INTRODUCTION

Endurance Desert Wind focused Baruuk build utilising lowish duration for Lull spam eroding Restraint, one-cast full strip Pillage and Endless Lullaby for passive crowd control and restraint erosion. Pillage is an optional but ideal subsume over Elude, providing Armor/Shield strip which helps Desert Wind scale against armored enemies in steel path endurance, Overshields for tanking in non-endurance AND on-demand shield gate reset for survivability in endurance. [Reactive Storm] adds tons of status chance to [Desert Wind] allowing it to apply statuses such as viral + heat or electric quickly, as well as converting the small impact component into an additional element to match enemy weakness.

UPDATE APRIL 2024 - [Melee Guidance] interactions and bugs have all been fixed, this includes preventing combo gain on [Desert Wind] to maintain statstick gladiator bonus as well as [Tandem Bond] infinite combo. Using a statstick to build combo before entering serene storm no longer works.

Note that the WAVES from [Desert Wind] do not build melee combo and you must make direct hits on enemies. This is usually a slow process but is made easier with a number of techniques eg grouping (Magus anomaly, vazarin snare, [Tenet Ferrox], [Proboscis Cernos] or a subsume like Pull), slide attacks, slams and [Panzer Vulpaphyla]. A [Panzer Vulpaphyla] with the [Tandem Bond] mod can help build and sustain combo via its melee attacks, which is boosted by viral quill spores. Viral Quill spores seem to boost combo gain by approximately 3 per spore. e.g. if an enemy has 5 spores on them, a single direct melee attack by you or the Panzer could build 15 combo.

Building combo directly on [Desert Wind] gives the maximum DPS potential, giving up to 3.75x damage to the waves at x12 combo, as well as benefiting from any gladiator mods on a statstick (for up to +330% extra crit chance at x12 combo). You will also want to extend combo duration eg Naramon , Arcane Dexterity arcane or Swift Momentum aura.

Variant Pull Baruuk build: https://overframe.gg/build/402139/.
Panzer build (Swap Tandem Bond over Hunter Recovery): https://overframe.gg/build/220091/

PLAYSTYLE

1. Activate Desolate Hands (3), always keeping Desolate hands above 9 daggers for max damage reduction.
2. Spam Lull (2) on Enemies to quickly erode Restraint initially, then recast as on occasion necessary to keep restraint minimum and for create crowd control
3. Activate Serene Storm (4) and spam light melee to kill enemies. Can use a combination of slide attacks and grouping tools to build combo direct on desert wind.
4. If subsuming Pillage over 1, cast pillage whenever shields go down and occasionally to armor/shield strip groups of enemies.

SURVIVABILITY

In non-endurance content, [Baruuk] has multiple layers of damage reduction that multiply together making him innately extremely tanky.

Damage Reduction Calculations
At minimum restraint - 50% damage reduction
At 9 or more Desolate Hands daggers - 90% damage reduction
With Serene Storm active - 40% damage reduction

Max total damage reduction WITHOUT [Adaptation] = 97% damage reduction
Max total damage reduction WITH [Adaptation] = 99.7% damage reduction
Accounting for adaptation AND base armor = 99.8% damage reduction to health

In endurance content we also rely on the combination of:

• Crowd Control from Lull + Endless Lullaby
• Rolling Guard for i-frames and status cleanse
• Pillage to reset shield gate
• Vazarin Protective Sling for more i-frames

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Minimum Duration (12.5%) allows Lull to be spammed for constant erosion of Restraint and Pillage to return quickly when used as helminth. Duration does not affect Desolate Hands or Serene storm, so we want to keep duration as low as possible.

If you use Pillage however, having 12.5% duration at 100% range means the strip wave will only travel 12m while the waves of [Desert Wind] are fixed at 20m. To allow a wider range of armor strip we need to increase duration a little bit with either regular Continuity or Primed Continuity, giving a strip radius of approximately 25-30m.

If you don't think you'll be subsuming pillage or needing armor strip at a decent range, you can swap Primed Continuity out for Primed Flow.

Efficiency/Energy
Positive efficiency (100-135%) is needed to help Lull spam, Pillage cast, Elude uptime (if not subsumed over) and dagger recast. Fleeting Expertise is required to offset Blind Rage. Streamline is an optional/flexible choice that can be swapped for something else. Primed Flow is also optional to help with overall energy economy.

Range
Decent range (145-190% ) is required for Elude angle, Lull range and initial Pillage range if you subsume Pillage. Range also increases Dagger stun range but at the same time you tend to lose daggers quicker. Either [Stretch], [Stretch] + [Augur Reach] or [Overextended] alone can be used.

Strength
High Strength (250%+) is the most important stat since it affects Serene Storm's damage, the strip amount by Pillage and to a lesser extent the damage of Desolate Hands.
Pillage is able to full strip armor in one-cast at 328% strength with Corrosive Projection in the Aura.

Aura
Melee Guidance - The easiest way to ensure upkeep of red crits when used with a Gladiator stat stick. Basically you want to PREVENT combo gain on [Desert Wind], so that you maintain the Gladiator mod effect on the stat stick. See this build for full explanation by TwistedBolt: https://overframe.gg/build/223531/redeemer/minmaxed-exalted-weapon-statstick-blood-rush-glad-mods-explained/

[Enemy Radar], [Steel Charge], [Growing Power] are alternatives if you don't own [Melee Guidance] or dont want to use a stat stick.

[Corrosive Projection] reduces the strength requirement for Pillage to full strip to 328%. This means by adding some combination of [Umbral Intensify], Molt Augmented or Crimson Strength Shards, you will be able to full strip armor in one cast.

Flexible Slots
[Streamline] or [Primed Continuity] flexible for [Primed Flow], [Umbral Intensify] or [Augur Reach]
[Rolling Guard] flexible for [Adaptation] in lower levels to base SP
[Endless Lullaby] is a nice quality of life to recast lull without you actually casting, giving crowd control and eroding restraint
[Archon Vitality] is a flexible option that doubles the heat status procs from [Desert Wind]. This results approximately 18% final DPS boost on a viral heat build. If you do a pure heat inherit setup with a primer, then Archon Vitality would give approximately 50% DPS boost.

Arcanes
Fury/Strike - for Desert Wind DPS, up to preference
Augmented - for Desert wind damage and Pillage strength
Energize - for energy economy

Archon Shards
Mix and match any number you prefer
Crimson Shard: 1 Tauforged Ability Strength to help hit full strip threshold without power drift so you can slot primed sure footed. Having TWO Tauforged Ability strength shards actually lets you hit full-strip pililage without molt augmented, as long as you swap [Rolling Guard] for [Umbral Intensify]. This means you can drop Molt Augmented for Arcane Fury or Energize and full strip right off the bat.
Amber Shard: 1 Tauforged Cast Speed for Lull spam/Dagger recast
Vioilet Shard: 2-3 Tauforged for +225% melee crit damage (consider adding [Primed Flow] over [Streamline] for bonus CD).

HELMINTH

Subsume over Elude. You want to pick abilities that either work well with LOW duration or are independent of duration.

Pillaging Punch
This works well with the minimum duration, but will have an effective radius of 30m so you'll need to get enemies into closer range before you cast. You can full strip in two casts.

Tharros Strike
Excellent replacement for Pillage as it can full strip both shields and armor in one cast at only 200% strength and provides some healing. Drop [Primed Continuity] for [Augur Reach], giving Tharros Strike a 15.75m range in a cone towards the direction you are facing, which is perfect when launching [Desert Wind] waves.

[Vacuum] Palm
Pull has a fixed vacuum duration of 2s and quickly pulls enemies into the horizontal range of your Serene Storm waves.
Add more range: https://overframe.gg/build/389401/baruuk/vacuum-fist-baruuk/

FOCUS

Naramon - power spike will slow combo decay for both melee guidance and non melee guidance styles.

Vazarin - protective dash is best for endurance and void snare helps combo build up

ARSENAL

Desert Wind Viral Heat Build: https://overframe.gg/build/402149/

Praedos Gladiator Stick: https://overframe.gg/build/330674/ (gives movement/parkour speed).

Panzer Vulpaphyla for passive viral priming, melee combo building and crit damage buff - swap in Tandem Bond over Hunter Recovery for pillage baruuk:
https://overframe.gg/build/220091/

Consider adding [Seismic Bond] onto panzer for free 30% efficiency, meaning you can have even better energy economy.