[3.24] SRS Bomber aka Popcorn SRS | League Start to Endgame | All Content

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HalfFiction wrote:

I made my changes but the general idea is still same. It is very tanky and deals great damage. In my opinion, this version is better than previous league's, and it still has ways to improve like the changes you plan to make.

got a few questions here ;-)

- Why the Chaos Golem? Just for the phys Damage reduction?
- Why the Level 1 Divergent Clarity? According to PoB the "5% increased Damage while on full mana" does not apply to the SRS explosions (at least it doesn't change when I remove the quality)
- How do you sustain Mana? I don't see a lot of regen on the Items/Tree
- How did you craft the Wand? I assume 4-Socket Fossil craft for the Skills and Harvest Reroll Suffixes?
- Why The awakened Hextouch? Wouldn't a Hunter Chest with additional Curse be cheaper?

- Why the Chaos Golem? Just for the phys Damage reduction?

Correct, Chaos Golem is only for the Physical Damage Reduction. With the Golem Commander passives, I get 9% reduction from it and its life goes over 114K letting it survive in tough boss fights.
When flasks are up and minions are out, I can reach 85% reduction. This was something experimental, worked out well, so I kept.

- Why the Level 1 Divergent Clarity? According to PoB the "5% increased Damage while on full mana" does not apply to the SRS explosions (at least it doesn't change when I remove the quality)

I use Clarity only for the Watcher's Eye's Energy Shield bonus. It doesn't have to be Divergent at all. The other variants were as useless to me, so I chose this one.
The real purpose of the Watcher's Eye is for the spell block chance with Discipline. I don't have the offering mod on my chest, so this way I can reach 74% when everything is up.

- How do you sustain Mana? I don't see a lot of regen on the Items/Tree

Mana is no issue at all. I have -8 cost mod on my ring and 110 mana regen per second. It is more than enough.

- How did you craft the Wand? I assume 4-Socket Fossil craft for the Skills and Harvest Reroll Suffixes?

I have very little knowledge in crafting, so buy all my equipment on trade. The want cost me 14 ex which was a good deal considering the current prices.

- Why The awakened Hextouch? Wouldn't a Hunter Chest with additional Curse be cheaper?

Awakened Hextouch Support is amazing. At level 5 it has 24% chance to affect hexproof enemies and it can apply a 2nd curse. No boss can stand long.

The build has high Intelligence, so more sources of Energy Shield boosts survivability. I used Discipline, Watcher's Eye, armours and some passives. Glorious Vanity with Doryani and 10% max life as ES craft on chest look cheaper and stronger. Maybe next time I will try those as well.

n/a

Is there a way to play this without four always-on flasks? I don't like having so many, and I sort of want to run a Blood of the Karui as well. Better yet, only two, but I'm guessing that's impossible without losing defense. I guess you can remove the Phasing flask without it hurting the build too much, though the dodge is nice.
Are there any good ways we can get phasing besides Quartz Flask? Watcher's eye and Haste could work, since we don't care about reserved mana much and cast speed improves damage slightly.


What are my priorities on reaching level 75, for gear? I've got a 3ex budget, a working helmet, wand and shield. Do I go for body armor, gloves, cluster jewel?

Lastly, what do I do with a helmet with Concentrated Effect, Minion Life and Minion Damage? Do I socket a level 3 or 4 Empower to make up for the missing increased levels affix, or is there a better option?

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Is there a way to play this without four always-on flasks? I don't like having so many, and I sort of want to run a Blood of the Karui as well. Better yet, only two, but I'm guessing that's impossible without losing defense. I guess you can remove the Phasing flask without it hurting the build too much, though the dodge is nice.

There is no need to keep the Flasks up all the time.
All of the Flasks are defensive. I you feel confident you can drop them at anytime.
None of the Flasks is Mandataory, though I would highly recommend to keep the Rumi's.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Are there any good ways we can get phasing besides Quartz Flask? Watcher's eye and Haste could work, since we don't care about reserved mana much and cast speed improves damage slightly.

another option for phasing would be a Hypnotic Eye Jewel with "#% Chacne to Gain Phasing on Kill"

I donÖt think that you can fit a Haste Aura in there.
We are running Skitter Bots, Clarity and Aspect of the Spider. there isn't much more mana left to be reserved, let alone 50%.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

What are my priorities on reaching level 75, for gear? I've got a 3ex budget, a working helmet, wand and shield. Do I go for body armor, gloves, cluster jewel?

That depends on what you are feel you are lacking.
Damage? -> Cluster Jewels (but you will need some passive points for them)
Defence? -> Glorious Vanity, Chest with offering effect and avoid Ailments, Boots mwith avoid ailments, Gloves with avoid Ailments.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Lastly, what do I do with a helmet with Concentrated Effect, Minion Life and Minion Damage? Do I socket a level 3 or 4 Empower to make up for the missing increased levels affix, or is there a better option?

I haven't the math on that.
Empower is definitly an viable option you could also go for Elemental Focus, Elemental Proliferation or Fire Penetration.

Major Guide Update!

Current Guide Version – 20.06.2021 (Major Update!)
-- Updated Skill Tree
-- Completely reworked Gear Section of the Guide
-- Updated Late and End Game Gear
-- Added Budged Gear Options
-- Updated Gems

--> About ~37% more DPS (2.2 Million vs. 1.6 Million) in Late Game


Thanks to everyone who gave Feedback to the Guide and provided ideas to improve!

Thanks for updating this! I’m really loving this build so far, going to use it as a league start. Once I got to level 75 and got 3ex of gear I could jump straight into red maps, and that was impressive to me. I have a couple more questions.

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Replica Siege Breaker is a great Belt and can easily be used till the end, but since the burning ground does not stack, it doesn’t really help us in Boss fights.

Even with one area only, isn’t it equal to almost one more spirit per second, or 20% more damage? If minion damage doesn’t affect it, then I agree it’s not so good for boss fights, but if it does, isn’t it really good? It means you need Aspect to be on your ring, and the flask mods and resists on a Vise are good, I suppose, but that's a lot of damage.

I don’t like spectres - something about the idea of them just doesn’t make sense to me. What if they die? Even if they die only half as often as zombies, I don’t want to keep running that contract over and over again to refill my spectres. Can I use the old zombie setup, with elemental army, frenzy, combustion, added fire damage, or is that very inferior?

I’ve found I can craft + to Dex and Str, _ and chaos resist, or Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments onto my helmet. If I go for the elemental ailments, what anoint can replace Crystal Skin for more defence or offence? I know I lose the increased maximum elemental resistances, but that’s only about 4% damage resistance. For pure life, I’m seeing Herbalism, Adamant, Juggernaut and Heart of the Warrior might be good, but I’m not sure what else.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Thanks for updating this! I’m really loving this build so far, going to use it as a league start. Once I got to level 75 and got 3ex of gear I could jump straight into red maps, and that was impressive to me. I have a couple more questions.

"

Replica Siege Breaker is a great Belt and can easily be used till the end, but since the burning ground does not stack, it doesn’t really help us in Boss fights.

Even with one area only, isn’t it equal to almost one more spirit per second, or 20% more damage? If minion damage doesn’t affect it, then I agree it’s not so good for boss fights, but if it does, isn’t it really good? It means you need Aspect to be on your ring, and the flask mods and resists on a Vise are good, I suppose, but that's a lot of damage.

Like I said, Siege Breaker is a great Belt ;-)
Afaik the Minion Damage does not scale the Burning Ground though.

I still firmly beliefe that you will benefit from using a Stygian Vise.
on a Stygian Vise you can get:
- 30% increased Minion Life
- 100+ Max Life
- 10% increased Life (Hunter Mod)
- Elemental Resistances
- Chaos Resistance

And you can socket a Ghastly Eye which gives you another
- 40 Max Life
- 12% Increased Minion Life
- 20% increased Minion Damage

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

I don’t like spectres - something about the idea of them just doesn’t make sense to me. What if they die? Even if they die only half as often as zombies, I don’t want to keep running that contract over and over again to refill my spectres. Can I use the old zombie setup, with elemental army, frenzy, combustion, added fire damage, or is that very inferior?

Since we are using both Zombies and Spectres to apply Debuffs to the enemies, both are good to use.

BUT

Once you have stacked a decent amount of life the Spectres don't really die. Even if some die (at least one is still alive) using Desecrate in your Hideout gives you the Artless Assassin corpses. So no need to run the contract over and over.
You could also create a "Spectre Bank". Basicaly a PVP only char with the Spectres and Desecrate. If you happen to loose all Spectres you switch Character, create a few corpses in your HO and relog into your main Char.

I Like the Spectres a lot more, since they spread the debuff onto the whole pack of enemies, and not only the few they are attacking directly like the zombies.

Using Zombies is fine, but I think the pros outweight the resummoning every now and then.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

I’ve found I can craft + to Dex and Str, _ and chaos resist, or Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments onto my helmet. If I go for the elemental ailments, what anoint can replace Crystal Skin for more defence or offence? I know I lose the increased maximum elemental resistances, but that’s only about 4% damage resistance. For pure life, I’m seeing Herbalism, Adamant, Juggernaut and Heart of the Warrior might be good, but I’m not sure what else.

If you have an open Suffix on your Helmet and your Resistances are fine, going for the avoid Elemental Ailments is absolutly viable.
I would annoint what ever I feel I'm lacking.
You could also consider dropping the avoid Elemental Ailments Crafts on your gloves or Armour instead and craft something useful there.

Hey, what should we use in the cluster jewels since you changed zombies for spectres? You still have hulking corpses in the guide, which is a zombies passive.
Having fun with this one, I don't really like spectres, but let's see how it goes.

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Mariaxi wrote:

Hey, what should we use in the cluster jewels since you changed zombies for spectres? You still have hulking corpses in the guide, which is a zombies passive.
Having fun with this one, I don't really like spectres, but let's see how it goes.

We Are not using Hulking corpses for the Zombie Mod, but for the 25% increased Minion Life.

You can keep using the Zombies, they are still absolutly viable.
The Benefit you get from the Spectres is, that more mosters are debuffed and therefore take more damage.