Bloody Slams 2.0

This build is a complete lvl 60 setup and is UP-TO-DATE with the game post-launch. The subclass used is Blood Drinker. I don’t consider the build as META as the Miasmic Train build but it can still do decent dmg when the right person uses it It. There’s good burst potential when we are buffed up & our energy is full. The sources of damage of this build are Spike Drive, Pound, Drain, Dance of Death + procs of the Rupture passive relic skill. Add to this the combination of Blasting Charge to apply vulnerability 30% vulnerability [this shows up as 45% vulnerability on Blasting Charge with Tier 1 now so not sure if bug or intended]. Breakdown of the skill effects: Drain is used for damage in AoE around us + drain/heal, applies bleeding, and It is a good energy dump too. Dance of Death is our relic “ultimate” and it does okay dps + bleeds enemies around us. Pound, Spike Drive, & Torque Swing are also AoE dmg and there are a few ways we could rotate those. The idea of the build is use Imbue Relic (from the Ancient Ember Boots) as a “battery” that allows us to spam Drain more often as well as to either use Dance of Death 2 times back2back (for double uptime of the skill) or use it two times at once to stack double the spinning blades around us. Hammer Spin is our escape mechanic and mobility skill that can also hit enemies and proc things such as Fighter’s Spirit or the damaging procs + it gives us (at Tier 3) another +50% (or 70% with Blasting Charge Tier 2) dmg reduction buff for 6sec.

Build Video footage:

The skills I use:

• Basic Attack or another item-granted skills
  
• Hammer Spin – our escape mechanic and a movement skill. We also get 50% movement speed on Tier 1 for 6 sec. & on Tier 3 we get 50% dmg reduction buff for 6 sec after using it
• Blasting Charge – applies Vulnerability to the enemies to make them take more damage. Also does okay damage, especially when you have a Blast Breaker in the Legendarium (which I don’t recommend for this build) so it won’t use up your endurance. The Tier 2 gives us extra 20% dmg reduction in melee bonus for Fighter’s Spirit.
• Pound – decent AoE Dmg + stuns + can be sued to spend endurance to regen Spike Drive
  
• Spike Drive – good damage + applies a 6 sec. slow that works on bosses so you can do even more damage with your train cars. (if the shield/focus slow affix not slowing bosses is actually a bug then it might be nice to replace this and get something else once it gets fixed)
• Torque Swing – aoe dps that can knock back enemies and eventually at T1 also pull (but it’s weird as it first pulls then knocks them back again). It also sends a hammer flying away as AoE dmg and at T3 the hammer returns back to us as a boomerang hitting enemies again on the way back
  
• Imbue Relic – fully re-fills our Relic energy. Granted by the Ancient Ember Boots. Can also recharge the cooldown of Dance of Death when the set bonus is active.
  
• Drain – decent AoE dmg + heals us for each dmg “wave”. We also use this as an energy dump to build more charge for Dance of Death
  
• Dance of Death – Nice dmg + bleeding
  

The gear I recommend using is:

MY IDEAL EQUIPPED GEAR:

• A good rolled + socketed 1 handed weapon from the Arctic Armaments set – Glacier’s Edge sword or the North Mace OR Blue weapon + a good rolled & socketed Frostwall Shield
• Must wear 3 Cosmic Set pieces! I suggest wearing: Cosmic Breastplate + Helmet + Gauntlets:
  • Cosmic Helm – gives +1 Conductor Skills (+2 with the 3 piece set bonus) [I’ve tested it now gives you extra levels and DMG if the skill is already lvl 10 and you can use this to overcap skills]
  • Cosmic Gauntlets (Gloves) – Use any Train Car active skill: next melee attack within 5 sec. causes a Flame Burst, dealing 80% Weapon Damage (Flame Burst is caused on an additional attack)
  • Cosmic Breastplate (Chest) – gives +1 Slammer Skills (+2 with the 3 piece set bonus) [I’ve tested it now gives you extra levels and DMG if the skill is already lvl 10 and you can use this to overcap skills]

• Ideally also wear Ancient Ember, Arc-Powered, or Winterweave pieces! I suggest those be: Ancient Ember Boots + Ancient Ember Pants + Ancient Ember Shoulders:

You’ll be looking for flat dmg, optionally % elemental dmg and/or Crit dmg/chance, +%Evasion +%Block Chance, +% Spike Drive (or Pound) DMG, + X lvl to any skill you use as active (I suggest to try and get +X lvls to Spike Drive) and have more than 1 point into, + others.

• the Shoulders and Chest rolled for +% Crit Dmg
• the Chest, Shoulders and Pants rolled for +%dmg to Spike Drive
  
• the Pants + Chest will ideally also roll with + flat dmg
• the Boots can ideally be rolled for % Crit dmg and maybe elemental dmg
• Crit Chance rolls on the Hat (Helmet) and Pants is amazing too

Suggested Legendarium Powers (to fill in the gaps from items you’re wearing):

MY IDEAL LEGENDARIUM COMBO:

• My Lil’ General (could slot in Frostwall here & equip this)
• Woodsbeast Boots – for the crit chance buff
  
• Berserk Crusher – for extra 1 charge of Spike Drive & Pound
  

Ideally you wear Cosmic Breastplate + Helmet + Gauntlets also Frostwall + North Mace OR Glacier’s Edge, alongside Ancient Ember Boots + Ancient Ember Pants + Ancient Ember Shoulders).

Based on availability & your preference there are alternatives:

• Option 1: other Skittering, or Winterweave or Ancient Ember, or Arc-Powered set pieces
• Option 2: Headhunter
  
• Option 3: Wanderer’s Hood OR anything else you like
  

The non-class specific shoulders now give us an active skill to slot in the skillbar which not everyone may like.

The recommended stats to look for in your items are (the list is not in order of priority and is just listing good bonuses + there’s new stats and I might have missed some which will get added later):

• + Flat Damage (any)
  
• +% elemental dmg (any) – starts getting very good later on when you have a nice flat to boost with this if you match the flat with the %
  
• +% Damage with Spike Drive
  
• + Health
• + Defense (the non elemental is good for any act but lesser numbers than elemental)
• +% Critical Hit Chance (the cap is 40% but some skills will be able to get it past the cap)
  
• +% Critical Damage (the cap is 300%)
• +% Gear Luck (eventually try to get like 50-75% total for good drop quantity – the cap is 100%)
• +% Energy Recharge Rate is pretty good for this build
  
• -% Relic Energy cost is pretty good for this build
  
• +% Block Chance (capped at 40%)
  
• +% Chance to Evade damage (capped at 40%)
  
• +% Endurance Regen
  
• +% Chance to Chill – an okay CC proc
• +% Chance to Freeze – a very good CC proc
• +% Chance to Poison is a decent DoT that stacks with the others
  
• +% Chance to Bleed and/or Burn to stack the poison with the other DoTs. Try to socket Bleed  on a shield/focus.
  
• +% Chance to Shock – a decent proc
  
• +% Additional Bolts Fired on Shock – a decent proc booster
  
• +% Chance to Stun/Slow/Blind – good but not a very important choice
  

The Skills and Passives I recommend are:

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that my setup is WITH the +2 Conductor & +2 Slammer skill levels from the Cosmic Set Helm + Breastplate! On top of that I did NOT have extra +1, 2 ,3 Skill Point(s) from my Helmet.

MY CURRENT SETUP:

NO TORQUE SWING, BUT LVL 8+2 FLYING PICKS:

LVL 4 TORQUE SWING, MAX LVL POUND & SPIKE DRIVE:

NO TORQUE SWING, MAX LVL POUND & SPIKE DRIVE + LVL 4 ENERGIZER:

 

How to lvl the build:

At lvl 2 get Blasting Charge
At lvl 3 and 4 save points so that at lvl 5 you can get Hammer Spin lvl 3 and Blood Seekers
At lvls 6,7, get Blood Seekers lvls 2,3
At lvls 8,9 get Pound lvl 2,3.
At lvl 10,11 get Pound lvls 4,5,6
At lvls 12,13,14 save the points
At lvl 15 get Drain lvl 1
At lvls 16 to 19 save the points
At lvl 20 get lvl 10  Spike Drive and the rest of your skills should be: lvl 1 Dance of Death + lvl 6 Pound+ lvl 3 Blood Seekers + lvl 1 Blasting Charge + lvl 3 Hammer Spin + lvl 1 Drain
From here on get your points towards Drain lvl 10 (maybe even unspec the Blood Seekers points now) then invest into Rupture lvl 5 and Bloodletter lvl 5 (get Bloodletter before Rupture if you don’t have chance to bleed in your weapon).
Eventually you can start working towards things like Pound Tier 3, Hammer Spin Tier 3, Dance of Death Tier 3, Blasting Charge T2, Mortar Car T2. Do it based on what you feel you need more as the ‘skeleton’ of the build is kind of rdy.