DIMRAETH PURE STUNNER BUILD WITH AOE TREMOR - HORNED VANGUARD

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What the video covers

• A Horned Vanguard (minotaur brawler) build made to stun-lock monsters. The author plays it on moderate difficulty and pitches it as an alternative to the popular critical Bleeding builds. 0:54
• The spells are Cornu Charge, Quick Jab, Seismic Stampede, Boulder Toss and Bash. Cornu Charge sees little use. 2:47
• Nearly every combo starts with Quick Jab, because it boosts your Physical Damage (for 2 seconds in the game files) and the next skill hits harder. One example chain: Quick Jab, Seismic Stampede, Quick Jab, Boulder Toss, Quick Jab, Bash. Against a tight group, go Quick Jab then Seismic Stampede to build stun on as many monsters as possible. 2:56
• The attributes are 50 Strength, 10 Memory and the rest in Physique. The Memory pays for Concentration, because Seismic Stampede costs 25 (the game files agree). 3:59
• No points go into Energy. The Horned Vanguard passive gives 2.5 Stamina per Strength point, and the author sits at about 228 Stamina, which is plenty for dodging. 4:32
• The gear plan uses four sets. Two Shakers pieces give +8% Blunt Damage. The build skips the 4-piece bonus, a charged Shockwave. 4:52
• Shattering drops from Smashmouth, and the author only wants its rings and bracers, because the video says Stun Build-up only rolls on Shattering and Shakers rings and bracers. 5:14
• The game files add a third set the video misses, Dazzler. Dazzler, Shakers and Shattering can all roll Stun Build-up as an extra stat on rings, and as a main or extra stat on bracers. The stat search shown on screen lists Dazzler too. 5:40
• Bullheart drops from the Goblin Basher and from chests in the Goblin Caves and Wildwood Forest. The codex lists only runes, undercoats and belts, but on higher-tier bounty runs the bashers also dropped charms, badges and rings for the author. The game files confirm it. Under the Hoard King's Bounty the Goblin Basher adds rings and charms at tier 2, and badges, bracers and amulets at tier 3. 6:21
• The plan is five Bullheart pieces (rune, undercoat, belt, charm and one badge) for the 5-piece bonus, rings and bracers split between Shattering and Shakers, and Pitfighter on the two amulets and the other badge. In the game files Bullheart gives +10% Blunt Damage and +4% HP at 3 pieces, and +12 Armor plus Stonehide (15 Armor for 5 seconds after a Blunt hit) at 5. 7:07
• On gear, look for Blunt damage, Stun Build-up, Blunt piercing, physical damage and attack damage. HP, armor and resistances cover defense. 7:42
• In the tree, the author rushed Boulder Toss with Shattering Boulder first. High damage, a short cooldown and a large area made it the leveling tool. 8:47
• Next came Shatterstun: stunning a monster cracks the ground and deals area Blunt damage around it. 9:05
• Then Bonebreaker, which turns basic attacks from Strike into Blunt damage. That keeps the stun meter filling while the big skills are on cooldown. 9:23
• The author could not confirm that Blunt builds stun faster than Strike or Thrust, so they tested it side by side: the Blunt basic attacks filled the stun meter much faster. The game code the wiki read (a copy from version 0.107.7689) counts Blunt damage in full toward stun build-up and every other damage type at half. 9:40
• After Bonebreaker come Seismic Stampede, then Enraging Boulder for Rage and Enraging Stampede to keep Rage up. The codex shown says each Rage stack adds 2% Physical damage. 11:32
• The last points went into Quick Jab's physical damage bonus and the big Stun Build-up nodes. 12:07

Screens from the video