[2.6] CRIT HoWA BF/ST Raider [13k ES, 60k BF/265k GMP ST DPS, Stun-immune] [4 sec Chayula kill]

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MFJones wrote:

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Invalesco wrote:

you can always try a crit raider if you want to! You've probably already got most of the gear sorted except for crit multi on jewels.

Good idea, i might give the crit raider one a try

Mind you, if you do, you're actually gonna have to get some accuracy on gear! :p

Meh I just need more money I think. I am poor, and self crafted all my gear except the uniques... I never really make much money during leagues because I try 5-6 build. I think once I farm up some money I will go back to crit version, at the end of the day it is the best version IF money is no object.

I also am hoping to chance a skyforth to try it out with this build, I know I will lose out on some int but maybe I could change up to poachers mark to avoid blood rage being annoying and also get more flask charges while still being crit capped.

Who knows, thanks for the guide!!!

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Deathfly7 wrote:

Meh I just need more money I think. I am poor, and self crafted all my gear except the uniques... I never really make much money during leagues because I try 5-6 build. I think once I farm up some money I will go back to crit version, at the end of the day it is the best version IF money is no object.

I also am hoping to chance a skyforth to try it out with this build, I know I will lose out on some int but maybe I could change up to poachers mark to avoid blood rage being annoying and also get more flask charges while still being crit capped.

Who knows, thanks for the guide!!!

ah, good luck with the chancing! you're welcome!

Just another update on my tree/gear which I'm still constantly optimising/min-maxing.


Stats based on Level 91 and a 6L of:

BF (20/20)
LP (19/20)
Incr. AOE (21/20)
Incr. Crit Strikes (21/20)
EF (19/0)
WED (21/20)


Gear

Old jewellery for sale if anyone's interested... prices negotiable of course!

Projected DPS once I hit Level 98 (with the current set of gear) will be 35,464 with an attacks per second of 7.49. Still on the lookout for higher ES gear to break the 13k mark (and potentially 14k mark if I change my dps jewels to include a increased %ES mod on them).

kick accurarcy its pure tooltip warrioring on bladeflurry .. (dont believe? me put off all accu gear open enfeeble t15 make me a video of a mob u miss, i'll top that off with a 10ex instant trade for that vid).

biggest issue i see is reflect. i have killed myself and seen ppl die instantly (e.g. on breach spawns) with 10-12k es and 50% evasion on 12k and less average. So your claim that it doesnt bother u at 30k average is to be honest not believable. If you never play with others its believable because mobs have to little hp to reflect enugh dmg to kill 12k es then, but it's still a problem you should mention right at the top of the build description.

besides that one of the more enoyable howa sum ups so thumbs up.

Kind regards

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Flubby wrote:

kick accurarcy its pure tooltip warrioring on bladeflurry .. (dont believe? me put off all accu gear open enfeeble t15 make me a video of a mob u miss, i'll top that off with a 10ex instant trade for that vid).

biggest issue i see is reflect. i have killed myself and seen ppl die instantly (e.g. on breach spawns) with 10-12k es and 50% evasion on 12k and less average. So your claim that it doesnt bother u at 30k average is to be honest not believable. If you never play with others its believable because mobs have to little hp to reflect enugh dmg to kill 12k es then, but it's still a problem you should mention right at the top of the build description.

besides that one of the more enoyable howa sum ups so thumbs up.

Kind regards

Oh does blade flurry ignore accuracy/evasion altogether? That sure is interesting. I mean, the mechanics of BF are somewhat unique so I can imagine that the post-channeling release portion of the skill might ignore the accuracy/evasion rolls, but it's hard to imagine that the initial hits do as well.. I wonder what that has on the crit rolls. That's an interesting idea, I'll keep that in mind!

To be honest, if BF ignores evasion as you've claimed, I can very well see that 50% evasion being quite useless protection against reflect. I think reflect being a problem is something that every high elemental dps build will face, especially in parties when monsters health points are higher. I'm not sure I have claimed recently to have no problems with reflect (not ruling out that I may have much earlier on when my dps wasn't as high) as opposed to providing potential work arounds to reflect. However, that is indeed something that I have neglected to mention in my original post, will add that in after work, thanks for the heads up!

Ironically enough, dropping incr crit dmg for elemental focus (despite resulting in a higher tooltip dps) makes reflect slightly less scary because your damage output is slightly more even (more damage during non-crits allows you to leech back more when u don't crit as opposed to if ur using incr crit dmg).

Thanks for the compliment!

P.S. Sick HoWA belt btw, hope it didn't cost u too many essences/exalteds crafting it! (Triggers me that you didn't craft the ms mod on it too heh)

Really great post - enjoyed reading other peoples take on the crit HOWA.

I'm trying to do something similar using skyforth instead. Currently running with 7 frenzy charges and 5 power charges and using Disc/Wrath/HoI. Havn't really decided between BF or ST yet. With my current tree i can swap gems around. If i go all in on BF i would probably get the AoE wheel above witch.

Damage is really nice on both - ST winning on very open maps and BF on more narrow/indoor maps. My int is a bit low due to my tree/skyforth/amulet. If anyone is interested check my character "Howagarr". All input on gear improvements or tree improvements are very welcome since i kinda ran out of ideas. Only obvious improvements gearwise is a 900+ regalia and an int belt. Looking forward to hearing your reflections.

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dagar wrote:

Really great post - enjoyed reading other peoples take on the crit HOWA.

I'm trying to do something similar using skyforth instead. Currently running with 7 frenzy charges and 5 power charges and using Disc/Wrath/HoI. Havn't really decided between BF or ST yet. With my current tree i can swap gems around. If i go all in on BF i would probably get the AoE wheel above witch.

Damage is really nice on both - ST winning on very open maps and BF on more narrow/indoor maps. My int is a bit low due to my tree/skyforth/amulet. If anyone is interested check my character "Howagarr". All input on gear improvements or tree improvements are very welcome since i kinda ran out of ideas. Only obvious improvements gearwise is a 900+ regalia and an int belt. Looking forward to hearing your reflections.

Thanks!

Well I'd say you should probably decide on BF seeing as that melee crit multi mod on your pandemonium song (which is a great jewel btw) wouldn't affect ST!

Personally I would advise you to drop choir of the storm asap as its really not a great ammy for an attack-based build. That should be your first upgrade prior to a good regalia and an int belt.

I'm still not very convinced with regards to skyforth as I feel that you end up being forced to build around skyforth (and getting power charges) rather than HoWA (and stacking int) if you use skyforths. That said, your tree is certainly interesting and its remarkable that you managed to get 900 Int even with skyforths and choir of the storm. However, if you really want to progress further and attain higher DPS and ES, I would really advise you to drop skyforths, replace it with a good pair of Int boots (which will be cheaper than skyforths) and change your tree around slightly to grab more Int by branching thru the center to templar and grabbing templar aoe nodes instead of witch's. That's just my 2c of course, just wanted to point out that you don't necessarily need skyforth to go crit on HoWA.

Also, while we're at it, here's a chimera fight vid with a random ele reflect calefare rare: https://youtu.be/lX7Okncu-4g

Edit: shameless promo of my ammy which is for sale if you're interested hehe

Very interesting. Thanks for your reply. I didn't even think about changing my Choir since it gives me so much crit (14%) - but a crit/mult/int amulet might be better. Afraid i will have bit too low crit though. Your amulet is really sexy - shouldn't be too hard to sell :)

I think you're right about Skyforth, but since i bought them off the fat man a few weeks ago i really felt like trying to make them work in this build. Probably not the optimal build for them but what can you do - if you don't try you never learn :)

I did change a few things just now, most notably i commited to BF, changed my gems a bit and went with blasph+conducticity instead of HoI. Really felt a big boost in singletarget damage and AoE still seems fine especially with Dying Sun. I just did all guardians and two shaper runs deathless. Going to try a few uber Atziri later tonight. I might not try to improve this one too much anymore seeing all things in the game kinda just dies already :)

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dagar wrote:

Very interesting. Thanks for your reply. I didn't even think about changing my Choir since it gives me so much crit (14%) - but a crit/mult/int amulet might be better. Afraid i will have bit too low crit though. Your amulet is really sexy - shouldn't be too hard to sell :)

I think you're right about Skyforth, but since i bought them off the fat man a few weeks ago i really felt like trying to make them work in this build. Probably not the optimal build for them but what can you do - if you don't try you never learn :)

I did change a few things just now, most notably i commited to BF, changed my gems a bit and went with blasph+conducticity instead of HoI. Really felt a big boost in singletarget damage and AoE still seems fine especially with Dying Sun. I just did all guardians and two shaper runs deathless. Going to try a few uber Atziri later tonight. I might not try to improve this one too much anymore seeing all things in the game kinda just dies already :)

Ya an amulet with WED + crit multi would suit you well at this stage with your level of crit chance. Don't fret too much about crit chance, it's crit multi that's gonna be netting u the dmg when u do crit! :p

Agree with what you said about skyforth, I've been there before as well! Try the path of building program, it'll help u a lot in terms of trying to optimize ur build.

Welcome to the BF club! Yup blasphemy - curse works well. I used it at one point too on my char

As long as you're having fun I think that's what matters. There's probably no real need to try min-maxing everything in this game. I suspect that only obsessive compulsive ppl like me will do so haha