So ive been trying to figure out a shock maul build where it will mostly use melee on the shock maul but also use the new smite perk where it applies shock to everything you hit. I think Ive got one figure out just wanted to ask first if someone out there has already been testing a build concept idea already so I could use it for starters
Yes, but I had no time to play test it outside the lab. Basically High Voltage + Charged Strike.
Charged Strike: Shock Maul + High Voltage - outside setting a status to exploit with Shock Mauls, the Charged Strike damage is fairly pathetic, especially vs targets like Crushers. You basically tickle them:
SoulDrinker: Force Swords + Blazing Spirit - BS wasn’t optimal before, and it isn’t now.
By Crack of Bone: Can work with many weapons, but Scrier’s Gaze peril growth is not linear, so you cannot keep it going indefinitely. It’s up time seems to be hard capped. Not this matters that much, you can take advantage of quite a few talents which lower the ability cooldown, even if some are harder to reach.
A mild critique: Melee focus talents are bit disappointing, as too many are weapon specific, and its hard to fit them into existing “melee” psyker builds. I mainly run Lighting Speed + By Crack of Bone.
Mettle nerf sadly made it a dead talent for me, its hard to justify it as a pick, especially now when you are talent point starved. Fatshark basically undermined one of more dependable ways to regen toughness when stuck in melee. Meanwhile “Me smash” Ogryns and zealots literally getting toughness regen and DR for breathing (dodging) laugh in the game b̶a̶LOLance. Also that movement speed buff added to the sense of fluidity. 
No matter, I enjoyed Obscurus with Slaughtered + Precog/Riposte + SG + Warp Siphon / Disrupt Destiny before, and I’m still enjoying it now. Laspistol, revolver and bolt pistol and you are ready. Is it optimal? No, can it be fun? 100% yes. It would be even more fun if Fatshark finally improved/redesigned force sword special attacks on Obscurus and Deimos.
Haven’t tried Shock Maul bit don’t see the point either. Just go with Illisi.
Can’t say I agree with most of that.
Scrier’s peril buildup increases with time, yes, but Exorcist (and now BCoB) was never about extending it indefinitely, but rather keeping it running many times longer than normal without manual quelling. It has a kind of scaling to it where the more critical a situation is & the more enemies there are, the more effective that quelling is going to be & the more important that Scrier’s stays active for the crits & range immunity.
Lightning Speed, BCoB and Warp Splitting are all absolutely fantastic talents that make all the difference, seriously buffing melee. Specifically with Illisi Exorcist & Slaughterer/Shred used to be the general go-to melee for best dmg, duration & range-immunity. But it was always a compromise between that Slaughterer & Shred. Shred was short on cleave, Slaughterer relied on Scrier’s and even then occasionally light spam to proc Empathic Evasion enough. Now you can drop Exorcist and get both so there’s no compromises at all, and then you get 10% attack speed and up to +100% cleave on top. That’s insane!
As for toughness regen, it’s right there:
- Generators - Now exist for all weapons
- Scrier’s, Force Sword special, Surety of Arms (ranged)
- Quelling - Likewise now for all weapons
- BCoB (melee), Tranquility Through Slaughter (ranged)
- Quietude and/or Warp Expenditure then convert that to toughness
For example, thanks to the Devil’s Claw buff you can now create a build where you can safely just stand still & point at general head height while spamming parry. And you’ll be proccing so many crits & weakspot kills that your peril, stamina and range immunity will never run out. Only things that can threaten you really are disablers or the 1-shots hitting you during the block-phase instead of active parry.
Imo Mettle deserved its nerf. It’s still strong, now it’s just not the only thing that matters for crit melee builds. But Illisi really needs a looking at too. Its insane cleave & moveset with all the new talents on top, especially since it’s the best & fastest peril generator in the game, is a bit much.
(An Illisi with 80% everything else, and the worst Warp Efficiency you can manage is ideal. It lets you go from 0 to 100% peril in 1 second, making it ridiculously easy to keep Warp Rider & other synergies capped and under control at all times)
I don’t disagree with a lot of stuff you say, as you are literally go through the same motions I did until I arrived to where I’m at.
I never said it was, I just highlighted the limitation. Unless you double down on peril quelling BCoB alone isn’t going to give you that long uptime, I tested this with few high finesse weapons (not with Illisi - see my “weapon specific” comment) and you tend to hit the end of ability at 21 seconds. Actively quelling and not doing anything else gave me 31 seconds. Not a massive problem anyway, especially finesse weapons benefit quite a bit from the 10 sec lingering effect. My main problem with peril resource loop is more often than not, not being able to stay at high peril, unless I decide to hurt myself by spamming Illisi special
Again, ability specific and weapon specific toughness regen, and unmentioned here crit based (blessing dependent) toughness regen. Meanwhile other classes regen toughness by breathing and those talents are easy to reach. Also with force swords, the other 2 force swords special attacks are harder to weave into melee. Illisi the most boring of all of them benefits yet again.
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Yeah, which is part of the problem as I stated too many of those talents are really weapon specific.
Yeah, I have a DC build with Shred, I just happen to enjoy force swords more…unless its Illisi.
Some love for other force sword please?
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On that I definitely agree. 
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