Rook Hexblade: Sword of Darkness

thelastsonofzod

So here's my concept. Rook was a character I put together for my 5e D&D game using some flare from the DMG and Monster Manual. He's a Revenant empowered by the Raven Queen to stop undead threats. As such he's sort of an anti paladin.

My plan, such as it is, is to build an ego blade tank with some darkness powers for flavor.

What I'd like from you guys, are some prospective builds to choose from. I'd really like to see what this concept can stir up.

carrionbaggage

Here's one take on it, à la flowcyto's Combo Blaster template. Mental Storm could add a nice debuff during lengthy fights (even at base rank), but I was worried it might not fit your concept.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Dexterity (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Void
Level 6: Survival Training
Level 9: Paramilitary Training
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Energetic
Level 18: Accurate
Level 21: Boundless Reserves

Powers:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt
Level 1: Ego Weaponry (Rank 2, Siphoning Strikes)
Level 6: Void Shift (Emerging Nightmares)
Level 8: Defiance
Level 11: Shadow Embrace (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 14: Spirit Reverberation
Level 17: Form of the Tempest
Level 20: Ego Blade Annihilation (Rank 2, Mental Acuity)
Level 23: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Ego Blade Breach (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Shadow Blast (Psychotic Break, Crippling Challenge)
Level 32: Ebon Void (Voracious Darkness)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35:

Specializations:
Strength: Swole (2/3)
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Brutality (2/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (3/3)
Avenger: Ruthless (2/2)
Avenger: Round 'em Up (3/3)
Avenger: Surprise Attack (2/2)
Avenger: Relentless Assault (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Upper Hand (2/3)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Avenger Mastery (1/1)

nether

carrionbaggage said:

Here's one take on it, à la flowcyto's Combo Blaster template. Mental Storm could add a nice debuff during lengthy fights (even at base rank), but I was worried it might not fit your concept.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

The thing I don't get with that build is why take Str as primary SS? Then there is also no Ego which most of the tk powers scale off of instead of str which would offer very little outside of knock resist.

I would go with something adjusted like this;
http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1352ThiNIGa6300K000E209K804I900K20ZK900A600K10KJ503EJ03KF05K705DM00EI040d7s0a6v42kg
This would give you the knock resist of a tank, with more life and good returns on health as you take damage and kill.

I have always found EBB and EBA to be to redundant overall to warrant taking both when you can instead get something to helps the build more.

The one thing that won't be great here is that without Pre your healing and agro will not be so great. The alternative is to sacrifice some damage by changning Ego for Pre, which would make your heal options and agro much improved.

Just my 2c

carrionbaggage

nether#4450 said:

The thing I don't get with that build is why take Str as primary SS? Then there is also no Ego which most of the tk powers scale off of instead of str which would offer very little outside of knock resist.

I would go with something adjusted like this;
http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1352ThiNIGa6300K000E209K804I900K20ZK900A600K10KJ503EJ03KF05K705DM00EI040d7s0a6v42kg
This would give you the knock resist of a tank, with more life and good returns on health as you take damage and kill.

I have always found EBB and EBA to be to redundant overall to warrant taking both when you can instead get something to helps the build more.

The one thing that won't be great here is that without Pre your healing and agro will not be so great. The alternative is to sacrifice some damage by changning Ego for Pre, which would make your heal options and agro much improved.

Just my 2c

STR was chosen primarily for the spec tree. When gearing, I would advise ignoring STR and focusing on CON (mostly) and DEX. Physical Peak, Brutality, and especially Juggernaut all work very well in a CON-stacked build. EGO does offer an additive damage bonus for ranged attacks and ego blades, though that bonus ends up being noticeably less than listed because of diminishing returns.

I find EBA to be a handy damage burst once you've stacked Ego Leech, increasing overall DPS compared to a build without it (even if already using EBB). That said, I agree that it's expendable if another power catches your eye. Summon Shadows in nether's build can be one nice alternative.

PRE no longer innately influences threat generation, and its healing bonus does not impact Siphoning Strikes (though it does increase Conviction's heal). While STR doesn't give a direct additive damage bonus to ego blades, the pumped-up bonus from Brutality increases the critical damage dealt by Ego Weaponry, which boosts the healing from Siphoning Strikes.

Wardicator is always a difficult spec combo to compete against. If you do go that route, I'd probably ditch the Combo Blaster angle. With that setup, I'd recommend EGO/CON/DEX or CON/EGO/DEX (like nether's build), swap out Spirit Reverb for Ego Reverb, remove Shadow Blast, and put Crippling Challenge on your chosen lunge. Possibly replace Shadow Embrace with an Ego Leech AoE, like Ego Blade Frenzy.

flowcyto

Yea, my combo-blaster setup only works as well as it does w/ Warden + Avenger setups (Brawler + Avenger is also possible for some funky rotations using Preemptive Strikes and Setup, but that means less reliable crits from the combo to proc AvMastery). If ur going for Wardicator for the reliability (which is prob the safest bet), then my setup won't work. In that case, ya can ditch the blast and play it like a normal TK blade build, but w/ a more tanky backbone using some Darkness for utility. Something like:

http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1324ObMGHPK0000K000E209K80CI900A6007G00K20ZFG0BEK05EI04DM009Q03K705QJ002toV3SXU0ca1

TK Blades also doesn't have large-reach AoE in itself (EBF is a small melee cone), so ya can use Darkness's Shadow Embrace to cover that too.

Siphoning Strikes is great, but does mean that ur a bit threat-deficient when using ur normal combo (much lower dps from it, no CripC), so you'll want to keep things like EBA as a dmg/threat spike, and prob also Mental Storm w/ CS for added tack-on threat and dmg. CripC should still be somewhere in the build- if only for the good -dmg debuff and forced 'taunt' for snap-threat, but then ya can relegate it to being on the lunge or something like Shadow of Doubt.

Ebon Ruin w/ the 10% debuff adv or Summon Shadow w/ the healing adv can also be good power picks here, but ya can only fit in so many support/debuff powers when tanking.

Gearing mostly for Dex and Con here. As pointed out, the Ego scaling w/ TK blades diminishes pretty harshly, such that I wouldn't consider getting Ego to its soft-cap (70) to be a priority here. Protector can also work (instead of VInd) for specs, but that's less dps and crit rate (which also lowers Siphoning procs), though ya gain some maxHP and lowered cds on Active Defenses in turn.