Deathknight build questions...

[Oblivious]

What would be a good build for the deathknight? I know I should have minions and help tank the damage to let my Minions dish out damage, but what about other skills? Should I get Candence? Focus on lifesteal of the necro tree and just get the shield aspects in soldier?

[My Name is Mud]

I will be honest I am not planning any summons in mine. For me it's more of a pure 2H melee build in theory. I figure 2H because life steal is key and bigger weapon = more of it.

Reaping Strike is sort of a no brainer here. Cadence is on my left click.

I am only at the stage where I am getting Siphon Souls up and going now, but it is really quite good in this. Very effective crowd skill. This is my right click. Weak enemies Do Not Like This.

I plan on Harbinger of Souls for even more Vit damage and life steal. This feels required to the kind of approach I am taking.

I am not really sure if Necrotic Edge is a good idea or not becaue of it and Reaping Strike both being on % based triggers, but it seems good on paper.

I plan on taking Mark of Torment later for boss fights, even if the duration is kind of weak, it seems like something that should save your bacon now and again.

A lot of the rest is I guess what you'd say is "typical Soldier Stuff". Menhir's Will is obviously an early game no brainer. I am sure there are other fancier ways to go about this, but I am enjoying it so far. I like playing a tanky melee guy that can get in the middle of stuff and chop away.

[TSP]

I really dislike the resistances special bosses get against builds like these. You may run through an entire act or two, thinking you made yourself a solid build, only to encounter that one boss with massive resistances to your lifeleech and vitality damage.

You can work around the vitality resistance with -res but for lifeleech - which is your sole sustainability with that build - you simply end up feeling gimped, wishing you picked a different mastery with much better ways to increase sustainability.



Entirely my own experiences of course...

[Kotli]

Agent Orange there's options that debuff life leech.
Rattoh, The Veilwarden proc, Valguur's Hunger set the Mythical Wildblood Crusher and Haunt Relic.
Then theres the -X target resist that reduces every resist. The Corpse Desecrator, Malady, Eternal Band, Open Hand of Mercy (Judicator's set), Terror (relic) look to be best items (at lest -15% resist reduction).
Then theres the Augenments Hexxer's Kiss and Essence of Ch'thon that give -% resist chance procs.

With the right items you can get -80% all resistances (90%+ with double weapons)

[gakm7]

I'm trying out a sword and board death knight right now... was gonna try switching over to cadence once I get it leveled up a bit and then convert a sizable chunk of my physical dmg to vitality dmg because the necro seems to innately suggest you to do so with it's exclusive passive... I'm concerned about damage output, but as long as it's decent enough, I think it'll be a nice tank and work out well enough...

[Kotli]

@gakm7 just keep an eye out for Corpse Desecrator and Ravanger's Bite. Both give convertion huge vitality damage boosts -resists to target.

[gakm7]

Originally posted by Kotli:

@gakm7 just keep an eye out for Corpse Desecrator and Ravanger's Bite. Both give convertion huge vitality damage boosts -resists to target.

Perfect! Thanks.

[L3pr4ch4un]

I have a necro/occultist I'm leveling currently and have a few things to add - From the summoner side..i think these will be useful.
Necrotic edge may work on percentages, and the other melee percent on hit BUT you can ADD devotions (the ability ones, like the flames from fang, or shepards call) to it. So, you can give yourself two more on hits. One of which - forget what it's called, something crown, the on hit gives - to elemental resist (and the whole thing gives some elemental resists too), I have my skeletons with it and it procs pretty often. But the point is - you can add (for now) skills to necrotic edge from devotions. Maybe toss in one of the chance to heal ones.
That said, you may not want summons, however i still say you should do blight fiend. Not for the damage, but for the confuse/disarray. To keep yourself from getting swarmed + even if it's not amazing another one to take a hit, is another to take a hit.

[Drowning]

Might want to consider a Aether dmg Dk build, similar to the battlemage build. Just seems like there is better class options than soldier for vitality dmg.

[Taioba]

I'm doing a really tanky build on my Death Knight. May look different, but it is very effective...Ravenous Earth is a blast against mobs, and wipe the floor with the weak ones face. Not to mention -25% dmg taken, which is the main reason to have it. Got Cadence for bosses and larger foes, and Syphon Souls + Reaper Strike for extra survivability. Forcewave + Internal Trauma is great for the stun and dmg over time, and my devotions helps to keep the dmg really high. The rest of the build is pure "tankness", with all shield skills and the -% dmg taken soldier ultimate. Right now i'm level 53 in veteran, 0 deaths, and absolutely 0 good itens.

Link: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25WyaBZ

[TSP]

I don't really understand your build Taioba. You have vit/poison/aether damage in necro and phys/internal trauma on your soldier.

Where is the synergy? Am I missing something?

[FEZ. TF7]

Originally posted by Agent Orange:

I don't really understand your build Taioba. You have vit/poison/aether damage in necro and phys/internal trauma on your soldier.

Where is the synergy? Am I missing something?

Necro converts some phys to vit, plus alot of the passives and active skills in the soldier tree give +% to all damage, the build doesn't need the same damage types in each class for synergy

[TSP]

Originally posted by Sith Olus:

Necro converts some phys to vit, plus alot of the passives and active skills in the soldier tree give +% to all damage, the build doesn't need the same damage types in each class for synergy

Sure, but then you could also simply pick any weapon that does pure X damage type and then slap on a sticker and call it SYNERGY no matter what masteries you bring to the table.

[Taioba]

The real dmg is on the Soldier side. As i said, Ravenous Earth is a debuffer that cleans small creatures with little investment (-25% dmg my friend, that is priceless). The Aether and Poison dmg are not an option, just comes with the package. All Devotion Points are used for Physical and Internal Trauma dmg, looking at Cadence and Forcewave, and shield passives.

I use Arkovian Bonemeal in both hands, and Necrotic Flesh in my trinkets, for a little boost on Ravenous Earth and Syphon Souls. That last one is an extra potion against mobs; excelent skill that anyone who is looking for extra survivability should take.

Important note: that is a REAAALLY tanky build; not a glass cannon. I don't like to keep dying all the time, haha.

[TSP]

Wouldn't Shaman be a lot better in that case? The -X damage is more profound on top of the mastery stats synergizing a lot better with the Soldier (Less Spirit, more HP)

[Taioba]

It's a matter of personal preference, in that case. I already have a Warder, and man that mastery is good. But i'm having so much more fun with the Necromancer!