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prawda wrote:

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WUlf1337 wrote:

Redscar - 8 Auras Summonerduelist (atm lvl 55)


What is it about:
+ 4 "40% reserved" Auras (I go with: Hatred, Haste, Vitality, Purity but you can exchange them for your needs oc)
+ Anger, Wrath
Those 6 i always run.

So how does this work? With your nodes you get 20% reduced mana cost and with reduced mana cost support gem you can lower your 40% auras to 24%. If you have 4 of these Auras you end up having 4% mana left. Which is 40 if you have 1000 mana (and with your nodes i assume you don't have 1000 mana). How can you use any other Aura with a maximum of 40 mana left?

Like one said before: All 40% Auras run on the mana pool. The rest runs on the life pool.
Atm now: 650 life is reserved, at 1700 life in total. But I will skill definately more life with further lvl up and my gear is still......hm...so with more +life gear you can give this build a push here, oc. I also alrdy get +555 ES from disciplin and a decent amount of armor, so 1k actual life is ok. Just did a lvl 63 map yesterday without any problems (and it had -50% life reg, which is annoying as hell for this build). If you have any forther questions you can gimme also a whisper when I am online. If you might think you would need more defence from Discipline/Grace/Purity/whatever, just skill inner Force.

The only maps one can not do are "player can not reg life". The rest should be absolutely no problem.

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0nin wrote:

All I'm really lacking... is a spell to break open pots with :D

Try ethereal knives or rain of arrows

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Malice wrote:

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0nin wrote:

All I'm really lacking... is a spell to break open pots with :D

Try ethereal knives or rain of arrows

I would, but I don't have slots on my bar left!

Grainne - The Combat Pragmatist

This is a build I made to utilise Ethereal Knives (EKs) to its greatest potential. It focuses on getting a huge damage multiplier to support EKs good scaling, while using support gems and a few passives to solve the problems introduced by trying to maximise EK.

Here is the passive tree for this build that I am currently using (level 66).


The recommended main skill setups of this build are:
Clarity+Reduced Mana Cost
Discipline+Reduced Mana Cost
Hatred+Blood Magic Level 1 + Reduced Mana Cost Level 2
Grace+Reduced Mana Cost
Etheral Knives+Added Fire Damage+Faster Projectiles+Totem
Bear Trap + Added Fire Damage
Firestorm + Increased Duration + Concentrated Effect
Whirling Blades + Culling Strike
Projectile Weakness

The main items of this build are:



How does it work?

Using the hatred aura you can reduce your life down to 34% HP exactly. This puts in the HP range required of both pain attunement AND both redbeak weapons without any fiddling with HP values.

This means no investment in HP passives or items just to meet the constantly increasing costs of leveling up blood magic'd gems.

This gives you a ridiculous amount of %damage but at the huge cost of not only being constantly at low HP, but also not having a shield of any sort.

EK itself also has its own problems. . . a long casting time that is visually frustrating (as your character sits there doing nothing, unable to move) and an extremely high mana cost. It also has problems dealing with reflective auras... you can (and I have) end up 1 shotting yourself if you're not careful.

The solution to both these problems, survivability and EK usability relies on the totem support gem. With two totems out you not only have a DPS bonus but you gain amazing survivability by using the totems to scout outside your screen, or shoot things in rooms you dare not enter, or have one of them guard your rear. Also, a totem dying from reflect damage is only a nuisance, simply summon it again.

Totems also help with any possible server lag, and are quicker than you at targeting surprises. They also allow you to concentrate on avoiding damage and staying safe while DPS still happens.

Now... thats about all you need for this build. You can solo any map that doesn't have chaos damage per second or blood magic without any trouble and very quickly. It basically makes maps a joke.

But just in case there are many backups.

First; Bear Trap.

Even better scaling and DPS than Ethereal Knives, but as a trap its usefulness it limited to throwing them at the feet of bosses or rares (especially necromancers and totems).

But it, like the totem, offers huge survivability by allowing you to block off enterances and guard yourself from ambush. You can place it down it doorways, under your own feet, or next to your totem to trap and do ridiculous damage to the enemies.

I also use IIR (and if I had it, IIQ) on bear trap because it hits so hard its easy to use it as a finisher on bosses.

Firestorm is helpful for enemies which are extremely physically resistant and with concentrated effect, low-life damage bonuses and a bear trap to stop them moving, does DPS nearly on par with your main skills, even with only a few fire oriented passives.

Projectile Weakness increases your Totem's damage even further, and with two of them shooting Ethereal Knives out mobs often find themselves knocked about and flinched with no recourse other than death.

Whirling Blades is used as an escape or dodging tool. If there is a chaos bullet spiralling towards you, sometimes only Whirling Blades can save you. But if you follow the rules of the combat pragmatist, you should rarely find yourself in this situation.

I'm planning on using Culling Strike with Whirling Blades just as a last resort, you never know when you might need to kill something at 10% ASAP and this might just help you out in this situation. The combat pragmatist should always be prepared.


Rules of the combat pragmatist:
-Never Put Yourself Directly in the Line of Fire
-Always Make the Best Use of Your Tools
-Always Scout Ahead
-Always Cover Your Back
-Don't Be Afraid to Retreat and Try Again

Follow these rules and you'll always achieve success.






Now, you'll notice I use both Magnate and Deshrets Vice, this is because they add a nice amount of physical damage... but you'll also note they add a HUGE amount of strength.

Now, unfortunately I only have this armor:


You'll note its only 5l and it has mostly blue sockets. If I had a good 6l armor with 3 red 2 green and 1 blue socket... then you could run the ideal Ethereal Knives setup:

Etheral Knives + Added Fire Damage + Iron Will + Faster Projectiles + Faster Casting + Totem.

This would give you even more ridiculous amounts of damage (especially with faster casting, since damage% is already so high).

At which point I would pick up the Might passives in the skill tree to get a bit more strength to boost my EK totem with.

Also, the shoes are just there for the +100 IIR at low life, it's just handy to have since I'm at low life all the time but you could swap it for something else.

Current paperdoll DPS against a defenseless opponent.

EK totem x2 = ~3100 x2 = 6200 DPS * 1.32 (Proj Weakness) = ~8200 DPS

Firestorm = 600 Average Fireball Damage @ 1 fireball per 0.15 seconds = ~4200 DPS over 2.14 Seconds (assuming every single fireball hits).

Firestorm cast speed = 0.68 meaning I can have approximately 3x Firestorms up at the one spot all the time.

4200*3 = 12600 DPS. Note that if it isn't a HUGE target or it moves around this DPS will be severely reduced.

Beartrap = ~24400 DPS until you run out of traps.

I can kill Vaal in merc with this setup before he can disappear after summoning mobs.


One last thing:

If you're really careful and think out your actions and fight like a true combat pragmatist... you don't really need tank of any kind at all.

All that being said, I do use discipline and grace auras since I have the mana for it and I might as well add a little tank in case I make a mistake here and there.

And if you get into trouble there are a few things that can help you.



ALWAYS use these defensively (unless you're trying to kill Vaal instantly :-)).

It may seem weird to use critical pots defensively... but this character can die in split seconds (especially against chaos damage) and so if something manages to get upto you you NEED to be able to kill it ASAP or get out of there ASAP.

Crits can help kill, but also with the cold damage from Hatred it will also freeze any mob that jumps you allowing you time to escape and whirling blade off into another room.

If you use crit pots offensively you'll find that really you don't need it at all (your DPS is enough to wipe out entire rooms in a second or two) but also you'll find that you don't have the resources to escape some sitations if you make a mistake.


That is all, thats my build. Hope it gets featured... will probably get nerfed too :-(.




Edit: Oh, also I use this to refill after zoning to redo all my auras :-).



Edit2:


Thereotical Max Build

Note the loss of fire elemental passives. I only have them because I don't really want to respec them right now and it still does add a bit of DPS on firestorm and added fire damage.

I also switched the Agility nodes over to Might to help with Iron Will (which would be used in a theretically maxed build). You would have to make up any dex requirements with equipment stats (and also, equipment stats will help buff your STR as well :-) ).

When Hell freezes over - Conversion Templar

Character name: TehWillOfTehTemplar

The foundation of this build are arguably the 2 best keystones for a Marauder - Resolute Technique and Unwavering Stance. This gives your character absolute reliability both offensively and defensively.

The main single target DPS skill is Glacial Hammer. The build takes advantage of the conversion of physical damage to cold damage, along with the unique glove Hrimsorrow, allowing the attack to benefit from both physical and elemental bonuses. Single element nodes such as Lava Lash and Ice Bite are taken as well, to benefit from Cold to Fire support gem when I get 5 linked sockets.

The lack of blood magic allows me to use the blood magic support gem to manage my 4 auras more effectively. Since my mana pool isn't that great, percentage based auras actually reserve less mana than certain static cost auras. Currently I only run Grace, Anger and Hatred, as my blood magic and 2nd Reduced Mana gems are fairly low level. As they get higher and I get better socketed gear I'll probably throw in Wrath and Determination / Haste.

I run without mana flasks as I tackle bosses and groups with more of a kiting hit and run style, using the attack boost from Phase Run against tougher bosses. Temporal Chains make this easier against groups.

The tree is set up so that at high levels where progression is much slower much clearer benefits can be gotten with not many nodes.

Troll's blood - 3 nodes away, also benefit from taking lesser damage from criticals.

Weapon elemental damage from Ranger tree

Armor Master is right there ready to be unlocked when need be.

Amplify - 2 nodes

Blood Mage

I have been experimenting with blood magic passive and using spells, and have become extremely happy with this build. The idea was to make a mage character that has no mana, relies on the blood magic keystone passive and due to stacking life regen is quite a solid character.

I have cleared maps with elemental damage reflect, reduces resistances + monster elemental damage and chaos damage per second and done reasonable well.

Link to current passive tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQEABI6nnApl2U4K_CqvDTEnnA4m5EUSIY8jE2sjvhZeWGkX4RQPF-8Y3iGddDIphsCPMZNJ9zQ2tWo3lwhEPhVrckcSK3RHPIy5R12Cwkf7p3hKxdMKS6dv_UuvP5dOYownUYdNylNPbMJT-uivVHnnAFYlF_9ZfOmhW3nBl1upQbFgRwTJZ2J6umfpMtRyoJ9TcvYIf3yGyhmCqinEg17vB4OIsqqE1xwSheVX3ImDkySW1QR6mm2JR5tvQkqiN6h2p5h6kaoOCjCqSAHzrVAYKq5zcQOvyxOpt4Dgabei0Gq51kRhu4pAGbuX94m9-6lxwL_LyMiZvQLJeg_6yo6YiMtBHRHL1RfPzbEgV9E0PdfRSC0o0z_we9ntbQPdI1F43bR_EecJ6irpT-_A7de5ePdmO0n3kn3N-JMbnP8_eiOTaLVo

Plan to get more life regen in the middle, then perhaps more %HP bonuses.

Main Skill- Sparks: faster casting, life leech, iron will, added lightning damage.

Secondary skill- raise zombie: minion damage, minion life, added fire damage

Support Skills

Rejuvenation Totem
Elemental Weakness (both linked to these): increased duration, reduced mana

Anger

Wrath

Lightning Warp

This build does heavy elemental damage. The two auras add lightning and fire damage to my zombie's attacks, they also have bonus fire damage too. The zombies are great as they serve as a distraction, stopping monsters wailing on me.

Sparks is the main skill. It has iron will so strength bonus damage is applied to sparks. Life leech is a very strong support gem for this also, it makes elemental damage reflection and just the normal HP cost of sparks much easier to handle.

Sparks is also great, since the sparks jump around. This allows indiscriminate firing, hitting monsters around corners and clearing rooms by casting into doorways.

Rejuv totem helps keep me and my zombies alive. It is also a must have on -50% regeneration maps.

Elemental weakness is usually used against bosses and champion monsters, especially against elemental resistance ones.

Lightning warp is useful and allows teleporting around some obstacles or out of trouble.

Strengths: this build is very strong. stacking strength has the benefit of giving more HP, which gives more life regen, as well as boosting sparks damage.



Is a very nice item for this build- 20% spell damage and no casting penalty!

High life regen means that when I take damage I usually heal it back very quickly.

Sparks will also bounce around. Can clear rooms by standing in doorways and spamming. It works great! No need to really aim. Or spam a lot of sparks ahead outdoors and then run up and watch everything die.

The zombies have almost no passive tree or gear buffs. They are there to serve as a distraction and to blow up and kill things. Rejuv totem means they have some survivability. The two aruas though, coupled with the elemental weakness curse mean they can dish out a lot of damage.

Weaknesses: no agility means I cannot wear evasion armour. Blood magic also stops energy shield from regenerating, meaning the only really useful armour is strength armour. Due to the way socket colours work this makes it difficult to get blue sockets on good items. Be prepared to use lots of chromatic orbs :(

The other weakness is maps that stop health and mana regeneration. This build relies 100% on life regeneration. I haven't bothered even trying.

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Gelsamel wrote:

How does it work?

Using the hatred aura you can reduce your life down to 34% HP exactly. This puts in the HP range required of both pain attunement AND both redbeak weapons without any fiddling with HP values.

Do you survive a single hit by chaos dmg dealers (esp the additional projectiles dudes in vaal ruins and pyramid) or will it blend on HC ?

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prawda wrote:

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Gelsamel wrote:

How does it work?

Using the hatred aura you can reduce your life down to 34% HP exactly. This puts in the HP range required of both pain attunement AND both redbeak weapons without any fiddling with HP values.

Do you survive a single hit by chaos dmg dealers (esp the additional projectiles dudes in vaal ruins and pyramid) or will it blend on HC ?

I also run this build (as a Templar, not as a Witch), and the answer is no, not even with a ton of strength and life passives and a Geofri's Crest. It's far too easy to turn a corner into vaal constructs and be dead before you know it (or chaos snakes, or poison arrow skeletons, or...).

Actually, I -can- usually survive one single hit from normal strength chaos damage dealers. That means not getting hit by more than 2 bullets of a multishot nor getting hit by a particularly strong chaos damage dealer.

But more than one single hit? No, I can't. Thats why you need to use your totems and traps effectively or a serpent might rush upto you and kill you before you realise it's there.

Hey,

here is my dual-totem EK build with CI

and the forum thread for it: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/50923

more hit-proof+ice spear and less entertaining build.