Dragon's Immortal Tank (Updated for 1.2)
 PLEASE NOTE THIS GUIDE WAS MADE OVER 1 YEAR AGO! A LOT OF THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN AND SOME OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS GUIDE MAY BE OUT OF DATE!!! ___________________________________________________________________________________ Dragon's Immortal Tank ___________________________________________________________________________________ Apex of Sacrifice Apex of Sacrifice first 2 bosses Queen Atziri (it ain't pretty, but it gets done) Twin Crematorium boss with onslaught, LMP, and 30% damage 20% speed boss mods. Boss-Killer Version (Forsaken Masters Update)
Inside are older videos of the build. Keep in mind this build is over a year old! So many things have changed.
Level 70-74 map bosses. Some with insane mods. New updated version for SotV (uses cyclone) Taking a beating from Dominus. The power of Aegis Aurora! Here is a quick video showing the builds tanking capabilities. This video is a Lunaris 3 to Piety run to show the clearing speed. New Weaver boss fight Twin Piety LMP'd Insanity!
Lots More Videos! ... I got carried away.
New and improved Kole tanking video. The Final Battle! Here is a hilarious video showing the importance of max resists. A very in depth look at Merciless Vaal. MUST SEE! A look at how I get 8 auras. This may not work in future patches. My failed attempt at Onslaught. Other potential skills with splash. Juhazzz vs 77 Shrine with INSANELY hard mods Juhazzz vs 77 Shrine 6 player solo Piety! ___________________________________________________________________________________ PLAY STYLE ___________________________________________________________________________________ Full on, in your face melee. A true tank, unafraid to get up close and very personal. Able to afk tank even the most vile of mobs while infinitely regenerating energy shield via blocks + Aegis Aurora.
Why I chose this build
I really hope you took the time to watch some of my videos and by now have a general understanding of the build. I chose this build by luck as it were. Up until this build I had failed several times at making an endgame viable melee build.
So being fed up with constantly dying, I decided to see if I could make a char that was immortal. Skipping almost all dps nodes and focusing strictly on the 1 mitigation tactic that I knew was worth stacking. Block chance. I used to use ground slam and the damage was pitiful. Then the patch with Multistrike and Melee Splash came out. I decided to give Splash and MS a try, but to my utter disappointment, the base radius of Splash was pure Crap (pre buff). After finding out that Splash's aoe is increased by the increased aoe from qaulity Inernal Blow, I decided to get both gems to 20% and test it for myself. It was pretty dang fun watching entire packs blow up in a glorious display of hellfire, so I decided to build on it. From there it was simply adjusting my build and gear to enhance the new elemental damage I was doing. The results is what you see in the videos. ___________________________________________________________________________________ The Build ___________________________________________________________________________________ I have done my best to put my thoughts and experiences in this guide due to a huge amount of questions. Please do us both a service and read as much of the guide as you can. Thank you, and enjoy!
My Current Boss-Killer Build (uses cyclone)
My Current Build This is the build I currently use. It is tuned specifically for my own personal gear. If you decide to use the same uniques as I do, this is the build you will want. To see which gear I am using, visit the gear section of the guide.
Endgame Gear Version
110 point build This build assumes that you have all of the following uniques: It also assumes you will be using the blood magic support gem. Once again, if you are not using BM, then you can afford to drop some life regen nodes.
New Player Version (for those with limited gear)
105 point low gear build
For those of you that enjoy this type of playstyle but may not have the gear needed, here is a version of the build that you can use until your gear is better. I wouldn't recommend this build for high level maps, but anything else should be doable. Keep in mind that you can sacrifice some of the resistance nodes if you gear already has you at max resist. Also, this build assumes you will be using the Blood Magic support gem. If you are not, then you can probably afford to ditch some of the life regen nodes.
Leveling Guide & Leveling Build
When leveling this build DO NOT slap on a shield from the start. You will hate the build immediately and will probably look for a different one. It is very frustrating in the beginning to try and get your dex and int. The build is starved for it. You will either need to skip the things that req dex/int, or get it on your gear, or use passive points. Early game can be hard for dps as well. If you are starting in a new league and do not have gear for leveling, it will be VERY slow and frustrating to level this build. This build gets its offensive stats from gear and skill gems. The build provides very little in terms of offensive passives. Because of this, your dps may be pretty low for bosses. Aoe is not much problem due to the corpse explode, but vs the more difficult bosses with tons of hp it can feel impossibly frustrating to do with low damage. There are a few ways to handle this. First, you can level up a Lightning Strike or Spectral Throw gem while you level your char. You can then swap Infernal Blow with Lightning Strike or Spectral Throw to safely attack from range for bosses like Vaal. Another thing that you can and should do, is manage your gems for boss fights. When you get to a boss, take out your Melee Splash gem. For the majority of bosses, you will not need splash and removing it will increase your single target dps by quite a bit. Your absolute biggest dps increase via a support gem will always be Weapon Elemental Damage. So if you are not already using this, when you remove splash replace it with WED for an even bigger dps increase. And finally, have faith in the build. Some people have a very hard time giving up life leech in their main attack. If you are at a point where you have taken all of the hp regen nodes, most of the hp nodes, and are running max resists, ditch the LL gem for a dps gem. Give it a try, get a feel for if you can survive without it. On my mara I RARELY link life leech to my IB. 99 point leveling build using Dual Ungils Daggers The BEST way to level this build, and damn near any melee build, is to use dual Ungil's and Tabula Rasa. Why? Because with 2 of these beautiful AND cheap daggers, you can boost your block chance to 55% instantly! Couple this with decent crit chance, a qaulity Dual Strike, Wrath, and a 6 link that you can wear at level 1, you become a highly effective exp grinding char with decent block chance without having to invest points into it. I actually used this set-up to level my new scion build all the way to merciless act 3! These seemingly low level daggers are quite powerful when combined with elemental auras and splash. There are 2 ways you can set this up. Run a Blood magic gem support, or use mana. I recommend using mana because the Forsaken Masters patch has made mana costs a lot more manageable. Some really underrated support gems that offer amazing utility for zero additional mana cost are Additional Accuracy (quality adds crit chance!) and mana leech. With your tabula rasa, you can easily set up a very VERY powerful dual strike that doesn't force you to go Blood Magic. The cheapest way to begin this build is by dual wielding 1 handers and using cleave or dual strike/splash for aoe, and dual strike for single target. (Another option is to use a 2 hander with spectral throw. This ability is simply amazing with LMP and can be used safely until merciless.) Continue using this until you are able to use a mana leech gem. At that point, switch from cleave to infernal blow with splash and mana leech. Add life gain on hit if you have the links available. This will save you time and frustration as cleave is incredibly good as a starter attack. It is low in mana cost and very effective with dual wielding. The reason behind using 1handers with cleave is because you will most likely lack the dex to use anything else. In addition, axes are usually higher in damage per hit and lower in attacks per second which is PRICELESS while leveling, unless you enjoy chugging mana pots every 5 seconds. Slower, harder hitting attacks are very mana efficient and that is the aim in the beginning. Keep a good 1hand and shield on weapon swap for dangerous situations. Generally, if you think you might need to use the shield, you probably do. When you get your mana leech gem and have infernal blow linked to splash and mana leech, that will be your queue to go to 1h/shield full time. While leveling, I HIGHLY recommend this shield. I know some of you are thinking this shield sucks and there is no reason to use it past level 25, but you are so wrong. For leveling this build, your shield serves one purpose only. To provide as much block as possible. You will not find a rare shield with 40% and until you get your hands on an aegis aurora, this cheap low level unique shield will be better than anything else you can get. Some important things to keep in mind while leveling. When you switch to 1h/shield full time you will want your stone of lazhwar equipped always. The spell block this provides is priceless. Magic damage is almost always what gets people killed and the ability to block it is almost overpowered. This amulet will also provide you with much needed intellect for you to begin leveling up your auras. Try your absolute best to keep your resistances high while leveling. I know this can be difficult at low levels due to the unavailability of gear. A good idea is to keep 2 of each resist rings in your inventory. When you get to an areas that appears to have a lot of fire damage dealers, swap to your fire resist rings. When you get to piety you definitely want to be maxed lighting resists even if it costs you 2 ring slots. Keep auras turned off! At very low levels your mana is precious and no aura is worth sacrificing a chunk of your mana pool. For normal act 1-3 there is only 1 aura you should be running. Clarity. Leave the rest of them turned off. When you get to the point where your mana leech gem is keeping you sustained, THEN you can start turning the auras on. Early in the game, it is just more frustration than benefit to try using auras. Keep your gems socketed. Make a note of all the gems the build uses and do your best to keep them socketed in your gear. Even if you are not using them, keeping them in your gear will gain them exp. Your gems can even gain exp while socketed in your items that are in weapon swap. Early levels this build suffers from the same things that all builds do. You won't have the gear, hp, or resistances to really be tanky. So treat it as such. Realize that this build does not blossom until late game and is built around specific uniques. ___________________________________________________________________________________ The Pros & Cons ___________________________________________________________________________________ Pros
Cons
___________________________________________________________________________________ Gear, Stats, Gems & Links ___________________________________________________________________________________
The Gear
My Current Gear (yours may vary)
There are 2 unique items that are the core of this build. They are Aegis Aurora and Stone of Lazhwar The rest is pretty straightforward. I recommend a high physical damage, slow base attack speed 1-hander. The reason behind this is because BM gems are dangerous to use as you will be killing yourself slowly while attacking. To counter this, you can use high damage per hit weapons which generally have slower base attack speed. This allows us to maintain our hp regen as a defense instead of a resource for offense. Unless you can afford a Soul Taker. Should you wish to maximize your tooltip dps, and extremely fast weapon will be higher tooltip dps when you have all the elemental auras on. IMO the increase in dps is not worth the regen and damage per hit you are sacrificing. Weapon ele damage is a pretty nice boost to overall dps. Focus on HP and chaos resistance on every item you can afford to. The build provided a lot of elemental resistance before 0.11.0 leaving you free to stack other stats. Now, however, we are required to get high resistance pieces of gear like everyone else. Try to get your chaos resistance above zero, KEEP YOUR ELE RESISTANCES MAXED AT ALL TIMES!!!, and stack as much hp as you can get your hands on. Unfortunately you will need some Int and Dex on gear in order to max your auras.
The Stats (with Hatred, Purity of Fire/Lightning, Tempest Shield)
Offensive
Defensive
Gems & Links
Two of the gems in this build REQUIRE 20% quality. Infernal Blow & Melee Splash are both required to be 20% quality in order to have a decent aoe range. The rest are luxuries. (not so much since the patch that buffed splash's radius, but still very very nice to have) Chest: 6L - Infernal Blow + Melee Splash + Multistrike + Weapon Elemental Damage + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic/Melee Physical Damage (Soul Taker) 5L - Infernal Blow + Melee Splash + Multistrike + Faster Attacks or WED + Blood Magic/Melee Physical Damage (Soul Taker) 4L - Infernal Blow + Melee Splash + Multistrike + Blood Magic/Melee Physical Damage(Requires Soul Taker) Helm/gloves/boots: Really up to you. I currently use level 21 Purity of Fire, level 21 Purity of Lightning, level 20 Hatred in my Alpha's Howl (this gives you level 23 purity auras for +5 max fire/light resist) and Tempest Shield linked to Reduced Mana, Curse on Hit, and Warlords Mark (this is so incredibly powerful!). Weapon Swap: On weapon swap you can have 2 Brightbeak War Hammers equipped for super fast Leap Slam Traveling. Or a 5L or 6L 2 hander for leveling gems. Main Hand - Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic Off Hand - Situational gems such as Life Leech and Immortal Call. It is very important to mention that the corpse explosion from Infernal Blow does reflect back to you vs. elemental reflect. In my own personal experiences, as long as you have max fire resistance, MOST mobs with elemental reflect aura will not even scratch you. Mobs with extremely high hit points are VERY dangerous! Also be aware of things like curses and map mods lowering your resistances, as this can be fatal to you. The "mirrored" map mod (monsters reflect 18% of elemental damage) can be deadly as well. I have found that, even with my resistances unchanged by curses or map mods, this mod can still be deadly. For this reason, I keep a Glacial Hammer/Dominating Blow (or Double Strike + Added Fire) gem on weapon swap and sub it in for Infernal blow when running maps with the "mirrored" mod. It is slower, but safer as there will be no surprise spike damage from killing a pack of high HP champions. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Bandit Rewards ___________________________________________________________________________________ Here is what I chose for bandit rewards and why. Feel free to choose your own path. These are just my preferences.
___________________________________________________________________________________ Suggested Skill Gem Leveling. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Do not level either Leap Slam gem as you will only be using these for travel and will want to keep the mana cost low. Level everything else to max or as high as your dex/int allows. Cast while damage taken does not proc very often with this build since you take damage rarely. As such, I currently only use level 1 CWDT linked to a level 5 enduring cry. Feel free to choose what suits you best. ___________________________________________________________________________________ *Important*!!! Notes and Map info. ___________________________________________________________________________________ It is very important to mention that the corpse explosion from Infernal Blow does reflect back to you vs. elemental reflect. In my own personal experiences, as long as you have capped fire resistance, mobs with elemental reflect aura will not even scratch you. I have never been killed by elemental reflect aura. I have however, been killed on several occasions by the ele reflect map mod (mirrored). Beware of things like curses and map mods lowering your resistances though as this can be fatal to you. The "mirrored" map mod (monsters reflect 18% of elemental damage) can be deadly as well. I have found that, even with my resistances unchanged by curses or map mods, this mod can still be deadly. For this reason, I keep a Glacial Hammer/Dominating Blow (or Double Strike + Added Fire) gem on weapon swap and sub it in for Infernal blow when running maps with the "mirrored" mod. It is slower, but safer as there will be no surprise spike damage from killing a pack of high HP champions. I do not always run a life leech gem. I have 2 rings with +2 life gain on hit which is modified by infernal blow to be +5 lgoh for both rings. In addition to that I have 2% physical life leech from passives, and another 2% physical life leech from my gloves. My physical damage is pretty low, but the combination of the 5 lgoh, 4% physical life leech, and very high life regeneration keeps me alive in 90% of the maps I run. I will swap in my life leech gem for bosses that I know to be hard hitters, any map with the -maximum resistances mod, and for maps with the stasis mod( players cannot regennerate life or mana). For stasis I also switch Vitality with Determination since Vitality is useless with that mod. When swapping in LL for bosses, I remove Melee Splash. When swapping in LL for any other reason, I remove Weapon Elemental Damage. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Adaptations ___________________________________________________________________________________
Forsaken Masters
Unfortunately for me, I think my scion cyclone build is going to have to sit for a bit before I am confident enough to spend the points on her again. I am not even sure that build is salvageable at this point. The good news is, this has given me motivation to work on my mara AA build once more. I know I haven't been very active on this thread lately, but that is because I really haven't played much in the last few months. In addition, when I WAS playing it was always my scion that got the attention. Now then, I used to be in favor of stacking grace and determination in order to receive as much ES per block as possible. However, Mrs. Atziri has changed my opinion somewhat. I have found that it is more important not to count on things that are RNG based when facing a boss. For example, spell block. While this works wonders, it can be very streaky. IMO, it is in our best interest to supplement our spell block with something that is NOT subject to RNG. Mainly, ehp, higher max resists, and leech. Based on these ideals and the information that has been released, here is what I am thinking:
The problem I continue to run into is a lack of int. I had hoped to avoid needing int for anything other than my chest, but with the addition of purity of lightning, I will now need 151 int. This poses a problem. With the corrupting of my Stone of LazI have lost 30 int. With the new passive tree, I have found no reason to venture into any of the int sections. So, unless I get better rings/gloves, I will be forced into picking up the 2 +30 int nodes which kinda... well... sucks. edit: I just realized that if I can get corrupted lvl 21 purity gems, then I would not lose the +1 max resist by using alpha's howl. This is likely what I will do. edit: Alpha's Howl it is. With this helm and lvl 21 purity gems I get the same effect as the other option W/O spending 8 passives to get it. Btw, I edited my build due to finding out only 2 of the 4% mana reserve nodes were necessary. Yay! The point of using corrupted purity gems is b/c with lvl 21 purity of fire/lightning +2 levels from alphas howl, you get an additional +1 max resist because your aura becomes level 23. So we will have 80 max resist for all 3 elements. +5 cold from AA.
Sacrifice of the Vaal
In all honesty, I quit playing this build well before SotV came out. I got tired of being the lowest dps in the group. So I decided to change it up a bit and create a glass cannon build for fun. The results were pretty interesting actually. But due to pretty high demand, I decided to step back into the tanking shoes and see how this build plays in SotV. This patch was one that reworked the mara starting area and it is simply put... AMAZING! The mara starting area is just incredible now. I gained so much armor that AA proc's pretty much fill my ES bar to full. Not to mention that with 3 end charges up, my physical reduction has reached 90%! That is not even with a flask! But sadly, several patches ago, this build became legacy. Meaning that you really need to have certain gear to make it shine. When I started this build back in closed beta, my gear was utter garbage. I was poor and new to the game, and yet the build still managed to surprise people. With the addition of powerful new uniques, and PAINFUL nerfs, this build has become something much different from the first edition.
Poe Launch version
Well... what can I say? We lost a lot of things, gained a few and are still here. The build is still a hell of a lot of fun, but now it is probably not very do-able w/o some legacy uniques, namely soul taker.
The Aura Fix Patch
8-22-2013
Had some time today finally, so I fired up POE to see what I could do about the covenant fix. Since I do not have a pair of Rainbow Strides to test out my other idea, I decided to just keep all my auras and run them legit, meaning pay the additional costs. So what did I lose? Gem slots and double the amount of HP reserved. I am still sitting very comfortably at 3400 hp after auras and 19k dps with 18k armor and 1272 ES. I will be giving this a try all night tonight but I don't see it as being a problem. Since I obtained a Soul Taker my health pool has been pretty much 100% full for 99% of the maps/bosses I have done. And I still swap in LL for bosses I know to be dangerous. Since I did lose a few gem slots, I had to trim the fat so to speak. After auras and 6L IB, I am left with room enough for 1 curse, leap slam, and enduring cry. I decided to ditch portal since slots are now precious and scrolls are numerous. I also ditched my 2nd enduring cry. One thing I noticed while playing around with this new patch is that it is still 100% possible to keep situational gems on your weapon swap. So long as you zone in and out with your main set of skills in place, you can sub in needed gems easily by replacing your BMs or RMs and your auras will not change. For example, you are easily running the Maze map and obliterating everything. Now all that is left is Shadow of the Vaal. Once you get to his room, you can hit weapon swap, grab a second enduring cry gem and your immortal call gem, and replace your reduced mana or bm gems from auras with them. Your auras will remain exactly the same during the fight, so long as you do not zone out. Then, once you are finished with the fight, you can put your regular gems back in place before zoning out. In addition, you can also decide to turn off wrath and anger when you get to the boss for an additional effective hp boost. Since this will no longer mean needing to use the covenant trick, getting them back after the fight is over is as simple as pushing 2 buttons. The point I am trying to make is, since we need to trim the fat and use only the necessary gems, we must now more than ever make smart choices on what gems to store in weapon swap and KNOW WHEN TO USE THEM. If you intend to just cut down on auras then you will not need to worry about it. But if you decide to keep them all, and pay the price then this is what you will need to do. As much as this sucks, we knew it was coming and just have to deal with it. I myself will be keeping my auras and will continue to look for gear with higher HP to replace the 500 hp I lost via reserved. For those wondering, this is my current set-up.
Gear and Gems
Since returning to work I have been incredibly busy and haven't had all that much free time. But I know how confused some of the newer people are getting since the guide is pretty out of date lately so I will do my best to update and improve upon it this weekend (hopefully) in addition to trying to get my hands on some rainbow strides and regrets to test that route. Hope you guys are still enjoying the build! I know I still do ^_^ -Dragon
The effects of Soul Taker on the build
Wow, where to begin? This axe is amazing! Forget specific builds, this weapon is pure brutality in one easy to equip slot. Now that I have my obvious nerdgasm out of the way we can begin to delve into the effects this weapon will have on the build. For starters, I need to point out that I am behind the times lately. This is due to re-entering the workforce. So some of the things I have been observing lately are based on the experiences and posts of others as well as my own experiences. The most obvious change that this weapon brings to our build is the ability to attack without having the proper resources. In easy terms, you no longer need to link BM to your attacks. This frees up a support gem slot. Not only does this axe have very respectable base dps, but it also allows us to link ANOTHER support gem to our main attack, increasing dps even further! Now, the second best part. No longer losing hp to pay for a BM'd attack. This is HUGE! This is not only a weapon that boosts our dps substantially, but also gives a very respectable boost to our survival as well! So given these 2 amazing facts about Soul Taker with this build, some very fun and interesting changes are up in the testing stage. Some players are already using these and have had great success. The most notable change to the build is the ability to drop some hp regen passives AND trade determination for vitality. Why give up hp regen you ask? We simply do not need as much now that our attacks are not draining our hp! Dropping half of your hp regen has almost no noticeable effect on the builds survival. In addition, freeing up some very valuable passive points allows us to invest in the armor/es nodes near the templar start. This compliments our new determination aura splendidly! So what we are looking at, is a large increase in armor, ES, and DPS while essentially losing NOTHING! Ofc, I will be testing these changes as much as I can and updating any thoughts/experiences as I can, but many players are already experiencing great success with these changes and have posted them on this thread. For those that are wondering, this is currently the build I am testing with Soul Taker. LvL 88 Soul Taker version My current gear and stats have been updated and are shown further down the guide. You might have noticed that this version does NOT have unwavering stance. At the urging of several other players, I decided to see just how important this passive is. Since getting rid of it would free up several points I decided to heed their advice and put it through my own personal testing. So far, I am annoyed but still immortal. In other words, Unwavering Stance is NOT mandatory at higher gear levels, but the loss is absolutely noticeable. Being stunned at my current gear level is really annoying but seems to have no effect on survival. The stuns are brief, and the build is so tanky that even standing still proves to be safe vs the majority of bosses. I had to face off vs. an uber version of piety in the temple map to be convinced, but it was a breeze even with the occasional block animation. I will continue to monitor this version very closely as time allows, but I know several other players have ditched Unwavering and have had no issues so it is looking like a new, stronger, version of this build is definitely accessible with high end gear. Immortality AND insane dps? Welcome to heaven :)
The effects of Patch 0.11.0 (HP nerf Patch) on the build
Build PRE PATCH 0.11.0 (OLD BUILD)
Patch 0.11.0 has caused me to make some minor adjustments to the build. The biggest change I have made is dropping Inner Force to save 5 points. Due to the nerf to Inner Force I no longer think it is worth spending the 2 "highway" points to get it. With the new physical damage node buffs 2 well placed points can easily compensate for the lost dps from IF. The lost resistance is trivial, and the lost hp regen can be easily replaced with 1-2 points in the .4% regen nodes near the duelist area. The core idea of the build remains intact however. Getting all of the easily reachable HP nodes and keeping your resists maxed is top priority. Due to the resistance nerfs some of you (including myself) may find yourself short of being capped. I recommend putting points in the particular resist(s) you are short on at the +15% nodes near the mara start. These nodes are now highly valuable due to the resist all node nerfs. 15% for 1 point is a good deal. I spent my free respec to try grabbing all of the armor/es nodes near the templar area. This boosted my armor to just under 10k which had no noticeable effect on testing. I generally felt much weaker with the increase in armor and loss of hp. So, after testing BOTH specs on many bosses, maps, and hard mobs I decided to keep the core of the build the same (aside from dropping IF). For those that aren't planning to do high level maps, or are feeling dangerous, you can now increase your dps substantially by some well placed increased physical damage nodes. To do this, you can either level past 80 for additional points beyond 100, or you can sacrifice some block nodes (I wouldn't, but I prefer safety over dmg) to gain extra damage. Now more than ever, it is extremely important to have as much HP on gear as you can possibly get! HP was nerfed along with monster damage, but some mobs are still hitting extremely hard (some even appear to hit harder???) even after the patch. In addition to that, HP regen has always been one of the highly defensive aspects of the build. My current build I spent 2 points to gain .8% more regen to try and compensate for the HP/sec loss caused by the patch. Due to the HP nerfs, it is now pretty unsafe for you to use fast weapons with a BM gem. You will slowly kill yourself as your hp/sec has taken a pretty hard hit since the patch. I HIGHLY recommend using a 1h weapon with as high physical damage as you can possibly get. This generally means you will be getting the slower 1h weapons which is now a good thing. You want your hits to be hard and slow so that you do not sacrifice dps but are not killing yourself with super fast attacks and BM. The patch was disappointing, but this build STILL rips and has remained extremely fun and effective after patch 0.11.0 ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ I hope this guide was helpful to some. This is the first time I have ever created a guide for a character build, so please forgive me if I left something out. I feel that I should mention that I am not very good at math, theorycrafting, or in game modifiers. The way I usually have to do things is by making changes and seeing what happens in the character screen. Please keep in mind I am not an expert at the game or the mechanics of it. I just happened to stumble into a very fun and powerful tank build that I enjoy very much. I hope you enjoy the build too! I know I still do. If you have any questions please see the FAQ section directly below this post. Thanks for reading. -Dragon If you enjoyed the guide, check out my shop. Dragon's Shop! Britches and Hose! Special thanks to the people that inspired me to write this guide. You know who you are :P Gizoogle version, prepare to laugh your ass off. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Current Project ___________________________________________________________________________________
Dizzy Dragon Cyclone Scion
I have had many people express interest in my Cyclone Scion build but I have been very hesitant to create another guide. I enjoy helping people, but some people just want to be spoon-fed and that gets annoying real quick. However, I really don't want to disappoint so I decided to do a quick and dirty on my scion's build. I won't go into great detail, and likely will not be around to answer many questions due to the fact that I rarely play these days. So here goes. VIDEOS Dizzy Dragon Cyclone Scion! Older Video, Pre-SotV The Build (level 90) Cyclone Scion Level 90
The Gear
Things You NEED to Know About This Build - It is INSANELY expensive - It is PLAGUED by desync - 6 uniques are REQUIRED - Insane DPS - Leech Tank (Relies on leeching life to survive) - 9 Auras - Very Limited sockets available due to 9 auras - Weak vs. Chaos damage and other Dots Still interested? Are you sure? Ok, here is a quick and dirty on how this all works. It is your basic low life build. Most of you are probably familiar with them by now. With Crown of Eyes we are able to take full advantage of a low life build as a melee char. What this means is that Pain Attunement will now give us 30% MORE melee damage. In addition to 59% MORE weapon elemental damage from WED support and 69% MORE aoe damage from conc effect support. For those of you that don't know the "more damage" modifier is much higher than the "increased damage" modifier. Pair all of that "MORE" damage with ALL of the dps auras AND the increased attack speed bonus of blood rage for being on low life, and you are left with breathtaking damage output via cyclone. The uniques needed to accomplish this are: - Soul Taker for the ability to spam short effective cyclones w/o needing the mana. - Crown of Eyes to allow the Pain Attunement and spell damage passives to effect melee - Prism Guardian in order to reach 9 auras - Shavronne's Revelation in your right ring slot to offset the chaos dmg from blood rage - Shavronne's Wrappings so that chaos damage does not bypass your energy shield - Either Auxium or Dreamfrag to combat being frozen Please note that while I do use Rainbow strides, they are not required for this build. At level 90, with the gear and build I have listed above my current stats are as follows: 46k DPS buffed with auras and Blood Rage 5983 Energy Shield 11k Armor 82% Maximum Fire, Cold, and Lightning resist 184% Fire resist 171% Cold resist 140% Lightning resist -60% Chaos resist As you can see, I have EASILY overcapped resistances with minimal effort thanks to all 3 of the purity auras. Also, keep in mind that the dps tooltip of cyclone is 1/2 of the actual dps. So 46k tooltip is actually 92k DPS. Remember that this build RELIES on vaal pact and life leech to survive. What this means is that desync, freeze, and anything else that causes you to not leech are disastrous. Please see the "Gear" section for information on how I linked all of my auras and gems. I am too lazy to go through all of it :P Hope some of you enjoy it! -Dragon DISCLAIMER! The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. Last edited by Dragon585#3483 on Sep 11, 2014, 12:54:20 AM
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---------------------------------------------FAQ-----------------------------------------------
updated 11/7/13 I know it is a pain to read through so many pages to see if your question has already been answered so, here is a list of some frequently asked questions. Sadly, many of these are out of date.
FAQ
Is Bringer of Rain ideal for this build?
My good friend Beng loaned me a bringer of rain to finally get my greedy hands on. After farting around with it and thinking as hard as I could while being slightly intoxicated (only slightly) I have come to the conclusion that BOR is good for those that cannot afford a good 6L chest. Obvious right?
But here is the part that surprised me. It really doesn't support the build well at all. I was able to drop 10% block chance which would have been 4 passives. But this also cost me a great deal of resists which I have no way to make up other than passives. I lost 1.8k dps, not really a big deal to me. The proc on endurance charges was pretty random and sparse. I had figured with 75% block even the 10% chance on block would keep those charges rolling full time, but I was unable to keep a 3 stack unless I manually refreshed. The blind is wasted on this build, and on top of that I began to think about blind and the 10% chance on block to gain a charge, and came to a startling conclusion. The blind actually appears to be counter-productive to the helms proc. So even if I were to drop US, the charge on block aspect of the helm would be almost useless. If mobs are blind, they will rarely hit you, thus you will rarely block and rarely gain end charges. 25% chance for mobs to hit you, and 75% chance of that 25% chance that you will block it, and 10% chance of that number that you will gain an end charge. I am no math wiz, but I see a very low proc chance here. In conclusion, it is a neat item and a decent way to start the build, but it will NEVER compare to a well rolled 6L chest and helm. I also forgot to mention the difficultly of finding gem slots to run everything. My 2 cents after finally getting to try one on. Thanks to Beng for lending me his. -Dragon
Should I drop Unwavering Stance to use the blind from Bringer of Rain?
To fully engage in a discussion about this, I think it is best to link some facts about Blind. So taken from poewiki here are some important things to know about blind.
Bringer of Rain has a level 18 Blind support linked to anything you place in the helm. Level 18 blind has a 12% chance to blind anything that supported skill hits. Pros of blind instead of Unwavering Stance:
Cons of blind instead of Unwavering Stance:
This is just something I could come up with off the top of my head. Like I said, feel free to add. Now, for those of you that want my opinion on the matter, I will give it again. In my experience, if you plan to do higher level maps it is a horrible idea to sacrifice stun immunity for a blind UNLESS you are using cyclone, or you have very VERY good endgame gear with Soul Taker AND 25% rainbow strides. Physical damage is RARELY the cause of death to this build. It is magic damage that can be dangerous. The blind is a 12% chance on hit, not 100%. Even with my hp pool, after the last patch my mara is susceptible to status effects even with maximum resists. Elemental damage is the enemy, and blind provides no protection against it. This is just my opinion based on my experiences. If you do choose to drop Unwavering Stance in favor of using blind, then I wish you the best of luck.
Why not take Inner Force?
The original build had Inner Force, but due to the nerf in 0.11.0 I no longer believe it is worth the 5 points to take it. For this build 5 points is a LOT, and I think those points are better spent elsewhere now. In extreme late game, (mid 90s) I could see picking Inner Force back up. But for most, that goal is a long way off.
Does spell block work on blocking curses cast onto you?
No, block is a form of damage mitigation. Curses aren't a source of damage.
Does spell block have a hard cap of 75% like regular block?
Yes, the chance to block spells is also capped at 75%
Do you notice a big difference when you stack block chance over 60%?
No, tbh I don't notice the last few points I have spent on block. I did however start to notice each passive point put into block after I equipped Rainbow Strides. The spell block is simply life changing! But there is one thing you should remember. No matter how much block you get, you are going to get hit eventually. The question is, can you survive that hit, and recover before the next one.
Have you tried Melee Physical Damage and Added Fire Damage with IB?
Subbing MPD for Multistrike adds a tremendous boost to my damage per hit with only a minor 200 dps loss. But there is something multistrike gives that is better than raw damage. Quality of life :)
Using multistrike makes melee splash radius a bit larger as the radius is based on which mob you are attacking, so if you spread the love more will get hit if that makes any sense. Not to mention it helps with desync by allowing you to hold your attack in place button down and still hit things if you are out of sync. I used to use MPD, but after switching to multistrike it was game over. The general concept of the build wasn't at all focused on dps. I was focusing on survival mainly. But this is my choice. Multistrike FEELS better to me, and I am very satisfied with my clearing speed. But I can't say that MS is better than MPD. It is up to the user, but I recommend multistrike. However now I have the best of both worlds with Soul Taker. Dropping BM and gaining MPD in addition to great weapon dps? Welcome to heaven.
Does the explosion damage apply to reflect?
Yes, it does. I go over this in the guide in the important notes section. In my experience, as long as you have max fire resists (i.e. no mods lowering it) mobs with reflect aura don't even scratch you. The REAL danger is the map mod with ele reflect. I ran many of these maps and have found that it is very unpredictable. So after a few deaths, I began using Glacial hammer in place of Infernal blow for these maps. If you aren't using a mace, then Heavy Strike works well if you can stand the knockback for 1 map.
Why not use Rainbow Strides for boots to apply even more spell block?
I had wondered about that myself when those boots came out. Ultimately, I decided not to buy a pair simply because I NEED as much hp as I can possibly get. The spell block I get from the neck and from the passive seems to provide a very good defense against spells. Plus whatever spells gets past my block chance has 81% resist to deal with.
With the recent nerfs to HP and cheap auras, I finally purchased a pair of rainbow strides. The boots have now become necessary to take on the late game map bosses. IE crematorium boss and shrine boss. So now my opinion has changed. These boots are indeed amazing for the build, but IMO require a high level of gear to be used. To make it easy, until you reach 75+ maps, you really do not need these boots.
Is having ES important with this build? If so, how much ES should I aim for?
Yes. Aegis Aurora Grants 4% of your armor in ES each time you block. It is essentially why I can run without a life leech gem 90% of the time. I would suggest having at least 500 ES, but that is just my opinion. I used to run without discipline aura and my es was roughly 500, but I sure noticed when I began using discipline. Especially vs very fast attacking mobs.
And now that GGG has nerfed aura stacking, I am back down to just 3 auras and sadly Discipline did not make the cut. I currently have a tad over 1400 ES though, and feel good about it.
How mandatory do u find Unwavering Stance(US) for high level (70+) maps?
Unwavering stance is more for bosses than anything else. With 4k+ hp most high level map mobs can't stun me. But bosses can, and the build is mainly designed to be able to go toe to toe with map bosses, so that is why I choose to keep it, until I started using Cyclone.
You must also keep in mind that Unwavering Stance prevents the blocking animation from playing. Which is basically a stun. There are certain mobs that can stun you even with high hp. Mainly, I am talking about chargers (rhoas, and blackguards).
Why not use Determination instead of Vitality?
Simply put, you need all the hp regen you can get while using an attack linked to BM or you will end up killing yourself. Now, you will definitely want to keep a determination gem in your weapon swap to use for stasis maps since you cannot regen life anyways.
Once again, this is subject to change with your gear. IF/when you are able to obtain a Soul Taker and gear to match it, then determination becomes the aura of choice.
Why use Multistrike?
Multistrike does 2 things really. It helps with desync and the hassle of clicking on each target, and it improves the effectiveness of the little bit of life gain on hit I get from my rings.
A lot of people, including myself at first, doubt the awesomeness of such a small amount of LGOH. But let me tell you, between the 4% leech I have with less than 300 physical damage, and the 5 LGOH I have from my rings, I can actually out heal the hp cost of my IB attack on stasis maps. I can even go a very long time fighting before I have to use a pot. Ofc, I normally swap in a LL gem for these maps, but I wanted to see just how effective my tiny amount of lgoh and passive leech was. The results were very impressive. So, multistrike to me is a quality of life and defensive support in one. It allows me to hit multiple targets, inflicting my splash damage on more mobs, and it also allows me to attack so much faster which in turn regenerates more hp via life gain on hit. It is by no means required for the build. It is just my personal preference. After trying multistrike and seeing how well it works with infernal blow and splash, I was so impressed that it will forever have a spot in my build.
How much does lava lash really improve your dps?
I have often wondered how much lava lash increased my damage since I upgraded my gear. So, I spent another regret and found out :)
Lava lash dps fully buffed = 9751 No lava lash fully buffed = 9412 300+ dps gain for 1 skill point not too shabby!
Have you considered using Static Blows?
I have considered using static blows, but there are 2 reasons why I do not. The first is that you need some SERIOUS lightning damage to shock bosses. The second is, with just wrath I don't really have all that much lightning damage to begin with. Packs of monsters die very quickly, and if I were to spend 2 points in dps nodes, I would definitely spend them on the newly buffed physical nodes as those provide me with more hp/sec from leech.
Why not grab the amplify node near templar start?
I have thought about it. This question seems to get asked a lot. It is perfectly ok to grab this node, but I see it as a wasted 2 points that I can replace with gcps. In addition, the new splash radius buff has made the radius TONS better. I would actually say that now you can prob have a blast with just 20% total quality between both gems. 20 on BOTH gems is just insanely good now.
The main reason why I don't take blast radius is because I had an agenda for the build and have so few remaining talent points after. So, I felt like it was a necessity to spend them as wisely as possible and an increase to aoe radius and damage didn't fit the bill for 2 points.
Have you considered using glacial hammer and the 30% cold dmg node?
I use glacial hammer in maps with the ele reflect mod. The corpse explode from IB can sometimes cause surprise spike damage to you on magic packs with high hp such as rocks. Up until the recent buff to splash's radius I had not considered using GH full time. Without the aoe increase from both gems, splash used to feel very weak in terms of radius. It was a very noticeable difference when I swapped in my GH gem for ele reflect maps.
That is no longer the case now. With the buff to splash's radius I can absolutely see using it now. I still prefer IB personally, but sometimes you run with a group that dislikes all their precious corpses being blown up ^_^
How do you think Dominating Blow would work as a primary skill?
It does sound like such a cool idea that I had to give it a go. The problem with it is the minions are a LOT like skellies. They just wander around aimlessly and take forever to even get into combat that my overall clear speed was just bad. I was doing all the killing while my minions were slowly walking towards me.
So, I personally did not like it, but I am sure with some minion nodes or gear it could be fun. edit: Turns out, with Soul Taker this is insanely fun, and ultimately safe mode.
Helpful posts from others
Juhazzz vs 74 vaal smash with 92% extra dmg as lightning mod
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Apolyon34 with some very nice explainations and comparisons of potential changes to the build
" Ignore this. Just recording my thoughts.
IGNORE THIS
I told you to ignore this.
Seriously... Go away!
Why can't you respect my wishes?
DISCLAIMER! The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. Last edited by Dragon585#3483 on Apr 9, 2015, 5:29:45 AM
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Awesome guide, made a new character when I saw you facetanking merciless Kole.
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" Thanks :) First time making a guide so I am very glad you like it. DISCLAIMER!
The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. |
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I like the guide and videos. I will have to try this after I can find/afford some of the needed items.
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" I will add a leveling guide later, for now I am just to sleepy. The build is very very gear friendly up until the end of merciless. I had horrible gear until level 66. Anyways, when I wake up I will post a leveling section. DISCLAIMER!
The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. |
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Very nice guide and a very interesting build -- I learned a couple new things :)
Thanks for sharing! A couple questions: Does spell block work on blocking curses cast onto you? Do you know if spell block has a hard cap of 75% like regular block? Immortal King WW Marauder build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/348782/page/1 ign: Peresvet Last edited by Deen1983#6852 on May 16, 2013, 11:34:43 AM
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" No =/ block is a form of damage mitigation. Curses aren't a source of damage. " Yes, it does. DISCLAIMER! The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. Last edited by Dragon585#3483 on May 16, 2013, 11:42:40 AM
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Going to try to sleep now. Glad a few people like the guide so far :)
DISCLAIMER!
The views and expressed opinions of Dragon are solely those of a drunken redneck and are not necessarily those of a sane person. Any likeness of intelligence is strictly coincidental and should not be taken seriously. His posts should not be read... by anyone. |
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free bump for my friend.
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