[3.11] Herald of Thunder Autobombing Necro ft. Storm Secret | High budget | End game | Clear speed

This is not “my” build, but something I pieced together from looking at Assassin-based HOT autobomber guides and some Necro-based builds on POE ninja. This is a great build if you started as Spellslinger VD/DD or ED/C and want to try something new with max clear potential. As fast as both of those are, this build is even faster and more effortless.

If you are leveling a character just for HOT Autobomber, I would recommend going Assassin, rather than Necro, as that will have the highest top-end potential. See Memoria’s and Tripolarbear’s guides for Assassin.

This build leverages the Storm Secret unique rings plus Inpulsa’s to use Herald of Thunder to blow up whole screens thanks while you run around and pick up loot. The drawback is that Storm Secret causes you to damage yourself, which we will get around through various layers of mitigation and leech. Aside from Assassin, which would give you top-end DPS, Necro is a nice choice because of easy access to shock. Whereas Assassin can scale this build through crit, we will go Elemental Overload, ending up with less DPS, but probably a bit more surviveability.

Basic level 94 POB
Upgraded level 94 tree POB

Glorious vanity will change all the of passives around it. So, do not mindlessly copy the passives or notables you see on someone else’s tree around it. You need to look at what your particular jewel does to each passive and decide which to take. For example, in the POB above, you see that I took “Quick Recovery,” but my jewel actually turned that notable into increased lightning damage and lightning leech.

If you are lower level, I would drop some life nodes. The jewel slot next to Agnostic in the POB is just to represent what I get from my Glorious Vanity (as stated above, each seed will give slightly different benefits, which are not reflected in POB).

Other notables to consider are:
-Unwavering Stance for stun immunity (though I’ve never had issues with stun)
-Minion instability if you are running a minion support setup

Upgraded POB uses higher end gear, dropping Agnerod for Scepter/Shield, dropping Inward Eye for rare Bone Helmet, and dropping Doryani on cluster jewel, since my Timeless jewel already caps me on leech.

+Super fast clear
+Zero button playstyle
+Customizable—make it your own with flexibilities in gems

-Expensive (25+ex to really get it going)
-Single target DPS is fairly low

T16 Toxic Sewer with Delirium
A8 Conqueror Kills
Sirus A8 Deathless

-Plaguebringer for Area of Effect and DPS
-Corpse Pact for Shock and Chill + DPS
-Mistress of Sacrifice for DPS and increased block (from Bone Offering)

Then either:
-Commander of Darkness for a bit of DPS and easy resistance caps
Or
-Essence Glutton for ES regen

Weapon

Agnerod South is not mandatory, but basically the best option for starting out. You don't even necessarily need 6L, if you have a 6L chest. In addition to a lot of DPS through lightning pen, increased lightning damage, and plus levels to lightning skill gems, this staff also gives us plus 5 to max lightning res, which helps mitigate Storm Secret damage against us.

You can consider going mace/shield for slightly more DPS and potentially a ton more defense (see POB gear section). But, that will cost many more ex.

"

I just switched to this Scepter. This plus a shield gives slightly more DPS and more defense, but cost 10x as much.

Body Armour

Inpulsa's is mandatory. It gives us a ton of DPS, since all of our enemies will be shocked, plus the corpse explosions, which clears screens.

Helm

Anything goes in this slight. Ideally you'd want life and resists, if you need them. Dex, as needed. Getting a helm with the reduced mana reservation enchant allows us to comfortably run Aspect of the Spider.

"

This is my upgraded rare helmet. You lose some eHP, but gain more DPS.

Gloves

Algor Mortis gloves are not required, but are probably BIS and fairly cheap. They increase DPS quite a bit.

Boots

Tailwind or Tailwind/Elusive boots are not required, but do increase your speed dramatically. Other than that, you want life and resistances, in addition to flat movement speed. Cannot be frozen is also nice to have.

Belt

Anything goes here. Life and resists are main things for this slot. Dex, as needed. Stygian is nice. HH is definitely an option.

Rings

Having at least one, if not two Storm Secrets are mandatory for the build. If you are struggling with mitigating Storm Secret self-inflicted damage, you could run one Circle of Regret with plus max lightning resist, increased lightning damage while effected by HOT, and look for decreased lightning damage taken implicit.

Amulet

Pretty much anything goes. Life, resists, and dex, as needed are the main stats. For max DPS, you want +1 to level of all INT gems and +1 to level of all Lightning gems.

Flasks

Up to you. Cover your bases on removing ailments.

Jewels
Intuitive leap for picking up points around the top the tree is mandatory.

Glorious Vanity is mandatory. You can try either Doryani's for Corrupted Blood or Ahuana for Immortal Ambition. I tried both and liked Corrupted Blood a lot more. Much better eHP pool and great interaction with ES/life leech from tree and cluster jewels.

Large cluster jewel with Doryani's lesson is mandatory. Other important notables are Supercharge, which provides a huge DPS boost. Storm Drinker is okay, but you should already be ES leech capped from the tree.

Two medium cluster jewels with Dark Messenger are also mandatory to get good area of effect. Empowered Envoy is another nice notable for DPS.

One Calamitous Visions small cluster jewel is not mandatory, but really makes the build come alive. It will basically double your DPS.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

You have a fair bit of flexibility here.

The main 6L should include: Herald of Thunder > (Awakened) Elemental Focus > (Awakened) Added Lightning Damage > Energy Leech > (Awakened) Lightning Penetration > Hypothermina

Awakened supports are not mandatory, but nice to have.

After that, the only other truly required gems, IMO, are Desecrate for chill/shock and Bone Offering for block. Because we are constantly, hitting ourselves, we can use level 1 cast when damage taken setups for anything we want to constantly be casted.

For my other 6L, I use CWDT (1) > Desecrate (7) > Volatile Dead (8) > Cold Snap (7) > Wave of Conviction (7) > Spell Cascade (20).

This gives us several spells all supported by spell cascade, including applying chill/shock through Desecrate, reducing lightning resistances through Wave of Conviction, and providing frenzy charges through cold snap.

"

When I switched to Scepter/Shield, I dropped VD. I now use a trigger Scepter with Desecrate > Bone Offering > Conductivity. Cold Snap and Wave of Conviction moved to a 4L with CWDT (1) and Spell Cascade.

I run a second level 1 cast when damage taken setup in a 4L to provide a consistent source of crits for Tailwind and Elemental Overload, as well as some defensive utility. For that I run: CWDT (1) > Blind (20) > Storm Brand (8) > Increased Critical Strikes (20).

I also recommend a higher level CWDT 4L to include: CWDT (20) > Immortal Call (or Steelskin) > Bone Offering > Conductivity. This gives us our block, a guard skill, and a debuff, all of which we want at max level.

"

When I switched to Scepter/Shield, I moved CWDT (20) to my 3L shield with Increased Duration Support and Immortal Call.

In my final 4L, I use 3 self cast utility spells all support by second wind: Enduring Cry > Flame Dash > Smoke Mine > Second Wind. This provides excellent movevement, as well as some life and phys mitigation.

Feel free to use whatever movement skills you prefer. You could swap dash for flame dash or add phase run into a CWDT.

I also toyed around with a minion-focused 4L, built around Raise Specter with They of Tul for another layer of defense. But I found it was unnecessary.