Bleakwalker Question

[Gelnor]

Hello, 

 

I am new here, so want to ask some questions about paladins.

 

I like bleakwalker, started bleakwalker + soul blad (inq)

 

1. I dont understand the synergy bleakwalker + soul blad (inq) both abilities active. Should i use only soul annihilation from cypher?

2. What is best and deepest combo bleakwalker +?

3. Is it possible to get a tanky version of bleakwalker with a good dmg?

 

 

And what about maxing bleakwalker: str + dex? 

 

 

 

 

 

[OnTheRocks]

I'm also trying to run this combo, so am likewise interested in advise.

[Koth]

Bleakwalker / Berserker barbarian is a crazy strong build. Bleakwalker brings the "Tankyness" from innate paladin defenses / auras as well as the tasty corrosive lash, Berserker with 2 weapon specialisation goes ballistic on the offense. And the best part about this build is that if you can stick it out to character level 10 (power level IV) you can pick up the paladin skill mental fortress which completely negates the confusion aspect of the berserker frenzy.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Koth

[nstgc]

Bleakwalker / Berserker barbarian is a crazy strong build. Bleakwalker brings the "Tankyness" from innate paladin defenses / auras as well as the tasty corrosive lash, Berserker with 2 weapon specialisation goes ballistic on the offense. And the best part about this build is that if you can stick it out to character level 10 (power level IV) you can pick up the paladin skill mental fortress which completely negates the confusion aspect of the berserker frenzy.

For what its worth, this is what I'm planning for my "evil" run.

[Boeroer]

1. Flames of Devotion generate a lot of focus which you can then use for Soul Annihilation. You should start with FoD - SA - FoD and so on.

 

2. There is no "best". Depends what his role should be and at what he should be good at.

 

3. Yes. Basically every Bleak Walker/class combo can be build into a sturdy damage dealer. Berseker/Bleak Walker, Stalker/Bleak Walker, Devoted/Bleak Walker, Beckoner/Bleak Walker and more are all sturdy and do good damage.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Boeroer

[gnoster]

Just to add a paladin question: Do you have to follow the paladin faith to keep the abilities? E.g. a Bleakwater Paladins needs to act in dialogue like a cruel a...hole, or I would loose all his abilities? Or did they take that part out?

[GuyNice]

Just to add a paladin question: Do you have to follow the paladin faith to keep the abilities? E.g. a Bleakwater Paladins needs to act in dialogue like a cruel a...hole, or I would loose all his abilities? Or did they take that part out?

All Paladins get a bonus to all defenses from the Faith and Devotion passive. This bonus increases with each rank you gain in your favored dispositions (Cruel, Aggressive for Bleak Walkers), and decreases with each rank of a disfavored disposition you gain (Benevolent, Diplomatic for Bleak Walkers). So no, you don't have to be an a*hole in every conversation as a Bleak Walker. You can be rational, clever, stoic or whatever and it would have no effect on your abilities. But if you want to make your +defense bonus you should avoid disfavored dispositions and lean towards your favored ones. There is definitely some wiggle room so you don't have to pick all the cruel/aggressive options.

[Voltron]

Since you have two pools for abilities (Zeal and Focus) you should use Flame of Devotion to build Focus, use Soul Anihilation and rise repeat. For stronger enemies start with Brand to increase damage received by them. Brand->Fod->SA. 

Though I agree with above that Bleak Walker/Berserker offers much more. Because problem with Soul Blade is that all you use is just SA because it eats your whole Focus. Since you pick Soul Blade only for melee multis = you want to focus on that. So you won't be able to use effectively Cipher spells etc. as it will down your DPS and Melee dmg. 

On the other hand Berserker offers TONs of great abilities to choose from. Starting from Frenzy, Barbarian Blow, Wild Sprint, Savage Defiance, Blooldlust, Leap. They have great control with Stuns, Dazes etc. And then Bleak Walker offsets his confusion later (you can also ofset it by taking Snef drug before fight) with Mental Fortress, offers addition hits to crit aura that stack with Berserker passive plus general passive giving you I think total of 40% Hits to Crit. Plus with high athletics you have three abilities to heal yourself : Lay Down Hands heal + Upgrade that gives regeneration, Savage Defiance which offers regenaration and Second Wind with High Atlethics. Overall I think it's the strongest combo for Bleak Walker, followed by Shattered Pillar/Bleak combo and Devoted.

Also Souls Anihilation is Primary Attack, not Full Attack so it will only deal damage with weapon in primary hand, so Dual Wielding is not good with it, better Two-Handed weapon. While Barbarian Blow is Full Attack so dual wielding is more effective with it and deals more overall damage.

And so Brand->FoD->Barbarian Blow is really nasty combo. Also with Spirit Frenzy your basic attacks Stun enemies :D

Edited May 10, 2018 by Voltron

[Vhalyr]

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Edited May 10, 2018 by Vhalyr

[Voltron]

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Since Paladins have Focus Aura which gives +5 to Accuracy and FoD gives +10 Accuracy Bonus I would say we don't need to put points in Perception here, which we would want for Monk/Barb combo. So I would put points into Might and Dexterity. And Probably I would take Intellect for 5% Duration per point which is imo very good for Bleak/Berserker and it also increase radius of Carnage.

 

For Bleak/Soul Blade I would not bother with intellect as you mostly just use one-time active abilities, like FOD and SA and only Brand is really what you want to keep going. While on Zerker you want to keep Frenzy going to not waste time recasting it.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Voltron

[shadowbunker]

 

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Since Paladins have Focus Aura which gives +5 to Accuracy and FoD gives +10 Accuracy Bonus I would say we don't need to put points in Perception here, which we would want for Monk/Barb combo. So I would put points into Might and Dexterity. And Probably I would take Intellect for 5% Duration per point which is imo very good for Bleak/Berserker and it also increase radius of Carnage.

 

For Bleak/Soul Blade I would not bother with intellect as you mostly just use one-time active abilities, like FOD and SA and only Brand is really what you want to keep going. While on Zerker you want to keep Frenzy going to not waste time recasting it.

New joiner here, I don't really understand the whole thing about "Let's balance out the increased accuracy so we get miss like usual again"...

Especially when people says Might is additive bonus now & soulblade needs the attacks to land for focus again?

[Voltron]

 

 

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Since Paladins have Focus Aura which gives +5 to Accuracy and FoD gives +10 Accuracy Bonus I would say we don't need to put points in Perception here, which we would want for Monk/Barb combo. So I would put points into Might and Dexterity. And Probably I would take Intellect for 5% Duration per point which is imo very good for Bleak/Berserker and it also increase radius of Carnage.

 

For Bleak/Soul Blade I would not bother with intellect as you mostly just use one-time active abilities, like FOD and SA and only Brand is really what you want to keep going. While on Zerker you want to keep Frenzy going to not waste time recasting it.

New joiner here, I don't really understand the whole thing about "Let's balance out the increased accuracy so we get miss like usual again"...

Especially when people says Might is additive bonus now & soulblade needs the attacks to land for focus again?

 

 

Sorry, I don't really follow what you are saying. If you ask if it's worth to put points into Percpetion I'd say depends on Class. Also when min-maxing you want to take into consideration things like buffs and later gear. Putting points into stat so early game you have advantage but later you could have offset that with buffs/spells/auras/gear bonuses is not good for optimizing character in long run. For example if you can get 99 Accuracy in late game with just abilities + gear and 10 Perception then points you put into Perception could have been put into Dex or Might which are always useful even with added bonuses. This is of course just theory crafting. We don't know till we beat 100% game and find all gear and fight all fights.

 

Of course game just came out and I have not finished it yet by any margin so above is just my thinking. You can do balance build for first run if you are not sure how it will be late game. 14 Might, 14 Dex, 14 Perception etc etc. 

Edited May 10, 2018 by Voltron

[Vhalyr]

 

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Since Paladins have Focus Aura which gives +5 to Accuracy and FoD gives +10 Accuracy Bonus I would say we don't need to put points in Perception here, which we would want for Monk/Barb combo. So I would put points into Might and Dexterity. And Probably I would take Intellect for 5% Duration per point which is imo very good for Bleak/Berserker and it also increase radius of Carnage.

 

For Bleak/Soul Blade I would not bother with intellect as you mostly just use one-time active abilities, like FOD and SA and only Brand is really what you want to keep going. While on Zerker you want to keep Frenzy going to not waste time recasting it.

 

 

So, let's say, would this be ok for a bleak/soul? I am not very familiar with cipher yet

 

17

10

17

10

10

14

[shadowbunker]

 

 

 

So, what stats would you suggest for a bleakwalker/soulblade build?

Or a bleakwalker/berserker?

Since Paladins have Focus Aura which gives +5 to Accuracy and FoD gives +10 Accuracy Bonus I would say we don't need to put points in Perception here, which we would want for Monk/Barb combo. So I would put points into Might and Dexterity. And Probably I would take Intellect for 5% Duration per point which is imo very good for Bleak/Berserker and it also increase radius of Carnage.

 

For Bleak/Soul Blade I would not bother with intellect as you mostly just use one-time active abilities, like FOD and SA and only Brand is really what you want to keep going. While on Zerker you want to keep Frenzy going to not waste time recasting it.

New joiner here, I don't really understand the whole thing about "Let's balance out the increased accuracy so we get miss like usual again"...

Especially when people says Might is additive bonus now & soulblade needs the attacks to land for focus again?

Sorry, I don't really follow what you are saying. If you ask if it's worth to put points into Percpetion I'd say depends on Class. Also when min-maxing you want to take into consideration things like buffs and later gear. Putting points into stat so early game you have advantage but later you could have offset that with buffs/spells/auras/gear bonuses is not good for optimizing character in long run. For example if you can get 99 Accuracy in late game with just abilities + gear and 10 Perception then points you put into Perception could have been put into Dex or Might which are always useful even with added bonuses. This is of course just theory crafting. We don't know till we beat 100% game and find all gear and fight all fights.

 

Of course game just came out and I have not finished it yet by any margin so above is just my thinking. You can do balance build for first run if you are not sure how it will be late game. 14 Might, 14 Dex, 14 Perception etc etc.

Thanks for the explanation, maybe it's me scared by those wiki's rough description on accuracy, but I can't really accept attacks with cost like FoD to miss...if its added accuracy + other sources can mostly secure a hit, then perception isn't a concern to me. Now I come to think of it, its flat acc bonus isn't great at high levels...

[OnTheRocks]

What weapon specializations would you go with for bleak zerker?

[Voltron]

What weapon specializations would you go with for bleak zerker?

 

That's actually hard question because Berserker PL VII "Blood Thrist" allows you Recover immidietly after kill for 10 second which lead to Two-Handed weapons having 0 Recovery time during combat. At point of 0 recovery Two-Handed > Dual Wield. 0 recovery on Two-Handed weapons!

 

Which makes Berserker/Bleak Walker absolute beast with two-handed weapon at late/end game.

 

However till that point Two Weapons beat Two-handed by miles in terms of dps. So hard to tell till I see if there are some super good two-handed weapons late game.

 

I would to spec into Two Weapons till PL VII of Berserker where you have Blood Thirst and then maybe respec to Two-Handed Weapons to have 0 recovery on them and wreck everything. Of course it's not like 0 recovery on Two Weapons won't be as broken as you can have two strong enchanted weapons late game.

 

So in short - two weapons till PL VII, and then maybe Two-Handed to abuse 0 recovery on them with Blood Thirst proc.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Voltron

[OnTheRocks]

 

What weapon specializations would you go with for bleak zerker?

 

That's actually hard question because Berserker PL VII "Blood Thrist" allows you Recover immidietly after kill for 10 second which lead to Two-Handed weapons having 0 Recovery time during combat. At point of 0 recovery Two-Handed > Dual Wield. 0 recovery on Two-Handed weapons!

 

Which makes Berserker/Bleak Walker absolute beast with two-handed weapon at late/end game.

 

However till that point Two Weapons beat Two-handed by miles in terms of dps. So hard to tell till I see if there are some super good two-handed weapons late game.

 

I would to spec into Two Weapons till PL VII of Berserker where you have Blood Thirst and then maybe respec to Two-Handed Weapons to have 0 recovery on them and wreck everything. Of course it's not like 0 recovery on Two Weapons won't be as broken as you can have two strong enchanted weapons late game.

 

So in short - two weapons till PL VII, and then maybe Two-Handed to abuse 0 recovery on them with Blood Thirst proc.

 

Good to know. Thanks. Do you also have an opinion as to swords vs. axes vs. etc?

[Voltron]

 

 

What weapon specializations would you go with for bleak zerker?

 

That's actually hard question because Berserker PL VII "Blood Thrist" allows you Recover immidietly after kill for 10 second which lead to Two-Handed weapons having 0 Recovery time during combat. At point of 0 recovery Two-Handed > Dual Wield. 0 recovery on Two-Handed weapons!

 

Which makes Berserker/Bleak Walker absolute beast with two-handed weapon at late/end game.

 

However till that point Two Weapons beat Two-handed by miles in terms of dps. So hard to tell till I see if there are some super good two-handed weapons late game.

 

I would to spec into Two Weapons till PL VII of Berserker where you have Blood Thirst and then maybe respec to Two-Handed Weapons to have 0 recovery on them and wreck everything. Of course it's not like 0 recovery on Two Weapons won't be as broken as you can have two strong enchanted weapons late game.

 

So in short - two weapons till PL VII, and then maybe Two-Handed to abuse 0 recovery on them with Blood Thirst proc.

 

Good to know. Thanks. Do you also have an opinion as to swords vs. axes vs. etc?

 

 

Not yet, but usually Sabers are way to go for dual wield BUT till I see whole endgame I can't tell for which to aim. Just to be safe I would invest is sabers for sure. Rest is unknown now.

[GuyNice]

Most of the modals aren't that useful anyway so it doesn't matter too much which weapon spec you take unless you're a Fighter/Devoted.

[Abalon]

Anyone else tried a bleakwalker plus Shar shooter?

I made a 2nd char for my party and it seems suprsingly powerful mainly because I can mark then just spam ranged fods

[Gelnor]

Guys i want to start Bleak/bers on max difficulty with fully customised party.

 

What about stats:

M:20

C:10

D:14

P:14

I:10

R:10

Is it ok for Iron?

 

I want Priest, wizard, ranger and some good dps tank. Is it ok?

 

What about melee tanks? Who is good now?

[mpristave]

Does sworn enemy matter in regards to these crazy bleakwalker builds with soul blade? I don't see anyone mentioning it

[GuyNice]

Does sworn enemy matter in regards to these crazy bleakwalker builds with soul blade? I don't see anyone mentioning it

If you have the points to spare take it with the upgrade sworn rival, so it refunds the zeal cost. Then it's essentially a free +20% damage. But it's quite underwhelming since the bonus is additive, the more damage bonuses you have the less it matters. So again, if you're just trying to maximize damage and have points to spare, take it. Otherwise skip.