C35 Clawbringer Storm Smite Build (No Cheese)
Hey guys, this is version 2.0 of my Ranged Tank build which can be found here
A full Normal Run showcasing this build can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s81vfyrT6po
FULL DISCLAIMER: While we do utilize Spellshot as our second class, this is not a meta build. You can easily get far better performance out of using skills like Double Knot and Blast Gasp, and using spell damage companion weapons or triple ice spikes to proc them. The purpose of this build was to see how far I could push what is widely regarded as the worst class, and specifically, to see if I could make its capstone skill (Storm Smite) viable at C35 - all while having as much fun as possible. By utilizing the Spellshot subclass and the damage scaling of the Spellblade / Paradigm combo we are able to do just that, and have an incredible amount of survivability to boot, all without giving up any of our gun damage.
Shoutout to u/Annual_General_7612 for convincing me that an ability focused build could be viable at C35, and to u/BadaYoga for doing it before me by focusing mostly on the Stabbomancer tree instead. You can find their build guides here and here respectively.
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This build makes use of a few key legendary items to become a nearly unkillable hammer slinging machine.
Our first priority is increasing the damage of our Storm Dragon's Judgement. The hammer itself does melee damage on impact, both when you throw it and you recall it. Thanks to Storm Smite, it also spawns a shock puddle wherever it lands, and summons 3-4 fire lightning bolts to strike nearby enemies. All of this does ability damage and applies status effects that do status effect damage. 99% of the time we use this action skill, we will be throwing it at the feet of an enemy and then instantly recalling it to get a full cooldown refund. This results in a natural cooldown of about 5 seconds, which can be reduced further by your rings+amulet+armor.
For our melee weapon, we have a Spellblade. The effect written on the item card is a lie - what it really does is take all of our increased spell damage and add it ontop of our increased melee damage in the form of increased melee damage. All of your melee attacks will still be classified as melee damage. If you can get an Echo hilt mod on this, you'll be able to cash in on a ton of added damage every time you use your Storm Dragon's Judgement, but it's not necessary.
For our armor, we have a Warped Paradigm. The Warped Paradigm has three different forms, but we need either the Spell form or Melee form in order to make this build work. To make sure you have the right one, the effect at the bottom should read either "Ability Damage and Spell Damage are increased by 50% of your increased Melee Damage”, or “Melee Damage and Ability Damage are increased by 50% of your increased Spell Damage”. I will explain the differences between the two, but ultimately whichever version you have that has better stats+skill rolls should be the one you build around.
We have much more increased spell damage than increased melee damage with no paradigm equipped, which will result in more increased melee damage and ability damage when we equip the Spell Paradigm with Spell Damage rings than if we were to equip the Melee Paradigm with Melee Damage rings. This results in higher damage for Storm Dragon’s Judgement.
However, equipping the Melee Paradigm with Melee Damage rings will give us more increased spell damage, which matters to us because of Magic Bullets, which converts 35% of it more damage for our guns for bossing. This is especially useful for this build, since we don’t have enough skill points to spec into One Slot, One Kill.
So effectively, any further increases to our spell damage or melee damage (depending on your paradigm), result in increased melee damage, ability damage, and gun damage thanks to Magic Bullets. This is currently the only way to scale ability damage to C35 levels, which is needed for this build. Without these two pieces of equipment, the build will not work at C35, but still might perform up to around C20 or so. We use this combo to boost our damage through our rings, and enchantments which increase melee damage, spell damage, and damage dealt on action skill start. The build will work without perfect enchants, but this is what you should work towards.
NOTE: the damage scaling interaction between the Spellblade and Melee Paradigm is wildly inconsistent. It seems to far outdamage the Spell Paradigm when used against enemies, even though it shows lower damage numbers when tested against target dummies. Because of this, you can use either one of them, but if you have both definitely test them both to see which one outperforms the other for you.
For our ward, we have a Hammer and Anvil. Whenever we take damage while our ward is full, we summon a flying hammer that seeks out enemies and does melee damage (which is boosted by our increased melee damage). These hammers are also capable of sitting ontop of Dragon Lord statues for continuous damage, and knocking down enemies for increased crowd control. Thanks to Mage Armor and some other legendary items we haven't mentioned yet, our ward is full extremely often, resulting in a bunch more hammers flying than just your own. This is the shield I chose because it's the most fun to me and also the most effective in my testing, but you can use virtually any ward you like. However I would recommend going for the Desperate enchantment on it, which will give us +5% health regen per second and +30% damage dealt when our health is below 50%. This helps tremendously to keep you from dying to status effects.
For our amulet, we have an Infused Harbringer with increased Lightning Damage. Ideally you would want a Dragon's Harbinger with Increased Lighting Damage but I have yet to get one. The Infused and Dragon's prefixes boost Spellshot power and Clawbringer power respectively, and the legendary effect of the harbinger is that whenever you use your action skill, you restore 50% of your ward. When combined with Storm Dragon's Judgement, we can get massive healing on command every 5 seconds, which is where a lot of our survivability comes from.
For our mobbing spell, we have a Glacial Cascade. The primary reason we're using this spell is because the cooldown is so low that it lines up pretty well with our hammer, allowing us to get all of our enchants for every hammer throw. Alternatively you could use an Empowering Sigil, but I find that Glacial Cascade works a lot better. I also carry a Cryo Buffmeister (Zap+Bonk) with me for bossing, primarily because it adds a lot more to our gun damage which is a lot more of a priority while bossing. This isn't necessary, but it does cut down on boss times.
For my guns, I like to use a Live Wire for mobbing, a fire Lewdite of Blastoff for bossing/shock immunes, and a Boniface's Soul and Gluttony for added survivability.
Boniface's Soul is essentially our panic button that we throw out whenever our shield breaks and our action skill is on cooldown. This is a tediore weapon that has the legendary effect of restoring a large chunk of your ward when the homing gun projectile hits an enemy. Swap to it, throw 2 or 3, and swap to your other gun and you'll almost always be full ward again, which will summon another hammer for you. This gun combined with Mage Armor and the Harbinger makes you virtually unkillable unless you get spammed by a bunch of big shock attacks.
Gluttony is the much better known version of Boniface's Soul, except it spawns a dagger storm that does far more damage at the cost of health but also restores health based on the damage it does. You can throw this when you're at 1 hp to avoid the health cost, but I pretty much exclusively use it in Save Your Soul. Because this is an ability focused build it helps to make up for our lack of an ability while we're downed, and also gets around the health cost.
I also like to carry a Reign of Arrows for killing Bulwark Buddies or Wastard/Dry'l, a shock Lewdite for beefy fire immunes like Dry'l phase 3, and a +40% melee damage skulldugger pistol for "Finish enemies with Melee Damage" side objectives. None of these are necessary but I like being able to clear all content easily with the same build.
This build is not particularly refined, I basically got it working and then made this guide to share it with everyone. If you have any ideas of how this build could be improved, feel free to post them below!
Posted May 1, 2022, 11:31 PM UTC · edited