My PVE Build Summary

I’ve plan to write this guide several months ago, but writing a good post is really difficult due to other activities & writing itself is difficult :sweat_smile:. I write this topic as a little step to write the build & mechanic behind what I called Universal PVE Build.
Right now this post is unworthy to read as is incomplete. I’ll edit, add photo & video step by step to this post. I’ll change this topic title to “Universal PVE build” if finish. I hope the mod don’t delete this topic.
This is a start.
For new player i recommend to read other build post first cause it will really help you how the DQ works, there are many post from experience player & tester in this forum. I can’t post link to them because there is rule not to quote other post without their knowing. I’ve read almost of this post including that post from 2012.
Use this keyword (hope this is not break the forum rules) to search in this forum: Skaul, Mid Guide (pdf is available), 100% block, frozen fire, etc or just type “build”.

A. Purpose of this topic:

  1. Sharing.
  2. My progress note understanding DQ PVE.
  3. To find possibility for other build beside Frozen-Fire explosion that can kill rare+ enemy in high floor with enemy heal affix 0.2-0.5%, eq 10K.

From my understanding, beside playing DQ is fun, we hiking floor from 1-higher floor is to find resources (gold, crystal, mythstone), experience to level up char level & heroic. Become rich, many resources & strong. To find resources better we should have High Farming Stat, we could achieve it by special set affix (eternalized, nadroji, mythiccal, crystalline), high luck, high gold fine, high drop rate & purchase boost.
As we progress, the enemy become stronger & game become difficult especially if we dead > 3 in challenge map because we have to pay with gold. The higher the map, more gold required too buy life. This is why survival ability become important. Ofc we need more Damage to kill enemy.
So there is question is there a perfect PVE build?. I can’t answer that, depend on what perfect parameter is, but there is build that allow you to have high Farming, Survival, Damage. I call it Universal PVE Build because it grasps all important PVE aspect that can be used by all type char. The limitation is we need hireling. So this is build for 2 char slot.

Let break it down 1 by 1
B. Adventure/Farming Stat
This stat mostly dependent on main char farming stat on it equipment or nature. There are cystal & legend affix to increase farming stat up to the Cap, eq Luck 225%, GF 225%, +50% item drop. We can further ‘increase’ it either it has Fortunate or Treasured Perks, by increase its cap with Epiphany (5), more than that the increase (+5%) stat is insignificant, better to save slot for other Set. There are several topic guide about this farming stat, in my opinion Epiphany (5) is enough & become important to have this Set.
Main = 8 Slot (2 CA, 4 Legend, 2 Epic) + 30 Fortune + 2xLuck Nature+ 2x4 Greed Nature
Hireling = 6 Slot (1 CA, 4 Legend, 1 Epic) + 20 Fortune +1xLuck Nature

C. Survival-Ability
In high floor the Armor, Resistance, HP become insignificance, the enemy Damage is very high always 1 hit kill my char. The only way to survive is avoiding damage or have 100% damage reduction. In PVE there are 3 best survival ability with is own pro & cons. These 3 will minimize our death in challenge map, even sometimes no dead (no skyfall & TNT prop).

  1. Block: There are already guide about this 100% block build. It can only by achieved by warrior, other char type will never able have it, Bulwark will not work on Wiz/Rogue. This is passive abillities & triggered by enemy. In my opinion, this build is easier to use than the other 2 survival ability because less button to click. Total slot: 7 (3 SA, 2CA, 2 Epic)
  2. Hyper Armor: This is special affix only exist in several equipment for Warrior & Rogue (In Codex last page). It’s available in almost all pieces equipment except OH. This special hard to get affix will give 100% (4 different pieces) while attacking even while you’re attacking an empty air. All type char can get it by using Jasper. With Fear, stun & frozen resist, my hireling (sword skullshield mage) become immortal facing 5 rare +1 epic enemy (with enemy heal affix 0.5%). I watched until bored. Total slot: 4 (Legend)
  3. Permanent Stealth: long duration & short cooldown Stealth skill so that we can cast it while still in Stealth. All type char can use this skill, the cons for Wiz/War is shorter duration.
    Duration: Rogue +40 Stealth (+400% duration) = 6 s. Wiz/War +20 Stealth (+200% duration, +10 form MH+OH, +10 from pet)= 3.6 s, if you have eternal pet with +20 Stealth (total +30, +300% duration) the duration is: 4.8 s. Maybe my calculation is not exactly precise but it is around those duration.
    Cooldown: Default Stealth cooldown: 16 s. With Epiphany (5), RDC 75% (Crystal, Epic/Heroic), Hunger (5) the new cooldown: 16*(1-75%)*(1-37.5%) = 2,5 s. Hunger works dynamically, won’t show in stat page. When your mana > 75%, the cooldown animation on your Stealth skill button will rotate from the top circle button or 00:00, when your mana < 75% the cooldown animation on your Stealth skill button will rotate from the third right circle button around 04:00. Total Slot: 4-5 depend on Heroic Dex (1 Mythic,2 CA,1or2 Epic)
    NB: in this section, 16 s stealth duration go down to 2.5 s, what about other skill cooldown??..yup, so it really good to have proc Legend affix on any free slot.

D. Damage
If we go to option and select ‘Only Crit Numbers’ to show we will see to colors:
a. Magenta = critical damage
b. Light Blue = weakened, effective, crushed & damage from crushing blow. Weakened & effective are the information about our element interaction with enemy resistance, it boost the damage for the magenta damage color. Crushed is a state that the enemy got crushing blow (opinion, i dont know exactly what it is), crushing blow is a critical damage that’s why it is shown.
From this information i create classification about damage based on this color and found they come from different sources. This realization is a very important to all PVE build, perspective and mechanic behind damage definition itself.
In this section I also write my summary for the ‘resources’ for skill because basically all attack in DQ is skill casting. So that’s important to have unlimited resources.

D.1 Damage Classification

  1. Weapon-Based Damage
    All attack damage is based on weapon damage. MH skill damage based on MH weapon damage, OH skill damage based on OH weapon damage. There are so many affix that increase this damage class: WD%,WD+,ED%,ED+,Weaken,CritChance%,CritDMG+,Ignore Resist,Element Crit DMG(Frostbiting,Blistering), ExecuteDMG,Glasscannnon, Barbarian,PTL etc. These affix increase the damage by multiplying the MH or OH weapon damage and further increased by heroic skill bonus,talent,set bonus. That’s why I called this damage as Weapon-Based Damage. I can get this kind of damage up to 100B with bleeding, maybe i can improve it, but i’ll never achieve damage to kill enemy that has high HP in high floor. The higher the floor, this weapon-base damage become insignificant & obsolete.

  2. Crushed-Based Damage
    I just use the word from the game animation to remember it easily. It came from crushing blow. The codex has clear definition about this affix. The damage depend on enemy current HP not weapon. There are limited method to increase crushing blow, no weapon-based damage affix boost will work for crushing blow.
    First, increase CB damage the only way is by using CF (Crushing Flame) set. Increase effect only when enemy in immolation or during fire elemental crit. So, the requirement is Weapon (Fire)+CF+Legend EC(30%)/Wizardry talent for Wizard char. CF is dependent with element and Fire is the only element that work. MH or OH must have fire element.
    Second, increase CB chance by literally increase CB chance or increase APS. It depend on your current APS and available slot to decide increase CB or APS. Increase APS is means high hit frequency to have CB to happen/proc in every hit.
    Example, current build: CB 30%,+4 MA (hit/s = 1 standard + 4 MA = 5) , APS 4, total hit/s = 4x5 = 20 hit/s, CB chance = 20x0.3 = 6/s,
    Increase APS using Angelic (5) set (+25% APS), new APS 5, total hit/s = 5x5 = 25 hit/s, CB chance = 25x0.3 = 7.5/s
    Increase CB using Epic CB 10% (total 40%): CB chance: 20x0.4= 8/s. From this example better add 1 Epic 10% CB rather than Angelic set.
    NB: this is my understanding how CB chance happen during attack, its chance calculated on for every ‘hit’ not attack thats why the enemy HP could go down really fast < 10 s. Even if this CB chance understanding not fully right, this build is still OK
    We could floor hiking infinitely (if you’re not tired) by utilizing CB, once more because its damage based on enemy current HP, with only CF (crushing flame) set we need time & patience to kill rare+ enemy (< 3 minutes). The effective CB utilization is CF(6)+CB(30%)+Legend EC (30%), total 4 slot. Rather than adding more CF, better add frozen set, we could kill rare+ enemy fast as long as we can create frozen explosion.
    So the highest damage in PVE affix is Frozen(5)+CF(6)+CB(30%)+Legend EC (30%) total 5 slot. The reason is this affix combination even kill rare+ enemy in high floor (10K) challenge map with enemy heal affix 0.3-0.5%. I try it myself, i still can’t find other method to kill rare+ enemy in map with enemy heal affix without frozen explosion. Please share if you have other method.

There is no reason to keep glasscannon, ed%, wd%,etc anymore, it just waste of slot. This is why almost build progress become limited, can’t get better farming stat because decision better to keep 2x+50% glasscannon rather than replace it with 2x+50% item drop, or keep other affix damage increase type. The build has low survival rate, because no free slot to invest for 100% block, or 100% Hyper Armor, or Perma Stealth.
Of course it’s different cases if some player dont want to higher floor, as long as you think its effective & good build then its OK.

Floor Phenomenon:
Infinity where your char become God Killer.
around 14K: Everything is one shot killed with CF(6)+CB(30%)
around >15K: Everything is one shot killed with only CB(30%)
ideal floor for leveling. Everything is including map with enemy heal affix.

Not Finish, To Be Continued…
Main = Farming + Survival = 12-13 Slot
Hireling = Farming + Survival + Damage = 17-18 Slot
Other free slot to boost Skill that has hit frequency, talent, or proc (because this build has really low cooldown)

10 Likes

Nice POST👍

I feel like I jus took a essay test and failed :rofl: I need to get on this guys level lmao

1 Like

Nice explanation. Those DQ players you mentioned above can make a book about this game!
I’ve learned a lot by reading their post a long time ago! :grin: :grin:

Hihhi ive been there, i hate frozen so i spent months thinking and tweaking my infinity set until i finish it last month, i can kill epic with heals with ease exept legendary bosses.

sometimes legendary boss need 2-3 times frozen explosion. It HP bar must be down first then taunt surrounding normal enemy.

Btw, how can I edit my own post?

There is a pencil bottom of your message in between the link and …

I feel like I have been at a university lecture and I couldn’t understand anything :sunglasses:

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I mean the topic above, i created this topic & its not finished yet, i want to update & edit it, but i can not find the pencil icon