HC Dual Siege Ballista Chin Sol build 2.1

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Orion72 wrote:

Wegebah--appreciate the feedback. Reason for putting ballista in the gloves is to take advantage of the free knockback gem, given that I had no 5-L. With a 5-L or 6-L chest, it would certainly be easier to get the desired colors putting ballista in the chest. Other recommendations seem solid and are appreciated. I would be interested in your thoughts on optimizing the tree. As I said above, I rather made this one up as I went along.

Yea I noticed this after I posted and knew this was coming. I think its still reasonable to use a different location until you can get / afford the 3 greens. I honestly wonder if the knockback is worth it over an extra one or two sockets one of which could be knockback.

You could put frenzy on the gloves so it gets the extra knockback, especially since there is little (well no) reason for more than 4 links and change the 3rd green to a red which would be easier to achieve. I guess warlords mark would be a good sub for the curse.

I tried a few optimizations so far but did not like them over your choices. I will look at other recommendations and also give you some ideas once I get higher in level and some reasonable gear. Right now my gear is pretty bad so I think my DPS is lower than it should be.

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platinumfetus wrote:

If you could please take a look and give me your thoughts it would be much appreciated.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAmy1fOd3j9Oawq76ndcsZtLe26mItg41-FSBDMSzp2sHDM4azAO507S5TWhoqTQUt028_J3rvSshuqmSEtfIGoDWS-b3-j9i9TeP-CqZX8kW3Pjrhg8w8Lcaug18QzMT2_oevp3KpeyAczvcyrKr4kytQ6hh82VnzDc12rBo4cg_-VM9-kFWUb2aerY0nL2ZU-tLZYRZvVw0kquNq0iHzmzbp8kGezWhlggenMNl8AecUTTbo_Ev_sLyfBOQYkTpSddAyft0NW68UdaTCWOXDE1oro_JlTb02R34=

I took a look at this tree and made some minor adjustments:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAmy1fOd3j9Oawq76ndctlTRm0t7bqYr02LYONfhUgQzHdDSzp2sHDM1uvhrMA7nTtLlNaGhR1Kk0FLdNvpMI_J0rIbqpkhLXyBqA1kvm92L3-Crc-g8w8Lcaug18QzMT2_oevp3KpeyAczvcyrKpVqfiTK1DqGHzZWfOXtA3N-Ot2rBo4cg9qAf5U890Ucc9-kFWUb2aeaGXZfA48rY0nL2ZU-tJY5YIHLKc6UhZvKhPyQUrEvJ8yfiSq42paK_auGJH8Szbpo_IUTQHnG_o26CXf_7C2LATkpBl10A==

Why?

1. With the new extra crit map mods, removing Unyielding is not a good idea. I have tested both with and without it and definitely recommend it especially if you go with something like Abyssus.

2. With a minor pathing change we can save a point and pick up Ironwood.

NOTE: If the player completes the build ALL additional points earned should go to the wheel of life or other life nodes until they are all filled out. Filling in all the life nodes would bring the build to 117 points so I did not include them. The build without the extra life nodes is +215 / 163% life which should be sufficient until the build is completed since you can effectively hide most of the time.

Side note: I recommend you ensure your gear and / or jewels have life on hit and mana on hit. This will help with reduced / no life and mana regen. It will also help a bit with reflect.

I want to review the skill gems that are used once I get finished the build. I am thinking that Phase Run would be good to add to CWDT. I am also interested in exploring other skills with ballista like Physical Projectile Attack Damage. I will post any recommendations much later if I get to that point and there is something of interest.

Grimlocke:

I'm currently trying out the Lioneye's glare version of twin ballistae duelist without the knockback, and have run it up to lvl 68 so far. Having tried both, I can offer my anecdotal observation that the strengths are different. General clear speed is superior with Lioneye's glare--you are correct. Using a 5L with 5 Frenzy charges gets me a current tooltip dps around 13k, overall dps pre-curse of around 26k, which, as I recall, is around 50% more than the chin-sol build had at a similar level against non-close range opponents. However, the chin-sol build provided around 50% more dps at close range. For some boss fights particularly, the Lioneye version provides a slower clear, as the dps does not scale up against the large immobile enemy the way dps did with the Chin Sol build. The absence of the limited crowd control offered by the reverse knockback effect is also notable and though certainly not fatal, can require some extra fancy footwork that was less needed by the chin Sol build. All in all, the choice between the two seems to me to be a stylistic preference, though I am certainly enjoying this version also.

Have run the Lioneye's Glare version up to lvl 84 now. Feel build is more or less complete a this stage and am posting it here for reference. General clear speed and durability definitely better than Chin Sol version (though I have slightly better gear as well).
However, the chin sol version, even with worse gear, did perform better against up-close bosses. I also miss the fun of dragging proximity shielded mobs into the ballistae to die.
That said, I am indeed quite happy with the performance of the non-knockback version.

Current tree



Current gear