Soldier plus what? Shield build

[Tsubaru]

Hello!

Want to make a shield build (I just like the way they look), and I'm wondering which other class should I use. I want to be tanky, but have some buttons to press, rather then just spamming one attack. Any tips?

BTW, does it matter if I chose soldier as first or second class?

[Requimatic]

It doesn't matter in which order you choose your classes, just be aware of the abilities they possess and see which ones you'd like access to first.

But also don't gimp your mastery bar.

As for a second class, Shaman? for Warder seems to be a popular choice for shield builds. I hear Necromancer (Death Knight) is also not a bad choice. Honestly, though, I've never played a sword & board build as they don't particularly appeal to me (although Retaliation builds would be funny), so my knowledge about these kinds of builds is horribly limited.

[KG]

Death Knight (Soldier + Necro) or Battlemage (Soldier + Arcanist) are the best current matches to what you say that I can think of. The "standard" powerful builds for each use a relatively easily-farmed set and have abilities on cooldown, debuffs, multiple attacks, etc. - all the stuff that makes for lots of buttons to press. They are also very strong once you have most of the essentials completed - they might even get a bit of a nerf soon.

Death Knight is probably the easier one to start out with - you'd play like any phyiscal Cadence + Charge soldier build until you had the endgame gear to switch over to Aether. Just put points in Spectral Wrath to debuff enemies' physical resistance. Arcanist doesn't have as much synergy - it can debuff physical res too but it either doesn't stack with Soldier's Break Morale or it doesn't affect anything immune to freeze. But Arcanist would probably give stronger defense (not that 1h+shield soldier really needs it).

I can't recommend Shaman unless you just want to be super-duper (unnecessarily) tanky. Or a bleed build - I guess bleed builds can end up with a ton of buttons to press. I personally hate them though so I'll let others recommend them if they're going to. :x

Edit: I guess I should mention that neither the Death Knight nor Battlemage builds I'm thinking of have a lot of complexity/buttons to press until higher level. Bleed Warder is probably better for that through the whole game but again we come back to the bit where I hated it. >_>

[Tsubaru]

Publicado originalmente por Requimatic:

It doesn't matter in which order you choose your classes, just be aware of the abilities they possess and see which ones you'd like access to first.

But also don't gimp your mastery bar.

As for a second class, Shaman? for Warder seems to be a popular choice for shield builds. I hear Necromancer (Death Knight) is also not a bad choice. Honestly, though, I've never played a sword & board build as they don't particularly appeal to me (although Retaliation builds would be funny), so my knowledge about these kinds of builds is horribly limited.

Good to know I can pick anyone first! :D

Publicado originalmente por KG:

Death Knight (Soldier + Necro) or Battlemage (Soldier + Arcanist) are the best current matches to what you say that I can think of. The "standard" powerful builds for each use a relatively easily-farmed set and have abilities on cooldown, debuffs, multiple attacks, etc. - all the stuff that makes for lots of buttons to press. They are also very strong once you have most of the essentials completed - they might even get a bit of a nerf soon.

Death Knight is probably the easier one to start out with - you'd play like any phyiscal Cadence + Charge soldier build until you had the endgame gear to switch over to Aether. Just put points in Spectral Wrath to debuff enemies' physical resistance. Arcanist doesn't have as much synergy - it can debuff physical res too but it either doesn't stack with Soldier's Break Morale or it doesn't affect anything immune to freeze. But Arcanist would probably give stronger defense (not that 1h+shield soldier really needs it).

I can't recommend Shaman unless you just want to be super-duper (unnecessarily) tanky. Or a bleed build - I guess bleed builds can end up with a ton of buttons to press. I personally hate them though so I'll let others recommend them if they're going to. :x

With the Necromancer, would I summon anything or the necro is just to increase the soldier skills?

[Burusagi]

You cannot really go wrong with any combination involving Soldier.

It is a very universal class that has powerful passives that work to beef up pretty much any other class.

Personally, I'm currently toying with a Commando build (Soldier+Demo) that uses a Pistol+Shield and lots and lots of fire damage.

[KG]

Necromancer offers Spectral Binding (+aether damage, +OA, +health), Spectral Wrath (AoE aether + vitality damage and attack speed, vitality, aether, and physical resist debuff), transmuted Siphon Souls (big AoE aether damage every second for 9 seconds + life leech and regen debuff), and Mark of Torment (on-demand 50% damage absorption for ~5 seconds). Spectral Wrath is the big one for leveling up with that physical resist reduction.

You could use Raise the Death from the Revenant constellation but other than that - or I guess for leveling if you want - no, no summoning at end game. Leveling up leaves things a lot more open - summons, Bone Harvest, etc., but you're likely to want to pare things down for the sake of efficiency/strength later on.

[Psykrom]

if you play warder, use savagery and forget about cadence. commando or witchblade offer viable options for builds as well. I'd go with anything but Cadence, it's not very flashy. You don't have to limit yourself to sword and board either in those combinations but that's up to you. To make better use of Cadence I'd rely on dual wield (blademaster). I recommend grimcalc for theory crafting.

[Anathema]

Do literally the opposite of what Psykrom said, it's terrible advice. You don't want Cadence for the Nightblade dual-wield procs, that's why the Belgothian set comes with a new default attack replacer. Cadence is a good ability in other situations though, because whether or not an ability is flashy is totally irrelevant. If you use Savagery with a Warder, it's better to go with a two-handed weapon or focus on bleed damage. Finally, grimcalc has long been obsolete and is no longer supported. Use Grimtools instead.

[frdnwsm]

Battlemage can get seriously tanky. Use the Arcanist purely for defensive skill to add to the passives that the soldier has. Mirror (for those "oh crap!" moments), Nulification and Maiven's Sphere are all useful, while Arcane Will and Inner Focus can provide some passive buffs.

Now, I haven't actually tried it out, but I imagine that you could also do the reverse. Use PRM and Aether Ray for offensive skills, and add in the Soldier passive defences. Anyone have any hands on experience with this variation?

[km_md60]

Soldier is the core of shield build. However, in order to get the mst out of shied, you should consider getting shield devotion like shield maiden, obelisk of menhir, and targo the builder - all of which are yellow/blue constellation. So, it's logical that builds that involve blue or yellow constellation damage bonus will be better optimize in term of devotion point spent.

You can either use soldier as a support mastery ans focus your damage on another mastery or use full physical soldier build with buff from another mastery.

[Psykrom]

Publicado originalmente por Anathema:

Do literally the opposite of what Psykrom said, it's terrible advice. You don't want Cadence for the Nightblade dual-wield procs, that's why the Belgothian set comes with a new default attack replacer. Cadence is a good ability in other situations though, because whether or not an ability is flashy is totally irrelevant. If you use Savagery with a Warder, it's better to go with a two-handed weapon or focus on bleed damage. Finally, grimcalc has long been obsolete and is no longer supported. Use Grimtools instead.

grimtools is what I meant, either way I don't see what's so terrible about it. It is far better advice than to recommend a new player any kind of build bound to endgame gear. Flashy being irrelevant or not is up to each player. Some of us still play these games for the sake of being fun. Not to mention, in all examples I gave you have the option to do it one way or another, meaning you don't have to rely on one skill or kind of weapon for the sake of the character working properly.
A new player should get the chance to experiment and find his way of play.

[Tsubaru]

Thanks all for the replies, they're really helpful!

I still didn't make my mind, almost lvl 10 and didn't even pick the first class. It's been... painful, but it's ok! ;)

I forgot to mention, my goal is also to be super viable end-game.

[tm0Lif3]

I have few hundred hours on this game too but i'm same. I have a warder myself. But i made it 2Hander as it's more suitable for it.

For Sword & Shield.. i can't make up my mind. WitchBlade, Battlemage, Tactician or Death Knight? I'm not really sure whichi s the BEST tank?

[Finnvbot]

I'm inclined to say Battlemage. Menhir's Bulwark + Maiven's Sphere of Protection + Mirror of Ereoctes.

[Red Oktober]

Publicado originalmente por km_md60:

Soldier is the core of shield build. However, in order to get the mst out of shied, you should consider getting shield devotion like shield maiden, obelisk of menhir, and targo the builder - all of which are yellow/blue constellation. So, it's logical that builds that involve blue or yellow constellation damage bonus will be better optimize in term of devotion point spent.

You can either use soldier as a support mastery ans focus your damage on another mastery or use full physical soldier build with buff from another mastery.

+10000

That's the best post I have read since a long time. It resumes perfectly well: how to use the soldier class. I 100% agree.

[MoonMoon🐺]

Personally I was considering a Warder [Soldier+Shaman] for the purpose of being unneccessarily tanky, just to see how that goes. Hoping it'll be fun and trying to go for retaliation damage.

I'm also considering a Blademaster [Soldier+Nightblade] for explicit purpose of doing Blitz and Shadow Strike to zip around to damage enemies. I have used both skills and they are rather similar... so I wanted to be capable of stringing both together in rapid succession.

As it is... I like melee classes in games like Diablo and... well, Torchlight II was a hunter or something with firearms. Still. I don't think I've cackled evilly so much as with my Reaper [Nightblade+Necromancer] because of just teleporting to the enemy then... no more enemy. XD That last one isn't a soldier. I guess though I was initially turned off from the suggestion that "soldier is a newb choice" and leaped right into more exotic builds or such that people have done... but maybe I'll have to give the soldier combinations a shot. I have so many Oathbreaker shields that I might just make a Soldier+Demolitionist.