[1.3 Beyond/Bloodlines/Hardcore] "Budget" Ondar's AA Phys Wander aka. The Wandarcer

The numbers in your tree looks like what I'd expect from a good one, but CI will most likely not be anywhere near the DPS / overall survivability of a health based spec until you get Crown of Eyes + a decent ES (300+) and spell damage shield (plus spell damage nodes in the tree). You'll have a slightly larger health pool, but the loss of a high level AA and Ondar's Guile + high evasion shield should make you take WAY more damage than the HP based spec. Not to mention that at 65 you get OP seething life flasks.

In my opinion, CI really only is better in the very end game, when your gear is getting VERY good. Etup, for example, only pulls off CI builds because he spends 50ex+ on each of his CI chars at lv87+ (which takes him 2-3 days to reach), but he always levels up as HP based since it's safer, and usually more effective. He doesn't switch until he can manage 8k+ es.

I don't have much personal experience of CI, so I'm the wrong person to ask, but IMO it's only for the very end game, unless you're a hybrid build.

I would not be running CI at your current gear level - it's very cheap to just get gear pieces with 75+ life in every slot and grab all life nodes as you level, plus a decent evasion shield and Ondar's. You'd be safer getting to 80 that way. Just my opinion, though.

The "CI has better survivability"-saying is only true at extreme gear levels.

To make the HP version feel smooth, you really need to follow survivability first. Don't skimp on HP or mana regen on gear, make sure your AA is lvl 16+ when starting higher maps, and don't run with less than 1.2-1.3k EV on your shield. Survivability is made up of a lot more things than just the HP pool ^^

Well, my Evasion was great, gear was very good and I had mid to high HP rolls on all items. Still I reeped, because it just wasn#t enough HP.

Wearing the Solaris Lorica, I now have 1k HP and 2900ES at lvl62, giving me almost 4k eHP. That's more than my lvl79 had, and it's very noticeable.

I managed to score these on the cheap:

My Evasion is as high as before due to the tree providing 120% increased EV, as opposed to 50-ish. Sure, I miss Ondar's but really... When I put on a decent ES chest and spec into CI, I'll be between 5-6k ES at around lvl70. Which is a hell of a lot more than I had.

We shall see :)

For DPS, I should be fine with 5L for a while. Crown of Eyes is the long-term goal obviously :)

Quick update: At lvl75 with some more budget gear changes (total cost on bloodlines: 35 chaos) I have 5850 ES and 5k Evasion. I specced into CI at lvl71 and never looked back.
What you are saying might be true, it's easier to gear a life-based char and so on, but... it's so much more relaxed gameplay for me. Chaos damage has always annoyed the hell out of me. Desecreated ground, Zombie poison clouds and now those bond of chaos guys are just some examples.

Plus, I really LOVE blood rage! Lots of leech and free frenzies is win.

I do notice the lack of rat's nest in my dps, but with Kinetic Blast it's fine really. I have geared my char towards party play, running disc - herald of thunder/ice (may switch to ash, not sure) and conduit, providing power and frenzy charges to the team.
In a party, there's also no problem with getting stunned. That may be different when playing alone. I wouldn't drop the dream frags though, not getting frozen is vital.

Gear:



I'll keep you posted :)

Very happy to hear you were able to use my guide and adapt it to your own play style with your own build :).

Hi, what is the mana pool needed to run clarity 2 herald and hatred ?

i would like to put clarity in order to use AA but im far to be able to put it at a decent level :(

damn i just noticed that i didnt remove phase acrobatic i used to level up, thats why my EB so low

"

atlimar wrote:

Very happy to hear you were able to use my guide and adapt it to your own play style with your own build :).

Thanks! I appreciate your support and input, even though you don't think my approach has merit ;)

I managed to improve the CI version significantly, by the way. I thought to myself... what's missing here... yes, rat's nest. So I took off my helmet: and lost 1K ES. Naw no way.
Then I thought... my gloves are crap. And then it hit me :D



Those provide so much damage, probably equal to a Rat's Nest due to the amazing crit multi (and I dont even have a good roll). I gained about 20% total damage and lost only 150 ES - win. Granted, I had to buy a ring with mana leech ($$$) and new boots (cheap), but this is definitely the way to go for a CI char.

My current tree at 81:


I'm wondering where to go next... True Strike or Wand wheel? Hmmmmm :D

And gear:


Next goal is to get Auxium, so I can get rid of Dream Frags for a proper ring (need more Accuracy). Then maybe a better 5L or even a 6L, depending on my luck. :)
As of right now, I dont feel I need Crown of Eyes for this to work. I'm hitting 7k GMP on KB self-buffed, in a good party that can triple. Which means I blow up absolutely everything lol.

So right now im about lvl72. and feel entirely weak.

I find swapping Power Siphon and Chain for Kinetic blast and faster attacks is best way to get my gems a higher lvl. But even that its low

With my 5l PS im hitting 1227dps
and my single target is 5194 dps



What should i aim to improve to gain the best dps.

The dps goes up while you level. There are quite a few points there that improves the dps a lot. Also your gems are not too high level.
I am doing like 9k single and 3.3K aoe KB 4 link at level 83. Trust me, in 10 levels you will feel much better :).
My gear below

Update lvl 85 :) Still alive and kicking - my first char to surpass lvl83 in HC, ever :)
Needless to say I am pleased with the spec, and (having played both in Bloodlines), specifically the CI version.

DPS self-buffed with charges: 23k 4L PS single / 8.7k 5L KB GMP, crit chance 83%. If I had a wand like atlimar, those numbers would be a lot higher. But I can easily do 75/76 maps alone and have been doing 77's in party. With Aurabot my DPS roughly triples, over 20k GMP on KB is easily attainable.
Being CI does have its upsides, you know - the biggest of which may be the use of Vaal Pact. I'm fairly certain I'd have self-killed on reflect without it, especially while being buffed by auras from others.

I finally got my Auxium too! So now all I need is a better 5L/6L and maybe - just maybe - crown of eyes. But it's in no way neccessary dps-wise, trust me.

Gear


Edit: Almost forgot, 6600 ES with disc :) 4800 EV (need more, obviously). I'm debating whether to drop Disc for Grace, but I would lose over 1k "HP".