Now, before I start this, let me just say that for one, I am a new player. I do not claim to know what’s what in terms of optimal DPS builds, nor do I claim that this could even BE an optimal DPS build. I also do not know if this is already a known potential build, so this is mainly a trial and error feedback thread regarding this potential build.
As I’ve been leveling my Revenant, I’ve noticed as I finish putting points in specializations that there’s a potential DPS build revolving around conditions placed on the enemy.
I got the idea for this build from looking at the traits of all the specializations, going through weapon sigils to see what there was, and drawing parallels between this potential build and my favorite WoW class, Death Knight.
So basically, as I said, the build focuses on dealing condition damage as the main source of damage.
For this build, I’ve decided so far that the three specializations to put into each slot should be:
1. Corruption (Main source of condition damage in the build.)
2. Invocation (For fury to gain extra critical strike, will explain why later.)
3. Devastation (To somewhat make up for regular attacks’ low role in the build.)
So, with that said, let me go through why I’ve chosen these specializations and which traits I’ve picked out for them.
-Corruption-
As I explained shortly earlier, Corruption is vital for this build, as it supplies the condition damage required for this build to even exist. Torment, poison, and burn damage is key for this build, so let me go through the traits I’ve picked for Corruption (Excluding non-optional traits):
1. Venom Enhancement (Also applies poison when torment is applied to the enemy.)
2. Bolstered Anguish (The traits in this tier don’t really apply to condition damage exclusively, but Bolstered Anguish gives some extra damage when you have a condition on you.)
3. Diabolic Inferno (Applies a burn effect to the enemy when using an elite skill, thus supplying yet another form of condition damage.)
-Invocation-
Invocation isn’t mandatory for this build, but in my opinion it does help a good bit. My reasoning for this is that Corruption’s base torment-applying trait procs off of critical strikes, and Invocation’s first non-optional trait gives you a helpful condition that increases critical strike chance. My personal picks for optional traits in Invocation regarding this build are:
1. Fierce Infusion (Helps apply fury to gain increased critical strike when you use a healing ability, basically a for-sure short cooldown way of applying fury on yourself.)
2. Equilibrium (Doesn’t apply to critical strike, but does give an extra source of damage when using the rotation for this build.)
3. Roiling Mists (This does apply to critical strikes, but in the form of having increased damage from them. Helps with non-condition damage greatly, as this build focuses around having high critical strike chance at all times.)
-Devastation-
Devastation doesn’t apply to condition damage or increasing critical strike chance, but helps with dealing non-condition damage after you’ve applied them to the enemy. My preference for non-optional traits for this specialization are:
1. Malicious Reprisal (Gives more successful attacks more often.)
2. Nefarious Momentum (Gives might when using assassin stance skills, which is one of the two stances I prefer for this build.)
3. Swift Termination (Basically a passive execute trait, thus increasing damage to an enemy below 50% health.)
-My Preferred Stances For This Build-
My two preferred stances would have to be Demon and Assassin.
Demon Stance, while about half of it’s skills don’t apply to damage, it’s heal ability helps trigger fury from Invocation, and it’s elite transformation skill pulses torment and also gives a quickly-applied burn.
Assassin Stance is complimented by Devastation and vice versa in this build, giving better non-condition damage after your conditions are applied.
-Usage of Abilities-
For this, I’ll assume the stances used for this build are the two I listed above.
Firstly, Demon Stance’s Empowering Misery heal ability should be used when fury isn’t already applied to you (assuming you don’t need to use it sooner for it’s actual heal effect.) It’s elite transformation skill, Embrace the Darkness, should be used to apply burn mostly, but it’s handy to keep active until you get to around 15-20% energy, to ensure you’re able to continue using abilities all-around.
Second, Assassin Stance’s Enchanted Daggers heal ability should be used the same way Demon’s heal is for this build’s ability usage. Impossible Odds, the Quickness applying ability, is very useful for faster hits while Assassin Stance is active. Phase Traversal, the Unblockable applying ability, is useful for ensuring your next few attacks aren’t blocked, to ensure more damage goes out.
A vital part of ability usage, though, is switching between stances to keep fury applied as often as possible. I will admit that there is a problem with this to a degree, as you would have to switch stances as soon as you possibly can to keep fury applied, thus giving you less time to use each stance’s abilities.
So there are two ways I see of dealing with this problem:
1. Don’t switch stances constantly. This means fury is applied less often, but allows the usage of your current preferred stance’s abilities more often.
2. Make use of the short period of time given between being able to switch stances by prioritizing certain abilities over others.
So, for option one, the way to counteract it’s negative effect in less-applied fury is to prioritize stacking precision over condition damage as your preferred secondary stat, to ensure torment and poison are applied as often as possible.
For option two, it’s the reverse. You prioritize condition damage to keep more stable damage to make up for less-used stance abilities.
Option one allows you to use your preferred stance more often, and thus have access to that stance’s abilities.
Option two is more difficult to manage in my opinion, and is quite possibly less effective than option one, though I haven’t field tested it yet.
-Option One and Two’s Exclusive Usage of Abilities-
Again, I’ll assume the two stances I mentioned earlier are what’s taken for this build.
Option one’s execution revolves around the freedom to use your preferred stance. Now, while you do have a choice in which stance you primarily use, for this I’d prioritize Demon Stance over Assassin Stance, primarily for Embrace the Darkness to pulse torment, apply burn, and increase your stats until you end it.
Demon Stance in option one’s execution would be to activate Embrace the Darkness immediately for the reasons I listed directly above, and from there you have the freedom to use other abilities of your choice or just do basic attacks.
Assassin Stance in option one’s execution would be to activate Impossible Odds immediately for the Quickness condition, and you again have freedom like in Demon Stance’s execution.
Option two’s execution revolves around prioritizing abilities.
When you switch into Demon Stance, you should activate Embrace the Darkness immediately to pulse torment and apply burn. In the short time before you switch into Assassin Stance, you have two paths to choose from: Use Empowering Misery’s heal to activate fury if for some reason it’s fallen off of
you, or use Unyielding Anguish’s leap damage for a small bit of extra damage.
For Assassin Stance in option two’s execution, you should activate Impossible Odds immediately for Quickness, and in the short time left before switching to Demon Stance, you use Phase Traversal and
then just use regular attacks.
-Which Weapon Type to Use-
You have almost complete freedom, in my opinion, to use whichever weapons you prefer for this build.
However, I will make a suggestion in using a hammer in one of your weapon slots, to have ranged capability if it’s needed.
EDIT: I overlooked some of the abilities certain weapons have, and I have to say there is an optimal weapon choice, which is mace main hand and axe off-hand, as they inflict condition damage.
-Ending Thoughts-
I don’t know if this is a viable build. It seems like it would be, but as I’m a new player, I’m not sure. It’s interesting in my opinion, and seems like it could provide stable long-term damage.
If anyone has any suggestions to improve this possible build, I encourage you to list them. I would greatly appreciate it.
Major Edit: I feel very, very dumb right now. As I stated above in an earlier edit, using a mace and axe gives abilities that apply torment, poison, and burn. This completely negates the need for complicated application of such conditions. I will say that if you don’t want to use a mace and axe, what I explained can be a work-around for not using mace/axe.
(edited by Spectral.1425)