[2.2] Rowan's Cyclone CoC Discharge-Tanky, High Damage, Life Based (Even Budget)

Have 5l protector and going to buy devotion. I was thinking about going trickster in ascendancy for free cyclone. So what would be better - Assassin or Trickster?

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gvarph wrote:

Have 5l protector and going to buy devotion. I was thinking about going trickster in ascendancy for free cyclone. So what would be better - Assassin or Trickster?

Hmm, looking at them both, I'd say it comes down to what you want. Trickster looks like he'll be far more defensive oriented, as you get spell dodge, dodge, and even MORE chance to evade attacks. The zero mana cost on cyclone is awesome too, as that means you could replace it with a damage support (possibly even that new 30% more ele damage on o.O)

On the other hand, assassin is FAR more damage oriented. Deadly infusion would be a must have if you went with it, as it gives a HUGE boost to crit multi, and due to the base crit increase, it becomes incredibly easy to crit cap. You could also go ahead and get Toxic Delivery as well, as it would help save you from instantly dying to corrupting blood. Personally, I'd go with assassin, due to the massive damage boost you get from it.

I'm using this build in the new Perandus league (chose Assassin) and it's working really well so far. Thanks a lot for it! I have had very few issues clearing up to, and including, T6 maps so far (with the best clear speed I've ever had :D). Yesterday I then managed to find a Rat's Nest from Cadiro and 5L my Voll's right before I went to bed, so that should help a ton.

I have no problems with elemental damage (not from reflect either), which is great. But occasionally some enemies just murder me, purely due to streaks of physical damage that I do not evade (from what I can see). I'm talking the Coves, Strand and Overgrown Shrine bosses, as an example. It doesn't happen all the time, but more often that I'd like.

So my question is, how do you deal with high physical damage?

My skill tree is pretty much following yours (I did pick up a few accuracy nodes, no Vagan dagger yet :( ), so there's not much to change there. My skill gem setup is pretty much what you suggested, except I'm running Purity of Elements and Blasphemy + Assassin's Mark instead of Purity of Lightning+Fire and manual casting Assassin's Mark.

My health is 3.5k (I need to do something about my amulet, one ring and my belt, at least) and I am running the following flasks:



I'm considering switching the Atziri's Promise (I really don't feel much impact from it) for a Granite Flask, but apart from that and more health, I'm not sure what else I can really do to mitigate (what feels like) unlucky streaks of no evasion. I guess I could try tossing Enfeeble in instead of the Assassin's Mark, but I would prefer not having to.

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On a related note, is it better to use a Vagan dagger, even if it's worse than what you have already? For example, given these two daggers, would it be better to use the Vagan dagger, assuming I'm still crit capped with it?

Spoiler

I guess that's a weird question, as it depends on your hit chance. In my case, I had 85% Chance to Hit with the non-Vagan dagger, so the Vagan one is pretty much just straigth up better. Especially 'cause it means I can spec out of the accuracy nodes I had taken and spend them on something better.

Guide Updated for 2.2. Will be continued to be improved over the next week.

@Nasaug

Instead of a granite, you should run a Basalt Flask, as it gives a FLAT 20% phys damage reduction, which is far more than the 97% granite that I have. I'm even planning to switch to it soon as I get around to upgrading my char, as I'm busy with the new league. A Basalt flask will solve a lot of phys damage problems you'll have.

As you said, I would just go ahead and use the Vagan dagger. In the future for crafting your own Vagan dagger, just regal it with ONLY the "hits can't be evaded mod. So long as you hit a prefix or a crit/aps roll, you're good to multi craft it. The other bonus of using the vagan is it'll free you up passives and make gearing easier.

Also, for your life flasks, I would get a Surgeon's Eternal of Staunching, and try and get a Seething Divine of Heat. Eternal life flasks have the highest Health per second of any flask, so hence why you want it for Surgeons for Healing over time. Seething heals the most of any flask, so Seething mod works best with it.

Thanks for the advice Rowan.

I will try a Basalt flask. I considered it when I went over the various utility flasks, but didn't choose it for some reason. Oh well, I should have enough resources to craft a decent one. I'm think either Surgeon's, Experimenter's or Alchemist's for the prefix and of Reflexes or one of the immunities for the suffix.
The immunity would mainly be because I like having immunities on the utility flasks, as that guarantees having the immunity for the full duration. It is mostly important against Freeze/Chill and Bleeding (which I have on my Silver and Quicksilver respectively), but I could imagine it's not bad against Poison/Shock either.

Yea, I switched to the Vagan dagger pretty quickly. 100% chance to hit vs 85% chance to hit pretty much means 17.5% more crits (85 -> 100 is a 17.5% increase and every additional hit could be a crit) and I saved 6 points I had spent on accuracy.
For crafting it, multi-modding will be a long term goal. As it is right now, my highest level master is level 6 (the same goes for my friends) and I don't have the currency to toss the Can have multiple Crafted Mods mod on it. So that will have to wait for now.

For the life flasks, I see your point regarding using an Eternal flask for over-time regen. A Surgeon's Eternal of Staunching makes sense as it removes Bleeding and heals at the same time. I'll work on that. For the Seething Divine, it should probably have an immunity removal that I don't have yet for the suffix.

Thanks again!

PS. Could you toss a picture of your defensive stats up at some point? I feel my evasion is really low, but that may just be how it is with the uniques we run (no evasion on the shield or chest armour).

Im currently out of town, but I'll go ahead and post updated screenshots when I get back. Also, since I chose Assassin, I switched to a starjoinka (cant spell) as you gain 100 base life, while only losing 5% attack speed and ~45% crit, which assassin more than makes up for(actually, now that I think about it, I may replace my helm for a rare, and then replace my gloves for Shadows and Dust, just cuz of how fun they are)

what is the earliest you can stat using this build, when did you change over from leveling.
I got a 4 link voll's and a good dagger but thats it so far.

I would suggest around the 40s-50s to switch. The only thing limiting you is crit chance, so if you feel your crit is enough (40% without charges should be fine) then there's nothing stopping you from chaning over from leveling.

My god this is old