[Major Damage/Mapping Improvements-Update 7.1.22 PoB/Vid] The Fortified Summoner: HoP MI Champion

Have been doing 100+ quant corrupted T14 - 15 maps for friends with no sweat at just under 5k life total with 16.5k armour so far, build is feeling strong and tanky with the same constant dps output.

Only boss that has given me any difficulty so far is Al-Hezmin because he moves so fast that it's hard to catch up to him and proc anything. Other than that it's been a breeze, hopefully won't have any issues with him once I finally get my guaranteed tailwind slam harvest craft.

Updated PoB for 3.11 posted at top of guide! Sirius down, lvl 92, build is running strong. Let me know if you want to see videos of any specific content or have questions about how to gear with the harvest league.

This build looks like a lot of fun and I've decided to try it out. I'm curious about the use of Fortress Covenant and its placement in the tree as a replacement for Pure Agony though. Is giving up several strong survivability notables worth it for the minion 60% extra damage taken that it doesn't appear was needed in the 3.10 version?

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Blacksteel15 wrote:

This build looks like a lot of fun and I've decided to try it out. I'm curious about the use of Fortress Covenant and its placement in the tree as a replacement for Pure Agony though. Is giving up several strong survivability notables worth it for the minion 60% extra damage taken that it doesn't appear was needed in the 3.10 version?

Great Question! Answering is a 2-part process.

First off, 3.10 Pure Agony also increased your maximum number of Sentinels of Purity by +1. I ran 2x Pure Agony in 3.10, for 6 Sentinels max.

2nd, recall the behavior of the HoP buff. Here is the description: "...this skill will summon a Sentinel of Purity, or refresh the duration and life of an existing one instead if you have the maximum number of them." What this means is if we over-cap on Sentinels, we will refresh the duration an life of an existing one, which means no MI explosion, and no damage.

Basically, in 3.10 I raised the max sentinel number to avoid excessive over-capping. We can no longer do this, so I am using Fortress Covenant instead to increase their degen rate. You can run without it if you want...it still works well; damage will just be a bit more more patchy because of more over-writes.

I hope this helped!

Makes sense. Thanks for answering!

What are your thoughts on using The Stampede for boots? It has some drawbacks, but I've found the perma-150% movespeed to be a huge QoL upgrade in other Cyclone builds I've played and it opens up a couple of flask slots, not to mention the option for another anointment.

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Blacksteel15 wrote:

What are your thoughts on using The Stampede for boots? It has some drawbacks, but I've found the perma-150% movespeed to be a huge QoL upgrade in other Cyclone builds I've played and it opens up a couple of flask slots, not to mention the option for another anointment.

Short answer: if you can fit them in, they would be a great qol improvement!

Long answer: The issue is, this build already runs a fairly high number of uniques, and finding spots to stick life/armor/ele/chaos res can be tricky. You could probably make up the lack of life with the extra anoint, but probably not life, armor, ele, AND chaos res, all of which are lacking. Additionally, I find no issue with using double movement flasks; we really don't use flasks for damage so I run 2x life/2x quicksilver/1x mana. I just bought a pair though, and going to play around with them a bit and see how they feel. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Short answer: if you can fit them in, they would be a great qol improvement!

Long answer: The issue is, this build already runs a fairly high number of uniques, and finding spots to stick life/armor/ele/chaos res can be tricky. You could probably make up the lack of life with the extra anoint, but probably not life, armor, ele, AND chaos res, all of which are lacking. Additionally, I find no issue with using double movement flasks; we really don't use flasks for damage so I run 2x life/2x quicksilver/1x mana. I just bought a pair though, and going to play around with them a bit and see how they feel. Thanks for the suggestion!

Yeah, the biggest drawbacks I saw were the lack of life and the fact that they're not an armor base in a build that picks up a lot of % armor nodes. I think I would offset the loss of survivability by using one of the quicksilver flask slots for a Rumi's. Incidentally, the flexibility/lack of dependence for flasks is something I really like about this build. I actually really like running double quicksilver if it makes sense for the build, but obviously with The Stampede you don't need them. I see what you mean about the resists though after looking at your gear.

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Blacksteel15 wrote:

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Short answer: if you can fit them in, they would be a great qol improvement!

Long answer: The issue is, this build already runs a fairly high number of uniques, and finding spots to stick life/armor/ele/chaos res can be tricky. You could probably make up the lack of life with the extra anoint, but probably not life, armor, ele, AND chaos res, all of which are lacking. Additionally, I find no issue with using double movement flasks; we really don't use flasks for damage so I run 2x life/2x quicksilver/1x mana. I just bought a pair though, and going to play around with them a bit and see how they feel. Thanks for the suggestion!

Yeah, the biggest drawbacks I saw were the lack of life and the fact that they're not an armor base in a build that picks up a lot of % armor nodes. I think I would offset the loss of survivability by using one of the quicksilver flask slots for a Rumi's. Incidentally, the flexibility/lack of dependence for flasks is something I really like about this build. I actually really like running double quicksilver if it makes sense for the build, but obviously with The Stampede you don't need them. I see what you mean about the resists though after looking at your gear.

So, I dropped some cash on a better belt and managed to get back to 75% res with the boots. It's still less health even with a good annoint, but the movespeed is quite nice, so I'll play around with it for a while! I don't think I'd recommend them for anyone on a budget though, as getting the necessary res elsewhere is not particularly easy or cheap.

On the other hand....zooooooom!!

Up to 83 with ~3 ex invested into gear and really happy with how it's playing. I'm trying to plan out the rest of my points. What are your thoughts on the Steadfast and Fearsome Force nodes?