[2.6] CI HoWA ST - Uber / Shaper / Guardians Down - Budget Friendly?

- Doesn't cost much to get started.
- 2-3 ex gear can kill Shaper. Look at videos for proof.
- Leveling is easy if done right.
- Pretty safe play style since ST is ranged.
- Can get pretty decent damage even with average gear.
- At higher gear levels, can face tank almost everything. Almost. (See videos for luls).

- Requires int on almost all pieces of gear (yes, even your belt if you want to do extreme min-maxing).
- Good gear is pricey, good jewels are pricey. Your currency tab will cry.

This build revolves around these claws:

The more intelligence we get, the more damage per hit we do since every 10 intelligence we get, we have another 1-6 added lightning damage to our attack. This damage is further scaled by jewels and gear.

The attack speed per 25 dexterity is nice as well since we get so much from being in the ranger and duelist area, but intelligence is the main thing we want to scale here since every 5 intelligence also gives 1% energy shield. This is why we do not take many ES nodes on the tree, since we will have enough from the raw intelligence we will be getting.

With golem + auras:

Fully Buffed:

Defenses:

28 Points


66 Points


86 Points


This is where you start gearing for CI and refunding all your life nodes. It's fine to map as hybrid until you get gear, but you will have less damage from the tree due to having life nodes instead of the Int nodes at the witch tree.

87 Points (Tree after refunding life nodes)


107 Points


You can optionally take the two jewel sockets between templar + witch. It is up to you. I took one of them.

You can also choose to take Primeval Force (above Arrow Dancing at bottom right of tree). You can never go wrong with more penetration and less reflect damage taken.

Level 1-22:

Level 22-68:


Level 68+:

From first to last,
Way of the Poacher -> Avatar of the Slaughter -> Quartz Infusion -> Avatar of the Veil

Normal: Kill all or help Kraityn for resists. You will probably struggle with resists since int + dex are both suffixes on gear, taking away resist rolls. Unless you have money. In which case, go nuts with the passive point.

Cruel: Help Kraityn. Attack speed is always nice on high damage builds.

Merc: Help Kraityn. Frenzy charge is a must, since we have 100% uptime on frenzy due to your ascendancy.

My gear at the moment:


The main things you will be needing are:

HoWA


Astramentis


Links for Endgame Gear


Jewels
You want to have 2 Fertile Minds and 1 Brute Force Solution on your tree. You can put regular jewels into your other jewel sockets after that.

Well long story short, you do not need to have great gear to be able to map comfortably.

As I have said before, the claws will scale your damage high enough as long as you have intelligence on your gear and tree.

Using a 4L 600-700 ES chest with a 300 ES helm and some other random gear with well rolled int on it ( would be more than enough for mapping all the way up to red maps. At this point, things will start to hurt since your ES pool is a bit low. You should have enough money from mapping and selling stuff to be able to afford upgrades though, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If you are unconvinced that this can be a budget build, look at the videos and prepared to be amazed.

All of these clips are from stream, so if you don't like hearing voices, be prepared to mute the video. :^)

Basically flaskless shaper run:


5L shaper run:


4L shaper run:


L U L


Budget Stuff:
Gear was worth 2-3 ex, loaned to me by a viewer who was rolling this build. I used only his gear, including flasks and jewels. DPS on GMP was 24k in our hideout. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down what DPS with slower projectiles was, but you can still use the DPS with GMP as a benchmark for your build.

Gear used in the videos below:


Budget Version Phoenix Kill (Cancer map mods):


Budget Version Shaper Kill:

1. You want to have all 3 conversion jewels in your setup when you switch to the HoWA claws at level 68 (look at gear for more information). These conversion jewels allow you to have enough int to do enough damage and have a decent ES pool for leveling in low - mid tier maps. Int is not what you want, it is what you need.

2. Focus on getting a high ES helmet and chest, preferably ones that have a decent int roll on them, or one that you can craft int onto.
Your rings are where you want int + WED and a bit of resists. Having dex is nice, but unnecessary until higher gear levels where you start min-maxing.
Your gloves + boots are basically resist fillers, but you still want to have int rolled on these, whether it comes rolled with it or you master-craft it on.
Your belt is a resist filler. Having WED on it would be ideal. Having ES on it is a luxury.

3. The rolls you would ideally want on jewels is 3 attack speed mods, with a damage mod. Those are pretty rare and will cost an upward of 1-2 ex, since everyone using these claws, as well as (maybe?) scourge build players will be wanting these exact rolls. You can get away with using a jewel with 3 attack speed mods though.

An alternative would be 2 attack speed mods + 2 damage mods.

Examples:

I'm currently not playing in 2.6 because of my classes, which is why it took some time for me to get back to this guide. I will be playing + streaming again in 3.0. Sorry c:.

The way Point Blank interacts with ST is when you throw the projectile, it will do 50% more damage, decreasing until it gets as far away from its source (you) as it can. At that point, the damage of the projectile will do regular damage, with 0% more or less damage. When the projectile starts coming back towards you, it will do less and less damage, capping at 50% less damage when it finally returns to its source (you again).

Taking this keystone is completely up to preference. The amount of damage that we will be doing is enough to 1-2 shot the trash in t16 maps and in Shaper's realm. Damage on bosses will pretty much be the same.

I did not take this in my build simply because I thought it would be unnecessary. After testing it out from levels 86-89, I came to the conclusion that the damage increase isn't large enough to justify using a skill point for.

That being said, if you find yourself wanting more instant damage, you can opt to take point blank. As I said, it is up to the player and their play style.

You can definitely go low life with this build, putting in a haste or 2 heralds using blood magic.

I think that CI is better though, due to the fact that you can barely get 11k ES even with great gear. Keep in mind that using a 870 ES chest with decent gloves + boots gets us to 10k ES. Using a Shav's would downgrade us to a ~400 ES chest, as well as make us lose the increased + more %ES notes at the end of the CI keystone.

It really isn't worth the incremental DPS increase, so I would suggest staying CI. Chaos damage immunity is always a nice bonus. :)

Lots of people have wondered whether Unwavering Stance (stun immunity) is worth it over taking Heart of Oak (20% stun avoidance) along with getting a pair of boots with the Uber lab enchant for 80% stun avoidance if you've kill an enemy recently (in the past 4 seconds).

I would say Unwavering Stance is much better if you're planning on doing high level content most of the time, such as guardians, Shaper, Uber Atziri, Chayula Breachlord, and Uber Izaro. It is a 100% guaranteed fail-safe stun immunity node that only requires a few points to get to.

If you are content with mapping and getting to a high level, taking Heart of Oak along with the enchant on your boots is a perfectly fine option. This would open you up to taking more damage nodes, such as the lightning damage nodes at the top of the witch tree. You have enough clear speed for the 80% stun avoidance enchant on your boots to be up all the time.

Choosing between these two options is purely your choice. Both can be used to clear maps and do high level content. It is really up to the player's preference.

For the record, I chose Unwavering Stance because I found that I don't really need more damage, and having 100% stun immunity at all times seemed safer.

Here are your core flasks:

Here are your choices for your other 3 flasks:

The bare minimum of what you want is
1. A Vinktars with either added lightning damage to attacks or with lightning penetration. It will make you immune against reflect rares. I find myself taking damage sometimes from reflect if I'm not careful and Vinktars is down. Not enough to die, but enough to be wary. This flask also serves as your "shit hits the fan" flask. When you get chunked by bosses down to less than half your ES, popping Vinktars will leech you back to full immediately, so it is definitely a life saver.

2. Atziri's Promise, doesn't have to be perfect. It's there to steroid your damage up higher. You can never go wrong with a little leech as well.

The last three are really up to you. I chose to use a Rumi's because I kept eating spikes from spike on death shitters. With Unwavering Stance, you will be clenching your butt a lot unless you have some way to mitigate all those spikes coming at you.

After getting my gear up to a reasonable level (10k+ ES), I found that I can tank spikes pretty well now. You can still use a regular granite flask for added safety, but I chose to use a Dying Sun because it increases the angle of our ST, allowing us to hit more of a pack if it is super large.

I also chose a mana flask because, contrary to popular belief, it is actually pretty good. Aside from being my bleed flask, having a mana flask allows me to prespam my ST at bosses that are about to spawn for extra damage, like Atziri split phases, or Shaper after talking.

Having a mana flask enables us to do no regen maps as well without any problems.

After min-maxing a bit, your attack speed will become a bit ridiculous, and your mana regen will not be able to keep up with your whirling blades. Having a mana flask is a good backup in case you dive into a group of monsters. You don't want to be stuck there with your hands up your ass while everything attacks you at the same time.

If you happen to be bad at the game like I am and somehow miss something that was two feet in front of you multiple times, having a mana flask also allows you to regain mana so you can miss some more. It really is an all purpose flask. :^)

As with any other build that scales stat points, you will probably be struggling a lot with resists. Even more so since you ideally want to have both intelligence and dexterity on your gear. Thats two suffixes used, leaving only one for resists. This is why I took the Kraityn bandit reward in normal, just so I wouldn't have to deal with the nonsense of resist juggling.

Important thing to note, the more min-maxing you do on this build, the more expensive it will become. If you do it enough, eventually you will be looking for gear so specific that it will cost multiple exalts to upgrade a single item just for a few points of damage, which isn't really worth it. Just remember that your damage is crazy even without insane gear, so ease back on the money spending.

An example would be extra crit + multi Minotaur with added cold and monster damage. Its not a pleasant experience. I would know, got one-shot through pots + 10k ES.

You can kite these types of fights out, it will take a bit longer though, but its definitely doable.

Things that are usually designed to oneshot you probably will.

That being said, you can still tank a Shaper smash or one of his purple balls and survive. As long as you have 10k + ES that is. You could also probably tank it with 9k ES as long as you have a sapphire flask up, but you shouldn't be going out of your way to tank these things anyways.

Another example would be trying to tank 3+ tornados inside the Phoenix boss fight. Chances are you will not be able to leech through it unless you have Vinktars up. Even then its sketchy, and for good reason.

Lesson is, don't tank stuff that you can avoid easily. They're telegraphed attacks for a reason.