Elemental / Fire Dual Wield throwing weapons build via the Stonepeaker (Earth / Rune) class

Introduction

Sol Invictus, The Unconquered Sun

Mastery: Stonepeaker (Earth / Rune)

Build: Elemental / Fire dual wield throwing weapon

This build is primarily designed around using Rune to dual wield throwing weapons and convert the damage to elemental via Rune Weapon and shotgunning packs with Thunderstrike. Earth acts as a secondary mastery, providing fire / physical damage buffs, tank pet, utility spells, etc.

There’s a perfect throwing weapon for the build as well. Chakram of the Sun is a terrific throwing weapons, tons of great stats on it (https://tq-db.net/en/equipment/chakram-of-the-sun) – [] . Dual wielding with net you +4 Earth, +20% Str, -30% CDR, +60% recharge, 10% ADCtH, +30% fire / burn, +600 health, +40% attack speed and some other bonuses (stats will vary depending on rolls of course). As a further bonus, you also get the set bonus of +40% total damage!

There’s other good throwing weapons available of course. Drop rate of throwing weapons is pretty high through so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get your two Chakrams. Outside of Chakram, maybe Winds of Asphodel can be useful for it’s resistance reduction to combo with your elemental damage. You can try keeping Asphodel as swap weapon when needed if you want some RR.

• Excellent AOE in Thunderstrike and Eruption
• Resistance Reduction from Seal of Fates’ synergy Aftershock
• Core Dweller for tank, Menhir Wall for CC
• Rune Weapon int scaling and weapon elemental conversion

• Can be a bit of a glass cannon
• Lack of shield means less survivability and, likely, resistances
• Throwing weapon range is only mid-range
• Seal of Fate slow and low radius makes it harder to apply resistance reduction

 

Required Skills

Rune Weapon

Your main LMB attack. Rune Weapon has stacks. Stacks decay over time when you are not attacking. The more points you have in the skill, the more stacks you can get. The more stacks you have up, the more you get buffed. Obviously you want to max it out. Each stack boosts your Elemental damage, Total damage and Intelligence higher.

The Magical Charge synergy adds extra Elemental damage to your attacks and grants you Elemental Retaliation. You’re shouldn’t be getting hit so the retaliation doesn’t matter much. The extra damage is nice through but the skill requires a lot of points to max. The Energy Drain synergy gives your attack 4% ADCtH, gives you an Energy Leech and reduces enemy OA and slows them. Worth investing in for the debuffs.

The Transmutation synergy converts % of Weapon Damage to Elemental. It converts 63% at 6/6, you want to get +4 Rune at a min to get max ultimate level to convert nearly all (99%) your damage to Elemental. As you’ll be buffing your Int and damage by stacking Rune Weapon, this will give you a nice buff to your converted damage. The effect will apply as long as you have on stack of Rune Weapon going. Should be a priority to max.

Runeword Feather

Reduces your str req for throwing weapons allowing you to save points for int/dex. Put as many points into the skill as required to equip your gear.

Rune of Life

Good one point ability with extra movement speed, strength %, vitality / bleeding resist. Considering that you’re lacking a shield for extra resistances the extra resistances from the buff can help. Not required, but drop at least one point into it for the buff to strength and movement speed.

Earth Enchantment

Aura that will boost your total fire damage and add additional fire damage to your attacks. The Brimstone synergy skill boosts physical damage buff and adds burn dot. The Stone Skin synergy adds a buff to fire resist and armour. Max Earth Enchantment when you can, Brimstone when you have free points but leave Stone Skin until later. If you’re wearing caster gear then a bit of extra armour may help but there are other skills more worth picking up first.

Thunder Strike

One of your main AOE abilities. Use whenever it’s off cooldown. Fires 5x projectile per weapon (ie: fires 10 projectiles when duel wielding). Absolutely wrecks everything. Max it out and its synergy skill Unleash for it’s CC.

Heat Shield

One point wonder skill that provides a short term buff that grants a bonus to physical resistance, fire damage absorption and fire retaliation. The skill has a short cooldown before you can recast it. Drop a single point into the skill as soon as you can as you get the full buff to physical resistance (15%) right away. Increasing the skill buffs the damage absorption and the retaliation damage. The fire retaliation damage is honestly negligible so it comes down to the fire absorption. Put extra points into the skill if you want more absorption of fire damage but you’ll likely need to drop points from other non-vital skills to do so.

Menhir Wall

Your primary CC ability. Drop in front of enemies and spam your attacks from behind it. Helps keep melee enemies off you and distracts ranged enemies allowing you to get close enough to kill them without getting pounded yourself. Dropping directly on top of enemies can cause clipping issues sometimes, drop in front of them, or if you’re running away from enemies, drop in front of you then run past it and start attacking. Max it out.

Stone Form

One point wonder ability. Makes you immobile and unable to attack or cast but grants you 100% damage absorption and a health regeneration buff. Excellent ‘oh ♥♥♥♥’ button for when you get overwhelmed and need to heal up with a potion or remove a nasty dot like bleed. Also combos well with Eruption. Drop the Eruption at your feet then enter Stone Form. You’re protected from everything while they take damage from eruption.

A single point is fine as extra points just boost health regeneration while in Stone Form. You can just use a pot instead to heal up. The Molten Rock synergy skill adds a pretty negligible fire retaliation damage, not worth picking in general.

Seal of Fate

Seal of Fate does some elemental damage, applies a stun, % Reduction to Enemy’s Health and bonus damage against devices. The Aftershock applies bleeding damage, reduces armour and resistances, applies chance of Impaired Aim, applies skill disruption debuff and slows. The main skill is okay, the synergy is absolutely fantastic. The resistance reduction should be especially helpful. One point in the main skill is okay, the synergy should be maxxed out.

The skill does have two major drawbacks. Firstly, it has a very small radius. Secondly, it takes a few seconds to activate which feels like forever in the heat of battle. So the skill is best for bosses, mini-bosses, dense groups of enemies, etc. You’ll definitely notice the difference when you apply the debuff through.

Reckless Offense

Let’s you duel wield. Obviously must have. Max it out to increase the chance of getting the big dmg buff.

Eruption

Basically creates a mini-volcano on the ground for 6s that spurts out fiery rock fragments that do physical and fire damage. Pretty good AOE skill that you can easily cast and supplement your other damage. Not an early priority to max, drop a point to unlock as its useful early on even with one point and max out once you’ve got your main skills.

Volativity

Excellent passive that gives you a 33% chance of getting big boosts to your physical, fire and burn damage. Max as soon as possible.

Optional Skills

Sacred Rage

Sacred Rage gives you nice buffs to speed, recharge, damage absorption and energy recharge when you’re under 40% health. The Frightening Power synergy will emit a short range debuff when you enter sacred rage that causes fear and reduces damage done.

You need to be under 40% health to get the buffs and as a glass cannon build you want to be careful about your health and avoiding damage. If you keep your health low and avoid damage you may be able to stay in the ‘sweet zone’ without dying but it’s very dangerous. The synergy skill can be useful for hitting enemies with a debuff if you suddenly take a lot of burst damage. Both are worst at least one point at a min for such emergencies.

Runic Mines

The base skill surrounds you with a few mines. Enemies that walk onto a mine will cause the mine to explode dealing elemental damage to the enemy. The Freezing Mines synergy applies some welcome CC to the skill, adding Frostburn damage and a chance of freezing or slowing the enemy. The Atlantis exclusive synergy skill Rune Field increases the number of mines spawned by a considerable margin depending on how many points you invest in it. Each level of Rune Field seems to have its own unique mine placement layout.

The skill requires you to kite enemies over them to make use of it. It’s also very point heavy, if you intend to use it you’ll want to max it out. Probably best if you have Atlantis for Rune Field. Otherwise you should not invest a single point into it. The skill is also fairly energy hungry.

My own character using Runic Mines is only in Epic atm, not sure how well it scales in Legendary.

Ring of Flame

Ring of Flame encircles you in a ring of flames that does fire damage to enemies. The Soften Metal synergy adds some additional damage but more importantly reduces enemies’ Offensive Ability and armour. It has two drawbacks: firstly, its range is very short and secondly, it has a puzzling high Active Energy Cost per Second in comparison to pretty much every other aura in the game.

The base skill isn’t very useful for the build. The aura damage isn’t worth the energy costs. Soften Metal can be worth maxxing to weaken enemy melee OA to help limit melee crits on yourself through with Menhir Wall’s you’ll able to distract enemies which helps avoid taking hits. With minimal points into base skill the energy costs aren’t bad, but with 2x Chakrams you’ve got a min of 5 points in base skill and with more +skill to get Rune you can’t really keep the skill at negligible energy costs.

Runeword: Explode

Gives your weapon attacks a chance to do some fire / physical damage and a small stun. The synergy Runeword: Burn makes projectiles break into fragments that apply a burn DOT. Should synergize well with your dual wielding skills.

Summon Core Dweller

Summons a big golem as a pet. The Inner Fire synergy skill boosts total speed, dexterity and health regeneration and adds a bit of extra fire damage. The Wildfire synergy skill lets him light the ground on fire around him and burns people who step over it. The Metamorphosis synergy skill boosts health, armour, armour absorption and elemental resistance.

The Core Dweller is not really a DPS pet. It is basically a high health / armour tank. Despite this, I feel like it can be less tanky than other pets that have damage absorption or avoidance instead of straight up health / armour like the Dweller.

Requires a fair amount of skill point investment to get going and it’s aggro seemed off at times. Might need a bit of micro-management at times.

Volcanic Orb

Fires an orb in an arc that explodes when it hits the ground dealing fire and physical damage to small radius. The Conflagration synergy skill adds a patch of burning ground that does burn damage. Fragmentation sends out fragments that inflict fire and physical damage and apply a short 1.5s stun.

Good damage, fairly short cooldown and the stun can be useful. It’s a good skill overall but would require a bit of skill point investment and Eruption is more useful for comboing with Thunderstrike.

Energy Armour

A bit of extra padding to soak up incoming Physical / Pierce / Bleeding damage. Also grants 50% Stun Resistance while up. Energy costs spike substantially as you level it up. 8/8 skill is still reasonable but beyond this the energy costs skyrocket and the skill starts to require substantial energy reduction just to cast and can actually be completely impossible to cast if the energy cost surpasses your total energy pool.

Guardian Stones

Summons a trio of stones that do elemental damage to nearby enemies and can stun and apply 33% Reduction to Enemy’s Health. Stones last 45s, deal damage every 4 seconds and can hit up to 2 targets.

Stones are affected by spawning location. In enclosed locations, if spawned in a tight location where less than 3 stones can be summoned if there’s not enough space for the 3 stones to spawn properly.

The two major drawbacks are that they have a very lengthy 4 min cooldown and are completely stationary. As such it makes for a good ability for boss fights, worth dropping a point into for that.

Rune Storm

An Atlantis exclusive skill, Rune Storm creates a circular ‘hurricane’ like affect around you. Enemies within suffer physical damage and take Elemental retaliation. Also there’s a chance for some CC being applied. Wasn’t particularly impressed by the skill, felt kind of mediocre and unreliable.

Fire Nova

An Atlantis exclusive skill, Fire Nova creates a really long range, 360% AOE that applies a burn DOT, does fire damage and a chance to cause Impaired Aim. From a pure damage perspective, Fire Nova is a little underwhelming. Primary use of the skill is to apply CC with Impaired Aim. I wouldn’t call the skill mandatory, more nice to have.

My Final Skill Trees

This is my final skill allocation. Rune Weapon used as primary spammable attack. Drops Wall down for CC, drop Eruption, get stacks, use Thunderstrike when up for AOE and recast Wall whenever it’s available. Use Seal of Fate for bosses or enemies with good resistances.

Used Dweller as a tank for support. Buffed useful passives like Earth Enchantment and Volativity for fire damage buffs, Runeword: Explode, etc.

Stats

If you have Atlantis, the extra mastery points give you:

• Rune mastery = +8 str, +12 dex, +16 int, +160 health
• Earth mastery = +12 dex, +24 int, +180 health, +48 energy

Health: Put a few extra points here if you want to get a bit more health. Not a huge priority but a few points can help make you a bit tankier.

Energy: Not worth any points. Get more energy or energy cost reduction from gear instead and just use potions when needed.

Strength: Only enough to equip your throwing weapons. Runeword: Feather will reduce the strength requirement on your throwing weapons helping you equip your them without needing to invest many, if any, points into Strength.

Intellect: Your primary stat. You need enough to equip your gear at a min. When you have free points you drop it here.

Dexterity: Your second stat. You need enough to equip your gear at a min. ~450+ or so at end should be good.

Equipment

This is my final equipment loadout. Dual wielding Chakram of the Sun gives lots of nice bonuses and tons of +Earth skill. I needed +4 Rune from elsewhere for Transmutation so using Stonebinder’s Cuffs for it’s large +3 skill and Corset of Freyja gets me the last +skill needed to cap Rune skills while sporting a number of nice other buffs and resistances.

Coronal of the Abyss provides a massive boost to DA, Talisman of the Jade Emperor is there for extra CDR and elemental resistances. Using Boots of Freyja to combo with the Corset and get set bonus as well. Plato’s ring boosts Int and Demon’s Blood helps cap vitality resistances. Myrmidon’s and Chiron’s used to fill resistance holes; extra health, DA, ctap and dodge nice as well. Resistances mostly capped or solid, except for bleeding which is very niche and pierce which is import important but still solid enough to manage.

Leveling

Starting from level 1, start with Rune Mastery. One point into Rune of Life and Rune Weapon. Drop points into feather as needed. Concentrate on leveling up Rune mastery skill and dropping a single point into skills to unlock them. One point into thunder strike, then unleash and wall. One point into Reckless Offense to unlock duel wield. Once you unlock it, start putting points into Transmutation to convert your weapon damage over to elemental damage. Then you can switch over to Earth Mastery and start working on that.

Put additional points into wall when you find it’s dying too fast. Work your way up Earth Mastery for extra stats, unlock skills then start working on maxxing out the most useful skills in both masteries.

If you make an Accomplished hero char you should be able to fill up the the good parts of rune right away and unlock parts of Earth Mastery as well.

Q&A

If you have any queries about the build leave a comment and I will respond when I have time.

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