rhowari Greavesmark of mogdrogen + 15 psn resist augment
Medal: Blackstar of deceit black tallow or arcanespark
Note the faction green gear - you can keep remaking game to roll the best stats on them before you buy.
Devotions:
see grim calc, we maximize both cold/pierce portions of shadowstrike’s dmg by leviathan + unknown soldier, whirlpool is also a decent aoe skill that helps proc deathmarked weapon abilities
Leveling guide:
you can do prm/devastation or phantasmal blades/devastation. option to switch to obsidian juggernaught at lvl 58
In closing:
Did alot of theorycraft for going arcanist or soldier as the support mastery for this build.
In the end i feel both are fine here are the pros/cons of both:
DPS: Damage is about the same, arcanist nerfs dmg with maiven but buffs it back with extra spirit and starpact.
survivability: Soldier is somewhat tankier but arcanist has more CC and 3sec godmode.
Quality of life: Soldier has more movespeed while arcanist has better mana management.
Other: Soldier has more OA but arcanist has more CDR.
I chose spellbreaker mostly because im just not good enough to be a blademaster, and also 3sec godmode with mirror is super great for a big dps build like this:)
my gear is no where near optimized, alot of shitty rolls on stuff, random yellow ring/trash roll amarastan sigil etc. you can probably get alot more out of this build with better rolled gear.
Happy Critting.