Any Class The Build Spectrum

note: based on pve

after a lot of time with making class builds, i've come to the conclusion that you can fit nearly every single build onto a single spectrum, so this thread covers it in detail.
i used a bunch of builds here for examples

Spoiler: build spectrum

Spoiler: build list

1 balanced melee (apoc)
2 reinforced glass cannon spell focused hybrid (hive wand)
3 reinforced glass cannon alternating hybrid (hive dagger)
4 balanced alternating hybrid (singularity)
5 offensive tank spell focused hybrid (black)
6 balanced spell focused hybrid (grimtrap)
7 reinforced glass cannon spellspam (judas)
8 offensive tank alternating hybrid (chain lightning hellstrand)
9 offensive tank melee focused hybrid (chain lightning stinger)
10 balanced alternating hybrid (collapse)
11 offensive tank spell focused hybrid (guardian)
12 reinforced glass cannon melee focused hybrid (gma quake with some spell capability)

basically, there's the horizontal spectrum with pure melee on the far left and spellspam on the far right.
on the vertical spectrum we have full tank on the top and complete glass cannon on the bottom.
however, if we think about it in a different way, we don't have to catagorize every build to those extremes.
along the horizontal spectrum, along with pure melee and spellspam, we have melee focused hybrid, alternating hybrid, and spell focused hybrid.
along the vertical spectrum, along with full tank and glass cannon, we have offensive tank, balanced, and reinforced glass cannon.

Spoiler: full list of classifications

full tank melee
full tank melee focused hybrid
full tank alternating hybrid
full tank spell focused hybrid
full tank spellspam
offensive tank melee
offensive tank melee focused hybrid
offensive tank alternating hybrid
offensive tank spell focused hybrid
offensive tank spellspam
balanced melee
balanced melee focused hybrid
balanced alternating hybrid
balanced spell focused hybrid
balanced spellspam
reinforced glass cannon melee
reinforced glass cannon melee focused hybrid
reinforced glass cannon alternating hybrid
reinforced glass cannon spell focused hybrid
reinforced glass cannon spellspam
glass cannon melee
glass cannon melee focused hybrid
glass cannon alternating hybrid
glass cannon spell focused hybrid
glass cannon spellspam

with making this, you may come to notice that there are no builds that are pure tank or pure glass cannon. this is because when doing that, the build is so unbalanced that it becomes unable to perform properly.

using examples, take a look at the spectrum image. build number 4 is nearly a perfect balance of melee, spell, and defense. it has powerful melee dps and still strong spells. it has about average hp with decent defenses. this is a build that we would classify as a "balanced alternating hybrid", meaning that it has relatively balanced hp and defenses, along with alternating usage of spell and melee.

now to look at some horizontal extremes, we can look at build 1 and build 7. build one has absolutely no spell capabilities at all, instead using purely melee to deal damage and regain hp. it also has high defense and agi, leading to reduced damage. this classifies it as an offensive tank melee build. meanwhile, build 7 is centered around complete spellspam, gaining absolutely no benefits from using melee. it also has rather low damage resistance in sp, but still has decent hp and elemental defenses. this classifies it as a reinforced glass cannon spellspam build.

to look at the vertical spectrum (a bit more complicated), i have chose build 3 and build 5. build 3 overall has very low defenses, low defense sp, and no agi, but still isn't completely butchered in terms of defense. however, its high melee dps and spell damage, along with high mana steal leads to alternating usage of melee and spell, dealing high damage. in the end, this build is classified as a "reinforced glass cannon alternating hybrid". meanwhile, build 5 has quite high defenses with the exception of earth, above average hp, and very high health regen. on top of that, it has powerful healing stats. even so, its low damage means that the melee is not very helpful, and its main usage is stealing and courage charge, meaning that the build is more centered around spell (but it is still reliant on melee, as can be seen). this one is classified as a "offensive tank spell focused hybrid".

by keeping this spectrum in mind, it makes it easier to organize the end goal of builds, and also gives a clear image of how stats should be, and what to keep in mind.

tl;dr mostly every build fits on a spectrum, and by knowing this spectrum it makes it easier to understand how builds can be made

 

not 100% true

Knowing how all builds compare is still not addressed here, and this doesn't give advice for making builds, it mostly just helps categorize them. Classifications help for building a standard in the community so that everyone can talk on similar or the same terms, but this doesn't tell people how to build, plus this spectrum doesn't account for build cost or how balanced it is within the game. *cough* *that thing good yet?* *cough*

 

tl;dr mostly every build fits on a spectrum

this was something that i intended for whoever looks at this to figure out themselves, there should be more than enough information to do so

the goal wasn't exactly to give advice for making builds

when making the builds i mostly just made them as example builds to use in order to define each classification, but even so they should all be balanced ingame

 

One thing to note though: PvP should probably have its own spectrum.

Well yeah, but we have different tools for those various tasks. Nomenclature / classification are what makes this particular tool important. This isn't meant to be the definitive tool for helping novices learn how to build. It is meant to give an overview of the metagame as hybrid becomes a more emergent force.

Basically, just consider a sort of large-scale tool among many other tools, helping by allowing build makers talk about their builds.

 

thorns/reflection???/?/

 

who even cares about pvp lmao
ok now being serious, i don't really know what i would put down for pvp since i don't really know exactly how people make builds purely for pvp

cactus builds are generally going to be full tank builds, with no defined place on the horizontal spectrum, hence "mostly every build"

 

No, I completely understand and like the spectrum. I just wanted to point out the things this thread doesn't do too. I really like that everyone can use this to indentify what kind of build they have and speak on the same terms as others. Personally, I want more though. I'd like all of the things I mentioned to be integrated, added, or used in another *spectrum-esque* tool.

 

yeah, i see what you mean
i initally wanted to put that into this, but it was quite difficult to actually fit it in without going to an entirely different topic, and i wanted to keep the thread overall related to the build type spectrum.
to be completely honest, i was planning on doing something like that later (soontm), but i'm not exactly sure how to go about such a thing.
there's not really a good way to give advice on learning how to make builds in my opinion, just comes with experience (although i do have a few things that i do myself that i suppose i could share)
and when it comes to comparing each type to each other there really isn't much to say. each type can just be so drastically different from each other that instead of comparing it's mostly contrasting.

basically i'm planning to do this in the future, in separate threads, but i am not yet sure how to go about doing it.

 

I'm willing to help with that if you're interested. I think we could get a few others into the guide too. There are quite a few prominent class builders and all of us have different tastes and opinions about builds and buildmaking. It could be interesting for all parties involved.

 

Where would loot/xp builds be on this graph?

 

depends, that's such a wide type of build
i suppose that a full xp set would probably be glass spell focused