[2.4] The Dy'Ness Tank

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Pi2rEpsilon wrote:

Bentwick, as Dy'Ness is taking an absence from POE for a few months and is thus unlikely to reply soon, let me tell you what I did and why it worked for me so far.

Note1: I am a new player playing softcore and have died more than a few times for that reason, but I believe that the skill progression I decided on should work well in hardcore for somebody aware of the potential dangers in the game and knowledge of how to use crafting/trading to his advantage. I have been playing solo, so can't say how much help I'd be when grouping or whether my clear speed of areas is low or high. Mostly I just stand there waving the flamethrower until things die, using healing pots before CI and granite pots after to save me, with Lightning Warp as an escape move until around level 70 or so when I decided I didn't need it any more.

Note2: I did NOT go with Fire Storm but with Incinerate because I couldn't stand the sound of the scion crying out loud with each Fire Storm cast. I used LMP until I found a GMP.

Note3: I was fortunate to have found a Karui Ward on my first character - the 30% increased projectile speed it offered was to awesome that even now, by level 78, I am still using it. I have also been using the best wand with increased projectile speed I have found. (If I'd been a veteran player I'd have been able to acquire a quality incinerate to give me range, but that was not an option at start.)

Note4: I possibly went CI later than a veteran player would have done, but I was so scared from the stories I'd read about going CI first, that I decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

Note4: While I did slot on CoDT as and when I acquired the gems, a key early component from the moment it became available was having a Herald of Thunder with CoH-Flammability in support and having Added Lightning Damage in the Incinerate's link; I can't (yet) afford to run HoT-Vit-Dis, but being able to switch between HoT-Dis (easy trash clearing) and Vit-Dis (bosses, general nastiness) has been very useful. Later it got replaced with a CoDT casting Enfeeble, but HoT is still there to use instead of Vit on trash, as the massive 11.1% regeneration is quite enough already.


So this is how my build went:

20pt - Initial foray into life generation.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTfnoaHTaYlNSRZ2a4OvuKPqCx7c-QYdTpQxfHKfGrp2upwi4kw==

37pt - Zealot's Oath, Light of Divinity, Elementalist, and more defenses.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTWh02mJTUkWdmuDr7ij6gsf56PfBGmydrqcIuJNTpQxfHKfGrrc-QYfVpuQigpvsOClP7SCiAOFzaPLwH1ugp1V8Dg18V8k=

54pt - All life regen nodes in the plan have been taken and the upper arm is reconnected via str+dex rather than str+str as I need dex for LMP/GMP support. Also Diamond Skin for an additional 15% elemental resistance - it can be specced out of when no longer needed.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTWh02mJTUkWdmuDr7ij6gsf56PfBGmydrqcIuJNTpQxfHKfGrtWm5CKCm-w4KU_tIKIA4XNo8vAfW6CnVXwOCfbUfAYOJ-3E9jwtGj58uCku8axXDdlhGS7EWPZIXz_yLw18V8mvbEz_

At this point the energy shield only gets a +30% max bonus and potions are frequently used despite the rapid regeneration of the energy shield, but that's about to change.


74pt - lots of defenses and Inner Force have been added, next up is CI - and then a mix of offense and defense with focus on defense.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTWh02mJTUkWdmuDr7ij6gsf56PfBGmydrqcIuJNTpQxfHKfGrtWm5CKCm-w4KU_tIKIA4XNo8vAfW6CnVXwOCfbUfAYOJ-3E9jwtGj58uCku8axXDdlhGS7EWPZIXz_yLw18V8nquhzckye0DG0ZIvRsCw2NGyXZW0uupys1uRFQxp4Qfwx9jHaePEz_r2zpAg==

87 pt - CI, Faith of the Savant, Harrier.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTWh02mJTUkWdmuDr7ij6gsf56PfBGmydrqcIuJNTpQxfHKfGrtWm5CKCm-w4KU_tIGjyW6CnVXwOCfbUfAYOJ-3E9jwtGj58uCku8axXDdlhGS7EWPZIXz_yLw18V8nquhzckye0DG0ZIvRsCw2NGyXZW0uupys1uRFQxp4Qfwx9jHaePEz_r2zpAlZjFdeGriy_wcV_xjdmNAqQ1iymgwlGceGIffW2hnxL

Note that I've picked up a +30 DEX node, Expertise, to keep supporting GMP, bringing the number of nodes that only exist due to lacking gear up to two.

98 pt Unnatural Calm, Celestial Judgement
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAlKDYTWh02mJTUkWdmuDr7ij6gsf56PfBGmydrqcIuJNTpQxfHKfGrtWm5CKCm-w4KU_tIGjyW6CnVXwOCfbUfAYOJ-3E9jwtGj58uCku8axXDdlhGS7EWPZIXz_yLw18V8nquhzckye0DG0ZIvRsCw2NGyXZW0uupys1uRFQxp4Qfwx9jHaePEz_r2zpAlZjFdeGriy_wcV_xjdmNAqQ1iymgwlGceGIffW2hnxLw21ca4RI99eboY9GRtdXKXGFwBq3MQ==

This is where I am now; I went for Unnatural Calm first, and by then I was able to farm merciless Dominus without any worries with around 5k ES, having to dodge some of his lighting attack, but tanking most of his damage. I've been farming him and learning how to do lowlevel (66-70) maps since then while upgrading my gear. The next obvious step is to pick up Celestial Punishment and then go for the NW aura node. With that I should be able to run HoT-ViT-Dis at the same time.

Again.. This was not hardcore. I can truly say that I've never really felt lacking in damage. I am now playing occasionally with a friend, and while his high level characters do more damage than mine while attacking, they are rather fragile by comparison and have some downtime when they are not attacking and instead trying to survive. I still die occasionally out of overconfidence, because there's something about this build that makes me feel immortal, but the deaths are few and far between and a hardcore player would be unlikely to make that particular mistake.

Still, we are both new players and these L70+ are out first, so perhaps our damage is low compared to the norm? I think that everything except bosses and elemental resist mobs dying in a few seconds in the long range (+52%) flamethrower is fast enough, but what would I know? Then again, if I'd wanted high damage rather than survivability, I'd not have gone for an ultimate tank build!

I crafted a 6L armour and my current main spell is thus:
Incinerate->Greater Multiple Projectiles->Mana Leech->Spell Echo->Fire Penetration->Faster Casting.