I would like to talk about vitality based PB (Phantasmal Blades) and how I think it currently doesn’t meet my expectations on a solid skill despite having a dedicated set, the Demonslayer set, based around it. Keep in mind this is based on my own experiences and is a subjective opinion sprouted by comparing to top tier builds.
First of all I’d like to clarify that I had no trouble completing Ultimate, although I did earn myself quite a few deaths in the process. Most of them were related to carelessness and bad resistance decisions (Gruelsome harvest hurts with -23% aether res). This build is capable of easily completing Ultimate even without BiS gear, however it is by far not as efficient as other builds could be and seems to not have much gear support.
The first and most glaring problem I ran into when contemplating any PB build, no matter the primary damage type: A lot of power is locked behind the final point of PB. At 26/16, another blade for a total of 6 is added, increasing the flat damage by 20% and the weapon damage by 36%. However it is impossible to attain 26/16 without major sacrifices, unless using a +3 or +5 BoM (Badge of Mastery).
Looking at the Demonslayer set for vitality PB, you are locked out of chosing Korvoran Chestguard for +3 PB, since the 3 set bonus of Demonslayer with +5% OA, the conversion, the major OA and -15% cunning requirement on the Demonslayer chest piece is far more attractive than what the Korvoran Chestguard gives.
Since the Demonslayer’s Hat does not give +1 NB (Nightblade) and the 4pc set bonus doesn’t give anything to PB or +1 NB (Nightblade), even with a +3 BoM, Moosilauke’s Pauldrons and the Demonslayer’s Life-Ender you will end up with only +9 PB, 1 point short of the major breakpoint of 26/16.
The most obvious solution would be to swap out the Demonslayer’s Defense for a Peerless Eye of Beronath. The Demonslayer amulet only gives minor DA, compensatable resistances and a bit of % vitality, not to mention the proc doesn’t give much aside from that physical res, which may be enough to save you but isn’t enough to outweight the +skills from Peerless Eye. The 4pc set bonus is also not attractive at all, giving no interesting +skills and a neglegible proc aside from +8% total speed, at not even 100% uptime and no uptime against single bosses.
10% adcth and the heal from the 4pc proc are absolutely unnecessary for two reasons:
- PB is one of the best sustain skills thanks to heart seeker already. More adcth would be silly. Especially since haunted steel is actually good for this build now thanks to the conversion, which on its own already adds another 8% adcth.
- You barely deal any damage through the % weapon damage component of the skill anyway.
Which brings me to the Demonslayer weapon itself. While the +3 PB is very much needed without a +5 BoM to bring PB to 26, the vitality damage bonus is nice and the cast speed is helping out a lot, that’s already all that this weapon provides.
It does not have conversion, making its base physical damage completely pointless aside from the 10% converted away by haunted steel (since your other component is going to be a Symbol of Solael for vit RR, which converts to chaos, that 10% conversion is all you’re going to get).
At least 60% of the armor piercing will be converted to vitality thanks to the PB transmuter, although not even the conversion on the Demonslayer chest pierce will be taken into account as it’s lower priority.
Adding phys to vit conversion would definitely help making the weapon more appealing. But even then it would feel inferior compared to a bonespike, which inherently has flat vit damage.
At 26/16, PB deals 180% weapon damage, which is decent but almost entirely unused with the Demonslayer gun.
Assuming you swap to a bonespike then you would lose the 3pc set bonus and require a +5 BoM and a +1 PB affix somewhere, or sacrifice a gear slot to bring PB back to 26.
To move on to the class choice: For vit PB, you have two options. Shaman and Occultist.
Shaman:
° 40 + 90% vit
° 60% vit RR
° 35% crit
° 30% health
° more physique
° Storm Totem + Corrupting Storm for a secondary damage skill
Occultist
° 52 + 135% vit
° 30% vit RR
° 100% poison res
° 25% vit res
° 12% phys res
° 138 OA
° 12% damage absorb
° more spirit
At first glance, Shaman would be the better choice provided you find the means to max out your resistances and aren’t hurting for flat OA. Especially the 30% vit RR trickster has over WH (Witch Hunter) is very attractive. However, most of your gear will give +skills to Occultist and there’s no way to even obtain all the good stuff from Shaman due to skill point shortage. Even with +4 to Occu that Girdle of the Stolen Dreams, Solael’s Decimation, Peerless Eye and my offhand (more on this later) gives I find myself barely comfortable with points, with Blood of Dreeg and its modifier, Possession and Vulnerability maxed (no overranking). With the amount of points I’d have to invest in Shaman to get all of the bonuses Occultist can give me, I’d be starving for points. If I opted for more +shaman gear, I’d also be short on OA.
That being said, the only reason why I feel comfortable is because I currently have the Nightblade mastery at only 32/50.
Any more points are just not affordable and there’s nothing that could possibly interest me beyond the 32 point. Weirdly enough the Demonslayer set gives +5 to Blade Spirit, a skill this build cannot even afford to take - not to mention it would barely be able to use the damage from Blade Spirit, as only 36% cold and 18% pierce is converted to vit at most. Having Nightblade at only 32 obviously hurts my physique, therefore making it very hard to reach decent levels of DA and HP without excellent affixes on the Moosilauke’s Pauldrons, Dreeg-Sect Legguards and Exalted Treads that you will end up using.
On the topic of my offhand, I’m currently using an Orb of the Black Flame. The only alternative to that would be Blood Orb of Ch’thon, where I could not use the granted skill since that would negate the 35% cold to vitality conversion on the Demonslayer hat. The advantage of the black flame orb is 10% vit RR, more OA and -10% skill energy cost (best case). The energy cost reduction may seem not worth to consider at first glance, however it stacks additively with the -50% skill energy cost from the PB transmuter. This actually makes it suprisingly significant for keeping your energy cost manageable. Since you have to cap your PB, your energy will be hurting even so.
The only advantage of the blood orb meanwhile would be the cast speed, which would also make you burn through your energy pool at an even faster rate. Sadly, as the black flame orb does not give any cast speed at all it’s impossible to max cast speed out.
Another advantage of the blood orb over the black flame orb is also the lower spirit requirement, requiring you to invest less points into spirit and making you tankier overall, which this build direly is in need of.
Another weird thing about the Demonslayer set is its bonuses to pierce. As no other gear in this build gives +% pierce, the total pierce modifier will remain low either way. Not to mention 60% pierce is already converted away to vitality thanks to the transmuter, the pierce damage will end up being negligible. I’d much rather see other bonuses on that set such as cold, chaos or more generic power, especially DA.
Also, my % vit damage ended up totaling to about 1300-1400% only. Which is suprisingly meager, until you consider that there’s no well-fitting hand piece, the shoulders are a MI and will most likely not end up granting % vit, and the medal is taken up by BoM.
Finally, the trash clear of PB is already very good, so I see no point for the +skill bonuses to blade trap on the Demonslayer set. It barely works against bosses and you can’t even take Devouring Blades due to skill point shortage. Interestingly the Demonslayer set does not give any +skills to Heart Seeker aside +2 on the chest piece, despite that being the vitality component of the PB line and should therefore be boosted by a set that is laid out to make use of vitality PB…
To sum it up, even with great investment and very good gear vitality PB feels very weak compared to other builds. The damage is average but the survivability is severely lacking. Even with insane sustain the danger of being oneshot is very present thanks to the low health pool and low DA.
So here’s a few thoughts on how the situation could be improved:
° Don’t lock the 6th blade behind 26/16 PB. 23/16 seems more reasonable. Otherwise, a BoM will always be required, and there will always be energy problems.
° Add +1 to all skills in Nightblade to the Demonslayer amulet or hat.
° Replace the +2 to Blade Spirit on the Demonslayer hat (for example with + to a PB modifier).
° Replace the +3 to Blade Spirit from the 4 piece Demonslayer set bonus with +1 to all skills in Nightblade or + to PB or + to the PB modifiers.
° Add 10% physical damage converted to vitality damage to the Demonslayer amulet.
° Add 15% physical damage converted to vitality damage to the Demonslayer gun.
° Replace the stats granted by the proc granted by the 4 piece set bonus with something better fitting. % vitality damage, conversion, generic power like OA, DA, health… anything.
° Replace the piercing damage bonuses from the Demonslayer set with something more intuitive, or make piercing damage more accessible to the build.
° Replace the +3 to Blade Trap with + to Heart Seeker on the 4 piece set bonus.
° Replace the +2 to Blade Trap with + to Heart Seeker on the Demonslayer hat.
° Perhaps lower energy cost?
° Make cast speed more accessible…?
Obviously this is just a list of different approaches I could think of. I am not asking for all of these to be applied, of course.
What do you people with experiece in using the Demonslayer set for a vitality Phantasmal Blades build say? Is Trickster actually better? How significant is the difference when using a bonespike instead of the Demonslayer’s Life-Ender?
