[3.2]Blink & Mirror Arrow Necromancer * Shaper down * Build of the Week * Deadeye version added*

I really like how easily this build can switch between offensive and defensive setups (Projectile Weakness + Elemental Weakness to Temporal Chains + Enfeeble, Flesh Offering to Bone Offering, Drillneck quiver to Rearguard etc.)

However I have a question regarding MOM + EB. I've thought a lot about this but I don't see the benefits of these 2 nodes considering:
1. The unreserved mana remaining is sufficient without using EB
2. Your EHP is higher without MOM + EB if your ES pool is high (as you use 100% of your ES instead of only partially), and if your ES pool is low you would not want to run MOM + EB anyway due to the reasons you have highlighted in the guide
3. The 4 skill points saved could be used to gain more life / ES

Also, for a build that's not running MOM + EB, do you think this Spirit Offering setup is comparable to Bone Offering as a defensive option:

There are a few reasons I favor MoM/EB. Let me propose to you a scenario:

My build has MoM/EB with 5k life + 2k ES. Your build has 5.5k life + 2k ES. We are both fighting Guardian of the Minotaur.
Rocks start to fall and deal 2k damage to us both. My character is reduced to 3600 life + 1400 ES. I can immediately pop an instant flask and then I will have 5000 life + 1400 ES.

On the other hand, your character is reduced to 5.5k life. You cannot flask because you are at full life. The minotaur uses a slam attack that we both fail to dodge. My character is able to tank a 6400 damage slam, while yours can only tank 5500 damage.

As you can see, having MoM/EB allows us to use life flasks earlier when taking damage, allowing for better sustain during a bossfight. Generally, when going head-to-head with a boss, you will be taking damage from their autoattacks / other adds in the arena, you rarely will be on full life + ES unless you have the dodging skills of a god. So even though you have more eHP on paper, the sustain of my build feels a little bit better.

The other benefit of MoM/EB is that you can run no-regen maps, without using mana flasks. Although that is admittedly a small benefit :]

The argument that you could have a higher ehp pool with life+ES, I believe is truly irrelevant in 3.0. Energy Shield is simply too hard to acquire for this build. I struggle to top 2k ES with my high end gear. To get past 2.5k ES, you would need to take a lot of inefficient ES nodes on the skilltree, which are nodes you could be spending on life instead.

I have tried a cwdt spirit offering before, and I still have to make up my mind about it. I saw an interesting build that someone made using Heartbound Loop and that cwdt setup. Every 3 seconds your minions expire and trigger heartbound loop and you take damage, so every 3 seconds you trigger spirit offering. Still unexplored territory there.

Thanks for the detailed reply! I did think about that scenario, but forgot to update my post. It is definitely a good reason to go MoM/EB, but I still have a few lingering doubts:

1. To compare the effects of MoM/EB vs without, I made this chart using my actual stats in 4 levels (lvl 91), depending on whether I use the 4 points to get life or MoM/EB: https://i.imgur.com/35MnM38.png (Assuming that life flask is spammed immediately to recover life to full and the second hit comes before ES has time to recover)

After one hit, MoM/EB is better in all 3 situations, but after a second hit, the life build is doing better in some situations, especially if the hits were large hits, with the added benefit that there will be no risk to your mana pool.

I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both:

MoM/EB
+ Better EHP after taking a hit
+ Better EHP after taking multiple small hits
- Risk of depleting your mana completely

Life
+ Better EHP for an initial large hit (unlikely)
+ Better EHP after taking multiple large hits
- ES cannot recover if constantly being hit

However, I understand that this is just theorycrafting and I have not done any hard content to say for sure which feels better in battle. I did try MoM/EB for a while but stuns and mana depletion were very annoying.

2. How do you deal with stun? With ES we get 50% stun prevention, and with ZO it's up quite often. However, with EB we lose that.

Interesting point about the no-regen map though, I really hate that mod right now lol

So do your characters buffs get copied over to clones or is it just a visual thing? I always assumed they did but frenzy charges don't seem to make a difference.

"

Emanon wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply! I did think about that scenario, but forgot to update my post. It is definitely a good reason to go MoM/EB, but I still have a few lingering doubts:

1. To compare the effects of MoM/EB vs without, I made this chart using my actual stats in 4 levels (lvl 91), depending on whether I use the 4 points to get life or MoM/EB: https://i.imgur.com/35MnM38.png (Assuming that life flask is spammed immediately to recover life to full and the second hit comes before ES has time to recover)

After one hit, MoM/EB is better in all 3 situations, but after a second hit, the life build is doing better in some situations, especially if the hits were large hits, with the added benefit that there will be no risk to your mana pool.

I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both:

MoM/EB
+ Better EHP after taking a hit
+ Better EHP after taking multiple small hits
- Risk of depleting your mana completely

Life
+ Better EHP for an initial large hit (unlikely)
+ Better EHP after taking multiple large hits
- ES cannot recover if constantly being hit

However, I understand that this is just theorycrafting and I have not done any hard content to say for sure which feels better in battle. I did try MoM/EB for a while but stuns and mana depletion were very annoying.

2. How do you deal with stun? With ES we get 50% stun prevention, and with ZO it's up quite often. However, with EB we lose that.

Interesting point about the no-regen map though, I really hate that mod right now lol

All great points, stun really is a big deal for this build and it's definitely an advantage for hybrid. Brine King pantheon was a nice blessing in 3.0, and I was lucky to get 80% chance to avoid stun on my boots. My EB/MOM version hasnt really solved stun, though... just been relying on my block / stibnite flask in hard maps. For no-regen maps, I actually use Spirit Offering instead of bone/flesh offering. In normal maps I rarely get ES depleted, but do note that I have 2k ES which is extremely difficult to get in 3.0 unless you have some %inc ES on the skilltree. Considering how hard it is to stack ES now, it might be far more comfortable to just run a mana flask with hybrid build, I'll have to try it out.

"

So do your characters buffs get copied over to clones or is it just a visual thing? I always assumed they did but frenzy charges don't seem to make a difference.

Visual only. So that your clones can fool enemies in pvp.

Where did you see that the cap was lifted? I can't seem to find it. It is a very important factor to this build.

It's not in patch notes. But all you have to do is equip a quill rain and see the massive difference.

Tried Shaper for the first time on my BAMA char and ended up did it deathless :)

with quite normal gears/jewels, and 5L/6L, and single curse. Hybrid life/ES instead of MOM/EB.

Been enjoying it really much, love to see it got buffed a lot in 3.0.

https://youtu.be/NXVbIU0gGEo

Hey again!
Just wanted to make sure I had gem linked my 6l's correctly to see if you have any improvements or if I'm all in the clear!



Thanks again by the way having alot of fun with this build still
Also it seems that I managed to muster up 177k dps while your PoB says 140k ish and all im doing is swapping in my items and skills? Odd thing is that some of the items on your PoB actually yield more dps for me

"

insobyr wrote:

Tried Shaper for the first time on my BAMA char and ended up did it deathless :)

Gratz! Could you explain some of the changes you have made to the build?
- Why did you go for spectres and guardian?
- What spectres were you using and what equipment do you have on guardian?
- You took quite a few minion survivability nodes, are those necessary?
- Why did you go for so much extra mana, by taking mana and reduced reserved mana passives and also having mana on jewels?
- You seem to have no armour/evasion, as well as low flask heal amount, how do you survive?