JakeAlmightys LL Tank Wander - prepping for Hall of GRANDMASTERS! updated WIP

Low Life Tank Wander - WiP

- adapted from PvE build to be submitted to the Hall of Grandmasters.
- continually WiP! check the comments if you want to contribute

Disclaimer:

The goal of this thread is for the discussion of how to optimise the game play of the character when it is being controlled by the AI and fighting vs human opponent(s). I am specifically looking for feedback and input from you guys to try and make her as strong as she possibly can be.

I think it's important to view it like this - the people who are strong PVPers and playing PVP specs are going to win vs the AI no matter what we do. The computer will never outplay them, and they know how to counter any given build and will actively do so.

Therefore I think it's more important to focus on beating the average to well geared PvE player who decides to give the map a go. A Raid Boss, rather than a PVPer shoved into a map and given an AI.

So in that light, this low life Wander is going to be both as tanky as we can reasonably make her, while still doing awesome dps.





MTX Discussion

The pic I posted is my first take on what kind of look I'm aiming for - building around the Grandmaster set of armor as it seems appropriate for the Hall of Grandmasters. It's fairly clean, I've used only two main colors (icy white contrasting red/gold) and kept the body dark. I've foregone using the Wrath skull and the AA stormcloud as I think they're a bit busy here. The Wand is currently unskinned (just MTX on it) as I can't think of an awesome wand skin to use.


News From GGG

A few things that we know from GGG announcements

- flasks do not currently work. They are trying to get them in place, but are not optimistic about getting it fixed in time. For now, we build without flasks.

- There will be some kind of Vaal skill charging mechanic in place. We will build with a Vaal skill for now working under the assumption it will be able to be used.


Aura Breakdown

On life:
- Discipline
- Clarity

On mana:
- Wrath
- Grace
- Tempest Shield
- Herald of Ice

(suggested changes: Wrath --> Hatred and HoI --> HoA for aoe burn vs summoner)


Summary of Offense/Defense

Offense

- Barrage: high accuracy, block penetrating, 90%+ crit ranged attack that deals physical, fire, lightning and cold dps. Very fast hits. alternate suggested skills: Elemental Hit, power Siphon
- Tempest Shield: reflects lightning, chaos and cold damage back onto our attacker
- Lightning Warp: aggressive mobility, also deals lightning/cold damage
- Vaal Power Siphon: our aoe finishing move - culls, cannot be evaded, deals significant physical, chaos, lightning, fire and cold damage.


Defense

- 75% chance to block
- 50% chance to evade
- 95% to evade projectiles via Ondar's Guile
- high level Arctic Armor mitigates smaller physical/fire hits
- Lightning Warp again! being very fast keeps you safer, and allows you to dodge incoming attacks
- instantaneous leech via Atziri's Acuity (on a fairly big pool of energy shield)
- a little bit of armor! :)

Note: One of the things I've decided to forgo so far is a CwDT + Immortal Call setup. Vs one or only a few human opponents, EC will rarely generate charges (and Inc Duration does very little on it's own), meaning that all IC is going to be very short duration. I think it is a more effective use of our resources to focus on blocking/evading than having a very short duration IC using up a ton of slots. Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong in the comments.


The Gear & the Gems (WIP)




Our damage skill. Block Chance Reduction is utterly critical, not only for killing people but also for not insta killing myself vs Tempest Shield. Still working on a lvl21/20q Block Reduction gem. This one is unreal hard to find, I'm leveling the darn things myself atm. Probably going to add in Cold Pen gem. Ele Hit + cold pen (with hatred) or still Barrage can be some serious Freezing

-edit: currently testing LMP to be able to hit things more easily. Need a bigger mana pool to sustain it though.




Our latest BM aura setup - this gives us enough room still to cram a bunch more auras on our mana, but leaves us reserved above 10% life to avoid being ohkoed by any enemy with a Cull. I am working on replacing this with a CoE corrupted to have the implicit "Enemies Cannot Leech Life From You" to leave any enemy who relies on leech to survive a sitting duck. suggested possible change to Alpha's Howl for anti freeze - less dps, +auras helps mitigate loss




This reserve also lets us cast our BM supported Blood Rage for insane increased attack speed bonus. I’ve dropped a significant amount of mana regen from what we traditionally run, so AA is going to be probably level 18 or 19, rather than the lvl22 currently socketed. I will lower the level of AA to a point where it is in equilibrium again with the regen, I don't want the AI to walk to far and be unable to cast Lightning Warp for movement.

Note - with Athleticism back we're 8 unreserved life short of being 100% immune to Cull even when the AI casts BR. that's about a half second gap where it can be culled at the start of the fight. need 1 more life % node maybe? but dropping what is the question.



Here we find our Tempest Shield. This thing already does some serious lightning damage back, but stick Added Chaos in there and the cold damage from Herald of Ice and you're looking at a world of hurt on anybody who is attacking you quickly and getting blocked.

Vaal Power Siphon is something I'm testing right now - I like it for a few reasons.

- dexterity/evasion characters are naturally strong vs Barrage. (Ondar's Guile ie) Vaal PS cannot be evaded, and as those enemies are often very squishy this skill has the potential to put down some very annoying opponents.
- It double dips on the Added Chaos support to gain a ton of Chaos damage. A lot of people don't have very much Chaos resist, and those people are going to take some hurt.
- It Culls. Low life characters that dare enter without fixing their aura reservation similar to what I've done are going to be put down. It doesn't miss, and it's an autokill vs unprepared opponents.

This slot could also just become Vaal Discipline for added defense though - I'm going to be trying out both and we'll see what works. If anybody has a suggestion for another useful skill, I am able to recolor the wand and try out anything.




I haven't worn this boot in quite a while. (not since leaving LL ST after finishing Ambush League) But adding this boot back into the build is what makes so much defense possible - by getting our anti-stun here, we can drop Unwavering Stance and leave the bottom left part of the tree entirely. It also allows us to dodge again, enabling Grace back into the equasion and allowing us Ondar's Guile to take on those GODFORSAKEN bow users. (I swear if they Puncture me one more time... I've been trying to beat them without a bleed flask, because the GM won't have one)

We do lose some energy shield by dropping the +1 Rainbowstrides but it's made up by the hybrid es nodes we can pick up in the tree. (Void Barrier and Nullifier ie - ups our evasion and ES simultaneously) The mana from Rainbows is not needed for this setup (Barrage requires a much lower pool to sustain than a 6l gmp/chain Power Siphon), and the resistances are actually made up in the tree from the various block nodes and Nullifier/Void Barrier.




Traditionally on mana Wander we wear Havoc Weaver - the mana regen on it makes it much easier to reach what you need for uber level AA (as high as lvl26 I've run). But today, we needed a different shield - a shield that gets us that final 6% block chance to cap out at 75% block chance. Other than that the shields are nearly completely identical.

For gems I've chosen to put a 3l Lightning Warp in - one of the downsides to wearing Lioneyes Paws is that it cuts our run speed pretty bad (to an overall +6% MS with AA on) so we need this as our way of getting around very, very fast. Luckily it works very well, and it is awesome. We Warp around at top speed, completely negating the downside of the Lionpaws.




These guys are a bit simpler, due to not having sockets. Auxium gives us an element of freeze mitigation (remember we're unable to flask off a freeze), and is generally good otherwise. The rings/amulet are the workhorse of our mana regeneration (comboing that % off the flat regen of Clarity) - without them there would be no high level AA, no perma spamming Lightning Warp and no 100% uptime spam attacking and never going oom. Other than that they add a ton of damage, and they also cap our resists for us.

The only thing we could ask of them is to somehow do all that and also manage to have 20% energy shield from Elreon on them. I haven't yet found a way to manage this, if you DO see a way please comment and let me know.


The Tree (WIP - level100)

http://tinyurl.com/n5p464n <-- updated theory tree

We've put a fair amount of work into this tree. That said, it's not done yet. We still have a few problems left to solve (as detailed above), and if anybody can find a general improvement in efficiency that would make life a lot easier.

So take a look, and come at me with any improvements you can think of! Remember we need to stay capped at 75% block, need at least 112 Str for RM (I have +70 on gear), would like as much es/ev as possible. We have a little bit of leeway on our mana reserve, but remember that any regen we cut means lowering the level of AA. other than that, it's pretty much fair game. Good luck!


To Do List

a) Mandatory Before Submission

- map to level 100 (maybe 99, I ripped and god do I ever hate mapping sometimes)
- 21/20 Block Chance Reduction gem
- “Enemies Cannot Leech Life From You” implicit Crown of Eyes
- make sure dps is still obliteratingly high
- see if anything can be done to shore up weakness vs spells and physical spells (wtb FLASKS)

b) Luxury Upgrades

- +1 Gems Shavronne’s Wrappings
- 21/20 gems of Discipline, Wrath, and Grace (for extra radius for any other GMs that spawn with me)
- Corrupt Foe Bite to have “Culling Strike” (ROFL YEAH RIGHT)

The CoE/Shav Project thread can be viewed here




Credits

- Acidgoblins (Lawyne), for working with me extensively on first the new optimal mana Wander mapping setup, and then on adapting it to being viable for the Hall of GMs

- Chundadragon, for helping me immensely with the tree through all of its iterations. (and future iterations I'm sure, we aren't done yet) Big props for coming at me with "who says Wanders can't wear Lionpaws???"

- AXN for a most excellent Shield and amulet that make this configuration possible.

- Kaiserin for his lovely rings that I've used for quite a while. If we ever figure out a way to make the resists work so that we can have 20% es on both of those, that's going to be un-freaking-real.

- You! This build isn't done & ready yet. Anybody who contributes valuable insight or suggests changes which make the build stronger (that are actually used, I mean) will be credited here. Thanks in advance for helping out!

What i would change currently , wrath for hatred(still got the 30% light dmg node on tree to shock lowlife/ci people , herald of ash for herald of ice or herald of thunder but forget herald of ice , barrage is garbage you will insta die to any tempestshield maybe use powersiphon and even cull people or frenzy.

Did you try to go lifebased maybe? take the advantage of acrobatics and phase acro and atziri boots and dont have to be worry about stun immunity loosing the auras would be discipline + herald was just an idea not sure how this would work out but i know Life based builds are the strongest/best builds in a anypvp matchup not sure if the AI can run around to regen life this would solve the %es on rings aswell + would be easier res capped and get accuracy on rings too as of 1.2 mana regen + es builds got dumbsterd with the new %es mods and replace added accuracy gem in the 6l for something better

If you're low life, you'll just get culled.

E: well, depending on your aura %. Still think you're playing a dangerous game, but I know that's how you play :P

"

SL4Y3R wrote:

If you're low life, you'll just get culled.

E: well, depending on your aura %.

As I mentioned - we're reserved to a life total that will not be culled.

I think we need probably two life % nodes (one could be athleticism) to remain safe from Cull even when our life has briefly taken a hit from casting Blood Rage.


It's definitely on edge atm, but with the fix for Blood rage cast it is 100% cull proof for all frames.

You should also play with different cosmetic setups. Something subtle but intimidating.
95% of grandmaster submitted characters are going to have seraph wings.

edit: Midnight Bargain might be an interesting wand skin, if it's visible enough.

Tree looks tight, well done.

Regarding fixing life, I've re-routed the top-right of the tree to obtain

-10 int
-16% eva
-12% spell damage
-20% mana regen

+10 strength
+5% ES
+12% life
+18% power charge duration (more of an artefact)



You could then also consider dropping the Infused powercharge. It's now two points, and I'm not sure you'd need that damage in a PvP setting, honestly.

Will discuss in game.

If the grandmasters will be glorified Exiles, they won't have any "Cannot be evaded" mods to avoid making evasion characters useless in the map, also all the work put into getting +1 on all gems to maximize DPS I don't think will translate trough, cause they won't leave a 500k DPS thing roam around a map, they'll be scaled to fit the regular PvE enviroinment.

I think they'll do this to avoid the hordes of HC players QQing cause they've been destroyed by a volley of Barrage from your character or by a 2.1 million dps Barrage from Tom's character.

And if you get past Jake, this guy will be waiting(if i upgrade to grandmaster that is)

"

What i would change currently , wrath for hatred(still got the 30% light dmg node on tree to shock lowlife/ci people , herald of ash for herald of ice or herald of thunder but forget herald of ice , barrage is garbage you will insta die to any tempestshield maybe use powersiphon and even cull people or frenzy.

Did you try to go lifebased maybe? take the advantage of acrobatics and phase acro and atziri boots and dont have to be worry about stun immunity loosing the auras would be discipline + herald was just an idea not sure how this would work out but i know Life based builds are the strongest/best builds in a anypvp matchup not sure if the AI can run around to regen life this would solve the %es on rings aswell + would be easier res capped and get accuracy on rings too as of 1.2 mana regen + es builds got dumbsterd with the new %es mods and replace added accuracy gem in the 6l for something better

Power Sipon could become the 6l. Especially if I dropped PCoC (as Ventorr suggested) - the 6l could become

PS - Reduc Block - Added Acc - Crit Dmg - WED - and then either Faster Projectiles for range, or even something like Cold Penetration. (assuming swapping Wrath out for Hatred)


Swapping Wrath for Hatred seems solid as we pick up much better freeze potential, are you sure HoA would be better than HoI though? I've found HoI gives me a bigger dps increase due to the fast ias of the wand. (also keeps stacking cold dmg for freeze/cold pen)


If Herald of Thunder is good it could go in over HoI without needing to swap color on the boot again. Will have to see what it's like when it comes out.



re: life build. I have to refuse on principle! Also, even if life based we would need to have high mana regen to support spamming PS/Barrage and Lightning Warp etc I think - the AI doesn't handle BM well form what I can tell due to not having access to flasks for life regen. (everything life regen would have to be in tree I guess)