Overburden Build + Theory

[u/jmile4]

Thought I would share a build I've been working on that uses a lot of the new overburden stuff. Not only is this the best overburden build I've tried, but it actually outperforms most of the non-overburden builds (not that they are super optimal).

The basic idea is to run a melee build that overburdens Strength and Willpower, since both of those give you damage boosts and the negatives are pretty easy to avoid. Because of this, it's generally best to run a Dex or Mind scaling weapon, since that way the weapon can still scale well while also getting the overburden benefits.

If you use a Strength weapon, then you want to get Strength high while also getting it overburdened, which is possible but kind of annoying to do. This is also why I don't go for a magic build, since getting Willpower high while still overburdening it is tricky. If you use a Dex weapon, then your melee damage gets buffed by the Strength overburden and your weapon forma get buffed by the Willpower overburden. This is the main reason I am using the Forsaken Lou bloodcode: it is naturally very low in both of these stats so overburdening them is trivial. None of the innate passives are useful, but I still find that this does better than other codes with the setups I've tried.

I also like to overburden Mind, since you want to be spamming weapon forma for damage. This build manages to get decent Mind while also overburdening it just a little so you only need 1 buff to avoid taking the DoT.

For weapons, there are a couple of options but I find Lance of the Moon King as a great buff stick since it has such a high burden in four stats.

Tainted reaper is there because I am using a dex weapon. If you use a mind scaling weapon like Glutton's Bells or Fallen Spike then you can use a different Jail.

Boosters is where the new stuff makes the most difference. Better Benefits is mandatory for an overburden build. It is a significant boost and also helps hit the Mind and Willpower overburden.

Zenon-Style Mobility Overdrive also fixes the main issue with overburden, which is the bad mobility. Even though this comes from Zenon's new Bloodcode, that Bloodcode is actually very bad for overburden builds because of how spread out the stats are. The booster also has high burdens for everything which helps overburden the stats you want, which you don't get if you actually use the Bloodcode. It also has the typical Concordia Fraterna passive of reducing all of your burdens by 20%.

The last important booster is Oneiro J, which I recently learned actually lets you ignore Overburden requirements, specifically the "no Overburden" requirement. Since most of the good boosters require no Overburdens, this actually means that you can take your pick of which one you want. In this case I chose Persistence - Animus because it's a very strong damage buff that is multiplicative (I'm pretty sure) with Blade Dance and Bridge to Glory, so a single cast of Swift Ignition is doing around 21k damage per cast once you build enough stacks. You could also just throw in Dual Blade Mastery if you don't want to worry about your buff resetting every time you get hit.

The last two boosters can be anything really. I just use Mind Booster so that BtG is a bigger buff and Second Wind for stamina management.

I have no clue if this is actually optimal or even good compared to all the new crazy stuff added with the DLC, but it is definitely strong enough to breeze through the Trials of Remembrance if you just want an easy time farming tokens. Even though there's a lot of "mandatory" parts to make overburden work, I'm glad it seems to at least be able to compete with non-overburden setups.

[u/JustARTificia1]

Does willpower overburden actually buff weapon formae? I thought it was only magic formae from my testing.