Doombringer guide - melee build 1.24

[Mex]

"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!"

This is the most "broken" tree that Doombringer has, admittedly on normal you probably don't really get to use it.

You stack fears on a tough enemy, spread them to anyone around it (has a pretty big range). Then you consume all the stacks from each which will be stacks * %turn * enemies = %turns. This can often give you a ridiculous amount of turns.

This tree is probably mandatory for Insane, on Madness you would probably die before you could pull it off however.

[Dhurke]

" Then you consume all the stacks from each which will be stacks * %turn * enemies = %turns. This can often give you a ridiculous amount of turns.

You mean this translates into damage or extra turns?

[grey_plague]

Guys, try getting Steamroller with Reckless Strike 5/5. With full damage stacks i did 6-9k crits on normal. With his giant single-target burst, Doombringer might be one of the best classes to have steamroller on. For even greater effect, get a movent infusion. Also, if you like a little weirdness, try yeek for 30% of combined increased global speed.

[Sinside]

Hey guys im a beginner on normal using a staffbringer, need some advice for my second category point (first was staff use)
Sounds to me like corruption/wrath is more phys dmg oriented, with a staff should i still put a point here first over corruption/fearfire?

Thanks, and if anyone has a recommended build for a staffbringer, or if following dhurkes melee build with a staff is a good idea let me know! much appreciated

[MoloMowChow]

as of 1.2.5 (or 1.0.1 of DLC) the doombringer has apparently seen some damage nerfs, and some skills were removed, merged or added.

It generally still works the same way (on normal) but damage may seem underwhelming and skills will be different. Take guide with grain of salt.

[AlexMdle]

The highlights would be:

-Incinerating blows has a cooldown on the stun. (This is the main thing.)
-Share the pain is now very limited in how many times it can trigger. (Before it could potentially trigger on damage reflect, which resulted in a fractal chain of counters)
-Can't remove 'other' with Cauterize Spirit, so you can't use it to negate the burn from Blazing Rebirth.
-Hope wanes lasts 1 turn less and can't be extended with Eternal Suffering.

As to the upsides:

-A lot of talents now work as intended. (Fiery grasp actually deals damage and silences, etc)
-Inferno nexus has been shifted into the Devouring flames, both are now passive.
-In their stead you get a shielding talent, which currently seems to bug out if used with a shield rune.
-Fearscape aura replaced with Maw of Urh'Rok, which does a thing.

[AntlersGalore]

Someone posted to this thread that they'd had a Staffbringer doing 200+ AoE damage per turn by around lvl 20, a build that included the skill "Inferno Nexus." I gather that skill was crucial, since it got patched out, and I can't find any other way to generate that much damage through Incinerating Blows and Burning Sacrifice.

Not to say staff build with +proc damage isn't viable. I just don't see a way to put out those kinds of damage numbers at lower levels.

Can anyone who remembers what Inferno Nexus did confirm or deny? Seems it got totally replaced before my time.

[posetcay]

I dont know the old Doombringer, but for the current Doombringer my damage with all my characters was %95 physical and %5 fire in the endgame. This means that even though Staffbringer totally destroy early game, they fall off hard in the late game. Ideally a Doombringer should use one of the 3 followings:
1-)Sawrd (probably gonna get nerfed soon)
2-)Legacy of Naloren
3-)Warmaster Gnargs Murderblade

[bpat]

Oppression should be 5/0/0/0 on Insane and maybe skipped entirely on Normal and Nightmare. Fights don't last long enough for Hope Wanes even on Insane since you just drop everything in a couple turns plus it costs all your vim. I used Hope Wanes once in my entire run and that was on Argoniel.

[OrionJAnderson]

I can confirm that Staffbringers work quite well on Nightmare, at least up through the 30s, but one can't rely on Incinerating blows to do much. You need other proc items and/or an artifact staff.

The Proc Build:

Although Doombringers don't have amazing built-in procs, they do have the the ability to generate lots of weapon hits. Draining strike hits twice, Abduction hits 2-5 times (with destroyer), Burning Sacrifice grants an occasional bonus attack, Obliterating Smash is AoE, and Blinding Speed and Flame of Uhr'Rok both grants global speed.

Look for items like searing armor, alchemist, sorrow, or cinder gloves, infernal staves, and pink items in random slots with damage procs, or on-hit blinds and slows. There are actually a lot of items that proc fire damage, so you can get good value from setting your staff to +% fire. It's quite possible to hit double proc damage or better during Perfect Strikes. One benefit of building around items procs is that you don't actually need points in Staff Mastery, so you can stick them in Abyssal Shield, Demonic Blood, Timeless, Providence, and the like instead.

The Artifact Build
Standard staves do physical damage based on 80% magic. Artifact staves can change one or both of those rules and deal massive weapon damage.

Bolbum's Big Knocker is the best by far. With it's enormous %magic ratio and a +20% Physical damage, and Staff Combat mastery bonus, it's essentially a super-greatmaul that happens to come with Spellpower.

Plaguefire Staff isn't nearly as exciting, but because it deals weapon damage as fire, can be pretty good if you stack +% fire gear.