pZychedelic's Reaver [Soloplay, HC viable] EB/MoM/AA

Hello everybody.

Disclaimer.


First off, I wanted a melee character. I don't really like Marauder or Duelist look's so I started a Shadow. Taught he had some decent starting nodes for my build since I wanted to go melee. Also, the Eldritch Battery node is quite close to Shadow, so that was a good place to start.

I wanna state that I had no idea what I was truly doing at the time, I just wanted something to go through the game without too much sweat.

So my basic gear was some yellow items and a couple of 1 fuse - 1c items my friends gave me, like those lvl 0 uniques.

These got me to lvl 30 without too much of a problem.

LVL 33 skill tree.


You go straight for EB, get all phys dmg nodes, Life, Mana nodes and get a bit into Witch area to get Inc.Aoe nodes which are important since we use Reave with Concentrated Effect for more area dmg.

Replace some of your gear at this level, and proceed with next path through the tree.

LVL 50 skill tree.


Its about time you get to Merciless, I had semi-decent leveling gear and around 3k hp, 300 unreserved mana with almost 150 mana reg. per second. That is more then enough to sustain your AA (keep it equal to your mana regen possibilities when leveling) and all your melee attacks with Reave. Also, you will be using CWDT with Warlords Mark so you will also leech some mana and further supplement your sustainability.

Now for the further development of the build I will need to include the gear. All of these I used.

Good leveling options:


After these you get into lvl 60+ state.

At this point, I realized I had enough mana sustainability to go MoM without the chest that is mostly used, but I couldn't decide should I just go rush for it through right of evasion cluster and get Iron Reflexes.

Then I taught some about the gear and end game options and decided to not go Iron Reflexes, since the combination of Armor and Evasion proved so durable in this point of game. I then decided to get to MoM through the duelist area.

LVL 80 skill tree.


I ran Carcass Jack as my armor during the 60+ era, and it proved insane with the Reave and Conc. Effect.

My dps however, was quite low in standards of DPS community, barely reaching over 3k on lvl 70. But still, survivability was not an issue, so DPS kinda didn't matter to me as I seemed to clear all content without much problem.

I also used Prismatic Eclipse till I got my sword for 1 lucky Exalted that dropped in lvl 74 map. With that, i started making over 10k dps.

So, for my current gear check further:

Gear.



All the jewelry was obtained on Poe.Trade for 5-10c. (I got it around lvl 80). Was pretty lucky with the belt, one dude gave it to me after chit chatting a bit about builds after he wanted to know how was I so durable. [ALWAYS be polite with players, it will get you a long way ;)].

I also got pretty luck, dropped a perfect roll Andvarius that I sold for 3ex, and got the Atziri Splendour for chest as I wanted to improve on lacking stats of Carcass. Got it 5l for 5ex on Poe.Trade.

I didn't see much builds with use for this armor, but it suited this builds needs like a charm. The HP/Mana on kill is AMAZING, and 3-stat function already supplements the Armor/Evasion path i decided to take, plus provides me almost 1k mana.

Defense stats:
Un-buffed:


Buffed:


Offense stats:

Un-buffed:


Self-buffed:


Skill explanation:


Map mods and end game:

This build can take any map mod except Blood Magic.

Proven and tested, up to lvl 78 maps. It does require some tactical play to get around some mods, change in playstyle and so, but they are ALL menagable.

Phy and ele reflect (even both in one), Volurnability, Shocked Grounds, - max ressistances.

I still skip some bosses though ( FUCK YOU CREMATORIUM ), but with different flask usages they would be possible to kill maybe.

All in all, great and fun build to play around, not so popular mechanics on melee chars, but this one proves it works as a charm.

This is my current skill build at lvl 93.



Any comments, suggestions and questions greatly appreciated. :)

All in all I would recommend this build for any lazy fucks out there like me who dont wanna be bothered much by switching shit up all the time, but rather just wanna right click through the game and see what pops out from enemies corpses.

:D

A really nice guide, im new on this game and starting my shadow with this build,this really need to get popular. thanks Delic!

Hello slifer!

Thanks for the comment :).

Just try it out, you will get more and more in love with it the more you play and explore the build possibilities.

Just remember to get Carcass jack and a good phys dps sword around lvl 65 (there are 300 dps swords for under 1 ex on standard looking at POe.Trade). It will fasten your leveling to lvl 85-90 rapidly, and try to get Atziri's Splendour around that level (they seem to be hell of a lot expensive on Standard, i got my 5l 3 stat for 5ex on Rampage (even a 4l will do in that case, try to 5l it yourself for 150 fusions = 3ex, just make sure you get the all 3
%armor/evasion/ES stat one)


I just love the sustainability of the build, and to be honest once you get Atziris is practicaly impossible to die to mob packs. Some bosses require strategizing a bit, but you are semi range with Reave so that also makes it easier (not to mention 16 stack vaal reave).

Try to get as much % mana regen on gear as possible, im running 333 mana per sec and thats without discipline, teamed up with other players it goes well over 450 mana per sec when someone runs discipline.

The build is heavily defensive in tree and requires only damage auras since survivability is not an issue (thats why you are unkillable almost in full parties, since all those auras provide way too much on top of your heavy defenses).

For all questions message me ingame @StickerLicker

Much fun exploring the build :)

Also with upcoming 1.3.0 patch the Duelist tree will get a revamp so I am realy hyped to see how will it look like, since by looking at it initialy it seems I will lose some points but who knows, we just have to wait for new tree to compare the gained and lost stats and to see how will this build behave in the new tree setup.

I'm curious as to what bandit choice you make in Cruel, did you go for Attack Speed?

Normal : Oak
Cruel: Kill
Merciless: Kill

I did it like that simply because of the vast part of tree that needed to be crossed, but will see, with new changes to Duelist area, that 1 skill point might be excess, so will make an update around when the new tree comes :)

But for now, that was the order, attack speed aint viable in mine opinion, as with all gems maxed and 20q you have exactly 8 attacks per second which is full Reave stack.

Rather go Phys dmg if you prefer that. Might even respec to it once the tree changes. Will see :)

Can u please update the tree now?
the 1.3(path of nerf) update has been released.XD

It is amazing what you did with that outfit