[3.7] Perforate Gladiator
" Damage is not a strength of this build, doubt it can match any cyclone variant. It’s enough damage to do all content but sand stance could use a buff. You can probably do really well in hardcore, the survivability is pretty off the charts here with one exception. Some boss fights can be risky given that blood stance, which has pretty respectable dps, requires you to face tank because it has a very small range. If you can stay alive in those situations you’re not likely to die any other way. Challenger charges are also amazing and a huge part of why the build is so fun. | |
" You could certainly do a non-crit version in HC, but I don't see any reason to do that. This build is 100% hardcore viable. I can't comment on the damage compared to Facebreaker cyclone honestly. It also depends on how you build it of course. I will say that Perforate has quite a bit higher damage potential than cyclone, but Facebreaker is really strong after the changes to gem scaling. | |
" I think I'm using the Soul of Arakali Pantheon to shore up the little bit of weakness you have to damage over time (some resistance to shock is also nice), but I sometimes switch Pantheons based on map mods too. | |
" Cyclone's clear is certainly better, but it does not have better single target damage; it's not even close honestly. Everyone drools all over cyclone, and raves about the damage, but the damage is significantly worse than a lot of skills. What it does have is massive AoE (largely thanks to the double scaling of weapon range and AoE) and allows for movement during use. These two things are what make it truly powerful, but there are a ton of skills that do more damage than cyclone. You could do an order of magnitude more damage than this setup if you did things like use foils, dual wield, invest more heavily in crit, spread across the tree to get the other sword nodes, spec a Zerker or Slayer, etc. Also, you can facetank almost anything in the game (aside from super deep Delve stuff obviously) if you manage your buffs properly. That is not an issue for this build. The only weakness is damage over time. Any hit based damage (including boss slams) is possible to tank. Watch the video guide. Those maps at the beginning aren't white T16 maps done to make the build look better than it is. I'm tanking 10x Legion rares in 4 damage mod corrupted T16 maps and not seeing my health move. | |
|
Cyclone has ridiculous damage. It’s pretty easy to hit 10m with cyclone. I’m not sure about facebreaker builds so maybe that’s a different story. This build does not do the single target dps of my cyclone character. Switch to sand stance and it’s a massive gap between the two. Im not talking the build down, it’s probably my favorite overall I’ve played.
| |
" I know you're not, but I'm honestly saying people overvalue cyclone's damage. I'm not taking offense or anything, but I'm putting up a fight here because this is objectively analyzed and disproven that cyclone has crazy damage. It's a simple math equation to figure out which skill deal the most damage (assuming similar support gems are available in terms of their damage, which is generally true). So, for example, cyclone's base damage is 54% x 3 (because of the 300% attack speed multiplier) which comes out to 162%. Perforate's base damage in sand stance is 196%. Cyclone has added base damage per level, which perforate does not. So, the 56-85 damage added by cyclone (which is about 71 damage) needs to be at least 196/162 for it do more damage. The means if 71 damage per attack is more than 21% of your weapon's base damage + other added sources of flat physical damage, then cyclone will deal more damage. In my particular setup, they are basically dead even in terms of damage between cyclone and sand stance perforate (it's actually eerily close). With better weapons, perforate starts to win because the added flat damage from. With cheaper gear, cyclone is significantly better because the flat damage is more valuable. Now, that's just on paper. When it comes to real world damage, cyclone will have better clear for three main reasons: the AOE is a lot larger, you can move while killing, and because of it's interaction with impale. The damage ramp from impale is more noticeable in general mapping, but basically irrelevant against end game bosses (where you would be using blood stance anyway, which is a little better than double the damage output in ideal circumstances, but probably a bit less in reality). All this to say it completely depends. There are a lot of skills that deal more damage than perforate in sand stance as well, such as blade flurry, earthquake, tectonic slam, blade storm, etc. So, I go back to my original point: cyclone's base damage is on the lower end of skills. The difference is in the mechanics of the skill in real world combat scenarios with pack clear, and the nice boost from base damage makes it scale well with cheaper gear. To be fair, that matters more. By the time you get to the point where the flat damage isn't scaling as well as a higher base damage, you kill stuff so quickly anyway that the mechanics of cyclone matter way more than anything else (unless you're trying to make insta Shaper kill videos or something). | |
|
Looking at doing this for 3.8. Would u recommend dual wielding until you get the surrender shield?
|
