[3.2] 9k-11k ES, 60-100k Armor, CI Aegis Guardian (Shaper, HoGM, Rippy Map Mods)

Yup. I'll be updating the build for 3.1. I'm working on a detailed leveling guide at the moment.

Currently, there are no changes for the build. The MoM hit isn't big enough for us to consider other nodes. We lose a few couple ES from the build, so you roughly get 9.3k ES with the MoM nerf.

It should be worth it to use Memory Vault, for the massive boost in armor, but I'll have to test it out before making any decisions. The main concern is whether we need that much armor, or if the chaos resistance and +1 gems from Vaal Vertex is better overall.

It's just gonna need a bit of testing with both items, to see how the build feels. On the good side, Memory Vault should give us 19k armor. So, we'll be running with 80k armor fully equipped. That's gonna be fun.

As for a CI version of this build. We run into a few problems, I'm going to list them, as I'm trying to solve/fix them before releasing the skill tree for such a build.

-We can't use Chayula's so we aren't immune to stun. This hurts especially against hard hitting bosses like Minotaur or Shaper's 17k Slam. You'll just freeze up and be unable to do anything for 2-5 seconds after getting hit because of stun. We also lose 1.7k ES because Health no longer -> ES.
-Great ES gear is required to get back up to 9.5k ES. You'll also most likely need to 6-link a 600 ES chest and use boots with 210 ES to make up the difference.
-We lose around 20,000 armor since we can no longer reserve our health.
-Probably still need Iron Reflexes for Grace -> Armor conversion to hit 40,000 armor. If we have Memory Vault we can hit 60,000 armor.

Pros:
Chaos Immune makes Hall of Grandmaster extremely easy, chaos monsters irrelevant, and makes you harder to kill in PvP. Wither/Chaos is a thing on PvP so, if you want to laugh at 95% of all builds because you'll literally be unkillable in Sarn Arena. You can do that.

I will be doing some experimentation to see if I can fix all the problems with CI, but those are the main concerns with a CI version atm.

I did some plans for a 9.5k ES CI Duelist using Blade Flurry in the future using roughly the same skill tree as this build. It'll be using Ghost Reaver, so the leech would effectively negate the rest of this build's weakness, which is Damage over time and it has the option of grabbing Vaal Pact if it wanted.

The problem with the CI Duelist was the armor was too low. Memory Vault would solve some of the problems, but even then it would only take the armor up to 40,000 and not the 60,000 I'd like it to be.

https://pastebin.com/45QBYLwg

The good thing about this CI Duelist, is that it does 500k Damage with Blade Flurry. Which is pretty respectable clear speed.

I have no idea, how you'd level up such a build, but if I have time. I might post it in the Duelist Forums. As there are no CI builds there. Haha. Just as a surprise.

Wait, if you are already using Shav, why go CI?

Also, if we're using Memory Vault, it's better to skip Grace + Iron Reflect entirely, and prune the bottom half of the tree. You can save 15+ points there, which is huge.

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chinhodado wrote:

Wait, if you are already using Shav, why go CI?

Mostly, just curious to see if a CI version would work with this build. Being immune to chaos, helps against a few thing. You can still die vs chaos damage even with shavs.

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Also, if we're using Memory Vault, it's better to skip Grace + Iron Reflect entirely, and prune the bottom half of the tree. You can save 15+ points there, which is huge.

Yup. I agree with the pruning. Also, with the new abyss mechanics, the 15+ points are gonna be necessary to dps down certain mobs faster. GG did a slight punish on slow builds like this one, so we are gonna need the dps if we want to complete content without struggling.

Did you do uber atziri on this build?

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Sirdrig wrote:

Did you do uber atziri on this build?

Nop. I didn't get to do uber atziri or the pale council.

Can you post your Memory Vault version with 40k armour? I played around with it and can only reached about 29k.

One annoying thing is the +10% mana reserved, so either we'll need to spend another 2 points on mana reserved reduction, or have to use LV4 Enlighten, or LV3 Enlighten with +1 gem Shaper's touch.

Yup, here is the 40k armor version with Memory Vault.

https://pastebin.com/KmV8jncj

Ugh, still not totally not comfortable with 40k armor, but it shouldn't be that bad. ES jumps to 10k ES. And dps is a 100k improvement over the older build.

It should feel much smoother killing things, barring any hard hitting chaos mobs.

Have you considered using The Red Nightmare? It can give us 9-15% block, and then if we use a Sai with 6% block as well we can still reach max block while gaining a tons on DPS with a good rare Sai, replacing Advancing Fortress.

I did some theorycrafting with red nightmare before harbringer ended and the dps didn't seem that significant for red nighmare alone unless you wanted to use double pyre rings and really push for damage.



Just gonna break it down for ppl interested in the experiments I've been doing. I made a few tiny adjustments in the tree to make it better then the one I used in harbringer, so we should get more ES then what we got in Harbringer League.

I've also decided against Mind Over Matter in the new version of this build. GG did a fine job of balancing and it really looks like those 4 mana nodes aren't the best in our build anymore. It's just better to grab other mana nodes on our tree.

Red Nightmare - DPS Wand & Double Pyre Rings - 634k DPS - 40k Armor - 7.7k ES
https://pastebin.com/thrMCs6B

Red Nightmare - DPS Wand - 449k dps - 60k Armor - 9.2k ES
https://pastebin.com/rD3dBecE

Original 375k dps - 60k Armor - 9.8k ES
https://pastebin.com/QTFnydpZ

Also, managed to make a CI version of the build with 60k armor. I didn't think it was possible, but I managed to scrap up a CI build with 71k armor. Legacy CI Aegis lives again guys. The lightning resistance isn't capped in the pastebin, but your amulet/chest/boot piece interchangeable. I'm just using my old guardian items as a template, whose resistance was geared differently.

CI Version. 224k dps - 71k Armor - 8.7k ES
https://pastebin.com/mJhpHfuL

Now, only thing of note about the CI version is I'm worried about the mana usage.

We typically run clarity with the original build, but the CI build has barely enough mana for discipline, grace, and determination. So, not gonna recommend it unless I know for sure, that the mana problem is worked out. It's more of a test, to show that it's possible to build 60k armor on a pure CI build.

The stun problem of CI builds is solved mainly because of the Guardian's Ascendancy 'cannot be stunned if you blocked recently' so as long as we are max-block. We are stun immune at the same time. Pretty nice.

It's also the most tanky of all the versions because it also makes use of Incandescent Heart which reduces elemental damage by 25%. So it's like having another fortify on top of your fortify, vs ele damage. So even though the total ES is lower, it can tank a lot more heavy elemental damage.

Now, last problem is whether or not 224k dps is gonna be able to take you to late game with abyssal mobs or maps where clear speed is necessary. I guess I won't know till I start doing maps myself and give an updated report on it.

And lastly, I also wanted to talk about Memory Vault since it is a pretty hype item for guardian builds. It's really curious but the way I've been playing around with it. GG has made the item worth much less on a build that stacks a lot of armor. From what I can tell from the item, based on the skill nodes, required to make it work.

It's better for ES or Life builds that require a little bit of armor, that aren't aura heavy or mana heavy. So, probably not a GC Miner or something similar that can expunge 2,000 mana per second. We are talking like 10-20k armor max builds that use barely any mana.

For any build that stacks armor much, much higher than 20k. We are better off using Iron Reflexes to grab tons of armor.

I can only say the item is balanced and the 10% increased mana reserved is specifically tuned to counter it's use on extreme armor/aura guardian builds.

We can still use Memory Vault, but it's my opinion at this time that its not worth it for us in any capacity. At best, you get Memory Vault as a cheap budget item, till you can afford Vaal Vertex.

I'll be updating this guide to 3.1 this weekend, once I have time to compile all the versions of this build that I've been working on.