[v1] The Maelstrom

Tear your enemies asunder with the pure power of the heavens!

The Maelstrom: Full-Release Version!

Build Overview and Gameplay Commentary: https://youtu.be/LI3fTjyHu4E

The third iteration of the Maelstrom build was the most popular build I’ve made to-date. Its tremendous electrifying power obliterated the toughest foes of Cairn with ease.

Come Build 31 and the full release of the game, melee as a whole has been made slightly worse for wear, but that’s a different tale. Despite this, the Maelstrom has held its own, going toe-to-toe with whatever cruel machinations the Crate Overlords could come up with.

At the Edge of All-Reality and Sanity, the Maelstrom has reigned supreme.

Final Skilltree: Grimcalc | Grimcalc with Gear Bonuses

Attribute Distribution:
Physique: 69
Cunning: 3
Spirit: 15

Use less/more Cunning/Spirit as your gear rolls require. Preferably, more would be spent in Physique.

Leveling Progression:
Level 10
Level 20
Level 30
Level 40 (ish)
Level 50
Level 60
Level 70
Level 75

Devotion Progression:
Start off taking a point in the Chaos Crossroads, then maxing out both Vulture and Jackal. You can spec Viper as well, but its bonuses are not likely to be immediately helpful as its unlikely you’ll have much Elemental damage to work with early on.

From there, take the Order Crossroads and pick up Dryad as soon as you’re able so as to level it up as soon as possible, assigning it to Fire Strike. Move on to Panther from there. By the time you’ve done all this, you should have a decent enough supply of Elemental Damage to make working with Viper worthwhile; pick it up, and in doing so you’ll unlock Targo the Builder, which can give you a substantial defensive edge on content.

It’s up to you when it comes to deciding what to do next, and mostly comes down to your gearing. If you find yourself wanting for more health to make the most of the Dryad healing, go for Behemoth (taking Hawk along the way for the affinity); it mostly does not matter which buff you assign Behemoth’s granted skill to. On the other hand, if you think you need more resists, pick up Ulo, Keeper of the Waters and Empty Throne. Finally, go for Revenant to round out your offensive and defensive potential.

In either case, I’d do Wraith/Tempest last, as they don’t contribute especially much to the build except to offer a final means of pumping up your damage. An alternative strategy to all of this could be to take Wraith and Viper early on, which could prove somewhat powerful, but I think the defensive route is generally a better idea.

Build Concepts:
Electrifying Assault: Ignoring overleveling skills, Static Strike gives more Lightning Damage (on average) than the combined values on the entirety of the remainder of the Fire Strike line. This in mind, and because Fire Strike can overlay and empower the Dual-Wield procs of the Nightblade mastery, we can surge an atrocious amount of electrical power toward the enemies of the game with a combination of martial and lightning procs. We combine Static Strike’s proc chance with that of the Chain Lightnings on Stormhearts and the Lightning Bolt on Mantle of Mogdrogen to unleash a never-ending stream of electrical power.

Tactical Superiority: Canister Bomb Stun? Check. Ring of Frost Freeze? Check. Flashbang, Blade Trap, Shadow Dance, Veil of Shadows…the list goes on and on. Point being, the Maelstrom has in its arsenal a vast array of offensive and defensive tricks to use against the enemies of Cairn. Topping it all off in the full-release version? Sacred Strike (from Blessed Steel) and Oleron’s Might (from Oleron’s Blood). We can use Blessed Steel to nuke our enemies’ resistances down (in conjunction with the reduced resistances on Viper) to melt through even heavily-resistant mobs and bosses. Oleron’s Blood, on the other hand, can be used to debuff enemies’ offensive potential with a 20% Reduced Damage debuff. These two skills combined significantly improve the build’s power against single targets.

An Empowering Skillcap: While the build is strong enough to cater to casual play, its true potential is unlocked the more familiar with it you are. With a completely-filled hotbar (so filled that I had to remove the health potion icon altogether and rely on its hotkey), the Maelstrom will give you ample opportunities to chain its multitude of skills together to obliterate your foes. Shadow Strike in/out of combat and dodge projectile skills with its movement, chain CC between Shadow Strike/Canister Bomb/Ring of Steel, and chain debuffs between Flashbang/Blessed Steel/Oleron’s Blood, all while managing your health and defenses with Pneumatic Burst.

A Second Chance: Enemies overwhelming you or made a bad judgment call? Mark of Divinity + Tinkerer’s Ingenuity + Avatar of Mercy are there to turn you into an unstoppable force to be reckoned with when you drop to low health. Enter combat with reckless abandon, and emerge stronger than when you engaged.

Gearing:

Relic: Oblivion
Waist: Tinkerer’s Ingenuity Augment: Kingsguard Powder
Feet: Survivalist’s Exalted Treads of Nature’s Bounty Augment: Kingsguard Powder
Hands: Empowered Zealot’s Gauntlets Augment: Mankind’s Vigil
Shoulders: Mantle of Mogdrogen Augment: Outcast’s Warding Powder
Weapons: 2x Stormhearts Augments: Troll Wart Powder
Head: Clairvoyant’s Hat Augment: Mankind’s Vigil
Chest: Resonant Murderer’s Breastplate of Attack Augment: Mankind’s Vigil
Legs: Pretty Great Pants Augment: Kingsguard Powder
Ring 1: Lifegiver Signet Augment: Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Ring 2: Vampiric Imperial Signet of Attack Augment: Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Amulet: Avatar of Mercy Augment: Mogdrogen’s Sanctity
Medal: Mark of Divinity

Daila Thornsbury RP build confirmed.

I heard you had trouble with gazer eyes with this build. Thermite Mines with Elemental Storm might help solve that. Plus it looks insanely cool when they’re together.

I wouldn’t say they pose much of an issue. Their resistance to Lightning is annoying, but thankfully they don’t have much health at all. The raw damage + resist reduction of the build kills them quickly enough, even in Ultimate.

Elemental Storm could be an option I guess, though. Been using it to decent effectiveness on other builds. Will look into it.

does avatar of Mogdrogen drop these shoulders in Elite too? I thought just ultimate.

If so which build did you get them with?

Not sure if he still does but he used to drop them in Normal before we had the extra difficulties

Question, good sir! Is there any sort of devotion priority you’d suggest while leveling? Like some stars that are good to help along that may help the process or maybe target constellations to aim for first?

Can you give some detailed information about devotion ? Like which one to choose first or which devotion skill to assing which skill to use it ?

Wow, the resistances are nearly full

No just in ultimate, he probably got them before the two higher difficulties were in the game.

Getting them today is pretty much impossible, the legendary version at least.

Added! It’s fairly straightforward; you can spec straight for the endgame spec as its all-around very powerful.

Are you sure about that? According to B30 changelog:

Seems like he should drop them in Elite. If he doesn’t, sounds like a bug and should be reported.

Can someone type the name of the augments ?

Added to the main post!

You are awsome !

Ceno has a Devotion section in the prior build thread. I hope he’ll update this thread, but until then, the prior class build thread is:
(B29) Ultimate Heavenly Maelstrom

why go for targo the builder when the skill requires you use a shield?

I doubt he took the skill, he probably just grabbed the 20DA, 6% Health, 8% Health & the 400 Flat Health nodes. I mean who wouldn’t want all that extra health :slight_smile:

Wow, you sure changed the Devotions between B29 and this version. Good thing I can respec cheaply :stuck_out_tongue:

Hmmm… respeccing my Devotions is more complicated than I thought :frowning:

If I remove the points from Tempest, do I lose any progress on Reckless Tempest (currently level 8)? I was hoping to keep that constellation because I don’t want to lose all the progress on Reckless Tempest, but I can’t remove points from Sailor’s Guide because Tempest is dependent on it. Even though I put points in Wraith, it wasn’t enough.