Advice for DW build
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Hey all.
Just wanted to pick your brains to see if you have any advice on how to improve my char as it stands now. I just feel like i'm generally squishy and/or don't have enough DPS right now. Could be mostly due to gear, but i wanted to give it a shot anyway. I basically didn't research a whole too much, just knew i was going to play a melee sword dual wielding char as that's my general style in this genre. Current state: Current Gear:
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Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable I went for the evasion gear/IR combo so far, as well as cold and fire damage supports when possible. I basically run with Hatred, Grace and Anger right now. For skills, I use Dual Strike as main left click for single monsters and Cleave as main right click for AoE. Middle mouse is used for whirling to duck out of tough situations, along side with Phase Run on E. Secondary skills beyond mentioned ones are Viper Strike and Bear Trap basically. Thanks in advance for any advice! ----------------------------------------------- OK, Progress update. As Said, Running with Warlord's Mark definitely helped squishiness - I can recover life much quicker/more stable and the endurance charges help as well. Melee phys with the added fire on the 5L greatly enhanced the Dual Strike damage, Although it still seems lower than should be for a less than tanky char. Current Tree : Current Gear :
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Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable Unavailable More advice always welcome. Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind. In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. Last edited by ransagy#7315 on Oct 4, 2012, 12:00:36 PM
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Hey, here is some tips:
-get more life nodes and sacrifice some damage and attack speed, there is no way around it, dps should be the last thing you build up after you have taken care of defenses -Consider completely rebuilding around blood magic and resolute technique nodes. Duelist class is made for blood magic. Resolute technique because you are going to run into a major accuracy problem soon - like <80% chance to hit. It will cost you 10 points to respec to there. Or another choice - just get some of the pure accuracy buff nodes. -Use a curse. Every character should use a curse. There is no reason to not use a curse. Even if you are not comfortable with casting it at first you will soon get used to it. Popular choices are warlord's mark for life and mana leech and endurance charges or vulnerability for weaker monsters. -buy a melee physical dmg support gem from someone in game, and replace the added fire dmg one, you will notice a big dps improvement. Add fire dmg again when you have a 5link armor. -experiment with frenzy as your main attack instead of double strike. You might find you like it more even though it's not a simultaneous attack with 2 weapons. It is good to know your options. Also try out blood rage for building up frenzy charges and see if it fits your playstyle. Your gear is in need of upgrades, especially the belt. But it will take you some time. Meanwhile use blacksmith whetstones to bring both your weapons to 20% quality. It is a small buff to dps but every single number counts at this point. You should always run 20% on gear you are planning to use for a long time. |
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Thanks for the write-up. I'll take it into consideration and see what i can come up with. Here's what I'm thinking. Don't regard this as rebuff or an attack - Just voicing my thoughts on your tips as i go :)
I'll not entirely in favor of forgoing mana entirely, as i don't seem to have that much of an issue with it right now. I used warlord's mark for a while, but it seemed not very useful enough to me. I'll give it a shot again, though. Maybe vulnerability or temporal chains might suit better, not sure yet. I'll take a gander at the melee phys gem. It's expensive from what i remember, But a DPS boost might be worth it. I have a few uniques to dump for currency if its that needed. I did try running frenzy for a while, but like Warlord's, It seemed tedious work to maintain without a great enough benefit, even if the DPS for those 10 seconds might be higher. I can nuke most mobs fairly quickly unless its a rare, or massive life magic mobs etc. Something to consider ;) Blood rage falls into the blood magic category - I'm not that comfortable with living on the edge HP wise and always at risk losing that 15% exp. as i die too much already. I also try to play a bit.. faster/looser than the HC catious step by step style, so that might go badly together :p I have a stack of armourer's i can convert into some whetstones, so i'll go about that as well. I'm aware my gear is generally bad, Either way. Thanks for all the tips, regardless. I'll look out for more advice from others as well, Hopefully that will come ;) If anyone else wants to chime in on advice on my current state of mind/play and follow that up, That would also be good. Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind.
In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. |
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If you want I will sell you a melee physical gem for 1 chaos orb or 2 alch, and I will give you whetstones for free. :)
just say your IGN and I will pm you in game when I am online |
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Character name is Kaosu. Managed to trade for a ilvl 54 corona leather 5L chest and a 5% quality melee phys support gem. Also ran a map or two with warlords, and that definitely helps with the leech and endurance charges - so good call there!
Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind.
In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. |
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Edited first post with progress. More advice people! ;)
Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind.
In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. |
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Hey again. :)
Just threw a quick look, no major advice but I can give you these tips. -Remove the 2 nodes of armor you have picked near the starting point and remove 1 point on a dexterity node that is somewhere between the frenzy charge node and iron reflexes. Use the 3 points to pick armor nodes near Unwavering stance. You will change 22% armor and 10 dex to 50% armor. Pretty good trade off. Like this: -Get Unwavering stance - either now by giving up some random node or when you level up. You already got IR so there is no relevant evasion anyways. You will feel much more smoother combat once enemies can't stun you. |
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Ah, Missed that almost obvious armor trade, heh. Definitely going to change that (losing 10dex means losing 2% evasion, but i'm guessing almost 30% more armor compensates).
As for Unwavering Stance, I always thought about it - But i was never sure how much i do get stunned if at all often. Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind.
In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. |
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" I got frustrated with frenzy as well. Seemed to slow everything down so I went with blood rage and warlord's mark. Early on I couldn't run BR without WM but as BR leveled the LL becomes a big chunk, also I got the troll's blood on the mara area which basically leaves blood rage at a cost of .4% life drain (there's another .4% in the mara starting area) and if I wanted I could get another .4% or two from next to the duelist troll's blood. I'm loving BR and I'm at the point where I have enough LL that I don't need to put up warlord's mark but the endurance charges and extra LL really help with tough mobs. Personally I've never used mana for too long on a duelist. I just don't see how the regen matches the +3 a/s a duelist with a 2h wpn is doing. With a 1h, it's easy to get over 4 a/s linked up to a few too many supports you are easily looking at 100 mana/sec, which is a bitch to cover with mana but not too hard to cover with life regen alone, nevermind adding on LL. Finished 17th in Rampage - Peaked at 11th
Finished 18th in Torment/Bloodline 1mo Race - peaked at 9th Null's Inclination Build 2.1.0 - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1559063 Summon Skeleton 1.3 - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1219856 |
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Well, So far i've been having hard enough time surviving higher level maps with elemental mobs to think about operating solely out of my life span :p
Something to keep in mind, i suppose. Playing a dual-wielding swordsman of some kind.
In game name is Kaosu and/or ChaosBlade. |
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