[1.2] The Herald of Storm - Hybrid Degenerator - 100k AoE DPS
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(WIP, also this is my first build guide so feedback is appreciated but go easy on me!)
Back Story
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My goal for this league was to come up with a unique build that is competitive in the end-game. That means it must at least be able to handle normal Atziri, and clear 78 maps reasonably fast solo.
To accomplish this, I wanted to try and find synergies that would allow me to scale damage and survivability at the same time. The aura route has been done before, but looking at the new Shadow tree gave me some idea. Core Concepts - Herald of Ash is potentially ridiculously strong. In the ideal scenario if you have two targets, and one has 1 Life remaining, then you ignite the second target for 157% of your single strike damage per second as base damage. This is then further scaled from there with Damage over Time modifiers. The key here then, is that the DoT passives we take act as a 'more' modifier on our total damage since it scales separately from the base hits, which is very powerful. - To take advantage of this, we want to use a skill that maximizes single hit damage. My choice is Lightning Strike, because it has the highest single hit damage possible out of skills that can be used with a dagger. Daggers, with their affinity for Crit, will generally be able to deliver the largest single hit punch out of any 1H Weapon. As an added bonus Lightning Strike can shock enemies which further enhances the Herald of Ash burning damage, and also has a ranged / AoE component for free allowing us to forego using Melee Splash which would reduce the single hit damage considerably. - To maximize defenses in the Shadow tree, I thought it best to use a Hybrid Life/ES build. The new hybrid nodes are extremely powerful compared to normal Life and ES nodes in terms of total HP, and also allows us to pick up many HP nodes without traveling out of the way to get them, as the Shadow area is not very strong for pure Life. - The resolve one of the fundamental issues with hybrid builds - namely that it requires an investment in both Life and ES regeneration, which can be impractical, I use Bino's Kitchen Knife. This weapon is perfect for the build since it provides us with relatively high single hit damage, extra DoT%, and gives us very powerful life regen. I've found this sufficient against Desecrated ground / Alchemists as long as I'm killing things, even with -50% Chaos Res. Pros and Cons
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Pros:
- Extremely high DPS without insane gear. In my current setup, everything was purchased for 1ex or less - albeit I was lucky to chance my Bino's and link my chest piece myself - and I have been able to clear 100k tooltip on Lightning Strike *without* Hatred. When playing solo or in small groups, entire screen-fulls of mobs will melt very quickly. Hatred isn't a good fit with the build as shattered enemies don't proliferate HoA burn, and this reduces clear speed despite higher tooltip DPS. - Solid survivability with ~7k HP, 50% block, and some Evasion and Armor, again without any inordinate investment into defensive gear. - Can be further boosted heavily be party auras as you only run one Aura in addition to Herald of Ash. - Atziri-capable. - Extremely strong true single target (for vs. Atziri / Trio, Vorici missions) using Puncture in a 3L. Cons: - Not Hardcore viable as the early 60s are very difficult for this build, as your survivability suffers greatly until you can use Bino's. - Also the survivability is in the territory of 'good' and not 'great' - as melee that means there is a fair amount of risk of being bursted to zero if strange things happen. Also weak to large bursts of chaos damage unless you go out of your way to get chaos res. - Requires Bino's to work correctly and it's not cheap. - Lightning Strike is difficult to use as a ranged skill, as it is meant to be melee - you will approach the enemy unless you have 'fire in place' held down, so it won't auto-track the enemy if it moves while you are ranging it. Skills, Gems, Links
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6L:
Lightning Strike Faster Attacks Increased Crit Damage Multistrike Weapon Elemental Damage Melee Physical or Added Fire Melee Physical shows higher tooltip DPS, but the increase does not transfer to the projectiles. If you are having survivability issues and need to kite more, Added Fire might be better, but I found the clear speed better with Melee Physical and getting up close and personal with the packs. If you have very little accuracy on the rest of your gear, Additional Accuracy is also a good choice, especially with quality. Also great if you use a 6L early as it has no mana requirement. Best way to generate power charges is using Herald of Thunder + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark. Auto-cursing for extra Crit Chance / Multi and passively generating Power Charges is very, very good, so I've found PCoC to not be necessary for the build. 4L: CwDT - Enduring Cry - Immortal Call - Increased Duration I have found level 12 EC/IC to work well, but depends on preference. 4L: Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Assassin's Mark - Reduced Mana Auto-curse and Power Charge generation. With an 18/20 Assassin's Mark I always have max PCs unless it takes me more than 10 seconds to get between packs. 4L: Reduced Mana - Herald of Ash - Elemental Proliferation - Discipline 3L: Puncture - Melee Phys - Increased Crit Damage 3L: Whirling Blades - Flicker Strike - Faster Attacks Passive Tree
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Bandits
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This is flexible, but I chose: Kill All, Oak, Alira Gear
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This is a must, as stated in the core concepts section. I use these for max DPS, but more defensive options are certainly fine. At some point I will experiment with using Alpha's Howl and running an additional Aura, but it would be less DPS than using Abyssus. The extra physical damage is mostly negated by Block, Immortal Call and high HP so the downside is not too bad. Pretty much BiS for Crit builds unless you have Atziri's Acuity. Only use something else if you are really hurting for Res. Hard to beat the combination of solid ES, spell block, and Res on these. Remaining gear so far are all rares. I would recommend an AR/ES chest as otherwise getting the right socket colors is a pain. Look for Resists, Leech, Life, Accuracy, and WED on gear, in that order.
My Gear
For flasks, I carry a quick heal Life pot, a hybrid in case I run out of mana or need to stand in degen, granite, Atziri, and Quicksilver. Obviously try to roll Surgeon's when you can, and Remove Bleed / Freeze / Curses are all very helpful. Stats
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Offense with Auras and 6 Power Charges, no Rampage: http://imgur.com/JcXx8cS 100k perma-tooltip is achieved by running Blood Rage for Frenzy Charges and swapping out my ring with life for one with high WED and accuracy. Defense with Discipline: http://imgur.com/gPiEQBk Videos
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WIP :) Sorry!
Atziri
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The main mapping skill selection is not optimal for the Atziri fight. I make the following changes: - Use Viper Strike - Multistrike - Melee Phys - Melee Phys on Full - Added Fire - Increased Crit Dmg rather than Lightning Strike. Swap in a 20Q Melee Splash for Added Fire during the healing phase. Viper Strike does more single target damage in situations where it takes more than one or two seconds to kill the enemy, plus you don't have to worry about the projectiles hitting the mirror clone. - Use Rise of the Phoenix as a shield for the +max fire res. Drop Herald of Ash for Purity of Fire. Between the two and Ruby Flasks, you get 100% Fire Res so you can ignore the Flameblasts. - Between Abyssus and low Armor, the Bleed from the Javelins hurt a LOT when you move. I prefer to facetank the split phase popping flasks because of this. With 100% Fire and 88% Lightning Res, this is easily doable. Last edited by SorakPoE#5303 on Nov 4, 2014, 1:27:45 PM
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Bump - updated due to incorporating Herald of Thunder into the build.
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I'll post some screen shots of my numbers tonight when I get a chance.
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Mine is lower than yours, 1183-3409 per hit with 5.9 attacks per second, 89.8% crit chance, and 851% crit multi.
I do have roughly 100% increased DoT though so the burn will be double the normal HoA amount. |
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I mean, yeah I can swap Multistrike out for Added Fire and it'll do the trick. But in practice in maps it generally seems worse.
The goal with the build isn't to achieve the highest possible tooltip DPS or highest possible burn potential; while all of that is nice, I'm aiming for the build that feels strongest to me in practice. I find that melee skill really don't do well against packs without Multistrike because small amounts of desync can make you hit nothing but air far too often without it. Same reason I don't run Hatred - gives me a ton of tooltip DPS, but in practice shattering enemies lowers clear speed because shattered corpses don't proliferate burn. And really, I've never felt like I was lacking in the damage department ever once I got my HoT setup running. I've run tons of 76/77 Zana maps with a full 6 man party and rushed the boss solo no problem, and when I'm playing solo the whole screen dies as soon as I crit, so I don't really need more than that. |
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This build looks like a lot of fun. I'll have to try it out when the new leagues start. Thanks for the guide!
Last edited by Anesthetize34#0834 on Nov 15, 2014, 8:45:13 PM
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Ran maps with OP in Rampage. Very strong build.
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