I want to make a build using RF in combination with a shield and retaliation damage, but need some help regarding how to prioritize my skill points.
Currently I’m lvl 67 and just winged it up to this point. I find it really hard to plan the build in advance when I don’t know how many extra skill points from gear I’ll have available.
But to break it down:
I need at least 32 skill points in Oathkeeper for Retribution, the Guardians are also amazing so definitely want those.
For Soldier I need 40 skill points for the Counter Strike skill.
Now I could get Oathkeeper to 50 for that amazing RR with Celestial Presence, but that’s a whole 18 points and while Divine Mandate is pretty nice, it’s not that amazing.
On the other hand Menhir’s Bulwark is only 10 points away offering both offence and defence. It’s objectively superior to Divine Mandate and is more accessible. But even so Celestial Presence would increase my damage a ton.
As for devotions I’ve given it some thought but not made an exact build for it yet since the devotion images in GT are broken, making it a massive pain to use (disabled all my various blocking addons but nothing helps, not sure if on my side or site).
But some seem like pretty obvious choices such as:
Anvil, Obelisk of Menhir, Shield Maiden, Messenger of War and Targo the Builder.
Don’t how much more I can fit in without building it in GT, also unsure if I’ll want more offence or defence. Ulzaad and Autumn Boar both seem like good choices for more damage, for more survivability Tortoise is always a safe bet. Vire, the Stone Matron could also be a good choice for damage but it’s much less accessible than the others.
Hey buddy, I’m not an expert but I’m trying a retaliation RF build and here are my thoughts.
Drop down to 1 point in RF, consecration, guardian of empyrion, ascension, and optionally counter strike. Max celestial presence (for RR) and crushing verdict (for OA). RF and empyrion are probably good to level but the main damage will come later from retaliation and retribution.
Devotions I’m going for scarab, stag, anvil, messenger of war, shield maiden, watcher, eel, obelisk, and then I can grab the devotion skills from tree of life, targo, and boar.
I’m only lvl 46 so far but that’s my plan. My only close calls so far are from getting my resists lowered by those cthonian wizard guys. Cheers!
I can see where you’re coming from but Ascension is amazing both for offence and defence and while I might not need to max Counter Strike, putting only 1 point in it feels like missed potential.
Currently lvl 68 and even though I’ve kept an eye for for retaliation gear, the massive and instant resist reduction from playing on ultimate starting at lvl 1 has shifted my focus to resistance and health. Will be able to shift my focus now that I’m slowly picking up more efficient resistance gear and better augments.
Looked over the builds similar to something what I want to do but came to the conclusion that I should probably just get closer to 100 and experiment a bit.
Not fully sold on anyone’s build idea yet.
Saw your build and I assume you’re simply not going for retaliation damage? Otherwise getting Cadence over RF and skipping Counter Strike seems a bit questionable. I’m also a big fan of Shattering Smash and could not see myself skipping it.
Then you’re maxing the fuck out of Safeguard which correct me if I’m wrong, only affects the shield and the only skill you have which deals damage with it would be Smite. Just seems like a large investment for a small pay off.
Can you link to the build you are talking about? I have so many builds in that thread, but I am very sure that I do not have a retaliation warlord that’s for sure
And all of those builds in that thread are pre-FG, they have not been tested in game
But dude, Safeguard is a global bonus that is / can be activated if you wear a shield. The flat number is added to weapon damage, the +%damage bonuses to all your damage and the armor bonus to … your … armor
Oh and yeah you’re right about Safeguard. The wording confused me which says ‘This is a shield bonus’ rather than ‘This bonus requires a shield’ or something like that.
As for devotions I’ve given it some thought but not made an exact build for it yet since the devotion images in GT are broken, making it a massive pain to use (disabled all my various blocking addons but nothing helps, not sure if on my side or site).
But some seem like pretty obvious choices such as:
Anvil, Obelisk of Menhir, Shield Maiden, Messenger of War and Targo the Builder.
Don’t how much more I can fit in without building it in GT, also unsure if I’ll want more offence or defence. Ulzaad and Autumn Boar both seem like good choices for more damage, for more survivability Tortoise is always a safe bet. Vire, the Stone Matron could also be a good choice for damage but it’s much less accessible than the others.
snip…
I am not sure what has happened but GrimTools doesn’t play nice with Chrome (and by extension Opera) these days. I know people still hate Microsoft but I have had great luck with using thier Edge browser for GrimTools. Some say it also works well with Firefox but I refuse to test it out myself.
Hey, i’ll post this which is what i eventually ended up on when trying to make the best retaliation build. Personally i’ve yet to see another retaliation warlord come even close.
As far as devotions you talked about, in my setup its essentially 5 points that can be rearranged as they are only filling up “bonus” points on tree to grab either assassin’s mark or trample, but i personally think this is better, the points are just so strong.
Also if want to drop some block chance, like rings, shoulders etc to gain more offensive ability for assassin mark build you can, but i am really in love with 100% block chance at all times not just half the time when absolution relic is up.
Got some questions about your build.
Is Shattering Smash and Markovian’s Advantage really worth the big investment? They start scaling kind of poorly after their max, if you put them to 12/12 and 10/10 you can afford 12/12 Divine Mandate which seems like it would grant a lot more dps.
Presence of Virtue feels like it has really poor value for what it does, but maybe you’re getting it for the OA?
Not getting at least a casual point in Safeguard seems silly as it puts it at +3.
Warcry and its upgrade also seem like good places to spend 2 casual points at.
Even though Retribution is your main source of damage from RF in a build like this, isn’t it worth getting RF itself up higher since it gets more charge levels which in turn can leverage the retaliation bonus even further?
You can absolutely take a few points from those abilities, and by same logic you can take 2 from celestial presence also. I wouldn’t however take any points from shattering smash and celestial presence, that resist reductions adds up in power.
I did take points off markovians and put them into field command.
Field command and presence of virtue are probably the two weakest things to take points off. I don’t go for clarity of purpose because i’m not a crit build, it has bad damage returns. Or at least it does if i had some 100-200 oa more, currently it gives like 3.5% dmg increase for around 100 oa. You can also go for oa increase on ring components instead of health/regen, or even entirely different rings - im just hooked on the 100% block idea.
Anyway i prefer putting it in constant oa + armor increase, but can be done either way. Speaking of armor increase, Safe guard is quite bad for this build mostly what it gives even with lvl 3 for one point is 28 armor, which is surpassed by 3 or even 2% from field command.
Another way to go is attack speed, consecration +squad tactics and other gloves with attack speed. Something to be considered, i found it subpar myself but it’s definitely potential unused there.