Bleeding Bladestorm
Wolcen Melee build

Beta build for Patch 1.0.0

Bladestorm is a spinning attack similar to Cyclone/Whirlwind in Path of Exile/Diablo so as a Wolcen player, you will be most likely familiar with that playstyle. Bladestorm offers very good AoE and has very high pack clearing potential. It's currently the most popular and smooth Melee Attack in the game, so if you want to play a Melee character, you should definitely check it out! The following setup was made for a level 80 character with 80 Passives.

You can check all the best Wolcen builds made by our team here: Best Wolcen Builds by Odealo

Important note: This is a beta version of our Bladestorm Spin-to-Win Build that we are currently working on. It works great on mid-tier levels, but since the game has just launched it wasn't thoroughly tested vs end-game enemies/Bosses, etc. You should expect updates and tweaks coming up soon. Still, if you follow it up as it is, you will surely enjoy 

1. Gameplay

This is an extremely smooth Melee build that targets all enemies around you, dealing extremely quick Area Damage. It becomes a bit more complex against harder Bosses, as you need to combine several utility skills to deal significantly higher damage (Bladestorm is not your Impale Cyclone from PoE and it won't let you breeze through end-game on its own). For that purpose, you will be using Blood for Blood, which increases your Rend damage based on the amount of Health you and your enemies are missing, and also Bleeding Edge, which thanks to Unstoppable Momentum and Astral Orbit Passives, can be treated as Passive skill that creates Axes that orbit around you whenever you move, dealing damage in a circular area around your character. Sovereign Shout is also very important DPS-wise, increasing your Attack Speed and generating extra Rage. For the defenses, this build relies on high Health and Life Leech. You can also freely spend more points into Toughness if you feel squishy, it's one of the best and well-rounded attributes in Wolcen.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Attributes

Primarily, you want to focus Ferocity for increased Attack Critical Strike chance, and the highest DPS bonus, but you shouldn't forget about Toughness for increased Health and defenses. You can balance your stats between Ferocity and Toughness depending on your personal preferences. It's also critical to spend some points into Wisdom as it increases your chance to inflict ailments on enemies with your Attacks, whereas Bleeding inflicted by your Rend damage is your primary source of DPS in this build. 

*Ferocity and Toughness should have about 75% of your combined attributes

4. Passives

Below you will find the recommended Passives for this build. It utilizes several different subclasses for the best performance, and currently, there are approximately 70 Passives allocated. Below you will find the exact explanation of major nodes taken, whereas the sub-classes are placed in the order they should be picked up when leveling up.

5. Skills

[PRIMARY DPS] Bladestorm
	Bladestorm is the build-defining skill which makes you spin around dealing decent damage to all enemies around you
	Lethal Momentum is used to increase the Rage generated by killing enemies with Bladestorm, allowing you to sustain it with high Rage to benefit from the Maniac Slaughter Passive
	Unfettered Determination which allows you to hold down the button to channel the skill for a longer duration
	Cascading Rhythms is the most important Passive for Bladestorm, which increases it's hit frequency after you Critically Strike an enemy

[SECONDARY DPS] Bleeding Edge
	Bleeding Edge makes you throw axes that orbit around you dealing additional damage to all enemies. Since they will last for a set duration and follow you around by using the following modifiers, they are a very convenient addition to this build
	Unstoppable Momentum causes the Blades to continue spinning after you throw them
	Astral Orbit causes the blades to follow you around wherever you move
	Upright Fury can be used so that it doesn't consume too much Rage, but if you don't have any issues with that you can either use Despotic Perseverance or Revolving Guillotine for higher DPS

[UTILITY] Blood of Blood
	Blood for Blood is an area Skill which deals a moderate amount of damage to enemies inside it and provides various buffs and utility bonuses
	Fear Marches increases the damage against enemies inflicted with DoT (your Bleed in that case)
	Organic Failure is our recommended option as it will slow down all enemies in the circle, letting you benefit from the Persistence Hunting Passive, and also provide solid defensive utility
	Standing Straight increases your chance to inflict Ailments while inside the ring
	Unstable Flesh causes enemies to explode occasionally when they are on low Life. It's great for clearing big packs of monsters, but also to deal extra damage against Bosses with adds spawned

[UTILITY] Juggernaut (can be replaced Sovereign Shout for more DPS)
	Juggernaut a purely defensive Skill that gives you a protective shield that absorbs incoming damage. Upon receiving a set amount of damage, it will explode damaging nearby enemies
	Grudges Collected causes you to generate Rage when you receive damage while the Juggernaut is active
	Perpetual Osmosis which increases the maximum possible damage absorption at the cost of emptying the Fore Shield
	Cold Steel which reduces the cooldown

[UTILITY] Sovereign Shout (can be replaced Juggernaut for more defensive utility)
	Sovereign Shout a "warcry" type of skill which grants various bonuses whenever used and generates significant amount of Rage. In its base form, it grants high bonus Attack and Spells Casting Speed
	Hold the Line which grants a buff to all Elemental Resistances
	A Princep's Lead that grants a bonus to Critical Strike Chance Score
	Hostile Inspiration which increases the effectiveness of all buffs granted by the Sovereign Shout

[MOBILITY] Wings of Ishmir
	Wings of Ishmir allows you to Leap into enemies (or Leap away from danger) which is a great way to increase our mobility and grant additional bonuses upon landing
	Noble Bearing reduces the Skill's cooldown allowing you to Leap more frequently and benefit from the Skill's bonuses
	Berzerker's Onslaught increases the amount of Rage generated by Wings of Ishmir
	Stunning Apparatus grants you an additional buff for each enemy hit upon landing
	Meritorious Crew which is the most important modifier for Wings of Ishmir, giving you (and your allies) a very high damage bonus after landing

5. Recommended Gear

This section is still in "construction" as we don't have enough data to give you exact item proposals. We can't provide too detailed gear suggestions right now as there aren't many Unique and Legendaries revealed. However, below you can find the recommended Stat priority for items used in this build, which should help you get through the campaign. In the following days, we will try to update this section.

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are going to continue our work on Wolcen characters to fill up the list with all major build archetypes in the following weeks. Stay tuned

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Wolcen Studio.