Thundermonkey's Cast on Stun TankCaster guide. Endgame faceroller.
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Hello everyone!
When planning for rampage, I decided that I wanted to make one build, run it as long as possible into endgame content, and save money from not making my usual 3 characters. Obviously because of the rampage challenges this couldn't be possible, but this is still my main character and I've never had this much fun! THE CONCEPT A VERY defensive gear list and passive tree. The goal was to tank almost anything in the game. For that, I needed to pick skills that scale well on very little spell damage from gear and the tree. A few options came to mind. I chose incinerate.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Solid damage output. VERY tanky. Atziri-viable. Can facetank 99% of endgame content, including level 78 maps, difficult unique maps, minus maximum regen, any reflect mods, and many other scary combinations. Cons: We use anvil, so we move slowly. Low Life pool. Just over 4K at level 88. Based on cast on stun, which is potentially dangerous. We have to stand still to attack. No-regen, blood magic, and temporal chains map mods warrant an immediate reroll. Degen damage ignores our two main lines of defense (block and Cloak of Defiance) and is very dangerous.
Passive Tree and stats, level 88
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAnEC4wQHBLMG6QelCPQMfQz3EH8RLRRNFm8aOBpsHoEfxySqJNgnYSj6Kw0reCycLR8tiy3SL28vnTbpOlg62EJLRZ1HBklRSbJLjUyzT31RYFNSVcZeH18qYqxmnmpDaxdsjG0ZcLt8g3y7fll-4n_GgFaCEIIegseD24VthcWIQo_6kFWVIJrgnaqdrqIApwinhK9stMW4k7zqwBrAVMHFwfPFisaezfrQ0NWB2RPa3dsL2-ffit-w377jaucL6dXr5Ovu7BjsOPAf8NXzvvno-tL_HA==
I currently have about 3950 mana, roughly 1000 unreserved, just over 4k life, and 300.5 mana regen per second. I have about 3,900 tooltip dps (this is radically different from actual damage output, see below).
GEARING THE CHARACTER
To be able to heavily tank most things in the game, you need high block. A high or maximum roll Rathpith shield is required, along with Rainbowstrides and an Anvil. The Anvil caps our block at 78%, and gives us life and mana gained on block. For those attacks that make it through your shields, Cloak of Defiance is the best choice. Because we're running max block, I chose Cybil's Paw to put that block chance towards my damage output and get some good life leech, which is explained later. My remaining gear is focused around life, resists, and a bit of mana regen.
My Current Gear
GEMS AND LINKS
6L = Incinerate - Spell Echo - LMP - Added Chaos Damage - Faster Casting - Added Lightning Damage 4L = Cast on Stun - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Enduring Cry 4L = Tempest Shield - Blind - Curse on Hit - Enfeeble 3L = Clarity - Discipline - Reduced Mana 3L = Cast on Stun - Molten Shell - Life Leech 3L = Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration - Faster Casting Arctic Armor on its own. No links
WHY INCINERATE?
One of the coolest parts of incinerate is its stacks. At each stack you gain 100% of your damage, up to 3 times for a total of a 400% increase. I currently have about 3900 tooltip dps. Multiply that by 4 to get your damage output at 3 stacks, 15,600. That is per tendril, though (remember, we use LMP) so to get the shotgun damage multiply it by the number of tendrils (3) giving us 46,800 shotgun damage. Not bad for a 5L with very little damage from the tree and a 1-chaos weapon! Speaking of which, Cybil's Paw gives us life leech on hit for every enemy hit by spells. Because incinerate is cast so rapidly, I don't typically lose much life when firing into a pack. This is how I am able to facetank the Spinner of False Hopes, Death and Taxes, double Courtyard boss, and a few other scary bosses.
WHY CAST ON STUN? DOESN'T GETTING STUNNED INTERRUPT YOUR CASTING?
No, believe it or not. Scenario: I get hit by an attack that would normally stun me, and in high-level maps with only 4K health that happens a lot. I block the attack, so I'm not stunned. However, that STILL has a chance to activate Cast on Stun, even though I blocked it! On the rare occasion that I miss a block and get stunned, the anti-interrupt nodes in the witch starting area are very helpful. Since getting fully geared 18 levels ago I've had my casting interrupted maybe 3 times.
SO DOES THIS BUILD HAVE ANY WEAKNESSES?
Of course. First and foremost, degen damage is scary. It ignores block chance and cloak of defiance, and doesn't activate Cast on Stun, and we have a small life pool. Try not to stand on burning ground for too long. If you're in a poison cloud, keep leeching or get out of it. In the Atziri Trio Fight, SPRINT into that room and murder the Cycloner before he can cyclone and spread that poisoned ground (after that you can basically just facetank the fight. Don't stand on the blackened ground though). Corrupting blood will give you 20 stacks almost immediately, so 3 of my flasks are anti-bleed. Half regen maps are possible, although you have to be careful because you probably won't be able to support arctic armor. No regen maps are impossible, and have to be rerolled. Blood magic mod is obviously a no-no as well. Last of all...we don't have 100% block. That's impossible at the moment. So attacks might go through. Atziri's flameblasts are good at this, for some reason, so you can easily be one-shotted.
Overall, I love this build and I've had a lot of fun running it. It could also work with flameblast, with different links of course. The point is to deal as much damage as you can solely from gems, because the tree is heavily biased towards mana regen and block chance. I hope you enjoyed this guide, and I hope to see some of you give this build a try! Thanks for reading. Last edited by thundermonkey on Oct 14, 2014, 6:21:26 PM
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can confirm, literally unkillable
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When you say atziri viable you mean normal atziri right?
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288 [2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981 [2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603 [2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556 | |
" Correct. I haven't attempted Uber Atziri yet. Once I do, I'll post the results, but that likely won't be for a while. |
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Seems like a good build, thumbs up!
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