Neidan Class Guides: Esoterist, Contemplator and Disruptor

[Elriadon]

So, I wrote three short guides for three classes that utilize the new mastery, Esoterist (Rune/Neidan), Contemplator (Dream/Neidan) and Disruptor (Rogue/Neidan). I've decided to post them here first in case someone has any suggestions/feedback on these builds or I missed something.

Anyway, here they are:


Esoterist - (Rune/Neidan)

Ranged build that dual-wields throwing weapons. Deals great amounts of elemental damage and has good survivability.

Pros:

- Great damage at range.

- Good survivability.

- Great AoE damage capabilities.

- Basically endless energy.


Cons:

- Somewhat gear dependant.

- Takes a while for this build to get good.

- Requires usage of a large number of different active skills.

- Skill point intensive.


Rune Mastery Skills

Rune Weapon (Max) + Magical Charge (1 pt or Max eventually) + Energy Drain (Max eventually)

Your LMB skill and one of the most important skills for this build. Each use of this skill builds up charges that increase your Elemental Damage and Intelligence and thus buff all of your other skills. In conclusion, you want to attack fast and often to generate charges and keep them active.

Magical Charge adds some elemental damage to your attacks and also some elemental retaliation. Energy Drain leeches energy from enemies you attack, restoring your own. It also converts some of the damage you deal to Health and debuffs the enemy movement speed and Offensive Ability. This is the more important one of the two Rune Weapon upgrades.

Definitely max out the base skill. When putting points in its upgrades, prioritize Energy Drain over Magical Charge. You might choose to avoid upgrading Magical Charge entirely, as while it adds some Elemental damage to your attacks, it's not much and the Elemental Retaliation isn't very useful.


Runeword: Feather (Put points in as needed)

This increases your Offensive Ability (useless since you are ranged), but most importantly reduces the Strength requirement for all weapons, which should allow you to equip all throwing weapons without investing any points in Strength. You don't need to max it out all at once, simply put as many points in this skill as are needed to allow you to equip the best weapons you have access to. Gear with +Rune skills will reduce the Strength requirements for items even further in case it's needed.


Transmutation (Max++)

Converts a portion of the damage your weapons deal to elemental damage. Along with Rune Weapon, this skill is a cornerstone of this build. It synergizes greatly with your other abilities. Max it out as soon as possible and also seek out +Rune skills gear, so that you can increase this skill to level 10 (99% of weapon damage converted to elemental).


Reckless Offense (Max)

Allows you to dual wield weapons (this includes throwing weapons) and also gives a chance to double your attack damage when dual wielding. Max this out as soon as possible.


Thunder Strike (Max) + Unleash (Max)

Your RMB skill, launches a flurry of projectiles in an arc in front of you that have a chance to pierce through enemies. Unleash adds some AoE Burn DOT to the projectiles and a chance to Confuse enemies. The amount of projectiles from this skill is doubled if you are dual-wielding, which you are! Max this and its upgrade Unleash.


Seal of Fate (1 pt) + Aftershock (Max)

Seal of Fate is somewhat underwhelming in its basic form. It's somewhat hard to use as the damage effect triggers a few seconds after activation. Aftershock transforms it into a great debuff skill that reduces enemy resistances and makes this skill worth it. It takes some amount of setup to hit enemies with it, but it's definitely worthwhile against strong enemies.


Rune of Life (1 pt)

Lasts for 10 minutes, buffs your Movement Speed (Good) and Strength (Useless) and also some resistances. Simply put one point in it for the +10% Movement Speed and recast it every time the duration ends. You don't really need more points in this.


Runeword: Explode (Max eventually) + Runeword: Burn (1 pt or Max eventually)

This skill gives a chance for your projectiles to deal some additional AoE damage which is split between Physical and Fire and also applies a short stun to everything in the same area. Runeword: Burn adds a secondary effect when the base skill triggers. Several burning embers will appear at the location where the projectile hit that travel outwards for a medium distance. They apply a Burn DOT to any enemy they pass through.

These skills add some chance for additional AoE damage on your attacks, but it's not a priority. Just put in some free points whenever you have some. Runeword: Burn in particular may be left with just one point for +skill equip to take effect if you are short on skill points.


Sacred Rage (1 pt) + Frightening Power (1 pt)

When you are put under 40% Health, you gain a decent buff that lasts while you remain under 40% Health and for 10 seconds after that. Frightening Power adds an AoE fear and debuff to nearby enemies when it triggers. The base effects are good enough already for the rare occassion they trigger. Put 1 point in each for +skill equip to take effect, more isn't really worth it.


Optional:

Menhir Wall

Summons a wall of menhirs in the chosen location for 10 seconds. You and your allies can still walk through the wall normally, however enemies are blocked and any enemy that passes near it will attack the closest menhir, unless you are right next to them. The menhirs also block enemy ranged attacks. This is a great skill for ranged builds. The only thing further improved by the skill ranks is the Health of the individual menhirs, so it's quite effective even with just a few points invested in it. If you decide to get this skill, you may use it when Smoke Cloud is on cooldown or instead of it, your choice.


Runic Mines + Freezing Mines + Rune Field

The base skill spawns a few runic mines in a circle around you, they deal elemental damage to enemies that walk over them. Freezing mines adds a Frostburn DOT damage to the mines, a Slow effect and a chance to Freeze enemies. Rune Field increases the duration of the mines and also spawns additional mines. Basically the entire screen is filled with runic mines when this skill is maxed out.

This skill is great, however, it needs a large investment of skill points to get the most out of it, points you might be able to put to a better use elsewhere. Consider carefully if you really need this skill. Either max it out or skip it.


Neidan Mastery Skills

Inner Equilibrum (Max)

Gives you a ridiculous boost to Movement Speed, Attack Speed and Casting Speed so long as you aren't under the effects of a Health or Energy Potion. In practice, after you use a Health or Energy potion, you get a debuff for a few seconds that deactivates this skill. After that, it comes back at full strength, so you should have it up 90% of the time. Max it out as soon as possible!


Aura of Tranquility (Max) + Melding Armor (Max)

Aura of Tranquility gives you great Damage Absorption and additional resistances. Melded Armor gives you additional chance to avoid damage and most also some Damage Reflection. This skill is obviously great. It's somewhat energy intensive to maintain, but with your great Intelligence stat and Energy Drain from Rune Weapon, you really shouldn't have any energy problems. And you can always use an Energy Potion if needed.


Consequences (Max) + Mutual Suffering (Max eventually)

Your attacks have a chance to reduce the resistances of any enemy you attack. This stacks with other sources of Resistance Reduction like Aftershock or Weakest Chakra. Mutual suffering adds a chance to spread the debuff to additional nearby enemies when an affected enemy dies. This will significantly boost your damage, so max it out. Both Shen Pao and Unleash can spread this debuff.


Smoke Cloud (Max)

This skill will summon a cloud of smoke at the target area for a few seconds. Enemies inside the cloud have an 80% chance to be immobilized or stunned for 1 second and this effect applies itself repeatedly, so long as they remain inside the cloud. This skill is great, especially for a ranged build, but really needs to be maxed out to reach its potential.

It's somewhat RNG dependant and also has a rather long cooldown, but it can shut down a large group of enemies for up to 5 seconds. You can use Menhir Wall in addition to this skill. Or instead of it if you prefer that one.


Shen Pao (Max) + Echoes of the Ancestors (Max eventually)

Throws a grenade that bounces on the ground a few times, then explodes. If it collides with an enemy, it explodes instantly. It can transmit weapon effects (including Weakest Chakra and Consequences debuffs) and deals good damage.

Echoes of the Ancestors adds another effect. If an enemy dies to this skill, you have a 33% chance to deal elemental damage to nearby enemies in a rather large area. You are a ranged character, but you should still end up surrounded by enemies most of the time. Still, it only has a chance to trigger if an enemy dies to this specific skill, so make sure to soften them up first with the use of another skill.

This is a low cooldown AoE skill you will use after Unleash from Rune mastery. It's a great way to spread debuffs from weapons and skills, like Weakest Chakra and Consequences.


Weakest Chakra (Max eventually)

The way this powerful skill works is that it gives you a buff that enhances your attacks. Those will deal additional Vitality damage, reduce enemy damage and resistances for a short while and also petrify enemies for fraction of a second. It affects all allies in its radius, including any summons you might have like Terracotta Servants. Both Shen Pao and Unleash spread this effect among any enemies they hit.

As it has a long Cooldown and a rather low duration, use it mostly against large groups of powerful enemies and during boss fights. This skill great benefits from Recharge Reduction gear.


Convergence (1 pt or Max eventually)

Gives you a chance to gain the effects of one random rare potion for 30 seconds after using a Health or Energy potion. It's nice, but also entirely random what you are gonna get. Still, it's bound to be atleast somewhat useful no matter the effect. Put atleast 1 point here for +skill equip. You can put more points here later if you want.


Potent Elixir (1 pt)

Honestly, the effect is kinda meh. Also, you can only have one instance of this effect on at one time, so you can't just drink both Health and Energy potions at once to double it. Put 1 point here just so it's affected by +skill equip and then forget about it.


Optional:

Terracotta Servants + Shatter + Forged By Fire

Terracotta Servants are permanent pets that fight for you until you either unsummon them or they run out of health. You will be able to summon a second one after rank 10 in the skill. There doesn't seem to be a way to get a third one even with 18 points in the skill through gear.

If you do decide to invest in this skill, max out the Forged By Fire upgrade to turn your servants into walking AoE fire damage. Raise the base skill to atleast rank 10 to get a second servant to double the aura damage. Your summons will be more useful to you alive, Shatter isn't really a priority.


Attributes:

1 Intelligence, 1 Dexterity during each level up. Do it until you have over 440 Dexterity (should be enough for most item requirements), then just go all in on Intelligence unless you find out you need more Dexterity for item requirements.

Intelligence is your primary attribute. This build relies entirely on Elemental Damage, which is boosted by Intelligence. Most Rune and Neidan skills also benefit greatly from Intelligence.

Dexterity gives Defensive Ability (so you will be crit less often), but most importantly serves as a requirement to equip certain items and throwing weapons, which is why you want it at all. Once you get enough to equip anything you want, you don't need any more points in this attribute. Since are using ranged weapons you don't care about Offensive Ability.

Strength is entirely unneeded. Rune Word: Feather allows you to equip basically any Throwing Weapon without investing any points in Strength, especially if you get +skill equipment to boost the effect even further. And the Transmutation skill will convert any Physical Damage your weapons deal to Elemental, which is boosted by Intelligence.

Energy is also unneeded, while this build is somewhat Energy intensive, you will have more than enough Energy just from your Mastery points and Energy Drain. And if you need more just use a potion.

Health is also not needed, you should have enough without spending any points in it.


Gear

Use two throwing weapons, preferably with very fast attack speed.

Aside from this, the following gear stats will be the most useful for this build:

+4 Rune/All skills to get Transmutation to max. Very important.

+Intelligence%: In order to further boost your damage.

Attack Damage% to Health: This will further improve your survivability.

Total Speed: Movement, Attack and Cast speed.

Recharge Reduction: So that you can use Weakest Chakra, Smoke Cloud, Unleash, Shen Pao and Seal of Fate more often.

[Elriadon]

Contemplator - (Neidan/Dream)

Melee build that focuses on Damage Reflection and survivability.

Pros:

- Great survivability.

- Simple to play.

- Enemies literally fall on their own.

- Doesn't need many skill points.


Cons:

- Needs good gear to truly shine.

- Maintaining Aura of Tranquility is very Energy consuming.

- More of a passive playstyle, might be boring to some.


Neidan Mastery Skills:

Consequences (Max) + Mutual Suffering (Max eventually)

Your attacks have a chance to reduce the resistances of any enemy you attack. This stacks with other sources of Resistance Reduction. Mutual suffering adds a chance to spread the debuff to additional nearby enemies when an affected enemy dies. This will boost all of your damage by a sizeable amount. Max out the base skill, the Mutual Suffering upgrade is less of a priority once you have Spreading Influence.


Huangdi's Favor (1 pt or Max eventually) + Spreading Influence (Max)

Your LMB skill, used mainly to spread the Consequences debuff to multiple enemies and overall soften up targets so they die from Damage Reflect or the aura of your Terracotta Servants. It's enough to put just 1 point in the base skill, but max out the Spreading Influence upgrade.


Aura of Tranquility (Max) + Melded Armor (Max)

Aura of Tranquility gives you great Damage Absorption and additional resistances. Melded Armor gives you additional chance to avoid damage and most importantly Damage Reflection. This skill is obviously great. However, it's somewhat energy intensive to maintain, so stock up on Energy Potions. Max it out as soon as you can!


Inner Equilibrum (Max)

Gives you a ridiculous boost to Movement Speed, Attack Speed and Casting Speed so long as you aren't under the effects of a Health or Energy Potion. In practice, after you use a Health or Energy potion, you get a debuff for a few seconds that deactivates this skill. After that, it comes back at full strength, so you should have it up 90% of the time. Max it out!


Weakest Chakra (Max)

The way this powerful skill works is that it gives you a buff that enhances your attacks. Those will deal additional Vitality damage, reduce enemy damage and resistances for a short while and also petrify enemies for fraction of a second. It affects all allies in its radius, including any summons you might have like your Terracotta Servants. You will be able to affect multiple enemies at once with it by using Huangdi's Favor and Phantom Strike.


Terracotta Servants (10 pts or Max eventually) + Shatter (1 pt) + Forged By Fire (Max)

Terracotta Servants are permanent pets that fight for you until you either unsummon them or they run out of health. You will be able to summon a second one after rank 10 in the skill. There doesn't seem to be a way to get a third one even with 18 points in the skill through gear.

Max out the Forged By Fire upgrade to turn your servants into walking AoE fire damage, it will turn your summons into a great tool to soften up enemies for your Reflect damage. Raise the base skill to atleast rank 10 to get a second servant to double the aura damage and optionally max it out later. Your summons will be more useful to you alive, Shatter isn't really a priority.


Convergence (Max eventually)

Gives you a chance to gain the effects of one random rare potion for 30 seconds after using a Health or Energy potion. It's nice, but also entirely random what you are gonna get. Still, it's bound to be atleast somewhat useful no matter the effect. Put atleast 1 point here for +skill equip and eventually max it out.


Potent Potion (1 pt)

Honestly, the effect is kinda meh. Also, you can only have one instance of this effect on at one time, so you can't just drink both Health and Energy potions at once to double it. Put 1 point here just so it's affected by +skill equip and then forget about it.


Dream Mastery Skills:

Trance of Empathy (Max)

Lets you heal by dealing damage and most importantly is the greatest source of Damage Reflect among your skills. Essential for this build.


Phantom Strike (Max eventually) + Dream Stealer (Max)

Your RMB skill, deals great damage, provides some mobility and with the Dream Stealer upgrade also refills your energy bar and stuns enemies. Max out Dream Stealer before the base skill as it will provide a more significant benefit.


Lucid Dream (Max) + Premonition (Max) + Temporal Flux (Max)

A great set of passives to boost both your offensive and defensive abilities. Temporal Flux is the priority here for the Projectile Avoidance and Speed boosts, but you should max out all of them eventually.


Distortion Field (1 pt)

Passive chance to trigger a Damage Absorption effect for 15 seconds. However, the chance to trigger this is only 5% no matter the skill rank, so you can't really rely on this. Put 1 point here for +skill equip.


Optional:

Distort Reality + Temporal Rift

If you ever feel overwhelmed by hordes of enemies, this skill will give you time to recover. One point is fine for that purpose.


Trance of Convalescence

Just like Trance of Wrath, Trance of Convalescence stacks nicely with Aura of Tranquility, this time providing great survivability. However, you can't use this and Trance of Empathy at the same time. If you are fighting a boss where the additional survivability will be more useful than the Damage Reflect from Trance of Empathy, simply just respec to this skill and back.


Attributes:

1 point in Strength, 1 point in Dexterity at each level up. Occasionally, you can put 1 point into Health instead of Strength or Dexterity.

After you get enough Strength to equip the legendary version of Icescale Armor (about 640), you can abandon Strength and invest primarily in Dexterity if you want to use a Spear instead of a Sword/Axe/Mace. Or put more points in Health if you want to be more durable and rely mostly on damage from Reflect. Or keep raising Stregth, your choice.

Don't put any points in Intelligence and Energy.


Gear:

Use any kind of melee weapon with a shield in the off-hand. Preferably one with a fast attack speed to spread Consequences faster with Spreading Influence.

The Icescale monster infrequent set if the best choice for this build. It contains an Armor, Guards, Bracers and Helm. Each piece of the set gives you 15% chance to reflect 500% damage (at legendary) back to its source among its other stats, which is obviously fantastic for this build. You can farm it from Fjord Ichthians in Act 5, located in Kaupangr Outskirts and Ichthian Fjord.

Aside from this, the following gear stats will be the most useful for this build:

Damage Reflection

Chance to Dodge Attacks/Avoid Projectiles

Resistances

+Health%

+Skill equip (particularly to boost Trance of Empathy/Aura of Tranquility)

Recharge Reduction, so that you are able to use Weakest Chakra and Phantom Strike more often.


Additional notes:

Energy Regeneration is optional in case you struggle to maintain Aura of Tranquility.

Damage Retaliation only applies to melee attacks from enemies with a set amount of damage, so it's nowhere near as useful as Damage Reflection.

[Elriadon]

Disruptor - (Rogue/Neidan)

Ranged build focusing on Poison/Bleed damage.

Pros:

- Great survivability.

- Good AoE damage.


Cons:

- Very energy intensive.

- Somewhat weak against the undead.



Rogue Mastery Skills:

Envenom Weapon (Max) + Nightshade (Max) + Toxin Distillation (Max) + Mandrake (Max)

Your first buff, grants your attacks a great Poison DOT. Max out the base skill as well as all of its upgrades. It will provide the bulk of your damage as well as some debuffs.


Poison Gas Bomb (Max) + Shrapnel (1 pt or Max eventually) + Poison Mayhem (Max)

Your primary source of AoE damage. Uses casting speed, which you have more than enough of from Inner Equilibrum. Poison Mayhem turns this skill into a good AoE, Shrapnel adds some Bleed damage. Max out both the base skill and the Poison Mayhem upgrade, it's up to you if you want to max out the Shrapnel upgrade skill as well or not.


Lay Trap (Max) + Rapid Construction (Max) + Improved Firing Mechanism (Max)

A good source of AoE damage. Put it down in the middle of a large enemy group and watch the carnage. Benefits from Weakest Chakra, so it can stunlock enemies with Petrification and debuff them. You can summon up to 3 of these at once. Benefits from Pet boosting items, with some gear that adds Elemental damage to pets, you can turn this into an efficient way to clear out packs of undead. You really need to max out all of the upgrades and the base skill to get the most out of it.


Open Wound (1 pt)

Gives a chance for your attacks to inflict a Bleed DOT. It's not terrible, but there are better skills to raise. Put 1 point here for +skill equip.


Anatomy (1 pt)

Boosts Bleed damage. Put 1 point in it for +skill equip, that's all you need.


Disarm Traps (1 pt)

Constructs and Devices are highly resistant to Pierce, Poison and Bleed, so this will help you somewhat against them. Won't help you against undead though. Still, with Consequences and Weakest Chakra you can fight Constructs and Devices decently enough anyway, so it can be left at 1 point and boosted through +skill gear.


Blade Honing (1 pt)

The second buff you can have, increases the Piercing Damage Ratio of your weapon. Weapons with higher Pierce ratio gain greater benefit from this skill. Doesn't work with bows, but does work with Throwing weapons. Most of your damage will come from DOTs, but still, put one point in it for +skill items to boost it and keep it active.


Optional:

Blade Barrier

This skill summons three stationary whirling traps around you that damage any enemy that walks through them at a rapid pace. The damage itself is mediocre and not really worth it. What makes this skill worth it however is that it applies any On Attack effects to the enemy each time it damages them.

This can be used in combination with the Neidan skill Weakest Chakra to stunlock enemies with Petrification. Especially potent if you have a high enough Recharge Reduction to have Weakest Chakra always available. But this is something you need some Recharge Reduction gear for.



Neidan Mastery Skills:

Huangdi's Favor (1 pt) + Spreading Influence (Max)

Your LMB skill, has a chance to Petrify enemies for a very short time. The upgrade Spreading Influence adds AoE damage to the skill, which allows you to spread your Poison/Bleed DOTs among all enemies in addition to the Consequences debuff and any special effects from your weapons. The base skill only really needs one point, the upgrade Spreading Influence that adds AoE to the skill is the truly important skill to put skill points in.


Consequences (Max) + Shared Suffering (Max eventually)

Your attacks have a chance to reduce the resistances of any enemy you attack. This stacks with other sources of Resistance Reduction. Mutual suffering adds a chance to spread the debuff to additional nearby enemies when an affected enemy dies. This will boost all of your damage by a sizeable amount. Max out the base skill, the Mutual Suffering upgrade is less of a priority.


Inner Equilibrum (Max)

Gives you a riduculous boost to Movement Speed, Attack Speed and Casting Speed so long as you aren't under the effects of a Health or Energy Potion. In practice, after you use a Health or Energy potion, you get a debuff for a few seconds that deactivates this skill. After that, it comes back at full strength, so you should have it up 90% of the time. The Cast Speed in particular benefits both the Smoke Cloud and Poison Gas Bomb skills. Max it out!


Aura of Tranquility (Max) + Melded Armor (Max eventually)

Aura of Tranquility gives you great Damage Absorption and additional resistances. Melded Armor gives you additional chance to avoid damage and also some Damage Reflection. This skill is obviously great. However, it's very energy intensive to maintain, so stock up on Energy Potions. Max out the base skill as soon as you can, Melded Armor can wait a bit.


Weakest Chakra (Max eventually)

The way this powerful skill works is that it gives you a buff that enhances your attacks. Those will deal additional Vitality damage, reduce enemy damage and resistances for a short while and also petrify enemies for fraction of a second. It affects all allies in its radius, including any summons you might have like your Traps and Terracotta Servants. Greatly benefits from Recharge Reduction gear. You will be able to affect multiple enemies at once with it by using Huangdi's Favor and Poison Gas Bomb.


Smoke Cloud (Max)

This skill will summon a cloud of smoke at the target area for a few seconds. Enemies inside the cloud have an 80% chance to be immobilized or stunned for 1 second and this effect applies itself repeatedly, so long as they remain inside the cloud. This skill is great, especially for a ranged build, but really needs to be maxed out to reach its potential. It's somewhat RNG dependant and also has a rather long cooldown, but it can shut down a large group of enemies for as long as it lasts.


Potent Potion (Max eventually)

Significantly boosts your Energy Regeneration rate after using a Health or Energy Potion among other things. Since this build is very energy dependent, this can help with that.


Convergence (1 pt or Max eventually)

Gives you a chance to gain the effects of one random rare potion for 30 seconds after using a Health or Energy potion. It's nice, but also entirely random what you are gonna get. Still, it's bound to be atleast somewhat useful no matter the effect. Put atleast 1 point here for +skill equip, you can eventually max it out if you have skill points to spare.


Optional:

Terracotta Servant + Shatter + Forged By Fire

Terracotta Servants are permanent pets that fight for you until you either unsummon them or they run out of health. You will be able to summon a second one after rank 10 in the skill. There doesn't seem to be a way to get a third one even with 18 points in the skill through gear. They serve primarily as a useful distraction to draw the attacks of enemies.

If you want to get this skill, there's two options. For the first one, you can put 10 points in it to gain the ability to summon 2 Terracotta Servants and then max out Forged By Fire. This way, they do constant AoE Fire damage to anything nearby, which is especially useful against the undead and anything else resistant to your DOTs.

Alternatively put 1 point in the base skill and max out the Shatter skill. Whenever you want to, you can summon another Terracotta Servant to instantly trigger the Shatter effect on the previous one and use it as sort of a at-will AoE stun.


Attributes:

1 point in Dexterity, 1 Point in Strength during each level up. You may abandon Strength entirely in favor of Dexterity once you get it over 640 and thus are able to meet any Strength requirements for any items you might need.

Dexterity: Boosts Piercing, Poison and Bleed damage in addition to increasing your Offensive and Defensive ability, so it's your most important stat.

Strength: Your secondary stat, primarily raised to be able to equip better gear. Around 640 should be enough.

Intelligence: While energy regeneration is useful for this build, get it from gear instead.

Energy: While this build is very energy intensive, you are better off getting it from gear rather than investing attribute points in Energy.

Health: Your survivability will be good enough without any points in Health.


Gear:

Use a throwing weapon with a shield in the off-hand. This way you can spread your DOTs from a distance without a chance to miss due to low OA score.

Aside from this, the following gear stats will be the most useful for this build:

Recharge Reduction, to use skills more often, especially Weakest Chakra, Smoke Cloud and Poison Gas Bomb.

+Energy and Energy Regeneration: This build is rather energy intensive, mainly due to Aura of Tranquility. Either stock up on energy potions or get some Energy and Energy Regeneration from gear.

Energy Cost Reduction: Won't help maintain Aura of Tranquility, but helps with the active skills.

+Rogue/All skills gear.

Poison/Bleed damage on hit.

+Pierce/Poison/Bleed damage increase.

Life Leech.

+Dexterity%

+Attack Speed or Total Speed

[SilentMeteor]

You are on the wrong track for Disruptor.
You already mentioned that your aoe damage comes from Poison Bomb/Throwing Knives, and you also noticed that you need poison/bleed damage on hit. So why on earth do you still use Calculated Strike and MELEE weapon as LMB in the first place? All the set up comes from the fact you can't use LMB to do aoe damage, so why not just use Huangdi's Favor and use thrown weapon instead of melee so all problem would be solved? Top 2 poison weapons also happen to be thrown weapon: Gorgon's Edge and Winds of Asphodel, which would also release you from OA.
Furthermore, you missed two important parts: life leech, and damage against Undead. The combination is already not squishy, but that's not enough. Check out "life leech over 3 seconds" instead of ATDtH. It's not useful paired with direct damage, but extremely powerful with dot builds. You mentioned your build is weak against Undead, but you didn't mention how to deal with them. From what I can see, it seems you choose to kill them via pierce damage and resistance reduction. It's feasible, technically, but not fast and safe enough. Rogue mastery itself already provide the solution: Trap with elemental damage pet affix.

To be more specific, from my experience in multiple Rogue dot builds, I found several BiS items which is not mentioned enough.
The Ruby Eyes, arm armor from Epic Atlantis. Good damage, life leech and resistance.
Wraithlord's/Allfather‘s (elemental damage) ring*2, with Incarnation of Serket's Touch (life leech completion bonus)
With the gear said above, you can make any dot based Rogue builds as you wish. They provides a general solution to damage, survivability and solution against immune.

[Wagi]

Hey o/

If you wish, we have a dedicated section for build/characters on the official Discord server [discord.gg]. The community is very active there.

THQ Nordic Moderator

Wagi

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by SilentMeteor:

You are on the wrong track for Disruptor.
You already mentioned that your aoe damage comes from Poison Bomb/Throwing Knives, and you also noticed that you need poison/bleed damage on hit. So why on earth do you still use Calculated Strike and MELEE weapon as LMB in the first place? All the set up comes from the fact you can't use LMB to do aoe damage, so why not just use Huangdi's Favor and use thrown weapon instead of melee so all problem would be solved? Top 2 poison weapons also happen to be thrown weapon: Gorgon's Edge and Winds of Asphodel, which would also release you from OA.
Furthermore, you missed two important parts: life leech, and damage against Undead. The combination is already not squishy, but that's not enough. Check out "life leech over 3 seconds" instead of ATDtH. It's not useful paired with direct damage, but extremely powerful with dot builds. You mentioned your build is weak against Undead, but you didn't mention how to deal with them. From what I can see, it seems you choose to kill them via pierce damage and resistance reduction. It's feasible, technically, but not fast and safe enough. Rogue mastery itself already provide the solution: Trap with elemental damage pet affix.

To be more specific, from my experience in multiple Rogue dot builds, I found several BiS items which is not mentioned enough.
The Ruby Eyes, arm armor from Epic Atlantis. Good damage, life leech and resistance.
Wraithlord's/Allfather‘s (elemental damage) ring*2, with Incarnation of Serket's Touch (life leech completion bonus)
With the gear said above, you can make any dot based Rogue builds as you wish. They provides a general solution to damage, survivability and solution against immune.

Thanks for your comments on the Disruptor build! You are right! I admit, I didn't really refine that one as much as the other two, I wasn't sure that Huangdi's favor proc spreads DOTs too at first and learned it shortly after posting the build. You are right, it's the perfect skill for this build! Also, I originally tried to make this as a single-target damage build, I only realized how great Disruptor is with DOTs later.

As for the undead, Consequences with piercing damage worked, I also used 2 Terracotta Servants with Forged By Fire and some gear that adds elemental damage. I also tested pet elemental damage gear for Lay Trap and it works great, thanks for the gearing tip as well!

I'll update the build soon!

[nowhere man]

It would be great if we could see these builds in action! Do you have any vids for them?

[Elriadon]

The Disruptor build has been completely overhauled!

Originally posted by nowhere man:

It would be great if we could see these builds in action! Do you have any vids for them?

Unfortunately no, but you can try them out yourself by making an Accomplished/Legendary Hero.

[lodewycke]

If I wanted to make a melee Contemplator that focused on damage absorption and not reflect (Trance of Convalescence instead of Empathy) would you recommend Huangdi's Favor or Psionic Touch/Beam for the LMB? Any other major changes? Would the Attributes remain the same?

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by lodewycke:

If I wanted to make a melee Contemplator that focused on damage absorption and not reflect (Trance of Convalescence instead of Empathy) would you recommend Huangdi's Favor or Psionic Touch/Beam for the LMB? Any other major changes? Would the Attributes remain the same?

Huangi's Favor works great with Consequences, especially in combination with Phantom Strike, where you first debuff enemies with Huangdi's Favor and then delete the debuffed enemies with Phantom Strike. So I'd recommend that.

Other than that, I guess the Terracotta Warriors get less important with that build, but they are still useful. Distort Reality gets more useful since you don't need enemies to attack you to deal damage, so get it and max out the Temporal Rift upgrade.

Attribute-wise, it would be the same, except you can get away with having less Health if you have Trance of Convalescence on. Probably don't need to put anything in Health and just focus on Strength and Dexterity for gear requirements.

Also, since you aren't using Trance of Empathy, then Attack Damage% to Health gear will be important for you as that's one of the best ways to improve survivability through gear.

[Solar_Honie]

Neidan + Warfare = should not be Daoist, but Wutang. Wutang studied and developed from the doctrines of Daoism. Daoism is all theoretical and Wutang Pai is a famous school of kungfu practices based on Daoism's theories.