[2.2] Kenzorz's Crit DoT 5-Ballistae Iron Commander

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What is this build?

It is a combination of a crit-focused Iron Commander (the unique bow) spec with additional focus on multiple damage over time status ailments and being able to apply them over large areas simultaneously since Siege Ballista has innate 100% pierce chance. There is also other ailments and utility mixed in the build too.

I have 802 dex which is enough to have 5 Seige Ballistae out at once.

The damage over time status ailments are: Bleed, Poison and Ignite.

How?

Bleed: The Assassin ascendancy class gives a 30% chance for attacks to apply bleed and since the build have multiple Siege Ballistae shooting at once that chance to cause bleed becomes quite frequent. Bleed also deals more damage against moving enemies and the build has a reliable source of knockback which counts as movement.

Poison: The Assassin ascendancy class gives a 40% chance to apply poison against bleeding enemies and there is a cluster below the Duelist area on the passive tree which gives another 25% chance to apply poison against bleeding enemies for a total of 65% chance to apply poison against bleeding enemies. Poison damage is based off both physical and chaos damage of the initial hit.

Ignite: the build uses a lot of fire damage from the Added Fire Damage and Weapon Elemental Damage support gems and Herald of Ash and critical strikes with fire damage cause ignite.

Bleed scales off: Physical Damage, Damage over Time and Projectile Damage.
Poison scales off: Chaos Damage, Poison Damage, Damage over Time and Projectile Damage.
Ignite scales off: Fire Damage, Burning Damage, Damage over Time and Projectile Damage.

Taking projectile damage will scale both the initial hit and all the damage over time effects and damage over time will increase all 3 damage over time effects.

Other status ailments and utility: Maim, Chill, Freeze, Shock, Knockback.

How?

Maim: The Assassin ascendancy class gives 50% chance to apply maim against poisoned enemies. Maim reduces enemy movement speed by 30%.

Chill: Using the Hatred gem, the build has a large component of cold damage. All cold damage can chill as long as it deals enough damage relative the enemy's maximum health.

Freeze: Critical strikes with cold damage cause freeze.

Shock: Static Electricity unique jewels give attacks lightning damage and are boosted by the Weapon Elemental Damage support gem. Critical strikes with lightning damage cause shock.

Knockback: The King of the Hill passive gives critical hits with bow attacks to knockback and since the build has multiple Seige Ballistae shooting at once there will be a lot of knocking back.

Build Pros and Cons

Pros:

* Very safe being able to place multiple Seige Ballistae between yourself and enemies or behind yourself to cover yourself from multiple directions. Can also place them in corners or through doorways at safety.

* Can do the hardest map mods unless they're a very specific AoE/DoT heavy boss like double Malformation Piety or double turbo Necropolis Merveil since heavy AoE kills the Seige Ballista.

* Multiple crit dealing Seige Ballistae means multiple knockbacks, keeping enemies away from you.

* Good at clearing mob packs and single targets.

* Character does not need to worry about reflect.

* Build gets started very fast, as soon as you hit the level requirement to use the Iron Commander unique bow actually. The build levels extremely fast without the need for a temporary leveling setup.

* Does not require 6L to work well.

Cons:

* It can be difficult against extremely high density continuous AoE in small areas like Necropolis double boss turbo Merveil or Malformation Piety since these continuous AoE cluttering the area will kill the Seige Ballistae if there is no empty space to place them.

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Passive Tree
The core passive tree to aim for. 96 passive points and surrounded by life nodes and dex nodes.

Feel free to take more life nodes earlier if you need it but totem builds (especially one that can summon up to 5 totems) generally can get away with less defenses early on since they can sit behind their totems before enemies even see them. Don't worry too much about anything DoT related early on (including getting your Ascendancy class), Siege Ballista crits will carry you all the way until end game maps.

The passive tree I am using at Lvl 95, it is offensive focused

An alternate defensive tree, more defenses at the cost of dropping Frenzy charges (since they aren't really a necessity and I don't even try to keep up my Frenzy charges between regular mob packs since I do not have the time to)

Bandit Rewards:
Normal: Help Oak (for +40 Life)
Cruel: Kill All
Merciless: Help Kraityn (for +1 Frenzy charge)

Leveling and Passive Tree Progress

This is just a guideline of what you should be aiming for in your tree as you progress.

24 Points
40 Points
62 Points
83 Points

Ascendancy Class: Assassin
2 Points: Toxic Delivery
4 Points: Noxious Strikes
6 Points: Ambush

Jewels

1x Rain of Splinters (Unique): A must have for this build making Siege Ballista shoot two additional projectiles with a insignificant downside when only 1 jewel is being used.

2x Static Electricity (Unique): Place these to the right of Shadow area and to the left of Ranger area since these areas have a high concentration of dex nodes (which we also need for the unique bow anyway) this is a pretty big damage increase also giving our Siege Ballista shocks on crit if it does enough damage.

1x Fluid Motion (Unique): Firstly make sure it has the highest possible roll since these cost nothing and it will make your life easier when you're trying to hit the 200 dex thresholds for the bow. Place this jewel just under the Scion life whee- I mean rectangle for +54 dex in total including the dex bonus from the jewel itself.

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Gear

My Gear

Gear to look for

Must have uniques:

Weapon - Iron Commander: Of course. This unique bow scales off dexterity and allows you to place multiple Seige Ballistae for every 200 dex you have while also scaling the bows physical damage with every 25 dex. Also 5L/6L the bow instead of your body armour when you can since obviously you're going to be using it forever whereas you may decide to switch your body armour in the future.

Quiver - Drillneck: Since Seige Ballista has a 100% pierce chance this unique quiver is pretty much a no brainer. It gives 100% projectile damage for this pierce chance and this increases both the initial hit of the Seige Ballista projectiles and ALL DoTs caused by it.

Amulet - Astramentis: Gives a large amount of dexterity and solves all your attribute requirement issues since it also gives strength and intelligence too. Try to get a maximum or almost maximum rolled one, it will help you reach the next 200 dex threshold easier. Rare amulets with high dex and decent offensive stats are really expensive or difficult to find, just get an Astramentis.

Flasks - Atziri's Promise: Significantly boosts damage and since the build also uses poison the extra chaos damage makes the poison stronger. The chaos damage leech also affects Seige Ballista sustain...if they need it at all.

Flasks - Taste of Hate: Significantly boosts damage, boosts your maximum cold resistance and makes you take less damage from physical hits.

The rest of the gear:

Body Armour: Either aim for a chest with life and as much dexterity and evasion as possible or get a Belly of the Beast or Kaom's Heart if you have already reached the highest 200 dex threshold your build possible for your build. Lioneye's Vision is also an option for the potential 7L since it supports socketed gems with Lvl 15 Pierce.

Helmet: As much life and dexterity as possible with some resistances. Otherwise if you're having trouble reaching the next 200 dex threshold consider a Black Sun Crest.

Gloves: Gloves with life, dex and resistances work but I like Maligaro's Virtuosity since it gives pretty much every stat you need.

Boots: As much life, dex and resistances as possible. Maximum movement speed would be ideal.

Rings: Aim to cap your resistances with your rings and get as much life and dex as possible.

Belt: Prioritise all resistances here, life rolls come second.

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Gems
Support gems are listed in order of priority.

Siege Ballista: Physical Projectile Attack Damage, Increased Critical Strikes, Faster Attacks, Added Fire Damage, Pierce.

Siege Ballista 7L (using Lioneye's Vision): Weapon Elemental Damage instead of Pierce since the armour already has built in Pierce.

Frenzy: Increased Critical Strikes, Power Charge on Crit, Mana Leech.

Herald of Ash.

Hatred.

Clarity (only level this up enough so you have enough just enough mana and mana regen to cast Seige Ballista comfortably, I have this at Lvl 6).

Vaal Haste: Increased Duration

Vulnerability.

Stat screenshots

Life/Mana

Damage

Without Frenzy and Power Charges:



With 7 Frenzy Charges and 3 Power Charges:



Fully self buffed With 7 Frenzy Charges, 3 Power Charges, Taste of Hate, Atziri's Promise and Vaal Haste:

Old Stats using Belly of the Beast and old gear

Life/Mana

Damage

Without Frenzy Charges:



With 6 Frenzy Charges:



With 6 Frenzy Charges, Atziri's Promise, Onslaught, Vaal Haste:

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arisgigi wrote:

Thanks for the build , at lvl 45 the clear speed and dmg is amazing . hope it keeps up

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Orangesilk wrote:

Hey, one question, why do we take the elemental weapon support gem? It mostly affects hatred and herald which depend on physical damage anyways, wouldn't we be better off with a slower projectiles or an inc crit mult gem?