Seeker’s Uppercut

(High DMG Uppercuts + Seeking, Healing Missiles Galore)

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This build is a complete lvl 60 setup and is UP-TO-DATE with the game post-launch & the Forged Rework. The subclass used is Blood Drinker. I believe the build can be pretty good when geared and and may be a meta build. Blood Drinker builds have less dps potential then Electrode or Flaming Destroyer ones and this one’s no different. On the other hand with this subclass we get a lot of extra survivability. Just like any build, in the right hands, this setup should be able to finish all Fazeer stages. It can dish out serious damage when we are playing it well & even more burst potential when our energy is full. A good source of damage of this build is the combination of using Cyclone Mode to build Heat (also for base DPS) alongside Vortex Bomb to Vent Heat & Generate Steam + Steam-Powered Uppercut to spend our Steam & Heat and do the big numbers. Sonic Pulse is even better now – it still makes affected enemies take +40% more dmg but on top of that the Tier 3 Bonus of Sonic Pulse also buffs us to do +40% more dmg with our Steam spending skills (such as Steam-Powered Uppercut). And if we have enough energy we can activate Blood Seekers to heal us + give us and our allies a +25% dmg buff while shooting homing projectiles that also do dmg and can heal us. Dance of Death can be used as an additional dps skill but it can also be replaced with the new Echoes of Life Item‘s skill. Add to this Ramming Robot for mobility and an escape mechanic and it’s a well rounded build. Skittering Shoulders (even without a set bonus) is a great source of survivability so it could be equipped or slotted in the legendarium but it now requires a Skill Bar slot.

Build Video footage:

The skills I use:

• Basic Attack or another skill – I don’t use the basic attack & used Poison Dart – you can remove the basic attack and just place anything that you like. Ideally I’ll use this slot for the Ancient Ember Hatch’s skill or the Winterweave Shoulders’ blink skill
  
• Cyclone Mode or Rapid Strike – a nice source of damage. Also our heat builder.
  
• Ramming Robot – our escape mechanic and a movement skill. It also knocks back enemies we make contact with while using it. We also get 1 more charge on Tier 1.
• Sonic Pulse – makes our enemies take 40% more dmg for 6 sec. I also can stun for 1 sec with the Tier 1 Bonus. The Tier 3 bonus makes Steam Spenders do 40% more dmg for 6 seconds
  
• Power Projection – gives us and nearby allies 50% increased defenses + the tier 1 bonus heals for 15% max hp when used.
• Vent: Vortex Bomb – our vent skill + a good source of AoE damage + pulls/vacuums the enemies close to us + 20% melee combat dmg reduction for the Tier 2 bonus + the Tier 3 makes it spawn bombs for more AoE dmg.
• Steam-Powered Uppercut – I’ve decided to make this the build’s centerpiece and build around it. It shoots out punches/uppercuts from the ground upwards that hit enemies in front of you. With the servo blade it gets a cooldown but also shoots multiple casscading uppercuts in a straight line. It can dish out SERIOUS DMG when we stack 3 different +%dmg to Steam-Powered Uppercut affixes. Especially with the Servo Blade equipped or in the legendarium.
  
• Blood Seekers – It’s a good source of DPS buff (+25% dmg while it lasts) that also buffs nearby allies for the same amount. It also buff us and nearby allies with extra healing too and does a very good periodic dmg to random nearby enemies via the seeking missiles.
  
• Dance of Death – Our BIG relic skill that we can active after spending a total of 200 energy with other skills like Blood Seekers. It’s good to save and use this on champions & bosses.

The gear I recommend using is:

MY IDEAL EQUIPPED GEAR:

• ideally, wear a good rolled version of the following cannon:
  • Unstable War Arm – Cast Vortex Bomb: if above 75 Heat, trigger a secondary heat wave, dealing 400% Weapon Dmg. You ideally want affixes that give -%energy cost or +%energy generation
    
• A good rolled + socketed 1 handed Blue or Legendary weapon (if going for legendary, a good choice is a Servo Blade (to help free up a legendarium slot) or the weps from the Arctic Armaments set (the Glacier’s Edge sword or the North Mace) + a good rolled & socketed Frostwall Shield or any other Shield
  
• Must wear at least 3 Mountain King pieces! I suggest wearing: Mountain King’s Helmet + Gauntlets + Wheel:
  • Mountain King’s Gauntlets – Vent 75 or more Heat: gain Overheated, increasing Critical Chance by 10% for 10 seconds (becomes a +20% crit chance buff with the 3 set pieces bonus)
  • Mountain King’s Helm – gives +1 Brawl 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]
  • Mountain King’s Pauldrons– when you cast Dance of Death: summons 3 Explodobots (summons 3 more when using 3 set pieces)
  • Mountain King’s Wheel – when you use a Vent skill – Gain 25 Heat (gain 25 more Heat when using 3 set pieces)
  • If not slotting it: Mountain King’s Cuirass (Chest) – gives +1 Barrage 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]
• Must wear at least 3 Winterweave pieces! I suggest wearing: Winterweave Cuirass + Hatch + Pauldrons:

You’ll be looking for flat dmg, optionally % elemental dmg and/or Crit dmg/chance, +%Evasion +%Block Chance, +% Steam-Powered Uppercut, AND/OR +% Vortex Bomb DMG, AND/OR +% Cyclone Mode DMG, + X lvl to any skill you use as active and have more than 1 point into, + others.

• the Shoulders and Chest rolled for +% Crit Dmg
• the Chest, Shoulders and Locomotion rolled for +%dmg to the skills mentioned above
• the Locomotion + Chest will ideally also roll with + flat dmg
• the Hatch can ideally be rolled for % Crit dmg and maybe elemental dmg
• Crit Chance rolls on the Helmet and Locomotion is amazing too

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

MY IDEAL LEGENDARIUM COMBO:

• Mountain King’s Cuirass (chest)
  
• Servo Blade
• Winterweave Gauntlets
  

This would mean you wear Winterweave Cuirass, Hatch + Pauldrons alongside Mountain King’s Helmet, Gauntlets + Wheel.

Based on availability & your preference there are alternatives:

• Option 1: other Mountain King, Winterweave or Ancient Ember set pieces
• Option 2: Echoes of Life or Arc-Powered Shoulders
  
• Option 3: Or anything else you like (i.e. Skittering Shoulders if you need survivability)

The Arc-Powered, Woodsbeast, and Skittering 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 to Brawl skills (this seems to no longer exist)
  
• +% Damage with Steam-Powered Uppercut and/or Cyclone Mode and/or Vortex Bomb (top priority is the Uppercut)
  
• +% Duration to Blood Seekers 
• + 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%)
  
• +% Heat Generation
  
• +% Chance to Chill – a decent CC proc
• +% Chance to Poison is a decent DoT and stacks with other DoTs
• +% Chance to Bleed and/or Burn to stack the poison with the other DoTs. Bleed is very good for this build and it’s going to result in nice dps increase from the Rupture proc.
  
• +% Chance to Shock – a decent proc
  
• +% Additional Bolts Fired on Shock – a decent proc
  
• +% Chance to Stun/Slow/Blind – good but not a very important choice tho as we can slow Fracking Strike.
  

The Skills and Passives I recommend are:

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that my setup is WITH the +2 Barrage & +2 Brawl skill levels from the Mountain King’s Set Helmet + Cuirass! On top of that I did NOT have extra +1, 2 ,3 Skill Point(s) from my Helmet.

MY IDEAL/RECOMMENDED SETUP (I used this for the gameplay footage in the video):

MAX LVL ENERGIZER & LVL 3 DoD BUT NO +25% VENT SKILLS DMG:

ENERGIZER 4 & LVL 4 PROJECTION BUT NO +25% VENT SKILLS DMG:

ENERGIZER 4 & LVL 4 RAMMING BUT NO +25% VENT SKILLS DMG:

 

How To lvl the Build:

lvl 2 – get Vortex Bomb lvl 1 then save the next 2 points until lvl 5
lvl 5 – get Tier 1 (lvl 3) Ramming Robot & get Rapid Strike lvl 1 (by removing the point from Rapid Fire with a respectacle) + get Blood Seekers lvl 1
lvl 6, 7, 8, 9 – get Vortex Bomb lvl 2, 3, 4, 5
lvl 10 get Uppercut lvl 1 + Vortex Bomb lvl 6
lvl 11, 12, 13, 14 – get Vortex Bomb lvl 7,8,9,10
lvl 15 – get Sonic Pulse lvl 1 + Fracking Strike lvl 1
lvl 16, 17, 18, 19 – save, then @ 20 get Fracking Strike lvl 6 + Dance of Death lvl 1
lvls 21 to 28 – get Sonic Pulse lvled up to 10
lvls 29 to 36 – get Uppercut to lvl 10
lvls 37 to 40 – get Rapid Strike to lvl 6
lvls 41 to 48 – get Blood Seekers to lvl 10
lvls 49, 50 – get lvl 3 Power Projection
hopefully you have +2 skill bonuses from the Mountain King’s Set at this point so that you can get Bloodletter & Rupture Maxed out and then Energizer lvl 3 & Coal Launch Tier 2 (by removing points where needed)