Build advice. Weighing defensive options

Hi there,

Planning 1h or DW sword(s) with crit.

I have 2 very opposite build ideas:

1. Full dodge/spell dodge with high evasion RAIDER
So from calculations this spec would bring me up to 66/76(75) dodge/spell dodge with quartz flask up and raider passives and no vaal grace. Only Atziri's Step and Hinekora's Sight.

The only problem I see here is that I could get one shot if a phys spell or attack gets through my dodge(and evasion for attacks).

Anyone tried this? Is dodge really as good as block, because that's how I see it. It should be comparable to block in efficiency.

2. Abyssus Accuracy stacking, high armor/EC JUGGERNAUT
This build is incredibly synergistic. High armor (assuming 20k) 6-7 endurance charges always up, perma IC. Physical DW Foils. Very physical resistant and also phys ref immune. Most probably double the damage of the Raider.

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I love the idea of the Raider with capped dodge, but I feel that the Juggernaut has much better damage, reflect immunity, phys resistant.

The Raider can get 1-shot on phys reflect (probably needs VP) but with capped spell block should be a lot better against spells. Also the evasion/dodge can be greatly improved by BLIND and ENFEEBLE but only for attacks.

Skill trees are not relevant, they are pretty straight forward for both builds, at least IMO.

EHP Calc Raider: 510k link
EHP Calc Juggernaut: 45k link

Can someone evaluate these to build in terms of defenses mostly, but also offense?

Well I have to agree with you on a lot of things.. sure dodge is as good as block.. better in fact if you consider that dodge doesn't have the block recovery time (assuming you aren't immune to stuns) and you don't take any on hit effects - e.g. vulnerability curse from whipping miscreations, if you dodge.

Buuuut you would need a good life pool and some other forms of mitigation e.g. fortify to prevent you being one shot that one time the boss does manage to land a hit on you.

Your juggernaut sounds very solid, one question though. If you have perma IC, why stack armour? Ironically your juggernaut might actually be the better one to put evasion on since then you will actually avoid some elemental attack damage.

For the raider consider to add block and spellblock as another defense layer.More details here.

Have you ever played a max block character before? Max dodge Raider feels pretty much the same just a little bit better than max block.

When you do the math you basically can't get hit at all by attacks with the combination high EV/high dodge/blind (from Stibnite flask)

I played a Caustic Arrow Raider back in perandus with 25k EV and 70% dodge - i could facetank (yes litteraly facetank) Izaro with a Stibnite flask up with 6k HP without even using a health pot (life regen was enough to regen the 3k hits up until he was finally able to hit me again)

So i think a melee build with some leech should be more than fine in such a scenario.

Against spells 75% spell dodge works really well in combination with a Basalt flask - physical spells can't oneshot you that easily, you have enough time to leech up and/or press a flask in between.

I would aim for 6.2k life with your Raider to be fine in 99% of all encounters.

Physical reflect isn't a big problem if you invest into leech and (more important) leech rate - you will dodge/evade reflected hits >90% of the time and take minimal damage - if your leech/leech rate modifiers are high enough depending on your DPS you won't even notice it.



Juggernaut is basically physical immune (even with the Abyssus) when you have decent gear. But Juggernaut is very weal against elemental attacks and spells of all kind which Raider isn't due to high spell block. Jugg can get bursted down from elemental spells easily if you arn't carefull (example: a pack of spark mage skeletons).


I would ge Raider over Juggernaut if you are going for dual wield melee crit in general. If you really want to wear the Abyssus, Juggernaut would be better, but without the Abyssus Raider outclasses Juggernaut in terms of over all defenses.




TLDR: Jugg is better with Abyssus but is only really good against physical damage where Raider is more versatile and has equivalent defenses against everything in the game.