Disclaimer: This is NOT A time dilation build.
update: silic achieved average 28s dummy kills using this setup with his gear (ie. better than mine), similar to his BM. so single target dps should roughly be equal between these two.
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This is a proc based build focusing on pierce/acid/poison damage types with a playstyle similar to blademaster. The main difference being a 18/8 nidalla’s hidden hand combined with occultist’s psn/acid enhancers to make the DW procs much more powerful along with stacking poison dot.
procs include falconswoop, manticore, blades of wrath, mad queen’s claw + deathmarked claw swipes. kilrithians shattered soul. falconswoop even though lower damage with 1h weapons, procs very easily due to fast + aoe attacks bound to beronath’s fury + able to double proc from belgothian’s carnage, this complements the mild lack of aoe in traditional BM style builds.
offense: This build is fairly well balanced with a mix of burst - 25/16 shadowstrike x 2. AOE: falconswoop,madqueen/deathmarked weapon procs, as well as powerful poison/acid enhanced shears/whirling death by 18/8 NHH. some fire and forget damage with bladespirit procs and poison dot.
defense: hp is on the low side but with 12% dmg absorb and 12% phys resist, along with decent all around resists the mitigation is acceptable. mark of divinity offers a godly fail safe that allows for reckless play.
My philosophy with builds have generally been quality of life over full dps. As I do not want every farm run to be “finger firmly on bladebarrier, ass firmly in chair” type of thing, to this end mark of divinity’s 3sec autoproc immunity was the perfect answer and in this build it doesn’t require much sacrifice to use it.
For dps junkies, as far as single target dps, in my regular mark of divinity setup. using a nonmaxed blades of wrath at 13/15. my dummy kill time is about 32sec. rest of my gear is average. The best blademaster dummy time i’m aware of is 26sec from silic’s well geared BM. So i don’t think this build beats BMs on single target but its close, the AOE should be a bit stronger.
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Special thanks to the tall handsome individual who gave me a deathmarked shoulder to test this build since this item is harder to find than nemo - and to others who offered <3 . Also various inspiration obtained from discussions with blademasters/BM threads.
[v1.0.0.4]Video: Full BoC run with a 10s shar’zul kill
[v1.0.0.4]Video: 8sec fabius kill
[v1.0.0.4]Video: Mad queen kill - she hits melee hard so i switch to a more defensive setup with a lifegiver ring + chariot over blades of wrath. In this setup she took 20s, in normal dps setup she takes 15sec. not sure if she has high psn/acid resist or not.
GrimCalc, With +skills. +1 occultist +5 nightblade and a few singles; more offensive devotion with blades of wrath. Last point can go to either left over one in blades of wrath node depending whether u want +human dmg/psn resist
http://grimcalc.com/build/OtFJT2A
Gameplay:
LMB: Beronath’s fury (devotion ability falconswoop)
RMB: Blitz Shadowstrike
keyboard 1: bladespirit (Devotion ability blades of wrath)
keyboard 2: shadowstrike (devotion ability manticore)
mousewheel up: Pneumatic burst
mousewheel down: ring of steel
middle mouse: blood of dreeg
keyboard 3: bladebarrier
Whirling death - devotion ability assassin’s mark
Shadowstrike to the middle of the pack, pop ring of steel for CC when things get close, then spam keyboard 1+2 while holding down LMB. madqueen claw proc is pretty strong lifesteal as long as ur in the middle of everything. try to aim bladespirits on top of packs/fat monsters.
can play pretty recklessly when mark of divinity is not on CD, when its on CD can be a bit more careful.
DO NOT RUN when mark of divinity procs…if there is every a time to be manly it is now.
Vs. bosses, time your potion/PB/blood of dreeg heals. when jumping into middle of huge pack of BoC trash, i sometimes randomly spam them preemptively. The mainthing that can be dangerous in BoC is the little red guys that make u fumble, which slows ur killing speed and lifeleech, so pay attention it / kill them first. and don’t sit on HUGE piles of red chaos crap on the floor for extended periods of time, thats pretty much only way you can die in BoC.
Shar’zul Tips: pretty much just zerg. keep up ring of steel debuff, drop bladespirits right on top of him. he might proc your mark, just keep dpsing through, if mark is down and u drop low u can pop bladebarrier the nice thing about this is that your poison dots will still tick and bladespirit still proc shotgun while u reflect some of his damage.
Mad queen tips: she can burst pretty hard, i switch to the more defensive setup as below. also dont use blades of wrath courtesy of Nine she has some sort of projectile retaliation aura.
Gearing:
Head:Deathmarked Hood sancified bone or leathery hide
Shoulders: Deathmarked Shoulderpads scaled hide
Chest: Deathmarked Chest Kilrithian’s shattered soul
hand: Viperfang Grips unholy inscription,
Leg: Nidalla’s Legwraps scaled hide
Relic: Belgothian’s Carnage
Weapon #1Mad queen’s claw Shard of beronath, flat acid damage augment.
Weapon #2Deathmarked Claw flat acid damage augment + imbued silver or vicious spikes or haunted steel
Ring #1: random corpse dust or ectoplasm +survivors ingenuity
Ring #2: random corpse dust or ectoplasm +survivors ingenuity
Neck: Peerless Eye of Beronath Dread skull, survivors ingenuity [/b]
Belt: Spellbreaker Waistguard
Boots: Golemborn Greaves Mark of mogdrogen
Medal: Mark of Divinity Arcane Spark
I do not list resist augments as they depend on what rings you have.
An alternate more defensive setup = putting on a lifegiver ring with kymon’s will enchant to reduce enemy dmg. along with moving 6 points from blades of wrath node to chariot. i use the defensive setup vs. mad queen.
FAQ:
Q: Bro do you even lifesteal?
A: 3% from devo along with “Feral hunger” proc on madqueens claw seems enough for me.
Q: Falconswoop with 1handers, you high?
A: its actually quite strong given on often you proc it due to super fast attackspeed on LMB, you can also double proc from belgothian’s reset. The 3points purple/green works out perfectly when speccing. as prereqs.
Q: Why do you keep making blademaster wannabe’s?
A: if you can’t beat them join them.
Q: LOL occultist with no CoF … LOLOLOL
A: just don’t have the points, too many things to click as is and it doesnt reduce pierce resist:(
Leveling guide:
You can start with DW Nightblade but its a bit of a bitch in the beginning. you can alternatively use 2hander with 3sec cd phantasmal blades until 30+ then switch to DW. DW will be squishy initially because of low hp, make sure u wear good armor with scaled hides. Much eaiser if you twink a bit.
personally never used occultist to level before but per others it seems to be pretty good:
In closing:
Nerf static strike.
Did you try with and without ring of steel? I am guessing you did, but I just found it to be not worth though not really much else you can do with the points