ololcat 3 Posted October 24, 2010 Trying to figure out how to make "lazy"-style WIDD seraphim. It means almost no nasty micromanagement like drinkin' red pots or something to keep hp at 25%. So, the best defense for WIDD character is avoidance: when you have 2.5k of 10k hp you don't want to collect crits as they eventually will kill you. Sad but true. However, it is quite easy to achieve high reflect/dodge/block/DM stats with Seraphim, but another trouble enters the picture: HP regen. Honestly, I never had any high-level characters without Constitution skill but think, health would regenerate way too fast. So I thought of using Warding Energy buff: all stat points into Willpower, Mod for capacity and penalty reduction plus lots of +% max shield energy and a bit of WE absorption, so main part of the damage would go to shield and the rest - to character's HPs. Also it might be good to socket +max hitpoints too, just to rise hp threshold for max damage. About character: it is a DW seraphim, currently level 17. Skills picked so far: Tactics Lore Concentration Dual Wield Exalted Warrior Focus Rev. Tech. Focus Skills that I'm going to pick: Armor to reduce regen penalty Spell Resistance, everybody knows why Warding Energy Lore (almost forgot 'bout it ) Damage Lore Toughness She's going to use Blood Dryad Swords, so WIDD bonus will be quite high. What do you think about it? Any suggestions?
gogoblender 3,406 Posted October 25, 2010 I hope you'll publish the build if/when you get it to your normal highest standard of zomgodthisbuildrocks level of damage^^ I had done some work early with the WIDD and was never really happy with the damage boost. It's nothing like in old Sacred where you got your money's worth for spilling your blood. I haven't really played with the WIDD lately though, maybe things have changed? And maybe there's a player out there who has a secret gogo
chattius 2,696 Posted October 25, 2010 (edited) WIDD builds thread Think noone came with a working WIDD build yet Edited October 25, 2010 by chattius
gogoblender 3,406 Posted October 25, 2010 Think noone came with a working WIDD build yet I know! I was just thinking about this. I know it's built into the Inquisitor Combat Arts... kinda okay I guess... zzzzzz...but someone making a huge build out of it whilst socketing et al...like in the old days in Sacred? Well, I haven't seen it yet. Come forward hither, oh mighty builder, your mantle awaits ye gogo
Dragon Brother 620 Posted October 25, 2010 Might have to rouse the sleeping dragon...I know schot made an attempt at a widd SW at one point...maybe you could ask him if he has any pointers gogo?
Barristan 14 Posted October 25, 2010 Heya, I believe Dashing Alacricity has a WIDD mod too... but you probably already knew that Greetz
claudius 104 Posted October 25, 2010 If you use Blood Dryad Swords you might want to use Archangel Wrath for fire synergy. I'd think about fitting in Rev Lore in that case... Maybe for tactics or something else.
essjayehm 58 Posted October 25, 2010 Think noone came with a working WIDD build yet I know! I was just thinking about this. I know it's built into the Inquisitor Combat Arts... kinda okay I guess... zzzzzz...but someone making a huge build out of it whilst socketing et al...like in the old days in Sacred? Well, I haven't seen it yet. Come forward hither, oh mighty builder, your mantle awaits ye gogo Any Inquisitor that uses Purifying Chastiment has a WIDD build. Technically, speaking, anyway. Yes, zzzzz 8) IMO, if someone gets around to using it on another character (ie seraphim or Warrior) then that would qualify as an "Enraged Player" build. They would require Blood Dryad Swords, certian combat art mods, and some amount of sockets for WIDD, to even make the enraged bonus viable. It isn't a very good bonus; compared to the "danger" of playing with lessened hitpoints. Olocat, Constitution is an OK skill in the WIDD-style, just stop at 74 hard points Yes, your HP regen gets a boost from const., but if you manage stay "in-combat" then it's not really a big deal.
ololcat 3 Author Posted October 26, 2010 (edited) Barristan Yeah, forgot about WIDD silver mod on that CA. But it makes impossible to get Dashing Alacrity be chain-castable. Even if I manage to get it to level 100, it's duration would be 10 seconds less than cooldown (without regen time). claudius Good idea. Indeed, since the damage of AW is mainly fire, these swords can greatly boost it. Rev Tech Lore goes to the Combat Discipline's place then. essjayehm Good point; I will test this out on another toon, that is about to reach Constitution mastery, and decide what to do with that skill. It would go into Toughness' place. I thought about ways to improve that build in theory and ended up with some new idea. Since that seraphim has no evade/reflect bonuses, it will be hit. Even if 90% of damage will go to the shield, another 10% in conjunction with lack of in-combat HP regen can cause "unforeseen consequences". So I decided to have a bit less than 100% WE absorption and two weapon slots in use: one will contain "random" weapons and will serve only to get HPs to the desired threshold. After that it would be time to switch to Blood Dryad swords, where in one of them extra WE Absorption would be socketed, so all the damage will go into shield. But there are three (at least for now) problems: DoT, these Demon Mages' (and other creatures) "orange lightning" casts and LL damage. I haven't much time to play lately but managed to get her to 28. Looks like it's not possible to use WIDD on lower difficulties as enemies just can't damage her enough Edited October 26, 2010 by ololcat
Barristan 14 Posted October 26, 2010 Heya, had thought about the absorption too. Another option is to play without shield untill the desired treshold, and then activate 100% absorb shield. Yet another option would be to use Divine protection with its native absorb... also switch on when needed. That would free one extra skill choice, as you would no longer need concentration. Greetz
ololcat 3 Author Posted October 28, 2010 And another thought: maybe use WIDD only against bosses? Normal mobs and champions would die in one-two hits, so boosting damage through WIDD seems unnecessary. Then it would be possible to run around with Warding Energy, killin' mobs just like any other DW build, but when it's time to fight a boss, you just drive your health down to desired level, activate Divine Protection and Dashing Alacrity and go nuts. And another problem: some bosses are sitting far away from normal mobs, making hard to get to them with health under 25% (Carnach, Guardians). Maybe socketing +max hp to reduce % of health regenerated per second would fix that?
claudius 104 Posted October 30, 2010 (edited) I just had second thoughts on AW before you make the skill picks I hope you see... What if the %fire is applied before the conversion to fire? You need to test % fire modifier on AW before changing your skills.. I got a feeling its not going to work which is sad to waste the % fire... Another thought: put constitution with 1 (or up to 74) with +skills to raise hp but don't take mastery Another though: Engage the boss with Warding Energy... As the boss takes it down he will also damage your HP provided you have the mathematically correct amount of % to shields that means your HP will be lowered to a good amount for WIDD. Then fire off Divine Protection which has 100% to shields and with WEL (and jewels) you are pretty much invulnerable until the duration runs out. If with your WIDD you can't finish boss in 20-30 seconds the build is failure in any case I'd say. Edited October 30, 2010 by claudius
ololcat 3 Author Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) claudius Yeah, I tested +% fire damage with AW. It boosts Wrath's dmg a little even when weapon has no base fire damage. And yes, it is all about a killing speed. Edited October 31, 2010 by ololcat
essjayehm 58 Posted November 1, 2010 (edited) And another problem: some bosses are sitting far away from normal mobs, making hard to get to them with health under 25% (Carnach, Guardians). Maybe socketing +max hp to reduce % of health regenerated per second would fix that? Yeah, I had that thought, ololcat... but I tested and found out that HP regen (without constitution) is 5percent per second. So increasing your HP pool increases your HP regen, since your HP fully regenerates in 20 seconds (without con). Edited November 1, 2010 by essjayehm
ololcat 3 Author Posted November 2, 2010 essjayehm Well, that's quite sad. Looks like I'll have to let boss to damage me enough for damage to go up and then use Divine Protection. However, I found out that Divine Protection grants stronger shield when casted with Warding Energy being active.
