[3.20] aer0's Hydrosphere Occultist League Starter

New to the forums, but viewers have suggested I post here! 3.20 is almost here so its time to reveal my league starter. Hydrosphere is not only NOT a meme, but it may be the best league starter I've ever created. This is smooth through the acts, smooth into maps, and smooth into end game! We can take on all content with some small upgrades.

Hydrosphere does not get the credit it deserves. With investment into cast speed AND pulse speed, you essentially get a second MORE multiplier for single target that other spells don't have access to. Further, with investment into area of effect, which Occultist specializes in, you can shatter entire screens! Herald of Ice has never felt so good.

The pseudo-totem playstyle of hydrosphere, where it effectively pulses a huge part of your screen, will be amazing for the small rooms in the Forbidden Sanctum, allowing you to run around and dodge mechanics. When the time comes to kill a boss, you can cast hydrosphere repeatedly for huge extra damage.

Hydrosphere may appear clunky to play, but I promise its the opposite! After playing for a little bit, the skill feels like an extension of your arm. The way you toss the huge sphere across the screen, shattering along the way, is an incredibly kinetic playstyle. Its truly a joy to play. I played this in 3.19 and loved it so much I knew I had to make a league starter. I hope you enjoy! Likely won't be on here too much to answer questions, so check out the youtube or twitch below and I'll do my best to respond there!

PoB:
https://pastebin.com/KptEhxUr

Video Guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xftz0ftz_Og&ab_channel=aer0

Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/aer0__

Cute

Sick

He totally needs himself a MS Paint of this build dont you think!?!

100% noob trap! reporting! for jebaiting people! how dare you! this is ilegal!
brb making the build

The 1mil dps with pretty good gear (6l chest +skill wands...) seems pretty low to me, I've played league starters that do higher dot dps than 4mil and they still did not feel great in maps. For example poison concopotionthrow or firewall slingignitespreader. This one in no way has more consistent damage than dot builds so real dps will be even lower on it.

Also what is the MF and HH potential of this? If you can not fit 600ir 100IQ+hh on it that means it has no future beyond first 2 days of league. It also seems pretty clunky because at first you need to cast multiple spells to make it work, seems like hellish first 3 days or more with ice spear activation and need for high crit stat.

We already have extremely solid and high dps cold dot builds, does this one beat it at something? Or is the idea playing this for that "fresh" feel and then going something like tornado shot raider after getting some currency.

Anyway, i love how this build looks like i'm just worried about how it is going to feel at actual league start without getting fed 6link chest, crit items, pulse frequency helm and all that other fancy panties stuff from stronger alt character.

I may be too harsh on the dps because of the pre-nerf archnemesis monsters that we had previously which reduced your dps by like 90% by stacking multiple resistance mods. And now that they are gone 1mil is perhaps fine.

"

CAKE wrote:

Also what is the MF and HH potential of this? If you can not fit 600ir 100IQ+hh on it that means it has no future beyond first 2 days of league.

I had a good laugh at this.

"

CAKE wrote:

The 1mil dps with pretty good gear (6l chest +skill wands...) seems pretty low to me, I've played league starters that do higher dot dps than 4mil and they still did not feel great in maps. For example poison concopotionthrow or firewall slingignitespreader. This one in no way has more consistent damage than dot builds so real dps will be even lower on it.

Also what is the MF and HH potential of this? If you can not fit 600ir 100IQ+hh on it that means it has no future beyond first 2 days of league. It also seems pretty clunky because at first you need to cast multiple spells to make it work, seems like hellish first 3 days or more with ice spear activation and need for high crit stat.

We already have extremely solid and high dps cold dot builds, does this one beat it at something? Or is the idea playing this for that "fresh" feel and then going something like tornado shot raider after getting some currency.

Anyway, i love how this build looks like i'm just worried about how it is going to feel at actual league start without getting fed 6link chest, crit items, pulse frequency helm and all that other fancy panties stuff from stronger alt character.

I may be too harsh on the dps because of the pre-nerf archnemesis monsters that we had previously which reduced your dps by like 90% by stacking multiple resistance mods. And now that they are gone 1mil is perhaps fine.

I was going to respond to the fact that you didnt watch the video, because the total DPS on PoB isnt actually the damage of the skill (and youd know that if you watched), but then I read the second paragraph and decided I was done reading.

"

aer0_ wrote:

I was going to respond to the fact that you didnt watch the video, because the total DPS on PoB isnt actually the damage of the skill (and youd know that if you watched), but then I read the second paragraph and decided I was done reading.

You mistake your opinions for facts, common thing in this forum. As much as that is regrettable I do forgive you because I'm big fan.

You say in video that if you stand still and focus at single target that can ramp up from 1 to 2mil which is completely irrelevant when i already said that not even 4mil dot feels good as league starter. If you said "Well the build actually does 500m dps if you stand still" that would be different story.

I've been playing 36mil dps dot(that is dot cap) in kalandra league which you can still see in my profile on the trickster poison character and not even that was too impressive but at least i had decent magic find. So arguing about 1 or 2m dps is truly pointless especially when you say it is conditional and not reliable dps.

What else did i get "wrong" in your "fact"(opinion)
Do you not use ice spear in the build before getting good items?
If you do not then i got fooled by your video real good my man.
Even your guide does say:

"

3) Have a minimum 2L of Ice Spear increased Critical Strikes
-this gives ice spear 100% crit chance when it turns to its second form, which is how we guarantee that we freeze the hydrosphere

Call me back when this levels from 0 to 100 in single hour using no buttons and instant kills uber bosses with 700ir 100iq like all other league starters. Untill then it is hard pass for me, thanks for making the guide tho. It is always good to see new builds pop around.


See you tomorrow.

"

CAKE wrote:

"

aer0_ wrote:

I was going to respond to the fact that you didnt watch the video, because the total DPS on PoB isnt actually the damage of the skill (and youd know that if you watched), but then I read the second paragraph and decided I was done reading.

You mistake your opinions for facts, common thing in this forum. As much as that is regrettable I do forgive you because I'm big fan.

You say in video that if you stand still and focus at single target that can ramp up from 1 to 2mil which is completely irrelevant when i already said that not even 4mil dot feels good as league starter. If you said "Well the build actually does 500m dps if you stand still" that would be different story.

I've been playing 36mil dps dot(that is dot cap) in kalandra league which you can still see in my profile on the trickster poison character and not even that was too impressive but at least i had decent magic find. So arguing about 1 or 2m dps is truly pointless especially when you say it is conditional and not reliable dps.

What else did i get "wrong" in your "fact"(opinion)
Do you not use ice spear in the build before getting good items?
If you do not then i got fooled by your video real good my man.
Even your guide does say:

"

3) Have a minimum 2L of Ice Spear increased Critical Strikes
-this gives ice spear 100% crit chance when it turns to its second form, which is how we guarantee that we freeze the hydrosphere

Call me back when this levels from 0 to 100 in single hour using no buttons and instant kills uber bosses with 700ir 100iq like all other league starters. Untill then it is hard pass for me, thanks for making the guide tho. It is always good to see new builds pop around.


See you tomorrow.

Tell us more about your league starter that instakills bosses with no buttons and has 700 ir and 100 iq?