A tanky build with good short-range AoE DPS, quickly filling surrounding space with a deadly dose of throwing hammers. D2 nostalgia and all.
Main Skill: Hammer Throw
Movement Skill: Lunge
Buffs: Holy Aura, Devouring Orb, Volatile Reversal
Gameplay video (twitch stream, will expire eventually)
0:32 Passives, Stats
5:10 Skills
6:58 Gameplay (Arena waves 196-207)
12:52 Equipment
Twitch
Arena 201-205:
Skills
Spiraling, but not orbiting (to keep cost low); everything else is for cost/dps/crit chance.
Damage, elemental protection, movement speed; 5 points to make it cheaper/faster
Minimize cost/cooldown; Maximize defense/offense buffs:
Main attractions are attack speed buff and increased damage taken by affected enemies:
Attack speed, Crit chance/multi, remaining points into defense (armor).
Actually, I tested Flame Burst and even though it only goes off on melee hits, it seems to do better damage than 12% increased damage you get from 3 DEX. There will be a lot of melee hits when you Lunge or Counter Attack in a crowd of mooks. So instead of dexterity, put 3 starting points into ignite node, then instead of armor put 4 points into Flame Burst and the node behind it.
After dying from DoTs for a few times (poison spiders, scorpion spikes), I reconsidered my build, mainly prioritizing taking vitality and health in passives. Increased throwing damage can be crafted on jewelry in huge numbers, about +500%, so it’s not worth spending a passive point on a +7-10% increase.
Passives (level 81)
Sentinel (20):
Gladiator 5/5 (block chance)
Counter Attack 5/5 (proc melee attack, for a bit of extra DPS/leech, and triggering on-(melee)-hit abilities, such as Divine Bolt or World Eater)
Fearless 8/8 (vitality)
Axe Thrower 2/5 (throwing attack proc)
Void Knight (19):
Abyssal Endurance 5-10/10 (health, void protection)
World eater 0-5/8 (void/melee damage leech. Take if you feel you need more leech than you already have on gear. You will be doing enough void damage with Void Bolts)
Void Corruption 1/1 (crit multi. Third Best DPS investment, take it once you have substantial crit chance)
Void Bolts 8/8 (added spell/trowing damage. Best DPS investment throughout the passives, max ASAP)
Forge Guard (8):
Steel Aegis 8/8 (block chance)
Paladin (46):
Defiance 8/8 (health, armor)
Valor 8/8 (vitality)
Unshakable 5/5 (block chance)
Flash of Brilliance 4/10 (health, chance to blind on hit)
(ascend to Paladin: 1/1)
Aura of Divinity 5/5 (50% increased Holy Aura stats)
Staunch Defender: 1/10 (block protection)
Shield Wall: 4/4 (block chance, less dodge)
Holy Precision 10/10 (30% per point crit chance for spells/throwing attacks. Second Best DPS investment)
Passives (level 100) - with Divine Intervention
Sentinel (20): Same as for level 79
Void Knight (19): Same as for level 79
Forge Guard (21):
Steel Aegis 8/8 (block chance)
Rallying Block 7/10 (armor/elemental protection proc)
Shield Crafter 6/10 (chance to manifest shields when hit. Shields block projectiles and serve as recepients for heals)
Paladin (52):
Valor 8/8 (vitality)
Unshakable 5/5 (block chance)
Faithful 5/5 + Holy Nova 1/1 (chance for AoE heal on block)
Divine Bolt 1/1 + Shared Divinity 3/5 + Piety 1/1 (chance for a volley of healing Divine Bolts on melee hit. A lot of melee hits can be produced by lunging into crowd or Sentinel:Counter Attack triggering in a crowd)
Flash of Brilliance 1/10 (health, chance to blind on hit)
(ascension to Paladin) 1/1
Aura of Divinity 5/5 (50% increased Holy Aura stats)
Staunch Defender 1/10 (block protection)
Shield Wall 4/4 (block chance)
Holy Precision 10/10 (crit chance for spells/throwing attacks)
Divine Essence 5/5 (a buff triggering on heal)
Divine Intervention 1/1 (chance for revival on death, requires stack of 3 Divine Essences)
TBH, Divine Essences/Intervention are more of a gimmick than something worth building for. You might better off leaving Paladin at (44) points, and keep life nodes instead of taking holy bolt/Faithful. That’s 11 points (worth 110 health plus minor bonuses).
Forge Guard:(Rallying Block and Shield Crafter) are worth taking regardless though. If you have points to spare, Void Knight:World Eater might be a good choice. You should be doing enough void damage with Void Bolts.
Gear
Shield: Solarum Shield with 40% block base, block chance +15%, block protection, less damage taken on block
Weapon: Moonstone Sceptre, Crit Multi, Crit Chance
Head (Gladiator Helmet), Belt (Bronze Belt), Boots: Glancing Blow Chance (x2)
Body: Titan Heart
Gloves: (Lagonian Gauntlets) Glancing Blow Chance, Throwing Attack Speed
Rings (Gold Ring): Throwing damage (up to +100%) and cost, hybrid leech
Relic (Radiant Crest), Amulet (Oracle Amulet): Trowing damage (up to +150%), hybrid leech
suffixes:
boots: movement speed
amulet: mana efficiency
other: void/necrotic/poison protection, health increased;
damage/crit profile breakdown
crit chance: (5% (base) + 4% (holy aura)) * (100% (base) + 300% (Paladin Passive) + 90% (Hammer Throw Skill) + ~50% (weapon prefix)) = ~49%
crit multi: (200% + 19% (void knight) + 20-25% (relic base) + ~35% (weapon prefix)) * (100% + 16% (holy aura)) = ~320%
increased damage:
- 100% (base)
- 450-550% (crafted on rings, relic, amulet)
- (15% + 90%) (hammer throw)
- 40% (devouring orb)
- 20% (2 str (base) + 3 dex (holy aura))
- 50% (10/10 Peltast)
Attack Speed:
- 100% (base)
- 25% (aura)
- 12% (hammer throw)
- ~35% (T5 gloves prefix)
- 36% Volatile Reversal buff
- 20% (10/10 Peltast)
Block chance: 40% shield base + 15% + 5% (Sentinel Passives) + 8% (Forge Guard Passives) + 17%/25% Paladin Passives = 85%/93% (Shield Wall passive says 3% in tooltip, but adds 5% in stats).
Block Protection: 1600 (shield base) + 351-600 (shield prefix) + 150 (Sentinel Passives) + 200 (Paladin Passives)
TODO/NOTES:
- just read Does Axe Thrower proc Pilum Mastery? By the same logic, Counter Attack does not trigger Martial Cadence (tested).
- Tried Faithful/Divine Essence combo. Most of the time you don’t get hit often enough to maintain 3 essences (need 6-7 hits taken per second, and that’s assuming you never waste a heal proc by triggering on full health).
- (Holy Nova+Piety)/Shield Crafter/Divine Essence combo. Improve heal proc rate by taking Holy Nova and Piety (powered by Counter Attack) as AoE heals. Provide multiple heal targets with Shield Crafter. (tested, seems to work well in Arena).
- Devouring Orb:Abyssal Juggernaut + Forge Guard:Rallying Block give significant elemental protections boost during arena fights.