Level 24 currently and progress has really started to slow down. My OA seems to be too low, most of the hits (standard attack as well as ABB) are either missed, blocked or dodged and some enemies seem to be very resistent to cold damage/frostburn - Frost Revenants, for example (and I assume Moosilauke should be avoided later on?). I’m not sure where I should get OA from at this level?
Looking forward to seeing the new update of this build. My summoner died so I ll try this one as I never played either soldier, nightblade or cold dmg.
I wonder if Korba items are good or Alkamos rings will be mentioned. (Prolly you need 100 runs to get 2 rings).
That stoneplate boots thing is a new recipe added in exp. Do note that even with recent tweaks it is still not so common to get good double rare greens.
The GrimTool build was theory crafted as I do not actually have many of those gears.
This build is flexible on gear choice, the point is to have something with high res in shoe slot and topping up the rest accordingly. I myself is running on Stonehide stoneplate boots of frostbite, and have no problem capping all res with some tweaks on arguments and components.
Oleron’s chain, unholy inscription and blessed steel are all good sources of OA. as for cold resistant mobs -I ll say just skip them atm.
Later in the game though, as you got more sources for RR, most cold resistant mobs can be easily dealt with. as for Moosilauke, i do feel slightly more difficult than other nemesis, but can face tank anyway:p.
Alkamos rings -they provide really great boost to cold dmg and gives quite a bit of skill pts. They are very good.
but 30 SOT runs not seeing one single purple is plain madness, so i personally always refrain from using those rings in my build.
Korba set is mostly irrelevant I believe.
Been looking at it quickly myself and it seems that at times it is just 1 point in the Mastery bar and the rest in the skills … and during other parts it requires more then 1 point into the Mastery bar for a few levels.
So I think I got it, I am curious to see how this build levels. 
Still I am not sure if I should start this build already, since the author is going to update it now that AoM is out?
Couple things…
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Feel free to start leveling this guy, the build up until level 85+ is basically the same as pre-expansion, except Murmur devotion should be gotten after Crown but before Amatok. It doesn’t really matter how you allocate the points between skills and masteries as long as it looks like the guide by the time you hit your 10 level checkpoint. I prefer 2 points active skills / 1 point mastery until they’re maxed, then 1 point passive skill / 2 points masteries.
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The effectiveness of the build has power spikes when you unlock certain abilities/devotions, and in between power spikes it relies on things like components/relics. Those power spikes are…
ABB
Tsunami
Elemental Storm
Nightfall
Rumor
Blizzard
Whirlpool
Between Tsunami and Elemental Storm is probably the slowest the build gets. In-game, this typically is from Warden’s Cellar to the beginning of Arkovia. You’ll really rely on the Chipped or Severed Claw / Battered Shell components for more DPS, Blessed Steel if you have it is even better. It still shouldn’t be that slow going though. If you have the Glacier relic recipe, it really pulls its weight throughout this section. By the time you hit Frost Revenants you should be getting the 11th shrine (the one right by the entrance to the Arkovia dungeon), and when you do you should take out all your devotion points to get Spider, Hammer, and first 3 in Crown to get Elemental Storm. This skill is very powerful and should help you mow through everyone all the way to Homestead and more.
Okay, thank you very much Ryzel.
What should I bind Rumor to? Ring of Steel?
By the time you get it you should have SS and ABB. Leave Elemental Storm on ABB and put Rumor on SS. Blizzard to Blade Spirit. By the time you get Whirlpool you should have Blitz, so at that time put Whirlpool on SS and switch Rumor to Blitz.
Could you make a little video, I would like to see how this build is played before spending too much iron for resetting skillpoints Thank you very much for your help.
Took my (sub-optimal not fully geared)char to gladiator crucible, solo cheesed all the way til wave 80-90 without buying buff. And after that it was still very doable with buff and defense, and more concentration.
There were quite a few nasty enemies in gladiator, and significantly more panic moments, but I see the potential. This build might become a quite reliable solo crucible farmer after fully geared.:rolleyes:
TBF playstyle of this build is really, really strait forward. One of the simpler build indeed.
-Use Blitz or Shadow Strike to close distance, use ABB as primary attack, insert Ring of Steel and Shadow Strike into the rotation, summon Blade Spirit every now and then. Once RR procs everything should go down pretty fast.
-For tougher enemies use Oleron’s Might actively. For enemies with high cold res use Blitz and Seigebreaker for a bit of extra physical dmg.
-For defense use Overguard whenever it’s needed. BB is your oh-shit panic button, if possible you may want to refresh Blade Spirit before using BB. for PB it requires timing, think of it as more of an active healing rather than a buff.
My personal setup is:
Honestly most of the time just mindlessly spam all buttons will do. not joking.
Yes thank you Aliba, it’s basically a faceroll build (a.k.a. you just roll your face across the keyboard). But with SS and Blitz you’re very mobile, which helps a lot in Crucible.
As for updates, it’s slow going. Before the expansion it was pretty simple to decide what was the best gear because we were essentially looking for Cold RR and Frostburn procs in that order. Now though, there’s a lot more access to RR making it less important and several hard choices need to be made between…
Base damage X RR X %Damage Frostburn
Basically whichever gear gives the greatest relative impact to those is the best. For example, for the weapon slot, Mythical Crescent Moon is an obvious choice for Cold RR, but Mythical Beacon of Winter’s Veil now gives a hefty flat Frostburn damage bonus (140/sec) which when magnified with Oleron’s Blood becomes 490/sec. That in itself may be a larger boost to relative base damage (from sources in skills/masteries + devotions) than the Crescent Moon RR boost would be to base RR (Crown + Night’s Chill + Rumor). On top of that, Mythical Frigid Barrel of the Relentless North has a 10% chance for +1960% Frostburn damage (!) which, because of the way DoTs work, would essentially double all my Frostburn damage around half the time. So that Mythical epic may actually be more BiS than the other legendaries.
There’s similar difficult comparisons that need to be made in other gear slots (Venomancer’s Guile possibly instead of Clairvoyant Hat because even though it’s an Acid helm it has a Frostburn damage proc, finding a different gear slot to boost resistances so that you can equip Galewind Treads, etc.). It requires a lot of number crunching and testing that I don’t really have time for ATM. Anyone interested in helping is certainly more than welcome to, I can further explain how to help =)
Thanks for helping. It got a loooot easier but I cant pass diablo (expansion boss). He deals a lot of dmg to me. Im level 54 and I tried to follow your guide , what could I improve at my level?
Here are the screenshots: http://steamcommunity.com/id/johnnyclaymore/screenshots/?appid=219990
Hmm perhaps I should take some time in elite…
Um, are those screenshots with the skills correct? You should definitely not have any points in the dual blades line for starters, and you should have Nightfall maxed at this point. You should also have Rumor from Murmur before working on Amatok. For reference check out either page 4 or page 8.
TBH I haven’t gotten any farther than Gloomwald for new expansion content yet so I don’t know what boss you’re talking about, but if those skill/devotion screenshots are correct I think that will be the first place to start fixing problems.
Sorry now skills should be right?
Ah I see, thanks.
Your skills certainly look about right. What exactly is the problem with this boss? It seems you’ve been unfortunate with loot drops so if he’s got some heal that you can’t out-DPS that can certainly be an issue. If that’s the case, you may need to come back when you have more Frostburn procs on your gear.
If you’re actually getting killed, I would recommend taking points out of Field Command and possibly even Nightfall and get Menhir’s Bulwark up to 10 or 12, max Overguard, and put points in Shield Training. Those three along with PB and heal pots should keep you alive though anything Veteran can throw at you.
I am going to try to test the Frigid Barrel right now. This eliminates the use of Blitz and, more importantly, Shadow Strike. Any other tweaks you have in mind before i do some playtesting on this setup?
Oh yeah I’m an idiot… forgot you can’t use SS and Blitz. Take those points and max ABB, Lethal Assault, get 1 point RoS with enough points in CoS to get like 25% Fumble, and put the rest in either Fighting Spirit/Scars of Battle/Military Conditioning/War Cry. Bind Whirlpool to Oleron’s Might and Rumor to RoS or Siegebreaker skill.
The lack of Nightfall will be a non-trivial lowering of Base Frostburn damage, so you’ll probably need as many Frostburn damage procs from gear as possible to make the most of the gun. That extra 2k percent damage though should be noticeable.
Ryzel but wouldnt this build with just the mythical equivalents of original items be great too? Or not ”good” enough?
Can confirm, simply replacing items with mythical ver. is indeed still awesome. However this will not result in an optimal build.
With a)numerical increase in many mythical items, b)new items, c)skill modifiers on mythical items and d)21 additional skill points, there are a lot more possibilities in gear choice and finding BiS involves a lot more work.
Aliba is correct. The thing is that this build relies heavily on Frostburn procs from gear to have a decent kill/clear speed in the final Ultimate parts of the game. A lot of mythical items remove their procs to add skill modifiers, so the mythical item may actually be worse (Mark of Dark Dreams is a great example of this). You also have skill modifiers like on Mythical Iceskorn Talons that drastically alter the priorities of skills (get ABB to 26/16 if possible).