[1.3.0] Too Many Clones! -- PvE Templar Archer Summoner

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ragbasti wrote:

I've just found a stupidly funny way of playing this character.

Had a few regrets left and a very silly idea:
You know how you can trigger traps immediately with reduced duration and Sunblast?
Well, I scrapped the duration nodes, put on a sunblast and threw in a reduced duration gem:
Zergrush would be the correct term I guess :D

It is by no means as effective what I have been up to so far - but I was still able to clear a few lvl 69 maps with it ^^

Yeah, I played around with it as well, but Reduced Duration on the clones just hurts way too much and Sunblast doesn't have enough vanilla mods to compete with a belt with >+100 life and resists.

Real lazzyness - spending 5 exalts on 6link then filing the link with curse on hit+proj weakness so the clones curse themselves lolz!

I went hatred + anger auras and i have the mirrors supported with weapon elemental and phys proj damage as both gems got the "more" multiplier, also phys proj damage has lower mana multiplier; and with flesh offering it seems the clones still reach that haste cap regardless the atakspeed penalty (or it feels that way to me at least). I tried 6link mirror arrow with trap, multitraps, weapon elemental damage, phys proj. damage and phys to lightning and the result was realy stunning; sadly i can not sustain that mana cost yet. Planning to go 3 auras and that phys to lightning setup. It feels like doing more damage than if i had minion damage there maybe because the stacking of the "more" multipliers. Also my quiver is Blackgleam so my mirrors do almost only elemental damage with infractem. Cursing with 20q elemental weakness.

Also +1 arrow quiver beats lmp by a long shot and frees a socket space. Tried also chin sol with chain and the +1 arrow quiver beats the chain there too.

I haven't done this build yet, so a few questions:

Is the non trap LMP version of Mirror Arrow effective in making lots of clones?

If you fully converted the damage of your minions via Blackgleam + Phys to Light, wouldn't EE with a coldsnap trap be great for your minions?

What's the maximum number of clones you've summoned?

by your experience, is sunblast really needed, or should you just throw the traps at your opponent's feet so they'd trigger, making Chin Sol a better choice, getting you a belt slot for +1 traps?

finally, wouldn't wearing Maloney's and using smoke mine literally make you a Smoke and Mirrors build?

LMP and GMP makes the mirrors shoot 3 and 5 shots instead 1 but it is not making you summon more mirrors; you still summon only 1

EE is awesome for this build even without the elemental conversion but if i wanted to go for it i would prefer to not use blackgleam and instead trowing trap i would just use split arrow/rain of arrows with some cold damage on ring (only you yourself trigger the EE, mirrors dont so you want to not have any elemental damage on quiver, you want only some cold damage on other piece of gear and all you have to do is shoot in between throwing traps); i feel pressured for gem space as it is already.

Never counted lol! you summon like 6-7 in big packs then you move to the next pack; when you summon the next lastones are over already. Sometimes maybe 10-ish :)

Sunblast? Never tried it. I think it is a waste throwing traps and waiting them to expire when you can just throw them in the pack and move to the next pack. Also to reduce the time you have to wait you have to use Reduced Duration witch is bad for the mirrors as it reduces their duration too. +1 trap just means you can have 1 more trap on the ground; you still throw 3 traps so i dont find it useful at all; Chin Sol and Infractem both are awesome - its about playstyle; with Chin Sol every arrow hits only 1 target but for more damage while with Infractem it is possible to make it so each arrow hits all the targets with Convocation. I fould it hard to reach the dexterity for the Chin Sol so thats kind of a downside.

I used Maloney's before i get +1 arrow blackgleam and i can tell you wont need the smoke mine! You get out 2-3 clones, they start getting hits and the smoke is there.

For amulet, I have a perfect astramentis.
That would solve the dexterity problems.. but does the jade amulet give other benefits that are more useful then my astramentis?

This is assuming I cannot find a Sidhebreath, which would overtake my Astramentis.. but it has always proved quite valuable whilst leveling up.

Mana regen, life, resists, the usual stuff; nothing specific about the jade besides its base agility so... :)

To be fair i have not 1 piece of gear giving me minion damage so i cant be certain of its effects but i think 15% increased damage is not worth for a whole amulet slot; you have 100-ish% from the skill itself on high levels and you can have up to 90% from the passive tree, more 70-ish from minion damage gem so its 260% so max roll Sidhebreath practicly would make it 275% and thats 5.4% increase.

I realy like this build (thank you, pneuma, for the awesome idea!) but the 1st character i played like that was SRS build and i just replaced the gear/gems; now i leveled from scratch another and i am lv 67 atm; i still have not 1 point in minion damage on the whole tree tho i have the pathing complete so all thats left is to actualy take them. It feels like i do more than enough damage without those points, without 6links (i run a 4 and 5 link in the Deerstalker) without max lv gems (they are 16-17ish level atm, including the auras) so (at least i think so) Sidhebreath is a serious overkill.

From Sidhebreath you practicly get only this stuff:
-15% minion max life increase (again the gems have 50%-ish increase and - if we do not count the passive tree points - that will just make it 65%-ish) and my minions still almost never die before they expire so i dont see an actual need of that.
-15% minion damage increase
-25% cold resist
-20 to 30% mana regen rate

Inline replies:

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enveratise wrote:

Is the non trap LMP version of Mirror Arrow effective in making lots of clones?
No. LMP mirror arrow summons one clone every 3s. It's good as a single target option, but not for masses.

If you fully converted the damage of your minions via Blackgleam + Phys to Light, wouldn't EE with a coldsnap trap be great for your minions?
EE is already pretty great (and you can apply cold damage manually with split/roa and cold on gear, no cold snap trap needed). BG+PtL is an interesting scaling option, though I feel won't be as good as a Drillneck or a +1 arrow quiver with good wed and flat damage.

What's the maximum number of clones you've summoned?
12-15 or so. That's 4-5 sets of tri-traps which all trigger.

by your experience, is sunblast really needed, or should you just throw the traps at your opponent's feet so they'd trigger, making Chin Sol a better choice, getting you a belt slot for +1 traps?
Sunblast is anti-needed. Avoid it. +1 traps is also not useful, since that only means more traps on the ground untriggered, not more traps in reserve. Chin Sol is a decent choice for the build.

finally, wouldn't wearing Maloney's and using smoke mine literally make you a Smoke and Mirrors build?
Hah! That's a great tagline for a Maloney's variant. I still haven't gotten one of my own to play around with, but it seems like there's something good there.

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Xikini wrote:

For amulet, I have a perfect astramentis.
That would solve the dexterity problems.. but does the jade amulet give other benefits that are more useful then my astramentis?
I'm just using an amulet with mana regen, life, mana, and resists currently. If I wanted to upgrade off the Infractem to a stronger bow, I would need +dex from the amulet slot instead of just off gloves and a ring. While Astramentis will solve stats forever for the build, it doesn't have enough other great benefits over just a decent rare ammy.

Agreed that Sidhebreath is overkill. The amulet slot is just too useful in general to not have it give life or resists or whatever the build needs to function. It's easy to get carried away throwing uniques at a build; normally just a few will do (in my case, Infractem, Drillneck, and Alpha's are the big ticket uniques that do a lot of work, all the rest are rares by choice).

Its awesomely stupid but it turned out like that: 340 rarity, 20 quantity and
and not loosing my damage because the MF gear except purity of elements instead 3rd damage aura

These 2 skills are the fact that made me come back once more. Or better to say, the idea behind them...
...as the skills themselves are quite frustrating to play, especially in groups.
Gameplay is so fastpaced in this game that theres simply no time/room. Even in 78 maps most enemies are down so fast even before the whole cycle of trap landing, triggering, spawning has ended. And I don't even count in the fact of "misplacing" the traps so they do not all trigger instantly.

I hope they make it a ground targeted projectile attack eventually. Like tornado shot.
As minions do not get trap/mine bonus damage, they could simply disallow minion skills for them.
Then with only LMP/GMP and the cooldown the clones would be easier to balance, cuz not that spammable anymore. But therefore instant.

They could even add a new functionality like "destroys all clones when used" so you could only have the amount of clones created per single use.

I'm starting to get up there in levels, wondering if anyone is still using the build and has another video showcasing it, and their gem set-ups et cetera.
Once I get to about 70 I'll probably make a video myself doing a map.
Having great success versus trash mobs at level 50, but single target elites are still a problem.