Moon Knight: A Build for Cutting Off Faces doctor strange dps leveling pve pvp
Guide by seanwmcginnis Last update at Mar 6th 2014, 13:34

Points Available: 0
Facet of Power 1
1  60
I think I've finally arrived at a Moon Knight build that I like. My inspiration was the 2006 Moon Knight series, so I wanted there to be a lot of blood and guts in this build. Brass Knuckles, Crescents, getting horribly injured -- these are the hallmarks of the Huston/Finch Moon Knight run. I also did not want to use Truncheon Ricochet, as good as it is, because it just felt like a Daredevil knock-off. And, originally, I started bopping around with this stupid build because I was using Moon Staff, but I kept missing with Cestus Gauntlet Punch because Marc wouldn't move into range. Stupid staff.

So, here it is: my Huston/Finch-era bad-ass Moon Knight build. At level 59, he's in a good place -- nearly bottomless spirit, great single-target damage. He does have a tendency to get swarmed by really big packs of blues/yellows in red terminals, but he can fight his way out. It just takes a while.

This build can solo boss spawns in Mid-Town, pretty quickly. That is about as uber as I get in this game.

The powers:

    • Your basic. Does extra damage to bleeding targets, and ALL of your targets will be bleeding. A lot. Like, hemorrhaging. Use it when low on juice.
    • It's a roll. You roll. I'd rather it were a manly, Batman-esque dive, but it's not. It's a dainty flip.

    • This is a great power that keeps you standing, and makes you tougher as you get hurt. Which is great, because I go through Med-Packs like they're going out of style.

    • This is a great power -- thwack the bad guys with the giant meat tenderizers you have strapped to your hands. With your bleeds going, you can one-shot a blue, and beat the ever-loving snot out of bad guys in Midtown.

    • I dumped extra points here. Honestly, I scarcely use it. When I do, I try and pop Avatar of Vengeance and then thwack someone. Sometimes it doesn't go off. Sometimes it does. It's erratic as hell. I want to love it, since this is really the peak of "cutting off faces" goodness, but with a long cooldown and an uneven reliability, it only gets extra points.

    • I'm a big fan of this power...see what I did there? But seriously, this is a lead-in power, it hits a bunch of things and makes them bleed. Use it, always. My right-click power. I like to just fire them through swarms when it gets so crazy that I can't see what's going on.

    • Not technically a bleed, but a DoT. Hits in a very narrow path, but you can snare 2-3 baddies with it. It's the "2" in the Fan/Bola One-Two Punch. Use it, always.

    • You can fly! Some folks hate this power -- I love it. I think Spector looks bad-ass while using it. Use it to get around quickly. With Magneto, it lasts forever.

    • Another great power. Crits are important to build tribute, so it jacks up your crit chance, and the damage rating on Cestus Punch, which is our big-hitter anyway.

    • This power is criminally good, when used correctly. When you get into a tight spot, allow yourself to get brutalized until you are almost dead. Then kick this bad boy off and go to town. You become invulnerable, AND do bonus damage. Develop a sense of how long it lasts, because you will be as dead as fried chicken if you are standing in something bad when it switches off. Great for annoying jackhole villains like Dr. Doom or Pyro -- fire it off and beat them to death. Facetank Madame Hydra and her pistol of butt-whupping. Stand outside of Loki's circle of safety. It's a hoot.

    • CC Breaker. Yawn.

    • Bonus stuff...double yawn. You get it for free from one of Spector's uniques, so you can skip this if you are so inclined. The self-rez is nice, so make sure you have it in some way or another.

    • This thing is cool. It tends to draw aggro, it grants bonus tribute, and is also restorative. Also, it looks bad-ass. Ideally, use it after Avatar of Vengeance to quickly refill your Tribute, and to keep you standing while you heal up.



    Strategy: For trash, Fan and Bola One-Two punch. Watch them expire as you run past. For anything tougher (Blue/Yellow), Cestus Punch them down while keeping Fan and Bola applied to the group. Any stragglers will start to drop off as you clean up. With Fan and Bola, it can be tough to line things up...sometimes, a pack of blues will go down in seconds. Sometimes, it feels like you're fighting a spawn of Blobs. It's all in how you line up your bleeds. And, I'm convinced, sometimes things just don't go off.

    For bosses, keep the Fan and Bola ticks going. Cestus Punch to tenderize them. When (if) you get badly hurt, Avatar of Vengeance to finish up, then Med-Pack and and Statue. Assuming they are still standing, which they probably aren't, unless it's a Mega-Sentinel.

    Gear: Moon Knight doesn't have any uniques that are total game-changers. I was having serious spirit issues, hence the Magento Medallion and Maht's Arrowhead, which have fixed things nicely. I've recently replaced Maht's with Advanced Kung Fu training -- jury's still out. I've tried to replace the Magneto medallion multiple times, but it's just too good -- swimming in spirit and not having to worry about it is too good a situation to give up. Idol of Khonshu is a no-brainer, with all of this ranged business ticking away. With the emphasis on crits, Relic of Atlantis is the way to go.

    With a little more finagling, I feel like I might be able to go basic-less with this build, making Cestus Punch my "primary" attack. It feels like I'm on the cusp...I might just need one more dirty spirit-management trick. If that happens, all of the points in Gauntlets are going into Frenzy, with any leftovers probably going into Explosive Dart for the +10% damage.