A build for the long run!
I had a chat with Ed Grace, the developer of the game and he kindly shared with me the icons of the game! Enough material to start sharing talent builds for your adventure! For now, I’ll focus on raw information and might add some visual later, though unnecessary (see why below, if that’s of any interest). In a future article, I will also go through each talent and explain what they do.
@GalaxyDevourer on the official discord created a fantastic tool to build and share talent builds. It seems there might be currently an issue with the tool so I have also designed a textual system to share builds.
Let’s get this straight: no, there is no one-size fits all kind of build. Though most build will sort of work everywhere, they provide certain advantages in certain situations. So you will have to reset you talents to adapt to the situation.
How to read a talent build graph
I have designed a graphical/skeleton system to represent the most essential pieces of information of a build: which talents to invest on which tree and how many points to invest.
An example of skeleton build could be this:
B(31): 1—1/3—0/5—4/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1
A(31): 1—5/3—0/5—5/0—5/1—3/1—0/1/0—0/1
Considering the build above, remember the following:
In game, builds are represented as a tree and read from top to bottom, skeleton counterparts are read from left to right,
Skeleton builds only represent total points invested, not the max possible points per talent,
Talents at the same level on the tree are separated by a slash “/” in the skeleton version and read from left to right; the left, central and right position in the tree are not represented as they are not necessary,
Talents that requires a choice are represented in parenthesis and separated by a comma. For instance, (5, 5) indicates that you can either choose to invest 5 points on the first or the second skill at that level in the tree. A typical example is to choose between gear-specific talents like “Mace Enjoyer” and “Average Swords Fan”.
“A” represents the Assassin class and “B” represents the Berserker class.
The number in parenthesis next to the Hero class represents the total number of talent points invested in that class.
The name of talents are not represented, but each talent can be found based on the position in the skeleton.
The trunk of the tree is represented by double dashes “- -” or an em dash “—”, whatever is most convenient on your machine .
Now that you know the basics, the following skeleton builds would be equivalent to this:
| Berserker | Assassin |
|---|---|
| B(31): 1—1/3—0/5—4/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1 | A(31): 1—5/3—0/5—5/0—5/1—3/1—0/1/0—0/1 |
 |
 |
You can also use the skeleton build to represent the point requirements for each talent. As you might have noticed, talents further down the tree require a certain investment into the tree. To distinguish this from a build, I will use a tilde “~” instead of a slash “/”. Though, it might just be something to remember rather than to represent.
B: 0—(11)—(55)—(1010)—(1515)—(202020)—(252525)—(30)
A: 0—(11)—(55)—(1010)—(1515)—(2020)—(252525)—(3030)
Types of builds and what you need
As mentioned before, there is no one-size fits all kind of build. Instead, there are many situational builds that will fit better depending on what you are trying to achieve. Luckily, you can spend gold to reset your talents as often as you want and adapt your strategy.
Most of the builds out there require 62 talent points. That means you need to have reached character lvl 50 and have unlocked all 12 glory talent points (on the right side of the Glory tree, more on that in another post).
Before you achieve those two feats, you will have to design builds with less than 62 points. You can already achieve a great build with just 31 points. 31 points is the minimum to unlock the full potential of one of the two classes, Berserker or Assassin. With 31 points, you will get to the bottom of either of the two trees. The bottom of the Berserker tree unlocks Frenzy and Executioner that shows that the Berserker can pack a real punch! The bottom of the Assassin tree will unlock Unholy Weapon and Self-Consciousness that will give you a chance at additional attacks every time you attack.
A full build with 62 points attempt at unlocking the potential of both classes.
Your starter build
So you just started and you have unlocked the level and talent systems. It is now time design your first build. Your objective is to reach lvl 31 to unlock 31 points. I advise to start with a pure assassin build. At lower levels, monsters are still weak and your main concern is to accumulate gold. The faster you can jump from enemies to enemies the better. The assassin Shadow Run skill is perfect for that. It makes you run, the more extra damage you deal to an enemy. For instance, if an enemy is left with 10HP and you deal a 1000 dmg attack, the 990dmg difference will trigger you to run. The bigger the difference, the faster you run, increasing how many monsters you can kill in the same amount of time.
Assassin Run build:
A(31): 1—5/0—0/5—5/0—4/1—3/1—4/1/0—1/0
This build should be enough to pass your first Deadly dunegon: Twisted Grove.
Thanks @Bensky for this cool build.
Mid-game build (32-42)
Once you reached lvl 32 and up, you can either focus on a single class or attempt to build a hybrid build.
At this level, I decided to switch to Berserker with Critical Strike chance talents from Assassin. As enemies gets tougher, it becomes more important to increase the impact of the strength skill/stat to deal more damage and start considering damage reduction with the shield from the Berserker.
I can’t remember when you unlock the Glory system (around lvl 32 I think), but as you progress further, take advantage of the glory talent points to unlock more talents before you reach lvl 50. It was fairly easy to unlock the first 4 additional points.
First focus on building the Berserker, then add the leftover points to the assassin. It could also be a good idea to unlock some additional critical damage on the berserker with the talent “Hard Focused”.
A potential build step could look like the following.
Start berserk: B(35): 1—5/2—0/5—5/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1 Then build the assassin side: A(10): 1—(5/0)—(0/4)…
Then add the additional talents to end up with the following build at lvl 46. B(35): 1—5/2—0/5—5/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1
A(11): 1—(5/0)—(0/5)…
Thanks @Show for the inspiration.
End game build
Endgame builds take advantage of all 62 talent points. There has been numerous attempts at a good balanced build. This build by @Kmeek is probably the most popular at this time.
It inspired me to build the Tanker build.
After you have beaten both floors of Blackmoon Keep, you will unlock the inner skill “Lifesteal”. You basically become a vampire and regenerate your life as you attack. Most end game builds aimed at beating raids and dungeons take advantage of lifesteal. The idea is to focus on increasing the number of attacks you can place so that you heal as you deal damages.
As many mentioned, the talent “Damage Shop” becomes less and less relevant as other talents outcompete its benefits.
I particularly like this build because the berserker and assassin talents work in synergy. More crit from the assassin triggers more attacks/speed from the berserker. You even get guaranteed critical attacks from the assassin to trigger the skills of the berserker. It is a good continuation of the Berserker hybrid.
The build goes as follows:
B(31): 1—1/3—0/5—4/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1
A(31): 1—5/3—0/5—5/0—5/1—3/1—0/1/0—0/1
Tanker build
Once you have unlock the Deadly dungeons, you start feeling the struggle! Though you have lifesteal, you might get one-shot by some boss if your HP runs too low.
I started to feel the limits of the Endgame build from Kmeek. I attempted to find a way to take less damage, but also recover my HP as fast as possible.
With my Tanker build (or maybe it is a Paladin build?), your life not longer hangs on a thread. Even if you take significant damage, you can quickly recover. In some of the harder dungeons and raids, my HP oscillates between 80-100%. I can lose 20% HP or more after 1 hit, but will quickly recover.
The build is also ideal to go through the dungeon minions without a scratch. I almost always start fighting the boss at 100% HP.
The build takes advantage of three mechanics:
Lifesteal that regenerates a percentage of HP when you hit,
Dodging to get chances at immunity in order to place some hits without taking damage, while recovering some HP in the process,
Multi-hit, to place additional hits and profit from lifesteal once again.
Maybe this build should have been called “The Dancer” instead. Imagine the character Joana or Agatha dodging all those hits!
For this build to work best, do not equip gear that reduces Lifesteal. Instead, try to maximize it.
How to build the tanker/dancer:
B(31): 1—3/3—0/4—3/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—0/3/1—1
A(31): 1—5/3—1/5—4/0—2/1—3/1—2/1/1—0/1
As mentioned, the build tool from @GalaxyDevourer currently has a bug. The assassin build on the picture is missing 2 points at the bottom of the tree: A(31):….2/1/1—0/1
You can also find the build on the Discord.
Farmer build
My latest creation! A build for farmer! If you have read my latest article on farming resources, this is the build that I mention. It is built to jump from enemies to enemies on the map.
The idea behind this build is to forget about lifesteal and instead focus on anything that can maximize damage and attack speed.
The build takes advantage of two synergies between Berserker and Assassin:
the critical chance from the assassin triggers “Frenzy” and Blood Hunger” and increase the attack speed,
the heavy critical damage from the Berserker increases the leftover damage needed for triggering Shadow Run.
bonus: if you hit heavy enough, you can even trigger “Unstoppable” to run forever.
With this build, you will need to equip gear that maximize Attack Power, crit chance, crit damage, multi-hit chance. It is okay to equip gear that reduces lifesteal. You do not need it on the map.
How to build the farmer:
B: 1—5/3—1/0—4/1—(5,5)—3/0/3—1/2/1—1
A: 1—5/0—2/5—5/1—5/1—3/1—0/1/0—0/1
As mentioned, the build tool from @GalaxyDevourer currently has a bug. The assassin build on the picture is missing 2 points at the bottom of the tree: A(31):….2/1/1—0/1
You can also find the build on the Discord.