2H DK builds.

[Requimatic]

Do any decent ones exist?

I was thinking of trying to run a build like this, similar to my Reaper, but possibly focusing on either purely Physical damage, or maybe Physical/Aether?

I guess the important question I should ask is: I know plenty of weapons/sets exist that cater to Physical.. but what about a combo like Physical/Aether?

I can't help but imagine a build like this that focused on Physical would make Bone Harvest a monstrous corpse maker.

Anyways, thanks~

Edit: to be specific, I was thinking of a build that focused around 2H & Bone Harvest (since it has no offhand scaling), and probably other things from the Soldier tree.

[kvin11]

Krieg set, my friend, but there is still a lot of Physical ~ Aether conversion.

[Azunai]

there really is no synergy between soldier and necro damage types.

krieg set is kinda nice for the last few levels since it consists of monster infrequents and can be farmed much more easily than any other mythical set. the set itself is fairly generic. the only skill transmuters on the set are reduced cooldown to blitz & warcry (along with some aether damage bonus to both) and phys>aether damage conversion to blitz.

so it's not really the sort of set that dictates a build. more like a decent collection of items that are easy to get. you still have to fill in the blanks

don't know if bone harvest is that great for a phys or aether (or mix of both) build. it has rather high weapon damage %, so it can probably work all right for whatever damage type you have on your weapon, but the flat damage of the skill is cold, vitality and pierce and the transmuter makes it hit a lot harder, but converts phys to cold. imo it's best suited for a cold reaper. might also work nicely for a vitality damage build (without the transmuter).

overall, i guess you'd be best off playing it as a plain old physical soldier with some goodies from the necro tree tacked on (like "reaping strike" for a free life steal proc or mark of torment as an additional "oh crap" button for bossfights or when you get swarmed).

if you want to go the phys & aether route, you could probably use the soulsplitter epic scythe. there are 3 different versions of it (level 30, 65 and 94). all 3 have a decent chunk of flat aether damage, attack speed, % aether damage and phys>aether conversion. also seem to drop quite often (at least for me).

[Requimatic]

Originally posted by Azunai:

there really is no synergy between soldier and necro damage types.

krieg set is kinda nice for the last few levels since it consists of monster infrequents and can be farmed much more easily than any other mythical set. the set itself is fairly generic. the only skill transmuters on the set are reduced cooldown to blitz & warcry (along with some aether damage bonus to both) and phys>aether damage conversion to blitz.

so it's not really the sort of set that dictates a build. more like a decent collection of items that are easy to get. you still have to fill in the blanks

don't know if bone harvest is that great for a phys or aether (or mix of both) build. it has rather high weapon damage %, so it can probably work all right for whatever damage type you have on your weapon, but the flat damage of the skill is cold, vitality and pierce and the transmuter makes it hit a lot harder, but converts phys to cold. imo it's best suited for a cold reaper. might also work nicely for a vitality damage build (without the transmuter).

overall, i guess you'd be best off playing it as a plain old physical soldier with some goodies from the necro tree tacked on (like "reaping strike" for a free life steal proc or mark of torment as an additional "oh crap" button for bossfights or when you get swarmed).

if you want to go the phys & aether route, you could probably use the soulsplitter epic scythe. there are 3 different versions of it (level 30, 65 and 94). all 3 have a decent chunk of flat aether damage, attack speed, % aether damage and phys>aether conversion. also seem to drop quite often (at least for me).

Thanks for the input! I think I've found a couple of those Soulsplitters.. or at least one of them that I can remember, I'd have to check my Reaper's bank.

But yeah, Bone Harvest is preeeeetty great on my 2H (Soulrend) Cold/Vit Reaper.. the only down side of that build is that there's zero gear synergy in terms of sets.. just what you can piece together, which is what I've done.

Work well in Ultimate, but it'd be better if there was actually a set dedicated to Cold/Vit.. or at least supported it and the skills of Necro/Nightblade.

[Cyseal]

Well, all I know is that I can clear Ultimate easily without deaths on my Cold-based Death Knight. And that's more than good enough for me. I did manage to beat two different Nemesis with it, but that was with a few deaths, haven't tried out any other ones.

[Azunai]

Originally posted by Requimatic:

...


Thanks for the input! I think I've found a couple of those Soulsplitters.. or at least one of them that I can remember, I'd have to check my Reaper's bank.

But yeah, Bone Harvest is preeeeetty great on my 2H (Soulrend) Cold/Vit Reaper.. the only down side of that build is that there's zero gear synergy in terms of sets.. just what you can piece together, which is what I've done.

Work well in Ultimate, but it'd be better if there was actually a set dedicated to Cold/Vit.. or at least supported it and the skills of Necro/Nightblade.

yeah i also have a cold 2H reaper. was my first new character whent he expansion was released. also ended up using a soulrend. it was very disappointing to find out that the reaper set is some stupid DW acid contraption instead of a set that buffs a build that actually makes sense.

i think he ended up using the blue "silver sentinel" set. 3 piece set. actually meant for infiltrator. some skill boosts for ABB (+lethal assault) and cold rune (useless for a reaper, obviously). 2 of the pieces had pierce > cold and acid > cold conversion, so it was still an "ok-ish" match for my build (having a decent amount of acid damage from lethal assault and flat pierce on bone harvest, so that conversion bonus was kinda useful to max the potential of the cold damage skills.

anyway, haven't played him much after finishing the campaign and getting to level 100. mostly due to lack of motivation. not much reason to go on if there are no items worth getting for the build.

[Valkez]

Originally posted by Azunai:

it was very disappointing to find out that the reaper set is some stupid DW acid contraption instead of a set that buffs a build that actually makes sense.

Well, you could still use the set minus the weapon and get 3p. And still, Deathguard certainly makes more sense than Nex&Ortus and their boost of ABB to me.

[Azunai]

yeah i guess one could use 3 piece deathguard, but then you'd pretty much dump the "cold" part of the 2h cold reaper in favor of acid/poison (set headpiece converting 100% bone harvest cold > acid). so you'd probably have to dump soulrend in favor of some acid based weapon. nightshade reach would seem fitting.

might work i guess. but then, you might as well just dump the idea of 2H and use the dagger, too. the first 2 set bonuses aren't all that spectacular and the flat damage boost from the 4pc bonus will help close the gap between 2H bone harvest and 1H bone harvest and you actually get to use the various skill boosts to dual wield skills on the other set pieces.

not saying the set is weak. just that it was disappointing to learn that the set basically forces / encourages a full respec to a different build. that acid DW build makes no sense without the set, so you basically level up the toon with an "organic" build that works fine with random selffound stuff and then you pretty much have to respec to some full conversion set-based build or keep your original build and use semi-related bits and pieces you found along the way.

[Requimatic]

I really like the 2H build, but there's just almost no gear (sets) that support it.

Along with Soulrend, I also use Alkamos' rings, which are really good. They offer a 2p bonus, which is nice.

Aside from what? Anything I could find that boosted Cold, Vit, or All% damage. I've cleared all of Ultimate with little issue, but haven't stepped in to the expansion on Ultimate yet.. which is where I think I'd have issues, because the hodgepodge of equipment has left it with a couple fairly low resists, armor is lower, etc.

I'm honestly surprised the devs haven't made an item set for a build like this, considering the heavy amount of Cold/Vit in both class trees..

[Slash]

I think DeathReach better then Soulrend,at least in my vitality DK