(2.2) "The Stoneside" - Mjolner Aegis Immortality (Gladiator) - NEW Vids! - Way to L100!

Hi everyone,

this is to discuss my current Duelist build in Standard. PLS let me know what you think!!
I will cover more details about gear requirements, alternate gear and passives etc. if you are interested.

Reason for this build
Spoiler
With the launch of Ascendancy, many new possibilities to create characters were introduced. One of the most beloved already is the Gladiator, allowing to apply 100% of block chance to spells. At the same time, due to flask changes, getting high max resists was now impossibly for all mjolner builds. So I decided to ignore the 100% fire/lightning approach and just go block, which is much easier. My block chance is currently 60% with Tempest Shield and 69% with the Ascendancy skill of the Gladiator. You can up this much more by going for block jewels, but I decided to use them for DPS and just pop Rumi's every now and then.


Stats
Spoiler
Level 95
6043 Life
7600 Armour without Grace, over 11K with Grace
capped resists
58% base block (without block on gloves, but with 2 block jewels)
69% block with Tempest Shield and the "Painforged" Ascendancy node from Gladiator
Auras: Grace + Wrath (linked to Enlighten 2 so I can finish bosses with Leap Slam - Culling strike - IIR - IIQ)


My Gear
Spoiler
Current setup:

Obviously an Aegis Aurora and a Mjolner. The rest can be changed basically, but I went with Discharge, so I had to go Voll's Devotion and Romira's. Headhunter just delivers stats and life and ups my clearspeed a bit. It is not required at all. I am currenty NOT using any unique Jewels like Reckless defence. Just 2 block jewels actually, the rest goes for Lightning/spelldmg and AS.


IMPORTANT Jewels and Flasks
Spoiler


"Immunity to silence" means I cannot be hindered to cast spells. Silence can be applied by the Academy Boss, Hexfont nemesis mod rares, and some tormented spirits as well as random curse strongboxes. This would be a stupid way to die and happened on previous mjolner build sometime. Now with this jewel I don't need a Remove Curse Flask.

Other Jewels: Attack speed (with maces preferably), life, Spelldmg, lightning dmg, block, armor...as you see fit.

Flasks:
Bleed removal
Poison removal (not sooo important)
Utility1: Onslaught. Chosen for movement and attack speed as well as duration (6 sec unbuffed). IMO the Chemist's prefix is just perfect for those!! Absolutely loving it.
Utility2: Onslaught. Chosen for Onslaught buff, but mostly to prevent freezes.
Utility3: Rumi's (whatever roll) to cap block in tight situations. Not really required but feels safer.

Backup Flasks

Spoiler

To deal with massive Phys dmg, Chaos dmg (I think 3 secs is enough, but up to you) and ele weakness (overcapping resists that far would require very expensive gear. Mine is expensive already and I rather have a flask for that. The only one of those I actually used yet was the Basalt Flask btw. ^^)


Options: Atziri Flask and spelldmg version of Vessel of Vinktar. Not using either because I think it's not worth it. If you use Vessel, you need another utility flask with Shock removal.



Passive Tree(s) and leveling
Spoiler
I am currently still experimenting. I got 5 Endu and 5 Power charges with this one, you should aim for that. As well, all available (Shield) block nodes and life to tank the few hits that might get through. And some armor since we need it for Aegis to work.
Tree I use
Tree suggested by IdleAltruism (better pathing, less stats)

Max DPS tree (6 Endrance + 6 Power Charges)


NOTE: These first two are both based on my Char, if you make this build from scratch you should pick the Power Charge in Merciless as it gives you the option to run 6 charges each in lategame.

Leveling

I didn't level this build since I made it in Standard after the 2.2 update. I remember when I leveled my mjolner build first time I was using Facebreakers and switched around lvl 62, so I took no actual Facebreaker nodes. You should be able to get along with other Skills as well...aim for the currently OP such as Spark and maybe Flame totem for safety reasons.


Bandits
Spoiler
Oak - Krait (AS) - SP
Not perfect, but I was too lazy to change it. You can save 1 point by picking either Endurance charge or Power charge in merciless. Power Charge offers more flexibility and gives the opton to take a 6th Endurance Charge later!


What it can do and what it can't
Spoiler
Anything but blood magic I believe. You shouldn't do ele reflect as well as a rule of thumb, especially not in high tier maps (higher reflect). If you do Ele reflect, you have to be very careful. The reflect from huge packs might kill you if you are using the usual Discharge setup since it offers the highest DPS. Small groups of enemies can still be handled quite easily tho.


Pros and Cons
Spoiler

+ extremely tanky and endgame viable
+ no buttonsmashing required. Just use Rumi's for tighter situations and an anti-bleed flask
+ lots of item and tree choices available to personalize the build
+ Aura(s) are completely up to you. You really should use Grace though (you need it for armor via Iron Reflexes and Aegis to work)

- can be expensive depending on what you want. A legacy Aegis Aurora is more or less required (It is veeeeeeerrryyy good but you can make this work in a Temp League as well!!)
- elemental reflect is very hard, you should probably avoid it


The bare minimum to make it work
Spoiler

- Aegis Aurora, legacy
- 5L Belly
- nonlegacy Mjolner
- Atziri's Foible/Astramentis
- items with good stats (Maybe Devoto's Devotion?)


VIDEOS
Spoiler
T15 Colosseum:
Double Boss, Ele weakness, Temp Chains, Extra fire dmg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTSQIBXyK4
Random L80 Courtyard until Bosses:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw5_Gvw0DEA&feature=youtu.be
NEW:
Full Clear Shrine (T14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v91KYuaNqbY
Sick mods Waterways (T13)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnbXHpt1mhE
Sick mods Wasteland (T13)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xkdPYJe76g
Sick mods Excavation Bossfight (T13, cautious approach^^)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_CbJQelG8

These show clearly how robust the Character is in any endgame content. No need to throw x Chaos Orbs onto each map!!


Still open to suggestions of any kind regarding the build!
On a sidenote, reached L96 a couple days back. You cannot possibly imagine how much endgame map drops SUCK even when you can easily do 120%+ IIQ maps...

Changelog:
28.03. Version 1.0
29.03. reworked with slightly changed setup. Flask and Jewel section and Bandits added. Also found a more reasonable name (refers to my actual char, Lorn_au_Arcos. Google if you will.)
07.04. updated passive trees and a very humble leveling section.
08.04. updated flask setup once more and added some new vids!
14.04. small updates, added a third passive tree for a more offensive style.
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
Last edited by Carmondai89#6042 on Apr 14, 2016, 5:11:02 PM
Last bumped on May 14, 2016, 1:49:30 PM
reserved

Thoughts on Flask setup tomorrow
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
Reworked the first post, may put up another vid later!
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
Hey i have a question, with the full setup w/ volls devo and kingsguard is there a way to be able to put on the mjolner at only level 62 while getting enough stats? i'm in PSC and its just a bitch to level with the tree to get to the point to user the mjolner

thanks
A good and difficult question.
You would need very good stats on gloves, helmet and boots to make that work.
I can say that in Standard it would be possible with gear like:
Spoiler

Meaning you have to get some itemes with good double stat rolls, cutting into your resists. Thus you will most likey have to sacrifice the Wrath aura for a Purity. Also, using a lower lvl Grace might prove well since it's basically the only thing with a high DEX requirement in this build. Keep an eye on your armor rating though! Aegis needs a decent armor after all. Maybe use a Granite or Jade Flask with dureation rolled on it?

I can suggest a tree roughly like this:
Spoiler
http://www.poeplanner.com/AAAABAQCJ5stXzmK8MSCsKu-p2VNvTZHfoTZL8zBgk1GYuyE76LqEuHawXTtBS1670CgwL-plQz3rK8hYHTxKaUB3HfjqW7AGm87eWjBBF8_FCDvDlBH5FF4DbXyNZLYvWebrj7GrsT2cqn3MnzZC2GvbGjy8B-iAASzwGasqlnzcg-Ub2ZUGjiQVWae-tIdFI9Gm6H316yYEQ87De_rOlhVxoPbxBVYrzboRmkGiyDjX9oKJg5Dkvc=
You have to pick up more Charges and Life from there and possbily respec the nodes going down to grab INT in the duelist area. Also note that getting a Power Charge in the Merciless Bandit quest might add a bit more flexibility in tree pathing than the Endurance charge.
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
Last edited by Carmondai89#6042 on Mar 31, 2016, 7:30:07 AM
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Last edited by ketunreika#3638 on Dec 16, 2024, 8:59:56 AM
I sadly do not own a nonlegacy Aegis.

I can tell you what I think tho. It is about block chance first, then armour and then energy shield.

Example: My current setup with Grace aura has 12-13 K Armour and ~880 ES. I block 58-66% (69% with Tempest Shield) of the hits without flask, so let's say 2 out of 3. Those 2 blocks should replenish your ES fully (-> 440 ES each)!
With 12K armour they recover 480 ES each (4% from legacy Aegis), that works out just nicely.

Put together, you can achieve the same effect if you upgrade your armour or block chance (or lower your ES...haha).

So to achieve the same effect as a legacy Aegis, you could use more block jewels and Determination instead of Wrath, granting up to 51% MORE armour at L20. If you then manage to have some armor on your gloves (as I do) and boots and maybe even belt (as I do not) you should achieve 20 K armor easily.
So it WILL work, but most likely you have to sacrifice the Wrath aura for it. You gain some serious tankiness tho. Also, the loss of the Wrath aura will decrease your DPS, but it will not affect the clearspeed too much since packs melt away rather quickly. Just bosses might take slightly longer (which doesn't really matter since you can tank them all).
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
Last edited by Carmondai89#6042 on Apr 5, 2016, 7:10:57 AM
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Last edited by ketunreika#3638 on Dec 16, 2024, 9:00:07 AM
I would be happy if you can provide feedback when you have your own setup finished :)

On the Arc thing: I read in another thread that every spell has an internal cooldown, keeping it from proccing too fast via CoC/Mjolner. The guy that discussed his build however said that with the nonlegacy mjolner and its 30% chance to cast spells, the internal cooldown would mostly be bypassed by the lower proc rate. Personally I find this unreliable however.

I did test a nonlegacy Mjolner setup with Lightning Penetration - Arc - Shock Nova/Ball lightning (all L18 gems). I felt like I lost quite some DPS but that might be mostly due to lower gem levels and the character being L74 (and me playing 73 maps)^^. One has to be a bit patient at the lower levels there.

So my advice then is:

a pair of those to cover the DPS loss. It frees a link in the Mjolner so you can use said Lightning penetration - Arc - whatever you want setup. I cannot recommend Spark though (not tested) and I felt like Shock Nova was a bit lacking.
The downside here is that you don't get any stats from the gloves and they should have a good roll (say, 15% or less reduced Spell damage).
“Losing a limb is no excuse for cowardice.” - Master Sollis, "Blood Song"
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Last edited by ketunreika#3638 on Dec 16, 2024, 9:00:13 AM

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