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

I am currently using a doom fletch to lvl with it seems to do more damage then a stormcloud
but i am not sure how the 110% of physical to elemental damage works on that bow.
Another question what is the exact attack speed you need on a weapon to reach the speed cap?

ps I really like this build but as a hardcore player i prefer life over es/mom so i'm tinkering with the tree at this time.

Got lucky and found a 5 link es chest on the ground, alched it and it turned out pretty good. I've got Lioneye's and Deerstalkers already. Although I have died quite a few times in Merciless since my HP is quite low and I have to run into mobs to throw the traps, so I'm thinking I might replace the Deerstalkers and use a 5-link and a 4-link instead. Would you set up the 5-link for pack clearing and the 4-link for single target, and what gems would you use?

@HastaLaPasta

Supposedly, you need 1.75 aps to attack 10 times / 5.7 seconds. But that doesn't seem to be the case for our clones. I have noticed that you need at least a 1.67 aps Lioneye's Glare + 12% inc attack speed (from skilltree) in order to hit the attack speed cap (which is 1.87 aps, far higher than 1.75 aps). Perhaps the "true" cap requires you to have >1.87 aps, for some unknown reason. Maybe there's a delay after our clones spawn, which requires us to have higher attack speed to hit the cap.

Although I suspect you need ~1.87 aps, I haven't tested it extensively. All I know is, If you're using something other than 1.67 Lioneye's Glare + those minion speed nodes you'll need to tweak your own setup to make it work (via Death Attunement node/Vaal Haste/Flesh Offering/attack speed quiver). Unfortunately I don't have a formula to calculate how much attack speed you need for any specific bow, I just know that my setup works.

A non-ES build would work okay but you'd need Alpha's Howl + mana flasks to sustain mana. This option was explored earlier in the thread. A more hardcore version with EB/MoM would look like this. With this tree, my Warbands character has 5700 Life and 2500 ES, and can tank a hit around ~8200 damage (versus ~7400 EHP in the BOTW version). I will include this tree in OP.

@Ultrabuse

that's great! You seem to have a similar experience to me so far. The traps have been good to me until level 60 or so, and then the Invasion bosses just become way too dangerous to approach. I've been running the following in a 5L + 4L:

Mirror + Minion D + GMP + Chain + WED
Blink + Minion D + GMP + Chain

You may experiment with 1 pack clear arrow and 1 single target arrow if you'd like, but I prefer the above setup.

If you can't roll GGGBR on your 5L chest, then you can replace WED with Added Lightning Damage.

For survivability, try to use Zombies. They really suck until they get level 18+, but against these crazy bosses, anything helps! Also, work on getting your ES > 1000 and start using MoM. A Soul Strike quiver helps a lot with Dex requirements and ES as well, and it's super cheap.

Not the fastest build in the race, but I was able to hit a few T5 maps by the end of day 3!

Have you tried using Increased Duration with Blink and Mirror Arrow? I'm looking for any alternative skill gems to use in a 6 link (currently using Blink/Mirror - Minion Damage - Chain - WED - Added Lightning) since I have a +1 arrow quiver and I feel GMP isn't too necessary.

Increased Duration lets us have 6 clones up at once instead of 4, so one might assume that it would give us a 50% damage increase. However, looking closer at the math, it's not as great as you'd expect:

-Clone duration would be 7.62 seconds. So for the first 9 seconds of a fight, you'd have 6 clones up for 1.62 seconds, and you'd have 2-4 clones up for the remaining 7.38 seconds.

-For every 3 seconds that passes after the original 9 seconds, you'd have 6 clones up for 1.62 seconds, and 4 clones up for 1.38 seconds.

-This means that the Increased Duration gem will grant you 50% more dps, 54% of the time - and that only applies to fights that are longer than 9 seconds. So in an extremely long fight (>9s), Increased Duration = 0.5 * 0.54 = 0.27 more dps. There are many other support gems which could give you more DPS than that! (Hypothermia, Slower Projectiles, etc)

Increased Duration used to be an excellent gem when we could use Convocation on our clones. It allowed us to fully utilize those clones and upkeep that 4-6 clone army as we travelled throughout a map.

However, in the most recent patch, we are no longer able to use Convocation to teleport our clones. That means that we have to resummon our clones for every monster pack we approach. In order to clear maps quickly, we don't want to stand and wait to summon 4-6 clones for every pack - we want to kill the pack quickly, <3 seconds, and move on!

This is why I've focused on as much pack-clearing damage as possible for each of the clones, instead of Increased duration. The only time I see Increased duration being "okay" is in a super long stationary fight against Uber Atziri.

As for GMP, yeah you can probably get away with dropping it if you have a +1 arrow quiver. Although I like to keep GMP on at least one of the clones for slightly favored mob clearing > single target clearing.

I am rolling this build in the current 1MHC with gear/tree below.




My thoughts:
This build is quite good for HC. I am already in A4 merciless, did not have any close call in the leveling process. I ended up using cloak of flame as it is a great chest piece against physical damage (poor man's lightning coil). The mana sustain, on the other hand, isn't as bad as I expected, even without a high es chest piece. Currently I have 4 link blink/mirror arrow and this character clears content just fine.

Thanks for the great build. It deserves BotW indeed.

I play the build in the 1MSC league as well and have to say, it really performs great in the early/mid-game. I am currently A1 Merc and have recently switched to a 4link deerstalker setup. Personally I find it a little bit slow for clearing packs, especialls packs that move around quite a bit, as the clones often miss the mobs entirely, but then again it is a realtively safe build to play, as you can drop the clones and run around.

I am now trying to get my hands on a lioneyes and a 5link next, lets see how this goes then.

Again big thumbs up to this build, it is awesomely written and constructed, very detailed and pretty easy to play.

@HPPftw

Thank you very much for the update! Interesting that you've chosen to use Culling Strike in the 4linked clones, instead of Chain. Good idea to use Cloak of Flame, if you're looking for a small upgrade then I also highly recommend the Restless Ward. It will basically ensure permanent Endurance charges and give you Life + a decent base of Energy Shield for your MoM.



I'm really glad I chose to reuse this build for 1MSC because it's been so safe for killing Invasion bosses/exiles etc. It's also been sufficient for an early-league farming build as it doesn't require any GG unique/rares.

Day 4 progress, level 81:


Thank you everyone who has added me in-game and updated me on their progress, I've seen quite a few interesting variations on defenses/offenses so far. Stay safe!

My variant was improving defence a little bit:



Alltogether this is 2000 evation rating giving about 20-25% of not being hit, and I squeezed in a CODT / IC setup for zombies not so sturdy (Hello devourers, I love you so for not eating zombies and clones...). I have to resummon zombies a lot, but later on they get perhaps some life nodes from the trees. Don't know at the moment. Another thing, I am a fan of positive chaos resistance. Some bosses or exiles do a nasty damage without it.

The armor is a drop I 6-linked in a lucky try, she has to share it with all witches I have, so socket color changes are a no go. She has to live with the setup.

I play selffound - so only things out of the stash.

For hardcore users: Get the double curse loaded with defensive curses - elemental equilibrium is enough damage. Just my 2 cents.

@dariidar:

Thanks for the reply. As I am in a HC league, I am more worried about spikes/hard physical bosses (malachai for example). But I think the restless ward should be better for leveling/'regular content'.

The reason I chose culling strike is that it's better dps wise than faster projectiles/slower projectiles, and good against tough bosses. Chain, on the other hand, should be better clearing packs, but single target dps might be lacking. And also the mana multiplier of chain is higher (although not a big issue).

I hope to use this build to kill merciless Malachai in a HC league some day, and this build gives me hope :D