Doombringer guide - melee build 1.24

[Dhurke]

Welcome to my guide! It's my first so let me know if you find something missing (which I'm sure you will). I have also not won with every class or beat insane difficulty so I will say this once: I'm no Mex or PetHouse etc. This is just my Doombringer build on normal (I wanted to unlock Demonologist/doomelf for sure, which I did)

First off, as of 1.2.4 Doombringer is clearly very powerful on normal. I died once of sheer mistake on level 5 or so. After that I wasn't even close. Running through the game and beating both Atamathon (4-5 turns) and Linaniil (first time) without breaking a sweat.

I took a layout of some other guides to do this one....so sue me

What does this guide contain?

1. Introduction
2. Choice of race
3. Stats
4. Class talents
5. Generic skills
6. Misc:Category points/runes/equipment etc.
7. Strategy
8. Change log


1. Introduction
Doombringers offers the great melee combat style with very strong sustains and pretty good mobility. Hence this guide focuses on that and will not try to be a mage. The class uses Vim and stamina and most of you skills unlocks with Strength which is you primary attribute. Constitution and magic should come second depending on what you are skilling at the moment.

2. Race
I will not grade them specifically since I've only beat the game once with doombringer (a few more times with other classes) but unless you have some weird thing for ghouls or dwarves (hey no judging) just go with Shalore.

Cornac gets the extra category point which you don't need. Higher could be good, not as good as Shalore in my opinion. Thalore ... nah... you are a magic user and will hardly put a point into willpower.
Halfling could be good but you will have extra slots for infusions anyway so pick Shalore. Dwarves are awesome ... just not as good as Shalore and Yeeks are defi... (are you still reading this? just pick Shalore already!)

3. Stats
Put your points into Strength. Extras goes into constitution and magic depending on if you picking a magic skill or bumping up thick skin. You will max these three stats out by end game. The rest could go into cunning or willpower. I choose willpower since my crit.chance already was 80+.

4. Class talents
* = bad skill
** = not that good
*** = good
**** = very good
***** = mouthwatering
**(**) = not that good on normal but could be very good on harder difficulties.
underline = name of skill


Combat Techniques
Rush ***
Get one point at level 1 and improve on need for lower cooldown. I found myself in the slime tunnel with still 1 point. If you find rush boots or wanderers rest you probably are mobile enough anyway.

Precise Strikes ***
Max it if your physical crit chance isn't very good by the end of the game, I had like 60% end game before investing in it, lack of better place to put the points.

Perfect Strike **
You will be maxing combat accuracy and don't need this.

Blinding Speed * Shalore (**** other race)
Global speed is good, but not on Shalore since it doesn't stack with Grace of the Eternals which is better. Skip it as Shalore.

Combat Veteran
Not needed at all (on normal anyway). Waste. Would be more fun if two-handed weapon tree was here but that would be to powerful. (Maybe together with a nerf, change this to two-handed?)

Corruption / Shadowflame
Not very good for a melee class. Unlocks with magic.

Wraithform ***
Very good skill that deserves a point right off the bat. Great for escaping (before you get all strong and scary). Ending the spell inside a wall it can be used to teleport. Set it on auto-use since its an instant and gives defense and armor. Add a few more points later if you want. I didn't due to the fact that most of the time I had full health/shield anyway.

Don't bother with the rest of the tree unless you just want to try the skills out. I did max Flame of Urh'Rok but to be honest the cost (90 vim) is a bit steep and not necessary on normal difficulty. On nightmare and up healing from flames could be useful. Fearscape is just too expensive to run alongside Flame of Urh'Rok and also not needed on normal. Darkfire is not that good on normal since you will be one-shotting most mobs anyway.

Corruption / Brutality
Good tree.

Draining assault ****
This is your first attack when in melee. It hits twice, heals you and replenishes your Vim (which does not regenerate by itself). Start the game with a point, get it up to 3 pretty fast and then max it mid game.

Fiery Grasp *
Skip this. I didn't use it once. You want your enemies to swarm you... the more the better! Damage over time is a bad excuse for not killing instantly... Unless you're truly a tormented soul and feel like laughing at you burning enemies for several turns instead of just one-shotting them At level 4 it adds silence which could be useful on harder settings. Not necessary on normal.

Reckless Strike **
Didn't use it once but could be useful om harder settings to abuse when low on HP.

Share the Pain ***
Great on paper but since your enemies will be falling so fast they won't have time to share your pain (unless you count the pain they feel from watching your delighted smirk as you behead them)
A few points and then the scaling falls off a bit.

Corruption / Torture
Yeah baby! Now we're talking.

Incinerating blows ****
This is your first sustain and its great. The damage is mediocre but it stuns in a radius 3 for 2 turns which lets you pick out the casters around you first.
Start the game with a few points, max it later to get the larger radius.

Abduction *****
Such a good skill! Your bread and butter skill and what you use to pick off everything when stopping from auto-exploring. If you target survives it conveniently now resides next to you for finishing off with a draining assault which heals you and replenishes Vim. With destroyer skill from Wrath tree it becomes godly!

Fiery Torment **
I dunno.. I put some points here in lack of something better. Used on tougher bosses to bring down resist and such. Try it out I guess.

Eternal suffering **(**)
Could be great on harder difficulties. Since your killing everything so fast it isn't necessary on normal. On tougher difficulties it could be great since buffs/debuffs becomes essential.
I 5/5 it late game in lack of better place to help with final fight and other toughies such as Linaniil.

Corruption / Wrath
Mohahaha!
Unlock at L10 (for nightmare/insane Cauterize spirit might be needed faster and hence Fearfire)

Obliterating smash ****
Great skill that would deserve five stars if the cooldown wasn't so long. With destroyer skill in this tree you clear entire rooms in one blow. Get it to 4 fast. I think I maxed it late since last level was quite small improvement.

Detonating charge ***
Good damage and an extra rush basically. Great for mobility. With this, rush and maybe rush boots nothing can stop you. The detonating part is meh... you want you enemies clumped together for obliterating smash and effect from share the pain.

Voracious blade ***
Guaranteed crit! More multiplier ... now thats added value! The downside is you only have it for 6 turns so more than 3 kills is not necessary. The extra Vim is to low to matter much.
At end game I had over 90% crit chance without this (thanks to awesome equipment, keep your eyes out for Deathblyd, a new 2H sword made for doombringers that gives +20% crit.)
Leave it at 3/5 points I guess. I never maxed it.

Destroyer ****
Ever wanted to become a genetic experiment between Arnold Schwarzenegger and you worst nightmare. Now you can!
Reduces cooldowns, increases ranges and adds extra attacks to your most used skills. Also bumps you physical power, regen and some immunities. Whats not to like...Max it late game.

Corruption / Fearfire
Unlock at L20 (for nightmare/insane Cauterize spirit might be needed faster at L10) unless you've found one or two really good wild infusions, covering detrimentals. There is also a new item that gives Fearscape shift skill so that makes the tree even less interesting.
I didn't happen on any good wild infusions so I took this at L20 I think.

Fearscape shift ***(*)
Great for mobility, another way to port yourself. Flames will damage you unless in demon or destroyer form. With high fire resistance it doesn't matter that much. Maxed out late game it will deal 300 damage directly and 300 more over 4 turns. Since you will be dishing out 1500-2500 per hit in melee most things don't survive that long. The bonus track is probably great for harder difficulties.

Cauterize spirit ****
Great skill that could kill the unprepared. Get it up to 3/5 maybe 4/5 to handle the damage. Pop a regen infusion or something so make sure you can take the damage.
Otherwise instant remove of all detrimentals effects? Hello insane difficulty... I told you we would meet again
PS. Always use wild infusions, relentless pursuit (mid game) and timeless (shalore) first. This is a backup.

Infernal breath **
Not good for this build. You do so much more damage with Obliterating smash.

Fearscape aura *
Damage is too low for the Vim sustain cost.

Corruption / Heart of fire
Burning sacrifice **(*)
Good for one or to points early. You have to get the mobs burning for this to kick in. And every time you gently stroke them with your burning axe they kinda die right away ...

Devouring flames *(*)
No. Not on normal anyway. Takes a turn which can be used to win the battle instead. Just one point to get to the next skill.

Inferno Nexus *
Not good for this build (or any other?) . Great radius but 100 damage or so end game on burning enemies... nah ... they won't be alive long enough. One point to get to the next skill.

Blazing rebirth ***(*)
Saved me once or maybe twice. Put two or three points to smear out the return damage somewhat. Could be really useful on harder difficulties.


5. Generic skills
Not as detailed but should be pretty straightforward.

Generic Talents
Race/Shalore: 1/5/1/5
Tech./Combat T: 5/5/5/0
Cunning survival: 0/0/1-2/0 (pick up from thief escort to deal with invisible mobs)
Corruption/Hexes: 1/0/0/0 Never used it. Could be good crowd control on harder difficulties. One point should do it.
Corruption/Dem.str: 5/4/5/5 Awesome tree. Get surge of power two points fast to regen stamina and heal. The other skills in this tree are great as well. Max them all in order of preference.
Corruption/Oppression: 0/0/0/0 To be honest I didn't get this tree. Looks bad on paper. Build up fear stacks over several turns? One draining assault swing is all that is needed!
Celestial/Light: 0/0/0/0 Pick up from escort if possible. I took another infusion slot instead since I didn't feel Providence was needed. Extra barrier from rune is better since it's instant and set to auto-use. Also your low on generic talent points as it is (even with elixir).


6. Misc:Category points/runes/equipment etc.

Category Point Order
L10 Wrath
L20 Fearfire/infusion
L36 Fearfire/infusion
Wyrm bile Infusion/Celestial/Light

Inscriptions/runes
2XShielding, Wild Physical/Mental or heroism, and Phase/teleport (get a teleport torque). I had a regen on auto-cast instead of a second shield (hey you use what you find).

Prodigies
I took flexibel combat and Draconic Will.

Equipment priority
Check out new equipment that lowers cooldown on doombringer skills. Otherwise physical crit. chance and critical multiplier. Also all physical damage increase or penetration is great.

Alchemist Quest priority
+2 generic, +2 class +4% physical critical chance, +3 str/con

6. Strategy

Early Game
Get abduction fast to take out casters etc. Build up draining assault and some points in Put points in strength and constitution. Find armor or cloak that gives + health to increase survivability. Get a wild rune and upgrade shield whenever possible. Get a teleport torque or maybe a good wand for some extra distance damage early on. Weapons with +damage is good here.

Mid Game
At this stage you can start considering items that improve physical damage, crit chance etc. but should hold onto +HP items until your shields are reliable enough. Stuff with good percentage usually starts getting better here than base bonus points. Invest heavily in Wrath tree. Get cauterize spirit to 3/5.
Good offense = not so needed defense.

Late Game
You are now a fiery crazed demigod. Enemies run (or should) when they see your many notched, blood dripping weapon. Also most dungeons you leave smells like burnt meat and reminds you of kebab!

Max out destroyer and other great skills. The same goes for generic tree demonic strength. Tinker a bit with skills such as fiery torment and eternal suffering. You'll find that you have more than enough class points but always seem to be short on generic. Get good heal modifying gear and you won't be casting much healing at all.

Beat the end bosses in a few turns without having to bother with the orbs. Smack Atamathon around and put the Linaniil to the torch! Revel in the glory of destruction you brought to the world!

My char:
http://te4.org/characters/47270/tome/b1 ... da68aa57b0

7. Changelog

2014-11-04 first draft [1.2.4]: No changes

Comments and questions are welcome! And be nice ... its my first guide.

PS: I did use equipment from my vault which made the game a bit too easy. I still think a nerf is coming for doombringers. (but please make detonating charge deal more damage around target and remove the knock-back. That would open for more fun and interesting gameplay with oblitering smash, share the pain, burning sacrifice etc.)

/Dhurke (soon to be Dhurke the insane if my temper can handle that difficulty).

[Frumple]

One thing you could probably stand to mention is that staves are incredibly attractive to doombringers. Still allows for your 2hand talents, still do plenty of physical damage, but the damage spike a good staff causes for your everything else (especially incinerating blows/inferno nexus) is tremendous. This is a class that scales almost entirely off spellpower/magic and does quite a lot of non-physical damage (especially fire). It makes going staff a very, very good idea.

Incidentally, the passive AoE damage output of a staffbringer with maxed incinerating blows and burning sacrifice is vaguely ludicrous. We're talking an easy 2-300+ damage, basically every turn, starting before level 20. And that's before, y'know, active talents.

[Doctornull]

Yeah especially if you pump Combat Accuracy, a Staff is just going to make you even more ridiculous than usual for a Doombringer.

Be sure you float your 3 Weapon Mastery points, though, so you can put them into Staff Mastery when the time is right.

[Frumple]

Eh, floating is entirely unnecessary on normal, imo. It's pretty easy to get by without physpower boosting talents at all with a doombringer, until you drum up the cash to get the initial staff unlock. Maybe necessary on higher difficulties, but I'm pretty sure you could get by without on, at least, nightmare, as well. Until the nerf comes, anyway, ha.

But yeah, that proc boost plus your passives is just pure silliness. It's pretty great.

[Dhurke]

One thing you could probably stand to mention is that staves are incredibly attractive to doombringers. Still allows for your 2hand talents, still do plenty of physical damage, but the damage spike a good staff causes for your everything else (especially incinerating blows/inferno nexus) is tremendous. This is a class that scales almost entirely off spellpower/magic and does quite a lot of non-physical damage (especially fire). It makes going staff a very, very good idea.

Incidentally, the passive AoE damage output of a staffbringer with maxed incinerating blows and burning sacrifice is vaguely ludicrous. We're talking an easy 2-300+ damage, basically every turn, starting before level 20. And that's before, y'know, active talents.

Good tips Frumple, I will try this out as I'm about to embark this on insane.

Yeah especially if you pump Combat Accuracy, a Staff is just going to make you even more ridiculous than usual for a Doombringer.
Be sure you float your 3 Weapon Mastery points, though, so you can put them into Staff Mastery when the time is right.

It's the proc bonus from accuracy that scales right? and the Staff mastery helps with physical power?

[Doctornull]

It's the proc bonus from accuracy that scales right? and the Staff mastery helps with physical power?

Yeah. The proc bonus from accuracy scales your explosion damage to ridiculous heights, while Staff Mastery gives physical power and a significant +% melee damage.

[malboro_urchin]

Can confirm, staff doombringers are amazing!

Spent a mere 100 gold to unlock the staff tree from Angolwen, unlocked it with my lv 10 cat point, and I had plenty of unspent generics (because I kept forgetting to take the one point out of weapon mastery, and I didn't want to make that point un-respec-able), which I dumped into 5/5 staff mastery immediately, along with crit chance increases.

My hp is about as low as my damage output is high though, so I'm going to have to find a lot of +health items and invest into Con soon

[DragonRU]

I just finished my doombringer on normal roguelike, and have some suggestions.

1) In my opinion, staves are for weak Biggest part of my damage was physical. For example, abduction in high peak did around 1500-2000 physical damage and only 300 fire.

2) I a bit disagree about value of some skills.
Rush - 1 point is more than enough. For single casters Abduction is better, for weak packs - Fearscape Shift. My opinion - ***
Precise Strikes - not necessary need at all. Maybe on higher difficulties it could be useful - but on normal things die too fast. My opinion - **(**)
Flame of Urh'Rok - *****. Staring arund lvl 15, I kept it up all time. 19% to global speed and guaranteed self-heal - exactly what i need
Fearscape - another *****. One-point wonder. Guaranteed heal to full and reset all cooldowns for 1 point - what else you need? Just bring with you in Fearscape non-boss mob with descent hp, and use Draining Assault to keep vim up.
Obliterating smash - ***. Good as another attack, but that's all. Burning Sacrifice + Fearscape shift is more than enough to clear rooms fast.
Fearscape shift - *****. Controlled phase door + aoe damage + good self-heal - what else you need? Take it as soon as possible.
Cauterize spirit - ****. Main weakness of doombringer - low saves. Take it ASAP - stun that you cannot remove can easily kill you. Also I prefere to use it for debuff removal rather than Timeless. Timeless is more for boss fights - to reset cooldowns on all attacking skills.
Burning sacrifice - ****. Free explosion and additional attack every turn.
Inferno Nexus - **. Free 100 points of additional damage is not much - but worth to put 2 points for increased radius.

3) In my opinion, Fearfire is much better on start than Wrath. What Wrath gives? Small increase in damage output, and that's all. And Fearfire gives you good healing and emergency removal for all debuffs.

4) In mid-game another very useful modifier on gear is +% to healing. +50 healing per turn can easily be transformed into +100 or even +150, which more than enough to not worry about Cauterize spirit self-damage.

[Dhurke]

I just finished my doombringer on normal roguelike, and have some suggestions.

1) In my opinion, staves are for weak Biggest part of my damage was physical. For example, abduction in high peak did around 1500-2000 physical damage and only 300 fire.

2) I a bit disagree about value of some skills.
Rush - 1 point is more than enough. For single casters Abduction is better, for weak packs - Fearscape Shift. My opinion - ***
Precise Strikes - not necessary need at all. Maybe on higher difficulties it could be useful - but on normal things die too fast. My opinion - **(**)
Flame of Urh'Rok - *****. Staring arund lvl 15, I kept it up all time. 19% to global speed and guaranteed self-heal - exactly what i need
Fearscape - another *****. One-point wonder. Guaranteed heal to full and reset all cooldowns for 1 point - what else you need? Just bring with you in Fearscape non-boss mob with descent hp, and use Draining Assault to keep vim up.
Obliterating smash - ***. Good as another attack, but that's all. Burning Sacrifice + Fearscape shift is more than enough to clear rooms fast.
Fearscape shift - *****. Controlled phase door + aoe damage + good self-heal - what else you need? Take it as soon as possible.
Cauterize spirit - ****. Main weakness of doombringer - low saves. Take it ASAP - stun that you cannot remove can easily kill you. Also I prefere to use it for debuff removal rather than Timeless. Timeless is more for boss fights - to reset cooldowns on all attacking skills.
Burning sacrifice - ****. Free explosion and additional attack every turn.
Inferno Nexus - **. Free 100 points of additional damage is not much - but worth to put 2 points for increased radius.

3) In my opinion, Fearfire is much better on start than Wrath. What Wrath gives? Small increase in damage output, and that's all. And Fearfire gives you good healing and emergency removal for all debuffs.

4) In mid-game another very useful modifier on gear is +% to healing. +50 healing per turn can easily be transformed into +100 or even +150, which more than enough to not worry about Cauterize spirit self-damage.

Hi,

some replies to your post.
1. Staves never crossed my mind since I set out to play it as melee. Does staves count as 2H weapon and allow for draining assault?

2.
Rush - I agree on rush. 5 stars was a typo and now set to 3.
Precise Strikes - I agree, crit chance is high enough already and probably better spent om magic trees which I neglected a bit.
Flame of Urh'Rok -Kinda disagree since you are Shalore. If you pop grace, which is better, then the global speed benefit is lost. The self heal is nice though (do you get that as destroyer?).
Fearscape - Maybe it is a one-point wonder. Especially on harder difficulties.
Obliterating smash - The sheer range when using this with maxed destroyer is great, as is the damage. Maybe a complement to Fearscape shift?
Fearscape shift - Maybe I underestimated this skill a bit since I only tried it at low levels when the damage was sub par.
Cauterize spirit - Why would you not use timeless first? It has all benefits and no downside...
Burning sacrifice - I assume this works fine when porting in with fearscape shift which I didn't. I usually started with Abduction ->detonating charge - >draining assault. 9 times out of 10 everything was dead and didn't need the extra blow (burning for one turn and still live).
Inferno Nexus -Synergy with using Fearscape shift as opener I can see some value in this.

3. I can agree some some extent with your analysis, especially on Insane (which I recently started). On normal/adventure I would go Wrath and one-shot everything instead. For higher survivability (insane or permadeath) I see your point.

4. Yeah, healing small over time seems to go well with the magic trees (fearfire and heart of fire) where some skills hurt you over time. This wasn't a concern in my playthrough.

Thanks for the comments, keep the feedback coming.

PS. If you would see a nerf, what would be reasonable and what could be improved instead?

[Frumple]

The two-handed staves count as two-handed weapons, yes. Draining strikes works swimmingly.

As for the damage, as noted, the staffbringer I've been running was hitting for over 300 fire/round by level 20 (maxed incin blows, sacrifice, 2 points in inferno nexus). To basically everything in sight, not just the critter I was hitting. More or less every turn. At base -- that's before, y'know, actual talent use came into effect. It's a beautiful thing. Single target damage might go down a bit, but you're still hitting like a truck with that, too.

[ghostbuster]

Good guide.
I just do not agree with your opinion on fearscape aura.
The damage is not great and it does not deserve more than a point, but it is an important talent.
Your foes will be burning *before* you attack them. And thanks to "burning sacrifice", whenever you kill a burning foe, you get the "raging flame" effect that ensures that an incinerating blow will trigger on next strike and that gives you a free attack on an adjacent foe.
Also burning enemies are important for "devoring flames" (in case you run out of vim), "inferno nexus" (great area effect) and blazing rebirth.
As "fearscape aura" is almost the only talent that ensures this burning status, it should be sustained as soon as possible IMHO.

[grayswandir]

As "fearscape aura" is almost the only talent that ensures this burning status, it should be sustained as soon as possible IMHO.

For this I just use burning hex. It's radius 2 and lasts 20 turns.

[Dhurke]

Good guide.
I just do not agree with your opinion on fearscape aura.
The damage is not great and it does not deserve more than a point, but it is an important talent.
Your foes will be burning *before* you attack them. And thanks to "burning sacrifice", whenever you kill a burning foe, you get the "raging flame" effect that ensures that an incinerating blow will trigger on next strike and that gives you a free attack on an adjacent foe.
Also burning enemies are important for "devoring flames" (in case you run out of vim), "inferno nexus" (great area effect) and blazing rebirth.
As "fearscape aura" is almost the only talent that ensures this burning status, it should be sustained as soon as possible IMHO.

Ah good tips there. I did not realize the burning before effect. This can, as grayswandir states below also be achieved through burning hex. But I will definitely incorporate this into my insane run.

[DragonRU]

Flame of Urh'Rok -Kinda disagree since you are Shalore. If you pop grace, which is better, then the global speed benefit is lost. The self heal is nice though (do you get that as destroyer?).
Fearscape shift - Maybe I underestimated this skill a bit since I only tried it at low levels when the damage was sub par.
Cauterize spirit - Why would you not use timeless first? It has all benefits and no downside...
Burning sacrifice - I assume this works fine when porting in with fearscape shift which I didn't. I usually started with Abduction ->detonating charge - >draining assault. 9 times out of 10 everything was dead and didn't need the extra blow (burning for one turn and still live).

Flame of Urh'Rok - I thought those boosts works additively, but never did check it. If it does not, this skill still could be useful, but 1 point is enough
Fearscape shift - This skill is more utility than damage, but its total damage still better than aoe portion of detonating charge.
Cauterize spirit - I need it on big fights or boss-level mobs, in which case 1 set of attacks could be not enough to clear all group, so I use timeless to reset cooldowns on skills like draining assault.

PS. If you would see a nerf, what would be reasonable and what could be improved instead?

To keep classes different, it could be useful to weaken its weak points, like protection against debuffs, so most obvious way is - make Cauterize spirit to consume 20-10% of your hp, depending on level.

[Fiddlesnarf7]

Although I haven't beaten the boss yet, I had this build on normal and I am 100% sure I'm near unkillable. The only real threats to me are lack of focus or nightmares/clones attacking me. http://te4.org/characters/40221/tome/d4 ... e72605c1a5

Fearscape is a *********** star for me. Fearscape + Flames of Urh'Rok + Burning Effect + Devouring Flames giving 5 or more Vim means that you can stay in the Fearscape indefinitely. 5 levels in demon blood ensures I have enough Vim early on. Seriously, I think nothing can pose a threat to me anymore as long as I focus. The Slime Tunnel bosses were a piece of cake, apart from the demon one, which took me about 25 minutes RL to beat due to the massive regeneration the both of us had.