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

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grimjack68 wrote:

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stingrayz wrote:

I am loving the build so far. I'm only level 80 so far and I can farm uber lab without problems. I switch out GMP with a 20/20 faster projectile gem on bosses.

My tooltip in HO with wrath and golem up is 42,891.

Here's my gear if there's anything I need to improve on

EDIT: If you look at my boot enchants, I was wondering if I can give up unwavering stance to free up some points?

Your gear is pretty damn nice. Couple weaknesses on the belt, and to min/max it, you could swap your claws for 30/12/12 ones.

With that boot enchant, you could drop unwavering stance and swap it for Heart of Oak, with the caveat that it'll work great for mobs, but any boss that takes longer than "recently" might be a problem. You could always grab a writhing jar flask to fix that up, and you're right, it'll save you 2 points that you can put into either extra ES or more damage nodes.

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nickkwwin wrote:

Guys, what do u think i should improve next? Have about 20 ex on hands.
Now have 11.4k es and 47.5dmg in ho.
And maybe should change something in my tree, didnt got all the guardians yet, got phoenix/hydra/mino deathless pretty easy.
Thanks for your advices.

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rAx wrote:

So I just switched to this HoWA ST build from Ele Buzzsaw (budget ST). Spent about 10ex switching. Overall I'm happy with the switch but not everything is better from personal experience. Here are some things I noticed:

Pros:

- Nice dps boost. Overall damage up about 50%.
- Bigger EHP pool, 8.5k ES up from about 5.2k life
- Better leech because better dps, can facetank bosses a bit easier

Cons:

- Can't evade attacks. This becomes problematic for things like porcupines or large packs with consistent damage (e.g. Chimera adds). I won't die from procupines but I have to be more careful for bigger packs. Lower damage/leech with evasion seemed a lot better for this than 50% more damage/leech and NO evasion.
- Slower. Dropped a lot of attack speed from dropping a 1.8 dagger, so whirling response time has killed me in places. Bosses generally easier but map clears generally slower due to slower whirling speed. Opener on bosses is riskier if they get a few big hits off before I start leeching (evasion made this easier with other build). Overall just feels more clunky.
- Some bosses harder. Hydra seems easier, Minotaur about the same, Phoenix is harder (can't consistently survive his combo spin attack, where I could usually evasion/facetank it with other build.) Haven't done Chimera yet.
- No cold damage/low crit, so no freeze/shatter. This really helped with incoming damage in other build. The higher damage/leech in this build offsets the higher incoming damage but the ehp pool fluctuates a lot more.
- No more instant potting for those "oh sh*t" moments where you get hit by a mechanic and aren't in position to leech. General ES complaint but I still feel like hp pots are underrated. They have saved me more times than I can count.

Could someone maybe review these cons and my profile and offer some tips on gear/tree/etc? I like the build, just not sure I can justify the cost of it just yet. Thanks!

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Aias_o_Telamonios wrote:

Well if you really can't leech (like traps) then ES builds have that problem. But if you can and it's not enough for some reason, for builds with lightning damage like this one the Vinktar's is the ultimate "oh shit" flask. Better than a seething divine even because you only need to use it once.

That 5th line might as well have been "keeps your ES full for 4,8 sec".

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grimjack68 wrote:

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Aias_o_Telamonios wrote:

Well if you really can't leech (like traps) then ES builds have that problem. But if you can and it's not enough for some reason, for builds with lightning damage like this one the Vinktar's is the ultimate "oh shit" flask. Better than a seething divine even because you only need to use it once.

That 5th line might as well have been "keeps your ES full for 4,8 sec".

I really need to read all the replies before I say what's already been said. :) Perfect description of Vinktars right here.