[Warder] 100k+ DAMAGE TANK-CANNON Procs Causing Procs (Endlessly!) HC Ultimate 100% Done (SF Gear)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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[1.0.0.4] Then this Tank-Cannon may be just what you are looking for. This is not a hybrid build which sacrifices a good chunk from both ends of the spectrum. On the contrary, this build is able to comfortably dish out six figures in damage, kill Loghorrean with procs alone (see video below) and yet survive Ultimate Hardcore as I have to it’s completion. I’ve actually found this build in large is able to bridge the tank/glass cannon trade off. If you were a fan of Sky’s rage (from TQ) and like shock-n-awe (pun intended) that lights up your screen and damage output that has no end, then an old biddy like this two-handed Punching Hag may be just the toon you’re looking for.

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The old saying the best defense is a good offense applies here. However, this build has gone through some refining from the traditional Ultos builds in that this hag is using unconventional combos (Savagery, & Life Steal, Electrocute DoT & Poison DoT, etc.), and non-traditional methods (Non-Transmuted Primal Strike, Circuit Breakers, Weapon-Swap as a skill [see below], etc.) to maintain maximum damage output (100k+), lots of criticals, never ending high damaging procs and fast mob clearing while persevering through the end of Ultimate on Hardcore. I wanted a build that was Ultimate Hardcore viable (comfortably) but still able to dish out the big numbers, this setup did not let me down.

(Two-Handed Configuration w/Savagery Stacked)

Pros:

Judgement! Even training dummies will trigger their circuit breakers. Laying aside the safety of the shield and putting on the full power of Ultos you will dish out damage that ripples through all in your presence. Literally everyone on the screen will suffer at your hand. While the damage may show 100000+ on the stats screen (using Savagery), many of your procs include weapon damage in them which carries those numbers into their damage (i.e. devotion procs such as Falcon Swoop, Spear of the Heavens, Tsunami, Maul, not to mention gear procs of which this build has many) Even the procs that are based on lightning such as Reckless Tempest are backed by 1700% lightning damage modifier. There’s one other benefit which is almost pointless to which no horde can withstand. I’ve found nothing but the training dummies can hold up to this AoE damage output and even they take damage as you’ll see in the videos below.

This is easier to show than to explain. Procs triggering other procs, crits throughout. Fun stuff!

Punching Hag Training Dummies Demonstration (as only they can hold up and even they show damage): https://youtu.be/gZHR4baGGRk

Punching Hag vs The Horde (only enemies I could find that came fast enough to give a demonstration): https://youtu.be/uH81GAk-bfg

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Loghorrean (Without ever actually attacking him, I kill him entirely using secondary procs): https://youtu.be/ZmVc0cDrcDc

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Hardcore Shar’Zul (Bastion of Chaos Boss) https://youtu.be/PdzK-ZoDZNk

Savagery Based! Savagery was chosen over Primal Strike for a few reasons, first because it works better with life steal (This works with Primal Strike but like procs only applies to the weapon damage portion), it also offers more single target DPS with the procs taking care of group clearing. With higher DPS more “attack damage is converted to health”, the biggest reason for me was as the stacks of savagery go up, so does the base weapon damage in all your procs (and other skills including Primal Strike), which adds to why I was able to kill Ultimate Loghorrean using nothing but procs (see video above). Plus, I still get to throw Primal Strike in there! With only 3 points in primal strike, because of the +skills of my gear, I still enjoy a primal strike that’s past midway in levels. Like procs, Primal Strike is made more powerful as Savagery stacks climb (since it too has a base weapon damage modifier) and since I don’t use the transmuter, one swing from Primal Strike is very powerful on top of fully stacked Savagery. One last thing to note. Since I play hardcore, the physical resistance provided in the savagery line was a nice bonus.

Procs Begets Procs! One focus of this build was to maintain a cascade of procs that would continue to proc themselves apart from player interaction (which led me to the Ultos set though other legendary sets do have some intriguing possibilities as well). While I do have certain procs that only engage on player instigation there is also a balance of heavy hitting and critting procs combined with DoT procs that will, with a high success rate, maintain themselves, continually proccing eachother as long as their are enemies present as you can see in my videos above. The training dummies are the only “mob” strong enough that can hold up for this demonstration. Watch how the procs trigger themselves independently from me attacking or from being attack. When I engage, the procs enhance and more of them trigger, the same occurs when my ‘on hit’ procs trigger from enemies hitting me. This is just the first method I’ve found for maintaining an independent proc cycle that’s lightning based. I’m very interested in those that find other combinations that work this way as I’d like to implement them in other builds.

Note: if you guys find other combination of procs using other gear, classes, devs, etc. please post! I would like to see and try some other working ones.

Fun to Play from Start to Finish! This build never feels as though you are grinding. This build is quite dynamic. Through the level process in both the skills and devotions we’ll change the dynamic enough from one map slaughter skill to another that you’ll never get bored!

Life Steal! With damage output provided by Savagery it’s not hard to see your ‘Attack Damage Converted to Health’ keep your HP tank topped off! This is easily achieved with minimal effort between Feral Hunger, it’s synergy with Haunted Steel and ALL procs that include weapon damage. For breakdown see gear & components section of the guide.

Multiple Passive Procs! Because of the passive skills that activate for a two handed build such as Feral Hunger and Upheavel, you can assign multiple devotion procs to your default attack. Since he’s a melee/tank, on-hit procs (of which there are many) are sure to trigger since your in the fight. Between that and all the other procs, when you watch any of my ‘vs mob’ videos you will see crits fill the screen.

Critical Strikes! With high OA (with some variation can be brought higher yet, Chains of Oleron [see Components], etc.) this build brings a solid percentage to land criticals both directly and through procs and DoT. Even without crits your damage output is superior. My current OA runs around 2300, this amps up to ~2700 (as seen in the pic below) with passive buffs like Fighting Spirit, Field Command, and Tenacity of the Boar.

Lazy Compatible! Like my Retaliation/Reflect Warder Hetzer this one too is lazy compatible. As you can see in the linked videos above the procs will trigger themselves in an endless cascade and produce damage and crits that other configurations struggle to reach using their primary source of damage. For fun, I killed Lorhorrean without ever hitting him directly [click here for video].

Finally a Productive Use for those Shields! This build is very shield generous (as any Paladin build should be). Whether your preference is more damage, playing it safe, or looking cool this Paladin build offers a lot of flexibility with shields while maintaining simultaneously high damage output and survivability (for us hardcore folks). I’ve held 60,000+ damage with a shield equipped (Savagery fully amped) as you can see in my video here. One thing to consider if you favor the shield is resistance reduction through Arcane mines or Raging Tempest (see skills & devotions section of the guide).

(Sword & Board Configuration w/Savagery Stacked)

Use Weapon Swap Like a Skill (Swap = Heal)! Turn over to the 2H side and dish out 100000+ damage while your procs begets more procs (see video above) in an almost never ending reign of judgement. Turn back over to the shield side for instant heal (see video), shield block protection, and a substantial amount of health and health regeneration. In this video I’m using Meat Shield but Lich Guard or the like may be a viable alternative.

Circuit Breakers! Like Hetzer this build comes with hardcore friendly built-in circuit breakers. Because your weapon load-out is either sword & board or a two-handed weapon, Menhir’s will guards you in both instances. I however often opt to use item based circuit breakers such as mark of divinity, avatar of mercy, etc. so I can free up the skill points from MW for more damage oriented skills.

100% Game Completion, Zero Deaths With Melee! While I’ve found ranged to be easier in terms of hardcore survivability through Ultimate there’s more of a thrill for me to be in the fight.

Versatility! I’ve respecced this guy a few times (to respec a skill point at this moment costs me 10,000 iron bits) and revamped my devotions (ty for tonics of clarity there) having fun with changing this build up using Blade Arc and Primal Strike both which are very good alternatives and depending on your load out, may suit you better and provide faster clearing (though that’s a moot point). I’ve favored savagry for the higher damage output, but Blade Arc maxed offers a nice 13 target simultaneous sweep attack that attacks just as fast! Some would say to neglect primal strike in a lightning build is ludicrious (which is why I switch back and forth to it). Beyond two handed options this build is VERY shield friendly (in my opinion more so than any other class combination) so you get to finally use all those killer shields you’ve picked up. I’ve changed my damage to physical and back to lightning, both which clear very fast (though physical oriented builds offered more survivability).

Multiplayer! Because of the versatility this guy can fit in pretty much anywhere that’s needed, damage, tank, crowd control, group buffs (like field command & mog’s pact line)…or he can simply carry the team, even at low levels.

Cons:

Enemy Reflect Spells Doom. With damage output over 100k and procs that don’t stop, my greatest fear with this build is coming across a boss with reflect, a mage who casts mirror, a thug who casts blade barrier, or those skeletal knights hidden among mobs that return damage back to you. Because of this my alternate carry is sword and board (still 60k+ damage) and I switch when it doesn’t look safe to have the 2H out. Once nice counter to this however is having ultra high lightning resist (over 100% with radiant gem). Since the majority of your damage is lightning, if it’s reflected back to you it’s not as detrimental as it is to those you are striking. Circuit breakers like Menhir’s will, Avatar of Mercy Amulet and Mark of Divinity will guard you should a surge of damage befall you. Avatar of Mercy and Mark of Divinity, in addition to providing circuit breaking skills, also increase your lightning (and all elemental) resistance and it’s maximum.

Not a Team Player. This guy not only distracts with his full screen light shows, he tends to make other players feel like they aren’t pulling their own weight. I’ve also seen builds like this give a false sense of security to other players to their demise (hardcore).

Tips:

Study: Take the time to learn the build. It’s fun but it’s advanced. Learn why it does what it does, at least to some extent this way you can better make use of your skill set. This way you don’t do things like diving into a group of obsidian shaleborns/ravagers/defilers relying alone on life steal to sustain you (as they are resistant to that).

Don’t Rush: Take the time to map clear, this not only allows you to level up at a healthy pace but it will allow you to perfect your build and practice using it.

Keep An Eye Out: With this high level of damage output don’t go blitzing a boss until you first verify it’s not a reflective one or one that may cast blade barrier or anything else that will return your damage to you (see also cons section).

Use Consumables! They are in the game to be used not collect. They offer some nice offensive and defensive stats so use them! If you aren’t needing the defensive ones than you may want to evaluate if you could squeeze out a bit more damage if you did factor in using them (such as trading out defensive components for offensive components, etc.)

100% Damage Absorption! For those rare moments that look sketchy swap out Eye of the Storm relic for Menhir’s Bastion (which is enough by itself, same with using Aether Cluster consumables [see above tip]). Use the Menhir’s bastion skill combined with an Aether Cluster and you literally have 10 seconds of complete invulnerability. Honestly though this is not needed. For the hardcore group one circuit breaker should suffice, I use Mark of Divinity. With the damage output this guy does there is plenty of leeway to add circuit breaker items, skills, devotions, etc.

Attack Those Not Resistant to Life Steal. There are very few enemies in the game that are immune to life steal, if you come across them, attack those in the mob that aren’t and let your procs and area/multi target damage take them out.

Other Thoughts: Props to Crate first. While we may be creative with the builds, they likewise in making the mechanics of which we are working within. This is my 2nd posted Warder build and it’s very different from my first Warder [Hetzer] and yet the same masteries which indicate good dynamics. Secondly, props to others in the forums who have produced similar builds and shared their education on the mechanics that helped me to enjoy this build. I acknowledge I’ve in no way brought new revelation to this game or build nor have I perfected this build. As with all my builds I’m continually refining them which is helped by input/insight from other players.

Videos:

Punching Hag Training Dummies Demonstration (as only they can hold up and even they show damage): https://youtu.be/gZHR4baGGRk

Punching Hag vs The Horde (only enemies I could find that came fast enough to give a demonstration): https://youtu.be/uH81GAk-bfg

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Hardcore Loxmere Nightmage: https://youtu.be/BXw_He64RC4

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Hardcore Commander Lucius: https://youtu.be/6mrZ8sOSMzY

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Hardcore Loghorrean (Without ever actually attacking him, I kill him entirely using secondary procs): https://youtu.be/ZmVc0cDrcDc

Punching Hag vs Ultimate Hardcore Shar’Zul (Bastion of Chaos Boss) https://youtu.be/PdzK-ZoDZNk

Punching Hag vs Faldonir Aetherborn (Flesh Hulk Boss): https://youtu.be/3_fUbBM2s-U

Using Weapon Swap as a Skill (Skill=Heal!): https://youtu.be/eICmosq5VV0

Punching Hag Sword & Board Training Dummies Demonstration: https://youtu.be/jqp0L3VtP4I

(more to come)

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Guide:

My goal in this guide is to give you a foundation for the character I’ve built and to educate those that need it on related game mechanics as we go. We will also be exploring the various skills the Warder has to offer as we level so you can see what you enjoy the most.

Note: For further resources on game mechanics I’d recommend seeing the offical game guide as well as this post regarding advanced mechanics (links below).

[INDENT]Crate’s game guide:
http://www.grimdawn.com/game.php

Raiyaz’s advanced mechanics guide:
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=251347[/INDENT]

Feel free to follow the step by step guide below or because of the versatility of thie build stray off on your own variations! Here are some similar variations by other patrons you may find intriguing:

cadpgamer1992’s:
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35117

Zappa’s:
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31585

Note: Before I start into the specifics. Please note that this is a general guide to this build. There are obviously small changes you may need to suit your play style and gear. For example, you may have a circuit breaker item equipped and therefore not need one such as Menhir’s will. You may be lacking in certain resistances such as elemental or bleeding and therefore need to boost these from the Soldier mastery. You may not have as much health as you’d like and therefore wish to add points into Military Conditioning and Heart of the Wild. Therefore I plan on addressing the fundamental parts of this build and once you feel comfortable I will leave the tweaking up to you. Feel free to ask though. I’ve found that people on these forums are generally more friendly and helpful than those I’ve experienced in other games.

In this build I will be focusing on maintaining high damage output and map clearing while maintaining hardcore ultimate compatible survivability like my own toon. Along the way I will give suggestions into variations that you may or may not find valuable. While progressing through this build I would recommend doing full map clearing and all quests. This will allow you to level according to the guide below.

Skill Progression:

[Levels 2-9] Shaman mastery first and immediately max Devouring Swarm (will be redistributed later, this is for fast leveling) and use it as your primary attack and spam the snot out of it (you’ll need mana potions). You will be amazed at how fast it clears and you won’t likely need to use health potions because of the life steal. You should be able to max this by level 7 with one point left over. Save that point and all remaining points (7) until you unlock your 2nd mastery at lvl 10.

[Levels 10] You should have 10 points to spend now. 3 from hitting level 10 and 7 that carried over from the last step. Put 5 into the Soldier Mastery Bar and 4 into Menhir’s will.

Note: Menhir’s will requires a shield or two handed weapon to activate. At this point you should be spamming devouring swarm still so I would recommend the shield for the added protection. However, in upcoming levels we will be doing away with swarm and switching to a two-handed focus. So keep your eye out (if you don’t have some already) some good, high damaging (any damage type for now) two handed weapons. One more thing to note, if you have a good circuit breaker item such as the Mark of Divinity (late game) you could use that in place of Menhir’s will as it too is a great circuit breaker (and a very hard to get item which is why I’m not factoring it into this guide).

Important! If Menhir’s will triggers, RUN! Especially if you’re playing hardcore. This skill has a large cool down and you shouldn’t be fighting until it’s cool down is reset and ready for you again. Unless of course you like taking needless risks you rebel you.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/dHtkg81

[Levels 11-19] Now that we have established our damage output using Devouring Swarm and our first circuit breaker using Menhir’s Will, we can now start developing our Mastery bars. Put all points from these levels into the Soldier mastery bar stopping at point marker 32 and putting one into field command along the way.

Note: Field command is needed in order to have a permanent skill to link our turtle shell from the devotion system too.

By now you should have a decent 2 handed weapon even if it’s green/yellow. You’ve also probably noticed that Devouring Swarm is not as potent as it was in the beginning, and it certainly doesn’t do as good vs bosses such as the upcoming Warden at the end of Act 1. Equip your two-handed weapon and remove all points from devouring swarm and put them into Blade Arc. (Do NOT assign a point in it’s transmuter ‘Clean Sweep’ as that adds an unwanted cool down). Assign Blade Arc as your primary attack skill.

Note: Later we will re-assign these points into Savagery but right now we don’t have many points to spend and Blade Arc offers great group killing at this level using less skill points. An alternative could be Primal Strike as many in the forums have made this their end-game skill. I’ve opted not too for good reason as explained in the Pro’s section of the OP.

If you’ve done the Act 1 side quest for Kasparov that provides a skill point. Put it into Blitz. It will help you get into the middle of the fight faster so Blade Arc and therefore life steal can do it’s thing (since Blade Arc hits between 5-13 enemies around you in one attack!)

Note: To begin our life steal aspect, at level 11 put a hallowed fang into your primary weapon. This will add 4% life steal and provide a life stealing skill that you should assign to your mastery bar. Use it when encountering bosses and dangerous groups. At level 24,if you are able to craft it, we will begin using the Haunted Steel component which largely increases our life steal benefits.

[Levels 20-23] Put all these points into Laceration. This will allow your Blade Arc skill to strike 13 enemies at once! Plus it adds some great damage so get ready to do some fast map clearing.
Note: with Blade Arc hitting multiple enemies at once with a 135% weapon damage your life steal is also multiplied by 1.35 x how many targets you hit. I’ve broken down the math for you in the components section but just start swinging your two handed weapon and you’ll see the benefits.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/lfJRVGd

[Levels 24-31] Now that we’ve reestablished our damage output using Blade Arc it’s time to establish some further survivability. Put all points into the Shaman Mastery bar up to point marker 25.

Note: At level 24, if you are able, you will want to switch out your Hallowed Fang component for Haunted Steel as it doubles your base life steal, adds a few other enhancemens, and gives you a greater BloodThirstier skill to use in heavy mobs and bosses.

[i]Secondary Note: If you are following this guide and using Blade Arc you may be tempted to put points into the Brute Force line. In my experience I’ve found Feral Hunger and Upheavel do not activate on Blade Arc (Feral Hunger is indicated by 3 red lines when you’re attacking with a normal attack. These do not show up when using Blade Arc, I believe the same is true of Primal Strike). They do activate for Savagery which we’ll get into at higher levels!

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/ygAOhFd

[Levels 32-38] Put 1 point into Mogdrogen’s Pact. Then Max Heart of the Wild on the Shaman line, and max Military Conditioning on the Soldier line. This will greatly help survivability while we get to levels that will allow us to start equipping our lvl 50+ legendary and epic items that will sustain us better later.[/i]

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/jxvQsqR

[Levels 39-50] Max out the rest of the Shaman Mastery Bar and max (or almost max in this case, 11/12) Primal Bond.

Note: At level 50 hopefully you have some legendaries to equip. The Ultos set isn’t available until lvl 75 but there are some great lvl 50 items in both legendary and epic sets. If you have it I’d argue the BiS weapon at lvl 50 for two-handers is the Stonefist Rebuke (legendary) even though it’s recently gone through a stealth nerf. For armor, I actually found the Praetorian set (Torso, helm, shoulders, all epic) to be very good at this level and sustained me through much of Elite. There is also the Devil’s Cage Hauberk (legendary) for Torso, Glory of the Silver Knight (epic) for a helm, and Divinesteel Shoulderguard (legendary) or if you can craft them Decorated Pauldrons (epic) for shoulders. For pants I’d recommend Legplates of Valor (epic), Hulking leggards (epic), or Demonbone Legplates (legendary). For feet I’d recommend Golemborn greaves (legendary), Dreadnought Footpads (epic), or the Desecrator Treads (epic). For hands I’d recommend Runic Bracers (epic) for survivability or bracers with attack speed such as Grasp of Unchained Might (legendary). You should also start seeing +skills gear for your guy at this level such as the Warpath Girdle belt (epic). For rings, amulets, and medals there are many variables but look at things that fill in your resistances, add damage and attack speed, add complimentary skills and offensive ratings. And don’t write off green items. Some of the best items I’ve found in this game are green.

For this guide I plan on keeping Blade Arc for a bit longer as it’s more gear friendly. Plus Primal Bond which compliments it also adds Damage Absorption which is the single best survivability attribute in the game.

Note: Make sure to go through all your available skills in the mastery bar to make sure you have them all assigned. You don’t want to be missing out on benefits that skills such as Primal Bond have to offer. Also if you’ve revamped your gear make sure there are no included skills with that gear that you want to line up.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/SQm8fAZ

[Levels 51-55] At this level you are likely closing in on The Bastion of Chaos and Loghorrean. Now we are going to start spreading skills out. Finish off Primal bond for it’s remaining point. Then switch back to Soldier and max Decorated Soldier. This will further increase your damage but it will also provide the elemental resistances you are likely lacking as soldier builds often do. Put your remaining point into Menhir’s Will.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/gpjdabE

[Levels 56-61] Max out Squad Tactics. Assign it to your passive mastery bar and make sure the skill is active. This will greatly increase your damage output which will enhance your life steal and devotion proc damages.

Note: Like level 50, level 58 is a mile marker for gear. At level 58 you should have a new slew of legendaries and epics available for you to equip. The only one I want to make sure to point out is the circuit breaker legendary called Avatar of Mercy. I would recommen equipping this as it provides resistances, raises their maximum, and provides a circuit breaker comparable to Menhir’s will thus freeing you from the points you’ve spent in Menhir’s will. However, as this guide continues I’m going to assume you don’t have that item.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/ZXCes6m

[Levels 62-63] Assuming you have some +skills gear at this point we need to start spreading our points out to make use of that +skills attribute. For starters put one point into the following. Shaman line: Oak Skin, Soldier line: Fighting Spirit, Blindside, Veterancy. Because we are still using Blade Arc as our primary attack, similarly to the Brute Force line we mentioned above, Markovian’s Advantage and Zolhan’s Technique are of no use to us yet. They will be once we switch to Savagery however.

Note: You may opt to bump the mastery bar to the 40 point marker on Soldier at this stage to focus on survivability and level up Scars of Battle and maybe put a point or two in Counter Strike. However I prefer to get the armor absorption and bleed resist that Scars of Battle provides from gear and components such as that found in the craftable legendary Tinker’s Ingenuity which covers both your poison and bleed resists not to mention it raises their maximum. Did I mention that belt also has it’s own build in circuit breaker? As far as counter strike… it may help and offer an additional proc trigger but I prefer the to spend these skill points elsewhere.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/RZtNSxo

[Levels 64-68] Max out Field command. I’m going to assume at this level you also have an extra point from the side quest in Elite from Kasparov so you should be able to max the Field command skill.

Note: Like level 50 & 58, level 65 & 68 are mile markers for gear. Level 65 unlocks some good epic sets and gear and it unlocks some great stand alone legendaries. Level 68 unlocks the first teir legendary set items such as the Justicar and Markovian sets which are great for this build at this point.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/ptO1adr

[Levels 69-74] We’re going to polish up more survivability skills before we unlock the last tier of legendary and epic items. I also want to make sure you make it to level 75 so you can do the big Savagery conversion with or without the level 75 ultos set. Put 3 more points in Menhir’s will for it’s sweet spot and then max Oak Skin. Like Field Command Oak skin ups the armor of everything you are wearing simultaneously. That’s very valuable (don’t forget armor absorption, see note on levels 62-63 and scaled hide component below).

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/QD8ElUo

[Levels 75] So you’ve reached level 75. Congrats, you can now equip all items in the game (except I did find a fluke level 85 requirement on one of Cronley’s rings…). Level 75 is our big reveal. Now the gloves come off. We will now revamp our skill sets (and devotions if you’ve also been keeping with those) to implement our end-game product. Remove all points from Primal Bond, Laceration, and Blade Arc. Remove 11 out of 12 points from Field Command (we’ll put these back later). This alone should give you a point pool of 53 (16 from Blade Arc + 12 Laceration + 12 Primal Bond + 11 Field Command + 2 from leveling). Max Savagery, Put one point into Tenacity of the Boar, Max Storm Touched, Max Stormcaller’s Pact (remember to assign it to skill bar). Max Might of the Bear. Put 7 points into Brute Force, and one point into each Feral Hunger, and Upheaval. Change Savagery to your default attack skill.

Note: If you’ve also reamped your Devotions, components, gear according to this guide you should now see on your stats screen a significant jump in your damage output. Now head out of town and start hitting training dummies so you can watch your damage climb with each stack. It should basically double on you stats screen. If you have and were able to equip the Ultos gear at this point and you’ve revamped your devotions to be lightning oriented you should have utter chaos filling your screen! Even if you don’t have the Ultos gear or only have it in part, there are plenty of items that will compliment Savagery, (and therefore Primal Strike, and Blade Arc for that matter) that will work good here too. While Savagery shines with lightning builds, it and Brute force also do great with physical and bleeding as well. And there are many legendary and epic items that are Warder, lightning/physical/bleed oriented such as the Dawnguard set (epic), Empowered Wildcaller’s Call (epic) Mogdrogen’s Tranquillity (epic), Justicar set, (legendary), Stormreaver (legendary, lightning), The Guillotine (legendary, bleed), Leviathan (craftable legendary, physical), Stonefist Rebuke (legendary, physical), plus there are many more stand-alone items that together make up a great gear loadout.

Grim Calc (skills only) at this stage: http://grimcalc.com/build/02HcvfQ

[Levels 76-85] There’s a bit of free range here. We have 24 points remaining at this point. (20 from leveling, one more from the Kasporov quest in Ultimate, and 3 from the hidden path quests in each difficulty). I would start by putting 3 points into the Primal Strike line (one point in each Primal Strike, Torrent, and Storm Surge) and use it as an additional proc instigator and for it’s stun ability.

Note: I opted for Primal Strike here because the Ultos gear as well as alot of other gear add alot of +skills and many specifically regarding the Primal Strike line. With just one point in each skill in the Primal Strike line I had more than half of the max normal points. Primal strike can be activated after Savagery his amped up to it’s max stack making Primal Strike considerably more powerful, especially if you have the Thunderous Strike transmuter. For further details on why I chose Savagery over Primal Strike, see my notes in the Pros section.

Then I would max Brute Force for 5 more points. Now that we are getting high level it’s time to polish off our damage output and procs. Put 1 point into wind devil to unlock it and then 8 more into Raging Tempest. Assign this to an easy to use button and use it often as it will proc ‘on attack’ skills and devotions and it will proc them often. Assign falcon swoop skill to it. The bigger benefit to this skill though is it’s resistance reduction. This one skill, though my damage didn’t change, allowed me to drop heavy bosses like Shar’Zul in half the time because of it making him vulnerable. Assign one point to grasping vines and one to entangling vines. Use these often, they slow the attacker down but also they activate ‘on attack’ procs like crazy. Between these two skills and my procs I can drop bosses in the game in a reasonable amount of time without ever engaging them directly. Put the rest into Field Command that we stole from earlier to add offensive ability (for crits) defensive ability (to not get crit) and for overall armor as these things are important toward survivability.

Note: Because of your gear, +skills stats or lack thereof, etc. your points may need to be shifted around a bit to cover crucial skills. My end-game primary skill and devotion configuration are as follows:

Grim Calc, Complete w/Buffs and Devotion: http://grimcalc.com/build/w6XqMRQ

Fighting Spirit: If you have the gear to supplement potential weak areas, I would sacrifice skill points from things like Menhir’s will (as I’ve done with my own personal build) and put them into Fighting Spirit (which I have maxed). This will largely increase your OA and thereby your crits! To supplement Menhir’s will I substituted the Mark of Divinity (lvl 75 legendary). This can also be substituted adequately with the Avatar of Mercy (lvl 58 legendary) but not if you are gong to use the full Ultos set which includes it’s own amulet.

Tenacity of the Boar: Along with Fighting Spirit this skill will also up your offensive rating further increasing your offensive rating. If you have the gear for it (or simply aren’t worried because you don’t play hardcore) then I would steel points from either Menhir’s will or if you stole those already for Fighting Spirit (see above point), then steal them from Oak Skin, and after that steal from Decorated Soldier or Military Conditioning. I would refrain from stealing from Heart of the Wild as it offers the most generous health pool in the game of 35% at max normal level.

Wendigo Totem: Always a good idea for you hardcore/zero deathers like myself. Unlike Lifesteal, enemies do not have a resistance to it’s HP restore. I found life steal to be sufficient for me so I opted to not put many points into it, however for certain boss battles it was a nice addition. Plus it can independently trigger procs!

The Dynamic of +Skills Gear: As we briefly touched on above. Some skills are abysmal in their Ultimate levels. If you have gear that adds +skills I would recommend subtracting your hard earned skill points from those skills thus keeping them at their normal max level and assigning those points elsewhere. If you have enough of this gear than like myself, you won’t need to steal points from other spots to apply them to skills such as those I’ve listed here like Fighting Spirit, or Tenacity of the Boar.

Devotion Progression:

Devotions are important. For this guide I reset all my devotion points. In doing so I dropped from 123k damage down to 63k damage (even at Max Savagery lvl on both) not to mention the other benefits, procs, and skills I’m missing. So assigning these correctly is crucial. Consequently this also means there’s some damage to be had using devotions alone!

Level 1 - 74 Devotion Progression (and for Physical/Bleed builds):

Note: To maximize our build we will be adding/removing devotion points to make the most use out it and this will require you to burn some Aether crystals up.

1.) Crossroads Order: 1 point

2.) Tortoise: All points. Assign Turtle Shell to a permanent skill as it’s a greatly early game circuit breaker.

3.) Remove Crossroads Order and assign to Crossroads Ascendent.

4.) Max Falcon: Assign falcon swoop to either your primary attack or one you use almost as often. Falcon swoop even after it’s recent delay increase is very powerful and because it includes base weapon damage also includes our life steal percentages.

5.) Remove Crossroads Ascendent and assign to Hawk. Max Hawk.

6.) Max Hound.

7.) Max Kraken (the single most important constellation for a two-handed build).

8.) Remove all points from Hound.

9.) Max Assassin’s Blade. Assign Assassin’s Mark skill to a primary or secondary attack.

10.) Max Rhowan’s Sceptor.

11.) Max Empty Throne.

12.) Max Harpy.

13.) Put two points into crossroads, one into Order, one into Ascendent. This will unlock Oleron.

14.) Max Oleron. Assign Blind Fury to your primary attack (i.e. Blade Arc).

15.) Put the remaining 4 points into Dire Bear.

Note: Devotion skills like these with weapon damage included is recommended, as 2 handed weapons provide the highest base weapon damage for these types of modifiers. Plus attributes such as life steal carry over as I mentioned above.

(GrimCalc coming soon)

This devotion progression is with the lvl 75 Savagery skill set in mind. This however is not necessarily optimal while leveling to level 75 according to our guide above as we don’t directly dive into Savagery and for good reason. For the leveling process before you reach lvl 75 I would recommend my devotion progression (while leveling) above. However if you wish to not spend the Aether Crystals/Tonic of Clarity or the time to revamp it, then feel free to start this progression now as it will still be complimentary, just not as much until level 75.

Because our survivability is found in the skill set and items, I have gone almost all offensive with devotions focusing procs, lightning damage and life steal to better compliment this build and our skill sets.

Note: To maximize our build we will be adding/removing devotion points to make the most use out it and this will require you to burn some aether crystals up.

Level 75+ Devotion Progression for Lightning/Savagery Focused on Max DPS and Increasing Life Steal:

1.) Crossroads Primordial: 1 point.

2.) Max Tsunami. Assign Tsunami skill to Upheavel

3.) Remove Crossroads Primordial point.

4.) Crossroads Ascendent: 1 point.

5.) Max Falcon: Assign falcon swoop to Feral Hunger.

Note: Falcon swoop, even after it's recent delay increase, is very powerful and because it includes base weapon damage which also includes our life steal factor.

6.) Remove Crossroads Ascendent.

7.) Max Wraith.

8.) Max Tempest. Assign Raging Tempest to primary attack (Savagery when your devotions are maxed).

9.) Crossroads Eldritch: 1 point.

10.) Max Kraken

11.) Max Jackal

12.) Max Viper

13.) Max Hound

14.) Crossroads Primordial: 1 point.

15.) Max Spear of the Heavens. Assign Spear of the Heavens skill to something permanent like Field Command or Mogdrogen’s Pact.

16.) Crossroads Chaos: 1 point.

17.) Remaining 5 points in Revenant. This will double your life steal and increase your attack speed.

Grim Calc (Skills w/buffs & Devotions): https://grimcalc.com/build/w6XqMRQ

3

Attribute Points:

The following specs are for a Savagery & Lightning based Warder. If you are going to go physical, pierce, or bleeding I would swap the Cunning and Spirit numbers. (For the record, this is not how I have assigned my attribute points as I was enjoying Stonefist Rebuke and the Leviathan before the recent stealth nerf.)

Physical: 45

Needed for more of our gear regardless of your damage focus. Adds defensive ability which helps negate criticals against you. Adds hp.

Cunning: 10

If your versatility includes the physical, bleeding, trauma, or piercing route you will want more cunning than spirit. There are also some sword and shield cunning requirements to accomodate. Plus cunning will provide some offensive ability increases to better your odds of landing crits.

Spirit: 35

Since we are lightning damage based this only makes since as it contributes to your damage and it’s DoT duration.

Note on Offensive Ability (OA): You do not need to over due this but you do want enough that you average 1 criticle strike per swing. This means if you hit 5 targets on average and you have a 20% chance to crit, chances are one of them will do so thus enabling your “on criticle” procs. 20% is a good amount, often we’ll hit more than 5 targets because of “on hit” and “on attack” procs fighting with you. When you are factoring in your OA rating, keep in mind skills like ‘Fighting Spirit’ that will likely activate in every engagement. If you watch my battles you will see my procs crit’ing as much as my main attack and with enough damage that main attacks aren’t necessarily needed (see videos above).

Gear:

This build is a bit gear dependant for it’s final product BUT IS NOT required to successfully complete 100% of the game. You just may not do it as quick or with as much flare. Or you may opt to do it using one of the variations covered above.

My gear:

Two-Handed Weapon: Ultos’ Stormseeker

Torso Armor: Ultos’ Cuirass

Head Armor: Ultos’ Hood

Amulet: Ultos’ Gem

Shoulders: Ultos’ Spaulders

Legs: Stormcage Legguards

Gloves: Grasp of Unchained Might

Boots: Stormtitan Treads

Belt: Guthook Belt

Relic: Eye of the Storm

Rings (both): Ring of the Black Matriarch

Medal: Empowered Crimson Heart

Swap Gear:

Crystallum
Skybreach Bulwark
Meat Shield
Tinker’s Ingenuity
Mark of Divinity
Menhir’s Bastion
Incorruptible Obsidian Band of Attack
Resistant Cronley’s Signet of Protection

(Work in Progress, I’ll be revisiting this section after more thorough research on things like BiS, set synergy, etc.)

Components:

Weapon: Haunted Steel or Hallowed Fang. Both offer life steal and both offer a blood thirsty skill. Equip these as soon as you can. This build’s defense weighs heavily on this offensive life steal and we only need the 8% Haunted Steel provides because of our large damage output.

Note on Life Steal: The devs recently relaxed the rules to lifesteal where as it applies to not only mobs but also bosses (who were generally immune earlier). When you dish out this much damage, even at 8% life steal (provided by the haunted steel component) you can heal yourself VERY quickly. For example, if I land a 60,000 damage blow (not calculating based on the 120000+ damage seen in my videos and pictures to allow for enemy armor/resistances and inferior gear) that’s healing for 4800 health (minus any resistance the enemy/boss has to life steal). Even if they are at 80% life steal resistant, if we take 4800 minus that 80% we still get 960 life healed per hit. Multiple that by the multiple simultaneous targets you hit (3 with Zolhan’s Technique, 8 with Blitz, 5 with Feral Hunger, or 13 with Blade Arc/Lac, 5 with Torrent. Primal Strike and Upheavel hit everyone with weapon damage in a defined radius.) therefore keeping the hp tank topped off is not hard. Did I mention the Haunted Steel component also grants an additional 30% life steal skill?

Note: Your procs and skills that include weapon damage carry your life steal attributes over as well! For example, Falcon swoop. Not only does each falcon pack a punch because of our high weapon damage, but that 60% weapon damage included means that life steal applies here as well. Because of how many falcons who hit even more targets, the amount of life steal is multiplied by that as well.

Torso: Kilrian’s Shattered Soul or Chains of Oleron. Since my offensive rating is good I’ve opted for attack speed of KSS over CoO’s OA boost. Plus playing hardcore the 20% vitality resist is a nice bonus.

Legs & Shoulders: I used Silk Swatch in both as I was lacking bleeding and piercing resistance. However, I would strongly recommend putting Scaled Hide into one of them for the 20% armor absorption if you haven’t already elevated this using the Scars of Battle skill in the soldier line (which also provides bleeding resistance) or by another means. Consumables can make up the difference in needed resistances but there’s no consumable for armor absorption.

Medal & Amulet: Attuned Loadstone for the additional lightning damage, crit damage, and procs. However you may considering Aether Soul/Black Tallows for their aether & chaos resistances.

(Rest of components section coming soon)

Procs Broken Down: (NOT EXHAUSTIVE, STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS).

Here is a list of one variation of my gear that you see in the videos causing endless procs. Essentially, I’ve found three strong factors in keeping procs rolling. Low proc cooldowns, long durations and damage over Time (DoT), and ‘on crit’ procs as they can be triggered by other procs that cause critical damage. Therefore you will want a high offensive rating if this is to be your focus. The DoT doesn’t need to do much damage, it simply keeps the ‘on attack’ and ‘on crit’ procs rolling. Therefore, if you can find a proc that dishes out damage over time with a low cool down (or no cool down like the ring I mentioned below) than you have a key ingredient to endless procs. Some procs can be dead-ends such as devotions that only trigger by a skill they are assigned too but we have enough skills in this build to keep those rolling with little effort too (wind devils, grasping vines, etc.). This build also has a unique skill set in Shaman that will allow you to assign 3 different procs to your normal, default attack (using savagery, feral hunger, and upheaval). Procs that include weapon damage also inherently gain weapon damage bonuses such as our life steal attribute. Because our attack does so much damage, so do our procs (as I’ve shown by killing Loghorrean by them alone in the vid above). Consequently our (weapon damage including) procs also return health to us via the inherent life steal component. Because we have so many (weapon damage including) procs that cover the map, it keeps the healing rolling in even without attacking which you can see in my videos. All that said, not including my weapon swap procs I still have a dozen of them ready to go. The percentage to activate isn’t cumulative (meaning adding them together and having it equal 100% doesn’t guarantee an activation) however, this also means multiple can activate by the same trigger. I.E. one attack from an enemy can trigger multiple ‘on hit’ procs. I have a dozen procs below and as you can see in any of my videos they don’t stop.

Likely one of the modders can break down the mechanics better, my list is made by testing and observation.

On Hit: (Whether being attacked by ranged, melee, casters, etc.)

(Legs) Stormcage Legguards - Chain Lightning (20% Chance when Hit) - Affects 5 Targets, 2 Second CD.
Triggers Lightning Nova
Triggers Ultos Wrath
Triggers Venom of the Black Matriarch

(Boots) Stormtitan Treads - Storm Titan (25% Chance when Hit) - Affects All in 4 Meter Radius, 3 Second Duration, 3 Second CD
Triggers Lightning Nova
Triggers Ultos Wrath
Triggers Venom of the Black Matriarch

(Devotion) Spear of the Heavens (50% Chance when Hit) - Affects All in 1.8 Meter Radius
Triggers Ultos Wrath (via crit)
Triggers Unchained Fury (via crit)

(Component) Kilrian’s Shattered Soul - Kilrian’s Flame (10% Chance when Hit by Melee Attacks) - 3 Meter Radius, 6 Second Duration, 12 Second CD.
Triggers Lightning Nova
Triggers Ultos Wrath
Triggers Venom of the Black Matriarch

(Skill) Fighting Spirit - (40% Chance of Activating [max lvl]) +200% to All Damage, +235 OA, 8 Second Duration, 11.8 CD

On Critical: (Not just from attacks, but can be triggered by all criticals, criticals caused by other procs and even retaliation damage)

(Gloves) Grasp of Unchained Might - Unchained Fury (33% Chance on Critical Attack) - Increases Attack Speed 10%, +125 OA & -30 DA.
Dead End, But Increases Attack Speed which increases default attack procs (linked to Savagery) and passive attacks procs (Feral Hunger, Upheaval).

(Set Bonus) Ultos’ Wrath (50% Chance on Critical Attack) - Massive Lightning Storm, 5 Second Duration, 2.5 Second CD, 8 Meter Radius
Triggers Lightning Nova

(Devotion) Reckless Tempest (100% Chance on Critical Attack) - Lightning Bolts, 6 Second Duration, 8 Meter Radius, Each Bolt Affects 3 Targets, 7.4 Second CD
Dead End but triggers immediately after CD ends because of all the crits happening from everything else.

On Attack: (Can be triggered by other attacks, retaliation, skills, etc. Not just your primary attack)

(Ring) Ring of the Black Matriarch - Venom of the Black Matriarch (15% Chance on Attack) - Poison & Physical Resist Reduction, 5 Second Duration, No CD
Triggers Ultos wrath
Triggers Lightning Nova

Note: I found this to be one of the more helpful elements in this equation because it has NO cool down, can be triggered by your many attacks and other procs, and lasts for 5 seconds each. This means the more enemies the better momentum of this proc. Not to mention it reduces their physical resistance.

(Weapon) Ultos Stormseeker - Lightning Nova (15% Chance on Attack) - Affects all in 4.8 Meter Radius, 1 Second CD.
Triggers Venom of the Black Matriarch
Triggers Ultos Wrath

(Devotion) Falcon Swoop (15% Chance on Attack) - 6 Projectiles, 100% Pass through, 1.5 Second CD.
Dead End but at max level provides tons of damage as seen in my pic above backed by fully amped Savagery. Because of it’s inherent weapon damage it also adds very nice life steal. Plus it sounds cool when it procs.

(Devotion) Tsunami (35% Chance on Attack) 12 Meter Range, 1.1 Second CD
Dead End, more so needed to unlock other devotions in this line and it compliments my lightning oriented damage.

This is not exhaustive and I’m still refining. There are a lot of items in the game that offer procs, even some great ones among greens so I encourage you to experiment!

4

i’m not saying your build isn’t good or anything but:

watched a couple of your boss kill vids, you either have 1000 consumables up or using aether cluster against loxmere… that really isn’t an accurate representation of your build.

ur 120k dps screenshot - how many procs/consumables do u have up? it’s an impressive number, but your sharzul kill is slower than my 30k dps witchblade tank…

5

If you watch the vids the 100K+ damage is without consumables, just normal Savagery, gear, devs, as I listed. Watch the first two-handed video (or click here) and pause it at 1:02 to see my stats without consumables.

I also mentioned the boss killing speed of bosses like Shar… if I added Wind Devils or Arcane Mine to lower resists as you did with curse of frailty on the build you mentioned I’m sure I’d speed it up well over a 30k build. However because my damage output is so high as it is I opted to have other procs (as was a focus of this build). The sheer damage output of this build does not require resist reduction even in Ultimate, demonstrated in the vid you mentioned seeing me drop Shar in seconds without it.

Regarding Lox. I recommend using consumables as he can be semi-unexpected. Otherwise why are consumables in the game? I could have just used a circuit breaker relic, medal, etc all the same but I have consumables…why not use em? Playing exclusively hardcore I try and factor in everything.

I expected your salty reply as I’ve read many of them through other peoples builds (and 2 for 2 on my builds), you did not let me down in this regard.

6

Come on. He is playing on HC, I’d popped as many clusters as possible if going against Loxmere.

Squib, thank you for yet another great build. I love your build concept very much, unlike other Ultos builds. Amazingly detailed guide and THAT DPS!

7

again, i’m not discrediting his build. but to me, using things like clusters in demo vids when the build’s tankiness is supposed to be put to the test against hard hitting boss… kind of defeats the purpose, as pretty much any build can tank any boss with cluster up. like i could make a full dps build and kill sharzul in 6secs using aether cluster, but its not really a meaningful demonstration of the power of the build.

but again i’m speaking from SC perspective on build demonstration videos, so to each their own.

8

I hunted down Loxmere out of the Aether fields and killed him apart from consumables. I updated the build video. Though in this vid I don’t use them, I encourage the use of consumables, they’re not in the game to be admired.

9

I agree with Jaja, but I’m not here to knock your build or anything.

But lets face reality here. Sub 2k DA and sub 15k HP is not a tanky build. That’s within the realm of oneshot potential by mobs like “The Iron Maiden” who hit me for 11500 in one attack. And its possible she could have RNG’d an even higher hit. But I don’t go back for seconds vs bosses that are guaranteed to oneshot me just to see if they could oneshot me even harder. Mad Queen can hit harder, but her massive hits are a shotgun of hits so it won’t post that high individually, but I know I’ve seen 15k HP vanish on my 2h Warder build (Jaha’s build) in 0.2 secs. Which puts even something in the low 15k range into oneshot or instagib territory.

And considering the above, its understandable why you’d use consumables to stay alive in HC. Can’t say I blame you. I know I would with that amount of DA and HP in HC. And it would be pretty embarrassing to lose your HC build while trying to showcase it in a video, so I’d probably pop an aether cluster too.

10

Thanks! It was a fun build to do.

11

I agree it’s no tank like Hetzer, though I do consider the included numbers tanky (my Warlock is about to finish with 6700 hp and a DA at 1568). Furthermore, I believe “tanky” is defined as more than it’s hp and DA but needs to be all encompassing into the role of a tank. Which is the ability to take hits until the need to take hits is completed. In this particular build it’s important to factor in life steal, health regen, weapon swap (to shield as shown in the build), circuit breakers, etc. For example, while you see 12k hp. With the circuit breaker Menhir’s Will which automatically heals for 47% hp (level 8) or 65% hp (max normal level) I don’t see 12k hp, I see the additional 47% and 65% on top of 12k hp equaling from 17.5k hp (level 8 MW) to 20k hp (max level 16 MW). Not to mention other item based circuit breakers like Mark of Divinity, Avatar of Mercy, etc. There are many other factors that contribute such as gear combos, devs like tortoise, etc. Gear combos are a biggy too. If I go farming The Iron Maiden, I might swap out my medal for the mark of divinity which adds 600k hp, more resistances, and yet another circuit breaker and my belt over to Tinker’s Ingenuity to finish off my resistances. As I posted in my video vs Loghorrean. Even with this gear change out I can hit 100k DPS without a single offensive consumable (and no clusters…).

12

great build! Loxmere is the only mob who strips your buffs, makes sense to pop cluster on him. i have every item there except Ultos helmet; but all those set helmets you have to craft correct?

back to moos farming… :stuck_out_tongue:

13

You are correct, legendary helms have to be crafted. Epic ones can be crafted but I’ve also found them on drops including those in epic sets. Like you’re doing with the nemesis, I’ve also found many of my blueprints from treasure troves (locked chests) but those are random now since the last update.

14

jaja presents totally valid point you reply ‘ive been awaiting your salty reply’ :eek:

that being said fun build, i dig it

15

LOL yeah he’s salty. Was not an insult, just keeping things fresh. Can always count on jaja (and others) for a ‘cup check’ on your build. As far as his post goes, I felt he was being genuine too which is why I took some time to reply addressing his points.

16

calling people salty sounds a bit insulting to me, since it’s directed at my personality when i’ve only commented on a part of your build. i know i can come across as sarcastic at times but its only directed at specific parts of the build, i don’t go around calling names or judging people’s personalities. u post build here u open up it up for feedback.
so here is the “non-sarcastic” version of my feedback:

you market your build as “100k+ DPS TANK” in all caps. however, you do a ton of gear switching and using consumables + long CDs to tank bosses. aether cluster vs loxmere, menhir’s relic vs shar’zul etc. while doing these things are perfectly acceptable in HC. when you do it in a demo video it shows zero information about the tankiness of your build, as any build can tank bosses when using the above cooldowns/consumables.

when you market your build as 100k+ DPS in caps, this implies that its a high dps build, however, many of my 30-40k dps autoattack builds drastically outdps you based on ur boss kill time. the point here isn’t that my build is better than yours or anything, its simply that your 100k+ dps is a bit misleading if 30-40k dps builds routinely out dps you due to reasons that may be: ur 100k dps consists of short lived procs, u lack -resist, ur 100k dps setup isn’t viable against real bosses and u must gear switch to a much lower dps setup in actual gameplay.

while i am not saying your build is bad. your title is very misleading and a bit braggy for the actual performance of the build.

i know hc is harder than sc and i always give hc build makers more respect by default. however, if you don’t feel safe using ur 100k dps setup against real bosses so that it’s only viable against dummies… a bit disingenuous to title the post as such no?

17

Hi,

great guide, you sure put a lot of time into this, thanks!

As a new player, I am having trouble in understanding how exctly this infinite loop of procs works. It would be really helpful, if you would add another part to the guide, where you explain in detail

  1. What are the procs that create the loop
  2. Which gear/devotion/skill is required to get access to that proc
  3. What are the proc chances and how can they be influenced (if at all)?

Cheers

18

Forgive me, I didn’t mean to sound insulting. I viewed it as more of a comradery, you give me an elbow jab, I give you one but it was meant in good fun, so again, my apologies.

To answer the challenge of my mis-marketing my character, I completely disagree. First, the direct challenge, can I maintain 100k+ damage build and go up against real bosses, the answer is yes, without any of the consumables you mentioned, and I can drop Shar’Zul (BoC boss) in ~12 seconds doing so. In this video I will show you my specs, and my damage output not only on paper shows over 100k but you will see crits against Shar’Zul averaging around 80k and there are many of them. You will see the crits alone almost hit 100k. (95k I believe). So with that, I VERY comfortably market my build as able to do over 100k in damage. Shar’Zul and Loxmere videos have been replaced to reflect this.

To answer the second challenge of this build Tanking. No in terms of defense this guy is no Hetzer. However I define Tankyness as being able to take hits until the need to take hits is completed. This build factors in far more than hp and defense ability as another stated (though those things are important). To understand how this build is tanky you must realize it does so primarily offensively (“best defense is a good offense”). When you can land a crit for 95,000 (even against Shar’Zul who has good resistances) and have 17% life steal you get a lot of HP in return even with their life steal resistances (which were relaxed in the last patch which is partly why I ran with this build). Notice how my health tops off with each hit. Life steal makes me not care about DoT such as bleeding and poison as they take to long to do any real damage compared to my life steal which over compensates.

The next big factor you need to consider is my circuit breakers (which did not trigger in this video though I had Menhir’s will). While my paper HP is 13,000 the 45%-65% hp return I get when my circuit breaker activates essentially adds 6k - 9k hp to my build. This means I’m carrying 19k - 22k worth of health. Not to mention the INSANE hp regen MW gives you when it activates. With this kind of damage output, even if it does trigger, I usually have them dropped well before it goes into CD. One more factor and again I mentioned this in my OP is weapon swap. At any time I can gain 50% health with crazy regen just by swapping over to a shield which makes my guy VERY much more tanky and still has 50k-60k paper DPS. Our characters have weapon swap allowing them to equip two weapon/shield sets at once, I’ve simply utilized that as demonstrated in this video.

You said your 30k witchblade could drop Shar’Zul in ~20 seconds, I cut that time almost in half after I added resist reduction like you did using Curse of Frailty. And I showed my #'s so they are transparent so there’s no question of false advertising. I play strictly hardcore as I like the additional challenge. This however has caused me to not enjoy some of the high damage output’s I’ve seen others do who don’t mind racking up the deaths. (This is also partly to me not trading gear either so I’ve got a lot of guys on hold until I can find the gear they were meant for). This build allowed me to enjoy some of the number’s I’ve seen softcore players put out and still keep my guy as Tanky as I need him to be in hardcore. With that, I wanted to share my build for others in the community that was also applicable to the hardcore community like myself.

As far as gear swapping on the rest of my gear (that’s not part of weapon swap). 99% of the time I play with the 100k+ DPS as you see in the video I shared. This includes primary bosses such as Shar’Zul and Loghorrean and also some Nemesis bosses I’ve encountered so far as well. However non traditional bosses such as the Mad Queen I’ve swapped over to my shield build. I’m not sure if I needed too but playing hardcore…I like to error on the side of overkill. With that I don’t mind throwing on Menhir’s Bastion. This drops my ratcheted DPS down to about 85k. Or I can switch to the shield for 60k or 50k with Menhir’s Bastion. And I only need/use this for 1% of this game. Because of that I didn’t likely need to include it in my build but I appreciate full disclosure. Consequently that’s also why my original videos showed me using consumables. I wasn’t trying to hide it… I fully endorse using consumables, they’re cheap and again I prefer to side on overkill when playing hardcore. Honestly I was more jazzed about the procs. I’ve now swapped the two out you mentioned for updated videos requiring no buff giving consumables.

This post is getting so long I should add it to the guide… I hope my transparency has shed some light on your concerns.

19

All good questions. Working on it along with some gear and component touch ups and alternate GrimCalc’s, and I hope to have it up soon.

20

The new vid u post is indeed consistent with the suggested performance. why the big difference between this and the old one?

some other suggestions:
while its good that your guide is newbie friendly. more veteran players will probably just want to go straight to a quick glance of grimcalc with +skills and devos, this together with the gear setup should be enough for them get the general gist of the build.

I looked through your post trying to find this and it was very difficult, i still didn’t find one that includes both endgame skills and devotions in one link. did i miss it? Would be great if it was in an obvious portion of the very first post.

since your DA is on the low side, the small amounts of dps ur getting from putting points in spirit/cunning really isn’t worth imo. going full physique is great with soldier scaling an additional +18% which will give u some much needed DA. offensive devos+gear give so much %dmg the return u actually get from the stats is pretty minimal, especially when split between two.

scars of battle is reallly amazing, if theres anyway to squeeze some points for it from other areas it seems worth such as oak skin. squad tactics past lvl 7 isn’t worth it IMO, its like 5 points for 3% ias and a very small amount of dmg.

finally, correct me if im wrong but procs like zolhans/markovians/feralhunger replaces ur upheaval as the two cannot happen at once. a lvl 1 zolhans is actually weaker than upheaval. Savagery itself is a 170%ish weapon dmg attack, while a lvl1 zolhans/markovian are much less. my understanding is that when they proc they replace ur savagery attack, so ur replacing a 170% dmg attack with a 75% zolhan, resulting in dps loss, or does it work differently?