[3.9] Herald of Agony (Melee!) Necro--Get in Monsters' Faces Safely (5M Shaper DPS/8.4kLife+Fortify)

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codetaku wrote:

Done, I added some explanation at the top too.

As you can see by reading the build, it's completely different from yours; our similarities are fundamentally intrinsic to any herald of agony necro in 3.8 (namely, the use of cold iron point and the choice of ascendancy points).

Dont worry never said our builds are the same just the Tileset ;)

If anything, your build is more suited to use Mistress of Sacrifice somewhere than mine is, since you actually have the time to cast offerings manually between charging worb, whereas I try to be cycloning all the time.

Dont really understand what you are exactly trying to point out, anyway im a lazy person so i let my body armor do the offering casting for this build.Since thats solved Mistress of Sacrifice is rather pointless :) . Again thanks for credeting me and have a good day sir

Right, right, you pick that body armor so you can have your 5-link helm, I forgot.

I have to thank you so much for posting this guide man! It's amazing how awesome this build plays and it's so tanky :D Just wanted to know what could i improve now since my gear is pretty good i think? Beside the golem anoint and that damn uber lab^^ :)

Uh, you'd have to post your gear for me to be able to give you suggestions? Also, is there anything you're having trouble with? If you're not having any problems then there's no need to improve :P

Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it :)

Gem leveling is a long, arduous process, getting 21/20 gems on a 6-link will be the biggest difference once you have all the items and resists you need (and leveling itself is "free"!)

Edit: Your character info is public, so I went ahead and looked at your character.

You've already gotten pretty much everything... minor numerical improvements are always good (more life on some things, maybe). Corruptions are the next goal, I guess?

Attack speed corrupted Cold Iron Points aren't too expensive. The "ultimate stretch goal" is a good corruption for your 6L coming calamity. The best thing would be something like... +1 socketed gems +1 all max resistances? Temple corrupted, obviously. Unfortunately, Herald of Agony doesn't count as a projectile skill despite the minion mostly being projectile based, so you can't get +3 gems for it :)

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codetaku wrote:

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nazseha wrote:

Hie.. Im finally hit level 90 and 7k hp.. I can truly say this is one of the most fun build i ever played..plus more enjoyable then my previous league cyclone phys ahfak build.. right now aiming for a 31 HoA gem and CoE Tombfist with a right socket color.. been sniping the Tombfist for a few days now without luck getting the right color socket..

I guess the priority upgrade for now will be HoA 21 > 6 link > tombfist CoE > more Life right?

I cry a little every time I see a new positive reception to the build :')

Anyway, yeah, you've got the priority right imo. HoA 21 is slightly less of a dps increase than your 6L will be (31% vs up to 44% depending on the level of vicious projectiles), but it's also way cheaper than the 6L.

I know it'll "feel bad" to give up 23q on the herald of agony gem, but honestly, I'd go straight for it before saving for the 21/20 or 21/23 herald of agony. The minion movement speed on my amulet is something I only crafted because of the lack of quality on my gem; once I get a 21/20 gem I plan to drop it because the crawler isn't painfully slow or anything. The 21/0 gem is just WAY cheaper than 21/20 (last I checked anyway).

You can always resell the 21/0 gem when you can afford 21/20.

If you're intent on going straight for 21/20 instead, then the 6th link might actually be a higher priority.


On the topic of Tombfist, you know that you can color a corrupted one yourself, right? As long as you have vaal orbs, you can just select the "1 blue socket" option and it'll take an average of 2.5 attempts to color it. It's 4 chromatics and 4 vaal orbs per attempt. If you were trying to get something noticeably more costly (like 3 blue sockets) then the corrupted coloring costs could be a deal-breaker, but with something like this where you only want 1 off color socket and an even split between the other two colors, it's pretty much a best-case scenario for corrupted coloring. I actually got mine in only 1 attempt, for a measly 4 vaal orbs!

OMG..i seriously didn't have any clue that we can recolor corrupted socket item.. hahaha.. but this only apply to recolor or we can vaal+jwel to change socket? and also vaal+fusing? nway thanks a lot man for the heads up ! xD

anyway I just upgraded HoA 21/0 and FA supp gem to quality 20% , perhaps you can share some tips on which gem quality to priority first? :D

Hi, I have some questions regarding this build guide.

1. Is deathmark support really good for 5 link? I dont find myself using it a lot as I'm too busy cycloning and keeping myself alive. Is there a better substitute?

2. My level 31 hoag feel a bit underwhelming after going through all the trouble. Does it get better? I feel like my level 24 4xspectres could easily outplay the crawler.

3. My cyclone AOE is pathetically small. How do you guys cope with that?

4. Can anyone take a look at my gear and let me know the next thing to upgrade? Planning to replace the ring and amulet next. But what other upgrades could male the build smoother with little investment?

Thank you.

Hi, Well done codetaku, I`m in love with this build.
I`ve Tried a Pyroclast build this league and, meh, massive DPS but lack of fun.

btw, I also did not know we could change corrupted socket colors...XD


Just an add: unpredictable Offensive is a cheap and good Passive for anoint with a few chaos, 10% attack speed and chance to dodge.

And Charging offensive:
Channelling Skills deal 16% increased Attack Damage
Channelling Skills have 6% increased Attack Speed
20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when Hit while Channelling
20% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when Hit while Channelling

Is a good anoint for less than 100C.

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VictorHeisenberg wrote:

Hi, Well done codetaku, I`m in love with this build.
I`ve Tried a Pyroclast build this league and, meh, massive DPS but lack of fun.

btw, I also did not know we could change corrupted socket colors...XD


Just an add: unpredictable Offensive is a cheap and good Passive for anoint with a few chaos, 10% attack speed and chance to dodge.

And Charging offensive:
Channelling Skills deal 16% increased Attack Damage
Channelling Skills have 6% increased Attack Speed
20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when Hit while Channelling
20% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when Hit while Channelling

Is a good anoint for less than 100C.

Unpredictable Offensive looks interesting gonna try it later.. atm, i took Quicksteps just for the extra MS.. lol.

Charging offensive will be a lot juicier if we can slot in to setup IC+CWDT.. xD

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aquasnow93 wrote:

Hi, I have some questions regarding this build guide.

1. Is deathmark support really good for 5 link? I dont find myself using it a lot as I'm too busy cycloning and keeping myself alive. Is there a better substitute?

2. My level 31 hoag feel a bit underwhelming after going through all the trouble. Does it get better? I feel like my level 24 4xspectres could easily outplay the crawler.

3. My cyclone AOE is pathetically small. How do you guys cope with that?

4. Can anyone take a look at my gear and let me know the next thing to upgrade? Planning to replace the ring and amulet next. But what other upgrades could male the build smoother with little investment?

Thank you.

Deathmark is mainly used against stronger foes,I rarely find myself in the need to cast it, maybe at a harder boss fight. It's a good support gem for the crawler, it gives extra damage,deathmark is mostly optional and will come in handy in difficult situations.

I rarely had any issues with survivability, I died I think once since I respecced from my earlier zombie build. Obviously you won't have the dps as a mass zombie,spectre build,however I don't think you do need tens of millions of dps,unless you truly want to push the build way beyond anything like uber elder or delving beyond 7-800.

This build isn't about pushing the dps to the limit, so the crawler won't come close to the best summoner builds out there, it's about smoother gameplay and being a bit more engaged in battle, having a bit more fun. I'm at lvl 13 maps as of now and even on a 5 link I did not find myself in the need for even more damage.

The cyclone aoe can be increased, however I don't think that is the point of the build, this isn't a cyclone build,cyclone is the secondary thing,you do this to keep fortify up,and to proc the crawler,that is basically it, your cyclone damage and aoe is supposed to be crap.

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nazseha wrote:

OMG..i seriously didn't have any clue that we can recolor corrupted socket item.. hahaha.. but this only apply to recolor or we can vaal+jwel to change socket? and also vaal+fusing? nway thanks a lot man for the heads up ! xD

anyway I just upgraded HoA 21/0 and FA supp gem to quality 20% , perhaps you can share some tips on which gem quality to priority first? :D

You can change everything about the sockets, yeah. It only requires vaal orbs in proportion to the number of other orbs used.

For example, on a 1-abyssal tombfist, you need 6 vaal orbs total to socket the item. 3 jews and 3 vaals to make it a 3s item; 3 fuse and 3 vaals to make it a 3-link from there. Then however many vaals to color it.

So you see, the base tombfist you buy doesn't matter as long as it has the corruption (though I went straight for perfect life and enfeeble level rolls because 35c was cheap enough).

As for which gems to quality first, you were right that faster attacks was the first priority.

From there, I'd say all of the herald of agony links are next priority? To be clear, you know about the recipe where you trade a level 20 gem and a gcp in for a 20q level 1 gem, right? For everything except Herald of Agony itself, that's what you should use as soon as they hit level 20. It does mean your other minions will temporarily die really often, but it's worth it in the long run, and they level back up quickly. If you need a single highest priority, I think Chain was a really important one; your crawler has no other sources of projectile speed, so chain quality is functionally a 20% more multiplier on the total travel distance of the crawler's projectiles, which can be an increase for clearspeed even though it once again provides no benefit for single target at all.

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aquasnow93 wrote:

Hi, I have some questions regarding this build guide.

1. Is deathmark support really good for 5 link? I dont find myself using it a lot as I'm too busy cycloning and keeping myself alive. Is there a better substitute?

2. My level 31 hoag feel a bit underwhelming after going through all the trouble. Does it get better? I feel like my level 24 4xspectres could easily outplay the crawler.

3. My cyclone AOE is pathetically small. How do you guys cope with that?

4. Can anyone take a look at my gear and let me know the next thing to upgrade? Planning to replace the ring and amulet next. But what other upgrades could male the build smoother with little investment?

Thank you.

1. Deathmark is an Instant skill, so you can literally use it while you are cycloning (this also applies to bone armour and frost blink. Smash those buttons as soon as you feel like you're in danger). It's a bigger single-target dps boost over Vicious Projectiles, and more importantly, it lets you guarantee that your crawler is, generally speaking, targeting the pack that you are currently in (via one extra button press). If you don't use it, the packs can sometimes be left alone long enough to gang up on you unless you're really good at escaping. But if for some reason your pack-clearing speed isn't high enough, sure, you can switch it to Vicious Projectiles.

2. Play whatever's fun to you? I love the hyperactive playstyle of this build. I don't have any cRaAaAaAzY settings in path of building so I'm fairly confident in having 4.6 mil shaper dps, and the packs in t16 absolutely melt on my 6-link when I have Chain slotted in. But if you preferred how spectres felt, just play spectres...? If you're not able to make use of Deathmark for crawler targeting, it sounds like you may not actually enjoy an interactive build like this....

3. You dive directly into enemies, dude. You also need to actually level up Cyclone as it gains max radius every five levels. Again, you seem more and more like you're just not interested in the playstyle. As I am typing this, you seem to be starting to take apart the build, so I can't see if you were actually leveling up the gem (should be perfectly serviceable by level 11 which takes all of 5 minutes in Maps, and at level 16 it's pretty decent). But like Nosferat said, Cyclone AoE isn't even close to the point. Cyclone isn't being used to damage enemies, It's being used to gain virulence (which applies to YOU, not the enemies themselves). You don't need to be hitting every monster in a pack, you need to be hitting at least one monster in a pack.

4. The boots from your char have some dinky 13% crafted movement speed on them. 30 movespeed boots are the bare minimum for any build except literally Flicker Strike. Since it's clear that you don't understand the value of movement speed, I'll remind you that you should also be using flasks that give movement speed. In addition to the obvious quicksilver and silver flasks, there's also a flask mod that gives an additional up-to-30% increased movement speed (put it on either your quicksilver or silver flask). If timing flask guzzling while moving isn't for you, then again, the hyperinteractive playstyle simply is not your thing, please look elsewhere.

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VictorHeisenberg wrote:

Hi, Well done codetaku, I`m in love with this build.
I`ve Tried a Pyroclast build this league and, meh, massive DPS but lack of fun.

btw, I also did not know we could change corrupted socket colors...XD


Just an add: unpredictable Offensive is a cheap and good Passive for anoint with a few chaos, 10% attack speed and chance to dodge.

And Charging offensive:
Channelling Skills deal 16% increased Attack Damage
Channelling Skills have 6% increased Attack Speed
20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when Hit while Channelling
20% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when Hit while Channelling

Is a good anoint for less than 100C.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it! And glad to help with the socket coloring... issues :P

I'm personally not interested in using annointment just for attack speed (we're not stacking dodge so 5% against attacks only is very little Effective HP) but I guess if people are short on it they can do so :) The endurance charge when hit isn't bad but in the endgame build (I've updated my gear on the front page!) we have 2 minimum endurance charges already so it becomes a bit redundant.