[2.6] The Roadrunner -- Lab Speedrunner and BossKiller [w/ Videos]

At level 91, with my current gear, my max movespeed is 495. This is with all buffs up, which is not 100% of the time. My average movespeed while running the lab is about 350. This is how I complete the lab quickly.

This build uses two layers of defense, Mind Over Matter and Evasion. While there are many options for increasing tankiness, my current setup is the best I could come up with while maintaining high damage output and movespeed.

Life + Mana: Saying Mind over Matter is good is an understatement. MoM is amazing. With my current setup, I have 5189 life and 2617 mana, giving me an effective hp pool of roughly 7413 against hits. Another side effect of splitting damage between two sources is the ability to use a hybrid life/mana pot. With the regen going to two places, the effective life regen is essentially 43% better than if it were just going to life on a build with 7413 life and no MoM. Combine that with the massive increase to flask effect this build provides and you get one flask that keeps you alive under almost any circumstance.

Evasion: Unbuffed, I'm sitting at about 36k evasion, which improves to ~100k fully buffed. This means that I get hit few an far between. While this doesn't help mitigate damage against big hits, it does mean that I am unlikely to get hit twice in a row, giving my character time to regen back up.

Lab Run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDlvW1m5lg

Note: Izaro crits me with his two-handed sword reave attack (his strongest of all) after I 'kill' him in one of the phases. This is a good demo of what hard hits look like if they manage to clip you. I was just running in circles waiting for the door to open, and I knew he couldn't one shot me, so it wasn't a risk to let him hit me.

Map Run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYBou1pIdtY

Big Boss videos coming soon...

Note: The minion damage nodes in the witch area are taken because I use the scourge claw, and also because it's a fairly efficient path to the other nodes in the area.

In my opinion, the Lvl 91 tree is optimal, although it is possible to swap out some damage or survivability if you want to get more movespeed. Leveling trees linked before that are just suggestions, and should be modified according to your own weaknesses (damage, life, mana, evasion). After the lvl 75 tree, you should be able to comfortably map and attempt to quickly level your character to 85-90 to start destroying the lab. The flask nodes should be considered mandatory, since flasks make up your strongest offenses and defenses.

Beyond lvl 91, Reflexes is a good evasion node for 2 points, if you want more movespeed. There's a good jewel socket by shaper with two mana nodes leading up to it for more survivability. There are also plenty of 5% life nodes available to tank up a bit.

Grab some wands with spell damage and use blade vortex + abyssal cry to clear mobs. Run fast and get to Dried Lake where you can equip two Obliterations. Then the fun begins.

These are the core pieces of gear that won't change for varying content. Basically everything except the two weapon slots.



- Queen of the Forest is Mandatory for obvious reasons.
- Devoto's is BiS helm for movespeed, but you can go with a rare helm with high evasion and life+res if you feel squishy. Good helm enchants are phase run duration (lab speed), blade vortex damage (boss annihilation), and blade vortex aoe (mapping pleasure). Wither and Vulnerability related enchants would be fine too, but not as good. My discipline enchant is not useful.
- Gloves should have high evasion and life. Enchant doesn't matter.
- Atziri's Step are BiS for boots due to high evasion, life, and spell dodge. Try to get movespeed enchant if possible.
- Essence worm is required to get buffed grace aura without reserving any mana
- Second ring should have life, evasion, mana (prefixes) and as much res as possible (suffixes)
- Amulet should have life, mana, evasion (prefixes) and as much res as possible. My ammy doesn't have mana, which makes me sad :(
- Belt should be a vanguard base for most evasion (movespeed), leather for life, or rustic for damage. I went with vanguard for the movespeed. The important stats are life and at least 19% reduced flask charges used. This is very important. Combined with the 15% reduction from the Arcane Chemistry notable, this turns two use flasks (30/60, 15/30, etc.) into three use flasks.

Weapon swaps






Flasks:


- The only mandatory flask here is the Catalysed/Staunching hybrid pot. It makes you live. Use it often. Use it well.

- Vinktars shocks for more damage and gives you some lightning res. That's it. People that think it is worth 3 extra links are crazy. It doesn't give leech, it doesn't make you run faster. But it is good. Get one if you can afford it, otherwise Atziri's Promise is plenty good.

- Witchfire brew is optional. It gives a little bit of damage over time and is a stibnite, which makes you run faster. This can be replaced with Atziri's Promise as well, or a blue stibnite. If you don't use this, you will want to manually cast vulnerability on bosses.

- Jade flask of reflexes. This is where most of the evasion comes from. I would highly recommend using one of these both for survivability and movespeed.

- Quicksilver of Adrenaline. GO FAST. Not needed for boss killing or regular mapping, but very useful for lab running.

- Notable Mention: Sin's Rebirth --> Stibnite and lots of damage. Also lots of chaos to get one. Slot this in if you have one, but not necessary.

Jewels:
These are my current jewels: They are not perfect, but they do the trick. Optimally, you want life, area damage, mana/evasion. If you can get a fourth prop, go for it.


I would advise against getting minion damage on jewels because it would only matter when using scourge, which is not all of the time if you plan on mapping with the build. If it is strictly a lab runner, then minion damage is better than area damage (higher values on jewels) if you use a scourge.

For lab running, just pop smoke mine at the start of each zone and phase run through everything. The duration is longer than the cooldown, so you can keep phase run up at all times. Pop the hybrid pot whenever something hurts and pop your evasion/movespeed pots when you want to run fast. For Izaro, use wither totem, pre-cast blade vortex, and try not to get slammed.

For mapping, dual obliterations clear really well and I like to use abyssal cry when there is a big pack just to guarantee the nice explosion.

For boss killing, always try to keep wither up and use your speed to manually avoid being hit by big attacks. Small fast attacks will either be evaded or healed through.

Except for when phasing through lab content, always try to keep 20 stacks of blade vortex. The skill has nonlinear damage gain, so max stacks is very important for max damage output.

- Main (6-link): Blade Vortex, Conc-effect, Spell Echo, Added Chaos, Void Manipulation, Increased Duration
- Main (5-link): Blade Vortex, Conc-effect, Spell Echo, Added Chaos, Void Manipulation
- Main (4-link): Blade Vortex, Conc-effect, Spell Echo, Controlled Destruction
- If you are poor and can only manage a 1-link Queen of the Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GAC27VP2wE

- Movement: Smoke Mine, Phase Run, Increased Duration, Vaal Haste/Enhance
Note: Vaal Haste and Enhance should be swapped when mapping (vaal haste) and labrunning (enhance)

- Defense: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1), Vortex (lvl 4), Immortal Call (lvl 3), Increased Duration/Blind/AoE
Note: final link can be whatever you want, depending on what colors you can get

- Boss Shredder: Wither, Spell totem, Faster Casting

- Explosions: Abyssal Cry, AoE, Void Manipulation, Flame Golem

- Last Slots Flame Dash, Faster Casting, Vulnerability

- This build can do all content. It cannot facetank all content, as it does not have a large enough life pool, but it can survive most hits in the game. Poison immune guardians would be the most difficult and time consuming content to kill, and I would not recommend fighting these bosses.

- This build is very affordable on a budget (to get started). To push the highest dps levels, obviously more currency would need to be invested. While Izaro is not by any means the tankiest of bosses I have killed him with a 4-link, 2-link, and even no link. Vinktar's is worth about 1-link of damage, so is not necessary for most content. Obliterations only cost about 1alch each and output almost as much damage as scourge. You could easily get started with this build on about a 2-3ex budget, and do most content.