Up until recently I have been really digging my PvP build, but suddenly something happened that has changed everything! A Defiant Warrior thoroughly smashed, bashed, and trashed Ferrel and I in a warfront. I looked at his buffs and was startled by what I saw. After playing with ZAM’s Soul Calculator when I found a really helpful thread about the build on the Rift forums by Zin, I am in love!
The build is 30 Riftblade / 20 Champion / 16 Void Knight. While I made changes to the original build Xvvt (a.k.a. Zin) posted based on patch 1.6 and personal preference, the foundation is still the same as it used to be: “RAGEEEEEEEEEEstorm”! The key ability, as you can guess, is Ragestorm. I read that with the recent changes in patch 1.6 this ability is not as effective and I can honestly say I don’t know if that is true or not. I am still testing its effectiveness. However, I feel like an absolute beast in this build and I only just hit rank 3 a few days ago!
Some of the other key abilities in this build:
- Spell Sunder – One of my favorite PvP abilities! It strips up to 3 buffs off your target. This includes active HoTs!
- Battlefield Intimidation – Big AoE fear that lasts for up to 6 seconds. In PvP, 6 seconds is an annoyingly long time.
- Riftwalk – A great charge ability that also deals damage, roots the target, and breaks any “roots, snares, stuns, mesmerizes, and incapacitates” (on yourself, I assume).
- Planar Blade – This Blade spell will not only return some power, but also refreshes the cooldown of Riftwalk!
- Bull Rush + Blitz + Lingering Wounds – Oh yeah… In-combat charge that roots the target and decreases healing they receive when they are critically hit!
Stats: Strength and Physical Crit seem to be the more important stats for this build to work, since most of the abilities are based around your strength or proc off your critical hits.
Weapon: I set the build up to not be weapon-dependent although it was originally intended for using a two-handed weapon. I myself am still undecided between a two-handed or dual-wielding one-handed weapons. Whichever you prefer should be fine with this build, I think!
Buffs: I usually run with Slayer’s Bearing, Avatar of Water, Void, and Planar Blade. Which bearing you use is up to you – I prefer Slayer’s because my goal is to do as many critical strikes as possible for Planar Blade, so why not make those crits really count. The Avatar buffs are mostly situational is another “up to you” buff. I usually do Wind in circumstances where running around and/or chasing people is part of my strategy. Otherwise, if I plan to stand and guard somewhere, I’ll switch to Water to reduce some of the incoming damage.
Abilities: The three most important abilities to use the moment their cooldown wears off, in my opinion, are Riftwalk, Bull Rush, and Spell Sunder. If they are up I absolutely want to use them. I also want to smash face with Ragestorm when it is up. Other than all of that it is up to you — I try to amp up the DPS with Frost Strike + Thunder Strike and the Spears. I would recommend making sure Stonespear is in there regardless of what you decide, because if both Riftwalk and Bull Rush are down and the target is too far away, you might be able to root them with it and catch up.
Finishers: When I have three attack points, I want to make sure Rift Surge is used, then Rift Tap, and then whatever DPS I can squeeze in between from the Riftblade’s Burst abilities.
So far I have really enjoyed this build, much more than I would have thought. I was really attached to my Paladin/Beastmaster/Void Knight and while I will probably alter that build to continue to use when I duo with Ferrel, I think this one is the one for when I PvP!
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This has been my pvp build for a long time, I also use it to solo. I love it. with 1.6 however, I swaped out VK for Reaver and droped like 3 points in champion for a bit more reaverness. Reason being is they changed the VK lower stuff like surge and ravenous str. I’m still looking at it. I can say that it solos alot better with reaver on emerald isle. I’ve yet to try it in pvp…definately the rage build though for pvp you can also swap to sword and board or 2h or duel in this spec. it can tank the bosses in Port Scion or in PvE rift events easily.
Yeah, I am really digging it mostly because it is a lot better than what I had. I do agree that the 1.6 changes to VK make me a little hesitant to keep with it, but I just love Spell Sunder in PvP. I love it when I see the buffs pop off and their health drastically begins to reduce at a much faster rate!
I don’t typically solo because if Ferrel isn’t on, I go rare spawn hunting. For duoing I use Beastmaster in my build because the buff bug makes it very easy for me to get aggro off the face-smashing cleric! I think I am running 44 RB / 22 BM for our duo adventures. That lets me and Pooka grab aggro easily — I run Pooka in Protective mode — with the healing blade for tighter situations, otherwise I just smash face with the storm blade. When things get boring I’ll pop the planar blade on for bouncing-around fun
Also, thank you for posting your build! I am thinking about amping Riftblade up for the very same reason you list – 31 AoE and the spear. I need to study Ragestorm a bit more to determine if the little guy is really all that he supposedly used to be! What are your thoughts on Ragestorm? Does it really dish out the pain? I feel like it has, or at least had, huge potential.
Ragestorm is one of those abilities that is good, but could be better. Specially now after 1.6. It does have potential but it depends on how much timing you want to put in it, if your like me…then not much hehe. I just macro everything together. But if you carefully time your thunderburst (I think from RB the lightning finisher that increases magic damage to the person) then do rage storm you’ll do alot more damage.
IMO I like the 31 point aoe ability, it’s killed me many a player because it’s a huge aoe that follows me around and is not tied to a ground effect, so If I am chasing down a nearly dead person or persons, I can pop that and it’s zaping them while i am doing other abilities and as long as I chase, they can’t escape the range.
The riftreaver i’m using right now is http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cLAk.gMzLzsMGzso.xzqLhz0z.t0szk reason I chose this is because some of the VK stuff was meh I love the purge, but I get more self healing and mitigation things in the reaver tree as well as dots, which everyone hates.
Ahh! I didn’t think of combining it with the RB effect you mentioned. I like that idea! However in the heat of PvP I don’t think and plan too carefully, so maybe I would be better suited to something a little more “spam those macros”-friendly (;
The 31 point ability is sounding more and more appealing! I think some changes are in order…
What is your macro setup?
I hope Starseeker shares hers because her build intrigues me!
As for my macros, I didn’t even think to share them because I don’t have much confidence in mine:
1) Movement control — Make anyone else nearby scatter (or try to) and reduce the target’s change of getting away (again, try to)
#show Battlefield Intimidation
cast Battlefield Intimidation
cast Stonespear
cast Leg Sweep
2) Attack macro — This one I am not sold on because I don’t know what’s best where and when, if I could squeak in more DPS by gaining or losing abilities, etc.
#show Ragestorm
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Riftwalk
cast Bull Rush
cast Spell Sunder
cast Ragestorm
cast Discharge
cast Stonespear
cast Frost Strike
cast Thunder Strike
cast Flamespear
3) Finishers — I am also very wary of this one because I swear Earth Burst takes precedence over Rift Surge and Tap even though they come first. If anyone knows what I’m doing wrong, please share!
#show Rift Surge
cast Rift Surge
cast Rift Tap
cast Earth Burst
cast Storm Burst
cast Fiery Burst
4) Anti-Blues! — For use against them blue-bar targets!
#show Bash
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Riftwalk
cast Bull Rush
cast Spell Sunder
cast Disrupt
cast Bash
cast Ragestorm
cast Discharge
cast Stonespear
cast Frost Strike
cast Thunder Strike
cast Flamespear
I will post mine when I get home. For PVP I tend to leave things like battlefield intimidation, bull rush, riftwalk, etc out of macros so the cool down is up if I need it. My play style is the jump in with both feet style, so I tend to be the first out of the gate, and jumping in and popping that aoe fear so everyone is running around while my crew starts picking targets. Riftwalk is a CC breaker so I keep it out of macros so it’s up if I get stunlocked by an assassin. Also the purges I’ll keep out because I want to purge healers mostly, not rogues or tanks. but just play style…
As for your burst macro, Rift tap is an instant ability, so in that macro you are breaking it by having it 2nd in line. Firery burst is also instant, so you have to choose one or other. I would choose firey burst since it is one of the highest damaging finishers tanks have.
Grr can’t edit…I also changed the build to get the 32 point ability in RB (top ability as well as the silence spear in the root abilities). This is the build I use: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cLgk.gMzxzsMrzso.tcza0z.E0czkM
Here are my macros for the Riftblade/Reaver/Champion:
Main Macro:
#show searing strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast inescapable fury
cast stonespear
cast plague Bringer
cast soul sickness
cast flamespear
cast frost strike
cast Concussion
cast infestation
Cast Debilitating Strike
cast thunder strike
cast Grim Lure
Cast blood fever
Finisher Macro:
#show earth burst
suppressmacrofailures
cast earth burst
cast storm burst
cast fiery Burst
Everything else is on individual buttons, I like to keep rift surge/rift storm separate so I can choose when and who i’m using them on.
The reaver debuffs like raving strike I have on separate macros tied in with fury:
Rav:
#show Ravaging Strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Ravaging Strike
I am currently trying out a Riftblade/Void knight/Reaver: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cLgA.gMzxzsMrzso.gc0a0z.Vzqh0d
Macros:
Main:
#show searing strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast plague Bringer
cast flamespear
cast soul sickness
Cast Discharge
Cast Ragestorm
cast stonespear
cast frost strike
cast Disrupt
cast Concussion
Cast Debilitating Strike
cast thunder strike
cast Grim Lure
cast Blood Fever
Finisher is the same as above. Everything else on cool down. Not sure if it will work, i may go back to the champion build
Starseeker, is this: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cLgk.gMzxzsMrzso.tcza0z.E0czkM a 2h or 1h with shield build? Plz let me know!
Depends on what your doing
. I use a 1h/shield when I’m using that build for PvE solo (sometimes in pvp if it’s scion or there is a lot of physical damage due to my trinket that heals me on a block). In pvp I typically use duel wield 1h but it would work with a 2h as well. Really it’s up to preference. I just don’t have a decent pvp 2h