🏆 Kelza`s VD 🏆 POST MOVED --------> Info in the OP

"

but even with a non STR based shield we will hit the 90% phys mitigation cap

Armour doesn't work like that, you might have 90% phys reduction against small hits, but if you put in PoB a physical hit of 10k, you drop to 55% phys reduction even with everything up, Shaper slam can probably still oneshot you. Getting high armour is still good of course, especially with VMS.

Other than that good guide, especially the Gear and FAQ sections. Gonna do a SSF run to see how it works as a league starter.

Managed to incorporate Xoph's Blood which is super nice with the penetration and beats any other amulet by miles (the only thing close would be a +2 amulet with %mana reserved and Arcane Swiftness but good luck getting that). Hitting estimated 330k Shaper damage (per ball). Can go up to around 390k with some optimized gear (21/23 gems, better enchants, +3 inpulsa etc).



T82 AL8 Conq

Hey :)
I decided to follow your build as transition from outdated zombie builds.. (As newb player got baited by a lot fo reviews and such)
So far it works good :) Would appreciate, if someone could get me in the right way of upgrading. (Tbh not sure how its even possible to get like 600k+ in PoB, while i have like ~120k in mine ;p )
All i know is my helmet is not made good enough. ( very hard to find good base or done item for reasonable price ;c ) And my Wand could get a bit upgrade, but its very hard to find good one aswell. And yea, i tried to find megalomaniac, but its hard to find it with mods mentioned in build. Can someone tell me, what would be nice alternatives ?






My current PoB : https://pastebin.com/wL2Cuskv


My avaible budget for upgrading is like 35-40ex.
Thanks a lot for help :)
Awesome build!

Hello, just a quick question. Why not use power siphon instead of barrage? It has culling strike so you can remove wish for death on medium jewel and get another offensive node?

"

Hello, just a quick question. Why not use power siphon instead of barrage? It has culling strike so you can remove wish for death on medium jewel and get another offensive node?

We tested this. It's a very clunky spell that ramps up much much slower than barrage/frenzy. You can test it out yourself and you'll understand the huge QOL difference.

"

xsarenn wrote:

Hey :)
I decided to follow your build as transition from outdated zombie builds.. (As newb player got baited by a lot fo reviews and such)
So far it works good :) Would appreciate, if someone could get me in the right way of upgrading. (Tbh not sure how its even possible to get like 600k+ in PoB, while i have like ~120k in mine ;p )
All i know is my helmet is not made good enough. ( very hard to find good base or done item for reasonable price ;c ) And my Wand could get a bit upgrade, but its very hard to find good one aswell. And yea, i tried to find megalomaniac, but its hard to find it with mods mentioned in build. Can someone tell me, what would be nice alternatives ?

My current PoB : https://pastebin.com/wL2Cuskv


My avaible budget for upgrading is like 35-40ex.
Thanks a lot for help :)
Awesome build!

Your gear is quite on point so far. Needs to start doing some fine tune work only.

The big upgrades left to be done are:

Awakened Spell Cascade support, that will become a HUGE difference.
+2 AoE inpulsa (+20% more dps)
Higher DPS wand

Those three upgrades will ramp up your DPS so high.


Also, your PoB, with the right Config checks, Potions up and also adding the lines of Additional Curse and Lone Messenger (which standard PoB doesnt calculate) you hit up to 473k dps, which is pretty decent.

With +2 inpulsa you hit up to: 560k
With a wand with the stats of mine you would get another +16.5% DPS to hit: 651k



Your phys reduction is at 87%, should get a lil higher to aim and hit 90%.

Then your spell block is only 55%, that needs some work. Id change surrender to some other type of shield as recomended in op post.

What the bar in the middle of the screen in the videos?

"

sobig1980 wrote:

What the bar in the middle of the screen in the videos?

Thats an overlay from Mercury Trade.

Mercury trade has an option which allows you to create Icons with Timers, Bars with Timers and/or overlay snipes.

That bar you ask, is basically a snipe from the bottom part of potions area, which then I put into the middle of screen, so that I can watch the potions status in the center.

Mercury trade, while being a whisper managing tool mostly, is discontinued for that purpose, but the overlay section works properly yet.

I feel like I'm finally done with the tweaking now and starting to feel done with the league, what a ride it's been! Doing a short write-up for fun. I've never played a season this long and have never ventured this far down the theorycrafting-hole. I think max block and recover on block was the perfect build for this league with a ton monsters hitting for "small" ammounts of damage more or less making the build immortal. Apart from some Elder/Shaper slams and Kosis balls I've never felt in danger.

The biggest challenge with this build is finding a good shield I think. I can probably count the numbers of time I've seen the holy grail (Spell Block, %Life Recover, charges on block) on one hand. Building around those three affixes are not realistic for the majority of players but getting Spell Block and %Life recover is more realistic which just leaves the charges. And they can be generated though Frenzy and Enduring Composure (also with more consistency).

Lets hope it survives the patch, would be fun to try it out as a league starter next time! The great thing is that it's not totally dependent on cluster jewels. But boy, have they been fun to play around with and also to craft!

For the large cluster jewel I finally settled on a fire large but played around with Spell Damage for a while also. I'll rank the notables according to what I believe:

1. Smoking remains - 35% damage and chance to blind on kill
2. Sadist - 60% damage since we always shock, chill and ignite
3. Doryani's Lesson - 25% damage and leech (if not leech in other slots)
4. Prismatic Heart - 30% damage and elemental res (if extra res is needed)

For the Megaloniacs there are so many good options:

1. Enduring Composure - huge defensive boost, must have unless you have some other way to generate charges
2. Prodigious defence, Mage Hunter, Conjured Wall, Second Skin - many options to get extra block here!
3. Heraldry - buffs Herald of Ash further AND frees up some much needed mana. Makes gearing much more flexible! Can't believe I didn't find this notable earlier!
4. Born of Chaos - +3% to max Chaos res. Syncs really nice with Glorious Vanity upping the chaos res to 88% without any other items!
5. Confident Combatant, Wish For Death, Arcane Heroism, Master of Fear - som DPS alternatives are solid if one doesn't run with the curse cluster jewel.



Normal:

With RF:

Shaper damage (no RF):

Def:


The shock values are not correct in PoB so might do a full hp Shaper to try to calculate the "real" DPS on this beast, or try to calculate it some other way. Can even boost DPS further by getting a Bottled Faith and/or damage penetration boots enchant but don't know if I can bother with that.

Finally I'm convinced it's better to go with the route below. One more point for a jewel and 10 extra dex:


Thank you for the inspiration and discussions Kelza, I've learned so much this league from just this build alone! I hope everyone else is enjoying the build as much as I have!

Oh, also forgot to mention there are two possible worthy spots for a Thread of Hope:

Large --> Skittering Runes:


Very Large --> Heart of Flame and possibly (converted) Fire Walker: