[3.8] A CI/LL Tri-Curse Herald of Agony Occultist [Deathless Uber Elder, League Starter]

Hello again,

A more entailed response...Went for CI since well, chaos immunity most opOP thing ever? tbh the mana reservation was a bit of an issue which I had to work out. The guide mentions to only take the mana reservation nodes near CI to be able to slot disc + HoA, which is fine but forces the curse on hit setup. I personally prefer blasphemy when running enfeeble and chains for multiple reasons. SO... I decided to take the passive tree route of an ordinary LL support(except the blood magic keystone). Quite handily this route also gives way to opening up ALOT of jewel slots. These slots I tried to fill up, as best I could, with ghastly jewels with + minion physical dmg & max es. This is an off build so I had to improvise with gears a bit.

After testing..ONLY WITH heretic veil + enlighten 4 AND the less mana reserved minor keystones will you be able to slot on pure mana HoA + Disc + 2 curses of choice and be left with >22 mana. Thats enough mana for 2 attacks of rain of arrows. Which allows you to keep spamming when you're hitting stuff off of the quills mana on hit mod. Best tip is always to try and hit you're stuff.

If u want to run any other helmet you are required to follow the curse on hit setup and go with just the mana reservation nodes near CI (as recommended in the guide). Sitting on a semi comfortable 9k+ es with mid tier gears and mentioned jewels.

I personally just run a lvl 1 convo on cwdt for ease of life while mid tier map spamming while also adding another minion. Slot a 20/20 convo in the low level cwdt ic setup to still be able to cast it, Ow yeah, u do NOT NEED a 6L Quills with this setup but a 4L would suffice for purely rain of arrows OR barrage and a 5L to slot them both which is also ease of life choice.

When Hipster: defense cooldowns should include These can have some nice interactions in this build. Vaal IC giving time for recharge to kick in & Vaal Disc to ensure a full recharge :)

Again, great build which rekt elder more than I thought it would. A nerf for HoA is certainly conceivable in 3.5 but let's hope not. I am currently planning to use this build to start the new league with on 7th dec. BETRAYAL HYPE!!!

9/10

Proj weakness is good for clear speed, but profane bloom covers for not having it imo. Useless for bossing. Also only room for 2 curses with blasphemy setup and off course not having a +1 curse gg(g) amulet for this build.+ :)

I liked the build when I first checked it, started leveling, at lvl 74, did my Uber lab solo, at 78 managed to do my easiest deathless red elder, and at 81, got lucky with a Obscured turn in and got Chayula's Breachstone and managed to do a deathless Chayula run. (that was my first try)



So, thanks for this amazing and fun build, I really like it and it made me want to push for Uber elder this league. :)

Edit: Also a fun fact, my gems are not even level 20 yet, HoA is 18 and some support gems are still 17.. Feels a bit too good.. :P

@ Ozmode: It's a nice alternative way to curse you're describing! As you said, the most important issue that might arise is the lower ES, but having curses on blasphemy makes the build a bit safer. To each their own :)

Concerning Blightwell, I love that talisman, but a rare amulet with two ES (flat ES + % max ES) gives so much more ES. Plus, I feel like I very rarely die because my ES recharge is too slow; my occasional deaths, both versus Uber Elder and in deep-ish delves, come from ES recharge not starting in time. I'd still say it's worth trying out and seeing if you like it :)

"

Echador wrote:

I liked the build when I first checked it, started leveling, at lvl 74, did my Uber lab solo, at 78 managed to do my easiest deathless red elder, and at 81, got lucky with a Obscured turn in and got Chayula's Breachstone and managed to do a deathless Chayula run. (that was my first try)

So, thanks for this amazing and fun build, I really like it and it made me want to push for Uber elder this league. :)

Edit: Also a fun fact, my gems are not even level 20 yet, HoA is 18 and some support gems are still 17.. Feels a bit too good.. :P

Chayula? With lvl 18 HoA? Damn! Gratz :) I'm glad you like it! I hope too that HoA doesn't get nerfed next league!

Small note concerning the level of HoA, the difference between lvl 20 and 21 is huge (the atk speed bonus per virulence stack goes from 3% to 4%), so if you want to push to Uber Elder, it could be a good idea to check if you can afford a lvl 21. But it's by no means necessary, I did Uber Elder deathless with a lvl 20 gem easily, it's just an idea if you have some currency to use :)

"

Ozmode wrote:

Hi, ty for the build. I am running it with above items on std league. Lvl 28 HoA. It's an absolute blast to play. Easy clear & good bossing. Haven't been able to clear Uber Elder as of yet, but purely because my mechanics for the fight are not on par. Only downside is the high cd on convocation because the minion can get daft sometimes.(e.g. don't run scriptorium)

ty again.

@ Ozmode : Just a quick note on your setup : you should try to switch the order of Desecrate and Spirit Offering in your gloves' sockets for your Cast When Damage Taken, so that Desecrate is triggered first to create the corpses and then Spirit Offering is triggered and consumes the corpses for its effects.
The gems in a 4L are actually triggered clockwise.

Hope it helps :-)


@ Echador : Gratz for the achievement !

Three questions.

1: Don't see you mention bandit choice anywhere.

2: How would you level this in a race? Getting a quill rain might not be super easy the first 30-40 levels.

3: You say in the cons you need 2x six links, alternatively 1 six link for HoA and a 5 for toxic rain. Is the build still fine in like red maps etc with 2x 5 links?

"

Ghoruz wrote:

1: Don't see you mention bandit choice anywhere.

Indeed, I forgot to mention it! I killed everyone. Alira is the only bandit whose bonus is worth considering, and since we don't play crit, it's better to take the two skill points. I will add this to the guide right after this message.

"

Ghoruz wrote:

2: How would you level this in a race? Getting a quill rain might not be super easy the first 30-40 levels.

Quill Rain is used as the default bow for this build because it allows quick Virulence stacking, but you can play with any bow. Just look for a bow with some attack speed roll, and you're good to go. You want to have a Quill Rain for high tier maps or end-game bosses, where you need the insane attack speed to stack Virulence, but you can easily level with a bow with some attack speed roll.

"

Ghoruz wrote:

3: You say in the cons you need 2x six links, alternatively 1 six link for HoA and a 5 for toxic rain. Is the build still fine in like red maps etc with 2x 5 links?

First small detail: I tried swapping Rain of Arrows for Toxic Rain, and it doesn't work well. Toxic Rain just doesn't have enough arrows to reliably stack Virulence. This might have been just a typo, but I wanted to point this out, just in case :)

As for the links, you can clear up to red maps easily with a 5L HoA. Of course the damage will be better with the 6th link (count around 40% more damage when going from 5L to 6L), but will still be more than enough for most content.

If you have more questions, please let me know!

Cheers a lot for the quick reply. You're right, it was a typo and I meant rain of arrow, but good to know Toxic rain is bad ^^.

"

Vatinas wrote:

Chayula? With lvl 18 HoA? Damn! Gratz :) I'm glad you like it! I hope too that HoA doesn't get nerfed next league!

Small note concerning the level of HoA, the difference between lvl 20 and 21 is huge (the atk speed bonus per virulence stack goes from 3% to 4%), so if you want to push to Uber Elder, it could be a good idea to check if you can afford a lvl 21. But it's by no means necessary, I did Uber Elder deathless with a lvl 20 gem easily, it's just an idea if you have some currency to use :)

Got a lvl 21 HoA after selling my Presence of Chayula and the difference is amazing, supports are still 19, but the damage feels like it almost doubled.

Did some progress today aswell, managed to kill all the shaper guardians and the Shaper himself at level 83, and after that, did 2 Auhatotli's, which were depth 255-256 (2 bosses spawned in the same city biome) also after 2 failed attempts, since I didn't know the mechanics, also easy, did the second one deathless.

Tomorrow gonna try to push for another red elder and get my last memory fragment, then I'll try to go for uber elder. Let's see how that goes :)

Hey been absolutely LOVING the build, but im wondering what we have resolute technique for? Im still very new, but im guessing its just for more hits/attack -> virulence/sec? mainly on bosses right?

would the 45% inc skill duration near shaper in the skill tree accomplish the same thing by making virulence stacks last longer? and it'd cost fewer points (3vs5, or 4vs5 if you take physique to make up for loss of 40 str). and it'd help some other skills too like phase run. and we'd see less dps drop while kiting.

im sure im missing something tho, like shaper has crazy evasion rating or something, idk.

EDIT: effect duration should help immortal call too, which seems pretty nice. also, why don't we spend the one point on zealot's oath?