I’m rolling Witch Hunter (http://grimcalc.com/build/Uk6JMaC ) currently at lvl 55. But one thing worries me - is it good to spend that much points at Amarasta’s Blade Burst and Lethal Assault (22 points) as my LMB skill or it would be better to use Shard of Beronath as a component in one of my weapons and spend those points for other skills? If I decide on using Shard of Beronath then I will have to sacrifice either Vitrollic Gallstone or Mark of Dreeg component (which of them better to keep?) . Thanks!
P.S. Another question - why when I select Amarasta’s Blade Burst as my LMB skill i lose that much DPS in character stats? ~4.5k without any skill selected (just a default attack) and only ~1.5k with Amarata’s Blade Burst with Lethal Assault (10/12)?
If you are playing a DoT cycle 2h build - ABB is enormously powerful, but leave it at 6/16 to get the full effect of MoD. If not…you will have to stack a lot of AS to make it good.
In 1.0.0.4. I could reach 120k burst dots with ABB (6/16). Now I can hit 150k in that 3 second window.
=> If you have Nigthade Reach + Quillthrower, stay with ABB up until you get 2x Mad Queen claws. It is only with those weapons that an execution build will outperform a 2h one in terms of damage. However, the manner in which they operate is fundamentaly different as an execution build will actually require you to facetank…
The DPS drop is because the damage is calculated over a 1.8 time window. This is another reason while a 2h cooldown reduction build centered around Nighsthade’s Reach is enormously powerful until you get 2x claws.
Thank you for the reply! Could you please elaborate a bit on ‘leave it at 6/16 to get the full effect of MoD’? Why at 6/16 only? What do you mean by ‘full effect of Mark of Dreeg’?
I dual wielding melee character and I do plan to use two Mad Queen’s claws ( I have them). So for dual-wielding is ABB still better than Shard of Beronath?
Btw, I do have Nightshade Reach weapon. Could you share your skilltree for it with devotion ?
At 6/16 you have 105% Weapon Damage in ABB. To get the full effect of MoD you need 100%, otherwise the effect will be fractionary. For example, when the Infinite Gaze eyes hit a target they DO NOT apply a 10 reduction…they reduce the target’s resistance only with 3. Ergo, due to scaling, you should put ABB only at 6/16 all time, unless you want to make an entire build around cold and frostburn (which is not the case here).
Sure…there you go: https://grimcalc.com/build/DFfw0Pp
And yes…before you ask… I did beat all the Nemeses, the Mad Queen and the Sentinel with it hundreds of times without dying once before i switched to a 2x mad queen claw execution build. Actually, that character has around 8 days full play time now.
Hmm never heard about that. I thought you only have a fraction of resistances reduction if you have less than 100% of Weapon Damage. For example, at 50% weapon damage you get only 5 reduction from MoD. Thank you for the information
Yes…and the point is that if you have more than 100% you do not get extra reduction, so the points are basically wasted when they could be used in other more important skills. In the case of ABB, it is Lethal Assault that makes it enormously attractive, not the CC it provides.
Your build is impressive judging by the video! Thanks for sharing it. So ABB is better than shard of beronath for a dual-wielding acid/poison Witch Hunter. That was my primary concern.
That you do not focus on “increased duration” of the poison, but repeat the poison cycle roughly every 3 seconds because you stack cooldown reduction.
You trigger a OA increase through ABB from a safe distance, then you jump with SS. This will most likely activate the Judicator signets, triggering another increase in OA such that all subsequent DoTs will most likely crit.
Because it is a 2h weapon with high conversion to acid and pierce, all shogun-like skills that scale with main weapon damage and that you use in the cycle (e.g. Dreeg’s Affliction, Infinite Gaze) will not only put farily high critical DoTs, but also generate a lot of damage in close range. This shotgun-effect will allow you to then run away and repeat the process in another 3 seconds (2.4 more precisely) if the target is not dead yet.
So instead of focusing on “increased duration” and kitting, you focus on stacking as much +% acid you can and OA. This will result in relatively short killing times as large targets will get shotgunned in close range where VoS + CoF stack together.
What about relics? I have 2 blueprints - Dreeg’s Affliction and Malediction. I can’t craft both as they are pretty expensive. D’s A has a nice granted skill but with 8sec cooldown which is a bit disappointing. On the other hand Malediction has been buffed and has a great 75 resistances reduction plus some nice boni! Which of those two relics is better in your opinion and why?
To tell you the truth I used both as they serve different purposes, but I can imagine some ppl do not have the time or patience to craft them self found. Malediction, ofc, is superb as that enormousl flat reduction synergizes very well with the percentage reduction from the Judicator set. However, due to its enormous mana cost you have to take Vestment of the Great Guardian as your chest.
I have a +5% OA, +90 roll on the Vestment, but it transforms you into a huge glass cannon even with Avatar of Mercy as your amulet. Therefore I switched to 2x DM items (shoulders + Chest) and D’s A when I got to farming physical damage nemeses and bosses (i.e. Fabius, IM, Sentinel). D’s A will demolish high hitbox targets due to the shotgun effect I talked about. Furthermore, if you grind for a Plague of Shattered Souls roll on the Dreeg Amulet you will have tremendous AoE and can get rid of Bloody Pox for triggering the Guardian Eyes. Since WH do not suffer from single target damage (in fact, nothing with Nightblade in it does), i would go for Dreeg’s Affliction in the end.
Hi Mr. Dreeg - so far I’m through Act I Elite with your build and loving it.
I have some thoughts on your devotion path though. Here’s what you posted in the youtube description:
DEVOTION PATH (in order):
Red Crossroads (Chaos)
Rat
Blue Crossroads (Primordial)
Sailor’s Guide
Green Crossroads (Eldritch)
Behemoth (complete constelation) - assign to veil
SUBSTRACT: Blue and Green Crossroads.
TAKE
Kraken (clockwise)
Eye of the Guardian - assign to bloody pox.
Hawk
Spider (clockwise)
Jackal
Abomination (left arm) - assign to Shadow Strike
Crossroads Gold (Order)
Lion
Targo the Builder (DA + health nodes only)
Not playing hardcore, so skipping all the Order stuff after Abom. That leaves the question of what to do with those points.
If I replace Eye of the Guardian and Hawk, with Scorpion plus Green Crossroads, I end up with 2 extra devotion points compared to your build. This will let me get full Manticore and also both ADCTH nodes in Revenant. I lose 3% OA from Hawk, but 55 flat OA from Scorpion and Manticore counters most of that and OA isn’t a problem in this build anyway. And the chaos damage in Eye doesn’t seem to synergize with anything we’re doing, so Scorpion seems like a better play than Eye anyway.
(Also note that when you plan removes the blue and green crossroads after finishing Behemoth, you also can and should remove red.)
Have I overlooked anything important that would make this change a bad idea?
Also, is there any decent twohanded melee for this build at level 50? I’m still wielding my level 40 Prismatic Eviscerator and nothing in my stash is coming close to its damage rating- should I just ride that to 58?
For 2h softcore I’d recommend this devotion setup . You can take 3 points from Affliction constellation (it is not that important) and take two 5% hp and one 3 ADCTH node for example. Do whatever you want with them. As to Eye of the Guardian - it is very nice constellation . Its skill Guardian’s Gaze can reach lvl 20 and at that level it is quite powerful.
The Eye is not for damage, but CC…it will create a protective belt around the character, which is necessary for Ultimate. Ofc scorpion will generate far better damage and I actually did play with Scorp until mid-late Ultimate. However, the eye is very good in places like SoT / BoC where you might get surrounded and the eye will proc the Nightshade’s ability petrifying everything around you.
The red crossroads is for hp ofc, because WH have very, very low health. As I said, I made this char in HC, then recreated it in SC to experiment more and stuck with what I knew worked and provided an equillibrium between offense, defense and CC.
P.S: at lvl 50 there isn’t any 2h support for this kind of char . I used a Scythe of Tenebris and then got lucky and switched for a Corrosive Alkamos Scythe.