[3.2] CI ST/BF HoWA, still ass kicking! Shaper/Guardian/Uber/Elder etc

on ur shaper gif u have 2 totems up how?

Do you think a good ES shield is a viable alternative to a second HOWA? Since the nerf a second HOWA does not do nearly as much as in breach. With BF my damage (on removing the second HOWA) drops from 1 mil DPS at 6 stages to 750k DPS. 25% less damage, yet with a good ES shield you can get +1500 ES easily. What's your opinion on that?

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Fyndel wrote:

on ur shaper gif u have 2 totems up how?

Hierophant sub-ascendancy gives you another totem if you socket it in your helmet. So if you go with Blade Flurry, you can go with both Protector and Warchief, and if you go ST, you can go with 4L Protector for quite a big dps boost.

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Krytos12 wrote:

Do you think a good ES shield is a viable alternative to a second HOWA? Since the nerf a second HOWA does not do nearly as much as in breach. With BF my damage (on removing the second HOWA) drops from 1 mil DPS at 6 stages to 750k DPS. 25% less damage, yet with a good ES shield you can get +1500 ES easily. What's your opinion on that?

Depends on your gear and character, but gut feeling tells me it isn't worth it for majority of people. For me, personally, that wouldn't be great. 300+ ES shield with 30+ Int or 40% increased Lightning would add 1100-1300 ES but like you said, lower dps by around 25%. The thing is, shields like that can cost a lot in comparison to claws: http://poe.trade/search/honikokikaroka

Let's say its a 30 Lightning, 30 int, 300 ES shield. My ST character would have 357k Shaper dps and 11428 ES. But, if I left the second HoWA in, and just taken the blue nodes instead of the ones in the big circle + Int/Str nodes nearby that I'm using now,

I'd have 387k dps and 11189 ES, so it is very comparable. Take off 3 more dps nodes (like Coordination and its dex nodes) to take Sanctity, and dps is 358k with ES is 11419, which is almost exacty the same, but costs nothing at all instead of a few exalted.

Hey
As i can see and tested, hierophant asc must have, but what about raider? as far for me it works only on bosses, rares die too fast and not let generate even 3 charges..isnt it better to get deadeye or even Occultist and just use silver flask and blood rage(may be with watcher eye 2%es regen mod)? Aslo personally i am usin Pure talent jewel for +25 stats, 5 penetration(ye i connect to templar satrt for 5 extra penetration, i think it is worth 3 points) and 7ms from ranger.

And 1 more question, are u sure u wanna convert dat strength in left side of tree? isnt it beter just put good damage+es jewel there?

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BizzzON wrote:

Hey
As i can see and tested, hierophant asc must have, but what about raider? as far for me it works only on bosses, rares die too fast and not let generate even 3 charges..isnt it better to get deadeye or even Occultist and just use silver flask and blood rage(may be with watcher eye 2%es regen mod)? Aslo personally i am usin Pure talent jewel for +25 stats, 5 penetration(ye i connect to templar satrt for 5 extra penetration, i think it is worth 3 points) and 7ms from ranger.

And 1 more question, are u sure u wanna convert dat strength in left side of tree? isnt it beter just put good damage+es jewel there?

Even as I chose Raider, I still use Blood Rage. I look at Raider in this way - since we are pretty much always at full Frenzy, we get free Onslaught, so Raider option is basically a free flask slot, and flasks are amazing. Also, against end game bosses like Shaper/his Guardians/Elder/his Guardians/Uber Atziri, you won't be able to sustain Frenzy Charges without Raider Ascendancy, so it is also a dps gain.

If you prefer fast running maps only, and bosses are just an afterthought for you (or you just chain up to t15 and don't bother much with t16 and beyond), then Raider doesn't shine there. Any option can use Blood Rage for Frenzy during mapping, so only bonus of Raider there is a free Flask slot, and t15 bosses and lower, simply fall over just by looking at the glory of HoWA Scion :D

However, since this character (especially if you go with Blade Flurry for bossing) has good single target dps, end game bossing is easily done, and that's where Raider is at its best, and that's what I recommend. That's also why I don't really upload mapping videos (and because my fps is crap when recording), they are pretty boring by comparison.

If you decide that you want to map, and ignore bosses, then all 3 Witch options are pretty decent. Elementalist gives you highest dps with penetration and Flame Golem. Occultist gives you a mixed bag of dps and higher ES + ES regen despite VP. Necromancer is also good for damage and party play, with some phys reduction and longer Fortify/Immortal Call/Vaal X skills.
Deadeye is also good in this case - pierce is wasted, but Far Shot helps killing in open layouts, and you *could* possibly use Lesser Multiple Projectiles instead of GMP for clear, so some dps gain there as well. Problem with Deadeye is, as soon as you try bosses, Far Shot is not effective, and projectile speed means its a lot harder to position the boss to hit him at the turning point of ST, since the projectiles will travel a lot further and the boss will try to get into melee range in case of Chimera/Minotaur/Phoenix/Elder Guardians and many more.


I can only compare Brute Force Solution with jewels that I have available.
- Vivid Dew - 4.2% less dps, 72 more ES (0.7%).
- Morbid Arbiter - 6% less dps, 53 less ES.
- Entropy Stinger - 1.7% less dps, 80 less ES.
- Fulgent Stone (don't use it anymore) - 4.4% less dps, 23 less ES.
Seems like unless you have some godly jewel, converting Strength is a more likely a bigger dps and ES boost.

whats the best watcher eye jewel to use for boss farming? except the clarity one

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sivertry wrote:

whats the best watcher eye jewel to use for boss farming? except the clarity one

Wrath penetration or ES gained per hit for sustain, I think those 2 are the best.

The clarity watchers eye still good after the nerf? How much es u gained from the jewel, just not sure if it worth the 20+ex price

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sivertry wrote:

The clarity watchers eye still good after the nerf? How much es u gained from the jewel, just not sure if it worth the 20+ex price

i think just better get regalia with +%int for this price

I had similar decision to make but decided to go with jewel. My character at this moment has 10128, and 8257 without. With a rare instead of Watcher's, it would probably be around 8400, so Watcher's is a 1.7k ES for this build over a decent rare jewel, and *almost* 2k ES on its own.

Remember that the bug had to do with % increased mana, not flat mana that we gain from Intelligence, so the "bug" has little to no effect for us.