Witchblade build

Evening

Recently picked this back up after taking a break from it. Last time I played was back when Homestead was the end and level 40 was cap. Wanted to wait till full release.

Anyhoo, wanting to pick up my Witchblade again but have a couple of questions regarding what’s the most effective. Help me out? I essentially want to focus on doing a buttload of Chaos damage (in melee range) while sustaining myself with Blood of Dreeg and Sigil of Consumption.

  • Took a value point in Aspect of the Guardian for the 10% attack speed buff on it, it’s gone now so is the value point still valuable?
  • Consecrated Blade: I’m using a Voidblade right now, which does 0 physical damage. No physical damage to convert = wasted skillpoints. Am I thinking correct?
  • With a higher amount of points available, is it now worth it to max out Solael’s Witchfire?
  • Cadence (with value point Fighting Form) or Blade Arc for bread and butter DPS? I’ve been using Cadence so far.
  • I’ll most often be teaming up with one or more buddies so I really enjoy Field Command into Squad Tactics having a high level. Good idea or does it drain too many skillpoints?
  • Focussing on Chaos damage means Spirit is a relatively valuable stat. Worth going multiple points into Veternacy and Military Conditioning each so I don’t need to pump as much points into Physique for the heavy gear?
  • Is Possession worth it?
  • For higher difficulties later on (I’m thinking ahead) I assume tank Devotions are more valuable than DPS ones for a melee 1h/shield character?

That ended up being more questions than I anticipated, sorry.
Would appreciate the help, thank you.

Solael’s is great. Aspect has physical resist, which is always nice to have, and poison resist as well. You are correct wrt consecrated blade.

Prevailing thought seems to be that cadence is not in a good place right now. YMMV.

It isn’t necessary to pump spirit to do strong chaos damage, but military conditioning does give you health as well, which never hurts. Veterancy, on the other hand, isn’t worth it, IMO. FC/ST are good.

If using a shield, definitely check out shieldmaiden. There are some very nice defensive procs, but they just buffed the offensive ones too. I like having a mix, personally. Blood of Dreeg and Sigil are both excellent, but not remotely enough to sustain you by themselves.

If one of your friends is playing a demo, see if you can get them to pick up thermite mines with the hellfire modifier. That will debuff enemy chaos resist.

I’m currently leveling an Obsidian Juggernaut Witchblade (level 67 currently). Spirit is not terribly important for damage… but it is for energy regen. Using the granted ability Obsidian Tremor just chews through my energy, so I can only use it sparingly. If you are thinking of making a Witchblade similar to mine, plan on a solution for energy regen, be it Spirit, Ectoplasm, Augments, or whatever.

A value point for Cadence and Fighting Form is great for me since Voidsteel Gauntlets grant +2 Cadence and Obsidian Juggernaut grants +3 Fighting Form. I don’t need to put much there for results.

I went 3/3 Consecrated Blade because I have ample physical damage to offer for conversion. It really depends on your weapon.

Possession is super worth it. It offers damage absorption without the need for a shield like Menhir’s Bulwark (which is a great buff, don’t get me wrong, but I just can’t use it with my weapon). It depends for you: Do you want to focus on physical or chaos damage?

Solael’s Witchfire offers a flat bonus to Chaos damage and increased attack speed (the greatest weakness of two-handed weapons). Super worth it for me, but don’t overlevel it because it ceases to offer attack speed increases past max level.

I went max Field Command and 1 value point in Squad Tactics. The main thing I wanted was the 25% armor bonus, since I’m going melee without a shield, and I just don’t have the points for Squad Tactics. Again, it depends what you want.

I also put a value point in Aspect of the Guardian because I have at least +2 Occultist points from Obsidian Juggernaut.

As for tank devotions vs. offense for a sword/shield character, I made a dedicated tank character before (a Warder) and took it to 85, and it was a failure on ultimate. It’s no fun to sit there and tank hits all day if your weapons aren’t denting the enemy. You have to mix in some offense somewhere, be it in devotions, skills, or gear.

Thanks for the tips.

  • You mentioned Blood of Dreeg and Sigil are great but not enough to sustain on their own. Where am I supposed to get more sustain from?
  • For Devotions, I’m undecided whether it’s worth going all the way down into Abominable Might (taking up a few less-then-100%-worth it constellations along to the way to meet the 18 Eldritch requirements) or going for the more defensive options in top right. I’m afraid going for Shieldmaiden and the other pretty things around there will gimp my damage too much, like one of you mentioned.
  • What are we looking at for an attribute spread?

I’m using the right side of Abom on my pyro, but also benefitting from Ulzuin’s Torch at the same time. It may not be nearly as efficient to only be benefitting from one.

As for sustain, Chariot and Behemoth are both good (and if you do decide to go for shieldmaiden, there’s others over there like Scales of Ulcama).

There are some nice defensive procs on gear as well, if you look. You can also go defensive with a relic. There are plenty of options. Try to find a balance between offense and defense. If you go hardcore defense with devotions, you can take a more offensive slant with gear.