Brigand (Hunting / Rogue) Build Guide

Guide to making a single target spear piercing build with the Brigand class

Introduction

Vlad, The Impaler
Mastery: Brigand (Hunting / Rogue)
Build: Single target spear piercing build


This is a build for a spear melee build that specializes in single target DPS. The general idea is to stack CDR to get Lethal Strike's cooldown considerably down and use it to mercilessly massacre bosses and clear single target enemies with extreme piercing damage. Spears are the clear weapon of choice for the Brigand. They work with Hunting skills, have excellent pierce ratio and, as they have the highest possible hit damage, synergize best with Lethal Strike.

While Atlantis is not required it does offer extra AOE options which is something the Brigand lacks otherwise.

• Extremely high potential single target DPS
  
• Fast boss killer
  
• Don't need to worry about enemy pierce resistances thanks to Study Prey debuff
  
• Excellent DA, OA buffs for easy crits
  
• Good auras in Envenom Weapon and Art of the Hunt
  
• Optional pet support with traps

• Lacking good AOE options outside of Atlantis skills
  
• CC abilities can be a little inconsistent
  
• Requires max CDR to shine
  
• No energy bonus from either mastery means base energy supply is extremely limited
  
• Auras eat up limited energy supply
  
• Need to be careful with enemies with reflection as you can easily 1-shot yourself with Lethal Strike otherwise

Run completed with the xMax (x3) mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=755731339

Required Skills

Takedown


Useful for charging ranged enemies or for a big blow. Eviscerate adds a meh bleed effect to attack. All you require is a single point in the base skill and synergy skill at most. Spear Brigand does not have good options for dealing with multiple ranged enemies so you definitely want this skill to get up close and personal with them quickly but extra points in the skill are a waste as you're just using the skill as a fast intercept.


Wood Lore


A fantastic passive that boosts your defensive ability and attack speed. Max it early.


Calculated Strike


Your primary spammable mouse attack. It boosts physical damage, goes through enemies and adds piercing damage. Every hit of the skill builds builds a charge; the skill requires 3 charges to be ready. When you have enough charges, the next attack activates skill, gets the bonuses, and consumes all of the charges. The Lucky Hit synergy skill has a chance to add physical damage, bleeding dot and pierce damage increase.

Max out the base skill. You can either max out Lucky Hit or just drop a point into it and boost with +skill if you want to use points elsewhere.


Blade Honing


Increases pierce ratio and gives some flat piercing damage. Higher pierce ratio means more of of your physical damage is converted to piercing damage. Should be maxxed eventually.


Art of the Hunt


Increases pierce damage and bleeding damage in general and adds a bit of extra damage to beasts and beastmen. The Find Cover synergy adds a large amount of projectile avoidance and only adds a little bit extra to the skill's energy reservation. The Trail Blazing synergy adds 100% Reduced Entrapment Duration and more movement speed with each extra point spent.

The base skill and Find Cover synergy should both be maxxed. Trail Blazing only requires one point for entrapment reduction, however, you can add more points if you want to reach movement speed cap and have spare points late. It's important to note that aura with all it's synergy skills reserves a rather large chunk of your limited energy. Trail Blazing takes up 50 energy by itself so you can try skipping it and using Tracker's Hood for it's entrapment reduction instead (unlike Trail Blazing it's not 100% but it's pretty close to it).


Call of the Hunt


The base skill provides an useful short term buff to damage, attack speed and big boost against beasts and beastmen. The Exploit Weakness synergy skill increases pierce and bleeding damage while the buff is active. Atlantis adds another synergy skill, Finesse, which adds a massive buff to your Offensive Ability.

The first two skills should be maxxed out completely eventually but only after you have your other priority skills and good CDR. With good CDR you can basically keep it up forever. The extra OA from Finesse can be a little bit of an overkill combined with Study Prey's DA debuff so you can leave it at 1 point until you've maxxed other important skills and max it out in late legendary.


Lethal Strike


The workhorse of the build, Lethal Strike delivers a single massive damage blow. It does insane physical and pierce damage. The Mortal Wound synergy skill adds a stun and adds a huge bonus to bleeding and poison damage.

The base skill should be maxxed early when you can. The Mortal Wound synergy should just be boosted with +skill items through imo, the initial upfront damage is likely going to kill 99% of enemies you use the skill on. CDR will help reduce the cooldown allowing it to be used more regularly. Special care needs to be taken when fighting enemies with reflection as you can potentially 1-shot yourself with it.


Study Prey


The best debuff in the game? Debuffs enemies in a small circle with large physical and pierce resistance letting your spear blows do more damage. The Flush Out synergy skill also reduces defensive ability, bleeding resistance and elemental resistances letting your bleeds and any elemental damage you might have on your weapon do more damage to the target. Absolutely max out and cast as often as you can.


Volley


Gives you a chance to do a triple attack. Absolutely max it out when you have free points.


Spear Dance


A 360 degree AOE ability added in Atlantis, Spear Dance has a mid sized cooldown (18s), applies a chance to to cause fear for a few seconds and inflict slower attack for 2s. On first point, Spear Dance does rather sub-par damage to each enemy (-20% Physical Damage hit). Once maxxed it does +40% Physical Damage instead and when comboed with Study Prey is effective at clearing packs of enemies. With good CDR you can cast it fairly frequently as well allowing you to actually use it against most packs.

The cooldown and low starting damage isn't the biggest drawback with Spear Dance, I'd say it's actually that while it's a 360 degree attack it has extremely limited range and will only hit enemies that are basically right on top of you.

I'd recommend maxxing it out if you have Atlantis through. Lethal Strike is great for murdering bosses but you're seriously lacking in good AOE options and Spear Dance can help clear out enemy packs as you work to the boss.

Optional Skills

Ensnare


Ensnare provides a CC to lock opponents in place and applies a DA debuff. You shouldn't have issues getting crits and can use Study Prey for DA debuff instead anyways. Won't help against casters or ranged enemies which are the biggest threats to you and you still need to run up to anything ensnared to kill anything them. Maybe if you have tons of skill up you can drop a point into it and just use to separate enemies to avoid getting swarmed. The Barbed Netting synergy skill adds a bit of bleeding damage to trapped enemies and is pretty useless when you can can just one shot most enemies.


Markmanship


Greatly increases projectile speed and adds piercing damage. The Puncture Shot Arrows synergy increases piercing and bleeding damage and adds a chance for arrows to pierce. The Scattershot synergy causes your attacks to fire fragments on impact that inflict bleeding damage with some pierce.

Possibly useful as alternative attack for regular packs of enemies if you don't have Atlantis. Switch to bow, use for it's superior AOE, then swap at bosses back to spear for the big single target lethal strike hits. Requires a lot of points to invest in through so you'd need to skimp elsewhere.


Herbal Remedy


A nice buff that gives a very sizable boost to your poison resistance and some additional health regeneration. While it's not absolutely required, it frees you from having to worry about getting poison resistance from gear and allows you to concentrate on other needs instead. Lasts a decent amount of time and can be recast whenever you have mana.


Throwing Knife


One of the most unique skill in the game. It carries over many unusual damage factors and effects:

• Uses Casting Rate rather than Attack Speed.
  
• Properties applied to Throwing Knife:
  
  • Armor, jewelery and artifact flat damage bonus
    
  • Armor and jewelery charms'/relics' effects
    
  • Any kind of percentage damage bonus from any source
    
  • Any on hit effect provided by armor, jewelery and artifact
• Properties NOT applied to Throwing Knife:
  
  • Any kind of flat weapon damage
    
  • Any kind of flat shield damage
    
  • Non-damage weapon properties
    
  • Non-damage shield properties

Throwing knife has a 10% chance to pass through Enemies, applies a 3s bleeding DOT and does piercing damage. At rank 1/12 the skill has a 6s recharge, at 12/12 it has 1.6s recharge and at 16/12 it has no recharge. The Flurry of Knives synergy turns Throwing Knife into a frontal conal aoe with 8 projectiles at 10/6.

Primarily used for spreading poison from Envenom Weapon. It provides an AOE option but you'd need casting speed to make it not clunky to use which you don't really need otherwise and you have terrible energy reserves so it will drain you fast.

For spreading poisons, one point buffed with +skill into the base skill and max synergy for a wide fan of knives is the way to go. Doesn't really fit into the build style through so I don't really recommend this skill but if it's an option if you don't have Atlantis I guess.


Disarm Traps


This passive will boost your damage inflicted on Constructs and Devices while also decreasing damage you take from them. Constructs and devices can normally be rather annoying to fight for a Rogue. With Study Prey, however, you can reduce their pierce resistance to make them easily susceptible to your attacks. You can still make use of the damage reduction through. A single point buffed with +skill is all you'd ever need.


Flash Powder


An useful AOE CC ability for your arsenal. Causes nearby enemies a Chance to Fumble attacks and inflicts Confusion. Not 100% reliable but good if you're getting mobbed and you don't really have any great alternative options. Worth putting at least a point into as a panic button I think.


Gouge


Gives you a chance to apply a bleed dot. It's kind of meh at the best of times. Does synergize with Rogue's Anatomy passive making dot a little better through I'd doubt it would have much use overall. Drop a single point into it at most and boost with +skill items if you want.


Monster Lure


Creates a dummy that is supposed to lure enemies to fight it. Personally don't really care for it too much and feel like it's a little wonky in practice. It doesn't really 'taunt' the enemies and they'll still go for you if you drop it. They will attack it if you flee and they lose aggro then chain onto the Lure. The Detonation skill makes it explode for damage when it dies and has full energy. If you like it as a distraction, you can invest in the base skill, Detonation is pretty bad through and should be avoided even then.


Open Wound


Gives you a chance to apply a bleeding DOT when using spear, bow, or throwing weapon. It's pretty meh at the best of times and you will kill most enemies quickly anyways. Max of one point only and buff with +skill.


Lay Trap


A stationary pet that does piercing damage. You can summon up to three of them. The Rapid Construction synergy reduces cooldown and energy cost. The Improved Firing Mechanism synergy increases the number of projectiles, chance to pass through enemies and pierce damage.

Provides a serviceable additional damage source for difficult fights. Even without pet boosting items they can do okay DPS when comboed with Study Prey. Lay Trap is kind of an 'all-in' skill; you either leave it empty or you need to max it out.


Poison Gas Bomb


Does poison damage and slows. The Shrapnel synergy adds bleeding and piercing damage. The Poison Mayhem synergy skill fires multiple bombs and applies a chance for fear and impaired aim.

Without Atlantis one the few AOE options available for spear brigand (through you don't have access to multiple bomb upgrade in this case). Probably need some casting speed and it's not a top skill option really imo.


Anatomy


Passive to boost your bleeding damage. More useful than Open Wound imo as Brigand has a lot of attacks triggering bleeding effects. You still probably only need a single point and +skill buff.


Blade Barrier


Interesting skill Atlantis exclusive skill. Summons a trio of stationary whirling blades that can transmit effects like a regular weapon. Good way to spread your poison to nearby enemies through I think Spear Dance is the better Atlantis AOE option.

Optional Skills (Part 2)

Envenom Weapon


Envenom Weapon gives your weapon a poison DOT. The Nightshade synergy boosts poison damage % and more importantly applies a slowing debuff. The Toxin Distillation synergy boosts Poison Damage % with Improved Duration %. The Mandrake synergy applies an excellent CC debuff causing fumble and confusion.

While I like this self buff, this is the one skill you can drop without much issues. If you do pick up this buff, it is often primarily used for the CC synergy skills, the base skill and Toxin Distillation synergy are generally fine with 1 point and with CC synergies maxxed.

Brigand has energy issues and you may not want to reserve energy for the skill or worry about it dropping whenever you run out of energy as it has an active energy cost per second and will drop whenever you run out of energy. The build is also designed around one shotting stuff and doesn't really spread poisons around easily or need CC when Spear Dance + Study Prey is capable of killing most basic enemies.

My Final Skill Trees

This is my final skill allocation. Invested in buffs and passives and keep Herbal Remedy, Blade Honing, Envenom Weapon, Art of the Hunt and Call of the Hunt up. I have +5 to Hunting, +4 to Rogue which lets me get to ultimate levels and power up passives with only one point invested in them.

For normal enemy packs, apply Study Prey + Spear Dance, sometimes use Blade Barrier if Dance didn't hit enough. Mix in Lethal Strike, Calculated Strike for killing survivors and stragglers and Takedown to chase down casters and ranged enemies. With maxxed CDR I tend to not use Calculated Strike too much actually as other abilities cooldown enough to use them instead.

For bosses, apply Study Prey + Lethal Strike. Most bosses will die in 1-2 Lethal Strikes.

Maxxed traps but don't use too much, mostly just on annoying enemies.

Stats

If you have Atlantis, the extra mastery points give you:

• Hunting mastery = +14 str, +20 dex, +280 health
  
• Rogue mastery = +14 str, +20 dex, +280 health

Health: You may want to pad your health pool a tad to make yourself a bit more tankier. You can toss some extra points here if you have enough Str / Dex for your gear requirements.

Energy: Neither mastery gives +energy and your auras will eat up your energy reserves through I still think it's best to just spend gold on potions, boost energy supply from gear or use energy reserve reduction gear.

Strength: Your secondary stat. Boosts your physical damage. You need enough to equip your gear and any weapons you want at least. If you want the best Str gear possible then you need ~650 but you don't need too much Str for most good Dex-req gear or spear and more points in Str will take away from points in Dex. You can boost your Str with items with the 'Hale' fix anyways.

Intellect: Not applicable

Dexterity: Your primary stat. It will boost your piercing, bleeding and poison damage. There's no easy +Dex% fix so you'll want to pump your attributes here and try to boost or Str via gear if possible.

Equipment

This is my final equipment loadout. Capped CDR so I can use Spear Dance and Lethal Strike often, enough skill to get to ultimate levels (+4 rogue, +5 hunting) and lots of +piercing damage bonuses and some energy bonuses and reduction to help with energy issues.

Using the Blacksteel Spike MI, the clear BIS spear for this build. Has a huge 40% pierce ratio and pierce damage. Mine comes with Devouring fix for health sustain and socketed with Valour of Achilles for faster attack speed and more physical damage. Chose Demios as shield for +1 skill, resist and good block.

Ismene's Cuirass comes with +pierce and got fix with resistances, socketed with Golden Fleece for lower energy costs and vitality resist. Stonebinder's Cuffs for the big +3 skill, socketed with Amum-Ra's Glory mostly to boost my energy reserve and get bleeding out of negative. Tracker's Hood is BIS helm, with lots of CDR and pierce damage. Trunks of Morgan are there to fill in some resistance holes.

Apollo's Will is BIS ring, lots of resists, pierce damage and stats. Using a Hale Ring as second ring for extra Str and health and so I can socket it with Demon's Blood to cover my vitality resists. Decided to go with Amber Necklace as it comes with CDR and +Hunting.

Talisman of the Jade Emperor is BIS artifact giving excellent buffs to elemental resistances, Strength and CDR.

Leveling

I started my character off as an Accomplished to skip the early game. If you're starting at level 1, I think you should start off with Rogue as your first mastery as you can use Calculated Strike as a spammable attack for your spear and use Envenom Weapon early game to add some damage.

At level 2, drop one point into the mastery to unlock it and grab Calculated Strike and Envenom Weapon. Grab Blade Honing next level and start working up the mastery. Grab Nightshade and Flash Powder. Mostly just working your way up to unlock Lethal Strike, you can ignore many of the other passives on the way up until you can get some +skill for the time being.

At level 8, you can unlock Hunting and drop a point into Takedown to help counter ranged. Also could be nice to max out Wood Lore for the nice DA buff. Once you've unlocked Lethal Strike it's time to start pumping up Hunting mastery in earnest. Grab Herbal Remedy and Art of the Hunt as you work your way up to Study Prey.

Once you've gotten Study Prey you should be doing some nice big hits with Lethal Strike against bosses. Spear Dance is at the end of the mastery tree but is a good pickup for dealing with crowds. Dropping points into Call of the Hunt, Volley and synergy skills is also a good idea.

With your mastery largely invested in you can start maxxing out your best skills. Concentrate on skills you use the most or always active.

Q&A

If you have any queries about the build leave a comment and I will respond when I have time.

[Amir]

This guide got me through the game. Much thanks

[chris.ferrantegerard]

@JewelryStar Thanks for feedback, decided to move Envenom Weapon to optional section and better clarified that it is self only. For Energy, I still think it's kind of a waste to put points there. I usually put spare points into Health instead as no health is a bigger deal to me than no energy. Energy crunch is real for Brigand through so if don't have fixes on your gear to deal with it than indeed you should probably put a few points into it. As for Monster Lure, I don't know, if enemies see me and then I drop the lure it doesn't seem to work too well. Only really works well if the enemies see it first and aggro on to it. Just feels kind of clunky to me sadly. No kill like overkill for Finesse but I've added the caveat that it shouldn't be maxxed until late Legendary when you've maxxed important skills first.

[JewelryStar]

/trxhuy
- Envenom Weapon is not aura skill.
- You can put some attribute points into Energy to solved energy problem. It just reduced your dmg a very little bit.
- I don't think you need CC from Mandrake if you using spear, Flash Bomb and Poison Gas Bomb skill tree is better for that purpose. Spear Brigand has enough dmg to killed (common) enemies under Study Preys effect in single Spear Dance hit.
- Monster Lure will works if you don't attack enemies first, let ML's dummies provoke enemies then you can attack them.
- As a Spear Brigand buidl focus on Dexterity, you don't need that much skill points invest to Finese skill since you already have lot of OA and debuff DA from Flush Out skill.