For a long time I've been perfecting damage, trying to get the absolutely best.
This is the build I feel does the most damage out of them all:
Jormungandr, 2 pieces - 65 melee damage, 25% more damage taken.
Paladin, 3 pieces - 50 melee damage, 5% more stamina used on attack.
All warrior runes, 28 melee damage, with Thegn's rune for 10 speed on parry.
Spear of Leonidas, 10 attack and 15 melee and ranged damage, and 20 ability damage, at least 1 adrenaline slot filled to keep the bonuses -
This weapon nets the highest total damage for the lowest cost. And it's a spear, which is required.
Gae Bolg, hits with lightning for both stun and damage every third hit - This is the core and is a true beast. With two spears the damage is ridiculous, hands down the best in the game.
Viper Bow, critical hit stack to +30 crit on 10 stacks - The dual spears hit very rapidly and has far reach so this is a natural choice.
or Shadow Strike, critical damage 15% when at above 90% hp - The damage beats the crit stack but I like crit because of the consistency improvement of the heals.
Also I have a limited amount of runes available to me and with 5 builds it's good to have some similar items. Same with the amount of titanium. Got no fully upgraded bow, currently, as that's too expensive as of yet.
Both spears with crit damage runes for each at +16 crit damage and the bow with fire damage, or elite if you want; or light.
Curative perfection rune - heal on crit, for recuperation. Damage can go even higher if you add in something here but it's not good for general play.
Chain finisher fury rune - attack on combo finisher, 5 stacks
Finisher perfection rune - crit damage on finisher, 5 stacks to 20% crit damage
The reason for the longer stacks in favour of shorter is that you never want to stack again, because that harms dps. Attack beats crit damage, they synergise, however. Crit damage beat crit; crit is, however, good for utility like heal on crit.
This is a great build and it will, contrary to popular belief, do a lot of damage through all that stacking of damage. A lot. Just try it.
It's also fairly safe, as safe as this kind of build goes because you'll get hit for a lot of damage and things will get ugly real fast against difficult opponents. They won't live for long though.
I land on about 300 melee damage with this.
The reason to go for attack instead of heavy or light is that the Chain finisher fury rune last the longest and while, with spears, you'll be doing mostly light attacks sprinkled with a heavy here and there so light damage is the choice if you have to choose but since it's attack you won't have to and I figure this stack goes to 15 attack perhaps and while it takes some time to build it also last for a long time making it perfect.
That build is great but it has a glaring flaw: Defense. It has fair defense because the spears are so broken good, in particular Gae Bolg.
Now I'm greedy and want everything, naturally, and when this patch hit I got what I needed to make a balanced build that got it all:
Holy Knight armor (fallen, cuz it looks the best and because armor is better than life), 5 pieces - 15 armor and 15% damage reduction.
All warrior runes, 28 melee damage, with Thegn's rune for 10 speed on parry.
Raufari, 5% damage stacking to 5 when using an ability for 15 seconds - This is where the damage comes from. It's difficult to keep up a full stack but certainly possible, given that things live but they won't.
Spita, 5% damage reduction with extra 5% on combo finish - This is additional defense and goes into the secondary weapon slot for the moveset and because it's bugged because I can't get any combo rune to work with it but its own.
Viper bow, critical hit stack to +30 crit on 10 stacks - The attack speed is fair on this, actually high, so this works.
Bora, damage reduction 5% and additional 5% on headshot or weak spot shot - I thought there'd be a problem hitting for me but there's not. A 25 second 5% dmg reduction buff is worthwhile getting as you initiate combat. Also good for safety generally. That's a total 10% damage reduction, landing me on 35% when hitting this. That's a lot. I got no fear of hitting exploding pots or trading grievious blows like this. It may seem small, 5% to 10%, but it's not, it makes a big difference for survivability and general impunity.
Both weapons with crit damage runes for each at +16 crit damage and the bow with fire damage.
Curative perfection rune - heal on crit, for recuperation. Damage can go even higher if you add in something here but it's not good for general play.
Chain finisher fury rune - attack on combo finisher, 5 stacks
Finisher perfection rune - crit damage on finisher, 5 stacks to 20% crit damage
Same runes. This is the damage, just trust me because I'm a nerd.
Now for this to happen you need to use an ability every 15 seconds.
Battlecry, an interrupt but more importantly it gives 30 melee damage and has a 20 second(?) cooldown.
Fire strike, a damage buff that is on a 20 second(?) cooldown.
These two together make for a lot of damage and coupled with the Raufari damage buff it gets pretty intense. Another amazing advantage to this is that each time you buff you will regain your stamina, meaning you'll be fighting endlessly without breaks. Since you're protected you can risk much more and through that you'll do more damage. And it's fun.
The fairly rapid attacks is enough to constantly buff and even to throw in a different skill here and there depending on how it goes. The moveset is sweeping and you'll hit a lot of stuff with this. Now the trick of the build is that you don't have to be careful and defensive, losing dps. The prior build can't be as brazen but with this one as you'll sit on a 35% damage reduction almost always and can spam face with impunity. It's beast, better than the damage build by far. It's very good, check it out. But be prepared to run and keep the buffing a routine. Perfecting this you'll kill anything and everything. Don't matter if it's groups or singles. It's slightly stronger against groups because you'll get adrenaline faster but against a single, given you keep punishing, you'll destroy anything.
I've done a lot of tinkering and I say that attack matter a lot. I don't know how people figure it doesn't cause it does.
I'm total nerd on this and stand by this statement.
Regardless of this, however; try this build just plain without runes and you'll do great. They're not a requirement but the buffing and the gear is. Perhaps not the gear... I suppose the core of the build is just those two buffs, after all, because it lets you keep fighting, but all together I know it's amazing; standalone I don't know how good just the buffs are but I do know they're perfect for stamina and the fire buff is great for damage and crowd control.
Try it and enjoy. Happy 1.6!
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