[2.5] Xoph's Ice Shot Burn Prolif Assassin
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Xoph's Nuture Ice Shot Burn Prolif Assassin
Ice Shot burn prolif is back! Inspired by the old and incredibly satisfying Three Dragons Damage-over-time Ranger build, I have made use of the new uniques in game to make this functional once again. Gameplay video coming soon!
Concept
Using the new Breach exclusive uniques Xoph's Nurture and Xoph's Blood in conjunction with the Cold to Fire gem, we convert 100% of our physical and cold damage to fire damage, allowing us to deliver a critical psuedo napalm strike in a cone in front of us which spreads to nearby enemies due to the bow's prolif mod. For any tanky rares and bosses, we blow them off the face of the earth with a point blank Vaal Burning Arrow. Both the initial and burn damage is scaled almost entirely with projectile, area, elemental and fire damage on our tree, jewels and gear making for very efficient scaling - taking advantage of items such as Winds of Change and Drillneck which work well in conjunction with our gems (namely Pierce & Slower Proj).
Pros/Cons
The build is more for novelty and satisfaction but should be viable for end game mapping. Pros -Crit Ice Shot prolif is incredibly satisfying -Great for AoE clearing large packs of mobs (easy Breach clears) -Shines in indoor maps and hallways which are usually tedious to run -Relatively cheap to gear outside of Xoph's Blood & luxury unique flasks -Great rare and boss killer in Vaal Burning Arrow -Gets great mileage out of top end flasks (Dying Sun, ToH) Cons -This particular setup is built entirely around the Xoph uniques so it will not work without them -Ele reflect rares are an issue without a trap setup -Targeting small mobs outside of packs can be annoying with a single arrow (exponentially easier with any form of added projectiles) -Ignite immune bosses -12 radius prolif rather small -Slow attack speed -Unlikely to be Guardian/Shaper viable but should handle everything up to there
Stats
http://imgur.com/a/H1lTF Note: Current character thrown together on a whim due to accidentally 6 linking a Xoph's Nurture
Ascendancy
I have chosen Assassin for the build since I'm using crit for ignite chance and scaling via projectile and elemental damage. Other possible options could include Deadeye, Inquistor or Elementalist/Chieftain/Beserker as non crit or crit with use of Lioneye's Fall for the latter 2 options. I feel like Assassin has the best position in the tree due to starting nodes, access to crit, pierce and duelist leech for the build and our ascendancy lets us neglect high end crit gear and the low base crit of 6% on Xoph's Nurture (frees up gem slot since we don't need Inc Crit Strikes). The only thing Assassin lacks compared to other classes such as Elementalist or Inquistor is access to AoE nodes to scale our Ice Shot & prolif, and Avatar of Fire or Elemental Equilibirum (if you aren't using Xoph's Blood). Elementalist's reflect reduction is also very valuable. Order of Ascending 1. Unstable Infusion 2. Deadly Infusion 3. Ambush 4. Assassinate Ambush is actually really nice for the build, since we only have 5 power charges and aren't crit capped, it ensures we crit nearly every pack or on bosses with VBA assuming they haven't been hit by our orb of storms or ice golem.
Passives
L93 Passive Tree Leveling Trees coming soon Possible variations -Taking less proj dmg nodes in favour of life nodes (Duelist starting nodes, Scion life wheel, Melding cluster & nearby jewel sockets) -Throat seeker near Snowforged cluster -Travelling to Witch for AoE & 6th power charge -Picking up the jewel socket between Acrobatics and pierce wheel -Accuracy nodes (Aspect of the eagle, Acuity, Depth perception or first node of Heavy/Deadly Draw) Priority of nodes on tree & jewels We want to pick up nodes that double dip on our initial hit and ignite damage, so projectile, area, elemental and fire damage are king. Priortize: Life Projectile damage Area damage Elemental damage Fire damage Crit chance & multi Elemental resistances (jewels) Followed by: Damage over time Physical damage Cold damage Attack speed
Bandits
Normal - Oak (life) Cruel - Kill all (passive point) Merciless - Alira (power charge)
Gems
Lioneye's Vision Chest Setup (Psuedo 7 link) if not using Lioneye's, use pierce as a 4th or 5th link. Ice Shot - Cold to Fire - Fire Pen - WED - Slower Proj - Inc AoE/Crit Dmg/Conc/Inc Crit Strikes/Added Fire/PPAD Xoph's Nurture Setup Vaal Burning Arrow - GMP - Fire pen - Conc Effect - Point Blank - WED Tactic: Run up to boss/rare at point blank range and fire at their feet, all 5 projectiles will explode on a singular point If you are scaling a single VBA burn, switch GMP for Pierce or Slower Projectiles If you are struggling against Ele reflect rares, sub in Trap support Alternatively: Burning Arrow - Trap - Fire Pen - Slower Proj - WED - Pierce (Point Blank does not double dip on our ignite damage; so Pierce is better - especially with Drillneck) Boots (Int or int hybrid for easy chroming) Orb of Storms - Curse on Hit - Flammability - Power Charge on Crit Helm Hatred - Herald of Ash - Ice Golem - Blink Arrow Gloves CWDT - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Blood Rage (over CWDT level so you can self cast)/Enduring Cry
Gear
Overview Looking for life, resists and accuracy on all non unique items, strength and int are bonuses for gems and equipping Lioneye's Vision or Kaom's Heart. In addition to above, look for WED on belt and rings. Xoph's Blood & Xoph's Nurture are mandatory for this build setup Other variants using 3 Dragons, Pyre or Hrimburn would likely be quite wonky compared to this (though Hrimburn will likely be the future of the build in 2.6 and 3.0) setup due to nature of scaling fire damage with the exception of Pyre which destroys corpses and ruins our prolif - if using them, your gem and gear setup would be completely different! Helm Rare helm with Ice Shot 12% AoE Uber Lab enchant Life, resists, accuracy and strength/int is a bonus Other options: Rat's Nest If you can make life and resists up elsewhere Starkonja's Head If you can make resists up elsewhere The Brine Crown Decent armour while stationary with Lioneye's vision and a Granite of Iron Skin (consider dropping Acrobatics for this setup) Chest Lioneye's Vision High life psuedo 7-link Other options: Kaom's Heart Huge survivabilityIf you are willing to drop VBA or other gem setup Carcass Jack For increased AoE Belly of the Beast Kintsugi The Perfect Form or Lightning Coil Will be very hard to cap/overcap resists Weapon Xoph's Nurture Nice damage, free ignite prolif, 50% phys to fire conversion, heal on ignite On swap: Jaws of Agony with a level 1 Fire Trap with Cluster Traps and Trap Cooldown linked inside sockets Power charge generation before a fight or 2nd set of Xoph's Nurture and Drillneck Trap version of regular Burning Arrow (BA - Trap - Fire Pen - WED - Pierce/Slower Proj/Point Blank for 5th & 6th link) This build can function purely off Ice Shot which means the gem sockets in the bow aren't necessary, so we can buy a bunch of 275%+ IPD roll Nurtures for a few alchs/1c each, 20% quality and corrupt them to try get +1 arrow. In conjunction with +1 arrow Drillneck, Ice Shot becomes a much more effective map clearer and you can swap in crit damage or conc effect (if there adds in front of boss - HUGE dps increase) for bosses. Quiver Drillneck With +1 arrow or fire leech corruption Other options: Rare Spike Point quiver with crit multi, crit chance, WED, life, resists, attack speed or accuracy Amulet Xoph's Blood Avatar of Fire is the build enabler here without traveling across the tree, in conjunction with Xoph's Nurture and Cold to Fire in our Ice Shot setup; it allows us to fully convert our physical and cold damage from Ice Shot's 40% phys to cold conversion and the extra damage from Hatred. Fire resist, fire pen, max life, extra strength and covered in ash are all just icing on the cake to make an insane amulet It's worth noting AoF prevents use of Elemental Equilibrium in our build as we can only do fire damage and the leech from blood rage is negated since we convert all physical damage to fire - Dyadian Dawn, duelist leech nodes and Drillneck corruption makes up for that Rings Rare rings (Opal for max dps) with life, resists, WED & accuracy (strength/int is a bonus for gear/gem req) Can be pricey to get all of those stats, compromise as budget requires Gloves Winds of Change Life, proj damage and proj speed (counters slower proj gem) Other options: Maligaro's Virtuosity Shadow's & Dust Rare gloves with high life, accuracy, resists, attack speed Wyrmsign For a psuedo 5-link trap setup for ele reflect rares if you are willing to ditch 4 other gems Belt Dyadian Dawn Huge burn dps increase, no down side since we are full conversion and we are always chilling with Ice Shot so we are getting the huge life leech Other options: Rare leather/rustic belt with WED, life, resists, flask duration/reduced charges used Doryani's Invitation (Fire variant) Flasks Any combination of these flasks, make sure you quality them Seething life flask of Staunching/Heat/Grounding on a Divine or Hallowed flask base Catalysed life flask of Staunching/Heat/Grounding on an Eternal or Hallowed flask base Chemist's Basalt of Grounding (or of Iron Skin if you are also using a Granite or Rumi's - would avoid Rumi's with Acrobatics) Quicksilver flask(s) of Thawing (nice for chilled ground maps) or Adrenaline (extra movespeed) Chemist's Diamond flask of Staunching/Heat/Grounding/Warding Taste of Hate Dying Sun Withfire Brew if running additional curse Jewels See Passive section for ideal jewel mods My Gear Fairly budget character (minus the accidental 6-Link) as I am still leveling.
3.0
Double dipping will be addressed in 3.0 so there is no telling how effective ignite will be post patch. Burning arrow with the threshold gem may be the new go to for double ignite, but if Ice Shot is still viable here are the changes I would make. I would drop Cold to Fire, Xoph's Nurture, Xoph's Blood and Winds of Change for a well rolled rare crit amulet/Marylene's Fallacy (if Assassin), Hrimburn, Death's Opus and Elemental Proliferation (or roll Elementalist). Dyadian Dawn is absolute god tier. Passive tree scaling would be different as elemental, fire and projectile damage will no longer be superior to other methods of scaling, the highest %dmg available on tree will be the go to. Without AoF we can also utilize Elemental Equilibrium with our Orb of Storms. Changes that make this possible: Removal of double dipping Ice Shot conversion up to 60% Hrimburn conversion up to 50% Marylene's Fallacy no longer has the deal 40% dmg on non crit Dyadian Dawn delivers our ignite dps 35% faster now Guide will be updated once 3.0 drops. Last edited by Resicc#0627 on Mar 2, 2017, 12:28:27 AM Last bumped on Mar 1, 2017, 6:42:20 PM
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Vaal skills cannot be used vs izaro. What skill did you use there?
Last edited by kompaniet#2874 on Dec 30, 2016, 8:27:41 AM
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"Since we aren't using GMP on our Ice Shot anyways, it's actually viable for boss killing without any gem swaps - though if you are using a 6 Link with the Inc AoE gem, you could swap it out for Concentrated Effect for a huge dps boost. Farming end-game labyrinth is actually quite comfortable with the exception of Argus due to his ignite immunity. An alternative to Ice Shot is regular Burning Arrow which has higher Base Attack Damage and does not require Cold to Fire (not using it cuts Hatred's effective damage increase by half though due to AoF). Last edited by Resicc#0627 on Jan 1, 2017, 7:51:04 AM
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Why would you get the 56% increased projectile damage at the Ranger start when you can get 79% increased physical damage with bows from getting Heavy Draw? Wouldn't the physical damage scale all of your damage as well?
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I'm guessing it's because Projectile damage double dips on ignites unlike phys damage with bows, which greatly boosts their single target damage.
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" Correct, but subject to change in 3.0 when they address double dipping. Once double dipping is addressed in conjunction with the Hrimburn and Ice Shot buffs;, we could drop cold to fire, Avatar of Fire from Xoph's Blood & even Nurture if you want to socket in Ele Prolif or roll Elementalist and just use Hrimburn for ignite. Death Opus' may be the go to for the crit multi and additional arrows for QoL in 3.0. Forgot about Dyadian dawn as a belt until patch notes dropped, it was crazy before but now it's insane in 2.6 so yeah would be using that in the future if I remake the build in Legacy. Last edited by Resicc#0627 on Mar 1, 2017, 6:46:58 PM
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