[2.6] Muscle Mage (15kES/10EC) - Geofri's Sanctuary + Shaper's Touch

Here is a CI/ZO caster build using empowered unique items in 2.6. My choice is Chieftain with SR-CwC-Firestorm, but many other ascendancy classes and spells would be suitable, too.

Core Concept
Both offence and defence are scaled by Strength with those unique items. Spend all strength to Strength!


- Doon Cuebiyari: 1% increased Damage per 8 Strength when in Main Hand
- Iron Will Support: 1% increased Spell Damage per 5 Strength
- Geofri's Sanctuary: +2 maximum Energy Shield per 5 Strength
- Shaper's Touch: 2% increased Energy Shield per 10 Strength

with 1800 strength:
- Spell Damage: 225% + 360%
- Energy Shield: 720 base / 360%

Gears
Gears for Strength:

Chieftain also gives 10% increased strength.


Helmet and Shield:
The best gears are Armour/ES-based ones with high ES and Strength.
If you craft, use Essence of Rage to ES-based gears.

Rings and Belt:
I went for 10 Endurance Charges for huge ES regeneration and physical damage reduction.

Swap the left ring for Sibyl's Lament to run elemental reflection maps.

My Gears:

Pros & Cons
Pros
- Tanky. No need to manual-evade almost attacks from Atziri, Uber Izaro, and T15-16 bosses.
- Labyrinth-friendly.
- Decent damage output via large spell damage bonus and continuous casting.
Cons
- A bit fragile without endurance charges.
- SSF-unfriendly; depending on many unique items, corruption, and prophecies.

Character Sheets
Attributes
- 1877 Strength at level 92.

Defence Sheet with Aura, Golem, and 10ECs:
- ES: 15000+
- ES Regen: 3400+/s (22.5%/s)
- Physical Damage Reduction: 48%
- Elemental Resistances: 75% (+41%)
- Avoidance: Stun, Ignite
- Arctic Armour, Fortify, Chaos Golem

Defence Sheet with all flasks:
- ES Regen: 4000+/s (26.5%/s)
- Armour: 11000+
- Physical Damage Reduction: 68%
- All Elemental Damage Reduction: 10% (The Wise Oak under same resistances)
- Avoidance: Stun, Ignite, Freeze, Chill, Shock, Curse

Passive Tree
- Level 68 (90 points): CI, GR, EO, Unwavering Stance, resistance, and 3 Endurance Charges.
- Level 87 (109 points): skill duration, sockets, and more strength nodes.
- Level 94 (116 points): another socket and more strength nodes.

Bandits:
- Current: Kill - Kill - Oak (Endurance Charge)
- Alt.: Kraityn (Resists) - Kill - Oak (Endurance Charge) for flexible gear choice.

Jewels
- 4x Efficient Training (Unique Jewel) in upper area.
- 5x Brawn and/or Rare jewels in other sockets.

Skill Gem Links
Body (6L):
- Scorching Ray - Cast while Channelling - Firestorm - Iron Will - Fire Penetration - Controlled Destruction

CwC is used for cost reduction and high cast rate; almost no mana regen and cast speed nodes are taken.

Aura:
- Discipline, Purity of Elements, Arctic Armour (95% reserved)

Movement (3L):
- Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify

CwDT Lv.1 (4L):
- Cast when Damage Taken (Lv.1) - Arctic Breath (Lv.4) - Curse on Hit - Temporal Chains

CwDT Lv.20 (3L):
- Cast when Damage Taken (Lv.20) - Molten Shell - Summon Chaos Golem

Utilities:
- Enduring Cry
- Flame Dash
- Cast when Damage Taken (Lv.1) - Ball Lightning (Lv.4) - Knockback

I'm examining knockback for now, but Vaal Lightning Trap and Vaal Discipline are also useful.

Ascendancy Consideration
My choice is Chieftain, but many other ascendancy classes would be suitable.

Hey nice build. I have been playing around with Shaper's touch, Geofri's Sanctuary, and the doon scepter as well(also brutus sprinklers). I have a couple of questions though. Do you feel like the black sun crest helm is worth it? I have been building with an armor/es helm to get a high strength roll and 250 es. With all the strength stacking = %es it helps scale my energy shield a lot. Also I would recommend a heavy belt with a strength roll prefix. It gives me a solid 87 strength and you can get some resists and es as well. The Magnate isn't very helpful for you dealing fire damage though it does have some decent resists. Last question. Have you considered using a Xoph's blood for the Strength increase and fire pen?
Sorry, lots of questions. Great build though!

"

Zigrivers72 wrote:

Do you feel like the black sun crest helm is worth it? I have been building with an armor/es helm to get a high strength roll and 250 es. With all the strength stacking = %es it helps scale my energy shield a lot.

Good point. Flat and Increased factors should be balanced. Such rare helmet combined with Brawn jewels (instead of rare jewels) seems better. I'll go for it.

"

Also I would recommend a heavy belt with a strength roll prefix. It gives me a solid 87 strength and you can get some resists and es as well. The Magnate isn't very helpful for you dealing fire damage though it does have some decent resists.

My reason is EC+1 corruption. The Magnate is the cheapest belt with the corruption and high strength. Your belt must be the best unless you go for max EC build.

"

Have you considered using a Xoph's blood for the Strength increase and fire pen?

Yeah, it's fascinating, but we will need to take more intelligence and dexterity nodes because they mainly come from Astramentis; Some of Efficient Training and Brawn jewels will be dropped.

Three Rat Talisman is another choice for amulet as well.

Ooh, I had been looking for a way to use Geofri's Sanctuary & Shaper's Touch with strength stacking. I was considering a Baron build, but this looks more interesting...

Looks Nice,
One Thing, Why not have Life Leech as a 3rd link in the Doon so your Molten shell gives even more survivability?
Too bad You can't use RF with CI would be a nice boost here.

hello
i was try like this build. but with berserk and vaal pact
i was used bladefall skill. nearly 40k dps and 1,8k strength. great for large pack but cant facetank most bosses. not enough life leech.
now i can try with champion and no spell. im using soul taker and 7 nodes for axes. for now leveling.

"

Silvoz wrote:

Why not have Life Leech as a 3rd link in the Doon so your Molten shell gives even more survivability?

Good idea. Chieftain has 1% fire leech, but more 2% is nice.

"

Too bad You can't use RF with CI would be a nice boost here.

I tried RF with Life/ES hybrid at first, but chaos/poison damages troubled me.
RF and pure Scorching Ray with EE will be nice, if you have enough chaos resistance.

"

federal11 wrote:

i was try like this build. but with berserk and vaal pact
i was used bladefall skill. nearly 40k dps and 1,8k strength. great for large pack but cant facetank most bosses. not enough life leech.

Even if you have 5% leech, 40k dps only heals 2k/s.
I have 2.3k regen and 1% leech (not sure about DPS of firestorm).
Many leech-based builds use expensive unique flasks to deal burst damage.

"

now i can try with champion and no spell. im using soul taker and 7 nodes for axes. for now leveling.

I'm also evaluating dual Brutus' Lead Sprinkler with Scion!

"

Silvoz wrote:

Looks Nice,
One Thing, Why not have Life Leech as a 3rd link in the Doon so your Molten shell gives even more survivability?
Too bad You can't use RF with CI would be a nice boost here.

Actually 4 link is bis here. On my 1st Chieftain I was using CWDT---Molten Shell---Iron Will---Life Leech. It was really nice source of healing when shell was exploding.

Peace

Really interesting build....!
Can you record your play?
or any video looks like?

"

Lidley wrote:

Really interesting build....!
Can you record your play?
or any video looks like?

+1
Its hard to imagine actual dmg and clear speed without video. Also im curious if youre able to use different spells too. Considering spell dmg is str based i guess you can but im not sure