C35 Clawbringer Ranged Tank Build (No Cheese)
Edit: you can find version 2.0 of this build here
Hey guys, I'm super excited to finally show you my clawbringer build that I've used to push to C35. The second class is spellshot, however it does not utilize double knot or companion weapons at all. You could easily make a much more effective version of this build by choosing to include those mechanics, but I chose to leave them out.
A full Normal Run showcasing this build can be found here: https://youtu.be/3A7v2efPQOI
This build utilizes a few key legendary items which synergize well together in order to create a ranged build that regularly uses gun damage, melee damage, and ability damage to vanquish foes, all while regenerating large amounts of your ward and health at the same time.
For our melee weapon, we have a Spellblade. We will be gaining tremendous amounts of spell damage through spellweaving stacks, so the Spellblade allows us to apply that added spell damage to all of our melee damage attacks. The reason this is important is that our action skill, Storm Dragon's Judgement, does melee damage to enemies on contact both when you throw it and when you retrieve it. Simply equipping a Spellblade allows us to throw our hammer and instantly recall it for a two large bursts of piercing damage, which thanks to the full duration refund, results in around a 5 second cooldown. This is extremely useful for a multitude of reasons which will become clear later on. NOTE: if you are able to find a Spellblade with Echo on it, that will be a substantial upgrade. I myself have yet to find one and have been rolling with a non-chaotic frost version that has vampire on it, not sure if the vampire effects trigger for things like action skill and ward hammers though.
For our amulet, we have a Harbinger. The unique effect of this amulet is that every time you use your action skill, you regenerate 50% of your ward. This is obviously where we get a lot of our tankiness from, as we recharge our action skill so often that you can instantly regain your ward as soon as it breaks most of the time. This thing is especially nasty when combined with the mage armor skill and fast reloading guns, leading to you rarely getting downed outside of bosses or occasionally getting overwhelmed.
For our shield, we have a Hammer and Anvil. This serves a few purposes - the hammers it generates normally deal melee damage, but because we have a Spellblade equipped, they get a huge boost from our added spell damage. They also are quite useful for crowd control, as their knockdown effect will help to keep too many enemies from shooting you at once. When you initially read that hammers are only summoned when you're damaged and your ward is full, it might seem pretty underwhelming. However, this will happen way more often than you think, with your Harbringer and Mage Armor constantly setting you to full ward and summoning hammers. I've also noticed the hammers can lock onto Dragon Lord statues and continue hitting them until they're destroyed which is pretty neat. Its high capacity is also desirable for your ward regen effects, and if you want even more tankiness, look for the Enchant: When health is below 50%, regenerate 5% maximum health per second and gain 30% damage dealt. This helps tremendusly to keep you from dying to DoT effects.
For our spell, we have a Frost Buffmeister with Zap and Bonk. Really any Frost Buffmeister with Zap will work, I just happened to roll a bonk one which is obviously very helpful for added hammer damage. NOTE: If you want to push this build over the top, you can try to roll the Enchant: Spellblade - After casting a spell, increase gun damage by 20% and fire rate by 30% for a short duration. Again I have yet to roll this myself and the build works fine without it.
For our armor, we have a purple armor with +25% spell damage, +15% damage dealt, and +1 to Mage Armor. The +1 to Mage Armor is substantial, as it means that every time you reload you will regain 20% of your ward instead of only 10%. NOTE: The optimal armor for this build would be a Primordial Warped Paradigm that converts Spell damage to Melee and Ability damage, with Spell Damage and All Damage Dealt, and skill bonuses being +2 to Awe, +2 to Font of Mana, and +1 to Just Warming Up. The sources of ability damage in this build are from the kill skill Blasthamut's Favor and the lightning aura of our Storm Dragon's Judgement, which will both benefit dramatically from the added damage. In my testing I've found that the onclass purple with good stats and skills is better than just the damage conversion from my offclass paradigm, so I'm using that. Just use whatever you have that's good until you find something better.
For our rings, we have 2 mood rings with gun damage on them, which will gain double the effect whenever our ward is not full. In my testing I've found that boosting gun damage here is better than spell damage, but that might be different if I had a paradigm equipped. Just use what you find that works well for you.
Quick note about enchants - you don't have to look for anything crazy specific. The most useful trigger for you will be on action skill start, but in most cases action skill end is just as good. In order of priority, look for all damage > elemental damage > gun damage > status effect damage > spell damage (spell damage might be higher if you're using a paradigm). Remember that two enchants with identical wording will not stack.
For my weapons, I am using a Live Wire for mobbing, a Dark Magic Lewdite of Blastoff for bossing, a Reign of Arrows for killing adds (bulwark buddies, buff buddies, spectral aegis, etc), and a Gluttony for healing. Obviously both the reign and gluttony can also provide large amounts of area damage in sticky situations for mobbing as well. For 90% of enemies your Live Wire will suffice, but I tend to swap to the Lewdite whenever I see a big Crackling Bloomp/Skuttle or a Thundereater shark. Combat is simple: get to max spellweaving stacks, pop your hammer for your enchants, pop your buffmeister, kill everything with live wire chains. Use your hammer whenever your shield breaks or whenever you need burst damage.
The raw damage potential of this build is lower than most meta builds but the survivability is much, much higher. I am able to consistently fight for the Sacred Ground objectives in situations that most other people won't go near them. Boss fights are less of a sprint and more of a marathon, where you have plenty of sustain to space out your Save Your Soul timers to keep them from getting too low. It takes some getting used to but you can definitely get very comfortable at C35.
Let's talk upgrades - be on the lookout for elemental damage increases, and I tend to always grab one sprint speed + reload speed upgrade. I used to also grab an ammo capacity upgrade, but I find that the ammo economy with the live wire is so good that I don't need to anymore (also, you can down yourself with gluttony after you finish a room for a free 3/4 ammo refund without losing a life). If you find yourself getting downed a lot in a particular run, search for a damage reduction upgrade, or a max ward/health upgrade if you can't find one.
Have fun! Let me know what you think below. A lot of you have shown interest in a pure ability focused version of this build, So I'm going to start on that and make another post for a 2.0 version once I get it working.
Posted Apr 26, 2022, 10:51 AM UTC · edited