Alright, I’m deep in this too reading all the posts and not posting. I think I’m pretty bad at this sort of theory crafting and have been hesitant to post. I got a Necromancer / Soldier combo up to level 50 recently and it seems to be dropping effectiveness quickly as I continue to level. I thought I’d do awesome skeletons with the party buff ability soldiers have and then sword and board tank for them. Now deep into the expansion content and killing enemies is taking a really long time.
I think I need a break. So I’m starting up a ranged character (my other high level is a nightblade / shaman combo, so I’ve never done ranged). I started Demolitionist and am either going to secondary into Inquisitor or Arcanist, but haven’t yet decided. Also trying to controller for the first time. Kiting + Controller feels pretty relaxing so far with all the easy mobs in the first section.
Cool. I’ve never made a 2 Handed Ranged build. So do you use Primal Strike as your primary attack, even though it’s specifically listed as an attack that’s not a default attack? That’s bold! Doesn’t it use too much mana to repeatedly use? But you must use it repeatedly since you took the Thunderous Strike modifier which drastically reduces Primal strike’s damage in exchange for being able to use it all the time with a much smaller cooldown period.
Is it just me, or is it really hard to find equipment that reduces stun duration? My stun duration reduction number on the front page of the character sheet is almost always low. The kicker is that when you do find the rare equipment that does have stun reduction, it’s pretty poor in other ways so it feels like such a compromise to wear it. On the other hand, some of the bigger bosses’ main danger is that they stun you so much, so stun reduction is pretty darn important for survivability.
If I ever find a really good piece of stun reduction equipment, I’ll have to share it with all my characters. Ok Vlad, your turn to wear these gloves. Alright Cerie, it’s time for you to wear the gloves now, give them up Vlad.
Yah, Primal strike is …probably the single most overpowered ability in the early game with thunderous strike. You only need about 5 points in it, and 5 points in the next skill up the tree to get you through the first 30 levels or so, at that point you can start putting more skill points into it. It’s fairly ridiculous with a ranged weapon, everything dies in one hit pretty much. The other thing about that build is the face-tankiness of it. With wendigo totem and word of renewal, you’re pretty much unkillable. It’s fun to just stand in front of stuff and blast away.
Fun build, can tank most stuff, but also very good at kiting with the run speed and storm totem etc. It’s a nice combo of defense and debuffs. I have no idea how it scales at end game, but can always transition to 2h build or something, it’s certainly boss for leveling.
I’ve gotten onto this kick, where I’m really trying to formulate different leveling builds. Looking at end game builds, rarely has anything to do with the best way to level a character, it’s been fun for me trying to figure out the best combos to level with, even if I plan on doing something else post 80 or so.
demo + inqusitor is very fun. I went Hand of Ultos, Ulzins Torch and Magi for devotions and then 6 points in all the inquisitor WPS (Storm spread, ice attack etc). It cleared things very fast and I’m steam rolling through ultimate now. it’s my third character (and by far the farthest I’ve gone, never made it to ultimate before). Just focus on fire damage and crits + attack speed and it becomes so much fun. It’s like playing a walking firecracker with how many explosions and aoe effects go off.
Nice, you’re doing a 2 handed version of the Purifier. Since you’re two-handed, you should get the Kraken devotion tree too. That’s such a huge boost to damage usually, for 2 handers. But maybe it’s not for you, if your physical damage numbers aren’t very high? (Although, most of the nodes increase All Damage, not just Physical damage).
That looks directionally like the build I have so far (at level 25)! I’m dual wielding at the moment because constant explosions are fun, but the rifles look so cool I’m planning to respec to 2-handed at some point.
Are you using Flashbang for the confusion? I’ve been rolling with Grenado instead because I like the lightning special effects, but I could see confusion being more useful for survivability.
oh, that is actually an old gun I’ve got still in that weapon slot… I’m actually doing dual wield pistols in the other slot. It definitely isn’t optimized, I’m shooting for fire + electric damage but it can be a bit hard to specialize in damage types without gear.
Flashbang lowers DA by like 250, which as far as I can tell, is the exact same thing as +250 OA ability to yourself. That is a HUGE amount, and really increases crit chance and damage usually. It is also useful as a way to apply devotions that use aoe. once you spec for flame touched + one shot, your crits get pretty powerful. I don’t like using Grenado or thermite mines because casting those takes a lot of time out of shooting things, which lowers DPS a lot. Thermite mine is actually okay, because it lowers fire resistance by a lot. It can be useful against high hp enemies and bosses. But I haven’t ran into a situation where I’m not critting at least once during a fight, so flashbang usually ends up being pretty useful.
I’m also doing dual handed, I realize i’ve still got a one handed weapon in the other slot. I’d also really recommend maxing out Word of Renewal and its 3rd tier upgrade. It is absolutely crazy how useful that spell is.
Here’s a couple of lessons I learned from playing hardcore with my friends this weekend:
I die a lot.
I tried making the trickster, a hardcore version, but died early, around level 12
I tried making a vindicator after doing the crucible to level 18 first. Then I thought, hey, let’s go to that dynamite area right near the start. Dead level 18 Vindicator.
I need to play more carefully, is what I need to do.
An update: On Sunday, I leveled up another Vindicator to level 18 using the Crucible.
Next up: Play through Act 1 and try not to get killed. I’m going with @Ultrazen’s Vindicator build from above as a goal, but going a little different early on, investing in most abilities in the Shaman tree at least a little. Anything that helps a hardcore character survive early on is a plus. As a result, I’m relying mostly on Devouring Swarm so far.
Here’s a great hardcore character, I’m just leveling it up now. GD just loves to bumrush you, and I got tired of running. I’m about half way through leveling this right now, and it’s facetank city. It’s a lot of dots, so you can certainly kite, but you have 4 sources of health coming in, Wendigo, Sigil, Dreegs, and Devouring swarm, + you also have your health regen…it’s fairly insane. The devotion tree is all setup towards defense as well. I’m tired of running from stuff in this game.
The more builds I make, the more defense I put into them. I’ve never really had a problem with offense in this game, regardless of what class combo, it really comes down to resists, health regen/leech, and hit points. This build has all of that AND it’s super fun to play.
I love vitality builds, and this one is the vitality super fan build lol.
Here’s a short vid of a boss kill I made, just to show the general tankyness of the character. Vitality Tanking
P.S. Yah Rock8man, anything that has a shaman as one of the classes in it, pretty much best way to level early on is devouring swarm. Best early leveling skill in the game really. You can pump about 8 points or so into devouring swarm, and then just make a beeline for wendigo totem. It’s good to pump up the base mastery early in hardcore builds, because you get so much health etc out of doing that.
A week ago I saw mention of Primal Strike as a great OP power for Shamans. So I looked and sure enough I had a lvl 23 Shaman using Savagery. I switched over and that night the wife swung by my computer desk to kiss me good night and I couldn’t resist, “Look, I’m the god of lightning! What are you the god of again?”
Hit lvl 58 tonight, added Soldier for Elite difficulty, and discovered that I have several lvl 68 empowered Windcaller items in my stash. :o)
Yah primal strike is fairly ridiculous, it got a big boost at some point, as it used to be pretty horrible I think. It’s also very fun lol. I’ve been goofing around with 3 different class combos for primal strike, and have settled on soldier I think.
Come to think of it, any combo that doesn’t have soldier as one of the choices is pretty much gimped. Soldier has way too much DPS for all the defense it brings, it’s so hard to get away from in a build.
There’s also the factor of equipment, which is an X-factor that I don’t plan with the grim calculator. The truth is, the more defensive components you get from devotions, for instance, the more you can have your equipment be more offensive focused as well. It’s always a give and take. If you get a devotion node that gives you extra elemental resist, or poison resist, or vitality resist, then that’s that much less you have to get via equipment, and can shuffle around equipment to get something else instead. It keeps you on your toes, and sometimes it can lead to some really fun abilities that come just from your equipment.
For instance, I’ve still never made a character who actually invests points into Doom Bolt (occultist tree), but that’s a very common trait that shows up on a lot of equipment for me. So various characters of mine end up getting Doom Bolt, that’s just a cracking strong spell that just wrecks bosses sometimes. It depends on the equipment, of course, but sometimes I get such a strong Doom Bolt on some stuff, and wearing that stuff is highly dependent on getting my resists elsewhere.
Yah I think that’s why I’ve started to gravitate more towards defensive devotions, it lets me play around with gear a lot more without having to always be focused on resists etc. It certainly is fluid though, based on what you pick up, one of the things I love about the game, you are (or can be), constantly tinkering.
