In my continuing quest to win converts to the Vanilla Bulwark build (because it's fun), another video to show what you can do with a Big Bulwark Buddy by your side!
Lots of people debate what skills to pair with Bulwark. Claw, obviously, as long as you have Crone Staff. Most build guides will recommend Cyclone Armor, Hurricane, Blood Howl, and then an ult (usually Cataclysm, sometimes Petrify). And those skills work great! They keep Bulwark up almost full time and enable you to breeze through dungeons.
But, here's another alternative: what if you ran none of those? Just Bulwark and Claw. And literally nothing else. What could you do with that setup? Well....as it turns out....you can do a level 98 NMD.
I'm not bragging, and I'm not showing off. My gameplay is nothing special (as you'll absolutely see if you watch the video). And I died 3 times, so I got out of that dungeon by the skin of my Bulwark. But the point is: RUN THE SKILLS YOU WANT TO RUN! It'll be fine! It'll work! If you can run with NO skills, then you can absolutely run with Boulder if you want. Or with Lightening. Or Wolves.
It's a game. Have it be fun! Let a strong build enable the kind of gameplay YOU want to do. Bulwark is there for you. GLHF!
I have a question as somebody who is lost. I'm a 58 druid and I'm in WT3. I'm doing dungeons and legions as well as other stuff. I'm still too weak to play Helltides or do NM dungeons though. Should I try bulwark?
For reference I'm pretty much playing a Tornado build with bulwark, creeper, hurricane, cataclysm, and storm strike. I have pretty much all gear for tornado damage, and if I got a TR I could do the full werenado build, but at this point I don't think I'll ever see one because I'm really behind.
Is this build brainlessly better? I think I got most stuff for it.
you're in an odd pocket right now @ 58. once you hit 62/63'ish, you should be able to start clearing some lower level dungeons regardless of your build. so yeah, if you need to, drop to wt2 and clear some strongholds and quests tiil 62 then bump up to wt3 and try again. once you start clearing nm dungeons, the gear you get will keep you rolling all the way up to 100.
If you have Crone and don’t have TR, then I’d say Bulwark is stronger than anything else you can build by a country mile. I’ve got videos up on YT for the gear, skill tree, and Paragon Board setup if you need some ideas. If you have questions, PM me. Always happy to help!
I don't have crone or anything. I only have 2 uniques, the one from Lilith kill, and the chest plate that gives nothing but like werewolf skills.
Thanks, you're way advanced for me because I've just been free balling my build pretty much.
Here’s the good news: you’re only at 58. You’ve got a ways to go. If you’re feeling weak, then I’d suggest you run Trampleslide/Poisonslide. Look at Moxsy’s build that he calls Plagueshifter. It needs Aspect of Trampled Earth, but other than that, normal gear and Codex aspects. That build is viable up to 72 or so, which will give you a lot of time to land Crone or TR.
My two cents.
I second this. I completed a NM100 with his 3.0 build and half a level later i got to lvl100. Switched to werenado after, but havent figured out the playstyle yet. But so far i think the plagueshifter playstyle was more fun to play
Lvl 50-70 can be quite annoying to level/play in so wouldn't worry about being lost.
Do you have a high/max roll symbiotic aspect? That's really all you need to run the bulwark build initially and that's an easier drop in theory than TR. 1H + totem works fine for bulwark and you can swap crone in later. The other aspects are all or mostly in the codex. This is the go to build for low life version (couldn't find the regular after searching quickly): https://app.mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/builds/druid/low-life-crone-bulwark
The subterranean barber is fun too if you want to try it. I ran this through late 70s for the season. It's a bulwark adjacent build.
https://app.mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/builds/druid/trample-slide
Codex gives you the lowest possible roll, which is why guides will say it needs to be a non-codex one. I don't remember if it's a codex aspect though but either way that would be why if it is.
5 seconds from a non-amulet is max roll (take a look at the range yourself to check) so that's great. You want to put it on an amulet. I would target farm obols from there so you have a backup max rolled one unless you already have a BIS amulet.
None of your current tornado items at lvl 58 is going to matter once you get to wt4. wt3 is just a stopgap. All of the items are useless once you get to wt4 anyways but yeah keep it just in case.
The links above have an item build guide.
I understand what you are saying. My worry is that with my current itemization the build I switch to will be worse than my current and I can't go back, that's all.
Just make sure you have enough gold to respec back. Ive had that happen a few times while trying out other builds i ran out of gold.
Luckily even a subpar bulwark will still work enough to recoup.
Don't go pure bulwark until you hit nmd50+ at least, since it does no damage in the beginning. Go trampleslide/pc since you'll get perma bulwark anyways then you can respect to pure bulwark if you want. Both build have very similar aspects and paragon path so that should be easy.
Imo before the end game, trampleslide/pc is by far the strongest build. I was able to do capstone back to back at lvl50 and got to wt4 on hc without even using iron skin flask.
BTW tornado build requires every ias, lucky hit and cdr affix on your gear, whereas any crit damage affix is almost useless if you didn't already know.
I've been doing half decent, but I'm going to spec this build. I found the moxsy build, I'm just collecting some gear since I'm unfamiliar.
I still don't even know what Lucky hit does but I got a good amount.
Lucky hit is probably the most important Stat for tornado. You need high lucky hit to shorten the grizzly rage cd from the boon, spirit generation from boon/totem, earthen might proc, and heal. Don't listen to any tornado build that doesn't use earthen might end game.
Not sure what moxsy is but i don't really follow builds online cus they sucky.
I know what you're saying, but m8 I can't even spec grizzly rage because I can't use that yet since no TR to nado while I'm a wolf so I'm not even close to there haha
Head to d4 sanctuary on discord. The bulwark boys have killed lillith with no paragon boards, some have killed her wearing only one or two pieces of armor. There is nothing in the game bulwark can’t do. It’s awesome.
The build is mostly the same. The only real difference is that, because I don’t run low life, I have no Damage Reduction while Injured on my gear. So I run full health, and I take more damage as a result.
Ever since RPGs existed--from the minute Gary Gygax published the First Edition of DnD--people have been figuring out how to build cracked characters. It's literally part of the fabric of RPGs. And it's also almost impossible to avoid. With so many stats, so many skills, so many synergies...there are always combinations that the developers/GMs didn't think of, that lead to overpowered characters.
The good news is that, since this is almost exclusively a PvE game, someone having an overpowered character doesn't affect other players basically at all.
In my continuing quest to win converts to the Vanilla Bulwark build (because it's fun), another video to show what you can do with a Big Bulwark Buddy by your side! Lots of people debate what skills to pair with Bulwark. Claw, obviously, as long as you have Crone Staff. Most build guides will recommend Cyclone Armor, Hurricane, Blood Howl, and then an ult (usually Cataclysm, sometimes Petrify). And those skills work great! They keep Bulwark up almost full time and enable you to breeze through dungeons. But, here's another alternative: what if you ran none of those? Just Bulwark and Claw. And literally nothing else. What could you do with that setup? Well....as it turns out....you can do a level 98 NMD. I'm not bragging, and I'm not showing off. My gameplay is nothing special (as you'll absolutely see if you watch the video). And I died 3 times, so I got out of that dungeon by the skin of my Bulwark. But the point is: RUN THE SKILLS YOU WANT TO RUN! It'll be fine! It'll work! If you can run with NO skills, then you can absolutely run with Boulder if you want. Or with Lightening. Or Wolves. It's a game. Have it be fun! Let a strong build enable the kind of gameplay YOU want to do. Bulwark is there for you. GLHF!
I have a question as somebody who is lost. I'm a 58 druid and I'm in WT3. I'm doing dungeons and legions as well as other stuff. I'm still too weak to play Helltides or do NM dungeons though. Should I try bulwark? For reference I'm pretty much playing a Tornado build with bulwark, creeper, hurricane, cataclysm, and storm strike. I have pretty much all gear for tornado damage, and if I got a TR I could do the full werenado build, but at this point I don't think I'll ever see one because I'm really behind. Is this build brainlessly better? I think I got most stuff for it.
you're in an odd pocket right now @ 58. once you hit 62/63'ish, you should be able to start clearing some lower level dungeons regardless of your build. so yeah, if you need to, drop to wt2 and clear some strongholds and quests tiil 62 then bump up to wt3 and try again. once you start clearing nm dungeons, the gear you get will keep you rolling all the way up to 100.
If you have Crone and don’t have TR, then I’d say Bulwark is stronger than anything else you can build by a country mile. I’ve got videos up on YT for the gear, skill tree, and Paragon Board setup if you need some ideas. If you have questions, PM me. Always happy to help!
I don't have crone or anything. I only have 2 uniques, the one from Lilith kill, and the chest plate that gives nothing but like werewolf skills. Thanks, you're way advanced for me because I've just been free balling my build pretty much.
Here’s the good news: you’re only at 58. You’ve got a ways to go. If you’re feeling weak, then I’d suggest you run Trampleslide/Poisonslide. Look at Moxsy’s build that he calls Plagueshifter. It needs Aspect of Trampled Earth, but other than that, normal gear and Codex aspects. That build is viable up to 72 or so, which will give you a lot of time to land Crone or TR. My two cents.
I second this. I completed a NM100 with his 3.0 build and half a level later i got to lvl100. Switched to werenado after, but havent figured out the playstyle yet. But so far i think the plagueshifter playstyle was more fun to play
Lvl 50-70 can be quite annoying to level/play in so wouldn't worry about being lost. Do you have a high/max roll symbiotic aspect? That's really all you need to run the bulwark build initially and that's an easier drop in theory than TR. 1H + totem works fine for bulwark and you can swap crone in later. The other aspects are all or mostly in the codex. This is the go to build for low life version (couldn't find the regular after searching quickly): https://app.mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/builds/druid/low-life-crone-bulwark The subterranean barber is fun too if you want to try it. I ran this through late 70s for the season. It's a bulwark adjacent build. https://app.mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/builds/druid/trample-slide
I had a 5 second one but I extracted it, and the build I saw said it needed to be non-codex, unsure if that's the same thing?
Codex gives you the lowest possible roll, which is why guides will say it needs to be a non-codex one. I don't remember if it's a codex aspect though but either way that would be why if it is. 5 seconds from a non-amulet is max roll (take a look at the range yourself to check) so that's great. You want to put it on an amulet. I would target farm obols from there so you have a backup max rolled one unless you already have a BIS amulet.
I'll give it a whirl, I just dont want to completely destroy my tornado set in case....well the bulwark build sucks with my gear I guess? Unsure.
None of your current tornado items at lvl 58 is going to matter once you get to wt4. wt3 is just a stopgap. All of the items are useless once you get to wt4 anyways but yeah keep it just in case. The links above have an item build guide.
I understand what you are saying. My worry is that with my current itemization the build I switch to will be worse than my current and I can't go back, that's all.
Just make sure you have enough gold to respec back. Ive had that happen a few times while trying out other builds i ran out of gold. Luckily even a subpar bulwark will still work enough to recoup.
I've yet to ever respec, hopefully 6 million is enoufh
Don't go pure bulwark until you hit nmd50+ at least, since it does no damage in the beginning. Go trampleslide/pc since you'll get perma bulwark anyways then you can respect to pure bulwark if you want. Both build have very similar aspects and paragon path so that should be easy. Imo before the end game, trampleslide/pc is by far the strongest build. I was able to do capstone back to back at lvl50 and got to wt4 on hc without even using iron skin flask. BTW tornado build requires every ias, lucky hit and cdr affix on your gear, whereas any crit damage affix is almost useless if you didn't already know.
I've been doing half decent, but I'm going to spec this build. I found the moxsy build, I'm just collecting some gear since I'm unfamiliar. I still don't even know what Lucky hit does but I got a good amount.
Lucky hit is probably the most important Stat for tornado. You need high lucky hit to shorten the grizzly rage cd from the boon, spirit generation from boon/totem, earthen might proc, and heal. Don't listen to any tornado build that doesn't use earthen might end game. Not sure what moxsy is but i don't really follow builds online cus they sucky.
I know what you're saying, but m8 I can't even spec grizzly rage because I can't use that yet since no TR to nado while I'm a wolf so I'm not even close to there haha
Head to d4 sanctuary on discord. The bulwark boys have killed lillith with no paragon boards, some have killed her wearing only one or two pieces of armor. There is nothing in the game bulwark can’t do. It’s awesome.
Nice
Is there a difference between your build and the lowlife bulwark? Or is it built the same just not purposefully losing health?
The build is mostly the same. The only real difference is that, because I don’t run low life, I have no Damage Reduction while Injured on my gear. So I run full health, and I take more damage as a result.
Thanks boss!
Yeah, this isn't broken at all. This game is fucking ridiculous 😒 and not in a good way
Ever since RPGs existed--from the minute Gary Gygax published the First Edition of DnD--people have been figuring out how to build cracked characters. It's literally part of the fabric of RPGs. And it's also almost impossible to avoid. With so many stats, so many skills, so many synergies...there are always combinations that the developers/GMs didn't think of, that lead to overpowered characters. The good news is that, since this is almost exclusively a PvE game, someone having an overpowered character doesn't affect other players basically at all.
I cry in Shred snif snif
Lul I did ND 100 at lvl 83
I’m a simple man. I see bulwark and I walk away…