3.13 Bladeblast Chieftain. GG HC build. high dmg/clear/surv. Blasting awakener! Strong as ever!
" This may be an important observation as to why we are not noticing any difference when using the diadem version. In the Diadem version, there is no concentrated effect, as such there is no need for accuracy when casting since the blades fall pretty much all over the screen. I don't know how much overlap I am getting but bosses get hit as long as they are some where on my screen. After much more play with Awakened AOE, the only area I see Intensify as having a significant advantage is when the boss goes into a phase where he is doing something that occupies his time (like when Kosis does his stomach beam) and you can then safely crank Intensity up to 3 for a long period. Other than that rare case, I am having problems making any distinctions between the two support gems in the diadem version. I am sad there is no way to prove definitively which one is better but I am just going to have to live with it. The build is performing fabulously with both support gems for me. |
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" For comparison, one idea I have, is to record the average time spent to finish hard bosses (e.g. Hydra) without additional factors such as: * flask usage * vaal skill usage * map mods And then we can compare by: * standing still tanking attacks from boss, compare time to kill between awakened AOE vs. intensify * moving here and there dodging mechanisms, compare time to kill between awakened AOE vs. intensify Hope that can help generate some data, I'll need some time to gather currency for the tests though. And one downside of such comparison, is that dodging behavior differs person by person, so hard to measure. In general, I would also want to call out that, this build amazing! Thanks DUKE_OF_SNUFF for such detailed guide and thanks for all the active discussions the thread! Last edited by billybob630 on Feb 22, 2021, 9:17:28 PM
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Just made it to 97 and did a boss run that went very well.
Sirus at AW8 was simple. The Twisted (alched) went very smoothly, no deaths And I beat the Maven for the first time ever. I died twice but only to the memory game which I still have a very hard time seeing with the color scheme. The Maven and the Brain were relatively easy though. Picked up 10 ex from the fights (Maven Orb and Awakened Controlled Destruction) and just sold an armor I have had for sale for a while for 18ex more. Time to see if I can afford one of those super duper damage shields I have been lusting after :) |
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" come to daddy!!!! |
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" Uuhhh, very nice! Congratz. |
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For any players who are considering this build, here is my experience.
I am a technically very poor player. As an old man with poor eye sight and slow hand eye coordination I typically struggle in end game. With this wonderful build I have killed the following, most multiple times, in End Game (all at AW8 or higher). 4 Shaper Guardians 4 Elder Guardians 4 Atlas Conquerors Shaper Elder Sirus Maven A ton of ten man boss fights The Hidden The Twisted The Formed 100% Delirious T16 The Hidden is the only one that I think is hard (outside of the Maven memory game). I have never fought Uber Elder before but I think I will attempt it this league. I still need the Cortex to try The Feared but I don't want to spend 3ex on a single map. ========= In summary, if you have problems in late end game, play this build, you will be very happy. Last edited by AndyLovesHisBge on Feb 23, 2021, 10:54:14 AM
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" Thank you for any information you can share. I have not done any controlled tests but I did play almost all day yesterday switching back and forth. It does feel to me that from a 5000 foot view, Awakened AOE is smoother when mapping, but for many bosses, Intensify kills them much faster. If you fight a boss that you have to move after every single cast, then Awakened AOE is probably better but many bosses have phases where they can allow you to plant your feet and crank Intensity up. Shaper's beam for example allows him to be melted almost instantly when using Intensify. Unfortunately, I hate actively changing gems while playing (the common technique of using one for clearing and one for bossing), so I think I am going to have to figure out which one I want to play with. I will be interested in what ever data or observations you come up with in more testing. Last edited by AndyLovesHisBge on Feb 23, 2021, 12:17:26 PM
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" What you're doing is completely counter-intuitive to how the 2 skill gems interact. Think about it, there is no amount of 'in game testing', or POBing that can defy logic. Bladefall creates Lingering Blades on the ground, Blade Blast detonates them. The bigger the aoe radius of those detonations, the bigger your dps in a single point where they overlap. Likewise the more stacked the Lingering Blades, the bigger the chance to overlap the Blade Blast detonations. If you increase the spread of Lingering Blades (lack of conc effect, levelled spell cascade), whilst reducing the aoe of the detonations (intensify), then you are in fact losing actual boss dps. In theory with enough increased aoe on gear (like elevated culling on gloves, elevated explode on chest and inc aoe blade blast enchant) and most plausible inc aoe nodes taken on the tree _and_ with conc effect on helm, you _might_ make 3 stack intensify blade blast overlap on bosses with a large enough hitbox, but not always and certainly not vs maven/uelder. If you still need to test this in game, then go to your hideout, place the heist locker in an open area (it is similar in size to bosses like maven/shaper/elder/sirus), cast Bladefall and then Blade Blast and carefully watch each detonation's radius and how many of them 'clip' the hideout item. You can use whatever you deem to be similar in size to whatever target you want to test this against. If I can give you one final piece of advice: never sort certain builds on poe.ninja by raw dps and take what they're doing at face value. They are the so called 'pob warriors' who stack certain stats which elevate the raw dps of their main skill, completely ignoring actual mechanics of the said skill. For example, cast speed has no diminishing returns when it comes to Blade Blast if you look at it in POB - it'll assume that you are detonating the amount of blades that you input into the configuration constantly. In reality you are limited in the amount of blades you detonate by both the need to place them and the amount of unleash stacks available to you. At a certain point you'll be casting Bladefall faster than you recover even 1 stack of unleash, that is where cast speed becomes a wasted stat, however both POB and poe.ninja ignore that, which is why some people have overinflated dps when it comes to Blade Blast. Last edited by arandan on Feb 23, 2021, 1:15:06 PM
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" Thank you for your helpful comments. I never sort on DPS on poe.ninja, I only sort on level, figuring if some one got to 100, they must have had a decent amount of knowledge of the diadem version of the build. It is amazing to me how many level 100 players are playing the skill completely wrong. I will lower my Awakened Spell Cascade back to 1 (this question has been asked a few times in this thread by me and others but never got a response). On poe.ninja there is a large mix of level 100 players who use level 1 and level 5 of this gem. I do have the Blade Blast AOE enchant but the Diadem build does not use Concentrated effect sadly. Thank you again for taking the time to educate. It is to the builds incredible credit that I can be such a poor player, have no idea what I am doing and it is still forgiving enough to allow me to play in late end game. For you guys that are knowledgeable and skillful, this build must make the game so easy. Maybe next league I will try to get over my aversion of having to deal with mana and use the regular build. ============ As a side related question, is there an optimum amount of time to wait between BF and BB to maximize its effectiveness? Last edited by AndyLovesHisBge on Feb 23, 2021, 2:32:06 PM
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Once you get Awakened Spell Cascade you should cast Bladefall as soon as you have Unleash stacks to do so - that's why it is such a huge quality of life upgrade for this build.
Sometimes you'll get to 3 stacks w/o noticing it, because you had to dodge something for example, but it's not something you should be actively tracking. In regards to that last point - that along with Ngamahu (gain 100% phys as extra fire for 4 sec every 10 sec) is why you'll see large variance in how fast certain things die. Things that you should be aware of when playing this build are: 1) Keep arcane surge up (another minus to the diadem version here sadly) 2) Make sure you are not at max range if you don't have to, so you have actual uptime on fire exposure from Wave of Conviction 3) Cast Blade Blast 5 times before end game bosses in order to stack Inspiration to 5. Divergent version helps here as it further reduces the mana cost. You should also use transition phases to either keep that up, or re-stack it. Let me also mention that it is possible to play the normal version of this build without a mana flask. It requires a level 8-10 Clarity, keeping Arcane Surge up on bosses (Divergent version helps, as it is 2 secs longer), and 2 rings with -mana cost to non-channelling skills. My Blade Blast costs 10 mana, Bladefall 24, Enduring Cry 2, Flame Dash 16 (this is where you want a level 21 gem, since level 20 would cost 14 mana to use, which would not proc Arcane Surge). With 80 unreserved mana I have infinite sustain. No flasks, no boot enchant. Last edited by arandan on Feb 23, 2021, 3:18:42 PM
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