Commenting just to say I enjoyed the civil discussion about the 2 OPs! I'm also enjoying very much WaffleT's build, and now I feel cheap and miserable :)
I will never have the budget to sustain a build like this one, but I'm not that kind of player anyways, I just try a new build, kill end game bosses and move on. (I don't even have the balls to Vaal my 6L Splendour :(
The 2 HoWA builds you linked are indeed completely different. The one from 3.0 is a life based build with completely different tree.
The 3.1 is a Raider using rare gear and also completely different tree.
Both this build and WaffleT's use purely unique items, which isn't anything new and have been done for both HoWA and Whispering Ice. But both have pretty much same core tree pathing, with few tweaks on some damage/es nodes. Both have same sub-ascendancy choices of Ascendant. Both make use of Scion flexibility and Templar area to use Wildfire for Molten Strike. You can use Incandescent Heart thanks to Clarity Watcher's and that allows you to still hit 9k ES while you increase the damage, but it is also listed as an option in WaffleT's guide. So there are some very big similarities.
Spoiler
With that being said, I don't know why would you stick to pure uniques HoWA build on such a massive budget. Performance-wise, WaffleT's build is a lot easier to gear and provides better performance in both ES and dps then my rare based HoWA build (that is if we both tried comparing same skill gem) if you aren't willing to spend more then 20ex on a build. But with the level of gear you are presenting (+1 corrupted chest, all 21/20 gems, +3 proj Vertex, 3 non-dead stat Watchers) you could build a much better rare based HoWA. Also this gives you a lot more flexibility with gear, as for example the only listed Vertex with 3+ proj is around 50+ ex, while a Hubris will cost you 6-10ex. There are no Incandescent Hearts with +1 corruption on the market either, while on Standard they are 50ex - but there are plenty of great rare Regalias to choose from.
If I had this much currency and wanted to play Molten Strike, I'd do this: https://pastebin.com/VQsZpqTb
161992 molten ball damage*12 projectiles*0.47 hit chance*6.34 attack speed=5.792.445 dps, add melee hit dps and you end up with 6.5 million dps and 10.7k ES, but, you still have room for improvement, like a 650+ ES chest, much better rings, better amulet etc. I'm not using Ancestral Call in that setup but it is just my preference, you could add it for more calculated dps. You also get added benefit of being stun immune letting you use Arakaali+Blood Rage cheese for 7+k ES leech per second and near constant physical immunity through Juggernaut. Or if you want more damage, then Champion/Raider blows Inquisitor/Raider out of the water with 7.7 million dps using the previous pastebin. You don't benefit from crit multi or from Consecrated Ground (you still have heat flask and are already Shock immune thanks to Cyclopean), and Champion Taunt/Intimidate is better then Inquisitor node + Pure Talent penetration. Imho you might be better off taking Champion, and just connecting both tree sections together.
Now I'm not saying you've copied his build. Many times I was theorising a build just to discover later it was already done and 80-90% of the tree/items are similar. However you shouldn't get offended when someone is comparing your build to WaffleT's since the similarities (tree, items, gems) are striking and I genuinely thought it was his build when I've seen your post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/89h9y7/bsc_32_deathless_uber_elder_kill_in_2m_24s_dual/dws2zfj/
I won't be surprised if people in the future refer to unique based Scion MS HoWA by "WaffleT's build", its just the way things are - he posted his build guide first. I'm not trying to diminish your achievements with this build, just stating the obvious.
I'm also not at all confident that MoldyDwarfs 47% calculation for hitting an average sized target is correct but its all I've been able to find as an estimation. Obviously its much larger on bigger targets but I have no data on exactly who has smaller hitboxes and what they are. People will complain if I don't give a number though or if the number includes temporary buffs or isn't against whatever target they think is best
I believe it was stated somewhere that target size 3 was an average size of a boss like Shaper's Guardian.
Yep, you also make a lot of good points and I agree with you. The reason why I chose the unique path and subsequently fully corrupting them instead of buying/crafting GG rares was because early in the Bestiary league, it was just cheaper and easier to gear up and make HOWA + Molten Strike work using only unique items.
I made my own tree and while the ascendancy choices are the same in two guides, I plan on changing later. And I made my own +1 incandescent heart and it took me almost two weeks to find the right watcher's eye.
I don't mind people calling HOWA + Molten Strike a WaffleT's build. Plenty of people have shown interest in my build ingame and I helped them. That's what matters
was looking for a new build on Thursday night, this one caught my eye. I played HOWA a few leagues ago when it first came out and we were all wearing 800+ES vaal regalias. Then GGG nerfed the claws, ES, leech. I've been playing LL RF guardian builds since then.
but at lvl85 atm and this build feels great. has that leech tank feel I loved back in the day.
for leveling, I just used whatever cheap unique claws I had in my stash until I could use hand of thought and motion at level 21. Used molten strike pretty much the whole time. i equipped the other items for this build as soon as my level would allow.
first I went south on the tree to point blank, plugged in fertile mind.Filled in some of the other items down there. Then went NE to shadow. Pretty much followed the tree in this thread exactly. I did take the life leech and life node (blooddrinker) as a temp fix until I could specc out later. For ascendancy went inquisitor first, so I could continue allocating skill points as I leveled so I wouldn't have to stick them somewhere else first then respecc. I didn't go CI until level 70 when I could equip incandescent heart. I had like 5600-6000ES or something at that point and ghost reaver/vaal pact. I went vaal pact back at like level 40-50 or something like that. Probably should have taken it much earlier.
Overall, really smooth leveling experience with the items in the build. Never once felt behind DPS wise or life-wise. I did die a few times here and there but nothing I couldn't have avoided. I was 5 levels below the area level most of the time.
I do have the watcher's eye with mana-->ES and mana leech of lightning damage while affected by wrath, but i sort of feel like that leech isn't necessary.
I don't have a level 4 enlighten (yet), so I use conqueror's efficiency jewel to reduce reserved mana by 2%. This gives me 68/1665 mana, which is enough to spam whirling blades, molten strike and ancestral protector without ever firing blanks for running out of mana. It never happens. I don't think I even need the leech, I think the regen will be enough. I have discipline, wrath, clarity and purity of elements going.
solid build, thanks for sharing this with the community
Last edited by Xaxarius on Apr 8, 2018, 11:38:16 AM
