[1.1.1] Evantis's Permastun Build and Stun Compedium

Looks like a fun build!

I might've missed it, but why do you not use endurance charges? Might add some survivability (and cheaper on gear as you might not need as much resists on them).

If you'd replace "Added fire" with "endurance charge on stun", would you still be able to permastun mobs? While you would reduce the total damage (no added fire) you would gain reduced stun threshold (with endurance charge on stun) and stun duration (quality on that gem)...

Trigger gems will be a big defensive boost to this build because you can use "trigger when stunned" and "trigger when xxx damage taken"

And in a 4 link make them cast, enduring cry, molten shell

This boosts survivability a lot more then casting them yourself because it lets you keep attacking (stunning) while receiving defensive boosts

Tempest shield with blind could also be handy if you feel you need more survivability (depending on mana)

My friend and I are around level 20 now and im slowly gathering the gear but wont make anything final until after full release

the good thing about this build is that it does not need to go through the centre of the tree so it shouldnt affect it as much

"

Looks like a fun build!

I might've missed it, but why do you not use endurance charges? Might add some survivability (and cheaper on gear as you might not need as much resists on them).

If you'd replace "Added fire" with "endurance charge on stun", would you still be able to permastun mobs? While you would reduce the total damage (no added fire) you would gain reduced stun threshold (with endurance charge on stun) and stun duration (quality on that gem)...

I do not use endurance charges because I don't need them. I have maxed resists (Purity, one 12% res all node and two 10% res all while using shield nodes), and for high-armour-needed situations I use Molten shell+granite flask. I tried to replace Added fire with ECoS, but it lowers my DPS by over 3000, and makes me unable to permastun map bosses and Exiles. My goal for this character is being able to permastun every monster on the map. I don't think it will be possible to permastun map bosses again with fully leveled ECoS (don't have any high level one, so I started leveling ECoS in the body armour), but since you asked, I will check it.

I'm glad you like it, there are some more tweaks possible to do, so I'm not abandoning it yet.

Thanks for your reply :)

Still had a free respec on a level 81 (98 points) Duelist from closed beta and gave your build a try. Seems to be working just fine! Sometimes it feels a little like a Glas-canon (only 3.2k life - 2.9k with Grace on life), but with a little preparation I was able to tank Temple Piety (Saffell's shield + topaz flask for 95% lightning resistance) and did a dry peninsula map without any problems.

I made some (very minor) changes to your build (took the 2x6% life nodes + WED in templar area and went for Iron Reflexes) and am using Tempest Shield (for extra Block chance) on Mana as well as Determination, Hatred & Purity. I'm also using Grace on Life.

Had Lioneyes Remorse in my stash, so am using that as a shield and as such am able to get 71% block chance (and a total of 57% physical damage reduction) :)


Thumbs up for an amazing Melee build that is able to survive high level maps solo!



Edit: The only thing I find slightly annoying is the Knockback with heavy strike... :D

Edit 2: Regarding the bandit rewards... You suggest to take Attack speed rather than the 18% physical. While I do agree with you that AS would give an overall higher DPS than the 18% in the endgame, I still think that it might be better to take the physical damage.

Interesting guide! what sort of dps are you currently pulling in order to perma stun those big bosses? I see that you typically take them down in about 20+ hits (which makes sense since stun threshold only goes down to 3.1% with 150% reduced threshold). Just wanted a guideline on how much damage i should be pulling in order to achieve the 20+ hits. thanks!

This build is looking very interesting and is very inspiring. But I'm doubting your current build is HC viable considering how low % increased life it has (118%). Nonetheless, it's a good and informative post that has inspired me to try and play around with stun mechanics.

Guys, there are some bad news and some good news to my guide.

Bad news first, I did made several mistakes. Some comes just now, in the endgame, some of them are fixable, some not (yet).
- First mistake was taking 8% speed from Bandits (Pes_Planus you're right of course, I just forgot to write it before). 18% physical damage is better.
- Second mistake was not taking Endurance charge from bandits (I'm starting implementing Endurance Charge on Stun gem to my build and it does works better than I previously thought)
- Third mistake was taking Berserking node (15% AS). I dropped it yesterday for tests, nothing changed in the gameplay, and 3 points more to use.
- Fourth mistake, not using Tempest shield. Already implemented it on mana.

So please learn on my mistakes and don't make them by yourself.

The good news is I think I found the way to increase my damage to the level which I believe finally will give me chance to permastun Maze Vaal. And fortunately it does not require spending 7-8 exalts on Ming's Amethyst ring. Not spoiling it yet because it requires much more testing, but I can promise I will tell you in a few days.

My current skill tree I'm going to is:


I need two Reduced mana reservation nodes for one of changes I'm implementing to the build. Not 100% sure if it will work well, but for Berserking node I am sure it can be dropped.

"

I made some (very minor) changes to your build (took the 2x6% life nodes + WED in templar area and went for Iron Reflexes) and am using Tempest Shield (for extra Block chance) on Mana as well as Determination, Hatred & Purity. I'm also using Grace on Life.

I tested WED jewelry once, put off my LL amulet and put on one with "30% increased Elemental Damage with Weapons" affix. Damage increase was barely noticeable, so I instantly dropped away thoughts about using Lava Lash or Catalyse nodes.

"

Had Lioneyes Remorse in my stash, so am using that as a shield and as such am able to get 71% block chance (and a total of 57% physical damage reduction) :)

I'm goint to change my shield to LR too, but I don't have enough resistances to do it yet.

"

Thumbs up for an amazing Melee build that is able to survive high level maps solo!

Thank you, I really appreciate it and it motivates me to polishing it even more.

"

Interesting guide! what sort of dps are you currently pulling in order to perma stun those big bosses? I see that you typically take them down in about 20+ hits (which makes sense since stun threshold only goes down to 3.1% with 150% reduced threshold). Just wanted a guideline on how much damage i should be pulling in order to achieve the 20+ hits. thanks!

I will answer this when I'll be back home, in about 10 hours.

"

Evantis wrote:

"

Thumbs up for an amazing Melee build that is able to survive high level maps solo!

Thank you, I really appreciate it and it motivates me to polishing it even more.

"

Evantis wrote:

Bad news first, I did made several mistakes. Some comes just now, in the endgame, some of them are fixable, some not (yet).

Don't be too harsh - you designed a build that was able to solo end game maps. As a melee. So it clearly worked :)

"

Evantis wrote:

- Second mistake was not taking Endurance charge from bandits (I'm starting implementing Endurance Charge on Stun gem to my build and it does works better than I previously thought)

So it does lower stun threshold enough to permastun mobs?
If that is the case, you could get up to 7 endurance charges through passives and bandit reward. Those 7 would provide 35% damage reduction themselves (and ele resists). That way you could skip Iron reflexes (and save a bunch of points) and might even be able to drop the determination (and grace) aura. If that would be the case you wouldn't need the two "-5% mana reserved" and save those 2 points as well.

-> Another option would be to replace Melee Splash with Added Fire for bosses. That would depend on how much your stun threshhold decrease is, but as you said, anything over 75% provides diminishing returns and I doubt you'd need more than 110% (see: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Stun).

"

Evantis wrote:

- Third mistake was taking Berserking node (15% AS). I dropped it yesterday for tests, nothing changed in the gameplay, and 3 points more to use.

I suppose that depends on your attack speed and stun duration increase. But good to know!

"

Evantis wrote:

The good news is I think I found the way to increase my damage to the level which I believe finally will give me chance to permastun Maze Vaal. And fortunately it does not require spending 7-8 exalts on Ming's Amethyst ring. Not spoiling it yet because it requires much more testing, but I can promise I will tell you in a few days.

Haha excellent - looking forward to that!

"

Evantis wrote:

I tested WED jewelry once, put off my LL amulet and put on one with "30% increased Elemental Damage with Weapons" affix. Damage increase was barely noticeable, so I instantly dropped away thoughts about using Lava Lash or Catalyse nodes.

Sorry I didn't explain myself properly... I took the 2 6% life nodes + and as such it saved me some points going through WED nodes - Like that: http://goo.gl/AbHuY7

However, if you would pick up the end charge up there that wouldn't matter and you could take the 2 str nodes for some extra life & physical damage: http://goo.gl/Fbrp1B


Your build worked great on the Duelist I had, but because I really do like your build and a Marauder looks much coller with BoR than the Duelist, I'm leveling a Marauder atm :D

So I'll have a play around with the passives a little and let you know how I get on.

Edit: I think this is the build I am going to try out:http://goo.gl/MfUkFu

"

dlrr wrote:

Interesting guide! what sort of dps are you currently pulling in order to perma stun those big bosses? I see that you typically take them down in about 20+ hits (which makes sense since stun threshold only goes down to 3.1% with 150% reduced threshold). Just wanted a guideline on how much damage i should be pulling in order to achieve the 20+ hits. thanks!

I can say 2500 minimum damage per hit is a little too little for permastunning many map bosses, with 95% REST. Then 3000 is more than enough for almost all except Maze Vaal and some high hp Exiles.

"

Main queries for me atm:
1) ECoS instead of Added Fire Damage enough to permastun?
2) If so, would the 7 end charges provide enough armour, so that IR (+grace&determination can be dropped) -> I'm aiming for about 70ish %?

- Dex & Int is only 74 each, so would need to get that on gear
- Attack Speed enough to permastun mobs?

- That build is at 100 points (level 83ish)
- after that I think I'll take the 2x2% Block nodes in the Duelist tree to cap my block chance @ 75% and pick up all the other damage nodes :D

1) No, when I dropped AFD I wasn't able to permastun almost any map boss.
2) After nerf Endurance charges gives 4% not 5% physical damage reduction. I think 7 charges would give you enough armour for dropping IR+Grace (I have really shitty items in case of armour), I think 70% is possible to get.
3) Attack speed is correlated with stun duration increase, get the second on one belt, weapon, maybe quality some gems and over 2 attacks per second is not necessary.
4) Your idea to another way for 4% block Marauder node is great, implemented it :)

There are some successes and fails in this week's "Buildcrafting with Evantis". Unfortunately playing alone requires tons of currency, so progress is much slower... but every victory makes happy and proud 5 times more.

Lessons learnt in this week:
1) Endurance charge on Stun works VERY well with this build, in fact this gem works like Endurance charge on Hit :) Every attack adds charge, what lets me forget about reflect damage issue. They give better survivability than Tempest shield. I'm thinking about permanent Immortal call (with Increased duration support) now :)
2) Talking about Tempest shield - it is nice to have, but not must have. Since I needed 2 nodes for my biggest change when using TS, I decided to don't use.
3) I have very nice high physical damage. Why not let go Blood mana gem and use Mana leech instead? And so I did, changed my right ring to 1% mana leech one, which is enough for playing. Also, I dropped TS after this change because mana leech is not instant and there were some serious attacking problems with TS.
4) The biggest change which I implemented to the build gave my great amount of damage. I asked myself "how to use Stun mechanic even better, are there any more synergies" and I found that :),

So...

- stunned monsters deal no damage
- dealing no damage means I can be on full life
- can I use being on full life somehow?
- yes I can! :)


With those 2 beauties, I am able to get from average AoE damage (with ECoS and Melee splash)


to single target burst damage (with MDoFL and Stun gem)


which is sick.

Especially with my 43% Vulnerability, which gives total about 30000 damage per second.

Yes, it is. It's sick.

It cost about 2 exalts (gcps, regrets, amu), but it was worth it. And because one picture is worth more than 100 words, let me show you this week's achivements:

- Permastunning 73 Cells boss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqyS9lRIqHM
- Permastunning 75 Plateau boss www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3PPQIrYxYs
- Fail attempt to permastun 74 Maze Vaal (looks like REST from ECoC is not enough) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSr32qRhp8
- Permastunning 77 Shipyard boss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqt0th3kA4U
- Permastunning 77 Shrine Piety first form (second ice form 2-shotted me unfortunatelly before I managed to hit her) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoaFIhP5iwQ

Current build, after tons of tests, wins and loses, looks today:


PS Did I already say I have 215 life regeneration per second with 6 charges, which basically is... all the time? :)

Your build seems interesting but a little messy:D Can u change your main post with the changes you made? I think you are still working on it so maybe thats why you ve not done it yet..Anyway great job as i can see on your videos..Good luck and have fun:D