The Headbang Gang 2.0 - Raging Spirits madness - now with cheap version + leveling guide

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MatrixFactor wrote:

Not bad actually. (It still doesn't get used in optimal setup without EE)

taking into account the fact that CS will, duh, cull monsters?

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MatrixFactor wrote:

Also I'm sad about atziri. I managed to do vaals deathless, and I think trio can be done deathless (I managed to do it in 2 deaths for both of my attempts) using echo-ec dur-ic. But the atziri mirror phase I have no idea how to do. I feel like this may be where we need saffell's and double purities. With flasks and saffell's we could hit 100 res. Since we can't leech or refill flasks, it's a question of killing the clones until we can recharge flasks during the feeding phase. As a result it's not obvious if we should be using enfeeble or ele weakness, etc.

A guy in the 1MSC streams himself (Username: TwistedCyborg, I think) farming Atziri. He has no problem with Vaal (except sometimes one of them dies instantly) and for the trio (also deathless. I think he uses enfeeble; can't remember.) he kills the tittybitch first while kiting around the others. Then he walks into a corner and casts a skelebrotem and then kills the cycloner (cycloner and dual striker focus the skeletons), and then he facetanks the dual striker (it dies quickly). Before the Atziri fight, he summons Zombies and Spectres to tank. He runs in there and desecrates corpses in the middle of the room (w/o activating the fight) and places an arc totem in the center. He starts the Atziri fight and casts Flesh Offering. She usually goes into split phase immediately. Sometimes he will die during the split phase, but it usually helps him because he resummons zombies/specters. Zombies live long enough to finish the split phase. Rinse and repeat.

His setup was a 6L CoD (Don't know the links, except Inc Duration for bosses and Melee Splash for mobs.), wand/shield, Alpha's Howl. Auras were Hatred, Haste, PoL, Clarity. He did not have IR. His tree looked very similar to PeppermintButler's tree.

On another note, I'm thinking about respeccing my zombie summoner witch into a SRS summoner in 1.2. Original plan was to respec into ele wander, but I feel like auras and crit are going to be changed. I picked up a 16q and 17q SRS for a chaos each and I'm about to buy a +3 staff. Iheard that 1.2 will make 6S/6L less RNG-gated, so I'm considering waiting until then to link my staff.

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blaes wrote:

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MatrixFactor wrote:

Not bad actually. (It still doesn't get used in optimal setup without EE)

taking into account the fact that CS will, duh, cull monsters?

Yes taking 90% EHP into account (check my code if youre math/programming literate).

landrew: I think summons may be the key to doing the split phases. They distract the clones enough to let us DPS one down. I will try it once I get a setup like Pepper's current (6L lightning + saffell's).

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sherkhan wrote:

I started off with Ball Lightning + GMP + Blind totem, tried self-cast arc for a second, and ended up with Arc + Faster Casting + Blind totem.

This really shines when you're specced into IR, as it means all those fast moving enemies don't hit you.

My playstyle is to cast the totem, spam skulls, cast flesh offering on the first death, spam skulls. Things die so fast that I don't have time to curse, so I've started carrying a defensive curse just in case.

Good points. I may have to try -blind. I would have to replace my cwdt-ec which is nice since it provides a 12% reduction against all damage, not just phys like blind would.

Also I suggest you cast 6 SRS (3 casts) before placing totem/applying curse. I believe the breakeven point you want to aim for is when (DPS of active spirits)*(Extra DPS from curse)=(DPS of additional spirit)*(Time to cast curse/summon totem).

I believe the optimal order is 6 spirits - curse - totem - flesh offering - repeat spirits. In easy content 6 spirits - totem (if you use a defnsive curse like I've started using) - flesh offering.

Just an idea I had regarding tanking/decoy/proccing EE - has anyone played around with Spell Totem + Summon Skeletons + Added Lightning Damage + Blind/Minion Life/MS/FA etc? A potential problem is spell totem overriding the skeletons before they can hit the enemy, but with a level 16+ SS and +4 max from the tree, that's 10 skeletons (or 5 casts before they get replaced by new ones). I also realise the skeletons might just get instagibbed in higher level content as well.

EDIT: Actually, just realised that the skeletons won't proc EE so nevermind lol.

The problem with minions in this build is that you don't need them with normal mobs and they die too quickly to bosses. Currently I did away with tanking minions completely and changed my arc totem to this. The ball lightning is a great delivery vehicle for Blind and Chance to Flee and it procs EE. I been using this the last couple of days and it proven itself to be quite useful against mobs and bosses.

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IchiMorghulis wrote:

The problem with minions in this build is that you don't need them with normal mobs and they die too quickly to bosses. Currently I did away with tanking minions completely and changed my arc totem to this. The ball lightning is a great delivery vehicle for Blind and Chance to Flee and it procs EE. I been using this the last couple of days and it proven itself to be quite useful against mobs and bosses.

I hadn't considered chance to flee, are rares/bosses still immune to it?

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Hojirozame wrote:

I hadn't considered chance to flee, are rares/bosses still immune to it?

They are, making that totem pure blind against a boss (and useless with spellcaster bosses). As a boss fightning totem, I think I like skeletotem more.

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DLimited wrote:

Is there any way we can make the Staff version Atziri-safe? Purity of Fire, Minion Life nodes/gem so they can tank a flameblast and keep attacking. Movespeed nodes to run around faster and manually dodge spells. Cast minions when you are safe to do so, even just having 4-5 out should be pretty good DPS.

I just did Atziri in the 1month-league with the staff version. I'll link you my build and gear.

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sherkhan wrote:

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PepprmintButler wrote:

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Hojirozame wrote:

I hadn't considered chance to flee, are rares/bosses still immune to it?

They are, making that totem pure blind against a boss (and useless with spellcaster bosses). As a boss fightning totem, I think I like skeletotem more.

Eh, I fail to see the need for any minion buffers. Totem, arc, faster casting, blind had the benefit of being faster to drop. Against caster bosses it's only proccing ee, but that doesn't affect the fight too much. I guess you could swap in skellies + faster attacks / trap for those bosses if you're having problems killing them.

I'm finishing alched 78 maps with 2400 hp and MoM off the tree. Very bizarre.

I agree for regular bosses. It may be useful until you have enough survivability. It may also be useful for atziri. (Though i'm starting to think it may be easier to make some WoE base atziri specialed killer than bother with doing her with SRS.)

About blind: it's 12% chance to proc and then it's 75% chance to miss. Within one hit the expected reduction is .12*.75=0.09. Within 2 hits you have 1-(1-0.12)^2=23% chance to blind. The expected reduction is .23*.75=17.2%. Within 3 hits the expected reduction is 32%*75%=24%. So adding blind provides more expected reduction than CwDT-EC if we expect it to hit 2+ times. That's why I think ball lightning+blind is nice. You have a bunch of hits per mob. Arc + Blind I'm not sure, I'll have to test it. But I think ele-prolif or just keeping it as a 3-link may be better.

I'm also experimenting with MoM from tree, but with 690 unreserved and 294 reg/sec it's a bit awkward. Still fine for most content, and party play. Just when I play solo I always leap into the middle of mobs and sometimes they hit me in quick succession and I can't cast. :P