Defense Spellbreaker

March 2024

This variant is not recommended if you have Secrets of the Obscure. The staff variant is currently a significantly superior build.
However, this variant is still very much playable.

Build Fundamentals

Your main strength in a 1v1 is the amount of crowd control you can utilize, making you extremely scary. If you successfully stun an opponent without a stunbreak, there’s a good chance you’ll kill them there and then if you’re fast enough with chaining your stuns and insert some damage in between.
Fierce Blow is your main damage on hammer. Use it on a stunned opponent, and then recharge it with Backbreaker and do it again.
Finish off with Weapon Swap Breaching Strike.

Build Specifics

Due to the synergy from No Escape, you can use Disrupting Stab to initiate your combos pretty consistently if your opponent doesn’t have an immediate answer.
This also means that Full Counter is also a viable choice to start off your combo with.

Relic of the Midnight King will provide you Fury for your combos, as well as some extra damage with Might.

Keeping in mind Dispelling Force and Sigil of Revocation, an opponent can be caught off-guard quite easily, being crowd controlled through stability when they believed they’d be safe.

Don’t be afraid to dagger auto for some damage while you threaten and look to combo your opponent by catching them with any CC.

Staggering Blow‘s animation can make it tricky to dodge, so it’s a great candidate to setup a combo.

Breaching Strike hits incredibly hard and is Unblockable. Make sure it connects to do significant damage or force a dodge to make way for your CC.

If you are confident in your abilites to deal with conditions you can drop Revenge Counter and take Magebane Tether.Hitting Breaching Strike orEarthshaker will apply Magebane Tether, which will apply Revealed to the target and give you Might overtime. You can also try and run out of range to Pull them in and start your combo that way.

Be sure to hit your Fierce Blows on controlled targets, as it will make it hit incredibly hard due to Merciless Hammer coupled with the damage increase on the skill itself.

If your opponent seems low on cooldowns, you can go Rampage to try and finish them off. Hit with one of the CCs into Dash into another rampage CC, exit ramage and execute your normal combo from there.

Sustain and Healing

You have a large number of defensive abilities to help you survive:

Constantly hitting Breaching Strike Earthshaker or Full Counter to maintain Adrenal Health.

Using Full Counter to mitigate damage.

Don’t forget to use your CCs a LOT. this will not only threaten a combo, but prevent your opponent from dealing damage.

"Shake It Off!" and Endure Pain are both stunbreaks, while Endure Pain and Shield Stance can help mitigate an enemy’s burst combo.

Bull's Charge is also a long evade. If you’re not getting a finisher combo any time soon, use it to mitigate some damage while forcing a dodge.

To deal with conditions you can use Mending and "Shake It Off!". Also Weapon Swap will trigger Brawler's Recovery, and you have a Sigil of Cleansing on Dagger. Addittionally Revenge Counter will help you a lot with Blinded.

Aura Slicer Bull's Charge and Earthshaker can be used for movement, either to retreat from a lost fight or to quickly get to a node/teamfight/objective. Keep in mind that Aura Slicer and Bull's Charge will head towards your selected target if you have one.

Lastly, you can use Rampage for its damage reduction and mobility skills via Seismic Leap and Dash to get away from an outnumbered situation.