User:Masel/Builds/Spellbreaker
Dagger + Axe / Hammer Power Spellbreaker [edit]
Criterion | Rating |
---|---|
Burst Damage | 4/5 |
Sustained Damage | 4/5 |
Utility Options | 4/5 |
Survivability | 5/5 |
Difficulty | 2/5 |
Power Spellbreaker is a very strong build for instanced content that excels at providing Breakbar Damage. It's also a great pick for solo gameplay, as it can provide itself with good amounts of the most essential offensive boons: Quickness, Fury and Might. As it uses Defense by default, it comes with great coverage of self- Stability, strong innate healing and lots of Blocks and Evades to avoid incoming damage.
Link to the Build on the Editor
Playstyle & Skills[edit]
Skill Type | Skills | |||||
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Burst Skills |
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Dagger + Axe Skills |
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Hammer Skills |
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Utility |
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Full Counter and Adrenaline Management [edit]
- Full Counter is the key mechanic of Spellbreaker, which gives you access to a short-cooldown Block and performs a riposte when you block, dazing enemies.
- Generally, applying Disables is key to dealing damage on Spellbreaker due to Attacker's Insight, which gives you 50 Power, Precision and Ferocity for each Disable you apply.
- Additionally, when using Defense with Stalwart Strength & Merciless Hammer, each Disable will give you Stability and Adrenaline, which in turn give you higher damage.
- Your Adrenaline will also be limited to two bars, with each Burst skill consuming only one bar.
- That means that burst skills are generally weaker comapred to core warrior or Berserker, but Spellbreaker compensates that by higher native damage on other skills.
Rotation Concept[edit]
- The general rotation concept is simple, but requires fast enough execution to get close to the benchmark.
- In this build we'll apply lots of Disables via Hammer, leading to a lot of stacks of Attacker's Insight.
- You should always try to anticipate dangerous hits and block them with Full Counter. It's not a big deal if you get it wrong sometimes, it gets better with practice.
- Always open combat with "To the Limit!" (for initial Adrenaline) and Winds of Disenchantment, followed by Breaching Strike and Aura Slicer. Winds of Disenchantment is a Lightning field, in which the Leap finishers Breaching Strike and Aura Slicer will apply Dazes for early stacks of Attacker's Insight.
After that, the rotation consists of two sections: Dagger + Axe & Hammer.
Step 1: Dagger + Axe[edit]
- On Dagger + Axe, always open and end with Disrupting Stab & Dual Strike (they share the same cooldown length). In between, use the following skills on cooldown and fill with auto attacks:
- Breaching Strike,
- Whirling Axe and
- Bull's Charge - this should be used on Dagger + Axe to reach a more consistent number of stacks of Attacker's Insight.
You can use Aura Slicer to cover ground if needed.
Step 2: Hammer[edit]
On Hammer, you can follow the priority list below, and you should be able to cast the following skills:
- Fierce Blow x 3,
- Earthshaker x 2,
- Hammer Shock x 2,
- Staggering Blow x 1 and
- Backbreaker x 1; this should always be cast right after one cast of Fierce Blow to recharge it.
- Hammer Swing, Hammer Bash & Hammer Smash x 1,
- With Alacrity, that creates a fixed loop rotation cycle of the combos mentioned above with a duration of ~21-22 seconds .
Default Skill | Notes |
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"To the Limit!" | Used for the free initial Adrenaline, but also grants allies 50 Endurance and thus a free Dodge. |
Bull's Charge | Triggers both Attacker's Insight and Peak Performance. |
Signet of Fury | Just there for the additional Precision. Should be kept to not create issues with critical chance-based effects. |
Signet of Might | Just there for the additional Power. Can be replaced by any other utility skill you might need. |
Winds of Disenchantment | Mainly used for the Lightning field it provides, which can be comboed with Aura Slicer, Breaching Strike and Earthshaker for additional stacks of Attacker's Insight. |
CC Skills for breakbar damage[edit]
- Staggering Blow
- Backbreaker
- Bull's Charge
- Earthshaker
- Full Counter
- Disrupting Stab
- Aura Slicer & Breaching Strike inside Winds of Disenchantment
Gear[edit]
Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):
- At least 63% Critical Chance: Fury and Attacker's Insight give the remaining 37%.
- Maximize Ferocity
- Maximize Power
- For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces of Berserker's with rare/exotic Berserker's.
Traits[edit]
Tactics | ||||||
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Strength | ||||||
Spellbreaker | ||||||
- The default specializations for damage are Tactics, Strength and of course Spellbreaker.
Strength [edit]
- In strength, we’ll be using all the juicy damage buffs we can get!
- 5% increased Strike damage and Critical chance, converting Power to both Vitality and Ferocity and finally up to 21% increased damage upon spending bars of Adrenaline.
- Strength will also make your dodges apply Might and damage enemies, make burst skills restore Endurance on hit and have Might grant more power to you (40 per stack instead of 30).
Defense [edit]
- Adrenal Health is a strong passive heal, and you just need to use burst skills on cooldown to maintain 4 stacks of it.
- Your damage with this will scale with Weakness and Stability due to Cull the Weak and Stalwart Strength. You will cover good uptimes on both of them natively in your rotation.
Spellbreaker [edit]
- With the traits of choice, Spellbreaker gives 25% higher Strike damage, 15% Critical Damage, up to 250 Power, Precision and Ferocity through Attacker's Insight. Attacker's Insight and Stalwart Strength are what makes it so important to apply lots of Disables.
DPS Rotation Showcase[edit]
You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Open World Build[edit]
You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.
Increasing General Survivability[edit]
- Spellbreaker has quite a bit of innate survivability, especially when using Defense. For increased survivabilty, swap out "To the Limit!" and Signet of Might for Defiant Stance and Dolyak Signet. The first will make you immortal for 4 second while healing you for all Strike damage you take and the latter will give you free 180 Toughness and a Stun break and healing for emergencies.
- Make use of Full Counter, Dodge and Defiant Stance as often as possible.
- On top of that, use Bowl of Lemongrass Mussel Pasta for additional Toughness and 10% less damage taken.
- Building Momentum restores Endurance whenever you use a burst skill.
- Adrenal Health heals you passively for decent amounts as long as you keep using your Burst skills.
- You can use Defy Pain, which makes you immune to strike damage for 4 seconds every 40 seconds upon using Signet of Rage.
- For soloing harder content, make use Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge. They give 150 permanent Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from Stability, Resistance and Resolution on entering combat. These effects can be pre-stacked by using an Enchanted Snow Diamond Tonic repeatedly when out of combat. The long-lasting Protection from this is another free massive gain to survivability!
- In terms of gear , swap out the Hammer for a Main-Hand Mace & a second Off-Hand Dagger (e.g. Knight's Pearl Carver and Knight's Pearl Bludgeoner - Don't underestimated how strong this can be for defense:
- The Mace comes with another short-cooldown Block in the form of Counterblow and two short-cooldown Disables - Pommel Bash and Skull Crack.
- The dagger will trigger the off-hand effect of Sun and Moon Style, healing you for 4% of your Critical damage.
- Bladestorm grants Barrier on every strike, shielding and healing you at the same time.
- If you feel like you need more defense, use a few Knight's or Commander's Trinkets.
Skill Choice | Notes |
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Defiant Stance | Immortality button for 4 seconds every 30 seconds. Allows you to pump through under heavy pressure and heal back to full in the process. |
Bull's Charge | As explained above. This is also an Evade and applies a Knockdown, triggering all "on CC" traits you have. Since this is a movement skill, it will also apply Stability via Brave Stride. |
Dolyak Signet | Passive Toughness increase and the designated Stun break. If something gets through your wall of Stability, use this to break free. Will also apply 10 stacks of Stability to you. |
Signet of Fury | As explained above. |
Signet of Rage | Easy coverage of Fury, Swiftness and a few stacks of Might. Use it on cooldown in combat. |
Boon Coverage[edit]
- Your Boon coverage is strongly tied to applying Disables. The more you have, the easier covering Boons will become.
- Might and Fury are covered by Signet of Rage, Aggressive Onslaught, Magebane Tether and Relic of the Midnight King.
- Quickness is covered by Aggressive Onslaught. This triggers on every Disable listed above, allowing you to maintain it. For more healing and endurance recovery, you can also use Might Makes Right and Forceful Greatsword.
- You will reach a partial uptime on Protection via Thick Skin and Guard Counter. Swapping to Guard Counter costs you Critical Damage (and thus self-healing), so this is optional.
- In case you don't want the hassle of reapplying jade protocols, you can abuse the synergy between Relic of the Cavalier and Blast from the Skyscale to apply lots of Aegis, Resistance, Might and Quickness to yourself. It does not have an internal cooldown and applies the boons on every hit of Blast. This also works with any other mount engage when hitting multiple targets.
Dealing with Conditions and Control effects[edit]
- You have lots of different sources for Stability, allowing you to keep it up permanently, even on your own. That way, you can ignore incoming Control effects most of the time.
- If you need frequent condition cleanses against bosses, swap to Cleansing Ire in Defense. That will also increase adrenaline inflow whenever you get hit.
- Dolyak Signet is a short cooldown Stun break.
- "Shake It Off!" can be used instead of Bull's Charge or Dolyak Signet; it is a Stun break and cleanses conditions, so it does both. Also affects nearby allies.