[3.4] ELE CLAW INQUISITOR | Farm Shaper on 3Link! + UberElder, UberAtziri | very Budget friendly!

Hello all,

Do you know why the build use Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice instead of just using Wrath? I am increasing my DPS by 5-7% on POB with Wrath so I would like to know if there is a reason to keep the 2 heralds.

With Wrath I'm winning one slot for a new gem, hesitating between Vaal Haste and Empower if you have some suggestion too about that

Good question. Wrath is definitely a bit easier on the mana reservation than Thunder/Ice -- however, dropping Herald of Ice means giving up Shatter which is pretty freaking strong for map clearing. You slam a huge pack of mobs with a single attack, one Shatters and wipes out the rest of the mobs.

For bosses your guess is as good as mine.

"

oroklol wrote:

Hello all,

Do you know why the build use Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice instead of just using Wrath? I am increasing my DPS by 5-7% on POB with Wrath so I would like to know if there is a reason to keep the 2 heralds.

With Wrath I'm winning one slot for a new gem, hesitating between Vaal Haste and Empower if you have some suggestion too about that

Herald of Ice is used for clearing purpose, giving the ability to gain Onslaught and Innervate thanks to the aoe shatter kills. Herald of Thunder has been deemed borderline useless by many commentators throughout the 100+ previous pages, even by the OP.

You can perfectly choose to discard HoT, as it is not providing that much of a dps boost, if you have mana reservation problems/need the slot for something else.

You can also choose to discard HoI if you want, in favour of Wrath or something else like Arctic Armor (if you want increased defense and your gear level is good enough to not run a dps aura at all).
However, by discarding HoI your map clear speed will probably suffer.

Personnally, I chose to discard both heralds. Instead, I run Wrath-Enfeeble-Blasphemy-Enlighten (boots).

Did my clearspeed suffer? Not at all, because I made the following few changes to the original build setup:
- bought abyss jewels with x% chance to gain Onslaught on kill (rolled +max life, 2x flat ele damage and x% chance for onslaught). I got 2 of them, for a total of 13% chance to get onslaught on kill, and the uptime is satisfying. I will try with only one in the future (7 or 8% chance);
- moved the shield charge setup to the helm, got rid of Faster Attacks in favor of Blood Rage (Shield Charge-Fortify-Blood Magic-Blood Rage)
- bought a pair of Thunderfists and I use Frost Blades-Multistrike-Ancestral Call-Elemental Damage with Attacks. If you add the lvl 18 Added Lightning Damage and the flat lightning damage from the gloves it provides you with an effective 5L Frost Blades for clearing purpose. I was lucky enough to snatch a +1 level to socketed Gems corrupted pair with the color I wanted for cheap.

For clearing:
- I equip the Thunderfists and use Frost Blades. Molten Strike stays on my 6L chest, with the single target 3R3B setup in case I need it on a tough monster.
==> I have at my disposal 5L Frost Blades (right click), 6L Molten Strike (on another mouse button), Wrath, Enfeeble, Onslaught on kill (13% chance atm), Shield Charge, Blood Rage, OoS, Ancestral Protector, and the CWDT-IC-Lightning Golem setup.

For bosses:
- I usually dont bother changing anything for low red tier maps, and use Molten Strike as is.
- For high red tier maps and endgame bosses I just switch the Thunderfists with my pair of 2 abyss sockets Tombfists, on which I put a CWDT-Vortex setup in order to lay some aoe chilling effect down while I'm on top of the boss. I'm also considering changing Vortex for Tempest Shield, for the additional block chances instead. Didnt really thought of a better 2L CWDT setup apart from those 2, and I don't want an active skill setup like vaal haste/grace/lightning trap to keep the skillbar switching to a minimum. But one could perfectly go the Increased Duration - Vaal skill way on this slot.
==> I have at my disposal 6L Molten Strike, Wrath, Enfeeble, Shield Charge, Blood Rage, OoS, Ancestral Protector, the CWDT-IC-Lightning Golem setup and a 2L CWDT-Vortex setup that could be replaced by any 2L setup of one's choosing.

All in all, I find the clearspeed way more enjoyable and faster with this setup while the single target damage is basically the same as the original build.

The only difference is that I switch my pair of gloves and 1 skill on the skillbar (replacing Frost Blades with Molten Strike on my right click button for QoL) for high tier bosses, instead of switching 1 or 2 gems on the 6L setup.

You should be aware that by going this route you obviously lose some max life while clearing, since Thunderfists don't have any, compared to the +% max life and the flat life from abyss jewels of Tombfists, or the flat life and resists on a pair of Gripped Gloves. In my case, I loose about 350 health but I'm still just under 6k life which I find to be sufficient while clearing.

On a final note, I should add:
- that Frost Blades could be replaced with another skill, Lightning Strikes for example. I did not test it but I don't see why it wouldnt work;
- that this setup is also pefectly doable with a shaped/elder pair of rare gloves with "Socketed Gems are supported by Faster Attacks" and "Socketed Gems are supported by Faster Projectiles" or "Socketed Gems are supported by Slower Projectiles", but gloves like this with both mods lvl 18+ and just some life are expensive. While it would provide us with an effective 6L for Frost Blades, I'm not sure that it would be really better than going with Thunderfists, or at least I think it would require a hefty investment to do so. The gems setup would look like Frost Blades-Ancestral-Call-Elemental Damage with Attack-Added Lightning Damage (+Faster Attacks and Faster/Slower Projectiles).

Please also note that I made these changes once I already had some overall decent gear. I wouldnt recommend doing this without at least an okayish level of gear overall, or Frost Blades could prove to be lackluster in term of clearing power in higher tier maps.

Thx for your answers !

Gregoriensten , that is a cool idea to increase the clear speed, i may try it !
I like the idea of the defensive aura solution finaly, Grace would be my choice in that case i Think.

good luck getting this build completed for 5 ex, claws are so overpriced right now it's not even funny.

Haha 5 ex. With his gear, on Abyss league, you're looking to spend 120 ex + and easily spending 200 ex+ with super optimal jewels. Great build though, a lot of fun, works really well. As it should at that cost.

"

oroklol wrote:

Hello all,

Do you know why the build use Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice instead of just using Wrath? I am increasing my DPS by 5-7% on POB with Wrath so I would like to know if there is a reason to keep the 2 heralds.

With Wrath I'm winning one slot for a new gem, hesitating between Vaal Haste and Empower if you have some suggestion too about that

I ditched heralds some time ago. I find wrath+enfeeble better for dps. Using silver flask for onslaught, you could go with onslaught on kill jewels, but the potion is more reliable for bossing.

"

Gregoriensten wrote:

On a final note, I should add that this setup is also pefectly doable with a shaped/elder pair of rare gloves with "Socketed Gems are supported by Faster Attacks" and "Socketed Gems are supported by Faster Projectiles" or "Socketed Gems are supported by Slower Projectiles", but gloves like this with both mods lvl 18+ and just some life are expensive. While it would provide us with an effective 6L for Frost Blades, I'm not sure that it would be really better than going with Thunderfists, or at least I think it would require a hefty investment.

Have you tried essence of horror gloves instead of thunderfist? Should be better damage at higher gear levels, and isn't as expensive as a GG elder/shaper glove.

Personally I've been testing out reave as my trash clear, with this setup:

It is extremely good for trash but I'm not 100% sold on it mainly because of abysses. I chew on the abyss rares a little. Molten strike in the AoE setup makes short work of them. I know I can just molten strike them, with my boss setup MS, (3B3R, no ancestral call) but I have to actually walk up to them to hit them with it (can't just shield charge to them because the @$!&*$ abyss is always in the way). Wouldn't be an issue if I ran the 4R2B ancestral call molten strike, but I'm not really sold on that for bosses. Some bosses it works really well, others close to melee range, or use more dangerous abilities if you're not in melee range.

I might just need to make room for flame dash so I can cross the damn abysses.

"

saucefar2 wrote:

good luck getting this build completed for 5 ex, claws are so overpriced right now it's not even funny.

http://poe.trade/search/aokounikomamik


Craft crit on it, and away you go. I killed shaper and all guardians deathless this league with a claw only marginally better than that.