Return of Reckoning

G'day all.

I'm getting to a good point with my Witch Hunter and would like to experiment a tad with some perhaps "unusual" builds, the quoutation marks there are to indicate not a simple, Dragon Gun or BaL build, but options that are a bit different in focus.

For instance, I've heard people talking about an old Absolution spamming build, but I've not really been able to find anything on it on the forums. I've also heard people talking about an Auto-Attack focused build etc.

I've played both DG and BaL and I like them for their own little caveats, however, I'm very open to experimentation especially given I'm Australian, as a result, netcode + ping means that landing pistol whips and BaLs can be quite difficult. Yet, I find DG doesn't quite have enough 'oompf' for me.

I don't expect 'War and Peace' responses, but if you have played around with something fun I could check out, I would do so gladly and would like to post my "review" of said build after some trials.

Thanks in advance, I appreciate any and all attention/time on this posting.

Abso spam build:

https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8121,8128

You use whatever ability to build at least 1 accusation, then use Absolution, in 50% of uses it will build 2 accusations cause of the tactic, so you use Absolution again, when out of accusations again 1 whatever then back to Absolution.

Each Absolution triggers Bullet, which on top of doing nice extra proc dmg also heals you. Each Absolution also gives you +25% armor pen for next 3 sec, so enough for the next ability.

Got hit with several nerfs, compared to old times:

1. There is some change with how accusations are shown, resulting in them not being shown correctly.
2. Back in the day it was +50% armor pen, got nerfed to +25%.
3. From what I remember in the past Bullets with tactic healed for 150%, now its down to 100%.
4. Gcd change from 1.2 sec to 1.5 sec means that BB tactic only lets you use 1 ability benefiting from armor pen (1.5 gcd from Absolution + 1.5 gcd from next ability), instead of 2.

My guide has a lot of different builds for different purposes with explanations on each such as standard DG/BAL/EW and variants for most like DG Abso spam or BAL PtF.

I'm not sure what you consider to be unusual or what content/group size you are playing so it is hard to recommend exact builds. Regarding autoattack builds, outside of the sov/tri cloak/glove swap for 10% extra AA and/or playing with the 50% AA tactic as a middle tree build, I wouldn't recommend going further. There's a really troll-y build using warlord/tri/sov mix but you lose a massive amount of important stats (6-7% crit, ~2000 wounds, 15% crit strike damage, potentially tri ring proc, etc.) for a mediocre amount of attack speed (15%) and some melee power (99).

Playing with high ping on a positional class makes most all builds a lot harder since you are relying on being behind your target to do optimal damage/guarantee ability usage no matter your build.

Theoretically if you want to spec aa you can use pve unlock 2 part jewelry:

https://wiki.returnofreckoning.com/Witc ... stones_Set

For another +15% aa haste. You do lose some stats, and for it to work you do need some sword with a very low speed, the slower the better- something with at least 3 speed, if you can find something with 4 speed and still decent dmg even better. Worth checking pve influence unlocks in chapters, might be able to find something there.

I appreciate all the feedback on this thread thus far, thank you all for your insights.

gersy wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2024 3:08 pm I'm not sure what you consider to be unusual or what content/group size you are playing so it is hard to recommend exact builds.

That's a very fair statement, I guess I had haboured a hope or a belief that there might be some viable 'off-specs' (primarily 6-12 man roam and solo) that might effectively make my enemy off-guard. For instance, everyone knows to purge BaL, which means wasting a GCD on fervor to act as a purge barrier. Potentially hitting them with something different might tip the scales.

gersy wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2024 3:08 pm
Playing with high ping on a positional class makes most all builds a lot harder since you are relying on being behind your target to do optimal damage/guarantee ability usage no matter your build.

Yeah absolutely. Thankfully- at least so far- it's not been so bad that I've not been able to be effective. Without sounding a bit arrogant, I'm decently skilled and have played a lot of PvP in MMOs including the Rogue/Assassin achetype. As a result, typically the savvyness of my postiional knowledge has allowed me to overcome the challenge of my location.

There are -however- times where skill simply cannot make up the difference and the ping is just far too high and I'll struggle, but that's the difficulty being where I am and I'm at peace with that.

To both @Gersy and @Zxul, it's a shame to hear that AA builds are bit meh, going through my kill reports, I've found that in most situations (most easily digested on solo kills) my AA's account for a quite proportionate amount of my total throughput.

Zxul wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2024 12:40 pm Abso spam build:
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... ,8121,8128

Thanks for that Abso-Spam build, I had "toyed" with a concept for my own Abso Spam build and I'd love some feedback... I'm more than happy to admit mine could simply be- ****. Hahah, but have a look anyway if you like.

RoR.builders - Witch Hunter

This was less focused on the armour pen, as I could stack some WS if desired, or simply rely on Burn Armour openings 15 seconds to achieve the desired result. It also carries BaL and Pistol Whip in the build so this can still be leveraged against more durable targets.

However, stacking crit and rapid accusation generation, especially on my RP-Pinatas of choice (Zealots, Sorcs, Magus) I would burn armour, pistol whip, abso, torment, abso, torment, abso.

Using blessed bullets of confession will mitigate the Zealot and Magus' self-healing, whilst leveraging an addition 5% crit to ensure my abso is always slapping. (unsure if the crit bonus from "Encourage Confession" is multiplicative or additive with the 25% crit chance from Atonement.)

Sadly this does mean forgoing Brute Force, Inquisitors Fury and Flanking all of which are massive damage boons. So again, it could quite simply be... ****.

SJHarrison4115 wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2024 12:11 am Thanks for that Abso-Spam build, I had "toyed" with a concept for my own Abso Spam build and I'd love some feedback... I'm more than happy to admit mine could simply be- ****. Hahah, but have a look anyway if you like.

RoR.builders - Witch Hunter

This was less focused on the armour pen, as I could stack some WS if desired, or simply rely on Burn Armour openings 15 seconds to achieve the desired result. It also carries BaL and Pistol Whip in the build so this can still be leveraged against more durable targets.

However, stacking crit and rapid accusation generation, especially on my RP-Pinatas of choice (Zealots, Sorcs, Magus) I would burn armour, pistol whip, abso, torment, abso, torment, abso.

Using blessed bullets of confession will mitigate the Zealot and Magus' self-healing, whilst leveraging an addition 5% crit to ensure my abso is always slapping. (unsure if the crit bonus from "Encourage Confession" is multiplicative or additive with the 25% crit chance from Atonement.)

Sadly this does mean forgoing Brute Force, Inquisitors Fury and Flanking all of which are massive damage boons. So again, it could quite simply be... ****.

You can experiment with it, problems which I see with it however:

1. Even with Prolonged Confession, you won't have enough accusations to both keep BAL up, and use 5 points Absolution often enough to justify dedicating a tactic slot just to buff it.
2. Magus self heal is Aegis wounds buff (it heals for what it buffs), which isn't effected by heal debuff. Magus does has that theoretical heal on SVF build, it however takes 2 tactics, I don't know a single live or ror magus which used it. No idea if it is affected by heal debuffs, never tested.
3. Lot of what zealot does is actually absorbs and not heals- they have ritual which does it, ability on 20 sec cd which does it, tactic which does it, and tactic for heal zealot which creates absorb on tactic. And absorbs aren't affected by heal debuffs. If speaking dps zealot, it also got lifetaps, which once again ain't affected by heal debuffs.
4. 5% extra crit might be in theory worth it in a party setup, since it benefits all in party hitting the target, but it very much isn't worth the tactic slot for solo.

Damn, thanks for the knowledge drop, that definitely informs the choices and in response, I can definitely see how it might fall short.

I had primarily intended on using BaL on more durable targets exclusively and abso spamming at 2 accusations on repeat, I suppose that might not have enough burst potential.

I'm assuming I'd be correct in saying that the only way to tackle absorbs is just by sheer weight of burst output... which could complicate things further.

I wonder if there's some room for alteration that would still put a decent focus on BaL for output whilst timing some burst with Absolution rather than TbP.

Reason being is that channeling is werid right now, possibly just for me, but I'm not routinely not getting a full channel off, possibly due to lag/ping/netcode.

As a result, the instant potential output of Abso crit timed to slap with the final proc of BaL could be interesting- the caveat being that I'd need to almost guarantee that my Abso would crit.

EDIT: Furthermore, I suppose the whole premise of an Abso spam build is to leverage the self-healing from bullets which is not something I had considered..

Yep Abso spam build is about outlasting the opponent, it does has dmg, but it isn't a glass cannon build dmg.

Channeled sucks for all classes since it was changed to check cone of fire, it is even worse on 5 ft channels.

About BAL+Abso, probably the easiest it to just use 5 accusations BAL on target, then build another 5 accusations, and use the 5 accusations Absolution during BAL's final tick- BAL is 9 sec duration, 1.5 sec is taked by BAL's gcd, leaving 7.5 sec= 5 abilities, exactly enough for 5 accusations.

About absorbs, realistically yep, only real way to deal with them is by sheer dmg. Some of zealot's absorbs are blessings which you can in theory shatter, problem is your shatter has a 5 sec cd, and you will have lot of stuff to shatter on zealot.

Hmm well, I might still trial two builds with an abso focus in mind and see how they pan out. Still by and large following the logic of BaL versus DG.

The premise is that the Abso spam will allow for a large burst window due to the interaction with Flowing Accusations.

Burn Away Lies - Abso
Perspective Rotation assuming procs are forthcoming as follows.
Burn Armour (2A) → Pistol Whip (3A) → Seeker's Blade (4A) → Torment (5A) → Burn Away Lies (PROC: 2A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution etc.

Dragon Gun Variant
Perspective Rotation assuming procs are forthcoming as follows.
Burn Armour (2A) → Dragon Gun (PROC: 2A) → Seeker's Blade (3A) → Torment (4A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution etc.

I feel the BaL has a much, much better chance of dumping the burst desired although perhaps some rotational changes are required to ensure synchronisation of the BaL final proc with the Absolution shot. The BaL funnily enough gets the self-sustainment from Sanctified Bullets.

Dragon Gun has less outright burst, but will assist with morale dumping into Sever Nerve M1. Repel Blashemy will account for the loss of Confusing Movements M1 and Blessed Blade will allow for further armour pen.

C&C Requested and appreciated.

SJHarrison4115 wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2024 5:44 am Hmm well, I might still trial two builds with an abso focus in mind and see how they pan out. Still by and large following the logic of BaL versus DG.

The premise is that the Abso spam will allow for a large burst window due to the interaction with Flowing Accusations.

Burn Away Lies - Abso
Perspective Rotation assuming procs are forthcoming as follows.
Burn Armour (2A) → Pistol Whip (3A) → Seeker's Blade (4A) → Torment (5A) → Burn Away Lies (PROC: 2A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution etc.

Dragon Gun Variant
Perspective Rotation assuming procs are forthcoming as follows.
Burn Armour (2A) → Dragon Gun (PROC: 2A) → Seeker's Blade (3A) → Torment (4A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution (PROC: 2A) → Absolution etc.

I feel the BaL has a much, much better chance of dumping the burst desired although perhaps some rotational changes are required to ensure synchronisation of the BaL final proc with the Absolution shot. The BaL funnily enough gets the self-sustainment from Sanctified Bullets.

Dragon Gun has less outright burst, but will assist with morale dumping into Sever Nerve M1. Repel Blashemy will account for the loss of Confusing Movements M1 and Blessed Blade will allow for further armour pen.

C&C Requested and appreciated.

This is precisely how Abso spam builds work for the most part, yes. Although I wouldn't run Sever Nerve unless your target is a solo caster, which you'd probably quick swap to Exoneration for anyway depending on the class. Confusing Movements is typically superior for all-around gameplay since we can't always guaranteed a quick swap to another morale pre-combat or guarantee we won't get 3rd partied while 1v1ing.

Sanctified Bullets got super nerfed some patches ago so I'm not sure if it's worth the tactic slot anymore honestly. It heals for such a pitiful amount nowadays especially with fewer points in left tree or against any target with a spirit resistance buff. Since you made the calculators for 40rr I assume you don't have the points to spend elsewhere so the BAL variant is going to be a bit weaker overall until 60/70rr when you can pick up Repel and/or Shroud.

Typically for BAL abso spam you want to run 6sov/3sent for +2 bonus and your build looks like this.