Two-handed · Burst · AoE · boss deletion
Spear Nuke
Groundsurge, Greysoul Howling and Shadow Claw on a spear-moveset two-hander, with fire imbue feeding Volcanic Eruption and Flames of Judgment.
≈ 33% crit chance on the main weapon · Attack Speed at 78% of the cap's benefit · Movement at 100%. Health, Stamina and Spirit come from your Abyss Tree, not gear. Attack counts weapon + necklace + rings + Destruction gears; Crit counts weapon, chest and necklace; speed counts every global source. Gold bars are refinement; orbs are sockets.
Vow of the Dead King
Halberd · spear moveset · Tier 5 · +10
- Attack 35
- Critical Rate Lv 4
Abyss gear sockets · 5/5 (ships with 3, a Witch opens the rest)
Recipes below are crafted at any Witch's Altar under Craft Abyss Gear, and only after you have read that gear's Gear Blueprint from your inventory. The listed Tier I gears are the ingredients and are consumed.
GroundsurgeTurning Slash · SpiritShatters the ground in a frontal cone of stone spikes. Hits on impact and again on burst, high stagger, no imbue needed. Roughly 2× Wound of Darkness in a side-by-side wiki test.
Get it Extract from Melted Ambition (Myurdin, Chapter 6-7) at a Witch, or craft: Destruction I + Fortification I + Aegis I with the Gear Blueprint. · pinned on the map
Greysoul HowlingTurning Slash · SpiritCalls Goyen's phantom to repeat the slash as a wide sweep of shadow energy. Stacks with Momentum.
Get it Ships in Fated Shadow (Goyen, Nest of Valor, Chapter 9). Craft: Destruction I + Swift I + Haste I + Insight I.
Shadow ClawHeavy Attack / Forward Slash · StaminaThree forward swipes, Black Fang's own move. Strong single-target damage.
Get it Reward of the faction quest Legendary Wolf (Howls from the North Gate). To craft one instead you must first read Gear Blueprint: Shadow Claw (a 2% drop from Exploration Dispatch missions at the Timeworn Ruins or Kingshield Dig Site); the recipe then appears at any Witch's Altar under Craft Abyss Gear and consumes Destruction I + Swift I + Haste I + Vitality I. · pinned on the map
Destruction III+3 Attack on the weapon it sits in.
Get it Craft at Elowen: two Destruction II.
- Destruction III
+3 Attack on the weapon it sits in.
Get it Craft at Elowen: two Destruction II.
Where to get it
Citadel of the Forgotten King, under the Frostveiled Castle Ruins in northern Pailune. Also sold by Gorio at Skog Equipment.
Where it all drops
Every pin is a confirmed map marker for this build's items and abyss gears. Select a slot above to highlight its pins; tap a pin to jump to the slot.
Where to get it
No fixed pin: Any cloak, Witch's Ring. Crafted at any Blacksmith, bought from a travelling vendor, or dropped somewhere the map data does not list (the Nest of Valor island).
Coast, rivers and relief traced from the public Pywel tiles at crimsondb.gg; pin coordinates from its marker data. World coordinates are the game's own.
How it plays
Every Turning Slash fires Groundsurge, Greysoul's phantom, Momentum's +35% and, when flame-imbued, a boulder and a volley of homing sparks. Forward Slash chains into it through Proficiency with Shadow Claw's three swipes on the way in. The spear moveset is chosen for reach: Turning Slash covers more ground than any other weapon class.
- 1Open with Forward Slash (R2): Shadow Claw's three swipes plus the Echoing illusion.
- 2Chain straight into Turning Slash (R1+R2) through Turning Slash Proficiency; hold LT during the wind-up to imbue Flame.
- 3One imbued Turning Slash = Groundsurge cone + Greysoul sweep + Momentum +35% + Volcanic Eruption boulder + Flames of Judgment sparks.
- 4Let the Watcher drones and crit regen cover the gap, then repeat. Swap to the sword pair (Quick Swap) when Spirit runs dry; kills refund it.
Skills
Turning Slash Lv3 + Proficiency, Expertise, Rend Armor
Proficiency lets Forward Slash chain into it. Rend Armor ignores super armor and lowers enemy defense.
Forward Slash Lv3 + Proficiency, Sure Hit
This is the Shadow Claw button.
Nature's Echo → Echoing Forward Slash
A free illusion copies every Forward Slash.
Imbue Element Lv4
Lv4 unlocks Elemental Turning Slash. Flame comes from the Tree of Slumber abyss chain.
Armed Combat Lv5 (Quick Swap)
Swap between the two-hander and the sword pair mid-combo.
Focus Lv4 (Serenity), Keen Senses Lv4 (Enraged Parry)
Spirit regen in Focus; parry mid-combo. Both added in 2.0.
Why it works
Two triggers, two resource pools
Groundsurge and Greysoul Howling both ride Turning Slash and cost Spirit. Shadow Claw rides Heavy Attack and costs Stamina. Alternating the two buttons spends both bars instead of draining one.
Why Destruction III and not Insight III
At Lv11 crit the curve is flat: three more levels add about 4% expected damage, while +3 Attack on a 56-attack total adds 5.4%. Switch to Insight only if your crit sits below Lv8.
Vow of the Dead King vs Soul Spear
The Vow's Lv4 crit is free socket-wise; the Soul Spear has 5 more raw attack. On the damage index they finish within 3% of each other. Pick by look; the Alabaster Halberd is a craftable early twin of the Vow.
Crit from sources that cost no weapon socket
The Kuku Flame-Resistant chest (Lv3) and the White Lion Necklace (Lv4) give crit to every weapon you own. With a Lv4 weapon that is Lv11 before a single Insight gear, which is where the game's crit curve has already paid out 82% of its cap.
Attack Speed where it is global
Attack speed on gloves, boots and rings applies to every weapon; on a weapon it only works while that weapon is drawn. Tariv Cloth Gloves (Lv3), one Swift III in the boots (Lv3) and the Witch's Ring (Lv4) reach Lv10, which is 78% of the cap's benefit. Chasing the last five levels costs more sockets than it returns.
Movement Speed on exactly 15
Tariv boots 3 + two Lv4 earrings + the stowed shield's 2 + Haste II = 15. Nothing wasted, and mobility is what lets a 20-Spirit nuke build reposition instead of trading hits.
A shield you never raise
Defense and Movement Speed from a shield count while it hangs on your back. Damage Reduction (Aegis) does not, so both shield sockets are Fortification III for +18 Defense.
Momentum on the helm
The helm has one socket and nothing else competes for it. +35% Turning Slash damage is the largest single multiplier in the game.
Alternatives
- Weapon. Soul Spear (40 attack, Elowen) or Thorn of Dark Pursuit (38, Attack Speed Lv1). Any halberd with Crit Lv4 is the Vow in different clothes.
- Third Turning Slash gear. Wound of Darkness instead of Groundsurge for more raw damage and less stagger. Running all three drains Spirit too fast.
- Chest. Any plate chest with 3 sockets: Composure III + 2× Aegis III if Spirit runs dry. You trade 3 global crit for regen and damage reduction.
Story gates
- Groundsurge: Myurdin, Chapter 6-7
- Greysoul Howling: Goyen, Chapter 9
- Flames of Judgment: Lucian Bastier, Chapter 8
- Flame imbue: Spire of Ringing Truth → Tree of Slumber
- Kuku Flame-Resistant chest: Kuku crafting line
Confidence. Item numbers are datamined. Socket rules and stat-application rules are community tested. Spirit cost per gear is unpublished; two Turning Slash gears are sustainable in practice, three are not.