I winding down my current build and starting to look to swap over to my next idea: Retaliation FG based around Phalanx and Sigeon. I’ve posted about it before, but I’ve had a new idea related to it that I wanted opinions on:
It was pointed out to me that Ring of Shields wasn’t a great choice because it would eat some attacks that could have gotten retaliated. So I was thinking about alternative support skills and I had the idea to use Rebuke with the idea that I could channel it and still deal damage with retaliations. Plus since I’m regen based I wouldn’t have to worry about sustain while channeling.
The downside is I need to have riposte stacks in order to do riposte and throw javelins. But you can get 3 ripostes/vengeance with skill points. So maybe the rotation ends up being Vengeance spam if enemy damage isn’t a big deal, or Vengeance → Rebuke for up to 3 enemy attacks → Vengeance when you do need the extra tank.
We could also get to use the amulet that gives more HP/vit and some ward/sec while in Rebuke based on phys res. Then we could use Nul portents to take advantage of that in another way. Although maybe that’s just not the same build since it’s not like I’ll have any ward retention and it would mean giving up 30 str from the last bear 3 piece.
EDIT: Oh also, this isn’t dependent on the version, but some tech I thought of: There’s a weaver tree node that makes rare enemies permanently enraged, meaning more move and attack speed. One of the problems with a build like this is sometimes enemies don’t actually hit you that often. That can help with this.
I didn’t use Retaliation. So I’m not sure if it will work, but i saw once a post that said it depends on how much damage u receive and the only flat reflect u have is on your shield.
If it would work it would be pretty slow, if it depends on taking dmg to do dmg back.
Oh. When I said retaliation I was sort of using it more broadly. I just mean it’s a build based around automatically attacking back. I don’t think I actually invest into the stat beyond getting it for free from Thornmail and armor from str.
Don’t you consider using Thornshell, instead of the Sigeon?
I guess it fits pure retaliation builds much better.
Also, there’s Sentinel idols with +% damage reflected, and there’s new weaver idol affixes with insane +flat reflect damage on them.
I’ve never played this build, but my husband did last cycle. He played two different retaliation builds, both using Thornshell. One is a Paladin, the other is a Druid.
I don’t know how exactly this whole retaliation thing scales, but he was having a blast, one shotting spires on the other side of the map at 500 corruption just by standing.
I’d definitely be curious to see a thornshell build if you could find out what it looked like, but this is more based around procing things like Riposte, Jav, and Shield Throw off enemy attacks, so losing Sigeon’s would get rid of one of those. I
I played a FG retaliation build before 1.0 (sadly dead since then because of rebuke nerf). It was based around melee retaliation. It was fun (for me), even if it was extremely slow.
A few months ago I tried one based of Aaron’s retaliation build and it was quite fun and strong:
I think I’m probably still gonna try the FG since I have it planned and all I need to do is respec, but I was gonna level a primalist at some point anyway for another stupid build idea, so maybe I’ll try this out too.
