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Diablo 4 Necromancer Build Guide: The Blood Burst Necromancer Diablo…

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Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Blood Burst Necromancer, which is a Diablo 4 Build for the Necromancer that thrives in bathing in the blood of enemies. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build that steals their Health in addition to making them explode, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build Guide

The general strategy with this Diablo IV Build is to first control enemies on the battlefield by inflicting Slow. This is done when you cast Decrepify, which also momentarily lowers the damage they deal. Next, you’ll be hitting them with Bone Spear to pierce through multiple targets. You can then use this in conjunction with Blood Surge. This is one of the two major Skills you’ll be activating. Not only will you be able to deal huge explosive damage, but you’ll also drain the enemy’s blood to increase your Health. Doing so will consistently keep you alive in combat regardless of the type of target you deal with.

Diablo 4 Build for the Blood Burst Necromancer - Triggering Blood Surge and Hemorrhage

Afterward, you should go for Hemorrhage to reduce the damage you take. But more importantly, this will let you generate Essence for Blood Surge and Bone Spear. Once you notice corpses on the ground, you’ll be triggering the second major Skill of this Build, which is Corpse Explosion. You’ll always have a consistent supply of corpses anyway, whether it’s brought about by your abilities or Minions.

For Elites and Bosses, you’ll mostly employ the same strategies but you’ll want to generate more corpses. This will let you pop off Corpse Explosion with Blood Surge to deal devastating damage while remaining resilient throughout the fight.

Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Necromancer Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Blood Burst Necromancer Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 NECROMANCER SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Hemorrhage  1
 Enhanced Hemorrhage  1
 Initiate’s Hemorrhage  1
 Blood Surge  5
 Enhanced Blood Surge  1
 Supernatural Blood Surge  1
 Hewed Flesh  3
 Bone Spear  1
 Enhanced Bone Spear  1
 Supernatural Bone Spear  1
 Corpse Explosion  5
 Enhanced Corpse Explosion  1
 Plagued Corpse Explosion  1
 Grim Harvest  2
 Decrepify  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Necro Build: How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ in this Diablo IV Build for the Blood Burst Necromancer, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Decrepify

Decrepify is the Curse Skill that lets you Slow down enemies in addition to reducing their overall damage. As mentioned earlier, this is how you’ll engage in fights so that right from the start, your targets are already incapacitated. 

Diablo 4 Necromancer Build - Decrepify Curse Skill to Inflict Slow

Note that you won’t need to unlock Decrepify’s upgrades since these won’t significantly improve your Blood Burst Necromancer D4 Build. Not only are they reliant on Lucky Hits, but they also don’t add much value when it comes to destroying mobs. You’ll be able to effectively do this anyway even with Blood Surge alone.

Bone Spear

Bone Spear is a useful Core Skill due to the huge amount of damage you deal against multiple enemies in combination with Enhanced Bone Spear. Although it won’t take center stage with this Diablo IV Build for the Necromancer Class, you can still use it to kill them efficiently and generate Corpses.

Diablo 4 Necro Build - Bone Spear Core Skill to Pierce Through Several Enemies

For the other modifier, you’ll want to unlock Supernatural Bone Spear, which allows you to inflict Vulnerable against the first enemy you hit. This is especially effective against Bosses as making them Vulnerable considerably amplifies the damage you and your Minions deal. 

Blood Surge

Blood Surge is an amazing offensive and defensive Core Skill rolled into one for this D4 Build. Because of its potency, you’ll no longer need to invest in Blood Mist for survivability. This means that you can allocate those points to other Skills. Blood Surge makes it so that you get to steal the life off of enemies. The more blood you drain, the greater the damage you’ll inflict so it’s very effective against mobs. 

Diablo IV Build for the Necromancer - Blood Surge Core Skill to Steal Health from Enemies

You’ll want to invest in Enhanced Blood Surge and Supernatural Blood Surge for the upgrades. Enhanced Blood Surge converts the blood you’ve stolen to heal a portion of your Maximum Life. Again, using Blood Surge repeatedly will replenish more of your Health. When it comes to Bosses and Elites though, this won’t be an issue, even if it’s a close-range spell, since there’s Supernatural Blood Surge. This modifier grants Fortify so you take in less damage and live through difficult encounters. 

Hemorrhage

Since you have two Skills that make use of Essence, you’ll need to have enough of this resource to trigger them at the right time. By default, Hemorrhage generates Essence, allowing you to deal some damage, and potentially form a Blood Orb. These are then used to restore your Health. With Enhanced Hemorrhage, every time you pick up a Blood Orb, you gain extra Essence.

Diablo IV Build for the Blood Burst Necromancer - Hemorrhage Basic Skill to Burst an Enemy's Blood

The final upgrade you’ll invest in is the Initiate’s Hemorrhage. This grants additional Fortify when you attack an enemy. 

Corpse Explosion

Once you have enough corpses and you’re running out of Essence to fuel Blood Surge, it’s time to blast away with Corpse Explosion. This lets you deal huge explosive damage in a larger AoE thanks to Enhanced Corpse Explosion. Every time you set this off, you gain extra Essence due to the Grim Harvest passive. As such, you’ll be able to trigger Blood Surge and Corpse Explosion one after the other.

Diablo IV Build for the Blood Burst Necromancer - Corpse Explosion Skill Make Corpses Explode

Between the two final upgrades, you’re better off choosing the Plagued Corpse Explosion, especially since you’ll face Slowed and Vulnerable enemies after casting Decrepify and Bone Spear, respectively. As such, your Corpse Explosion considerably deals greater damage. It’s worth noting that even in the Server Slam, this continues to be a lethal and valuable Skill. As such, any D4 Necromancer Build using Corpse Explosion is considered the most OP for this Class.  

Necro Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights will be handled a bit differently for this Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build because you won’t have as many available Corpses as you’d like. Despite this, however, you’ll still go with the standard Skill rotation of opening with Decrepify and Bone Spear, followed by Blood Surge, Hemorrhage, and then activating Corpse Explosion over and over again.

Book of the Dead

As early as Level 15, the Necromancer will gain access to the Book of the Dead, which will allow them to raise different types of Minions. These can be in the form of Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golems. 

For Skeletal Warriors, you’ll want to choose Reapers, specifically the passive that lets you carve the flesh out of enemies. To do this, you’ll simply need to hit them in order to obtain a fresh supply of Corpses. This is going to be essential against Bosses who have relatively fewer mobs compared to regular targets. As such, both Blood Surge and Corpse Explosion will continue to remain relevant when it comes to executing life steals and dealing massive damage.

Diablo IV Build - Skeletal Warriors Reapers Book of the Dead

For Skeletal Mages, you’re better off choosing Cold and the passive that inflicts Vulnerable. This, together with Bone Spear, will help in terms of dealing more damage to Bosses much longer. Remember though that for Skeletal Warriors and Mages, they’ve been nerfed since the Server Slam so they’re not as durable as before. But these Minions continue to be effective so resummoning them should do the trick.

At Level 25, you gain access to another type of Minion. Here, you’ll select the one that generates 1 Corpse every time the Golem’s Maximum Life is reduced by 20%. This will always happen anyway so might as well take advantage of it. 

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Blood Burst Necromancer Build, the gear bonuses you’ll want to keep a lookout for include Intelligence, Core Skill Damage, +1 Rank of Blood Surge, +1 Rank of Corpse Explosion, Vulnerable Damage Bonus, Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies, and Damage to Slowed Enemies. You’ll also want Essence Cost Reduction to trigger Bone Spear and Blood Surge more often.

Another great passive to have for this Blood Burst Necromancer Build is Hewed Flesh. Although it’s reliant on Lucky Hits, there’s a 12% chance to conjure a Corpse every time you attack a regular enemy. What’s more, is that this chance doubles to 24% when attacking Bosses. Since you need to keep creating Corpses to summon Minions and trigger Corpse Explosion, you’ll want to immediately maximize Hewed Flesh.

When it comes to Legendary Aspects, the best ones to choose are the Aspect of the Expectant, Aspect of Might, Blood-bathed Aspect, and Blood Getter’s Aspect for this Diablo 4 Build. Expectant makes it so that the damage of either Blood Surge or Bone Spear increases right after using Hemorrhage. This works well with the Aspect of Might, which grants damage reduction every time Hemorrhage is triggered. Meanwhile, Blood-bathed Aspect lets you deal another nova explosion from Blood Surge to inflict additional damage. 

Blood Getter's Aspect

Lastly, Blood Getter’s Aspect increases the maximum number of Skeleton Warriors you summon to supply you with an ample amount of Corpses. 


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-tier-list-defensive-supports/ https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-tier-list-defensive-supports/#respond Sun, 14 May 2023 09:16:46 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253025 The post Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports appeared first on Fextralife.

A Tier List for Defensive Support characters in Honkai: Star…

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In this Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports article, we’ll discuss how Honkai: Star Rail has a wide roster of characters, with 23 playable characters at launch, so it’s important to measure how they rank up compared to each other. Or in other words, a Character Tier lists of sorts. Resources are finite in this game, and players can’t fully build every single character. In this Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for Defensive Supports, we try to help them figure out where to invest these resources.

Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports

To properly give every Character a fair chance of representation, I’ve decided to split characters by the roles they can play in a team. Characters in Honkai: Star Rail can be categorized as follow: Single Target DPS, AOE DPS, Offensive Support, and Defensive Support. These are the main roles, with some characters showing up in two roles, while others might only fulfill one sub role in their category.

In this Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports article, I’ll be ranking both shielders from the Preservation Path, and Healers from the Abundance Path. These two Paths cover the defensive side in teams, which help increase a team’s survivability. There’ll be some honorable mentions for characters adding notable survivability to the team, without being Defensive Supports as well, either by delaying enemy turns, forcing them to skip it, or removing their buffs.

I’ll be taking into account how much survivability they provide, and skill points they consume, or generate, in addition to how much damage they deal, and whether they add additional utility to the team. For Five Star characters, I judge them on their base kit, without any Eidolons. Any five-star character that requires more Eidolons to function I rank lower than characters that have their whole kit from the get-go. While Four Star characters have a chance to show as rate up in several banners, so I rank accordingly. This is why I’m ranking Four Star characters based on what they can achieve with  E1, E2, or E4, sometimes even on E6 performance in certain cases.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - Ranking

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – Bailu – SS

Defensive: SS+
Utility: A
Damage: B
Skill Point: S
Energy Gen: B

Bailu is the premium five star healer in our Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for Defensive Supports Guide. She provides healing, reactive healing, HP buff, Damage reduction, and revive. So she’s the perfect Defensive Support, who can keep your entire team alive. However, she is still a bit lacking on the utility side, and any future healers with more utility will get a higher rank. Bailu will stay relevant for long though, because she has a revive, which gives a huge margin for errors.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - Bailu

Damage Dealing

As a typical healer, Bailu barely add any dps to the team. However, the signature Five Star Light Cone of Bailu givse her some joint attacks to add some dps. But in terms of utility and healing strength, there’s still room for better Light Cones to be released in the future.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

Bailu is a good character to generate SPs for the team, unless enemies bombard the team with massive damage. In such a case, Bailu will be forced to use her skill to top up the HP of the team, and not rely on her ultimate alone. That makes her a positive SP character, with a caveat. Pairing her with another defensive character eliminates this caveat.

Energy Generation

The one weak aspect of Bailu’s kit is her limited energy generation. Her ultimate has a 100 energy cost, and she doesn’t generate a lot of energy. Bailu uses normal attacks more often than her skill, which has a lower energy refund. Moreover, she doesn’t get kills, doesn’t have follow up attacks, nor will she be the primary target of enemy hits. These are the main energy refund mechanics in Star Rail, and she lacks them all.

I was really tempted to lower Bailu’s overall rank due to the lack of energy, because without energy, she doesn’t use her ultimate, and can’t sustain her team. This would cause Invigoration stacks to runs out, revive to not work, and forces Bailu to use her skill, making her an SP negative character. However, there’s an easy solution that’s not hard to get, which is using the “Post-Op Conversation” Light Cone, which gives 8% Energy generation at S1, and 16% at S5. Players can also pair this with an energy generation main stat on the Rope accessory to elevate Bailu’s energy with ease. Finally, the Speed stat allows Bailu to take several turns in shorter duration, so she generates more energy.

Team Flexibility

The final aspect of my ranking takes into account how flexible a character is to use. It’s important for a character to have several uses, and not limit the player so much, especially in early game without long months of summoning and acquiring so many characters.

Bailu is a simple healer, which fits in literally every team. She usually provides more flexibility than Preservation characters by being able to fill the Defensive Support role alone in some teams. Even in teams where she is paired with a shielder, she provides a lot of healing, sparing the shielder from spamming skill. That way, they can provide more SP, allowing a more offensive playstyle on offensive characters.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – March 7th – SS

Defensive: S
Utility: SS+
Damage: A
Skill Point: A
Energy Gen: SS+

It might sound a bit controversial to rank a free guaranteed four star character this high, but March 7th is an amazing character that provide solutions to a lot of issues, which is why she’s ranked highly on our Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for Defensive Supports. Her shield is stronger than Gepard’s, but given to a single ally, not the entire team. It costs a SP to cast said shield, which can be a downside, but also an upside, as she can renew the shield anytime. On other hand, March 7th has several other ways to support the team.

While she can’t sustain the team alone, a lot of teams will use two defensive supports anyway. That increases March 7th’s value a lot, because she compliments healers or second shielders very well. That’s especially true with higher Eidolons, since March 7th grants an additional shield at E2, and gets a heal over time at E6.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - March 7th

Utility

March 7th can dictate who gets aggro, which no other character can do. And she cleanse debuffs from allies, which is a great tool other shielders, and even Bailu lacks. March 7th also has a counter attack that counts as a follow up, increasing her shield breaking capability. On top of that, she has the Ice element, and can freeze enemies. Freeze simply forces enemies to skip turns, which is very strong defensive countermeasure.

March 7th’s ultimate comes with a built-in freeze base chance, which grows higher with Traces. So she can force her freeze on enemies in an AOE, with minimum investment. Her frequent follow-up attacks increase the chance to freeze, and help break shields as well.

Damage Dealing

March 7th will not build Crit nor ice damage on relics, so her dps will not be huge. However, her frequent counters allow her to attack two additional times per turn. This small damage will build up over time, and it’s certainly higher than all healers, and some shielders.

At E4, March 7th gets an extra counter, raising the cap to three. She also gets Def scaling on her counter damage, which improves her dps noticeably.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

The shield of March 7th lasts for very long time, 4 turns at Ascension 4. This allows her to cast her skill once, and resort to normal attacks for several other turns. However, when facing a lot of AOE, March will be forced to recast this shield, so she start using more SP. Overall, she’s a SP positive character, that downgrades to a neutral SP character under enemy pressure.

It’s very rare for March 7th to turn into negative SP character, especially with another defensive support in the team.

Energy Generation

March 7th has an 120 energy cost ultimate, which is the highest in game, but that doesn’t stop her from generating her energy pretty fast. In reality, March 7th has the potential to be the fastest energy generating character in Honkai: Star Rail. As a preservation character, March 7th has higher aggro than average. If she shields herself, that’s more aggro, so most enemies will target her. Each time March 7th gets hit, she will generate 15 energy, and counter for an extra 10 energy.

The total counters she can deal at E4 is three, so she can accumulate over 75 energy passively per turn, plus an extra 20 from her normal attack, or 30 from her skill, on top of an extra 11 from merely using her ultimate and freezing one enemy. So in one turn, March 7th generates most of her energy, and she definitely can ultimate before the second turn ends, which makes her a good unit to keep enemies frozen for easy defensive utility.

At worst, against a single enemy who doesn’t target March 7th at all, she can still counter, so she will generate her ultimate in a little over two turns.

Team Flexibility

March 7th is slightly less flexible than Bailu, but she’s still up there. Her wide defensive and utility arsenal make her a fit for several team archetypes. She’s actually a preferred pick over some other offensive supports with the same Ice Element. She protects allies, generates SP, spams ultimate, freezes, cleanses, switches aggro, wears on enemy shields, and even heals. There are not many other characters that can replace March 7th, without leaving something to be desired.

There are only a few places where Gepard is more desired than March 7th, and I’ll get to these situations in this tier list. So keep in mind that March 7th doesn’t reign supreme over the Preservation Path, and other characters still have their advantages.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – Gepard – S

Defensive: SS
Utility: B
Damage: B
Skill Point: SS+
Energy Gen: SS

Gepard is the only five star shielder on our Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for Defensive Supports at launch, and a very good one at that. He provides a shield to all allies via his ultimate. Judging by the ability to shield his entire team without using any SP, Gepard should be at the top of our list, an SS character. However, when taking utility into account, Gepard lacks a bit, which holds him back.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - Gepard

Utility

As a character from the Preservation Path, Gepard has higher aggro, and his A2 Trace gives more aggro. That helps Gepard turn enemies’ attention towards himself, and get attacked more often, which in turn, makes building energy for his ultimate much easier, and helps with maintaining shield uptimes. This is excellent feature, that helps protect the team, and increase survivability. However, Gepard’s usefulness stops at that.

Gepard lacks cleanse, counter attacks, damage reduction, and AOE. And his freeze is single target, and consumes SP, which is why I had to put him one rank below Bailu and March 7th. He can’t be considered higher rank, until you invest in all your characters, and survivability becomes less of an issue. At that point, any shielder will do the job, but one with more utility would be more deserving for a team slot.

At current endgame at launch, Gepard is better than March 7th with Yanqing, because Yanqing requires 100% shield uptime, and consumes a lot of SP as well, so Gepard can cover this aspect. But more importantly, Yanqing is a reliable character to freeze enemies, which covers Gepard weakness, and reduces the pressure on the team. That way, Gepard can play as a solo Defensive Support, saving a healer slot. But without Natasha or March 7th, your only source of cleanse would be Bronya, and that’s three Five Star characters, which makes the team insanely expensive and inaccessible to most players.

Damage Dealing

Gepard will only be spamming normal attacks every turn, and his A6 Trace gives him Def scaling. It’s not the worst damage in game, but still nothing compared to other shielders. March 7th has three additional counters per turn, and Fire Trailblazer has AOE enchanted attacks. So Gepard has less damage and shield breaking than these two.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

Gepard can absolutely ignore using his skill, and focus purely on normal attacks and ultimate. That makes him one of the best positive SP characters in the game. However, his skill is the only way Gepard can freeze, so playing without his skill removes the only utility he has.

Energy Generation

When it comes to energy generation, Gepard gets a lot from taunting enemies and getting hit often. He will have an easier time against AOE versus single target, but he still gets a lot. His energy is not as crazy as March 7th’s, but he’s still ahead of most other defensive supports.

Team Flexibility

Gepard doesn’t mind which team you put him in, but he offers little besides shielding. So he’s good in teams that have enough utility and require only survivability. Teams with double Preservation characters, Gepard fits naturally into as a main or sub tank, as well as teams which use Natasha as a source of healing and cleanses, but need more tankiness.

Some team comps are less effective, such as Gepard with Bailu, because none can cleanse, and the survivability would be overkill, while lacking utility. So overall, Gepard is a flexible character with some limitations.

Fire Trailblazer – S

Defensive: A
Utility: S
Damage: S
Skill Point: SS
Energy Gen: S

The Preservation version of the Trailblazer is a perfectly balanced character with a lot of strength in all aspects, which is why he is S on our Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for Defensive Supports. You need shields, as well as damage, shield breaking, energy generation, and SP generation, on top of a taunt and damage reduction. However, his shields are the weakest, and can’t sustain the team alone, even though they get a minor self heal from A6.

As a secondary defensive support though, Fire Trailblazer will shine bright, with decent utility and versatility. They can shield up with normal or enchanted attacks, as well as their skill, and their ultimate does good AOE damage. They are a hybrid between offensive and defensive support, and will add a lot of pressure on enemies. They liberate the team from being stuck in a full defensive setup, and add an offensive element to the mix.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - Fire Trailblazer

Utility

The main defensive utility of a Fire Trailblazer is the on-demand taunt, and damage reduction to the whole team, with even higher damage reduction to self. And the main offensive utility is breaking shields. Trailblazers have a lot of AOE potential, and higher than normal shield break, with the enchanted attack breaking like a skill. This is a huge advantage for breaking shields while generating SP, rather than spending SP.

Compared to proper shield breakers such as Asta, Trailblazers break slightly lower than her, but cost nothing to use. At the same time, Trailblazers provide defensive support normally, so he’s a great pick for most situations, even over full offensive supports.

Damage Dealing

Fire Trailblazer is a good damage dealer, with frequent enchanted attacks, you get higher modifiers, and AOE. We don’t build the Fire Trailblazer with Crit, so their damage is not insane, but their E1 adds def scaling to both normal and enchanted attacks, which Trailblazers have a ton of. That’s on top of ultimate damage, that Trailblazers can spam every two turns.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

The only reason we use the Trailblazer’s skill is to negate a massive AOE enemy is charging, like Cocolia’s skill in the second phase. Trailblazers get massive damage reduction for themselves, and decent damage reduction for their team, so they will switch to consume SP in such situations, but otherwise, they still generate shields fine with normal and enchanted attacks, and they rarely need to consume SP.

I rank Trailblazer in SP generation below Gepard, but above Bailu, March 7th, and Natasha, which is very impressive for a guaranteed character.

Energy Generation

Trailblazers can taunt enemies, get hit often, and generate energy in a similar fashion to Gepard. The difference between them is the energy cost, with Gepard having low 100 energy cost, and Trailblazer high 120 cost. Both don’t have a follow up attack to generate extra energy, but at A6, Trailblazers can generate an extra 5 energy on each turn if they maintain a shield all the time.

Depending on situation, energy generation of Trailblazers can vary from good to excellent.

Team Flexibility

Fire element sees a lot of competition from dps characters such as Hook and Himeko, and shield breakers such as Asta. However, Fire Trailblazer is very competitive against all of them, and more often, Trailblazer is the better choice. That gives them a lot of flexibility to join a lot of teams, and fill several roles.

They are especially good against bosses which are resistant to freeze and weak to fire. Fire Trailblazer can be the solution for such a situation.

Natasha – S

Defensive: S
Utility: S
Damage: B
Skill Point: S
Energy Gen: A

Natasha is the first choice for defensive support, she’s a free guaranteed character who can heal and cleanse. Her kit is very simple, with a single target heal on her skill, and an AOE heal on her ultimate. She functions perfectly fine in most content, until you are faced with aggressive enemies that need a secondary defensive support.

Natasha is not necessarily a downgrade from Bailu, because she still cleanses, which Bailu lacks. So unless you use Bronya or March 7th, you can still make a good case for using Natasha, and in the endgame Abyss, you need two healers to cover two teams anyway.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List - Natasha

Utility

Natasha’s sole utility is cleanse, which is a strong aspect on its own. An enemy with freeze, imprisonment, or the entanglement debuff can ruin your entire rotation by forcing your team to skip turns. Cleanse just make that disappear, on top of removing DoTs from allies, reducing enemy damage.

Damage Dealing

Before E6, Natasha’s damage with normal attacks is very low. However, Physical breaks deal damage based on enemy Max HP, not the character’s damage value. This means Natasha has a way to add some damage, by thinning enemies toughness bars with other shield breakers, and dealing the final hit with Natasha.

The other way that Natasha gains damage is through her E6, which adds HP scaling to her normal attacks. The bonus is really nice, considering the HP value is usually high on a healer such as Natasha. But that’s E6, and not everyone at game launch will get 6 extra copies of Natasha to unlock E6.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

Similar to Bailu, Natasha relies on her normal attacks and ultimate to sustain her team most of the time. However, if enemies deal a lot of damage, Natasha will be forced to use her skill for emergency heals. So overall, she’s an SP positive character, with more SP generation than consumption. Not to the degree of shielders, but very good still.

Note that pairing Natasha with a shielder reduces the pressure on them both to use SP. So that increase SP generation for both, and makes the team go very offensive and SP heavy in the other two slots.

Energy Generation

The two healers in game have poor energy generation, but Natasha has a lower energy cost of 90 on her ultimate. That gives her an easier time, but she still needs a good Light Cone with energy generation to solve her issue. Without “Post-Op Conversation” Natasha needs three turns or more to cast one ultimate, which is really bad. Some enemies don’t spare your team three whole turns, and bombard you with damage.

Team Flexibility

Natasha is part of almost every team at launch, whether she’s used with a shielder or not. She’s more of a must-have, rather than a flexible character. Especially when you try to build two teams for Abyss, you will need a lot more healers, and to acquire them all to replace Natasha. Even still, she will stay relevant because of her cleanse.


Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check Serval Build GuideQingque Build GuideDan Heng Build GuideArlan Build Buide, Sushang Build Guide, Tingyun Build Guide, Pela Build Guide, Hook Build Guide, Bronya Build Guide, Asta Build Guide, Natasha Build Guide, March 7th Build Guide, Welt Build Guide, Seele Build Guide, Sampo Build Guide, Yanqing Build Guide, Gepard Build Guide.

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Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-frost-sorceress-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-frost-sorceress-build-guide/#respond Sun, 14 May 2023 03:10:59 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253330 The post Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Sorceress Build Guide: The Frost Sorceress Diablo 4…

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Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Class Build Guide, I’ll show you how to play a Frost Sorceress, which is a Diablo 4 Build for the Sorceress / Sorcerer that deals rapid burst damage with the Ice Shards Skill. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build that effectively employs crowd-control techniques to Slow and Freeze multiple enemies while making them Vulnerable, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build Guide

The general strategy with this Diablo IV Build is to be able to Chill and Freeze multiple enemies to stop them in their tracks. To do this, you can simply use the Spacebar to dash toward them and then start off by activating Ice Armor. Doing so will conjure a Barrier and absorb the damage you take. The great thing about this is your Mana regeneration also increases. Immediately after, you’ll want to trigger Frost Nova to instantly Freeze them for 3 seconds. Ice Armor and Frost Nova synergize with each other since the damage you deal against frozen enemies improves the Barrier’s strength to be able to take in more damage.

Diablo 4 Build for the Frost Sorceress - Hitting Enemies with Blizzard and Ice Shards

Afterward, you can then spam Ice Shards, which will be your primary Skill. Ice Shards deal increased Cold Damage against frozen targets so you’ll more likely to kill them right then and there. You’ll be using Frost Bolt with this to inflict Chill and generate more Mana to use Ice Shards again. Although you’ll mainly use Ice Shards, you’re going to share some Mana with Blizzard to Slow down your targets while dealing extra damage.

This Skill rotation works even when facing Elites but it isn’t full-proof for Bosses. For instance, Frost Nova won’t Freeze them in place but they’ll be Vulnerable for about 6 seconds. Since they won’t be immobilized, you’ll want to use Deep Freeze to gain immunity so you remain protected when you’re near them. 

Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Sorceress Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Sorceress Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Frost Sorceress Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 SORCERESS SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Frost Bolt  1
 Enhanced Frost Bolt  1
 Glinting Frost Bolt  1
 Ice Shards  5
 Enhanced Ice Shards  1
 Greater Ice Shards  1
 Ice Armor  1
 Enhanced Ice Armor  1
 Mystical Ice Armor  1
 Frost Nova  2
 Enhanced Frost Nova  1
 Mystical Frost Nova  1
 Icy Veil  3
 Blizzard  1
 Enhanced Blizzard  1
 Wizard’s Blizzard  1
 Deep Freeze  1
 Prime Deep Freeze  1
 Supreme Deep Freeze  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Sorc Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ in this Diablo IV Build for the Frost Sorceress, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Frost Nova

Frost Nova is a potent Defensive Skill of this Frost Sorceress D4 Build that lets you instantly Freeze mobs and Elites. They can’t do anything to you so you won’t be damaged. Even though you can’t spam it due to the relatively long cooldown, you have enough time to destroy them with Ice Shards, Frost Bolt, or Blizzard. And thanks to Enhanced Frost Nova, you’ll be able to significantly reduce Frost Nova’s cooldown so you can trigger it more frequently.

Diablo 4 Sorceress Build - Frost Nova Defensive Skill to Freeze Multiple Nearby Enemies

The other upgrade you’ll want to take here is Mystical Frost Nova over Shimmering Frost Nova. It might seem tempting to gain access to the latter modifier due to the extra Mana you’ll generate but Mystical Frost Nova makes affected enemies Vulnerable. This means that they take 20% increased damage. What’s more, is that the Vulnerability duration for Bosses is longer at 6 seconds so you’ll definitely want to go for this option. Doing so will let you whittle down their HP much faster.

Ice Shards

Ice Shards is the bread and butter of this Diablo IV Build for the Sorceress Class because, with this Core Skill, you can launch several rapidly-moving icicles against enemies from any distance. It’s even made all the more effective against Frozen targets so this synergizes very well with Frost Nova and Blizzard. One thing to note here is that at earlier levels, you’re going to run out of Mana more often. Stick with it for a short period until you eventually gain enough points to invest in the rest of the Skills that will generate this resource.

Diablo 4 Sorc Build - Ice Shards Core Skill to Deal Huge Cold Damage

For upgrades in this Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build, you’ll first be choosing Enhanced Ice Shards. This would guarantee that the shards will bounce off of other Frozen targets to deal damage. Next, you’ll be going for Greater Ice Shards, which lets you treat any type of enemy as Frozen so you’re able to deal increased damage. The only condition here is you’ll need to have a Barrier, which you can conjure anyway with Ice Armor.

Ice Armor

Ice Armor is the second and final Defensive Skill that you’ll be getting for this D4 Build. Aside from conjuring a Barrier to serve as a shield and absorb damage, any damage you’ve dealt yourself will carry over to the Barrier’s strength. This means that you’ll be able to hold your ground better, making you survive longer in combat compared to the others. 

Diablo IV Build for the Sorceress - Ice Armor Defensive Skill to Create a Barrier

Ice Armor performs much better in combat when you gain access to Enhanced Ice Armor and Mystical Ice Armor. Not only will your Mana regeneration be improved but you’ll also enhance the effectiveness of the Barrier when dealing damage against Vulnerable enemies, which is great since you’ll often inflict Vulnerable with this Build. You’ll also remain resilient against Bosses because Barrier can now take more damage. 

Frost Bolt

Frost Bolt is a key Basic Skill that Chills enemies to Slow them down while dealing moderate Cold Damage. Consistently inflicting Chill will eventually Freeze them, and when it does, you’ll end up dealing even more damage with Ice Shards. It’s worth noting that you’ll be triggering this a lot to gain enough Mana thanks to the Glinting Frost Bolt modifier. 

Diablo IV Build for the Frost Sorceress - Frost Bolt Basic Skill to Inflict Chill

Blizzard

Blizzard is another powerful crowd control Skill that not only deals great burst Cold Damage but also Chills enemies over time. This will help you kite them in conjunction with Ice Shards. What makes it shine are the Enhanced Blizzard and Wizard’s Blizzard upgrades. Enhanced Blizzard lets you deal more damage against Frozen enemies, which you’ll eventually inflict with this Skill alone or in combination with Frost Bolt and Frost Nova. Meanwhile, Wizard’s Blizzard reduces the Mana cost of Ice Shards so you can cast it more often. This is a huge thing since spamming Ice Shards is what you’re aiming for to destroy impaired mobs quickly.

Diablo IV Build for the Frost Sorceress - Blizzard Mastery Skill to Deal Burst Cold Damage

At Level 15, the Frost Sorceress Diablo 4 Build will gain access to 1 Enchantment Specialization slot. Here, you’ll want to choose Blizzard over Ice Shards. As such, Blizzard will automatically be cast at regular intervals without having to spend Mana. So it’s a great way to take advantage of the Skill while reserving your resource for Ice Shards.

Sorc Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled quite similarly in this Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build, but there are some key differences. First, you’ll still trigger Ice Armor every time it refreshes. On top of the Barrier you get to mitigate any damage from them, you end up boosting the damage of Ice Shards since Bosses will be treated as Frozen. Next, you’ll use Frost Nova for the primary reason of inflicting Vulnerable for 6 seconds rather than attempting to Freeze them. As such, the overall damage you’ll deal will be larger. You should then activate Ice Shards as much as possible.

When you run out of Mana, you’ll still be using Frost Bolt. You’ll also trigger Blizzard as needed since it’ll be automatically cast thanks to your Enchantment. And out of all the Skills, you’ll be triggering Deep Freeze as a means to not only deal extra Cold Damage but also to survive these tough encounters.

Deep Freeze

Deep Freeze is the ultimate ability that makes you momentarily Immune to taking any damage in addition to removing impairments you may have had before casting it. When this ends, you’ll be dealing extra damage. For Deep Freeze, you’ll want to allocate points to both upgrades.

Diablo IV Build - Deep Freeze Ultimate Skill to Become Immune

Prime Deep Freeze lets you summon another Barrier as soon as Deep Freeze ends. Its strength is based on the number of enemies you’ve frozen. The more affected targets, the stronger this shield becomes, thereby taking in greater damage. Meanwhile, Supreme Deep Freeze cuts the cooldown of Skills that require it by 50%, allowing you to use Frost Nova and Ice Armor more frequently. 

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Frost Sorceress Build, you should be on the lookout for gear that gives bonuses to Intelligence, Dexterity, Willpower, Cold Damage, Crowd Control Duration, Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies, Vulnerable Damage Bonus, Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Mana, and Mana Regeneration. Of course, Damage Reduction from Close Enemies and Maximum Life should help you stay alive on the battlefield longer even if you have Barriers in place, which makes this D4 Sorceress Build very resilient and one of the best Builds out there.

A great passive to invest all 3 points into is Icy Veil. This lengthens Barrier’s uptime so you won’t receive direct hits to your HP every time it’s active. 

When it comes to the Legendary Aspects for this Diablo 4 Build, be sure to chase after the Aspect of Piercing Cold, Storm Swell Aspect, Aspect of the Protector, Aspect of Control, and Aspect of Efficiency. Piercing Cold makes it so that you deal additional Piercing Damage with Ice Shards. This Core Skill will hit more but the succeeding targets take in less of this extra damage. Be sure to slot this in your Two-Handed Staff to gain a 100% power increase.

Aspect of Piercing Cold

Next is Storm Swell, which buffs the damage you deal against Vulnerable targets as long as your Barrier is active. It becomes highly effective when coupled with the Aspect of the Protector. This automatically grants a Barrier when you’re facing an Elite. Meanwhile, Aspect of Control significantly boosts Cold Damage against Frozen enemies so it comes in very handy when you’re using Ice Shards against them. And lastly, there’s the Aspect of Efficiency, which you’ll need to further lower Mana consumption when Frost Bolt is cast.


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-twisting-blades-rogue-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-twisting-blades-rogue-build-guide/#respond Sat, 13 May 2023 07:19:18 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253257 The post Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build Guide: The Twisting Blades Rogue Diablo…

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Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Rogue Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Twisting Blades Rogue, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Rogue that impales enemies with the Twisting Blades Skill to inflict massive AoE damage. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build that deals burst damage left and right, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide

The way this Diablo IV Build works is you’ll want to initiate combat by using Shadow Step to close the gap between you and your enemies while attacking them from behind. This, in combination with Shadow Imbuement, buffs and converts the damage you deal to Shadow Damage in order to infect several targets. You can then cast Puncture to accumulate Combo Points. Once you’ve spammed it 3x, I recommend activating Twisting Blades to deal almost +85% additional damage. Be sure to also equip Dual Wielded Weapons as this Build heavily makes use of Skills that require it.

The aspect that will help the most here is the Bladedancer’s Aspect, making it so that the returning blades orbit around you in the end to deal extra damage. This new Orbit Damage is further amplified based on the enemies pierced by the boomerang effect. And last but not least, you’ll need Dash to dart from one group of enemies to the next for better repositioning.

Diablo 4 Build for the Twisting Blades Rogue - Bladedancer's Aspect

If you’re going for the Inner Sight Specialization against Elites and Bosses, you’ll only need to use Puncture 2x, but you should be close enough to your target to inflict Vulnerable. Doing so will allow you to hit harder to defeat them efficiently. What’s more, is that the skill rotation remains essentially the same as with Combo Points. You’ll cast Shadow Imbuement followed by Twisting Blades until you run out of Energy. Remember that you’ll also invest points into the Shadow Clone Ultimate to be able to summon your shadow who will perform the same actions as you.

Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Rogue Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Rogue Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Twisting Blades Rogue Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 ROGUE SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Puncture  1
 Enhanced Puncture  1
 Fundamental Puncture  1
 Twisting Blades  5
 Enhanced Twisting Blades  1
 Advanced Twisting Blades  1
 Shadow Step  1
 Enhanced Shadow Step  1
 Methodical Shadow Step  1
 Dash  1
 Exploit  3
 Shadow Crash  1
 Consuming Shadows  3
 Shadow Imbuement  1
 Enhanced Shadow Imbuement  1
 Blended Shadow Imbuement  1
 Shadow Clone  1
 Prime Shadow Clone  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Twisting Blades Rogue, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Shadow Step

Shadow Step is an Agility Skill of this Twisting Blades Rogue D4 Build that lets you move fast like an assassin since it not only increases your Movement Speed but also grants Unstoppable so you can move smoothly between enemies without getting incapacitated. With Unstoppable, any crowd control effects that you previously had such as Slowed or Stunned will automatically be removed plus, you also gain immunity from them. This is essential to the Rogue since your Health and defenses aren’t all that great so the longer you survive in combat, the better.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build - Shadow Step Agility Skill to Gain Unstoppable

Here, you’ll want to allocate points into Enhanced Shadow Step to raise your Critical Strike Chance together with Methodical Shadow Step to Stun them every time Shadow Step is used.

Shadow Imbuement

As with the rest of the Diablo IV Builds for the Rogue Class, you’ll be able to choose the type of damage you deal. For this Twisting Blades Rogue, we’re going to pick Shadow Imbuement to convert your damage into Shadow Damage and infect multiple targets. But the best part about this Skill involves setting off explosions. As long as one infected target dies, you’ll be able to deal devastating AoE damage against surrounding enemies. This damage increases further when you also invest in Blended Shadow Imbuement since they become Vulnerable. 

Diablo 4 Rogue Build - Shadow Imbuement Skill to Deal Shadow Damage

Should they remain alive even after the infection ends, the same affected targets will receive extra damage. So you’ll still end up killing them efficiently. More often than not, their HPs will have been reduced, making Enhanced Shadow Imbuement desirable since there’s a higher chance to deal Critical Damage against them.

For passives of this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build, you’ll be taking Shadow Crash to gain access to Consuming Shadows. Shadow Crash raises the chances of Stunning enemies when they receive Shadow Damage. But the Skill you’ll want more is Consuming Shadows, hence the 3-point investment. This lets you generate considerable Energy provided that you kill them using Shadow Imbuement. As a result, this Imbuement Skill becomes another good option to finish off enemies to increase the uptime of Twisting Blades.

Diablo IV Build for the Rogue - Consuming Shadows Passive Skill to Generate Energy

Puncture

Puncture is a Basic Skill for this D4 Build that lets you throw blades at targets to deal some damage. But what also makes it useful is the Slow condition, which you can inflict upon casting Puncture 3x to maximize the Combo Points you use. More Combo Points significantly amplifies the burst damage of Twisting Blades so after accumulating enough, you should immediately activate this Core Skill. What’s more, is that you gain extra Energy thanks to Enhanced Puncture

Diablo IV Build for the Twisting Blades Rogue - Puncture Basic Skill to Throw Blades

And finally, you should invest in Fundamental Puncture, which not only raises the number of blades you throw but also increases the damage taken by enemies.

Twisting Blades

Twisting Blades works hand-in-hand with Fundamental Puncture. As you impale your Vulnerable enemy, the damage you deal becomes considerably higher. As mentioned earlier, Twisting Blades will trigger a boomerang effect where the blades that will travel back to you will pierce through nearby targets as a result. 

Diablo IV Build for the Twisting Blades Rogue - Twisting Blades Core Skill to Deal Massive Damage

Since this is the main skill of your Twisting Blades Rogue Diablo 4 Build, you’ll want to max it out and then get Enhanced Twisting Blades together with Advanced Twisting Blades. Enhanced Twisting Blades amplifies the damage dealt of the returning blades while Advanced Twisting Blades lowers all active cooldowns based on the number of enemies hit by the boomerang effect. As such, you’ll want to engage dozens of enemies to be able to activate Skills that have cooldowns more often.

Dash

Dash is another gap closer that allows you to deal damage while you’re darting from one point to the next. You can also use it to disengage from fights. But note that you won’t need enhancements for this Skill since it’ll be primarily used for movement. Blitzing from one group of enemies to the next will help increase your Piercing Damage caused by the returning blades of the Twisting Blades Skill.

Diablo IV Build - Dash Agility Skill to Charge Toward Enemies

Rogue Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build in terms of the order of Skills you trigger. Instead of starting with Shadow Step, you’ll want to be fully ready by buffing the damage dealt by Twisting Blades. So you’ll first cast Puncture to build your Combo Points. You can then use Dash to charge toward them if you’re not close enough, followed by Shadow Imbuement for the extra Shadow Damage. And then you’ll finally make use of Twisting Blades while reserving Shadow Step to stave off any impairment effects you gain. This is also used to disengage from fights if things become more challenging.

Shadow Clone

Shadow Clone is an ultimate ability that will provide you with aid by conjuring your own shadow to copy the actions you’re pulling off. Although the damage won’t be as potent, it’s a nice form of assistance to have, especially when facing strong foes. You can also invest in Prime Shadow Clone to have another option to make you Unstoppable every time Shadow Clone is activated.

Diablo IV Build - Shadow Clone Ultimate Skill to Summon a Shadow

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build, you should be on the lookout for gear that gives bonuses to Dexterity, Intelligence, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage Bonus, Damage to Close Enemies, Damage to Slowed Enemies, Core Skill Damage, Energy Cost Reduction, and Cooldown Reduction. Damage Reduction is also good to pick up where you’re often susceptible to taking in lots of damage in the melee range. It’s a pretty OP D4 Rogue Build due to the massive burst damage you deal.

In addition to Consuming Shadows, Exploit is a great passive for this Build because it increases the damage you deal against Healthy and Injured targets. So whether you’re starting out in combat or while you’re already in the middle of it, you’ll still manage to destroy enemies faster. 

When it comes to Legendary Aspects, you’ll also want to get the Aspect of Surprise and Ravenous Aspect for this Diablo 4 Build. Surprise is a crowd control aspect that leaves behind grenades to Stun clusters of enemies upon triggering Shadow Step. Meanwhile, Ravenous Aspect rewards you with increased Energy regeneration when a Vulnerable enemy is slain, which works hand-in-hand with Puncture.

Aspect of Surprise

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-poison-flurry-rogue-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-poison-flurry-rogue-build-guide/#respond Sat, 13 May 2023 07:05:42 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253285 The post Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build Guide: The Poison Flurry Rogue Diablo…

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Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Rogue Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Poison Flurry Rogue, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Rogue that concentrates on unleashing a flash of attacks to render multiple targets Vulnerable. If you’ve been searching for a good Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build that impairs enemies while killing them with Poison, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build Guide

The way this Diablo IV Build works is you’ll engage in fights by charging toward multiple targets with Dash. You’ll then make use of Puncture 3x in order to inflict Slow and Vulnerable, and gain sufficient Energy. This same Skill also lets you accumulate 3 Combo Points to boost Flurry’s overall damage. But before using it, you’ll want to imbue your Dual-Wielded Weapon with Poison so that you can be sure to destroy the majority of your foes. Afterward, it’ll be the perfect time to activate Flurry, which is not only your major source of damage but also a Skill that’ll restore a portion of your HP when you hit Vulnerable enemies. 

Diablo 4 Build for the Poison Flurry Rogue - Condemnation Dual-Wielded Weapon

This standard rotation works well against mobs. You can also start by running toward them and then using Caltrops. Caltrops will make you leap backward to avoid getting attacked while dealing damage and inflicting Slow. And then, you can rush toward your enemies with Dash, followed by Puncture, Poison Imbuement, and Flurry. Alternatively, you can make use of Caltrops near the end of the encounter. If you need to disengage, you can opt for this Skill rather than Dash so enemies won’t be able to reach you. 

When you’re dealing with Elites and Bosses, you’re going to want to make use of Death Trap. This should all pull them within an AoE to deal massive damage even before unleashing Flurry. So you gain a distinct advantage right from the start. It also has a faster cooldown compared to Shadow Clone.

Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Rogue Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Rogue Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Poison Flurry Rogue Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 ROGUE SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Puncture  1
 Enhanced Puncture  1
 Fundamental Puncture  1
 Flurry  5
 Enhanced Flurry  1
 Improved Flurry  1
 Caltrops  1
 Enhanced Caltrops  1
 Disciplined Caltrops  1
 Dash  1
 Enhanced Dash  1
 Methodical Dash  1
 Exploit  1
 Malice  3
 Poison Imbuement  1
 Enhanced Poison Imbuement  1
 Blended Poison Imbuement  1
 Death Trap  1
 Prime Death Trap  1
 Supreme Death Trap  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Poison Flurry Rogue, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Dash

Dash is one of the Movement Skills of this Poison Flurry Rogue D4 Build that lets you close the gap between you and your enemies. It also allows you to deal moderate damage as you’re surging from one point to the next. The great thing about Dash is its low cooldown so you can certainly use it in dangerous situations when you need enough breathing room to disengage from foes. 

Diablo 4 Rogue Build - Dash Agility Skill

The upgrades that will benefit you greatly are Enhanced Dash together with Methodical Dash. Enhanced Dash buffs the Critical Strike Damage you deal. Comparatively, Methodical Dash reduces Dash’s cooldown even more when used against crowd-controlled targets. You can then activate this in conjunction with Caltrops and Puncture to Slow them down. I’ll discuss these further in the next sections.

Caltrops

The reason why you’ll want 2 Agility Skills for this Diablo IV Build is to have a ton of control and mobility on the battlefield. This is especially important since the Rogue isn’t tanky enough. With Caltrops, you’re able to engage and disengage from fights on top of dealing sufficient damage and inflicting Slow. To enhance this Skill, you’ll need to unlock Enhanced Caltrops and Disciplined Caltrops

Diablo 4 Rogue Build - Caltrops Agility Skill to Slow Down Enemies

Enhanced Caltrops makes it so that enemies receive greater damage from Caltrops while Disciplined Caltrops raises the chances of landing crits, especially when they’re Vulnerable. As such, you can potentially kill them or at the very least, weaken them.

Puncture

Puncture is a good Basic Skill to have for this Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build because you can damage enemies from a shorter distance by throwing blades at them. What’s more, is that since Puncture will be triggered 3x, you’ll always Slow them down. 

Diablo IV Build for the Rogue - Puncture Basic Skill to Throw Blades

Here, you’ll want to take Enhanced Puncture to gain Energy in order to trigger Flurry more often. And then, you’ll be going for Fundamental Puncture to render targets Vulnerable for a couple of seconds. Vulnerable synergizes well with the rest of your Skills so you can deal greater damage.

Poison Imbuement

For the Imbuement Skill, you’re going to pick Poison Imbuement for this D4 Build to deal Poison DoT. This is fairly straightforward as your aim here is to quickly weaken enemies so you can deal killing blows with Flurry.

Diablo IV Build for the Poison Flurry Rogue - Poison Imbuement Skill to Deal Poison Damage

For upgrades, be sure to choose Enhanced Poison Imbuement and Blended Poison Imbuement. With these, you not only raise the duration of Poison but also increase the Poison Damage you deal with Critical Strikes. So you’ll want to search for bonuses to improve your Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Bonus.

Flurry

Right after imbuing your Dual-Wielded Weapons with Poison, you’ll trigger Flurry. This is the Core Skill that will gain more than 100% damage boost provided by Puncture. Flurry essentially allows you to whip up your Weapon to slash enemies in front of you by up to 4x. Aside from investing all 5 points into it, you’ll need to unlock Enhanced Flurry and Improved Flurry

Diablo IV Build for the Poison Flurry Rogue - Flurry Core Skill to Stab and Slash Enemies

Enhanced Flurry is an essential upgrade because as it restores your HP is restored upon attacking Vulnerable targets. Since you’ll weaken them tremendously, the chances of you living longer in combat will be much higher. This also becomes more effective with Improved Flurry, which then turns all nearby enemies Vulnerable, making them susceptible to taking massive damage.

The passives you’ll want to acquire to boost the effectiveness of your Poison Flurry Rogue Diablo 4 Build are Exploit and Malice. Between the two though, you’ll be allocating the most points to Malice to raise your damage against Vulnerable targets.

Diablo IV Build - Malice Passive Skill to Inflict Vulnerable
Diablo IV Build - Exploit Passive Skill

Rogue Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build in terms of the order of Skills you trigger. You can start off with the usual Dash and Caltrops, followed by Death Trap to pull Bosses toward a concentrated AoE. Once entrapped, trigger Puncture 3x to acquire Combo Points and buff Flurry’s damage. And finally, you’ll be activating Flurry. 

Death Trap

Death Trap is a very potent ultimate ability because it deals a whopping 250% damage each against every affected enemy. And it’s made all the more effective thanks to Prime Death Trap and Supreme Death Trap. Prime Death Trap creates a vacuum in the AoE to pull more foes. Meanwhile, Supreme Death Trap rewards you by decreasing the skill’s cooldown from 50 seconds to 40 seconds as long as you slay a target using this ultimate. The more Death Trap kills, the faster you can trigger it again.

Diablo IV Build - Death Trap Ultimate Skill to Trap Enemies and Deal Shadow Damage

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Poison Flurry Rogue Build, you should be on the lookout for gear that gives bonuses to Dexterity, Intelligence, Poison Damage, Damage to Close Enemies, Damage to Slowed Enemies, and Core Skill Damage. Of course, Cooldown Reduction and Damage Reduction are good to have as well to be able to activate other Skills more frequently and to survive longer in combat. This is a slow-burn Diablo IV Build of the Rogue Class because it combines the burst damage of Flurry with the DoT of Poison Imbuement.

When it comes to Legendary Aspects, you’ll want to prioritize obtaining the Aspect of Encircling Blades and Aspect of Bursting Venoms. Encircling Blades improves the range of Flurry, allowing you to deal greater damage to nearby enemies, even those positioned at the side or behind you. Meanwhile, Bursting Venoms increases the chances of creating a Poisonous pool. This will deal DoT against enemies standing on top of it as long as you deal Critical Damage using Poison Imbuement. If you’re within the AoE, Poison Imbuement’s cooldown will be zero, allowing you to essentially reactivate the Skill sooner.

Aspect of Encircling Blades

Lastly, you may want to consider picking up Cheat’s Aspect for this Diablo 4 Build. This is defensive in nature such that you end up taking lesser damage against enemies affected by crowd control. So basically, those whom you’re primarily fighting. Additionally, your Movement Speed is boosted when they attack you.


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-hammer-barbarian-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-hammer-barbarian-build-guide/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 04:36:50 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253183 The post Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build Guide: The Hammer Barbarian Diablo 4…

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Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Barbarian Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Hammer Barbarian, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Barbarian that specializes in quickly smashing enemies to bits and pieces by combining Leap for optimal positioning with Hammer of the Ancients as the primary Skill. If you’ve been searching for a good Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build that deals great burst damage, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build Guide

The main goal for this Diablo IV Build is to maintain high levels of Fury in order to fully utilize the burst damage caused by Hammer of the Ancients. Specifically, the Furious Hammer of the Ancients upgrade lets you deal extra damage based on the amount of Fury you’ve started with right before activating the corresponding Core Skill. But thankfully, there are a number of ways to generate this resource effectively. On top of equipping a Two-Handed Mace, which also synergizes well with Bash, you’ll be making use of Leap, Rallying Cry, and Death Blow.

Diablo 4 Build for the Hammer Barbarian - Overkill Two-Handed Mace

Leap is the Skill you’ll want to engage with because this allows you to hop from one group of enemies to the next while pairing it with Bash for efficient resource generation. You can then trigger Hammer of the Ancients when your Fury is high or at a maximum to effectively obliterate them. In cases when they manage to survive the persistent smashing of your hammers, you can finish them off with Death Blow, which is also very handy against Bosses. 

And finally, you’ll be reserving Call of the Ancients when facing Elites and Bosses to not only deal massive damage but also to incapacitate them with Slow and Stun.

Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Barbarian Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Hammer Barbarian Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 BARBARIAN SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Bash  1
 Enhanced Bash  1
 Battle Bash  1
 Hammer of the Ancients  5
 Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients  1
 Furious Hammer of the Ancients  1
 Endless Fury  3
 Rallying Cry  1
 Enhanced Rallying Cry  1
 Tactical Rallying Cry  1
 Leap  1
 Enhanced Leap  1
 Power Leap  1
 Death Blow  1
 Enhanced Death Blow  1
 Fighter’s Death Blow  1
 Thick Skin  1
 Call of the Ancients  1
 Prime Call of the Ancients  1
 Supreme Call of the Ancients  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Barb Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Hammer Barbarian, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Leap

As mentioned earlier, Leap is the Skill you’ll be using to initiate combat. It provides the necessary mobility to instantly hurl yourself on top of enemies to slam and knock them back while dealing a bit of Splash Damage. To make the most out of Leap, you’ll want to unlock Enhanced Leap and Power Leap

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build - Leap Brawling Skill

Here’s the thing with this Hammer Barbarian D4 Build. This Brawling Skill is also useful when you need to create space between you and your targets to escape dangerous situations. In such instances, Enhanced Leap will take effect because you’re less likely to inflict any damage on an enemy. Doing so would reduce the cooldown of Leap by 4 seconds. Alternatively, you can zip in and out of combat just to be able to use this Skill more frequently. When you harm at least 1 target you gain decent Fury as fuel for Hammer of the Ancients thanks to Power Leap.

Bash

Out of the rest of the available Basic Skills for this Diablo IV Build, Bash stands out because it provides the highest amount of base Fury. Here’s where equipping a Two-Handed Weapon starts to become essential. While you’re dealing massive Bludgeoning Damage, you’ll be able to inflict Stun, but with a Two-Handed Weapon, the duration at which your targets remain immobilized increases. 

Diablo 4 Barb Build - Bash Basic Skill for Fury Generation

The conditions for impaired enemies significantly improve once you gain access to Enhanced Bash and Battle Bash. Every time you damage them, Enhanced Bash grants Fortify, thereby considerably reducing the damage you take to keep you alive longer in combat. Later on, you can allocate 1 point to Thick Skin to further raise your resilience even by a small amount. Meanwhile, Battle Bash grants more Fury, especially when you’re wielding a Two-Handed Weapon. This works hand-in-hand with Endless Fury, which further boosts Fury Generation every time Bash is triggered. 

Rallying Cry

Rallying Cry is a versatile Shout Skill for this Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build, because of its ability to boost your Movement Speed, which is a requirement for Barbarians to traverse areas efficiently, and Fury Generation on top of removing crowd control effects. So even though it has a relatively long cooldown, you’ll find this handy to consistently maintain the uptime of Hammer of the Ancients.

Diablo IV Build for the Barbarian - Rallying Cry Defensive Skill to Gain Unstoppable

For Rallying Cry’s upgrades, you’ll want to obtain Enhanced Rallying Cry followed by Tactical Rallying Cry. With Enhanced Rallying Cry, you become Unstoppable so you can’t be Stunned, Rooted in Place, or Slowed. What’s more, is that you gain immunity to these conditions, letting you move without fear. On the other hand, Tactical Rallying Cry significantly raises your resource by granting 20 Fury and +20% extra Fury every time this Defensive Skill is activated.

Hammer of the Ancients

Hammer of the Ancients is the main draw of this D4 Build, which lets you slam a hammer to deal devastating burst damage in a specific area. Aside from fully investing in this Core Skill, you’ll want to gain access to Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients to continually generate more Fury every time you attack a target as well as Furious Hammer of the Ancients

Diablo IV Build for the Hammer Barbarian - Hammer of the Ancients Core Skill to Slam Your Hammer

As mentioned earlier, the higher your Fury is before using Hammer of the Ancients, the more potent your damage will be. So ideally, you’d want to trigger this every time your resource is at its maximum level. You’ll then use other Fury-generating Skills in order to make the most out of this Core Skill. Of course, you’re not limited to the ones I’ve mentioned before since it’s better to utilize Death Blow, especially when you need to finish off your already weakened targets.

Barb Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build because you’re going to have to rely on a few more Skills such as Death Blow and Call of the Ancients on top of Hammer of the Ancients to successfully deal greater burst damage. 

Death Blow

Death Blow is a great way to slay enemies with low HP, regardless of the type. But against Elites and Bosses, you’ll want to gain Enhanced Death Blow to considerably amplify the damage you deal against them. Meanwhile, Fighter’s Death Blow lets you generate additional Fury as long as you attack a single enemy.

Diablo IV Build for the Hammer Barbarian - Death Blow Weapon Mastery Skill to Kill Enemies

Death Blow is amazing, and one that you’ll want to often use, especially when you’re about to kill an enemy. Doing so would instantly reset this Weapon Mastery Skill’s cooldown. So if you’ve sufficiently softened Bosses with Hammer of the Ancients and Bash, you can keep activating Death Blow to annihilate them one by one.

Call of the Ancients

Call of the Ancients is an interesting ultimate because, unlike Wrath of the Berserker, you’ll be employing the help of 3 Ancients to destroy enemies for you. It works best in combination with both upgrades, Prime Call of the Ancients and Supreme Call of the Ancients. You’ll gain extra Attack Speed, increased damage, and additional Fury. 

Diablo IV Build - Call of the Ancients Ultimate Skill to Summon Ancients

Fury is replenished when one of the Ancients, specifically Korlic, deals damage using Frenzy. Meanwhile, Talic can inflict Slow with Whirlwind while Madawc can Stun them with Upheaval. So it’s a great mix of Barbarian Skills that will greatly benefit this Build in terms of quickly dealing with the Elites you’re facing. You’ll not only inflict multiple status effects but also obliterate them with huge burst damage. 

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Hammer Barbarian Build, be on the lookout for Strength, Dexterity, Damage to Close Enemies, Life on Kill, Damage Reduction, Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Fury, and Fury Cost Reduction. Of course, Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Bonus are good to have to land crits frequently. This is a great Diablo IV OP Build of the Barbarian Class that’s beginner-friendly due to the huge damage you deal.

For the Legendary Aspects, the two mandatory ones you’ll want to chase after are Aspect of Unrelenting Fury and Aspect of Ancestral Force. Unrelenting Fury is an incredible aspect because every time you cast Hammer of the Ancients and subsequently kill an enemy, a portion of the Fury you’ve spent will be refunded so this will come in handy when facing mobs. But remember that it can only be triggered once for each time this Core Skill is used. Meanwhile, Ancestral Force increases the AoE and damage of Hammer of the Ancients.

Aspect of Ancestral Force

Lastly, you may also want to consider acquiring the Aspect of Ancestral Echoes and the Aspect of Bul-Kathos for this Diablo 4 Build. Ancestral Echoes gives you a chance to summon an Ancient when you deal damage with Leap. The Ancient will then perform the same Brawling Skill against enemies. On the other hand, Bul-Kathos also makes use of Leap but it conjures an Earthquake to deal extra Physical Damage. And as long as you remain within the Earthquake’s area, the damage you take will be lower.


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-thorns-barbarian-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-thorns-barbarian-build-guide/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 04:34:50 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253169 The post Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build Guide: The Thorns Barbarian Diablo 4…

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Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Barbarian Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Thorns Barbarian, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Barbarian that taunts large groups of enemies and annihilates them with Thorns by dealing huge Reflect Damage. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build that also focuses on entering Berserk to greatly improve your overall damage and speed, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide

The way this Diablo IV Build works is that you’ll initiate combat with Lunging Strike followed by Challenging Shout. Lunging Strike closes the gap between you and your enemies while dealing average damage. You should then activate Challenging Shout in order to taunt the rest of the group, boost your Maximum Life, and gain Thorns. So that every time they directly attack you, the damage is automatically reflected back at them. This is made more effective with the Needleflare Aspect, which has a chance to damage all nearby enemies based on the Thorn Damage you inflict.

Diablo 4 Build for the Thorns Barbarian - Needleflare Aspect

Another reason why you’ll want to group up enemies is for the Upheaval Skill. As long as you damage at least two of them, you trigger Berserk for 2 seconds. Berserk can be triggered once again with Death Blow, which is also a powerful Skill to use against Bosses and other targets who are about to die. 

For Elites and Bosses, you’ll want to trigger Death Blow and Wrath of the Berserker to not only deal massive damage but also keep Berserk active while increasing the damage buff it grants.

Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is made up of the 5 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Barbarian Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Thorns Barbarian Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 BARBARIAN SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Lunging Strike  1
 Enhanced Lunging Strike  1
 Battle Lunging Strike  1
 Upheaval  1
 Enhanced Upheaval  1
 Violent Upheaval  1
 Imposing Presence  2
 Martial Vigor  3
 Outburst  3
 Tough as Nails  3
 Challenging Shout  1
 Enhanced Challenging Shout  1
 Strategic Challenging Shout  1
 Death Blow  1
 Enhanced Death Blow  1
 Warrior’s Death Blow  1
 Wrath of the Berserker  1
 Prime Wrath of the Berserker  1
 Supreme Wrath of the Berserker  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Barb Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Thorns Barbarian, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Lunging Strike

Just like the Whirlwind Build, you’re going to start with Lunging Strike, which is your main engagement Skill. It’s a good way to deal moderate damage but more importantly, this lets you traverse quickly in encounters, especially since the Barbarian moves relatively slow compared to the other Classes. Now with this Thorns Berserker D4 Build, you’ll want to unlock Enhanced Lunging Strike as well as Combat Lunging Strike for improved survivability and trigger Berserking, respectively.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build - Lunging Strike Basic Skill

Enhanced Lunging Strike not only amplifies damage but also heals you upon damaging a target with max Health. On the other hand, Combat Lunging Strike instantly grants Berserk to further increase damage and Movement Speed but the catch here is you’ll need to land crits with Lunging Strike. As such, one of the bonuses you should prioritize chasing after is Critical Strike Chance.

Challenging Shout

Challenging Shout is a very potent Skill that allows you to taunt enemies effectively while reducing the damage you take. The reason why you’re opting for this is to gather as many targets as possible to hit them with Reflect Damage brought about by Thorns. As a result, you’re going to be highly exposed so to keep increasing your Maximum Life, you’ll need Enhanced Challenging Shout.

Diablo 4 Barb Build - Challenging Shout Defensive Skill to Taunt Nearby Enemies

And then, you’ll be picking Strategic Challenging Shout to make use of half of your current Maximum Life to determine how much Thorns Damage you can inflict. What you’re aiming for here is to take advantage of surviving long-winded encounters while dealing huge Thorns Damage.

Upheaval

Upheaval is another useful Skill for this Diablo IV Build that will trigger Berserk. It’s Fury-centric, which means that you need a sufficient amount of this resource to activate the Core Skill and deal great damage against multiple enemies. It also has a terrific control-impairing effect when you gain access to Enhanced Upheaval to proc Stun while you’re dealing damage. 

Diablo IV Build for the Barbarian Class - Upheaval Core Skill

And since you’re more likely to attract a lot of targets thanks to Challenging Shout, you’ll gain Berserk and be able to maintain it much longer. Berserk amplifies your damage and improves Movement Speed, which the Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build greatly needs.

Barb Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build because they’re not straightforward to go up against if you’re limited to dealing Thorns Damage. It’s for this reason that we have to change our tactics a bit.

Death Blow

The great thing about Death Blow is it’s very effective against regular mobs and Bosses. This Weapon Mastery Skill even rewards you further upon defeating just a single enemy. As such, you trigger it over and over again since the cooldown will be reset. So you won’t have to wait for 15 seconds before using it. 

Diablo IV Build for the Thorns Barbarian - Death Blow Weapon Mastery Skill

Particularly, Death Blow is best used to finish off targets who are nearing their demise. It’s made all the more essential in tougher encounters due to Enhanced Death Blow. This upgrade will significantly boost damage when facing Bosses by +100%! Since you want to make sure to keep Berserk up for the most part of combat, you’ll be taking Warrior’s Death Blow. Here, you’re not required to kill enemies to activate Berserk but, of course, it would be better. Instead, damaging them with Death Blow is enough.

Remember to also allocate points to Martial Vigor in order to reduce the damage this D4 Build takes against Bosses. And if in case the enemy is too beefy, you’ll need to weaken them first with Upheaval and Wrath of the Berserker. 

Wrath of the Berserker

Wrath of the Berserker is best used against Elites, and it’s the last Skill to use in order to activate Berserk while generating enough Fury to repeatedly cast Upheaval. At its basic form, you’re guaranteed to go Berserking once Lunging Strike comes into effect. You can even Knock Back enemies and become Unstoppable to break free from crowd control. So you won’t be vulnerable to getting Stunned, Slowed, or Blinded so you can perform at your best.

Diablo IV Build for the Thorns Barbarian - Wrath of the Berserker Ultimate Skill to Gain Berserking and Unstoppable

Meanwhile, you’ll be gaining access to two of Wrath of the Berserker’s upgrades, namely Prime Wrath of the Berserker and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. These will increase both Movement Speed and Fury Generation in addition to boosting the damage provided by Berserk when Upheaval is triggered, making it so that Bosses will no longer be a threat to you.

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build, be on the lookout for Strength, Dexterity, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage Bonus, Thorns, and Cooldown Reduction. Meanwhile, Maximum Life, Life on Kill, and Damage Reduction will help you live longer in combat, which you’ll need to rely on given the massive damage you take in the melee range. Once you have these, this will be considered one of the strongest and most resilient Diablo IV Builds of the Barbarian Class.

When it comes to passives, you’ll be investing in Imposing Presence, Outburst, and Tough as Nails. Imposing Presence raises your Maximum Life, and in doing so improves survivability and Thorns Damage whereas Outburst further increases Thorns % based on your current Maximum Life, making them synergize well with each other. And finally, Tough as Nails raises Thorns by a fixed percentage while also dealing a bit of Bleeding damage over time (DoT).

Outburst Passive Skill
Tough as Nails Passive Skill

For the Legendary Aspects, the must-have for this Diablo 4 Build is the Needleflare Aspect, which will give you a chance to deal Thorns Damage to all nearby enemies regardless of whether or not they hit you. Remember to slot this in your Two-Handed Weapon to boost its power by 100%! Next is the Death Wish Aspect to gain more Thorns while Berserking whereas the Aspect of the Protector, which should be slotted in Amulets to increase the Power by 50%, creates a Barrier to absorb damage. Lastly, there’s the Aspect of Echoing Fury to allow Challenging Shout to generate Fury for Upheaval while the Skill remains active.


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build Guide https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-whirlwind-barbarian-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/diablo-4-barbarian-build-whirlwind-barbarian-build-guide/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 04:32:24 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=253129 The post Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build Guide: The Whirlwind Barbarian Diablo 4…

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Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Barbarian Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Whirlwind Barbarian, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Barbarian that quickly kills large groups of enemies with the Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build that focuses on slaying numerous enemies, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build Guide

The main feature of this Diablo IV Build is the Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind, which will help pull multiple enemies toward the center of the whirlwind. Now if you’re facing ranged targets, the idea is to use Lunging Strike to reach them, followed by Rallying Cry to generate enough Fury before activating Whirlwind. Once you have them in your clutches, you should trigger War Cry to acquire Berserking in order to significantly improve your damage. These combinations of buffs will allow you to maintain Whirlwind while moving forward through any dungeon without having to worry about Fury as long as there are enemies you can hit.

Diablo 4 Build for the Whirlwind Barbarian - Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind

For Elites and Boss fights, you can activate Wrath of the Berserker for an even greater boost in damage and movement speed. Since Shout Skills have a limited duration, you should wait until War Cry and Rallying Cry are over to use your ultimate.

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build Guide – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Barbarian Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Whirlwind Barbarian Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 BARBARIAN SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Lunging Strike  1
 Enhanced Lunging Strike  1
 Battle Lunging Strike  1
 Whirlwind  5
 Enhanced Whirlwind  1
 Violent Whirlwind  1
 Rallying Cry  1
 Enhanced Rallying Cry  1
 Tactical Rallying Cry  1
 War Cry  1
 Enhanced War Cry  1
 Power War Cry  1
 Aggressive Resistance  1
 Prolific Fury  3
 Death Blow  2
 Enhanced Death Blow  1
 Wrath of the Berserker  1
 Prime Wrath of the Berserker  1
 Supreme Wrath of the Berserker  1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Barb Build – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Whirlwind Barbarian, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Lunging Strike

Against multiple enemies regardless of the range, you’ll want to start by using Lunging Strike. Not only will this allow you to charge forward through the battlefield to compensate for your initial lack of mobility, but you’ll also deal moderate individual damage. The good thing about this Basic Skill is it generates enough Fury, which you’ll then use later on for Whirlwind. Next, we’ll be adding Enhanced Lunging Strike and Battle Lunging Strike, which will be useful against any type of enemy.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Build - Lunging Strike Basic Skill

Enhanced Lunging Strike heals a portion of your HP when you attack a Healthy target whereas Battle Lunging Strike inflicts Bleeding to deal damage over time (DoT). Note that both upgrades increase single-target damage, which comes in very handy for Bosses.

Rallying Cry

Another way to further enhance Fury generation and Movement Speed with this D4 Build, is by triggering Rallying Cry, especially with the Tactical Rallying Cry upgrade. This lets you automatically gain sufficient Fury to start using Whirlwind and to be able to quickly fill the gauge at the beginning of a fight. 

Diablo 4 Barb Build - Rallying Cry Defensive Skill to Increase Resource Generation

What’s more, is that with Enhanced Rallying Cry, you become Unstoppable, which essentially removes any crowd control effects inflicted on you. So for instance, if you’re Stunned or Slowed, you’ll be able to immediately break out of it in addition to receiving immunity over them. Overall, Rallying Cry is a great Skill to gain a consistent amount of Fury while protecting yourself from any impairments. It’s also a good fallback should things get too dicey on the battlefield, especially if you get stunlocked.

Whirlwind

Once you have sufficient Fury, you should aim to use Whirlwind as often as you can with this Diablo 4 Barbarian Build. This is the Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian’s bread-and-butter Skill that lets you deal massive AoE damage. To pull them toward you, you’ll need to have the Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind equipped. Once a lot of them are nearby, be sure to activate Whirlwind immediately to wipe them out. To make this Skill much more effective, you’ll want to get Enhanced Whirlwind and Violent Whirlwind.

Diablo IV Build for the Barbarian Class - Whirlwind Core Skill

The reason why it’s best to be surrounded by multiple targets is that you’ll want to keep your Fury generation up at all times. The more of them you damage, the more Fury you end up saving thanks to Enhanced Whirlwind, allowing you to keep Whirlwind active at all times. The trick is to keep spinning and to avoid hitting isolated enemies, otherwise, you’ll waste the resource you should’ve gained. Meanwhile, Violent Whirlwind is there to maximize the damage you deal until this Core Skill ends.

War Cry

War Cry is another Shout Skill that further increases your damage output, and more so when you take Enhanced War Cry. Enhanced War Cry instantly grants Berserking to considerably boost your damage and Movement Speed. You’re going to need a lot of mobility for this Whirlwind Build to not only attack enemies but also create breathing room if you need to.

Diablo IV Build for the Barbarian Class - War Cry Brawling Skill

Now with War Cry, you have the option of going for Power War Cry or Mighty War Cry. Between the two though, I would go for Power War Cry since you’ll always be surrounded by mobs. And because of this, you’ll get a huge damage bonus. The quicker these groups are cleared, the lesser chances of you dying. However, if you find it challenging to survive, then you’re better off choosing Mighty War Cry to take in less damage.

Barb Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build because you usually cannot kill something easily by continuously keeping Whirlwind up. For this reason, we have to change our tactics a bit.

Death Blow

The key to Boss fights with this Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is to alternate between triggering Whirlwind and Death Blow. Even though you’ll still follow nearly the same sequence of Skills above you’ll be activating Death Blow in between, particularly because of Enhanced Death Blow. Doing so will increase your single-target damage against Bosses where you might not be able to use Whirlwind as much as you like.

Diablo IV Build for the Whirlwind Barbarian - Death Blow Weapon Mastery Skill

In instances where you have to defeat both the Boss and its minions, Death Blow really comes in handy. Every time you kill an enemy, this Weapon Mastery Skill’s cooldown resets, allowing you to use it more often. And lastly, if the Fury you generate isn’t adequate, then it would benefit you to invest 1 point into Fighter’s Death Blow to gain about 20 Fury every time an enemy is hit.

Wrath of the Berserker

Wrath of the Berserker is perfect for this D4 Build when used in combination with both upgrades, Prime Wrath of the Berserker and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. When cast, you’ll gain Movement Speed, Fury Generation, Berserkering, and Unstoppable. Because of these, you’ll be able to destroy tougher enemies when Whirlwind and Death Blow aren’t enough.

Diablo IV Build - Wrath of the Berserker Ultimate Skill to Gain Berserking and Unstoppable

Berserker will gain 25% bonus damage for every 50 Fury spent, which we’re constantly using because of Whirlwind. The buff only lasts for 5 seconds, but you can use Lunging Strike to refresh its duration. This Basic Skill will also be useful in inflicting Bleed and whittling down the Boss’s Health in addition to momentarily escaping precarious situations. 

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build, be on the lookout for Strength, Dexterity, +Rank to Active Skills, +1 to Whirlwind, +1 to Lunging Strike, and Fury Cost Reduction. All of these bonuses will benefit you, so definitely prioritize them. This is one of the most powerful Diablo IV Builds of the Barbarian Class due to how quickly you’ll clear mobs of enemies.

Since you’re going to activate Berserk frequently, remember to also invest in Aggressive Resistance, mainly to gain access to Prolific Fury. So every time you enter this powerful state, your Fury increases, which will allow you to maintain Whirlwind longer. What we’re going for here is a 90%-100% Whirlwind uptime in order to shred as many enemies as possible.

Prolific Fury Passive Skill to Increase Fury Generation

Lastly, a Legendary Aspect that can help with defeating Bosses is the Aspect of Berserk Ripping. This allows you to inflict part of your damage as Bleeding when you’re Berserking, letting you deal with them more efficiently. So be on the lookout for it. Moreover, Amulets give you an extra 50% power of the Aspect as well, so make sure to put the Aspect of Berserk Ripping there.


Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build Guide https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-bailu-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-bailu-build-guide/#respond Wed, 10 May 2023 02:55:03 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=252774 The post Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

A comprehensive healer guide for Bailu, a 5 star character…

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In this Honkai Star Rail Bailu Build Guide we’re going to be covering the healer Bailu Build, which is very good at keeping allies alive. This build focuses on increasing survivability, adding reactive healing, and revive.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build Guide

Bailu is a standard banner Five Star character who has no rate up banner. You get Bailu from either the 50 wishes on the departure banner, reaching pity on standard banner, or losing the 50:50 chance on a rate up banner. So acquiring Bailu is a random chance, and not everybody will have her. Yet, if you are one of the lucky few, she’s a very strong healer support.

She’s a Lightning healer from the Abundance Path, which only has one other character at launch, Natasha. The comparison between Bailu and Natasha is an obvious point of debate, because they compete over a team slot. Natasha is a guaranteed f2p character, and Bailu is rare gacha character.

In terms of base stats, Bailu has a higher base HP, and higher healing modifiers on her abilities. While Natasha has additional utility in cleanse, Bailu also has a one-time revive. Natasha can heal over time, and Bailu has reactive healing each time an ally is hit. So overall, Bailu heals more, heals more targets, and doesn’t waste a lot of over-healing, but she lacks a cleanse.

Aside from that, Bailu can buff the maximum HP of allies. This is a very useful buff for certain characters who scale their damage with the HP stat, such as Blade. At Ascension 6, Bailu also adds damage reduction to allies, which is a rare buff outside of Preservation characters. So in some cases, you might be able to get away with Bailu as the only defensive support, so you can use the three other slots for more offensive power.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Bailu

Bailu Build Guide – Active Skills

Skill leveling Priority: Talent = Ultimate > Skill >> Basic Attack.

Diagnostic Kick – Normal attack

Bailu does a lightning normal attack, with standard shield break, and no special properties. You will use her normal attack most of the time with, since her Ultimate is enough to sustain your team. Damage on normal attacks is irrelevant, so we don’t prioritize leveling it.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Bailu Combat

Singing Among Clouds – Skill

Her skill heals one primary target, then heals two random targets with reduced healing. The targeting is truly random on this skill, so she can heal the same target again, or heal a target who is already at full health. The scaling on the skill is pretty strong on the main target, and reduced by only 15% on secondary targets, so it’s very good emergency healing when reactive healing from Invigoration is not enough to sustain team. Otherwise, we don’t use her skill often, and rely on her ultimate and Invigoration to top up the team’s HP.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Healing

Gourdful of Elixir – Talent

Her talent adds two features to Bailu’s kit, reactive healing, and a one time revive. Both are tied with Invigoration that comes from her ultimate, so you need high energy generation to use ultimate often. The reactive healing can trigger two times on each ally.

The revive also work only if an ally has Invigoration, and triggers once for one ally per battle. At the game’s launch, Bailu is the only character who can revive, so she have immense value.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Stats

Felicitous Thunderleap – Ultimate

At the cost of 100 energy, Bailu heals the entire team, and apply Invigoration for two turns. If an ally already has Invigoration, she then extends the duration one additional turn. So Bailu can sustain a team without using Skill Points, which is a huge advantage to save SP for DPS characters.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - AoE Heal

Saunter in the Rain – Technique

The technique of Bailu is very convenient, starting battle with Invigoration on all allies for for 2 turns. So even before charging Bailu’s ultimate, she can start healing from round one. Against bosses, this is very useful Technique to use before battle.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Technique

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu – Traces

Traces are passive skills that characters unlock after leveling, and reaching certain ascension levels. For this Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build, you need to farm and spend resources to unlock Traces, but they give a huge advantage to Bailu. For a healer such as Bailu, you want to prioritize all major Traces. And for minor Traces, she gets very strong HP ones.

Qihuang Analects – Ascension 2

Increases Max HP by 10% for two turns, whenever Bailu overheals an ally. This buff is a good way to increase survivability even further, but it’s also a very strong offensive buff for characters who scale their damage with HP. Blade is such a character that scales with HP, but also there’s one niche use of Natasha as a DPS at E6. Overall, a very nice Trace that you should prioritize. It’s easy to trigger, and easy to benefit from.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Traces

Vidyadhara Ichor Lines – Ascension 4

Increases the number of times Invigoration can trigger by one, resulting in a total of three triggers. That’s a very convenient buff to Bailu’s reactive healing, which saves her more SP. Another priority to get as soon as possible.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Traces 2

Aquatic Benediction – Ascension 6

Adds 10% damage resistance to her Invigoration buff, so allies will take less damage, require less healing, and get more overhealing, which helps you survive tougher content, especially if you pair it with another damage reduction buff from Preservation Light Cones on supports.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build - Traces 3

Minor Traces

Bailu gets ten minor stats increases, distributed as the following:

  • HP (Five nodes)
  • Def (Three Nodes)
  • Effect Res (Two Nodes)

It’s obvious how minor Traces help Bailu, she gets more healing and tankiness, so always take them if you need more survivability.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build – Light Cone

For this Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build, gear is a crucial part, and usually requires some testing with various teams and setups to get the highest performance. In this section, I’ll go through the recommended Light Cone for Bailu, to fulfill her healer role.

Light Cones are similar to weapons in other games, and while you can equip any Light Cone on any character, only Cones matching the character’s Path can provide full benefits. Bailu is of the “Abundance” Path, which focuses on healing allies, and generating energy to use her Ultimate more often, so Bailu finds herself with several strong options, from both the free and gacha pool of Light Cones.

Cornucopia – Three Stars

All three stars Light Cones have an equal base HP stat. However, the most impactful one for healing is “Cornucopia”, which increases healing effectiveness. It’s a straight up improvement to healing, impacting both skill and ultimate healing.

On Bailu, it will not affect healing from Invigoration, because that healing comes from a Talent, not skill nor ultimate, but that’s minor inconvenience compared to other three star Light Cones. It’s also better than some four star Light Cones such as “Perfect Timing”. There are better four stars though, and ones you can get for free, so don’t over invest in “Cornucopia”.

Post-Op Conversation -Four Star

A gacha four star that you can randomly get from Warp. It has a higher HP base stat, energy generation, and healing effectiveness on ultimate, so it’s the best four star to use on Bailu, and its buffs have good synergy with each other’s. If you get it, it’s the first choice to go for.

Shared Feeling – Four Star

It has a smaller base HP, and smaller healing effectiveness compared to “Post-Op Conversation”. However, it makes up for this by generating energy for entire team. The energy generation is only 2 energy per skill use, and we don’t use her skill very often, so it’s not as overpowered as it seem from first glance.

This Light Cone is also gacha, with a random chance to get from Warps. It’s a good fail safe to fall back to, if you don’t get “Post-Op Conversation”.

Time Waits for No One – Five Star

Bailu’s signature, and Five Star Light Cone you cna buy from the Starlight Exchange. You can’t target this Light Cone with summons, but you can save 600 Undying Starlight currency to get it, at the opportunity cost of not buying a five star DPS Light Cone. It’s the strongest option for her, because it has the highest base HP, adds an HP buff, and does a joint attack with healed characters. The joint attack scales only on the amount of healing done, and shares Bailu’s element, which is Lightning.

If you get “Time Waits for No One” you’ve got a very solid healer that can top up your entire team with ease, and adds more shield breaking and damage through the additional joint attack.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build – Relics

In this Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build we’ll cover all four Relics slots: Head, Gloves, Body, and Feet. As well as the two accessories slots, Sphere and Rope. Head always comes with a Flat HP main stat, and Gloves comes with Flat Attack main stat. Then Body, Feet, Sphere, and Rope come with random stats. So gearing the Head and gloves will lean more towards finding the best sub stats, while other four have to also roll a good main stat.

For Bailu, we prioritize good main stats, because they are more impactful to healing. We need Outgoing Healing on Body, Speed on Feet, and HP on Sphere and Rope. Note that we can go for full HP on four pieces if we lack the proper stat in early game, but by endgame, Speed and Outgoing Healing is much better.

The sub stats we desire are always Speed and HP, so gearing Bailu is much less strict, and we can get decent pieces faster than DPS characters.

Passerby of Wandering Cloud – Relic Set

The four pieces set bonus gives an extra skill point once at the start of battle, while two pieces bonus is an outgoing healing increase. This set is the standard go-to option for all healers, especially Bailu with “Time Waits for No One” Light Cone to boost both healing and joint attack. In long fights against bosses, the extra skill point is less impactful, so there are other good options as well.

Musketeer of Wild Wheat – Relic Set

We don’t care about attack, nor normal attack damage, but this set also give 6% increased Speed at four pieces. This bonus is very good as it gives Bailu more turns in long fights, and helps her trigger the bonus from her accessories set. I’d go with set if Bailu is well invested, and can sustain a team without an issue.

Hybrid 2x Passerby of Wandering + 2x Thief of Shooting Meteor – Relic Set

Hybrid is usually cheaper, and requires less farming as you pick best two pieces from each set. The two sets I choose come with a healing bonus, and a shield break bonus. They might be less powerful than Speed, but a hybrid setup allows for better main stats and sub stats, and you will acquire them faster.

Fleet of the Ageless – Accessories Set

The two pieces accessories, Sphere and Rope, have a unique conditional bonus. “Fleet of the Ageless” gives an attack buff to the entire team if the wearer can reach 120 in their Speed stat. Bailu has 98 base Speed, so you need 22 Speed from gear to proc this bonus. You can get 25 Speed from the main stat on a five star Feet Relic, which solves this issue easily.

Otherwise, if you use a four star relic, it grants 16 Speed. And 6 more from four pieces “Musketeer of Wild Wheat” relic set. In this case, you don’t need Speed from sub stats. Once you reach 120 Speed, your entire team gets a solid attack buff. On top of that, the set gives a permanent 12% Max HP to increase Bailu’s healing.

Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build – Team Composition

Teams consists of four characters in Honkai Star Rail, where you usually seek to fill several roles, such as single target DPS, AOE DPS, shield breakers, and both defensive and offensive supports. The combat system prevents you from using one character to break all shields, since shields break only if you attack it with the elements it’s weak against. Therefore, the game still encourages players to build a very diverse team, with four different elements, or at the very least three elements.

In this section, I’ll go through some of the recommended team members for this Honkai: Star Rail Bailu Build. Note that Bailu is a pure healer that doesn’t double as another role. Healers always find a place in any team, but need diverse characters with multiple roles to create a balanced team.

Main DPS from any path

You need one of the usual picks for single target dps, such as Seele, Yanqing, Dan Heng, Clara, Hook, or Jing Yuan, and others. Bailu doesn’t mind who she’s healing, unless you play main DPS that gets a damage bonus from staying at low HP, such as some Destruction characters like Arlan. In that case, Bailu’s excessive healing might halt some damage bonus they get.

The best DPS that benefits from Bailu’s HP buff is Blade, but he’s not available at Honkai: Star Rail’s launch, so we can pick any other DPS of our choice.

Debuffer from Nihility Path

Pela can apply debuffs on enemies, and remove buffs from them at same time. She also has the Ice element, and can apply it in an AOE. She’s an overall very good offensive and defensive support if you don’t use other Ice characters. Pela uses skill points to use her buff removal, and uses 110 energy for her ultimate to apply debuffs. So she’s not a positive SP character, and pairing her with Bailu is good idea to balance out SP.

A better version of Pela is five star Welt who break enemies shields, and delays their turns. He also gets high value from using his skill, so Bailu is a good pair with him. Both Welt and Pela double as partially defensive support, so they make up for not using a shielder with Bailu. However against extremely aggressive content, you have to use a more specialized shielder such as Gepard or Fire Trailblazer to be able to survive.

AOE shield breaker from Erudition or Harmony path

To cover the AOE aspect, we can use Asta, who doubles as Speed and Attack buffer, or any of Himeko, Herta, or Serval, who double as DPS. Fire and Lightning elements are very good elements for toughness breaks, because they add a DoT, and hit several times per turn. However, when future Erudition or Harmony characters with Imaginary element get released, they will be meta shield breakers.

Shield breakers usually apply DoTs to all enemies, then fall back to normal attacks, so they cost SP at the start of battle, then start generating SP. Then DoTs run out, and they need more SP. This cycle averages to a neutral SP character, or slightly positive character, so your main DPS character is left with enough SP to spam their skill.

Final Tips

The fact that Bailu is a very potent healer doesn’t mean she’s always replacing Natasha. Some game modes require two full teams, where a character can’t be used in more than one team, so you need two healers on your account to sustain two teams. People without Bailu are stuck with a team with one healer, and a team with two Preservation characters to make up for the lack of a second healer, so Bailu opens up the account for more flexible team building, while Natasha still has high value.

If Bailu allows your team to survive without a shielder, then you have the flexibility to build a more offensive team, or at least use a debuffer to reduce enemy damage while increasing your team damage. That’s why Pela and Welt are very useful picks with Bailu.

Finally, always level Bailu, her Light Cone, her Talents, and Traces. She gets a lot of power from levels, and one ultimate or talent level might be the difference between life and death.


Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check Serval Build GuideQingque Build GuideDan Heng Build GuideArlan Build Buide, Sushang Build Guide, Tingyun Build Guide, Pela Build Guide, Hook Build Guide, Bronya Build Guide, Asta Build Guide, Natasha Build Guide, March 7th Build Guide, Welt Build Guide, Seele Build Guide, Sampo Build Guide, Yanqing Build Guide, Gepard Build Guide.

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Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-himeko-build-guide/ https://fextralife.com/honkai-star-rail-himeko-build-guide/#respond Tue, 09 May 2023 15:24:58 +0000 https://fextralife.com/?p=252855 The post Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide - We'll discuss how…

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Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide – In this Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide, I’m going to share my Himeko Build to effectively burn enemies to the ground. I’ll be discussing the Stats and Skills you should pay attention to, the Light Cones and Relics to strive for, and the Companions to pick in order to make Himeko a dependable main DPS in combat. If you want to consistently inflict Weakness Break and deal massive AoE Fire Damage, then this Level 40 Himeko Build Guide is for you!

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide

Himeko is a 5-star character who is highly skilled at inflicting Weakness Break while dealing huge AoE Fire Damage against all enemies. What makes her an excellent main DPS is her ability to also inflict Burn to effectively deal additional Fire Damage in the form of damage over time (DoT). To make her shine even more, she’ll need to receive consistent Attack buffs throughout the encounter.

Honkai Star Rail Himeko in Combat

What would make Himeko’s team successful are characters such as Pela, Tingyun, and Natasha. Pela is an adept debuffer who is more than capable of shredding the defenses of multiple foes. Next is Tingyun who is in charge of boosting the damage dealers’ Attacks on top of restoring their Energy. And finally, there’s Natasha who is able to restore everyone’s HP in a heartbeat.

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide – Stats And Eidolons

In this Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build, Himeko follows the Erudition Path, which allows her to deal considerable damage against several enemies using just a single ability, much like Herta and Serval. But what she does best is to execute a powerful follow-up attack once she gains enough Charges. This is quite similar to Herta’s Fine, I’ll Do It Myself Talent in that they both end up dealing effective AoE damage against several targets on the battlefield. Since Himeko will be your main DPS, you’ll want to make sure to boost Crit Rate, Crit Damage, and Attack the most.

Honkai Star Rail Himeko Build Guide

These main stats will allow her to significantly deal burst Fire Damage as well as Fire DoT, especially when she lands multiple crits. And since her Fire Damage scales with Attack %, this should constantly be boosted.

For substats, you’ll mainly be focusing on Effect Hit Rate and Crit, followed by Break Effect and Attack. I’ve already explained the importance of Crit and Attack so I’ll move on to Effect Hit Rate, which refers to the success rate of inflicting a debuff against a target. In Himeko’s case, you’ll want to inflict the Burn effect to deal as much Fire DoT as possible. When this stat is much higher than the enemy’s Effect Resistance, you’ll most likely apply a debuff. Meanwhile, Break Effect constitutes how much damage they receive once their Toughness is reduced to 0. Will Himeko’s Fire Damage continue to be successful? How much Fire DoT will she be able to deal? A high Break Effect will allow her to slay multiple targets at once to be able to finish encounters faster. 

In terms of Himeko’s Eidolons, you’d ideally want to get 6 more duplicates of this character to build her as effectively as possible. But when it comes to the top priority, it should look something like this: 

E1 → E4 → E6

At Eidolon Level 1, you gain access to Childhood, which significantly boosts her Speed after performing her follow-up attack or Victory Rush. As such, she gets to go up higher in the Action Order to attack more frequently in combat. Next is Dedication at Level 4. Dedication allows Himeko to gain 1 extra Charge upon inflicting Weakness Break against a target by using her Skill. As a result, her Charge meter will be quickly filled up to unleash the deadly Victory Rush sooner rather than later.

Childhood Eidolon at Level 1

And finally, at Level 6, there’s Trailblaze! for her Ultimate to deal damage two more times, thereby inflicting additional burst Fire Damage against random enemies. 

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide – Skills And Traces

In this section, we’ll talk about Himeko’s Skills and Traces together with what you should prioritize in combat.

  • Victory Rush (Talent) – This is an incredibly powerful passive that allows Himeko to execute a follow-up attack, which deals great Fire Damage against all enemies. The way Victory Rush works is that she gets 1 Charge point every time she breaks a target’s Toughness. Once all 3 Charges have been accumulated, she will instantly unleash this devastating attack. Aside from the Childhood Eidolon, the trace you’d want to unlock for Victory Rush is Starfire. Starfire increases the chances of inflicting Burn for 2 turns. Once afflicted, they’ll receive significant Fire DoT based on Himeko’s Attack. To improve her Attack and Fire Damage further, you’ll also want to gain access to all ATK Boosts and DMG Boost: Fire, respectively.
Victory Rush (Talent)
  • Incomplete Combustion (Technique) – This impair technique lets Himeko create a dimension to make targets susceptible to taking larger Fire Damage for 2 turns. Incomplete Combustion’s base chance is 100%, which means that as long as their Effect Resistance is much lower compared to Himeko’s Effect Hit Rate, then they’ll most likely receive greater Fire Damage. 
  • Sawblade Tuning (Basic ATK) – This is her regular attack that deals Fire Damage against a single foe. Sawblade Tuning doesn’t have enhancements so you’ll often use it to collect skill points. 
  • Molten Detonation (Skill) – This amazing Skill lets Himeko deal almost 2x the Fire Damage she would with Sawblade Tuning while dealing lesser damage to surrounding enemies. To make Molten Detonation more effective, you’ll want to unlock the Magma Ability, thereby allowing her to deal +20% more damage against those afflicted with Burn. 
Molten Detonation (Skill)
  • Heavenly Flare (Ultimate) – This is Himeko’s Ultimate Ability, which not only lets her deal considerable burst Fire Damage to every enemy on the battlefield but also regenerates a portion of her Energy upon burning them to a crisp. Doing so would allow her to trigger Heavenly Flare more often. 

For Himeko’s remaining Traces, it’ll still be advantageous to gain access to the Benchmark Ability and Effect RES Boost. Benchmark boosts her Crit Rate when she attacks targets whose HP is equal to or greater than 80% whereas Effect RES Boost improves her resistance against debuffs to protect herself from becoming vulnerable to succeeding attacks. As such, Himeko becomes much more resilient in encounters.

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide – Light Cones

When it comes to Light Cones, the ones you’ll want to chase after for Himeko’s kit are Databank, Make the World Clamor, and Night on the Milky Way. Databank is a 3-star Light Cone, which considerably boosts her Heavenly Flare Ultimate’s Fire Damage to improve her chances of slaying enemies. Doing so would be extremely beneficial for her to regain a lot of Energy quickly. You can ascend Databank to as high as Level 40.

Next is Make the World Clamor, a 4-star Light Cone that you can pull from the Warp. Not only is it more potent in terms of amplifying the damage of Heavenly Flare but this also grants extra Energy the moment an encounter starts. As such, she’ll be able to trigger her Ultimate sooner. 

Honkai Star Rail Himeko Guide - Make the World Clamor (4-Star Light Cone)

And last but not least, the best 5-star Light Cone for Himeko is the Night on the Milky Way, which you can currently buy from the Starlight Exchange for 600 Undying Starlight. Night on the Milky Way is a great weapon when you’re confronted with several enemies because it increases Himeko’s Attack by up to 5x, and consequently her Fire Damage. What’s more, is that the moment she inflicts Weakness Break, her next damage is significantly amplified, making her very effective in combat.

Honkai Star Rail Himeko Guide - Night on the Milky Way (5-Star Light Cone)

Honkai: Star Rail Himeko Build Guide – Relics

In terms of Relics, it’s important to remember that for the Head and Hands, your character gets a flat HP and Attack bonus, respectively. This isn’t the case for the Body and Feet, which are comprised of random stats such as Crit and Break Effect %. Ideally, you’d want to equip 4-star Relics since they provide 2-3 substats in addition to their main stat. But remember that regardless of the rating, enhancing them for every 3 levels will yield a random substat. For a Level 40 Himeko, it’s enough to level up her Relics to a maximum of +6 for 4-star gear until you get their 5-star versions to reserve enough resources by then.

For Himeko’s Relics, you’ll only need to acquire and wear one 4-piece set, namely the Firesmith of Lava-Forging. It not only increases her Fire Damage but also the damage she deals using the Molten Detonation Skill and the Heavenly Flare Ultimate. You can farm the Firesmith of Lava-Forging Set from the Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Conflagration. For the Firesmith’s Fireproof Apron and Alloy Leg, remember to focus on boosting Crit and Attack, followed by Effect Hit Rate % and Break Effect.

Honkai Star Rail Himeko Guide - Firesmith of Lava-Forging Set

Team Composition

In Honkai: Star Rail, you’ll have all four characters available while combat is ongoing so you won’t be swapping from one to the next. There also won’t be elemental pools left behind. Instead, you’ll focus on the enemy’s weaknesses to deplete their Toughness and HP accordingly. For this Himeko Guide, I’ll be sharing the best characters to go with her and how effective their capabilities are for this build.

Team Composition for Himeko

Since Himeko will be taking on the main DPS role, you’ll want to include a secondary or sub DPS who’s adept at inflicting debuffs. The best Nihility Path character to pair with her is none other than Pela. Pela is an expert at lowering the target’s defenses in addition to removing their buffs using her Zone Suppression Ultimate and Frostbite Skill to weaken them further. This is what Himeko exactly needs to be able to inflict Weakness Break as soon as possible. What’s more, is that Pela can also apply freeze to immobilize enemies, which makes them miss their turns.

Himeko Build Guide - Pela in Combat

Next, you’ll want someone who can consistently boost the Attack of Himeko and Pela. For this, I recommend choosing Tingyun of the Harmony Path. Tingyun is highly effective when it comes to buffing Attack and damage as well as restoring a portion of an ally’s Energy with her Amidst the Rejoicing Clouds Ultimate. 

Himeko Build Guide - Tingyun in Combat

Last but not least, you’ll want a support character whose goal prime goal is to replenish everyone’s HP at a consistent rate, namely Natasha of the Abundance Path. She also gains Energy fast to be able to trigger the Gift of Rebirth Ultimate more frequently in order to save the team.

Himeko Build Guide - Natasha in Combat

Final Tips

Himeko is currently the only 5-star Erudition character who’s incredibly effective at dealing massive AoE Fire Damage. She specializes in inflicting the most amount of carnage possible, especially when the enemies’ Toughness is reduced to 0. For skill rotation, you’ll want to keep saving Energy so she can activate her Heavenly Flare Ultimate often. Doing so would let her deal devastating Fire Damage to every foe on the battlefield. Next is her Molten Detonation Skill, which is particularly effective against Burnt targets. Between these two abilities, she’ll get to immediately perform Victory Rush since they’re more likely to be “Weakness Broken.”

Himeko Heavenly Flare Ultimate Ability
Himeko’s Heavenly Flare Ultimate Ability

A decent alternative to the World Clamor Light Cone is Geniuses’ Repose. Geniuses’ Repose naturally increases Himeko’s Attack. Additionally, every time she slays a target, her Crit Damage is amplified in succeeding turns. Doing so would enable her to kill her next enemies more efficiently than ever before!

Honkai Star Rail Himeko Guide - Geniuses' Repose (4-Star Light Cone)

Lastly, when it comes to Planetary Ornaments, be sure to select the Inert Salsotto. The Inert Salsotto raises her Crit Rate. And when this stat reaches a certain threshold, both her Heavenly Fire Ultimate and Victory Rush follow-up damage will be considerably enhanced.


Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check Serval Build Guide, Qingque Build Guide, Dan Heng Build Guide, Arlan Build Buide, Sushang Build Guide, Tingyun Build Guide, Pela Build Guide, Hook Build Guide, Bronya Build Guide, Asta Build Guide, Natasha Build Guide, March 7th Build Guide, Welt Build Guide, Seele Build Guide, Sampo Build Guide, Yanqing Build Guide, Gepard Build Guide.

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