[3.11] Shaper = Stunned, Tidebreaker Heavy Strike Stunner Build

Maybe crit would need to be looked at as another build possibly? If you start going crit, you have to not take Resolute Technique, once you do that you start needing accuracy and then that opens up the build to a lot of changes or am I wrong?

Can anybody recommend a clearing spell for the "frozen" legion encounters?

Right now im using Heavy Strike AoE setup and it´s pretty bad because I´m berserker and locked into multistrike.

Or maybe some trick like haemophilia (doesn´t work).

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driiifter wrote:

Maybe crit would need to be looked at as another build possibly? If you start going crit, you have to not take Resolute Technique, once you do that you start needing accuracy and then that opens up the build to a lot of changes or am I wrong?

The new accuracy nodes in weapons trees, Slayer's New Impact node and Precision aura are more than enough to ensure you have 90%+ accuracy. If you ask me, it's a more than worth trade off. Not mentioning that precision aura also gives you more critical chance. Not mentioning increased damage from critical strikes is equal to more stuns.

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Ionlyplaynude wrote:

Can anybody recommend a clearing spell for the "frozen" legion encounters?

Right now im using Heavy Strike AoE setup and it´s pretty bad because I´m berserker and locked into multistrike.

Or maybe some trick like haemophilia (doesn´t work).

Personally I'm using my the groundslam setup from the recommended gems section and it works great (gs - brutality - Shockwave - pulverize - melee Phys - fortify). I'm sure sunder and we would work great too. I feel safer with the rEST and stun duration from gs tho.

Apparently you've done the research, I would take your word for it.

To answer your question, I do actually think Slayer is the best for this build. I've tried Glad and Champ, Slayer's over leech really pushes it over the edge for me. (Champ was nerfed not too long ago)


The Heavy Strike aoe setup doesn't seem great against the Legion encounters for a few reasons: it's timed, obviously and you just don't cover enough area with damage. Also the dudes don't exactly all rush you, if you're out of range they kinda gravitate towards other monsters, meaning you lose clock trying to get to them, which doesn't favor Heavy Strike's limited range.

Some of those rare monsters take an absolute beating this early on, even with Heavy Strike single target.

I've kinda been skipping those until my damage increases. The loot is good though, don't get me wrong.

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Ionlyplaynude wrote:

Can anybody recommend a clearing spell for the "frozen" legion encounters?

Right now im using Heavy Strike AoE setup and it´s pretty bad because I´m berserker and locked into multistrike.

Or maybe some trick like haemophilia (doesn´t work).

I use Grand Slam AoE setup with Rapid Expansion, that covers more or less 180 rectangle. But this is really is not best build for this kind of challenge, even if i already did the actual 150+ challenge and full clear of all armies, you just need some luck with a map layout.

How do you use molten shell/iron skill/IC now? I tried both manually launched or CWDT20, but neither does really solve the problem with ranged attacks for me... :-(

The way to solve ranged attacks is just kill them quickly and/or leap slam into the ranged packs. Ranged stuff should take priority if you see it and you should be thinking of your ability to stunlock stuff as a defensive tool as well as offensive.

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Haadd wrote:

Isn't Slayer clearly the best class for this build ATM? With Berserker's Rage stacks being kinda clunky I feel Slayer has the advantage here, specially with the new crit path through Overhelm. I made a brief build using a standard character and I've reached 41% crit chance with tidebreaker, and I was not even trying. I think with optimal gear we reach 50-60%, with massive double damage chance, ruthless and crit multiplier, one hit with this will blow everything up.

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Haadd wrote:

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driiifter wrote:

Maybe crit would need to be looked at as another build possibly? If you start going crit, you have to not take Resolute Technique, once you do that you start needing accuracy and then that opens up the build to a lot of changes or am I wrong?

The new accuracy nodes in weapons trees, Slayer's New Impact node and Precision aura are more than enough to ensure you have 90%+ accuracy. If you ask me, it's a more than worth trade off. Not mentioning that precision aura also gives you more critical chance. Not mentioning increased damage from critical strikes is equal to more stuns.

I have a section in the guide: "More Tips" - "Crit Version" talking about it and even proposed a template for a crit version (I added that yesterday).

The issue with crit builds, as I also stated there, is that it doesn't help in either map clearing or bossing.

For map clearing, we mostly want 3 things: attack speed, consistent high damage, and AoE range.

Since it's not too realistic to get close to 100% crit chance, introducing crit (say you get 400% multi, that's 400% damage) on top of double damage (200% damage), Ruthless (232% damage), Multistrike (200% damage), and Tidebreaker's naturally high damage range (300% damage) and Ryslatha's Coil (200% damage), you are looking at top damage being 200 times higher than your lowest damage. If we don't get 100% accuracy we also get occasional 0 damage attacks. During map clearing, this damage fluctuation translates to either not killing the pack or dealing huge trunks of overkill damage. So crit version leads to high DPS, but inconsistent damage output.

Going crit also inevitably results in lower attack speed and AoE range since you need to put your investments in crit instead.

For bossing, we mostly want 1 thing: consistency in stun locking. And having a damage range of 200 times is not a good way of assuring stun locking at all.

Overall, I agree that crit version has the benefit of having higher DPS - you can easily double your DPS by going crit. But I believe despite this higher DPS, going crit results in slower map clearing and a less safe bossing experience.