I had a pierce Infiltrator back in like 2020 that used both runes. Long story short, changes in the latest patches have rendered that build obsolete (removed pierce damage from fire rune, changed damage conversion on the Mythical Pack of Treacherous Means belt).
The character needs a complete rework to something different. I recall DW cold Infiltrators used to be strong back in the day, but I’m not really interested in that (I have DW cold Trickster, although it’s squishy as hell and basically obsolete itself). I was looking at turning him into a Chillspike/Rune of Hagarrad caster with Mythical Northern Wyrm crossbow, but I don’t know if this will work. I pieced it together with some items (not augmented or componented yet) and Chillspike only had 30k sheet DPS and sucked energy like no tomorrow. So preliminary indications are not so good.
Pierce Infiltrator still can be made good if you don’t want to change damage type.
There are still sources of conversions such as rings, crossbow, shoulders.
Energy is not an unsolvable problem, you can always get Scales (awesome with Vit → Cold conversion), Harp or up two 2 Sparks, Spirit dump etc, it’s a matter of tweaking the build and you can safely assume it can be done after you have a general sketch of your build.
I think I’m tending more towards cold damage (sorry, I should have been clearer in OP) - pierce seems a bit sucky outside of very specific builds.
Yes I figured I might need either Scales or Harp to make this work, but I was trying to avoid that because I wanted Revenant as my source of RR from devotions, and it takes me over the other side of the devotion map. But I think I’ll just have to take Scales!
What sort of sheet DPS is good for Chillspikes? I can probably play around with what I’ve currently got, and if I can get it to an acceptable level it might just work.
I suck at building from scratch, every other character I’ve built up from 1-100 along the lines of what it will be in the end, and you find out what works and what doesn’t as you go along
I you want another side of Devotion then Harp is much easier to fit in than Scales if Sparks are not enough and you don’t feel like dumping Spirit. 8 Yellow requirement for Scales leave little room for experiments after you take mandatory damaging devos.
Dunno, I never look at the DPS thing in Grim Sheet. When playing Chillspikes you want high casting speed, conversion and that should be enough when it’s your support skill. Because you want to play RoH too as you said. And you can also use Blade Spirits or Shadow Strike. With Northerm Wyrm Chillspikes can definitely be strong which is shown by two Spellbreakers build I linked so it can be strong with Infiltrator as well.
Thanks so much tqFan. Lots of food for thought. I usually look at other people’s builds for guidance and ideas but avoid copying them exact. I can see the major benefits to DW over 2H, but I’m also a sucker for +skill points. If I can put together something good I might just upload it
OMG cold RoH is SO DAMN GOOD! Why did nobody tell me? Pierce, at least a couple patches back, was/is garbage in comparison.
This isn’t necessarily finished version, but this is what I could put together w/o any significant farming (e.g. Alkamos rings), but he’s actually really strong.
Did SR 65-70 and CR100-150 with no troubles and his devotional skills are not maxed. Will take a crack at the higher challenges once they are!
In the end I didn’t need either Harp or Scales. I didn’t think Scales really fit the build, and I don’t really like Harp where I don’t have some good -cooldown%, since you only ever have it up half the time or less (it’s great on pure casters though where you can get great uptime).
EDIT: this really makes me think cold is up there with the strongest damage types. I always knew it was strong, but phew, it really packs a punch. My caster Druid is also in line for a rework so I’m definitely doing a Lightning to Cold conversion on her.
