[2.0] Wukong - Acrobatics Crit Staff: Wild - Lightning - Flicker Strike & More (w/ MF and Atziri)

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theycallmetim wrote:

wouldn't it make it easier to start with scion for a crit staff build?
something like this https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAAyWdBcrya7URZ86yqcqnE9sauPC2DzLc-CGf7i0WOE3GPRh0U-tJmnnIPkn33Mphv3CPlz9i9_gqDCWBDbj0Dljso9Ma-vDGeNdZFCvJFOuGmVzpCS3jdqDBx1CONvwW16NYi6sM6m7VfsMpKb56QVRo4dweHE5yk_94k_edUUUdwUioL8-q1SG1s53S5fIwL7LA2PViuXqU0MQmWl3nkUWebrj45DuNqFm-sR1FMGYYgnBEv62OZms96shkyAZsmvjoQe9sa

i have pretty much no experience in creating builds and usually just use a guide. so keep that in mind. in this case though i found that starting with a duelist results in very long branches with not much going on along the way.
i only invested a couple of minutes on the above skill tree and it should not be taken as an "improvement" but rather just as an illustration for my point of view as to why i started with a scion.

i'd like to know what you think about that. am i completely in the wrong here (as i said, that is most likely :) ) and if so, where did i go wrong in my thinking?

anyway i'd like to thank you for your guide. i've been looking a long time for a melee staff build and yours is really nicely written and explained.

cheers and thanks for your time
tim

Tl;dr:
You have a good intuition of what an optimal skill tree should look like. The long branches you see is the reason why duelists in general suck right now. The scion build would be more expensive and difficult to level, but has a strictly better Lv90+ endgame because of its much higher crit chance.

Explanation:
I had to use duelist because I was playing the 1-month flashback league. That league is more challenging due to the mods (beyond was active almost all the time), so life nodes are a must.
1. The duelist's starting point is the best "super-cluster" of melee nodes with its highly efficient life, damage, life regen, and utility nodes.
2. Life nodes are very important in general, and the scion version is stretched too thin to work for beyond mapping pre-lv85.

The way the scion build works is with 4-5 good gems (all must have at least 7% life and +%phys damage), which is not easy to have in a fresh league.

A good way to think about this is:
1. The scion version of this build starts out weak, and it has to cluster for life nodes when it is easier to stretch out early. Only later does it flesh itself out with damage and endgame crit nodes.
2. The duelist, on the other hand, starts out strong and moves into another strong melee cluster (Marauder) before stretching out to get crit nodes. The advantage of a duelist tapers off, but it is still strong enough that it works for endgame.

The scion build is strictly better at endgame because it can crit cap without power charges. For reference, if you chose to use scion, these would be the corresponding endgame skill trees:
Lv84 Scion Build
Lv94 Scion Build
1. I took the Shaper path out. 4%+ life regen is extremely useful because it counteracts Blood Rage.
2. I took more life nodes. ~170%+ life is a must-have for endgame as opposed to +% evasion (a bonus but not required). I factored in +life on gems so 140% + 4x7% = 168% life.

thank you very much for your explanation. i can see your point there. i'm looking forward to playing this kind of build (crit staff) when the new season starts. let's hope that they fix the placement of the duelist in the next big update so that this build will rock even more.

cheers
tim

This guide is very very well written and build is very very interesting. I wanted to say that I am an admirer of this build and I have started a new character to play it!

Just a noob question though, as the first 2 skill nodes why do we invest into attack speed and accuracy nodes instead of physical damage and life nodes? Does attack speed scale better in the late game?

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M_Ronin wrote:

This guide is very very well written and build is very very interesting. I wanted to say that I am an admirer of this build and I have started a new character to play it!

Just a noob question though, as the first 2 skill nodes why do we invest into attack speed and accuracy nodes instead of physical damage and life nodes? Does attack speed scale better in the late game?

Yep. Attack speed scales significantly better in the late game.

+% phys is impacted by diminishing returns more, and clear speed is all about movement and attack speed once your damage is high enough.

hi. sorry for my noob question but why not herald of ash or thunder ? :D why it has to be herald of ice ( im newbie ) :D

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devilsoul9x wrote:

hi. sorry for my noob question but why not herald of ash or thunder ? :D why it has to be herald of ice ( im newbie ) :D

Nah, that's not a noob question at all =).

Herald of Ash can't apply curses so it's not that useful other than to boost dps a bit.

Herald of Thunder vs Herald of Ice is mostly personal preference.
-Herald of Thunder applies Assassin's Mark (power charges) more reliably so it is preferred by most people.
-Hegemony's Era + Smashing Strikes staff passive gives power charges just by critting, so I went with Herald of Ice for a little bit more clear speed.

Thank you for replying :D
I'm so confused right now :D.
Can herald of ice apply curse ? :D And is it ok if i combine herald of thunder to apply curse and herald of ash to boost DPS ?

Herald of Ice has a small aoe on the monster that died that applies curse.

Hatred aura = 50% reserved, 1 herald = 25%. You can't run hatred + 2 heralds because that's 100% mana reserved, so you have to choose 1 herald.

It can be used for hardcore?

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runstone79 wrote:

It can be used for hardcore?

I don't know.

I don't play hardcore because I wouldn't be able to do fun & crazy content like beyond+invasion.

This build would need more life (200%+ instead of 170%) and mostly use ice crash/cyclone.

In hardcore, it's better to play more meta builds for the extra safety.