[3.5] Ghostly Quad Totem HOWA. 10k ES, 77% Evade, 1.9 Mill Shaper DPS

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WaffleT wrote:

The belt that caught my attention was the Cyclopean Coil and was the reason why I chose to roll the scion version of this build the other day with a pretty modified skill tree since it naturally gains alot of base stats in dex and str as well. Its looking like my lowest base stat in endgame will be Str at about 250 which means that Cyclopean Coil will be giving 15% increased attributes (biggest Int boost), 50% increased damage and immune to freeze + shock which is pretty good for the belt slot

I don't think the belt works as anti-freeze as your dex is presumably not higher than your int.
"Cannot be Frozen if Dexterity is higher than Intelligence".

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Flapdrol wrote:

I don't think the belt works as anti-freeze as your dex is presumably not higher than your int.
"Cannot be Frozen if Dexterity is higher than Intelligence".

You are correct anti freeze is not on the table. I ended up with higher Strength then Dex anyway so its immune to Shock + Ignite which is also neat

Being in everythings face with the Abyss monsters on my molten striker ended up being a bit too much risk for my liking. I was doing ok but did occasionally die since its a real bombardment of attacks instead of the normal intermittent attacks. I ended up swapping into Heirophant totems which is really so much safer

Coil belt is a really good boost to this build and after some tree changes to accommodate it I'm now wrecking the content and it seems like all the endgame results will be just better with it

The Abyss jewels are crazy. That flat ES along with Int is super common and great. Flat lighting damage is also good but its hard to tell how good. Gonna hit the diminishing returns on flat damage at some point I assume

how do u get 11k ES? in PoB i reach 8.5 with jewels with int and inc ES

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garantivil wrote:

how do u get 11k ES? in PoB i reach 8.5 with jewels with int and inc ES

Thats about what I got when I imported my current Abyss character and filled out the rest of the tree. It turns out that for some reason importing broke the rings so they were no longer giving any INT. After fixing them my ES rose to 10k with room for improvements

If thats not it maybe you are missing something else, are you getting flat ES on jewels? I imported mine with a middle roll of +30 on most of them which was the reason why I could cut Foresight and Arcane focus which used to be in the build

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WaffleT wrote:

Coil belt is a really good boost to this build and after some tree changes to accommodate it I'm now wrecking the content and it seems like all the endgame results will be just better with it

The Abyss jewels are crazy. That flat ES along with Int is super common and great. Flat lighting damage is also good but its hard to tell how good. Gonna hit the diminishing returns on flat damage at some point I assume

Thanks for the new belt and changes to the tree. I can really see this working: extra block and ele res and better jewels. I find the build very refreshing: apart from Astramentis and Vertex I have never used any of the other uniques, jewels and significant parts of the tree in over 20 builds.

About the jewels
- INT is most important
- until level 60 or so, flat ES is useless as your %increased ES is not high enough
- for dps, attack speed gives the most bang for your buck, as flat damage is already enormous and we also have a very large amount of increased% already

I therefore think that when leveling, use regular jewels with INT, 2 attack speed mods and a %damage mod (I bought some for 1-2 chaos each in the Abyss league).
After level 60 you can experiment with flat ES Abyss Jewels to see what the best mix is. As the best Abyss jewels have a high required player level, you can only use them late anyway.

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WaffleT wrote:

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garantivil wrote:

how do u get 11k ES? in PoB i reach 8.5 with jewels with int and inc ES

Thats about what I got when I imported my current Abyss character and filled out the rest of the tree. It turns out that for some reason importing broke the rings so they were no longer giving any INT. After fixing them my ES rose to 10k with room for improvements

If thats not it maybe you are missing something else, are you getting flat ES on jewels? I imported mine with a middle roll of +30 on most of them which was the reason why I could cut Foresight and Arcane focus which used to be in the build

The rings are not the problem. I changed my jewels to flat +30 ES, +16 int and +7% inc maximum ES and now i have 10k ES but those jewels are near imposible to get... maybe im doing something wrong?

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garantivil wrote:

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WaffleT wrote:

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garantivil wrote:

how do u get 11k ES? in PoB i reach 8.5 with jewels with int and inc ES

Thats about what I got when I imported my current Abyss character and filled out the rest of the tree. It turns out that for some reason importing broke the rings so they were no longer giving any INT. After fixing them my ES rose to 10k with room for improvements

If thats not it maybe you are missing something else, are you getting flat ES on jewels? I imported mine with a middle roll of +30 on most of them which was the reason why I could cut Foresight and Arcane focus which used to be in the build

The rings are not the problem. I changed my jewels to flat +30 ES, +16 int and +7% inc maximum ES and now i have 10k ES but those jewels are near imposible to get... maybe im doing something wrong?

Solved: i had the wrong chest lol! I'm gonna try this build when i get more currency :D

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garantivil wrote:

Solved: i had the wrong chest lol! I'm gonna try this build when i get more currency :D

Glad you figured it out. I assume that you chose the evasion or armour variant of the chest instead of the ES one. That can be tricky

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Flapdrol wrote:

Thanks for the new belt and changes to the tree. I can really see this working: extra block and ele res and better jewels. I find the build very refreshing: apart from Astramentis and Vertex I have never used any of the other uniques, jewels and significant parts of the tree in over 20 builds.

About the jewels
- INT is most important
- until level 60 or so, flat ES is useless as your %increased ES is not high enough
- for dps, attack speed gives the most bang for your buck, as flat damage is already enormous and we also have a very large amount of increased% already

I quite like using underused uniques, I find them neat and its satisfying when they are legitimately the best option not a stopgap

I have the endgame version of my current character up in path of building with my current jewels but level 90 tree/gear and done some testing The rough results using the stats from that character are

Tier 1 +6 to 62 lightning damage = 6% attack speed = 20% Lightning Damage

Tier 1 +50 flat ES = 12% Increased energy shield

The reason why I thought to value flat ES so highly is that ES needs to come from somewhere and the %ES nodes on the tree are all pretty low value while as damage nodes with really good value are much easier to come across, arcing blows and heart of thunder as examples.

As a random test I changed every abyss jewel in the tree into a rare jewel with
6% Increased Attack Speed
+8 to Strength and Intelligence
+16 Intelligence

I ended up with marginally better dps/es then from my current jewels. It seems that most combinations are pretty close in value and that its more just about having high rolled jewels then what the stats on them are

Once you don't need ES as much anymore (for me thats around the 10k mark) then the rest of the jewels can be pure damage ones which tend to be normal jewels with 3-4 damage mods

Another jewel that caught my eye which turns out to be best value for damage and ES was the Watcher's Eye unique jewel if it rolls "Damage Penetrates 12% Lightning Resistance while affected by Wrath". The jewel isn't a massive upgrade but does beat 4 stat rare jewels. It then made me want do some checking in the tree and from my pob calculations its more efficient to replace herald of thunder with wrath even if you don't have the jewel

I changed the trees and gems to reflect this but now the build does need the enlighten gem again although it can make do with a level 1 version

Thanks for the excellent gem analysis!

Two small unrelated suggestions:
- the CWDT/Immortal Call combo has been removed from the gems section. Intentional?
- I've included Lightning Warp in the gems to be able to move over obstacles. Not absolutely necessary, but good for QoL. Adding Faster casting or Reduced Duration is not necessary since it is used only sparingly.

I have started to lvl this build!

What about Elder and guardians? I imagine it should be easy since the high defences we have, but anyone has managed to kill them?