I am studying this and trying to conceptualize a WPS focus: I see very few people go all-in on those skills. Nightblade really is confusing to me because it is like you said: all over the place. On paper smite + shears + hidden + quick cut + execution along with PathoftheThree SEEMS like it would be amazing. Same with blademaster which has even more passive ways to augment a basic attack by sacrificing the acid conversion. Is this one of those games where skills like BladeBurst or EyeofReckoning always end up surpassing the attack-replacers? It just doesn't seem like people prioritize stacking everything into WPS by examining the popular builds.
This is actually an excellent point that I have never truly addressed. On paper, ability and weapon-based builds do approximately the same amounts of damage. In practice, however, ability based builds are a little more consistent because of DoTs. If an enemy has a stun or disarm, your weapon-based build either totally or almost totally stops doing damage. In this example, there would be a little bit of DoT from the poison, but not as much as a dedicated poison ability build. Even if an ability-based build was silenced, likely the build has better DoTs than the weapon-based build. My usual solution is to splash very specific abilities into a weapon-based build. In this particular example, run the full dual-wield skills, Righteous Fervor w/ Dreeg's Reproach & Consecration, Veil of Shadow into Night's Chill, and Amarasta's Blade Burst into Lethal Assault as the ONLY activatable skill, specifically to boost the poison/cold damage of your autos and Night's Chill. Now you have a dangerous weapon-based build that hits extremely hard and continues to do damage even when you're stunned or disarmed.
@@prof.reithe4053 Thank you! What is starting to become clear to me is that Dervish really comes together late game. I guess because of its many variant damage types, you sort of end up leveling with one thing until you get the set pieces/skill points you need. This at least seems to be the case for an acid based EoR spinner. I am comparing this to something like forcewave or primal strike builds where its essentially 100 levels of "Keep doing that" The preferred leveling skill seems to be blade burst which has a cold component. Weird.
@@damian6631 Yeah, weapon-based builds have a hard time early game, as weapons are pathetic and the base damage of weapon skills is very low. This is part of the reason so many people throw Blade Burst in there: early game damage burst scaling well into late-game damage boost and crowd control. The skill is useful throughout the build, but the function changes.
It seems to me that most people run the dual wield oathkeeper, I dont see all that many builds with sword and shield. Am I correct? and if so why is that? thanks
It's mostly a matter of damage output. Dual-wielding combined with Righteous Fervor is a low-cost, high damage combo that deals impressive physical & elemental damage, w/ a splash of piercing and poison. There are also a lot of excellent single-had weapons that are very effective when dual-wielded, which I will eventually cover in a video. Finally, Righteous Fervor offers defensive boosts at the second stage, bolstered by a Pneumatic Burst/Resilience combo, can almost match the passive defense boosts of the average shield. Ascension is also available to help in particularly damaging situations. All this is more consistent the even a boosted block chance from a shield. Finally, there are three passive attacks on the dual-wielding chain than is available for shields (3 for dual-wielding, including the powerful Execution, vs the two shield attacks).
Great in depth, best on the dervish I've come across. Your advice on not spreading your damage type all around to avoid resistance is spot on.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! The Dervish is a lot of fun, and one of my favorites.
Well done
Thank you!
Good video thanks
I am studying this and trying to conceptualize a WPS focus: I see very few people go all-in on those skills. Nightblade really is confusing to me because it is like you said: all over the place.
On paper smite + shears + hidden + quick cut + execution along with PathoftheThree SEEMS like it would be amazing. Same with blademaster which has even more passive ways to augment a basic attack by sacrificing the acid conversion.
Is this one of those games where skills like BladeBurst or EyeofReckoning always end up surpassing the attack-replacers? It just doesn't seem like people prioritize stacking everything into WPS by examining the popular builds.
This is actually an excellent point that I have never truly addressed. On paper, ability and weapon-based builds do approximately the same amounts of damage. In practice, however, ability based builds are a little more consistent because of DoTs.
If an enemy has a stun or disarm, your weapon-based build either totally or almost totally stops doing damage. In this example, there would be a little bit of DoT from the poison, but not as much as a dedicated poison ability build. Even if an ability-based build was silenced, likely the build has better DoTs than the weapon-based build.
My usual solution is to splash very specific abilities into a weapon-based build. In this particular example, run the full dual-wield skills, Righteous Fervor w/ Dreeg's Reproach & Consecration, Veil of Shadow into Night's Chill, and Amarasta's Blade Burst into Lethal Assault as the ONLY activatable skill, specifically to boost the poison/cold damage of your autos and Night's Chill. Now you have a dangerous weapon-based build that hits extremely hard and continues to do damage even when you're stunned or disarmed.
@@prof.reithe4053 Thank you! What is starting to become clear to me is that Dervish really comes together late game. I guess because of its many variant damage types, you sort of end up leveling with one thing until you get the set pieces/skill points you need.
This at least seems to be the case for an acid based EoR spinner. I am comparing this to something like forcewave or primal strike builds where its essentially 100 levels of "Keep doing that"
The preferred leveling skill seems to be blade burst which has a cold component. Weird.
@@damian6631 Yeah, weapon-based builds have a hard time early game, as weapons are pathetic and the base damage of weapon skills is very low. This is part of the reason so many people throw Blade Burst in there: early game damage burst scaling well into late-game damage boost and crowd control. The skill is useful throughout the build, but the function changes.
It seems to me that most people run the dual wield oathkeeper, I dont see all that many builds with sword and shield. Am I correct? and if so why is that? thanks
It's mostly a matter of damage output. Dual-wielding combined with Righteous Fervor is a low-cost, high damage combo that deals impressive physical & elemental damage, w/ a splash of piercing and poison. There are also a lot of excellent single-had weapons that are very effective when dual-wielded, which I will eventually cover in a video. Finally, Righteous Fervor offers defensive boosts at the second stage, bolstered by a Pneumatic Burst/Resilience combo, can almost match the passive defense boosts of the average shield. Ascension is also available to help in particularly damaging situations. All this is more consistent the even a boosted block chance from a shield. Finally, there are three passive attacks on the dual-wielding chain than is available for shields (3 for dual-wielding, including the powerful Execution, vs the two shield attacks).
@@prof.reithe4053 Thanks for the detailed response. appreciate it.
@@Michaelrsem0010 Anytime! Glad I could clarify for you!