Triple build progression guide from M15 to T500+ with Caine’s Battlegear set

Introduction

“Suddenly, a flash of fire and light appeared, cutting through the battlefield, laying waste to all around it. Moving unpredictably and with great speed, it suddenly came to a full stop on a ridge, with the world around it turned to ash. The flames then receded, and a man stood in their place, clad in powerful armor humming with immense heat and power. He spoke, and let his words echo across the charred battlefield: I am Caine, Avatar of War!”

Caine’s Battlegear is an incredibly versatile set capable of taking you from the lowest of Mythics to the highest of endgame Tiers. The set is themed around the Holy Fire aura and this guide will contain three separate builds tied together by a cohesive gear progression.

The Starter

Focused on clearing all of the Mythic dungeon content without the use of any True Legendary items and setting the base for your first 500 mastery levels.

The Auradin

Focused on tackling endless content up to T400, featuring extreme speed and full screen clearing with a goal of leveling up your mastery from 1000 to 3000 as fast as possible.

The Hammerdin

The ultimate version of Caine – an unstoppable Avatar of War wielding a hammer made of pure fire. Designed for a mastery level of over 3000 this build will push you to the absolute limit of Chronicon’s endgame.

The separate guides will be self-contained so there will be some repeat of information between them. The Starter version will cover the basic mechanics of the set, the Auradin will feature some insight into endless dungeons and the Hammerdin will further expand on that with tackling ultra high tiers specifically. Before you dive in however be advised that I will not be covering basic game mechanics (runepowers, gems, etc.) s

The Starter

This build uses just the Caine’s set pieces, some Legendaries and enhances them with lesser runes only (no True Legendaries). The end result still requires 450 mastery and greater augmenting most of your gear but it’s one of the cheapest and fastest options to get you out of Mythics and into Endless dungeons. So let’s answer the number one most asked question:

What in the flaming hells’ does this set actually do?

First up it guarantees that when we use an offensive fire skill we will always trigger Flare (giving us a boost of movement speed) and allows us to move through mob packs without issues. This interaction triggers Blaze – while Flare is active (which is always) we leave behind a trail of fire, dealing damage based on the triggering skill’s damage. That damage is boosted by our aura effect stat and then inherited by our Holy Fire aura. The 3-piece bonus adds a form of endless damage scaling (commonly referred to as “weakness”) triggering on every hit of our aura. This chain of events allows us to scale the resulting damage in multiple ways – boosting the original triggering skill’s damage, then aura effect (buffing not only Blaze but also our other auras), stacking %fire damage and finally critical damage. We then invest in the Purged through holy flames passive, transferring all that damage into Expulsion which is further scaled by critical damage again. This all leads a way paved by amazing gear options on every turn and we’ll be taking a look at them below. If you’re not interested in the gear breakdown or just want a handy cheat sheet for the build click here – [imgur.com] .

Gear

Gear legend

TL– True Legendary – Acquired through random drop or tarot cards

GR– Greater Rune – Extracted runepower from a True Legendary item

Set item/Legendary – Acquired through random drop or gamble

Crafted lesser rune (C*LR) – Extracted runepower from a Legendary/Rare item

Anomalous lesser rune (A*LR) – Drops from boss of a Dungeon Anomaly (non-elite)

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Crown of Solitude LR (Crafted) – Extra damage against Crowned enemies.

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Molten Nova LR (Anomalous)– Boosts Molten Fragmentation damage which we use as the trigger for Blaze and also gives it a “Nova” tag.

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Brutal Attacks LR (Anomalous) – This is a no attack speed build so this rune gives us a 400% damage boost. The epic Enrage enchant does not interfere with that bonus and saves the build from being extra clunky to play.

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Shield Maiden LR (Crafted) – Another boost to Molten Fragmentation since it has a “Shield” skill tag. Your block chance will always show a capped *75%, this rune however works off of the uncapped value which we stack through gems.

Boots of Hazard (Legendary) – Gives immunity to all ground effects.

Blazing Stride LR (Anomalous) – Amazing damage boost for our Blaze based on our Movement speed and it works with the Kill Haste enchant.

Sun and Moon set piece – Triples our fire damage after using a “Frost” tagged skill. Since Templar doesn’t naturally possess one we’ll be using Soul Warp Codex.

Supernova LR (Crafted)– Doubles the damage of all “Nova” tags which we got for our Molten Fragmentation from the Molten Nova rune.

Sun and Moon set piece – Triples our fire damage after using a “Frost” tagged skill. Since Templar doesn’t naturally possess one we’ll be using Soul Warp Codex.

Lethal Mobility LR (Anomalous) – Some extra damage after we use Soul Warp.

Maddoc’s Cure (Legendary) – One of the few actually useful quest rewards in the game. We mainly use it for the free Critical chance enchant.

Challender’s Charm LR (Crafted) – Extra juice + extra packs = extra fun.

Skills & Mastery

Bolster aura is our main interest here for the extra resists + some decent passives.

Just some extra critical chance here.

The main passive tree of choice for this set. Note that we only need a single point in Holy Fire since it “inherits” damage so more points do nothing for it.

Great aura, the best heal skill in the game, some filler passives and the all mighty Expulsion!

Vengeance Mastery – Mainly Crit damage + some filler extras.

Wraith Mastery – DO NOT PUT POINTS INTO ATTACK SPEED! The first passive might be tempting but it’s bait – it will screw up our Brutal Attacks bonus damage.

Conviction Mastery – All the things.

Redemption Mastery – YEP

Esc -> Settings -> Controls -> Set your preferred single key for all your skills.

Skills cast from right to left so Prayerneeds to be cast first so the rest of them benefit from the cooldown reduction immediately.

Holy Fire does not need to be cast so just use the X from the options to remove its button.

Use Codex of Soul Warp for movement and enabling Sun and Moon’s bonus.

Gameplay video & outro

General tips & progression advice

• Gamble all the items and legendaries if possible
• Focus on farming normal non-elite dungeons for the anomalous lesser runes
• Don’t throw all your resources into perfecting a single item, spreading out is better at the start
• Be smart about your Greater Augmenting since you’ll be limited on Memory essence early
• Holy Fire is line-of-sight sensitive so you need to use your faster speed and positioning both offensively and defensively
• Explore the game at your own pace and most importantly

HAVE FUN PLAYING

The Auradin

This build is the effective progression of the Starter into True Legendary status and Endless tiers territory. Its goal is farming everything up to T400 and being the natural link between the previous iteration and the Hammerdin version not only thematically but also when it comes to gearing – it keeps using some of the core pieces while it upgrades most of the rest. It features extremely fast full screen clears and pickup radius with the tradeoff being that we’re a bit squishier and we do not have impressive boss killing. If you’re not interested in the gear breakdown or just want a handy cheat sheet for the build click here – [imgur.com]

Gear

Gear legend

TL– True Legendary – Acquired through random drop or tarot cards

GR– Greater Rune – Extracted runepower from a True Legendary item

Set item/Legendary – Acquired through random drop or gamble

Crafted lesser rune (C*LR) – Extracted runepower from a Legendary/Rare item

Anomalous lesser rune (A*LR) – Drops from boss of a Dungeon Anomaly (non-elite)

Prayer Beads TL – Provides extra aura effect which translates into almost double damage, but more importantly it boost Holy Fire’s coverage to screen-wide. Casting anything counts as being “still” so we have both effects active all of the time.

Cosmic Cape GR– The source of our base damage.

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Vestige of Lost Souls GR – The source of our barrier and survivability. Worth pointing out that this build can only get to 50% indirect DR so you really need to play smart with your speed and positioning around the enemy spells and ground effects.

Caine’s Deflector set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Molten Nova LR (Anomalous) – Boosts Molten Fragmentation’s damage which we use as the trigger for Blaze and also gives a “Nova” tag to it.

Caine’s Fire set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Brutal Attacks LR (Anomalous)– This is a no attack speed build so this rune gives us +400% damage. The epic Enrage enchant does not interfere with that bonus and saves the build from being extra clunky to play.

Sun and Moon set piece– Triples our fire damage after using a “Frost” tagged skill. Since Templar doesn’t naturally possess one we’ll be using Soul Warp Codex.

(Ring of) Pure Energy GR – Huge boost to our Mana which translates into both more base damage and more barrier.

Sun and Moon set piece– Triples our fire damage after using a “Frost” tagged skill. Since Templar doesn’t naturally possess one we’ll be using Soul Warp Codex.

Star of the Pure LR (Crafted)– Another boost to our barrier that is only really needed if you’re pushing for anything over T300. Feel free to keep using the Lethal Mobility version from the starter build if you like.

Weyrick’s Crown TL – The once great king of the helmet slot has now been decently balanced and the bonus it provides is additive with the one from class mastery. Even after the nerf it is still BIS up until you get close to the 3K levels mark.

Crown of Solitude LR (Crafted) – Extra damage against Crowned enemies.

Battle Boots TL – Extra DR after we use Soul Warp codex.

Blazing Stride LR (Crafted) – Amazing damage boost for our Blaze based on our movement speed and it works with the Kill Haste enchant.

Skills & Mastery

The Field Training aura is a huge damage boost since Molten Fragmentation has a Shield skill tag. And yes – we do need that resist point to hit the 130% cap.

Some critical chance and the Hasteaura. Note that we’re never casting it since that would screw up our Brutal Attacks bonus.

The main passive tree of choice for this set. Note that we only need a single point in Holy Fire since it “inherits” damage so more points do nothing for it.

Great aura, some filler passives and the all mighty Expulsion!

Vengeance Mastery – The build doesn’t really need anything here past Supporter, but we need a third full row to get Ultimate Affinity so this is the best option.

Wraith Mastery – DO NOT PUT POINTS INTO ATTACK SPEED! The first passive might be tempting but it’s bait – it will screw up our Brutal Attacks bonus damage.

Conviction Mastery – All the things.

Redemption Mastery – YEP

Esc -> Settings -> Controls -> Set your preferred single key for all your skills.

The Holy Fire, Field Training and Haste auras do not need to be cast so just use the X from the options to remove their buttons.

Use Codex of Soul Warp for movement and enabling Sun and Moon’s bonus.

Gameplay video & outro

General tips & progression advice

• Holy Fire is line-of-sight sensitive so you need to use your faster speed and positioning both offensively and defensively
• Focus on Endless random anomalies once you feel your boss damage starts falling off
• You should try to learn the good and bad map layouts and when you need to re-roll them
• Learn the build-defining True Legendaries and consider keeping some in stash for the future
• Since we’re not capped on indirect DR you should use this wonderful opportunity to learn the truly deadly enemy spells and how not to die to them >:)
• And as always

HAVE FUN PLAYING

The Hammerdin

This build is the natural progression of the Auradin into a truly monstrous endgame destroyer. It features 89% DR, 85% block, 36% evasion, 280% base MS + 100% on kill. On top of that it has absolutely amazing scaling with mastery – at 3k levels it has over 5 million base damage, 80k life and 700k barrier. That scaling however can also be considered one of its two major downsides since the build simply doesn’t work under 1,5k. The other downside, shared with many of the other ultra lategame pushers is lag – Expulsion is laggy, loud and will wreck your eyes, ears and CPU. You mainly start to feel these effects past T500 but if you’re truly dedicated to taking this to its limits then I suggest you nerf your video settings, lower your audio and get a pair of cool sunglasses. If you’re not interested in the gear breakdown or just want a handy cheat sheet for the build click here – [imgur.com]

Gear

Gear legend

TL– True Legendary – Acquired through random drop or tarot cards

GR– Greater Rune – Extracted runepower from a True Legendary item

Set item/Legendary – Acquired through random drop or gamble

Crafted lesser rune (C*LR) – Extracted runepower from a Legendary/Rare item

Anomalous lesser rune (A*LR) – Drops from boss of a Dungeon Anomaly (non-elite)

Star of the Pure (Legendary) – This is a barrier-based+pull-the-entire-screen-on-top build so it has some small issues with one-shots. This amulet fixes most of them.

Blazing Hammers LR (Anomalous) – Turns our main damage aura into spiraling Hammers, quadruples its damage and gives it the “Hammer” skill tag.

Amulet of Despair VS Star of the Pure – Despair is a 40% more damage multiplier but we have to sacrifice a crit damage gem to enable it and lose all that extra barrier from SotP. Personally I don’t think it’s worth it but if you decide to try it out – make sure you remember to socket a Kyanite gem in either the weapon or the shield.

Cosmic Cape TL – The source of our base damage.

Council’s Gavel GR – Doubles the damage of all “Hammer” tags.

Caine’s Armor set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Vestige of Lost Souls GR – The source of our barrier and survivability.

Caine’s Deflector set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Molten Nova LR (Anomalous) – Boosts Molten Fragmentation’s damage which we use as the trigger for Blaze and also gives a “Nova” tag to it.

Caine’s Fire set piece – Using any damaging fire skill triggers Blaze -> Blaze inherits and boosts the original skill’s damage -> Holy Fire inherits Blaze’s damage

Brutal Attacks LR (Anomalous) – This is a no attack speed build so this rune gives us +400% damage. The Enrage enchant on our ring kinda saves the build from feeling too clunky to play.

Jeopardy TL – Pretty much the most meta item currently because it saves us from rolling Crit chance on gear and it gives us a lot of extra Crit damage which scales both our Hammers and our Expulsion procs. The innate Enrage enchant does not interfere with Brutal Attacks and makes the build a LOT less clunky to play.

Supernova LR (Crafted) – Doubles the damage of all “Nova” tags which we got for our Molten Fragmentation from the Molten Nova rune.

Battle Boots TL – Extra DR after we use Soul Warp codex.

Blazing Stride LR (Crafted) – Amazing damage boost for our Blaze based on our movement speed and it works with the Kill Haste enchant.

Crown of Innate Probability TL – An insane boost to all our procs including Expulsion and the passive stun for it.

Life Guard GR– A great source of survivability and more importantly indirect DR – unless you have this maxed out you will eventually die to some indirect damage since it bypasses your barrier! Don’t forget the minor roll here and on the amulet!

Skills & Mastery

The Field Training aura is a huge damage boost since Molten Fragmentation has a Shield skill tag. The rest is some decent filler passives.

Literally nothing here.

Literally all the things here. Note that we only need a single point in Holy Fire since it “inherits” damage so more points do nothing for it.

Great aura, some filler passives and the all mighty Expulsion!

Vengeance Mastery – Get to The Best Defence for the +15% Shield skill damage.

Wraith Mastery – DO NOT PUT POINTS INTO ATTACK SPEED! The first passive might be tempting but it’s bait – it will screw up our Brutal Attacks bonus damage.

Conviction Mastery – All the things.

Redemption Mastery – YEP

Esc -> Settings -> Controls -> Set your preferred single key for all your skills.

Skills cast from right to left so Prayer needs to be cast first so the rest of them benefit from the cooldown reduction.

The Holy Fire and Field Training aura do not need to be cast so just use the X from the options to remove their buttons.

Use Codex of Soul Warp for movement and enabling the boots DR bonus.

Gameplay video & outro

General tips & progression advise

• Screaming Skull one-shots (aka the big purple spirals of death) – The way to play this is you Taunt to pull the whole screen on top of you so that you can “shotgun” all the mobs with your Hammers and Expulsions, so it’s very ironic that when you pull a Screaming Skull pack it ALSO pulls their already cast skills which instantly shotguns you. The only counterplay currently is to wait half a second for the Skulls to expand a bit and then pull the pack which dissipates most of the damage. It’s that or get more mastery for more barrier and hope to survive the burst.
• At this point you should’ve learned the most deadly enemy spells and how to use your mobility and positioning to your advantage, but even though this build will make you feel like an indestructible god you should never forget the lessons that got you here
• This version has the best bossing by far but it’s still dependent on how wide the Boss model is which is why Random Endless runs are superior to Elites
• Turn on your HP/Barrier numbers since the natural UI/character barrier indicator can be iffy
• Turn off your Damage numbers since fat mobs + Expulsion make the CPU cry
• Build starts having some mana sustain issues past T500 – you can solve them with either spamming Ultimate mana pots or re-rolling the helm Mana enchant to Leech

 

Special Thanks

Thank YOU for reading the guide and enjoying the game!

Thanks Squarebit for making this truly wonderful gem of a game!

Thanks to my friends who will probably never read this but you kept me sane during lockdown!

Stay safe, wash your hands, love and protect each other and as always

HAVE FUN PLAYING

Here we come to an end for Chronicon Best Gear for Caine’s + Video Tutorial Guide hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!