Spellbreaker - Power DPS
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Direct damage
Designed for: Raids and Fractals
Overview
Spellbreaker is a great all-rounder, combining high sustained damage, consistent boonrip, big CC and good survivability thanks to
.
There are two distinct versions of Spellbreaker that depend on whether you use Hammer or Spear.
Hammer unlocks even more CC as well as the Defense traitline, allowing for even higher sustain and near-permanent Stability. This build fits the melee brawler archetype perfectly, and as such cannot really do anything if forced out of melee range.
Spear is exclusive to the Janthir Wilds expansion and is higher damage while also providing great ranged damage, but also requires more precise play and reliable boons to excel. Spear benefits more from the Tactics traitline, so it will also be providing a small amount of group support.
If using Spear, be sure to check the weapon and specialization variant sections to set the build up properly.
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
- Offhand Axe can be used if you have doubts about your Quickness uptime (it can generate ~35% for yourself).
- If using Spear, replace Hammer. This build uses the Tactics Traitline, which pushes the damage of offhand Axe quite a bit higher than Mace.
Skill Variants
Qadim Lava Elemental Kiter Variant
- Lava Elementals gives you more sustain while kiting
- does increased damage to enemies that have boons. Qadim regains boons on a very short interval. Replaces
- can be used if adrenaline generation is an issue. Alternatively, use your actively to make up any adrenaline deficiency, which allows you to take in case DPS isn't high enough to skip Qadim's defiance bar (or on Challenge Mode)
Template Code
Specializations
- - On bosses that regain boons very regularly you will not gain the benefit of , and you can reliably gain the extra damage and adrenaline for removing boons with this trait.
Specialization Variants
If using Spear, Tactics is the stronger traitline (replacing Defense).
is a key part of this traitline, so this variant will underperform if your boon uptimes are low.- Stability uptime, as you will rarely have this boon permanently so it improves your uptime. is chosen to provide some
Equipment
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
Berserker
x6
x18
- For players that don't own Janthir Wilds, a is the best option.
- Against bosses that don't get Stunned, a on Hammer will do more DPS than the .
- If using Spear, replace Hammer. Also replace the offhand Mace with an Axe.
- Against bosses that don't get Stunned, a on Mace and a on Spear will do more DPS. This is especially useful in the opener, where you may otherwise have to delay your first due to lack of adrenaline.
- If you're able to reliably use CC during a bosses attack animations, then will trigger, which can make it better than .
- Against bosses where you can reliably remove boons (such as Qadim), may offer higher DPS. Be aware that you will also stack this relic passively in combat, so the damage buff may trigger on a moment where it's not useful.
Consumables
Food
- or ascended versions
Utility
Usage
Hammer rotation
Start on Dagger
Opener
Hammer section
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- Weapon Swap
Dagger/Mace section
- - this is interchangeable with Crushing Blow, but as it is a priority skill we use it first to prevent us interrupting Crushing Blow
- ⇒ ⇒
- ⇒ ⇒ x3
- ⇒ ⇒
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Hammer section
Offhand axe rotation
Offhand Axe has a very similar rotation, with the main difference being that you autoattack more while on dagger.
Start on Dagger.
Opener
Hammer section
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- Weapon Swap
Dagger/Axe section
- - this is interchangeable with Dual Strike, but as it is a priority skill we use it first to prevent us interrupting Dual Strike
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- ⇒ ⇒
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Hammer section
Spear rotation
Spear benefits from precise aiming on several of its skills, which can make it less reliable if there are other enemies around. Specifically,
and deal extra damage to the target closest to the centre of their AoEs, and and do increased CC to the first target they hit.Additionally, this rotation has lower coverage of
compared to the Hammer build. You only crit cap when at five stacks, so CC is spaced out to try to cover as many of your high damage skills as possible during these periods. If you are slow or miss your CC skills, you may find youself dropping below three stacks, making your crits far less reliable.
Opener
- - it is optimal to use to cancel the aftercast of Dual Strike, and it has its own aftercast that can be cancelled by the weapon swap. If you find yourself cancelling Dual Strike entirely though, just reverse the order of these two skills.
- Weapon Swap
Spear section
- - this has a long aftercast on it, so its best to mash the next skill to reduce downtime
- until Maiming Spear is off cooldown
- - pushing forward during this skill will cancel a lot of the forced movement
- until Harrier's Toss is off cooldown
Dagger/Axe section
- - this is interchangeable with Dual Strike, but as it is a priority skill we use it first to prevent us interrupting Dual Strike
- ⇒ ⇒ x2
- ⇒ ⇒
- Weapon Swap
- Return to start of Spear section
Kiting Qadim's Lava Elementals
This build can reliably kite Lava Elementals at Qadim, while also bringing decent DPS on the boss and utility in removing Stability during Parry by using . It is however very unforgiving for mistakes and becomes more difficult quickly when Qadim gets stacks of Fiery Surge. This guide assumes the use of offhand Axe.
Build variation
- gives you more sustain
- can be used if adrenaline generation is an issue. Alternatively, use your actively to make up any adrenaline deficiency, which allows you to take in case DPS isn't high enough to skip Qadim's defiance bar (or on Challenge Mode)
- (Optional) does increased damage to enemies that have boons. Qadim regains boons on a very short interval. Replace and use off cooldown (be aware that it interrupts other skills)
- (Optional) - Qadim regains boons very regularly, so you will not gain the benefit of . You can however reliably gain the extra damage and adrenaline for removing boons with this trait.
- (Optional) can be taken since Qadim regains boons constantly that you can remove to stack this effect.
Kiting Strategy
For a general overview, see this section.
Since this build has no ranged capabilities, we will be running around to kill the Lava Elementals up close. The elementals spawn in an anti-clockwise pattern around the platform Qadim is on. The main strategy for killing the elementals is to go through a loop of three methods (and since the platform is a triangle, that means that we'll be using every method in the same corner every time).
- or and (alternate between them every loop)
Since we don't have Fury, it's possible we won't crit every time. Just finish the elemental with some auto attacks in that case.
Running around the platform means most of Qadim's attacks won't hit us. The main danger comes from , but this attack can be dodged or jumped over. Fire Dance will usually occur right before going back to the first elemental spawn spot, but this can deviate based on Fiery Surge stacks. If we avoid all the attacks, the only sustain we need is for the passive aura. This sustain is provided by the passive of
and building up by hitting . If an emergency block is needed, can be used which will also add stacks of if it hits an enemy. Adrenaline can be topped off by using the active of or bringing .Ratings
Comments
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.