I don't think this is true very often much anymore, many of the previous niches have better options now (like even Barb which was one of the worst offenders got FB capstone fixed so I think it's better than VKF capstone now?).
The difference is longswords have Nightforge/Oathblade/Fellblade all w/+2 range, vs Nightforge Hammer with +1 Multi... If it was +2 Multi it'd be equivalent, however I recommend +Range for leveling so you overkill less - however +Multi is better with most crit-boosting active attacks like QC (which has +4 range) so there'd be an argument if Nightforge Hammer was your endgame XD.
There's Drow X as well, but longswords have the whole progression (and DoJ is a very soloable raid even if you hate grouping).
Endgame Fellblade is the highest level KT weapon with a full crit bonus, and I don't think it competes with like Dino etc ([w] drop is huge, let alone debuffs). Pestle having +1 on 19-20 comes out ahead purely on crit profile, but with the significant drawback of no debuffs lol.
Free sentient gem every life from RL, trash commons & some sentience destroyers mean you can maintain set bonus on EVoM etc as well, doesn't have to be a 10-slot to get +10% DPS or something lol (starting with ~200 MP, that's ~30 MP).
That's true. I generally try to plan my level 20 gear around getting some type of additional bonuses from Epic Gem of Many Facets. For example, being able to run 3pc Epic Abishai + 3pc Vecna + 5pc Forbidden Knowledge + 2pc [VoN/RedFens] is a big power spike, but 5% DS and 5 MP for a set bonus is worth a lot less than just being able to get 30 MP. That's something I'll tinker with more down the line once I feel comfortable about the meat and potatos of the build.
Swap that Icehorn augment for Melthorn. -35 enemy PRR buffs your damage by 53%, which is more than the 50% you get from helpless. It has a much higher proc rate and it works on bosses.
I think that's a fair argument to make for Raids vs Questing.
How often am I going to fully stack PRR debuffs vs regular monsters? It's more of a way to catch mobs between Dragon's Roars. The way I see it is the freeze also prevents incoming damage which is super beneficial as well. Assuming it was 153% vs 150% damage, then a 2% damage difference is worth being able to prevent things from hitting me for a little while imo. The other thing is helplessness damage. If I take Crush Weakness (which I did... whether I should is a different discussion), then it's 153% vs 165%.
Against things that can't be CC'd or Frozen, you're 100% right. It's 153% vs 100% which is mega worth it.
I've come around on the Filigree thing. A lot of the numbers I was looking to reach simply aren't possible without at least some filigree investment. I would still make a similar argument about preferring 4-pc Dreadbringer due to the fortification bypass and the always active damage boost from more Melee Power, but if we're looking at adding an extra 4 filigree spots, I think Shattered Device makes sense over two sets of 2-pc filigrees for just MP. It's what... an 11/15 MP difference vs +3 Att/Dmg, +2 STR, +3% Doublestrike, and the debuff. It's definitely a worthwhile investment.
Swap that Icehorn augment for Melthorn. -35 enemy PRR buffs your damage by 53%, which is more than the 50% you get from helpless. It has a much higher proc rate and it works on bosses.
Adding the 4-piece Shattered Device filigree set makes it -45 PRR / +80% damage
I think that's a fair argument to make for Raids vs Questing.
How often am I going to fully stack PRR debuffs vs regular monsters? It's more of a way to catch mobs between Dragon's Roars. The way I see it is the freeze also prevents incoming damage which is super beneficial as well. Assuming it was 153% vs 150% damage, then a 2% damage difference is worth being able to prevent things from hitting me for a little while imo. The other thing is helplessness damage. If I take Crush Weakness (which I did... whether I should is a different discussion), then it's 153% vs 165%.
Against things that can't be CC'd or Frozen, you're 100% right. It's 153% vs 100% which is mega worth it.
Same as above, but also - go whack some mobs, see how many swings until they die; also remember WWA & QC both hit twice, which helps stack debuffs (and the -PRR will boost the QC DoT).
CC can be important for survival, ignoring the damage part. That said, so can +DPS for bosses (and immune mobs); dealing 35% more damage to a boss might make your Dodge hat last the whole fight, for instance.
FYI Spell: Lightning Sphere is perfect for breaking breakables. I prefer that one and not beeing rely on different runearms at different levels. I know runearms dont cost mana but I never had issues with mana management.
I appreciate the feedback I've gotten on the build. There were a lot of good recommendations to clean up a bunch of the endgame numbers, and it seemed like there was a general consensus that the 13/6/1 would be more enjoyable with negligible differences at cap.
I'll probably test things out on a fresh character just to see how the build actually feels. There was a good point made that, especially for the leveling process, having enough PLs and precanned gear can make just about anything work.
If I want this build to feel good for new players, then I can't just trial run it on someone with fully farmed gear, heroic completionist, and extra APs.
In my downtime (when I get bored of Eldritch Blast), I'll be leveling a fresh character and documenting thoughts/feelings/tweaks. If it feels fairly decent and easy to play, I'll probably make another post that actually showcases the build. Otherwise, it'll be back to the drawing board.
If you're late to the party and have suggestions for cleaning up leveling (I don't think there's much room for improvement, but I could be wrong), gear breakpoints I should highlight, or fine tuning things at cap, I still encourage you to contribute because I'm still stumbling in the dark every now and then.
[*]I saw you took Construct and Improved Construct Essence feats. That means you will have bad self-heals till you get ICE feat. I normally take CE at lvl 9 and ICE at lvl 13. So that means meleeing under lvl 13 is risky and you can die a lot.
You can always take a placeholder feat at 9 and then swap it out for CE just before leveling to 13, and then immediately take ICE. You shouldn't ever play with just CE.
You can always take a placeholder feat at 9 and then swap it out for CE just before leveling to 13, and then immediately take ICE. You shouldn't ever play with just CE.
In my builder (without updating the OP), I swapped CE and ICE to levels 14 and 18 (Arti 8 and 12) rather than the levels 6 and 18 (Arti 4 and 12) that I originally had.
Assuming I'm not messing up my math, I'm pretty sure I should have the reconstruct SLA fully maxed out at level 16. For my purposes, making thay feat swap at 16 and getting half healing from Reconstruct will probably outpace the cure serious SLA. Still, that's a great tip for going pure Arti or frontloading Arti when you're investing APs in damage.
I would personally go with 13 Arti, 6 DL, 1 Barb: 36 points in Ravager for 2x range, 24 in BE for DS and core 4 for +1 multi, 14+ in DL for haste boost and trance. Single weapon fighting line and two weapon mastery at 31. The bastard sword and rune arm from FoM are still very viable endgame imo and give a bit of CC....and Arborea...mechanus is a trap. Plenty of self healing from blood strength and unquenchable rage in fury and if you have the racial ap a few healing hands for oh pewp moments. probably would be in fury, SD, and LD (T5).
Some people forget that blood strength's heal on kill is considered an external heal and thus unaffected by reaper self healing penalty and can be very effective.
Taking dwarven war axe feat as your level four arti feat, and running a dwarven axe would really bump your dps output, if you run it with a dwarf you get the extra constitution which would help with your PRR I would think, and give you extra dps with the war axe from your racial tree, and I think there's more PRR stuff in the dwarf tree, but that's off the top of my head.
I would personally go with 13 Arti, 6 DL, 1 Barb: 36 points in Ravager for 2x range, 24 in BE for DS and core 4 for +1 multi, 14+ in DL for haste boost and trance. Single weapon fighting line and two weapon mastery at 31. The bastard sword and rune arm from FoM are still very viable endgame imo and give a bit of CC....and Arborea...mechanus is a trap. Plenty of self healing from blood strength and unquenchable rage in fury and if you have the racial ap a few healing hands for oh pewp moments. probably would be in fury, SD, and LD (T5).
Some people forget that blood strength's heal on kill is considered an external heal and thus unaffected by reaper self healing penalty and can be very effective.
I really appreciate this recommendation. It sounds very interesting, and I definitely see the value in going Hand and a Half (especially with a Paralyze + Slay Living weapon) for the AOE.
I'll have to play with it in the builder, but my main concern would just be how relatively squishy the build would be. Given the context of the build, it probably fulfills a lot of my requirements during the leveling process, but I'd have to see how much of a hit the durability is before I decide to try it out.
[EDIT] So, I've played with it in builder some, and it looks like something that might be good while leveling. I'm just getting worse numbers across the board at endgame. Renegade + Dragonlord vs Battle Engineer + Ravager
Some of these numbers might vary slightly depending on if I missed a toggle or something.
This might also not be the best case scenario for the BE + Rav build because it's a copy/pasted gearset (including filigrees) from the RM + DL.
Defense
HP: 3533 vs 2552
AC: 184 vs 99
PRR: 220 vs 184
MRR: 150 vs 109
Fortification: 236 vs 191
Dodge: 22 vs 20
RAMP: 231 vs 162
Displacement: 50 vs 0
Offense
DS: 67% vs 78% (Could be lowered for extra strikethrough)
MP: 255 vs 245
Fort Bypass: 117 vs 117
Strikethrough: 0 vs 85 (Could be increased by dropping DS)
Helpless Damage: 165% vs 180%
Weapon (Warhammer vs Bastard Sword vs BE Warhammer)
Weapon Die: 5.4(1d8+3) vs 6.4(1d10+3) vs 6.4(1d8+3)
Attack: 170 vs 152 vs 156
Damage: 133 vs 123 vs 119
Crit Att: 187 vs 171 vs 175
Crit Dmg: 150 vs 142 vs 138
Crit Mult: 18-20x6 vs 15-20x4 vs 15-20x5
Crit 19/20: 19-20x8 vs 19-20x6 vs 19-20x8
Attack Speed: 40% vs 35% vs 35%
Standardized DPS: 2891 vs 3235 vs 3737 (~12% Difference or ~29% Difference)
Caveat being this is just attacking without taking abilities, AA resets, action boosts, etc. into account.
So, in addition to sacrificing Dragon's Roar, the mobility from Flight of Kings, permanent Displacement, and noticeable amount of hit chance, there are massive tradeoffs in terms of durability.
Interestingly, if you use Ravager to expand the crit profile of Warhammers and ignore the AOE from Hand and a Half weapons, you end up with 15-20x5 on Warhammers which greatly improves the standardized damage I was calculating (29% more damage over DL + RM with Warhammer).
I see the value in Hand and a Half while doing Heroic leveling because we really only have WWA, but with WWA, Spring Attack, and Quick Cutter, I'm a lot less inclined to think that the extra AOE is going to outweigh the sheer damage elsewhere.
I still think you made a great recommendation and that it was worth considering, but I don't think it accomplishes my goals with this build due to the frailty and lack of Dragon's Roar.
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