Mad Bomber Kerapin

Mad Bomber Kerapin

Mad Bomber Kerapin started with a weird but pleasant discovery: Kerapin’s melee seems to scale much harder with Elemental Damage than Attack Power, even Neutral has a benefit albeit small. Which was kind of odd to say the least...

Because of that, Plasma became the main element. To take advantage of that add a very specific passive.
It sounds small at first but Kerapin’s passive: 5% of max HP added to melee damage does a lot here since it has around 4,800 HP. More than even some builds can get on raw attack power with double corrupted catalyzers. So he get's a double benefit of more damage and more tankiness and survivability.

His defensive shield pushes that even further. While Kerapin stays inside the shield/AoE, he can build up to 3 damage stacks, and that buff also applies to his melee. Against tankier elites, one of the main strategies is to drop the shield, stay inside it, and tear into them with Plasma melee while the damage stacks are active.

Frozen Shell gives the build its explosive defensive layer. Kerapin throws a bomb, and if he catches himself in the blast, he can build up to 5 armor stacks. The bombs stay Neutral because they apply Bleed in a huge AoE. They work like shrapnel blasts, spreading Bleed across groups while Kerapin keeps slashing up close. That Bleed fuels Transfusion for healing, while Fatal Wound executes enemies once they drop under half health.

Warm Up Strike is what keeps the whole thing rolling. Since Kerapin melees so much, Warm Up Strike lets him keep generating more bomb stacks while doing his main damage. He pounces in, slashes with Plasma, drops bombs at his own feet, blows himself and the enemy up, gains armor from the blast, heals from the Bleed, and keeps going.

Snow Sling is mostly utility, but it fits the setup really well. It lets Kerapin mass apply Bleed from long range and clear corruption easily from far away. After enough shots, it creates an AoE explosion that works like a flashbang, stunning enemies and guaranteeing boss intro animation cancels to force them straight into battle phase which always saves some time.

Make sure to always start each level blowing yourself up to 5 armor stacks and maintain it as much as possible. Always enter a fight using your bomb and melee away. Use the bomb to upkeep armor stacks and mass apply bleed to groups.

You have enough hp that you wont die in one hit even at level 1000+ but losing your armor stacks is pretty much a death sentence. I balanced the build this way to keep it easy to use and still feel good while doing a lot of damage with low maintenance overall. The only flex catalyzer is fast metabolism but just know you will either be losing DPS or QoL if you change this out.