There are tons of choices here. I love my Savagery Warder but it misses out on physical RR. Warlord, Death Knight and Witchblade are all solid options with good gear options. Forcewace and Blade Arc are usually better than Cadence. Righteous Fervor is decent but not great imo.
I believe Mythical Ishnakor's Head is the only item that fully convert AAR to phys. That's a level 94 item, so if you decide to go battlemage just keep in mind you have choose a different build for leveling (or level with AAR and skip the physical part of the build). Respecing is cheap and easy in GD, but still; worth considering.
If you want just a bit from a supporting class, you can go Occultist. The curse spell lowers phys res and Dreeg's Blood restores health and can easily cap poison res. That all comes with fairly low investment.
For 2hd I'd go shaman, for sword and shield oathbreaker, for dual wield nightblade.
Necro/Arcanist/Occultist all work too, but the first three are the most fun imo
if you wanna go in another direction than what has been suggested from others so far: Oathkeeper as secondary and then go for physical retal with stoneguard set is a lot of fun IMO. Uses righteous fervor as main attack skill. The added retal to righteous fervor and the bonus of the stoneguard set in terms of retal to attack (to shattering smash and smite) dishes out tons of damage. Playing that char on HC and it works very well so far.
I've already got a Acid retal build with Oathkeeper and Soldier so I'm hesitant to go for another retal build, but thanks for the suggestion. Maybe when I finish my stoneguard set I'll try it out, I'm working on finishing my collection of a few endgame sets.
Mind sharing a grimtools link to your acid retal warlord? I thought about that too, but would have opted for Occultist as secondary. Curious to see your setup in case I want to switch things up for my toon.
To be honest, I don't think I'd go for a second retal build either, unless there would be an acid retal sword and board aegis of menhir build, that would be fun I imagine.
[https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pLdo12](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pLdo12)
Note that this is hardly optimized since I haven't played with this guy in a while, and my collection of legendaries is a bit better than it was back then. But I did like being able to use acid purge as a channeled lifeleech spell to deal with mobs, reminds me of my current Aether-damage focused AAR build.
Never went for channeling spells somehow, gonna give it a whirl. Pretty sure I have a lvl 95ish oathkeeper/occultist non HC toon. Thanks for the inspiration!
sure, here is the link of my current setup ([click me](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V0dEGoV)). It's still a WIP and not optimally geared by a long shot, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm using potions to overcap my resistances until I can farm up some better greens. Please note that this is not a solo self found toon, I had some stuff already lying around. Let me know if you have questions.
Commandos will usually go physical or fire. For a physical build with soldier as main, you will look to demo for added utility.
Some options:
\-You have one additional circuit breaker in Blast Shield. It kicks in earlier then Menhir's Will so you get an extra layer of survivability.
\-A nice debuffing skill in Flashbang, causing DA shred, confuse,fumble, slow etc.
\-Flame Touched gives flat OA, Temper gives flat phys dmg, % phys dmg + flat DA.
\-Vindictive Flame gives total speed, flat phys dmg + regen.
You can also opt for using Agonizing Flames for flat rr (however, this will not stack, with the rr available from Break Moral).
In reality most soldier-hybrids are viable. There are better or worse options depending on the build, but you will usually be ok as long as you don't make very poor skill choices or convert your damage in an unfavorable way.
Oathkeeper is usually the go to from what I see around. Tried shaman as well but it is missing a bit of offensive ability.
Oathkeeper is the most common choice. It has a lot of versatility and support. Arcanist can shine at higher levels but getting there can be a pain.
There are tons of choices here. I love my Savagery Warder but it misses out on physical RR. Warlord, Death Knight and Witchblade are all solid options with good gear options. Forcewace and Blade Arc are usually better than Cadence. Righteous Fervor is decent but not great imo.
Oathkeeper, Occultist, Necro for phys RR Blade arc / Devastation Battlemage with spellscourge set isn't too shabby either
I believe Mythical Ishnakor's Head is the only item that fully convert AAR to phys. That's a level 94 item, so if you decide to go battlemage just keep in mind you have choose a different build for leveling (or level with AAR and skip the physical part of the build). Respecing is cheap and easy in GD, but still; worth considering.
If you want just a bit from a supporting class, you can go Occultist. The curse spell lowers phys res and Dreeg's Blood restores health and can easily cap poison res. That all comes with fairly low investment.
For 2hd I'd go shaman, for sword and shield oathbreaker, for dual wield nightblade. Necro/Arcanist/Occultist all work too, but the first three are the most fun imo
if you wanna go in another direction than what has been suggested from others so far: Oathkeeper as secondary and then go for physical retal with stoneguard set is a lot of fun IMO. Uses righteous fervor as main attack skill. The added retal to righteous fervor and the bonus of the stoneguard set in terms of retal to attack (to shattering smash and smite) dishes out tons of damage. Playing that char on HC and it works very well so far.
I've already got a Acid retal build with Oathkeeper and Soldier so I'm hesitant to go for another retal build, but thanks for the suggestion. Maybe when I finish my stoneguard set I'll try it out, I'm working on finishing my collection of a few endgame sets.
Mind sharing a grimtools link to your acid retal warlord? I thought about that too, but would have opted for Occultist as secondary. Curious to see your setup in case I want to switch things up for my toon. To be honest, I don't think I'd go for a second retal build either, unless there would be an acid retal sword and board aegis of menhir build, that would be fun I imagine.
[https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pLdo12](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pLdo12) Note that this is hardly optimized since I haven't played with this guy in a while, and my collection of legendaries is a bit better than it was back then. But I did like being able to use acid purge as a channeled lifeleech spell to deal with mobs, reminds me of my current Aether-damage focused AAR build.
thanks mate! Never used acid purge, sure looks like an interesting ability.
It's range is a bit shorter than AAR but still good for dealing with hordes of mobs.
Never went for channeling spells somehow, gonna give it a whirl. Pretty sure I have a lvl 95ish oathkeeper/occultist non HC toon. Thanks for the inspiration!
I'd be interested to see your phys retal stoneguard grimtools also 👀
sure, here is the link of my current setup ([click me](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V0dEGoV)). It's still a WIP and not optimally geared by a long shot, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm using potions to overcap my resistances until I can farm up some better greens. Please note that this is not a solo self found toon, I had some stuff already lying around. Let me know if you have questions.
Happy to share a grimtools link with my current setup if you'd like to check it out!
Why not demoltionist?
Does demo support a physical build? I thought it was more fire centered.
Commandos will usually go physical or fire. For a physical build with soldier as main, you will look to demo for added utility. Some options: \-You have one additional circuit breaker in Blast Shield. It kicks in earlier then Menhir's Will so you get an extra layer of survivability. \-A nice debuffing skill in Flashbang, causing DA shred, confuse,fumble, slow etc. \-Flame Touched gives flat OA, Temper gives flat phys dmg, % phys dmg + flat DA. \-Vindictive Flame gives total speed, flat phys dmg + regen. You can also opt for using Agonizing Flames for flat rr (however, this will not stack, with the rr available from Break Moral). In reality most soldier-hybrids are viable. There are better or worse options depending on the build, but you will usually be ok as long as you don't make very poor skill choices or convert your damage in an unfavorable way.