I mentioned this somewhere else, but I figured it was worth a separate thread to discuss. This is another idea I’ve been considering for next patch: A retaliation themed FG that makes use of Forgemaster’s Might to Wield the new Unique Phalanx with a shield. Together with Sigeon’s Reprisal we get to auto throw Shield Throw and Javelin. We scale all 3 with strength and phys damage. Jav gets melee damage from the spear, and Shield Throw gets extra throwing damage from retaliation which we can get from Thornmail giving us some from our armor which is increased by str. We can put some more on our gear explicitly, but not sure if that’s what we want or not. Block chance gives more damage to both Vengeance through the unique as well as shield throw and it helps us proc the free shield throw from Sigeon.
The other skill slots can just be support skills. Both Ring of Shields and Symbols of Hope give block chance and other stats we like. But I could see swapping one out for a healing hands mobility option instead of just using unspecced lunge or shield rush.
Here is the current planner I have: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/B4Ewk9Lo
I could definitely use some help cleaning up passive/skill trees. Perhaps the most build changing matter is whether or not to use Titan’s Heart and go for leech or if we try out the new health regen buffs. For leech we can get it through blessings but depending on how much of our damage is melee vs throwing we’d have to possibly commit 2 blessings to that and that comes at the cost of taking all res from reign of dragons if we want the melee leech. Alternatively we can get the melee leech from void knight, but that’s a lot of points and I’m already not sure what I’d remove for it. We could use a high LP Bleeding Heart for general leech, but late game that means giving up an oracle amulet.
I also wonder whether or not we still want Symbols of Hope if we go the leech route since one of it’s benefits is health regen.
Also, personally, if all else were equal, I think I’d rather have HP regen just so I wasn’t so dependent on hitting things and could be a bit more relaxed with the build.
Other random thoughts/questions:
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Perfect Riposte in Vengeance makes it so riposted hits can’t crit. I’m not familiar enough with Vengeance to know if you can attack enough with it to be always riposting, thus making the need for crit avoid/reduction less needed. (I’m always a little scared of depending on defenses like that from abilities since what if something randomly hits me while I’m not attacking anything?) Do I drop the reduced damage from crits stuff or just take the point out of this? The skill point also gives base crit chance, but the passive giving reduced damage taken from crits, Master of Arms, is also giving 16 str because I’m also using a 2h weapon. The top end sentinel bases give reduced damage taken from crits, so I guess if I was dropping that it would be for some uniques or something, Not sure what would be worth it. Maybe Peak of the Mountain if I wanted to go the health regen route? For boots there’s Razorfall for exactly the +2 throwing skill levels. Also I wonder if the increased effect of haste works with the block chance given by Forgemaster’s Might?
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Is Crushing Blows worth it at all? Vengeance is free, the shields we get are free, but I assume the Jav isn’t free since it says we use it and there are nodes that make it cost more. Also is mana sustain gonna be alright with just that mana regen or should I actually be specced into more levels of TIme and Faith so Vengeance can refill my mana?
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Is the Counterattack passive a real thing? Like it fits with the theme, but I’m always kind of suspicious of those random no skilltree skills. Does this do enough to not take more stats in the base sentinel tree?
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Are either of the melee/throwing attack crit nodes at the end of the sentinel tree worth it? If my damage is split between the two only one half is gonna benefit and it seems absurd to use enough skill points to get both when I’m already trying to scrap stuff together. But not running crit on a hit based build definitely seems wrong.
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Anything else?