Frenzy / Cleave DW Duelist Build

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Wallach wrote:

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danielwow12 wrote:

I'm really enjoying your build that you've outlined here. I have a quick question, though. Which nodes would you hit first while leveling? It seems blood magic is very good, but I am not sure if I need the evasion/armor keystone first.

Thanks!

I didn't pick up Blood Magic until well into my 30s I think. I went for this route first: Link

From here I went and picked up Iron Reflexes, immediately went and picked up Unwavering Stance, grabbed the Dervish block chain near the Duelist start (3 nodes), then to finally to Blood Magic. From there I would keep focusing on defensive nodes and adding offensive nodes only if you feel your damage is starting to lack significantly.

The more I consider it, the more I think the two points into Lava Lash are going to come out for two of the other melee damage nodes this build already has access to. I'll check for sure in another ten levels or so when I have more links (so I can check it with AFD linked) but I'm leaning that direction at the moment.

I actually went ahead and picked up the Berserking Passive before getting the Iron Reflexes, did that ruin my character or is that ok? I'm thinking of doing what you said now and such.

Oh and when do you suggest picking up Grace, I already have Warlord's Mark, Anger, Cleave, Dual Strike and Frenzy.

what gem and skill should we use??

Pretty cool!

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kawai727 wrote:

what gem and skill should we use??

Read through the thread before posting -.-

Another gem idea is to get Added Fire Damage linked with Elemental Weapon Damage in lieu of Melee Damage.

Hi Wallach,

nice build to start with. But for me a bit too defensive, i would like to play with more damage in softcore. I moddified your build to get more Crit (I hope its a good stat) and one more Frenzy-Charge. Just took the Points out of from the start, that looked for me a bit of a waste. For the 30 Dex and 4 Attackspeed i got as compansasion Finesse. Devish taken the other way around + Ice-Bite instead of Lava Lash. I sacrificed the Resistance-Path (second Diamond Skin) and 50 Armor in order to get this build.

Is this build good for more Damage and still decent to survival?

not sure if it was mentioned in the thread but in the build you have a +10 dex selected instead of Finese which is +30 dex/+4% atk speed

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Brakan wrote:

Iron Reflexes doesn't remove evasion but converts it. Realise the difference. So Leather and Steel IS effective.

So, it doesn't matter if i use eg. Chestpiece with Evasion main stat insted Armor main stat? IR would convert it? I gues it does, but need confirmation... :>

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Wallach wrote:

Frenzy - Life on Hit is again your primary link concern here. There will be a lot of times where you'll be using something like Dual Strike for pure DPS on single target so buffing the damage of this skill is not a priority for some time. You just want to offset this skill's cost since it is quite high for a single target attack. All of the other gem recommendations for Cleave also apply here if you have more links (except Increased Area of Effect obviously), but be mindful of the mana cost multiplier while you're lower level.

Question - suppose i'll support Frenzy with LoH gem, but my Frenzy Charges would origin from Blood Rage buff. Will Life on Hit apply? Or should I support BloodRage instead?

And another one.
Heres my skill setup atm:

And the problem - with such set up I die A LOT. Lost like whole lvl when completing last A2 quest on Cruel. Especially elemental dmg is pain in the ass. Any advices?
My lvl is too low, should I seek better gear, or maybe some passives badly allocated?
There are a Element.Res skill tree branches, (left from SteelSkin, another one left from Thick Skin), but is it worth spending 6+4 points to obtain (+15+15 FireRes, +15+15 IceRes, +8+8AllRes)?
Or maybe should I go for IR and UnwaveingStance asap? (4 more points)
Would apreciate any help, coz losing all that hard earned exp is not fun at all :<

PS. Awesome topic, loads of usefull informations :)

edit - Just found Diamond skin, (hiding in plain sight...), so +15% AllRes for 1 point costs is a must have. ;-)

Also - Wallach, u've mentioned Anger and Grace buffs, and Warlords debuff. Isn't an Haste aura also a valid choice? (attack speed over added dmg). In general, what scales better at endgame, +ASpd or +Dmg??

Haste is not viable due to 40% Mana Reserved. I am level 50 and the extra life nodes help a lot. Also I don't use Blood Rage because it takes too much life off when I am not leaching.

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nosl1w wrote:

Haste is not viable due to 40% Mana Reserved. I am level 50 and the extra life nodes help a lot. Also I don't use Blood Rage because it takes too much life off when I am not leaching.

Yea, i know. I was like wtf?! when it reserved 40% of my life (via BloodMagic). But how about supporting it with Reduced Mana Cost gem? (dont have info about % of reduction tho...)