[2.1] Dariidar's CoC & Magma Orb KNOCKBACK!

-A super duper rare 6l will not make us much tankier against big hits. That's cuz Acrobatics forces us to get an evasion chest. You can drop acro for an armor chest but then you lose phase acro and then you need some kinda leech to prevent reflect death. Coil is stupid expensive so Im not considering it for now. An evasion chest helps but isn't that necessary, I have 14k evasion from jade flask already.

I'd rather have life leech for sustaining after big hits. I use it with vaal pact and it gives me peace of mind to clear mobs rapidly without worrying about reflect, corrupting blood etc bc I just out leech it. We are pretty reflect safe with pot spam and phase acro , but life leech makes it feel so much better. If you keep insisting on using rare chests then go ahead, won't affect the build much.

Boss slams wreck us, yes. Use vaal grace and the evasion flask for incredibly high dodge/Eva. No need to drop life leech for slightly more Eva.

-Keep barrage level 1 for lowest mana cost. Forgot to do that in guide.

-Been lazy about buying atziri sets bc I was saving for the 6l Voll's. I'm sure it is viable. Shatter chuck builds are similar to this and they are traditionally atziri farmers. Maybe swap out ball lightning for fireball in that fight. Will run it in 2weeks when I get back from vacation.

Did some quick testing this morning. LMP seems to have a breakpoint somewhere between 2.8-2.9 aps. With LMP barrage below breakpoint, you can cast 4.2 spells/barrage on average.

This means that the optimal spells cast per second is as follows (assuming my tested breakpoints of 2.05 and 2.8 are correct):

=< 2.05 attacks per second: use GMP (11.48 spells/attack)
2.05 - 2.8 attacks per second: use LMP (8.61 - 11.72 spells/attack)
3.2 - 4.1 attacks per second: use GMP (11.48 - 14.15 spells/attack)

While LMP barrage has less mob clear range than GMP barrage, it does beat GMP barrage at the aps range of 2.05 - 2.8 attacks per second. It also has 10% more damage so it's better against single target. LMP barrage also doesn't need a huge investment in attack speed on the skilltree; frenzy charges and bloodrage should be enough. And if you can hit 2.46-2.8 aps, LMP barrage exceeds the <2.05aps GMP barrage in dps.

The best single target dps setup in terms of spells cast&dmg effectiveness is as follows:

Best: gmp barrage 3.2 - 4.1 aps
Second best: lmp barrage 2.46-2.8 aps
Okay: gmp barrage 2.05 aps
Bad: any setup between 2.8 - 3.2 aps
Worst: any setup from 2.05 - 2.46 aps

I will update the guide accordingly when I have time. Don't have much time to play but got lots of time for theory crafting!

I bring bad news. THis is absolutely not viable for HC.
Today I decided i want to go into 74+ maps and i have to say this build is very weak in it's defences.
I will explain why but first ill tell you my stats:
Level 86
4800 hp
77 fire
77 lightning
75 cold
17000 evasion(with flask ofc)
40% dodge attacks
46% dodge spells.
+resist flasksofcourse

The huge issue is that you will get 1 shoted and it will happen often. some bosses are just a NO GO for this char. just to name a few : labirinth/mine/collonade + alot of higher map bosses. If you get hit you die. Ofcourse it depends on the map mods, but i*m not gonna use 5chaos to do a easy 74 map with 50% quantity. I rather play a tank and be able to do 120+quantity maps but with a little bit less damage.
So, for me.. it's reroll time.

@dariidar - thanks for the guide, it's a very fun build to play and I enjoyed waching the waves of colors wipe the screen in 2 seconds :D

p.s. tell us how's the build is with a 6L voll's. ALso, i'm curious how many deaths you ahve on the char.

I won't pretend to know what it's like to survive in HC. I simply don't have the time, patience, or internet connection to play it. That said, I feel that this build's survivability is comparable to other wanders / spellcasters that I've played in the past.

I find it curious that you had so much trouble with labyrinth / mine / colonnade. Labyrinth boss is easy to knock into a corner and dps down, within seconds. I've even done dual labyrinth boss plenty of times. Same thing with Mine; just push them to the edge of the screen and spam. Colonnade boss's smash is not possible to tank... but few caster/ranger builds will be able to do so either. His smash simply must be dodged, which isn't that hard to do especially with the amount of knockback we have..

In the past my caster/ranger builds have had the most trouble with Torture Chamber but this build wrecked her, easily. Temple/ Shrine Piety is no prob either. I also had unexpected success against Museum bosses. Academy boss is easy if you know when to dodge and when to smash face. Even Beyond bosses are quite doable.

I will admit that I've had trouble with one boss: Jungle Valley. I used to use at least one portal to take her out. The flicker striker spiders would stun me and mess up my knockbacks. (Terrornoid's build doesn't have this problem) However, I eventually solved that problem by increasing my attack speed (to kite better) and running a Vaal Grace as a panic button.

I've died 62 times.. but about 30 of those were from Normal + Cruel Malachai when I fought him for the first/second time. The rest of the deaths are from me doing stupid shit / testing the limits of my build, mixed in with a couple of "misplayed-really-bad" rips. Honestly, if this build was truly super squishy, I probably wouldn't have made it to level 89 with a pool of >1 dozen 76 maps.. I would probably be stuck at low maps and would have quit around level 80.

Voll's is amazing, as I've said. It lets me run through maps much faster because I'm less worried about offscreen reflect w/o flasks up, or about accidentally destroying myself with corrupting blood stacks (I can easily outleech the corrupting blood till my shitty reflexes kick in and I hit the staunching pot). It also gives me extra sustain in extended fights against bosses (for example Jungle Valley is stupid easy now). I will maintain that it is one of the "tankiest" ways to play this build thanks to the life leech (although Lightning Coil could be slightly tankier).

HC viable or not, I have no idea, I'm not an HC player. I'll put a clarification in the guide that I play this in Warbands. I just want to say that this build is not much different from the majority of wander / caster builds out there (high life%, acrobatics, decent evasion etc). I'll also try replacing acrobatics with Iron Reflexes/Unwavering stance when I can.

I was just a clarification on the HC viable thing. For me it's important if the build can survive. I played this char on warbands also. I have around 25 deaths. But most of them started when trying harder bosses. The worst was 1hour before my previous post when i died 6 times at lvl 86 is 74 maps

**Jungle valley... i didnt even try...

Yea monster damage is a bit insane right now and my other characters are having issues like you describe, as well. I have some hopes for iron reflexes/unwavering. But, due to the way armor works.. Even 15k armor won't help much against a heavy hit (armor works well against small fast hits but then again, so does acro/eva)

"

dariidar wrote:

Yea monster damage is a bit insane right now and my other characters are having issues like you describe, as well. I have some hopes for iron reflexes/unwavering. But, due to the way armor works.. Even 15k armor won't help much against a heavy hit (armor works well against small fast hits but then again, so does acro/eva)

What we need is more HP and armour for the small hits. I really like the IR ideea.
I could have dropped some DPS nodes for another 4 points 4%life + evasion nodes from ranger but that was it. I also have 4 jewels with atleast 5%life.

This league i also ran the cyclone thing, 6.6k hp and a bit of armour,almost unkillable(no taste of hate,no Coil)

What was your armor?

Not sure it will ever be possible to hit 6k+ life on a critical build like this. Just not enough life nodes/str nearby us. 5500 or so is possible, though.

Maybe a tree like this... but we wouldn't grab very much inc armor% or spell damage from the tree and it'll be a bit harder to cap crit at 95%. No frenzy charges either although that's probably a luxury.

Still, I thought this build survives small hits just fine with eva/dodge/leech. High armor would add like a thousand effective max hp or so.. Not sure if that's gonna be a noticeable difference vs large hits. We'll see.

"

GGG_Neon wrote:

Added a new end-game map mod: of Congealment. This mod provides monsters with immunity to life and mana leech. This mod only appears at high tier maps and is rarer than most mods.

This news is a bit troublesome, will have to start looking into alternatives to leech to run those maps. I will start working on an armor version of this build as soon as possible (although it will still definitely need vaal pact to deal with reflect)

I'm thinking of something like this, or maybe just get all armor pieces and drop IR. also has the option to drop all knockback jewels and grab Fending cluster instead. thoughts?

I am using Saffell's Frame with this build, although i have not switched to Magma Orb and Ball Lightning yet. Still using Arctic Breath and Fireball at level 72, going to switch when i get more knockback

Maybe mention the shield in your OP?

I'm still playing a similar build. I play in HC, lvl 84. I play a CI variant. It is definitely HC viable. I can solo 72-73 maps, havent tried higher yet. Should be doable once I get a few things sorted out for my build.

I'm at 93% crit with 6 power charge, 9k9 ES with 500 regen / sec, 75/75/75/100 res, on a 6L rare chest so barrage / coc / gmp / spell 1 / spell 2 / pcoc.

I'm at 2.04 aps, 92% acc.

Damage is fine, nothing too sexy tought. The main issue is that with any kind of low aps ( from 1.7 to 2.04) I cannot for the love of gods proc more than 4 times with 1 gmp barrage ;o)
[that s**** is still getting me pissed...how can you get 6 srs in a barrage is still beyond me ^^ If anyone has a video of someone casting 6/7/8 srs with 1 gem in 1 CoC I really wanna see it :) ]

Survival is okish too. Stun is a pain in the ass but unwavering is a bit too far for my build ( 5pts and only 1 usefull). Fast hitting monsters in swarm are dangerous too for that reason and since i got no physical reduction.

Elemental reflect mob is not an issue. I barely feel them. For ele reflect map i switch to barrage / EK / arc / pcoc / glacial casade / coc.

I also use warlords mark with cast when stunned and cast dmg taken to get some life leech when i need it the most. It works OK, but its far from perfect.

I'm currently respec-ing a few points to experiement with the Knockback version OP suggest. i'm at 15% KB and so far result are mixed. It doesnt seems better or worse than other non-kb setups for me, Ill try a bit more ( cannot get a 4th jewel slot for now to try 20%).

Edit: My gear :