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

Leveling from a cold league start in ssf:

I believe it would be challenging, but it can definitely be made to work. All necessary leveling gear is craftable.

1. Begin with Smite and Grab ancestral call at lvl 4, followed by ancestral protector for extra damage. Add links to both skills as you are able. For leveling I would use:
Smite>ancestral call>melee phys>LGOH (or replace LGOH with added fire if you feel confident)
Ancestral Protector>melee phys>added fire>faster attacks

2. As you go along, If you don't find a reasonable drop of a melee weapon soon, buy a rustic sash, turn it blue (later yellow) and do the phys weapon recipe on a level appropriate weapon as you level. (Weapon+sash+weapon scrap) You will be on smite until lvl 31 or so. The totem will help with bossing.

3. Keep your eyes open for any short bow with links to save for later. Bonus if it has attack speed. While the build wants QR eventually, an ordinary shortbow will level just fine up to maps.

4. When you get to the library you will be able to buy all of your gems. Don't switch over just yet, but socket them on your weapon swap and let them level a bit until they catch up

5. Make yourself a Hyrri's bite; I believe it's a white sharktooth quiver, yellow onyx ammy, rain of arrows gem with at least 1% qual, and a chance orb.

6. Make yourself a +minion gem level helm if one doesn't drop for you. Blue helmet+life flask of animation+alt

6a. If you need to craft yourself that flask, it's: life flask+bone spirit shield+transmute orb.

The short bow, quiver with Barrage>poison>LGOH>LMP/GMP and HOA>minion damage>DOFL>Pierce (in a +minion gem level helm) will see you all the way to maps.

Bonus post mapping section;

Hoard your chance orbs (and scours) as you go beecause you are going to use them to make at least two uniques if they don't drop: Quill rain and thief's torment.

Farm for a set of porcupine cards. (Turn in for a 6L shortbow). Chance/scour yourself a 6L QR. Put your barrage links here for now.

Save every white 2stone ring past ilvl 30. Combine all 3 types to get a white prismatic ring. Chance these until you get your thief's torment.

Delve for bound fossils. Once you find an elder helm, bound/scour until you get your 6L.

Delve for Abberant fossils. Once you find elder gloves, Abberant/scour until you get your 6L.

If you are feeling really dedicated: farm a set of king's heart cards and turn in for your Kaoms.


Hope this helps. I expect SSF to be extra challenging, but the build is definitely doable with sufficient dedication (and a little recipe knowledge).

-O

Wow thanks Orion that was much more detailed than I was expecting and incredibly useful to myself and I imagine anyone else considering this as a league starter.

Thanks a ton.

Most welcome. Feel free to post your progress and I will try to show up periodically to cheer for you/answer questions.

-O

Does any of you have any experience in farming the Uberlab with the Herald of Agony?

When I start the league with a Juggenaut I like to farm the lab to make some currency early. The Herald of Agony seems to be pretty bad for that. Because the crawler shoots all over the place and will probably kill the lieutanants, essences and portals, so i won't get all the keys. Or is this manageable with Deathmark.

I'm wondering wether I should start with the Herald of Agony or use a melee skill. And then respec after a week or so.

In trade league, once you're able to get your hands on Quill Rain, is it worth to just switch over to HoAG at level 16? I levelled as HoAG with Quill Rain for a bit in Blight on my toxic rain starter and it felt really good at levels 16-30. Levelling guide didn't explicitly recommend what level to switch to HoAG.

Also, going to be interesting to see what pairs well with Barrage support for the bow version.

Could someone please post a screenshot of the tree? Link isn't compatible with current PoB

Re When to switch to Hoag:

If you have QR and access to the gems you need, switching at 16 is my favorite plan.

Re Uberlab:

My experience is that QR Hoag makes Uber lab almost trivially easy, but you are correct that getting every key can be challenging. Deathmark is likely to help, as is good use of convocation.

Re Skill tree:

I'm not near a computer right now, but I'll try to get an updated recommended tree posted for 3.9 later today if I can.

-O

Amazing, planning on playing this and cant wait to see before tomorrow how to build this taking into account the new barrage, etc.

Also, any tip as a HC SSF character? How would you change the build (if any change at all) based on that? I fear I can't use this build properly cause no Kaom's Way, or Thief's Torment, or no QR, any unique or jewels, etc. I will chance every bow, but QR is not taked for granted.

I will try to complete the new content with this build, which looks amazing and report later on that, and can provide you some video in the rare case I ended up killing some new boss out there. I have not tried this character before, so no idea how exactly to plan and change your build for HC SSF, any help is appreciated. Dont even know if a cyclone version could be safer or not.


Cheers and thanks for the guide. Im lookinf forward to try to participate in the race and maybe ended up winning a set of MTX (lol).


EDIT: wow I just read your first post in this page, answering most of my questions to other user. Its very useful stuff, thanks again.

Just waiting for the new barrage setup now (split arrow?) and other gems and maybe a new build tree link for 3.9.


Cheers

Re updated tree: Here is my recommended tree for the build in 3.9: https://pastebin.com/8pjfF0bf It hasn't changed a great deal, though I no longer go out of the way to take adamant, as they eliminated the guard skill cooldown reduction that was the real point (for use with molten shell). I also get the desired minion accuracy in what seems to be a more efficient way, with a bit of a damage bonus.

Re HC SSF: Please see the top of page 51 of the comments. [I see you got there :>]

Given the upcoming race, I will copy that into the FAQ section of the main guide. [edit--added to Question 6 of the FAQ in the main guide]

As to the new barrage support, the math doesn't seem to favor this build, since there is reduced attack speed per projectile associated with it. As to other gems to incorporate, there are tons of possibilities for hybridizing the build with either minions or even totems. My own plan involves some experimentation with this.

I'll note one idea for y'all, even if you plan to keep the build pure. Until you get a kaom's, (while we have extra links) there might be some defensive fun in: ballista totem (formerly RAT)>Ensnaring arrow>Barrage. If any of you are lucky enough to get a maloney's mechanism, might be worth seeing if this setup or something similar would work there.

Unclear whether this will be worthwhile, but it's one of the things on my experiment list.

-O

I like the Cold Iron Point variations here. Do you expect there to be any trouble maintaining Poison stacks with Storm Brand and Runebinder? That was the way I wanted to build this but I'm not super familiar with Storm Brand.

I did a mana guardian hoag last league using lightning ball for poison stacks and that worked great with the amount of balls you get out. Just not sure how often storm brand procs to apply stacks