A little context - the hipster no bolt duelist obviously started out as a joke, but then I wondered if it was possible to make her perilous viable without being completely carried. The answer? Yes.
“I like boobs. Supple, leather boobs” – Isabela (This quote is definitely 100% accurate)
Duelist OP? Perilous too easy? Want to p*ss off min-maxers?
If so, look no further. With my patented ‘Hipsterbela’ build, you will become the ultimate hipster, and your friends/pugs will only be able to look on in envy as you watch them kill everything from the fade.
Abilities:
1. Evade+
2. Keelhaul+
3. Flashing Steel+ (you can replace flashing steel with parry for UBER-HIPSTER GIGA-POINTS)
4. Ambush
Why so hipster? We don’t take bolt. That’s right, it’s waaaay too mainstream. If you use bolt, you’re probably a narc or something. Instead, we use keelhaul for CC, but also to stack elusive. True hipsters don't stack elusive, however; to really get the most out of this build, your health bar should be red and flashing.
How does it work? There are a few skill rotations which we can use to maximise time in the fade.
First, it should be noted that as with all hipster builds, this will only work in a team, because otherwise there will be no-one around to see how hipster you are.
Secondly, stamina could be an issue (see gear section later). For that reason, we will have to auto-attack/run away with evade a lot.
Playstyle:
Scenario 1 – “Take down a high priority target but don’t quite finish it off and then run away”
You wait for your teammates to engage the enemies. Once they’ve done their “I’ve been aggro’d” animation, choose a high priority target and use ambush, preferably from behind. Don't use Keelhaul first, as you will almost certainly gain aggro, losing the 900% damage bonus. You should be able to get in a couple of auto-attacks. If it isn’t dead, it will now be taunted and aggro'd on you, so use evade to run away like a coward. If the enemy is still alive, try to keep using a mix of auto-attacks and evade to finish it off. Worst case, run back to your teammates and let them deal with it. You have fair trade coffee to critique.
Scenario 2 – “Crappy crowd control”
Er… Use Keelhaul. Pretty much like how everyone has been using it since launch. It’s fairly self-explanatory.
Useful if you see a group of enemies that includes a high HP moron unit eg. a venatori brute, red trampler (copyright @ Beerfish) kernigit, Eric Prydz demon, druffalo. Bonus points for tying terrors to shades, much lol. Extra bonus points for using it on a faction commander.
You could then run/evade over and use twin fangs to gain elusive stacks, but you’ll lose hipster points. Especially if you wait until the enemies are clustered to maximise elusive gain. Don’t waste ambush unless you have to.
Scenario 3 – “Argh I need elusive”
Pretty much the reason you shouldn’t waste keelhaul. We don’t use bolt. We aren’t mainstream losers. Just use evade already. Out of stamina? Time to sit back and relax in the fade. Let all the posers run around. You know better.
Scenario 4 – “I wish we had bolt, the cooldowns are f*cking ridiculous”
Evade and auto-attack things while other abilities are on cooldown. Stay strong. Become one with the hipsterosity.
Gear:
Mainhand dagger – max damage, HoK is nice, Crit chance if you have enough HoK from elsewhere
Offhand dagger – Audacity if you have it for explode all the things (thanks to Drasca for pointing that out), otherwise any interesting secondary effect and reasonable damage.
Cooldown amulet (my preference give our lack of bolt) or stamina amulet (you can evade more)
HoK rings, ideally. If you don’t have them, prioritise crit chance to take advantage of Looked Like It Hurt.
Levelling Guide:
Level 2 – Get Weak Spot
Level 3-5 – Get Keelhaul + Shark Bait
Level 6-7 – Evade + Hidden Step
Level 8-11 – Get to Ambush (upgrade it later)
Level 12 – Take Unyielding
Level 13-16 – Take Looked Like It Hurt, Salty Sea Dog, Savvy, Crows Nest Lookout
Level 17-18 – Take Dead Men Tell No Tales
Level 19 – Upgrade Ambush or don’t invest a skill point at all for extra hipster kudos
Level 20 – You should now be getting kicked on sight. Congratulations! You are hipster.
Nb.
On a serious note, this build is clearly suboptimal. Min-maxers should steer clear. That said, it is weirdly perilous viable with a team that isn’t going to all insta-fade anyway, with my crappy stats of 21/37/24.
Acknowledgements:
I’d also like to thank and apologise to all the PuGs who had to endure this build, especially on perilous. You guys carried me like a boss.
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