[3.5-3.12 + 3,18 HC] Pure Herald of Agony Jugg. All content. Videos+Link to 3.14 & 3.15 Updates

Hats off to Orion for making a solid build guide for a league starter that can definitely clear endgame. That being said, I have been making small tweaks here and there since the start of Blight (SC) and I think I am finally done with my version of the build.

I have gotten to around 670 delve depth with ease and have been farming Uber Elder for the challenge completion.

Here is my current gear set up:



POB link: https://pastebin.com/aq2ByTGj

Offence:
POB shows the crawler tail spike at around 1.09M shaper dps. We are able to achieve a level 31 HOAG through the CIP (+3), crafted minion helm (+3), LVL 4 Empower (+3), and the new +1 global modifier on the shield.

We use Hatred+Generosity and Grip of the Council for that extra damage to the crawler. Proj. Weakness+Curse on Hit in our chest.

To proc virulence for HOAG, we use storm brand linked with poison/lesser poison, faster casting. Faster casting helps stack the virulence up faster. Must spec into Runebinder for additional brand attach. With storm brand we get the benefit of range defense, just click on the target a few times then focus on dodging.

Defense:
Since we are not using any attacks to get virulence, we do not benefit from fortify or LGOH. Therefore, I invested heavily into life regen which for Jugg's is relatively easy. As another layer of defense, I went for a 2nd curse with Temp Chains on hit on the gloves. For deep delve Vaal MS is a lifesaver.

The circle of nostalgia synthesis rings allow for us to reduce the HOAG reservation to around 18% reserved mana, letting us run Vitality for even more regen. I am using a cyclopean coil purely for the frozen and ignite avoidance in delve, but ideally you would want a elder leather belt with life, res and life recovery rate. The watchers eye jewel should also have Life recovery rate while affected by Vitality.

That's about all i have to say for now. I am thoroughly enjoying the build and it deals well with the league mechanic!

Variant looks fascinating--new shield mod is excellent here. Very glad it goes well for you, and many thanks for posting!

-O

Due to boredom, I started over in HC and am going to try out this build. Any tips for a brand new league character? Is it better to just level with melee through the acts with zero currency?

Sorry for the novels, I just can't help myself. This is sort of awkward since I didn't follow this build guide, but ever since I found the Cold Iron Point dagger I wanted to make a build exploiting it so figured I'd post it here since it's very similar I'm sure. An obvious choice was a poison Blade Vortex assassin, but others were doing it and I already made poison builds in the league. This led me down some bizarre paths, such as a Shockwave Totem chieftain which was pretty good, then a Herald of Agony/Herald of Purity Necromancer with Zombies and Spectres and all sorts of shit going on, again, really good just not what I wanted.

So then I came crawling back to the good ol' trusty jugg. I wanted a character that could faceroll all content, finish my atlas, and farm Shaper/Uber Elder. I knew I'd EASILY have enough damage, I just wanted to be able to stand in crap and not die. Well this character is a massive success, so much so it feels like cheating...

I guess my small twist on this build is that this character is a DUAL Herald (Agony/Purity) jugg using Blade Flurry to stack agony for its range, safety, and utility with being able to link Life Gain on Hit, Infused Channeling, Fortify, etc. Let me say, you can get a LOT more out of this build, for instance I could get Minion Damage on my helm (although it'd make mana reservation challenging with using both Heralds). The primary reason I'm including Purity is because of the Circle of Guilt I found, so obviously this build could ALSO work in a Circle of Nostalgia which could free up mana reservation for HoA to allow the 5-link helm. It just...hasn't been necessary to pursue to this point.

Uber elder down (for the 2nd time ever), T15 blighted map completely easily, many Shapers, only ever fell short on a corrupted Forge of the Phoenix guardian with multiple insane damage boosts and AoE.

Couple final notes: I use Coralito's Signature to get 100% poison chance, but even without it up in mapping I'm at 40 virulence most of the time, and around 35 on single target boss. I use Doedre's flask for Frenzy/Power charges. I use Asenath's Gentle touch for the temp chains and satisfying explosions which also serve to keep my 4 purity sentinels up in mapping. If you opt out of this I'd suggest simply using Culling Strike in your Blade Flurry links.

Agony crawler does ~1 million Shaper DPS, Purity sentinels do around 200k each, so it adds up to about 2 million DPS that could EASILY go MUCH higher by doing the things I mentioned.

POB: https://pastebin.com/qUrgjFec
This character specs into the obvious minion nodes, and also specs a reasonable amount of life regen (note the dual Cold Iron Points provide +6 to Herald of Agony, Herald of Purity, AND Summon Stone Golem).

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Moridin79 wrote:

Due to boredom, I started over in HC and am going to try out this build. Any tips for a brand new league character? Is it better to just level with melee through the acts with zero currency?

At league start, yes, use a melee skill of your choice to get through lvl 31 or so. At that point you will get access to the library, can grab the gems you need, and can probably at least afford a quill rain to get started.


Re Alternate build: First, congrats on finding a variant you enjoy! I suspect it tears up the content in SC exactly as you describe. That said, at 6500 life, I wouldn't, personally feel comfortable taking it up against the top end content/deep delving in hc, but ymmv--my personal play skill has a long way to go. ;>

-O

Thanks Orion for such a wonderfull build. In a way, you renewed my desire to keep playing as I'm taking a break and playing in Standard SC. I've been able to push to level 97 mostly deathless. This build is the definition of a true all-rounder. I have 9200 life and enough dps to do...everything. I did some changes on the tree and traded life for damage. Any advice to further improve or even test things diferently is much apreciated. This is my gear so far.

Always improves my day to hear folks are having fun with the build!
Your gear looks excellent for the most part. Three very minor notes:

1. I would replace the inc duration in the boots with your favorite lvl 5 curse. Choose among Poacher's mark (which will allow crawler to get some frenzy charges while mapping), proj weakness/Despair (raw damage), Enfeeble or temp chains. Test 'em out and see what feels good.

2. Your belt has space for a beast aspect, all of which have some benefits. I would at least consider swapping out your inc cooldown for your choice of aspect.

3 If you have way too much currency and want to get closer to permanently invulnerable, buy a soul ripper flask and sub it in for your quicksilver. I haven't gotten to try it out myself, but I have reports that it increases the uptime on Vaal molten shell to the point where this build becomes extremely difficult to kill.

Other than that it looks great, carry on!

-O

Thanks for the reply! I am running aspect of the spider in the amulet I forgot to link:


Going to take that tip about the curse for sure and try and get some white sockets in the boots for versatility in choosing curses. Again, Orion, thanks for such a comprehensive work on this build. Cheers!

Spider definitely a good choice.
Most welcome.
Good Luck!

-O

is this build decent for tower defense content?