My current level 60 build. I’m running a melee oriented Athena, and so far I’m quite happy with it. I don’t plan to get Hades’ Shackles, as from what I’ve read the damage isn’t great, and I don’t Slam enough to make it worth while. So putting more points into Ceraunic Storm isn’t really necessary. Not ruling it out either. But I’m unsure how to spend those last 10 points.
Conduit looks helpful, but I use Roid shields. I already have a 70 Avalanche sitting in my bank waiting, and 3DD1.E already randomly restores my shield quite frequently, so I’m not sure how helpful that would be. Is it worth taking with a melee build that uses Roid shields?
Thank you in advance for all advice, even if I don’t end up taking it.
Oh man, almost anywhere? She’s got so many good skills. If you’re using melee, I’d take Superconductor (so if they manage to hit you, they take a hit). I’d then take Overload because I like the mechanic, and Hades Shackles, since you’ll be in close range anyway.
i think you should try 5 points in “tear”, it’s a pretty great skill that has synergy with the freeze-melee-crit loop that i often utilize on badass enemies while playing athena. not sure about those last 5 points, but i’d throw at least 1 into “unrelenting” to take advantage of those maelstrom stacks.
tear is good for helping with badasses, you’ve got red on you adds a little extra damage when crowded but really you could put the last five wherever fits your playstyle
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narfkeks
(May this forum rest in peace - Davin Dittrich)
#5
I’d take 5 points in Tear - multiplicative boosts are always good & 5 points in Bloodlust, because the passive healing helps alot while mobbing. Let the last target Bleed out for good healing.
Edit: instead of Bloodlust, you could take Superconductor; it makes alot of shields-work for you and is a good way to maintain some maelstrom-stacks in mobbing situations.
I’ve been splitting my points between Bloodlust and Superconductor. Up to 66 now. I know Bloodlust isn’t a popular skill, but I’m thinking it needs to be reevaluated. 4% healing at 5/5 for 12 seconds is 36% of your health back for one bleeding target. And the way Bloodrush works, you’re encouraged to let things bleed out so you can keep chaining it. 3 bleeding targets will give you full health.
Maybe when I finally got 70, and I equip an Avalanche and (hopefully) a Skewering Hail, I’ll find enemies dying too quickly for it to be useful. But as I’ve been leveling, with just 3 points in it so far, I’m finding the extra health regen helpful.
If you’re going to use a roid shield, don’t bother with Bloodlust. The whole point of the roid shield is to one shot things, so they won’t be bleeding anyway. If you’re not going to use a roid shield go for it.
Even with my roid shield, and I’ve been upgrading it pretty regularly as I’ve leveled up, I’m not one shotting things. Oh, it does take out a much larger chunk of health bar, and sometimes I’ll kill them if they’d taken a bit of damage already, but it’s not consistent. Plus, 3DD1.E has a nasty habit of refilling my shield in the middle of a fight, so the roid damage is not always there.
My final build, if anyone is still curious. What prefix I have for the Blademaster COM is not important, as long as it has 5, 4, 4, so that I get a boost to all those skills. I find myself preferring Blademaster to Bloodthirster because I just find further boosting Omega-Senshu to be pointless. The shield was on top of that first 50%. So you have to very nearly kill an enemy for it to matter to begin with and didn’t need it to that point. And if you do want to shoot an enemy rather than let them bleed out after cutting them, Maelstrom stacks will build up as you do, so you’ll be doing rapidly increasing damage anyway. Almost everything dies too fast for the increase to matter much. And those few things that don’t, bosses, the Sentinel, Iwajira, RK5, etc. well, those are the things to switch to an OS boosting COM for.
